Scattershots – 16sep16 (updated 20sep16)

George Rebane

Nevada City is my home town, a place unbelievably charming and full of character nestled with its sister city Grass Valley in the Sierra foothills.  We discovered it 25 years ago and have lived here for the last fourteen.  It is a community founded by miners, expanded by agriculture and timber, and 'modernized' by contending high tech firms and pot smoking hippies.  Today our county is a place starkly divided between people who want to maintain the culture that made America and this area the desired places to be in the world, and those who have a vision for mankind that requires a fundamental transformation of our beliefs and values.

And the stark reality is that when the hippies arrived, county growth literally stopped save in the marijuana grows which dot the fields and forests hereabouts.  Today starting anything in our county is often likened to getting into a land war in Asia.  And our local leftwing likes just so as it continues to promote the image that happy dancing bohemians with no visible means of support is what makes it all work.  Agriculture contributes less than 5% to the county’s weal which now serves mainly as a bedroom community for the I-80 corridor and nearby towns in the central valley.  But if nothing else, the Left is expert in promoting economic decline mainly through the media.  Witness this little propaganda film that gives a very one-sided view of people who work and make their home here.  (H/T to reader)

Meanwhile California is leading the nation on its forced march toward Scandinavian socialism.  It now leads the nation in poverty and stagnation as it diverts attention to coastal enclaves of successful high tech companies from whose workers and owners it gets the lion share of its revenues.  The rest of the state is regulated to a virtual standstill with more yet to come.  RR readers alerted me to this piece by national correspondent Joel Kotkin that makes the case (here).  Sacramento is hands down the socialist capital of America, and under the Left is successfully reversing every initiative, referendum, and proposition that Californians have voted for in their foolishly hopeful quest for self-government – see the latest overturning of California's Political Reform Act which will permit the central planners to start funding political races (here).

On "illegal aliens" and immigration President Clinton was once one of us as you view his 1995 State of the Union speech (here).  Now Donald Trump advancing the identical policy is considered "anti-immigrant", "xenophobic", "Islamophobic", and "racist" for promoting the "hate speech" we all believed twenty years ago, and now apparently only supported by Les Deplorables.

[19sep16 update]  Longstanding Rebane Doctrine tenet – when something significant goes wrong, government is guilty until proven innocent.  If given such a bet, take it; you have the odds.  Another confirmation today from the DHS Inspector General – 1,023 Muslims from bad countries were to be deported, instead they were made naturalized citizens.  It is impossible to make this stuff up.  Government incompetence mounts by the day.  While Team Obama declares to the nation that the Islamic terror that has ravaged the country is to be viewed as “just a war of narratives”, and not one against Islamic fundamentalism that has again targeted western civilization in its totality, the attacks continue.  And finally the Washington Post admits that it’s really “two different world views” that divide our country, a proposition revealed here almost ten years ago and denigrated by our now tuck-tailed progressive readership.  The bottom line is that Chief Incompetent Obama has demonstrably motivated and opened up America to Muslim terrorists, both ‘home grown’ and legally/illegally imported.  Only one candidate calls that spade a spade, and should be trusted to fight it.

[20sep16 update]  As reported in the the LA Times, gun control fanatic Senator Dianne Feinstein hit a new low in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee last Thursday in a desperate attempt to promote her latest anti-firearms bill; she declared, "All vets are mentally ill in some way and government should prevent them from owning firearms."

Performances like this from California legislators (federal and state) are legion, which caused the newspaper’s columnist Burt Prelutsky to observe,  "Frankly, I don't know what it is about California , but we seem to have a strange urge to elect really obnoxious women to high office. I'm not bragging, you understand, but no other state, including Maine, even comes close. When it comes to sending left-wing dingbats to Washington, we're Number One. There's no getting around the fact that the last time anyone saw the likes of Barbara Boxer, Dianne Feinstein, Maxine Waters, and Nancy Pelosi, they were stirring a cauldron when the curtain went up on ' Macbeth '. The four of them are like jackasses who happen to possess the gift of blab. You don't know if you should condemn them for their stupidity or simply marvel at their ability to form words." (H/T to reader)

Comments

[Todd Juvinall]

It is all a lack of common sense in my view. Name the issue and there are two sides. One with common sense and one with PC. Today the SacBee had a little ditty from the eco freak Seth Borenstein, official eco warrior for the AP. It was about the "shrinking" ice at the arctic. Reading the article it actually says the ice sheet is the same as it was in 2007! Yet the rest of the article is a "scientist" spouting how it is shrinking! Not one question by Seth about where all that melted water went. I thought aybe the seas were rising. Anyway, California is a mess and it goes right on down to the local level. Seems NID is the only place left with a brain.

