As I am sure you have read by now, Jorge “the drunken Jedi” Riley is in custody for his part storming of the capital in DC. While we can debate whether he was right, wrong, or indifferent we can all agree on one thing, it was flat stupid to do what he did. Even dumber was to post video and other photos on his Facebook page. Far dumber was to make comments about killing people or taking back the People’s House. While we can agree he probably didn’t mean those comments, they are very dumb to say in an era of big tech hating conservatives, and when “screenshotting” is taboo.
Jorge Aaron Riley
The point of this blog is not to dance on the grave of one’s misfortunes, as Mr. Riley in the words of a federal judge “is looking at a lengthy sentence, due to the nature of his crime and evidence against him.” The point of my writing is to bring to light his enablers, who will all be called out by name, and I feel are accomplices to the behavior leading to the crime.
They are listed in no particular order.
Sue Blake (Former Sac County GOP Chair): Sue or madam chair, as you can call her, had a front row seat to Riley’s sobriety issues. Riley was known to attend the meetings with his “backpack” carrying the elixir by which he would consume, before, during, and after each meeting. Blake would call on Riley to give a report, we would hear a plethora of racial or homophobic slurs, and she would smile and say thanks for that report.
Tom Hudson (Former CRA President) same as above but worse. Hudson is a smooth-talking lawyer who for some reason really liked Jorge. He too had no issue with the drinking, and every time there was a CRA board election, Jorge would find himself safe from any challengers. Last I heard, he owns the server and membership lists for the statewide group. Hudson is still known to be protecting Riley even though he no longer wields much power.
The Park Brothers (George and Aaron): While both may be removed from CRA, both allowed Riley to consume copious amounts of booze and stir up trouble at conventions. Aaron may have written a blog or two disparaging him, but too little, too late. Aaron, you are just as culpable. Notice his blog has been quiet about this, when news of Riley’s arrest spread like a PG&E induced wildfire. Aaron and George know they are neck deep in this. Does the fact that Riley’s middle name is Aaron immunize him from their criticism?
Bill “The Wookie” Cardoza: By far the biggest enabler. Bill, like any liquid, takes the shape of whatever vessel he is poured into. Bill is a very close friend of Riley’s. Bill has never done anything to advise Jorge of his behaviors. Bill on numerous occasions has even allowed Jorge to drive under the influence…Some friend! On occasion Bill was a sober passenger. Let that soak in! Bill has worked for several elected’s in his day and he should know better. Jorge was protected by Bill, so he is equally at fault for his behavior. Rumor has it, Cardoza bought Riley’s ticket to DC. Worse yet, Cardoza is a ranking member of the Sacramento CRA unit, and he has allowed Riley to destroy that once proud unit!
Jared Kopp (Former Sac County Republican Executive Director) Kopp was a drinking buddy of Riley, he also allowed Jorge’s drinking to shape who he is now. Jared used to think this behavior was amusing and funny. Jared, Sue and Terry Mast (RIP) defended this behavior and marginalized those who tried to stop it.
Folks if you know any of the above, please do not buy their BS. They are all equally culpable. Jared, Sue, and the other central committee members knew this man was a liability, yet they kept protecting and promoting him. Cardoza? He keeps protecting him, rumor has it he is actively searching for counsel to help defend Riley of the federal crimes he is charged with. Aaron and George? I doubt Jorge paid you so how did you have such blind loyalty to him? Tom Hudson, ditto. Folks that is a collection of supposedly smart folks who sold out their futures to help a deranged human.
In short, the folks named above fought to enable and cover for a man (Jorge) who has unpaid child support from 4 different women, and allegedly has a criminal past. Riley drinks alcohol from his backpack, before, during, and after meetings. He has threatened folks with physical violence and once bragged about committing a double shooting. (Said crime is still listed as unsolved by local police.–Editor) I guess he must be a great volunteer or do quite a bit for the Party, right? To justify defense of these actions? Nope, he has not done squat since being a member of local politics.
The Drunken Jedi (aka Jorge Riley) has finally screwed-up beyond the ability of his enablers to cover for him. He was arrested by the FBI and is currently being held without bail awaiting a hearing in Federal Court in early March. I’ll have more on this in just a moment.
First why is this individual called the Drunken Jedi on our blog? The short answer is that Sith Lord and Apprentice were taken. This individual is the polar opposite of the Sith Lord, thus in order stay with the Star Wars motif, he was a Jedi. Second, this individual has substance problems which his peers have enabled for decades, thus to point out the obvious is to mock them for enabling and even rewarding bad behavior. (Another blog contributor is going after these enablers via his own post so I will deal only with other aspects to this story.)
I learned of this story via a friend that happened to be dining with the Sith Lord when stuff hit the fan. Folks, this one incident did more to unite the California Republican Party than anything else the CRA (California Republican Assembly) has done in decades. This was the day prior to this story hitting both local television stations KOVR and KCRA. It seems after the raid on the Capitol building January 6th that the Drunken Jedi did an interview video telling how he was in the front of the pack entering the Capitol building and Speaker Pelosi’s office. He talked of getting maced on three occasions as he went about pillaging the People’s House.
The day of the Sith Lord’s fateful meal, knowledge of the video was circulating thru the Republican electeds at the California Capitol. They were reaching out to anybody they could find in CRA and the Sith Lord got his share of calls demanding that CRA repudiate this guy and his actions.
The following day, the story hit the local TV news stations. Understandably they got a few key details wrong and were unaware of other information which I will attempt to correct in the following paragraphs. But first, the news accounts.
A Sacramento man who admitted his involvement in the U.S. Capitol riot in a video has resigned from his position as a local Republican leader.
