Month: March 2019

Stephon Clark

Ok, I just don’t get this controversy. When the P.D. pulls their weapons and gives you an instruction, you better follow it. End of story. If the cops were wrong, then that’s why we have lawyers.

I’ve watched enough cops shows back in the day and shootings on the news to know that you comply with police instructions and better drop the cell phone or whatever is in your hands because they will presuppose you are holding a weapon. Clark ran and failed to follow instructions by cops with their weapons drawn. It is fair to say that he provoked a confrontation. He rolled the dice and lost.

Now people claim that they want justice for Stephon. The only thing nobody can define is what is “justice for Stephon?” Protestors say that they want the cops fired and presumable the police chief too but for what? (FYI I never hear from them that one of the two cops that shot Stephon was black or that the police chief is too so this can’t be a racial thing, right?) What does any of this have to do with justice? I can understand Ann Marie Schubert not wanting to prosecute but Javier Becerra?


Sacramento County District Attorney Ann Marie Schubert

Javier would gladly throw Schubert under the bus if he wanted too. He has filed a new lawsuit against President Trump every week for the last two years; none of which he will win. Becerra is all in for political posturing not following the law. Let’s face it, Schubert waited until Becerra gave assurances that he wouldn’t throw her under the bus before announcing that the officers would not face charges. Darrell Steinberg is the one doing the posturing in all this at the expense of the police and public safety just to score cheap political points.

Folks let’s take a cold, honest look at this situation. The people leading the so call “Stephon Clark protests for justice” are part of a paid political operation. This is the same continuing campaign as Occupy Sacramento, Black Lives Matters, Antifa, and all the rest. This is Obama’s community organizing; just taking advantage of the next target of opportunity. “The Tell” as they say in poker is folks like Reverend Al Sharpton stirring up the faithful and the group of people camped out in front of the District Attorney’s Office for the last year. This is a paid and coordinated campaign that reaches from Stephon’s neighborhood into the Legislature.

The Stephon protests are all about tearing down law and order and have nothing to do with justice. This is the same scam as reparations and other things perpetrated on the black community. Whatever Stephon’s family thinks, there is no definition of how to decide when justice is achieved. It is an ethereal and empty promise. They are being used. I’m sorry that this is happening to them but at some point, they have to take responsibility for their association and continued involvement with this rent-a-mob.

Before concluding, I must give a special condemnation of the so-called clergy involved in this circus. I watched one of the first press conferences after the shooting and was ready to give Stephon a chance until they paraded Al Sharpton out as a leader. Once Al showed his face, you knew this was a political operation, one unconcerned with justice. Sharpton only shows up if someone is angling for a large check.

A real minister would not get immersed in such a mess as this. What happened to “government is established by God to bear the sword?” What happened to keeping the commandments? What about avoiding the company of evil men? What about turning the other cheek? What about allowing God to take vengeance? What about caring for the widow and orphan? (Per the Bible, this is the responsibility of individuals not government.) What happened to the gospel? What about abortion? Whatever these guys are saying either from the pulpit or the press conference, it’s not based on the Bible. No wonder people can’t get out of the plantation, they aren’t being shown the way.

The fake outrage from organizers of the Stephon Clark protests are just furthering a political narrative. They want to get the community so emotionally worked-up that people will call them leaders and follow them; however, unlike Moses in the wilderness, there is no destination, only dry bones in the desert where these folks are being herded.

“There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.”

— Proverbs 14:12

The Apostle Paul warns us of those that “preacheth another Jesus, … another spirit, …, or another gospel, …” (2 Cor 11:4) When I hear that Stephon is innocent because of the color of his skin and not the content of his character, I know that the person speaking is uttering falsehood. If the person is not promoting agape love, they are speaking falsely, if the person is not promoting Biblical values but spewing words based on Marxism and Liberation Theology that they speak falsely.

The Biblical standard of justice requires that no preference be given to the rich or the poor but that all are equal before the law. However,

“As Karl Marx phrased it, the battle cry of the revolutionaries must be: “permanent revolution!” Anarchist Leo Tolstoy agreed: “The only revolution is the one that never stops.”

