Scattershots – 5feb18 (updated 9feb18)

George Rebane

Lots of pot businesses coming to Nevada City.  In the 5feb18 Union our George Boardman documents (here) the lament he shares with many of the town’s locals and most certainly many other county residents.  Now I’m a longtime proponent of legalizing MJ (to avoid Einsteinian insanity), but I’m not yet smart enough to know how best to do it.  My advice has been for our little community not to spearhead bringing in multiple dispenseries and processing facilities – let some others do it first and let’s see what we can learn from them before making our county the state’s Marijuana Mecca.  We need to heed Mr Boardman’s call for more citizens to get involved in debating this on councils and boards.  (See also Don Bessee's related byline here.)

The Nunes memo was the modest payload, and now here comes a load Schiff’s chaff to cloud the entire matter of congressional oversight of the DoJ and FBI which have clearly transgressed.  But that they have done their dirty work in favor of the Dems, they now get their deserved protection.  The people most hurt by all this will be those who have not been paying attention – they will simply throw up their hands say ‘A pox on both your houses’, and dismiss the whole issue and other evidence to come.  Which is exactly what the Dems want.

The markets are making their long-awaited correction.  Many retail investors have started investing with the new robo-advisors that more and more financial houses are offering.  The fever recently jumped the pond and is picking up steam in Europe (here).  I wonder how the robo-advisors are taking this correction into account.  Do they see it as the buying opportunity that it will turn out to be?

[6feb18 update] Medical care is surprisingly lethal.  The current (3feb18) issue of The Economist features technological advances in the healthcare industry that increasingly lets each of us become more involved in detecting, diagnosing, and doctoring our inevitable ailments.  This will provide two major areas of benefits – lower costs and better treatments.  By ‘better’ is meant that they will be more timely and effective.  And both factors are related to your untimely death.  Timely, because all socialized (‘single payer’) health care programs have unconscionably long waiting times for care, and effective because all medical practice is shot through with lethal medical mistakes.  Countries with nationalized healthcare don’t keep those stats for obvious reasons.  The US still does, and here are the latest from The Economist (seatbelts please) – “Many of the 250,000 deaths in America attributable to medical error each year can be traced to poorly coordinated care.” I was a bit shocked because I had been reporting the dated 125K/year for that travesty.  But it turns out that medical practice kills us at the equivalent rate of having at least two jumbo passenger jets crash every single day of the year.  Were that to happen, I think riots would shut down flying until the problem got fixed.  Yet with healthcare, since their screw-ups are distributed, hushed up, and not reported, we continue to die at this horrendous rate without even a national whimper.  Now what do you think would happen under ‘single payer’?

FalconHeavy nails it.  Along with thousands this afternoon I sat on the edge of my chair watching the countdown for SpaceX’s first test launch of their FalconHeavy rocket carrying a whimsical payload of Elon Musk’s electric Tesla that will be put into a heliocentric orbit.  As a registered professional controls engineer and a former designer of missile control systems, I was awed at the number of concurrent and synchronous control systems (numbering in the hundreds) that the missile had on board and functioning perfectly to carry out the bazillion things that all had to go right for that monster to do what it did.  And then to top it off, the piece de resistance was the two outer boosters detaching and doing a graceful suborbital ballet to reverse trajectories and double back to two perfect synchronized landings at Cape Canaveral.  (The fate of the third to land on an ocean platform has yet to be announced.)  The technology that was implemented there by that roomful of cheering boys and girls was something to behold, and I’m just sorry that most folks have no idea what it takes to make real the sights they witnessed from all those ground-based and onboard cameras.  It literally brought tears to my old eyes. U-S-A!

