Pocahontas to You Too

So we now get “prove it” to claims that we have Native American Blood...and get called names like Pocahontas or Injun Joe I suppose.

Like Elizabeth Warren I have a pile of evidence that I have native blood. And like a lot of partial Native Americans, they share a commonality.

1. Hidden heritage. Up until the 1950s Native Americans were legally discriminated against. It wasn’t until 1947 when I was born, that mixed race marriages (and colored race blood had to only be one drop) were no longer forbidden in many states. Discrimination against Native Americans extended even to the military, Code Talkers was one way they could serve, but many could not. Native Americans could not vote until 1920! So what did my family do, it hid the heritage; and passed for white. Hiding Native American blood is what everyone did.

2. Conflict in mixed marriages. My parents eloped just like Elizabeth Warrens because my mother’s family, white, didn’t like my father who was from “the other side of the tracks”...that is the way it was in 1944. So what happened to the children, silence is what happened. I was not told about my mixed blood until I was 58! I didn’t even know I was Cherokee with a murdered great great grandfather until I looked it up in Texas list of executions...and found my great great grandfather’s name. Hanging is a pretty pure evidence!

3. Ha...ha...ha syndrome...I tell the story and white friends just laugh...”right”....”so what”. The racism just flows out of them without thinking. I get the “big deal”, you are mostly white. All of that. It is just a big joke to them. Pocahontas???? 

4. Historical facts: There was a U.N. certified genocide in the Americas. Tens of millions were simply murdered for their land, culture was destroyed, game was killed and land was destroyed to wipe out an entire race of human beings. And all of it to spread democracy across the land. And who wants to admit to that? 

5. “Oh get a life”....this is the worst. I was a Stanford Indian...I wore the uniform, I battled on the football field for a great University as an “Indian”...and, at first, in the early 1970s, I was upset when the Indian racist mascot was abolished in favor of Cardinal. And then I found out I was part Native American and everything changed. But I still get from alums; “Once and Indian always an Indian”....

6. Prove it: Did you know that for European DNA there are so much of it that matching is easy in tests. African Americans and Native Americans not so easy since there were so few of them in the America’s relatively speaking...and many of the strands were killed off...fancy that! 

So it is not unusual to get no DNA proof, even though the old pictures you look at of your great great grandmother shows an Native American without question. Did you know that DNA proof is not a lock for Native Americans? Now you do.

7. Racism and Prejudice....the United States was established on it...and admitting it....means admitting to genocide...It took forcing Germans to go through concentration camps to get it in 1945...and concentration camps were right next to many Germany towns not just in Poland as we have been wrongly taught...THEY KNEW IT JUST LIKE YOU KNOW IT, but they didn’t dare admit it; not my fault right?

All you have to do is look at old newspapers from the gold rush era, and you get story after story of brutal attacks and murder of dozens of native Americans for stealing a cow. The ratio was about 1 dead white man to 1000 Native Californians. The population dropped for 150,000 in 1850 to about 20,000 in 1870, and not from disease by the way. 

Racism and prejudice still exists and nobody likes to talk about it..and Trump uses it for political advantage just like the son of a bitch Andrew Jackson whose portrait happened to be over Trump’s shoulder when he embarrassed the old war heroes yesterday with his venom. 

So Pocahontas to you too.

The Sea Change

Even in England the con continues.  This is the con.  After years of not having any control of the Congress, from 1933 to 1994, the Republicans were able to control the Congress.  They did it via the "tax cuts" are good for you and the Republicans astonishly are good for the poor.  That somehow, hocus pocus, rich entitled spoiled brats would care about the urban poor?
I remember the theory of trickle down that Reagan had sold to the country resulting in a recession that cost his Vice President a second term as President.  Clinton won, but he had to run on a more conservative mode, to overcome the Reagan Democrats who abandoned the Democratic party NOT BECAUSE OF ECONOMIC REASONS BUT BECAUSE THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY HAD OPENED ITS DOORS TO PEOPLE OF COLOR.

