Rebane's Ruminations

And then what shall we do?

The company that pits its labor against another’s use of technology loses.  The worker who pits his labor against technology loses. – The John Henry Law & Corollary

George Rebane

[This is the linked transcript of my regular KVMR commentary broadcast on 31 January 2018.]

Let’s take a break from the political goings on in Washington and Sacramento, and consider something that will really change our lives in the not too distant future.  In previous commentaries we have visited the approaching Singularity, when machines, the so-called AIs, surpass human intelligence. (more here, here, and here)  Many people already are aware that we live in the pre-Singularity years as we hear daily reports of smart machines and robots displacing humans in another area of expertise or somewhere new in the workplace.

It wasn’t that long ago when even well-read people still used the ‘never’ word – ‘machines will never be able to do this, or they’ll never best humans doing that.’  Well, today we are already on a slippery slope, and witness machines beating the best humans in the most sophisticated games, outperforming the most knowledgeable humans in more and more areas of medicine (such as diagnostics, prescribing treatments, and even in delicate surgical procedures); machines are already world-class masters in finance and manufacturing.  And autonomous vehicles are taking to the highways, our airspace, and distant battlefields.

The old shibboleth that new technologies will always create more jobs than they destroy has given us hope since John Henry the Steel Driving Man of the 19^th century (here and here), but sadly that no longer holds true.  Today human employment has become more selective than ever, and our current high employment rate is maintained almost entirely by low participation in the workforce, and an expanding economy which itself is driven by increased uses of advanced technologies.

What work humans will do in the next decade or two is anyone’s guess, but you can bet the farm that we all will be competing with tireless, strong, extremely agile, very smart, and much less expensive workers with silicon brains.  And talk about income inequality – you ain’t seen nuthin’ yet.

As an example, let’s turn to a pursuit that almost all of us still think will forever be reserved for humans - making music.  Specifically, composing, producing, and performing it.  Before you write off silicon artists, both unembodied and humanoid, consider how second-best performances already fare in the entertainment and sports markets.  Why do women’s athletics have such a hard time competing with the men for media audiences?  Who today would be interested in following a man vs machine match in which the machine is the guaranteed winner?  And who would even watch a human vs human contest where it is known that they are second rate competitors – an intelligent machine has and would again beat either of them.  In short, consider that we might soon attend human-only competitions with the compassion that today motivates us to watch the Special Olympics or foot races for amputees.

Now imagine watching a perfectly fashioned, fully conversant, pre-sentient android virtuoso violinist or pianist play a difficult classical concerto or some newly composed music that no human could master.  How would we accept such artistry with the knowledge that even the best human virtuoso is not up to the art of the possible?  And beyond that beckon conceivable musics in new audio formats that can only be synthesized by machines, conceived by other machines which have learned to compose aural presentations that are siren-like to the human auditory system, and therefore overwhelmingly pleasing above the consumption of all other previously offered recreational sounds.

In such a fast approaching world, what then will we humans do to challenge, amuse, and entertain ourselves - in short, what shall we do to maintain a purposeful existence?  Today we already see some answers to what people will do when they see themselves as without hope and irrelevant to the established social order.  For the rest of us, our best defense and greatest comfort against such far out notions come from simply ignoring the possibilities, or holding fast to the belief that it will never happen.  But wait a minute, there’s that ‘never’ word again.

My name is Rebane, and I also expand on this and related themes on Rebane’s Ruminations where the transcript of this commentary is posted with relevant links, and where such issues are debated extensively.  However, my views are not necessarily shared by KVMR.  Thank you for listening.

Sandbox - 30jan18

[The old one is full, and this one will probably invite a lot on tonight's POTUS' SOTUS.  I plan to post a separate SOTUS entry in due course, and encourage you to bridge your conversation threads to the comment stream of that entry, for all the obvious reasons.  gjr]

The Invisible Nunes Memo (updated 2feb18)

George Rebane

Rep Devin Nunes, chairman of the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, wrote a memo that summarized what the committee has discovered about the shady doings of the FBI and the DoJ regarding their investigation of all matters Trump during 2016, and now extending into President Trump’s 2017 year in office.