[9feb18 update]  Re Nancy Pelosi’s eight-hour screed on the House floor on illegal aliens – you know the people who demonstrate about their “rights” under DACA or Dreamer labels.  Pelosi’s words, “Illegal immigrants are a blessing, they are doing what the Founding Fathers would wish, they are the best of the best, more American than Americans, reinvigorating, they are fabulous, beautiful and patriotic, yes, very patriotic.”  Then the question, ‘If dreamers are so patriotic, why do they always wave the Mexican flag, but don’t want to live in Mexico?’  Me?  I wonder how better would a migrant and hostile anti-American population surreptitiously carry out Reconquista from the inside?  (more here, here, and here)

Comments

[Bill Tozer]

Heard Nunes and Gowdy both call in to a radio show this morning about 7:am. There will be more memos. Odd, they never called that station before. Guess they are being proactive. Good interviews, straight answers. What caught my attention is that there is a memo in the works that will focus on the State Department. Hmmm. Follow the trail. FBI, Justice, and soon State. Getting closer.

And, even more to the point, can the FBI or Department of Justice management — “swamp central” — be trusted to investigate themselves?

https://www.lifezette.com/polizette/the-obama-coverup-for-hillary-clinton-was-worse-than-collusion/

[Bill Tozer]

Barack Obama must have known about the FISA warrant application process and the police state tactics detailed in the Nunes memo. He must have known because several senior members of his administration knew. Loretta Lynch, Sally Yates, James Comey, Andrew McCabe, Peter Strzok and Susan Page all knew about the FISA application. Would they have kept it secret from the president of the United States? Obama is the one the Democrats and the media are protecting the most and yet he’s never asked about it. Also, on the one hand the Democrats say this memo will reveal sources, techniques and national security Information. None of that was true and on the other hand they say it is a dud. This is a damning memo.

[fish]

Now what do you think would happen under ‘single payer’?

I'm guessing that we can achieve a significant increase in lethality offset by paying three times more for the privilege.

[Michael R. Kesti]

There should, in my opinion, be no marijuana dispensaries. We have well-defined and effective practices in place for sanely-controlled substances such as alcohol and tobacco and there is every reason to believe that those practices would be similarly effective with marijuana. Of course, the states are kidding themselves while the Federal prohibition continues.

[Don Bessee]

Why do team lefty rush into the arms of any rancid Russian dressing peddler? Must be that basic socialist attitude going back to mama kinda thing.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5355713/Adam-Schiff-spoofed-Russian-claim-nude-Trump-pic.html

;-)

[Paul Emery]

Why not let the market place determine the number of pot shops George? I thought conservatives supported free enterprise.

[Bill Tozer.]

Correction

https://www.facebook.com/RowdyConservatives/photos/a.217983685002343.55586.217926015008110/1253308924803142/?type=3&theater

Another correction.

https://www.facebook.com/RowdyConservatives/photos/a.217983685002343.55586.217926015008110/1253052441495457/?type=3&theater

[The Estonian Fox]

Re 6Feb18 update Medical care:
Dr. Martin Makary (Johns Hopkins Med School) published his paper "Medical error—the third leading cause of death in the US" in The BMJ (formerly British Medical Journal) on 03May2016. See "http://www.bmj.com/content/353/bmj.i2139". He calculated the 250,000 deaths in that paper.

I could not get past the paywall for The Economist to see their article however, so they may have new numbers. But at least it sounds like The Economist may finally be catching up to the data after 2 years, as scary as it is.

[George Rebane]

PaulE 413pm - Excellent idea Paul. Can we list all the other several hundred (thousand?) items for which Nevada City will not let the market place be the final arbiter? Why limit it just to pot? Wonder why I don't see any of the town's overflowing progressives militate for that?

[George Rebane]

EstonionFox 518pm - Tere tulemast Toomas!

[Account Deleted]

One thing we know about Euro-style 'single payer' is that when someone gets the wrong leg sawn off, they then get the correct leg sawn off as well and then they get a modest pension. No lawyers, no lawsuit, no condo in Hawaii on the beach. Just a pat on the head and a 'sorry about that old chap' and a free wheel chair for life. Americans are largely ignorant of what free health care means in Europe. Forget a private or double room. You get put in a ward. You might get decent care if you're lucky. Because what are you going to do if you don't like the care? Complain? Take your business elsewhere? Feel free to read the British newspapers online about the NHS. Constant problems and getting worse as the population ages.

