Mr. X – Page 2 – Really Right

Supreme Court Makeup is not Changing!

I am not sure what has become of the Democrat Party nationally. Ever since the election of President Trump, they have been on full tilt. Upon being elected, he chose Neil Gorsuch to replace the late Antonin Scalia to which the liberals cried foul, saying we should have seated Merrick Garland, an Obama nominee. Interesting, because all I heard about was we need to confirm Garland, nary a word about the makeup of the court. Oddly enough the makeup would be 5-4 liberal as opposed to the current 5-4 conservative majority.

So now Anthony Kennedy, the “swing justice”, has decided to retire and enter a different stage of his life, and Trump selected Brett Kavanaugh to replace him. Kavanaugh comes from the circuit court that interestingly has had the most judges selected for the Supreme Court. Also, he is Ivy league educated and was confirmed by a Senate majority with 57 in favor, versus 36 opposed. No doubt Kavanaugh is a conservative and had done some past work with Ken Starr regarding the impeachment of Bill Clinton, and the Florida re-count in 2000. Even before he was put up for nomination by the President, the Democrats went nuts. A pro-abortion group (or anti-life I guess) put out a press release but never replaced the *** with the name Brett Kavanaugh, this goes to show you no nominee was good enough.

Fill in Trump nominee name here From Jason Seher of CNN via Twitter

Trump once again stayed true to his word, and his campaign promises choosing a judge from his list of 25 names he felt were best to do the job. Isn’t that refreshing for once? A politician keeping his word? Nice work President Trump. Also, very smart to get the ball rolling on this quickly as we have an election coming up in November that could perhaps decide control of the Senate. 10 Democrat senators are up for re-election in states Trump won; 7 in states he won handily.

Now to the Democrat’s main argument that the makeup of the Supreme Court is changing, this is entirely false. The last few rulings signify this; we had a redistricting ruling, the Janus ruling, and immigration where Kennedy sided with the more conservative majority. The makeup of the court is not changing at all going from Kennedy to Kavanaugh, except perhaps on social issues; but I don’t think I would go that far. The point I’m trying to hammer home is there will always be a swing vote; once it was Sandra Day O’Connor, then it became Kennedy, next it will be John Roberts, etc. I still score the judge’s political leanings as 5-4 conservative leaning. If I were in charge of the Democrats, well first thing I would do is hang myself, if that didn’t suffice, then I would say vote your states and focus on re-election.

Kavanaugh is qualified and we will need all hands-on deck should Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s health fail. In any measure that matters, Ginsburg is now the swing justice. If something were to happen to her, that’s when the fight should happen. The Democrats could be staring at a 6-3 minority for a generation. Even worse, should Trump secure a 2nd term, Thomas could retire, and if he does you could have a 6-3 edge, but with the oldest judge being 70-year-old John Roberts. Yeah, scary, once again a generation or two will grow up under a conservative Supreme Court!

Most importantly the reason I supported Trump is verified daily, he has the Democrats running scared constantly. Trump is the total opposite of Barack Obama. Just look at how frazzled they are; literally they are reduced to attacking Mr. Kavanaugh’s first name. They are mocking the name “Brett” saying it’s a frat boy name. Yes, you read that right, his first name, by the way not chosen by him, given to him by his parents! That is the new level to which these bozo’s have decided to stoop too. Additionally, I love the idea of these Democrat aligned super PAC’s spending money telling sitting incumbent Democrats not to vote for Kavanaugh and to resist, even if it means losing your seat in November, you can’t make this stuff up.

Blog Father, I don’t know about you, but I’m getting tired of all this whining!

CRA Failed To Stop Trump Nominee

The call to action was apparently not answered; chalk this up as another failure from the CRA and its “leadership.” It is unknown at this time how many calls were made to the White House or to the congressional switchboard, but the effort was a failure none the less. Perhaps CRA President Thomas N Hudson is expecting too much from a membership composed mostly of geriatric white guys with arthritic fingers and rotary dial telephones. The bottom line is that Hudson put out an urgent call for action, but the membership failed to deliver.

Rumor has it the “Sith Lord” made many phone calls from both cell and landline phones, including his wife’s phone. As per usual, he was a good soldier in the effort. Perhaps he had his apprentice applicants make calls from the CRA call center since he is reluctant to put his actual name on anything except letters to the RNC opposing Douglas Ose. The “Drunken Jedi” was enjoying Happy Hour over the last 72 hours and as a result was in a normal state of inebriation, therefore no phone calls from him. The “Wookie” didn’t even know there was a vacancy on said Supreme Court because he thought the “Supreme Court” was a new item at Taco Bell in honor of the Sacramento Kings. Oh, by the way these are your three choices for President of CRA folks, just imagine the debates among these three; one is inept, one is clueless, and one is a psycho and I can’t figure out who is who!

