Rebane's Ruminations

Scattershots – 11jan19 (updated 17jan19)

George Rebane

None of the rabid opposition to border security makes sense, and even less so with the passing months. We supposedly look at and experience the same world, yet obviously live in different universes. Physics may have an answer for that, but everyday logic in the conduct of human affairs does not, especially if we assume that both sides are working for a strong, independent, free, and prosperous America. Logic clicks back into place when we remove that assumption.

Israel’s wall costs $2M/mile. (more here)  That is a good stake in the ground to estimate the cost of our border security infrastructure which would not be a 2,000-mile concrete wall, but would instead consist of other barrier approaches and supportive detection and localization systems.  Posit $3M/mile for our southern border, and the cost would come to $6B.  And that includes all of the overhead.  Claiming that our border property owners will fight the increased border security is a red herring that does not jibe with what actual property owners are saying.  It is they who have suffered at the hands of illegal entrants whose criminal activities transiting their property has made living on the border dangerous.

Was sorry to see today’s (11jan19) Union column by publisher Don Rogers. His arguments against border security ignored all the marginal impacts on crime, culture, and costs of a porous border outlined in ‘The mangling of managed minds’.  It seems that being blind to that line of reasoning is a widespread malady among our Left, for it always appears to form the basis of their resulting fractured logic for opposing Trump’s border security policies, aka the same ones that the congressional Left supported not so long ago.

Bright fiber in Nevada County is a reported go, but details about the scope of the project are less than skimpy.  All that’s reported in The Union (here and here) is that 2,000 homes along Hwy 174 will be getting enhanced broadband in about a year.  But there is more than enough detail on the bureaucratics and the funding to roll your eyes.  However, people who don’t happen to live along 174 haven’t a clue as to how this project will advance the rest of the county toward 21^st century connectivity.  In short, after reading the reportage I again had to strap on my ‘Pardon me but you have me confused with someone who cares’ button.  Maybe more informed readers will provide the much needed information.

Ex-Muslims of North America is an organization of former American and Canadian Muslims united to spread word about ‘the religion of peace’ and support those who have left and are contemplating leaving Islam.  Their position on their former faith parallels that of RR.  Islam is still in its ‘Accept Allah or die!’ phase of maturing.  But unfortunately this is happening in a much more connected world laced with an abundance of very deadly technologies.  Just to be clear, all major religions have and/or are still going through such a violent and uncompromising phase.  Christianity most certainly had its ‘Accept Jesus or die!’ epoch in the centuries after Rome, starting coincidentally about when Islam was born on the Arabian peninsula. 

[12jan19 update]  Fact checking Trump.  Leftwing readers here have been taking President Trump to task for his ‘lies’, the overwhelming share of such are easily identified as political bluster of the kind that can be tallied for any politician on either side of the aisle.  There are however certain statements from a politician that are intended to elicit and/or support public support for government policy.  Such weighty claims are usually easy to fact-check either at the time of delivery or subsequently.  President Trump’s recent border security speech from the Oval Office contained a number of such statements.  Here is a fact-check summary of five of the most important ones from that speech.

Venice, CA now importing SF values. Beautiful seaside community of Venice in SoCal is rapidly becoming the next ‘sierra hotel’ city in the state, joining Anaheim and the long-enduring People's Republic of Santa Monica as newly risen exemplars of socialist governance.  The Hollywood Reporter has the details in its ‘LA's Battle for Venice Beach: Homeless Surge Puts Hollywood's Progressive Ideals to the Test’.  There “with swelling transient encampments abutting seven-figure homes, the beachside enclave has emerged as a flashpoint for the inequality shaping Los Angeles — and a real-world test case for the liberal ideology of the area’s showbiz residents.” (H/T to correspondent)

[13jan19 update]  Conjecture: NYC mayor Bill deBlasio is a communist, having passed to the left of all remaining progressive milestones. (more here)

[14jan19 update] Whether you like or regret (like me) many of our President's tweets and hipshot repartees, this is what many Americans believe is really the case.

[17jan19 update]  Border barriers (walls, fences, ...) "don't work and are ineffective" maintains the Democrat leadership and their nationwide constituents.  Border security officers with long years of experience maintain exactly the opposite.  I have not found any journalist with the wit or temerity to ask people like Pelosi, 'What evidence do you have about border barrier systems that overrides the testimony of our border security professionals and which supports you continued assertions that such border security infrastructure "doesn't work"?  (We'll address the "immorality" question another time.)  Asking the Democrats to produce such evidence would put this debate on the fast track to resolution, not only with regard to border security funding, but also the government shutdown.  RR readers know the disdain I have for the journalistic profession, I have found almost all journalists to be alarmingly ignorant hacks with little or no spine to seek out and report truth that is counter to their publishers' and/or editors' agendas.

CA Exodus Denied

George Rebane

The exodus of the producers and the productive from California has been a recurring theme on RR ever since the Democrats assumed total control, turned the state into the nation’s home for welfare recipients, started raising taxes and fees as if there were no tomorrow, and opened its gates to illegal aliens.  Essentially, the Democratic super-majority has turned the state into a sanctuary from sanity.  Among the reams of data presented to buttress the exodus argument, a reader sent me the graphic below that highlights just one aspect of nationwide migrations – and these are NET migrations – from/to our country’s prominent metropolitan areas (more here).

This shows that from LA alone we have a net outflow of 46,720 people per year.  And do you think these are the gimmes who think they’ll get more sanctuary protections and better government bennies from some other state?

Nevada County Economic Development – WIP

George Rebane

In recent years the county’s economic development could be charitably described as slow, or even somnambulant if examined more closely.  To promote economic development, the county established the Nevada County Economic Resource Council (ERC) and has been among its steadfast sponsors.  The ERC has launched various initiatives and activities designed to serve its commitment “to ensuring a thriving, attractive business environment in Nevada County.”  (more here)  I had an opportunity to work with the ERC a few years back during which I came to understand the organization, its membership, and the issues that surround business development in our community.  RR has included the ERC’s performance in its commentaries.

Both the county government and the ERC regularly revisit how better to develop and serve local businesses.  The most recent of such efforts involved engaging Larry Burkhardt, a former ERC executive director, as a consultant to examine the state of the county’s economy and make detailed recommendations on how to proceed.  The work product of Mr Burkhardt’s consulting contract was the 20-page 2017 report innocuously titled ‘Development of Performance Metrics and Related Organizational Matters’.  Its author describes the report as follows -

The attached report contains background information along with some level of evaluation of the ERC by a small cross section of the community’s leadership.  It follows with goals, objectives and strategies intended to re-focus on the basics of economic development; a workplan; budget; performance metrics; and finally recommendations regarding Board structure and practice. 

I'm a bit surprised that this report got so little publicity when received by the ERC and submitted to our Board of Supervisors.  The only mention of Mr Burkhardt's involvement in such work appeared in the 7sep17 Union (here).  The report was made known to me by a colleague who has also been involved with the ERC over the years.  He sent me a copy which can be downloaded here.  Download ERC final report 1117

Not everyone I talked to found the report to be exceptionally revelatory or contain material that has not been hashed over before.  From my side, I found the report to contain the most specific metrics, recommendations, and projected costs of a plan forward that I have seen.  This does not mean that I wholly endorse Mr Burkhardt’s take and recommendations, but I do find the report to be a useful and readable stake-in-the-ground from which to launch productive discussions on the county’s economic doldrums and alternatives on how to proceed.  Readers taking part in such discussions should at least be familiar with the points raised in the report.

Scattershots – 13oct18 (updated 17oct18)

George Rebane

Liberal Union columnist Darrell Berkheimer has been delving into the availability of housing in Nevada County.  Today (13oct18 here) he reports that we don’t have enough "affordable housing" in these parts to attract low income families and wage earners, and also make the county more attractive and welcoming to our already large homeless population - “paths to affordable housing must be provided (the homeless) as well as others wishing to live here.”  A good part of the blame he puts on those stupid developers who can’t figure out where the profits are, and “continue to place emphasis on single-family homes for what has been termed the ‘nuclear family’” of which there are precious few left in the country, and apparently of which we already have too many in Nevada County.  He either doesn’t understand the notion of low-cost housing viz affordable housing, and/or the regulatory and cost hurdles that developers must negotiate to build anything in our county.  But, in spite of these problems, Mr Berkheimer does think that the county should become proactive in going after developers in the attempt to convince them to plow through the process anyway, and take the risk in building marginally profitable (if that) affordable housing.  The wonders of a progressive mind at work making Nevada County safe for San Francisco values.

