Month: February 2016

Thoughts on Super Tuesday 2016

Eight years ago the major political parties put up their worst candidates—John McCain and Barack Obama—for the Presidency. Their worst beat our worst and every day Obama continues to prove it.

Now in 2016, our loudest is going against their loudest.

Hillary Clinton—whose accomplishments are limited to sleeping with the President and killing people in Benghazi—is trying to crush Bernie Sanders tomorrow so she can have a clear shot at the Whitehouse; (FBI indictment notwithstanding.)

Meanwhile, the spineless Republican Establishment and certain conservatives in the Party are faced with the likelihood that Donald Trump will be their nominee. Trump has many flaws but sleeping with the President and killing American Ambassadors are not amongst them. Trump is rough around the edges but he has proven that he can achieve his goals.

Unlike the Clinton’s, Trump earned his money the old fashioned way; not as a result of screwing average America citizens and getting obscene amounts of money for speeches and libraries. The Clinton’s were dead broke when Bill and Hillary left Washington and now they have a net worth of hundreds of millions of dollars.

The Republicans have owned both houses of Congress for two years now and have absolutely nothing to show for it. It fact, the Democrats still run the place. The Republican leadership earned Trump as their candidate. They are a gutless lot. Republicans (and many Democrats) are tired of the political class being ineffective. The Congressional Leadership behaves like a simple minded dog that knows three tricks:
• How to play dead
• Roll-over
• And beg.

The biggest substantial difference between Trump and Hillary is this:
• Hillary will appoint people on the basis of political payoffs
• Trump will appoint people qualified for the job

The idea of Bloomberg or Romney coming in to save the Republican Establishment at the eleventh hour via a brokered convention is nonsense. Bush has been burned and Rubio is a clueless poser. It looks like the GOP Establishment has found someone they hate more than Ronald Reagan.

Washington is all about Power and Control—Hillary is both and Trump is neither.

Super Tuesday may be more than just the election that cements the field in November, it may be the cement that sinks the Republican Establishment, and that would be a very good thing.

81st Annual California Republican Assembly Convention

I went to the Convention this past week-end. It was held at the Knott’s Berry Farm Hotel.

I arrived about 2 p.m. and tried to check in to the hotel. This process took an hour, two calls to my bank and three trips thru the check-in line. As it turns out, the people at the front counter were not entering the transaction correctly and it was being refused on their end because they were trying to reuse a transaction number when running my card.

I went to my room, changed into swim attire and spent about half an hour in the pool. Then showered and went to the 4 p.m. CRA Board meeting. Much to my surprise, in attendance was John Briscoe and his partner in crime, Benita Gagne. I texted another person at the meeting and asked why Briscoe was there. His one word reply was “Spy”. Towards the end of the meeting, Briscoe asked the presiding officer for a copy of the final report for the committee investigating George and Aaron Park’s unethical activities during the prior year. Briscoe was told there was no written report, but it was read in its entirety at the Fall Board meeting—which he attended by the way. After witnessing this exchange, I thought that I might have seen the last of him, but he was in attendance for the remainder of the convention.

Benita had a cadre of ladies with her and was wearing a badge identifying her as a unit president. In response to their questions, she was instructing willing ladies how they should vote.

I had thought that maybe the presence of Briscoe and Gagne signaled that their experiment forming Impact Republicans was officially defunct. Today, I hear that they are trying to make another go at getting recognized by the California Republican Party at the upcoming Spring Convention. Clearly their identification as spies was the correct read on the situation. I guess my prediction of I.R. becoming a pay for endorsement racket is closer to reality.

The vendors at the Convention were few. Only two campaigns were present: Phil Wyman for US Senate and Ted Cruz for President. There was a booth by a group of crazy Christians from Orange County and some folks plugging some group for something else. I never heard of them before. I thought it strange that they had many books on their table by Phyllis Schlafly but it was not Eagle Forum. Also, there was a lady there selling a book on the conservative and Christian roots of America. There were a few other folks there but these made the biggest impression on me.

The focus of two booths was a rabid hatred for Common Core. Nobody can say why they hate Common Core, they just expect that you have to in order to be a conservative. One booth left me with the impression that you couldn’t be a Christian and support Common Core. It was God’s will that I oppose it. Echoes of Greg Hardcastle were going thru my head as I looked at their paraphernalia. Of course they have nothing to offer in its place.

Conservative hatred of Common Core and Obamacare in California is just stupid. Obamacare was the law in California before Obama was elected President—thanks Arnold—but nobody ever acknowledges this fact. Somehow, they always aim their disdain at Washington and not Sacramento. Ditto for Common Core. It was established as the law in California years ago but Conservatives direct their ire to the Department of Education—a federal agency—and somehow the State is off the hook. Truth is that Conservatives were asleep at the wheel and let this happen under their noses and did nothing to stop either.