CRA motivational flyer as seen at Stop Trump call center

Let’s just chalk this up as another embarrassing loss for the CRA and whatever is left of its membership. Membership is down substantially over the years, entire counties no longer have units, it’s just gawd awful what’s happened under the current board. This is exhibit A folks of what happens when you try to take stands against what the people actually want, and as a result, members have been fleeing this stumbling organization. Sadly, this group opposed Donald Trump every step of the way and honestly, most probably think there was collusion with Russia…nope. Blog Father and I have really right news for you….Trump will get re-elected in 2020. Here is my crying towel….womp womp!

That’s right folks, while most are celebrating a 5-4 conservative edge on the court, this band of losers wants Trump gone. Make no mistake about it, the nominee will easily clear 55 votes with at least four democrats voting to confirm. Yet still this band of losers can’t stand the man, thinking that one Theodore Cruz was unfairly denied the nomination. Maybe Trump wasn’t born here, and you guys can use that route to get him impeached? Never mind the fact if these idiots had their way it would be a 5-4 liberal edge on the court, thankfully the masses voted for Trump and it’s a moot point.

Serious analysis now; we can count on the “Sith Lord” to drum up opposition like he tried to against the nominee, despite remaining on the sidelines. Rumor has it his groin has been bothering him for straddling the political fence for almost 50 years. No word on the many dead carcasses of suicide bombers he has riled up over the years. The “Wookie” still thinks Barack Obama is our president and is in disbelief he would nominate 2 conservatives to the court. Much like the Sith Lord, he still thinks Ted Cruz is up for president in November. The “drunken Jedi” was asked for comment but his commentary was undecipherable due to the fact it was not certain which was higher his BAC of the percentage of votes Travis Allen got for Governor. He said something along the lines of he wasn’t sure that it was absolutely Absolut, I guess a reference to Vodka.

But here is a win for the CRA, a photo of Theodore Cruz, and in the words of Frankie Vallie and the 4 seasons….”Can’t take my eyes off of you!”

Until Next time,

“X”

When a Corporation has no Ideas

Campbell’s Soup is probably the second worst run organization in the country right now, CRA being #1. However, Campbell’s situation is fixable, not so much for the CRA.

Some background first, Campbell’s Soup Company owns many brands including; the namesake soup line, Pepperidge Farm, Prego, Pace, V8, and Goldfish among others. The problem is that these brands are all “center of the store” items that have been experiencing little to no growth over the last decade. Consumer tastes have been changing. People are not reaching for canned soup much anymore since the economy has improved and we are not in a recession. The fact that a can of soup might cost you $3 doesn’t help either. For not much more, I can get the Hungry Man dinner and be full after eating it.

As a result, Campbell’s CEO Denise Morrison, who is by far the most incompetent person leading any organization now except maybe ESPN, went on a buying spree to try to save face and earn goodwill with shareholders.

Denise Morrison, shopping ‘til her company stock dropped

In a little over a decade Campbell bought; Plum Organics (2013), Bolthouse Farms a carrot growing company (2012), Kelsen Group baked goods (2013), Garden Fresh Gourmet salsa line (2015), and many other lesser known companies. Here is the issue with all these acquisitions, Plum Organics is an organic line of baby food and salad dressing, and there is much competition in this space. Bolthouse is a yogurt and Salad dressing line, again major competition, but also they own a carrot farm for producing baby carrots, my question here is why? You’re a canned goods company not a carrot growing company! Kelsen baked goods isn’t going to move the needle much sales wise and they are far more popular overseas than in the US. Garden Fresh also made very little sense, you already own Pace salsa line, now you are adding a little known organic salsa line? Again why?

Maybe Morrison should start by getting the carrots out of her ears. These acquisitions show a Board of Directors and Executive out of step with changing trends in a shrinking industry. However, this wasn’t the last acquisition this desperate company pulled off. In a quest to ensure their bonuses and stock options vest, Denise Morrison pulled off the most idiotic acquisition in a long while buying Snyder’s-Lance for 6.1 billion (2017). Synder’s is the maker of pretzels, potato chips, Emerald Nuts, and Pop Secret popcorn. I call this a horrible acquisition because none of those brands except maybe Emerald are desirable. As far as potato chips go; Kettle Brand, Cape Cod and Jay’s are ok, but Frito Lay owns the whole aisle! Pop Secret? I’m not sure how large the market is for popcorn, but I cannot see this being the answer to all that ails Campbell. Basically, Campbell panicked and overpaid for a very average company whose brands are at best number 2 or 3 in their respective categories. Basically what I am saying here is why grab a bag of Cape Cod when you can buy Ruffles or Tostitos? The acquisition was completed, and the results were um… yeah.. just as most expected.

