Re-Imagining GDP - Are We Measuring the Wrong Things or Do We Just Need to Expand Our Thinking?

The View from Rattlesnake Ridge

Re-Imagining GDP

Are We Measuring the Wrong Things or Do We Just Need to Expand Our Thinking?

http://indepthnh.org/2017/12/17/re-imagining-gdp-are-we-measuring-the-wrong-things-or-do-we-just-need-to-expand-our-thinking/

"Sacred Trust is now available in paperback!

"Sacred Trust is now available in paperback!

“An existential environmental time bomb - in the form of a massive powerline - is about to explode an entire way of life for the people of the North Country. Nine unlikely heroes - rock climbers, paddlers, a deer farmer and a former spook -  are all that stands between the people and their worst nightmare.”

This is their story . . .

The paperback version is available here: 

http://bit.ly/STPaper

Sacred Trust Kindle eBook

http://bit.ly/STrust

Sign up for updates and events here.

http://eepurl.com/bbOh3n

GOP Tax Reform is a Massive Transfer of Wealth to the Wealthy

Government Doesn't Create Jobs, Businesses Don't Create Jobs . . . CUSTOMERS create jobs and we are squeezing them. Here's my latest column from Rattlesnake Ridge.

Steady Hands & Open Hearts is headed for a book!

I've had such positive feedback about my latest column - A Steady Hand & an Open Heart - at InDepthNH ( http://bit.ly/SteadyHand ). . . thank you! A lot of folks have told me that they want to know more about where we are and where we need to go. They've encouraged me to write a book based on the foundation established in the column. So, I'm moving forward on doing just that. If you'd like to be kept up to date on progress, including some excerpts from time to time, join the email list here: http://eepurl.com/bbOh3n

Ripple of Hope - Limited Edition Poster

Ripple of Hope - Bobby Kennedy Quote Print

Holiday Special
http://bit.ly/RFKHoliday

A single ripple emanates outward on Mendums Pond in Durham, NH in this mixed media image. In this color image the sky has been painted with watercolors giving the image a very etherial feeling. The image brought to mind Robert Kennedy's famous Affirmation Day speech in South Africa in 1966. RFK had been warned not to go to South Africa and told that his presence would only cause trouble. He went anyway and gave the most beautiful and powerful speech of his life and one of the most eloquent speeches in history to my mind. I have added a portion of the speech to the original image which is also available without the speech. People like me who long for a leader who is fiercely brave and reaches out to the forgotten and dispossessed as well as the working man and woman and the one percent with a message that we are all in this together will find this image one of your most cherished possessions. It is available in both a signed edition as well as an inexpensive open edition. The signed originals are printed on fine art rag paper with archival inks, the open edition on your choice of stock.

Quote from Robert F. Kennedy's famous "Ripple of Hope" Speech delivered in South Africa in 1966 when South Africa was deep in the throes of Apartheid. In a courageous act, and against all the advice of almost all those who were grooming RFK for the Presidency, he delivered this speech calling people worldwide to the cause of freedom and equality.

"It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance."
http://bit.ly/RFKHoliday

Special Offer

Ripple of Hope - Limited Edition Print
19" x 30" Signed limited Edition of 250 prints
Was $125
Special Price $99.00


A Ripple of Hope:
Signed limited edition poster created from an image of the same name inspired by the famed
courageous speech of Robert F. Kennedy in 1966 in South Africa where he spoke out against the Apartheid system and for hope.

"It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped.
Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance."

Open Edition Poster and Cards

Listen to the speech here.

The Need for an Alternative Vision on Tax Reform

The Democrats have missed a golden opportunity in not offering up a competing vision on Tax Reform, even if they cannot do any more than introduce it in a news conference - and by the way its time to reform the rules that allow the majority party to completely ignore proposals from the minority party in the Congress.

I have made it clear that I favor the radical centrist position of eliminating the business tax entirely and shifting all the taxation on income to the progressive income tax.

Most people don't know that currently all those people who have benefitted from the dramatic increase in the stock market pay less in taxes on the sale of stock or their dividends than Americans who earn their income by the "sweat of their brows".

Let me say that again: Work your ass off every day and pay a higher tax rate than the guy (or gal) who doesn't do anything more than move money around.

In other words, passive income is taxed at a lower rate than what is earned by someone with a traditional job. We could eliminate the business tax entirely and bring in MORE tax revenues if we simply asked those who earned passive income to pay taxes at the same rate as other Americans. We could generate substantially more revenues if we also instituted a small tax on stock trades, thus allowing us to lower taxes on middle income Americans in other ways or we could enhance coverage of things that will serve as a public good and reduce cost of living expenses, thus creating the same effect for middle income and working class families.

Can you imagine how the people who are trying to sell the public on the bill currently masquerading as tax reform in the Congress would have to scurry if the Democrats offer a proposal that eliminated the Business Tax, gave all those companies reason to repatriate their money and really lowered taxes for middle income families? Even if the proposal did not shame the majority party into action it would establish a real position that demonstrated genuine concern for working class families and middle income families.

I'm sure to get flack from some folks about this but I'm going to keep saying it until someone listens.

A Childs Walk Thru Lupine

Sacred Trust Overview

“The Monkey Wrench Gang Meets the Third Industrial Revolution!”

In the coming “Age of Electricity” the principal battleground will be over who controls the production and distribution of power. All across America today the battle lines are being drawn and the two sides are rushing to create advantages for themselves. Already more than 10 trans-national power transmission projects are proposed from Maine to Washington State and the Canadian Electricity Association projects a tripling of that demand in the next ten years. In most instances these transmission projects are being proposed by utility companies or consortiums that include a local utility company.

Utility companies represent one front in this battle over competing visions of our energy future. These utility companies, already in an existential battle for survival, seek to maintain control of the revenues generated by the flow of electricity. With a few rare exceptions, they are pitted against those advocates of a new distributed energy paradigm where small, renewable power production replaces the large electricity generators of today.  

Most Americans notice that things are changing with respect to energy production and transmission but they have yet to put together the full picture of what will be a sea change in life for every American this presages.

