A decade or so ago, it was fashionable to ask, “What would Jesus do?” Many people would walk around with little bracelets with the initials WWJD on their wrist. Today I would like to point out that the Bible talks about walls too. In fact Jesus himself addressed the issue directly:
“Very truly I tell you Pharisees, anyone who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber. The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger’s voice.” Jesus used this figure of speech, but the Pharisees did not understand what he was telling them. Therefore Jesus said again, “Very truly I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. All who have come before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep have not listened to them. I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. They will come in and go out, and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. John 10:1-11 (emphasis added)
This ladies and gents is Trump’s argument for the wall, enter thru the gate and be welcome, hop the fence and you are lawbreakers come to kill American citizens, steal from American taxpayers, and destroy the American way of life.
Please note that the Pharisees (for our purposes substitute Liberals or Democrats) don’t understand what they were being told.
Case in point, I mentioned the stunt the other day when people hopped the wall at Nancy Pelosi’s house and claimed to seek refuge as they were from Guatemala. I said that I thought it was funny and a clever way to illustrate the hypocrisy that a wall is OK from rich Democrats like her but giving the same protection to the American people is immoral?
My coworker, thought it was wrong for anyone to hop the fence around her house but he saw no connection to the border wall dispute. I explained it to him and he still didn’t understand. Ironically, he said they should enter by the gate if they want in. No wonder Jesus said things like, “for those that have ears let them hear.”
Jesus “I am the gate”
The Bible also has much to say about respecting boundaries and property lines and specifically calls it a sin to tamper with such. Also the Bible is very committed to the principle that the foreigner is expected to follow the religious and civil laws of Israel when they are within its borders including honoring the labor and Sabbath laws. In fact this like treatment of citizen and sojourner is part of the Western (Christian) basis for equal protection under the law, not that anyone in a government school would ever acknowledge this fact.
So if Trump is on Jesus’ side, where does that leave Pelosi, Schumer, et al? Why with the liars, murders, and thieves. If you have any doubt just look at their views on abortion. No wonder the Democrats are screaming like demons; they work with them.
While it will not be official until January 29th, Today PG&E announced their intention to file chapter 11 bankruptcy so they can reorganize and become an efficient company again. I say it became official today because PG&E did not pay the interest on a bond obligation due 1/15/19. Even worse the company only has enough cash to cover 4% of their fire related obligations, due to their negligence. Chapter 11 is not liquidation, its reorganization. If you’re a stockholder you will be wiped out, a bondholder, you will see pennies on the dollar for your “investment” and if you’re an employee your paycheck and retirement may be effected slightly. However the company will be lent money by investment banks, so your power and gas will still be operational, and rest assured a monthly bill will still show up.
How did we arrive to this fateful day? Well the fires are the easy answer, and as mentioned in an earlier blog SoCal Edison is not far behind. Utilities as a whole are debt laden companies due to the extensive capital expenditures that are supposed to be occurring every year (more on this later) and are 100% reliant on the Public Utility Commission to allow them to raise rates to cover expenses. The fires occurred, they had no reserves and as a result had no cash to make the payment on the bonds.
What is the fallout going to be from this you may ask? As mentioned above your service will not change or be disrupted. Stockholders are wiped out, bond holders get some scraps from the table, and pensions are likely going to be restructured. CEO Geisha Williams was “axed” the question on Sunday and she chose to resign instead…don’t feel bad for her she gets a nice parting gift of 2.5 million severance. (Had she worked for a governmental agency in Elk Grove, she would have got lifetime medical benefits for being fired, too.) I need to find one of these jobs were apparently incompetence is rewarded.
Geisha Williams presides over PG&E’s scorching of California
Geisha spent a whole two years on the job by the way, thank god she wasn’t a teacher, she would have tenure right now and you couldn’t get rid of her if you tried.
What is going to happen during bankruptcy? This is where things get very interesting, as I could see many different scenarios taking place. I think the most likely is a systematic parting out of the company over the course of several years while under state receivership. You could make an argument it should be broken up into a northern, coastal and inland utility. However I can see a big hang up, the infrastructure. A man in my office made a comment that the company owns quite a bit in valuable assets; this is somewhat true but mostly very false. True they own their headquarters in San Francisco, which is obviously worth quite a bit, but they are going to sell it to stave off creditors. As far as other assets, one mentioned by said man in my office was their wire line assets….really? I view those as a massive liability waiting to spark another fire. Ditto for their generators and transformer units, especially with their maintenance history as a company. Simply stated, buyer beware with these “assets” even if I got a sharp discount I wouldn’t touch them with a 100 foot insulated pole.
The aftermath with the bondholders could get very interesting though. CalPERS our state retirement system has not said how much in bonds they hold. Could the state bail them out just to keep CalPERS solvent? Could we see a state owned utility? Stay tuned! This is going to get messy.
