Mr. X – Page 5 – Really Right

ESPN Lays off 100, did they choose the right personnel?

ESPN is in a downward spiral, losing over 12 million subscribers in the past few years. As a result, layoffs were announced; these were in addition to the 300 laid off a year and a half ago. With one caveat, in the past, it was always the extra help that was let go, people operating switchboards, cameras etc. This time it was the talent that faced the camera. Layoffs are not fun or something I ever advocate—even though we are talking about overpriced blowhards, blathering on about social and political issues that they have no reason by which to involve themselves—these are real people, they have families.

In some cases like that of now terminated Danny Kanell, he moved his family to Bristol, Connecticut (Home of ESPN) to go all in. Regarding Kanell, anyone who desires to live or relocates to Bristol, Connecticut may need to be checked for having too many concussions. Sarah Walsh, a sportscenter anchor, was laid off a day after returning from maternity leave. Big names laid off include; Ed Werder, Jay Crawford, Trent Dilfer, and Jayson Stark among others, all in all hockey, basketball and baseball coverage got gutted.

There are a few reasons for this; namely people are beginning to cut the cord and stream only shows and channels they like watching. Additionally when it comes to sports packages you (cable channels) have to bid for the rights over a period usually spanning a decade, ESPN bid very high and is paying the price now. ESPN went all in after basketball (NBA) and baseball (MLB) as well as football (NFL). Let’s break all these down:
• National Football League: ESPN paid 15 billion to broadcast Monday Night Football, keep in mind that this is usually the worst game to broadcast due to late start on the east coast, dinner time on the west coast, in addition to being the one game that cannot be “flexed” for a better matchup late in the year.
• Major League Baseball: 5.6 billion for MLB, and that usually includes a Wednesday or Tuesday night game as well as the Sunday night prime time game. Baseball is also a dying sport since it takes at least three hours to watch and most of the time the matchup is meh at best, in addition to the season lasting six months.
• National Basketball Association: The NBA deal is huge as well, ESPN bid almost double the next competitor, and those games and ratings are all time bad.

So what happens when the suits make bad deals in the C-suite? Well the common worker must pay with their jobs. Now I’m not going to cry a river for these guys, as their contracts require them to still be paid until they expire or find new employment elsewhere, and most were making six figures, a few likely getting millions a year in compensation. They focused on the big picture while ignoring a problem that will make cable TV look like the newspaper in a few years.

ESPN over the last 15 years has gone on an expansion boom, spawning; ESPN2, ESPNEWS, ESPN Classic, ESPNU, WATCH ESPN, ESPN3, in addition to regional channels such as PAC-12 Network, ACC Network, Longhorn Network and SEC Network. With every channel meaning more rights fees for the parent company Disney. Doing this caused dilution in the long term, the small regional college channels add nothing as when it’s not football or basketball they usually show reruns or gymnastics which no one watches. ESPN classic and news offer zilch, and as a result people started cutting channels out of their cable lineup, and in some cases cutting out ESPN all together. The online access point such as ESPN3 and Watch ESPN have some value to offer, but not being offered correctly. As long as braying lowlifes George Bodenheimer and John Skipper are in charge there is no hope for ESPN, the layoffs will continue and subscriber losses will quicken its pace.

Here is some brilliance from Skipper regarding subscription loss a few years ago in an interview with Wall Street Journal.

People trading down to lighter cable packages, that impact hasn’t leaked into ad revenue, nor has it leaked into ratings. The people who’ve traded down have tended to not be sports fans, and have tended to be older and less affluent. We still see people coming into pay TV. It remains the widest spread household service in the country after heat and electricity.

Yeah…….NO, This is an out of touch suit, cable cutters like X and William are by no means less affluent, and not old, and are sports fans. Maybe we don’t care for the complete garbage emulating from our television when we watch your channels. Let’s dive into this a bit, X binge watched ESPN and its sister channels for a week here is my commentary.

My day started at 6 am, watching a four hour daily show called “First Take” not sure what this show was about as two men; Steven “Screaming A” Smith and a something called a Max Kellerman spent every segment screaming and shouting over each other. Literally every single topic and segment, and they argued the dumbest stuff, how good was Tim Tebow, is Lebron James a choker, I mean seriously I want sports not mindless drivel masquerading as commentary. I had an out of body experience thinking I was judge Chamberlain Haller from “My Cousin Vinny” and wanted to yell at the TV I don’t want to hear argument, commentary, or opinion! The show was mercifully over at 10, thank god, apparently it was presented by Subway, I felt like I wanted to be run over by a Subway after watching that waste of time.

