California Dreaming In The QE2

I love California. 

I wish  to remain in California as I have for all of my life except for vacations. We all are all about to experience the so called Austerity Measures or QE2 "Quantitative Easing 2". A simple cartoon probably on the last page of my blog does a pretty good job of explaining this.  The first Quantitative Easing  happened at the end of the Bush era with the AIG and bank bailouts. 

What happens is the President and the Federal Reserve print a lot of money and give it to the banks.  Congress has nothing to say about this stuff unless they are motivated by the electorate or the corporations that pay for their campaigns that keep them elected.

I am not an economist but from what I know, Green Backs or dollars called green backs can be printed to deal with this kind of money manipulative system that requires sudden bursts of capital for large scale infrastructure projects, artificial bubbles or in times of war.  See History.  Read about the green backs. Instead of printing money and giving it to Goldman Sachs and then buying it from them at a percentage that goes to Goldman Sachs, they could just print money that is guaranteed for taxes and government contracts.  This kind of money could be used to rebuild the US infrastructure and create jobs that would create demand for goods that ultimately would help to restart our economy.

Could green backs pay down the debt as we inflate our way out of this mess?  I don't know.  But we are spending 600 billion dollars for QE2 (Not the ship) , now and more is planned for the future and all totaled I am told that the dollar is worth about 20 % less that it was in  2007.

Green backs don't get sold to Goldman Sachs and there is no interest to the government when they are issued.
Surely someone out there knows more about this than I do.  Why aren't issues of green backs being considered for debt relief in the US?  Why are we paying the Goldman Sachs?

With that rant, Charles Douglas of the Sentinel,  turned me on to a good ( or sad) piece from On The Edge With Max Keiser called California Dreaming.  After watching both parts I just had to say, Isn't there another or better way  to fix the country and the ecomomy, than giving money to the banks that gambled it away?

Should California start a State Bank like North Dakota?


Part 2

Man Beaten By Police Until He Was Unconscious, Charged with Resisting Arrest Without Violence For Putting Up His Hands.

From RawStory Gilberto Matamoros, a 21-year-old youth center worker, says he was doing nothing wrong when police arrested him during a brawl in Miami's Coconut Grove neighborhood on Halloween. According to his lawyer, Ricardo Martinez-Cid, Matamoros was picked out of an unruly crowd

Phot from Dees Illustration

and beaten unconscious by two Miami police officers. He had to be taken to a nearby hospital.

Really?  Is this what it has come down to?  You can't put up your hands when someone with a badge is beating you into unconcscious land?  Put up your hands and Miami Police will charge you with "Resisting Arrest Without Vilolence"? 
If this is non voilent, then I am Rush Limbaugh. 

After all, he was attacking the cops Billy clubs with the backs of his hands while on the ground. They had to hit him so hard he passed out!  That's pretty violent.

It's 28 Degrees But I Have A Fire

I feel for those on the streets tonight in Humboldt County. It is 28 degrees outside where I live according to my RadioShack digital thermometer. For two and a half years I went without heat. I would hover over my laptop with a catalytic propane heater and go to bed early with many layers above a sleeping bag.


I am doing much better this year since I got my wood stove.  The grass outside is crunchy but I have it up to 68 degrees and would do better but the guy that usually brings my wood is missing. I have some wood , but it's not oak like Bill brings. He called and said he had some wood but never showed up. I hope he is all right. I also hope that those without houses or shelter are all right. It's damn cold and I am grateful for my stove.

If anyone in the Humboldt area has any good oak or madrone and wants to sell it, contact me at thomassebourn@gmail.com

For those without homes you can help.  http://highboldtage.wordpress.com/2010/11/22/parc-needs-blankets-and-warm-jackets-and-coats/

Man With Eastern European Accent Sexually Assaults Woman In Arcata

The Arcata Police Department is reporting a sexual assault of a woman in Arcata on Sunday night just before midnight.

 

The assault took place in the 1300 block of 10th St.

 

The attacker is described as an adult male in his mid to late thirties, heavy build, about 5'11" with olive skin. The man was further described as having a thick eastern European accent.

 

The victim received moderate injuries and was transported to an area hospital where she received treatment.

 

Anyone having any information regarding the attack or the suspect, is encouraged to call the Arcata Police Department.

California posts biggest job gain since May 2006

This is a good sign.  California needs all the good signs it can get right now.
Los Angeles Times has the story.