The company booked a $393 million-dollar loss one quarter after closing on the Synder’s-Lance deal, and that wasn’t even the most disastrous thing that happened that day. CEO Denise Morrison unexpectedly “retired.” Give their earning, this was expected. These CEO types who are used to living a privileged life hate when things don’t go their way and as a result take the easy way out. These thin-skinned types do not care much for adversity (much like Congressional Republican leadership). Golden Parachutes have their privileges as long as they’re used before the stuff really hits the fan.

Morrison was vicious as far as layoffs go, closing 2 plants during her tenure, one of which being in Blog Father’s backyard, Sacramento. Morrison knew she couldn’t do anything more for the company short of euthanizing it and took the weasel way out; thus, leaving the chair of the board and her CFO Anthony DeSilvestro to take the heat on the quarterly conference call. DiSilvestro I’m convinced is Dilbert from the comic strip in human form…not talking about the smartest person here. Not to be undone, Morrison nominated herself for sainthood on the way out, saying her acquisitions are paving the way for a bright future at the company…of course what was she supposed to say? By the way, the new interim CEO has essentially put the company up for sale and they are looking for either a buyer for parts of the company or the whole thing.

Here is the bottom line and the biggest issue, Campbell’s made a fatal mistake going on a buying spree trying to make their company something it was not. Legacy Campbell’s is a preservative loaded canned soup, salsa, and sauces business. This type of business throws-off lots of free cash to be reinvested into the business, pay down debt, or be returned to shareholders. There is nothing wrong with this type of business. Tastes may change over time but if you’re feeling ill, Campbell’s chicken noodle soup would usually do the trick. However, instead of sticking with what they know, Campbell’s tried to become a trendy, fresh, farm to fork type company and failed badly. They are a canned and packaged goods company. They tried to grow carrots, but this division has lost millions over the past 3 years. The fresh salsa, salad dressings etc. have had the same fate. Now the company finds itself in a pickle after yet another ill-fated acquisition.

Here is my solution.

Keep the soup business. This is your namesake and legacy product. Sell the carrot farm and the fresh salsa and salad dressing business, this is not your core. Keep Pace and Prego as they are also your legacy and very well known. Dump Pepperidge Farms and most of the Synder’s-Lance business. Sadly, this is never going to pan out, way too much competition in that space.

This is where the problem lies with my solution, no one really wants those spare parts. The only answer is to call a company like Kraft-Heinz and see if they will buy you outright.

Could the struggling Campbell Soup Co. have a suitor?

The Kraft Heinz Co. (NASDAQ: KHC) is reportedly interested in buying Campbell Soup Co. (NYSE: CPB), according to the New York Post, citing sources familiar with the matter.

Report: Three months after Snyder’s-Lance purchase, troubled Campbell Soup may have suitor

Sadly, a debt laden dinosaur with no vision won’t attract many buyers. Inept management does this to a great company. I have a feeling the company won’t exist independently much longer. Campbell’s too big to fail strategy and move to get hip and trendy has utterly imploded. As a show of good faith to shareholders, fire that Dilbert look alike. Oh, and lastly, if things get really bad and there’s anything worth salvaging, look for Uncle Pennybags to show-up at the fire sale to liquidate the carcass.

CRA Urgent Call to Action!

This communique just in…

PRIVILEGED COMMUNICATION
EYES ONLY
28 JUN 2018

President Hudson wants everyone to know the Board of Directors put out an urgent call for help yesterday due to the dramatic event of a Supreme Court Justice retiring. The retirement took everyone by surprise, however we must resist the notion Trump could appoint someone not named Ted Cruz! So we need a swift call to action, every member of CRA, grab your twitter account, or even create a burner account if need be, and tweet relentlessly at the President @Potus & @RealDonaldTrump. This seems to be the best way of reaching him, you could also call the White House directly. Tell Donald Trump, no more squishy RINO Neil Gorsuch types, we want a red blooded American whose love for Country supersedes all….Ted Cruz.

Ted Cruz—American needs you more than ever

Also call your Senators, Dianne Feinstein and Kamala Harris and make sure they know that you stand with them in regard to blocking any Trump nominee that isn’t Ted Cruz! These are trying times for our country and we can leave little to chance. Also let us all call Ted Cruz as well to make sure he is fully on board, block any nominee that isn’t himself! Or as we no longer CRA members call it, just continue voting no on everything.

Again this is not a test, this is a stage 5 crisis!

The CRA Killed Itself

As has been chronicled on this blog many times, I left the CRA a while ago. I watched it single handedly devolve into something that I no longer recognized. Barbara Alby (rest in peace) and her minions have destroyed any chance this group has of ever being viable again. I will lay all this out for you, but the CRA was at one time a growing organization that did have quite a bit of clout within the party and the endorsement was coveted, not an afterthought as it is now.