Immediately following was a 1 hour program called “Mike and Mike”, this was better featuring two hosts and a similar back and forth format, it seemed to regurgitate the same headlines from “First Take” but with better, more controlled chaos. Still didn’t scream watchable, and definitely not something I would go out of my way to tune in to.
UPDATE: apparently this is a radio show for 3 hours with the “best of” shown on TV, and the show will be getting a makeover as one of the Mike’s will be getting a separate show in the immediate future.

Next up was a 1 hour program called “The Dan LeBatard Show with Stugotz.” Yeah maybe I should have started drinking because this show made literally zero sense, again it was a two person banter format with Lebatard’s dad sitting in between randomly spouting off random sentences and thoughts. His name is “Papi”; most of his thoughts are either incoherent or Spanish. Resident buffoon—aka Bomani Jones—usually answers each question with some strange race baiting twist. This made for very odd TV. (By the way who/what the heck is a “Stugotz?”)
UPDATE Bomani also has a radio show where he spews his race baiting B.S. for about 3 hours, every single day. Literally he said on the radio “white people as a whole who threw the bag of peanuts at Orioles outfielder Adam Jones should be embarrassed.” He added this gem as well “Blaine Gabbert has been signed, Mike Glennon got 14 million, but Colin Kaepernick hasn’t been signed….just sayin, those two are white and Colin aint.”

Ryen Russillo follows him, and his entire 3 hour radio program is a bunch of “bro talk” regarding how often he works out, and the different parties he attends. Compelling stuff I cannot fathom why no one listens. Back to the TV side now, as I couldn’t take the radio any longer, neither could my liver.

Next, 1.5 hours of my day was devoted to NFL Insiders, a half hour show featuring various out of work former NFL coaches and suits, nothing really discussed here. The following one hour show was NFL Live, this time it was more of a commentary show, which was pointless, actually both shows were pointless, when talking NFL in the middle of the offseason. This show ran every day for the same duration, not being re-run, the emperor really isn’t wearing clothes.

More to come; part II next time,

The CRA, Aaron Park, And Anthony Cannella are all the same on Taxes

Loyal readers, the Blog Father, William, spoke about the recent “bi-partisan” tax increase at length the other day and I want to expand on it slightly. This type of horse trading and phony math has been going on in this state for generations.

Let’s start with the phony math
The 7 billion that is not being accounted for in KCRA’s math? Does anyone think the bullet train is getting left out of this “transportation tax?” To be clear, X does not support any tax increase, but does support $$$ for infrastructure repair. Let us not kid ourselves, 15 billion for “potholes” is just putting lipstick on a pig. We tried that on the Oroville Dam and look what happened! X prefers total tear down and rebuild, similar to what William warned about earlier saying wait until the big one happens and we will see how badly mismanaged this state has been.

Fixing potholes does not fix infrastructure, it’s simply a waste of time; however, it does create busywork that very highly compensated state employees are capable of doing. It’s all temporary fix work. With all the billions going to public transportation, when is the last time you saw someone actually riding the bus/light rail? Most ride public transportation because they don’t want to be stuck in gridlocked traffic and pay for parking in downtown areas. For their trouble, they actually pay $35 per month and we pay the rest.

Folks, the lion’s share of this new tax money is all going to Los Angeles/Bay Area communities, some monies may trickle down into San Diego, Ventura, Riverside, and possibly Sacramento. Other outlying areas? Well you may get an extra bus on the route, or an extra bus stop or two put in. Most likely this money will be diverted by the local city/county/bus authority to shore up future healthcare/pension benefits and prevent a system wide shut down like BART experienced not long ago. The other revenues raised from the tax increases amount to the same old same old; walking paths and bike trails? Does anyone even use those anymore?

The horse trading aspect is most troubling
A CRA endorsed State Senator, Anthony Cannella, took a 400 million dollar bribe; err, I mean promise of future work to be done in his district to provide the decisive vote for this tax increase. Cannella is a sell out in the worst way. Roger Niello, also a CRA favorite, did the same on his way out of office. Cannella and people of his ilk are why the Party has dropped below 30% registration statewide. Even low information voters have figured out that if even Republicans are willing to accept tax increases what do they really stand for? The state party and the CRA are in a horrible position. They have no clearly defined set of goals or beliefs and as a result do not police their own.

