Buncombe County's new Mascot?

The F-35 Lightning:

Designed to "Rule the Skies" until 2070. 

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Welcome to the website:

I'm an Alabama native who's lived in Asheville for about 40 years. I've written over 100 articles and op-eds for the Mountain Xpress over the last 30 years, many about Buncombe County government, and was one of about ten people who worked on the Xpress in its first couple of years, late 1980s and early 1990s, when it was called The Green Line. See the biography section of the website for more biographical info ...    

Positions concerning the Pratt and Whitney, F-35 Plant

 

After securing our county elections from intervention and fraud, and controlling Covid, the central plank of my candidacy is:

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A. To form a committee to investigate the County Commission's, and Jack Cecil's, secret contract with Pratt and Whitney to build F-35 parts and determine why it cost almost $100 million in citizen tax money subsidies 

B. To find out whether Mr. Cecil and the Commission plan to recruit many other weapons factories to Buncombe County as many facts indicate

C. To demilitarize the current contract with P & W or break it 

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We need to discover:

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1. Why are the Commission and Mr. Cecil possibly turning our formerly, mostly peaceful, County economy into a war-promoting one, into perhaps a major cog in America’s obviously out-of-control Military Industrial Complex, with plans to recruit many more weapons’-making factories in addition to Pratt and Whitney?

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For instance, Mr. Cecil, (John Francis Amherst Vanderbilt Cecil IV, first cousin to the owner of the Biltmore Estate), who donated $6 million dollars worth of land for the P & W plant, said in Asheville.com News: 

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"The vision for this facility [P & W] to become a lighthouse location of innovation for the aerospace industry and for our region, was inspiring. " Jack Cecil (First Cousin to the Biltmore Estate Owner)

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 And that beautiful plot of land on the banks of the majestic French Broad that Mr. Cecil donated comes from a 1000-acre, undeveloped plot owned by Mr. Cecil. So, does he and the County Commission plan about nine more other killing-machine factories there?

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In addition, the bridge to the P & W plant is five lanes. Surely you don’t need a five-lane bridge for one factory? Then there’s the $35 million new interstate exchange. For one factory? How many more weapons plants do the County Commission, Mr. Whitesides and Mr. Cecil plan to ram down the throats of Buncombe County’s peace-loving citizens?

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2. Why, when the majority of Buncombe County Democrats voted for the military-budget-cutting Presidential candidates Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, have our county commissioners become enthusiastic supporters of the most expensive weapons system in American history, the $1.7 trillion or more F-35 program?

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My opponent, Al Whitesides, who voted in favor of the P & W subsidies and all these other actions. 

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3. Why was the County Commission, Mr. Whitesides, and the state of North Carolina so willing to vastly subsidize the Pratt and Whitney plant by almost $100 million dollars? This figure is according to the think tank, Responsible Statecraft, funded by conservative Charles Koch and liberal George Soros. (See asterisk (*) below for details).

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The $100 million figure doesn’t include taxpayer money that will be paid by the US military to finance the 20% of the wages of F-35 parts at the P & W plant, (20% being the percent of the plant dedicated to making F-35 parts) which over the 50 years of the F-35’s projected service, comes to about $550 million. 

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Surely those hundreds of millions could have attracted some other less destructive industry, say a clean energy plant, or one making mountain bikes or kayaks, or art supplies, or more beer … something in keeping with the peaceful, artistic, fun- and nature-loving character of the people of Buncombe County? 

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Asheville, the county seat of Buncombe County, may no longer be known as the Paris and San Fran of the South, the New Age Mecca or the Land of the Sky, but instead become known as Land-of-the-Sky Rulers, the Merchants-of-Death Metropolis, the World War III City. We may be trying to replace the void where the racist Vance Monument used to be with a militaristic symbol, an F-35 plane model.

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Shedding Light on Smoke-Filled Back Rooms

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Furthermore, Buncombe County needs to investigate how this new weapons factory was force fed to our citizens. This includes:

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1. The Non-Disclosure Agreement signed by the County Commission so that the details of the P & W deal will never be known. I'm not insinuating nefarious behavior on the part of Mr. Whitesides or the County Commission. But I am contending that it was illogical and unnecessary and hiding some aspects that us citizens should know. 