The California Republican Assembly is condemning the actions of board member Jorge Riley, who they identify as the man in the video, and any plans for further violence.
A Sacramento Republican leader was forced to resign on Thursday after backlash following his involvement in the pro-Trump mob that stormed the nation’s Capitol on Jan. 6.
Jorge Riley, corresponding secretary of the California Republican Assembly and president of the Sacramento Republican Assembly, resigned from both positions Thursday afternoon. Photos and posts on his personal Facebook page document his participation in the siege.
The California Republican Assembly issued a press release condemning Riley’s actions, and said the CRA was not involved in the incident.
The statement also said the CRA president demanded Riley resign his membership immediately or be removed.
“CRA President Johnnie Morgan has demanded that the member, Jorge Riley of Sacramento, resign his membership in CRA immediately as it is important to have leaders who’s actions exemplify positive engagement in the civil governance process. If he does not resign, we will seek his expulsion from the organization.” Members with the CRA told KCRA 3 Riley resigned from both positions at 4 p.m. Thursday.
KCRA 3 reviewed photos, videos and comments posted to Riley’s Facebook page during and after the riot, including a since-deleted Jan. 8 post that read “You will all die.” That post was removed Thursday evening.
In a series of photos and videos, he is seen participating in the rally with President Trump, before moving with the group to the Capitol. As the photos continue, Riley is seen with the group storming the Capitol building. He also shared photos of broken windows inside the Capitol hallways and outside Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office. Photos of Riley inside the Capitol were removed Friday afternoon.
Folks, sorry but Mr. Riley didn’t cut his ties with CRA as stated in the press accounts. I have been unable to get any confirmation that Riley has submitted anything in writing resigning as statewide Correspondence Secretary, President of the Sacramento Chapter of CRA, or resigning from CRA itself.
Whether Riley leaves the Board voluntarily or is removed, such an action cannot be taken without a duly called Board meeting. As of this writing, two weeks after the media accounts above, such a meeting has not been called. CRA is incorporated in California and all Board members, including Riley, are officers of the corporation. Removal is not official until certified by the Board at a properly called and noticed Board meeting.
Riley has not been replaced as President by Sac CRA.
Riley has not been removed as a CRA member.
In fact, some CRA members are fighting behind the scenes to keep him in the organization.
Oh, there’s more. Riley is the keeper of CRA’s membership rolls. Yep, he has the master copy of who is in the organization and who has paid their dues. This information is needed for Board meetings and conventions.
Riley also owns the web servers hosting the CRA website. Thus, he owns the CRA’s website! Without his cooperation, he can hold the CRA hostage and prevent them from updating content. This is more proof that the CRA leadership learned nothing from their dust-up with the Just Us Brothers.
The FBI has also arrested a Sacramento man, Jorge Riley. Though no court documents have been filed against him, he can be seen on videos posted to Reddit storming the United States Capitol.
About the time that the FBI narrative came to my attention, I was given information that Riley was being held with no bail and a preliminary hearing date of March 5. It appears that Mr. Riley is slated to be the poster boy for what happens to you when you raise hell in the Swamp and then brag about it on social media.
Folks I have lots of questions about this whole incident not the least of which is why travel from Sacramento to Washington DC in the first place? Several folks arrested at the protest were from the Left Coast. I have yet to hear of any of these people who were arrested making political contributions to President Trump’s campaign. I’m sure if the Dems could tie them to Trump via donations that they would do it. Given the above, how did they afford to travel to DC if they wouldn’t even write a check to Trump’s campaign? (It only takes a $100 contribution for your name to appear on campaign contribution records filed with the FEC.)
I was just at the Capitol Building a year and a half ago and I thought there was an enormous amount of security so how did these guys get in the building en masse? What about reports that the raid on the Capitol started 20 minutes before Trump spoke to the crowd? Did some protesters get in the building thru security before this started? Or stated another way, was this truly spontaneous or planned?
Media reports raised the possibility that Riley and others would be tried in Virginia or elsewhere in the DC area. Is it necessary to extradite them to the other side of the country or can the preliminary court appearances be done locally?
Apparently, we didn’t have to wait very long for the answer to my last question. Hours after I penned the above, a staff member forwarded the answer to my question with this update.
Jorge Riley, the Sacramento man accused of participating in the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol riots, was in a heated hearing Wednesday where a federal judge ordered he remain in custody and be transported to Washington, D.C. courts, calling him “a man of impulse and poor judgment.” Judge Carolyn Delaney held firm that there was plenty of evidence against Riley, saying that his incarceration will be a lengthy one if he is convicted. Timothy Zindell, Riley’s attorney, vehemently argued against the judge, saying that the former Sacramento Republican leader was neither a flight risk nor a risk to public. Zindell also argued that Riley is a disabled veteran with no money and that he had to use his $600 stimulus check intended for coronavirus relief to buy a plane ticket to Washington.
These paragraphs contain a lot of info related to the theme of this post.
First, Riley will be sent to DC for trial.
Being in a “heated hearing” with a federal judge is never a good thing.
The judge, as we suspected, thinks Riley will be on ice for a long time.
It’s interesting that Riley—who allegedly resigned from his positions in CRA—is still described as a “Republican leader.” As we all know, were he a Democrat, his Party affiliation would never be mentioned in the story. This type of media bias has been the case for the last forty-plus years.
If Riley is transported out of California-which I understand happened yesterday-then maybe CRA will have grounds to remove him since he no longer resides in California, although we learned during the most recent election that living in another state is not necessarily a barrier to voting in the once golden state. The only sure way to ensure Riley’s removal from the CRA and Republican voter rolls is if he is convicted of a crime that results in his loss of the right to vote. Again, many within CRA don’t want Riley removed from office or the organization.
