I Left the GOP

The rumors are true, this past week I re-registered to “Libertarian.”  If you know me, you already know I am a Libertarian, but I caucused with the GOP.  I only voted for 1 Democrat in my life prior to this election, that was Sacramento County Supervisor Don Nottoli.  I am not going to grandstand and claim the party left me. 

Truth is there is no Republican Party in California.

For years the party has been in a free fall.  Tribalism took over and poof, we are now a super minority.  I see that Chad Mayes, the former GOP leader, is still in the Assembly as an independent.  Mayes is known for being a sorta Republican who loves tax hikes.  Would be nice if the GOP could beat him, but why bother.  Frankly he fits in perfectly.  On each vote there is inevitably 3-4 GOP members who vote with the Democrats so it can be called a “bi-partisan bill.”  Barf.

The party brand is toxic here.  Just look at Sac DA Anne Marie Schubert. She used the party to get elected, then dropped us afterward.  She got obliterated running for AG, but the point is, she used us until it was no longer necessary.  Ditto for Pat Hume, the lazy EG councilmember, who will get slaughtered in November because he never wants to put in the work.  The GOP endorsed him, but he refuses to use the logo.  He was in a 4-way race with 3 Democrats, and if he achieved 50% plus one, he could have won outright.  Hume also supported the tax measure on the ballot, and supported the sales tax increase a couple cycles ago.  But that’s ok…. he is a Republican!

Looks like the hedgehog is a symbol of Libertarians

The county party here is a joke.  I mean Sue, Terry (RIP) and others were a circus, but this crew is a straight up joke.  I got an email the night before Election Day saying Sac County GOP recommends you vote this way.  Yup, I got my ballot 6 weeks prior at least, and had already returned it.  We do all our voting by mail in CA, these idiots just do not get it.  It told me to vote Barnes for sheriff, he lost, write in Sue Mason for her race, and that if I couldn’t drop my ballot off someone could come pick it up.  Yeah, read that again, the GOP called that ballot harvesting a couple cycles ago.  Good luck trying to sue over that now.

The top 2 primary has killed off all non-democrat parties.  I don’t even need to say anymore here.  Too bad the GOP supports it.  I think a lawsuit involving all non-democrat parties gets the top 2 overturned.  Congrats on being on the wrong side of history GOP!  In November I get the choice of Stephanie Nguyen or Eric Guerra in one race, and Dave Jones and Angelique Ashby in the other.  Neither race features a GOP.

The GOP had zero endorsements on my voter guide.  See the troll blog for more on this disturbing factoid.  Bonus, the GOP voters are crying as very few of their “candidates” made it through to November.  Shocking I say, shocking.

Recruiting failures.  Let’s look at BOE district 4, a former GOP seat, there stands a very high likelihood 2 Democrats make the run-off.  5 GOP folks split the vote, allowing this debacle. In SD 4, 6 GOP folks allowed the Democrats to both advance to a run-off.  Minority leader Scott Wilk (a GOP) spent money on one of the Democrat candidates that won in this highly Republican area. Face it, minority and leader are two words that never belong together. Idiocy rains supreme here.  The GOP has one option to win in November, Lanhee Chen is the best chance.  I have it on record that in a couple statewide races the establishment GOP recruited a challenger just to deny someone the chance to be in the top 2.  WTF?

The two party system is broken

So, to conclude, the GOP is dead here, so I won’t be wasting anymore of my time on it.  I still vote GOP as the lesser evil, but I cannot continue supporting a party that is lost.  It’s sad.  I voted for Democrats; Steve Glazer (he lost), Dave Jones, and Steve Ly this time around.  I won’t be doing that anymore unless the GOP requires it.  In the races between Jones and Ashby, Nguyen and Guerra, I will have to.

See Ya,

The Chief

The Catholic Church is in Shambles

As a member of the Knights of Columbus at my local church, I am privy to information other regular church goers are not.  I know people on the finance team, parish council, etc.  It’s a humble brag but I will tell you the Catholic Church (aka who the Pope leads) is failing badly.  Allow me to lay out my reasoning.

  1.  Dropping finances.  Prior to and during Covid we were told our church had over 1 million dollars in the bank.  Finance chair and resident boot licker Michael Jones even bragged from the ambo about the church getting a PPP loan, aka the forgivable government loan to keep operations going.  Yep, we are not a mom-and-pop shop, we are a church with 5 Masses on weekends and a collection of roughly 11k a week pre-Covid, yet we needed that money.  Just last week Michael Jones the patron Saint of Fiction told me of how the finances are hurting as the collection is way down.  No kidding?  You mean people are told they can watch from home and it still counts?  Why return?
  2. Uncomfortable environment to worship.  Our Priest refuses to turn the lights on in either the vestibule or main church until Mass starts, not a second before.  Ditto for shutting the lights off.  He refuses to run the AC in the summer, or heat in the winter.  I had to find a new parish as I do not like wearing my winter coat to service just to stay warm.  In the summer I don’t like the idea of wearing a t-shirt just to not sweat profusely.  We do all this to save a couple bucks a month at my church. 
  3. Attendance is declining.  Covid did the church no favors, and the subsequent vaccines and masking isn’t seeming to help.  We are losing younger folks to more popular “Christian venues” that play rock music and the like.  Trust me, go to a Catholic church and you can count the number of folks between 18-35 on one hand.  The older folks?  We are losing them to the graveyard.  We bring in about 7 new members each year, however we lose several times that number.  Some may not like praying in the dark/cold/heat. 
  4. Too many folks have a “protect the shield” mentality.  My father falls into this category; they will do/say anything to appease the priest and the church as a whole.  Why don’t you come to Mass anymore?  You better be there!  It’s time to return!  This after the church refused to allow anyone inside for almost 2 years.
  5. A litmus test for the parishioners.  This will be expanded upon further in a different blog.  Jorge Rodriguez, a miserable blow-hard, who rarely attends Mass but wants to quiz people on where certain objects in the church are.  When he attends, which is about as often as a total eclipse of the sun, he will ask folks upon exiting “do you know where the Alpha and Omega are?”  Totally unnecessary and it runs people off.  But he gets his jollies off doing it, and no one seems to care.

In closing, the church is struggling because they lost their way.  They appeased the elected left-wing political types and doomsayers by shutting everything down.  They told folks watch at home and people adjusted as such.  Now they won’t return.  Or they do not want to freeze/overheat.  Or be lied to about finances.  The collection is down to around 9k a week from 11k pre-covid.  Most Masses are not close to being full, or even close to the attendance pre-covid.  I have a feeling most/a lot of parishioners never returned/died or found a new church to attend like myself.  We have no money yet we are spending 500k to re-do the patio area and add a covering.  You cannot make this up!

Jake the Snake

Editor’s notes:

What is it with priests that don’t want to run the A/C in church? At my wedding many years ago, on a 100 degree plus day, the priest wouldn’t turn on the A/C at all. We had guests who were over 90 years old in attendance and no A/C. Oh, another bit of trivia while I’m at it, this was the only wedding ever held in the church building in the 18 years or so that this church existed, and you couldn’t run the A/C for two lousy hours.

Secondly, Jake is Really Right. The church we go to now is experiencing much of the same stuff he mentioned, lower finances and attendance, and a newly minted building fund for a new parking lot at a time when the collection plate is light. Allowing yourself to be called nonessential and shutting down was a stupid, self-inflicted move that most churches did to themselves. Many will die a slow and painful death because of this stupid compromise with people that hate you and have no use or respect for God.