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NDA’s are usually made to prevent land prices from skyrocketing when land purchasing begins. But Mr. Cecil virtually gave the needed land to P & W for $1, so why did we need an NDA for that? Because the Commission gave P & W the kitchen sink, or because they plan to try to bring many other weapons’ factories to Buncombe County, or ???

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2. The suddenness of the announcement of the plant, the little time allowed for debate, and the fact that all but one speaker during the miniscule amount of time allowed for discussion were against it indicate a complete lack of transparency. Had the County Commission obviously already made up its collective mind, regardless of what their constituents thought?

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3. My opponent Mr. Whitesides said in an interview with Reject Raytheon, the group opposing the P & W plant, that:

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"I’ve been against every war since World War II, from Korea forward, including the Vietnam war that I was in, even though I was in the Navy. We have fought wars that didn’t even benefit this country. What did we get out of it but a lot of lost lives and in some cases the reputation of the country?" Al Whitesides, Buncombe County Commissioner District I

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And so that logic dictates that Mr. Whitesides would oppose a weapons plant, knowing it will almost certainly not prevent future wars, and will almost certainly be used to inflict horrible, illogical carnage as other US fighter planes have done in Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan — among many other countries around the globe. These are wars that have usually been good for nothing but creating more violence and hatred towards the US, wars that make us less safe. But they didn’t oppose the plant Why?

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Meanwhile Jack Cecil is related to Viscount Robert Cecil (Lord Edgar Algernon Robert Gascoyne Cecil to be exact) who won the Nobel Peace prize for his extensive efforts in forming the League of Nations, precursor to the United Nations, as well as his efforts in the International Peace Campaign, which worked for disarmament. Yet Buncombe’s Mr. Cecil wants to make the County a center for making arms — and, if history is any indicator, more war. Why?

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4. With the P & W deal and the French Broad River Parks deal, (which involved tearing down the Asheville Speedway) the Cecil/Vanderbilt family has shown they sometimes have the power to intervene in our democratic processes.

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Mostly the Cecil/Vanderbilt Buncombe interventions have been wonderfully benevolent, from the beautiful Biltmore Estate being a basic element in our economy, to instituting scientific forestry in Pisgah Forest, to making craft job opportunities. Most recently they include Jack Cecil’s magnificent developments of Biltmore Lake, Biltmore Park, and The Bramble in which he kept up to a third of each natural forest and shared commons.

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Mr. Cecil would be my choice for Zoning Czar for Buncombe County if we’re going to let the county continue to grow as fast as it appears to be growing. But are we going to let him also decide, with the unanimous aid of the Commission, that Buncombe County become known as the Merchants-of-Death Metropolis?

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No accusations of dishonesty or fraud: I'm not accusing the County Commission or Mr. Cecil of dishonesty, of profiting illegally, fraud or any legal wrongdoing. I hold all them in the highest esteem and feel they are very honest and forthright people. However, I do question the decision making process, and what was decided.  

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Fictional Arguments Supporting P & W

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I accept the dubious points that political and journalistic supporters of the Pratt and Whitney plant have made.

They include:

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1. That “only” 20% of the plant will be dedicated to making parts for war machines. That’s like subsidizing the Mafia and saying since they have scrumptious restaurants and rollicking night clubs, we should ignore the 20% of their business that’s murder, extortion and racketeering.

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However, the 20% of the P & W plant will almost certainly be much worse than the Mafia, providing weapons that may kill millions, maim tens of millions and devastate country after country, creating ever more homicidal hatred against America, making us ever less safe.  

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2.  That the subsidies are not real money taken from Buncombe County citizens but are tax breaks given P & W once they employ certain numbers of people. It is real money. These massive tax breaks, $27 million alone from Buncombe County, $100 million worth of subsidies in all, would just as well apply to environmentally sustainable factories, a solar panel factory, or a mountain-sports equipment plant.

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And regardless, the $27 million is money that will not be used to improve the lives of us living in Buncombe County, but instead will be used, in all probability, to make us less safe and more militant.