Lastly, if Riley had done the exact same things that he is accused of now and been a member of Some Black Lives Matter, Antifa, or another liberal group of malcontents, he would be out on bail and not be facing any charges as they would be dismissed by prosecutors.
Riley’s day of reckoning has been a long time coming. Had some in CRA said “NO” to him years ago, maybe he wouldn’t be drowning in this pool of excrement today.
Folks, its not that we haven’t addressed the topic of the complete capitulation of virtually all the churches in this country in the face of the Covid nonsense at times in the past; however, it seems to be getting worse. Clearly those claiming the name of Christ fear microbes more that God. The shepherds of the faithful have chosen to scatter their flocks to the four winds to be thrashed by the Evil One while they hide their lamps under the bushel basket cringing in fear and looking to government for salvation.
I took this photo on my way to work this morning.
Oh, on a side note, California taxpayers, thanks for the full paycheck this month when I have spent less than five hours in the office all month. This is the “new normal” for government employment in case you missed that. Yet another story you won’t know if you only watch cable news.
Anyway, back to the topic at hand. Its one thing when our Governor calls churches nonessential but it’s a whole ‘nother level of stupid when the churches agree with the proposition and call themselves “nonessential” as in the photo above.
The truth is that the offering plate at your local house of worship is really empty these days. Many places of worship—especially in high-cost areas such as here in California—will never recover either the money or the members that they had prior to the Covid collapse. In fact, Jake the Snake said that his parish-which had 1.5 million cash in the bank before Covid-just applied to get a government loan to keep the church’s payroll afloat. This bothered both of us. We talked that such bailouts would come with strings and we wondered aloud if churches would soon lose their tax-exempt status under the Harris/Biden administration.
Folks there’s even worse news for churches than all the above. Last Thursday, I was at the men’s gathering at the local Speak Easy and learned that the men of my congregation are perfectly OK with complying with all the Covid restrictions and see no difference between church on YouTube and worship in person. In fact, they want to hand over more money to Facebook and Twitter to advertise the fact that either way to attend church is equally valid. Oh, when I brought up the historic and biblical model of church being in person and there is no such thing as virtual Sacraments, I was told that watching YouTube services by yourself was not good but if you invoked the “whenever two or three are gathered in my name” that such virtual worship with the family was just fine. (I let it slide that the application of this verse to worship is completely out of context with the passage.) Oh, YouTube is also great because why just watch our service on YouTube when you can watch all them other guys too?
In a congregation that once numbered between 800 and a thousand, three services once a week with a one-hundred-person limit is fine with these guys. In my opinion, its congregational suicide.
Oh, Jake and I also agree that our congregations have buried way more folks than they have either baptized or confirmed since Covid started. The trend line is indisputably in the wrong direction.
Lastly, as I’ve pointed out before, there is a cause-and-effect relationship between closing churches and the rise of socialism in our nation. If your pastor neglects to fill the spiritual vacuum in our society with Christianity, then people will fill it with other stuff to sooth their itching ears. Trust me that there’s much more stuff like that on YouTube than anything with spiritual substance to it. If your church has ceased or restricted in person worship, then your church is part of the problem and not offering solutions.
In my last installment I talked about cancelling some of my social media accounts and then detailed cancelling my 11-year-old Facebook account. In the course of these discussions, I also mentioned exploring options. This post is to provide more information on that search. This post will explore Internet options which are either friendly to conservatives or those wishing more privacy and less tracking by “Big Tech” companies. As always, I value feedback from readers.
Brave
Many of the companies that make web browsers have censored Conservatives or have pledged to punish them for their views. These include Google (Chrome), Apple (Safari), Microsoft (Internet Explorer, Edge), Mozilla (Firefox). An exception to this trend appears to be Brave. It is made by a guy that helped found Mozilla and another guy that created JavaScript. These guys have made a Chromium based browser with privacy built in. You can opt-in to their system of advertising but if you do, it won’t track your computer with personally identifiable information or your IP address as you sail the Internet.
Brave is on a mission to fix the web by giving users a safer, faster and better browsing experience while growing support for content creators through a new attention-based ecosystem of rewards.
Oh, and Brave has DuckDuckGo baked-in as a choice for Internet searches. If you’re tired of being tracked by Google and others, try browsing with privacy.
DuckDuckGo
DuckDuckGo is the go-to search engine for privacy and searches not prioritized by Google’s pay-to-play advertising and political bias algorithms.
MeWe is not as mature and feature rich as Facebook is but it also lets you speak your mind without repercussions or warning banners placed on your posts because you dare to disagree with Big Tech.
Now that Donald Trump is off Twitter, there’s no reason to be on there anymore. You can try Signal.org if you want to communicate mostly on an IOS or Android device.
Parler
When Amazon, Apple, and Google coordinated their attack on Parler, Parler was claiming 15 million users and a valuation of over half a billion dollars. I expect Parler to be back up soon. Perhaps with new software and backend support.
Wouldn’t it be funny if Parler found a home in Russia or some Eastern European country? Then suppose they let Trump have a big presence there too. CNN and the Huffington Post would really go ballistic with conspiracy theories. Fact is, such a move would be an indictment of the Democrats. Think about it, this would show there’s more freedom in the former Soviet Union than in the United States.
That’s my Internet alternatives round-up for now. Watch this space for more as the situation warrants.
