RELATIVELY SILENT BEGINNING

Advocating for Rotary Friendships, Don?

Don Jenkins has not been particularly known as a man of few words. But his Thought on this Day was as brief as any movie cowboy's speech, and just as profound:   "Friends are God's apology for relatives."

Maybe this was appropriate, for Prez Mark actually got this herd to be silent for a minute. This was to pay respects to those who suffered and died at Pearl Harbor.

GUESTS

 Rotarians:       

 Debbie Roessler, Past Assistant Governor ("PAG", according to George Chaffey)

Other:

Glenda Fillinger, Past First Lady (PFL?)

Debbie Wiener, buddy of Buddy (again)

Ashley Englehart

Katie Rose Ware

Erling Horn, former Mayor

Barbara Johnson, aide to Congressman Miller

Roy Powell, retired attorney into youth programs (with Don Jenkins)

Alicia Cragholm, guest?

THINGS TO DO AND FOLKS TO HELP

The first thing to do is to be here next Friday. It's the day to recognize the staff of Postino for doing the food and service on our cheery Fridays. No, it doesn't mean they are fined - this is the other kind of recognition.

We will meet again on the 21st, BUT WILL BE DARK ON DECEMBER 28TH.

The Club Board will meet this Tuesday as usual, at 7:00 a.m. as usual, at Fazel's office as usual.

Alicia Cragholm, the semi-guest, pitched a gin fizz event put on by That Other Club on 12/27, 7:30 a.m., the Oakwood, $10 a pop.

Orinda Rotary is having its crab feed on January 12th, details to follow.

The bread man speaks

Dave Waal apparently gets hungry in the mornings. He's into picking up leftover bread, maybe 200 lbs. per day, from Boulange and other locations around here. He asked for volunteers to help out in this effort. Walter Nelson apparently has all the answers to satisfy Dave, so it's done.

Steve Ware told of a sad situation with one of the girls in Katie Rose's rowing club. Her family is experiencing very hard times, with illnesses and complete losses of employment, in Marin County of all places. Steve emphasized that this is outside of Rotary, but encouraged individual help. He'll e-mail about it.

A young man named Kevin who represented the Cub Scouts was at the meeting early looking for a sponsor. He apparently had to leave before being mentioned, but he must have been persuasive, for Dan Herbert volunteered.

Here's to a speedy recovery, John

John Linneman is having heart surgery, and a card was passed around. If it hadn't been for John, we wouldn't be meeting where we are meeting. We hope for your very speedy recovery, John.

BEEN THERE AND DONE THAT, A LOT

Congressman George Miller has been around awhile - in fact, since 1975 in his present job. Available are the long biography and the short biography. We will do the short version of the short biography. Born in 1945 in Richmond. Home town is Martinez. Married, two kids, six grandchildren. Ranking Democrat, House

Welcome, Congressman Miller!

Education and Labor Committee. Chairman, House Democratic Policy Committee.   Senior Democrat of the House, and chair of Policy Committee. Represents 7th District of California.

He had distributed on our tables a pamphlet, "Where We're At: The Fiscal Cliff", with attached pages on middle class tax cuts, requiring states to provide early voting, and tax deductions & deficits. These are pretty detailed, and his detailed knowledge in speaking about these and other subjects has to be acknowledged, whether agreed with or not. He definitely did not follow his own or any other script.

Patrick Harpole, a medical guy on the firing line, quite clearly did not agree with costs that were being imposed on his business. In a wide ranging discussion that went from unemployed medical assistants to realignments/mergers to the price of medical devices, these two gentlemen never quite did see eye to eye.

Mr. Miller said the fiscal cliff is indeed big if the US debt is included in the equation. However, we are still the strongest economy in the world, as shown by the many people from elsewhere buying Treasury bills. For us to keep going, the debt for these must be repaid. The fact that the national debt is on month-to-month life support is disastrous.

Most economists want to see the economy coming down on a glide path. Other countries are struggling because of immediate austerity. This is presently being reversed in substantial part. The key is growth and having customers on Main Street stimulating activity.

Our democratic elections are threatened by enormous, anonymous sums of money. Our democracy is supposedly based on transparency, on knowing who is influencing a candidate.

You have our full attention

On climate change, the warnings continue that there will be warming and more rain, but they will not be predictable or constant. Preventive measures should be addressed, which would cost a fraction of the $100 billion damage from Sandy or the $200 billion from Katrina.

As to Benghazi, Libya, a final result of the investigation of the murder of the Ambassador and three others has not been reached. One factor in the situation was that the Americans were trying to get a handle on all of Khaddafi's arms, including chemical weapons, while operating in secrecy. The Arab Spring creates great instability, and problems will continue. He acknowledged that Ambassador Rice's nomination for Secretary of State is in trouble as a result of her Sunday talk show appearances on this subject, although she merely passed on intelligence information provided by government sources and clearly was not part of any cover-up conspiracy.

We are fortunate in California that our voting system is relatively efficient, largely due to early mail voting. This is not the case with many other states, where long lines interfered with reasonable access to voting. There may even have been attempts to obstruct voting, but voters surprisingly turned out in record numbers.

The federal law on education is antiquated. Attempts, including by Mr. Miller, to update this law has bipartisan agreement except for the far right. His evaluation of the education system at this point is not good.

Thanks for taking all of our questions

Mr. Miller's responses to various questions included that credit card fee regulation is a huge struggle; medical costs for small businesses are under some downward pressure; pensions must be dealt with now; a flat tax would not avert the fiscal cliff; and he has never seen Congress so divided and intransigent (back in the day, even he and Pres. Bush agreed on education).

NEXT WEEK:   A mystery speaker, at least to Buddy. Paul Bettelheim highly recommended another Paul, Staudahar, who will speak on baseball, unions and the East Bay. However, Paul B. was not available today to clarify.

CALENDAR

Tuesday, December 11 - Board Meeting, 7 a.m.

Friday, December 14 - Paul Staudahar, baseball, etc.

Friday, December 21 - Roses R Us

Friday, December 28 - DARK!

Friday, January 4 - Club Assembly

Tuesday, January 8 - Board Meeting, 7 a.m.

Friday, January 11 - Supervisor Candace Anderson

Friday, January 18 - LSR Emancipation Proclamation

HOME Team

Saturdays - January 26, March 23, May 25 - 8 a.m. Gary's shop