You cannot underestimate the impact of that.  The racist segregationists in the south went wholesale into the Republican Party astonishly...this was the party of the abolitionists remember.  And not only did this shift occur, Democrats began to elect people of color and women in large numbers further alienating old white men.  And also amazingly you tell the Reagan Democrat that and they don’t believe you…they are so illiterate politically they don’t even realize what happened…Race blinds them!

It's racial.  Period.  And its falling apart right now, as the older racist men die off, the Reagan Democrats are dying by the droves, the younger demographic have done a couple things....1.  Women are finally emerging with power.  The latest sexual harassment scandal is a change in the culture taking place in front of our eyes. 2.  The leadership of the Democratic Party is now racially diverse, the LEADERSHIP  are people of color and will not sell out.  Racists keep waiting for a return  of the "crackers" ; won't happen. 

What gives it legs is the fact that women have moved into positions of power enough (just enough they have a ways to go) to demand that predators be stopped in the workplace.  And, California and the urban states have become much more diverse.  And, in spite of discrimination in law, policing; etc., enough people of color (immigrants yes) are emerging that the good ole white boy network, who screwed  their secretary on the side, are being displaced rapidly.  The latest sexual discrimination/harassment  dust up is a big deal, it is behind some of the political change wave that we first noticed in Tuesday’s election.

You cannot stop it.  And THAT is why we are going to win.   And that is why Trump is doomed. 

Moreover,  to make it worse for the idiots (and they are idiots) , Republican  ties to big oil and coal are transparent, the whoring of their lives for a few pieces of silver does not get it with young people who know they will be stuck with the planet after the stupid Reagan Democrats finally die off..

And finally, Trump, with his billions is a poster child for the real rich elite in the Republican party who for years have conned the racist whites who were angry  that the Democratic Party finally did the right thing, into believing that they cared about poor whites...

They don't ....in fact they distain them.  In fact they hate them.    And  Trump doesn't hide it either.  And the laws they are tying to pass, even for the very uneducated, will hurt and the white fools will even figure that out.

I use fools with compassion.  I know a lot of the Reagan Democrats, or Obama Dem/Republicans (Democrats who changed because to Republicans because the President was .....dark!).

They are just doing what their fathers taught them...they have been racist since they were kids.

I know, I was one to some degree, then I went to college, roomed with an African American, made friends with many more people of all colors, and discovered that I was a person of color (Native American) and that fact had affected by family for years.  When that happened I vowed that diversity was what I would work for all of my life.  I had no choice… When you find out your great great grandfather is listed in Texas’ list of hangings, lynched for being married to a white woman, it wakes you up real fast. 

And that was sometimes not easy for a mixed race person from Redding California, whose parents had passed for white for years as a survival technique (Native Americans did not get jobs, they could not marry white women; technically my parents were illegally married).

My white friends scoff at this…they laugh that I am just being politically correct….

The politically correct bullshit is used to discredit efforts by people to do the right thing..to overcome racism you have to work at it, since it is so engrained in all of us, so discipline is needed.  And cons call this being politically correct, they sneer when they say it…

What they really are saying is “You are being uppity, be racist like we have always been…you took our Democratic Party away and gave it to “them” (people of color and women)…how dare you!

The pundits are correct is saying the modern Democratic Party no longer relates to older  white working class people; they don’t.   The Roosevelt wing (liberals) of the Party for year tried to have it both ways, sharing space with out and out racists from the south, until L.B.J. had enough, and passed the Civil Rights Bill.  That tore it, it ended Democratic Party hegemony in the Red States of the South FOREVER. 

And they voted for Donald Trump, who immediately started screwing them the second he got power…and will screw them with tax cuts for the rich and taking away health care for the middle class.

And they will vote for it…..but there are more of us than there are of them…and they are dying off fast. 

What happened Tuesday is a harbinger of things to come…we have to Vote…we have to not split up into left and center….we need to work together to end the racist right forever…else we will die… 

We have the votes you know….we do…and we need to destroy the Republican Party as it presently exists or it will destroy us….

Turn and See Us

And so it goes...white supremacy still, in the state’s Capitol.  And this is nothing new of course.  And it exist because we let it exist.