Folks, we know that Congress’s attempt to impeach President Trump—who is no longer the President—is illegal and unconstitutional. (The penalty if convicted is to remove Trump from office which is impossible.) Since this is true, why go through the exercise? Yes, Congressional Democrats think it will cripple Trump and possibly disqualify or discourage him from running in four years, but why do it?
We know that the Democrats are engaging in the politics of personal destruction and will be coming for us too, in some form or another. But why engage in this tactic?
The answer is in two parts. First this is how Democrats in California operate. This is San Francisco values in action. The Democrat’s attitude is the same regarding Trump as it is in the California Legislature; namely, we will ignore the law and do what we feel like and if you don’t like it then take us to court.
Since following the law is irrelevant and Democrats are making this process up as they go to get the outcome that they want, I expect that Trump will be convicted after Pelosi’s kangaroo court. (Thanks Mitt Romney.) Trump will then take the matter to the Supreme Court. Should the Court follow the Constitution and throw out Trump’s conviction, then the Democrats win again. Oh, how can the Dems win when the Court throws out Trump’s conviction? Because this will give Democrats the ammo that they need to justify packing the Court.
So, my answer is that they wish to harass Trump enough that he won’t run again in 2024 and also have the excuse that they need to pack the Court.
Before you discount me remember that you are trying to look at issues like this with reason, but Democrats have no use for reason, they argue emotion and feelings, facts are irrelevant to them. They will argue the lie that Trump’s conviction was reversed by an activist conservative Supreme Court and the only remedy is to add loyal justices to the Court. If the court upholds Trump’s conviction, then the Court has compromised their integrity and ruled based on something other than the Constitution, thus caving to politics over principle. Short of a unanimous ruling by the Court, this will be the likely outcome.
In a state which has move registered voters than citizens of voting age, punishes workers and rewards the slothful, and thinks we are just one more tax on the wealthy from utopia, is it any wonder to read the following story on California’s new unemployment numbers?
California is reporting a surge in coronavirus unemployment claims last week for independent contractors, gig workers and the self-employed, and the tens of thousands of claims are raising renewed concerns about widespread fraud.
The state received more than 77,000 additional claims compared with a week earlier, accounting for more than a quarter of all such claims nationally, according to numbers released Thursday by the U.S. Department of Labor.
Ok, let’s think about this introduction a little bit. Businesses are closing, people that were temporary hires during the holidays are off the payroll once again, and the big one that nobody is talking about is the federal government is once again paying more money to people that don’t work. Yeah, why would being paid more for not working be a factor in who files for unemployment? Please note the above in the article, “…for independent contractors, gig workers and the self-employed…” and compare it to this from CNBC.
The latest stimulus bill signed into law on Dec. 27, 2020, extends federal programs by 11 weeks to help freelancers, self-employed, gig workers and the long-term unemployed, and it reinstates the weekly federal enhancement that expired in July 2020, this time at a reduced rate of $300 per week.
Clearly the linkage between government policy and behavior can been seen in the above.
Oh, but we’re just getting warmed up with this article.
The KCRA article continues:
The state Employment Development Department has been overwhelmed with unemployment claims since March, when Gov. Gavin Newsom imposed the nation’s first statewide stay-at-home order that shuttered many businesses. The state has processed more than 19 million claims and paid out more than $113 billion in benefits.
In less than 10 months, California has spent over half this amount on just one social welfare program.
Also note that there were 19 million claims in a state with a population of 36 to 40 million folks. This includes both children and the elderly. On a statistical basis, most eligible workers in the state are on government assistance and not working. This is a disturbing statistic.
The state thinks that many of these claims are fraudulent, but they seem perplexed at how to prove it.
About 4 million claims and $43 billion in payments fall under the program for independent contractors. The program has helped a lot of people who are self-employed weather economic shutdowns from the virus. But its broad eligibility requirements have made it a target of criminals seeking easy paydays.
Thursday’s increase was in new claims, not those from people extending or renewing them under a Congressional extension.
That alarmed Michael Bernick, a former Employment Development Department director and attorney with the Duane Morris firm.
Most independent contractors in California should already have filed new claims in the previous nine months, he said.
“The (new) claims numbers make no sense, other than indicating the re-emergence of fraudulent claims,” Bernick said.
Overall, the state has acknowledged paying at least $400 million in phony claims, including thousands in the names of prison inmates, including some on death row. However, fraudulent claims have fallen significantly since last fall, when the state installed new safeguards, including contracting with the companies ID.me and Pondera Solutions to better verify claimants’ identities.California was flooded with claims in the early days of the pandemic after Newsom imposed stay-at-home orders in mid-March that closed most businesses. The department managed to resolve a backlog that peaked last year at 1.6 million claims. But the pile has grown again and now stands at more than 800,000 people.
Blake Hall, founder and CEO of ID.me, told the Los Angeles Times last week that at least 10% of claims submitted to the state before controls were installed in October may have been fraudulent — which could result in nearly $10 billion in fraudulent payments.
Folks, the statistics in this story are mind-blowing. Just the mere facts presented in this article are an indictment of the state’s fiscal mismanagement.
Just to recap
19 million unemployment claims as a result of Covid.
Costing $113 billion.
Ten percent of claims are fraudulent (and perhaps more)
One fourth of all new claims in the US are from California.
EDD has 80,000 claim backlog.
No way to really know what is legitimate or fraudulent.
No end in sight or effort to put people back to work.
For those of us that believe there was widespread fraud in the last election, you might be surprised to know that all the promises of proof via the legal process have evaporated with the coronation of President Harris and her Crazy Uncle Joe.
