Rebane's Ruminations

Debt Crisis – The knives are still out

George Rebane

This weekend President Obama has told ol’ Harry to cool it and reinserted himself into the debt limit talks.  I think that the tea party message has finally gotten through, though not in its entirety.  Leaked compromises still consist of immediate debt limit increases that won’t be matched by spending cuts until many years down the line, if then.  If Obama gets gets a second term, all bets on the economy and fiscal responsibility are off – spending increases, tax increases, regulatory increases, and limitless borrowing - next stop Depression 2.0.  Come to think of it, this is about much more than upping the debt limit, maybe that's why the knives are still out. 

The current standoff has been perfectly captured by Nevada County's RL ‘Bob’ Crabb in the cartoon below that first appeared in the 30jul11 Union where we regularly enjoy his political and social insights.  (Bob also makes lexicographic contributions as a commenter on these pages.)

CCB Lite passes – 218 to 210 (updated 30jul2011)

George Rebane

Cut, Cap & Balance Lite just passed the House 218 to 210 with no Dems voting for it, and 22 Repubs opposing it.  The tea party backed Repubs came and took the heat to the end, they would not vote for an increase in the debt ceiling.  Why?  Because our continuing to borrow with no plan to pay back is what will pull the country down, and even CCB Lite won’t fix that.  That is what will cause our credit rating to be downgraded, not the piddly crap going on in Washington this weekend.

So now we have the ongoing Beltway game that’s over the heads of most Americans –

- The President bloviates (nothing scorable),
- The House Legislates,
- The Senate Kills Bills.

Academic political scientists are telling us that there is less overlap between the Dems and Repubs than there has been since the 1890s (the beginning of the American progressive movement).  However, one thing we can all celebrate in this epochal national debate on how we citizens want to relate to government is that these bills focus on the real ideological differences between our political parties.  There is no pork appended to any of these bills CCB and CCB Lite.  Therefore there is no back room deal making and back slapping as votes are traded ONLY for the purpose of insuring re-election.

As Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid goes into the weekend to pass his smoke-and-mirrors cuts alternative, for the first time in 30 years the issues on the national fisc and governance are singular, clear, and complete.  No cuts?  Yeah, you heard the way he added savings to his spending cuts column from the presumed halt of the mid-east campaigns.  Well, the Repubs can come back with a ‘I’ll see ya and raise ya’, and claim that we could have had NASA launch a $30T program to put a man on the Sun in this decade.  And since we’re not going to do that, we’re going to cut $30T from future budgets.  Put those cuts in our column please.

[update] Without debate, the Senate killed it.  BTW, H/T to RR reader who sent the following -

Conservative star Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) ripped Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid for the fantasy savings in his budget plan.

“Let’s pass a bill to cover the moon with yogurt that will cost $5 trillion today. and then let’s pass a bill the next day to cancel that bill. We could save $5 trillion.”

Great minds and all that.  I guess my little fantasy was not that far off the heavy thinking going on in Washington during these hours.

[30jul2011 update]  I'm happy to report that our congressman Tom McClintock was one of the 22 Repubs voting NO on CCB Lite.  These one shots to reduce spending by a skosh over ten years along with no provision for stopping the national debt going up forever are a joke.  Such legislation will give our creditors no greater comfort, and therefore not affect our credit rating one way or the other.  'Give us more money so we can pay our interest on what we already owe you, and forget about getting back the  principal.' is what passes for fiscal policy in Greece.

930AM - Just received this document (Download S_627 Extended version_29jul11) from Congressman Tom McClintock that analyzes CCB Lite, gives the rationale for the congressman's no vote, and outlines a future course of action.

Cultural Rights

George Rebane

[This piece is actually the expansion of ‘Discussing Norway and Breivik’ which invited a reasoned conversation about the recent terror massacre.  In there I included 25 notions related to that atrocity, and to the growing public debate on multi-culturalism and Islam that is ongoing in Europe and starting in America.  Here is my contribution to the first on this list of 25 that invites other views.]

OK, let me take a stab at #1 - The right of a culture to endure and thrive in its homeland.

To give some structure to what follows, I accept that a society is “a system of human organizations generating distinctive cultural patterns and institutions and usually providing protection, security, continuity, and a national identity for its members.”  In short, a society is unified by a government that is sovereign over a territory and has a population that views itself as members of one or more cultures.

A culture is a set of attributes that are expressed, maintained, and valued by groups of people that may belong to one or more societies.  The minimal set of such attributes are language, religion (or worldview), ehtnicity, traditions, values, mores.  The strength of a culture depends on how many such attributes are acknowledged, shared, and enforced.  Most of such attributes are not codified and pass from generation to generation through families and interaction in intimate mono-cultural communities.  Therefore, a culture is what its adherents say it is, and the survival of the cultural meme requires the maintenance of one or more critical masses of such subscribing populations.

I covered the basic arguments for the modern status of culture in ‘Liberty’s Twilight’ and ‘Multikulti and ‘people like me’’.  And since we are here talking about rights, another slippery concept, I point you to the piece on Rights and Privileges that was included in the university course on critical thinking that I taught to journalists and media producers.  With this background, let me dive in.

The short answer is that a culture, as a group of people, has no intrinsic rights.  Only the members of a culture – the people as individuals - have rights.  Therefore, if a culture can be maintained by individuals acting in concert while exercising their individual rights, the culture survives so long as its members wish.  Cultures die through dilution of its critical masses, dilution that is caused by people leaving and/or by extra-cultural people arriving to forcefully comingle.

What is usually omitted in such considerations is the right of people to gather exclusively, and to discriminate who belongs and who doesn’t – in sum, the right to exclude whom they wish by legal redress or simply through shunning.  And since these rights exist only to the extent that they are maintained by force, a supportive government is required.  But to repeat, governments do not directly guarantee cultures (since they are not codified), but only provide a society’s legitimate guns to guarantee individual liberties that may be used to maintain a culture.

So the bottom line is that a culture has no intrinsic ‘right’ to endure, let alone thrive, in its homeland or anyplace else.  A culture survives only to the extent that it is actively practiced and protected by individuals coming together in a manner which to them provides value and enhances their quality of life.

