Police War on the People Runs Full-Bore

I was greeted this morning, Friday, November 15, 2013 with following Times-Standard front page headline: Local law cheers feds' focus on Humboldt - Officials: 'High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area' designation to boost shared intel, resources

Thadeus Greenson/The Times-Standard - The Office of National Drug Control Policy on Thursday designated Humboldt County as a High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area, opening the door for more federal dollars and officers.

Once more the "Feds" co-opt the local police by handing out free money and god only knows what else.

Eureka is a town rife with people that, by the most part, drive like they live in a third-world country. And the EPD? Where are they? Call on the EPD for assistance, NOT a 911, call and what do you get? One friendly police officer ready to respond? Hardly. You get two in two patrol cars. Why two? Well, one is there to protect the other, they call it backup. Do they bring a friendly helpful presence with the implied threat? Not hardly. Consistently, North Coast Congressman Jared Huffman says:

 "The situation in Humboldt County is critical and this designation will bring federal resources and expertise to the table to help safeguard the safety and welfare of Humboldt County residents." 

In reality, it will bring more violence. Notice this little blurb in the paper: "Officials seem to agree that when it comes to marijuana grows, it's the large-scale operations involving environmental violations and threats of violence that are the enforcement priority." What establishes a viable "threat of violence"? The fact the "Officials" attack these locations like a military special forces unit? That's bringing violence that actually threatens the safety and welfare of Humboldt County residents.
[Picture Source]

--Joe

Glorious Benefits of Marijuana

Something to think about the next time you try to defend a pot grower:

Study: Marijuana Use Doubles Risk of Testicular Cancer

Since the local culture loves research studies to justify their habits this one should stir the pot:

IMPLICATIONS: TGCT is largely treatable, but treatment usually involves have the afflicted testis removed.

If it's all the same, I'll stick to beer – too.

--Joe

Pounding Sand - Kym Kemp Style

This is the Kym Kemp of the Redheaded Blackbelt blog - a co-conspirator of and with Hank Sims of the Lost Coast Outpost blog. This post is NOT about Kym Kemp per se, some personal vendetta, blog or comment censorship as much as it is about what it means to be a responsible ADULT.

You can find the definition of what it means to "pound sand" here or as defined here the second variation: "A variant meaning is to suffer or to act in a pointless manner" – the titled meaning used for this posting.

I recently had an interesting and sort of profitable email conversation with Kym. (Probably more profitable for me than her, but what the heck?) I figured she'd be, or at least the incentive would be there for her to be more honest in our efforts to communicate. We were talking about “after-the-fact” blog censorship – arbitrary blocking and deleting comments in the public comments section based upon individual ignorance, bias and personal prejudice – a form of racism*. I thought about what she said in that conversation and about what she did NOT say. I tried to answer her concerns about talking to her like a "small child." That and while she said I usually talk over everyone's head, my comments somehow become nothing more than unacceptable "negative," "ugly taunts. Apparently, according to her, I was unable speak to her like a mature adult. There is a time to be a whinny little baby and then there is the time to grow up and become an adult. Adults understand that most children live in the moment where life's realities are defined by how everything affects and profits them. Adults, on the other hand, know that life encompasses much, much more than living an animal existence. In the process I happened to read her comments posted on her affiliate blog. Also posted below. (A place I never make comments just to avoid this kind of a double-edged trap.)

Then it occurred to me, when she had accused me of treating her like a small child, why. What she said and what she wanted me to give her the right to do, was exactly the same conversation I'd had with my own daughter when she was moving out of adolescence. She wanted to be an adult and wanted her mother and me to treat her like an adult, but without any responsibility or accountability. She naively believed that being an adult meant that she had the right to come and go, do and say whatever she felt like WITHOUT any personal accountability. Of course, we all know that the world does not work like that, even though they all believe it does. Being an adult meant that you were free from any rules or laws. Enforcement of any rules or laws amounted to nothing more than a wannabe adult making "ugly taunts." That's when our relationship got dicey – for awhile. Even so, during this time she had a protected environment to grow and become a more mature person – her stated goal. So, what does that say about Kym? 

Kym's problem, the one she refuses to accept, is that she is exactly what she still is, an adolescent. I say that, because just like my daughter, she refuses to accept responsibility for her stipulated lifestyle beliefs. She believes that 50 years of an ingrained criminal culture involving large amounts of tax-free easy money, lying, stealing, money laundering, corruption and murder has or had NO morally detrimental or harmful effects on the social structure or the integrity of the individual, family and community, including the business community. Not only does Kym believe this nonsense, but she's constantly trying to justify and legitimize why the individual has the moral, ethical and legal right to trash social and societal rules, norms and laws at will - at the individuals sole discretion. (I posted the above referenced relevant comments below.) Notice her comment: “Just because people are willing to break stupid laws doesn't mean they are willing to be immoral.” This judgmental statement, in and of itself, "stupid laws," defines the morality, or rather, amorality of the speaker. It is that judgement repudiating the majority right to define and enforce rules of the road; LAW, that is "immoral." Here the mantra is the defacto enforcement of the Rule of Men replacing the Rule of Law. I believe, therefore I am truth, right and justice – LAW.

To me, her statement is morally repugnant and highly offensive. Why? Because of the untold numbers of the murdered dead, rotting in those hills who scream out something altogether different. These people,  so-called innocent "plant growers" – pot growers et al. and business community alike, whether they intended to become or ever wanted to become, are all part and party to the deaths of these “innocent plant growers.” Growing that “plant” and “breaking stupid laws,” as she so naively puts it, is not only immoral, but is the self-centered, self-righteous arrogance of the “corrupt to the gut” amoral.

a·mor·al [http://www.thefreedictionary.com/amoral ] 

  1. Not admitting of moral distinctions or judgments; neither moral nor immoral.
  2. Lacking moral sensibility; not caring about right and wrong.