You see Alby and her minions introduced and elevated “scorched earth tactics.” If you’re not with us you’re against us. Alby went one step beyond others and put the whole thing in terms of a spiritual battle between the light and darkness.
Think Frank E. Peretti’s This Present Darkness.

Alby got into power and then pushed out all of her opponents. This initial purge resulted in the formation of the California Congress of Republicans (CCR). Keep in mind that many of these people did not differ much on policy. On the whole, it was purely due to the fact that they did not have allegiance to Alby and company. Over the years, other leaders came and went. The group tried to regain its footing many times but continued to bleed members.

In 2011, you had the infamous Celeste Greig vs Karen England smackdown. Again, the losing side being wiped out of CRA entirely, many with lifetime bans. During this struggle, the Park Brothers began to take over the group, coalescing power, and just like that, George Park Jr became the defacto leader. Think the Trojan Horse that appeared a gift but was really an unmitigated disaster. I say Park was the leader because John Briscoe was just a useless puppet very similar to Bill Cardoza. Once again it was jihad time against their own membership, people were again purged for the soul fact they were not ideologically pure enough.

Then a movement to oust the Parks happened and CRA once again cleansed itself of people who were not worthy. Well not really, the current President was best friends with said Park brothers. Naturally he shielded them from any criticism. Meanwhile, the rank and file were told Craig Alexander was preparing a large lawsuit to recoup damages. The legal action never happened and Craig hasn’t been seen in years. The Placer County Mafia sticks together and protects their own.

As for as the characters running for next CRA president? I have no real opinion, but if there was a “none of the above” I’d vote that way. Also, they have thinned their ranks so badly that no one wants to join the group either. In less than three decades, CRA has lost 99 percent of their membership going from 80,000 to 800. Last I checked, entire counties do not have any active units! Sad! However, that’s ok because the only members left all think the same on policy and ideologically.

I remember the good old days of having endorsement conventions and crossing swords with people only to go out for a bite to eat or a drink afterwards, but those days are long gone. The battles now go bone-deep with some friends being lost forever; causalities of a war for purity that no one can win. Some of these battles we fight internally are the equivalent of Jihad. Barbara Alby taught us well in the ways of scorched earth and Jihad.

I remember when getting picked for the endorsement convention used to mean something. All it means now is a meaningless meeting on a Saturday which in most cases involves considering the merits of the only Republican in the race. The endorsement is so worthless that the candidate (whoever he/she may be) doesn’t even bother to show up. Yet somehow the delegates in attendance turn the meeting into a 3 hour BS fest complete with people needing to get on their soap box; each in turn beating their chest and promising that the good old days of Ronald Reagan could be right around the corner. This is why some units don’t send anyone at all, because no one wants to go, yet the CRA leadership doesn’t see it that way. Now the group is filled with nothing but policy wonks and people that want to have fights about Roberts Rules or whether someone is really a Republican or if they are a plant. No current member of the Board knows how to fix this mess.

Then witness the endorsing of Ted Cruz. I was there when a motion was made to consider Donald Trump. You could hear the groans. Delegates were horrified that they should even be considering the one person who had a chance to be nominated by the Republican Party. Mind you that Trump had all but secured the nomination when CRA took this vote. CRA was ground zero of the NeverTrumpers. CRA endorsed Ted on the first ballot with over 80 percent of the vote, which is about how big Trump’s victory was when California voters had their say.

This year, the CRA couldn’t endorse John Cox, they instead chose Travis Allen. Allen finished fourth. 90 percent of Republicans voted for another candidate. CRA endorsed candidates are getting destroyed at the ballet box year after year. This illustrates how out of touch this group is. In many races, the Green Party guys get more votes than CRA’s candidate. This is why no one wants to join. You have kicked out every sensible, fair-minded person. Occasionally CRA will pick-up a single-issue voter that wants to kill Common Core, repeal the Federal Reserve, call a Constitutional Convention, or enact the State of Jefferson.

How would I fix CRA? Close the door and shut off the lights.

In all seriousness, here are my suggestions but don’t expect them to be listened to or considered.
• I would rename the group and adopt a new logo; the current name and logo are very stale and could use a refresh.
• Stop kicking out members because you don’t believe identically on every issue. Purging 99 percent of the membership is proof you need work in this area.
• Stop having board meetings in seclusion and making people drive all over the State to attend. Conduct business over a conference call or Skype. Open them to the public and add some transparency.
• Keep the meetings, including the regular meetings short and to the point. No more two-hour, long-winded sessions. You are running off members. No one cares to hear about your car ride to the board meeting. Tell us what happened in a short synopsis.
• Restructure the entire board and put the power down at the grassroots level. Allow new units without red tape. Reward recruitment and grant breaks on dues owed the parent organization.
• Have a strategic plan and stick to it. Stop being wishy washy.
• Move your endorsement calendar up so as to avoid embarrassment.
• Remove rogue, alcoholic board members. This should go without saying, but actually do it.
• Don’t give us rhetoric but no action to match it.
• Do a deep dive on units who have had the same president for over a decade, there is something inherently wrong there.

