Scattershots – 22jun15 (updated 27jun15)

George Rebane

Economic development in Nevada County must address what many of us see as the three legs of the county’s existing economy – IT based industry, tourism, and retirees.  Absent public service employees, these are the three main cash importers.  There are initiatives in place to attract more IT companies through increased broadband availability and a new business incubator in the plans.

But not much is being done to boost the other two areas.  (Yesterday’s NC Bike Race Classic was a sad commentary on tourism.)  Additionally, aging retirees who want to downsize from their big houses on acres of land are forced to seek their next abodes elsewhere (quality condos, smaller houses in protected neighborhoods, variable care communities, …).  Tourism is suffering because we don’t have enough quality beds at reasonable prices to attract more weekend visitors who want to attend evening performances from our rich palette of cultural offerings – Music in the Mountains, In Concert Sierra, Center for the Arts, theaters, the fairground, … .

People driving up here from the flats would rather have a nice dinner, attend a performance (or two), perhaps enjoy an after dinner libation, and then hit the sack instead of driving two plus hours, tired and three sheets to the wind, to get back home.  They would much rather wake up refreshed, have a good breakfast or brunch, and then be on their way.  The boost to our economy that such a weekend agenda would provide, multiplied a thousand times, is not hard to imagine.  Another decent hotel or two, and a proper performance center would fit the bill nicely.

But in addition to the intrinsic financial risks that such projects normally entail, our county and cities add on their own regulatory and procedural burdens as recently pointed by our RL Bob Crabb in the nearby cartoon filched from The Union.  Our electeds deny all this by putting the onus on those dumb and good-for-nothing outsiders who are not bellying up to the Planning Department counters with their project plans.  But reality advises otherwise, Nevada County’s ‘development friendly’ reputation is known far and wide.  And without our chambers of commerce and planning jurisdictions actively simplifying the development processes, and then inviting people to come up here and see the opportunities, nothing much more will happen in these woods.  Tourists won’t come and retirees will continue to leak out at greater than replacement rates.

Anthropogenic global warming (AGW) is in the news again with the Pope’s controversial encyclical and the next UN global warming conference in the fall.  Here on RR the debate between the Skeptics and True Believers has revived in spades to the point where one reader (True Believer) has challenged another reader (Skeptic) to a public debate in which the TB promises to maximally embarrass the Skeptic, presumably by exposing the Skeptic’s case allegedly based on both weak science and a fundamental misunderstanding of the involved science.  Here are my two cents on this challenge.

The problem is that the TB has no technical credentials and bases his belief in AGW on politically sponsored reports, at least twice removed, that cite discredited datasets, ignore major areas of science impacting earth’s climate, and evince profound ignorance about the design, care, and feeding of complex climate models (the so-called General Circulation Models, GCMs).  At the same time the Skeptic is a scientifically read and astute engineer, fully credentialed with multiple degrees that attest his technological pedigree.  I began thinking about the conduct of such a media reported/recorded debate, and who would derive what profit from it.  The bottom line is that I couldn’t think of any way that such a debate between those two would shed useful light on the issue, or in any way contribute toward a resolution of it in the minds of its most likely audience.

This conclusion is abetted when we consider the TB’s more complete resume that includes being a well-practiced and rehearsed activist for almost all the leftwing causes and initiatives that have made California into the taxed, regulated, indebted, and economic basket case that it is today.  The TB will have no alternative but to spout today’s made-simple for broad, unread audiences, and politicized ‘consensus science’.  And the Skeptic will be forced to take his refuting arguments to the next technical levels where few, if any, will be able to follow – all the while the TB baselessly disparaging every one of those arguments in a manner that elicits uncritical nodding heads among the gruberized, and leaves the others numb.  Everyone knows that such audiences have been meticulously prepared to either ignore or mistrust all uncomfortable and confrontational arguments about AGW aka global warming aka climate change.

What’s more disturbing is that the entire True Believer society has for some time been quite comfortable with the way their message has massaged the masses.  Team Gore, to their strategic credit, even refuses to put their best scientists on a stage with skeptical scientists to discuss the evidence in front of a technically knowledgeable audience.  While the skeptics contend every emerging piece of IPCC’s evidence for AGW in its detail, their arguments are summarily ignored.  The only recognition of the Skeptics is a vague reference to them as ‘Climate Change Deniers’, or worse, ‘Climate Deniers’, inferring the existence of a discredited knuckle-dragging, flat earth bunch howling in the wings.

And the saddest part for our overall body politic is that such debates are now beyond the pale for many other socially important issues that relate to numbers and/or science.  And, of course, they all do.  My conclusion is that polarized dumbth (q.v.) has reached a level in the land such that only slogans shouted across the chasm serve as an acceptable substitute for dialogue.