There is an easy way to illustrate and bring home what and how these people, not only the growers, but all the local businesses and untold numbers of non-grower "growers" that have exploited this corrupt, immoral and depraved criminal enterprise, enforce their personal, opinion based beliefs and judgments on a day to day basis. Notice that on her blog and that of Hank Sims you will NOT find any rules or guidelines for making comments on their blog. Here is an example of what I mean along with MY Comment Guidelines, located first paragraph top left. Again, reinforced under Pages: Comment Etiquette below. They simply expect you to divine or submit like a little puppy to their unspoken demands and personal prejudices. Since I'm not a mind reader that created a bit of problem when being judged by bigotry, bias and racist prejudices – not to mention childish ignorance and bullying stupidity. They, and others, divine the right to judge everyone as you go. They post NO rules of the road so that everyone knows without doubt what is and is not expected. They not only want to be judge, jury and executioner, they expect everyone commenting on their blog to give them that right. How this corrupt way bleeds over into society was graphically demonstrated when the Fortuna police asserted this right by killing Jacob Newmaker March 16, 2012. I've written fairly extensively how this police killing is the result of enforcing the Rule of Men. See below Self Defense Is a Bitch and Resist AND Die - Why?

Then there is the OTHER SIDE – The Dark Side. Where the totally innocent person or family that wants absolutely nothing to do with the corruption and it's handmaidens, the criminal elite that get drawn into a serious life and death struggle to survive. Two good examples of this are the Saturday, March 24, 2012 Times-Standard account of "Victim recounts harrowing home invasion, torture" and the Arcata Police home invasion by deception of a 64 year old Barbara Sage by "about a dozen officers with guns drawn." You can read about that in today's Times-Standard here: Arcata woman sues city, police over potless pot search; suit alleges unlawful search, rough treatment hastened husband's death.

Synonymous to the Rule of Men is its root cause: CORRUPTION. What does one rotten apple have in common with a barrel of good apples? A whole barrel full of rotten apples, that's what. Kym's moralizing and devaluing law is symptomatic of much more than an adolescent attitude and understanding. It is the sand pounding of her constant justification that, in view of the corrupt and depraved consequences, where rot is the norm, that is reprehensible and intolerable. It is the dead in these hills that do the judging. No matter how much sand pounding Kym does in support of this corruption and these criminals, the dead are still dead. You can't censor them.

--Joe

From where does the rot come?

[Update below]

Many people are still in a quandary as to what the Occupy Movement wants or what it is all about. The Elite's want them to have leaders they can attack. They want them to have ideas and beliefs to attack. The Uber Rich and their warmongering politicians want these people to conform the their failed way, get in line and continue doing what you are told to do. 

Clearly, the joke is on them, though. The purpose of this worldwide movement is there for all to see. The simple truth of why there is such an inability to see and understand what is going on is the almost total delegitimizing corruption that has completely looted this country and the world of everything valuable. The Ruling Elite's efforts to dehumanize the majority of humanity has run into a serious problem. Many of these people refuse to accept the lie that they are worthless degenerates wanting an equality of which they legally or morally possess no right. They are in the process of taking back what they rightfully possess, the Earth. Even if it is only a dirty little plaza in the middle nowhere.

In Southern Humboldt there is the town of Garberville, it has a small park. Business people in Garberville, those without any shame, proudly proclaims its past 50 years business survival was its almost total subsistence on the ill-gotten, criminal marijuana money. The social deprivation of Garberville and surrounding communities by these people, as they try to justify their amoral needs, has led to generations of social corruption and lawlessness. One of these business people, Eric Kirk, also publishes the blog SoHum Parlance II. This man, as I understand it, is also a practicing lawyer or attorney. He recently posted: Open Thread on Friday Night's Meeting which was about the blight cause by the homeless and transients and the apparent efforts of the locals to deal with the problem. This situation is kind of a mini-occupy Garberville. After reading some of the comments, I posted a short observation about how the business people were part and party to the lawlessness of the past 50 years through their, what amounted to, criminal money laundering business activities. As such, they had compromised their integrity and legitimacy as a people, and a community. To me, the stench of these business people and their supporter's hypocrisy far acceded the smell they claim ravages their town as a result of no public facilities for homeless garbage and feces. As such, their current situation was of their own making.

So, where does the rot come? Where does that total corrupt thinking, base amoral being of the believer that justifies the total lawlessness and that unaccountable criminal behavior? The following exchange in the blog post listed above might give you a hint:  My comment: 

“Every businessman or woman with established businesses that knowingly takes money, does businesses with criminals, by definition launders money. Just because these business people have a symbiotic relationship with law enforcement and the courts does not justify or legitimize the crimes or the criminals. Ernie Branscomb’s position on this matter is there for everyone to read. He made this an issue, not me. Just because the whole community wants to absolve itself of any responsibility for its actions all these years, present conditions say otherwise. People are fond of telling me, “Sh*t happens.” Well, all I’m saying is, “Live with it.” I don’t like it either. I have nothing but contempt for those that think they have and had the right to take that “dump” right in my front yard and then blame me for having such a nice yard that they could use.”

And Eric Kirk's immediate reply:  

“Well, that pretty much includes everyone who does business, pretty much everywhere. Because crime in many forms is a significant chunk of GDP.”

Why is the hypocrisy of such a laissez faire attitude coming from a practicing attorney NOT a total surprise? 94% of the politicians with the most money win elections. The government and its judicial system are totally bought and paid for by criminal money – so according to lawyer Eric Kirk, the total worth or value of the United States is based upon criminal money, that makes everything (all crime) justifiable.

So, where does the rot come? It comes from a lifetime of the totally corrupt, lawless thinking of wannabe Elitist Parasites as they practice their dark art of lying, accusing, looting and murdering while posing for all to see as self-righteous, holier-than-thou, born of God, paragon's of all things righteous and perfect. 

--Joe

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[UPDATE :: Saturday, October 29, 2011] Here's another example of ROT, of a sick, sorry apologetic promoting the status quo at the expense of the deaths of innocent young people. Juan Cole's "Why a No-Fly Zone won’t Work in Syria" - is really a misnomer disguised as a plausible reality. When all he's really doing is defending Barck Obama's current gutless policies while trying to excuse away and justify his (their) duplicitous fecklessness corruption.

Think It Will Pass?