Fear....that’s right fear...and neglect..NEGLECT.  A long time ago there was a book named “Invisible Man” about how whites did not see people of color.  If you want an example, just check yourself next time you are next to a homeless person.

You don’t make eye contact, you look away...

That is the way white’s handled interactions with people of color (not just African Americans) for a long time in this country.  It wasn’t that you did anything negative to “them” (other than making sure you moved to an area where your kids didn’t go to school with “those people”), it was that you flat ignored them.

So you, ignored them.  You looked the other way as gang violence escalated making mean streets deadly.  You looked the other way as war on drugs was passed, supported by Democrats and Republicans, that threw millions into prison, for victimless crimes; destroying families.

And you supported Charter Schools that cleverly and cynically sponsored “new approaches” that just happened to segregate children from each other more than even during Jim Crowe days.    And even more brutally, cynical white corporate elites encouraged in people of color that segregated Charter Schools were better, after enacting policies that emasculated inner city public schools; leaving them cesspools of failure with poor funding and even worse personnel practices.  We should have long ago paid teachers in inner city segregated school more, and rotated staff every seven or so years, because dealing with the broken and ignored, the abused and yes, ,poor, exacts a toll on the teacher and the staff.

Every teacher in California needs to spend at least seven years in a “tough” school.  I did...and it is what prompts me to write this piece right now...I have looked into America’s ugliest side and seen myself.

Sacramento is the most diverse city in Californian, more so than even L.A.  And it has made some strides in finally becoming a city of opportunity for all.

But it has 3000 homeless, it has Black Lives Matter that is very active, because the Sheriff and City Police Departments still discriminate against people of color.  And the communities are angry.

And the communities still are allowed, even encouraged to move further apart...Sacramento sprawls to the east, north and south.  It sprawls maninly to leave the “inner city” and get away from “them”.  It sprawls to Woodland and even Winters for heavens sake still escaping.  Always running...always.

And the State Capitol sits in Sacramento.  And the Capitol is dominated by Democrats, not Republicans who are now the party of racists, but by Democrats who are diverse but still cannot get this thing right.  That’s right, Republicans are the party of racists.

And people of color are keeping track.  And if Democrats don’t finally start to move on this monster, our democracy is over.

It is the running....it is in the FACT that we have to stop the long commutes...our environment can’t take it anymore.

My Naive American brothers and sisters screamed as they were annihilated that it was the land that would strike back, that nature would strike back.  Native Americans did not hold personal lands, they shared land in common.  The idea was that the land was the Great Mystery’s and the People had a sacred duty to preserve it, because it was the source of life, and God, the Great Spirit, (whatever you call it) was right there, right there in the trees, in the clear streams the mighty rivers.  If man destroyed that sacred trust he/she would suffer a reckoning that could destroy mankind.

And that is EXACTLY what the “white supremacist based culture has done”!

When?  When will we stop running?  It isn’t working.  The sprawl has the horrible effect of adding to the CO2 that is being poured into the atmosphere reducing our climate to Pleistocene levels; that will kill all of us.  The heat in the summer, in poor areas, means adding to the anger; as long hot summers drive people to violence.  The heat gets us all to go inside, to avoid the heat, to hide....not just from the heat from each other.

We all sit in little boxes EVERY DAMNED DAY for hours....to get to and from work...and then wonder why we can’t get along with others?

We are NOT designed to sit in little boxes...

We have to stop running.....stop.....turn and face it....it is our prejudices (and I’m talking to everyone here) but do as President Obama said and preached, stop running...start loving and take a risk.

See me...look at me...touch me...trust me...realize that person you look away from or ignore is really you....that without love  and Community there is nothing.

I worked with hundreds of people who did just that.  In Del Paso Heights there were teachers who had been working and working everyday to educated, to teach love and understanding.   In Elk Creek there were white teachers who broke they hearts helping kids who lived in a cesspool of drugs, violence and federal government neglect.   I am proud that I was part of that everywhere I went; not that I did enough, I didn’t....but I will tell you true, I did a hell of a lot more than most.

But just enough will never be truly enough....