 

‘Minority Rules’ or Why Bloggers Blog

George Rebane

Rensselaer Polytechnic researchers have discovered a dynamic network model that explains how a minority opinion can become a majority opinion when certain tipping point parameters are exceeded.  In the internet age this process has also been labeled ‘going viral’, and many of us have seen and studied its technical properties.  The RP researchers have been able to identify the tipping point as being somewhere around 10% minority opinion holders when the network of communicants is sufficiently connected.  (more here)

With modern media the spread of ideas enjoys a very dense network of connections over which compelling opinions and notions travel and become influential.  This would also apply to the spread of memes.

I guess bloggers in some way sense this and keep up their incessant efforts to put out thoughts they hope will gain some traction out there.  Of course, many of these thoughts are also re-transmissions of things they heard elsewhere, modified somewhat, and then passed on.  Again we come back to the secret life of memes (see also the work of Richard Dawkins and Julian Jaynes).

In sum, the spread of memes is a very non-linear process – hence the notion of a tipping point – and goes a long way to explain why poorly polling politicians keep plugging along, and sometimes even catch a breeze from a seemingly unknown quarter that blows them into office.  Now the system sciences are starting to develop explicative models that may some day soon evolve into predictive models (heaven help us then).  I look forward to this work being connected to the research reported by Bryan Caplan in The Myth of the Rational Voter.

Discussing Norway and Breivik

George Rebane

“Norway's murders shouldn't be an excuse to shut down debate over multiculturalism and the failure of many Muslims to assimilate to Europe's cultural norms. British Prime Minister David Cameron and French President Nicolas Sarkozy have broken taboos by speaking sensibly on the subject. Democracies need to address their anxieties openly, rather than push the political debate underground where the likes of an Anders Breivik can let them stew into a rationale for violence.”  26jul11 WSJ

The recent terror in Norway is an event that again has altered our times.  But it is not yet clear that its dissection in the aftermath will serve to illuminate these times.  This is made amply clear in the various media venues that serve commentary and discussion.  The event most certainly has highlighted the radically different views held by various ideologically defined cohorts, and in the US it is another timber thrown into the fire that continues to consume the bonds holding the country together.

This is no more visible than on these very pages as documented in the comment stream for ‘Norway Terror’.  For the more attentive reader, it is obvious that much of the generated heat comes from the discussants not taking the time (or being able?) to understand that they are semantically imprecise and all over the map when presenting their views.  Semantically orthogonal aspects of the case are co-joined willy nilly and the discussion wanders in random circles, resolving nothing, including where people stand on the related ideas and issues.

In the hope that more commenters here are people of good will, people who want to use this venue to clarify, dispute, or confront each other’s ideas instead of continuing to play ad hominem ‘gotcha’, I offer the following (no doubt incomplete) list of semantically orthogonal notions about the Norway tragedy, and invite others to add to it their own discoveries as they meditate on the greater dimensions of this tragedy.

Then in no particular order, some semantically orthogonal (or independent) areas that come under the larger umbrella of ideas and notions arising from Norway’s terror are –

1. The right of a culture to endure and thrive in its homeland,
2. The right of a culture to spread trans-nationally through (assimilating, insular) settlements,
3. The historical impact of multi-culturalism (cultural mixing) on individual cultures,
4. The status and objectives of the current multi-nationally based Islamic jihad,
5. The status and objectives of non-Islamic needs for energy from Islamic lands,
6. The social impact of EU immigration policy,
7. Major themes in today’s European acceptance/confrontation with Muslim immigrants,
8. Norway’s immigration policy,
9. The behavior of Muslims in Norway,
10. The formal political structure of Norway (major, minor political parties and recognized nationalistic and trans-nationalistic movements),
11.  Norway’s sub-rosa political structure (secret organizations, terror cells, etc),
12.  The recent sentiments of ethnic Norwegians toward immigration in general,
13.  The recent sentiments of ethnic Norwegians toward its Muslim population,
14.  Legitimate and illegitimate means of opposing cultural dilution,
15.  The ideas in Breivik’s manifesto/compendium,
16.  Assessment of Breivik’s stated objectives,
17.  Assessment of Breivik’s means (the terror killings),
18.  Assessment of Breivik’s sanity and/or mental state,
19.  Impact of extra-national political movements and policies on Norway,
20.  The political future of Europe,
21.  The ethnic future of Europe,
22.  The future of western culture in Europe,
23.  What the Breivik massacre reveals about American politics,
24.  New and beneficial policies for Norway,
25.  New and beneficial policies for America.

If a discussant is unwilling to recognize how these notions stand on their own, then it should be his job to establish, identify, and defend any co-joinings in his arguments.  If a discussant doesn’t understand any of this, then it is better for all if he continues to study the matter and remains a passive reader of the debate until the ‘Aha!’ occurs.

Then Why Not $30 Trillion??

George Rebane

Sen Reid and Speaker Boehner have come up with competing plans to up the US debt limit.  Boehner’s plan will get us by the ‘sky is falling’ default scare and give time for a serious debate on tax reform and meaningful spending cuts that should last for years.  Among other provisions, it calls for an intermediate rise of $1T in the debt limit and a 10-year span of $3T in spending cuts.  The plan also calls for a further debt limit rise next year pursuant to progress on tax reform and meaningful spending cuts in entitlements.

This has a chance of trying to bring the US in for a soft fiscal landing without opting for the inevitable monetary (hyperinflation) catastrophe.  However, it’s a poison pill for Obama’s re-election hopes since it will bring up all of the President’s fiscal mismanagement during a most inconvenient time.  Next year, he’ll have enough trouble two-stepping it through the economy while still trying to lay everything at Bush2’s feet – hell, it’s worked before.

Reid’s plan is a farce that advertises $2.7T in spending cuts over the next decade, but contains no real spending cuts at all.  He proposes to take almost all of it from the military with a sop of $30B (chump change) to be derived from some mysterious “reforms” of Fannie and Freddie.  The military cuts are both ill-advised and cynical, and remind us of Chamberlain waving his 1938 ‘Peace in Our Time’ agreement as he returned from a meeting with Herr Hitler – WW2 started less than a year later.

The Jobs Leak Continues

George Rebane

While we’re all tangled up in our fiscal underwear, few noticed that even GE (aka Government Electric) is not doing much to artificially keep jobs here in America.  They are expanding their X-ray business to China “to be closer to our customers.”  Since China’s healthcare industry will be booming in the coming years, that makes a lot of sense.  But then, I thought ours would also be booming as our population gets older.  Well, whatever.