Over the years, I watched personally as the CRA endorsed; Mike Villines, Roger Niello, Anthony Cannella, and Anthony Anderson; all of whom reneged on the no new taxes pledge, but I guess these were fees? Keep in mind folks, the CRA endorsed Ted Cruz after it was certain Donald J Trump would have the delegate count required to advance to general election! Fear not, Cannella will have no problem finding his next political job, is the State Insurance Appeals Board still around? Remember the board that retired legislators got to sit on that required very little time commitment and a six figure salary? Cannella might see his name pop up there too.

To be clear, if any of these clowns were running for re-election or election near the unit where I was CRA president not only would they have been non-endorsed I would have seriously advocated for endorsing the Democrat; why have the light beer when the regular one will do just fine! By the way, evil State Senator Steve Glazer, a Democrat who worked for Jerry Brown was the lone Democrat to oppose the tax! Heck I would even venture to call Glazer a hero of the taxpayer, but that’s ok; meanwhile, the GOP will keep telling us we need to support more Anthony Cannella types in order to appeal to more voters. Excuse me while I go barf. Meanwhile I heard the CRA had career politician and definition of low energy Ted Gaines highlighting their convention a few weeks ago. Go Team!

My tie-in to Aaron Park?
Well he may act all far-right and self-righteous on his blog but he would have voted for it too. Actually for a conservative, Park actually does not even mention it on his blog, not that it matters when you draw about 30 clicks a day, 29 being yours and the other being your brothers. I know Aaron; he would have asked for the money in cash as opposed to hoped-for future projects in his district.

Personally, Aaron should run for office under the slogan “Beliefs I can change in.” I have to give Park credit, he and his group of LOW ENERGY IMPACT REPUBLICANS spend about $30k to beat a guy running for a supervisor seat. By the way, anyone know what happened to the other idiot Park brother George? Last I heard he was seeking greener pastures in Nevada, since his type of political fertilizer has lost its potency in California. Like the influence of the California GOP, he has been slowly fading away. In the decade that I have known him, he’s gone from being about 400 pounds to about 110. Clearly Aaron hasn’t learned everything his brother could teach him.

Anyhow til next time,

Professional Stadiums, Taxpayers Buy’em, Governments give them away?

After a two week hiatus, most faithful readers of this blog were wondering where I was. I heard several reports from the Blog Father. Was I in rehab? Did I rejoin the CRA? Was I the one who spied on Donald Trump? Was I arrested for my shenanigans at a local Mexican restaurant a few months ago? No on all accounts.

During my absence, X was forwarded an email that almost made him burst into rage!

Dateline: San Diego.

It has come to my attention that since the San Diego Chargers have re-located to Los Angeles, the city had nothing to do with it’s largely taxpayer financed stadium. So it got a great idea, sell it for $10K, to a soccer team that may or may not ever come. Kinda sound like a situation in Elk Grove? Qualcomm Stadium—to be honest was very dated and located in the middle of a canyon—not a desirable place to play or commute too. However if the answer is selling an 80 acre stadium and land for just $10K, I don’t think I want to know the question! Yep, they sold 80 acres including the former NFL stadium for less than you’ll pay for a used Toyota.

It gets better. The group of investors “I love that term, give me something for literally pennies on the dollar” want to build 4,200 houses and over 1 million square feet of commercial development; think strip malls, malls, and office buildings. While details were not released, very likely the deal would exclude the “investors” there’s that term again, from property taxes. You are probably asking, which far left communist is leader of the republic of San Diego? That would be CRA endorsed liberal Republican Kevin Faulconer. Yup, the stadium initially built with taxpayer money, is now being given away for pennies on the dollar, since—well I guess—no professional team is a tenant now!

San Diego suffered from a cardinal sin; never give in to a billionaire owner and the temptation of a sports team to “rejuvenate” downtown. However, maybe in the long run San Diego may not be that bad off, check out these other two cities facing crazy stadium repercussions over the next few years!

Let’s examine Sacramento and Oakland, the former keeping its basketball team and pulling out all the stops, the latter losing its NFL team.