The national Left, led by its Congressional electeds, has gone apoplectic about Nunes’ intent to release the memo so everyone can see what’s been going on in these ‘non-partisan’ investigations.  That, according to every Democrat you ask, is the last thing that their party wants the American people to see.  Led by the committee’s ranking Democrat, Rep Adam Schiff, the memo is characterized as “profoundly misleading”, “political”, and “distorted”, and also too hot for us everyday folks to handle.  Why?  (Seatbelts please) Because part of its basis is classified or restricted, and therefore not available to the rest of us.

Sandbox - 25jan18

[Trump is a hit in Davos despite his strong but stunningly accurate language calling out "shithole countries" which we here have abbreviated into a more decorous SHC.  Now a correspondent informs that SHC should, perhaps, be made into the even more palatable TWN.  TWN? why that's a "Turd-World Nation" of course.  But now we can also examine the Europeans' reaction to Trump's next obvious truth that his administration will promote 'America First' policies, as if protesting Italy would put, say, France first.  gjr]

Ruminations - 23jan18 (updated 27jan18)

George Rebane

Russian concert this Friday at the Amaral Center, NC Fairgrounds.  This is an evening of fantastic music presented by Music in the Mountains that includes Rocky's immortal Piano Concerto #3.  Just had to get this out to you (more here).  And fear not, more ruminations later.  [27jan18 update]  Last night’s Russian concert was outstanding – it was literally as good as it gets.  And it all occurred in our own little community tucked away in the Sierra foothills.  The Sacramento Philharmonic was in exceptional form, no doubt also inspired by the dynamic podium artistry of Maestra Mei-Ann Chen, with whom Jo Ann and I had an extended conversation at the post-performance reception.  The piano artistry and virtuosity of Andrew von Oeyen was unmatched in a flawless and intriguing interpretation of the technically difficult Rachmaninoff’s 3^rd piano concerto (affectionately known as Rocky3).  Von Oeyen is a big man with big hands all of which came into good use during the furious fffff allegros in the piece.  And I should add that conducting Rocky3 is no mean feat, which Maestra Chen again demonstrated in the complete rendition of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition which is a pyrotechnical extravaganza for full orchestra.  What an experience!

[24jan18 update]  While we are culturating the local scene, I must also encourage you to attend the intriguing and outstanding intellectual tour de force musical Marat Sade opening this Friday at the Nevada Theater and running through 10 February.  The play is co-produced by our very own Paul Emery who, in addition to his political derelictions, has long been Nevada County’s celebrated producer, performer, and promoter of musical and dramatic performances.  The play is about “The Persecution and Assassination of Jean-Paul Marat as Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum of Charenton Under the Direction of the Marquis de Sade.”  More about the play and ticketing information is found here.  Jo Ann and I definitely intend to attend.

[25jan18 update]  Mr Stuart Epstein of Rochester, NY qualifies as a world-class socio-political idiot.  His imported letter in today’s Union proposes that the US repeals the new tax law, and “instead spend $1 trillion on a federal government jobs-creation bill that guarantees a job with dignity and respect to all Americans that not only pays well above the official poverty line, but which also pays well above the "near-poverty line" (which is 100 percent to 125 percent of the official poverty line).  It is the "humane" and "just" thing to do.”  The good news is that no liberal in Nevada County has made such an insane proposal - yet.

Former Olympic gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar will spend a very long time in the slammer after the #MeToo tsunami suddenly washed up 150 women to accuse him of sexual harassment.  The science guy in me asks why none of these ladies brought their sufferings to light over the intervening years – that’s an observable that needs to be explained.  It appears that the US Olympic Committee is equally puzzled and has launched an investigation.

The definition of sexual harassment has changed in recent years since we discovered and catered to the infirmity of our campus snowflakes.  This is not to say that sexual harassment did not occur in years past, of course it did.  But it’s reasonable to ask if the boundary line has been moved to include behaviors today that previously were considered to range from harmless to simply annoying.  The decades of silence support such questions.