[23jun15 update]  The topic of saving the world’s sovereign nation-states and distinct, regionally anchored cultures has long been a topic of debate and discussion on RR.  The EU is now in the throes of attempting to reconcile a good-sounding but poorly thought theory of how manage fractional or partial sovereignty.  And the problem comes down to the question of what is a border.  It turns out that having complete control of your borders is fundamental to a people’s self-determination.  Europe is rediscovering that now, and we (at least the progressive ‘we’) in America don’t have a clue.  A strongly recommended read on this is ‘What Borders Mean to Europe’ by Stratfor’s George Friedman.  The piece is like a periscope into our own future, a future that is already underway.

[27jun15 update]  In the late 00s I talked Jo Ann into letting me become a student pilot.  Reluctantly she gave permission (which I still don’t have for riding a motorcycle) and I started my lessons at Alpine Aviation under the tutelage of owner Gordon Mills.  Anyway, I progressed appropriately and on a sunny day soloed – three takeoffs and landings, followed by a longer 'victory lap' solo flight over these Sierra foothills, especially beautiful when you’re alone in the airplane.  The cross country phase of training followed with my taking the occasional solo flights in the single-engine, low-wing Diamond DA-20.

In my defense contractor days I was privileged to work with men I consider to be the best pilots in the world – carrier based, light attack – these guys (gals?) fly their F-18s so low as to occasionally get tree branches in their undercarriage.  I worked with the squadrons at Lemoore (light attack) NAS and Whidbey Island (medium attack) NAS in the design of advanced in cockpit displays for successful penetration of complex sensor and SAM fields during target in/egress.  From my naval aviator colleagues I learned about ‘OK-3’ carrier landings – tailhooking the third of four arresting cables that puts your aircraft in the optimum spot on the deck for rapid repositioning, thereby allowing a tight final approach pattern to get returning fuel-starved aircraft quickly onboard with a minimum of fuss.  The logged OK-3 landings on a pilot’s record were very important to good assignments, promotions, and general bragging rights within a talented, exclusive, yet very competitive comradery.

So during a solo flight on final to Nevada County KGOO’s 25 (runway), I decided to nail an OK-3 landing.  I picked my precise touchdown point (where my ‘tailhook’ was going to snag the ‘#3 cable’) and set my glide path appropriately.  Well guess what? your junior league aviator nailed the KO-3, but in so doing sacrificed my flare so that I touched down what might charitably be characterized as a mite hard – and porpoised, bouncing back in the air.  When I brought that bucking DA-20 safely on the runway, I felt pretty red-faced knowing that someone else had probably seen that crappy landing and was grinning ear-to-ear.

Anyway, since landings have always been my favorite part of flying an airplane, I decided to taxi back, take-off again, go around the pattern, and redeem myself.  This I did, but as I was making my take-off run, I noticed that the airplane somehow seemed to be underpowered.  I was puzzled since the engine sounded normal as I lifted off after a longer than normal run and then went around.  After landing again (no OK-3 this time) I taxied back to the Alpine hangar to report on my experience.  Gordon came out and discovered that I had shredded six-inches of the propeller’s tips, which explained the weak performance of the aircraft on the second go around.  Anyway, that turned out to be an expensive flight, but a valuable lesson in piloting.

I continued my flight training after that, but was convinced by a same-age friend who had abandoned his own flight training, that I should also reconsider going on with something for which I would have limited time in the future.  The convincing argument, reinforced by Jo Ann, was that infrequent pilots who do not keep up their hours are a danger to themselves and others when they do climb into the cockpit as Pilot In Charge.  The stats tell the story, especially for older flyers.  So now I wistfully consider just going back and flying with an instructor on windy afternoons coming in on final in a steep forward-slip, then converting into a side-slip before touchdown.  Fun stuff, even if it isn’t an OK-3.

Comments

[Paul Emery]

Sowhat is y our problem then George with Obama and the Dems giving money to the banks if they paid it back? I'm confused.

[Walt]

As usual, Paul bails and switch's gears.
As for the banks paul,, they had no choice in the matter. That "stress test" made plenty small banks go under. Again.. taxpayer money LOST.

[George Rebane]

PaulE 945pm - I was talking about Peter Lee, not bankers. You brought up and castigated the bankers. My problem with Obama was that his four years of quantitative easing did nothing for the country except get it deeper into debt and slow down recovery - a very expensive proposition the frosting on which cake was a whole slew of regulations that benefit absolutely no one except government bureaucrats like Peter Lee while killing off a slew of smaller banks who are not now around to make desperately needed operating and capital investment loans to small businesses. Capice?

[Paul Emery]

But according to George Walt the banks paid back with interest so what's the problem? You are saying Obama forced the banks to take the money? That's a new one for me. Can you provide some kind of documentation to verify that remarkable statement.

[George Rebane]

PaulE 1017pm - And here I thought you were in the news business back in 2008. I'm not sure I want to continue this conversation until you catch up with the history of how we got into the Great Recession.
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2009/09/21/eight-days

[Bill Tozer]

Don't your breathe, good doc in the house. I am still waiting for him to catch up on The Teapot Dome Scandal so he and I can be pissed at the fat cats together and in harmony

Doe, a deer,, a female deer, Ray, a drop of golem sunshine, Me, a word I call myself, Fa.......