Let’s start with Oakland. This city pulled out all the stops to get the Oakland Raiders to move back to Oakland from Los Angeles back in 1995. Keep in mind; the Raiders have had a very nomadic nature during their years in the NFL shuffling from Oakland, to Los Angeles, back to Oakland, now on to Las Vegas in 2020. What Al and Mark Davis did to the City of Oakland is criminal. Upon moving back to the Coliseum in 1995, major renovations were required to add luxury boxes, etc. Again the city and in this case the county of Alameda gave in to a billionaire, as they bore almost all the costs. They both fell for Davis’ push for a personal seat license, this so called “fan tax” on season ticket holders would pay back the loan on the stadium improvements pronto. The City and County took out 200 million in bonds for stadium improvements, backed by Personal Seat Licenses (PSL’s). These licenses were to help pay down the bond debt quicker, because if you bought a PSL you got the first right of refusal to buy tickets for any event that took place in the coliseum, sitting in the seat which you would “own.” This was a well-conceived idea but far ahead of its time, as seat licenses are very popular now. What the city and county didn’t count on was a number of people not buying the seat license, but buying tickets on the day of a game or through scalpers and thus avoiding the fee the PSL would levy on them. The PSL’s were scrapped two years later. By the way, the team is leaving and the debt owed on the renovations won’t be paid off for another eight years at the earliest! Also at a cost of roughly $350 million, almost double the initial bond amount.

Now the economics of the City of Oakland will be examined. Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf reports that the city will have an eight figure deficit this year, mostly due to debt service on the coliseum. This doesn’t take in to consideration the improvements made to Oracle Arena, home of the soon to be San Francisco Warriors basketball team, totaling roughly 68 million. Further, the least team standing of the trifecta, the Oakland Athletics Baseball Club, is moving to a new venue that was 100% privately financed by their owner….wow what a concept!

The city of Oakland is now left with two decaying buildings and their accompanying notes not yet paid for dreams gone bye; sounds like California accounting at its finest. Remember the argument about how stadiums revitalize the area around them? Have you been to the coliseum lately? Yeah, don’t go unless you absolutely must, it’s still a drug filled cesspool. The second argument about job creation, well if you consider part-time seasonal employees part of a hiring boom, I guess check off that box as an accomplishment as most front office jobs are filled by former players and lifelong employees.

Now let’s talk about income from the stadium itself, the items sold in the stadium such as concessions and memorabilia go 100% to the owner less any sales tax is owed to the municipality. Parking revenue generally all goes to the owner as well. The teams usually pay “rent” to the city for the use of the stadiums and in the case of the Raiders, they paid roughly $938k last year, a number that will rise to 3.5 million this season. A large sum until you realize most corporations pay more in rent/property tax a year than the Raiders would have over the course of several years! Not such a great deal at all now is it?

Rest easy Las Vegas Raiders fans, the team will be paying 1 whole dollar in rent a year in Vegas, because apparently if they pay more it could jeopardize the tax status of the bonds Las Vegas is issuing to buy the stadium. Lastly a new revelation has come out regarding how much money the city and county was spending on maintenance of the stadium, they are actually losing 1 million on the Raiders annually due to the fact the baseball and football seasons overlap and heavy maintenance is needed to change the field over from baseball to football. Sounds like a deal I wish I could get in on, but trust me Oakland you are much better off, pay off the debt and get some additional police on the streets, clean your city up and watch property values continue to skyrocket!

Looking at Sacramento, this process is still playing out as the city council, mayor and ownership groups have “passed the stadium bill to know what’s in it.” We did get a very nice shiny arena in the middle of downtown, and hosted a few top tier concerts, and the NCAA March Madness games, so I guess there is that. Yes there have been some new bars/restaurants going in downtown, however when people say the area has turned around, remember the area used to be a run-down mall sold for pennies on the dollar to the ownership group. The fact that the team is lousy and just traded their star player does not bother me even one iota. Neither does the fact the two local CRA units actually endorsed the idea of the arena without even bothering to ask questions or taking a principled “no” stance. What bothers me is Sacramento caved and agreed to a deal brokered by former Mayor and NBA athlete Kevin Johnson and former State Senate President and current Mayor Darrell Steinberg. The problem…no one really knows what is in this complicated deal; it was drawn up as a land swap, but no one really knows what land was involved.