We inherited a racist mean society that once enslaved millions of human beings and killed millions more to get their land.  It does not sit lightly on me that my great great grandfather was lynched for being married to a white woman.....that you just don’t excuse.....that you just don’t ignore....that haunts me everyday.

But what that does do, is to slam me squarely in the camp that people of color (I pass easily for white) find themselves everyday....the lynching effected my grandfather and father up to the day they died...

I know, I know, it was over 100 years ago.

Ask a Native American, as a Japanese American, ask a African American if they have forgotten....you don’t.  Ask them why “Black Lives Matter” and LISTEN TO THEM DON’T LISTEN TO YOUR FEARS!

Many forgive, and I have to a point...but when you see what still is in America...when you look at who we just elected President....we just refuse to once again give in to IT...white supremacy.

And we are paying an enormous price; ironically in our climate of all things; suburbia’s sprawl is killing us....and it happens to get away from “them”...

The Great Mystery is working in environmental ways to teach us that we must stop now....we must turn and face ourselves, and find the goodness that lurks in all of our hearts..

Now, at this point in OUR existence, we have no choice...We change or we die.

The Reckoning!

You Know

An open letter to the gas, oil and coal companies:

Stop, please stop...

Your full court press to end climate change alerts, to get rid of the EPA, to put your pipelines across state after state and your refusal to acknowledge or tell the public that we are running out of gas is working.

Yes it is working.  Climate deniers elected a President, who is so bought and paid for by you it is hard to believe.  He appoints deniers to cabinet posts, denies the Paris Global Warming Agreement, and works tirelessly to feed you.  He does this to “Make America Great Again”....you know that is a lie...you know!

And for what?  You know just how limited oil and gas reserves are right now.  You know that clean coal can’t happen without regulating the energy market place.  You know?  

That is the worst part, you are manipulating this for immediate and huge profits.  You are doing this on purpose.

You fight renewal energy at every turn.  You feed PG&E, your energy stooge, who neglected to put power lines underground and just burned up the Napa Valley.  PG&E is responsible partly for the Napa Valley conflagration; you bear the responsibility for the rest.

You ignore climate scientists, you bankroll denier web pages.  Meanwhile you declare that you believe in global warming, just not too loud.  You do this to calm your stockholders nerves and consciences.  

But  you also have children and grandchildren.  How do you sleep at night?  How do you sleep at night when your products, including plastics by the way, are ruining Earth?  How???

You know global warming is real and man made.  ALL of your official P.R. Announcements say so...that is what you say; your actions are diametrically opposed to that position.  

You are just like the tobacco lobby; who admitted their product killed people, but kept on selling it and worked like crazy to minimize the truth.  In short, they admitted cigarettes caused lung cancer, but kept selling the product.    

And it worked...And millions of people died young and continue to die.  

You bankroll tax cuts for you; you attack mercilessly public transportation; even buying right of ways so light rail cannot exist.  You lobby endlessly against bullet trains.  You destroy trains.  You lobby against Amtrak.

And you know, because your scientists tell you everyday, that you are addicting the world to the idea that your products are endless; and they aren’t.  You know that Peak Oil is real.  

You know that catastrophic climate change is real. You know!

You tell us that tar sands and fracking can make America energy independent; when you are addicting us all to gasoline run transportation; leaving trains to rot in a contrived obsolescence.

Trains burn oil too.  But they get many times more people to their destinations that’s single engine automobiles.  And buses, you engineered Greyhound to go out of business.  You lie, you cheat and even steal...and when one of your filthy oil operations blows up, or floods the Gulf of Mexico or Alaska, you lie about it.  

You lie all the time.

Single occupant cars driving an average of 50 miles one way to work is your goal...with gasoline spiking every year in cost, as the supply dwindles.  But the “utopia” you seek, of a public paying trillions of dollars for scarce fuel, will kill us all.  In fact many of us won’t live to see your dream come true...many of you won’t live to see it either because you will either starve to death or burn up.  

So why do you do it?   We know some of you had homes in Santa Rosa.  I know some of you, as you sit on your corporate boards and scheme to destroy climate change activists politically, economically and socially, KNOW what you are doing is wrong.