[Paul Emery]

George, does Nevada city pass laws restricting the number of shoe stores or auto parts stores for example? You're missing the point of my 4:13 with your clumsy and silly response

[Don Bessee]

Says the po' ol' fakenewsman without a period @ 733. ;-)

[George Rebane]

PaulE 733pm - Yes, I believe they do by having to approve exactly what goes where with what building modifications and other required permits, etc. Nevada City has never been a friendly place to do business like you want to - I am told be some long time business owners that it's their way or the highway. Discretionary enforcement of building and operating codes is the constructive way that they do restrict the number of shoe stores and auto part stores in town. Why do you think so few people want to start businesses there; why is the big building across from the National standing empty for years? Let's hear your "clumsy and silly response".

[Russ]

Yes, as I watched the Falcon 9 Heavy launch tears were running down my face. And it was an OMG moment when the two boosters landed in sync on adjoining pads. The humor of a Tesla Roadster with a manikin in space suit behind the wheel on the nose of the spacecraft, with a camera over its shoulder, is a pure marketing genius. The excitement of the men and women in the control center will be contagious, others will want to join the Mars adventure. My old body and brain wanted to join the launch team, and so will thousand more come forward to be part of Musk's Mars venture. This is the beginning of something majestic.

[Todd Juvinall]

Didn't the cities ban Real Estate offices from the downtown core? I think they did. And GV said no more drive0throughs. So they can and do determine things like that. I am saddened that punchy, resident newsman, did not remember that.

[Russ]

More on the Elon Musk Roadster and where it is going is here: https://www.inverse.com/article/41032-elon-musk-tesla-roadster-miss-mars-deep-space?

[Walt]

Paul. "free enterprise" is a thing of the past.
Somehow you think pot shops are supposed to have free run. "it's legal".

Monopolies in Nev. City in Nevada City is nothing new. Ask the carriage operators of days past.

[George Rebane]

Walt 841am - Mr Branson, as hard as I try, I have NEVER found a progressive to understand either capitalism or the practical aspects of free markets. As clinically confirmed (and reported here), they use different parts of the brain to than do we to think logically and reason. Combine that with their totally different social utilities (that include definitions 'good' and 'better'), and communication beyond passing household messages is pretty much hopeless.

[Don Bessee]

So much for 0's promise to have no political interference in the rancid Russian dressing game-

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5362821/FBI-lovers-texts-Obama-wanted-info-Clinton-email-probe.html

;-)

[George Rebane]

DonB 1128am - Good catch. It is interesting to see who all is picking up what the latest texts reveal about that lying SOS. We expect crickets from our progressives on this substantial lying compared to bringing up Trump's braggadocios. Where this evidence now leads is anyone's guess, but Mueller definitely should have a little sworn chat with Barack about some real obstruction of justice if he did more than act as a passive listener when he got his Clinton investigation reports from the FBI/DoJ.

[Walt]

Sign up Nevada City!
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2018/02/07/post-bankruptcy-california-city-tests-universal-income-for-residents.html

[Walt]

DAMN... The main body of Falcon9 missed it's landing. But 2 out of three still ain't bad.

[Don Bessee]

Ran out of fuel too soon @ 242. ;-)

[Walt]

Hate it when that happens Don. I didn't hear the reason, so thanks.
Just wait till they slap 4 boosters on it. You could put a Union Pacific Big Boy into orbit. (OK math crunchers,, have at it. 567,000 kg ) Maybe?

[jon smith]

Suddenly Elon Musk is a right wing hero?? Didn't Trump call him a "loser and a quitter"? Why yes, I believe he did. Hasn't Musk spent the past three years in the Repub cross hairs for "milking the system" and "being the world's expert is getting subsidies"? (note that no government money was spent on the F-9). Reminds me of how Colin Powell and Norman Schwarzkopf went from National heroes of the 1st order to "under-the-bus a-holes" when they didn't march lockstep with their right wing political bosses. So easy to lead with a wet finger in the air. . .

[Don Bessee]

You should flush the 'jon' its overflowing with excrement. ;-)

[jon smith]

Give us another stock market tip Big Boy Bessee. How is your war on marijuana going? Bitcoin a buy? Oh that's right, you only open your mouth when the wind is blowing your way. Another wet finger guy, you are.

[Russ]

jon@06:07 PM. Musk did not create the subsidies, he just learned how to use it more effectively than others.