Respectfully submitted in a spirit of charity,

“X”

Editor Note: Below is list of splinter groups formed as result of being purged from CRA.

California Congress of Republicans founded 1989

Conservative Republicans of California founded 2011

Impact Republicans founded 2015

The CRA Decides to Leave CA

It was a rough week for the CRA. The Blogfather and myself have beaten them up so badly regarding their worthless endorsement process. With Theodore Cruz announcing he won’t challenge Trump in the 2020 primary there is nothing left for this group to do. As a sidebar tedcruz2020.com is now a worthless domain name that CRA bought.

That being said we have live footage of the CRA leaving the state…..

More horrific footage can be seen here

Disclaimer: any resemblance to Dr. Who’s Tardis and the vehicle shown in this video is coincidental. Author does not mean to imply that CRA can travel thru time and space. Rumors that Ted Cruz was the sole occupant and in the midst of changing into his super suit in an attempt to save CRA at the time said object entered orbit are unsubstantiated. No small animals were harmed in the filming of this incident.

As you can see the CRA left in 2 different but distinct ways. First, they departed this state by spraying a fine mist of odious liquid on the common-sense folk. The second attempt at leaving resulting in an outright dumping on the unsuspecting masses.

Please Ling Ling Chang run for governor in 4 years and put this group out of its misery. This group has literally nothing to cling to anymore.

Til next time,

PS cranking out content on a Sunday! Respect the hustle. Take a report CRA
#metoo
#Jenniferanniston
#mygirlattheburritobar

Let’s Check in on ESPN

It’s been a while since I lit up the “worldwide leader” so I figured I’ll update you all on the goings on. First of all the President of the company, no CRA folks it’s not Donald Trump, but Johnny Skipper, abruptly resigned and admitted he had a cocaine addiction. Actually he said he only bought drugs once, and his dealer apparently was trying to extort money from him. Yes, that sounds really believable Mr. Skipper, I guess you just casually strolled down a street, found a nice looking guy and asked if you could try a little nasal dust. Lucky for you, Obamacare (which your boss Bob Iger supports so much) forces your insurance company to pay for rehab, so now junkies like you get to eat, sleep and probably keep doing blow on the taxpayer’s dime! Likely, ol’ Johnny was doing blow on the payers for a while!

First of all, I kind of feel sorry for him. He’s not just ugly, he’s circus ugly, were talkin’ like James Carville level ugly.

Actually a better comp would be Judge Doom from Who Framed Roger Rabbit ugly.

Seriously I hope he gets the help he needs and gets off the booger sugar. Worse yet, Skipper was the one who fired all of those poor employees at ESPN last year. Wanna take bets he was high out of his mind or on a bender? Maybe that explains why that Howdy Doody looking bozo still works there? Maybe he was Skipper’s coke dealer?

A few other quick notes; the two race baiting low life wanna be Al Sharpton’s; Michael Smith and Jemile Hill (I know its Jamele but Rev Al pronounces it that way and I don’t want to have to go on his show to apologize) were both demoted and no longer have a show. Not like it’s a big loss. The ratings for that show were so low, old Billy Mays infomercials hocking Oxyclean had more viewers. By the way, rest in peace Billy, you always were hocking a new item it seemed like every month. They replaced Smith and Hill with Keith Olbermann, nothing says you don’t have a political agenda when you hire him. Olbermann was such a success at MSNBC they didn’t renew his contract. Olbermann’s career can best be described as “failing upwards.”

Keith Olbermann ~~sports pundit~~ ~~political pundit~~ sports pundit

Finally if you remember all of the layoffs ESPN has had over the past 2 years, (the number is over 500 by the way) they put that savings to work in the worst way possible, they created a new morning show. The cost of just the three hosts of the show is 15 million per year, and none of them have any talent. Mike Greenberg knows nothing about sports and is trying to make the show like Good Morning America. I thought maybe working at a sports channel may require sports knowledge, but I guess it just gives Greenberg more chances to bash Trump. Jalen Rose, a former NBA star is actually really good, too bad his talents are wasted next to Greenberg. Speaking of wasted, that describes what Michelle Beadle is most known for in her career. Beadle was made famous by shouting “I just want to get laid” after a long night of drinking and partying at an ESPN party after the ESPY Awards. (No word on whether she got her wish.)

