– I haven’t written about local prospective high-end marijuana entrepreneur Jamen Shively, but in this article he says something interesting:
Shively said that under no circumstances would his company violate federal law.
“Let’s suppose tomorrow that Washington state issued licenses and said, ‘Go ahead, guys, have at it.’ We would say to the state of Washington respectfully, ‘Thanks, but no thanks, because we haven’t heard from the federal government.'”
I doubt the federal government is going to “back off” before the state starts issuing licenses. I tend to think that they’ll be too timid about the political repercussions to do anything at first, but they’ll eventually try some sort of crackdown once people start making real money. If that’s how it plays out, I’m not sure Shively’s move is a smart one. Cornering the high-end market for marijuana won’t be that hard once the market gets going (as we might see delivery services instead of storefronts until the fear of fed intervention dies down). In fact, with the ease in producing a legal product, “high-end” marijuana will likely cost close to what it does today. There will be a number of enterprises out there willing to work quietly and under the radar, and some of those will weather the storm of a fed crackdown.
– Dylan Matthews discusses what the Obama Administration could do from a rescheduling standpoint. Most scenarios discussed involved rescheduling rather than simply removing it as a controlled substance. But removing it entirely probably makes the most sense from a policy standpoint if we feel the proper approach is to treat it like alcohol.
– You’ve probably also seen that Frankie’s in Olympia is the first bar set up to legally allow the consumption of marijuana on its premises. They were able to do this because they fought to gain an exemption from the state’s anti-smoking laws years back. One thing I expect to see is a push for other establishments (bars, arcades, movie theaters) to come up with clever ways to welcome pot smokers (roof seating, outdoor patios, etc) even without resorting to a fight with the state.
In Maine, in 2010, the red tide hit there too, the Republicans took both houses of the legislature and Governor’s Office. The Maine legislature flipped back to Democratic control this year, and Governor LePage did not take it will, refusing to meet with the incoming leaders. Keep in mind, he won in 2010 with only 38% of the vote. If this is how the next session of the legislature in Maine opens, it’s going to be a tough 2 years in the halls of government in Augusta.
http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_n.....c-majority
Meanwhile in Portland,(Maine) they now have taken care of the problem of a multi-way race producing a victory margin as low as LePage had(or in the case of Minnesota in 1998 with Jesse Ventura, 37%), at least for their mayor. Portland(Maine) now uses Instant Runoff Voting for mayoral elections.
Federal drug policy is such that you’d swear we have a rightwing Republican president. Can anyone explain to me what’s going on? Not that I care whether it’s legal to smoke pot or not; I’m just curious why Obama’s drug policy resembles William Bennett’s. Does this have anything to do with the fact Gil kerlikowske is Obama’s drug czar? Or is it because of this?
“By law, the drug czar must oppose any attempt to legalize the use (in any form) of illicit drugs. According to the ‘Office of National Drug Control Policy Reauthorization Act of 1998’ the director of the ONDCP
‘(12) shall ensure that no Federal funds appropriated to the Office of National Drug Control Policy shall be expended for any study or contract relating to the legalization (for a medical use or any other use) of a substance listed in schedule I of section 202 of the Controlled Substances Act (21 U.S.C. 812) and take such actions as necessary to oppose any attempt to legalize the use of a substance (in any form) that — 1. is listed in schedule I of section 202 of the Controlled Substances Act (21 U.S.C. 812); and 2. has not been approved for use for medical purposes by the Food and Drug Administration; …'”
It should be noted that the Office of National Drug Control Policy has stated that because federal law requires it to oppose legalization efforts, it is authorized to disseminate false information about marijuana’s medical and health effects.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O.....rol_Policy
This is pretty incredible. I didn’t know this before. Let me reiterate:
1) Federal law requires the federal drug agency to advocate against legalization.
2) The federal drug agency interprets federal law as authorizing it to disseminate falsehoods about marijuana use.
Wow! I had no idea. So I have only one more question: How can an ethical person accept an appointment as federal drug czar? If someone offered the job to me, I would have a problem with the job description, and with what I’m expected to do.
On another subject — banksters — it turns out I’m not the only one wondering why our prisons aren’t filled with banksters:
“Five years after a wave of risky mortgage bets cratered the banking system and sent the global economy into recession, the banking industry’s players have paid or agreed to pay billions of dollars in fines and restitution. But not a single senior executive from the biggest banks has gone to jail.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O.....rol_Policy
Roger Rabbit Commentary: It’s actually worse than this, because the bankers are paying their fines with other people’s money — the shareholders’ to some extent, but mostly the customers’, because when banks incur losses of this nature they usually try to make it up by raising fees and charges on their customers. One thing you don’t see, when bankers pay big fines in lieu of criminal prosecution, is those bankers taking salary cuts or smaller bonuses.