Oh, the stock is down to around $6 a share, and don’t worry; they halted trading this morning, so you were unable to sell your shares, but retirement funds, institutional investors and those in the know were still able to bail out.
If you thought the only EU news today was that the United Kingdom failed to move forward on their Brexit plan, keep reading. Here’s another reason to get away from the political quagmire overseen by Germany and France known as the European Union.
An EU judge today ruled that McDonald’s can no long call one of their hamburgers a “Big Mac”. Yep, the largest food chain on the planet which has legally owned the trademark in the EU since 1996 lost the case to an Irish fast food place called Supermac.
Big Mac under attack from rogue judges in EU
The lawsuit was a result of building tensions between McDonald’s and Supermac’s, after McDonald’s attempted to stop Supermac’s from expanding their chain throughout the EU. McDonald’s argued that the name Supermac’s would confuse customer’s with McDonald’s iconic Big Mac burger. Supermac’s referred to McDonald’s legal tactics as “trademark bullying; registering brand names which are simply stored away in a war chest to use against future competitors.” The judgment in favor of Supermac’s, which was handed down by the European Union Intellectual Property Office, ruled that McDonald’s was not putting the Big Mac trademark to “genuine use.” To make genuine use of a trademark, a company must utilize it to “guarantee the identity of the origin goods.” Evidently, the EUIPO didn’t feel that naming a burger the Big Mac was sufficient evidence that McDonald’s was making genuine use of their trademark. In an interesting twist, the legal decision also reportedly gives Supermac’s the right to use the Big Mac trademark on any of their own food items.
Supermacs wins exclusive right to call hamburgers “Big Mac”
I think I speak for the entire rest of the country in extending a hearty thank you to the CRA. Their piss poor performance on election night has only bolstered the ranks of other state’s Republican Party rolls. Sadly, the CRA “leadership” —I guess that is still a thing—likely feels they are doing a mighty fine job. The Republican Party was decimated at every level and the CRA was more than happy to be the ship’s captain. Not a single statewide candidate got over the 40% threshold; keep in mind one of the most liberal politicians ever was on the top of the ballot. Down ballot we did even worse as a party. However, I don’t want to focus on the CAGOP for this blog—we all know they lack any competence—I want to focus on the group that calls itself the “conscious” of the Republican Party.
I used to be a CRA board member, so I am keenly aware of the ins and outs of the CRA. I can tell you as much as they may blame “vote harvesting” or “same day registration” or pick any other excuse, the fault lies with them. Since I know many of them read this blog, I will offer up undebatable concrete examples of their incompetence.
First their opposition to all things Jeff Denham. I will stipulate that Denham is not perfect, but the CRA wanted no part of him and never endorsed him. As a result, he finally lost his seat. Sadly, it’s a seat we will likely never get back. Many in the CRA saw this as a chance to be rid of a congressman whose first vote as a member would be for a Republican speaker! Appears that wasn’t good enough for the CRA!
Look at some of the Orange County based seats…. Several years ago, these seats were all easy victories for the good guys; that was until the CRA started meddling. As a result of their interference, additional seats were lost, again most of these seats were lost for good. Rohrabacher’s seat we can likely win back, but not the others. Hopefully the CRA stays far away from that race since it could be winnable without their meddling. As far as the legislative races, we lost a seat we should have had no issue keeping and lost a few more again due to CRA meddling. All in all, it was a disaster on election night, however I think the CRA spent the night celebrating! I’ll get in to that below.
The biggest issue with the CRA has been their evolution (or should I call it intelligent design?) The CRA used to be the premier volunteer organization in the entire state. We sent forth an army of volunteers and we tipped many races in our favor! We held our elected officials accountable and vowed to hold the other side in contempt! Then something changed, we became a club. We were no different from the CAGOP which we used to view as the moderate machine! We even branded ourselves as a sane version of the Tea Party after they were corrupted and taken over by Republican political consultants—can you say Sal Russo?
What is a top political operator, who owns a multimillion-dollar lobbying firm and has had a hand in many of California’s crucial election campaigns since Ronald Reagan was governor, doing at the head of an anti-establishment grassroots phenomenon like the Tea Party movement? Sal Russo is the brains behind one of the largest and most politically effective groups, the Tea Party Express. The movement exists to end what its followers call “business as usual” – the cosy club of politicians and vested interests in Washington. Yet Russo himself could be said to come from precisely that same cosy club.
Now CRA is just the old guard club. It is the political equivalent to the VFW; just a bunch of old, used-up soldiers sitting around tell war stories of the glory days of their youth. From that time to now, everything is different; I mean everything. I’m glad I left when I did.