The real reason, it turns out, is that GE plans to do its technology development and grow its future manufacturing capacity also in China.  Again, that makes sense since China has technical workers coming out of its ying-yang (that’s Chinese for an unmentionable orifice), and here we graduate people who in the large ‘don’t do numbers’.  Most of our college majors pump out people for jobs where you say ‘would you be having fries with that?’ a lot.

And, of course, China is now rapidly moving into manufacturing high-end products at an unbeatable cost, while here our National Labor Relations Board is trying to beat crap out of Boeing for expanding its new operations into South Carolina, a right-to-work state.  I bet Boeing is also dreaming of moving its aircraft manufacturing business to some other shore – care to guess where?

GE ropa-dopes the light thinkers with its promise not to decrease its existing 120 worker labor force in its existing X-ray manufacturing plant in Waukesha, Wisconsin, a forced union state  (more here).  That, dear reader, is known as a sop to Team Obama and the Democrats with whom GE has forged an incestuous relationship.

But the reality remains, our captains of industry are gaming the system to the max.  GE knows that if it doesn’t compete in the China market, there are a handful of other international companies that will expand into that market in a heartbeat.  And then the result is that GE will continue making overpriced and uncompetitive X-ray units that can only be sold in the US, and then only if the government sticks a gun to the buyer’s head.

So that’s the update from our job creation front as our governments at all levels busy themselves with writing more burdensome and confusing regulations, increasing fees and taxes, and generally creating investment risks out of thin air.

Norway Terror (updated)

George Rebane

So now Norway has Anders Behring Breivik, its own equivalent of America’s Timothy McVey.  We read that the 32 year old farmer has killed almost one hundred people, personally murdering eighty some by shooting each of them at close range.  He also posted a YouTube video (now removed) of himself declaring his terror rampage before first setting off a bomb in the center of Oslo, and then going out to a nearby island, disguised as a policeman, to shoot the youth gathered there.

We read that Breivik was a declared Christian “extreme right winger with anti-Muslim sentiments.”  He was disturbed by what he saw as the permissive multiculturalism that has given rise to the Islamic enclaves throughout Europe including his native Norway.  Apparently this attack was in planning for almost two years, and was to serve as a dramatic call for European “martyrs” to begin some sort of violent pushback of Islam and Marxism that he has described in a long “compendium/book” he titled 2083 – A European Declaration of Independence.  I have not read it, but it can be downloaded from google docs here.

What we do know is that he ordered six tons of fertilizer from which he presumably made at least one bomb, and that the island massacre lasted 90 minutes before the Norwegian SWAT team finally arrived after 40 minutes, and then took another 50 minutes to stop the killing.  Apparently there was not a single law-abiding gun on the island that could have saved lives during that interminably long killing spree.

It is hard for me to conclude that this was the act of a sane individual.  Perhaps he offers an explanation in his compendium as to how he thought that his terror would start some kind of spontaneous attack on people of non-European cultures.  But to a sane person, no matter his politics or sentiments about Islam and western culture, this act did nothing to achieve his declared end.  In fact, I think, like Timothy McVey, this was the most horrifically inappropriate and misguided use of violence that Breivik could have conceived – an assessment I cannot lay at the feet of Islamic terrorists who have so far used worldwide terror effectively to advance their ends.

Now we await for the investigation to reveal the complete and, perhaps, a different story about Breivik.  I am saddened that so many people had to die at the hand of a twisted individual, especially one who claims to be a defender of western culture.

Your thoughts?

[update]  One question that occurs during events like these is ‘to what extent is this a canary in the mine?’  It is usually at the edges that society first shows that something with it is awry.  The mentally or economically frail begin to visibly protest existing conditions, and then start to act like outlaws.  Wealthy and advanced societies usually react positively if not always in a timely manner to such signs.

If shopkeepers begin reporting that bread is being stolen from their shops, and this becomes more widespread, then an enlightened collective would be better served by finding the cause of the problem instead of just hiring more police.  If ill-schooled students graduate in greater numbers when more money is put into education, then an enlightened collective would conclude that there might be other factors at work than lack of funds.

But here we come into a conundrum – ascribing cause.  Upon reflection philosophers and scientists have come to understand that cause is ascriber-specific.  People with different belief systems, knowledge, intelligence, experience, and data can look at an event and ascribe markedly (wildly?) different precursors that were its actual cause.  To the extent that a culture and/or ideology are shared by a society, they will tend to interpret things in a more like manner and come to similar conclusions as to cause.  And the opposite is also true as we witness every day (and also on these pages).

So, in Norway was this madman a harbinger, a fraying edge that declares existence of a deeper problem in Norway’s European population?  What caused him to go on his murderous rampage, and what should the Norwegians do to minimize the likelihood of such future occurrences?

(In a future post I am planning to do a piece on causality that may help in the discussion of events like this and broader aspects of assessing public policy.  The effort always is to promote complete, clear, and concise communication on these pages.  Hard duty.)

Climbing Mount DebtandTaxes

George Rebane

[This is the transcript of my bi-weekly KVMR commentary broadcast on 22 July 2011.]

Let’s talk a little bit about debt and taxes.  Listening to leaders from both parties, you get the opinion that if we don’t raise the debt limit – by August 2 or whenever – that the world’s economy is going to collapse.  More sober minds, honed by the logic practiced around a kitchen table, will tell you that this is not true.

Please consider – major lenders to the US government have been quietly reducing their loans to us, they’re scared that eventually we won’t be able to repay them.  And everyone in Washington knows that today we have more than enough federal revenues coming in to pay the interest on our existing debt.  We just have to tighten belts and prioritize our other domestic spending.

So how do our creditors and rating agencies look at this?  Today we are telling the world that we will default on our interest payments if we can’t borrow more money from our creditors, so that we can then give some of it back to them in interest payments.  And everyone knows that Washington has no plan to stop increasing our national debt - we just promise to borrow more and forever.

