Law Enforcement: Lashing Out in Their Death Throes

When Lt. Governor Gavin Newsome recently stated, " Good people can disagree", regarding the distance between law enforcement and the cannabis legalization movement, I knew he was sugar coating reality. Pretty sure everybody in the room knew it too.

Well, the push back has begun.
Cynically and stupidly some of those "good people", the Three Amigos Sheriffs from Humboldt, Mendocino, and Trinity counties, recently got together a cowboy raiding party to specifically target legal cannabis farmers who are supporting the legalization movement. Farmers who have come out of the dark to have legally permitted water catchment systems, farmers who want to pay taxes, the same taxes that are being misused now to destroy legally permitted water systems during a drought.
100,000 gallons and counting.

Committing the very environmental crimes they claim to prevent.
While stealing private bulldozers to do those crimes.
The Three Amigos call it "asset forfeiture" and "eradication", the rest of society calls it what it is, THEFT.
Doing it all without benefit of search warrant. Illegal.
In the three counties in California that rely most heavily on cannabis cultivation to support their respective economies.
Brilliant?

Why? Because guys like Tom Allman the Sheriff of Mendocino County like illegal cannabis.
Besides all the toys they get to choose from before they hit auction, through "asset forfeiture"....
Black market weed is far more profitable than legal stuff, no taxes, higher costs, selective enforcement targeting unwanted competition. Because as you know "Mr. Burkhart, not everybody in Mendocino County is allowed to grow marijuana." That's what I was told in 2008 while sitting in his jail.

With the FBI recently nailing the Deputy Chief of Police in the City of Fresno for dealing prescription narcotics in a sting; makes me wonder if they have their eyes on law enforcement in our cannabis producing counties.
If they don't, they're not doing their jobs.

Law Enforcement: A Parallel Universe

What happens in the business world when an idea, product, or service becomes outdated, unsustainable, and ultimately meets with failure?

Answer: That failed idea, product, or service is promptly relegated to the "Book of Lessons Learned", never to be repeated under sentence of perpetual poverty.

Well today I had the opportunity to attend a round table discussion hosted by California's Lt. Governor Gavin Newsome on the topic of cannabis legal reform, with an emphasis on taxation, and land use law. 

From the outset Lt. Governor Newsome made it clear that he believes a cannabis legalization ballot initiative was all but certain for 2016, and it's passage is more probable than not. Having said that, we should prepare for the new reality before us, in the most proactively responsible way possible.
Just when the Lt. Governor said, "Good people can disagree." somebody did...in a most disagreeable way.

When asked, the President of the California Police Chiefs Association, Chief Garza of the Reedley Police Dept. stated: "It's mine and our organizations view that marijuana should not be legal"..."we have to protect my four children, and all the kids in the community..." 

Now remember we're supposed to be discussing taxation and land use after inevitable legalization, not his organizations preference for failed policy.

What happened to staying on subject?

My guess is, this guy didn't go to business school, because he never once addressed the topic at hand.

Chief Garza kept beating the dead horse argument that expensive enforcement and incarceration is somehow fiscally more responsible than collecting taxes, and reallocating resources to real drug education, not propaganda.

In my world; dude is F-I-R-E-D.

This is our fundamental problem; if we have people running law enforcement that can't recognize failed policy repeatedly slapping them in the face, how will they transition to the new reality of cannabis legalization?

It's like J. Edgar Hoover, the 'esteemed', and allegedly cross dressing, founder and long time Director of the F.B.I., who until his dying breath refused to acknowledge the reality of the Mafia. 

J. Edgar's not alone, throughout history we have examples of authority "turning a blind eye" to the reality we all know exists; but what motivates the top cop in the country to ignore the albatross shitting on our heads?

Could it be cash?

In the case of today's police chiefs, we know it's the cash.

Federal grants, and military equipment have been flowing to these forces the past 30 years at a rate we could only dream of for our schools. The War on Drugs has our prisons bursting, with the number of prison guards becoming so large, they are the best funded lobby in Sacramento, while at the same time more cannabis, heroin, meth, and just about any pharmaceutical drug you want is easier to find than at any time in the last 40 years. Just ask Chief Jerry Dyer of the Fresno P.D., his Deputy Chief was recently busted in a FBI sting supplying pharmaceutical drugs to undercover agents...and Jerry didn't have a clue.

Reality Check Chief Garza, repeated application of failed policy to a problem will only yield the same predictable result: failure.