[Paul Emery]

Of course George you are talking about TARP. I suggest you read the CATO position paper on the process, I'm surprised are supportive of a process so controversial amongst Conservatives. Cato concludes their critique bu saying:

"Even those who support the politics pur-
sued by the executive under EESA should be
alarmed by Congress’s institutional decline as
revealed in this episode. The facts of this case
suggest that, in a crisis, our republican consti-
tution has given way to unified technocratic
power obscured by empty rituals of legislation
and oversight.

Absent a reform and revival
of the Court’s intelligible principle test, we will
have more TARP laws that diminish congres-
sional authority, blur the separation of pow-
ers, and undermine the rule of law."

http://object.cato.org/sites/cato.org/files/pubs/pdf/pa660.pdf

[Paul Emery]

One more thing George. If you would have read the link you sent me to help me with my education you would have read that :

"These controversies aside, one fact is inescapable: billions of taxpayer dollars were invested in the very institutions that caused the crisis. Multimillion-dollar annual bonuses continued, even at A.I.G. Lehman’s Dick Fuld may have had to sell his sixteen-room Park Avenue apartment for $6 million below the asking price—of $32 million—but lenders have commenced foreclosures on nearly three million homes since last October. "

which is entirely consistent with my earlier post about bankers receiving bonuses after sucking on the governments tit.

[Bill Tozer]

Voiceover: " While Dr. Rebane is holdings his breath waiting for Mr. Paul to get beyond the first two paragraphs of his homework, I would like to revisit the first comment on this post, i e, Scott heading off to greener pastures to a state with net migration. National trend, yet the catalyst for this discussion was our own tieenie weinnie county's economic plan. The plan known as The Plan." What plan? The Plan!

First, Scott decision is a hard one to make.

Second, perhaps us old white Dads are not looking at it from the eyes on the younger generation. Where is a better place to raise the young kids? Can I ever afford to buy a house here???????. Our brave young bucks are moving with the dogs tied to the top of the station wagon to places where they can buy a home and even have a little elbow room. Not the Sierra Club scenario, yet the American Dream nonetheless. For those of you who moved here to be closer to the grandkids, you gotta move again. That young man is taking your daughter and your grandchildren to a place where they can buy a two bathroom and 3 bedroom house with a small office room for making miniature log cabins and putting together the kids' science project. Maybe with a guest house in back. Hmmm.

For those of you who moved here to be closer to elderly parents, well, you are stuck here til they die and you sell off the old place. Or, you can strap Mom and Dad to the top of the SUV and drive them to The Bay Area to be closer to where your wife likes it better and she can get her old job back. Or you can go out for a pack of cigs and a quart of milk and just never come back. History is overflowing with examples of the last option exercised.

But the specific question remains, "Can young people afford to buy a house, home, an Adobe abode, place to hang their hats here? It ain't no secret that the Northeast Yankess are turning into snowbirds that never come back home as they pull up rented stakes and head south. It's no secret that Californians are moving by choice to our Westetn non-Pacific Coast states in droves. Can you seek and obtain a better life, better QofL here or someone else? Don't worry. Your in-laws are getting sick of the sorry State of the State as well and will follow their grand babies wherever they land.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/24/business/economy/more-americans-are-renting-and-paying-more-as-homeownership-falls.html

[Bill Tozer]

Paul, please try to keep up. What is this OCD with things 6 years ago? For two of the two past years, all you babbled about was George Bush and Iraq. That was labeled Bush Derangement Syndrome. Now it was the crash at the closing weeks of Bush's presidency and the start of the Obama presidency. So, I suppose in a year or so, all we will hear about is the behind the scenes "negotiations" with Obama and Big Health Insurance tycoons while mixing up and baking the big Obamacare pie to serve the cast of millions? So, what is happening today? Whatever it is that is happening now, you will be tearing us a new one over it six years from today. Oh yeah, the Stars and Bars controversy. In just 5 and a half year's time, so can finally pull out your Hands Up, Don't Shoot tee shirt. In the spirit of bipartisanship, in 5 and a half years from today I will proudly wear my Pants Up, Don't Loot tee shirt. Guess that means in 5 and a half years from today, we angry old white crackers will still be racists.
There is something comforting in the security of all this. A good mix of consistency and familiarity equates to a nice comfort zone. Keep up the good work.

[George Rebane]

PaulE 1108pm - As discussed here before, I grudgingly accepted TARP as most likely saving us from a deep and disruptive cleansing of our financial infrastructure. The subsequent QEs were nothing but Democrat vote buying schemes that did nothing measurable to help the economy, and there is now ample evidence that they retarded recovery - again to abet the progressives' agenda. For all intents and purposes we now have a banking system less able to service the financing needs of the country. In sum, I will stick with my oft-quoted and sage words of Ludwig von Mises to government responding to financial crises, "Do nothing, sooner!"