Further additional details keep coming out that are flat out astonishing! Sacramento State University—the flagship school in the Sacramento area and a fixture to locals—just found out they can no longer have their graduation ceremonies at the old Sleep Train Arena (former home of the Kings) and must have it at state-of-the-art Golden 1 Arena. What is the problem X? Well the problem is rent at Sleep Train was $50K to have the event there, now the taxpayers are on the hook for $150K.

My overall point of this long blog is that these stadium deals generally include quite a big payoff up front for the owners and very little benefit for the taxpayers that get stuck with the tab for years to come. Owners are always angling for the next big pay-off and in this case I believe the residents of San Diego and Oakland are the winners in the long run with the residents of Sacramento due quite a few more surprises along the way. We already know that the new Kings Arena is financed over a period of 35 years and no one—including Kevin Johnson and Darrell Steinberg—is claiming that the arena will last that long. It will need to be replaced within 20 years.

I will leave you with a few quotes from the current Oakland city council president Larry Reid, the former chief of staff to Oakland Mayor Elihu Harris in the 1990’s who worked on the agreement to pay for stadium renovations; “It was a bad deal.” Congrats President Reid for your wonderful revisionist thought. Here is a more damning quote from Reid “The projections were off, but everyone was caught up in the emotion of having the Raiders return.” Yup, be careful, very careful to what you agree to.

Til next time,

Entry Level Jobs Killed by $15 Minimum Wage

Remember those economically ignorant people that demanded a $15 an hour minimum wage and conducted a campaign of protests and walk-outs nationwide during the last few years? Last year, California Legislators passed and Emperor Jerry Brown signed the bill into law here in Soviet California? How about the issue coming up time and time again during the presidential election as Democrats tried to get this implemented nationwide? This process has also played out in various municipalities and states across the nation. California workers, congratulations on your wages increased, but before you go buy that brand new car or new iPhone you may want to take a look at how far automation has come in the last few years and how it will affect your job very soon. Witness a conversation between X and the Blog Father about five months ago.

Over dinner at a Mexican food establishment with a salsa bar, the subject of automation was brought up. The Blog Father shared that he was recently at a local Wendy’s and to his surprise the monitor used to order food was turned around, facing him. Obviously something was wrong. After further analysis, it turned out that Wendy’s had two touch screen monitors back-to-back, one facing the employee and another facing the customer. The Blog Father speculated that this was a small test being done by corporate to get customers used to the idea of entering their own order. This test was for limited time only. To the Blog Father, the ordering process appeared intuitive. Clearly customers could order seamlessly and upselling was literally right at your fingertips; or for those of you in Rio Linda, asking about add-ons like bacon, fries, soda, baked potato (seriously? Are we in Russia?), and chili were just a touch away.

I imagine that the liberal counterargument to a more automated experience is that a machine can break down and isn’t unionized; thus The Party cannot receive union dues from the machine; however, the all-important sales tax still flows to government coffers. However, I would argue automation has other benefits. It doesn’t need a vacation; call in sick because it was out too late the night before partying, doesn’t activate the fire suppression system due to prank phone calls, doesn’t have mandated medical insurance or payroll tax withholding, and is always ready to do what it’s told.

The employee and all his brethren protesting for $15 an hour minimum wage were right, the owners of fast food companies and other minimum wage jobs could never replace them, they were critical cogs in the process. Initially they might have been right; the monitors were turned back to their original position of advertising products after a trial time. Yup the $15 an hour folks were the smartest people in the room….until the executives realized they weren’t needed in the room, and could be replaced cheaply.

The people thinking they would be the economic beneficiaries of a minimum wage increase were wrong; Wendy’s has announced a roll out of automated kiosks nationwide, eliminating at least 1,000 jobs across the country.
Link: Wendy’s deploys kiosks at 1,000 stores
The Elk Grove location is being renovated and modernized as we speak. I fully expect that once it re-opens for business, this Wendy’s will be equipped with technology that replaces employees with automation.

A second example; Outback steakhouse—a favorite of X and Mrs. X—now has those annoying kiosk things at every table, and wait staff pushing guests to use them to order more drinks, check out, etc. Keep in mind, I was there to eat a steak on Valentine’s Day and had to look at a tablet asking me if I wanted to buy a new alcoholic beverage every five minutes! I mentioned to my waitress I thought it was a little over the top, her response shocked me; she said “corporate wants 70% usage of this kiosk at every location by the end of 2017!” Yes, hard to believe but machines will be replacing the American worker.