How do you sleep at night?  The Reckoning  is already here. 

How do you sleep at night?

The Wolf is Inside

Fascism...

A charged  word or descriptor.  And a very misunderstood word.  And a politically charged word that has negative connotations.

I have a habit of identifying some right wing conservatives as fascists.  And boy, does it piss them off.

But I am not speaking flippantly.  As a MA in Government I had to sit through plenty of political philosophy oriented classes; some of the most difficult that I had to take.

And fascism was identified, defined, discussed, used as a template, explained as a negative and a positive term; etc.  

Fascism can become the sickness of authoritarianism. Totalitarianism can result from a fascist regime, as the authoritarian aspects take over all government, resulting in a dictator.  This does not always happen, usually fascist movements result in minority parties, who often take up conservative Christian goals, like anti-abortion or anti-birth control, but remain in the democratic (not party) Parliament as an irritation, but not having enough votes to govern. For example, there is a fascist party right now in Italy with about 3% share.  

But the urge to morph into a one person rule is hard to exist regardless of how small the movement.  

A good example is the dictator Franco in Spain before WWII.  His was a conservative Christian fascist movement, that moved into a dictatorship around militaristic means to an authoritarian end.

The enemy?  Socialistic Communism.  And the Civil War that ensued was a preview for the world of the fascist led WWII.

Now what does this have to do with America today?

Political theorists and observers are picking up fascist tendencies in the right wing conservative movement, organized around President Trump (whose political behavior and methods (if he has any) are fascist.  His followers, many from the Christian Right, are reacting to the liberalization of society led by the LGBT and progressive movements that put civil rights and social justice as societal goals.

And there has been change to be sure.  And that change very much threatens the fascist mindset.

This conflict of ideas manifests itself in a major political tactic that Trump used to get elected.  Even though California had been lost probably forever to the Republican Party due to the anti-immigrant politics of Pete Wilson in the 1990s, Trump surprised everyone by adopting a “WALL” as a solution to what he said was a rampant immigration problem.  

There is no such problem in any widespread way in America now.  There was in the 1990s, but that has abated.  But Trump resurrected the issue in a highly successful political way and got elected using it.

Europe has fallen to its allure as well, swinging right, spawning the Brexit movement, and threatening the European Union.  In Europe’s case there IS a refugee/immigration problem, as Africa reels from global climate change effects causing mass migration, and the war in Syria and Iraq pushed people to flee the violence.  And the fascist movements in Europe (which is chilling considering Europe’s last infatuation with this form of extremism) have gained a lot of political advantage by using racism and xenophobia in predictable ways.

Fear is the friend of fascism.  People are spooked easily when there is a perceived external threat.  And, having thousands of war refugees trying to get into your county is definitely worrisome to say the least.  And fascists use that, through “dog whistles” of racism to motivate hate of outsiders and build a political base.  

Always, look for anti-Semitic dog whistles, it is the backbone of classic fascism.

And it works.  And it is easy, because there is a template that has worked before in the years 1929 to 1945.   Spain, Germany, France and Japan all swung to the right during those years of world depression and finally global conflict.  Authoritarianism also manifest itself in Russia, through the Communist fascism of Stalin.  America and England, although remaining liberal democracies, also followed strong authoritarian leaders in Roosevelt and Churchill.  

It was not a good time for Democratic countries.  The Depression was blamed on “international bankers who were Jews”.  This was nonsense of course, but again, find a scapegoat is classic fascist methodology.  

Today, in America and Europe the same tactics are being used for political advantage.  In the United States the “greatest generation” is mostly dead, leaving their children the “baby boomers” in charge.  We, I am a baby boomer, do not have the first hand experience with fascism that drove our parents to basically have to kill the movement by killing a lot of people.

Fascism ended with atomic bombs being used in Japan to shock the fascist regime into quitting.  It took that much to get them to quit.  

Which brings us the the really distressing part.  America is more than flirting with fascism right now.  Trump is a classic fascist; authoritarian, using right wing Christian principles (anti-Gay, anti-birth control, definitely pro state sponsored Christianity) doctrine to gain power.  

