Rasta Rants

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. ...

This word means contention, argument, debate and dispute. I find that we are in a great controversy about all this sexual misconduct that is in the press daily. Before we get into this I want to state explicitly I am against all forms of sexual harassment or abuse of any kind and think it should be punished to the fullest extent of the law. That said I find a lot of what is going on now to be strange if not hypocrytical. Here is what I mean: Hollywood is acting as though sexual misconduct and harassment are new and shocking to this industry. Are you kidding? This is the industry that has fostered this behavior for decades. Back in the 50's Hollywood was known for the "casting couch". Nothing has changed but the sick individuals who are perpetuating the behavior.  This is the problem with power and fame. On the one hand you have Hollywood executives who control the success or failure of actors and others. These people know and feel their power. They literally...

Is anyone out there as tired of the hatred and fighting as I am? It has to stop. America was born out of a concept of freedom and I respect that but we also have to be united and work on problems together. A house divided cannot stand . All this hatred, the left versus right, the biased reporting, the political unheaval and the lack of respect and common decncy has to stop. What caused all this? Lets go back to 2001 after 9/11. We were united as a country because we had been attacked horribly. We changed many things and we compromised to get them done. President Bush was not a dynamic leader but he was forceful and pushed us through. Was the Iraq war a mistake? Maybe but it is not the root cuase of where we are today. Obama came along and we were in trouble. The mortagage crisis had turned into a world economic crisis and he was dynamic and a great orator. We bought it hook, line and sinker. He was a community organizer and in his heart a socialist. His roots started to show by mid...

Increasingly I am starting to think the US (and maybe several other countries) have lost their collective minds. Society must change and grow - I get that and support it. Lately we are seeing shifts that are not societal growth or even expanded awareness but outright stupidity. For now I will focus on the US issues only and pick on the world in another blog. I am to the point today where watching the news is painful. The things we focus on and argue about are surprising and show a total lack of worldly intelligence. Here are few I have noticed recently: This Russia issue. Stop already! Trump won the election and we should be trying to find ways to work with his administration to fix important things in the US. This absolute fixation on Russian colusion is ridiculous. Okay Trump Jr. took a meeting with a Russian lawyer who lied about having dirt on Clinton. Jr. just wanted to help Dad win and the meeting was a bust. Its not illegal and it is not treason. Get over it. Did the Russian...

I think we can all agree US healthcare needs some help - It is not working well. Just look at our costs versus the world then go look at our outcomes versus the world. Its alarming! We costs nearly twice as much as the next two highest spending countries combined. We are still ranked 27th in the World Health organization rankings of health around the world. So in short we are paying the most and getting a terrible result from all that spending. I think both political parties see this although I'm not sure they are actually admitting it. So who is winning in the current system and who is fighting to keep it as it is? The big winners are medical providers and drug companies. Providers include hospitals, doctors, diagnostics, Labs, surgery centers, ambulance, urgent care clinics and more. Drug companies include drug manufacturers and PBM's. These two industry segments make the majority of money in the US healthcare system. This is not to say that there are not others that benef...