Now I don’t know about you, but if I were China I’d say this relationship has become insane, and is most certainly not sustainable.  The name Ponzi must be starting to echo in the halls of Beijing.  But the credit rating agencies – the gang that couldn’t figure out the mortgage market trainwreck back in 2007 – are again putting out more Wrong Way Corrigan pronouncements.  They tell us that if we do change our ways, and start spending within our means, and limit our debt to the current $14.3T, then they will consider the United States to be a bigger credit risk and downgrade our rating.  Go figger.

However, if we keep spending like drunkards on payday, and keep borrowing what we don’t have to spend, then they will maintain our pristine AAA credit rating, and things will somehow again be hunky dory.  Isn’t this exactly 180 degrees out of sync with reality?  America’s creditors seem to think so. But according to our politicians, we taxpayers are too dense to figure this out.

Speaking of paying taxes, our progressive friends are convinced that the country can do with much higher tax rates.  They point back to the Eisenhower 1950s when top marginal rates touched 94% which effectively had the government take almost all of what you earned after a certain amount.  Since the country was booming in the 50s, little minds inside the Beltway are saying, ‘Let’s do it again.’

Running nimble fingers over their calculators, they can see enough dollars flowing in to put a real dent into our projected deficits, without cutting too much into the spending that buys votes.  What these same politicians don’t know, or are not telling us, is that in the 1950s no one actually paid 94 cents of every dollar they earned after a certain amount.  Why?  Because at that time the threshold was so high that almost no one earned those dollars as straight income.  And those who could, had lots of opportunities to shelter their earnings so that it never reached the 94% trigger levels.

Today it’s completely different when we consider the tax rates we already pay, and the ones being proposed by big government mavens in Washington.  Dr Michael Boskin, professor of economics at Stanford, has run some numbers which tell us that in California we already pay a 44.1% marginal tax rate when we combine federal, state, and all the payroll deductions levied against our wages.  When the Bush tax cuts expire in 2013, that marginal rate will jump up to 58.4% for those earning $200K and couples earning $250K a year.

But we’re not done yet.  Using the President’s numbers, the Congressional Budget Office tells us that to cover the projected $841B deficit in 2016, will require all (yes, all) income taxes to increase by almost another third.  This will bring the “total combined marginal tax rate to 68.8%.”  In short, government will then take more than two of every three dollars that you earn above whatever limit they decide to impose.

According to the progressive mindset, such tax hikes aren’t supposed affect how hard we work, or how much we risk and earn.  To them, we are just little mindless squirrels on a treadmill, and we’ll run just as hard as ever, never mind how much we get to keep.  Now, is that the way it works in your world?

My name is Rebane, and I also expand on these and other themes in my Union columns, and on georgerebane.com where this transcript appears.  These opinions are not necessarily shared by KVMR.  Thank you for listening.

Listen up you idiots, … (updated 23jul2011)

George Rebane

[For a translation of the following transcript that’s more suited for polite company, please see the article in the 20jul11 Union.]

…, er, I mean all you good citizens and taxpayers of Nevada County.  Since the case is now settled, I’m gonna explain to you how this lawsuit went down, and I’m not gonna say it again, so you better pay attention.  Like the Big Man said, he’s “really pleased that this is over with.”

First of all, we never did nothin’ wrong.  We said that at the start, and no one has proved otherwise.  So we’re saying it again.

Second, we told you at the beginning that we had different views than the plaintiff, that’s the other guy, about what happened, and guess what?  Now that it’s over, we still have different views.  How ‘bout that?

Third, all parties “agree that there has not been any finding of liability for or against any party.”  Mainly because we caved before letting the judge deliver his summary judgment which would have cost us a bundle because then our insurance company probably would have walked.  Pretty smart, eh?  And that “… against any party” bit?  We threw that in to make it look as if some of you would believe that AtPac was also guilty of something here.  Oh yeah, and we don’t consider the judge fining us $22K for scrubbing evidence off of our server as a ‘liability’, that was just what we call strategic chump change in the scheme of things – you know what I mean?

Fourth, like I told the Supes, “The parties acknowledge that the matter is being settled solely to avoid further litigation and other costs of going to trial.”  And well, maybe also those who might get to read the depositions if it all came out in court.  For you people unfamiliar with lawsuits and legal stuff, other ‘matters’ like this are usually settled on the basis of the weather on the trial date, or in what color cars the parties arrived at the court house - you know, things like that.

Now that it’s over, and no one’s guilty of nothin’, and we ducked the big enchilada, and the records are sealed up tighter than a …, never mind; I hope that it's all cleared up in everyone’s head, and that we won’t have to put up with any of this Freedom of Information crap when we tell you to go pound sand.  Capiche?

Dismissed!

[22jul2011 update]  It appears that The Union has now filed its FOIA for the information pertinent to the case and is off and running on demanding an explanation of who did what when (more here).  Note that county counsel is continuing the lamer-than-ever cover-up with the statement that they don't have the Greg Diaz deposition, it's down in the Sacramento offices of their law firm.  Well, how about someone getting their butt in the car, driving down there and getting it?

You'd think that at least a copy of such a seminal, important, and revealing peace of testimony would be ensconced and studied in the Rood Center.  Nah, that would only happen if they were planning on doing some remediation so that in the future more millions don't go pouring out the door.  The beat goes on.

[23jul2011 update]  Stan Meckler, president of the NC Tea Party Patriots (of which I am a member), writes a related article in today's Union.  And Barry Pruett on Inside Nevada County Politics adds more first person contacts with the Nevada County principals in this case.

Summit Sillies

George Rebane

Things have been getting a little too serious around here - and may again.

  

“No you didn’t Nick, I beat you fair and square!  Next time we do it for real; pack your stuff.”

Trickle Down – the definitive view

George Rebane

Nevada County’s cartoonist RL ‘Bob’ Crabb published another one of his blockbuster social commentaries in the 19jul11 Union.  It graphically illustrates what a good portion of the country has been taught about our nation's economic ladder and their place on it.  And there’s more to say about that.

 

County Dodges AtPac Bullet, but ... (updated 20jul2011)

George Rebane

After many months of legal wrangling, internal investigations, external investigation, lawsuit, and God knows what else went on behind closed doors, it appears the AtPac lawsuit (background here) has been settled in favor of AtPac.  This was reported to the Board of Supervisors by County CEO Rick Haffey (here).