HSBC is paying a $1.9 billion fine for laundering money for Iran’s A-bomb seeking mullahs and Mexican drug lords. No HSBC bankers will go to jail for that. Undoubtedly the young hotshots who brought this business to the bank are now living in million-dollar mansions and driving Porsches.
This article says the government’s response to the 2008 meltdown has been to bring charges against 133 companies and individuals, including 60 CEOs. But the government has done nothing more than collect $2.6 billion in fines and penalties. Nobody is in jail. Meanwhile, the banking industry is even more concentrated and big banks are more powerful than in 2007.
Proof that Republicans learned nothing from their 2012 losses.
15842456-snyder-signs-michigan-anti-union-right-to-work-measures-over-protests-of-thousands
Roger Rabbit Commentary: This GOP governor very plainly LIED to the voters of his state about who he is and what he intends to do with the public office entrusted to him. He only pretended to listen to the concerns of the tens of thousands of people who objected to this legislative railroad job. And then he had the balls to call it a “pro-worker” bill. We’ll see what happens in 2015 when the good citizens of Michigan are free to put a repeal initiative on the ballot. Meanwhile, this is one more example of why no Republican can be trusted, ever, and that there’s no such thing as a moderate Republican.
Roger Rabbit at 5, Michigan’s State Legislature unfortunately is full time, unlike our 105/60 day sessions. Which means they have time and allow for, lame duck sessions. Before the Evans Administration, they only met down in Olympia every other year.
Some additional information has come out about the airplane accident that is believed to have killed singer Jenni Rivera:
1) The pilot was 78 years old.
2) The singer was given a free ride by the company that owns the plane to promote their efforts to sell it.
3) The plane was previously damaged in a landing accident.
4) The plane nosedived straight down from 28,000 feet and hit the ground at over 600 mph.
5) The company that owned the plane is allegedly owned by a convicted cocaine trafficker.
6) Another of the company’s planes was seized by the DEA earlier this year.
7) This company has been sued by at least two insurance companies seeking to cancel coverage.
8) The crash occurred during an illegal flight.
I don’t know about the first point there, not sure what the upper age limit for private pilots is. Commercial, at least here now, isn’t it 62? As for the rest, very suspicious.
@8 Commercial pilots 65, private pilots no age limit.
@8 Lears are tricky planes to fly. A control surface failure could produce that kind of dive. So can a nut loosened by someone who wants to collect insurance on a plane he can’t sell.
Roger Rabbit @10, perhaps it was tampered with for a smuggling run. I try to catch Border Wars, and the cartels are resourceful on how they smuggle drugs through the Ports of Entry, could only imagine what they do for aircraft.
@ 10 RR
Cousin of mine used to fly for the old NW Orient airlines and was certified to fly the old LEARjets. He told me the LEARs were as hairy an aircraft as he’d ever flown, and he’d flown F-111s in Vietnam. A simple mis-adjustment of the trim settings or asymmetrical engine power could flip you over in the blink of an eye. Apparently they have no real aerodynamics until they’re doing over 350 mph.
As for the sabotage idea, that has merit. The owner is a drug smuggler and the aircraft itself was rather old. It would be no surprise to me to hear that it was mechanically afu. Smugglers are not afraid of doing all sorts of idiotic shit to the vehicles in the process of smuggling. In South America and Mexico, bird smugglers will chop down 400 year old trees with 100 year old nesting holes in them to swipe the eggs of various species of parrots, then smuggle the baby birds in automobile hubcaps to get them across the border. Smuggle 30 babies, and if one lives through the process, the trip is still profitable.
French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault has described the decision of film star Gerard Depardieu to move to Belgium to avoid higher taxes as “shabby”.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-20691889
Tax policy influences taxpayer behavior. What a concept.
@13. So he’s like Romney or the facebook guy, a low life tax cheat who don’t think it’s his responsibility to pay his taxes.
A high-speed dive into the earth doesn’t sound like anything related to a hard-landing damage. Normally that sort of landing damage would cause the struts to collapse, or the airframe to buckle the next time it landed.
But then, there was JAL 123 in 1985 which flew into a mountain, suspected to be caused by the failure of the pressure dome at the aft of the aircraft (seperating the pressurized cabin section from the unpressurized tail section). The 747 is believed to have broken up in flight, with the passenger section plowing into the side of the mountain and the tail sectin scattered in pieces in a debris field leading up to the impact site.
