Rasta Rants

Since Donald Trump was elected President we have been on a roller-coaster ride. Not that politics was clean stable or effective prior to his Presidency either. This is just a new chapter in American politics and the Presidency. While clearly he has polarized the nation if not the world the journey has been interesting and not all together unsuccessful. The Campaign Trump was a fighter and hit a nerve in the American population that had been demoralized by the Obama Presidency. He rode the wave of that popularity all the way to the White House. The shock and surprise of the left side of the political aisle is still palpable. The attempts to stop him from winning were legendary and even involve foreign governments. The dirt post election has been very embarrassing for America. The dirt that came out during the campaign was bad. We look like a small third world country full of corruption and underhanded politics. The Trump Presidency He took office and immediately began to dismantle

A great deal of change is happening in the US. Some would say for the best and others would disagree. President Trump continues to be a very divisive figure but actually is doing some good things despite his stupid and childish Tweets. Social media is so prevalent in the world and certainly in the US. Sadly some of my long term concerns about social media are coming home to roost. Prove of this is the recent problems at Facebook and Zuckerberg testifying in the Senate today. So you may ask what's the problem? First is our right to privacy. With social media and Millennials we have a society that increasingly has no desire to protect their own privacy. The social media giants are driven to make money and will sell whatever data they have to whomever will pay (hence the Facebook issue). Sadly the millennials who for the most part lack social skills and are lazy, have traded their privacy for expediency. In short they don't really care who sees their lives play out on social m

I am so often asked about new cars and what folks should look at in various segments of the new car market. While I could never share all the knowledge I have about all cars I have decided to share thougths on a few. Remember I come at this a bit different than many because I am at heart a racer first and a consumer second. My exposure to cars is my passion and I study them as a hobby. For ease of reading I have made my recommdnations based on the category the car/SUV/Truck falls into. I will only cover one category in this post but will add more soon. Large Luxury Sedans This segment actually should be broken down by price because comparing a Chrysler 300 to a Bentley Flying Spur is just not fair. So I will focus where the real world lives and say between $50,000 and $70,000. When I define price I mean the real price that you can buy a new car for with decent options - not some list price for a stripped prior year model. Before you send me nasty emails I know in the real world t

So we all know that marijuana is now legal in several states for recreational use. Actually it is now legal in 28 states. The map below shows the states with medical marijuana and recreational approval. There are only 8 states that have approved recreational use with California being the biggest. The results of surveys about legal recreational use states are very limited and the data is very inconsistent. What we do know is three irrefutable facts: It is a multi-billion dollar business and growing It is primarily a cash business It is still illegal on a Federal basis With California coming on line a few days ago we are going to see the largest marijuana marketplace in the country. As with all new things there will be challenegs. Governor Jerry Brown is already seeing this. He was a big proponent of recreational marijuana (maybe because he has used it personally his entire adult life) and signed it into law last year. Many cities in California however are not as enthusiastic.