Republicans have owned both Houses of Congress and so far have nothing to show for it. They can’t even pass an honest to goodness budget. Just a series of continuing resolutions and fights over the mythical budget ceiling.

The more I watched CRA in action, the lamer they seemed. The endorsement votes for President and US Senate were a joke. The job of nominating Trump fell to me because nobody even wanted to mention his name. CRA was so in the tank for Cruz it was amazing. No candidate got over twelve votes in a room of about 160 people. Cruz’s name came up last and the room went crazy (I’m using that word a lot in this blog). He got way over the required 2/3 vote for endorsement.

There were eight Republicans that spoke to the CRA Convention that were seeking their endorsement for US Senate. A few were legit but several were not ready to run for school board let alone a statewide election. I was amazed that Tom Del Baccaro got the CRA endorsement on the first ballot. Tom was on the record to stop Common Core and I guess that’s all it takes in this group. He never seems to say how he plans to do this. Tom has a record of platitudes but never quite seems to be able to back them up with deeds. My sources tell me he pile-drived the Contra Costa Republican Party into oblivion; but somehow he was able to leap from that job to CRP Chair.

My favorite part of the Convention was the time I spent with Dana Rohrbacher’s eleven year old daughter. She was pushing for Cruz every day in front of his booth. She’s the most extreme Type A kid you will ever meet. At a Cruz reception on Saturday night—non-believers like me were invited too—she stole the spotlight. My favorite exchanges were these:
Girl “Who are you supporting for President”
Me “Donald Trump”
Girl “Why?”
Me “Because he has nice hair.”
Girl “Yeah, I like his hair too.”

A few minutes later, Tom Del Baccaro walks into the room. The little girl points to Tom and says, “See that guy.” I then look at Tom, and she continues, “He’s evil.”

I did find it disturbing that she was demanding to watch Saturday Night Live when it came on. My son is the same age and he goes to bed between 8 and 9. He’s never even heard of the program.

CRA is recovering from the Park brothers but I don’t know how much more growth they will experience.

The last thing of note during the Convention was the talk by current CRP Chairman Jim Brulte. Brulte classified voter registration in California like this. First is Democrats with 43% registration, second is DTS and all others, and Republicans were in third place with 28%. Brulte has hopes of blocking the Dems from getting a 2/3 super majority in either house of the California legislature. At best maybe a one seat pickup.

I’m glad to be off the CRA Board and look forward to following Dave Ramsey’s advice to pay down my debts instead of spending the cash on long weekends tilting at windmills.

Glen Beck Attacks Trump

Two very different articles today have appeared about discrimination and Christianity.

First, Glen Beck has launched a full-on attack of Donald Trump as a fraud who has never opened a Bible and is a fake Christian.

“too many people are looking at Trump and believing that man has ever opened a Bible…that’s the biggest crock of bullcrap I’ve ever heard”
– Glen Beck 02-11-2016

Glenn Beck On Trump’s Christian Faith: ‘Biggest Crock Of Bullcrap I’ve Ever Heard’

Glenn Beck floats Trump’s Christian faith as fake

Mr. Beck’s personal beliefs on religion are rather out of the mainstream so I find it interesting that this is the area that he has chosen to attack Trump. Beck is a Mormon that likes to borrow ideas from Evangelical Christianity. There is no clear record that Beck could rightly be called a Christian—as defined by the Historical Creeds.

Beck was campaigning for Ted Cruz when he made his comments. Cruz has lifted the banner of Christ as his rallying point. This is curious to me when Cruz is unwilling to model public policy after Biblical Law.

I have reluctantly come to agree with Gary North’s assertion that Christians are not ready to lead. I have been in, under, and around Christians in politics for over thirty years, and this is long enough to follow several movements from start to finish, everything that Christians touch in the political arena, they screw-up. The latter state is worse than the former.

In the 1990’s, Evangelicals took over the Republican Party in California and made a huge mess out of it. Look at the Moral Majority, Christian Coalition, Capital Resource Institute, and a host of similar groups. They all end-up not bringing their faith and applying it to the political landscape but copying the power politic tactics of their enemies—they know no other paradigm—and adopting them as their own. Baptizing Power Religion does not make it Christian.

I don’t know where Trump’s heart is; only God does. I am not aware of any “fruit” to which I could point that says, “There’s your proof” but so what? I think of him as a typical American Roman Catholic. He has some incomplete knowledge of God and likely lacks a personal relationship with him. Trump needs your prayers—whether or not he is elected.