The bottom line of the out-of-court settlement indicates that the county screwed up badly in the process, but was able to duck the heavy financial hit because its insurance company did step in to pay the $2.75M total bill while getting its $100K deductible, the only out-of-pocket cost to our local government (and us taxpayers).  RR readers will recall that early on I predicted the cost to be way north of $2M while the Maidu Mavens were still dismissing this as a nuisance suit.

I received notification of this from a correspondent whose analysis of the settlement is, in my opinion, on the mark – it is reproduced below.

It appears that the County settled with AtPac in the amount of $1.9 million on the eve of the hearing on the motion for summary judgment.  The insurance for the County will be paying AtPac the settlement amount.  The insurance will be reimbursing the county for its attorney fees in the amount of $845,000.  The County pays a $100,000 deductible.
 
Insurance companies are the stingiest companies on the planet.  They do not pay out unless there is significant risk...especially with an attorney fees clause.  If the County was successful at trial, AtPac would have had to pay the County's attorney fees and the insurance company would have been off the hook.  For the insurance to pay $1.9 million in settlement means that the County was exposed to far greater damages than $1.9 million and AtPac's attorney fees.
 
This settlement is a win for the County in only $100,000 of exposure (except for increased rates) and the case goes away.  The settlment amount alone shows that the County screwed up and the case was by no means frivolous.  AtPac was willing to settle for a million.  While the County avoids a determination of liability by the court, it is clear by the amount alone that they had a ton of liability.

But no one should walk away from this with the feeling that the county has been vindicated – far from it.  The only thing that has occurred is that a $15,000 expense turned into a year-plus saga that cost the county $100K out-of-pocket and untold staff hours responding to litigation requirements, finding out what happened, and keeping a lid on the whole thing.   And what really transpired subsequent to the mismanagement of this software vendor changeover, we now will never know.

[19jul2011 update]  ‘Be there or be square’, that was the message from our Supes about when they were going make their AtPac settlement announcement at today’s special meeting.  They told The Union that it would be at the end of their meeting which usually goes into the afternoon.  Not today, the announcement was made in the morning before the special meeting ended, and the chambers were dark this afternoon.  Well OK, next time check the agenda schedule.

The announcement itself was delivered by soon-to-retire County Counsel Michael Jamison and is transcribed on The Union’s website here.

Bottom line - for what are now obvious reasons, the county did not want the judge to render a verdict on the summary judgment sought by plaintiff AtPac.  Instead, after due consideration of the strength of the county’s defense and who actually knew what when, it was decided to capitulate and give AtPac what it sought from the start - $1M damages and its legal fees paid, totaling $1.9M.  The insurance company would pay that plus the county’s legal fees for a total distribution of $2,745,000.

In return the county got AtPac to agree to the settlement wording “The Parties acknowledge and agree that there has not been any finding of liability for or against any party.”  (For the lexicographically curious, given that the case didn't go to trial, this is known as a tautology.)

Nevertheless, this little piece of literary legerdemain is supposed to mollify the mindless on what really went down in the back rooms of the Rood Center.  Commenters Chuck Whitten, Barry Pruett, and Russ Steele have some observations (see below) that make me think this thing has a lot more settling to do before Nevada County voters can go to bed without having nightmares of loose million dollar cannons rolling around on Maidu.

[20jul2011 update]  After posting my somewhat cautionary assessment (see 938AM comment below) on what The Union may or not do next, I received an email from publisher Jeff Ackerman who stated that the newspaper will file a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) with the county to get it to release the records on this case.  I'm sure that other FOIAs would also contribute to pulling back the shades.  We recall that the law says only that the county 'may' but not 'must' keep certain records confidential whose release it considers may harm the county.  Now that the suit is settled in favor of AtPac, the only harm that could possibly come out of making the records public is not to the county, but to the electeds and staff who managed to make a mountain out of a very small molehill.

[Coverage of this embarrassing saga continues on RR in 'Listen up you idiots ...' .]

The ‘Foxification of News’

George Rebane

Well, it appears that they have all been doing it, and now are beginning to admit it.  "Foxification" is the term the 9-15jul11 Economist used in its extended report on the future of news to describe news that is delivered with a known slant, commentary, or viewpoint.  (more here)

This is nothing new, it was ever thus, and only the charlatans and morons in the journalism industry have claimed otherwise.   The Economist itself makes no bones about it, and as “the world’s oldest newspaper” (1843) liberally sprinkles its own opinions into every news story it prints.

Journalists have forever been modifying, manufacturing, and mangling the news.  The scandal with Murdoch's News International operation in Great Britain is only the tip of a recent iceberg that reveals the overzealous extremes reporters have gone to in order to give a leg up to whatever medium employs them.  Readers familiar with the history of journalism will recall how in 1932 reporters broke into the mortuary housing the casket bearing Lindbergh’s kidnapped and murdered son.  As Lindbergh described in his wartime journals, they tore the lid off the casket to take photographs of the baby’s mangled body.

The Economist’s survey of news reporting today concludes that with the entry of the internet, we are going back to the ‘coffee house’ format of disseminating news.  News today comes from so many sources – verified, vetted, prioritized, etc, or not – that it most resembles the way people got the news before mass produced newspapers became its prime purveyors.  In short, people then went to public houses, read pamphlets, corresponded with associates and family members, and shared what they had received - and all of it came with a slant of the writer or speaker.

Fox News has adopted a format in which it delivers a heavy dose of right leaning commentary and opinion programs that offset its delivery of “fair and balanced” news programming.  Its ratings have soared, leaving in the dust liberal outlets like MSNBC and CNN who have continued to deny that they are anything other than the moronic model of objective journalism.  Well, those days appear to be over.

Given the blatantly biased programming of outlets like the satirical Daily Show, leftwing Huffington Post, rightwing Rush Limbaugh, and countless blogs (RR included),  we now have MSNBC's Phil Griffin admitting what everyone has known for decades about news outlets – “we definitely have a progressive sensibility, a sensibility to the left.”  MSNBC will henceforth openly reflect this ideological perspective instead of continuing to push the bullcrap that it somehow avoided any ideological bias in its reporting.   Look for the other members of the lamestream to soon follow this trend.

I believe that such openness will be a benefit, and as the Economist foresees, we will accept transparency as the substitute for objectivity.  Spin it as you will, but your message will be more powerful and accepted, the more you can source/cite any factual claims that are made.  At this point, dear reader, don’t come to confuse commentary (as is this) with those who claim to be sources of news.