[George Boardman]

A lot of people seem to have the impression that the government just shoveled bailout money to the banks with few strings attached. In fact, the government imposed very tough conditions, the kind of conditions a loan shark can only dream about. That's one reason the bailouts produced a net profit for the taxpayers.

It was Secretary of the Treasury Hank Paulson who summoned the big banks to Washington to signup for bailout funds--it was thought if the big boys were onboard, smaller banks wouldn't feel stigmatized if they asked for help.

According to The Wall Street Journal, the top guy at Wells Fargo said they would pass because they didn't need the money. Paulson supposedly said if they didn't take the money now, Wells shouldn't expect help from the Feds if they get in trouble later. Wells took the money.

[Walt]

See the paper today? Another Bay aria transplant went with the idea the rules didn't apply to him. Tried to get a building permit, got denied, then built the damned thing anyway.
Ya' gotta love his excuse.
Hay Paul.. The cops showed up with a warrant. Please re read your own definition of a need for one.

[George Rebane]

Walt 942am - This is the kind of crap about government overreach that we have been talking about here on RR. The county doesn't have to do what it's doing, here locally we are marching arm-in-arm with state and federal governments to bit by piece remove our liberties. Issuing a simple variance similar to that issued to his neighbor would have avoided the whole problem - now it has become a matter of a dick measuring exercise, and the county can't back off.

Private property rights are pretty much a thing of the past in America when you consider the regulatory mandates with which an uncountable number of govt bureaucracies burden your property. We must always recall the real (operational) definition of ownership - you own something only to the extent that you can dispose of it as you will.

[Paul Emery]

I read the article. Hey, this is Nevada County, We don't need no stinkin permits to build on our own property. I'll bet they showed him the warrant A courtesy they didn't extend to Brad P. that would have saved a lot of trouble for Nevada County.

[George Rebane]

PaulE 1017am - Paul, be nice. No one has ever suggested the removal of all regs and codes; only a massive sunsetting that will then let people work with their govt in a common sensical manner to get things done. It doesn't always have to be how govt control over lives is increased. But then, that's not the agenda, is it?

[drivebyposter]

"Sowhat is your problem then George with Obama and the Dems giving money to the banks if they paid it back? I'm confused. "

Serious question? Assuming that 100% of bailout money is returned, and ignoring 0% loans for speculative purposes, one big issue is that it changes the relationship of the large banks to risk. If there's no risk in investments, due to an implicit backstop by the government, then you might as well push all the chips out. Owing to the size of the bets, hilarity ensues.

[Paul Emery]

Agreed George (10:16). I would put the MJ Cultivation Ordinance in the same category of government overreach.

[Todd Juvinall]

Paul Emery, the candidate you helped elect in 1994 or 96 was one of the proponents on the General Plan and zoning that is now screwing you over. You are responsible for your own petard! Jeeze!

[Walt]

LOL Paul,, you belong to the party of "regulate everything".
But are content to dump drugs on the street without a licence.
MMJ folk should go through the same hoops as any pharmaceutical manufacturer.

[Bonnie McGuire]

Scott, so sorry you're leaving, because your opinions are so intelligent. Hope you can drop into the Rebane conversations and let us know how you like your new home. For many years we looked at Idaho, Alaska etc. because we could see it coming, but this is where those we love are and so we stayed. Anyway, we wish you much peace and happiness in your new home.

[Bonnie McGuire]

Todd I remember listening to you and our neighbor on the radio while I was painting our pump house. The neighbor was advocating a regulation that anyone who wanted to build a new home needed to do so on forty acres. You said that you had a sack of letters with you from your constituents begging you not to give your approval. They had large parcels of land they hoped their children would be able to build on. I was shocked at what the neighbor said, because he rebuilt his entire home with no permits. On the same land his sister built a house and cabin and pole barn with no permits. I think the entire acreage was around 14. They were nice people, and environmentalists, but evidently (as is the usual case) they subscribed to "do as I say not as I do" mentality among today's progressives.

[Todd Juvinall]

Bonnie, that is a very good memory. It is my experience that liberals simply never believer they are to obey the same laws they pass for the peons. I recall a rich lib building a home overlooking the South Yuba and maybe that was not totally legal? And no outrage from the eco's who got "donations". Also, the Sierra Club president many years ago who stopped logging as a terrible thing then had his own property in Oregon clear-cut for the views. Paul Emery supported the "Gang of Four" with all his efforts and heart and they put in place all these rules he thought was for "others". What a hoot!

[Walt]

Seems the PV guy was in that group. " reg.s are for someone else". The old " is easier to ask for forgiveness than permission." The story states he applied for a permit, but was denied. Then in good Frisco defiant fashion, went and did it anyway.

Do I like the Commie rules? NO!! But to stay out of trouble I abide by them.

BTW. Nev. Co. now has tree police. If you plan on building the county ECO fascists get to "protect" any tree they deem "pretty" or protected.
Tree tagging coming to a parcel near you. Yes some of that good ol' NH2020 they said was never going to happen.