For Beck, Cruz, and Trump, I think of verses like this:

It is true that some preach Christ out of envy and rivalry, but others out of goodwill. The latter do so out of love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel. The former preach Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing that they can stir up trouble for me while I am in chains.  But what does it matter? The important thing is that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached. And because of this I rejoice.
Philippians 1:15-18

The second story which I will only mention briefly is about a BBC news anchor (presenter) Dan Walker. Walker is under fire for believing that Genesis is true and refusing to work on Sundays. (Chariots of Fire anyone?)

The bulk of the article is an attack on Walker by London Telegraph columnist Rupert Myers. Myers’ real problem is with God. Myers appears to be a typical humanist who is openly hostile to Christianity.

The gist of the matter is that because Walker is a Christian, he cannot be trusted when interviewing people on issues of science, education or technology.

If it weren’t for Christianity and the belief that God is knowable and his Creation is orderly and not random, we would have no basis for science but why let history get in the way of prejudice? Education in the West was the product of a Christian worldview.

Clearly Myers sees his chance to become the next Christopher Hitchens.

New BBC anchor takes heat for Christian faith

NARAL: Fetal Parody Tantrum

The National Abortion Rights Action League took issue with a Doritos advertisement that aired during Super Bowl 50 and made total asses out of themselves in the process.

I thought the ad was slightly offensive for making fun of a baby inside the mother but I never expected that the pro-abortion crowd would actually take this as a serious affront to their right to kill babies. I’m sure Doritos is happy about the publicity and doubly happy at how stupid NARAL looks to the rest of us. Thus no grounds for a corporate apology.

In the ad, the mom, a doctor and the father watch as the fetus moves to and fro in its mom’s tummy in an attempt to get closer to a chip wielded by the father.

When the exasperated mom flings the chip across the room, the baby follows – exiting the ultrasound frame and, apparently, the womb. The last bit is only intimated, as the camera pans to the horrified faces of the mom, dad and doctor as the Doritos logo flashes on the screen.
NARAL Article on FoxNews.com

NARAL stupidity on Twitter

Here are a few choice—can I use this word when attacking abortion rights folks who think they own it—quotes from the Fox New article.

“If NARAL is scandalized by the notion that a human fetus is human, then they are scandalized by science,” Ashley McGuire, a senior fellow with The Catholic Association, said in a statement to FoxNews.com.

McGuire’s statement continues:

“We know children in the womb have distinct and human DNA. We also know that they exhibit all sorts of human behaviors in the womb such as yawning, thumb-sucking, and even dancing thanks to tremendous advances in ultrasound technology.

“But groups like NARAL and Planned Parenthood rely on a denial of these scientific realities better suited to the Dark Ages to maintain their rabid insistence that those unborn babies are undeserving of basic human rights.”

Rush Limbaugh is right, Liberals have no sense of humor.

Myth of Solar Energy

Dishonest scales are an abomination to the Lord, But a just weight is His delight.
Proverbs 11:1

I have a few older stories that I’ve been saving to comment on later; The State of Nevada and Solar Power is one. As is often the case, you must go outside the United States to see what’s going on in our country since our media is so reluctant to report the news instead of regurgitating press releases from their Liberal friends.

One would think that a state that is mostly desert, heat, and sunshine would be a leader in solar energy; however, this is not the case. Like their neighbors in California, the politicians in Nevada have decided that killing the “Golden Goose” is better than slowly bleeding it.

Although Nevada is one of the sunniest places in the world, there has recently been a dark cloud hovering over the rooftop solar industry in the state. Just before Christmas, Nevada’s public utility commission (PUC) gave the state’s only power company, NV Energy, permission to charge higher rates and fees to solar panel users – a move that immediately shattered the rooftop solar industry’s business model.
theguardian.com/environment/2016/jan/13/solar-panel-energy-power-company-Nevada

That’s right, at a time when Obama and company are trying to pile drive fossil fuels into the ground and Saudi Arabia has declared economic war on US energy companies, Nevada Power has killed the alternative energy market and effectively nationalized all privately owned solar cells in the state.

The money quote in the article is, “People would pay more for going solar rather than less. It has left companies no choice but to stop doing business in the state.”

Instead of Nevada Power paying fair market value for excess power that they purchase from solar customers, the utility says it will pay only 2.8 cents per kilowatt and then they will sell it for 13 cents. They also will be charging solar customers more for electricity that they buy on nights and cloudy days. This is in addition to charging each solar customer a $40 per month fee just to be hooked up to “the grid”.

The article concludes, “Not only that, if they are going to give us 2.8 cents a kilowatt and then sell it for 13 cents, basically 17,000 Nevada homeowners built a solar farm for Nevada power. I don’t think that can be right.”