[Don Bessee]

History shows how little you know the 'jon'. Why do you have the same avatar as other people so often? ;-)

[Walt]

LOL "jon",, the stock market fun and games was a computer glitch.
So go bitch to your stock broker.

[Don Bessee]

Walt @ 734- Do ya really think that those folks actually have any skin in the game?

Did the po' ol' fakenewsman get a new gig-

http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2018/02/07/nbc-news-presents-eight-month-old-russia-hacked-the-election-story-as-breaking-news/

;-)

[Walt]

Like maggots on our carcass. The state wants every penny.
http://www.breitbart.com/california/2018/02/07/california-democrats-cranking-end-proposition-13-split-roll-attack/

[jon smith]

Russ 7:03 - You crack me up. Today Musk is your hero. Fortunately the internet doesn't forget. Months ago Musk was your whipping boy and the icon of a lefty stealing tax dollars.http://freebeacon.com/issues/conservatives-target-musk-tax-subsidies/

Bessee 7:14 - Go back 24 months and I have the same avatar as today. It appears you are the one who is stealing the logo. What a moron you continue to be. Full disclosure - I have no idea how avatars are assigned and claim no affiliation to any one or the other.

Walt 7:34 - Perfect reply. You beat mad cow Bessee to the punch!! Every time the market goes up, it is because of a Trumpism. If it goes down it is because of Obama, Clinton, Carter, or a "computer glitch." Not my fault should be the GOP motto.

[Don Bessee]

The 'jon' continues to channel the usual suspects and has no perspective or a strategic view when it comes to money. Talking points for socialists don't ya know. Grow more plants is the mantra. At least the 'jon' flushed. Perhaps the 'jon' should stop feeling the need to pretend. Metadata is what it is. ;-)

[fish]

Bessee 7:14 - Go back 24 months and I have the same avatar as today. It appears you are the one who is stealing the logo. What a moron you continue to be. Full disclosure - I have no idea how avatars are assigned and claim no affiliation to any one or the other.

Before this descends further into Doug Keachie level pants shittingly stupid territory.....the "avatar" issue has come up before if you recall.

[fish]

If you change....

[fish]

the information in the....

[fish]

"Your Information" section below....

[fish]

....you are assigned a new avatar image!

That is all!

[fish]

Posted by: jon smith | 07 February 2018 at 09:16 PM

Russ 7:03 - You crack me up. Today Musk is your hero. Fortunately the internet doesn't forget. Months ago Musk was your whipping boy and the icon of a lefty stealing tax dollars.http://freebeacon.com/issues/conservatives-target-musk-tax-subsidies/

One would think that an intelligent person could separate questionable "green" energy subsidies (especially given the Solyndra nonsense that occurred during President Chair Warmers tenure) from the technical expertise demonstrated by SpaceX the other day.

[Bill Tozer.]

Visual aides! Thanks Fish.

[fish]

....and look who's back from a busy week of "All You Can Eat" buffett molesting!

"jeffpelline says:

February 8, 2018 at 12:42 am

And imagine that this clown has an academic scholarship program for the local kiddos! Who would let their kiddos near a fellow with that kind of intellectual “reasoning”? It’s also hard to imagine UCLA accepted him based on this kind of intellectual “reasoning.” You can’t make this stuff up! Meanwhile, I’ll pass on Rebene’s words of wisdom to “progressives” such as Robert Reich, Paul Samuelson, and Warren Buffett. I’m sure he can teach them a “thing or two.” lol.

Never has more concentrated idiocy been crammed into a single horribly composed paragraph.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTc--4jz0GQ

[Todd Juvinall]

He does a hit and run on his own blog. Gutless.

[Todd Juvinall]

Here you go Paul Emery, read it and weep.

http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2018/02/outstanding-president-trumps-approval-rating-tops-barack-obama-4-points-time-presidency/

[fish]

Maybe not the worst idea.......

RAND PAUL:Bring home our troops and throw a parade!

http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2018/02/07/sen-rand-paul-trump-s-military-parade-is-good-idea-if-bring-troops-home-from-afghanistan-first.html

[George Rebane]

Stay on the topics gentlemen. Random vents in the sandbox please.