The Sacramento Bee has a nice breakdown of unemployment, county by county. in California.  Except for Del Norte and Los Angeles Counties, the lowest unemployment is mostly along the coast. 

Why We Should Beware Budget-Deficit Mania

This is a guest blog sent to me by Richard Salzman.  I thought is was worth passing on.

Why We Should Beware Budget-Deficit Mania
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 11, 2010
We're in for another round of budget-deficit mania.

The first draft of the President's deficit commission, written by its co-chairmen Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson, is a pastiche of ideas - some good, some dumb, some intriguing, some wacky. The only unifying principle behind their effort seems to be to throw enough at the wall that something's bound to stick.

At their best, presidential commissions focus the public's attention - not only on the right solution to some important problem but also on the right problem. Sadly, this preliminary report does neither.

As to solution, the report mentions but doesn't emphasize the biggest driver of future deficits  - the relentless rise in health-care costs coupled with the pending corrosion of 77 million boomer bodies. This is 70 percent of the problem, but it gets about 3 percent of the space in the draft.

The report suffers a more fundamental error - the unquestioned assumption that America's biggest economic challenge is to reduce the federal budget deficit.

The size of the budget deficit (and cumulative debt) is meaningless without reference to the size of the economy. What looks like a big debt 10 or 20 years from now may turn out to be small if growth has been rapid in the intervening years. By the same token, a seemingly small future debt can become unmanageable if the economy tanks, or barely grows at all.

In 1945, the nation's debt was 120 percent of GDP. That proved to be no problem in later years, not because the debt shrank but because the U.S. economy soared.

Our biggest problem isn't the size of pending federal budget deficits or debt but an anemic recovery that may drag on for years. And unless we're careful, budget-deficit mania may further slow economic growth - thereby making future debts even less manageable.

If Congress and the President started right now to cut the federal deficit - slashing spending and raising taxes on the middle class - our anemic economy would quickly become comatose.

That's because consumers still aren't spending much. They're overburdened by personal debt and don't qualify for new bank loans. And absent enough consumers, businesses still aren't spending on new factories, equipment, additional hiring.  Instead, they're expanding capacity abroad, buying back their own shares of stock, and gobbling up other companies. Exports can't possibly make up the slack.

That leaves government. Until we get out of the gravitational pull of the Great Recession, government is the only remaining booster rocket. If anything, we need more government spending and lower taxes on the middle class. This means bigger deficits, at least for the time being.

Even worse, budget-deficit mania will slow future growth if it forces government to cut the things that fuel growth  - education, basic R&D, child health, improved infrastructure.

No smart family would choose to balance the family budget over borrowing money to send the kids to college. The same logic holds for the nation as a whole. If certain government spending generates higher future productivity, we'd be nuts not to make the investment just to avoid a larger deficit.

Public investments like these are becoming ever more important to our future well being because private investment is more footloose globally. Giant American-based companies are now making more money abroad - and investing more there - than in the U.S. How do we get global capital to create good jobs in America? By having the skills and infrastructure to attract it.

Yet the deficit maniacs often want to slash spending across the board, including such key investments. And they often want to eliminate tax breaks that encourage these investments. (The Bowles-Simpson report is guilty of this.)

Don't get me wrong. America's projected budget deficits require attention. But in addressing them we need to focus on the right solutions, and make sure we're solving the right problem.

The preliminary report of the President's deficit commission doesn't help. It's another example of budget-deficit mania generating more heat than light.

The first link below will allow you to attempt to balance the budget your way.  See for yourself if you can.
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/11/13/weekinreview/deficits-graphic.html?WT.mc_id=WIR-SM-E-FB-SM-LIN-BPY-111410-DB-NA&WT.mc_ev=click
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/11/13/weekinreview/deficits-graphic.html?choices=03x245qm

http://robertreich.org/post/1549020696

Pope Calls Health Care An ‘Inalienable Right,’ Urges World Governments To Provide Universal Coverage

At an international papal conference on health care yesterday at the Vatican, Pope Benedict XVI and other Catholic church leaders said it is the “moral responsibility of nations to guarantee access to health care for all of their citizens, regardless of social and economic status or their ability to pay.” Saying access to adequate medical care is one of the “inalienable rights” of man, the pope said, “Justice in health care should be a priority of governments and international institutions”
Read More at ThinkProgress

Oregon Senator Wyden effectively kills Internet censorship bill

RawStory.com:
"It's too early to say for sure, but Oregon Senator Ron Wyden could very well go down in the history books as the man who saved the Internet".