— David Chilton from Productive Christians in an Age of Guilt Manipulators, p 84

Stephon Clark was another youth that died as a result of an accumulation of stupid life choices. Had he been raised to follow the values and practices that he should have received from all the ministers that purport to speak for him now, he would still be walking upon our planet. He wouldn’t have abused drugs, had an extensive criminal record, and fathered children out of wedlock. Stephon is a household name not for what he did right but for what he failed to do.

Again, I don’t care whether you think you are right or wrong, if a guy with a badge pulls a weapon on you, then you comply. If he’s wrong, get a lawyer.

Review: Dinesh D’Souza


I knew that Dinesh D’Souza was supposed to be in Stockton last Friday but at $50 per ticket, there was no way I could afford to go let alone take the wife and son. The day of the event, I got an unsolicited text message from the Sith Lord asking if I was interested. It seems the promoters had given the Sith Lord nine tickets for the event. These weren’t just tickets but VIP tickets. I told him that I was interested but could not attend the VIP event prior to the event. After a short phone call with my wife, we decided to go on a road trip to Stockton that evening to see D’Souza.

The only exposure that our family had previously had with D’Souza was via his movie on Hillary Clinton.

For those unfamiliar with D’Souza, he researches history and digs up nuggets of inconvenient truth that have been buried by those in power because their past is often at odds with the narratives that they put forward. Truthfully almost everything you were ever taught in school about history is so incomplete as to be completely untrue.

D’Souza’s appearance was at the Bob Hope Theater in Stockton. The venue can hold up to 2,000 people.

Based on the amount of paid security and other employees, this place cost the promoters a pretty penny. In my opinion, based on the number of comped tickets available the day of the event, many in attendance didn’t actually pay to attend. I think that fiscally this event was unprofitable. I would guess the crowd to be less than 400 souls.

D’Souza was entertaining and spoke at length about the success of President Trump in spite of the relentless and blistering attacks on him. His basic thesis is that Trump’s ego is so big that Trump doesn’t care what people think about him. That coupled with the fact that Trump gives more pushback than he gets allows him not only to survive but thrive. In an era where “politics is perception” Trump is a non sequitur.

D’Souza then went on to talk about his films and presentations on the typical college campus. As is our experience as Conservatives, once you get past the bumper sticker slogan that someone on the Left has memorized, they are out of substance. D’Souza talked about his mission not to convert the hardcore Liberal but reach the person on the fence in order to get them to think. He expressed his mission as to provide irrefutable information that undoes the conventional narrative and hope that causes folks to further challenge their worldview. D’Souza never stated so, but his belief in the Truth prevailing is due in part to his faith in God.

Peppered throughout his discussion, D’Souza also spoke at length about the history of the Democrat Party and the lie of socialism. In light of constant attacks on history and Trump (and I guess a new book that he authored), D’Souza once again put to rest the lie that National Socialism was an ideology of the right. FYI: Socialism, Fascism, and Nazism are all the exclusive purview of the Left. The real zinger to me was the claim from his new book that the Nazi’s rules on the treatment of Jews were a direct rip-off of Southern Jim Crow laws. D’Souza claims to have a written record of this early 1930’s meeting in Germany. I would be skeptical except he wouldn’t say it if it weren’t true; he has too much at stake to be wrong.

D’Souza is not alone in correcting the record by any means but as an immigrant from another country he doesn’t have to deal with the construct placed on us that have gone thru the American educational system. I have found D’Souza correct in his information and analysis. He is only controversial because he is confronting recent history and current events. D’Souza is only controversial because the truth is counter to the prevailing narrative.

This also true with much of what passes as American History. If you want a voice correcting the record for another era of our nation’s history–namely the millennia prior to the Vikings–look up three books by Barry Fell: Saga America, Bronze Age America, and America B.C. Last I checked they are out of print, but the basic point is that everything you think you know about “Native Americans” is wrong. For example, people in the time of heyday of Carthage and Rome travelled here all the time and so did others. Fell documents much that has fallen into obscurity or runs counter to academic dogma.

D’Souza is worth listening to because he has the pulse of what is real in an age of noise and fury. I’m gratful that the Sith Lord made this night possible for my family.