Next time you think of out of control government, think about story time at your local public library. Yep, story time, it’s out of control man.
@13 Kap’n Kornflake,
The Republic of France has a population of 63,000,000. It has a GDP of $2.58 trillion.
What is the impact to the economy of the Republic of France if 1000 Frenchman behave like Depardieu allegedly has?
And you’ve found …. 1.
@13 Kap’n Kornflake,
And Depardieu seems an unlikely “job creator!” to sympathize with.
Gérard Depardieu sets up legal residence in Belgium to escape French tax laws
Perhaps you sympathize with him because his fat loutish lifestyle is something you aspire to?
# 10: The used airplane market is in a lot of turmoil these days. Airlines are discarding their Bombardiers, 737NG’s, and A320’s, some of which are barely ten yeas old. Lots of airplanes are getting scrapped in the desert (if you want a great deal on a 747-400, I can give you one – just pay the value of the used components, landing gear, engines, etc., and it’s yours – certification, re-work, and maitenance extra.)
What’s driving the early retirement of these planes is the programs to replace them with 737 MAX and A320 NEO which can be opperated with more fuel economy, and reduced carbong footprints (to comply with European government requirements).
This means that the cost of used aircraft is plumetting. And why by a LearJet when you could buy an Embraer, Bombardier, A320, or 737-8 for the same cost, and considerably larger seat-count space?
And when buying used aircraft, prior ownership and maintenance records is a big issue. You don’t want to buy from some fly-by-night operation from Central America or West Africa, if you could buy it from a reputable mainline airline in the U.S., Japan, or Europe.
RHP@19
Bombardier has their tentacles in just about everything now, and that is hard to believe that they started out with snowmobiles. Besides their own like of business aircraft, they also own Learjet now. Besides Horizon Air’s fleet(although the absorption took a long time, they have been absorbed into Alaska Air, from what I can see), other transportation products they have operating around here, the coaches Sound Transit uses.
Good point, when buying used in the airline market, especially, you have to consider the source. Buyer Beware.
For the past 5 years, Washington State Ferries have been just one vessel failure short of catastrophic service disruptions, and as the Evergreen Fleet continues to age, and ordering of replacements seeming to be going forward at a slow place(all sides arguing over it) in Olympia, it will continue to be so. The latest problem started when the Walla Walla, a Jumbo MkI, built in the 70s(near the galley on a bulkhead, there is a photo of Nez Perce Chief Joseph posted, who before driven out, his people lived in the Walla Walla area), was finishing up a refit and an electric motor shorted out. Since the boat is getting old, hard to come by for some spare parts, it’s out for awhile. Also down in recent weeks, the Klahoya(Evergreen State class, built in the 1950s, Langlie Administration, 2nd or 3rd term, not sure) and the Sealth(Issaquah class, built in the 80s, I think either Spellman or Gardner administration, last one of the class, by the way). Now the recent disruptions have led to an annual holiday cruise for developmentally disabled people being canceled, as the Tacoma was supposed to do that job, but all boats are needed on regular runs right now.
http://blogs.seattletimes.com/.....cation=rss
The shortage is so acute, that over the weekend, the 65-car Salish(Kwa-id-Tabil class, just entered service), which this time of year is out of service(2nd summer boat on the Port Townsend-Coupeville run) was pitching in on the Bremerton Run, which rarely sees nothing less than an Issaquah(between 90-124 cars). An Evergreen State was shaken loose to handle the weekday commute, and the Salish redeployed to the Vashon Triangle route, and the MV Hiyu(a one-off design from the sixties) was brought in, with 30 car capacity, to keep something close to normal. The Hiyu usually sits idle in Eagle Harbor for most of the year. THe new Olympic Class ferries, now under construction at Vigor Shipbuilding on Harbor Island, can’t come soon enough.(First two have been named, Samish and Tokitae).
Bristol Palin is a jawb kweatoh..
Bristol Palin’s Failed Reality Show Received $354,348 In Tax Payer Dollars From Alaska
Heh.. No worries. Alaskan right wing dings hate taxes so much they’d gladly subsidize a TV show about Bristol’s wonderful life – even if it was such a flop that it was yanked after two eps.
Heh. Yet another day in willful right wing ignorance:
http://truth-out.org/opinion/i.....f-the-free
Eve must have performed the world’s first crude vasectomy. Back in the day, she took the full monty!
Today in military boondoggle facts:
http://www.cnn.com/2012/12/12/.....=obnetwork
The right wingers always talk about cutting spending. Do they talk about this crap? Of course not!