Finally, the world’s oldest newspaper believes that the internet is making journalism better, and cites its own surveys that claim broad agreement with that belief (see online debate). The bottom line of it all is that “News is becoming a social medium again, as it was until the early 19th century – only more so.”

‘A Teachable Moment’

"Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery..." -- Winston Churchill

George Rebane

Having already posted an update to 'Unlimited Debt Musical Chairs', I woke up this morning to a WSJ editorial that succinctly summarizes the big progressive lie continually drummed into voters for at least the last decade - the lie that Social Security was solvent, and would be for some years to come.  The lie was deeply embedded by politicians like Al Gore and liberal outlets like PBS doing specials on the solid funding of America’s retirement account.  Therefore it’s no surprise that local yokels all over the country repeated it to their friends and neighbors.  But it has been an ongoing surprise, at least to me, that these same people were so dense as not to snap out of it when told what that SS Trust Fund contained.  Their standard parrot-like response was, ‘But that’s just your opinion.’

And this universal response came even on top of one of their own leaders, Bill Clinton’s budget director Jack Lew, who told the country in 1999 that the they shouldn’t trust the Trust Fund – it was empty, it had in it only a growing stack of IOUs that the government had no plan for redeeming other than borrowing more from the future.

This should be a teaching moment for all out there who are depending on redistribution of wealth for their quality of life.  But it is not likely that anyone out there or nearby will learn.

Peggy Noonan delivers a sobering and adult admonition about the current doings in Washington; it’s worth a read.

Comparing and Contrasting Katrina

George Rebane

In the last week I received from four correspondents the following as a forwarded email.  So I suppose it is making the rounds in at least the conservative circles.  The important points it raises are the sum and stuff of what is discussed on RR.  No matter how you look at them, the conclusion emerges that culture counts.  I include the somewhat inflammatory conclusions.  The broadcast media does not want to touch this kind of a discussion.  Here is the body of the email -

After Katrina, the media blamed the lack of response on the Bush administration's dislike of black people.

Can we then conclude from the lack of media coverage and response by the Obama administration that Obama doesn't like white people?

Where are the Hollywood celebrities holding telethons asking for help in restoring Iowa and North Dakota and helping the folks affected by the floods? Where is good old Michael Moore?

Why is the media NOT asking the tough questions about why the federal government hasn't solved this problem?  ......Asking where are the FEMA trucks and trailers and food services?

Why isn't the Federal government moving Iowa people into free hotels in Chicago and Minneapolis ?

When will Spike Lee say that the Federal government blew up the levees that failed in Des Moines ?

Where are Sean Penn, Bono, and the Dixie Chicks?

Where are all the looters stealing high-end tennis shoes, cases of beer and television sets?

When will we hear Governor Chet Culver say that he wants to rebuild a 'vanilla' Iowa ... because that's what God wants?

Where is the hysterical 24/7 media coverage complete with reports of shootings at rescuers, of rapes and murder?

Where are all the people screaming that Barack Obama hates white, rural people? My God, where are Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, Oprah, and Ray Coniff Jr?

How come you will never hear about the Iowa flooding ever again? Where are the gov't. bail out vouchers? The government debit cards?

More people died in these floods than from Katrina..how come the media doesn't report that?!!!!! There must be one hell of a big difference between the value of the people of Iowa and value of the people of Louisiana.

HERE'S THE REAL TRUTH: THIS IS AN EXAMPLE OF GOVERNMENT CONTROL OF THE MEDIA, AND SOON TO BE GOV'T. CONTROL OF INTERNET, CELL PHONES, RADIO AND ALL COMMUNICATION AS WELL AS THE PRESENT NETWORK NEWS ON TV.

WAKE UP, AMERICANS... WHO EVER CONTROLS THE MEDIA CONTROLS THE COUNTRY! THIS IS ONLY ONE OF THE "ARMS" THAT IS NOW IN PLACE TO ACCOMPLISH THE TAKE OVER OF YOUR COUNTRY!

Unlimited Debt Musical Chairs (updated 15jul2011)

George Rebane

Our friends on the left are overjoyed with President Obama’s latest gambit to keep the country going toward bankruptcy.  He has floated a hazy vision of $4T spending cuts that comes with at least $1T of tax increases that add on to the $1T tax increases required by Obamacare – our new nationalized healthcare system that is now providing the country with a new bombshell a month in additional costs, reduced care, and rationed services.

Supposedly this rejects Speaker Boehner’s new proposal to cut spending by $2T with no new tax hikes.

And now Minority Leader Sen McConnell’s desperate response (with sparse Republican support) is to pass a law allowing Obama to unilaterally increase the debt limit by $2.5T in three tranches with equivalent TBD spending cuts.  The only caveat is a no-caveat that these debt limit increases could be over-ridden only by super majorities in Congress.  This puts the ball back in the Democrats’ court, and they would continue to own the country’s downward spiral as 2012 rolls around.

The Measure of Victory (updated 16jul2011)

George Rebane

New SecDef Leon Panetta claims that we are close to “strategically defeating” Al Qaeda, and thereby close to winning the war on terror.  This gives the appropriate backing to the administration’s just launched policy of bringing home the troops from the Mideast, else no one would give a big yawn about whether or not we “defeat” Al Qaeda.

I believe this is all part and parcel of the BS we have been told about the “war on terror” for the last ten years.  As these pages have long declared, we are in a war with Islam, and Islam is using terror as the only weapon available to it today to resume its scripturally commissioned battle against the west.  It is a war between starkly different civilizations, and, as always, its name will be determined by the victors.  If we win, these will be known as the Islamic Wars; if they do, then history will record them as something like ‘The Final Jihad’.

To the extent that the western countries believe they are only waging a war ON terror, we are doomed to lose; just as if in 1941 the Allies would have characterized WW2 only as a war ON the mechanized division.  Bigger things were/are at stake than the means by which our enemy chooses to attack us.

In the current phase of the Islamic War, its militant factions can and are achieving their objectives by simply causing us to abandon our way of life in as many ways as possible – freedom of speech, freedom of movement, ideological polarization, state managed markets, restriction of capital flows, trade protectionism, enforced global redistribution of wealth, environmental restrictions, … .