“Sacred Trust” is intended to tell that story in the context of a novel about a group of citizens that have joined together to stop the construction of one, especially egregious powerline, proposed in the small state of New Hampshire where tourism is the second most important industry and the people deeply cherish their beautiful mountains, clean air and pristine waterways.

The power company behind the transmission line, Polaris Electric, proposes to put most of the line above ground with massive 150 foot towers and intends to export 100% of the power right on through the state - like a giant extension cord - with no benefit to the people of the state. In short, like the oligarchs of a previous age, they intend to reap 100% of the benefits and to pass off a large portion of their costs through the generations-long visual pollution of the public commons, to say nothing of the decline in property values and the unknown scientific consequences of high voltage transmission lines on citizens living in their path.

The citizens of the state who stand to lose most from the destruction of real estate values and cherished viewscape are dead set against the project but the political winds are against them with a Governor in the pocket of the utility company and an approval process that seems to be rigged against them, eight unlikely compatriots from across the political spectrum come together to take on the consortium proposing the “Granite Skyway” Transmission line.

While the compatriots, who call themselves The Trust, engage in creative civil disobedience intending to stop the project, or at the very least to literally drive it underground, a group of writers and activists, presenting themselves in the style of the writers of the Federalist Papers produce a series of essays in opposition to Granite Skyway, making the intellectual case, justifying the actions of The Trust.  One business writer, in search of a pulitzer, takes on the task of describing the tableau in which all of this takes place beginning with the 1972 election of Jimmy Carter and the drafting of the National Energy Policy Act and the Public Utilities Regulatory Policy Act into which one lone New Hampshire Senator, John Durkin, inserted two lines that changed history and ushered in the renewable energy revolution.Through the device of a series of articles scattered through the novel, business editor James Kitchen leads his readers through a virtual primer of the battle for a new post-carbon energy paradigm.

"Sacred Trust" is a vicarious, high voltage adventure to stop a private electric transmission powerline that leads the reader through not only the hijinks of The Trust, but also through the series of choices with which we all are currently confronting, or will be, in this new “Age of Electricity”.

Described by one reader as "The Monkey Wrench Gang Meets the Third Industrial Revolution" the book follows these unlikely compatriots as they dodge both the law and a cabal of recruits doing the dirty work of the Consortium.

In part one of the book Sasha Brandt, an Iroquois woman from Canada who travels with her companion, a wolf named Cochise, meets Daniel Roy, a guide and outdoorsman while hiking the Mahoosuc Range on the Appalachian Trail. After a unique first encounter the two - three with Cochise - continue their hike together. A few days later, while paddling on Lake Umbagog, they find themselves unexpectedly camping together with an unusual assortment of people including a former Olympic paddler, a very conservative deer farmer, a real estate broker, a retired spook who was the first US victim of Lyme disease and an iconoclast named Thomas (just Thomas) who is also a former Army Ranger now living as a recluse in multiple backwoods abodes in the Great North Woods area of New Hampshire. Thomas is also unique in that his primary mode of transportation is a moose named Metallak, who pulls a cart when traveling with Thomas’ five dogs or wears a saddle when Thomas rides him solo.

The group quickly discovers that they have one very important thing in common - a deep concern about the Granite Skyway proposal to transport electricity from Canada to the toney suburbs of Boston, New York, Connecticut, Philadelphia and Washington D.C.. Their concerns range from the effect it will have on the habitat of newly re-established Raptor populations; to the clear cutting necessary to construct the line; and, the impact of 150 foot towers on the landscape of their beloved state.

The threat to the environment and the scenic beauty are only the tip of an iceberg that includes the value of homes, farms and businesses built by generations of men and women in this hardscrabble land. Rumors alone are already affecting life for many caught up in whisper campaign around this proposed transmission line. All agree, Granite Skyway poses an existential threat to an entire way of life.

Determined to do more than shuffle papers and employ lawyers, the compatriots form a band of brothers and sisters - along with Cochise and Metallak - calling themselves "The Trust". Armed with only their wits and a lot of heart they embark on a rolicking campaign of civil disobedience that would make Thoreau, Alinsky and Dr. King proud.

While the book is a work of fiction, teachers and professors may find it a book that would add a new dimension to classroom discussions and an interesting touch for classes on sustainability, renewable energy or the American tradition of protest.

Throughout their adventure the members of "The Trust" examine many of the most important questions of our time including how America can continue to make an honored space for free speech and civil disobedience in an era of terror; how social media can help create accountability in an increasingly corporatized mega-media landscape; and, how citizens can challenge the corporate oligarchies that often threaten our planet's future.

"Sacred Trust" is written by Wayne King a former State Senator, Democratic nominee for Governor of NH, and most recently CEO of environmental cleanup company MOP Environmental Solutions. Not coincidentally, King worked his way through college as a Mountain Guide in New Hampshire’s White Mountain which explains his detailed knowledge of the setting for the novel. The book is filled with political and environmental stories that will have you laughing and gasping and wondering what is true and what is fiction.

"Sacred Trust' is a vicarious, high voltage campaign to stop the Granite Skyway power transmission project and its short-sighted and in some cases greedy corporate sponsors, intent on using political muscle and money to lock up the region's energy production and distribution, short circuiting efforts to bring about an energy future based on sustainable, and renewable energy deployed through micro-grids, smart-grids and a competitive environment that makes energy more - not less - affordable.

http://bit.ly/STrust

One day left! Free Download October 19-21! "Sacred Trust"

One day left! Free Download October 19-21! "Sacred Trust" A vicarious eco-thriller where citizens take on a "Northern Pass-like" powerline project using creative civil disobedience to stop the travesty. To download the ebook go to Amazon.com and type in any of the following keywords: Eco-thriller, Creative Civil Disobedience, Environmental Action, Sacred Trust. The eBook is free for 3 days only (10/19-10/21). If you like it I'd appreciate a review from you but its not required.