Ms Heather MacDonald, political analyst and author at the Manhattan Institute, was interviewed (13oct18 WSJ) regarding her new book The Diversity Delusion.  Ms MacDonald is one of those refreshingly independent thinkers who, after law school at Stanford, had to wend her way to epiphany by spending her early professional years through clerking for Justice Stephen Reinhardt, volunteering for the Natural Resources Council, and working at the EPA.  She laments what the progressives and other flavors of the Left have done to demolish undergraduate education, especially in the fields of western civilization.  Specifically, she highlights the bloom of lowered standards and newly established majors “focused on identity and oppression” with freshly minted majors, like ‘Social Justice’, coming in the burgeoning field of neo-Marxism.  She sees all of this as leading to a final national confrontation – “One of the great achievements of Western European civilization was to move beyond tribalism, to nation-states, to concepts of citizenship that transcend tribal identity, and we’ve been playing with fire for the last 40 years in thinking we can keep this ethnic warfare thing at a low simmer rather than a hot boil.”

The Union’s Editorial Board advises every franchised citizen to ‘Get educated and vote’ (13oct18) – “everyone who can legally vote should.”  What the good souls at The Union don’t help the reader with is how to get educated in a manner that enables critical thinking about the diametrically opposite prescriptions and policies offered by today's strong ideologues, some obviously tinged and others in more subtle ways.  As many scholars and thinkers (see previous entry) now tell us, the ability to think critically is no longer taught nor even possible by graduates from most of our colleges and almost all of our high schools, simply because they no longer have to learn the knowledge base which enables such thought should even the tools for it be available.

Nevada County’s high school test scores are a disaster.  Only our local liberal contingent is satisfied, since generating generations of such graduates over the last 40 years is just the planned grist for their voting mill.  When others lament this educational deficit, the local liberals point to the Ghidotti Early College High School which ranked #1 in the state tests – why? Because they have a total of only 163 self-selected smart students of which 44 took the cited test.  For the rest we have dropping scores that reveal one of three students is below grade level in reading, and more than two thirds are below grade level in math.  And believe it or not, statewide Nevada County is above average.  Talk about California leading the nation – to where?

[17oct18 update]  What’s happening to destroy STEM and STEM-related education and research in America is even worse than I have been tracking over the recent years.  NSA and NIH, originally launched by Congress to keep us in the lead in physical and health sciences, have now become institutes of identity equalization to satisfy the progressives social justice goals.  H/T to Russ Steele (see his 506pm comment below) for pointing out the latest report on this disaster-in-progress as reported in the City Journal (here).

Ruminations – 17aug18 (updated 19aug18)

George Rebane

Obama’s PPD-20 has hamstrung America’s ability to defend and counter cyberattacks against us.  President Trump is recalling that Presidential Policy Directive to “ to push decision-making authority down the chain of command, could empower military officials to launch more frequent and more aggressive cyberattacks against adversaries like Russia and Iran.”  (more here)

2017 saw 72,287 opioid overdose deaths in the US.  That’s like a jumbo jet crashing every weekday, and it beggars stats on all other human-induced deaths like attributed to ‘gun violence’ and motor vehicle accidents.  America’s murder capital Chicago apparently leads the way here also with progressive policies stifling its LE agencies’ abilities to intervene.  Blacks account for more than 50% of opioid deaths, and, of course, gun deaths on Chicago’s streets.  Progressives care not a whit (actually spelled with an 's') for black lives; for them all such deaths are useful when recognized, and not to be wasted in blaming the whole thing on conservatives.

Arrest of ISIS terrorist and multiple re-entrant Omar Ameen in Sacramento confirms again that our immigrant vetting process is totally broken.  The feds admit that vetting a refugee depends on the story they tell, and not on any required 3^rd party documentation, which either does not exist or will not be provided if the refugee thinks it will be pejorative.  Counter to lamestream claims, President Trump has been correct in his assessment of this.

Russian online influence on America’s thinking about issues and candidates has turned out to be less than insignificant according to recent analysis of foreign placed ads and social media accounts, so reports Bruce Levey of the Institute for Justice (here).  He also points out what we've known for years, that we and other nations place such ads in each other’s jurisdictions whenever it suits our interests to attempt to influence other countries’ decisions.  Bottom line, Russia's influence in our 2016 election was bupkus.

Dumbest cartoon in a coon’s age was published in the 17aug18 Union.  Have no idea how this got by the newspaper’s editorial policy.  Nothing against the paper publishing anti-Trump stuff, but this contribution is simply butt stupid, and doesn’t reflect well on how The Union thinks of its readership.

[More]  Our intelligence institutions (including the retirees) are now totally political.  The letter signed by former intelligence heads claiming that Trump limited Brennan’s speech by revoking his clearance is both false and butt stupid or worse, evil since it is designed to bamboozle the tens of millions of light-thinking Americans.  As President Trump observed, Brennan’s voice will now be louder than ever.  Let’s see how long these newly minted politicians will keep up that spiel.

[18aug18 update]  In ‘The Press Abets a Coverup’ (18aug18 WSJ) Holman Jenkins contributes an incisive and revealing recounting of our intel community’s shenanigans designed to oppose Trump, but that plausibly gave him the necessary push over the top in 2016.

[19aug18 update]  Kudos to columnist (19aug18 Union) George Boardman for outing Mike Dent, director of the county's Department of Child Support, Collection and Housing.  Mr Dent is a prime exemplar of the double dummies ensconced in government.  He is seeking bids to build and operate a homeless shelter for the winter, but doesn't have a clue how much it costs to run such a shelter through the cold months - hence, no bids to build one.  It really irks me and many others that our tax monies have to be diluted to pay the salaries and retirement benefits for the likes of the mentally dented Dents out there.

The Ninth Circuit Court on CCW and Open Carry

George Rebane

Recently a three-judge panel of the 9^th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the “U.S. Constitution’s Second Amendment guarantees a right to openly carry a gun in public for self-defense, finding that Hawaii overstepped its authority to regulate firearms possession outside the home.” (more here)

This ruling brought up questions on how we Californians, especially those with Concealed Carry Weapon permits, will be impacted.  Since CCW permits are issued by county sheriffs, in a private communication I asked our Nevada County Sheriff Keith Royal –

1. Will current non-CCW permit holders in California now have open-carry included in their 2^nd Amendment rights?
2. What is the impact of the present rulings on existing Nevada County CCW policy?
3. Will California’s sheriffs come out with one unified coherent interpretation of how this impacts our 2^nd Amendment rights, or will we wind up with county-specific interpretations that may or not arbitrarily criminalize the unwary who cross county boundaries, or will everyone remain silent on the matter and let Californians just take chances sorting it out by themselves (sort of like the MJ situation between feds, state, and counties)?

With Sheriff Royal’s permission I share his response with our readers –

“Our current laws stay in effect until a court of competent jurisdiction finds the laws of the State unconstitutional or the laws are changed by the legislature.  Our State Sheriff’s attorney has advised us that the case was remanded back to the trial court to proceed.  Chances are that the case will again end up back before the 9th Circuit for an “en banc” panel review, and based on the outcome, may invalidate California’s current laws and/or then be appealed to the US Supreme Court for final determination.  We have been advised things remain status quo at this time.  Stand by to stand by. … As an FYI, the 9th indicated that the 2nd Amendment does not pertain to or cover CCW’s.  We’ll just (have) to wait to see how it all works out.”

Due to the sheriff’s last observation about the 2A and CCWs, I offered that “it does cause me a bit of puzzlement why the 9th indicated that the 2A doesn’t pertain to cover CCWs.  CCW permit holders are the most law-abiding people in the land according to FBI crime stats.  Sworn LE officers have a very low crime rate, but one that is still SIX times higher than that of CCW holders, and the 2A doesn’t cover (them)?”  Sheriff Royal’s response to this was - 

“Interestingly, the three judge panel were all repub. appointees. I think when this issue comes back to the 9th, they’ll render an opposing decision because the majority of that court is liberal leaning thus forcing the issue to the Supreme Court. In light of the soon to be composition of the Supreme court, you may see the ultimate decision be supportive of open carry.”

So, per Sheriff Royal’s counsel, the open carry and CCW provisions will remain unchanged, and it will be business as usual as we “stand by to stand by.”  Question asked and answered.