It reminds one of parliamentary right wing Christian Parties in Europe, who use authoritarianism  to deny people their rights.  These groups are anti-liberal as well, and do not sponsor or support democratic decision making.  

They have taken over the U.S. Congress, making it impossible to deal with any real issues for the last eight, now going on nine years, in opposition to an African American President.

Adolph Hitler foresaw this in America.  He famously derided America’s opposition to his racism by pointing out that America mistreated Native Americans and African Americans throughout its history.  In effect, he called for authoritarian solutions in America to our problems and of course planned a military “solution” that included killing African Americans, Jews and practically everyone.

Which gets us to the worst forms of fascism; that history has shown can be stopped with as I so tragically say, “With a bullet in the head”.

Why so violent you say?  Isn’t that the same thing the fascist are preaching?

Unfortunately for mankind, when Germany and Japan were going through the last stages of certain defeat; a remarkable thing happened.  First at Okinawa then in Berlin, fascists  killed themselves and their children rather than surrender.  Japanese fascist leaders would not quit, even when Germany surrendered after Hitler and most of his close advisors killed themselves and their families.  The Japanese authoritarians even armed their citizens with pitchforks to attack the American invaders and fighting to the death.  The bullet to the head in Japan’s case were two nuclear bombs that wiped out two entire cities.  

Finally, after those two “bullets to the head” the death grip of Japanese fascism was broken.

In the wake of that horror, of 55,000,000 people killed, the United States entered a period of about 10 years with anti-fascist educational films, of which I watched several in the 7th and 8th grade.  

Xenophobia and racism were exposed in those films as defining and explaining totalitarianism to a group of middle schoolers in 1959.  And we listened because the teachers who were showing us the film and teaching the lesson, were all veterans who had killed fascists or watched their buddies killed by fascists.

And there was no mincing words, fascism was evil, it was Un-American, it was wrong, and we had to be constantly on the alert, otherwise it could happen again, and it could happen in America.

Actually, it already was happening and had been happening for a century at least in the south, with the fascist Jim Crowe regimes that discriminated against Jews, Blacks, Browns and even Methodists!  In short, the south already had fascism in the Bible Belt, using once again conservative Christianity to discriminate against minority groups and hold tight to political control by white supremacists of the region.  It took a President being assassinated and the leadership of a former white supremacist to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that finally began a peaceful transition from fascism in the south.

But white supremacist fascism did not die easily...it resurrected itself, as fascism is want to do, in the Trump Birther movement, that actually was a springboard to renew the deep racism in America into  a backlash that got Trump elected.

And America took a violent turn to fascist government.  It happened so fast because as we are finding out, it was aided and abetted by Russian fascist (Putin is a classic corporate fascist) movement that is using technology in an open war on liberal democracies.  The 2016 election was decided by fascist interference in the election.

So, after all that warning we had back in the 1960s, fascism is taking over our country right in front of our eyes.  Trump is a classic fascist; rules as an authoritarian, male dominated, and stereotypes minorities and immigrants to “build his base” of power.

As a totalitarian he has failed to staff government bureaucracies and focused all leadership on himself and a small group of followers; classic fascist totalitarian political behavior.

Corporate supporters have bankrolled Trump’s accession; the Koch Brothers who are classic fascists being one obvious example of billionaires supporting authoritarian leaders.

And of course, the Christian Right is involved in this to the hilt; seeking to roll back the LGBT gains of the Obama Administration, seeking overturning Roe v Wade, seeking an end to government sponsored birth control.  

All off these are classic fascist goals that culminate in finding a scapegoat, and external threat; the Muslin and racially “inferior” immigrant refugees of Africa, Mexico and the Middle East.

Hitler predicted that America would be fertile ground for fascism.  He actually developed his racist program against the Jews based on some of the same laws and injustices that Jim Crowe southerners had used for a 100 years to scapegoat the African Americans.  He studied the genocide of Native Americans from studying the reservation system of the West, removing the victims from view; then killing them; typical of the concentration camp system...