Disney’s Re-Hired Gunn

Back in July, we documented the fact that Disney—in a fake display of political correctness—fired Guardians of the Galaxy producer James Gunn. As a bonus, Liberals blamed conservatives for Gunn’s termination. Gunn was fired for stuff he posted on Twitter many years before Disney hired him as a producer of Guardians the first time.

Disney Fires Guardians’ Gunn: Conservatives Blamed

Back on August 1, 2018 you will find the following:

Disney insiders told Variety the company was not aware of Gunn’s offensive tweets prior to hiring him in 2012 and “were taken aback when they were recirculated.” The “Vol. 3” production start date is tentatively scheduled for February 2019, but that could easily be pushed back as Disney takes its time to find a new director.

Disney Won’t Rehire James Gunn on ‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3,’ Despite Cast Wanting to Reinstate Him — Report

At the time, Walt Disney Studios chairman Alan Horn said, “The offensive attitudes and statements discovered on James’ Twitter feed are indefensible and inconsistent with our studio’s values and we have severed our business relationship with him.”

Link: Disney rehires James Gunn to direct ‘Guardians of the Galaxy 3’

Today it is reported that Disney has seen the light—or felt a void in their cash flow—and decided to rehire Gunn. I’m not surprised at Gunn’s rehiring but the last Guardians movie was crumby even if it was nice to see Kurt Russell on the big screen again.

Economic Illiteracy on Tax Cut

Taxes were cut under the Trump plan. However, because of how it was done, some folks out there are pushing the lie that Trump actually raised taxes on everyone but the rich.

Here is yet another example, this time from Reuters.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Only one in five U.S. taxpayers expect to pay less income tax this year as a result of the tax reform law passed in 2017 by Republicans who promised big savings for everyday Americans, according to a Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll released on Friday.

The tax overhaul lowered federal income tax rates for individuals as well as for corporations, but it also capped certain deductions, such as for state and local taxes, which could mean that some people will wind up paying more.
The March 6-11 survey found about 21 percent of adults who had either filed their taxes or planned to said “the new tax plan that Congress recently passed” would let them pay less this year; about 29 percent said they would pay more; 27 percent said there would be no impact; 24 percent said they were not sure.

Link: Few Americans see savings from Trump’s tax reform: Reuters/Ipsos poll

Did you note the deception that is the premise of this article? It’s subtle. The verbal sleight of hand is this, the only federal taxes you pay or don’t pay are solely determined on whether or not you get a tax refund on April 15th. If you get a refund then the tax cut is good for you but if you write a check then you are paying more taxes and thus you are getting screwed once again by the Republicans. This article totally ignores whether you got to keep more of your money each month last year (once the new tax withholding tables were enacted) or on the whole paid less than the previous year. To reduce the value of the tax cut down to whether you get a refund on April 15th is deception and ignorance. This is economic illiteracy.

This ladies and gentlemen will be one of the Democrat’s chief arguments against Trump in 2020. Not whether on the whole you got to keep more of your money and really did pay less but instead whether your refund was larger after the tax cut. Talk about economic illiteracy and low information voters…

CRA Resurgence

Just when you thought you had hear the last of CRA champion, Ted Cruz, comes a headline that just has to smack you in the ole kisser. Yes, “Lyin’ Ted” Cruz and Elizabeth “Pocahontas” Warren are on the same side of an issue that we just blogged about, Facebook.

In the article, Elizabeth Warren Finds An Unlikely Ally In Ted Cruz, we learn that Ted is retweeting Warren.

Recently, Warren’s presidential campaign had ads on Facebook talking about her stance on breaking up big tech monopolies, and in particular, Facebook (yes, it is ironic). The social media giant responded by pulling the ads. Eventually, the ads were restored but the whole debacle proves Warren’s point.
And while Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) doesn’t agree with Warren on much, he did back her up, saying big tech has too much power to stifle free speech.

Folks, besides just the fact that both Senators agree on Facebook censorship—even though Pocahontas was OK with it until it happened to her—Ted has found a way to interject himself into the dialogue of the 2020 Presidential race and that has to give CRA hope that Ted is still in the hunt.

