What Do Donald Trump and Amy Grant Have in Common

They both got on my naughty list this month for the same thing, redefining marriage. Sorry culturally compromising people but marriage is between a man and woman. God didn’t make Adam and Steve, or Ellen and Eve as Ole Dave Waddell used to opine. When people in a homosexual relationship want to stay together it’s not a marriage. Anyone that calls it that demeans the institution and the Biblical view of God. There can be no such thing as marriage in a homosexual union; in fact, rightly viewed there is no such thing, its just a convenient fiction, an imitation, a demonic copy.

First Trump. And folks this is likely just a bridge too far for me to enthusiastically support the Orange Man in 2024.

Thursday’s “Spirit of Lincoln” gala was in honor of the “Log Cabin Republicans” a pro-homosexual activist group formed 45 years ago.  The party, held in the ballroom of Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago beachfront country club and residence, was a joyous celebration of gay rights and —by coincidence— the historic “Respect for Marriage Act,” obliging the federal government to recognize same-sex marriage, signed into law by President Joe Biden just days earlier, after 12 GOP senators defected and voted with all the Democrat senators (at the urging of the Seventh-day Adventist Public Affairs and Religious Liberty Department).

The long-planned event in honor of the Log Cabin Republicans’ 45th anniversary brought in Republican notables like former Ambassador Ric Grenell, Rep. Kat Cammack (R-Fla.), former State Department spokesperson Morgan Ortagus, who emceed the evening in a feathered turquoise gown, and former GOP gubernatorial candidate from Arizona Kari Lake, who was swarmed by guests eager to meet her and take a photo.

“We  are fighting for the gay community, and we are fighting and fighting  hard,”  Former President Trump said. “With the help of  many of the people here tonight in recent years, our movement has taken incredible strides, the strides you’ve made here is incredible.”

Throughout the evening, speakers praised Trump for his embrace of the gay  community. They credited him for his initiatives to combat the criminalization of homosexuality, his work pushing for public heath initiatives to combat the HIV epidemic, and for appointing the first openly homosexual Cabinet member, Ric Grenell, as DNI, Director of National Intelligence.

Trump hosts gay Republicans at Mar-a-Lago

In fairness, Trump didn’t mention Sleepy Joe’s law attempting to enshrine homosexual marriage into federal law, but it was enough of an issue that Politico called the party “a celebration of the same-sex marriage law”.

Next up is Amy Grant.

Seems Amy has thrown in the towel on the Bible being the highest authority in her life. Instead, she has thrown in with the rainbow people and made love—however pervertedly you wish to define it—as the highest value in life. Rev Franklin Graham has taken her to task over this, but shouldn’t her local pastor be leading the charge on the issue? Well local pastors did so well with Covid, by comparison this issue should be a sinch since its specifically condemned in the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, but sadly let’s get back to reality. Here’s the meat of the story.

Upon learning that her niece declared her sexuality, Grant openly said her reaction was: “What a gift to our whole family to just widen the experience of our whole family.” “Honestly, from a faith perspective, I do always say, ‘Jesus, you just narrowed it down to two things: love God and love each other,'” Grant said. “I mean, hey — that’s pretty simple.”

In 2013, Grant did her first interview for PrideSource.com, an LGBT news website, where she shared her views on faith and LGBT issues.

“I know that the religious community has not been very welcoming, but I just want to stress that the journey of faith brings us into community, but it’s really about one relationship. The journey of faith is just being willing and open to have a relationship with God. And everybody is welcome. Everybody,” Grant said.

The wife and Christian singer also told “Proud Radio” host Hunter Kelly last year about why it’s important for her to set a “welcome table.” Grant stated that she was invited to a “table where someone said, ‘Don’t be afraid, you’re loved.’ Gay. Straight. It does not matter.”

“[It] doesn’t matter how we behave. It doesn’t matter how we’re wired,” Grant said, according to Church Leaders. “We’re all our best selves when we believe to our core: ‘I’m loved.’ And then our creativity flourishes. We’re like, ‘I’m gonna arrange flowers on your table and my table.’ When we’re loved, we’re brave enough to say yes to every good impulse that comes to us.”

Franklin Graham responds to Amy Grant’s plan to host lesbian wedding: Don’t ‘compromise’ God’s authority

Boy, Amy sure seems to have lost her way. Sadly, she’s not the only one. Enabling people on the way to hell by cheering them on in their spiritual darkness is a much different proposition from warning them of their peril and telling them to turn from the wrath to come.

I have friends that know Amy personally but until I read about Graham taking her to task, I had no idea she was so immersed in heresy and compromise on this clearly stated Scriptural teaching.

Amy once did a song about “love will find a way” but if that Way is not to the Cross then its in vain.

Naiveté like you read about

Had a client of mine come in this week; specifically, to chat about his 22-year-old son.  This son has had 5 moving violation/accidents in 3 years of driving.  The average is about 1 incident per decade by the way.  So as you can imagine his insurance is very expensive and the parents have been paying it.  Usually when you encounter this, it’s the parents saying “get Jr. off my policy, he is too expensive” or they grin and bear it while paying.  In this case they wanted to keep the cost the same, make excuses for Jr. and try to get us to find a solution.