Scattershots – 4aug18 (updated 8aug18)

“It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble. It's what you know that just ain't so.”  Mark Twain, et al

George Rebane

Leftwing columnist Darrell Berkheimer makes his occasional foray into substantive socio-political subjects and blows it again.  In his ‘Will Violence or a Funeral End Incendiary Talk’ (4aug18 Union), the man demonstrates his limited abilities in spades.  He blames today’s politically polarized incendiaries as being solely fomented by President Trump, and executed by rightwingers.  His evidence?  He can only cite the reception of CNN’s extremely virulent leftwing journalist Acosta at a Trump rally who was greeted with shouts of ‘CNN sucks!’, and then some crazy individual (political affiliation unknown) with a bat smashing a TV station’s car.  And there ends his research into the country’s political incendiaries.  He is totally blind to the literally hundreds of incitements from the political left and leftwing public confrontations that by charitable estimates are practiced around 50:1 by Democrat politicians, journalists, and leftwing street mobs.  Nowhere are mentioned such Congress critters as Maxine Waters and Lizzy Warren, and NYT editor Sarah Jeong.  Nowhere does he see the Left’s countless demonstrations and thuggery performed in office buildings, at neighborhood residences, in stores, on blocked streets, college campuses, classrooms and auditoriums, … .  It’s only the Right that is the progenitor and practitioner of hate speech and violent confrontations.  But then, we have never expected anything more from Mr Berkheimer.

The cost in lives and cash of natural and political disasters has declined markedly under the post-war world order led and maintained by America.  The Left would have us believe that all has been going the other way, and they have published reams of fake factual lies to make their case.  The real fact of the matter has been studied and documented by more sober analysts like the late Swedish statistician Hans Rosling, of the Gapminder Foundation documented in his Factfulness (2018).  It turns out that death rates and property losses have plummeted as the world has grown more populous, densely packed, and with enormously more stuff at risk since WW2.  This reality does not fit well into the anti-capitalist progressive narrative, so it has been both suppressed and redecorated into an ongoing political and journalistic barrage to convince the light thinkers and otherwise engaged of exactly the opposite.  It’s easier to argue for more central planning, control, taxes, and regulations if you can make a sow’s ear out of a silk purse. (more here)

[6aug18 update]  As many have known for some years, the alternative energy source biofuel mandates have not lived up to their hype.  The EPA recently released its ‘Biofuels and the Environment: The Second Triennial Report to Congress’. (access here)  It turns out that all the extra thousands of acres of corn and soybeans planted to make the ethanol based fuels are “wreaking havoc on the atmosphere and soil” (more here).  So what was initially sold as another feel good alternative to fossil fuels has just had its list of dirty laundry extended by none other than the agency that has been champion of cleaning up the environment.  This is nothing new, the problems with biofuels have been known and reported for years – here’s a 2008 piece from none other than The Washington Post.  But somehow the Left’s narrative on the negative effects of biofuels hasn’t been affected by these longstanding findings.  It seems that environmental quality is really not that high on the progressives’ agenda.  I wonder what their real objective is.

[7aug18 update]  US land use is an important piece of knowledge for the noggins of those of us debating public policies in these pages.  A reader sent me this link (here) to a Bloomberg news piece that has a whole lot of land use information presented in an interesting graphical format.  Be sure to puzzle on it for the upcoming quiz.

Hilary Hodge is returning to politics after losing in a close race to Supervisor Dan Miller in the June primary. (more here) She will next try to get on the Grass Valley City Council, and she’ll be bringing all her qualifications, enthusiasm, and outside support to her next attempt to enter the local political game.  As most people who recall her Union autobiographical columns know, the lady is woefully short on private sector economics and work experience.  She would greatly bolster her resume and ability to serve the public were she able to show that someone took money out of his own pocket to pay her for demonstrating some productive skills in the job market.  But as most of us have come to know, politicians don’t have to have experience in the private sector before regulating and legislating for it.

[8aug18 update]  The Left (including some locals) claim that the real accomplishment at the 9jun16 Trump Tower meeting with the Russian lawyer was an agreement for the Russians to release Hillary’s emails that were sent and received on her private email server.  However, those emails began to be released prior to 2016 to all, including Wikileaks, by our State Dept, not the Russians.  Wikileaks collected these emails and made them available in a searchable online archive with the included statement – On March 16, 2016 WikiLeaks launched a searchable archive for over 30 thousand emails & email attachments sent to and from Hillary Clinton's private email server while she was Secretary of State. The 50,547 pages of documents span from 30 June 2010 to 12 August 2014. 7,570 of the documents were sent by Hillary Clinton. The emails were made available in the form of thousands of PDFs by the US State Department as a result of a Freedom of Information Act request. More PDFs were made available on February 29, 2016, and a set of additional 995 emails was imported up to February 2, 2018.

So it seems that to plan the release of the purported (not confirmed by our intelligence) Russia-hacked Hillary emails after their release had already commenced is a moot argument designed for people not versed in the use of calendars. (more here)

However, our intelligence people state that Russia did hack the DNC email server, and purloined over 100,000 emails with much embarrassing information about the internal operations of the Democratic Party and by Democrat bigwigs. (more here) These were first released to DCLeaks in June 2016 and then later in July 2016 to Wikileaks.  None have claimed that any of these emails were doctored or contained false information.  And no one has tied the Trump campaign to the acquisition and/or release of these emails to the public at large.  All we have is a daily stream of allegations through and by the lamestream that somehow Donald Trump was behind the whole thing since Hillary lost.  And today Mueller stands ready to indict the entire White House in a week or two - as Eliza assured us, 'Just you wait 'Enri 'Iggins, just you wait!'  And waiting we still are.

Scattershots – 23jul18 (updated 26jul18)

George Rebane

In ‘Our country’s future relies on embracing those escaping brutality’ by Ms Judith McCarrick of the Immigration Action Alliance we find some pearls, among them –

• “That migrant parents have broken immigration laws to (surreptitiously) cross our borders is untrue.” Why? Because the legal immigration process is difficult and takes time, and because AG Sessions denies asylum “claims from seekers of protection of gang violence and abusive spouses.”
• “No law mandates that children and parents be separated at the border.” Our immigration and domestic laws specify exactly that when criminal parents are arrested and taken into custody.

These and more like them in her 23jul18 Union piece put Ms McCarrick in the running for the highly competitive designation as Blithering Idiot, 1^st Class.  Unfortunately, given the extensive competition in our county, her latest contribution does not make her a shoo-in.

Kudos to Union columnist and RR reader George Boardman for his timely, comprehensive, and correct vent on the lack of leadership at all levels in our county to expand broadband in our foothills.  Mr Boardman details the sordid history in ‘Bright Fiber, Verizon show what happens when leadership is lacking’.  In that piece he reinforces the recent cri de coeur of the Union's editorial board, and again corroborates the seminal RR dictum, ‘To find the cause of any problem in society, presume that government is guilty until proven innocent.’  Hard to lose with that approach.

[24jul18 update]  Nevada City has now approved 12 pot stores for health reasons.  That’s the same argument the city’s mamas and papas used to deny bringing the town into the 21^st century with appropriate cell phone coverage (let alone broadband).  Consulting their sidewater science, they continue to conclude that cell towers on selected town building will fry the brains of local citizens.  With ample evidence at hand about whom they seat on their city council, many claim that said brains have already been fried for years. (more here)

Two diametrically opposite interpretations of the just released (and deceitfully redacted) FISA application for a warrant to wiretap Carter Page.  All on the Left see no fraud involved and ample evidence for the warrant in the application.  These people don’t think it was material to reveal that the Steele dossier - the prime argument in the application - was scripted, bought, and paid for by Democrats for Hillary.  All on the Right point to the extensive evidence that confirms the fraudulent nature of the application and subsequent FBI testimonies about it.  Within a larger framework, this again proves that no rapprochement is possible, since the opposing parties cannot even agree on the basic facts germane to any subsequent productive conversation.  (more here)

[26jul18 update]  SF Board of Supervisors again certified itself as first class idiots by passing a resolution to screen out insurance companies that invest in fossil fuel businesses.  This because such investments promote climate change, the fight against which the city considers itself among the world’s foremost champions.  So here is a burg, with a history of demonstrably bad decisions and public policies that is drowning in druggies, bums, and their accumulating offal while driving out tourists by the thousands and causing untold losses to their hospitality industry, now preening its deranged ‘values’ for all to see al they attempt to dictate how their insurers should manage their portfolios in order to keep premiums competitive. (more here)  San Francisco values on parade.

Our Little Corner of the Confused

George Rebane

Today’s (9jul18) Union highlights the impact of our county’s left turn with some choice letters to the newspaper and a confusing column on the First Amendment.  Usually the Union has better material to publish on their op-ed pages, but occasionally they must run into a dry spell and use it in fairness to make available some column inches to the incoherent and confused.  After all, such editorial policy does give a more accurate picture of our community.