We need tactical nukes again to provide reasonable alternatives to ‘suicide or surrender’ when facing down autocratic thugs like Putin – so argues Professor Matthew Kroening of Georgetown University in his The Logic of American Nuclear Strategy.  (more here)  Russia has thousands of them; Obama did away with them in 2010.  Reviving our capacity for a limited response to Putin’s threat to use his is the best prophylactic to stop Russia’s new policy of incremental accretion, and will NOT start a new arms race since Russia and China already have them.  (Full disclosure, I was trained in the use of tactical nuclear weapons and served as an artillery officer in a frontline tactical nuclear artillery battalion in the Fulda Gap during the ‘crisis years’.)

[27jan18 update]  Truth seeking socialists rejoice, the government is here to sort it all out for us.  No need to educate the public, the state will feed you what you need to know and allay your fears of ‘fake news’.  (more here)

Graphically True

George Rebane

Two of my favorite cartoonists – one from either side of the aisle – have made recent contributions worth noting.  Ramirez makes an excellent statement about America, with its porous borders, exposing itself to all kinds of ongoing socio-economic insults.  (H/T to reader)

But today’s (20jan18) offering by our own RL Crabb in The Union is of most interest.  He correctly discerns that in recent years it has been that “those who wear a star will decide who will wear the stripes.”  It wasn’t supposed to be that way according to our Constitution.  But in recent years the star-clad enforcers of the various fed agencies (and they all have them, some with military gear) have been the posse/jury/judge/turnkey one-stop shop to put you behind bars.  This new role for law enforcement was brought to a pinnacle by former FBI Director Comey exonerating Hillary from an entire list of obvious crimes.

Now I’m not sure if Bob’s cartoon above is an epiphany, or a tongue-in-cheek revelation of a longheld understanding, or was he even aware of the profundity that his little bearded one uttered.

Sandbox - 19jan18

[Shall we analyze the impact of the Schumer Shutdown and how it will be delivered by the lamestream to the peehpul?  gjr]

‘Truth Decay’ (updated 23jan18)

George Rebane

[This is the addended transcript of my regular KVMR commentary broadcast on 17 January 2018.  A slightly edited version of the broadcast commentary appears here in the 20jan18 Union.]

We are now such a tragically polarized nation that almost all of us believe we are being misled through the various media.  We believe that disinformation and ‘fake news’ make up the major fare we are exposed to, and its source is, of course, from the other side.  Observing this growing socio-political crisis over the recent years, the well-respected and non-partisan Rand Corporation has launched a research program to discover the nature, extent, causes, and possible solutions to what it calls ‘Truth Decay’.  They recently published a report, actually a 326-page book, that describes the problem along with an outline for future research.

The Rand authors, Jennifer Kavanagh and Michael Rich, start by giving a working definition of Truth Decay.  Its four dominant trends are –

1. increasing disagreement about facts and analytical interpretations of facts and data;

2. a blurring of the line between opinion and fact;

3. the increasing relative volume, and resulting influence, of opinion and personal experience over fact;

4. declining trust in formerly respected sources of factual information.

How China Infiltrated U.S. Classrooms

Russ Steele

Taking a lesson from the progressives who have taken over the American education system, spending more time on indoctrination than teaching, China has joined the propaganda brigade.

From Politico:

Last year, the University of North Carolina at Charlotte made an announcement to great fanfare: The university would soon open a branch of the Confucius Institute, the Chinese government-funded educational institutions that teach Chinese language, culture and history. The Confucius Institute would “help students be better equipped to succeed in an increasingly globalized world,” says Nancy Gutierrez, UNC Charlotte’s dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, and “broaden the University’s outreach and support for language instruction and cultural opportunities in the Charlotte community,” according to a press release.

But the Confucius Institutes’ goals are a little less wholesome and edifying than they sound—and this is by the Chinese government’s own account. A 2011 speech by a standing member of the Politburo in Beijing laid out the case: “The Confucius Institute is an appealing brand for expanding our culture abroad,” Li Changchun said. “It has made an important contribution toward improving our soft power. The ‘Confucius’ brand has a natural attractiveness. Using the excuse of teaching Chinese language, everything looks reasonable and logical.” (more here)

Check out the list below are one of your children exposed to China's propaganda?  There are 110 US institutions on the list take from the Confucius Institute website: 　

Scattershots – 15jan18 (updated 18jan18)

George Rebane

Here are a couple of items that are guaranteed to call out the Collectivist Cricket Corps.

