JOBS? We don't need no stinking jobs! Or do we? Look at General plans and Zoning!

I have lived in Nevada County most all of my life.  After 63 years it appears we now have an institutional bunch of attitudes regarding business and jobs.  And it is all bad.  How is it that people can be so fired up about any project proposed for the cities and county we live in?  What and where did this negative set of attitudes come from?

I guess it started when people from elsewhere started moving here in the 1970's.  At that time the main business was timber and constriction.  Our county was discovered by people that wanted to escape the big city (which they screwed up) and to a lesser degree, people that wanted to grow pot. They moved in all over but mostly on the San Juan Ridge (growers).  Their attitudes back then became "shut the gates at the river crossings" and the fight was on.  In America, a land filled with entrepreneurs, the pressure to create a business or develop an new idea is always there.  No different here in Nevada County.  But it soon became obvious that some of the  people that moved here had an agenda.  That was "status quo".  Over time, their attitude permeated enough people for them to attempt to shut down all growth in housing to 100 permits per year.  That was 1978 and the wars began.

What I call the "landuse wars" began in earnest.  The people who did not want any further growth were mostly new and recently from somewhere else.  Those that believed in the law and property rights were mainly the old time landowners of all sizes.  After a vigorous campaign, the "no-growth people" were defeated handily at the polls in 1978.  We all thought we could proceed with a county that would once again prosper.  But nope.  The no-growthers took a new approach and started running for elections.  After they won some races, it became apparent what they were up to.  More rules and regulations, more hoops for all to jump through and along with the onerous California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and the National version (NEPA), they became well armed to take out anyone willing to risk their capital to keep progress of the economy  going. HERE is the Zoning Ordinance of Nevada County outside the cities.  Almost  1000 pages! Be sure to follow the links. HERE are the maps.(find your parcel's zoning)

And boy did they.  The left hijacked the General Plan Update of Nevada County and turned it into a overhaul.  A small 1970's document projecting 215,000 people by 1990 was turned into a massive document of new rules and hoops with a population cap of 155,000 by 2015.  Hundreds of meetings were done.  I attended most and spoke at most.  The bottom line though is the no growthers won!  The population on the County has not varied much since 1992 (still around 100,000).  The demographics changed as well.  Now we see the fruits of their victory.  A county of old people with their  servers traveling up the highways to take care of them.  Young families are outta here.  School enrollments are going backwards.  No new housing stock available, only recycled older homes. 2013 saw 53 new home permits county wide (county only). The results of no growth are everywhere.

The only spot of success over the years has been in Grass Valley.  They are the economic engine that keeps the whole county from imploding. The City Council's over the years have understood that growth can be a good thing if done properly.  In fact, it is necessary for a healthy life.  While it takes years to get a permit approved in the County it is not so bad in the Grass Valley City Hall.  Nevada City and Truckee are more a mirror of the impossibility of a landowner to realize his dreams so they and the County have stagnated really bad.  Truckee though at least built McMansions so they get a lot of money from those relocated bankers and techie's from the coast. All that taxpayer stimulus that never made it to Main Street at least built second homes in Truckee for those Wall Streeters.

But here in the Western end we have to fight.  We have to fight every little attempt to progress.  I once asked one of these "fighters" why they did what they did.  He said "for the sport".  So over time our county got a reputation as a place you avoid.  Our General Plan process became a laughingstock and the attitude was well known.  Don't try to start a business or build a subdivision in  Nevada County.  So we now see the results.  Stagnation and back sliding.

Lately, we see the results of the process on the proposed San Juan Mine in North San Juan/North Columbia.  Fearing a business taking out a lot in gold and hiring 80 or more people to do it, the residents of the area have decided to apply political pressure on the County to stop the mine.  In my view the issues are all mitigatable and the onerous hoops of CEQA, and the alphabet soup agencies of the State will prove it can work and be a good neighbor.,  But with many people wanting to remain anonymous there, many with a bright green plant growing on their properties, a legitimate business might bright too much scrutiny to the area.  So they scream about water and noise and all the other "red herrings" they can come up with.  I have heard this all before.

In the case of the mine, the area to be mined is close to the center of the 2,000 acre property (three square miles or so).  In the 90's when the price of gold dropped to a very low amount, the mine had to close.  During the time prior to the close there was a fissure hit in the mine and 11 wells of some neighbors were impacted.  But the County and the mining operator had in place money for that problem if it happened.  The mine owner supplied water to the landowners and drilled new wells.  The Grizzly Hill School (the land was donated by the mine owner I am told) had water problem well before th mine was approved and working but the mine owner still paid for remediation.  I say the system worked pretty good!

In Grass Valley there is a commercial development that is going in front of the city's review board.  It is a concept they will look at and see if it fits into the cities General Plan and Zoning laws.  Checking the General Plan, Dev elopement Code (431 pages!) and Zoning maps it looks like it was a property designated back in the 1999 Update of the city';s GP.  So, a new commercial area might come to fruition but it too is now under attack by the no-growthers ( A former taxpayer paid worm farmer from Nevada City is on the rampage).  The leakage of money to Placer, Yuba and Sacramento counties could be slowed if our area supplied some competition.  Millions in sales to local businesses and the taxes they produce could be a great boon.  Since the left has wrecked timber harvesting, mining and most other resource businesses here, maybe a store selling things that keeps someone from traveling south or west across the county line would be a good thing?  But, the logic of a no-growther is so unpredictable.  These people will scream "traffic impacts" to stop the new business (using CEQA) but pay no attention to the thousands of cars and trucks (them included) traversing Highways 49 and 20 to go shopping elsewhere.  Just watch, I have heard this illogical "straw-man" so many times.

I am always amazed at people who will risk their capital to start a new endeavor.  There are no guarantees of course that a business will survive.  In our county, the survival rate is small.  The population is old and the numbers are reversing.  The up front costs of permitting usually bleed the working capital of a potential business and of course, three votes in the negative can bankrupt the risk taker.  You have to get permits, hire expensive experts, pay huge fees and then wait.  The cost of waiting has become the easiest way for the no-growth people to win their Pyrrhic victories.  The waiting and the abuse of the CEQA process  which they always sue, makes a death knell almost a certainty in Nevada County and the State.  I am amazed that we are forced to zone lands for certain users under the law and then when someone wants to develop those lands, the process breaks down and the zoning really means nothing.  Why have it?  The mining operation is on ME, Mineral-Extraction zoning, the propose concept off Dorsey Drive is zoned CBP, Commercial Business Park.  Yet the opposition, the ones that force property to be zoned, will pay no attention to the zoning.  They will say, "we are not against the mine or shopping center"  "it just should be somewhere else".  All the same, all the time.And the construction of the overpass and on and off ramps at Dorsey Drive are a "conspiracy" for some landowners according to these no-growthers.  My goodness, I was on the Transportation Commission in 1985 when we started the process.  These "grassy knoll" nuts are almost too funny.

How our country made it this far is beyond my comprehension sometimes.  Of course we all want a safe and clean environment but when the system becomes so easy to manipulate by people who only need a stamp on an envelope to object and stop a project, America will have a hard time lasting much longer.  Same for our little county.  Just look back at all the proposals and how long they take to come to fruition, if they do at all.  Would you do that?  Risk your money and your good name?  Provide the jobs and taxes to keep our community healthy?

So, when you start reading the objections by these no growth people, remember, they have a playbook on how to do so.  They are mostly liberals and anti-capitalists.  Well except for the ganga sales.  God help the poor bastards trying to keep our country going.  I know I will try to help.,  How about you?

Dinesh D'Souza, author and filmmaker target of wrongful prosecution by he FBI and President Obama

Dinesh D'Souza is taking the brunt of a nasty form of political retribution by the Obama/Holder FBI.  They are claiming he did something wrong about political donations but we all know it is political persecution don't we?  He has been targeted for all this because he made a movie about Barack Obama and I guess Obama and his pals did not like it too much. HERE is D'Souza's Facebook link.

This is supposed to be a free country where even the President can be criticized and the American doing the criticism need not be afraid of becoming a target.  But this Administration (Nixon's enemies list anyone?) is different and Americans of all political stripes should be concerned.  A democrat operative did the same exact thing D'Sousa has done and was given a pat on the head and told "don't do that again" you bad little boy.  But the Holder FBI is threatening jail-time for this brave and brilliant man.

I was always impressed with D'Sousa's smarts.  I watched him debate many times. Famously on religion with the late atheist Christopher Hitchens.  I think he is one of the foremost thinkers of the planer regarding freedom and religion.  I suppose our new "Gestapo", the Holder led FBI, directed by the thin skinned President, does not like dissent and transparency.  Why of all people in the USA would they choose this man?  He is well liked by millions and his writings and musings are intellectually correct and agreed with by many.  I suppose the Obama Administration must "cutoff the head" of the creature (conservatism) to kill the opposition.  Sound familiar?  This was a favorite thing in any "authoritarian" country over my lifetime.

Four US Senators have sent a letter asking the FBI to please explain their methods in pursuing people like D'Souza in the political campaign venue.  HERE is a copy of the letter from Sessions, Grassley, Lee and Cruz.  Thank goodness these men are standing up at this high political level for this brave man.

HERE is the New York Times story on the allegations by the FBI against D'Sousa. What I find interesting is Al Gore, candidate for Vice President did the same thing but in my view even worse when he funneled money through a Buddhist  Nuns organization whose credo is of poverty!  But, nothing there when it is a democrat.  How about Charlie Tree? Of course Obama brought in millions of "bundled" dollars from unidentified people.  Many are alleged to be from foreign countries.  But nothing there, move along now. Thank goodness for the "Citizen's United" SCOTUS decision.  At least the Koch Brothers are American donors.

So it has come to this.  All one needs to do is watch the current news around the world and see the results of this kind of government thuggery on the people.  Shut the opposition up!  We see now in the Ukraine, Burma, Thailand and Venezuela what happens when a government treats its dissenters badly.  America needs to stand up and tell Obama and Holder NO!  You cannot squelch the opposition by using the FBI, the IRS and now the FCC to intimidate.  We will have none of this.

Dinesh deserves our support and diligence so he can be protected from the jack boots.  Send a letter to your Senators and the President and tell them NO!

SIX (6) Californias? Petition OK'd for signature gathering

Here we go.  Secretary of State Debra Bowen gas reviewed and approved the initiative to proceed to gather signatures.  Six more, well, five more states is the goal.  All out of California! HERE is her press release from the 18th of February.

The preliminary drawing of the breakout appears to place our County in the Northern State.  We would probably be a good county for the State Capitol.  Butte and Shasta counties though are much larger so my guess is we would probably have to have a vote to place the Capitol of Northern California. I have seen the desire of people many years ago to divide the State into two but never this.  And this is the farthest anyone has attempted in my recollection. (See Stan Statham)

My guess is it will not collect the requisite number of signatures though.  Sure, we forgotten people of the north will sign the petitions but our numbers are not sufficient to carry it to the ballot.  The rest of the state, especially the liberal big cities and the coastal counties will probably not have too many people signing.  Even if they get the signatures, the Legislature and the Congress must approve and there is little chance of that happening.

What this tells me though is there is a great unrest in our huge state.  When a government gets to big and to controlling, people rebel.  In the Ukraine today the people there are doing so.  The Russian Federation was created out of the failed police state of the USSR.  People get restless.  Look at Venezuela as well.  I have always said smaller is better when it comes to governance (see Yugoslavia now).  In the counties of our state you will find your councilman or Supervisor in the local phone book.  At the State and Federal level you won't have an easy time of talking with a legislator.

California has elected two unqualified women as our State Senators for the last twenty years or so.  California is a good example of what happens when 38 million people don't pay attention.  You get a Boxer and Feinstein.  We could have had a Carly Fiorina and a Meg Whitman, but those huge liberal cities keep putting those two Senators back in charge.  Maybe with a few more states our areas that are Conservative could finally get some represent ion.

California is truly a divided state.  We see massive unemployment in the central valley, the bread basket of the country.  The water and resources to keep the valley and the mountain counties successful are shifted by Los Angeles and San Francisco liberals to the "delta smelt" and other uses. Maybe we should tear down the Hetch Hetchy and send that water to the Delta?  Timber and mining, along with grazing, are curtailed by the bleeding heart liberals and we see the results in our lands here.  Fire, beetles and crummy management of those lands has made many people destitute.  So maybe this message of dissatisfaction will spur more discussion and action?  Well maybe not.

I have said for many years that if the Republicans would just turnout in massive numbers at election time they would own the state for a while.  But the voters sit on their hands, using the voting day as just another day to shop or vacation.  And their lack of turnout allows the democrats to gain the "super-majority" here.  Even the independent voters are shortchanged since their 20 percentage share of the voters has not one member in our state legislature.  I also think a return to the old days about representation would work too.  Each county gets a State Senator, creating a third House so that rural counties get a chance to have input and a vote in the State's business.

So, we get these kinds of attempts to gain attention to the lack of response to the needs of a great many Californians.  Rather than having a Governor start spreading money (debt dollars) around as he announce yesterday regrading the drought, how about allowing some dams and other water storage projects?  How about kicking the ass of the sue happy environmental community when the stop the salvage logging of the Rim Fire fiasco?  No, rather than address the ongoing ability of local people to lead their lives the state shoves more rules down their throats.  See the results of the Angora Fire in Lake Tahoe for what they do to us. 

I wish the gatherers good luck, hell, I'll sign the petition.  It is a call for attention and any way we can get it is fine with me.  Well, not the way the Ukrainians are doing it though.

Vote Democrat if you like this top ten set of reasons

Best view of a democrat

#10. I vote Democrat because I love the fact that I can now marry whatever I want. I’ve decided to marry my German Shepherd.   #9. I vote Democrat because I believe oil companies' profits of 4% on a gallon of gas are obscene, but the government taxing the same gallon at 15% isn’t.   #8. I vote Democrat because I believe the government will do a better job of spending the money I earn than I would.   #7. I vote Democrat because Freedom of Speech is fine as long as nobody is offended by it.   #6. I vote Democrat because I'm way too irresponsible to own a gun, and I know that my local police are all I need to protect me from murderers and thieves. I am also thankful that we have a 911 service that get police to your home in order to identify your body after a home invasion.   #5. I vote Democrat because I'm not concerned about millions of babies being aborted so long as we keep all death row inmates alive and comfy.   #4. I vote Democrat because I think illegal aliens have a right to free health care, education, and Social Security benefits, and we should take away Social Security from those who paid into it.   #3. I vote Democrat because I believe that businesses should not be allowed to make profits for themselves. They need to break even and give the rest away to the government for redistribution as the Democrat Party sees fit.   #2. I vote Democrat because I believe liberal judges need to rewrite the Constitution every few days to suit fringe kooks who would never get their agendas past the voters.   …And the #1 reason I vote Democrat is because I think it's better to pay $billions$ for oil to people who hate us, but not drill our own because it might upset some endangered beetle, gopher or fish here in America . We don't care about the beetles, gophers or fish in those other countries.

So what do you think?  Of course these reasons are accurate.  All one needs to do is watch the lamestream news any day or see the results of Legislative action at any level of government.  I would add another one as the biggest reason to vote democrat.

Hillary Clinton is the most qualified democrat to run for and become the President of the United States.  

Why?  Because she is a totally idiotic choice.  She is what she is because of her husband's coattails.  She is a hypocrite on woman's rights and their place under men.  She performed a "war on women" who were harassed, molested and accusatory of being raped by William Jefferson Clinton.  She was unable to be roused for the three AM call when our Ambassador was murdered.  On and on.  All of these reasons and many more make her the most qqualified democrat.  Doesn't that scare the shit out of you?  What does it also say about the rest of the democrats?  Gos Help America.

Puccini's "Turandot, so beautiful to the ear and heart, take a listen

Lawrence Fishburne does a Matrix play on a Kia commercial and then moths this music.  It was composed in 1924.  So wonderful! If foe some reason you cannot see this here is the link. 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PnicA-RRoA

Extremist Label? I'll take it. Read On.