Short cut link:
http://bit.ly/STrust

Revisiting the N. Korea Question

Its time to revisit the question of how we deal with North Korea. I'll say it: North Korea is now a nuclear nation. I don't like it but, hell, I don't like it that Israel, Pakistan, India and Russia are either. With Donald Trump as our President I'm not sure that there is a single nation in the nuclear club that isn't led by someone whose stability is up for question.

North Korea may be led by a nutcase but he is not wrong when he observes that many of the countries that have been convinced to give up their weapons of mass destruction have then found themselves in the sights of American military aggression.

It's time that we worked with China to implement the most aggressive sanctions we can while holding out the carrot of a thaw based on a nuclear non-aggression pact. We should never trust them as long as they remain under the leadership of a tyrant but trusting an adversary has never been a requirement of such a pact. In fact, we don't need pacts with those we trust, we need them with those we don't.

A Painters View of Tenney Mountain

Give Bill Gardner the Benefit of the Doubt

40 Years of Outstanding Public Service and Integrity have to Mean Something.

A lot of criticism has been levied at NH Secretary of State Bill Gardner for agreeing to an appointment to President Trump's Commission of Electoral Integrity. Critics say he is just encouraging a false narrative that Trump has promulgated for his own narcissistic reasons.

I Trust NH Secretary of State Bill Gardner. He has demonstrated during 40 years of public service that he is a fair and diligent arbiter and protector of a citizens right to vote and a fair, streamlined process for registering and voting.

While I would have been inclined not to accept an appointment to Trumps Commission on voter fraud because it is focused on trying to prove an assertion that is widely disputed by experts from all sides of the political spectrum. Nonetheless, I see the potential benefit to having a voice of reason among the members, many of whom have their hair on fire over the matter and are not expected to act rationally. Of course there is a danger to this approach. Gardner may find himself isolated and in the final analysis the story may be a lopsided vote for a report that has no bearing in reality. However, as a member of the commission Gardner will have credibility when he speaks out if this is the case. . . and I believe he will speak out.

In the final analysis, this was a judgement call. I trust Bill Gardner to fight for what is right not what is expedient.

On a Wing and a Prayer

Re-imagining The Future as a Unifying American Journey - The Case for a Secretary of the Future

Wind in the Maple

Re-imagining The Future as a Unifying American Journey
The Case for a Secretary of the Future
Wayne D. King

Despite the constant drumbeat among the media and politicians, a careful examination of the seemingly deeply divided American people will show that the differences are a mile wide and an inch deep. This is contrary to the divisions between elected officials, which appear to be deep and perhaps lasting - though lasting is a relative thing in politics.

The need to register to vote and to choose between two political parties or to remain undeclared shoehorns every American into a largely binary process that has no constitutional authority but over time has created and assumed the mantle of de-facto authority. Nowhere in the Constitution is any authority conveyed upon either the Democratic or Republican parties. Yet both parties act as if that authority is vested in them and use the political process to erect barriers to entry by other parties. In California alone, for example, an independent candidate for President must have 1.2 million official signatories to a petition just to be listed on the ballot. Since each of those signatures is checked to determine whether they are registered voters, the process must actually gather about 1.4 million signatures just to make it over this high bar.

The intent of this article is not to make the case for opening up the process to permit more independent candidates for higher office - though I believe that and may address it in a future column - instead it is intended to make the case that the “deep” divisions between Americans that the media and the parties point to are artificially created by this binary choice. Where it matters most, at the risk of seeming to minimize some very important differences, we Americans are far more united than the polls would seem to indicate.

On the larger questions of the American idea, Americans are remarkably united. One need only look at the reaction to the tragedy in Charlottesville, Virginia and the President’s remarks following the events, to see that this is so. Polls conducted in the wake of Charlottesville showed Americans condemning the actions of White Supremacists and Neo-Nazis as well as President Trump’s response at a nearly 3-1 margin.

The mass resignations of business leaders from the President’s Commission on Business confirm this and would have continued had the President not stemmed the bleeding by eliminating two different business commissions entirely to avoid mass action being planned by other members. Business rarely takes such dramatic action without first holding a finger to the winds of public opinion. The President had, unintentionally created a moment of national unity and reminded us - just for a moment at least - of who we are and who we aspire to be as a nation.

Just as Americans are united in their loyalty to the American idea so too are they united in their fascination with and aspirations for the future.

These two bookends provide the framework for creating a unifying American Journey; a challenge that will cajole Americans into searching their national conscience and expanding their horizons to re-imagining and re-invigorating those ideas in an era of dramatic change and equally dramatic challenges.

In his last major interview before his death in 2007 the author and social critic Kurt Vonnegut suggested that there should be a cabinet level Secretary of the Future. His suggestion was treated by most as a quaint idea by a much beloved cultural icon. But Kurt Vonnegut had not intended to be quaint. He was deeply worried about the fate of the country and the planet. He was angered by the short-sighted politics of both political parties and he was concerned that we had lost sight of the connections that tied us together with all of the major issues in our lives and the fact that no one was helping to make those connections and helping us to re-imagine a future consistent with our values.

Vonnegut seemed to sense that our politics had been far outstripped by the pace of change and positing a cabinet level Secretary of the Future was intended to provide one way to create a formal means for looking at issues in a more holistic manner. Someone who could point out, as General Maddis did recently, that deep cuts to the Department of State would require more defense spending because less diplomacy would lead to greater conflict.

Even if our political system were not so badly broken we would still benefit from a Secretary of the Future who would be able to tackle the more thorny issues and provide some level of cover for those political leaders who have the courage to step into those waters.

The limited success in the past election of Bernie Sanders who - more than any other political leader in recent history - stepped into those waters with his calls for free public college education, Medicare for all healthcare and a $15.00 an hour minimum wage demonstrated that a significant number of Americans were not only open to those ideas but enthused by a candidate who had the courage to talk about them . . . even if they did not agree with every one of them. But politicians with the courage of Bernie Sanders are a rare breed. Most are careful, calculating, doing their best to stay - as Abraham Lincoln expressed it - “one half step behind the American people while acting as if they were leading.”