Hitler knew America had deep fascist potential, it just needed  the right circumstances.

Roosevelt knew this also.  But to his credit, he resisted calls to become a dictator; several commentators begged him to take over the government, but his belief in the value of liberal democracy to the American Dream was too strong.

The American First movement, who admired what Hitler was doing, led by Lindberg, was a fascist admiring bunch, who preached supporting Germany by keeping America out of the war.  They advocated anti-Semitic goals and were anti-democracy, authoritarian and admired the totalitarian “miracle” that the Nazi regime represented in the late 30s...

It is not by accident that Trump has adopted the essence of America First into “Make America Great Again”...

Remember, there was a depression that made it easy to recruit to the fascist cause.  Fascism grows when times are hard; it offers a simple solution to complex problems.  It offers militaristic solutions to problems, offering to destroy enemies, send immigrants home, and as Trump put it, eliminate the problem with fire...when referring to North Korea.  

The use of such authoritarian language is vintage fascism.

So the wolf is no longer knocking on the door, the danger of a fascist take over of our government is no longer an outside threat, the wolf is inside with us already.

The Reckoning.  

The Tragedy of Shasta County

The tragedy of rural California.

(Record Searchlight January 2017).  

After three straight months of no movement, Shasta County's unemployment rate in December inched up to 6.7 percent, despite strong job gains in the private education and health services, and retail sectors, the state reported Friday.

The county's jobless rate had been stuck at 6.4 percent since September. The unemployment rate in December 2015 was 7.5 percent.

Sheila Stock, a state labor analyst based in Redding, said Shasta County has added 6,700 private sector jobs since December 2011. Government sector jobs have declined by 700 in that same time period.

Last month, there were an estimated 400 jobs added in private education and health services. Boosted by the holiday shopping season, retailers in Shasta County added an estimated 100 jobs in December.

“So more employers still felt the need to hire more people in the holiday season,” Stock said.

Stock considers September through December the retail hiring season, and this year the county added 500 jobs in the sector over those four months.

“In 2015, we added 300 jobs. But 2013 and 2014 both saw 600 job gains in that time period,” Stock said.

December’s 6.7 percent unemployment rate was the lowest for the month since 2006, when it also stood at 6.7 percent.

California's unemployment rate in December was 5 percent, unchanged from November. A year ago, the rate was 5.7 percent.

There were an estimated 200 fewer people working in the professional and business services sector  and 100 fewer individuals working in leisure and hospitality. The mining, logging and construction sector lost 200 jobs from November to December, though the estimated 3,000 people working in that sector last month was unchanged from a year ago.

A survey of help wanted ads in December showed demand high in Shasta County was high for registered nurses and truck drivers. Teacher assistants, retail workers and physical therapists also were wanted.

The unemployment rate in Siskiyou County in December was 9.2 in December, up from 7.8 percent in November. Tehama County’s unemployment rate last month 6.9 percent, up from 6.4 percent in November. The unemployment rate in Trinity County in December was 6.6 percent, up from 6.4 percent in November.

All numbers are not seasonally adjusted.

These figures do not lie...Shasta County like many inland counties in California lags way behind the more affluent and economic urban areas.  

And why is that?  I have argued for years against the conservative wave that hit rural California as part of the Reagan Revolution in the 1970s.  That Revolution has seen its ebb since the disastrous governorship of Pete Wilson, who foolishly tied the Republican Party to the xenophobia of immigration fear.  

Meanwhile the state got more and more diverse, leaving even Orange County voting Democratic.  

The irony here is Latinos, the target of most of the xenophobia, are by their Catholic roots, social conservatives.  It would have been easy for Republicans to appeal to them in the 1990s.  But no, Wilson foolishly tied the economic downturn of the George P. Bush era (which really was caused by Reagan’s tax cuts) to immigration from Mexico.  He profited personally, getting elected twice, but tied Republicans to a losing position and handed the state over to the Democrats, who decided to become the party of diversity both locally and nationally.

This is very ironic, considering that the Democrats were the segregationist party until 1970.  But Nixon changed all that, and his southern strategy won the south for the Republican Party, but lost California (the birthplace of the Reagan Revolution) for the foreseeable future.