[Update Below]
Ron Paul Bill Would End Federal War on Marijuana

Rep. Barney Frank is co-sponsoring the first-of-its-kind legislation, which would permit states to legalize the drug

---

This bill is a real test of state's rights advocates, conservatives and Republicans, in particular to practice what they preach. That is the real question laid out in this article by Conor Friedersdorf of The Atlantic.

[I]ts states' rights approach is significant, and forces defenders of federal drug policy into their weakest position. It's one thing to argue that marijuana should be illegal. It's another thing to insist that the federal government enforce a nationwide ban even as duly elected state legislatures signal that the people disagree. That is the essence of the matter. Under this bill, marijuana would be legalized only in states where the people and their representatives desire it.

Today's Times-Standard runs the front page article by Josh Richman of the Oakland Tribune: New bill would end federal marijuana prohibition. He makes note:

In November, 53.5 percent of California voters rejected a ballot measure that would have legalized recreational marijuana use ...

The great hue and cry at the time was what would happen to the price of pot and how would that be detrimental to all the local businesses that benefit if totally legalized. Even in Humboldt County pragmatism prevailed. Better the degenerating consequences deleterious to the community than legal.

Will it pass? Considering the fact that the best thing that could happen to American Society is for it to pass, I doubt many legislators have the guts to put the people's interests first over corporate hegemony.

[Source - Image credit: Baz Ratner/Reuters]

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[Update :: Friday, June 24, 2011]

What price decades of moral equivocation and lawless degradation? Charles Davis puts it very succinctly in his short post on his False Dichotomy. This is what the money-grubbing local businesses, be they legit or illegitimate, settle for when they shamelessly put money over lives and a safe and wholesome community. After a couple of generations of self-justifying a lawless and corrupt lifestyle, these people are incapable of distinguishing the difference between the corrupt and incorrupt.

In the land of the free
One man gets 6 1/2 to 13 years in prison for growing and selling a plant, another shoots an unarmed father in the back -- murders him -- and serves less than a year. 

What, one wonders, could explain the vexing disparity in sentencing? Why would the state, bound by the social contract to uphold liberty and justice for all, treat horticulture as a greater crime than homicide? Because the murderer was one of their own, the gardener one of us. 

What happens when you break your end of a contract?

The corrupt look after, support and protect their own, that's what.

--Joe

How Your Elected Representatives Work for You

I recently became aware of this porta-potty matter in Garberville, CA when Kym Kemp tweeted her article:  Even Laundry Nazi’s Get Hurt Feelings - Where she lays out the issue fairly well when it comes to dealing with homeless people and the mostly adversarial situation that exists with the business community. In Garberville, a community that prides itself by sustaining its viability and future on the illegal growing and selling of marijuana, these homeless people present a blight to those pseudo prosperous and upstanding folk. These fine people worry that putting a porta-potty in a small, rundown county owned dime-size park at the north end of town will somehow attract these vagrant folk to all flock to Garberville. So, the consequence are, since there are NO public facilities in town, unlike Crescent City where they have permanent facilities scattered all over town, they would rather have human urine and feces all over their town. This is what happens when you have an inbred political system that worries more about appearance, but never about smell. Point in fact, is their requirement for a "permit" to install and use a portable toilet.

Today, a couple of weeks later, Thursday, June 9, 2011, there appeared on the front-page of the Times-Standard this masterpiece by Thadeus Greenson:  Port-a-problem? Portable toilet stirs debate in Garberville - He starts out by saying, "Some deep-seated issues are bubbling up in Garberville, brought to a head by a single unpermitted port-a-potty. " Read the rest of what he says and you will find out that his words, "deep-seated issues" are profoundly accurate and encompassing.

What was not brought into the issue was the general public and what they want and I'm not talking about the "transient and the homeless population." Greenson says the town of Garberville, that being the business community, by and large, has a longstanding problem with what to do with the homeless people. So, when they started using the county owned, but veterans park overseen by a local chapter of Veterans of Foreign Wars and a concerned citizen, Debra Carey, using her own money had a porta-potty installed there she ran afoul of the local business people's weapon of last or is it first resort, NO PERMIT or permission. Personally, I'd think that under the circumstances the local veterans would WANT to see the park with toilet and water facilities.

What interested me what Greenson reported was the people's county representative, Supervisor Clif Clendenen said:

[S]everal things are clear: The area has suffered chronic issues surrounding homeless and transient populations, the community has taken a hands-off approach to the issue and the problems have persisted.

”If we don't do anything, we know what that looks like,” he said. “It looks like the last two or three years, which I don't think have been that successful.”

Clendenen said he's entertaining the park idea, but only if it's done right. The supervisor said he'd like to see a “tough love” approach, with the community agreeing to offer certain services -- a place for people to be, a bathroom and running water -- in exchange for a bit of cooperation, like folks agreeing not to loiter or panhandle in front of stores, to clean up after their dogs and to generally reduce their impact. To that end, Clendenen said, he's been encouraging chamber members and the two veterans groups to set aside their differences and try to come together with a cooperative solution.

Casey's port-a-potty, he said, wasn't part of the plan.

”That's exactly what I had promised the chamber folks that we wouldn't do,” Clendenen said, stressing that whatever is done has to be coordinated and well thought out.

Wasn't part of the "PLAN"? Whose "plan"? He just said NO ONE had done anything in the past two or three years" and that "do nothing" approach was successful. So what "plan" is he talking about? Sheriff's Officer Swithenbank talks about a FIVE year problem.

Clendenen's whole approach to this problem recognizes only the interests of the business community. He wants the "homeless and the transients" to support the business community when THEY do everything to NOT support their needs. What's Clendenen's priority in the face of a local citizen that has the foresight, community concern and wherewithal try to deal with the problem in a minimal way by installing a porta-potty on public county property? The "county" represented by Clendenen removes it.

Then you've got the Sheriff's Department's Sgt. Kenny Swithenbank, a local, laying out their policing priorities, none which really has anything to do with the general public's concerns: 

[H]e said his office receives calls daily relating to the homeless and transient populations in town. It's generally nothing too serious he said, just drinking in public, smoking marijuana, loitering and things like that. (Comment: Which is exactly what people do when they are just trying to live in Garberville, California - "loitering and things like that")

”It has gotten to be way too big of a problem,” he said, adding that populations have exploded over the last five years. “People get that 'overrun' feeling.”