Not surprisingly, the Republicans in Washington DC disavowed Donald Trump and his MAGA agenda before his jet even left Andrews Air Force Base. Close behind were his attorneys including Rudy Giuliani and Sydney Powell. Success has many fathers, but failure is an orphan.
Why is everybody dumping on Trump? To me the explanation is simple, Trump was supported by two groups of people in the political world. The political class will support you if you are winning or appear to have the support of the people and others in DC will support you if it has no personal cost to them. I guess a third reason people would support Trump is because they thought they could get something from him. Think “use him” or “leverage him” for some perceived advantage.
Mitt Romney and Mitch McConnell both wanted Trump’s support and endorsement when running for election but as soon as their victory was assured, they dumped all over Trump and kicked him to the curb. (Please lump any Senators from Maine or Alaska in this basket as well…something about the latitude I guess.)
Trump’s lawyers did it for different reasons, as did many others, they want to live to fight another day—or at least continue earning paychecks while in the Beltway. As you may recall, Democrats in many areas threatened Trump’s lawyers with disbarment and shame if they tried to prove election fraud in court. It wasn’t for lack of evidence that they dropped the cases but because once Sleepy Joe became President the cases became mute. Tilting at windmills might be in style in the CRA but serious people in politics know that they need to pick their battles and live to fight another day.
Finally, the political class is terrified of being called bad names by the mainstream media. The only thing worse for them was being called bad names by Trump and then having the media repeat them. Little Rubio and Lyin’ Ted are names that still echo fives years after the 2016 debates. Oh, Trump did prove he has larger hands …but I digress.
Folks, once Joe and crew anoint 23 million illegals as citizens—Oh, the 11 million number is nonsense and been static in political discourse since W was President, the real number is likely much higher—election fraud won’t be needed any more for Democrats to maintain power.
Again, I maintain that Donald J Trump was the last Republican that will ever be a US President. Welcome to a United States under one Party rule. Oh, and Yes Virginia, the last election was to remake America into a nation with San Francisco values instead of American ones. Funny how we’ve gone from Republicans hoping to “Release the Kraken!” to Democrats promising to “Unleash hell” in the space of a few weeks. Oh, and look for Democrats to keep their word.
So, it is my fellow readers and followers of this blog. All the pundits cheered today as Former Central Bank Chair Janet Yellen demanded Congress act quickly and pass a 1.9 trillion-dollar spending package. Yep, act quickly, because god only knows what would happen if the media found out what was in it right? Fat chance. This package will extend a fake economy started under Obama/Biden, and mostly continued under Trump.
Joe Biden, America’s most popular President at a campaign stop on his way to victory.
Here are examples of how the economy has been fake and how it will continue to be fake under Biden.
0% interest rates continue, this was a fixture since almost W. Bush’s presidency. As a result, banks can borrow from the Fed Reserve for about 0% and lend to you for around 3% if you’re buying a house, or many multiples more if you are buying a car. This does not stimulate an economy; it just let’s free money flow from one lender to the next. This works only if the buyer is able to “perform” (make payments) on the loan. Which leads to…..
0% interest also means banks will continue not paying you squat to have an account with them, in essence making your savings worthless. When you add in inflation adjustments annually, if your savings/money doesn’t earn at least that much your buying power has been decreased. Unless you are a business…..
0% Means corporations are able to borrow “cheap money” and buy out competitors. See what AT&T has done over the past few years, first buying DirecTV and recently buying Time-Warner. While consolidation is not always a bad thing, it stifles competition and leads to mass layoffs, again see DirecTV and Time-Warner among others. In addition, most corporations have started venture capital arms, whose sole goal is to “invest in startups” with the hope of buying them later. Kind of like that show Shark Tank on TV. Again, this is all well and good until the interest rates or the debt load eventually eat away your income. Many corporations will find the “next chapter” is Chapter 7 or 11, not to be confused with the iconic Slurpee chain.
$15 minimum wage, contrary to what economists on TV say, will create complete destruction among retail and food service work. (Like after ten months of Covid-19 they need any more help.) Government mandating of wages is the worst possible thing to do. Show me a worker who requires $15 an hour to work the grill, I will show you a robotic arm who can do the job far cheaper. Automation will be the word of the next decade, eliminating good paying jobs to replace with robot. Its coming quick folks. No minimum wage job was ever meant to be a career, for some (felons, rap sheets, drop-outs) it’s a hard way to earn a living, but didn’t their choices land them there? How come we don’t talk-up trade schools? More on that next….
We have ignored and made fun of the trade schools for far too long. They carry a negative stigma. Why work in construction, work on cars, or be a plumber? Especially when you can get a degree in arts or humanities. As a result, some of these have transformed into dangerous for profit schools who now charge prohibitive sums of money, but it’s okay because……
Student loan relief is a part of this bill. Biden has put off interest and payments until September of this year. Like savings, why be responsible? Don’t pay! More disturbingly, he wants to do 10K student loan relief with the stroke of his pen. AOC, Bernie, Schumer, and co aren’t happy and want 50k. That’s an ungodly sum and should fly in the face of anyone who has paid their loans in full. This also creates a dangerous precedent moving forward. But…..
$1,400 payments to all folks making under a certain income threshold is part of this mana from heaven as well. Who cares about erasing money or debt when we can just print more of it! Fear not, the system we will use to verify who hits the government mandated lottery is last year’s (2019) tax returns. Yep, even if Covid didn’t affect you at all you get a check! Made more than that and lost your job? Sorry Charlie, the Magic 8 Ball says, “No.” You may ask why we have no system that keeps track of those who lost their jobs due to Covid? Answer is we do, it’s at the state level and in CA we call it Employment Development Department (EDD). Why don’t we use their system….well Google EDD scandal CA. Never mind I’ll save you the time. Our EDD sent roughly 2 billion in fraudulent checks to folks incarcerated, or to the dead, unborn or infirm. Still don’t believe me? Checks went to Scott Peterson (on death row) and Senator Diane Feinstein. Yup go look it up. Sorry, but the person who ran EDD has been promoted and is a part of Biden’s team, so look for more undeserving folks to land checks. I’ll take Hunter Biden in the office pool.