Islam knows that it could never achieve its goal of Khilafa (the global Caliphate) were the west to remain dynamic, strong, and free.  So its phase one objective is to first hobble us, or more correctly, have us hobble ourselves.  And promoting our recent tendency to trade our liberties for the misguided pro quo of safety and security, is part of the plan that has worked exceedingly well given that the secular progressives of the west were already committed to realizing that bargain.

In planning and evaluating our strategy to counter Islam (of which there is no evidence),  I would ask ‘how can we tell if we are winning?’ – more formally, what is the measure of victory?

Large Scale Emergencies to Prepare for

George Rebane

[This is the submitted form of my July column in the 9jul11 Union.  Its online version is available here.]

Have you thought about what you and your family will do in the face of a large scale emergency that directly impacts Nevada County?  Most people hereabouts think of the Forty-Niner Fire of 1988 as an example of a large scale emergency.  Wrong.  A large scale emergency (LSE) is one that can result from a magnitude 9 earthquake (‘The Big One’) near the coast, a pandemic of Bird Flu or some other communicable dreaded disease, terrorists detonating a dirty nuclear device in the Bay Area, and so on.

One of the reliable ways you can tell if Nevada County is impacted by a LSE is by just picking up the phone and dialing 911.  If no one answers, you got yourself a large scale emergency.  The other more horrendous indicator of a such an emergency is when you hear of or witness tens of thousands of people ‘heading for the hills’.

This escape destination has been used since biblical times by people living in more populated areas.  The everlasting hills are a beacon of safety, survival, and hope.  But people heading for the hills don’t usually arrive with the right stuff to shelter, feed, and medicate themselves – they had other things on their minds when they left home.

West county has always planned on taking care of about 3,000 arrivals on the fairgrounds property.  The planning from there becomes a bit more vague since the food in our local stores will feed county dwellers for at most three days, and during a LSE we can expect the distribution system (‘the grid’) to be down.  Add to that the fact that only a small fraction of our citizens are prepared for anything beyond hunkering down during a storm for a couple of days, and you begin to see a real problem here.

Votes Bought and Paid For

George Rebane

[This is the transcript of my regular bi-weekly commentary that aired 8 July 2011 on KVMR-FM.]

What kind of First Amendment rights should institutions have; institutions comprised of people getting together for a purpose?  The question is again coming to public attention as the 2012 election season is now officially off and running.  Actually, the question is really much more focused than that.  The progressive left is pointedly asking about what rights do corporations have to be heard during an election season as they promote candidates and issues.  The conservative right is similarly asking what rights do unions have – especially public service unions – in promoting their candidates and issues.

Both sides have similar views about the critical thinking skills of the average voter – namely that he doesn’t have any critical thinking skills, at least none that will be applied to questions of governance.  Both sides have a gut feeling that the overwhelming slice of voters hold on to a few tenets or beliefs that number less than their fingers.  In popular socio-economics, tenets is the fancy word for ‘slogans’ or ‘sound bites’ that represent some fundamental truths.  There is a smaller fraction of more sophisticated voters that may push the number of their tenets into the mid-teens, but don’t push too hard.

Obama’s ‘Shared Sacrifice’ (Updated)

George Rebane

You have to be a progressive or recently arrived from Mars if you don’t know that this president is the least qualified to ever have held the office, and one who reaffirms it daily.

By now we have all heard that this administration has had no clue on how to bring the economy out of its government engineered recession.  Instead, by continuing to ‘stimulate’ at astronomical levels, this ideologically calcified president has presented the country with the Great Recession that now looks like its heading for Depression2.

Through its creation and maintenance of the most uncertain business climate since the eve of WW2, the Democrats have suppressed job creation to historically low levels (unemployment is back up to 9.2% this morning), while piling on regulations that promote the progressive fictions of how society is supposed to work.

These people are not as butt stupid as they try to make themselves out to be.  I don’t believe that anyone in the Obama administration thought that spending another almost $2T would get this country going again.  All of them are aware of Henry Morgenthau telling Congress in 1939, “We are spending more than we ever spent before, and it does not work.”  FDR’s New Deal Treasury Secretary was referring to the then 19% unemployment rate, to which it had climbed from its low (yes, low) point of 14% during the Depression.  None of this history is admitted by the dirt bags, nor has it been taught or is known to the sheeple.

The latest attempt by this administration to weaken America is Obama’s current ‘shared sacrifice’ initiative, proposed to re-administer tax hikes on the “millionaires and billionaires” that were such a disaster in 1990 when a Democratic Congress last tried it with the help of ol’ Read My Lips.  The class envy spewed out of Washington works like a charm on the poor and ignorant when it is pointed out that it is the rich who just buy more jets and boats with all that squandered money which should be redistributed to them.

KVMR and Nevada Theater Partnership: 2 + 2 = 5

George Rebane

KVMR-FM and Nevada Theater have come up with a match made in heaven.  This is indeed good news that is a win-win for both organizations and another feather in our community's cultural cap.  (RR readers are aware that I do a bi-weekly radio commentary on this station.)  The press release below tells it all.

FOR RELEASE July 7, 2011
CONTACT: Briana Ezzell  (530) 265-9073
Kathy Dotson (530) 210-9343
 