The two letters are examples of outpourings from the heartfelt but lightly read.  For openers, a Ms Carol Menaker of Nevada City begins her anti-LaMalfa counsel with “If you believe that forcibly separating children from their parents is justifiable, read no further.”  There, that’s it, and no further qualifications or complexities relating to the issue need concern the reader, for most certainly such things never concerned or entered the mind of the writer.  Whether these factors are beyond her, we cannot say, but what follows does not evince a discriminating mind.  (more here)

Then we have the contribution (here) from Mr Ron Lowe, similarly located (our little town is a hotbed of such astute intellects).  His short letter offers condemning and conclusive proof that the Russians indeed “played to the Republicans and swayed the election for Donald Trump.”  Together “Trump, Russians, Republicans, were complicit in wrongdoing in the 2016 presidential election” due to a “full color ad (that) shows Christ and Satan in a struggle to win religious Republican votes”.  The ad appeared on Facebook, and that’s that.  What more proof of perfidy bought and paid for would anyone require?  Roll out the tumbrels!

Finally, we have the ‘other voice’ of a Mr Chuck Frank who has determined that “freedom of the press lies in the balance” (here).  And what powers will tilt that balance to our detriment?  Well, Mr Frank has put his finger on the Dept of Homeland Security and other feds as those who are “planning” to put journalists’ heads on “the chopping block”.  How will they do that?  They will “make lists and spy(sic) on websites, news outlets, articles, blogs, and whistle-blower sites.”  DHS may even hire a contractor to do all the dirty work who will track “hundreds of thousands of persons associated with journalism (by) compiling a database likened to North Korea”.  We kid you not, this individual apparently believes that North Korea has individuals and journalists who criticize the Ugly Fat Kid on the open internet.  In any event, we must all beware that this is “just one example of censorship though(sic) a massive campaign to control mass communications and also hide wrongdoing in government.”

Now RR is on record as being no fan of a large, intrusive, and corrupt counter-constitutional government.  But the confused and breathlessly confusing screed laid down by Mr Frank does not serve his efforts to avert “the New World Order” to be achieved through the destruction of “investigative journalism, alternative news, and accurate reporting.”  The reader comes away from his jumbled revelations shaking his head, and attributing the whole thing again to some anti-government crank.  That he is able to warn all of us of the impending First Amendment’s demise should give us some comfort that such alarums are a bit premature.  Nevertheless, our gimlet eye is ever peeled for such exigencies.  

Scattershots – 3jul18 (updated 4jul18)

George Rebane

It’s Fourth of July time again.  Tonight the gates open at 630pm for the Music in the Mountains Patriotic Pops Concert on the great lawn of our fairgrounds.  Lots of great music and ceremony and flyover and food and drink and … .  Come with your family to celebrate our declaration of independence.  The photo shows the stage last year with the vets saluting the Pledge of Allegiance.  (more here)

Trump removes another Obama-era disaster. "The Trump administration will begin directing schools and colleges to adopt race-neutral admissions standards, the Education Department said Tuesday, reversing Obama-era guidelines that encouraged the use of race to promote diversity."  Perhaps merit will again have top billing in qualifying a student for admission.  Ever thought of having two classes of colleges, one for serious study of productive majors, and another for feel good majors filled with mandated ratios of race, gender, sexual orientation, sensitivity to pressure, safe places, and trigger warnings at every turn.

[4jul18 update]  This version of Putin's Plan was sent by a reader - worth considering.  And as another commenter has astutely asked in these pages, who in America are the people sowing discontent, incivility, and rending the social order?

Socialist Ocasio-Cortez Is “Future Of Our Party” announces DNC chairman Tom Perez.  This vision has been firmly in the mind of our academic types for a generation, and has now been also implanted in the carefully fashioned non-critical minds of their students.  These are the younger people today who neither understand nor see any other future save one with a large government assuring that all will give according to their ability, so that each will receive according to their need. (more here)

Tom Coleman, RIP

George Rebane

My dear friend and one of Nevada County’s iconoclastic gentlemen and longtime community leaders Tom Coleman died last night in Reno of heart failure.  He was playing poker when he collapsed and was taken to the hospital where doctors did all they could, but were not able to save him.  Tom was the longest owner of the recently sold National Hotel in Nevada City, and was to be honored along with his partner Ms Ernie Kehn as the grand marshals of this year’s 4^th of July parade.

Tom was a stalwart and one of the original members of our long running dinner/poker group.  He always sat in his special chair at the octagon, dispensing his wit, wisdom, and stories of Nevada County, and he never let an opening betting round be passed without betting what became known as the ‘Coleman buck’ to get things started.  When it was Tom’s turn to host the dinner, he would order up a sumptuous meal from the hotel’s Hoover Restaurant that always featured a prominent hunk of beef with, of course, all the fixins and a collection of fine wines to lubricate the evening’s labors.

For years we were fellow Rotarians who met regularly at the National.  Tom was also an Elk, and his celebration of life will be held at the Nevada City lodge with date/time to be announced.  Funeral arrangements will be handled by Hooper and Weaver Mortuary.

Over the decades Tom served on many boards, panels, and community associations, always giving freely of his time, talents, and treasure.  He will be missed by his family and the uncountable friends he made as one our community’s most prominent and liked citizens.  We will miss him greatly.

The Old-age Dependency Train Wreck

George Rebane

The baby boomer retirement tsunami is in full swing, and the number of working age Americans whose efforts will support the rapidly growing population of retireds is shrinking at an alarming rate.  Some significant verbiage expanding on the problem is available in ‘A Generation of Americans Is Entering Old Age the Least Prepared in Decades’.  Given what we know today, the following charts tell the quantitative side of the story.

But what really struck me is the graphic below showing the entire country’s aging ratio (more here).  The arithmetically and geographically astute will note that in Nevada County during the last seven years we have gone from almost one-in-three seniors (above 64) to about one-in-two residents of working age (18-64).  This is more than a 50% increase in this ratio, the impact of which is really not appreciated by our local political leaders in the sense that we don’t know how much cash the retirees are importing into our community versus how much of our local services they depend on to live their lives – i.e. how much cash are they pulling out.

This data again gives lie to the local loony lefties who frequently celebrate the myth that Nevada County with its population in stasis is turning younger (the hordes with LA and SF values replace exiting younger middle class workers), and that the older generation hereabouts is on its way out.  As shown above, the reality is the other way around, as I have vainly attempted to educate the ineducable by explaining to them the workings of ingress and egress rates.  Actually, our exiting 'native' middle class workers are being replaced with a constant influx of people with LA and SF values who have soiled their previous nests and promise the same here.  But at the same time our remaining workforce of baby boomers is aging and now replace, at an ever greater rate, the oldsters who are either escaping socialist California for greener pastures or the great beyond.

In any event, the only mitigation of this looming national social catastrophe is a vibrant and growing economy (aka capitalism, entrepreneurship, development), something that the globalist progressives with their grassroots echo chambers are dead set against, since such a state of affairs will work counter to their fervent belief in a big government command economy as the epitome of a social justice delivered.  Whatever your politics, from time to time it pays to review the data tracking this social dynamic.

Scattershots – 8jun18 (updated 9jun18)

George Rebane

That Ted Cruz is a strong anti-abortionist was claimed by a liberal friend and RR reader.  Moreover, the Texas Republican believes that “the continuum of human life begins at the moment of fertilization”, which means at conception.  By reasonable extension, this also means that Cruz is against any and all post-coitus contraception, since this might destroy a fertilized egg (although some eggs may be fertilized many hours after coitus).  I was not aware of that about Sen Cruz and asked my friend to provide some proof, which I promised to post.  He did, and you can inspect his submission here.

Illegal border crossings are down – that is the narrative that the Left (and their lamestream-locked local lackeys) are using to extenuate their criminality with the argument that ‘Dreamers’, illegal alien children (accompanied and unaccompanied), and other labeled groups of “immigrants” (now referenced sans the former ‘illegal’ or ‘undocumented’ modifiers) should be given amnesty to stay here forever, qualify for state offices, and soon obtain the vote (‘they pay taxes too’).  Well, border crossings are actually up since the folks south of the border became convinced that Congress and our courts would override President Trump’s enforcement of illegal alien laws already on the books.  According to the Border Patrol and Homeland Security, the year-to-year number of intercepted and arrested illegal alien families is up 435%, and the number of unaccompanied children is up 329%.  Fox News reported this; haven’t heard/seen it on any lamestream outlets.