Breaking up “Big Tech” is turning into a bipartisan issue that could be a path back to relevance for Republicans. Perhaps their salvation lies not in Ronald Reagan but in the modern Teddy Roosevelt in his role as “Trust Buster”.

For CRA, this couldn’t come at a better time. Ted is back.

What an inspiration for the faithful and just in time for their upcoming state convention which will be held in Sacramento just a few days from now. CRA, like Ted, believes that as long as they draw breath that there is hope for the Republican Party. Ted will lead them to victory in a post Trump Republican Party.

Teddy Roosevelt use his charge up San Juan Hill to propel him to the White House and now likewise, they believe that Teddy Cruz can channel that same spirit to facedown the enemy of “Big Tech” and ride his victory to the White House too.

CRA is newly energized by the prospect that Ted is back and just in time for 2020.

90-Day Calendar Mentality

Once upon a time, many in the West were fond of quoting the proverb, “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” A biblical admonition also comes to mind “without a vision, the people perish.” Both proverbs contrast the idea of a life with immediate gratification versus long term goals.

Likewise, once upon a time, American companies spent a considerable amount of money in research and development. These businesses thought in terms of years into the future and what they could contribute to the betterment of their fellow man and make a profit by providing goods and services that made our lives better.

Sadly this is no longer the case. Modern corporations are only concerned with hitting their numbers for the next quarterly report. Should they miss the estimates of Wall Street there is financial hell to pay. No company has any real investment in or vision of the future. Business is only concerned with immediate cash flow.

I like technology but I get frustrated by the number of projects that get prototyped and cancelled because the idea can’t be monetized in the next quarter or two. Anything beyond that window of time is deemed risky and not viable for investment.

Here’s a few examples:

Microsoft
Microsoft has been toying with foldable phones and tablets for at least five years but every project they attempted has been cancelled. All they have to show for their efforts is a large portfolio of patents. Microsoft is playing the 90-day game and anything that might be on a longer time horizon is likely to get cut as a risky investment.

Apple
Apple under Steve Jobs wasn’t an innovator in hardware. Jobs took existing stuff, tweaked it and found ways of marketing it to the masses. In a sense, he sold “the sizzle”. Jobs could look at an idea and see a future benefit worth investing in and bring it to fruition. Under Tim Cook, Apple is playing the 90-day game like everyone else. Apple has ceased being a leader in technology, they can’t risk being wrong about the next big thing.

Google
Google too is cutting long term R & D.

Google admits that its hardware business is not profitable enough to accommodate a large number of employees and therefore has decided to trim the fat. Google told dozens of employees working on its hardware division to find new jobs.

An internal source close to Business Insider told that Google is currently going through “roadmap cutbacks” and hence the decision. This will have a massive impact on Google’s hardware business as BI reports that projects on which the company was actively working on are now cancelled.

It’s more like the search giant wants to put a full stop to its long-term projects that were in development.

Google lays off dozens of employees as it wants to shrink its hardware ambitions

Everywhere you turn, it’s the same story. Long term projects are toxic in today’s business environment and nobody wants to spend on them. Instead, there is constant pressure to cut, trim, and reduce both employees and products. This is not just free market forces at work, something else is afoot.

But why?

Two big reasons come to mind.

First, Wall Street is the only place that most people can put their money and get a return on their investment. Wall Street is geared around getting an immediate return on dividends each quarter. The measure of a company is cash flow to investors. The way to attract and maintain investors is via immediate return. The so called “Blue Chip Stocks” don’t really exist anymore. The Wall Street logic is this: no return, no investors, then no company.

Second is the high burden of government. Companies must take baby steps to keep from getting crushed by all the rules and regulations that they are required to follow. This makes them risk averse. Making a profit is no longer enough motivation to pursue a project. If the return is not immediate and drastic, the project will never see the light of day. This stifles innovation. In a sense, corporations are trading security for freedom.

This 90-day cycle mentality is destructive to the market but in order for businesses to survive, they are forced into this attitude. People instinctively know this is true but often don’t perceive why.