Nowadays, CRA meetings consist of the club President speaking for hours at a time about mindless drivel like: lower government, less spending, tax cuts, and how over forty years ago Ronald Reagan called us the conscious of the Party. Heck, most voting age people in California weren’t even born when “The Gipper” uttered those words. Undeterred, CRA folks—like a cult using its mantra to focus power— say that conscious thing at every meeting. These days, they are never able to get a decent speaker and they have run off most of their membership. Heck you could put everyone attending my old CRA chapter’s month meeting in a corner booth at Denny’s and still have room for visitors.
You see, when you join the CRA you must be either completely nuts or very weak kneed; I’ll discuss the latter in a minute. On the topic of being completely nuts I mean that you are a one issue person who could care less about any other issue. I witnessed firsthand this group ignore a tax hike measure in Sacramento county and instead put all their effort behind an unwinnable school board race…by the way the tax failed by about one hundred votes, no thanks to the “conscious” of the Party which sat it out.
Now I will discuss the values and beliefs of this group. I call it “beliefs you can change in” because on paper, they have a plethora of issues; however, they never take a stand on them in some cycles and in others they act as if they picked that very issue to die on. For a group that claims to be based on principles, they are an inconsistent lot. Abortion tends to be a mainstay issue with these guys, even though there is little chance that Roe v Wade gets overturned outright—even if it did, nothing in California would change because Democrats covered that base decades ago… just in case. Taxes seem to be an issue that comes and goes, depending on what races they want to get involved with.
The CRA has a litmus test for both candidates and members that is enforced on a “when we feel like it” basis; however, if you support Donald Trump…you’re out. Support Jeff Denham…. you’re a moderate, support Ling Ling Chang…..you’re a gun grabber, the list goes on and on. They love to keep their members in check, however when it comes to holding candidates and elected officials accountable? Don’t count on the CRA.
The board members are the worst, they’ve been rotating deck chairs on the Titanic for a while now. It seems like a tradition to permanently expel officers by forcing them to walk the plank every few years and tell everyone that with a smaller crew, things will get better. CRA then celebrates their victory of principle, the opportunity for improvement, and the promise of better days ahead…but, it never arrives.
How about this for ways to treat your membership: conning delegates into traveling 2+ hours by car to an endorsement convention that features only 1 person running for said office! Talk about a waste of time and resources. Or conning a member to call the question about a candidate’s past or a rule change, only to have the floor pulled from under them by the same person who prompted them to call said question. Bylaws may keep the same wording from meeting-to-meeting but be interpreted differently by the same guys depending on what outcome leadership requires in a particular situation.
Johnny “Captain” Morgan, CRA savior?
Hopefully Johnnie “Captain” Morgan can turn this around, and by that, I mean fire the entire incompetent board immediately. I still would like to know how “The Wookie” and “Drunken Jedi” remaining on the board due to their myriad of issues.
Lastly, where is any sense of activism within your club? You have members in your group that claim to be “insiders” or “in the know” regarding local events. 9 times out of 10 you have no idea about the goings on. Two concrete examples, Governor Gavin Newsom in his inaugural address mentioned 2 tax increases he was going to propose with help from the super majority legislature, elected in no small part due to CRA incompetence. Has the CRA put out anything regarding these tax hikes? Do they even know about them? I would say “No” on both counts! The tax hikes for those of you wondering are a new tax on phones to fund a 911 system overhaul, and a tax on drinking water to help underprivileged communities. Only commentary out of the CRA is hopefully Ted Cruz is running in 2020. These are things the CRA should be out on front of…instead apathy, or maybe boycott Dick’s Sporting Goods since they want to ID people who buy guns?
On my old version of my blog, I used to have the following quotation from Martin Luther:
If I profess with the loudest voice and clearest exposition every portion of the truth of God except precisely that little point which the world and the devil are at that moment attacking,I am not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be professing Christ. Where the battle rages, there the loyalty of the soldier is proved, and to be steady on all the battlefield besides, is mere flight and disgrace if he flinches at that point.
If you want to know why the Church in America is so weak and ineffective, just look at the aftermath of the incident that I blogged about a few days ago.
First To Recap
A rural pastor in California put the following on the sign in front of his church:
Bruce Jenner is still a man Homosexuality is still a sin The culture may change but the Bible does not
Some local people that were not church members or as best as I can tell, not self-identified Christians, protested.
The pastor responded:
The church has lost its saltiness and I fully expect to get as much or more flack from the visible church as I am getting from the world.
If a conservative mountain farming community is no longer a safe place to call sin, sin, then is anywhere in this country still safe for real Christians?
Follow-up
Little did the pastor know that he had preached him last sermon. You see, his congregation abandoned him and cut him loose for “calling a sin, sin.”
Pastor Justin Hoke posted the following on Facebook on Saturday.