Hillary Hodge’s run for District 3 Supervisor has so far garnered her 1,467 votes (to Dan Miller’s 1,713 votes).  Nevada County’s participation in beta testing the new Voters’ Choice Act will delay completing the tally until this coming Monday.  I presume that Dan Miller’s lead will hold and he will be re-elected.  But what I really find remarkable is that so many people actually voted for her.  Let me say at the outset that Ms Hodge is a nice pleasant lady and an upstanding citizen of our county.  But what I find astounding is that someone without any relevant education, total absence of experience, a demonstrated ignorance of issues, and no known life accomplishments (she admits to still coming to grips with being an adult) has the hubris to come in as an unknown, and do so well against the incumbent opponent whose attributes are diametrically opposite hers.  This speaks poorly for our county and, in extension, to our country’s voters who today are so ideologically rent that they will vote for a 2x4 with a painted face if it runs under their preferred party’s banner.  

[9jun18 update]  Union columnist Darrell Berkheimer delivered one of his liberal logrollers – ‘What should America do to be great again’ - in the newspaper’s 9jun18 edition.  He has concluded that America is no longer a great nation, and that is the fault of Republicans and President Trump.  He cites with alarm the upcoming report by the UN’s Human Rights Council, an assemblage dominated by the world’s worthless worthies (here), which contains an amplified and doctored list of America’s sores and carbuncles, leading Mr Berkheimer to conclude that we are indeed the worst of the worst among developed nations.  To be great again, Berkheimer prescribes that we reinstate “the freedom and opportunities to live a better life”, along with the “freedom to innovate” – freedoms which the Left has systematically been removing since the country’s post-war march to socialism was resumed by the Great Society in the 1960s.  Telling of Berkheimer’s prescriptions for America’s future are his mythical interpretations of the governmental “we” who used to “provide” for Americans.  And going forward “it's not just what we provide for those living now, but instead what we provide for the future — for our children, and the next generation after that.” (emphasis mine)  Unless I’m forgetting something fundamental about the greatness of America, it was not government, but the people who were free to innovate and provide for themselves that made us the most sought-after nation in the world.  Government’s constitutional role was to maintain a secure geography in which we could do all these things for ourselves.  Today the Berkheimers in America are working hard and with considerable success to reverse these roles.

Ruminations – 30apr18 (updated 1may18)

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

George Rebane

George Boardman, our favorite left-leaning columnist and reader, writes a solid piece (here) in the 30apr18 Union on the effects of taxation on pot in California and our county.  He even brings up the Laffer Curve (gasp!) to illustrate how higher tax rates lower govt revenues and give rise to black markets.  As memorialized by countless citations, comments, and even vituperation in these pages, a sacrosanct tenet of progressive economic theory is that tax rates affect neither production nor consumption.  Do we have here an epiphany in the making?

The Left is now all agog about how we can and should regulate AI – in its development and uses.  The 30apr18 WSJ interviews three “AI experts” on the matter (here) who are really policy lawyers and demonstrate little understanding of AI as they counsel little to a lot of needed regulations.  No one considers that we really need no additional regulation of productized AI because they are at best decision support systems always operating under a responsible human agent for whom all existing laws apply.  It is the human who has the power to employ AI as a tool, and then be responsible for its employment under existing laws.  Things can change later when the AIs become sentient and then sapient.  (See also the post of my recent Union column on this topic.)

California’s progressive socialism has produced the state with the largest income inequality in the Union, and it’s on the rise as more and more middle-class wage earners are pulling up stakes and moving elsewhere.  Joel Kotkin assembles some of this alarming data (H/T to reader) to give perspective to the Left’s claim that California is the model for tomorrow’s America.  “Today, domestic net out-migration, even after declining in the early years of the recession, has more than doubled between 2013 and 2016. Even worse, according to a recent UC Berkeley study, over a quarter of Californians are considering a move, half of them out of the state, with the strongest proclivity found among people under the age of 50. And contrary to some progressive commentary, those leaving are not necessarily old or losers; according to IRS data, out-migrant households had a higher average income than those households that stayed, or of households that moved in to the state.” (more here)

What level of neurological deficits must a person have to still believe that Mueller's year-plus investigation has turned up the slightest evidence of Trump/Russia collusion that, if it exists, would have been leaked months ago?  Why would that lot of liberal lawyers allow their fellow Dems to look like idiots as they repeatedly squawk evidence-free allegations on the media as 'proof' of Trump's guilt? (more here)

[1may18 update]  The Mueller gauge is still on EMPTY, as the latest spate of leaks confirms.  The list of ‘questions for Trump’ first leaked to the NYT, is an embarrassing fishing expedition that seeks nothing beyond the President’s recollections of his own thoughts about this and that, guesses at what other people might have been thinking, opinions about their pre-campaign activities, notions of the meanings of this or that concept or legal construct, … .  In short, the man has found no definitive actions or occurrences involving the Trump campaign that would support the now tidal wave of lamestream allegations serving as desperate proxies for no evidence of a conspiracy with Russia to influence the 2016 election.  When this is pointed out, all the leftwing choir is able to retort can be set to Lerner and Loewe’s ‘Just you wait ‘Enry ‘Iggins’, just you wait!’

California’s school kids have been had by the unionized public school teachers and leftwing politicians, as noted here for years.  The progressives who have created this disaster refuse to even acknowledge it, guaranteeing that the future will be no better, and probably worse, than the past.  Today 65% of our 8^th graders are NOT PROFICIENT in reading, and 67% of them are NOT PROFICIENT in math.  This places CA 36^th nationwide in reading and math, and that itself is another disaster story – with stats like that, how did we place so high, and still have 14 states scoring lower.  Oi weh!  (H/T to reader and more here)

Gun Violence Community Dialogue & Town Hall Update (updated 21apr18)

George Rebane

Silly me.  And here all along I thought I knew what is a community dialogue in a town hall format.  You know, a gathering for which they make a big announcement for everyone interested to gather together, hear some speaker(s), and then everyone has a chance to be heard.  Au contraire mon ami.  The gun violence town hall we’ve been talking about here for a week or more is really for a restricted audience, a select and correct thinking group perhaps, one that got the flyer you see here below.  If you weren’t in that group, you’re SOL unless you can squeeze in with a last-minute RSVP.  And, of course, RSVPs only work if you have something to respond to, sil vous plait.  So I hope that some politically incorrect members of the community are also allowed to join that exclusive tete-a-tete this coming Friday, otherwise I’m going to be very lonely and may need an armed escort to exit the building.  Bottom line, it ain’t gonna be announced in The Union.

[21apr18 update]  The town hall came off pretty much as advertised; attendance was almost at capacity in the Nevada City council chambers.  However, the way that the discussion was framed for the panel was a bit different than my takeaway from the first meeting.  Actually, the discussion was not framed at all save for asking us all to talk about guns and school safety “on the community level”.

Judge Tom Anderson, who overall did an excellent job a mediator, in his opening remarks specifically stated that this was not to be a discussion on Second Amendment which would “take us all day” to cover.  With this constraint, the rest of the evening consisted of a series of disjointed panel comments and answers that ranged from claiming that we have an ongoing shooting “epidemic” to a “crisis”, to arming teachers or not, to passing more gun regulations since they reduced crime, and on and on.  We were not able to get to any specific problem that the community could get its arms around to solve, and that for the simple reason that none of us knew what acceptable problem domain were we supposed treat or even use as the basis for developing a list.

Lots of anecdotal comments were offered on how horrible it was to get shot at, have a loved one killed by a shooter, and the students’ fear of a massacre that now permeated schools nationwide, including in Nevada County.  The consensus of the four liberal panelists was that the passing of more gun controls, and perhaps confiscating certain types of guns, would keep the kids safe and reduce crime since their data showed ‘more gun controls, less gun violence’.  In actuality, as cited here previously, “there is no clear relationship between strict gun control legislation and homicide or violent crime rates.”

Jarod Johnson, owner of The Range and ex-LE officer, was the only other apparent non-liberal who strongly maintained that schools should each have an armed policeman on duty to stop massacres.  And he agreed that only guns on the premises will stop people with guns.  He didn’t quite finish with ‘when seconds count, police are minutes away’.

My interjected points (only one question was actually posed to me during the evening) included attempts to communicate the following.