[fish]

Posted by: George Rebane | 08 February 2018 at 10:28 AM

Sorry George.....it stated with the avatar rant and just spun out of control!

[Don Bessee]

“[I]t is deeply irresponsible for a president of the United States to even flirt with this sort of conspiracy talk,” the overwrought Cillizza wrote, adding, “[T]he idea that the Russians, the Democrats and the FBI co-funded a dossier designed to discredit Trump’s 2016 campaign is totally bonkers.”

http://www.breitbart.com/big-journalism/2018/02/07/fake-news-flashback-cnn-declared-trump-bonkers-saying-clinton-dems-behind-dossier/

;-)

[Robert Cross]

good find Todd 8:20... Great source.... not quite total fake news but almost.

"The Gateway Pundit is a hard-right website that is not afraid of conspiracy theories and the occasional flirtation with outright white supremacists. Not a credible source that occasionally publishes fake news."

"Bias: Extreme Right, Propaganda, Conspiracy, Nationalism, Some Fake News"

"very untrustworthy and should be fact checked on a per article basis. "

Source: Mediabiascheck.com

[jon smith]

Southbound it is. Another one of Walt's "computer glitch" on Wall Street. You think that Trump would have them fix that thing. I'll come out and suggest that deficit financed tax cuts are another term for insane, but I know that won't fly on this board. How about we toss in another 300 billion to "fix" the budget and make America great?

[Todd Juvinall]

Robert Cross | 08 February 2018 at 03:17 PM

Sure and I have come to see that the left thinks anything not in "The Nation" is fake news.

[fish]

Posted by: jon smith | 08 February 2018 at 04:45 PM

Nobody as sanguine about the financial shenanigans of the Obama administration as you have been should have any complaints about this latest poor financial decision on the part of the federal government.

[Don Bessee]

As much as it sucks there can be no budget without team lefty. With the state of the world a price had to paid to buy the spare parts 0 cut off for the military's equipment. Too many young warriors have been dying because of 0's sequester, loses that were preventable with properly funded maint and training.

:-(

[jon smith]

Echo chamber here??
Obama. . . everything bad in the economy today is his fault, yet Bessee crows (crowed) on a daily basis how the economy was so bitchin due to Trump. Stocks drop - stage left back to Obama. Can you even look at your reflection in a mud puddle and realize how frigging asinine you look to anyone outside your own fossorium?

[Todd Juvinall]

Obama was a economic obamination and Trump has turned that around in a year. All the indicators show it. You can be a dem denier all you want but the truth is the truth. America is way better off under a grownup that an amateur.

[Don Bessee]

OH the 'jon' overflows again. Unemployment, productivity and all underlying indicators are great. You sound like Bored Georgman who sold off on Nov. 9th 2016. People who actually have to manage investments have like all long term investors done quite well. Did you sell it all in a panic again? As if.

;-)

[fish]

Posted by: jon smith | 08 February 2018 at 08:58 PM

Echo chamber here??
Obama. . . everything bad in the economy today is his fault, yet Bessee crows (crowed) on a daily basis how the economy was so bitchin due to Trump. Stocks drop - stage left back to Obama. Can you even look at your reflection in a mud puddle and realize how frigging asinine you look to anyone outside your own fossorium?

So I'm responsible for critiquing Bessees cheerleading the market? I had practically nothing to say about it because its all built on sand.

Doesn't matter though as that wasn't your argument....

"I'll come out and suggest that deficit financed tax cuts are another term for insane..."

Insane yes.....but not when your guy is the one implementing them.

https://www.thebalance.com/us-debt-by-president-by-dollar-and-percent-3306296

[George Rebane]

Administrivia - Found a lot of mudball slinging that belongs in sandboxes. Here you discuss stuff related to the topics I post in the commentary. Cleaning up this crap is a pain is the ass.

[Bill Tozer]

RE: FalconHeavy nails it....and that ain’t even the half of it.

And now, the rest of the story.

https://www.facebook.com/PatriotPost/photos/a.82108390913.80726.51560645913/10155415311725914/?type=3&theater