Boiler Room Now Closed

It was a dive bar and I have to admit, I never went there for a drink but it is still sad to see a local business go away.  A lot of local bands played there.

Ring Of Fire Radio Talk Show Host David Bender Speaks In McKinleyville

College of the Redwoods sponsored a 2 hour discussion about the 2010 elections tonight at their McKinleyville campus. Nationally syndicated talk show host David Bender of Ring of Fire addressed about 50 people that showed up to find out what went wrong for progressives in the last election. Bender engaged the crowd and took questions for about the last 45 minutes. There was some lively discussion in the room and at one point Dennis Mayo said he actually agreed with Bender that corporations aren't people.


Ring of Fire can be heard locally on 1480 AM, Saturdays from Noon to 3 pm. Bender hosts the show with Mike Papantonio and Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

David Bender has a long career covering politics. In high school he covered the campaigns of Richard Nixon, George McGovern and Hubert Humphrey. Rachel Maddow called Bender her "political guru",

Bender spends much of his time traveling around the country but for the last 4 years or so he has made his home in Trinidad Ca.

Next House Majority Leader Eric Cantor A Traitor?

Really?  Did Eric Cantor. the soon to be House Majority Leader, violate the Logan Act?  That would be a felony.
 "He condemned his own President and American policy for opposing the expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank. Criticizing America while on Dreaded Foreign Soil is supposed to be one of the most extreme taboos in American politics".
Read more at democraticunderground

From the evidence here it would seem that Eric Cantor has some explaining to do. The democratic underground says: (he) vowed that he and his GOP colleagues would protect and defend Israeli interests against his own Government.

Two Arrested In Sexual Assault Of Teen

City of Arcata

PRESS RELEASE

On 11/04/2010 the Arcata Police Department received a report of a sexual assault that occurred on the evening of 10/30/2010 in the downtown area of Arcata. It was reported two adult male subjects had sexually assaulted a teenage female. The men met the girl that evening in the downtown area of Arcata and lured her to a secluded area where the assault took place.

After a lengthy investigation, Arcata Police Department Detectives identified the two suspects as 43 year old Anthony Jerome Pou and 21 year old Robert Calvin Lewis, both of Fortuna.

On 11/16/2010, both Pou and Lewis were taken into custody in Fortuna.

Pou was booked into the Humboldt County Jail on a charge of 288(c) (1) PC, Lewd Acts With a Child and Lewis was booked on a charge of 288a(b)(1) PC, Oral Copulation Person Under 18 Years.

Disaster Preparedness Event Saturday

Is your home prepared for an emergency? Where will your kids go if you're not home? What are the natural hazards you should prepare for? When did you last update your First Aid kit or skills? How much water should you have on hand? Are you able to shut off your gas line? Who responds to a natural disaster in Humboldt? How will you communicate if the phones are down? Is your car prepared if you're stranded? How will you get to your money if the banks are closed?

See what you can do to be prepared in the event that disaster strikes!
This event is free to everyone. There will be food and prizes!

When: Saturday November 20th., 10 am to 4 pm all day.
Where: Azalea Hall McKinleyville

Quantitative Easing Explained

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTUY16CkS-k
The Embed feature has been coming and going.  If you don't see the video click the above link.


It's a cute cartoon about the Bernake and the Fed.  Click the link to watch.

These Guys Are Coming To Eureka On Saturday

This Saturday night at the Arkley Center For The Performing Arts will be House of Floyd.  This is a Pink Floyd tribute band that does a great job.  They sound a lot like Pink Floyd live and have a fantastic light, laser and video screen show to go with it. 


I have seen Pink Floyd live twice and these guys are the next best thing.  If you love Pink Floyd, you should try to make this show.

Veterans Day Events On The North Coast

Local Veterans Day Events

First of all, I would like to salute all of our veterans and thank them for their service.

Thursday is Veterans Day and there are a few events to celebrate.

Fortuna: Raise the flag will be the theme.  Veterans Memorial Building on Main St. 1:30 pm Thursday

http://www.times-standard.com/ci_16562176?IADID=Search-www.times-standard.com-www.times-standard.com

Crescent City: Veterans Day Parade starts at 10 am Thursday.  Staging begins at 9 am and Eagle Scouts and adult former Eagle Scouts are encouraged to join with the vets.