• Right and Left agree on neither the facts nor their interpretation. The path toward a solution should start on whatever part of the worldview we do share.
• The search for a community solution should start with identification of a solvable problem and a specific utility (numerical metric) that measures our progress.
• Willing teachers should be trained and armed to reduce the loss of life in school massacres.
• Children learn fear from their elders (parents, teachers, media). Unreasonable fear of in-school massacres has to be carefully taught to young impressionable brains.  Nevada County youth regularly die in traffic accidents at rates at least two orders of magnitude higher than from anything gun related, yet no one is afraid of getting in a car and driving off.  
• Stricter gun controls do not affect suicide rates – committed suicides find alternate means. (Massachusetts was cited where suicide rates were supposed have dropped with increased gun controls – the fact is exactly the opposite, its suicide rates increased by at least 40% in the 2004-14 decade.  More alternate facts.)
• Homicide rates are culture driven, not gun driven – London’s murder rate with knives now exceeds NYC’s with guns.
• The need to include the 2^nd Amendment and its core purpose/meaning in ANY discussion of gun ownership, violence, safety, control, … is seminal because that is the basis for half the country resisting gun confiscators and any incremental ratcheting toward that goal.
• Saving teen lives (i.e. max expected lives saved) in Nevada County should not start with, or perhaps even include, the fortification of schools – drugs, alcohol, suicides, opiates, … should get our first attention and efforts.
• The next town hall on saving teen lives should define and recommend a locally achievable project or program.

Gun violence town hall in Nevada City (updated 7apr18)

George Rebane

[This is the transcript of my regular KVMR commentary broadcast on 4 April 2018.]

Today the Second Amendment and gun violence are on the minds of many people.  Both subjects have widely different meanings for Americans, and the usual conversations held on these topics more often than not find people talking past each other because they share no common facts, definitions of terms, knowledge of history, and usually debate only to promote totally different futures for America.  In short, neither their agendas nor narratives are compatible.  On 20 April there will be a town hall meeting in Nevada City to attempt a better understanding of all this that I’ll tell you about in a minute.

Since the Parkland shootings, the Left has again made gun control a national issue, seeing it as the most recent not-to-be-wasted perfect storm to flood the country with the next layer of gun control laws.  What distinguishes their current efforts from the past is that the cat is finally out of the bag – the Left’s goal is not just adopting what they call ‘common sense’ laws and regulations, but the total abrogation of civilian gun ownership.  And former Supreme Court Justice Stevenson openly declared the preferred method to be through the repeal of the Second Amendment.

What continues to fuel the debate in the media is the way that information on guns – their types, functioning, gun deaths, gun violence, (yes, these are different), ownership rates, applicable laws, the effect of various levels of controls, etc – how all this is disseminated.  Listening to the gun confiscation folks, you would think that there has been a dramatic increase in gun violence, however that is characterized.  Looking at the plain facts, gathered and published by outfits like Pew Research, FBI’s Uniform Crime Reports, Centers for Disease Control, and other reputable private and public agencies, the reality is quite different.

Here are some “stubborn facts” to consider when you next talk about gun violence and gun control –

• Violent crime is down and has been on the decline for decades.
• The principal public safety concerns with respect to guns are suicides and illegally owned handguns, not mass shootings.
• A small number of factors significantly increase the likelihood that a person will be a victim of a gun-related homicide.
• Gun-related murders are carried out by a predictable pool of people.
• Higher rates of gun ownership are not associated with higher rates of violent crime.
• There is no clear relationship between strict gun control legislation and homicide or violent crime rates.
• Legally owned firearms are used for lawful purposes much more often, about 450,000 times annually, than they are used to commit crimes or suicide.
• Concealed carry or CCW permit holders are not the problem, but they may be part of the solution. CCW permit holders are arguably the most law-abiding people in the country.  Our police, who are very law-abiding, still commit crimes at 6 to 10 times the rate that CCW holders do.

To put the loss of human life into some perspective, consider that insect bites kill more people than the criminal use of guns.  More people are stabbed to death each year than are shot with rifles.  Surprisingly, the London murder rate with knives is now higher than the gun murder rate in New York.  And each year medical mistakes kill over 20 times the number of people murdered with guns.  So, there is much more to know about gun violence than what is repeated on every-day media.  (more here)

In light of all this, a group of concerned progressives will gather in the Nevada City Council chambers on the evening of 20 April to hold a town hall in order to “find common ground for efforts that can be initiated right here in Nevada County to make us all safer.”  The meeting, moderated by Judge Tom Anderson, will be a discussion and not a debate.  It will feature a panel that includes Carla Wolfclaw, who wrote on school security measures after the Columbine massacre, and a number of locals to which I have been added to provide either some measure of balance or, perhaps, comic relief, not necessarily in that order.  More information will be available soon on local radio and in The Union.

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.

[6apr18 update]  Until something more formal appears in the media, I am posting below the draft "blurb", as received, from the organizers on the upcoming town hall.  Since the receipt, I have been informed by KVMR that they will do a live broadcast of the event.

Foothill Arts Resources & Media (The FARM) is a 501 C 3 Non-Profit entity.  Our mission is to provide professional assistance & occasional funding to local projects that would be of interest to our community, in addition to producing our own events. Our team is comprised of passionate individuals with long-term experience in activism, organizing and event planning, as well as strong independent media involvement.

Our current project is to produce a Town Hall Meeting on the topic of Guns; this will include gun safety, gun violence, interpretations of the Second Amendment to the Constitution, student input, judicial and law enforcement input, and an opportunity for knowledgeable panelists to share their thoughts, feelings & expertise. The goal is to bridge the gap, and rather than be divisive, to find areas where we, as a community, can find common ground, and begin to find workable solutions to this important, ongoing and highly charged topic.  This will be a forum in which the public can ask questions of the panelists. (These questions will be vetted by our team, and will include all points of view, as our goal is to be inclusive).

The meeting will be carried LIVE on NCTV and streamed over the internet on Friday, April 20th, 2018 at 6:30 P.M. and will be held in the Nevada City Council chambers at 317 Broad St. Nevada City, CA.

We are planning to work with KVMR to see if they, too, would be interested in carrying the event. We have received a “thumbs-up” from The Union, as well.

[7apr18 update]  I received the following press release entitled, 'Town Hall Notice - Guns a Community Dialogue' from Ms Patricia Smith of FARM.  It is posted as received.

Press Release:

Guns: A Community Dialog will be the topic of a public Town Hall Meeting to be held on Friday, April 20, from 6:30 - 8:30 pm in the Nevada City Hall Council Chambers, 317 Broad Street. 

The Town Hall is being produced by Foothills Arts Resources & Media (FARM) with partners NCTV and KVMR who will carry a LIVE broadcast of this event. (NCTV, Comcast Ch. 17 or Suddenlink Ch. 16; KVMR, 89.5 FM.) It will also be streamed over the internet at www.kvmr.org and nevadacountytv.org.

Superior Court Judge Thomas Anderson will moderate. The panel consists of Amanda Wilcox, Legislation & Policy Chair of the California Chapters of the Brady Campaign; Carla Holtzclaw, School Safety Trainer & Consultant, retired educator & former Chair of the Santa Clara County Behavioral Health Board; Dr. George Rebane, certified range safety officer, life member of the NRA, who has researched and written extensively on the Second Amendment; Morgan Margulies, a senior at Nevada Union High School and captain of the campus debate team; Jerod Johnson, a retired Grass Valley Police captain, gun safety expert and owner of The Range, and Michael Gomez, former Bureau Chief, California Dept. of Justice Commission on Peace Officer Standards & Training (POST).

Among the topics to be discussed will be school and public safety procedures, warning signs of mental health issues, gun proficiency & safety training, concerns of our youth, and Second Amendment rights.

The goal is to bridge the gap, and rather than be divisive, find areas where we, as a community, can reach common ground. Foremost is finding workable, local solutions to this important, ongoing and highly charged topic.

This will be an inter-active forum in which the public can ask questions of the panelists via written cards. All points of view will be included, however the questions will be vetted to eliminate duplication and remain within the time limitations of a live broadcast.  FARM is a 501 (c) 3, non-profit. Our mission is to provide professional assistance & occasional funding to local projects that would be of interest to our community, in addition to producing our own events.

Seating is limited: Info:530-268-5754 or see FARM's Facebook page, Foothill Arts, Resources and Media FARM where you can reserve a seat.

Scattershots – 24mar18 (updated 28mar18)

George Rebane

Today’s Union has an excellent editorial – ‘Our View: This community is all our backyard’ – in which it takes to task those of us who tend to oppose anything that will bring needed change to our county.  The editorial goes through a number of recent and current development initiatives that have again run into strong headwinds from the usual contingents.  Even though our electeds make a significant contribution to the sand in our gears, but “we can't lay all the problems we face at the doorstep of our elected leaders. Our community could use a sea change about what shape it should take and what direction it should go.”  And in these pages we have been promoting such a sea change for years as our population stagnates, families move elsewhere, and potential new businesses give us a pass once they get a good whiff of the county’s new political face.  I give a big ‘Amen’ to that sea change, and a H/T to Bob Crabb for his contribution (filched from the 24mar18 Union) to the dialogue.