As of today, I am no longer the pastor of Trinity Bible Presbyterian Church. After much prayer and counsel, I have decided that it is best to briefly communicate what has taken place. I was informed by our other elder that he felt he could no longer follow my lead as Pastor of TBPC. I was informed that essentially all but one couple in membership would leave the church if I continued as pastor of TBPC. Our other elder and the couple felt that those who left would likely return if I would leave. Our other elder was agreeable to stay and assume the pastoral responsibilities. Therefore it was determined that it would be in the best interest of the local body for us (TBPC and the Hoke family) to part ways. Update 1/14/19 I would like to add this, I did not want to leave, I did not quit, and I was willing to stay.
Justin Hoke Facebook post
Bottom line was the pastor was faithful, but the flock was not. The clergy would not support him, and the congregation abandoned him.
Please note that he was their pastor for seven years and they kicked him to the curb for being right. Let me emphasize that again:
not for cheating on his wife
not for messing with the altar boys
not for skimming money from the collection
not for buying his wife a Lamborghini
but for BEING RIGHT
He called people to repentance and as a result got the boot. This brings me back to the quote from Luther who said in essence, if you are right about everything except where the devil is attacking at that moment and flinch on that point your faith is worthless.
Sadly, pastor Hoke’s congregation is the rule and not the exception in much of the modern western church. So next time you want to vent about the stupid pagans and what they are doing, remember that they are acting according to their nature—dead in their trespasses and sin—while we that are claiming to be alive in Christ are often the ones to blame.
Sadly, too many Christians read II Chronicles 7:14 like this:
“If those other people, would call on my name, humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.”
Unfortunately for them, this verse in not directed at the pagans in our world and commanding them to repent; instead, it is directed at the Church to repent, humble themselves and pray. Those claiming to be believers have failed in their mission. We need to repent and turn to God and that will heal our nation.
“If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.”
Thanks to, Joe Miller, for making me aware of the update on this tragic situation.
Sunday January 6th, 2019, a date which will live in infamy. At the Johnnie Does residence I was innocently watching the conclusion of the Bears/Eagles game when the lights and all other power devices suddenly stopped working. The time was around 5:00 PM and since our electric utility monopoly recently switched to a time of use billing system, where folks pay higher rates between 5-8pm I figured my utility was doing me a favor.
Soon thereafter I realized the entire block was without power, was this a “rolling blackout?” I immediately called a friend and learned that he was out of power too. I then texted my parents, they live 5 minutes away, their power was on! I was dumbfounded so I went to the SMUD website, it showed no outages…apparently, I was living in the matrix. That or the Russians had hacked the SMUD power outage alert website. I thought death could be imminent since I was without power and Internet service, no one would be aware of my passing, I was experiencing a blackout.
However this blackout was a new experience for Johnnie Does, he is far more accustomed to the alcohol induced blackout. I remember those well from my college days of drinking copious amounts of alcohol, waking up having no clue who she is, or how I got home…oh sorry it’s a PG rated blog.
I hunkered down and waited.
Eventually, rain and wind knocked out power to over 130,000 people. Unable to cook due to a lack of power, I used my laptop to pass some of the time. At around 10:00 my parents called me to see if I was ok and invited me over, not to offer rations or even a place to charge any devices that run on said power, just to do a wellness check.
On my way back to my dwelling, I was furious at the inconvenience caused by the outage. I passed a CVS…this was the perfect opportunity; I contemplated doing what some of the homies do in Los Angeles and loot the place…hopefully I wasn’t the only one with this idea and the selection was not limited to just Vagisil and Monostat.
To my dismay, the lights and power were functioning there, so I ducked my head down and drove home.
I subsided on a diet of brownies, Tostitos tortilla chips and water from the tap. Batteries eventually died, and as a result I turned in to bed early around 11:00. Then I realized, the power outages are broadcast by the radio all over the county to anyone listening, so the bad guys knew where to go to loot! I grabbed my trusty weapon of choice and worked guard duty ‘til 3:30 am, I kept telling myself if anyone comes through the door, shoot ‘em all and let God sort it out! Out of power myself I eventually turned in without having to use said weapon.
I woke up to find that I was still without power…since I live in a “rural area” the priority is very low for restoring my power. I made due, lifted my garage and closed it behind me and headed off to my place of work…commerce continues despite adverse conditions.
Upon arriving at my office, I was greeted by folks offering really dumb suggestions like the following:
Why didn’t you grill your dinner last night? Well hurricane force winds?????
Why didn’t you microwave your dinner? Lack of power may have something to do with it
The power finally came on at around 4:00 the following afternoon, just in time for “peak electricity rates to occur” funny coincidence? I thought, “Get the **** outta here SMUD, that was weak!”
In the afternoon sunlight, my backyard looked like a war zone due to my 9 redwood trees dropping branches like it was going out of style. The only thing I didn’t lose during that blackout was my sanity. I was able to survive, but I will say this; given a choice between the two different types of blackouts: I prefer the alcohol induced one!
This concludes a real life experience of a blackout.