Veterans Memorial Hall 810 H St. Parade goes to Front St. Crescent City.

All National Parks will honor service members by waiving the entry fee and day use fees for Thursday.  Includes Redwood National and State Parks Jediah Smith, Del Norte Coast and Prairie Creek Redwoods State Parks.

Weekend Events:

Saturday- Humboldt Brass Band, 8:pm HSU Fulkerson Recital Hall. $7.00 general, $3.00 seniors, HSU students with ID free.

No veterans discount.   ( the TriCity Weekly story didn't mention one)

More info.  Gil Cline 707-826-5441

Sunday United Bikers of Northern California Veterans Day Run.  Meet 10 am Sunday morning at Veterans Memorial Building in Arcata, 1423 J Street.  Bikes leave at Noon to Ocean View Cemetary's Veterans Grove in Eureka for a short ceremony.

All motorcycles welcome.  A get together at the Eureka V.F.W. Hall after.

More info: Vince 707-834-4826, Rocky 707-502-0240, Dirty Dave 707-442-4469

Some Big Surf And A Frost Advisory

HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK...UPDATED

NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE EUREKA CA
234 PM PST WED NOV 10 2010

CAZ001-002-111430-
REDWOOD COAST-MENDOCINO COAST-
234 PM PST WED NOV 10 2010

...FROST ADVISORY IN EFFECT FROM 2 AM TO 9 AM PST THURSDAY...
Bring the plants in tonight and cover delicate outside plants.

The surf was up directly across from the mouth of Humboldt Bay this afternoon.  Waves washed over the rock levy along the railroad tracks just north of the PG&E power plant.

New Trail would link Scenic Drive in Moonstone To Clam Beach.

Daniel Mintz writing for this week's McKinleyville Press says a draft report recently released proposes a half mile Scenic Drive-Little River trail connecting Moonstone Beach to Clam Beach.


The trail would include a bridge over Little River and would connect the Hammond Trail in Arcata, to Patrick's Point north of Trinidad.

The report is called the "Humboldt County Coastal Trail Implementation Strategy and was coordinated by the Redwood Community Action Agency (RCAA) and funded by the California Coastal Commission.

The report also calls for a proposed Mad River Parkway Trail that would extend from the Hammond Trail, skirt the Mad River and connect to the Annie and Mary rail-trail to Blue Lake.

Check out more on this in the latest edition of the McKinleyville Press at news stands in McKinleyville, Trinidad and Orick.

Two riders on horseback head down Little River State Beach  toward Clam Beach, with Little River in the foreground.

Keith Olbermann returns to MSNBC on Tuesday: network president

See Story

2 and 1/2 " Of Rain And Then The Sun Came Out

The sun will go down too soon tonight for my liking. On the other hand, we did get an extra hour of sleep overnight and with the pitter patter of rain into the late morning, it was all good. We got about 2 and 1/2 inches on our patio overnight and then the sun came out in brilliant fashion.


I got some wood chopped, did a little work on my truck and dad planted 15 blue berry bushes.  We have about 10 bushes now and wonder how many berries we'll get from 25 bushs?  Time will tell.

A quick trip to Scenic Drive along the coast says it all.
Is it just me or does the rock formation look a bit like a whale and the spray from the wave hitting a rock behind it look like a blow hole?  I think it just needs a photoshop eye somewhere.

Banks Spying On Your Bills, Rent Payments, Paychecks: Report

This story is disturbing enough, but when you get to the end you find out about the "Zombie Databases"! Image from DeesIllustration.com

From Rawstory.com

The age of the plain old credit score is gone, says a report at the Wall Street Journal, and it's been replaced by ever more intrusive efforts by banks and credit agencies to gauge exactly what you're worth, and what you can pay.


To that end, financial firms are now tracking their customers' bank deposits, rent payments or home values, and even utility bills to figure out who may soon become a financial risk, reports WSJ's Karen Blumenthal.

So, for example, if your employer pays you through direct deposits and those deposits stop, financial institutions can now have warning that your money situation is likely to tighten, and may deny you credit on that basis.
But the efforts don't end there.  Read More

Some People Will Do Anything For Money

A guy named Brent worked his way to the top of his proffession.  He is a proffessional tower climber and is in town working on a few radio and tv station towers.

He is shown at the top of the 1480 am radio tower near the PG&E power plant and US 101.  He was changing the lightbulbs.