Swithenbank said he'd like to see the area open as a park and wouldn't oppose a bathroom, if it was run correctly and police could enforce the laws there. However, the sergeant said he would strongly oppose anything resembling a homeless encampment.

”Word gets out and they come from everywhere,”

In those words, Officer Kenny Swithenbank speaks the truth and clearly defines the real issue plagueing that community, fear. - “People get that 'overrun' feeling.”

 "HE WOULD APPOSE"? Therein lies the answer to who really is running the county. "Anything resembling" is extremely vague and open to personal interpretation. Well, that fact is Kenny Swithenbank, you've already got a homeless encampment and it is called Garberville, California.

Local businesses sucked off the illegal pot people for decades and never bitched about how that class of people looked and comported themselves, as long as they had plenty of cash dollars and scurried off back into the hills once they paid their way for coming into town.

For more on this issue, Kym has a couple more blog posts worth a read. She belabors the solution as it apparently evades her. Take a look:

1. Today: Homeless Camp or Park in Use?
2. The Times Standard Pee–ks at the Porta Potty Issue
3. …The More They Stay The Same

 To paraphrase Debra Cary, people have to live. A fact the the Garberville and surrounding businesses better get through their heads is that includes "transients and the homeless." That was the total justification for a generation of people to populate the hills and byways of Humboldt, Mendocino and Trinity counties and support themselves and their families outside the law, when they said there was no other way than grow, sell and export marijuana.

What this issues shows is how the county works for the people. At least that's the appearance they want everyone to believe in. All Clendenen worries about is "appearance." That's mostly all the Sheriff's department worries about too. Screw the common needs and the people, just don't look bad while trying to survive. Government is supposed to serve ALL people. That includes all those on the margins of society. This issue is really all about how you successfully "cut off your nose to spite your face."
[Source]

--Joe

Pot Devil Garners More Souls

The unintended consequences that are a threat to everyone.

The Devil gets his due again. He got three this time and was trying for five. But don't tell the local folks it had anything to do with marijuana. No, they want to keep a pretty face on that harpy.

The first I knew about this incident in Kettenpom, a little community 30+ miles East of Garberville in Trinity County was when I read, "Trinity sheriff's Office denies sending couple to investigate 911 call" in the Saturday, March 19, 2011, issue of the Times-Standard. Apparently, as reported in another article in the Redwood Times, "Three people killed, two injured in Kettenpom incident" a 911 call came into the CHP and a Trinity County Sheriff's deputy was dispatched from Lewiston, over a hundred miles away. Why in such a situation an officer from the Garberville area wasn't dispatched is anyone's guess. I know it is a difference is counties, but is the same state. Two people involved in a "marijuana operation" were killed by a third apparently robbing them. This person later died in a car crash evading Mendocino County Sheriff's Deputies. Two other locals that went to check on the two killed were also stabbed.

This story is typical of a constant litany of such stories resulting from the illegal production, sale and use of marijuana. Whatever medicinal or other positive benefits pot brings to society is totally outweighed by the price everyone pays for 50 years of corruption.

Look at the laissez faire attitude expressed by a practicing attorney, Eric Kirk on his blog, Sohum Parlance II post, Kettenpom Murders:

Kym has done an excellent job of pulling together what information is to be had.  I’ve been content to leave the coverage in her excellent hands.  I don’t know any of the people involved, but it’s all very sad.
And please spare us the posts about how marijuana growers are bring this onto themselves. It’s really not productive. [Emphasis added]

I encourage everyone to read the comments, specially that of “Not A Native,” and the two lawyers, Ed Denson and especially Eric Kirk. These lawyers apathetic justification of the “marijuana” motivated corruption and what that corruption's cost in lives are, speaks for itself – Family sensibilities take precedence here. Besides its just the cost of doing business.

Kirk directs everyone to another marijuana apologist, Kym Kemp's Readheaded Blackbelt blog. In all I counted 8 (eight) postings by her on this story. Be sure to read the comments, paying attention to how unbiased she is on this subject, and what she believes is most important about this matter.

1. Link: http://kymkemp.com/2011/03/14/double-homicide-in-kettenpom-two-neighbors-injured-suspect-killed/ 

2. Link: http://kymkemp.com/2011/03/16/why-call-my-dad-asks-victims-daughter-in-the-kettenpom-murder-case/ 

3. Link: http://kymkemp.com/2011/03/17/one-of-the-victims-identified-in-the-kettenpom-double-murdersphotos-and-accounts-organized/ 

4. Link: http://kymkemp.com/2011/03/17/we-love-sky-please-put-him-up-for-people-to-remember-victim-of-double-murder-in-kettenpom-memorial/ 

5. Link: http://kymkemp.com/2011/03/17/kettenpom-murders-linked-to-marijuana/ 

6. Link: http://kymkemp.com/2011/03/18/press-release-from-trinity-sheriffs-dept-adds-important-information/ 

7. Link: http://kymkemp.com/2011/03/18/kristines-page-photos-and-words-to-remember-her-by/ 

8. Link: http://kymkemp.com/2011/03/19/the-kettenpom-double-homicide-how-to-follow-the-unfolding-story/

A simple lesson I learned driving loaded big rigs is that every time you start up from a dead stop at a stop sign or light there is a lot more work than if you can keep rolling. I also learned that if you intended to go through a light on a yellow or do a “California Rolling Stop” there was NO WAY I could get stopped if there was an emergency need to do so. Intending to stop, made the stopping maneuver easy and safe. Today, I'd say, upwards of 50 percent of the drivers I observe intend to blow every stop sign they can – never intending to stop. They have totally become inured to the purpose of the stop sign or light, and the deadly hazard they've become. Since “everyone does it” the police and emergency responders excuse away the death and mayhem caused as, just another “accident” that couldn't be avoided.