[fish]

Posted by: drivebyposter | 24 June 2015 at 10:32 AM

$7.77 Trillion

The amount of money the central bank parceled out was surprising even to Gary H. Stern, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis from 1985 to 2009, who says he “wasn’t aware of the magnitude.” It dwarfed the Treasury Department’s better-known $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP. Add up guarantees and lending limits, and the Fed had committed $7.77 trillion as of March 2009 to rescuing the financial system, more than half the value of everything produced in the U.S. that year.
“TARP at least had some strings attached,” says Brad Miller, a North Carolina Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee, referring to the program’s executive-pay ceiling. “With the Fed programs, there was nothing.”

Bankers didn’t disclose the extent of their borrowing. On Nov. 26, 2008, then-Bank of America Corp. Chief Executive Officer Kenneth D. Lewis wrote to shareholders that he headed “one of the strongest and most stable major banks in the world.” He didn’t say that his Charlotte, North Carolina-based firm owed the central bank $86 billion that day.

Don't know why George B is so giddy about "making a profit" on TARP. Looks like a lot of money was loaned by the FED without congressional approval even though the taxpayer would still be on the hook for it if something went wrong!

[fish]

....and then he forgot the link!

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2011-11-28/secret-fed-loans-undisclosed-to-congress-gave-banks-13-billion-in-income

[George Boardman]

Fish at 11:59:

I'm not "giddy" over the fact that TARP made a profit for taxpayers--I'm just stating a fact that critics of the program prefer to ignore.

The bottom line: TARP saved the economy from a much worst fate than if we had done nothing.

[Paul Emery]

If there ever was a case for regulation it certainly would apply to Todds insta-ghetto that he tried to build in the early 90's. What was it? 28 houses on two acres with no enhanced access roads or bus stops. That was the Alamo event that led to the so called Gang of Four taking over the Supes in the late 90's. Much gratitude was expressed to Todd for the help in making that happen. As the old saying goes "there's nothing better for religion than a good healthy devil" which several years later turned out to be NH2020 which swung things the other way.

[fish]

Posted by: George Boardman | 24 June 2015 at 01:31 PM

The bottom line: TARP saved the economy from a much worst fate than if we had done nothing.

Or it merely deferred what will be a much bigger problem in the future.

[Todd Juvinall]

No Paul Emery, you are making it up again. I was not part of the project as it was built. You and your pals on the commie "gang of four" already had their agenda's and it was all theirs and yours. You and your ilk are all mouth and no action anyway. You jabber about helping the poor but can't get out of your limo's funded by the taxpayers. What a hoot!

The General Plan and zoning are all yours Paul Emery, now you can't stand it. I am laughing my ass off.

[Gregory]

give that fish a cigar

While something needed to be done to separate the wheat from the chaff in all the crap mortgage paper sliced and diced with good mortgage paper and securitized by those Democratic sacred cows, Fannie and Freddie, and undoing all those creative instruments (credit default swaps? really?), TARP and the other financial engineerings of the past 7 years went way too far and didn't allow the creative destruction that was and is needed among our sclerotic financial institutions. We still have Dead Institutions Lending money that can't be paid back including a trillion+ lent by the Feds to young people to get educations of widely varying quality.

[Paul Emery]

Todd

You were not part of the legendary Glenbrook project? News to me. Also you imply you never voted for a General Plan as a member of the Supes. Is that true Todd?

[Todd Juvinall]

Paul Emery, go do a title search. Jeeze!

Oaul Emery, you actively supported candidates that wrote the "revised" General Plan and put a gazillion pages of rules in it and the zoning. Why deny it. Are you ashamed that what you did and supported is now something you can't hack?

Regarding the General Plan. I was on the BOS when it was decided to proceed with a review. After I was off the BOS it morphed into an overhaul. You just have to your credit Paul Emery. Be proud.

[Paul Emery]

Oh I get it. thanks for correcting me. You were part of the project (Glenbrook) that was never built because it was rejected by a Republican majority Board of Supervisors. Your desire was to build something like 28 units on around two acres before it was voted down or you pulled it knowing you didn't have the votes.

[George Rebane]

ToddJ & PaulE - As you sort out the historical factors to the yawns of the remaining readers, would either of you care to comment on the more relevant real estate issues hereabouts that would keep retirees in Nevada County?

[Todd Juvinall]

GeorgeR, it is all about affordability. The baby boomers are now trying to get out of the country settings and closer to town and the hospital Also, the designs of houses are changing to include space for caregivers as more elderly need 24/7 help. The cost of development however has made it almost impossible to build a single family home on a small lot and Paul Emery would be there to protest that if it was proposed.

Paul Emery, you helped craft the policies that are now biting you on the ass regarding the General Plan and zoning laws. Live with it man and stop blaming others. You did it. Congrats!

[Todd Juvinall]

Oops, Paul Emery, as I recall the project was approved by the Planning Commission and the BOS never voted on it as it was withdrawn. Keep your facts right next time.