The bulbs look so tiny from the ground but you can see that the top beacon is about the size of his torso.  Actually there are two lights at the top in case one goes out.  This is for safety reasons involving aircraft.

At some points while he was on the tower, it disappeared into the fog.

The Big Picture with Thom Hartmann. New TV Show.

Thom talks corporate takeover with Ralph Nader.



This guy does a three hour radio show daily.  It can be heard between 9 am and Noon locally on AM 1480.

Harvey Harper Died

The founder of Harper Ford Country just north of Eureka passed away around 8:00 pm last night.
I have no details yet.
Harper is a local icon and appeared in many of his own commercials for the dealership.  He came to Humboldt from Phoenix Arizona in 1912 to take over the family business.

Proposition 19 Up In Smoke, Underground Pot Economy Intact.

Good news for those that make their living in the underground economy of medical and or illegal marijuana. In a nation wide trend away from public education, public services, public health care, workers rights, and all things social, the people have spoken.

Prohibition and the black market will prevail in California.

Election results have shown that private business interests will continue to feed the drug war and those that would profit from it.

Proposition 19, California's attempt to legalize marijuana has gone down in flames or up in smoke at the ballot box.

Grow houses will thrive and rents will stay high in Humboldt County due to the demand for growing space for a lucrative crop that is sometimes sold as medicine. Trimmers will keep their under the table trimming jobs and growers will continue to reap big profits off their crops. Taxes will be minimized while the cost to courts and law enforcement will grow. This is good for the prison system as it gets more privatized. They stand to make a lot of money as business thrives. The illegal growers also stand to make obscene profits on a crop that anyone could grow if they were willing to pay the price of freedom to plant and grow it.

Growers have money to hire the lawyers that also will benefit when they get caught without enough 215 cards to cover the square footage of the crops they grow.

It's business as usual. The feds will continue to send money to the counties to fly around in helicopters and spot pot gardens, and thousands of man hours will be spent on the ground getting to and eradicating those gardens.

Those of us that pay taxes on our dwindling incomes will still have to deal with people breaking down our doors by people mistaking our homes for those next door or down the street that are grow houses. It might be someone there to rob us of the perceived stash of pot we don't have or the feds and local police by mistake. Either way it keeps things exciting doesn't it? The Republican idea that we all can be rich someday still holds true. Who would want to live in a society where those that work and pay taxes , benefit the population as a whole? That's Socialism.

Nope, it's corporate prisons, tax evasion, and the increased traffic in our courts that the majority wants. They want to shut down government and they won this election. There were some exceptions mostly in California but even here we just couldn't seem to get our minds around taxing something that is sold every day.

Hooray for Humboldt County and our underground economy! We tricked the rest of the state into supporting it. Maybe I should get a job in the real world where cash is king instead of paying taxes and medical insurance as an hourly employee in the corporate world. I won't do that because I don't want to go to jail but don't expect any sympathy from me when you go to jail because you supported the system that sent you there.

McKinleyville Press No Longer For Sale

Jack Durham made the announcement in this weeks McKinleyville Press that comes out tomorrow.

In 2008 Durham put the paper up for sale but he said that after getting married last year,  he changed the way the paper was operated and he became the sole proprietor.  Durham said that he no longer wants to sell the paper and plans to keep publishing it.

Live, Local, Election Coverage on Access Humboldt

Tomorrow at 8:00pm - Wednesday at 12:30am


Access Humboldt studio, Channel 11, and ONLINE!
Created By Access Humboldt

 Access Humboldt is proud to bring you live, local coverage on election night, Tuesday, November 2nd.

Tune in to Access Humboldt channel 11 between 8 p m and midnight on election night to get Vote count updates, interviews with candidates and commentators, as well as live reporting from campaign parties in the Humboldt bay area and the KMUD studios in Redway.

Remember to tune in November 2nd for election night coverage on access Humboldt channel 11 or Watch the online stream at accesshumboldt.net.

Access Humboldt – local voices through community media.

Out Here On The Perimeter, We Vote On Paper For A Reason

www.bradblog.com/

In Humboldt County Ca., we use paper ballots fed into a machine that some locals have made verifiable.
In their doing so, they found a flaw in Diebold scanners that we still use today because they know what the problem is here and found a way to fix it.  No so for many other counties voting in this election.

There are still counties all over the state that use touch screens with no way to verify or trace the votes because private companies own the source code that the machines use to count the votes and the companies say the source code is private corporate information.