Friday, October 14, 2011

The War on Medical Marijuana

The Federal Government is only relevant in time of war. If there isn't one, they have to start one. The best way is to go to war with the people.

Bad Federal Laws

It starts out with bad Federal laws, which stay on the books long after they have been shown to be utterly evil. The Federal Government departments that are set up to enforce these bad laws become ever more unhinged, because they realize that their jobs are all at stake if the law changes.

By the time the dust settles, and the public becomes so enraged that the politicians have to redress the issue, tens of thousands of people have been trampled underfoot, and a vast criminal network has evolved.

The Prohibition experience means nothing?

The US experience with Prohibition is a great example. In 1926, Fiorella LaGuardia testified before the US Senate, showing how the loss of taxation to the Federal and State Governments had become the funding for organized crime and the source of funds for the corruption of politicians and police. America has never recovered from this entrenchment of organized crime and the resulting corruption.

So now we have a Federal crack-down in California on medical marijuana that is applauded by the drug cartels, because the people who will get closed down are the small-time medical growers who make up their competition. The beneficiaries will be those people who are recreational users, and those in medical need will be back to buying their medicine from shady dealers on street corners while compromised police officers look the other way.

Useless liberals?

We might have looked to our California politicians in the past for leadership. But the strangest thing is happening. Nancy Pelosi, who has been a strong supporter of personal rights, which included medical marijuana, is now strangely silent on the Federal encroachment into California. By her continued silence, and not speaking out for better California oversight, she is encouraging the wild Federal trampling of human rights that is taking place in California right now.

It is ironic that California has to turn to Republicans for support.

American justice? Just Us, baby, Just Us!

The Fed lends $16 trillion dollars?

So a perfunctory audit has revealed that the Fed has lent over $16 trillion to banks and corporations around the world, and the limited information seems to be raising more questions than it answers. Click here to read the story.

Economic evangelists are leaping to Belief-based conclusions, and most of them see the vast expansion of Federal Reserve lending to financial institutions and corporations as a bad thing.

To put this in perspective, this is more than the National Debt, which currently stands at around $14.5 trillion. Or the GDP (total of all economic activity in the US for a year) which is around the $14 trillion mark.

But it may not be all bad. If the interest rate being charged on these loans is 4.5% or more, it would actually be very helpful to the economy, because the Fed would be earning about $740 billion a year on these loans. And if the Fed was the first secured creditor (they get paid back before anybody else), the loans would be very secure. Add to this some stock warrants to seal the deal, and the American people would not have to worry about problems with Social Security for a very long time!

When the Federal Government bailed out Chrysler in 1979, the deal was publicly discussed, the Government became a secured creditor, and also got warrants for stock. When the Government got paid back in 1983, their original $1.5 billion loan guarantees netted a profit of around $660 million, a return of 44% over four years!

In this scenario, I have no problem with Government loans. That $16 trillion would be earning about 11% a year, almost $1.8 trillion.

What's that, you say? The audit doesn't list either the interest rate being charged on these loans, or how they are secured? Or whether there are stock warrants involved?

Federal Investigations and disappearing brains

Gee, why I am not surprised? Put this down to the US powers of investigation, that have been applied to every Federal investigation from the disappearance of John Kennedy's brain to the WTC collapse.

American investigation techniques? Sweep up the evidence, dispose of it with unseemly haste,swear everybody to secrecy, tell an implausible story, and have a bunch of people murmuring, "Nothing to see here, folks .... Move along, move along ...."

How about some transparency and accountability?

See, the big problem I have with the US Government is their lack of transparency. The US Government has all the authority, while the US taxpayer carries all the responsibility. The Federal Government is not reporting to the US people, who will be footing the bill for their actions, of any of the costs and benefits. If any corporation reported to their shareholders in this manner, the directors could be held financially accountable.

This makes a sham of the whole concept of democracy. How can you vote for your representatives when you don't know what they are doing behind closed doors? When they go out of their way to conceal the truth from the electorate?

Any trial requires full disclosure

So I look forward to more information before I make any decision on whether I see this as a good or a bad thing. I am a little suspicious it is not going to work out well. The Federal Government has just written off about $1.3 billion from the latest Chrysler bailout, a bad omen.

So before we jump the gun, let's insist on better investigation, and more accountability. Trust, but verify.

Oh, and if these loans suck, let's get the money back, or renegotiate the terms. Then fire these financial managers in Government, and get them to foot the bill personally.

Saturday, October 1, 2011

The reason for America's past success.


[11:21:47 PM] WR: John Stossel says to abolish the FDA http://mediamatters.org/mmtv/201109290038

[11:23:13 AM] RHG: If you look at the commentary that is coming from people like Stossel, it seems to me that a great many people in the US are actually examining every alternative much more closely. This whole issue of the Arab Spring has not been examined in the depth of impact it might have on the US by US commentators, and if the Government keeps on talking much longer about the Little Green Shoots, or the equivalent bullshit about how the economy is improving ......

It seems to have escaped most people that the economies that are improving are for those 3 billion in Asia, where they are still putting up pretty amazing growth figures.

[12:00:47 PM] WR: but why are the economies improving for those 3 billion in Asia, and not here or in Europe?

[12:05:56 PM] RHG: The reason I gave for the success of the US in the 20th century. Big Government spending on new technologies, with private enterprise on the inside of the loop doing the manufacturing. Nobody else seems to have thought of this as the cause for American success, but you can see the relationship: WW I, the technology carried the US until 1929. The wheels fell off, and stayed off for over a decade, until the Government started spending on new manufacturing techniques, new science, etc, in WW II. Then, in the late 50's, when things were slowing down, the Russians launched Sputnik 1. The US had possession of German rocket scientists, as did the Russians, and Sputnik was the trigger to start the US on a space race, and the race to the moon again gave US industry a big tech edge.

Now look at the US Government expenditure. The idea that war brings growth and profitability is being demonstrated to be untrue with the massive amount being spent in Iraq etc and the economic disaster in its trail. Meanwhile, US technology is coming to a close, the baton being passed to China and India etc. You see the Tevatron just closed? The Space Shuttle is only a memory, and the Republicans are still bleating about free enterprise being the creative engine of capitalism.

And meanwhile, the Chinese are spending: the Chinese Government not only conducts research, it owns a big chunk of the companies that develop the products from the new technologies and take them to market.

So where is America's high speed rail technology?

And America's space technology is gone: so many people have been "let go" from the programs that it would no longer be feasible for NASA to coordinate a moon shot. Or even build a new shuttle.

[12:14:40 PM] WR: ok

[12:18:19 PM] RHG: So while the US wallows in its misconceptions of American Exceptionalism and the reasons for America's success, it is in a race to the bottom. And as you have pointed out in the past, the rate of change is exponential. I think we are watching the last gasps of the US as the Government prints vast chunks of money and spends it on exactly the things that do not result in economic growth (bankers, lawyers, and unskilled labor fixing roads and the like).

[12:18:09 PM] WR: right

[12:18:19 PM] RHG: Yes, we need efficient transportation infrastructure. But how about new technology, not just fix the same old same old?

The Chinese have the idea of using high speed transportation. That means the same rail can carry three times the load!

And meanwhile, we are building robots to kill Al Qaeda reactionaries, and Foxconn in China is building a million robots to build Apple products.

So we can really test out theory that war is good for the economy with this one, huh? :D

[12:21:56 PM] WR: Yeah, i guess so. not so sure how well the Chinese economy will be doing after those million robots get going