High tax states like California and New York are now suddenly devising legislative back flips trying to keep their rich from moving out.  They have come up with a ruse to favor those daily vilified filthy rich (wink, wink) in the form of tax deductible charitable contributions.  And who will be the charity on the receiving end? (Seat belts please) Why their states’ general fund, that’s who.  It works like this.  Suppose your state’s max marginal income tax rate is 13.3%; just a random number I picked out.  And your income is such that you wind up paying $50K tax to the state.  Before tax reform, you would deduct that from your gross adjusted income and pay the federal rate on the remaining.  Since after tax reform you can no longer do that, the Democrat sleazebags in the state houses have a scheme by which you contribute that $50K to a newly cobbled state charity, then deduct it from your adjusted gross income as permitted by the new 2018 tax law, and wind up paying the federal tax on the remaining, just like before.  The state wins, and you win.

All the while this is going on, the socialists, who claim that tax rates make no never mind on economic decisions, continue to convince their constituents that all is well, as they stuff cash back into the pockets of those dastardly rich who pay the lion’s share of their state’s taxes, thereby making possible all the vote-buying programs that keep them in office.  Sweet, but I don’t think the courts are going to buy it since a fundamental tenet of charitable giving is that it’s not supposed to benefit the giver.

And speaking of tax reform, you know, the one that is supposed to take money from the poor, or at least not provide them any benefit while the rich are laughing all the way to their mattresses with all that extra cash to stash.  Here’s just a short list of what’s really going down where real Americans live and work from Forbes, The Hill, Daily Signal, and Washington Examiner, but not from Nancy and Chuckie, that irresistible pair of Lying Lefties.

[update]  Mr George Boardman wrote a thoughtful column in today’s 15jan18 Union (here) describing the (leftwing?) citizens’ initiative to double the recent temporary increase in Grass Valley’s sales tax and make it permanent.  The money would be used for the usual litany of things, from fixing sidewalks to hiring more police and firefighters.  What always remains unasked is why do we need ever higher taxes to do the same things that were accomplished in past years with existing taxes, especially since the community’s population has decreased.  The answers, of course, are obvious and don’t fit the progressives’ narrative, so that discussion continues to be suppressed.

Also, I was again sad to see Mr Boardman’s politically correct use of the ‘transient’ appellation.  Apparently, the population of such transients is not only growing, but their criminal consumption of city facilities and destruction of surrounding woodlands is now pretty much out of hand.  Wasn’t it not that long ago that people who had no visible means of support, lived, trashed and slept in public areas, panhandled, and otherwise made citizens apprehensive and brought a lasting pall on a community, weren’t they called bums?  With all of Nevada County’s welcoming and nurturing programs in place, why should anyone like that consider himself a transient?  Transients are people who come, work, recreate, shop, and temporarily enjoy themselves here and then leave.  Why continue to confuse the issue?

That California is particularly afflicted with such problems through its massive misspent and mismanaged welfare programs that are highlighted in Russ Steele's 958am comment below.  The Left’s solution to the problem has always been an unabashed practice of Einsteinian insanity.  There is no evidence that this practice will abate.

[16jan18 update]  Back in 2007 Mike McDaniel and I wrote an SESF report (link here)on the already disastrous state of unfunded liabilities in government workers’ pensions accrued to almost every jurisdiction in California, including Nevada County.  We presented our results to our Supes, who sniffed that we didn’t really understand the sophisticated finances of pension funding and that there was nothing to worry about (more here).  Now eleven years later, even progressives are beginning to realize that the horribly negotiated pension contracts for government employees will most likely be paid off in some fraction on the anticipated dollar.  Today finally, the epiphanies are coming on daily.  It’s hard to tell whether our own left-leaning graphical commentator Bob Crabb is evincing one of his own, or just reporting what is happening across the state in his cartoon filched from 16jan18 Union.

[18jan18 update]  By now everyone should have heard about Apple ‘repatriating’ some of their off-shore billions thanks to President Trump.  And what will they do with that money after they pay the 15% federal repatriation tax (about $38B), why they’ll increase executive salaries and bonuses, pay huge dividends to shareholders, and stuff the rest into mattresses – not.  Actually, as a result they’ll contribute about $350B to the US economy through expansions of new facilities, development of new products, and creating over 20,000 new jobs.  And guess in what state they will not expand their operations – c’mon folks, you can do it.