A Secretary of the future - or two such people, one representing more conservative thought and one representing more progressive ideals - would be in a position to introduce new ideas or even old ideas that have merit into the national conversation. Initially, the more cowardly members of congress would pooh pooh their ideas; but if Sanders is any indication, the American people will be more open minded and some of those ideas will take root.

I don’t expect that adding my voice to that of Vonnegut is going to make much of a difference here, and I certainly don’t see myself belonging in the firmament of icons like him; but if others lend their voices and even one candidate for President in our upcoming Presidential Primary calls for the creation of this position, or some equivalent idea, we will have created a spark that may grow into flame.

Just imagine if we had two national thought leaders, who were highly respected, appointed to help American re-imagine their future together;

Leaders who had no personal political aspirations but deep and abiding aspirations for the country;

Leaders who have demonstrated a knack for thinking creatively and for their commitment to American ideals;

Leaders with a charged to encourage and cajole the American people to confront our problems and challenges in new, or re-imagined ways, that inspire thinking and ideas bridging our differences where possible, and respecting them where they are deeply personal, religious or intransigent for other reasons but consistent with American ideals.

Whether it is facing the challenges of re-thinking an education system that meets the needs of a dramatic fast paced and highly automated economy; Creating a healthcare system that recognizes healthcare as a right not a privilege; tackling the growing inequality of income; building consensus for ways to meet the challenges of a changing climate; Or addressing the ever-growing challenges of expanding the cause of freedom and equality for all people in a diverse and dynamic country; The opportunity for us to gather around the idea of the future as a unifying American journey carries abundant promise. . . based on the premise that “where the people lead, the leaders will follow.”

About Wayne King: Wayne King is an author, artist, activist and recovering politician. A three term State Senator, he was the 1994 Democratic nominee for Governor and most recently the CEO of MOP Environmental Solutions Inc., a public company in the environmental cleanup space. His art is exhibited nationally in galleries and he has published three books of his images. His most recent novel "Sacred Trust" a vicarious, high voltage adventure to stop a private powerline has been published on Amazon.com as an ebook with the paper edition due soon. He lives in Rumney at the base of Rattlesnake Ridge. His website is: http://bit.ly/WayneDKing


Links and notes:

Vonnegut’s final interview with PBS Journalist David Brancaccio.

“where the people lead, the leaders will follow.” This quote is generally attributed to Ghandi but quite likely to have been used by philosophers dating back at least to the Renaissance.

Wanted: Radical Centrists - No Political Experience Necessary

From: The View from Rattlesnake Ridge

Ruminations of an Unabashed Optimist, an Environmental Patriot and a Radical Centrist

by Wayne D. King

https://viewfromrattlesnake.blogspot.com/

Wanted: Radical Centrists - No Political Experience Necessary

It was Kurt Vonnegut, one of my favorite writers, who said that the United States needed a "Secretary of the Future". I've been thinking a lot about that lately partly because any distraction from the three ring circus that is the Trump administration is a welcome one but also because the future seems to loom larger and larger in the windshield these days.

Back when Alvin Toffler's "Future Shock" came out, followed by "The Third Wave", introducing us to the concept of a futurist and the dangers of ignoring the rapidly telescoping rate of change, it was a topic of great excitement and intrigue. It summoned forth the optimism and vision of JFK and gave us relief from the malaise of the Vietnam debacle.  It was all the rage for a while but somehow we got sucked into the sexy consumerist views of what was ahead and lost sight of the more significant social and economic consequences of change.  It was understandable. It was so much easier to dream about what gadgets we might see, or better yet might invent, becoming the next Steve Jobs or Bill Gates, than it was to think about what we were going to do to make sure every American - and every adult - found fulfilling work that allowed them to provide security for their families.

Today, only the most forward (and flush) corporations take seriously Vonnegut's charge to think about the future and to plan for it.

Failure to think seriously about the future, and just as important to innovate our way into it, has played a large role in the deeply divisive and partisan politics of our age. Democrats and Republicans are both guilty of short term thinking that threatens our future. Thinking little beyond the next election and how they can either maintain their majority or overturn the status quo - rarely thinking about what they will do beyond the silly platitudes that they regularly spew on the cable news networks.

Over the last decade both parties have killed off their own centrists and given us an increasingly polarized and almost monochromatic tableau of options at a time when options should be expanding as technology provides us with ever expanding choices for the way in which we live our lives and the opportunities before us.

At the same time the American people have become a technicolor dream coat of opinion and vision. Young people especially have rejected many of the conventions of the past to which we were bound, long since they have moved from antiquated "common sense" to absurd nonsense. A healthy proportion of the rest of us are glad to have the cover they provide so that we can speak and live the lives we too have longed for.

The political divisions of the country can be largely explained more as a result of the forced choice between the zany worlds of the Republicans and the moribund notions of the Democrats. As evidence of this one need only look at the fastest growing political affiliation in America today, Undeclared or Independent voters have eclipsed both political parties and the gap continues to widen with each election.

Divisions between elected leaders may be deep and growing but divisions among most Americans, at least on larger matters of consequence, are a mile wide and an inch deep and with leadership that helps us to embrace the best of what we are and to disagree without malice we can once again begin to believe in ourselves and our country again. Soon enough - - well, soon anyway - - we will place the Trump years firmly in the rear view mirror, seeing them as a bump in the road whose horror reminded us of who were really were.

But we will not do that without a common cause and that common cause can be the future; believing in it, preparing for it and innovating into it. We can start by restoring the center in our politics. Not the muddling middle but the radical center, challenging the margins to reach out to one another and build solutions that bridge the divide and push the envelope. Radical centrists who encourage us to trade short term "me first" politics for long term "we first" politics that embraces our common values, requires sacrifice and invests in the future.

Only "We the People" can make this happen. Congress, on this matter, is indeed the opposite of progress.  This is a revolution that must start from the bottom and work its way up.

