Something’s Fishy (Hint: Salmon and the Tea Party GOP)
This week, to the tune of dueling canner whistles on the stove, I packed more than 30 cases of smoked salmon. I smoked fish and applied aloe to my river sunburn. I read the news and rolled my eyes. Too many times I thought, “Oh, I’ll write about that.” Outrage fatigue set in while watching the government train wreck. I started counting the days to go back to the river.
Any river. As long as it had salmon.
Store shelves have been running low on brown sugar and canning jars. Thank goodness people figured out dry brine beats wet brine every time. The historic runs on the Kenai River have been followed by historic runs on dip nets. The only thing more dangerous than combat fishing is combat driving in the stampede.
This is one of my favorite things about not living Outside. It’s why for thousands of years people have lived in Alaska. Fish have sustained our lives before Proctor’s or Carr’s or the new places hocking fish sticks in freezers.
For all of our resources, Alaskans congregate around fish. Look at a map. What village, town or city isn’t on a waterway?
Any time I’ve visited a lawmaker, every one seems to have the same picture in his office: that giant smile while holding up a fish. It is a universal bond that bridges Alaska’s sometimes-polarizing politics.
And there is always a fondly remembered fish story. It might be the one that was eaten by a seal right before being pulled into the boat. It might be the boat that almost went down. It might be a stint on the slime line.
There’s irony in thinking about fish as a “moment of Zen” while watching Washington this week. The biggest political struggles we’ve seen as a state, including fighting for statehood, have come from fish fights. Commercial fighting subsistence, subsistence fighting sport, sport fighting commercial. It’s Alaska’s version of Rock, Paper, Scissors.
While my neighborhood has been enjoying the second-hand alder smoke wafting over more than one fence, the smell in Washington is of something completely different: It’s the odor of manufactured crisis.
The U.S. has no historic and urgent debt crisis other than the potential self-fulfilling prophecy rooted in fear generated by the tea party Republicans. Consider our debt after World War II. Compared to all of the goods and services manufactured in that year (gross domestic product), the debt-to-GDP ratio was 120 percent. The current debt-to-GDP ratio is 60 percent. Our government-issued bonds offer low interest rates — low returns for a low-risk investment. That’s because investors have been confident in the U.S.’s ability, and willingness, to pay its bills. We were a safe bet.
That could all change next week due to the single-mindedness of a small group of tea party congressmen, who have found a way to advance their particular issue by holding a loaded gun to the country’s head.
That’s not to say we don’t need to get our financial house in order. We do. But every serious analysis of our debt problem has recognized the need for both spending cuts and increased revenues. Ronald Reagan’s budget director advocated last year for a 15 percent surtax on the wealthiest Americans.
According to David Stockman, “In 1985, the top five percent of the households – the wealthiest five percent – had net worth of $8 trillion – which is a lot. Today, after serial bubble after serial bubble, the top 5 percent have net worth of $40 trillion. The top 5 percent have gained more wealth than the whole human race had created prior to 1980.”
At least with our fish fights here at home, the motivation and agendas of the commercial, subsistence and sport fisherman are rooted in the push and pull of getting more fish, not destroying the fishing industry.
It’s great that you got to can “30 cases of smoked salmon”. It’s good that the Kenai red was stronger than expected. We in the Norton Sound have an opportunity to enhance through lake fertilization, a sockeye run in the Pilgrim River, nw of Nome. In fact, when the lake fertilization project was done right, we had a massive return of 80,000+ once in the past ten years. Since then the red run has crashed pretty bad and this summer’s supposedly escaped number of red is reported at 7,327 sockeyes. I say “supposedly” because I’m not sure if we can trust that number being that an outside entity, our CDQ group, NSEDC, in a “Cooperative project, with assistance from Fish & Game” is managing the Pilgrim River weir responsible for providing the fish count numbers. Reports are that the sockeye run at the coast, the subsistence fishermen who were fishing for food 24/7 didn’t fill their rack with drying reds. Very contradicting therefore very fishy. I’d like to know how NSEDC trains their college kid weir workers on how to tell the difference between a chum salmon and a red salmon. In the water, they look pretty much the same.
On the other hand, it’s the job of the State to manage the fisheries. When they let a public monies entity take over big portions of their responsibility then it becomes a very gray area and the real numbers are not black and white. Numbers can be manipulated to favor anyone who is in control of the reports.
How neat to read about canning salmon. This morning I have to shell some peas for the freezer. We go to our CSA farm tomorrow afternoon and I’m not sure what kind of veggies will be ready now. Probably beans and some tomatoes, maybe some summer squash and, hopefully, some eggplant.
This whole debt thing (remember that the Republicans were forever voting to raise the debt ceiling under Pres. Bush) has been a right-wing way to destroy what few services the federal government still provides its ordinary citizens. And the big corporate-run media has had a great time with it – scaring people and fear mongering for the teabaggers in Congress.
I’d much rather be basking in the memories of the seventh annual Traverse City Film Festival this past week and dreaming of veggies to come.
I have shook my head so many times this past week over the crap I saw unfolding on the TV that I am amazed it did not separate from my neck!
This is manufactured and I do hope we can calm down and hold the those who have done the damage accountable before it destroys us as a nation.
It was hard to feel happy or satisfied when I heard that the House had passed it. It doesn’t matter that it actually ended up being a bi-partisan vote. It’s not a victory for anyone except the minority TPers and Grover Norquist. And that’s something that just tightens my jaws everytime I think about it. How in the world did Grover gain such power over the republicans that he can get the vast majority to sign something he thought up. He’s never been elected to anything and why do they care what he thinks or says. I just don’t get it. Is he richer than we know or does he have some sort of dirt on all of them and they are basically paying him hush money. He sounds like some sort of mafia don with the control he has over all of them. I find it very bizarre.
Thank you for supplying the vocabulary to describe my response to the recent [political mess. “Outrage fatigue” is exactly right.
Tea Party = populist anger and fervor highjacked by moronic ideology.
The TP’ers are starting to eat their own: because the rather repulsive Allen West of Florida voted for the bill, he has already been selected to be primaried by the TP, and he’s vowing to fight. The TP may fall victim to itself, being essentially unable to compromise and rationally see the need for responsible tax reforms and revenue increases. I hope they all disappear next November, and take the Wicked Witch with them.
‘Night all, it’s been a hell of week, hasn’t it?
I am so disgusted by the Tea Potty. Pledging allegiance to the likes of Grover Norquist, for whom anything other than a tax cut is a tax increase, means they aren’t paying any mind to the needs of their constituents. Shredding the social safety net while the middle class cascades into poverty is no solution. As Alan Grayson said, the war is making you poor. He also perfectly outlined the GOP health plan: A. Don’t get sick. B. If you do get sick, die quickly.
David Stockman knows of what he speaks. Since he advocated trickle down economics only to admit much later that he knew at the time he was pushing it that the theory was a complete fraud. The tea baggers are his progeny.