This weekend the nation’s progressively propelled pubertistas are marching in opposition to what they know not, but easily accept as ‘gun violence’.  In a recent post we covered the launch of this nascent lamestream-lauded movement under ‘Progressives Pander Pubertistas’.  What should continue to interest all of us is how the country’s adults view these marches comprised of ignorant and emotional young people, enthralled in the first flood of hormones evolved to mediate the journey from childhood to an adult.  Easily assembled and directed, all of them sport brains that clinical science tells us are yet years from being fully formed for taking reliably rational decisions.  To see who seeks to benefit from franchising these anxious and anxiety ridden works-in-progress, just take a look at the politicians, organizations, and media that promote them.  Long ago our Founders built on the then already known progress of human development, and made it law of the land that no one could be elected into a federal policy making office before the age of twenty-five.  And we also know how past childrens’ crusades have ended.

[25mar18 update]  Meteorologists, you gotta love ‘em.  The recent couple of weeks here in Northern California have again amply demonstrated their prowess at forecasting what they are paid to forecast – the weather.  These guys make economists and stock pickers look good, and I have no idea how they steel themselves before accepting another paycheck for their work.  As one who has some acquaintance with estimation theory, the work of the meteorologists is below sophomoric; most certainly, none of their computer models work.  It is clear that any claim of having improved their sophistry over the years is not due to their increased understanding of the processes that drive the weather.  Their performance, such as it is, can all be laid to having a better view (data and imagery from orbit and reporting surface stations) of what is ‘upstream’ of their prediction area.  Then they look at past records of what such observations have actually delivered, and go from there.  But even then they screw up, apparently never having heard of the good Rev Bayes as their ‘100% chance of rain’ pronouncements confirm.

[28mar18 update]  WSJ's leftwing columnist William Galston may have had an epiphany which, in all fairness, I must recognize.  In the paper's 28mar18 edition he writes a piece on 'The Case for Responsible Nationalism', and surprises us with -

National governments are not required to value the citizens of other countries as highly as their own. A degree of self-preference is morally justified and politically essential. Leaders in advanced countries are not obligated to practice global utilitarianism or lift up the global poor at the expense of their working and middle classes. ... There will probably never be a real world government. There are no “global citizens.” People belong to sovereign states with different languages, cultures and institutions. Free societies are composed of citizens who agree to share a common fate and to work out their destiny through accountable politics. They undertake special responsibilities toward their fellow citizens, and the policies of free governments must take these reciprocal commitments into account.

Ruminations – 13mar18 (updated 14mar18)

George Rebane

College students can’t write, like in cursive handwriting.  More and more are in dire straits at schools that don’t allow laptops in the lecture halls.  Years ago the loss of that ability was described in sci-fi stories of a future when writing skills had withered and people ‘wrote’ by speaking to computers with speech-to-text capability.  Now that future is here, and we shall see how we do when requirements for making some quiet notes arise.

Dollar General in Alta Sierra, what a kerfuffle.  Residents there protest the advent of a store carrying cheap merchandise that will attract a class of people who benefit from such offerings, and whose obvious presence in that neighborhood may lower real estate values.  Mac Young in the 13mar18 Union calls such voices discriminatory (here).  And, of course, they are in both the politically correct and classical meanings of having the ability to make studied distinctions.  These people of Alta Sierra are exercising their right to voice an opinion about a likely effect that such traffic will have on their heretofore pristine community of well-kept and prim houses which dot the hillsides on the road to the county’s premier country club.

Russian collusion is most evident in the collectivist conclaves of New England – Boston town to be specific.  Here they are welcoming large Russian LNG carriers in their harbors discharging the natural gas required to heat their homes for the remainder of their globally cold winter.  They are financing Putin’s adventures rather that approve the pipeline that would have brought in Canadian and American gas to satisfy the needs of all of New England.  They see no conflict in what passes for their rationale as the region’s liberals join with the usual activist suspects – Greenpeace, Sierra Club, … - to oppose safe, sane, and sustainable native solutions.  (more here)

[update]  Rebane Doctrine dictum – Relinquish to higher government ONLY things that you or the more local government can’t handle – a hierarchical solution for benevolent governance.  (Am reading Taleb’s latest – Skin in the Game (2018) – on which I’ll report later.  I have found Taleb’s ethics and political philosophy to fly in fairly tight formation with my own credo and socio-political doctrine.)

[14mar18 update]  In ‘Why Cities Boom While Towns Struggle’ liberal columnist William Galston cites The New Geography of Jobs (2012) by Berkeley economist Enrico Moretti, who argues that achieving creativity in the workplace still requires face-to-face efforts by people drawn from a critical mass of proximal workers – telecommuting just won’t do.  There’s a lot more to be said about that which also bears on the decades-long, mostly misguided, but still persistent efforts by our own community to attract jobs and workers.  Moretti’s findings support the A21 stack-and-pack objectives of depleting rural populations in favor of dense, highly-regulated city living.  For another view of how and why cities (among other complex systems) evolve and renew themselves, I recommend the important and highly-readable Scale: The Universal Laws of Growth, Innovation, Sustainability, and the Pace of Life in Organisms, Cities, Economies, and Companies (2017) by theoretical physicist Geoffrey West.

Our New Cannabis Ordinance – A Civil Approach

George Rebane

[This is the transcript of my regular KVMR commentary broadcast on 14 February 2018.]

Yesterday afternoon Jo Ann and I were in the packed supervisors’ chamber at the Rood Center.  The supes were there to discuss the new county cannabis ordinance and give guidance to the county staff about what they wanted to see in the finished product.  The entire affair was presided over by Supervisor Scofield who is the current board chair.  The meeting began with a presentation by Community Development Agency head Sean Powers in which he outlined a bit of history, the state’s current and evolving cannabis regulations, and what our own Community Advisory Group had recommended.

The gathering opened in a very orderly, businesslike, yet congenial manner.  Supervisor Scofield then allowed about 30 minutes of additional public input, even though this was not a public hearing.  Then the supes started their first real discussion among themselves about the ordinance.  The Brown Act prevents elected officials from discussing and deciding public affairs in private.  So the exchange that followed was interesting to witness as each supervisor asked questions of the staff and began expressing their own druthers about the complex details that the ordinance must contain and also make clear to our newly legalized cannabis industry and concerned citizens alike.

The dimensions of the ordinance quickly revealed themselves to be byzantine as each layer of important factors was examined and peeled back.  The main points of contention were the nuisance of cannabis stench in residential neighborhoods vs the desire to allow legal, regulated, and taxed cannabis grows.  If the ordinance were to come out too draconian, then the growers and producers would return to their illegal ways, and we would be back where we started.

Also important to note is that all these deliberations are taking place within the current political environment in which 18 California counties are also writing their ordinances, while the rest are preparing to do so, and in which everyone is attempting to resolve the same conundrums.  The factors that need to be sorted out involve existing zoning laws, parcel sizes, numbers of permitted indoor vs outdoor plants, setbacks from property lines in the attempt to staunch the stench, and on and on.  Our cannabis proponents want Nevada County to lead the way with our ordinance, a tactic that is not without its own chuckholes.

It soon became clear which supervisors were more concerned about abating the nuisance issues, and who leaned more toward the cannabis growers.  Actually, only Supervisor Heidi Hall, representing District #1 that contains Nevada City, found herself alone advocating for more plants grown outside on smaller parcels with smaller setbacks from the neighbors.  Supervisors Miller, Anderson, Scofield and Weston all leaned toward smaller grows of only medicinal marijuana on larger parcels zoned for agriculture and having larger setbacks.  Nevertheless, all of them also understood that the growers needed some reasonable slack so that their commercial interests would also be served.

The overall discussion was most civil, with a lot of understanding of each others’ concerns that at times was even leavened with humor.  My only criticism about the process was with Sean Powers’ preparation – he didn’t make enough slides that were needed to give everyone, including us in the audience, the definitions, charts, and data that would have made things go more smoothly with fewer repeated questions and misunderstandings that had to be cleared up. More specific details about the Supervisors’ guidance and next steps in the drafting process, that would include additional public input, can be found in the online (here) and print editions of today’s Union newspaper.