It was insane. The father (the one who came into my office) complained how his son has not worked for over 4 years.  He then circled back with “He has a job with Vector but I do not know what he does.”  He says the company is so secretive his son never talks about it, but he works from home.  Obviously, my BS sensors went off quickly, so I Googled them.  Vector marketing…LOL its CUTCO knives.  AKA an MLM Pyramid scheme.  So much so a link provided on their website explains how Vector is not a scam. 

El Oh El!

So, Jr. got a sales job with a pyramid scheme company.  His son, according to his dad when he confronted him, could not produce a pay stub (what are those?) so he doesn’t believe him.  Well Vector makes all of its money off new recruits, not so much actual sales.  The new recruits like his son pay a fee, and then get told, “Here’s your knives. Go get it.”  MLM pyramid schemes are famous for marketing to young people and single mothers.

Enough about scams.

Don’t let your son be a “meathead”.

He went on that his son is a good kid, but smokes weed with his buddies every night after he and his wife go to sleep.  They sneak off to a local park and basically eat all the snack food, and smoke weed.  This seems to be normal behavior for these types.  He spends a late night out and sleeps till around noon.  The parents can’t figure out what gives, and he is unmotivated.  They speak of how he plays video games all hours of the day, but again he is a hard worker and a good kid. 

They kept saying how can we help motivate him.

My thoughts were simple, lay out all of his “costs” i.e., insurance, car payment, phone plan, gym, etc. and make it known if you want this lifestyle, he needs to contribute.  He shot that down saying he tells his kid he we’ll pay till age 26.  So, I guess Jr. has 4 more years of freeloading?

Fatal Error

Archie and the “Meathead”

My business partner said he has a son just like this other fellow’s son, problem is the correct word would be “had” not “has.”  Make no mistake the son is still alive but he has been making a great living for the last 23 years, he was also 22 when he experienced this growth.  The error is now the client felt he was “on a journey” with my business partner.

The client continued to filibuster, and as far as I am concerned, hope is lost.  He wants to be a “cool parent” not a father.  He just doesn’t want to admit it.  Allowing your adult child to sneak out of the house, engage in drug type behavior (I don’t care that CA legalized it) while living in your house is dumb.  It’s your house not theirs.  As far as work goes; if they don’t want to work, they pay rent or move out.  Sorry, this is not a vacation resort, restaurant, nor a hotel.  At a certain point, you must be a parent again, even if the kid is 22.  He lacks motivation and is gaming you.  Sorry, not to be mean, but every move you make, he is 3 steps ahead.

Get a job……Got one at a MLM deal that doesn’t pay

Get your own bills paid for yourself…..sorry I’m good till 26, your words pops.

If you don’t put your foot down, the kids don’t grow.

I can guarantee this kid aint doin nuthin until 26, and calls his father’s bluff, his father won’t budge.  Book it!

Johnnie Does

California’s Employment Development Disaster Continues

I’ve worked at the agency that is the posterchild of government waste, fraud, and fiduciary abuse for almost two years now. This agency is not only irredeemably broken but it’s so far down the sewer (or rabbit hole) depending on which metaphor you wish to employ that it seems beyond reform.

Here is a partial list of systemic problems that no one seems interesting in fixing.

First and foremost, old claims never die, they simply loose their appeal. What I mean by this is that both the claimant—person that filed the claim—or any random staff person at EDD can revive a claim, no matter how old. Like your stereotypical B Movie, there is really no such thing as a dead claim. There is always room for a sequel. I have seen claims as old as ten years be brought back to life again either at the request of staff or the claimant. Claims that died due to lack of authentic documents or California wages years ago are routinely appealed and benefits rewarded. Often these claims were filed with forged documents and when denied, the fraudster simply submits more and different fraudulent documents to someone different and if persistent enough, they often are rewarded not for honesty but for perseverance.

The bureaucratic vehicle for successful fraud is often via the ALJ-Administrative Law Judge. If a claim is denied for whatever reason, it can be appealed to the Administrative Law Judge where a person can try again to become eligible for benefits. The ALJ will accept new documents not previously submitted to the agency. This in theory is OK because some folks need a second chance to get a claim properly submitted. Think of people in public school that can only eek-out a C minus if the class is graded on a curve. These folks can’t abide by the normal rules and need extra babying or babysitting to get to the correct result. This is likely why they are unemployed in the first place. Following certain societal rules is necessary for getting and maintaining a job and some folks just can’t cut it without extra help.

The problem with that ALJ system is that they never check any documents. They do not verify Social Security Numbers. They do not verify Drivers License Numbers. They do not verify U.S. Passports. They do not verify any documents submitted to them at all. Oh, and everything submitted to them is photocopies or scanned. Furthermore, they do not verify if applicant ever lived or worked in California.

Worse yet, if EDD staff flags something as fraudulent, the ALJ will often ignore their findings.