[Gary Smith]

I am following a few pieces of legislation that have passed and are sitting on our Governor Jerry Brown's desk. Always at the end of each legislative sessions there is a flurry of action and bills are passed in mass quantities. When the current session ended on Sept. 1st, the legislators sent 787 bills for the Gov. to pass or veto by Oct. 1st. Bills are passed and signed thorough out the year. Do we really need about 1000 new laws every year? There are so many new laws every year now, I can't keep track of it. I would be in favor of a Calif. constitutional amendment that said for every new law, there would have be an old law come off the books. I know, too simplistic, never going to happen.

[George Rebane]

GaryS 333pm - Yes, that has been a longtime tenet of the Rebane Doctrine on these pages. All legislative bodies should have an organic and integrated function that does nothing but continues to vet the body of existing law to identify those that are outdated, no longer necessary, or just plain harmful. And therefore legislatures should be heralded for the commensurate productivity of having removed so many laws from the books during each session. Those are the kind of politicians I would be willing to support.

[Gregory]

Sunset clauses may be better. If it's worth keeping, it's worth a new vote in a decade or so. Automagically, not if someone notices that it's past its useful lifetime. Make it trigger a sunset vote on newer laws that depend on it at the same time.

[George Rebane]

Gregory 505pm - Agreed, but sunsets are in Christmases yet to come. The overwhelming pile of crap that needs to cleared is already on the books.

[Walt]

Yes, our good doc.,, the hipsters have been the scourge of this once great place.
Since they got chased out of Frisco in 69, it's been all downhill since 1970.

[fish]

jeffpelline says:

September 16, 2016 at 7:56 pm

On his blog, George Rebane is struggling with the concept of this documentary. lol.

I think disagreeing would be a more appropriate description. But really what do I know, I don't have a Certificate in Modern Coffee Retrieval Methods....err....a J School masters!

Oh my.....it seems that many who fancy themselves as shapers of opinions have unusually thin skins....apparently a veritable slew of high strung jeffy types populate print media!

Who knew....?

From Instapundit -

The other problem, especially for opinion sites like The Spectator, is the comments have become the place that make the writers cry. Sure, there’s lots of inane chatter in the comment threads, but it is also where some smart people post corrections and point out the many glaring logical errors. Guys like Damian Thompson have fragile psyches so seeing their mistakes highlighted for everyone to see, right under their posts, is a source of constant distress. Look at the first comment under that blog post.

When you live in the snow globe of opinion journalism, the outside world is horrifying. That’s why you went into the snow globe in the first place, to get away from the cold, pitiless world of reality. The Spectator is a collegial place where peers josh with one another, engage in witty repartee, but always respect their “shared dignity.” Those angry Dirt People in the comments with their facts and reason just don’t get it. Many of them don’t even have a PhD (or Masters from Northwestern - fish). They are ruining it for everyone!

http://thezman.com/wordpress/?p=8580

Cross posted elsewhere at Boardmans!

[Todd Juvinall]

And Jeffy and the rest of us are all racists according to some idiot with a Union Column today. These PC people are ridiculous. Maybe Jeffy can do a "what the hell" response column?

[Todd Juvinall]

My little response to the fellows rant on local racism on the Union's site.

"Sorry you feel that way Berkheimer. I realize you picked the "whitest" county in California to relocate too with your free will of course. But to condemn the whole community to your racism fantasies is over the top. My understanding is the black's who were harassed at Rollins were harassed by out of county people. So right there you are fibbing. And the "Black Lives Matter" banners were taken by whom? You don't know so you blame the 13,000 people of Grass Valley. Ridiculous. It seems to me when a person writes tripe such as yours, they are really writing about themselves. You could have moved to Watts or Oakland and shown us all what a really compassionate and caring man you are for "minorities". But alas, you did not. It has been my experience that "minorities" have always been welcome and I personally have never seen a local person show racism to them. And that is since 1950. So take your guilt and PC and go blame the real culprits of racism. Race hustlers , Al Sharpton and Reverend Wright and leave out little community alone."