We all know that the Trump tax-cut made changes to the Standard Deduction and Payroll Tax Withholding Tables but wait ‘til you sit down and try doing your taxes this year. When you do, forget everything that you thought you knew about filling out the tax forms. The forms that you knew and loved don’t exist!
Form 1040 EZ
Deleted
Form 1040A
Deleted
Form 1040
Nuked
Instead, now there is one form to rule them all and one form to find them, there is only the 1040…and a bucket load of worksheets to bind them.
For Tax Year 2018, you will no longer use Form 1040A or Form 1040EZ, but instead will use the redesigned Form 1040. Many people will only need to file Form 1040 and no schedules.
While its not the mythical postcard form that we were promised decades ago, the form has taxpayer information on the first page and all the math on the second. For the most part, the actual calculations are on the six new worksheets. Page 2 of the 1040 is just filling in totals or leaving nonapplicable boxes blank. The tax tables don’t even go above earnings of $100K. If you and the spouse, make over $100K then you take the earning amount and multiple it by a decimal number and that’s your tax! Easy Peasy.
While my wife and I will probably use the Standard Deduction
and thus not need to itemize for a Federal filing, the question is what in the
heck will California do? We know they don’t like Trump or how the tax cut was
crafted but will I miss deductions on the California return if I do the quick
and dirty math on the federal form and send it in? Usually states try to mirror
what the national government does but, in this instance, I have no confidence that
this is the case.
Presently I have no clue; partially because TurboTax doesn’t work yet. I bought the software on December 31st and got hard stops in the program when I put in my estimates for 2018 taxes. Schedule A –the form where you itemize everything–was broken. Intuit is promising to have the software up and going in mid-January (about now) but I suspect they will be pushing out updates for many more weeks.
W-2s are required to be mailed by the end of January. The government shutdown may affect your ability to get a refund but somehow, I think if you send Uncle Sam a check, he will be happy to cash it anyway.
Based on what I can discern thus far, it appears that our days of getting a big refund are at an end. By lowering the withholding amount from each paycheck and giving me more monthly take home pay, it looks like I may actually stand a chance of writing a check to the government for the first time. If you usually bank on a big refund, I’m warning you that it may not happen. Both my wife and I claim married with zero dependents, this is the largest amount withheld on the tax tables. If we’re sweating about not getting a refund, some on you are probably in big
trouble. Don’t wait until the last minute, especially this year.
If you think you’re going to come up short, file you tax
return anyway. The biggest penalties from the IRS are for not filing. I know
you can arrange payment but do this before April 15th and I think it
will go better for you.
Pacific Gas & Electric–also known as the “Firestarter” for causing too many fires this past decade–has announced that it intends to split off its natural gas division and/or file for bankruptcy protection. This is a direct result of actions taken Thursday, January 3rd, by the largest insurance companies in the state; Allstate, State Farm General, and USAA filling suit to recover damages incurred by the Camp Fire.
The Camp Fire for those of you who; live under a rock, vote democrat, or are related to a Park Brother, is the fire that burned all of Paradise and Magalia late last year. The fire was started by a spark at a PG&E power generating facility, which had a myriad of maintenance issues by the way. The utility could be on the hook for over $15 billion in damages from fires over the last two years alone, an amount that could well exceed the company’s total value.
Camp Fire, Paradise , CA 2018
How did we get here you may ask? In short, California has a strange law (only 1 other state has it as well) called inverse liability. This law applies to utilities in the state, basically saying, if there is any chance your power lines/equipment may have caused the fire, you are 100% liable for all the damage. In the fires in Sonoma and Napa in 2017, as well as the Camp Fire in 2018, it appears PG&E will be liable for all damages under this law. So, whether the cause was sparks from a generator in Concow this year, a tree falling on a transmission line in Napa, or a short in the line in Sonoma, PG&E is on the hook, not your insurance company. Additionally, because this is set law, no judge will overturn this, or rule in the utility’s favor.
As a result of these liabilities, PG&E late Friday night began to look to implement “Project Falcon” named for the Peregrine Falcons that land on top of the San Francisco HQ’s roof. Project Falcon includes selling off their prime real estate in San Francisco and relocating elsewhere in the Bay Area. Maybe they should relocate somewhere less expensive…like I don’t know….ANYWHERE ELSE! It includes finding additional board members and directors with a background in safety…..yeah probably should have done this after San Bruno, but ok. In addition, they are looking to sell off/spin off their natural gas operations; i.e. the gas part of your bill.
This I have no opinion on, the entire company is ethically and morally bankrupt so I don’t know if two companies are better than one, but I digress. Actually, they lobbied State Senator Bill Dodd (D-Soviet Berkeley) to pass legislation to absolve them of all liability from fire stemming from their electrical lines. While Dodd may have been their puppet for a year, the bill went nowhere, and he has since reversed his stance calling PG&E one of the most corrupt companies he has ever dealt with. I guess the check never cleared the bank?