Meanwhile our leftwing politicians, lamestream media, and local lying liberals (here) continue practicing ‘truth decay’ (here) telling Americans that the new tax reform law (for which no Democrat voted) only benefits corporations, the rich, and raises taxes for the middle class and poor. (more here)

The bottom line of all this repatriation by corporations amounts to about $2.5T (yep, that's trillion) into the US economy from which the feds will collect about $340B in taxes over the next ten years.  And the impact of all this money into America's pockets will cause the socialists to soil their shorts.  A good interactive graphic explanation of all this is available to WSJ subscribers here; none of this will be covered by the lamestream as will be evident in these pages by the comments from our more blindered readers.

http://www.wsj.com/graphics/tax-repatriation/ 

Sandbox - 14jan18

[Time for some fresh sand as we defocus from the SHC affair.  gjr]

Nancy Eubanks – Local Devious Demagauge

George Rebane

Ms Nancy Eubanks is one of Nevada County’s prominent progressive voices whose litanies appear regularly in the local press.  In this morning’s (13jan18) Union she assumes her mantel of high dudgeon against the greedy rich, and again champions class warfare and the politics of unrequited envy (here).  Today’s sermon from her mount is a devious diatribe on the impact of the new tax law designed to convince the ignorant that this legislation once more allows the rich to rob the poor.

Her punchline is that “… the top 0.1 percent will now get a tax cut of $179,000. The average person making between $25,000 and $48,000 will get a temporary tax cut of $310.”  This is raw meat for the unread and the innumerates.  The Tax Foundation tallies the relevant data (here).  It turns out that her quoted range neatly straddles the bottom 50% of taxpayers who pay 2.75% of all income taxes, while the top 1% (not 0.1%) pay almost 40% of all income taxes on slightly more than 20% of all earnings, and way more than all of the top 90% of taxpayers.  And those in her quoted earnings range are overwhelmingly among the 44% of American who pay no federal individual income taxes (here), which explains why the remainder pay only 2.75% of the total federal income taxes collected.

And Dame Nancy again repeats the socialists’ favorite fiscal shibboleth – tax rates do not impact economic growth, and its most favored version “there is no correlation between tax cuts for the rich and job and wage growth.”  To her and hers it still appears that the rich just continue to shove their added incomes into mattresses and Cayman Island banks.  The last thing they do is consume, invest, and start/grow companies, all of which create and maintain America’s jobs.

On Immigration and ‘S#!thole Countries’ (updated 13jan18)

George Rebane

No matter what he actually said in that White House meeting on immigration policy, President Trump has again focused a policy discussion on a crux of the matter instead of continuing the same ol’ same ol’ circling of the barn.  I don’t want to debate whether he actually said “shithole country” as the press is attributing, but I hope he did if it gets us off the dime in deciding who should be let in to serve America’s interests as a sovereign and sustainable nation-state.

Because this is a family-oriented blog (hah!), and in the ensuing discussion we will want to continue using that colorful descriptor without gratuitously sprinkling dirty words all over these pages, I will use the three-letter acronym SHC in the sequel for both expedience and, perhaps, collateral decorum.  Nevertheless, the meaning of that appellation will be made and should remain clear.

Instead of working on a more polished commentary, I decided to quickly anchor my contribution to the topic in a structured list of propositions that I believe are also embraced more or less by other conservetarians.  If they are also Bayesians like me, then their beliefs of the following will range from near zero (impossible) to near unity (certain), and in the process never saying never for either extreme.

Ruminations – 9jan18 (updated 11jan18)

George Rebane

If Oprah runs for president in 2020, I guess our progressives will then label her as a “liar” since she has long maintained that she would not run for public office.  You think that standard has application on both sides of the aisle?  Nah, neither do I.

The Dems and their El Salvadorean (et al) ‘temporary’ aliens have adopted Lucy’s argument for Charlie Brown to kick the football again.  Just let us in to stay for a while to get relief from the crappy situation in our own land, and we’ll go home peacefully when our time is up.  But now, ‘Oh, look at all the kids we’ve had and how much we enjoy it here, and we can’t go back home now because it’s still too crappy there.’  How many times does that vote-buying amnesty football have to be pulled before the Repubs wise up and not play that game anymore?