What I see in these anecdotal blog conversations are self-serving, calloused excuses made to justify the direct consequences of the insidious works of corruption. Do I think that all those people that decided the only way they could survive and raise their families was to grow and sell marijuana that either killed someone or died defending their gardens deliberately set out to totally corrupt the very communities they live in, do business and raise their families? Probably not. When that way became accepted and transformed the majority into a “lawbreaking habit,” who thought that corrupting way would legalize ignoring stop signs and lights?

--Joe

Total Crock of Crap

[UPDATE Below: "The Man of Peace" - in a pig's eye.]

    

That's right! A TOTAL Crock shoveled up by Ernie Branscomb. He posted on his blog what he calls: "A Long Overdue Explanation." He then followed that up a few days later on January 2, 2011 with: "One more time.” What really got this triad going was his December 27, 2010, posting: "Those Confusing Newcomers!"

People apparently asked him what his inspiration is for the things he writes on his blog. Isn't that nice. Sounds to me like Ernie is becoming some kind of SoHum cult figure. This is how he starts out:

"If this blog is about anything... it is about change."

These two articles are about a man, obviously someone that cares, with deep roots in his community and at the later end of his life's experience trying to explain, if not justify, why life did not turn out as he expected and what responsibilities he has, if any, for why. In a way, these two blog articles really sum up Ernie Branscomb's life in a nutshell. What he fails to see is that this so-called “change” never really ever compromised him or his values at all. Nothing was ever his responsibility; he only did what he had to do. His survival always took precedence. So, just remember, everything he writes is colored by that reality.

Here's an honest observation: To write about "change" you must first "experience change," to "know change." So, my question is, has Ernie Branscomb changed in the 55 years or so that I've known him? I remember my first comment I posted to him. I asked him "if he'd just crawled out from under a rock?" Not very encouraging there.

Ernie Branscomb would have everyone believe that he is one of the more standout residual squatters that really cares for Southern Humboldt, its culture and value as a community. Notice his disdain for those that, according to him didn't like the change in the culture enforced upon them and simply "took advantage" of the "opportunity" to sell and moved away - “GOOD-BYE”!

What is he talking about here, change in culture? What I remember was a time when a man's word was his bond and thousands of dollars exchanged hands on a handshake to a time where everyone was inundated with the most foul craven corruption imaginable all brought on by these so-called back to the landers. Yeah, they put down the law to the local business people, law enforcement people and politicians and everyone wilted under that foul stench – EVERYONE!

Most of these Southern CA transplants came to Humboldt County to get away from the growing lawlessness where they lived. After selling their homes, most of them only had enough money to buy unimproved logged-off land. Work was a premium (not enough work to accommodate everyone) and they had homes to build and families to feed. Vietnam war veterans began to populate the scene and they knew all about marijuana – a ready-made “cash” crop. It wasn't legal to grow and sell, but their amoral needs took precedent.

At that point the local communities, primarily business communities, had a choice to make. They could choose to support and enforce the law themselves. They could all band together to protect themselves and their children from this plague of corrupting tax-free money or do business with these crooks. Or they could capitulate, roll over, and enable these criminals. What happened is a matter of record. No matter Ernie Branscomb and others of his kind try to spin and twist and embellish what they did and why, 50 years of corruption's craven tentacles strangle these communities till today.

Notice the distinction Branscomb goes to some lengths to define between the evil, criminal interloper-grower who only "used" the land for ill-gotten gains versus the poor, miserly farms of the "good people," back-to-lander family and community folk that really "cared" for the land.  To the distinction, this statement is rather unbelievable and frankly, quite disingenuous:

They didn’t give a damn about the law, the local culture, or even the other new people that had moved here. They are still with us. [Emphasis added]

However, notice what he said just before this defining statement above about the evil, "bad people:

[They] came with their carpet bags in hand, ready to cash in on the big local crop that was valuable because it is illegal. 

Growing and selling marijuana is illegal. Apparently according to Branscomb's "standards" it was NEVER illegal for these "good people" to grow and sell marijuana as long as it was done for amoral or altruistic purposes:

Some of the good people that moved up here, cared about, and cared for, our precious canyon and the environment. They grew a small amount of marijuana to pay for their land and care for their families. They recognized the medicinal value of the herb and promoted it as medicine. But they didn’t destroy the land. [Emphasis added]

Growing ANY amount of marijuana was illegal until 1996. That's 40 or more years after-the-fact. So, regardless how small the amount grown, sold or bought, their activity was criminal; they were all criminals. There is absolutely no way anyone can change that fact. It is this fact why I say Ernie Branscomb never compromised his integrity, because he shows here that he never had any integrity.

Branscomb makes the following judgment when he says, "Some of the people that moved here were “good people.” He goes on to define what he means by “good people.” But nowhere does he say anything about the “good people” being law-abiding people. For me, "good people" by definition are required, among other fundamental qualities, to BE INNATELY LAW-ABIDING.

Do you want to know what we were told when gardens began to show up on our property, displaced our water supply and created a fire hazard and we began to investigate? “Best leave well enough alone unless you want to get burned out.” When the matter was presented to the Sheriff's Department, we heard the same warning. “Get over it” Branscomb? Trying to live with the threat of being burned out by a bunch of radical outlaws or gangsters, or worse being arrested, prosecuted and risk losing your home and land for having pot gardens on your property made some of these people refugees in their own country. Yeah, good law-abiding folks alright. You got out if you could or you did business - with rare exception, the people that stayed did business. When the businesses communities decided to do business, there was no more support for the law, law enforcement or anyone else. It was as simple as that. And that is by definition: CRAVEN CORRUPTION.

Craven corruption is what was passed on to the succeeding generations of the old guard and new-comers. Ernie Branscomb's disdain for these so-called new-comer-good people oozes out no matter how hard he tries to camouflage it. Here's just one example that is so remenicent of his self-defining elitist attitude and hypocrisy:

The biggest thing that was different about the newcomers, that I have only been able to recently put my finger on, is that they didn’t seem to have standards!

And he does? These standards?

Our culture was the law of the land. As you might guess, it was often violated, but it was understood that you were going against the rules.

How'e these "standards" work out for all you fine folk? Not too well I would guess. Is it because compromised people are unable to understand the difference between "law" and "rules"? I'd say that, by definition, that is someone that does NOT demonstrate or possess "STANDARDS."
The following excerpt is from here:  "A Long Overdue Explanation."