Wow!
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.....policy.php
Only one head up his butt inflation hawk dissented.. Says to me one thing: they are SCARED!
YLB@22,
Maybe a little nepotism there, I think her mother signed the bill that created those tax credits. One of the reasons that bill was proposed, was legislators were getting tired of other locations around the country being passed off as Alaska in movies.
Latino power!
http://www.politico.com/story/.....84974.html
It’s gonna take a lot of angry white asshat racists to die off first before this ugly party has any chance to appeal to Latinos.
Looks like Republicans are gonna push us off the “fiscal cliff” and try to blame Democrats for it.
http://www.cnbc.com/id/100305489
Roger Rabbit Commentary: It’s ridiculous that Republicans demand Obama propose entitlement cuts. That’s like Obama demanding GOPers propose tax increases. It’s Republicans who want spending cuts, so they should propose them, just as Obama should propose tax increases.
One of the country’s most powerful financiers says we should return to the status quo ante — i.e., taxes at 18% of GDP and spending at 20% of GDP.
http://www.cnbc.com/id/100304253
Roger Rabbit Commentary: This deceptively simple “solution” has more going for it than the deficits and stalemates engineered by the Irresponsible Party, but it’s insidious in a couple of ways.
First, it fails to account for the long-anticipated entitlement spending “bulge” caused by Baby Boomer retirements — the country has had decades to prepare for this, so there’s no excuse for shortchanging Baby Boomers just when they need the entitlements they’ve paid into all their lives.
Second, it also ignores the Keynesian principle of deficit spending during recessions to get out of recession; it’s a watered-down form of austerity, and we know any kind of austerity makes recessions worse, not better. It’s also cruel. During a recession, government has a responsibility to provide basic subsistence to people unemployed through no fault of their own, but because of the inherent failings of the capitalist system, through such programs as unemployment benefits and food assistance.
So, no thanks, Mr. Schwarzmann. It’s easy for you to say this stuff — you “earn” over a billion dollars a year and don’t need a safety net — but you’re not qualified to speak for the millions of retirees and unemployed workers who have nothing else to fall back on. Some people will say they “should have saved more,” but how do you save anything when you’re working for Republican wages?
# 20: Bombardier ha a new C series aircraft in development. But it and Embraer are competing for that lower-seat-count market. The Chinese aircraft will still be several years before being cerified (if ever), and the MRJ (Mitsubishi Regional Jet) won’t be available for several years. In the meantime, the 737-MAX and B737-NEU are making it more profitable to fly the larger Boeing and Airbus jets, even if they are half empty.
Once I did a little daydreaming about what I would do if I won a big lottery. I briefly considered buying a new 737 BBJ (Boeing Business Jet). But it’s not just the cost, it’s the operating and maintenance expenses, which can exceed the cost of the aircraft over a relatively short period of time.
Military base mania, a $170 billion tab:
http://www.tomdispatch.com/pos.....of_empire/
Spending this kind of money on good schools, health care and functioning infrastructure here at home? Naaaaaaaaah…
prelapsarian is a word?
# 27: Republicans now recognize that they have both a “woman problem” and a “hispanic problem”. This doesn’t mean that they will make any significant policy changes. They just want to make it look like they have changed.
Their first attempt will be to run Jeb Bush up the flagpole and see if anyone salutes. He’s married to a Hispanic, and speakes Spanish well.
They may also try out Niki Haley, the current governor of S. Carolina and a second-generation Indian (Asian, not Native-American). She is a strong conservative, but they will market her as a child of “immigrant parents”.
They won’t make any effort to approach the black demographic – they realize they haven’t got a prayer there.
32 – yes
pre·lap·sar·i·an
/ˌprēlapˈse(ə)rēən/
Adjective
Characteristic of the time before the Fall of Man; innocent and unspoiled.
Hey lawyer types, how much is a personal representative’s deed going to set me back and should I use a lawyer or do it myself? Since I’m filing everything in Okanogan County I’ve been using a lawyer over there for everything and have been really pleased with everything from his office (except the bills, of course) so far.
What has always worried me is that charter schools, no matter how well authorize immediately, are just the first attempt to have public financing of private schools, run by churches or private (i.e., conservative) foundations. They are also a thinly-veiled attack on teacher’s unions.
Their attempt to portray charter schools as examples of “superior eductation” hit a recent setback when a recent advertisement by charter schools refered to “Public Schools” as “Pubic Schools”.