Our own Russ Steele has a piece (here) in the 9jan18 Union advocating broadband in which he points out “Communities with high-speed internet grow faster than those with just limited broadband access, according to studies.”  I think he’s identified why Nevada County is adopting broadband, cell reception, and other growth inducing technologies at a snail’s pace, and it might just have something to do with flying in tight formation with Agenda21.

The Union published the names of its new editorial board today (here).  And I’m pleased to point out that my bride Jo Ann made the cut.

It turns out that all those pro-capitalist Republicans in Congress are piss poor at marketing their new tax reform law.  On social media we have the Repubs’ “#2059More” vs the Dems’ “#GOPTaxScam” – I kid you not, more here.  Some people should apply for a full tuition refund for their MBAs in marketing because their schools didn’t teach them anything.  Meanwhile prune-faced Pelosi continues unabashedly to publish her lamestream-ignored and widely accepted lie, that the new law would “raise taxes on 86 million middle class families.”

In the Stats for Fun’n Profit Department we see that California’s unemployment rate of 4.0% beats the national 4.1% rate.  As a lifelong practitioner of the mathematical arts, it is always amusing to see how you can mangle squigglies until they yield the desired answer, no matter how mind boggling.  We recall that one third of the country’s welfare recipients live, and are apparently gainfully employed, in the Golden State (natch!).  BTW, Nevada County's unemployment is reported at 3.4%, go figger.

[10jan18 update]  The 10jan18 Union published a letter from its former editor who again duns columnist and RR reader George Boardman.  For some years now the FUE has been on a rag about Mr Boardman, who on that same palette is joined by several others like cartoonist Bob Crabb, the Union’s management, and even yours truly just to underline a point.  The letter itself drips of the journalist’s trademark pettiness (here), and its publication for all to see explains the newspaper’s tongue-in-cheek for letting light shine on its number one critic ensconced in perpetual high dudgeon.  Sweet.

Former CA criminals who can’t get a liquor license are now being encouraged by Sacramento to become “Marijuana Entrepreneurs” and start selling pot under the state’s new legalized MJ law.  Jason Riley details (here) this latest butt-stupid progressive policy to spread social justice and equal opportunity, all that since most of the targeted would-be ‘entrepreneurs’ to receive the state’s latest “affirmative action” benefits are Hispanic or black.

By any measure the IRS is an action arm of the Democratic party.  Now it claims immunity from congressional oversight because (seatbelts please) “its rules lack a ‘significant economic impact’ because they’re ‘derived from’ statutes.”  You can read the details of this latest dose of progressive pabulum in a report by the Cause of Action Institute reported in the 10jan18 WSJ (here and here) where they correctly conclude - This is pablum (alternate spelling). Were it correct, rules from every federal agency would be exempt from oversight, since all agency rules are based in statute. If other agencies adopted this mind-set, it would gut oversight of the regulatory state by the elected branches.

Ever notice the ratio of crappy leftwing vs rightwing policies and proposals?  A short perusal of RR and its comment streams reveals the butt-stupid ratio (perhaps a new public policy metric) to be somewhere between 50:1 to 100:1 in favor of the Left.  The above two entries in this post are just some recent examples from a tsunami of thousands which this country must endure daily.  And also notice when a Republican blunder is encountered, the lamestream and, of course, our local lefty neighbors in these pages go ballistic.  But the constant daily stream of progressive potholes encountered as the country bravely marches into the future is totally ignored in the national media.  Were it not for conservative talk radio, cable news, and rightwing blogs, we’d hear nary a whisper of this silent disaster unfolding.  And some still wonder what are the forces that continue to widen the breach between us.  Some futures are easy to foretell.