Michelle Beadle auditioning for a ride home
(note empty bottles of adult beverages in background)

These after parties are famous, and details have leaked out continuously that drugs and alcohol flow freely, so Skipper was most definitely there! This morning show “Get UP” averages 300k viewers on a good day, which if you are wondering, those are really bad numbers. But carry on ESPN, keep talking about why NFL players should kneel, Trump, etc. Seems to be working out really well.

I admit this was a little harsh but we like dancing on peoples graves here!

Editor’s Note: While X seems to have it in for old white guys with no hair (at least in this post), he has assured me that this is just coincidence and he really does like bald guys like Patrick Stewart and Bruce Willis.

California Republicans Continue to Fail

The Republican Party in California is dying a very slowly painful death by 10,000 cuts and they have no one to blame but themselves. The CRA is the main culprit in this…..remember they are the conscious of the party! Think about it, the CRA didn’t even offer token opposition years ago when the State Party was going to change their platform on same sex marriage. Actually I remember seeing some CRA members, and some in leadership actively campaigning to support the platform change. So much for being the conscious of the party, just like the national party under Bush, you decided to play nice and it cost you at the ballot box.

Same thing is happening in Southern California, the groups down there were so incensed by Janet Nguyen, Ling Ling Chang and Young Kim winning Assembly and Senate seats that they made sure that two of them did not get re-elected later. Yes, you read that correctly, because of a couple bad votes, the CRA wouldn’t endorse Janet Nguyen or Ling Ling Chang and as a result, we lost the ability to stop tax increases and gave the other side a super majority. And raise taxes they did, the newly elected Senator Josh Newman voted along with several Republican colleagues to raise the gas tax to fund “transportation projects” also known as the Bullet Train. Once again the CRA took no stand against any of the seven Republicans who voted for it, likely they endorsed their re-election as well. Because hey, we need to play nice and it’s only a few dollars extra added to fill your tank up with gas. This is another reason the party is failing, they usually campaign and win on the issue of taxes, but if you support higher taxes and a majority of your rank-and-file go for it, is there really any difference between the parties?

California Republican Assembly sinking to the depths of oblivion

Now about the recall election of Josh Newman that took place last week. Please don’t gloat too much CRA rank-and-file because your organization did nothing to lead this battle. Mostly because Ling Ling Chang, there’s that name again, got elected to replace him. The effort was led by Carl Demaio and a host of southern California radio hosts who had finally had enough of the steaming pile of B.S. being pushed by your organization. The recall passed with 59%, you were once again on the wrong side of a result, maybe Ling Ling endorsed Trump? I would love to hear the spin doctor try to spin this one, lol.

While you are at it, maybe have your fellow elected and endorsed Republicans explain this comment by Newman;

“It saddens me, colleagues, Republican colleagues, that despite all your nice…words, not a single one of you had the integrity, the decency or the courage to stand up and say…‘this is wrong. This is an abuse of the recall process.” URL: Recalled Democratic senator condemns GOP in defiant speech

Think about that and let it set in for a moment. This now recalled Senator is basically saying to the opposition party, you guys supported me behind the scene, how come your didn’t come out publicly? Where are the conservatives in the party? Where is the CRA? Like usual, nowhere to be found. Maybe that’s why registered Republicans are now the 3rd political preference after Democrat and Decline to State?

Lastly, maybe you should take a long hard look in the mirror regarding your so called “conservative credentials”; especially, seeing that your group almost always winds up endorsing the most liberal candidate under the guise of “only they can win the seat.”

Until next time,

When CALPERS Owns Your City

First some history. CALPERS (California Public Employees Retirement System) is for civil service (Union) employees at state, county and local levels; excluding teachers as they have a separate pension provider. California also has one of the most generous pension formulas in the entire country, even with the recent changes enacted by Supreme Ayatollah Jerry Brown. (Note that the State’s pension reforms are not retroactive but only affect new hires.)

In California we have a defined benefit plan, meaning we use a calculation that comes up with an amount of money that the retiree will get monthly for the rest of their life.

Defined Contribution
In the “real world”, you might have four percent of your wages set aside in a 401K or other pension plan. Then your employer will kick in an additional amount, say two percent. Whatever you manage to squirrel away in your working years is yours to live off of in retirement. This is called defined contribution.

Defined Benefit
The amount taken from a state employee’s check has nothing to do with the amount they get in retirement. As long as a state retiree draws breath, he draws a pension.

Example. You start at 25 years old and work until 55 years old. 30 (years of service) times 2% equals 60%. You get 60% of your highest year base salary as your pension. If your highest base was 100K you now get 60K to do nothing. They usually have a cost of living increase every year as well.