This issue is actually very complex, and I see it two ways:
On one hand, PG&E like other utilities are a legalized monopoly governed by a state regulator who essentially tells them how much they can charge and how much they can make. The other problem is their service territory is very large; they have over 5 million electricity customers in their territory. In addition, most of their territory is rural, meaning they must bury their lines (very expensive) or have them on towers running through heavily wooded areas or rugged terrain.
Electric Utility Service Area
For example, PG&E must somehow get power to the town of
Biggs. Since this is part of their service area, they must run power lines there
or have a generation plant for this community.
Let’s say that they run electrical transmission lines there and create a
defensible space of call it 20 feet on both sides of the lines. In theory, that
is all well and good, but along the route of the transmission lines are 100-foot-tall
trees. When the trees fall or large branches break off and knockdown the lines,
perhaps as the result of a storm or disease, not only could they disrupt power
but might start a fire. Since the
transmission lines belong to PG&E, they own the resulting repair costs even
if it was not directly their fault. While I do not feel sorry for them, the job
is not very easy, especially when you are a monopoly and have no choice but to
provide electrical and natural gas service.
On the other hand, I’m sorry; you are without a doubt the most ethically bankrupt company in the state, and by a wide margin. When the San Bruno pipe blast occurred, your company never admitted or accepted blame, they passed it off and gave traditional corporate speak answers.
San Bruno pipe blast
That pipe rupture and explosion killed people, and you were caught lying to a judge when they discovered the pipe was essentially “frankensteined” by welding together a bunch of scrap pieces.
“frankensteined” pipe welds
You decided to save face by running a bunch of feel good ads on TV essentially saying you are working harder than ever to keep our communities safe….liars! The fires in Sonoma, Napa and Paradise killed many people. This is a direct result of a total lack of maintenance and integrity. As much as I do not wish to see my gas provider go bankrupt or be split up/sold/etc. they need to be held accountable. So far, they never have been. I had to watch your annoying commercials then watch a town go up in flames because of your equipment and lack of accountability to your rate payers. When it came time for maintenance or tree trimming, I’m sure you just had a single employee check it, initial a log and move on to the next site. Rather than have a cross checker or someone to make sure the work was actually done, it was ignored, and people lost lives/homes and possessions as a result. Shame on you. You never learned your lesson, you just continue to repeat the same mistakes just hoping for a different outcome.
The Blog Father and I agree on several things involving this
corporation. First, it will be
interesting to see how the bankruptcy proceedings handle what is likely a much-underfunded
union pension plan for employees. This
state is very pro-union, and like most utilities, PG&E is very heavily
unionized. If the state swoops in and
takes them over, do the union pensions get bailed out by the taxpayers? Does the state bail the company out? It will be fun to watch. If the company splits, how does the gas
company make it on its own? Natural gas
prices are literally at their lowest levels and it has been this way a long
time. Also, what happens to both
companies? Splitting up is an easy
temporary solution but the problems will still exist. Finally does the company even know what it
actually owns or has infrastructure wise?
Some of these lines were laid decades and decades ago underground. As a matter of fact, PG&E scoped the
sewer lines in both our neighborhoods recently for some unknown reason. As I stated earlier no one even knows what
this company has infrastructure wise or the length of time it is guaranteed to
work for. My suspicions are that huge portions of underground infrastructure in
this state are decades past their useful life and in need of replacement.
Here is what needs to happen: CEO Geisha Williams needs to be led out in handcuffs, she may not work in the field but she as CEO is the captain of the ship and sadly the ship has been taking on water for too long. The failures happened under her watch. Come out and admit your failures and shortcomings in the maintenance division. Allow a judge to investigate the senior management including any supervisor in the areas where the issues occurred. The Public Utility Commission (PUC) should be allowed nowhere near this, they have direct oversight of all CA utilities and have been asleep at the switch. Talk directly to the ratepayers, PG&E’s electric rates are among the highest in the country, yet the upkeep has lacked badly. In addition, please stop running your statewide propaganda commercials about how safe you are and how you are removing tree branches to keep us safe. They are just that…propaganda. Thanks to your negligence, many people lost everything, some even paid with their own lives. Oh, and take a look at what you have done to your stockholders this past year. In addition to a free-falling stock price, your bond rating was cut to junk, and you eliminated the dividend–a traditional hallmark of all utility stocks…good thing I was never an owner!