I can only imagine the rationale going through the minds of law enforcement, but it must be something like this:

"When you have a vested interest in your own failure, and there's no penalty for that failure, it's in your own best interest to perpetuate that failure, even though it's not in the best interest of those you serve, the people who ultimately sign your checks."

Thanks for the clarification Chief Garza.

1980 Moscow Olympics 2018 World Cup Uh Oh....

Remember 1979? When the Soviet Union invaded friendly, peaceful Afghanistan? Shortly thereafter we helped create the "mujahideen" with our good friends the Pakistani's, which later morphed into the Taliban...Well that's another story for a different post.

What most of us who were alive at the time will remember most vividly, was the move made by our President Jimmy Carter in response to the invasion; we boycotted the 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow.
The Soviets in turn boycotted the 1984 Games in Los Angeles, as it was true then and remains true today, nobody missed the Russians.

Fast forward to 2015, we stand watching Russian aggression again unfold, this time in Ukraine, with yet another international sporting event in the wings. How will our current president respond...hmmmm?
Taking a page from Jimmy's playbook, and of course adding a judicial twist that Jimmy didn't have at his disposal; Barry removed the minions from Sepp Blatter's control, leaving him a lonely old man facing the storm alone. As a dude who's so old he farts dust, he retires and fades to black immediately after winning the election today.
Perhaps a car wreck is in his near future, or heart attack, at his advanced age anything can happen....

But back to Vlad, he's the real target; Barry's not going to merely boycott the World Cup, he's going to complete the humiliation of Vlad the Midget by having the games moved to another country. Witness the Midget's immediate embrace of the embattled Blatter, he's scared because he knows what Barry's up to. Love to see the little troll's face when he realizes how large a pile of shit he stepped into, just before he's consumed by it.

World War III Anyone?

Just read Chancellor Merkel's speech, giving her reasoning, for not providing Ukraine with heavy defensive weapons. While she makes the valid point, Vlad's not going to back down if we up the ante; she misses the larger more salient point. Aggression unchecked, leads to more aggression. A lesson taught so well by her own ancestors, I'm flummoxed at the idea she can't see it.

As I read Ms. Merkels' statement, I couldn't help but be transported back to 1938.
The phrase "peace in our time" as proclaimed by Neville Chamberlain, upon his return from meeeting with Hitler, during which he gave Herr Hitler the West's blessing to Germany's march into the Sudetenland, rings with an ominous echo today.

Putin, has become bolder in his actions in light of the economic sanctions put into play, not less so, and certainly if we send in weapons, Russia will respond. Disproportianately.
In Czar Vlad's eyes, Ukraine is Russia, has been forever, and will continue as the western frontier of the largest nation on earth. Think "lebensraum" or in English "living room", the German term used by the Nazi's to describe their push east into Poland, Czechoslovakia....
Putin's using the same rationale, Ukraine is to Russia, what Eastern Europe was to the Nazi's.

Witness the demands coming from Moscow, while Merkel insists the original peace plan be the starting point for future discussions. Those demands for territory grow with every word passed in negotiation. So far as Putin is concerned, that first disingenuous offer made, which was never to be honored, was only subterfuge allowing Russia to inject more and better armed forces to the region, while consolidating facts on the ground.

Peace negotiations with Vlad are doomed to fail; sending only defensive weaponry to the Ukrainians, will only forestall the inevitable crushing of Ukraine, with inherent catastrophic effects to their society.
No, the only way to roll Vlad back, is to commit the full force of NATO to the cause, and do it soon.
Should Vlad find success in this folly, does anyone believe it stops there?
Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Georgia, these countries know all to well it stops when the Russians hit the Baltic.

Customer Service Died With the Middle Class

Have you ever been frustrated with the service received from a manufacturer, that charges top dollar for a product, and yet can't seem to deliver that product in a usable form?
Or offer an ETA indicative of two prior failed attempts?
A manufactured stainless steel item, that has been made so many countless times before, that the mere thought of one leaving it's factory in such a state would be unthinkable.
Laughably so?

I'm talking about an everyday item, one in use for centuries across the First World, something we all have in our homes, and surely take for granted on a daily basis. Like the scarlet sun rising and setting through the multi hued inversion layer of our sky, something as mundane, and time worn as the proverbial kitchen sink.

Yes, the kitchen sink.
Why, you ask, would a kitchen sink come to represent such a quandary?
Behold the photograph, and ask no more.
When you've ceased laughing at this example of "craftsmanship", read on dear reader, read on.