The problem is many whites ran north and inland in their retirement.  They avoided the ethnic diversity that is still growing in the cities, and established conservative hegemony inland, unfortunately where nobody lived.  

The other effect, was economic.  The economy of California is truly a global one.  The digital economy thrives on world markets (Apple Computer, born in California, is a good example).  And the jobs have exploded in number, making California the sixth largest economy on earth.

Not so inland.  The conservatives, and they are relatively few, run inland counties.  And their repressive leadership, that seeks to keep minorities out, that is virulently anti-immigration, runs off entrepreneurs, discourages economic growth.  

Shasta County is a perfect example.  Right now the Bethel Church, a very conservative evangelical church, is in the process of taking over the City Council.  There is a State of Jefferson movement, seeking to link up with counties in Oregon to form a new, conservative led state.  It doesn’t have a chance, but it is a rallying point for a increasingly right wing agenda.

Meanwhile the young people are leaving.  I even left, a Redding native of many years, who raised my family there.  I left for other reasons of course, but political ones were up there.  

I could not stomach watching my hometown destroy itself.  The crushing blow was a two time failure to pass a small sales tax increase to rebuild the police force and fire departments; that had been decimated by the cutbacks of the Great Recession.  For a $2.50 per month average increase in sales tax, Redding conservatives have turned down twice a measure that would make their city safer and less prone to the fire that could destroy the whole town.  

You see Shasta County sits on a powder keg; the city sits bottom of foothills from three sides, that if the wind is right, will blow a fire right into the downtown.  And the fire protection has been cut.

Moreover young people are leaving in droves...the city is shrinking.

Redding was a model city once, its City Manager government was respected all over the state.  Now, with conservatives running the show, Redding is a laughing stock....

The latest is the opioid epidemic, that is killing Redding citizens and driving petty crime up (with little police protection; remember they voted down the police force renewal).  And the poverty rate grows.  And the schools shrink, or go to Charter Schools, that lessen educational quality all the time.

And the professionals are now beginning to abandon the town, doctors are leaving....

Then there is global warming, that pushes Redding temperatures to record levels every year.  This year, with the drought growing brush at record rates, we are headed into October, which is the fire month, with a tinder dry land and less firemen.  It is the perfect storm.

Meanwhile a Supervisor started a rant on Facebook about the Sanctuary City California just passed.  They are going nuts up there, which is interesting since “illegals” hardly exist up there (there is not work).

But they push out their chests and proclaim their hatred for Democrats and Liberals who they blame for all their misfortunes; which is interesting because conservatives have been running local governments and dominate state elected representative offices for the past forty years!  It seems to me they might start asking their representatives where is the “beef” as they slide further into poverty.  Fact is their representative are from the agricultural corporate world who represent their selfish interests and don’t give a rip about who elected them...and the people of Shasta County don’t get it.  

The blame?  It’s on the conservative short sighted leadership, that is continuing Wilson’s hate campaign and have of course hooked up with Trump’s Xenophobic lies.  And who do they blame.....the Democrats of course, who haven’t run the county for forty years!

I suppose if they get their dream of the State of Jefferson they will immediately build a wall along the Siskiyou Mountains...good luck because the ill conceived state will fail before the ink is dry on its Constitution.  

You see Shasta County is already one of the state’s poorest counties; it gets more aid per capital, Medical; etc, than almost every other county.  If they join the state of Jefferson Shasta County and others  will literally starve to death...seniors will die, children will die just from the Medical cuts alone...

You see Shasta County can be poor, and a sanctuary for scared white people who have fled the cities because “they” live there; precisely because of their political attitudes.  But the dirty little secret is this:  Seniors do not suffer from this.  They get their Medical, Medicaid, In Home Support Services, etc., etc...and all the opioids they can take....

The people who suffer are young people with families, who cannot find good jobs and are leaving in droves.  The people who will suffer is the death of Redding, Red Bluff and even Chico (more liberal) killed by the same idiocy that killed Detroit, Kansas; etc...