         

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3. That the argument that Buncombe County’s renouncing the F-35 parts plant will have no effect on America’s war policy. This is a nihilistic argument born of extreme cynicism about our country’s march towards more horrible wars, as well as a misunderstanding about how democracy works. As a county commissioner I will support the idea that local action has global ramifications.

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The outrage over Pratt and Whitney has already generated a powerful response, the aforementioned Reject Raytheon Coalition. (See their website and Facebook site). Their bi-monthly demonstrations have been ongoing since the news of the plant emerged.

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Were Buncombe County to reject the P and W plant and refuse to become just another cog in the enormous American arms manufacturing industry, it may ignite a national soul searching as to where all this weapons production is heading. That’s how the Civil Rights Movement became powerful … local actions affecting national policy. We will not be alone in this but can join over 30 other cities who are involved in the War Industries Resistance Network, WIRN.

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Or perhaps Mr. Cecil and the County Commission assume that the next American war will make sense and not be so destructive. But how can they believe that given the history of US wars since World War II? And those next wars appear to be with Russia (as now may be happening in Ukraine) and China. Do we want Buncombe County’s best interest to be promotion of World War III? The F-35’s ability to carry the B-1 variable yield nuclear bomb means Buncombe may become a major contributor to a war that destroys civilization.

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Of course, Buncombe’s rejection of Pratt and Whitney may have little effect on America’s war machine. But the stakes are so great that it should be crystal clear that we have no other choice that makes even the remotest sense. That we have to try everything we can to slow or stop our march to ever more war, ever more hatred of the US, making us ever less safe, and ever nearer ever more devastating wars, and maybe to World War III.

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4. It's a done deal. But almost nothing is done that can't be reversed. Our contract with Pratt and Whitney could be modified or broken. This may entail paying a fine, but the fine surely won't be anywhere near the nearly $100 million dollars that we're subsidizing the plant for already. The resulting legal battle might bring this issue to national attention.

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5. Weapons make America more safe. The Congressional Nye Committee in the 1930s concluded that weapons manufacturers, what it called Merchants of Death, were partly responsible for the US entering World War I to pursue profits. Greg Hayes, chairman of Raytheon, stated in Forbes magazine just last month that:  

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"[W]e are seeing, I would say, opportunities for international sales. We just have to look to last week where we saw the drone attack in the UAE, which have attacked some of their other facilities. And of course, the tensions in Eastern Europe, the tensions in the South China Sea, all of those things are putting pressure on some of the defense spending over there. So I fully expect we’re going to see some benefit from it.” 

Greg Haynes, CEO of Raytheon, parent company of Pratt and Whitney

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Certainly, some degree of weapons' manufacturing makes us safer, but having a weapons industry publicly encouraging war, and knowing that the Iraq War I and II, Afghanistan, and Vietnam only decimated those populations and made the US less safe, as well as many other US interventions since World War II, proves that the US needs to control the Military Industrial Complex that Eisenhower warned about, and Buncombe County could be the leader in that opposition. 

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The Committee

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Thus, if elected, I will organize a committee to investigate the County Commission’s P & W decision, and Jack Cecil’s part in it. The Committee will also explore ways to tear down the factory and replant the thousands of trees and animal habitats destroyed for it, and/or to substitute a peaceful factory in the present building. And finally, the Peace Committee will find ways to prevent future efforts to changing Buncombe County’s economy from a peace-loving one to a war-loving one.

           

As a candidate for County Commission, I will oppose the militarization of Buncombe County. I've already investigated and written about it extensively in the Mountain Xpress. See my articles in the Mountain Xpress already opposing it: (Buncombe County Marches Off to War$$$ and High Anxiety: Welcome to Buncombe County’s New Mascot.)  Instead, I'll support green industry that will enhance the livability and prosperity of our County. 

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Thank-you 

Bill Branyon

Candidate for District 1 of County Commission

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* Responsible Statecraft (an organization supported by conservative Charles Koch (yes, the Koch brothers) and liberal George Soros) figures about Pratt and Whitney Subsidies: