FREE #179.2 March 2018 - Hell, A new frozen dessert?

The force that through the green fuse drives the flower
Drives my green age -Dylan Thomas

Cultivation:
Humboldt County to Hold Their Government Accountable for ‘Illegal’ Tax Changes
The Cannabis Market crash in Humboldt County isn’t the only element distressing
farmers this year. In addition to plummeting per pound-prices, exponential influx of
costs, looming abatement letter risks and the like, farmers attempting to navigate the
legalization process are being hit especially hard with yearly Measure S tax bills. So
much so that a group formed in direct response to speak to the Board of Supervisors Year of The Dog
in the February 13th meeting.

STOCKS THRIVE, WAGES DIVE

A farm association calling themselves “The Salmon Creek Association of Small
Farmers” and supporters gathered at the Courthouse during the February 13 Board
of Supervisors meeting to lay out their requests to the Board which include:
• “Repeal the 2017 taxes on Interim Permits.
Start with the suggestion, which seems odd on its face, that the market crashed because
wages were seen to be rising.  The recent Dow Jones fluctuations have very little to do with a

• Reduced taxes on 2018 Interim Permits. legitimate fear of inflation. The stock market panicked largely because CEOs and shareholders
fear that they’re losing their upper hand over a workforce that’s cutting increasingly into their
• Consider developing a system for rebates or deferred tax payment plans record profits.
targeting small growers. And if inflation is coming, then the Federal Reserve is likely to raise interest rates to slow

• Find a mechanism to cost-effectively leverage enforcement of the ~8,000 down the economy and cool off the inflation. When the Fed raises interest rates, bonds
become more attractive, so people move money from stocks to bonds — and the stock
non-applicants without relying on small farmers taxes. market dives. It becomes harder to borrow, so businesses and homeowners have less capital
• Work to streamline the compliance process for those small farms where to throw around. Profits get squeezed by high-interest payments. And as interest rates rise,
the value of older bonds, which pay out a lower interest rate, goes down. So people are losing
environmental degradation is NOT occurring.” money all over the place. All because wages started to go up.
Imagine you are a cannabis farmer, one who stood in line at the Planning Department Everything in the structure of the economy, then, is geared toward making sure that wages
to get a permit December 29, to get in front of the “good-standing” line for the State never rise. And for nearly half a century, this task has been accomplished. Wages haven’t
permits as you were told to by the County. Imagine you also headed the warnings of budged since the 1970s.
the Sheriffs, Planning Department, and additional County staff and did not cultivate Capitalism’s “reserve army” of the unemployed has its ranks bolstered by a mechanism known
that year. Or picture you are a lawyer who advised their clients about liability of the as the “inflation target” or the “inflation objective.” The Fed currently sets the target at 2
tax and to make legally binding contracts with cultivators who rented their property. percent, meaning that it doesn’t want to see inflation higher or lower than that. What it really
means is that it doesn’t want to see inflation higher than that, as the economy hasn’t hit the 2
Well this is the case for several handfuls of folks in Humboldt County who are
percent target in years.
coming together to hold the BOS and County Counsel accountable for their rewriting
But the target itself has meaning, since any little sign of wage growth is taken to mean that
of the “Commercial Marijuana Cultivation Tax” a one of a kind agricultural excise tax
inflation is around the bend, so the Fed taps the brakes to keep everything under that target.
passed in November 2016 with 64.5 % approval.
When the Fed hits the brakes, people lose their jobs. That’s not an unfortunate side effect of
Now in a dark eerie jam-packed dry room of uncertainty, there just may be tricomes tighter monetary policy — it is the intended effect. But the 2 percent target, argue people who
glistening with hope, as local renowned Environmental and Cannabis advocate and want to see real full employment, is too low. The Fed is throwing people out of work
Attorney Eugene Denson, is hoping to help save the livelihoods for many local unnecessarily — or, at least, for no sound economic reason. ExFedChair Janet Yellen said that
cultivators by bringing a Law Suit against the County. the decision the Fed made in 2012 — before she was Fed chair — may have been the right one
at the time, but evidence since then suggests the rate could be set higher.
The original text of the Measure was added December 13 2016, becoming
In Europe, central bankers have in recent years become more blatant about their role.
Ordinance 2567 in the County Code. Then June 6, 2017 a new ordinance “2575” was The European Central Bank has even started to use a different, most honest term: the
approved by the Humboldt County BOS which modified the original text of Measure Non-Accelerating Wage Rate of Unemployment. In practice, they tend to mean the same thing
S Tax. — that only so many people can be employed before inflation rises, and the job of a central
Denson first noticed the text incongruities, and sent a letter to the County of bank is to find and maintain the magic balance of unemployment and interest rates which fall
disproportionately on the more vulnerable workers — namely women and people of color —
Humboldt informing them of the “illegality” of the changes made January 9th 2018.
who constitute the vast majority of today’s working class.
Denson explains that the changes made “substantially altered the tax after it was
approved by voters” so the changes made by Humboldt County Supervisors are In 1979 then-Fed Chair Paul Volcker moved to explode the interest rate, in large part to
undermine what he and other monetary hawks saw as labor’s bloated bargaining power.
“illegal” because it violates Government Code 53723, “No local government, or
Volcker tamed inflation, triggered 2 recessions and paved the way for Reagan’s all-out assault
district, whether or not authorized to levy a property tax, may impose any general tax
on unions. So Carter, Volcker, and Reagan set out to suppress the power of organized labor.
unless and until such general tax is submitted to the electorate of the For that, they relied on a growing reserve army, created deliberately by government policy.
local government, or district and approved by a majority vote of the voters voting in
Like most economic policymaking, the job of the Fed is to adjudicate who gets to hold power
an election on the issue.”
in the economy and society writ large, ostensibly in the public interest. If the Fed raises
-Dream Tax Continues on Page 15 interest rates in the coming weeks and months, its answer will be clear.
    Thanks to Kate Aronoff of The Intercept

COUNTY WEATHER: WARM WIND? HOT AIR!

Is there is a warm wind from Sacramento and the Courts that is creating a thaw of sort Who knew, not poor Eggman, that everybody had already nodded out over another
in Humboldt? Cameras on sheriff’s deputies, the last armed agents hereabouts to get drug that’s the Official One, riding to approval on the warm fartish wind of federal
them, sounds good. But that warm wind turned into the usual Hot Air when it hit the money to the tune of 4.8 million dollars, -- Methadone Centers?  Sort of.  Call them
chambers of the County Supervisors. Hubs, not Centers. This is what they call them up in cool hip Bernie-land Vermont.  And
It’s all about the opioid threat that took so many lives last year that American life it is not Methadone, it’s brand new and better, and no needles are involved, (but they
expectancy dropped for the 2 consecutive year. Two events took place on the opioid
nd can be) and most important you shouldn’t get any pleasure out of it, (but dammit you
issue that explain a lot.  The first was the reaction to AB 186 penned by an still can,) and it is called Buprenorphine. Actually it is a weaker version of Methadone. I
Assemblymember named Eggman (will I get her name if I marry her?).  It turned out that guess they found out people take Methadone for pleasure. Under the brand name
that Humboldt County was one of a handful of counties with high, higher, highest, Subutex there is a thriving European black market in Buprenoprine.
opioid over-dose deaths. It’s prize was being included in a state sponsored drug This big bucks deal was announced at the well attended public meeting that  Bass had
injection harm reduction program. Supervisor Rex Bohn was furious at the very idea. with Huffman, our Congressman, on the topic of opioids. I knew they were up to
This was a program not suitable for his Deep North County where “needle” was Code something, something phony yet attractive, like the strategy of
for “homeless bum.” HousingFirstReadMyLipsNever. Buprenorphine Hubs are the answer, offering to
What would the bill do? Please read this: It would “authorize specified counties or cities vulnerable people punishment way before pleasure, as is usual with liberal/conservative
within those counties to authorize the operation of supervised injection services compromise that has been running the show since forever.
programs for adults that satisfies specified requirements, including, among other things, The fed program is a catch and (don’t quite) release strategy. You would go to the Hub
a hygienic space supervised by health care professionals, as defined, where people who to get your tab or powder and commit yourself to an eternal probation of AA type
use drugs can consume pre-obtained drugs, sterile consumption supplies, and access self-examination centers. Over cigarettes and coffee. Swallowing not shooting up what
to referrals to substance use disorder treatment.” the fed’s best friend, Big Pharma, has to offer, paying lip service meanwhile to the
There’s more “The bill would exempt a person from existing criminal sanctions solely for rehab jargon of the moment.
actions or conduct on the site of a safer drug consumption services program for adults So out with the Calstate program which would domesticate drug users, giving them
authorized by a city, county, or city and county.” what they want, not what you want for them. Worse, it appears the County is
I mean, is this a warm wind from Sacramento or what? Nanny State crap, say the responsible for providing the hygienic space and the sterile supplies, along with the
people that Rex Bohn thinks are the people. Why it’s amnesty for junkies!!!  It got so educated browbeating and the fresh jargon to teach – and no millions of dollars. And
bad, press reports note, that Supes Chair Virginia Bass needed to intervene and offer where’s the payoff for Big Pharma?  The drug users bring preobtained drugs! WTF.
her more moderate, Centrist really, letter. Still there was a tone of Why us in the Bass As for the warm wind from Sacramento, Assembymember Eggman, the people of the
letter to the unfortunate Eggman, a chill when she states for the Board that “Humboldt Deep North, Rex Bohn’s people,  much prefer a colder approach.  Climate change is
County is not prepared for injection facilities….” and that “an injection services program not appropriate here.
is not part of the county's approach. Please remove etc.” Paul Encimer, ThePeoplesWhistle