This clusterfuck represents the second attempt from the same maker to provide me with a kitchen sink, a maker that prides itself on building some of the most sophisticated "commercial" restaurant equipment available.
Notice the "commercial" notation? We'll get to that in a moment.

As I intend to use this kitchen sink, in the kitchen contained within my home, my application clearly becomes "residential". We're all aware of the clear distinction between "commercial", and "residential" use, are we not?
I thought so, you're a bright group!

But, were you aware that there is a greater distinction between the two categories?
Well there is.
Did you know, that with this particular manufacturer, that your "residential" order, and by extension your American Dollar, is somehow less valuable than a "commercial" order paid for with the same currency?
Shock, dismay, facially expressed here!!!
That this manufacturer, can justify making new "commercial" products for other customers ahead of the "residential" product that's been bought and paid for six weeks in advance?
That they fucked up twice before?
With the explicit implication in their response to a query for an ETA on the third try, that "residential" orders just aren't as important?

Wow.
I thought my American dollars were printed at the same mints, bearing the same faces, denominations, printed in that same dreary green black ink, as the currency buying the "commercial" stuff?
What a wake up call.
I guess they take "residential" dollars, and deposit them in a separate bank account from the "commercial" dollars they collect?
And those "residential" dollars earn less interest, pay out fewer dividends and wages, and allow for the purchase of not as much?

I call bullshit.

What's really fascinating though; is the fact that somebody had to make the determination that individual consumers are not as important to please, then explain it to me in terms that made no bones about where I stand. Pretty sure we can all assume, that this person is an employee of this company, not management, and most probably not ownership.
Just following the boss's orders.

I wonder; does this person feel less valuable than anyone else?
Is the money they earn and spend worth less than a rich person?
If you or they believe so, then the oligarchy has already won.

U.A.E. Cowards

Last time we joined this conversation we were operating under the assumption that the Emirati's were still in the vanguard against daesh; flying more sorties than any other Arab nation. 

Then yesterday, as we learn of the despicable murder of Lt. al Kassasbeh, we also learn of the U.A.E. abandoning the fight against daesh, because they don't want to take the same risks with their pilots.

Cowards. 

Witness the downing of one plane, not American, and you bail like no other.

How foolish, and weak you look now in the face of the Jordanian peoples response to this barbarity.

This battle belongs to you, and your cousins in Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Bahrain, Pakistan, Indonesia...

Is this how family comes to the aid of it's cousins facing terminal illness?

Only the faithful can destroy the cancer that exists in their own body, otherwise the entire body becomes infested; thus requiring outsiders to introduce a very toxic course of treatment.

Daesh is a cancer infesting the worlds perception of Islam with a worse loathing than al Qaeda.

Today as yesterday, I call on all Muslims of righteous faith to commit their forces to this fight, on the side of humanity, against the hate mongering cancer invading the very soul of their faith.

Daesh: Kick That Trash To The Curb

"I am Charlie, I am Goto, I am Moaz... and I am every other martyr created by the excrement of Islam."
Fucked up, tired internet blather that screams me too.
What "I am", is horrified by the fact that actual human beings professing faith in what they present as religion, have the capacity for such straight up evil.
Burning a man alive in a cage?
The word "barbaric", is wholly inadequate.

On the flip side, I'm also perplexed, that the majority of people professing their faith in the Prophet today, a religion all too often described as peaceful; don't take it upon themselves to eradicate this abherration.
Guys like Uncle Ernie in Turkey, King Salman in Saudi...standing by and allowing the slaughter, hell in many ways and cases, they're feeding the frenzy.
Instead, you, dipshits need to be working with your other brothers of the sand in Iran.

Yeah the reality is, this miscreant trash was created with our help, so it is incumbent upon us to participate in it's disposal.
But that does not mean we should be working alone.
What it does mean; is that every Muslim nation on earth has a responsibility to mobilize their armies to join the battle with us, I'm looking at you Indonesia, you little fuckers are some of the meanest bastards I've ever seen. Let's have a few battalions of your best on the ground, combined with the Jordanians, Egyptians, Paki's.
You people want us to treat you with anything other than suspicion and loathing?
Actions in our world speak with far more force than mere words.
Or as I like to say, money talks bullshit walks.

We provide your airfare, aircover, and ammo, you put the boots on the ground and clean your shit up.
Deal?