** Next week: Secretaries of the Future - The Time has Come

About Wayne D. King: Wayne King is an author, artist, activist and recovering politician. A three term State Senator, he was the 1994 Democratic nominee for Governor and most recently the CEO of MOP Environmental Solutions a public company in the environmental cleanup space.  His art is exhibited nationally in galleries and he has published three books of his images. His most recent novel "Sacred Trust"  a vicarious, high voltage adventure to stop a private powerline has been published on Amazon.com as an ebook with the paper edition due soon. He lives in Rumney at the base of Rattlesnake Ridge. His website is: http://bit.ly/WayneDKing

Do We Need NATO Article 5 Protection from Cyber Attacks?

Article 5 Protection from Cyber Attacks

Wayne D. King

Before his term was up, President Barack Obama is said to have asked DoD cyber experts to insert sleeper viruses into critical Russian systems. These viruses could be activated in the event of future Cyber attacks from the Russians. The US should explore extending the protections of NATO's article 5 to cover cyber attacks. The Russians only seem to respond to strength. If they fear an attack on their defense infrastructure or their grid they will be less likely to continue their efforts to undermine the democratic systems of the US or its allies.

Of course it is likely that will mean that the Russians seek to do the same to the US. However, there is no guarantee that they have not already done this. In essence, until we can reach some accommodation on these matters, it would be a system of "mutually assured cyber-destruction" similar to that employed during the cold war.

Real Presidential leadership would invite the Russians to engage with us in the development of some form of "International Cyber Disarmament" Treaty. I won't hold my breath though.

What the World Needs Now: Ripple of Hope

20% discount right now on my best selling poster on Zazzle.com Bobby Kennedy's quote "Ripple of Hope" https://www.zazzle.com/ripple_of_hope_bobby_kennedy_quote_poster-228130497977934546

"Sacred Trust" Published as ebook on Amazon

News Release
For Immediate Release

"Sacred Trust" Published as ebook on Amazon
Available from Kindle Books
Moosewood Communications Publisher

http://bit.ly/STrust

"Sacred Trust" A vicarious, high voltage adventure to stop a private powerline has been published on Amazon.com as an ebook with the paper edition due soon.

Described by one reader as "The Monkey Wrench Gang Meets the Third Industrial Revolution" the book is a fictional account of a group of unlikely compatriots who join together to stop a powerline proposed by a private consortium, employing creative civil disobedience in the traditions of Alinsky, Thoreau and King. 

In the book, Sasha Brandt, an Iroquois woman from Canada who travels with her companion, a wolf named Cochise, meets Daniel Roy, a guide and outdoorsman while hiking the Mahoosuc Range of the Appalachian Trail. The two find themselves unexpectedly camping together on Lake Umbagog with a group of unlikely compatriots including a former Olympic paddler, a deer farmer, a retired spook who was the first US victim of Lyme disease and an iconoclast named Thomas (just Thomas) who lives in multiple backwoods abodes in the Great North Woods and rides a moose named Metallak. The campsite itself is said to have been frequented by the Indian medicine woman Moll Ockett in the early days of the American Republic. 

They find, in short order, that they have one very important thing in common - a deep concern about a proposed private power transmission line proposed to transport electricity from Canada to the toney suburbs of Boston, New York, Connecticut, Philadelphia and Washington D.C. 

The project, dubbed "Granite Skyway", proposes to bring massive 150 foot towers through the most beautiful parts of a state that boasts some of the most beautiful scenery in the entire country.

The threat to the environment and the scenic beauty are only the tip of an iceberg that includes the value of homes, farms and businesses built by generations of men and women in this hardscrabble land. Already affecting life for many caught up in the mere rumor of this proposed transmission line, Granite Skyway poses an existential threat to an entire way of life.

Determined to do more than shuffle papers and employ lawyers, the compatriots form a band of brothers and sisters - along with Cochise and Metallak - calling themselves "The Trust". Armed with only their wits and a lot of heart they embark on a rolicking campaign of civil disobedience that would make Thoreau, Alinsky and Dr. King proud.

While the book is a work of fiction, teachers and professors may find it a book that would add a new dimension to classroom discussions and an interesting touch for classes on sustainability, renewable energy or the American tradition of protest. Woven into the story narrative are news stories by a journalist observing the shifts and upheavals of climate change and the renewable revolution as well as a group of patriots writing in the style of the Federalist Paper authors in opposition to the power project.

Throughout their adventure the members of "The Trust" examine many of the most important questions of our time including how America can continue to make an honored space for free speech and civil disobedience in an era of terror; how social media can help create accountability in an increasingly corporatized mega-media landscape; and, how citizens can challenge the corporate oligarchies that threaten our planet's future.

"Sacred Trust" is written by Wayne King a former State Senator, Democratic nominee for Governor of NH, and most recently CEO of environmental cleanup company MOP Environmental Solutions. Not coincidentally, King worked his way through college as a White Mountain Guide which explains his detailed knowledge of New Hampshire's White Mountains. The book is filled with political and environmental stories that will have you laughing and gasping and wondering what is true and what is fiction. 

"Sacred Trust' is a vicarious, high voltage campaign to stop the Granite Skyway power transmission project and its short-sighted and in some cases greedy corporate sponsors, intent on using political muscle and money to lock up the region's energy production and distribution, short circuiting efforts to bring about an energy future based on sustainable, and renewable energy deployed through micro-grids, smart-grids and a competitive environment that makes energy more - not less - affordable. 


Available from Kindle Books
Moosewood Communications Publisher

Common Sense 2017: Time for Democrats to Offer Alternatives

Common Sense 2017: Time for Democrats to Offer Alternatives
Wayne D. King

I'm so tired of the Democrats in Congress acting like the Republicans who did nothing but obstruct Barack Obama. I want them to stand up and offer alternatives.

Tell the country how to fix Obamacare and try to peel off enough Republicans to pass it.

Offer a plan for infrastructure that modernizes the national grid to prepare us for the Internet of Things and the post carbon era with laterally scaled micro-grids linking homes and businesses and small power producers. The vast majority of good jobs that will be created over the next 20 years will be in building out the Third Industrial Revolution infrastructure. Let's get to it. China is already working to wrest the mantle of world leadership from us. Let's not give it away without a fight!