Rest assured I doubt this will be the only check sent out. Sadly, my conservative friends see this as stimulus, not Universal Basic Income. (Republicans think the rules are for checkers not chess.) Like usual, the Democrats lure the GOP in and while we think we’re doing the Lord’s work, they immediately run the end around, fooling us and taking all the credit. Think Charlie Brown kicking the football. Try to stop these payments once they start.
Eviction and foreclosure moratoriums are currently through March. This is just kicking the can slightly. We will end up kicking it further, I predict September. Look for a utility payment moratorium as well. These folks are all hopelessly behind, but Biden knows if he cranks up the eviction/foreclosure machine the economy wrecks big time, all on his watch. Housing is in a major bubble and the only ones who can’t see it are the ones who benefit from it. I look to scoop up a McMansion in future for about half of what folks are paying now. In my hometown a McMansion about a decade ago was 500k, now modest homes are selling for around 700, with upward movement likely.
Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t all doom and gloom. The 90-Dday types will continue to talk about record high stock prices, and in some ways they are correct. They pointed to job reports of “growing payrolls” however a cursory look around town shows me nothing but government and retail jobs. The latter will be decimated by Covid, mark my words. They will turn on a cable channel and be greeted with folks saying all-time highs, this is because as I mentioned earlier your savings account pays you nothing, so you must invest it. The smart folks got in a long time ago and are more than happy to watch you scoop up more expensive shares. They smile about stimulus knowing you won’t be paying debts, just buying more stuff you don’t need. Only China benefits but that’s ok because Democrats get a cut off all the 5G iPhones you’ll be buying. This economy is fake, you don’t have to believe me, but you cannot print money, send out free money, and have a prosperous society. Someday the lender will want the money to be paid back, and there won’t be another check.
The Chief
Those who won’t learn from the past are doomed to repeat it.
This will be a recurring theme in the years ahead, but the obvious question is how do they know? Who is providing Airbnb with a list of people that they should be banning? Google? Facebook? Microsoft? Apple? Amazon?
“If we confirm that guests are associated with a violent hate group or otherwise not allowed on our platform for violating certain community policies prohibiting violence or engaging in criminal activity, we will cancel those reservations and ban them from Airbnb,” the San Francisco-based home rental company said on Sunday.
Airbnb said that it could also share information with local law enforcement.
Please note that Airbnb is not getting the list from law enforcement, they are offering to provide the information to law enforcement. This is scary dystopian future stuff. This is China or Soviet Secret Police tactics being practiced by US based corporations. The fact that US corporations are enabling China to rule over their people with such things as internet censoring and social scores is the antithesis of want America stands for or at least the principles that we were founded upon.
Folks there is a theme in science fiction where nation states are virtually irrelevant (or impotent), and everything is run by large mega-corporations. Is this censorship and persecution of dissidents—which happen to be people on my end of the political spectrum—the result of the kids in Silicon Valley trying to implement on new social order which just happens to be indistinguishable from totalitarian rule? If politics is power and knowledge is power, then isn’t all that metadata they are collecting on us just a way of gaining political power over us? Coupled with the tech push for AI (Artificial Intelligence) aren’t we being culled into being sheep to be monetized to serve them?
The other aspect of the above story is this idea that violent protests are planned at the Nation’s Capital and the capitol buildings of all 50 states. Such protests are supposed to coincide with the coronation of Kamala Harris and her Crazy Uncle Joe. What a crock of excrement. Folks this is such a stupid claim. I don’t believe anybody that is a Trump supporter is behind such an idea. The fact that the FBI is the one ringing the bell is even more suspect. The FBI is a corrupt and partisan tool which has a track record of incompetence and partisanship. They don’t enforce the law and have no interest in justice.
Folks the bottom line is that you could do the Tom Clancy thing—fly a fully fueled 747 into the Capitol building and wipe-out the government—and nothing would change. Sadly, the replacements for these politicians would be worse than the guys in office now. Our people are corrupt, defective, irredeemable, and ungrateful. The people in office are just as immoral as the average guy on the streets of America. The bottom line is that our cure is not in power or party but in repenting and turning to God. Such is an unpopular notion. Thankfully, this is God’s department. We just need to pray for it to happen and try to live the way He instructs us.
I have many stories that I never got to in a timely way but I at least feel they deserve a mention on the blog before I delete the URL’s (links) from my desktop. They seem to fall in three groups: Hunter & Joe Biden, lies we’ve been told about Covid, and more of vote fraud in the Presidential election.
Hunter & Joe Biden (at the time this topic was censored by Big Tech to protect Joe Biden)
Hunter Biden discussed leveraging his connection to his father in a bid to boost his pay from a Ukrainian natural gas company, according to an email he sent around the time he joined the firm’s corporate board.
The Delaware computer repair shop owner who turned over the Apple Macbook Pro containing Hunter Biden’s emails, photos and (according to Rudy Giuliani) a sex tape featuring Hunter Biden and another woman has come out to the public in an interview with Fox News.