Elon Musk seems to transcend this lethargy of innovation that people sense in the marketplace. The attraction of Musk is that he is unencumbered by the baggage that besets others. He talks of what should be and rejects the status quo. The problem is that Musk’s business model can’t succeed on an even playing field, he needs the heavy hand of government to intervene on his behalf with taxpayer money in the form of investments from public retirement funds, tax breaks, and rebates to consumers. However, government can’t really pick winners and losers in the market, when it tries it fails. Socialism always loses at the point where promises far surpass declining resources and productivity.

The 90-day cycle is an interesting phenomenon to watch but only in the same way that people will invariably slow down to stare at a traffic accident. It is an aberration to the normal way of markets and finance. The problem is that the longer this continues, the less that people remember or perceive the deviance from the ideal of what the market should be.

In our current environment, both business owners and consumers have lowered expectations of market capability. The farther from free markets that we get the better that the lie of socialism looks.

The business cycle has been reduced to the minimal form necessary for survival. The 90-day cycle is the sum total of management concern. Thought of the future is hard to envision when you don’t know if you’ll be here tomorrow. First world companies with third world values are a harbinger of bad tidings for all of us.

Facebook Lies About Privacy

In “A Privacy-Focused Vision for Social Networking,” a 3,200-word essay that Zuckerberg posted to Facebook on March 6, he says he wants to “build a simpler platform that’s focused on privacy first.” In apparent surprise, he writes: “People increasingly also want to connect privately in the digital equivalent of the living room.”

Link: Zuckerberg’s new privacy essay shows why Facebook needs to be broken up

Link: A Privacy-Focused Vision for Social Networking

Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said Wednesday that Facebook would commit to building a new “privacy-focused platform” that would serve as a model for future interactions on the social network.

Link: Zuckerberg, Facebook commit to building ‘privacy focused platform,’ dodging ads and fake news

However, Facebook is lying. Should that be a thing on Twitter? ( #FacebookIsLying )

Facebook doesn’t care about your privacy—more on that in a minute—but they do care about shareholders & money and in that department the trend is unfavorable. The 90-day people are worried.

Facebook has lost 15 million subscribers in the last two years. While that is bad, the underlying demographic information is horrible for them because overwhelmingly, the younger generation is tuning out. Most don’t even have Facebook accounts.

In 2017, 67 percent of the total US population over the age of 12 used Facebook, the data says. In 2018, that number dropped to 62 percent, and then it dropped again, to 61 percent, in 2019. That comes out to an estimated 172 million current users, according to Edison Research.
The drop-off has been higher among younger users. In 2017, 79 percent of Americans between the ages of 12 and 34 used Facebook, the data says. That number decreased to 67 percent in 2018 and 62 percent in 2019. That equates to around 82 million 12- to 34-year-old Facebook users in 2017, compared with 65 million users today.

Meanwhile, among users aged 55 and up, Facebook use increased from 49 percent in 2017 and 2018 to 53 percent in 2019.

Facebook lost 15 million US users in the past two years, report says

Facebook is marching out Mark Zuckerberg to calm the masses and stem the bleeding. His talk of privacy is as much directed to the shareholders as to his user base. Sadly, what Facebook says publicly has never been the truth in this regard—a fact we have documented previously.

Today, more evidence has come forward to disprove the notion that Facebook cares about your privacy. The fact is they only care how to monetize your information.

According to a report published by Privacy International, major apps on Android are sending your personal data to Facebook. Worse, these apps do not require your permission for your valuable data to make it to the Facebook datacentre.
The report exposed seven Android apps that are caught up in the mess. Here, we are talking apps with millions and millions of install. The apps include Duolingo, Yelp, Indeed, Qibla Connect, King James Bible app, Muslim Pro.
Don’t have a Facebook account? Doesn’t make any difference though. The report also revealed that users who don’t even have a Facebook account are also under Facebook’s surveillance. That’s right, these apps are sending your data to Facebook even though you are not a Facebook user.