One up the Republicans and offer a tax reform plan that eliminates business taxes entirely (and all the special exemptions, incentives, and give aways - in 2015 fossil fuel companies received more than 82 billion dollars in tax incentives) Collect the taxes from the individuals who benefit from the profits and let the shareholders determine whether the companies should be spending money for wasteful purposes. This would also eliminate all of the onerous filings required of nonprofits and encourage the development of more of them.

Choose 10 of the most impoverished, jobless regions of the country and test ten different outside-the-box ideas for turning them around. Put some real money behind the effort. Toss out the ideas that fail and try ten more. Take the ones that work and share them with others who are experiencing similar problems.  Start by testing the Guaranteed Basic Income idea providing a minimal monthly allowance to every adult (in the test area) and then allow them to build their employment and lifestyle choices  around that to achieve a standard of living that is real, sustainable and fulfilling.

Create a National Service requirement. Every person who reaches the age of 18 should be required to choose between military or civil service and to serve 2 years before the age of 30. No exceptions for rich kids or people with disabilities or any other excuse. . . ok if you must have a conscientious objector status for those who object to being forced to do right - but make it hard as hell to obtain. Think about what it would do for the country to have rich kids and poor kids working side by side to make this world a better place. Think of how many kids who have grown up in abject poverty would be empowered by the franchise granted to them by two years of service to the nation. A young man or woman who has spent two years building the nation is going to think twice before he or she throws a trash can through a storefront window.  From many we must be one again. This is the revolution of our time.

Just saying . . .
wdk 2017

The Whisper of Wind

"Uncle" Harry Uhlman's Sugaring Off Parties

Uncle Harry ladles the syrup

"Uncle" Harry Uhlman's Sugaring Off Parties

by Wayne D. King


I remember as if it were yesterday, though at least 45 years have passed. Warm spring Sundays, filled with the hope that spring always brings. Sun shining on my face as I left church and greeted Uncle Harry at the door.


Uncle Harry was a deacon in our church and he wasn't my uncle - he was everyone's uncle. His kindly face, worn with the seasons of a Yankee native's life, would beam as he leaned down to remind me of the sugaring off party at his sugarhouse that afternoon and called me "dear" in that rich North Country accent that resonates still in my brain.


Of course he didn't need to remind me, or anyone else in our informal confederation of communities, drawn together by the necessity of sharing schools, churches, fire departments, police. The moment that sap buckets appeared on the maples along the road we knew that the moment was approaching. Children and adults alike would find their conversations turning to the sap and Uncle Harry's sugaring off party.


Uncle Harry sugared the old fashioned way, though many of the sugaring operation of the day were even then beginning to modernize. His only concession to the modern age came well toward the end of his days when the horse drawn sled gave way to a small blue tractor. Even then, though, he would alight from his tractor, put the rugged yoke around his neck and trudge through the snow from tree to tree gathering sap from the buckets by hand and emptying them into the container on the tractor. When the huge container on the tractor was full it would be transferred to the sugarhouse where his wood fired boiler and evaporator would turn the sweet sap into maple syrup.


It was the 1960’s and despite the conservative ways of my North Country neighbors Uncle Harry began to wear his hair long. Not shaggy like so many of my older friends, but longer than the norm for disapproving adults. Uncle Harry's hair was more like a snow-covered rainbow, mostly white with streaks of brown, gold and red as it flowed in waves down his head. It almost seemed that the golden brown of his syrup had so thoroughly penetrated his being that even his hair reflected its glory. Though he never said a word about it to me, I think letting his hair grow was Uncle Harry's way of sending a message to the young people in the community that their choice of self expression did not make them outcasts - despite the whispering and snide remarks of other adults. We loved him for it.


Then the long anticipated day would arrive. After church Uncle Harry would head back to his orchard to prepare for the festivities. A huge pile of clean snow, gathered thoughtfully on some long passed stormy day, lay covered with a large canvas tarp to be unveiled only when the children were gathered around squealing delightedly.


When families began to arrive Harry Uhlman would be hidden away in his sugarhouse boiling the syrup past pancake thickness to that special level where just the act of pouring it on a snowcovered plate would seem like a spiritual experience. . . nature's sweetest celebration of the spring. While he finished the syrup the children would play in the maple groves, waiting for the moment that they would form a human wave of exuberance as they rushed to get in line. The adults would mingle, share tales of winter tribulations and plans for the warm days ahead, and pretend that they weren't just as excited as the children. . . and then Uncle Harry would emerge, wooden bucket in hand, a silly old hat on his head, smiling like an angel . . . I think he was. I know he is now. To this day I can't see a sugarhouse or a tapped maple that doesn't bring him back into my life.


God Bless you Uncle Harry; and every other neighbor who spreads love like maple syrup on our lives.

Sugaring Off with Uncle Harry Originals
10x16
Edition of 100 signed originals
Printed on fine art rag paper with archival inks
$125
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Where are the good jobs in the next decade?

Where are the good jobs in the next decade?
by Wayne King

In the next decade the fastest growing sector of job growth worldwide will be those jobs associated with moving toward a renewable energy future and creating smart grids and a Third Industrial Revolution infrastructure to carry locally produced and distributed energy.

China recently announced that they would pour 82 Billion dollars into creation of a smart grid.

This is the very sector of our economy that Donald Trump has suppressed.

Its not that these jobs will move elsewhere. One of the largest benefits to locally produced, renewable energy is that it produces local jobs to build it and the long-term jobs stay local as well. They will just not be grown here where we are desperately seeking ways to create jobs that can replace the well paying jobs of the past.

The truth is that the jobs of the past are largely gone and no amount of huffing and puffing by politicians are going to bring them back. The battle for the future will be for the jobs of the future. Those countries that are building a Third Industrial Revolution infrastructure will have a massive competitive advantage.

If we targeted just 1/4 of the funds we use for infrastructure toward building this infrastructure of the future. We would produce millions more jobs than we are producing trying to revive the jobs of the past.