John Paul Mac Isaac told Fox News that he is legally blind, and therefore he “can’t be 100% sure” that the individual who dropped off the laptop was Hunter Biden. But when he was backing up the hard drive, he stumbled upon “disturbing” images, including “pornography”, that freaked him out. Apparently, although Isaac’s blindness prevented him from positively ID-ing Hunter Biden, it didn’t stop him from viewing the contents of the hard drive.
By New York Post. Sen. Ted Cruz laced into Twitter boss Jack Dorsey and “big tech billionaires drunk on their own power” Saturday over censorship of The Post’s exposé of the Biden family foreign business dealings.Dorsey is expected to receive a subpoena and be grilled next Friday by the Senate Judiciary Committee.
GOP leaders are seeking answers for why the company decided to censor new emails published in The Post raising new questions about Joe and Hunter Biden’s relationship with executives from the Ukrainian energy company Burisma.
“This is a power grab from big tech billionaires drunk on their own power. That is abuse of monopoly power by big tech,” Cruz told reporters on a press call Saturday. “It appears Twitter is throttling [in a] brazen attempt to manipulate the election outcome and it is continuing as we speak.” (Read more from “GOP Leaders: Twitter Censoring Hunter Biden Exposé Is ‘Election Interference’”
Echoing the 2016 election, establishment media justified its refusal to investigate the Biden-family, influence-peddling story by claiming it was the work of “Russian disinformation.
“U.S. intelligence officials have denied the claim, and no evidence has emerged to support it.
Now, NBC News is reporting Friday in a story prominently linked by the Drudge Report that there’s a “dossier” that explains everything.
Under the headline “How a fake persona laid the groundwork for a Hunter Biden conspiracy deluge,” NBC reports a 64-page document “that was later disseminated by close associates of President Donald Trump appears to be the work of a fake ‘intelligence firm.'”
Joe Biden repeatedly has denied knowing anything about son Hunter’s lucrative work on the board of Ukrainian energy company Burisma.
“Hunter Biden is a private citizen and a lawyer. The former vice president does not endorse any particular company and has no involvement with this company,” a spokeswoman for Joe Biden said in a December 2015 statement to the New York Times.
Biden has stonewalled on the topic ever since.
“I’ve never discussed my business or their business, my sons’ or daughter’s. And I’ve never discussed them because they know where I have to do my job and that’s it, and they have to make their own judgments,” he told the “CBS Evening News” last October.
And yet, an email obtained by The Post shows a senior Burisma executive thanking Hunter for the opportunity to meet Joe Biden just 12 months after Hunter joined the Burisma board at a reported salary of up to $50,000 a month.
By Townhall. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) website disclosed the shockingly small number of people who died from only the Wuhan coronavirus, with no other cause of death mentioned. Hold on to your hat because here it is: out of the 161,392 deaths in the CDC data, just six percent, about 9,700 deaths, were attributed to the coronavirus alone. According to the CDC, the other 94 percent had an average of 2.6 additional conditions or causes of deaths, such as heart disease, diabetes, and sepsis.
Instead of protecting the vulnerable – the elderly in nursing homes and those with comorbidities – health “experts” recommended locking everyone up and prescribing for Americans a wide range of ailments such as depression, suicide, missed early cancer screenings, unemployment, substance abuse, and poverty.
According to The New York Times, potentially 90 percent of those who have tested positive for COVID-19 have such insignificant amounts of the virus present in their bodies that such individuals do not need to isolate nor are they candidates for contact tracing. Leading public health experts are now concerned that overtesting is responsible for misdiagnosing a huge number of people with harmless amounts of the virus in their systems.
“Most of these people are not likely to be contagious, and identifying them may contribute to bottlenecks that prevent those who are contagious from being found in time,” warns The Times.
A New York Times report found that as many as 90% of the people who have tested positive for COVID-19 have such insignificant amounts of the virus that they don’t need to be isolated or traced.
N.Y. Times: 90% who test positive for COVID-19 are NOT contagious
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released new coronavirus data last week, depicting how many Americans have died from COVID-19, as well as how many who died had other contributing conditions.
The CDC data table is based on an analysis of death certificates that mention COVID-19 as a cause. For 6% of the deaths, COVID-19 was the only cause mentioned, the CDC notes.
The other 94% list COVID-19 and other conditions together. Among those deaths, there were, on average, 2.6 additional conditions or causes per death, the public health agency said.
Three university professors, two of whom are physicians, are calling for COVID-19 vaccinations to be mandatory, with no allowance for religious objections.
The Case Western Reserve University scholars, writing in USA Today, advised that “disincentives” be imposed to ensure compliance, Christian News reported.
“Private businesses could refuse to employ or serve unvaccinated individuals,” the professors propose. “Schools could refuse to allow unimmunized children to attend classes. Public and commercial transit companies — airlines, trains and buses — could exclude refusers. Public and private auditoriums could require evidence of immunization for entry.”
‘No religious exemptions’: New push for mandatory COVID vaccinations
Catholic bishops said Monday that under the current “sufficiently serious” conditions of the pandemic, Catholics may take the COVID-19 vaccines made by Pfizer and Moderna but should avoid the “morally compromised” AstraZeneca vaccine due to its use of aborted baby cells.
“In view of the gravity of the current pandemic and the lack of availability of alternative vaccines, the reasons to accept the new COVID-19 vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna are sufficiently serious to justify their use, despite their remote connection to morally compromised cell lines,” United States Conference of Catholic Bishops chairmen Bishop Kevin C. Rhoades of Fort Wayne-South Bend and Archbishop Joseph F. Naumann of Kansas City in Kansas said in a document released Monday.
The bishops noted that “while neither vaccine is completely free from any connection to morally compromised cell lines, in this case the connection is very remote from the initial evil of the abortion.”