Some of the people that moved here were “good people“, same as some of the whites that came to California in the 1850s. Some of the back-to-the-landers joined fire departments. They built schools, health care facilities, parks, and community meeting places. They joined service clubs and they honored the local people. They even recorded some of the old-timers history. Most of the people that moved here were “good people”. By FAR the most of them were. But, they displaced the local culture with their own culture. The people that didn’t like that were told to “get over it”. Most of the people that weren’t about to “get over it” moved away. Sold out and left. It was easy for some because they saw an opportunity to sell their land to the newcomers and get out. Good-bye.

Some of the newcomers that moved in, I’d say about the standard 10%, came with their carpet bags in hand, ready to cash in on the big local crop that was valuable because it is illegal. They didn’t give a damn about the law, the local culture, or even the other new people that had moved here. They are still with us.

Some of the good people that moved up here, cared about, and cared for, our precious canyon and the environment. They grew a small amount of marijuana to pay for their land and care for their families. They recognized the medicinal value of the herb and promoted it as medicine. But they didn’t destroy the land.

Others pack tons of fertilizers into the hills, and stream off all of the water to their plants. The river has become so dry and polluted with fertilizers that it kills animals that try to drink from some of the backwaters. The indoor grows leak diesel and crankcase oil into the ground and creeks. I can’t believe that the good people, in any way approve of those methods.

Some of us have an attachment to the canyon that we live in, and an attachment to most of the people that live here. Some of us had already been building schools and hospitals and parks, and belonging to service organizations. Some of us had a big personal investment in our community. Some of us didn’t want to leave. [Emphasis added]

In closing, the Joe Blow Report would like to encourage everyone to read Ernie Branscomb's three articles. Just be sure to put your hip boots on before you do:
(1) Those Confusing Newcomers! 
(2) A Long Overdue Explanation
(3) One more time
[Source]

---

[UPDATE :: Wednesday, January 6, 2011]



Ernie Branscomb made this comment on his blog a couple of days ago:

January 4, 2011 9:31 PM
Ernie Branscomb said...


I got far more of a positive response than I expected. And, I want to make it clear that I'm a peaceful man. I haven't poked anybody in the nose in years, and even when I did, I did it in self-defense. I have been poked in the nose before, also years ago, and I can assure you that you will change your mind about things when somebody pokes you in the nose. {Emphasis added]

He also posted this blog article about me on Monday, September 20, 2010:  Not Fair!

Read the foul, lying accusations he writes about me and then tell me he DID NOT "POKE ME IN THE NOSE."

Where's his justification for "self-defense." He's defending Dave Stancliff. He stuck his nose in where he has absolutely no business, then typical bully antics says "he" (little ol' innocent Ernie, The Man of Peace) didn't do anything. 

 --Joe

Lost Logger Redux

One of Joe Blow's afterlives was a logger. In the mid-seventies he became aware of an ever-growing adversarial change in attitudes and in the law regarding the logging and timber industry. Most of this negative impact was believed to be caused by the ever-expanding population growth, including retired people and environmentalist-motivated, pot growing, so-called “back_to_the_land” transplanted Southern California Hippies. It was the Redwood National Park sale that really impacted his business and got his attention. The environmental movement, widespread propaganda against old growth timber harvesting, political glad-handing, new restrictive laws and new invasive agencies, he soon learned, were far more destructive and threatening than a few “pot farmers” trying to enforce a new way of life.

Joe fought the good fight, but in the end lost the battle and went the way most old loggers go. In Joe's case, in an effort to retain some dignity, he took his businesses out of state. Since “home is where the heart is,” throughout those years away Joe remained aware of how the timber industry and his remaining friends were managing. One of his concerns was how the directly affected communities were dealing with, what he considered a hostile takeover by the environmentalists and big timber companies. Where was the anger and the backlash? It seemed like the rough and tough timber man and woman just rolled over like a cowed dog. They took their generational losses as if it was ordained by God. Most local business people's attitude was, “Oh well, what can we do?” But, somethings apparently changed in thirty years. All that anger didn't just go the way of "old loggers." Thirty to forty years of constant battles and the struggle to stay alive and to defend and protect your family from repressive attitudes, laws and the narrow-minded, thin-skinned, changes people.

It seems turnabout is fair play. At least that is what's being reported by Heidi Walters for the NC Journal: Unhappy Camp - Reliving the bad old ’80s way up in there the hills – An excellent article on some of the “local” signs of the times.

Why it took 30 years for short-sighted business people to stop voting their pocket books must have something to do with the fact their Ronald Reagan experiment in capitalist domination didn't work for the small business person and land owner like they believed it would.

Frankly, this is a lesson all the pot growers, a.k.a. “pot farmers” should take to heart. Some people have long memories and deeply buried resentments. Lets not forget all the people that exploited all that easy money, either. Since they are the ones that ran interference for the growers and made the whole process possible. Now, according to the news in today's Monday, October 18, 2010, Times-Standard paper, 'A neighborhood problem': Eureka neighbors take to courts to fight grow house -- and win, you can run a commercial, in-house grow operation with 79 or more plants right in the middle of a Eureka residential neighborhood and the police won't bother you even when everyone complains. Why did it take 14 “plaintiffs,” people in the neighborhood, filing suit in court to get the operation stopped even when the Judge said:

“The evidence supports a conclusion that the nuisance conducted on the premises interfered with plaintiffs' use and enjoyment of their property,” Reinholtsen wrote in the ruling. “The plaintiffs suffered substantial actual damages, and the use of the premises by defendant and his tenants was unreasonable.”

EPD Detective Neil Hubbard concluded by saying:

With the seemingly ever-increasing gray area of the state's marijuana law, Hubbard said frustrated neighbors may be wise to follow the Hillsdale Street neighborhood's lead. He said this is increasingly a problem that falls outside of police hands, noting that the tenants at Ebenstein's house were not arrested nor charged for the grow operation.