Report: Major Android apps are sending your personal data to Facebook

Zuckerberg describes Facebook as a town square. It isn’t. Facebook is a company that brought in more than $55 billion in advertising revenue last year, with a 45% profit margin. This makes it one of the most profitable business ventures in human history. It must be understood as such.
Facebook has minted money because it has figured out how to commoditize privacy on a scale never before seen. A diminishment of privacy is its core product. Zuckerberg has made his money by performing a sort of arbitrage between how much privacy Facebook’s 2 billion users think they are giving up and how much he has been able to sell to advertisers. He says nothing of substance in his long essay about how he intends to keep his firm profitable in this supposed new era. That’s one reason to treat his Damascene moment with healthy skepticism.
“Frankly we don’t currently have a strong reputation for building privacy protective services,” Zuckerberg writes. But Facebook’s reputation is not the salient question: its business model is. If Facebook were to implement strong privacy protections across the board, it would have little left to sell to advertisers aside from the sheer size of its audience. Facebook might still make a lot of money, but they’d make a lot less of it.

Link: Zuckerberg’s new privacy essay shows why Facebook needs to be broken up

Facebook says they want to fight “fake news” but sadly the most fake news out there is the claim that they care about your privacy.

When it comes to tech companies, will Donald Trump be the Trust Buster that Teddy Roosevelt was a hundred odd years ago? If it turns out that way, I think “Big Tech”will have Mark Zuckerberg to thank.

Conversations with the Naïve III

Wow, do we have a great one this week, coming live from Safeway in Elk Grove on a Thursday at noon.

While traversing the aisles of said grocery store, I was grabbed by an older lady, around 70. On occasion the thought of being grabbed by an older woman may have its appeal but this was no such encounter. This gal looked at me and said, “You look smart. I need to axe you a question.”
I said, “Your first strike is assuming I’m smart but go ahead, just don’t axe me.”
She looked at the pharmacist and said, “He looks smart right?” The pharmacist nodded in approval. The lady said to me, “Can you believe the shots for the flu are not free here?”
My response was, “Well, this is a business so I wouldn’t expect them to give something away for free.” She looked at me in total disbelief. I added, “Corporations are in the business of making money and I’m not quite sure why she thought it should be provided at no cost to her.” She looked like her mind was in a total pretzel, so I said to her, “Well by no means should I be considered a census of the store. Feel free to poll other shoppers here. Take care and good luck with your free-for-all.” Her last remark was she is going to Kaiser because they give out shots for free.

Holy smokes! There is a lot to unpack here but to keep it simple, this lady should probably not be upright, let alone free to terrorize our shopping centers! It reminds me of a store concept that went out of business by Panera called “Pay What You Think its Worth.” Yes, that same Panera, the group thinkers, thought, well people would pay more to subsidize the people who didn’t want to pay at all, and viola…wrong.

Panera Bread is closing up its last pay-what-you-can cafe in Boston, admitting that the experiment aimed to combat hunger was “no longer viable.”

Link: Panera Bread pay-what-you-can test ‘no longer viable’; last cafe closes in Boston

This lady, I mean, what the hell? Why would you get a shot for free? …Safeway doesn’t even advertise that. By the way this lady didn’t have a cart or basket so obviously she came for the free stuff only. This lady wants people to give, give, give, and she has zero intention of opening her purse! Say what you want about evil corporations, greed, and the like, but Safeway, through parent company Albertson’s employs thousands of people and is a source of their livelihood. Why would they just give things away, no strings attached? Sorry Robert Kraft, before you get too excited, the items with no strings attached here are groceries and shots.

People are completely unreal these days. The sad thing is, here in California, she likely found quite a few people to agree with her that it should be free. This type of thinking from her generation (Baby Boomers) has destroyed what is left of America. First they bankrupted Social Security and put Medicare on a very unsustainable tilt. Now they think everything should be free, but I’m sure the string attached is raising taxes on the working folks (err, the rich)…because they can afford it.

To people like this lady, corporations are evil, and should be driven out of business. Her ilk pay no attention to the number of people employed by said Evil Corporations. This person thinks Kaiser gives out shots for free; mind you….I guess she never became aware of Medicare or health insurance or well, just common sense? Sadly, the latter is in short supply these days.

Now her generation and their likeminded offspring want Medicare for all.