       NEVADA CITY, CA -- KVMR community radio 89.5 fm and the historic Nevada Theatre will join forces to build a new home for the station in downtown Nevada City and to expand backstage space and increase programming in the 146-year-old theater.
      The two organizations will reconstruct the three "tin sheds" behind the theater, creating a building to house KVMR's operations, with additional dressing and green rooms for the theater.
      The unique collaboration between two of Nevada County's most respected non-profits will strengthen them while maintaining their independence and personalities, and will create an exciting opportunity for the two to work together in unprecedented ways.         "This is such an exciting marriage - the theater of the stage meets the theater of the mind," said Michael Young, president of KVMR's board of directors. "We will construct a building that will be the pride of the community and underscore downtown Nevada City as the go-to place for arts and entertainment."
       The move enables KVMR to stay in downtown Nevada City and form the center of a "theater district" connecting the Nevada Theatre with the nearby Miners Foundry. The building entrance at Bridge and Spring streets will be designed as a "community corner."
       The radio station plans to add a control booth and equipment to the 350-seat theater, enabling it to broadcast large music groups, choirs and orchestras, drama, holiday productions, special events, radio theater and community forums.
       KVMR will support Nevada Theatre and its productions with publicity and live broadcasts, thus increasing the theater's profile in the region and building broader support for the theater's programs.
        "This is an exciting opportunity for the Nevada Theatre which enables us to further our mission of providing the community with an accessible, usable and valuable cultural asset," said Paul Drake, president of the Nevada Theatre Commission. "We will be able to make the most out of the strengths of two different but complimentary non-profit organizations."
      Under a letter of intent signed recently, the two groups plan to set up a partnership, managed by both, to hold the land, the new building and the "Ice House" structure also on the property.
        The new building, to be designed by Nevada City architect Jeff Gold, will be a modern, state-of-the-art facility inside, while the exterior will remain faithful to Nevada City's historic architecture. The building will include meeting space for community groups, non-profits, and arts and environmental organization.
      The project will soon begin feasibility studies and the city's permitting and approval process. KVMR's capital campaign, which has been working quietly for more than two years to raise about two-thirds of the required funds, will be expanding in the coming months in cooperation with the Nevada Theatre Commission. Construction could begin as early as summer, 2012.
       "It will be a great accomplishment to get KVMR a new home and it's something the community really needs to get behind.  I'm happy to be part of the campaign," said Michael Funk, chairman of KVMR's capital campaign.
        The Nevada Theatre is California's oldest original-use theater. As California Historic Landmark No. 863, it has seen thousands of presentations since it first opened in 1865 including performances from Mark Twain and Emma Nevada to Mötley Crüe and The Second City comedy troupe. Today it remains a vital part of the community, used for live theater, movies and special events.
       KVMR community radio 89.5 fm (105.1 fm in the Truckee/Reno area) started in 1978 in a tiny shack on Banner Mountain by two of the community's most ardent preservationists, artists Charles Woods and David Osborn. It was named after the Victorian Museum (the VM of KVMR), which the two created in the Miners Foundry. It eventually moved to the Foundry and now rents space in an office building across the street at 401 Spring St.
       Both organizations have not-for-profit 501(c) 3 charitable status and rely on small staffs and community volunteers. KVMR is an independent non-NPR community station, one of only about 350 nationwide.
        "Through the astounding generosity of our community, the collective vision of a new KVMR home will be a reality," said David Levin, KVMR's general manager.  This state-of-the-art facility will serve as a community hub."               
       KVMR is fueled by more than 700 volunteers who function as broadcasters, office staff and help for events such as the Celtic Festival in October. It is the only media in the region staffed live 24 hours a day, 365 days a year and functions as the county's official emergency broadcast station. New equipment planned as part of this project will help guarantee that the station stays on the air as it did during the recent severe winter weather, providing critical and timely information to the community.
      The construction of a new station with new equipment and technology will enable KVMR to increase sound quality to its broadcast listeners, increase syndication of its cutting edge programming and improve its stream on the web to listeners outside its transmitted listening area.
     KVMR long ago outgrew its rented space across the street from the theater. The new building will provide space to store the station's vast music library and will also include more computers for future storage needs. And, it will provide modern and efficient office space necessary for the staff and volunteers to perform their duties.
      "KVMR will now be a pristine model of radio's future-the go-to destination." Levin said.

Class Warfare a la Joe the Lip

George Rebane

This Sunday VP Joe Biden was speaking to fellow travelers at a Washington meeting of the National Education Association, the nation’s largest teachers’ union.  He didn’t have to hold back on his deep-seated belief that more socialism is better, and he let it all hang out.  To his audience our Vice President incredulously characterized the conservatives with –

They believe that one percent of the wage earners, controlling 24% of the wealth in this country, is a vehicle by which you can spur economic growth, because those with the wealth know the most and will know best what to do with that wealth.

Yes, the ones earning the wealth have always known what best to do with it.  Our country has believed that for over two centuries.  And now other countries are picking up on this principle of economic freedom, as our own memory of its blessings begins to fade.  You bet your sweet butt Joe – you really nailed it with that little piece of class warfare demagoguery.

‘An Exceptional Fourth’

George Rebane

 

In his Independence Day message Victor Davis Hanson summarizes again what these pages seek to communicate about our country.  As you celebrate today, think of how exceptional and blessed is America, and that we, who are lucky enough to be its citizens, are entrusted with passing ‘it’ on to our children and their children.  What is that ‘it’ that you want to pass on intact?

And here’s a poignantly humorous video essay about our flag delivered by a much younger Robin Williams that will also pull out some deep thoughts about the meaning of America.

  

Nevada County – A Summer Evening Concert

George Rebane

Say what you will, but them big city folk just don’t know what it is to drive a few minutes, have a good dinner with your sweetie, and then set your bag chairs in front of an impressive little band under the trees and listen to some mighty fine toe tappin’ tunes.  Jo Ann and I did just that late this afternoon as we drove up to the Five Mile House on Hwy 20 in our pick-up (natch, how would we look driving something else?).

This afternoon the Five Mile House featured a reunion of the Foothill Flyers made up of Paul Emery, his longtime pal Ray Mann down from Oregon, and Bob Woods on lead guitar.  Ray Mann is a man of concurrent talents - able to sing, and play both percussion and base while wearing the same birthday suit.  Bob Woods sings and can pull so many beautiful notes from his guitar so fast that it hurts your fingers just to listen to him.

 

And then there’s Paul with his saloon singer voice, well worn and comfortable as an old shoe, that perfectly renders his songs of life’s foibles and fickle love.  You’d never know that in real life he’s the News Director of our local KVMR-FM.  Or does Paul really live when he entertains us, hugging his big rhythm guitar and peeling off some earthy philosophy in four-four time?

RR readers will also recognize Paul on these pages as the ever civil and gentlemanly voice from the left, patiently explaining why a little bit of socialism here, and little more there, will fix what ails the country.  You have to watch him like a hawk, or pretty soon we’ll all be learning how to describe our aches and pains in Danish to a nationalized health care system patterned after the one so popular on the Jutland Peninsula.

This summer we’ll be going back to the Five Mile House with neighbors on weekend evenings, and also to other venues around here where Paul and friends decide to unlimber their git-fiddles and do some wailing.  Given what’s going on in the flats, this is a very good place to live.  Don’t tell anyone.