[11jan18 update]  Well sumbich, the Princeton Environmental Institute has published its recent study in the prestigious Nature reporting how current climate models (actually called the General Circulation Models) underestimate the effects of clouds on earth’s temperatures.  Even with these findings they still have to tow the party line, but the seams in the ‘Pay no attention …’ curtain are clearly fraying.  I have been among those who for years pointed out that and other weaknesses in the GCMs used by the global warming hysteria mongers.  Now it seems that one of their own is becoming more skeptical of the purveyed ‘science’ that camouflages our knowledge of what’s really going on with earth’s constantly changing climate.  And again, the PEI guys can only assess their particular part of the enormously complex GCMs which are cobbled together by dozens of cloistered specialists each contributing their part to the resulting Mulligan stew.  (more here and here)

County’s Cannabis Conundrum Continues (updated 9jan18)

George Rebane

The Union this (8jan18) morning has a problem connecting some dots when they claim that 1) RMJ retailers can’t get licensed in the county because they must buy product only from licensed growers, and 2) the county has yet to forge a new MJ ordinance that allows county growers to get licensed.  What the front-page report (here) misses is that licensed RMJ retailers can buy product from licensed growers in other counties.  Instead it offers this confusing verbiage –

A licensed dispensary can only buy from licensed growers. Nevada County has no licensed cultivators because its grow ordinance forbids commercial activity. Local growers can't get state licenses because of that ordinance. … That means once a dispensary sells all its Nevada County product, there won't be any more.

If that obvious approach of buying out-of-county is not possible, then the piece should have clearly stated it instead of leaving readers hanging.

Then in the same issue's op-ed pages we have a column (here) by county Republican chair Bob Hren decrying the Citizens Advisory Group (CAG) report and how it was drafted.  The CAG draft report will be presented to the Supes tomorrow 9jan18 at 130pm and you can read it here.

Sandbox - 6jan18

[Not much talk about Wolff's book on Trump.  Anybody reading it yet?  I thought that would be a hot topic.  Hmmm ...   gjr]

Scattershots – 4jan18

George Rebane

The 2018 Tax Reform Act is legislation that I believe will overall reduce taxes for almost all Americans, and with its business-friendly provisions will give a significant boost to GDP growth.  However, its SALT (state and local taxes) provision disturbs me because it is intrinsically flawed both functionally and, yes, ethically.  The latter because it allows the various taxing jurisdictions to make the wage earner pay more in taxes than the total amount he earned.  SALT bases its tax amounts on the total amount earned before any other mandated taxes, fees, and tributes are paid.  If all taxing jurisdictions practice SALT – say local rate is 25%, state rate is 35%, federal rate is 45% - then the taxpayer may wind up owing more than a 100% of his earnings in taxes.  Such policies are intrinsically unfair and unethical.  The jurisdictions should decide their sequence of taxation – say, first local then state then federal – and each apply their rates to the amount that the taxpayer has left after paying his prior tax obligations.  That way the total taxes may approach 100%, but they will never exceed it like in the above example where the taxes sum to 105% of earnings.

America’s Left either does not understand the use of force by nations, or is consciously working to have our country capitulate to or be destroyed by a foreign power.  As outlined most recently in ‘America’s Checkpoints’, I believe in the former.  It is unconscionable that Democrats like Schumer and Pelosi will hold defense upgrades hostage to their vote buying spending programs.  Without a formidable military feared by our enemies, diplomacy sings castrato.  In short, without credible arms there will be no United States to earn the redistributed monies for our entitlement programs.  And the Left knows this as it plays brinkmanship with what should be a non-partisan funding priority were we truly all Americans.  Mark Helprin of the Claremont Institute lays out the details of the current dire situation in his ‘America’s Alarmingly Archaic Arsenal’.

And jumping from perfidy to insanity, the Left’s class warfare and identity politics cadres have come up with a new one for the campus wars, soon to be seen on a lamestream commentary near you.  The core contention in understanding the new black-white dialogue on campuses is, “One, that civility, as currently practiced in America, is a white construct. Two, that in a campus setting, the “woke” white student’s endeavor to avoid microaggressions against black peers is itself a microaggression—a form of noblesse oblige whereby white students are in fact patronizing students of color. Not only that, but by treating black students with common courtesy and expecting the same in return, white students elide black grievances, bypassing the “race talk” that is supposed to occur in preamble to all other conversations. Got it?”