Free stuff for everyone. Isn’t that what our country is, “the land of the free?” The hidden secret is they want everyone paying in to keep the Ponzi going till after they expire then who cares. Perfect example, I pay $420 a month for healthcare. Imagine if the federal/state government got that action every month instead of Anthem Blue Cross?

Enough facts and logic, I would hate to confuse the naïve any further. Hopefully this lady didn’t have time to put out the bat signal in reference to the free shots because I guarantee you that 90-Day Guy and his ilk would have broken every land-speed record to get to their local Safeway.

Krafting Hypocrisy

“The Chief” and I recently held a teleconference in which the main object of discussion was the arrest of Robert Kraft. The mixed messages of this story when viewed with other events in our culture today illustrate a schizophrenia that just can’t be reconciled.

Was Kraft’s Behavior Criminal (allegedly)

In his article, The Chief, took a rather libertarian position on the issue of prostitution. Clearly Florida law enforcement took a dim view of ‘the oldest profession”. Kraft’s arrest was reported about the 22nd of February. But just over a week later (March 3rd), US Senator and Presidential wannabe, Kamala D. Harris, is featured in a Washington Times article advocating for the legalization of prostitution nationwide. She wants Federal law to negate the prostitution laws in all 50 states (57 if you believe President Obama).

Obama’s visit to 57 states

The decriminalization debate among Democrats spilled into the 2020 presidential race last month when Sen. Kamala D. Harris of California said she was supportive of the idea — although the legalization crowd complained that she was still too timid.
It was less than a decade ago that the Democratic Party embraced same-sex marriage and just three years ago that it formally adopted a platform plank to legalize marijuana. Rep. Raul M. Grijalva of Arizona, chairman emeritus of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said decriminalizing sex work is on “that same trajectory.”

“But when you are talking about consenting adults, I think that you know, yes, we should really consider that we can’t criminalize consensual behavior as long as no one is being harmed,” she said.
It’s a major shift from 2008 when, as San Francisco district attorney, she called the idea ridiculous.

Link:Kamala Harris gains momentum among Democrats with proposal to legalize prostitution

OK, so Kraft should forfeit his NFL franchise for paying for sex but a serious candidate for US President says if effect, “whatever floats your boat.” How can both be simultaneously true?

Can I See Your Green Card

Next, Kraft’s hospitality providers were specially targeted because the women that entertained him were in the country illegally. Wait just a darn minute! What is the Left always telling us? There are no illegal aliens in the United States. Aren’t we told they are undocumented workers? Aren’t many states including California suing the Trump Administration because he is trying to enforce immigration law? In the name of state’s rights, California is saying, “No” these people are our guests and welcome here. California and many other states assert that you have no right to know the status of people from other places. They want everyone with our borders treated the same.

Look at the hypocrisy in this logic. Does the law hold customers responsible for the immigration status of employees in the businesses that they wish to utilize? Do you ask the cook at your local taco place for his papers before ordering the combo plate with refried beans? When the AAA driver arrives at your roadside emergency, do you check him for a current Green Card and driver’s license before letting him put a new battery in your disabled car?

Given that customers are not responsible anywhere else to know the immigration status of a business’s employees, why is Robert Kraft being held to a different standard? Because he is rich? Because he likes President Trump? Because a guy that old can still need the affections of a woman? Folks let’s face it, when a naked woman is reaching for your manhood, the last thing on your mind is her immigration status.

Conclusion

Robert Kraft is a rich guy that wanted to satisfy his primal urges without any consequences. He has enough people in his past vying for their share of his vast fortune. As such he did what many wealthy people (and Democrats) do all across our great country, he sought out a business that offered a service that “consenting adults” could utilize. As a customer, it is ridiculous that people are trying to hold him responsible for the immigration status of somebody else’s employees. It is more than ironic that the same political party that is carrying the torch for legalizing prostitution nationwide is the same party that runs the county where he was arrested for doing the very thing they want to make legal.

Robert Kraft is being prosecuted by Democrats for doing things that Democrats say should be legal. I think the real problem is that Democrats just haven’t figured out how to tax prostitution, yet they know Kraft can afford the tax, so they are just mad about the lost revenue. Or maybe there just isn’t any unifying logic in this whole thing and they really are just schizophrenic. Michael Savage says “Liberalism is a mental illness” and maybe this is just another example of symptoms to prove his case.