The AstraZeneca vaccine, however, is “more morally compromised” and thus “should be avoided,”the bishops said.
“It may turn out, however, that one does not really have a choice of vaccine, at least, not without a lengthy delay in immunization that may have serious consequences for one’s health and the health of others,” the bishop chairmen added. “In such a case … it would be permissible to accept the AstraZeneca vaccine.”
The pro-life Charlotte Lozier Institute has released information on which coronavirus vaccines have been made using cells obtained from aborted babies.
The Charlotte Lozier Institute (CLI) released a new chart Thursday examining whether eight leading COVID vaccines were either produced or tested using cells obtained through abortions. The institute’s analysis found that most of the vaccine candidates did not use cell lines derived from abortions in their production, though several used abortion-derived cell lines in laboratory testing.
The potential that the much anticipated vaccines would use cells from aborted babies poses weighty moral problems for many Americans who object to abortion.
Religious leaders such as Bishop Joseph Strickland of Tyler, Texas said earlier this year that he would refuse the vaccine if “we use body parts of aborted children,” saying, “I will not kill children to live.”
We cannot accept a Covid-19 vaccine that was developed using the bodies of aborted babies.
A Pennsylvania judge ruled in favor of the Trump campaign Thursday, ordering that the state may not count ballots where the voters needed to provide proof of identification and failed to do so by Nov. 9.
State law said that voters have until six days after the election — this year that was Nov. 9 — to cure problems regarding a lack of proof of identification. After the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled that mail-in ballots could be accepted three days after Election Day, Pennsylvania Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar submitted guidance that said proof of identification could be provided up until Nov. 12, which is six days from the ballot acceptance deadline. That guidance was issued two days before Election Day.
State lawmakers in Pennsylvania have discovered a serious problem with the 2020 presidential election.
There were more votes than voters.
In a report posted online, the lawmakers explain how they did extensive analysis of election data.
What they found were “troubling discrepancies between the numbers of total votes counted and the total number of voters who voted in the 2020 general election.”
By Breitbart. Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R) on Wednesday announced that the state will conduct a “by-hand recount in each county” in the Peach State.
“At 1 p.m. today, I will make the official designation of which race will be the subject of the RLA [risk-limiting audit]. At that time, I will designate that the RLA will be the presidential race,” Raffensperger announced, emphasizing that the RLA, in this case, will require a by-hand recount. Typically, an RLA involves officials examining “a statistically meaningful sample of ballots.”
A Justice Department official responsible for investigating elections crimes abruptly resigned Monday after Attorney General William Barr authorized federal investigators to look into allegations of vote fraud in the 2020 presidential election.
Election Integrity Project, Nevada (EIPNv) has found 2,410 persons who are registered to vote in Nevada, subsequently registered in California, but voted in Nevada’s November 3 election. EIPNv had previously reported 1,411 such voters. An expanded analysis, matching mailing addresses and phone numbers, found approximately 1,000 more suspect voters.
First of all, every swing state that accepted ballots after Nov. 3 needs to be challenged in court. Indeed, while the Constitution does give the states the authority to establish voting procedures, state law cannot violate federal law, and both the Constitution and various U.S. codes clearly state that Congress has the authority to set the “date,” not dates, for federal elections. Moreover, Article II of the Constitution also clearly authorizes Congress to set a “date” and says the “Day shall be the same throughout the United States.” The words date and day obviously mean one day. While liberal judges in lower courts have ruled that these words don’t matter, it should to the originalists who now dominated the Supreme Court.
Two Los Angeles men have been charged with voter fraud after attempting to submit 8,000 ballot applications for nonexistent or deceased voters.
Hawthorne, California, mayoral candidate Carlos Antonio De Bourbon Montenegro, 53, and Marcos Raul Arevalo, 34, planned the effort in an attempt to help Montenegro win his bid for mayor, Los Angeles District attorney announced Tuesday.
The county is accusing Montenegro of submitting more than 8,000 fraudulent ballot applications on behalf of “fictitious, nonexistent or deceased” voters between July 1 and Oct. 15 of this year, according to a felony complaint.
Honorable Mention—arguably I saved the best story for last
Also worth a mention is this post by Dennis Prager. I’ve never been a follower of Prager but he has something that really caught my eye. We often project the present into the past to project the future. Prager rethinks this concept. Here is the beginning of his column. I strongly urge you to read it in full. The link as at the bottom of the excerpt.
Dennis Prager
As my listeners and readers can hopefully attest, I have been on a lifelong quest to understand human nature and human behavior. I am sad to report that I have learned more in the last few years, particularly in 2020, than in any equivalent period of time.
One of the biggest revelations concerns a question that has always plagued me: How does one explain the “good German,” the term used to describe the average, presumably decent German, who did nothing to hurt Jews but also did nothing to help them and did nothing to undermine the Nazi regime? The same question could be asked about the average Frenchman during the Vichy era, the average Russian under Lenin, Joseph Stalin, Leonid Brezhnev and their successors, and the millions of others who did nothing to help their fellow citizens under oppressive dictatorships.
These past few years have taught me not to so quickly judge the quiet German, Russian, etc. Of course, I still judge Germans who helped the Nazis and Germans who in any way hurt Jews. But the Germans who did nothing? Not so fast.
What has changed my thinking has been watching what is happening in America (and Canada and Australia and elsewhere, for that matter).
The ease with which tens of millions of Americans have accepted irrational, unconstitutional and unprecedented police state-type restrictions on their freedoms, including even the freedom to make a living, has been, to understate the case, sobering.