Doubly worse is that any documents submitted at an ALJ hearing are purposely kept from EDD staff in the Identity Unit. Thus, the people charged with verifying the authenticity of documents have zero input to evaluate the authenticity of new documents presented at an ALJ hearing.

In cases where the fraudulent claim uses the same documents found in the initial application process, ALJ judges have often excoriated EDD staff for not accepting the forged documents as part of their decision to approve claims for people that don’t deserve them. The ALJ judge is often busy grading the quality of art work done on Photoshop and not interested in looking too hard for the veracity of the documents.

The Identity Unit is not formally trained on what to look for when it come to fraud. There are no master or example documents that we know are correct to use to compare with stuff submitted by claimants. The only advice some are given is look up such and such a document on the Internet and compare that to what you were sent. FYI most of what you see on the Internet are forgeries, so this advice is worse that worthless.

For example, try looking up a U.S. Passport on the Internet under images. Most of what you see in this search are fakes, some better than others. If I want to evaluate a passport, I need to get mine out of my fireproof lockbox and compare it to the scanned copy that I’m looking at as part of someone’s application for benefits. Ditto for a California Driver License—except that there are multiple versions, some of which I’ve never seen before.

Different staff are given limited tools to verify certain documents, but these tools are not all equal. Counting me, there are three in my working group and each of us has a different software package for checking the same identity documents. Each software varies in the detail that can be researched.

This is the next issue with EDD and that is that a myriad of different software is used by the department. None of these programs can talk with each other and all serve different functions. As with all California’s government agencies, the backbone of the department’s automation is still the Unix systems that were brought online in the 1980’s. I would guess that about two dozen different programs are used daily by various parts of the agency.

California claims to be the technology capital of the world but has the worst and most archaic computers around.  There is talk of wanting to modernize, whatever that may be, but whatever they decide to do, you know it will be fraught with waste, fraud, abuse, and delays. Also, it will cost several times whatever the winning bid will be. Think, costs of hi speed rail over time.

So, if you’re handy with Photoshop, have lots of free time, and don’t mind shopping on the “dark web” for identity information, you too can join the California gold rush. California’s EDD, where you get money for nothin’ and your checks for free. Multiple entries do increase your chances of winning.

Folks, I’m glad I’m leaving there in seven weeks.

PS I think the ALJ (and the Department) are inclined to ignore identity documents in part because Newsom and the boys at the “bill mill” don’t want to be accused of excluding illegal immigrants from cashing in. Today’s recipients are tomorrow’s Democrat voters.

The New Garbage System in Elk Grove

Folks this year in January a new law went into effect, under the old law we had 3 “Toter garbage cans” one for garbage (brown) one for recycling (Green) and one for green waste (light green).  The garbage can was serviced every week, with the other cans rotating every other week.  The Toter cans were pretty sturdy, made in Mexico and held up pretty well under the test of time.  Here in the central valley of California, it is also north of 100 degrees for months on end.

The new law sees the replacement of the Toter’s with what I call cheap Chinese crap plastic cans.  Seriously I doubt these things will hold up very well and I may be replacing them annually with new ones.  I have a feeling someone in Sacramento (lawmaker) has a family member who owns the company that makes these and used the new law as a vehicle to get $$$.  My other issue with these new cans is the color scheme completely changed.  The trash cart is now black, which I guess makes sense.  The recycle cart is now blue, and the organics (replaces yard waste) is green.

The system works basically the same, but I do have a question, this was billed as a green, better for the environment system, but is it?  The new organics cart now is for yard waste and table scraps; think bones, salad etc.  So basically, anything you previously put in the garbage disposal.  This cart will also be serviced weekly, so now every other week 3 trucks will have to be on the road.  Keep in mind these garbage trucks are a massive apparatus and do not run-on electricity.  I do not see how having a truck on the road every 2 weeks is somehow saving the environment. 

An additional observation of mine, according to the nosy neighbor app, folks have gotten vermin, and maggots in their organics can because of intermixing the food scraps and yard waste, who would have thunk it right?  The cans also do not look like they will hold up to our 100-degree summers. 

Perhaps my biggest beef was in a mailer sent out to the entire populous. It specifically said your trash and organics cart will be inspected periodically to make sure you are in compliance.  Yep, we will now have city personnel inspecting your garbage and issuing a citation if you are not in compliance!  Just like in Berkeley. This law effects both the residential and commercial businesses.  As such the businesses near me got small organic carts that never have anything in them.  My point being people like myself are not able to compost or recycle as much as a business is.  The food scrap recycling?  If that even works, and I have my doubts, wouldn’t it be better to have restaurants all be required to get on board?  I would say the Brickhouse Restaurant near me likely would fill up a dumpster sized cart of just organic waste likely every other day.  Call me a skeptic of this.

Also, you may remember my blog stating the most recycling just goes into the dump anyway, this article I’m linking once again proves we were Really Right.

By the way, that’s a CBS article not some far right website on the internet.  Seems like a lot of energy is being put into recycling when it doesn’t seem to work.

The Troll