Apple is the Me Too Company

Back when Steve Jobs ran Apple, they were regarded as an innovator in consumer electronics. (Actually it took a $150 million dollar cash infusion from Microsoft and Jobs returning to save Apple a few years after he had left the Board of Directors but I digress.) It was shortly after this period that they began marketing the iPod and Apple Store. A few years later, they came out with their big cash cow, the iPhone.

Now that Tim Cook is caretaker of the Apple brand, the company is much different. They are years behind the competition and shamelessly copying the ideas of leading technology companies and incorporating proven technology into their existing devices.

5G

We have thoroughly documented this in regards to their purposeful refusal to demonstrate or market any true 5G devices in 2019 and beyond. But there are more examples.

Folding Phones

Samsung reportedly supplied a set of foldable displays to both Apple and Google. And if sources are to be believed, the displays delivered to Apple is quite similar to what you see on Galaxy Fold except for the fact that Apple got 0.1-inches smaller in size.

“We know that Samsung Display has supplied a set of foldable drives to Apple and Google in order to fully expand its folder-based display business and uncover customers,” an industry source familiar with the Samsung Foldable Display told ETNews.
Samsung playing a part in Apple’s upcoming foldable device, in turn, rejects the possibility of the Cupertino-based company indigenously developing its own foldable displays and slapping it on the Folding iPhone.

Apple and Google soon to go Fold, thanks to Samsung displays

“Apple has been a leader for quite a long time in a few areas such as Touch ID, Face ID, and easy payments with the phone,” Wozniak said. “They’re not the leader in areas like the folding phone, and that worries me because I really want a folding phone.”
–Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak

Apple Co-founder Steve Wozniak wants Apple to manufacture folding iPhone

If Samsung is charging $1,980 for their low end foldable phone, what do you think Apple will charge for theirs?

Unified App Platform

Back in 2017, Bloomberg first reported that Apple is planning to follow this same path as Microsoft to create an unified app platform that will allow developers to target iOS and macOS devices. This project is code-named “Marzipan.”

Report: Apple to combine iPhone, iPad and Mac app development platform by 2021

Marzipan is expected to be revealed in 2021. Given its smaller PC ecosystem, tighter restrictions on diversity of hardware and software, virtualization done on other operating systems (Windows and Android) by other companies, and ability to learn from their competition, Apple is better positioned to attempt this unification. However, they are last to the dance in this area also. This roll-out will be about a decade after a similar announcement from Microsoft.

Apple Ditching Intel

Apple used to make their own CPUs and then gave up and went with Intel products. Of course Apple charged more than other manufacturers for the same hardware. This arrangement has severed them well for over a decade; however, in the last few years, they have decided that it might be time to follow HP, Microsoft, Dell and others and get away from an Intel only model. Next year they are expected to roll-out their first ARM-based MacBook.

We all know that Apple will be replacing Intel processors in their Mac lineup with their in-house designed ARM processors in the future. According to a latest report by Axios, developers and Intel officials have privately confirmed that this transition will start as early as next year. Next year, you can expect Apple to release at least one ARM-based MacBook that can run iOS apps natively.

Apple to ditch Intel processors for MacBooks next year

My Thoughts

Please note that going with an ARM processor for their PCs will make it easier to write code to achieve the goal for a unified app platform; however, currently, ARM processors lack the “horse power” to do intensive computing tasks. Apple might find itself with both ARM and Intel devices needing support. This is something that would complicate their stated goals.

I find that a full program on a PC is much superior to a stripped-down app that tries to do the same thing. I think Apple will encounter some real problems in trying to unify their phone and PC experiences. There is a real danger of “dumbing down” their PC to make it just an extension of their phones. This defeats the reason to have the PC.

Look for them to copy Microsoft and Samsung and allow their phones to hook-up with PC monitors which will also support a mouse and keyboard. Again, a decade after the completion first did it.

Apple is a “me too” company. The irony is that they will claim all the stuff that they copied from others as their new innovations. The Apple faithful, who know no better, will gleefully drink the Kool-Aid from Cupertino.