And it gets worse in the context of reasoned debates in which reason is now considered racist.  So, “increasingly at major competitions, there must be a pre-debate debate on the terms of engagement: whether students are required to cite proof or are free to argue wholly from their feelings and so-called lived experience. Far from being banned or even maligned by debate judges, such antics increasingly win converts and, not coincidentally, matches.”  And there is no requirement that your “lived experience” bears any resemblance to the real world.  “Students are pointedly discouraged from rebutting feelings that don’t jibe with verifiable reality.”  (more here)

America’s Checkpoints

George Rebane

[This is the addended transcript of my regular KVMR commentary broadcast on 3 January 2018.]

Before we get into the more serious part of the commentary, I want to wish all KVMR listeners a healthy and prosperous 2018.  We all know it will be another extraordinary year no matter what your political outlook and hopes.

Last Sunday, New Year’s Eve, Jo Ann and I were preparing for a quiet and intimate evening with friends to enjoy a dinner in front of the fireplace, listen to some laid-back jazz, and play our favorite game of cards while keeping an eye on the happenings in Time Square with the TV on mute.  The Christmas decorations were still up, and the décor extended the festive mood from what turned out to be an entire month of holiday celebrations at our house.  And then I was suddenly reminded of what we saw on the news before our guests arrived.

The afternoon’s major coverage was about how secure the New Year’s celebrations were going to be across the country, starting of course with Times Square.  There we were shown long lines of would be revelers all lined up at checkpoints manned by police and other serious looking people with submachine guns at the ready, keeping their trained eyes on our east coast neighbors waiting to be allowed in and start celebrating.  We were assured by the newscaster and various officials that there would be, not one, but two cordons of security checkpoints that everyone would have go through before being granted ‘admission’ to one of the most public, open, and historically accessible spaces in the nation.  These scenes brought back many memories and a moist eye, because I was looking at what my country had become in a few short years.

Journalism’s Mea Culpa?

George Rebane

Was interested to see the nearby full-page ad in the 3jan18 WSJ.  Given that ignorance, indifference, ideology, illiteracy, … are all qualities that often decorate and distinguish their ‘factual, fair, and balanced’ work products, RR has long viewed the journalism profession with a gimlet eye (here).  But now things have apparently gotten so bad that international associations for journalists openly admit that “reporters worldwide” have come to report “falsehoods”, perhaps even unwittingly, for which now organizations such as the International Center for Journalists go to great pains to advertise their ability to “empower” workers in the field to “produce reliable coverage using new technologies and best practices(sic).”  Well, then what kind of unreliable coverage have journalists been producing using their old technologies and sub-par practices?

In any case, this appears to be a step in the right direction when the industry begins to publicly admit that it has not been performing up to snuff while wallowing in the rising tide of fake news and “falsehoods”, much of it auto-generated to promote agendas and sustain favored ideological narratives.  The ICFJ website is worth visiting.  While their mission statement is commendable, methinks their orientation is not as innocent as they would have you believe.  Mostly, I wonder what are their methods of ‘empowerment’.  But since they are also funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, they can’t be all bad, can they?

Sandbox - 1jan2018

[Checking back to my 1jan17 post below, I can’t help but smile as I reprise that posting and again advise RR readers to prepare for a 2018 that will both entertain and astonish those of us who take a keen interest in the world’s stage on which the play of comedy and farce -  i.e. of politics and politicians – will quicken its pace.  Without an unforeseen intervention by the Almighty, the Dems will rue the day that they offered to the American electorate replays of the Trump Derangement Syndrome as their only public policy of record.  Happy 2018!  gjr]

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[Again a Happy New Year to all RR readers and its diligent band of commenters of all political shades who do their dharma battles on these pages.  This year promises to be even more exciting than 2016 – who knew that Trump would win? - if one can conceive that possibility.  Last New Year’s day (1jan16) I opened a new sandbox with these words.

Happy New Year! to all RR readers.  This year will turn out more exciting and surprising than any of us can anticipate.  From the socialists' perspective, they are at the cusp of a victory from which they can deal a deathblow to American capitalism and institute their new economic order as part of the country's fundamental transformation that Obama promised and has already launched.  We conservatarians also see this as a cusp year, but given the disarray of the Republicans, it will be one from which a 2016 Democrat defeat will deliver little besides delaying the day of reckoning between collectivism and open markets capitalism.  So I thought it would be appropriate to start the year with a fresh sandbox.  gjr]