[Todd Juvinall]

George Boardman, wasn't TARP a GW Bush action?

[Todd Juvinall]

Sorry GeorgeR one last point. The liberals fall all over themselves for Habitat for Humanity and pack those people into little houses on little lots. The libs have parties and cut ribbons and pat themselves on the backs for what wonderful people they are to help the needy. Juxtapose, Paul Emery and his opposition to a free market attempt to build similar projects in our town. You just can't make this lib hypocrisy up.

[George Boardman]

Re Todd @ 4:14:

Yes, TARP was Bush's creation. What's your point? Republicans are the ones who hated it, and won't admit to this day that is was a successful lifeline for the economy.

[Todd Juvinall]

Jeeze, just a question, don't get your panties in a wad!

[Paul Emery]

George B

Our host George Rebane acknowledges that it was a good move at the time

[Gregory]

Whose idea was the Disney imitation gold country high density development at the tippy top of Broad Street where it won't hurt many Nirvana Silly home values?

[Todd Juvinall]

And the little one on Searls. Also the one in GV off Brighton Street. Oh, that's right, liberals built those taxpayer subsidized houses. LOL!

Crickets from Paul Emery as usual. What a hoot!

[George Rebane]

re PaulE 525pm - to put Paul's spinned "good move at the time" into perspective, in my 825am I said, "I grudgingly accepted TARP as most likely saving us from a deep and disruptive cleansing of our financial infrastructure." But as we have looked back many times with new/more information under our belts, a deep and disruptive cleansing may have been just the Misesian ticket that country needed to get a new and improved banking system.

I think both sides at the time would have promoted re-separating the investment and banking functions of banks, and/or requiring that a bank's capital assets also include the major holdings of their controlling partners' assets. But Bush2 had to do what he did with the info he had at the time.

[Brad Peceimer]

Walt,

I want to warn you here and now that you are in libelous territory right now, and if i were you I would greatly consider what you may want to continue saying here as we all know everything about you and I have already contacted my attorney on this matter.

Be warned my friend as we already know where to be sending the summons so considering that you don't really have much, it'll be my pleasure to remove what assets you do have.

BRANSON WALTER T 11472 FARADAY CT PENN VALLEY CA 95946

[Don Bessee]

Interesting replay. Hey isn't that the same format the fue uses on you TJ?

[George Rebane]

Gentlemen - From a perusal of the record, I'm not sure who has injured whom, or even if any injuries occurred. Nevertheless, since you seem to have the necessary contact information, please take your threats to litigate into a more private communication conduit. Many thanks.

[Todd Juvinall]

Hey just saw this before I make some food. I met Brad twice. Once at DonQ's house after he passed and once at the funeral service. I have nothing against him so I will stay out of that debate. I asked Brad though if he was the infamous Gene Fedon or Fedor, poster and he said he was not. I was relentlessly attacked by the Fedon/Fedor troll. All I can suggest here is we all must keep a thick skin if we want to be bloggers. I am ruthlessly attacked and called names and characterized by the usual suspects from the left. It comes with the territory. Personally, Walt is a hard working America who digs in the earth and I respect that very much.

[Account Deleted]

Who is Brad Peceimer and what the heck is he talking about?

[Don Bessee]

OH come on, everyone already knows the facts on the fedor. == Scott O., that is pattie smiths buddy, the pollster and VP of the growers association the asa.

[Account Deleted]

Say - here's the Kali way to have affordable housing. Start a new bureaucracy!
http://www.flashreport.org/blog/2015/06/24/ab-1335-tax-hike-undermines-american-dream/
With a novel way to fund it. A new tax!
All those other govt agencies have done such a swell job like eliminating poverty and all that. So one more itsy bitsy little govt agency won't be so bad.

[Account Deleted]

Ah - googled it and saw what's going on. Thanks.
Is he going to sue the Union as well?

[fish]

I googled it and got nothing! Enlighten us.

[fish]

Well if nothing else I've got an address to which to send this years Christmas card.

[Account Deleted]

fish - just copy and paste his name and add 'Nevada County'
Comes up with the stories from the GV Union about the arrest and the charges being dropped.

[Paul Emery]

Todd

AS I recall it was you and your pals that opposed the Eden Raqnch developmnt on Highway 49 and the Old Downiville. I live just around the corner and was a strong supporter but you and all the other pro growth types were opposed. It has turned into a nice community.

[Bill Tozer]

Good Golly Miss Molly, I come home to find Paul has pushed the lever on his time machine again and spent the whole friggin day stuck on......NH 2020 in the 90's. Good gawd, man, get a grip on yourself. Blabbing for two days stuck in 2008, and now this? I know your justifiable anger is direct at things that happened a few years or a decade or so ago, but Holy Cow, you are regressing. What's on tomorrow's menu, a day stuck on Speral Agnew? Well, you are edging closer to the Tea Pot Dome scandal, I will concede that.