[fish]

Posted by: Todd Juvinall | 17 September 2016 at 09:28 AM

Remember Todd that charges of "racism" are hurled to keep you quiet about matters political nothing more.

[George Rebane]

ToddJ 941am - Thanks for that Berkheimer response, it saved me the trouble. But yes, the bleeding hearts don't want to stay in communities f%#ked beyond recognition by their public policies. Their standard response has always been to migrate to wholesome communities that still embrace traditional American values, and then get busy in changing the local culture to one that sports a trail of devastation. We in Nevada County are in the throes of it today.

[Todd Juvinall]

Yes we are in the throes as these liberals move here and do their best to "change" us into where they came from. I am in a back and forth with that character and he has yet to admit the perps in the Rollins Lake case were from out of county. And he says he is not saying the whole county is guilty even though he wrote the headline as such. Honestly they are mentally ill. Anyway he has not agreed to move to Oakland to help those folks so he is just a lib bloviator.

[Bill Tozer]

Some fine blogger posted here recently about the dilution of the effect of hurling racial ephitates towards us knuckledraggers. Commentator's name escapes me. But, the point is when a real racist, homophobe, xenophobia, irredeemable sexist Gobel like moi or Trump! comes along, the words have lost their sting. Like, "yeah, you always say that, everytime." Yawn.

Todd,the article was fair considering where the writer is coming from. We (collective we) can do better. Plus, that banner thang at his House of Worship. If bullfrogs could fly, they wouldn't bump their rump on a log either. The writer found 2 examples of racism in these parts, but who even knows if it is a neighbor who thinks the sign is ugly or a uncivilized homeless person wandering up from the Safeway parking lot venting on something. Maybe a dude stumbling home from the bar and thought it is a great idea.

Bottomline is that we were told we are not included in the discussions of race relations for the past 30 years, generally. I would love to have the dialogue. Like to get to the disease and not just toss some coin at the symptoms. The symptoms are so easy to see everywhere in Urban America. Crime, education, infrastructure, out of wedlock birth rates, youth unemployment, decaying neighborhoods and the crushing of the human spirit.

At least us in the peanut gallery peddle hope, but we are not invited to the party. So, have at it Mr. Banner and make the world a better world, a world of conformity. Did notice the blacks don't think too highly of YT joining in the dialogue recently, so some Enlightened White Ones on the Left may find out in the near future that they done got locked out of the discussion.
I don't live in the ghetto (ghetto is banned word, gasp!- makes one sad) nor am a descendant of Africian slaves brutally snatched and sold off by Arab merchants to the world beyond the horizon. So, I cannot contribute much. WhenTom Joad speaks, I at least listen.

In the meantime, us (lefties) here in the safe neck of the woods far away from the rats in the cage can figure out the solution to the disease. The disease? Just Google Pine Ridge Rez sometime and you will get the picture. Reservation, plantation, it's all the same. Slave mentality mixed with white guilt and neither Establishment Parties really want to talk about certain neighborhoods in code word communities that not even law abiding armed black men want to walk into after 4pm.
.
Shall we all kneel now in a moment of silence for our Brethen who are still suffering.

[Walt]

See all those bumper stickers that say "coexist"? (be nice to other cultures)
Their "side" sure did a number on the local culture that existed before they showed up.
"They" didn't like it. Mining, logging etc.Anyone who made a living off what was here.
Yet now they tout the "beauty" of places like Malakoff diggings. So "pretty" they made a state park out of it. Yet call the miners who created it the scum of the world.
So much for that "coexist" crap. Same goes for the loggers. You know,, the ones that made lumber for the houses they live in.

[Gregory]

Tolerance in Germany is now blonde, blue eyed women adopting the hijab.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pu9K2TCON58

Submit, and everyone becomes more tolerant. Maybe you won't get raped if you dress modestly.

That's the same message of tolerance the tolerant Left has in this town. Or as the Crabb cartoon image for the greens put it, "Just agree with us, OK?"

[fish]

Posted by: Gregory | 17 September 2016 at 01:33 PM

City of Lights degenerating into a third world shithole too! I hoped that the French wouldn't put up with this type of nonsense!

