What, if anything, was learned from the Ballpark fiasco, and how we can avoid it in the future.

I was pondering Brancaccio's Babble on the Ballpark, his latest discordant word symphony from Saturday, when I began to think to myself: how could all this garbage have been avoided and what did we learn?

The first and most obvious conclusion was that those elected believe themselves to be imbued with superiority to the general populace.  All too often, they get elected and forget that, for the most part, they ran for office because of the problems and shortly thereafter, they become part of the problem they ran against.

The ballpark was no exception.

See, we didn't need a ballpark.  But those in power wanted one so badly that they would do anything to get one.  And "anything" included taxing the hundreds of thousands of us who would never even consider setting foot in such a facility.... and it included lying to us directly in our face... and it included further enriching the Yakima Millionaires by using public money.

There never was ANY compelling reason to build this.

Here, let me repeat that:  There never was ANY compelling reason to build this.

The study, paid for by the Yakima Millionaires, that came out of CRUDEC that this team would actually result in $200 million in economic activity over 20 years as a result, was a complete lie, because Yakima would have kept armed guards on this team, let alone let them take off, if this number was even in the same universe as the actual reality... and what's Yakima's reaction to all of this been?

A large yawn.

If the goal was "economic activity," then this ballpark scam was no more worthy of taxpayer support than a Safeway, a Winco, a Fred Meyer, a Shari's... any one of which would have employed more people, for much more money, while generating a lot more in revenue and keeping many more people more employed then the entirety of the ballpark scam... while providing much more service to many more people then the Ballpark scam at it's best.... and we don't have an admissions tax for any of them.... do we?

If the goal was only to bring Single A, sub-professional ball to Clark County, there are surely many facilities available, already built, that wouldn't have required a dime in taxpayer funding to achieve that goal.

The $4 million the clowns from Yakima offered would have been more than enough to fix either the Fairgrounds or Propstra and turn it into a facility MORE than capable of handling the team, parking and everything else that went with it.

But as the mystery participant in all of this, Mike Bomar (who died and left him in charge?  Why was his input any more important than anyone else's?  Is it because he was an ex jock baseball player?) wrote those options were "rejected early on."

Why?

Well, there's only so many reasons available.  And one is that, at a minimum, we were being lied to through omission.

We weren't being told everything.

And that's where the arrogance of the electeds come in, because the way I see those shilling this the loudest: Steve "The Liar" Stuart and Tim "The Liar" Leave-it, their failure to trust the people and the fact that they never offered any alternative is what killed this deal the most.

Brancaccio, stupidly, blames "politics."  he says, effectively, that Boldt voted "no," because, God forbid, he wants to get re-elected.

Wow.  What a concept.

But that is at least a tacit admission from Lou that even HE knows the people of Clark County don't want this scam to be built on the back of taxpayers who will never use it... and without asking us FIRST.

So, here's Lou, effectively condemning Boldt for failing to throw himself under a bus so Lou could get what HE wants.

What a twisted view of not only our community, but of America.

Those elected by us will not long be in power if they insist on ignoring us in their deliberations.  Much like a newspaper will find it increasingly difficult to remain in business when they insist on alienating those who have to buy them by directly insulting the readers because of their politics or directly insulting the reader's intelligence because they see us as stupid.

Typically, Brancaccio wants us to pay for crap that HE wants or will benefit from... for example, the Pollard Hilton or the CRC scam.... and that he won't have to pay for if he gets it.

The ballpark scam took that a step further: not only did this slimeball want US to pay for it... but his tumor on our society would have reaped financial reward from it once built. And I'm STILL waiting to hear his offer to tax his rag of a paper to help pay for it.

The fuzzy math behind this was inexplicable.  The idea that Brancaccio and his moronic Pit Yorkie would push for a plan where those actually GOING TO WATCH BASEBALL would only pay FIVE PERCENT OF THE CONSTRUCTION COST while the other 400,000 of us would have to pay the remaining 95% was absurdity upon absurdity... an idiot wrapped in a moron.

They laughingly told us that the Yakima Millionaires were paying MORE "than their fair share," assuring us that "no one else would pay as much of a percentage for a facility," conveniently ignoring facilities here locally like the Amphitheater and the Rose Quarter...

What's it all mean?  To people like Stuart and Bomar, it means they want what they want, regardless if it's best for this community.  It means that there's no amount of other people's money those in power won't spend for the immediate, personal gratification of getting yet another venue you won't have to pay to get into... like the tens of thousands in free tickets Steve "The Liar" Stuart has received from the Amphitheater.... and he's not the only one.

To people like Lou Brancaccio, there's no limit on the amount of the money of others that they'll demand gets spent... as long as THEIR product isn't taxed to pay for it.

Well, that's what we've learned.

This could have all been easily avoided, of course.

First, the idiocy of engaging in such a hood-ornament project in an economy like the one we have is self-evident.  A blind man could see it in a minute.  But those blinded by their arrogance, avarice and greed?  Not so much.

Second: whenever you want to push a project "for the public," don't lie to us about it... like you lied, and those shilling lied, repeatedly.

Third, there's no place for a lack of faith in the voter.

You clowns want to engage in this kind of crap?

Then put it to a vote.

There were at least two elections where the question could have been put to a vote county wide... and wasn't.

And it wasn't for the reasons eluded to by Brancaccio: the people of Clark County did not want to be taxed to build an unneeded facility that only would have benefited the few... and those pushing this didn't want the will of the voter to interfere in the outcomes.

And that's a shame.

Many of us already hold our government in greater contempt then our government holds us.  Had this been put to a vote, the outcome likely would have been the same, but the benefit is that the people would have been able to say:

"At least our government is listening to us."

They did the exact same thing in Wenatchee.  They rammed a far too expensive crap pile of a center down the throats of the people, and now what?

They're staring default in the face and they expect the state (meaning ALL of US) to cover their butts for $42 million.

And those shilling THEIR crap pile?  Well, they sounded remarkably similar to those shilling ours.

HOWEVER, IF this had been put to a vote.... and IF the people of Wenatchee had asked for this at the polls.... THEN they would have had the buy-in and community support needed to support a facility that would been hard-pressed to break even around here, with our much larger population base.

Instead, the slimeballs running the show did the same thing to them that our own scum tried to do to us.

And that they didn't want this thing is clear both in the fact that it failed from a lack of support AND that the mayor of Wenatchee, who cast the tie-breaking vote that got this white elephant built, didn't even bother to run for re-election because he knew there was no way.... NO WAY that was going to happen.

See, that's the irony.  Replace Clark County with Wenatchee, and Ballpark with Civic Center, and you'd have exactly the same situation... and Brancaccio is pissed because Boldt refused to fall on his sword for this loser.

Self-evident stupidity.

To all those shilling the Ballpark, here's a bulletin:  if you put this garbage to a vote, the worst that can happen is that you lose the vote.  That you had faith in the will of the voters wouldn't be held against you... and you might win.

But to deliberately keep the will of the voters out of the equation like Brancaccio so moronically demands on this and so many other projects?

That's a guaranteed defeat and you're out of a job.

Trust the voters.  They likely won't always agree with your plan... but they will always agree that you asked.