The local lefty blogger is orgasmic in his desire to label people.  So, what the heck, I have been called every name in the book by liberals and "extremist" is simply the most tame.  But that is the style of liberals who try ad change the vernacular to suit them and their ideals.

Gay used to be a word used for a fun time by all.  Heck it defined a whole decade in the 1890's.  Now it means a homosexual man.  How did that happen?  "Deniers" is a later one.  If a person did not accept the hoax of "global warming" they were labeled as "deniers".  Now, with most of the country under a terrible winter, this all seems rather ridiculous.  There are others but the libs are undaunted in their quest to mis-direct and mis-inforn.  Orwell would nod his head in agreement when word's meanings were changed.  The propagandists of the left have a bottomless pit of alternative descriptions and definitions.

I was asked to peruse the liberal's blog and lo and behold, the premier "cut and paste" fellow, Steve Frisch found a quote from a book written by a fellow named Tim Duane.  Now this Duane character came to town during the General Plan fiasco during the 90's.  He was invited by our local liberal politicians but Duane always denied that.  I was interviewed by him (others from Oregon too) and he placed many of my comments in his book.  The book was about the landuse wars and his position was in favor of more and more regulations.  Anyway TheFrisch found this quote and I must say, I had forgot it.  But it is as true today and my positions expressed are still mine today.  You all can decide if they are true and have been practised by the government and the eco groups.

So Here is the quote from Dyane's book   I stand by it today.

“The Cold War may be over between the United States and the now defunct Soviet Union, but the battle for freedom and democracy continues for Juvinall in the Sierra Nevada foothills. “The eco-socialists are part of a larger movement,” he says, “which includes the environmental movement, that has attempted to destroy the principle of individual rights. The policies enacted by these earth worshipers are enmeshed in every aspect of our lives. Over time it becomes easier to control citizens through higher taxes, fees, assessments and other exactions.” He then quotes from a article in Ecosocialist Review that calls for people to “identify themselves as planetary citizens,” adding that when you identify yourself as a planetary citizen, you must give up your national identity along with the rights and freedoms guaranteed in the Constitution.” Juvinall then puts a conspiratorial spin on the relationship between local land use planning, the planetary “socialist agenda” and the complete loss of individual rights. “These attempts at planetizing us are being accomplished through the land use process. They know that local government is the easiest place to accomplish their agenda. Using ‘greedy developer’ large landowners, and the desire for open space and wildlife as their springboard they hope to convince us to become planetary citizens. Local general plans, bio-regional plans, regional governance (with attendant regional planning) become justified mechanisms to them because "they are not concerned about individuals. ”

 Look all around you.  See the thousands of laws and regulations passed by the liberal politicians on just about all aspects of your lives.  If I was wrong about things why did they pass another 100,000 laws and rules to control you?  Look at all the problems they have with the XL Pipeline?  Or fracking?  Timber salvage? How about the locking up of our prime energy laden lands by Obama and here, Jerry Brown.  Even the California Coastal Commission is trying to regulate the "waters" of the USA past the state's jurisdiction.  Look at the Tahoe fascist regulations. Or the use of the 3 inch Delta Smelt as a way to use the ESA and deny our farmers their water.  It is all happening and will keep happening until there is a cutoff of the free money.  Congress and the Legislature have to deny "grants" of our taxpayers money (bonds too) to groups and organizations whose purpose is to take our individual and congregate rights away.

Look at the loans and grants in just the Department of Agriculture's budget.  Billions are given away to prop up these eco thieves who would not survive on their own.  I urge our Congressmen and anyone else who has the power or possibility of power, to stop this destruction of America by people I accurately identified many years ago.

"Curly Top" has passed away at 85

Shirley Temple-Black, that little girl we boomers watched in the 1950's, has gone to heaven.  She will live on in our hearts and minds and her movies will always keep her young.  HERE is a article on her and it shows what a wonderful person she was.

I won't belabor this but I remember some of her movies as a little kid and they were always a feel good experience.  She is the same age (almost) as my own mother and Shirley enlightened the dimness of the Great Depression for millions in America and people around the world.

God Bless your soul Shirley, sit in God's prescience and advise him on love and happiness.  You were a force for good in a dark and troubled world.