One would assume that by your age, Mr. Paul, that it would dawn on you that if you have one foot in the past and the other foot in the future, you end up pissing all over today.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=a7W3LCEFMxs

[Jon]

Tozer, Gregory and Todd are obviously the ones constantly reminding us of their anger and frustration with NH2020. God if I had a nickel for every time the supposed "Gang of 4" was mentioned... Somehow even Steve Frisch is perceived as a major enemy in that whole affair..totally bizarre revisionist history.

[Paul Emery]

Really Jon

Todd is in a time warp because he hasn't had any meaningful employment for 30 years after being soundly rejected in his political ambitions and development projects. Gregory just likes to argue and Tozer has way too much time on his hands. It's kinda fun to hang out here once in a while when it's a slow news day.

[Jon]

Agreed Paul. Its more than fun to watch the predictable behavior here every so often, and comment as appropriate, noting the silly statements. Almost as much fun as The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming. You can imagine a couple of our local characters in that movie. Filmed- by the way- in one of my favorite areas on earth. Now on YouTube, for free anytime.

[Jon]

Apologies, that classic flick has been mostly pulled from free viewing on YouTube- only a few clips remain.

[Todd Juvinall]

Paul Emery, now that a rewrite of history. You have supported development? Jeeze, Paul Emery, The only things you aupport are MMJ and government subsidies based on all you say here. I would suggest you have done a very large disservice to media since you were such a ardent yes man and helped elect the "Gang of Four" and then had the temerity to sit in the reporters nest at the Rood Center and report on your pals. You have no credibility. The reason the Gang and your support for them are brought up is the laws they did are still working on the books. That is why the cvounty population is headed backwards and we have become a county business says "no thanks". And now you complain about those very laws and riles you created!

I crack up when you write here since you are really a nobody with anything and your music is laughed at by the people. But hey, to each his own. What a hoot!

[Gregory]

Sorry, "Jon", I have no anger over NH2020 and was not up in arms over the Gang of Four. My only contact with Bedwell was when he was dying and grasping at straws that might have been over at the Stanford Medical Center, to point him towards local pilots or Angel Flight to make the trip easier. An hour in a small plane is a whole lot easier than 3 or 4 hours (even 6) in a car.

NH2020 to me was the emergence of the "Sierra Business Council" as a local political operator with an intentionally misleading name and an intentionally misleading President and CEO. Silly me, at the time I thought Frisch was representing business interests, not enviro rent-seekers.

[Gregory]

"Gregory just likes to argue"- Paul 11:03PM

Argument
noun: argument; plural noun: arguments

1.an exchange of diverging or opposite views, typically a heated or angry one.

2.a reason or set of reasons given with the aim of persuading others that an action or idea is right or wrong.

I do like #2, I don't particularly like #1 but, as you have noted, I am perfectly willing to do #1 when being assaulted by a "Jon" or a "Steve" or a "Michael P. Anderson" and can give more than I take.

Paul, more than most you seem to like to just provoke and not actually do 1 or 2. Boxing just to draw some blood, not actually make a point or settle an issue. To wound not persuade, the rhetorical equivalent of pulling wings off flies.

[Paul Emery]

Todd

Can you explain to readers why you didn't support the Eden Ranch development and why as County Supervisor you supported the infamous Wildwood Estates fiasco that cost Nevada County taxpayers bib bucks when it went bankrupt?

[Jon]

Gregory, apparently the hundreds of small business clients of the Sierra Business Council like working with them. Seems to be a pretty diverse and impressive roster of small to medium firms in the Sierra. They must be doing something right for their business interests.

[Gregory]

"Jon" 9:44AM

Where does one go to see this "diverse and impressive roster of small to medium firms in the Sierra"? "Jon" has this list, and so does "Steve". Does that make one person, or two, who are impressed?

How many on that "impressive roster" would rather have not been subjected to onerous requirements in the first place?

But thank you, "Jon", for being correct in one sense... a council is "an advisory, deliberative, or legislative body of people formally constituted and meeting regularly". The "Sierra Business Council" instead has clients who pay the SBC to ease the passage of governmental regulations by their applying of a thin coating of regulatory K-Y.

Does "Jon" have a copy of any actual survey of the small business Johns the SBC has serviced and their long term satisfaction with their perhaps less-than-voluntary SBC transaction?

[Todd Juvinall]

Also all those American that had full time jobs (40 hours) who are now part time in the businesses really thank ol' jonnie!

[Gregory]

Based on the 9:44AM, 50 Quatloos doubledown and say "Jon" is Frisch. Who else would write such SBC marketing blather?

I will be happy if and when the typepad semirandom avatars for Frisch and FUE again differ from mine.

[Gregory]

It does appear "Jon" is avoiding this end-of-thread as best he can... his 9:44AM is unlikely from anyone else's fingertips other than Steven Frisch, the six figure CEO of the wretchedly misnamed Sierra Business Council.

http://rebaneruminations.typepad.com/rebanes_ruminations/2015/06/scattershots-22jun15.html?cid=6a00e54f86f2ad883301bb0848a20f970d#comment-6a00e54f86f2ad883301bb0848a20f970d

[Paul Emery]

Todd

Can you show me one habit for Humanity project that tried to cram 28 houses in two arces?