Heh. And they complain about Obama going on a 4 million dollar Hawaiian vacation:
But that’s not all!
http://www.salon.com/2012/12/1.....r_dollars/
There’s more of course. Read the whole thing. But we can’t afford taxes so average or poor americans have some chance of getting some health insurance.
Not sure if they still do, but the DOD used to own a ski resort in Germany.
They still do, it’s in Garmish Germany!
http://www.edelweisslodgeandresort.com/home.html
# 37: I’ve mentioned before that a friend of mine worked in the Pentagon in the late 1960’s as a JAG corps layer. I asked him what it was like t work there. He said that for the first part of his tour, it was tedium and boredom, as he spent all day reviewing military contracts. For the second part of the posting, he served as most Captains do there – as the “cap holder” for the General. And this is while field-grade officers in Vietnam were at a premium!
In desperation, he transferred to Ft. Benning. The commander took one look at him when he reported, and said “Son, where are your wings?” “I don’t have any, I’m a lawyer” her replied.” “Son, in THIS outfit, EVERYBODY wheres jump wings!. So off he was sent to jump school, without even unpacking his bags.
I’m sure we could easily cut the military budget by 20% without withholding anything from the troops, and even without closing any bases. We could save more by strategic base closings and mothbolling some cariers.
By the way, the Republicans say we don’t have to raise tax rates, just close loopholes. It sounds so … convenient.
Of course, they don’t give any details. Because they aren’t talking about the loopholes used by corporations and high-wage individuals to avoid taxes. What they are talking about is “loopholes” like the state sales tax deduction, the home mortgage deduction, etc.
In other words, it’s the same old verse, different tune – they want to tax the middle class to allow zero tax to high wage earners and corporations.
Tell me this
If taxing the rich (which is ALL Owebamma offers as the only solution to this fiscal mess by the way) which if fully imposed and collected would only cover two weeks of government expenditures at the current rate, is going to do anything at all to solve this mess.
Pleeeease
It’s not just tax climate, wages, and regulations that affect business development. Moses Lzke is home to SGL Group’s North American Carbon Fiber panel plant, a supplier for BMW. The plant is barely operational and it is already expanding! One of the reasons the site was selected, was cheap and clean energy, from the Grant County Public Utility District. Whnen the plant siting was first announced, I remember hearing that this was the only site in the US being considered.
http://www.bizjournals.com/sea.....l?page=all
The Grant County PUD has two Dams, that they just completed turbine upgrades to boost ouptut, and have added micro-hydro set-ups on a few irrigation canals. Then there is the Bonneville Power Administrations assets from the Bureau of Reclamation and Army Corps of Engineers, including Grand Coulee Dam, which is in the middle of a major upgrade of the turbines in Powerhouse 3. Although not exactly clean, there is another major generating asset with cheap power(for now), Energy Northwest’s Columbia Generating Station in Hanfod(self-explanatory what CGS is).
COntinuing my post at 42, other things the Moses Lake site has going for it, is easy access to Grant County Airport, which has a long runway(product could be shipped out by airplane), and access to Puget Sound Ports via I-90. By rail, not much right now, Moses Lake is between the two major main lines in Eastern Washington, and along a small network of former Milwaukee Road branches, operated by the COlumbia Basin Railroad, but would have to be upgraded.
http://www.temple-industries.c.....ilroad.php
Looks like Syria is getting worse. Perhaps the rebels are gaining on Damascus(the US has recognized the opposition, but I am nervous that it is too little too late, as because of Russia blocking action at the US, they had to look elsewhere to unsavory groups). Now reports are that Syria is firing Scud-type missiles at areas held by the opposition. THis could lead to NATO invoking Article 5, if those missiles hit Turkey, as Turkey keeps wavering on whether to do it, but did ask for, and have been granted, deployment of PATRIOT Missiles, but those are still on the way.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/worl.....t-20705519
How come some people believe in a god that we cannot scientifically measure, but refuse to believe in Climate change that we can scientifically measure?
RHP above…
Does that have to do with R-502?
which are otherwise known as “floating bases”.
@46 Because it’s easier to believe in heaven than hell?
@42 Of course, the dams won’t produce power if climate change dries up the Cascades snowpack.
@38 I’d rather take bombers away from generals than take recreation away from privates.
@35 Your choices are (a) pay a lawyer to do it right, or (b) do it yourself and pay a lawyer a lot more to clean up your mess.
@33 Personally, I think they have a “human being” problem. They don’t get along with rabbits so good, either.
Roger Rabbit $52
That will be the tough part, although there are the storage dams upriver from Grand Coulee, but they would be affected too, and if they were not, there is another problem, they are north of 49 Degrees, i.e, in Canada.