Geisha Williams presides over PG&E’s scorching of California
What is going to happen: Xavier Becerra is going to take a break from suing Donald Trump and the feds for a minute to take up an investigation and sue PG&E. I guess that’s a good thing because he won’t be wasting taxpayer dollars for a bit, but isn’t this too little too late? I thought the job of government was supposed to be oversight? Instead they just read and react, suing after the fact to get their pound of flesh. Apparently, even your corporate record of supporting Liberal causes with large campaign contributions can’t buy you enough goodwill to get out of this mess. I’m still angry that you gave large sums of ratepayer money to fight against traditional marriage back when we were voting for Prop 8. Any linkage between electricity usage and what ratepayers do with their reproductive organs is beyond my comprehension, but then I don’t live in San Francisco.
Xavier Becerra
Becerra is talking about criminal charges against the corporation…how does that work? Send the transformer to jail? Put the power lines on supervised probation? Get it together! Sadly, I forsee a government owned utility coming soon to every part of the state near you, that includes you Southern CA Edison customers, your utility is in only slightly better shape. I offer up this evidence, PG&E wants to split into 2 companies as discussed above; gas and electric being separate. This runs against the current trend of electric utilities buying gas utilities, also both companies have a record of serious neglect for safety of its customers. The state knows this. They also know that PG&E has a very underfunded pension, and its bond credit rating has been cut to junk, essentially meaning the company faces insolvency very soon. Enter the State of California, coming in hot with a bailout, keeping the union workers happy, just simply folding them into CALPers. I’m sure the state looks at the electric rates charged by PG&E and salivates over being able to add that kind of coin to the general fund each month. Gov. Newsome is on his way to state run healthcare, might as well make utilities the same way, this way they can make you install solar, and simply take it and not pay you.
Conclusion: I think the answer lies somewhere in between these two scenarios. I see the state essentially “parting out” PG&E. In the past (2005), SMUD put out a study and a ballot initiative to annex Davis and Woodland as mentioned above. PG&E spent big to defeat it. I think this plan could come back to fruition. I could see the State selling off the territory to SMUD under an agreement that SMUD also take the surrounding rural areas and agree to a massive overhaul of the maintenance of existing infrastructure.
I see this scenario playing out all over the state to be honest. I don’t really see criminal charges, but I do see a major fine coming. When you look at PG&E’s service territory you can also see a case to break up the company into about 3 – 4 smaller companies, similar to AT&T’s breakup. Bottom line, this company needs to be gone ASAP and take all their employees with them. This has to be the most corrupt company in CA history.
Lake Shastina is a little hole in the wall community northeast of Weed, California and south of the Oregon border. The area is full of old hippies from the 1960’s (and their descendants) and also a mix of farmers and people once associated with the logging industry. It is an eclectic mix of folks.
Lake Shastina
Lake Shastina finds itself in the news because the Truth is offensive to those that choose to embrace lies. In this case, a local church has put up a sign that has got a few pagans and Liberals up in arms. The purpose of such signs is twofold, give information about what the church is doing or what they believe—commonly called outreach. In this instance the Church sign reads:
Bruce Jenner is still a man Homosexuality is still a sin The culture may change but the Bible does not
The church’s pastor, Justin Hoke, said he expected “flack” regarding the sign’s message, but believes it is poignant because it “rebukes sin” and calls people to repentance. “It is not possible to preach the gospel in short pithy statements. I have used this sign for seven years now to provoke reflection or make a strong point about a single truth,” Hoke wrote on Facebook. “Such as this one: ‘The culture does not determine truth, God does.’ … The funny thing is, I could have put those words up and no one would have cared. Why? Because it does not rebuke sin or call anyone to repentance. The church has lost its saltiness and I fully expect to get as much or more flack from the visible church as I am getting from the world.” In that same Facebook thread, Hoke posted, “The response we’re receiving from this sign proves that it was posted way too late. If a conservative mountain farming community is no longer a safe place to call sin, sin, then is anywhere in this country still safe for real Christians?”
One protester, worried about what the church message conveys to youth, described the sign as “an amplified voice telling [those youth], ‘You’re wrong.’”
All three propositions are true so what’s the issue? Oh yeah, this is California so I guess I do have to defend each just because…
Statement One Bruce Jenner is still a man. Here’s the offensive part, God made him a man. No manner how much Jenner has paid to have himself mutilated and pumped full of hormones, biologically and genetically he is still male.
That Jenner has mental and spirit problems is tragic. To be human is to be an image bearer of God. Jenner can’t hurt God so he attacks Him by attacking His image bearer, in this case himself. God is the primary victim of this and every crime, Jenner is a secondary victim to this rebellion.
Statement Two Homosexuality is still a sin. Homosexuality is not only a sin in both the Old and New Testaments, per Romans chapter one, it is a judgement upon men for exchanging the Truth of God for a lie.
Homosexuality was common in the period when the New Testament was written. If you look at Paul’s arguments in Romans, in chapter one he takes the Greco-Roman world to task for rejecting God and then in chapters two and three, he takes on the Jews of his day that think themselves religious and concludes that they too fall short of God’s standard. Toward the end of chapter three he concludes in verse 23:
For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God
As you continue reading, Paul lays out the case that we cannot save ourselves and only Jesus can save us. So while chapter one condemns homosexuality, the rest of the book presents the case that all people are sinners and need Jesus.