We came away from the meeting in good spirits, having witnessed how local government can work in a reasoned and reasonable manner to consider difficult issues with divers advocates, and proceed visibly with an even-handed approach to making public policy.  In recent years I have become pessimistic about the outcome of our Founders’ legacy that left us the Great Experiment, which is based on the question, ‘Can common man govern himself?’  Witnessing our Board of Supervisors at work gave us new hope that maybe, just maybe, we could actually do that in today’s hyper-polarized America.

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.

Scattershots – 12feb18 (updated 15feb18)

George Rebane

Today we celebrate the closing of the National Hotel’s escrow.  Owner Tom Coleman is a longtime Rebane family friend and poker buddy (developer of the notorious Coleman Shuffle, the Coleman Deal, and, of course, the ever-reliable Coleman Dollar bet).  Tom called yesterday to tell me to get my butt down to the hotel for a last chance to haul some libations out of his inventory.  Saturday night along with another couple of Tom’s friends, we spent an evening with him and his son (up here to help dad close up) in the Hoover Restaurant & Bar’s dining room toasting the old place, and being regaled with stories about the fabled hotel which Tom has owned now going on 40 years.  Jo Ann and I wish Tom and Ernie the best of a retirement that has been too long in coming.  Nevertheless, I promise to continue doing my best to assault Tom’s wallet during our longstanding monthly poker parties.

As I write, the Dow is up 2.22% (537 points) on its rocky recovery from attempting to scale an unsustainable super-exponential growth pattern.  As Dr Didier Sornette of the ETHZürich has taught us, super-exponentials attempt to grow to infinity in a finite time.  Our universe does not support those kinds of enterprises, and promises each such attempt a bruising correction.  In the current correction I again smile at the naifs reporting on the markets – ‘Investors were bailing out of stocks today due to … .’  No they weren’t.  Who the hell do you think was then doing the buying, the tooth fairy?  For interested readers on why and when markets crash, I recommend perusing the good professor’s writings and the Financial Crisis Observatory website.  And as you study today’s market charts, always remember – buy low, sell high.

The DC investigations memo wars are at a high fever pitch.  RR readers from all sides of the political landscape have a fascinating weeks-long debate going (with citations galore) about what all the memos portend about Trump’s political future and this year’s midterm elections.  (See comment streams here, here, and here.) Predictably the two major sides are trading ripostes from their separate universes which apparently have very few points of connection, most certainly not in what the facts are nor how we arrived at the current locations in our respective universes.  By any measure, this dialogue (multi-logue?) is the most unprofitable exchange of words that the country has experienced in living memory, perhaps ever.

[14feb18 update]  It now turns out that what all of us have been reporting about the Schiff memo was absolutely true – Adam Schiff and Pelosi lied when they claimed that President Trump gratuitously refused to declassify their rebuttal to the Nunes memo.  It turns out that the lying SOSs purposely inserted sources and methods into their memo so it could not be released, and they could claim on national media that Trump was playing a political cover-up to his own wrongdoings in the memo wars.  All lies, and lies that count.

And it turns out that what I reported as the dictionary's and RR’s definitions of ‘collusion’ also turn out to be correct.  Collusion does not automatically mean a conspiracy to do something illegal, as the lamestream and the lesser lights have been hyper-ventilating about lately.  From the horse’s mouth (or is it the other end?) we have that, “(Congressman Schiff) also somewhat backtracked on the Trump-Russia collusion issue, saying the Democrats’ definition of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia was much lower than potential criminal acts being reviewed by special counsel Robert Mueller. Collusion is not a crime under the federal statutes.” (more here)

[15feb18 update]  Obama’s economic adviser speaks with forked tongue (here).  We all know how the Left denigrates stock market performance and puu-puuhs its economic effect on anyone who is not in their currently designated wealthy class.  But suddenly when it serves their narrative or can be used to excuse past poor professional performance, then suddenly the lower and middle classes become shareholders whose economic behavior is immediately stimulated by the “wealth effect” of a rising stock market.  This is how Harvard biz school professor Jason Furman attributes the cause of last year’s breakout GDP growth – it was demand driven by the broad population of consumers who mysteriously became the beneficiaries of their appreciating, but heretofore non-existent, portfolios and went on a buying splurge.  This is the same professor who was Obama’s chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers (2013-17), and one of the prime architects of the historically post-recession stagnant growth we enjoyed during his time in government.  Wonder what he’s now teaching the next crop of MBAs - oh yes, it's "hoping for 3% or more (annual growth) is folly. The fundamentals—people and productivity—seem unlikely to provide it."

 

Why should the neighborhoods suffer revisited?

[Don Bessee is a leading opponent of bringing legalized marijuana into Nevada County and specifically into its residential communities.  He is the regional director of Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM), and sits on its board.  Project SAM, founded by congressmen Patrick Kennedy and Kevin Sibet, is a national, non-partisan organization that coordinates opposition to the legalization of marijuana.  Recently Mr Bessee sat on Nevada County's Community Advisory Group (CAG) that was formed by the county to advise its Board of Supervisors on the adoption of a new marijuana ordinance.  This is an invited byline to allow Mr Bessee (pictured below) to openly express his views after CAG was disbanded.  It is posted as received.  gjr]

Don Bessee

We have been having a long conversation about commercial marijuana’s impacts on communities and neighborhoods.  During the prop 64 lead up and campaign there were some very interesting conversations and warnings.

I set up a press conference in late oct. 2016 in the heart of the financial district in SF where SAM stood with leaders of the medical marijuana community. We were there to put a spotlight on the tricks in prop 64.  That brought a very diverse group together to voice an area of significant agreement.  All of us there took heat for it.

We warned that the supermajority clause made the rest meaningless and that SAM’s long warned Big Tabaco 2.0 would come to Cali. So did UCSF addiction researchers.  We were right. We were right on so many levels.

I warned of the law enforcement street view from states that went commercial medical and commercial party pot before us. The urban and small town homeless magnet issues in CO. The quality of life crime increases and public drug use. Then there was the wanton abuse of the hard rules. As time went on the tax money got gobbled up by administration of the commercial track and tax system. A system that did nothing to decrease the black market. It only empowered it. Take for example the hide in plain sight criminal gang activity where they set up pot shops without licenses. It’s a whack a mole without any real enforcement ability, just like LA now.

We were promised by Newsom et al.  that all the problems would go away when we legalized.

It has been very interesting to watch all the moves since the passage of 64 in Nov. 2016, very interesting.

Let’s look at the facts on the ground right now. As it sits there are all of 17 Counties that are commercial. 1 allows deliveries. That means that all the other  Counties are not commercial. Yes, the vast majority of Cali is non-commercial.

The reality on the ground across the state of California it that things are not better on any level, they are worse and getting worse.

It was gratifying that the head of the State pot growers sued the state recently for doing exactly what we warned about. It is said that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, if that’s the case, thanks Hez.

According to Hezekiah Allen, executive director of the California Growers Association, which filed the suit in Sacramento County Superior Court, the farm-size caps are essential to stop the industry from becoming “Big Tobacco 2.0”

Last week I was at another press conference in SF. I was standing shoulder to shoulder with the Catholic Archdiocese of SF, the head of the Congress On Racial Equality (CORE) and The Pacific Justice Foundation among others. The event was held in a very special location.

We were in the magnificent Chinese Episcopal Church on Noriega in SF. A Church that has a full day care and all day long bi-lingual tutoring. The planning commission in SF had made the egregious decision to allow a pot shop across the street in violation of prop 64.  The worst part is it was a politically connected former mayor of Oakland that got the ok. The righteous uproar forced even the SF Board of Supervisors to grant the appeal to protect the neighborhood. A neighborhood of color.

The facts are that most liquor stores and pot shops are in neighborhoods of color.

I spoke about the facts in NorCal.

We have had elected officials in Truckee threatened when the community wisely rejected commercial weed.

Nevada County has too many stories of abused neighborhoods like Wolf Dr.   Do any of you feel safer in your neighborhood? I hear NO in a big way every day.

The audit of the commercial pot shops in Sac. City showed they were selling black market weed, lying, cheating and even refusing entry to auditors even though the license required it. On Kathleen Ave in Sac the city is not protecting homeowners who are getting harassed for opposing a license applicant who is running without a license.

We were promised that things would get better, have they for your neighborhood?

What I hear from people who failed in other states in the weed business and locals who have no idea about what real world business plans are is that we MUST make what they want to do legal here everywhere.  Do we really? I think we need to see an enforcement model in CA that works first.

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.)

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)

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.

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.