Here's just one example: I would be willing to bet that not one single NET new job will be produced in the coal industry in the next year. The companies will take advantage of the new Trump EPA to pass costs off to the public domain by polluting more - one change made recently allows coal companies to use public waterways for the disposal of wastes (hell it came out of the ground didn't it!) . But the coal companies will add more automation to take coal out of the ground, requiring fewer coal miners to do the job. The only bright spot is that the market for their coal is drying up faster than the RioGrande. Within a decade most of these companies will be gone. In the meantime owners will try to suck every bit of value that they can from their dying industry. Then they will throw up their hands and declare bankruptcy allowing them to walk away from their remaining debts.

Windows at an Exhibition

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Green, Sustainable Energy is Here to Stay - Coal is Dead

Green, Sustainable Energy is Here to Stay - Coal is Dead
Wayne King

President Trump thinks that he is going to undo all of the good work that President Obama has done to put us on the road to clean and sustainable energy. Today he's going after the Clean Power Act but President Obama was smart. He used the crisis of 2008 to give a huge boost to wind and solar and other green energy sources and now they have market viability. Anyone who invests in carbon producing energy sources from here on is liable to lose their shirt and they know it. Coal is dead, we need to create new clean energy opportunities in the coal states and educate the people who live there to enable them to work in the industries of the future not the past.

But we need a smart grid to deliver and target energy resources. This will cost a lot of money but that money is already there.

According to the International Monetary Fund in 2015 they quantified the amount of money that is going into subsidies for fossil fuels and it was 5.4 TRILLION dollars. 6.5% of global GDP. What we have is not a technology problem, it is a political problem. Corrupt politicians and energy companies scratching to hold onto power in a system that is rapidly transitioning away from them have built a system where second industrial revolution energy is at an advantage over Third Industrial Revolution (TIR) Tech. We need to redirect those funds to build a new paradigm for distributing energy

The Whisper of Wind Poster
http://bit.ly/2ow3IlH

Understanding Tax Credits in Healthcare

Understanding Tax Credits in Healthcare
Tax credits are credits against taxes due. If your income is not sufficiently high to generate a tax liability they are of no value to the individual. Most of the people who are covered under the affordable care act do not earn enough money to have a tax liability. If the ACA is repealed and Republicans instead create tax credits, everyone who does not earn about 3-4 times the poverty level will lose their healthcare.

If President Trump really wanted to bring the country together as he claims he would stop beating the dead horse of Obamacare and instead call on Democrats and Republicans to join together to fix the affordable care act. Some of the ideas he proposed last night could easily be incorporated into the ACA and would make it stronger and more affordable but the core of the ACA must remain in place to provide opportunity for most Americans.


One well-delivered speech does not constitute a reset for the Trump Presidency.

Emerging Umbrellas

Sacred Trust Update

Sacred Trust Update

You may already know that I've been writing a novel about a group of unlikely compatriots that come together to try and stop a high voltage power transmission line in NH.

While I have tried to avoid the pitfalls of linking the power project in this novel directly with any similar project (duh! as my son says) the obvious connections will certainly be made and I believe that will be useful to those of us who have been opposing the real NH transmission project.

The book is set here in New Hampshire but has much broader implications for similar projects throughout the country, particularly in light of President Trump’s executive order on pipelines and transmission lines.

I am currently about 3/4 finished with the novel - having spent two years to date on it in my spare time - I am hoping to supercharge a final push in the next 3 months to finish it and get it edited and published through a crowdfunding campaign to support the final push.

I'm fully aware that this will not be without controversy. However, I sense that the controversy might be just what is needed to refocus the public eye on the efforts to stop or at least completely bury the proposed project. There has been a palpable drop in public interest of late.

Furthermore, in the panic to get at least some of the line buried we have missed out on a lot of teachable moments that just did not seem to be high priority items in the beginning. Bigger picture issues like the over reliance on large sources of power production instead of smaller sources of power and micro-grids that make our system less subject to large outages from human or natural causes; The desecration of native lands and the massive carbon output associated with flooding of large tracts of land. The choice between direct transmission and a more nimble smart-grid allowing for the creation of power sources within communities that serve their economy and their environment better.

While the novel is first and foremost a fun read about an important trend in the nation as a whole, it is also an opportunity to explore some of these teachable moments a bit. Perhaps even to create a book that serves as the basis for discussion of these issues in classes, book groups, and reading and discussion groups etc. For example, one device that I will be employing will be to have essays addressing some of the important issues written by actual experts who will be portrayed as “Gazetteers” much like the patriots who wrote the Federalist Papers. The purpose of their essays will be to ostensibly provide support to the compatriots fighting the power line but the more important reason for their essays will be to lay out the arguments against this and other similar projects and to examine some of the challenges of providing energy and power to our world in the future.

I am hoping that you will have an interest in helping me to spread the word about the book and the campaign.

If you are, here are some of this things you can do to help:

Pass the word about this campaign on to your friends, especially if they have expressed concern over Northern Pass. I have included a sample note below.

Sign up to receive updates on the campaign and snippets from the book: www.gofundme.com/TreesNotTowers

If you have publishing contacts who may have an interest in looking at the book please let me know and feel free to contact them.

If you know an expert in any of the related areas (climate change, sustainable and renewable energy, Native American rights and treaties, Smartgrids, Energy planning, etc) Please let me know and I will speak with them about contributing to the book.

Best wishes,

Wayne King



Sample Referral Note

Wayne King has been writing a fictional novel, “Sacred Trust”, about a group of compatriots using civil disobedience to stop an electric transmission line similar to the Northern Pass project proposed in New Hampshire. His novel is intended to be a great read with a message, using real experts to lay out the arguments against similar projects.

He is running a crowdfunding campaign to put the book over the top - to cover the costs of paying the experts for their essays, editing and publishing the book.

He is hoping that both the crowdfunding campaign and the book will stir up more interest and help to put fire back into the opposition which has seemed to lag lately.

If you would like to learn more or to help, visit his GoFundMe Campaign page at: www.gofundme.com/TreesNotTowers

The Trump Presidency: this Generation’s Vietnam Moment

The Trump Presidency: this Generation’s Vietnam Moment
Trump May Unify Americans After All - Against Him
by Wayne D. King

Looking back, it was all just too easy . . .