URL: What does 2% @ 55 Mean?

Here is an actual table from CalPers showing how it works:
URL: CalPERS Tier 1

If you have completed 20 years of state service then government also pays your medical insurance.

FYI: State workers can also collect Social Security but in most cases teachers cannot.

Thus if you make $6K monthly, have worked for 20 years, and retire at age 55, you get $2,400 for the rest of you days. If you live to 90, that’s $1,008,000 plus medical and Social Security!

It is not uncommon for many civil servants to retire at between ages 50-55 because “they make more money retired than still working” because retirement checks can be more than net pay while working. Couple that with life expectancy which until recently is getting longer and longer and it’s no wonder that some workers are collecting pension checks for longer than their number of years worked. The system was not designed to work this way. Worse yet, the generation currently entering retirement years—the generation age 50 and up—are doing everything in their power to destroy future generations long after they die. I will outline this below.

Games People Play
Gaming the overtime system, is a big part of the pension issue. This abuse is most prevalent with prison guards and public safety workers. Between having a colleague call-in sick or not being at work because they are enjoying the generous vacation policy while feeding at the government trough, those that wish, have abundant opportunities to work overtime shifts. Some more egregious examples in recent media reports include a BART janitor sleeping in a closet while claiming he works 20 hour shifts and CalFire firefighters that claim to work several days straight when in reality they were drinking and partying it up while on duty! No one seems to miss a chance to game the system.

Oh by the way, when a union renegotiates its contract with the state, or any other municipality, it frequently includes retroactive pay and bonuses for its members.

Other cases include: applying for the same job in a more expensive area (think the bay area or coast) to get a major salary boost for the sole purpose of juicing your pension by an extra $400 or so a month! This is known as pension spiking.

My personal favorite, promoting a colleague who intends to retire in a couple years, but due to his accrual of 999 days of sick leave he continues “working” by calling out sick for 3 years. Nice gig if you can get it. This cheating is very widespread, it’s going on everywhere. There are quite a few more stories but it sounds like there is more juicing going on in the public worker sector than in all of Major League Baseball during the 2000’s.

Pension Crisis in a Nutshell
This gets me to the meat and potatoes of this blog. If your city, municipality, county, transportation agency, etc. belongs to CALPERS then they have to pay a set amount of money annually into the pension fund to cover the costs of their retirees. For most of these municipalities, those costs are somewhat manageable right now, accounting for roughly 10% of their annual budgets. Again, I said somewhat because in 2023 it will balloon to 18% of their total budgets with the increases CALPERS is charging them to participate.

This will become an even bigger issue at some point. Right now we are in a period of economic growth—even though wages aren’t growing—but what happens when we have a major recessionary event? One that lasts several years, like during the Bush/Obama years? My main cause for sounding the alarm now is that cities are already claiming to be strapped for funding to do even basic things like road work. Have you seen a government entity’s pay scale? Guess what? It’s nothing like the private sector; every single year you get an increase, with its steps and columns. In addition to great salary, and benefits, when was the last time the government actually laid off any workers? (Hearing crickets) In the private sector as has been detailed here and elsewhere, when your company has a bad quarter, a percentage of the workforce is terminated.

Again, we have current and future pension funding issues and the number of government workers and retirees continues to grow not shrink. Just think about it. When President Obama or Governor Brown talked about creating jobs, it was the government sector that they were growing most.

Is There Hope
Now how to combat this issue? Well honestly there is no attainable answer. The problem is the unions along with local and state politicians control everything about this. As we have chronicled before, government doesn’t even show future pension obligations on their financial statements. They only care about the current fiscal year. This is GAAP accounting for government entities. Want to change the contribution amounts for state workers? Meet the same fate Gov. Arnold did, when his special election propositions went down in flames. (This election is what caused Arnold to reject any pretense of Republican values.) Try to raise the contribution by the worker by just half a percent, the union and the workers will literally scream bloody murder. If you are a Democrat politician and you try to change the rules for retiree pension plans, may God have mercy on your soul (if you are a believer) because you will most certainly be on the receiving end of several million dollars in attack ads aiding your opponent next election.

Since nothing gets done at the elected level, cities and interest groups choose to push through initiatives for sales tax increases. These increases are packaged and pushed as “we need to hire more police” or “The District Attorney won’t prosecute low level crimes without this tax hike.” This is baloney, because the government doesn’t follow through at all. They use a straw man argument to play to your emotions to get you to agree to a tax hike that funds legacy pension costs. My understanding from the Blog Father is Sacramento County tried to do this with Measure B, the sales tax to fix and repair roads, it BARELY failed at the ballot box. CRA didn’t take a stand on this by the way. (Note: CRA contacted me via the Sith Lord and said they took offense at this remark by Mr. X and did vote to oppose Measure M. I know that CRA never submitted a ballot argument against Measure M but I did.—editor)

My point is they play to your emotion by using fear, the phone may not be answered at 911 because there won’t be any police on the streets, or your house will burn down because the firefighters won’t be able to make it to your house in time. Even trying to chip away at these pension benefits comes with a steep price. John Chiang has been one of the most vocal in California about this, and he is barely registering a blip in the polls for governor. The big question is, what happens when these sales tax increases don’t pass?