In his first letter to the Corinthians, 1 Corinthians 6: 9-11, Paul points out “And such were some of you”. His point is God can save and redeem even the worst of us.
Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.
Statement Three The culture may change but the Bible does not. God doesn’t change. You can look at creation and see that there was a designer (Romans 1) but to have a relationship with Him requires special revelation. God’s special revelation, the Bible, is the standard by which we are measured and as stated above, we all fall short. That doesn’t make His standard wrong, just us.
Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever. Hebrews 13:8
All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works. 2 Timothy 3:16 -17
The point is not to call everybody wrong but to call people to repentance. Repentance means that you are sorry for your sin; turn around, you’re going the wrong way.
Stop running from God but instead embrace Him. Jesus is the only way to the Father.
The church message is not a message of hate, it is a warning that people that are going the wrong way and that they need to repent.
There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death. Proverbs 14:12
Which is more loving, seeing someone heading straight to hell and say nothing or warn them to turn around before it’s too late.
Skynet is tracking you if you are a Netflix subscriber. OK, it’s not really steel robots with automatic weapons kicking in your door for violating their terms of service but it’s close.
Skynet is coming
The way it works, is that streaming service companies hire the UK firm Synamedia that uses AI, behavioral analytics and machine learning to monitor and analyse password sharing activity across user accounts, identify the rule breakers and detect the fine line between finding account sharers and harassing a customer. “For example, the solution can determine whether users are viewing at their main home and a holiday home, or whether they have shared credentials with friends or grown-up children who live away from home.
If you let your kids watch your Netflix account, they may be looking for you.
Research quoted by Synamedia reported that younger generations are used to accessing streaming services for free and rarely become paying customers. The company revealed that 26% of millennials share passwords for video streaming services, while economic predictions indicate that in 2021, $9.9 billion of pay-tv revenues and $1.2 billion of over-the-top media services (OTT) revenues will be lost to credentials sharing. “Casual credentials sharing is becoming too expensive to ignore. Our new solution gives operators the ability to take action. Many casual users will be happy to pay an additional fee for a premium, shared service with a greater number of concurrent users. It’s a great way to keep honest people honest while benefiting from an incremental revenue stream,” said Jean Marc Racine, CPO and GM EMEA of Synamedia.
Netflix and other streaming services know what you are watching and where you watch (via your network I.P. address) so why the third party tracking? Perhaps the A.I. will automatically notify you and send you a bill to upgrade your account to make what you watch legit? It’s not like they don’t use other algorithms and A.I. on your account, how do you think they get the 98 percent match on the suggested show?
Why is this sharing of data OK when Facebook is in deep doo-doo for sharing data with third party folks like Cambridge Analytica? The sharing by both companies was done in exchange for revenue and increased viewers, thus enhancing their stock value. Facebook’s only crime was that they did something that might have benefitted Republicans and for that they must be punished.
Which brings me to the other tech article of the day that is worth a read. It is published by the Hollywood Reporter. The article concerns a unique lawsuit against Facebook for the Cambridge Analytica story.
Cambridge Analytica parlayed its modest access to the lives of ordinary Facebook users and their family and friends into more and more information — enough to begin psychologically profiling American voters and then bombarding them with phony and real news. And Facebook’s role? “This kind of mass data collection was not only allowed but encouraged by Facebook, which sought to keep developers building on its platform and provide companies with all the tools they need to influence and manipulate user behavior,” states the March 23 lawsuit filed by Edelson. “That’s because Facebook is not a social media company; it is the largest data-mining operation in existence.”
What makes the Edelson lawsuit different is a name barely anyone knows: Kimberly Foxx, a state’s attorney, the top prosecutor in Cook County, Illinois. Edelson is ostensibly representing the people of Illinois through Foxx on a claim that Facebook engaged in unfair and deceptive conduct. Or, stated another way, a government official has outsourced law enforcement to a class-action attorney. Edelson, having now been given the role of a Special Assistant State’s Attorney thanks to possessing the “required legal expertise,” as a court order confirming his appointment put it, aims to punish Facebook for violating The Illinois Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business Practices Act. It carries massive repercussions, including $50,000 in civil penalties per violation, injunctive relief and — if egregious circumstances call for it — a lost business license to operate in the state. That’s right. Theoretically, Facebook could pay billions and be prohibited from offering its service in Illinois if it loses this lawsuit.
Edelson’s claim that “Facebook is not a social media company; it is the largest data-mining operation in existence” does make me wonder how he would describe Google or all the apps and devices reporting to your personal data to China or our National Security Agency—after all they are the only part of our government that listens.
Privacy in our society is an illusion; one I may discuss on another occasion.