For those of you that think commercial solar power is the answer, take a look in your favorite Internet search engine. Enter this criteria: California solar farm gross polluter

On the first page, you will begin to see mention of Ivanpah solar farm. Yeah, solar power is a gross polluter. Why? Because they need to burn large quantities of natural gas. big solar big gas Ivanpah

As its name implies, the Ivanpah Concentrated Solar Thermal Power Plant in the Mojave Desert is supposed to provide renewable energy from the rays of the sun.

But on March 26, 2014, Ivanpah applied to the California Energy Commission and the California Air Resources Board to increase, from one to five hours, its auxiliary gas-fired boiler’s use of pre-warmed fluid for its steam generators.  Ivanpah generates power for about 12 hours of solar insulation each day, of which four to five hours are peak generation. Ivanpah is projected to generate electricity for 249 days each year due to cloud cover, desert windstorms, nighttime and other constraints.
Ivanpah morphs into gas solar hybrid

“The moral of the story? Expansive government is good at merely shifting environmental and economic problems around from one political constituency or region to another, while claiming it has solved such problems.”
—Master Resource article.

I recall seeing another story which stated that a solar farm in California was classified as a “gross polluter’ because they use too much water to scrub their solar panels. Sorry but I can’t find the reference to this story.

I did however find another solar related article.

A PV solar panel is not “pollution free”, just the opposite, it carries with it a very large carbon footprint and a trio of toxic emissions unique unto itself. A solar panel is a product manufactured by energy rich fossil fuels and lots of them, and that manufacturing process creates additional bad guys unique unto itself. Quote from Ozzie Zehner new book “Green Illusions”: “Not only are solar cells an overpriced tool for reducing CO2 emissions, but their manufacturing process is also one of the largest emitters of hexafluoroethane, nitrogen trifluoride, and sulfur hexafluoride, chemicals used for cleaning plasma production equipment, these three gruesome greenhouse gases make CO2 seem harmless. As a greenhouse gas, hexafluoroethane is twelve thousand times more potent than CO2, is 100 percent manufactured by humans, and survives ten thousand years once released into the atmosphere. Nitrogen trifluoride is seventeen thousand times more virulent than CO2, and sulfur hexafluoride, the most treacherous greenhouse gas, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, is twenty-five thousand times more threatening. The solar photovoltaic industry is one of the leading and fastest growing emitters of these gases, which are now measurably accumulating within the earth’s atmosphere, recent studies on nitrogen trifluoride reports that atmospheric concentrations of the gas have been rising an alarming 11 percent per year.”
Go solar California Information

I’ve been hearing the praises of solar power since Jimmy Carter was President but it still doesn’t seem ready for primetime.

The truth is nuclear can be safer, cheaper, and more available but one Jane Fonda movie and some stupid government regulations ruined the industry.

Hawkeyes Results

Iowa Results in percent

Cruz   28
Trump 24
Rubio   23
Carson   9
Paul   5
That’s 89 percent of the vote!

Where’s Bush?

Huckabee is out.

Look for Carson to decline further. I expect his support to shift to Cruz.

Paul, like his dad, will stay in as long as he can. The real question is when he does drop out, will he endorse anyone? And when he does will it matter?

Next it’s New Hampshire. Look for more GOP hopefuls to drop off after that.

I expect Trump to win in New Hampshire but who gets second? If Cruz finishes third, it may be a rough March for him. If he gets second, then we may have a more interesting contest.

Update 02-03-2016
Paul did drop-out. Wow.
Ditto for Rick Santorum

Also, is it the “Bush effect”? Not a single governor has a snowball’s chance to make it. This used to be proof that you could handle the Executive duties of the job.

Bloomberg Running? Now that’s March Madness

Michael Bloomberg, is threatening to run as an independent for President if he doesn’t like where the race is heading. Supposedly, he will make-up his mind come March. link for article “President Michael Bloomberg”

This is nothing but wishful hoping by a bunch of Democrats that are fearful that Hillary won’t be their nominee. By March, Bloomberg will not only have missed most filing deadlines to run but missed participation in all early primaries and missed-out on being on the ballot during the “Super Tuesday” contests in March. By the time he would jump into the race and actually get his name on a ballot somewhere, the Republicans will likely have their nominee and we will know if Bernie Sanders really has the support of Democrats.

Bloomberg’s entrance into the race would cement a Trump victory and a fractured Liberal ticket. It would be worse that what Ross Perot did to George Bush back in 1992.

While it would be fun to watch, there is no way that it will happen. However, it does raise some interesting questions.

• Are Sanders voters voting for Bernie or against Hillary?

• Suppose Bloomberg managed to get on California’s ballot by the March 25th deadline. What happens in a State like California where only the top two vote getters in the primary appear on the November ballot? Suppose he is a serious candidate going into November but California says he can’t be on the ballot.

• Perhaps Bloomberg and Sanders show-up on the November ballot but a Republican does not.