Hubbard said he's never heard of a small claims case like the one brought forward by the Hillsdale neighbors, but would like to see more of them. [Emphasis added]

“The grow houses are really not so much of a police problem anymore,” Hubbard said. “It's a neighborhood problem. I'm glad to see (the Hillsdale neighbors) stepped to the plate and took this on. ... It's going to take that kind of thing to improve these properties. I'd like to see more of it.”

When Judge Reinholtsen concludes “that the nuisance conducted on the premises interfered with plaintiffs' use and enjoyment of their property,” and “suffered substantial actual damages” and the use of that property was “ unreasonable,” I'd like to know what is police business these days?

What does it mean when the local police start telling citizens, that when they've got a problem that threatens their health, children, life, and property that it's time for them to start taking matters into their own hands? Maybe our city fathers know something we don't and when it comes to cutting back on so-called “public safety” their only doing what's obvious and necessary. If so, we live in a rather convoluted mess, that's for sure.

If that's the case, then maybe it's time to take another look at California gun laws and concealed carry permit issues. If we can't count on the police, then the only ones left are “us.” Old loggers know what that means.
[Source]

--Joe

Lessons in Twisting the Facts

 
How to twist the facts to suit your beliefs.

Here are some news headlines for Wednesday, October 13, 2010 – Too bad it isn't Friday the thirteenth.

How the news media interpreted the Rand Corporation's Report on: Reducing Drug Trafficking Revenues and Violence in Mexico. Would Legalizing Marijuana in California Help?

Please note what the Rand Corporation says about itself; what motivates their reports,

The RAND Corporation is a nonprofit research organization providing objective analysis and effective solutions that address the challenges facing the public and private sectors around the world.

Here are four examples of one version of this report:

1. AP: Study: Legalizing pot won't hinder Mexican cartels - By MARTHA MENDOZA (AP)
   
   
2. KPBS: Study Says Proposition 19 Unlikely To Affect Drug Groups’ Revenues
   
   
3. Los Angles Times: Study: Legalizing marijuana in California would not make a big dent in Mexican cartels' profits
   
   
4. Miami Herald: Study: Legal California pot wouldn't undercut Mexican cartels
   

Then there is this at FireDogLake – Just Say NOW that says the very OPPOSITE!

1. Rand Study: Marijuana Legalization Would Markedly Cut Mexican Drug Cartel Profits - By: Jon Walker
   

For something local take a look a what Eric Kirk's posting, FBI to Arab-American Student – “Don’t worry, you’re boring” brought up in the comment section starting with this brilliant statement of the 1960's grammar school propaganda machine from [Ernie Branscomb]:

The war for independence was a winnable war, a wise war, and a war, with almost universal support from the populace. A good example of a good decision. One man fighting the F.B.I. is stupid. Surely, you can see that?

We are close to being in another war to take back the country. What side are you on? Or are we all going to wait until all the jobs are gone.

Signed: Wise Pussy

Continuing to read the comments will reveal a similar bias towards to opposing views or conclusions from the same facts. Pay attention to the Branscomb – Jim Bouy interchange on American history:

If you're wondering why or how this happens, one of the more intriguing and revealing statements for this phenomenon was made by Branscomb in this [comment], “But you will be hard pressed to convince me that the war of independence wasn’t a winnable war. Even given the odds. ”

This is a rather insightful statement because it reveals what primarily motivates, screens and deduces facts in this person's mind: his belief system. People motivated and governed, that are operated by their “beliefs” discount facts as irrelevant and, at most, simply bothersome. Unless, of course, if they support their beliefs.

Logic motivated, rational thinking people are always stymied by the “believers” intransigence. It's similar to a religious motivated society versus a secular motivated society. Or like Republicans versus Democrats.
[Source]

--Joe

The Virtues of Mary J

[UPDATE Below] [UPDATE II]

These are the "virtues" of Mary Jane and her rag-tag band of ...  Future Farmer's of America?

Here's Mary's definition for “virtue” – something seriously lacking today:

1. an immoral or evil habit or practice.

2. immoral conduct; depraved or degrading behavior: a life of vice.

3. sexual immorality, esp. prostitution.

4. a particular form of depravity.

5. a fault, defect, or shortcoming: a minor vice in his literary style.

6. a physical defect, flaw, or infirmity: a constitutional vice.

7. a bad habit, as in a horse.

What's wrong with growing, buying, doing business with growers, and selling marijuana? To hear it said today, there's nothing wrong with marijuana – except for one minor problem, it's illegal. So, everyone's that has profited from marijuana in one way or another has a “virtue” problem. Virtue goes right to the heart of “character.” This is the definition of “character”:

1. the aggregate of features and traits that form the individual nature of some person or thing.

2. one such feature or trait; characteristic.

3. moral or ethical quality: a man of fine, honorable character.

4. qualities of honesty, courage, or the like; integrity: It takes character to face up to a bully.

5. reputation: a stain on one's character.

6. good repute.

7. an account of the qualities or peculiarities of a person or thing.

8. a person, esp. with reference to behavior or personality: a suspicious character.

Good character doesn't sound much like lawless, criminal behavior, does it? All these pot-growers and their support team-enablers would like everyone today to think of them as simple, respectable, family people doing what was necessary in an unjust and an unfair world to feed, cloth, roof and protect their families. Well, for those few, those of us that did see ourselves as actually “simple, respectable, family people that actually DID feed, cloth, roof and protect our families totally within the confines of the law look upon this scourge as a direct assault on all our families future survival. These people think they are better than we are because they got the money, the property and the businesses to prove it. More than that, they are quite quick to point that out how G** D***** self-righteous they are NOW that Californian's might just prove them right all along. That makes those of us “law-abiding” citizens, those of us that paid the price, made the sacrifices, lived within the law: WRONG as HELL.

The big focus over the years was on the growers and sellers, but for some reason everyone overlooked how these growers and sellers laundered all that cash; tax-free money. The “boom and bust” reality of all that cash greasing the wheels was the real corrupting force behind the facade of respectability. Here's what Kym Kemp at the Redheaded Blackbelt blog recently said to me regarding this issue:

I think both types (growers and non) contributed to make Humboldt a wonderful place to live. It is just that most people who are not growers don’t value their contributions and what they have provided. SoHum for instance would not have a vibrant arts and non-profit community if it weren’t for the growers. Also our volunteer fire depts are often staffed and supported by many growers. Our rural roads are maintained by growers.