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-09-16/welcome-paris

[Gregory]

fishy 9:22
"struggling"?

A bizarre word choice for the Supersized former The Union editor. I don't think anyone is "struggling" with the puff piece that has, to date, raised about $2k.

Looks like a labor of self love, something Pelline can identify with.

Or as a song once said,
"What a field day for the heat
A thousand people in the street
Singing songs and carrying signs
Mostly say, hooray for our side"

An even older song went
"We are the Folk Song Army,
Every one of us... cares!
We all hate poverty, war and destruction
Unlike the rest of you squares"

[Bill Tozer]

Fish, the video shows tons of bored men from what I can tell. Bet they are asking themselves but one question right about now.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=jGQ-ISsDm8M

Oh yeah, trigger warning. Multiple violations.

[fish]

Posted by: Gregory | 17 September 2016 at 02:54 PM

Looks like a labor of self love, something Pelline can identify with.

Of that I have no doubt!

[Paul Emery]

George RE Hippies:

Just to insure we are operating from a common glossary can you give me your defination of a "Hippie" ?

[George Rebane]

PaulE 313pm - I dunno, the usual definition like in dictionary.com is a good common starting point. We can, of course, gin up an updated version also.

hippie(n) - a person, especially of the late 1960s, who rejected established institutions and values and sought spontaneity, direct personal relations expressing love, and expanded consciousness, often expressed externally in the wearing of casual, folksy clothing and of beads, headbands, used garments, etc.

[Walt]

George. Add Deadbeat, demands others pay one's way, believes in fabricated disasterism,
Demands tolerance, yet has none of anyone else. Then of course, still believes drugs are fine and dandy.

[Walt]

It's about damned time.
http://www.breitbart.com/texas/2016/09/16/black-dallas-cop-sues-black-lives-matter-soros-inciting-race-war/

[George Rebane]

Many thanks Mr Tozer, it is now on my reading list.

[Todd Juvinall]

George Boardman is defending the idiot who wrote his racism piece. And guess what? He can prove it is here! GB says he saw a attractive black woman in Raley's ten years ago. And he noticed those white people looking at her. OMG! Yes that is proof the county's people are racists. You cannot make this stuff up.

[Todd Juvinall]

Oh I forgot. He is mocking Rebane and me. The man is delusional.

[BradC]

"And the stark reality is that when the hippies arrived, county growth literally stopped save in the marijuana grows which dot the fields and forests hereabouts." - not true, unless you change the phrase 'hippie arrived' to 'Tech Bubble burst, timber harvest regulations became more restrictive, mining activity ceased, real estate prices went up, etc.'. It is laughable to try to equate the arrival of pot smoking hippies with the end of 'county growth'- at most, it would be a coincidence.

Not sure about the 'ag contributes 5%' to the local economy' statement. Does that 5% figure include 'agricultural pharmaceuticals'?

[Bill Tozer]

Concerning update:

From my little corner of the world, if we cannot vet Peaceful Muslims terrorists and America haters from certain code word countries (as per the FBI and DHS), then the immigration door must be shut tighter camel's butt in a sandstorm.
If we cannot properly vet, then that means we (Big Brother) is allowing terrorists into our country. That is 100% unacceptable. Period. Let that sink in. We are letting raghead terrorists/mass murderers into our country. Heaven forbid we look out for OUR interests. Unlike Khan from Londonstan, this is not something we have to live with. No, this is not something we have to accept and move on. BTW, the first thing Khan from Londonstan did was ban fashion ads with scantily clad female models from London's buses. Hmmm. Wonder what he would do if the ads on buses were of young men or gay boys, lol.

https://www.facebook.com/RowdyConservatives/photos/a.217983685002343.55586.217926015008110/916064551860916/?type=3&theater

Time for us to stop the bloodletting.
https://www.facebook.com/vivacityy/photos/a.10152607670626907.1073741826.268962736906/10154607591321907/?type=3&theater

Yes, I realize I am deplorable, yet my Mom thought I was redeemable. So there.

[Bill Tozer]

"All vets are mentally ill in some way....". Well, speaking only for myself, no agrument here. "Think it would be a nice night for swim", says the future mentally ill. :)

https://sofrep.com/64111/watch-somali-pirates-mistakenly-attack-naval-vessel-dark/