We elected the first black president and the forces of darkness knew that they had to do something. They met, even as he was addressing the nation and calling for unity, and decided that they would oppose everything he did.

Yet despite that in the four years of Barack Obama change came like a waterfall. In the course of two brief years twenty million Americans living without health insurance would join the ranks of the insured, another 10 million would benefit from its provisions with respect to pre-existing conditions. Unfortunately, the opportunity to bring another 20 million under the umbrella of coverage was lost to the compromise that relinquished the “Public Option”; but national health was in our sights. In the course of only a few years - beyond rescuing the world from a catastrophic recession - much more would be achieved: marriage equality, medical marijuana, the Dream Act, the Paris accord on Global climate change, Iran Nuclear agreement, and expanded rights for LGBTQ citizens.

In an historic blink of an eye we were again moving toward that beloved community Dr. King described.

But these things occurred in a nation still deeply divided and with the help of the opposition the nation remained divided throughout the presidency of Barack Obama. The changes so many of us embraced came despite those divisions.

Did we think this was just going to happen without an almost cataclysmic clash that began with the push back and then the emergence of a unifying fight? This is how Vietnam and Nixon at first divided and then united us. It began with mostly young people in the streets, opposing the war. They were met with opposition: hardhats beating up those kids in the streets. Waving flags and carrying Nixon signs. In the final gasp of another deeply divided time and after another paranoid national leader emerged, delivered to us at the hands of Sirhan Sirhan.

The divisions evolved into a national strike on college campuses across the country and then the killing of our kids at Kent State and Jackson State Universities. The deaths at Kent and Jackson State opened the floodgate for the “silent majority” . The middle class, shaken to their core at the lengths to which the Nixon administration would go to maintain its grasp on power, came flooding into the streets to join the kids, the hippies and the yippies demanding peace.

It did not end immediately but it brought down a President and ended a war.

The period after Vietnam and up to George W. Bush, though not without its turbulence, represents the longest period of national unity, peace, and economic prosperity in our nation’s history.

Historians will debate for one hundred years what happened to our nation that so sharpened our divisions at the beginning of the new millennium. The symptoms will be relatively easy to agree on, a new gilded age for the wealthy and a shrinking of the middle class; legislative changes that opened the doors for unethical behavior, the lionization of greed and avarice. The causes of this will be more difficult to agree upon and still harder to reverse.

My own view is that we have entered a fourth wave of human endeavor, a new industrial revolution that calls not for reversing existing trends but finding a new way to surf them, as we did during the second industrial revolution - in the period sandwiched between two great leaders named Roosevelt.

However, reaching a point where we can build a national consensus for moving forward will require that we first begin to bridge the divide that separates one American from another and that is where I began this brief analysis. With the opportunity wrapped in a crisis.

Looking back, even to the beginning of the Presidential Primary process, one can make the case that no candidate seemed capable of bridging that divide - given its root causes, though some may have been on the right track for the wrong reasons as I have previously speculated. The election of Donald Trump has, in many ways, simply hastened the day of reckoning.

Never before has an American President sought to deepen the divisions in our country; never before has a President been so out of touch with the truth; and never has a President been so boldly unconcerned and brashly unapologetic about it.

Already Americans are taking to the streets. They are not willing to relinquish American leadership on the critical issues of our time. They still believe that Democratic values hold out the best hope for change that is just, and sustainable. Young people, who have grown up in the era of Barack Obama are unwilling to allow the limits of racism, sexism and homophobia to be defined by Theocratic leaders. Americans alarmed by the pace of climate change are unwilling to allow China, an undemocratic regime that suppresses free science and free speech, to step into the void created by the Trump administration’s climate change deniers.

Every American who has watched with pride as our national leadership has been demonstrated time and again during the last fifty years will ultimately not allow us to cede leadership on the world stage. Their protest signs may vary, but they all translate the same: “This is Not My America”.

The crowds are big, and growing. . . and, as they often say “The Whole World is Watching”.

But there is a notable void in the crowds. Donald Trump has the worst approval ratings of any president since those numbers were first recorded. Yet among Republicans his approval is among the highest ever recorded. 87% of Republicans still state that they approve of the President’s actions; despite the heroic efforts of Republicans like Senators John McCain, Lindsey Graham, and Susan Collins who have stood against the tide speaking out forcefully for Western values and Democratic principles.

How do we bridge this divide, particularly when the issues at stake are not just critically important but - in many cases - moral imperatives with little room for compromise that does not spell acquiescence?

The answer is we don’t try. We fight for what we believe but do so with grace and with open hearts. We wait for them, knowing that joining us represents a deeply disappointing revelation for many. They are not our enemies and we do not have a monopoly on truth.

We must stand and deliver. Above all we must be patient and humble. If there is one thing we have learned in the first thirty days of the Trump Presidency it is that when we think the President cannot possibly overreach any more than he already has - he will always find a way.

Already he has shown this with his travel ban and immigration actions which have surely peeled off many previous supporters. Just wait until they try to take healthcare away from 30 million Americans or begin to give polluters free reign or cause a trade war that raises the cost of everything from food to underwear.

Wait until middle class and working class whites realize they have been punked by a billionaire con artist who is far more interested in cutting taxes for his friends than raising the living standards of those who have seen no real income growth in almost two decades. 

Evidence that the Russian connection may lead to the demise of this administration is accumulating. Demonizing the media and banning the most powerful among them from media briefings at the White House is little more than a thinly veiled effort to discredit them in the wake of an ever-widening inquiry and at least three formal investigations by government agencies and the intelligence community.  

It will not be long before disillusioned Trump voters will be joining our ranks.

Then it will be up to us to open our ranks and to welcome all these Americans home. Not only by making space for them but by making an effort to understand their hopes and dreams. By seeking new ways to renew the promise of a growing standard of living for all Americans; by making an effort to find common ground on even the thorniest of issues.

There is little chance that the skies will open and the sun will shine down on us as we sing kum-ba-yah but there’s a pretty good chance that 2020 will see a new President and, hopefully, a lot of Americans carrying signs that effectively say: This is My America.

On the Edge of Chaos