The costs of growing illegally are often ugly–increased violence and lack of accountability. But those are because of the laws against marijuana not because of marijuana.

You might note, the "non" growers she's referring to are the money launderers, all the respectable, upstanding people and their businesses that made all these so-called "mom and pop" growers or more respectably, pot farming possible. The corruption runs deep in Humboldt County.

Here relevant post: Humboldt Grower’s Association On Al Jazeera and my comment she answered.

That is an absolutely amazing statement, even if I says so myself.

To reaffirm that reality is the Times-Standard newspaper article, "My Word: Going legit, if Proposition 19 passes" published Friday, October 8, 2010, written by Jordan Anderson, owner of NCCFA (Northern California Cannabis Farmers Alliance).

“If you are like me, you are one of thousands of commercial medical marijuana growers in Northern California, and you, like me, are concerned about what Prop. 19, the “tax and control” initiative will do to our economy. You have thrived in a community that supports and even depends on the (variably legal) medical marijuana commerce. If you are like me, when you first heard about the initiative, your first desire was to vote against it. You have exhausted hours discoursing with friends, acquaintances, and probably even strangers about how this will hinder our community and its economy. You, like me, are scared of change and the end of our day in the sun.”

And so does Kym:

Hopefully, the local supervisors are working already to provide a framework that will allow our local growers to create a niche market that allows them financial success when competing against the mega factory grows in Oakland.

Because what it may take to eradicate most marijuana from Humboldt is not an act of God but a failure of our local government to create a friendly place for mom and pop growers to farm.

He and Kym would like everyone to believe that he and his kind are some kind of pioneers that made growing, selling and smoking marijuana legal in California. Yeah! But he has worries:

“The threat of legal loopholes and corporate commercialization will swallow up our small private farms (now considered full-scale, commercial grow-ops), and our way of life will come to an end.”

From where I stand that sounds like Divine Justice to me.
[Source]

---

[UPDATE :: Wednesday, October 13, 2010]

An interesting virtue discussed at Greenchange: Legal marijuana may improve public safety
Prop. 19's legal marijuana could improve safety
Chip Johnson | San Francisco Chronicle |

[UPDATE :: Thursday, October 14, 2010]

A really sobering perspective that I've tried to enunciate. Some people think that I'm against legalizing the growth, sales and consumption of marijuana. That's not true. It should have been legal for the past 50 years. My problem is, people should be clear about the consequences of their actions and the irreversible and intrenched damage done to society for whatever their reasons. There's blood on cannabis and people should step up to that reality. Coming along well after-the-fact and saying that what everyone did was for altruistic reasons is pure BULL SHIT.

That said, Glenn Greenwald, says in his indomitable way, why marijuana needs to become legal. More than that, why everyone has a vested interest in see that it does. Here's why:

The Wars on Drugs and Terror: mirror images. Here's a portion of what he said:

The most important commonality between these two wars is that they continue -- and will continue -- for reasons having nothing to do with their stated justifications.  Both wars ensure an unlimited stream of massive amounts of money into the private war-making industries which fuel them.  By itself, the increasingly privatized American prison industry -- fed a constant stream of human beings put in cages as a result of drug prohibition laws -- is obscenely profitable.  Add to these powerful profit centers the political fear that officials have of being perceived as abandoning any war before it is "won," and these two intrinsically unwinnable wars -- unwinnable by design -- seem destined to endure forever, or at least until some sort of major financial collapse simply permits them no longer.

It's the perfect deceit.  These wars, in an endless loop, sustain and strengthen the very menaces which, in turn, justify their continuous escalation.  These wars manufacture the very dangers they are ostensibly designed to combat.  Meanwhile, the industries which fight them become richer and richer.  The political officials those industries own become more and more powerful.  Brutal drug cartels monopolize an unimaginably profitable, no-competition industry, while Terrorists are continuously supplied the perfect rationale for persauding huge numbers of otherwise unsympathetic people to join them or support them.  Everyone wins -- except for ordinary citizens, who become poorer and poorer, more and more imprisoned, meeker and meeker, and less and less free.

--Joe

The Elephant in the Room - Legal POT

[UPDATE Below :: August 2, 2010]
[UPDATE Below :: August 4, 2010]


So what's a "no-brainer"?

Jane Hamsher posted on FireDogLake (FDL) Friday July 23, 2010 this:
Want to Defuse the Mexican Border Problem? Legalize Marijuana

The Report has made some observations on some of the negative, un-talked about consequences of the so-called "Industry." Eric Kirk's SoHum Parlance II recently posted a real eye-opener, if you have the stomach to look through it, The literal side of the drug war. And another posting: Another marijuana bust gun death.

When money trumps lives it's time to devalue the issue.

---

There are two more pertinent articles just posted on FDL:

1. Call Your Member of Congress and Ask Where They Stand on Ending Marijuana Prohibition
2. Senate Votes to Double Fines, Jail Time for Pot Brownies  [Source]

---

[UPDATE :: MONDAY, AUGUST 2, 2010]

FIREDOGLAKE is making their move: Announcing Our Marijuana Legalization Campaign: Just Say Now

They've opened up a new "Just Say Now website" - They want to know what you think and offer other stuff.

---

[UPDATE :: MONDAY, AUGUST 4, 2010]

Mexico wants to talk to the U.S. -- "Former Police Chief Urges President Obama to Join Mexican President Calderon in Debate on Legalizing Marijuana" -- This is the latest proposal, where Mexico joins Columbia and Brazil encouraging Latin American countries to legalize marijuana to deny the cartels their major source of revenue. Offering to "debate" seems rather insulting and a waste of time. Getting Barack Obama to personally recognize the President of Mexico, Felipe Calderon as an equal and actually work to establish that reality for the future benefit of both countries would be well worth doing. The Drug War solution has so far in the last four years produced 28,000 dead.

I guess the "elephant in the room" question is, who profits from illegal marijuana, "The Industry," in California?
A more pertinent question is, who profits from the illegal so-called pot industry in Humboldt County?

--Joe