[Todd Juvinall]

Why not admit you support the government housing Paul Emery. You campaigned as a adviser to the people that made the laws you now dispise. You shot yourself in the foot and just can't admit it.

I think as I recall a little subdivision on Searls your government allowed (subsidized) and it was 15 or twenty houses on a acre. Right past Gold Flat on the left going north. Sam Dardick a noted liberal and your personal friend got a project (subsidized) on a side street off of Brighton were the density was as you seem to not favor. So I assume Urban High Density apartments like those along Sutton are OK with you? 20 units per acre? Otherwise I have no idea what you are talking about.

[Jon]

Hey Gregory, wasn't really following this thread after my SBC comment. No, not Steve, but have seen somewhere a list of the SBC clients and they appeared very diverse. Have also spent a ton of time in Truckee and the North Shore with my contacts, read the stories where the SBC has helped with projects, and I know some of his clients. SBC is very prominent in the Eastern County, even though you can't believe it. Without the benefit of any survey, yes, I am surmising that they are a pretty satisfied group.

[Gregory]

The problem is, "Jon", that both Steven Frisch and Jeff Pelline are liars with this being provable in court. So which one is not lying when "Jon" claims they aren't that one?

[Don Bessee]

Gregory 1234- That kind of sums it up. Lots of smoke blowing toward the sbc sphincter whoever it is. ;-)

[Jon]

Have no clue what you mean by that Gregory. Man, this is too weird. There are only 2 or 3 people at most I could possibly be?

The name is Jon. If you don't like, don't engage me. I'm not particularly interested in engaging you.

[Jon]

That's right Don, I like the work of the SBC, like their philosophy of collaboration, and like to read Steve's comments on various blogs and boards.

[George Rebane]

This morning I received an email from a RR reader, who others may have called a scumbag (I withhold judgment, see below). After a long and painful interval dealing with his ‘contributions’ and conflicts with other commenters, I finally banished the reprobate from these pages while leaving his comment stream legacy largely intact (see below). Subsequently and for some considerable time now, the man has sent me emails threatening to sue whenever any RR commenter makes reference to him, no matter how innocent, oblique, or even without naming him. The guy is a real piece of work, and the record of his comments (some of the more hyperbolic ones I have pulled and archived for the sake of his family) makes me unsure of his mental state. If there ever is a subsequent clinical diagnosis, then I retract my harsh appellations, because one does not use such language with the mentally ill. But given the evidence, I admit that I am afraid of him.

In any event, in his latest attempt to annoy he accuses me of “hypocrisy” for not describing an incident I had during a training flight in my student pilot days some years back. It appears that his logic is also deranged, since he somehow connects that incident with Pelline’s ongoing and meritless attacks on a RR reader and commenter who is a pilot and aircraft owner. Be that as it may, my erstwhile correspondent promises to disclose my flight incident if I don’t fess up to it myself. Now I’m not sure about the relevancy of such a ‘disclosure’, or even that anyone is interested in it, but also knowing what the FUE will make of it – truth was never his strong suit – I have addended the incident in this post’s 27jun15 update. It most certainly is something that I would have eventually included in the My Story category of RR as part of my long time involvement in aviation.

[Todd Juvinall]

Yikes!

[Don Bessee]

Too many litigious lefty loons around here.

[Gregory]

I can guess who.

George, interesting to hear of your flight mishap; it's important to not get fancy and maintain airspeed until you aren't flying or the not flying anymore can be expensive... yes, I can imagine the expense of buying Gordon a new propeller and an engine tear down and inspection, required after a prop strike, plus any other damage from the flop, if you didn't have renter's insurance. Most renters don't bother, but the FBO's insurance doesn't cover the renter and if you total the plane, you're on the hook for all of it.

Gordon is one of the better instructors I've had; he's also tight with a number of the local Burning Man fanatics.

One needs to follow both their heart and their brain in deciding how far to stretch their wings. Some people take a few hours of instruction, get a feel for what it is and what it takes, and decide to stop before taking a solo flight when the obvious safety net of an instructor/commercial pilot is first taken away. Others wait until after the solo when the net is still significant because the student pilot certificate will have specific restrictions written on it and you ain't flying unless they say you can fly, even if the student owns the airplane. Some quit after passing both the written and practical exams, able to plan and take any flight they want and start to learn just how significant having a real pilot. Others, like one pilot of many thousands of hours of solid flight experience I know of have to be dragged out of the airplane despite Alzheimer's being an issue.

EVERY pilot has done something boneheaded. The trick is to learn from them; deciding not to fly anymore is one perfectly valid choice after one of those. You flew an airplane by yourself; the person threatening you is jealous, along with other uncomplimentary things.