Last month, the Legislature actually had several chances to take a crack at mending the pension system. The two hero legislators were John Moorloch from southern California, a Republican, and Steve Glazer from the Bay Area, a Democrat who used to work for Brown, put forth 3 different bills. None got a hearing with the state senate committee charged with overseeing public retirement plans. Glazer wanted a switch from the defined benefit plans to 401k plans to attract a younger work force that maybe doesn’t want to be in civil servant for life. Moorloch wanted to slow down cost of living adjustments until CALPERS gets more solvent. Basically saying the next recession could bankrupt it. The chair of that committee said it best, I want more people on defined benefit plans than 401k plans. Take note, the private sector has very, very, few pension plans left.

In reality, taxes, fees, and fines (like traffic tickets) will be raised and be more plentiful due to cities needing to collect more revenue to balance budgets. This is why your red light (Cooper Cam) violation cost $600. It’s not because they want you to feel financial pain but they need to balance the budget. Sales taxes can help somewhat, but tickets help the most. We will see if Prop 13 survives this CALPERS assault on city budgets as well, I bet it won’t—especially after November.

Don’t forget that should California finally go bankrupt, the Legislature has put the union pensions first in line. As it stands now, by law, retirees will be paid in full before anyone currently working for government gets a dime of state money. I wish someone would take this pension issue to court before we get to the breaking point, as it will likely take 2 federal judges and the Supreme Court to rule this unconstitutional. But in the meantime the public pension racket in California is the union’s golden goose and is untouchable.

Hope I made you think a little,

CRA Week at UC Berkeley and the #METOO Thing

Editor Note: This dispatch from X was sent yesterday but my family activities resulted in a delay.

Greetings on a rare Tuesday blog from your humble correspondent! I just wanted to check-in with some thoughts regarding recent goings on in Soviet California. First, I want to thank the CRA Board and current President Thomas Hudson for renting the “stress” llamas for the use of their membership. These llamas were at UC Berkeley last week for students to hug, cuddle, etc. to relieve stress from final exams. Yeah I guess that’s a thing now……

Llamas in Berkeley are so cute they could melt the heart of a snowflake

Here’s something stressful, being a CRA member and knowing full well that Donald J Trump is literally kicking butt and winning at everything important; yet somehow you still despise the man! Seriously, the whole Board, including President Hudson, hates this man so much that I heard they even offered to write the articles of impeachment of our president! Problem is they approached their great white God, Theodore Cruz (who I think most believe was the victim of a rigged primary), to be installed as President following the impeachment of Donald Trump, however true to form, Theodore voted no, saying we need to have a President with a conscious.

So, to the CRA, President Hudson and the entire Board…… you made a great investment with those llamas. They should go on tour to all CRA meetings, everyone should get to hug those llamas and relieve the stress of Donald Trump as President! You might even make them available to former members as well because I remember so fondly that endorsement convention where, with the nomination already wrapped up, Trump was not endorsed by the CRA, instead it was Theodore Cruz (Loser-TX). I rest my case, please hug a llama, relieve your stress lest you be tempted to harm yourself or others.

Oh, and if your life is stressful now, just wait until the votes are counted in June. By then, the llamas will be gone but take comfort in the fact that Governor Garvin has promised to fight against Trump with all his being. Both Bush I & II taught us that “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” so naturally I expect for CRA to endorse Newsom in November.

I need to say my piece on this #Metoo thing. I never could grasp this phenomenon. I don’t have a tweeter or whatever it’s called. I used to think the hashtag was a pound sign, so I would read that as POUND ME TOO. So just like any other red-blooded American man would do, I was waiting for Jennifer Aniston to have her turn holding said sign. Sadly, I found out what it really meant and naturally…well embarrassment set in. Like I said, thank god there’s no tweeter for me.

By the way, as for the two paranoid CRA members in Sacramento County who keep trying to track down my identity; rest assured, I am a former board member living in exile. You both knew me very well. I am so glad that I’m gone from the CRA and that the Blog Father departed as well. By the way William, I heard the statute of limitations is up for my “shenanigans at the salsa bar” at our favorite Mexican place, shall we go when I’m out your way in a couple months?

Editor’s note: Hey X, the statute may be up but I’m confident that she stills remembers you.