Readers of this blog smarter than the average CRA member understand that machines—not illegals—are replacing the American worker. This comes as no surprise to either the Blog Father or X, as corporations and especially franchisees—whom most fast food workers really work for—will do everything possible to save a few dollars. Now, that this reaction to the wage increase is happening, scores of low skilled workers will be replaced, likely on a permanent basis. This has been the Democrats goal since the party’s birth; create a permanent welfare/government dependent class!

Before you overreact, think about it, how many fast food employees would you say are worth $15 an hour? (Don’t forget to add the health insurance cost of each worker mandated by Arnoldcare, paid family leave, and all the other employer mandated taxes that employers must pay.)

Ok, now let’s play devil’s advocate:
• How much are you willing to see the dollar menu increase by at McDonalds to pay the employee $15 minimum wage?
• How about the two medium two topping pizza’s for $7.99 a piece at Dominos?
• Like the 4 for $5 at Wendy’s? Say Hello to 4 for $10, not such a great deal right?
• Applebee’s burger, fries and coke for $9.99, how about $19.99?
Okay by now I figure you get my point, but if you are a CRA member, Ted Cruz for President 2020 member, or Aaron or George Park, please stop reading as you are lost.

My point is very simple, minimum wage jobs are not intended to be career wages; they are a starting point for entry level work. By raising the minimum wage and making it seem more like a career choice, employment is going to be harder and harder to come by for younger and unskilled Americans. Sadly, these unskilled or inexperienced folks think the Democrats are trying to lobby for higher wages to help them and thus gladly give them their votes but in reality the joke is on them. They are literally voting themselves out of a job and into a life of subjugation and dependence on government. Look no further than the Wendy’s in Elk Grove, maybe I will be wrong, I hope I am, but I have a feeling that when it reopens after renovation, Wendy’s will be employing kiosks not people at the front counter.

Until next time,

Does the WNBA Have a Heterosexual Problem?

While perusing my twitter account I came across a story on the Woman’s National Basketball Association which I had a feeling was “fake news” however I clicked on it nonetheless. I was completely stunned by the fact it was most definitely not fake news, it was very disturbing. No, not that the WNBA is still around (which was news to the Blog Father since the Sacramento Monarchs went extinct years ago) but the story was a huge bombshell. It features former Stanford Basketball Star Candice Wiggins telling her story about why she—a former 3rd overall pick in the draft and at a young age of 29—has decided to retire effective immediately. As I said the story is very disturbing, I don’t follow the WNBA, nor do I care about it, but for the leagues sake I hope it is false.

Wiggins goes into detail that the league has a culture that is toxic and very, very harmful, specifically saying that she was targeted by her teammates and other players in the league because of her HETEROSEXUALITY. Wiggins added the league is about 98% homosexual…. And well ok, I’m just going to quote her verbatim “”Me being heterosexual and straight, and being vocal in my identity as a straight woman was huge ,” Wiggins told the Union-Tribune. “I would say 98 percent of the women in the WNBA are gay women. It was a conformist type of place. There was a whole different set of rules they (the other players) could apply.” Here is another disturbing line again, verbatim “People were deliberately trying to hurt me all of the time,” Wiggins said. “I had never been called the B-word so many times in my life than I was in my rookie season. I’d never been thrown to the ground so much. The message was: ‘We want you to know we don’t like you.’”

Ok, I know what you are thinking, she probably played with one team, and it was a dysfunctional clusterflip like the Sacramento Kings right? Nope she played on Minnesota, Tulsa, Los Angeles, and New York, so I think she had a pretty good barometer of the leagues players. I will say I am astonished by how smart, and even keeled Wiggins is, I know I would have retired about 6 years ago.

In closing before I make a broader point about her comments I will quote her again “I want you to understand this: There are no enemies in my life,” Wiggins told the newspaper. “Everyone is forgiven. At the end of the day, it made me stronger. If I had not had this experience, I wouldn’t be as tough as I am.” And again “I try to be really sensitive. I’m not trying to crush anyone’s dreams or aspirations, or the dreams of the WNBA. I want things to be great, but at the same time it’s important for me to be honest in my reflections. ”

Wow, Candice Wiggins folks, I’m not even joking she is really special; she left a very lucrative career, and shone a light on everything wrong with it. You go Candice, I know I don’t have to tell you this but use that degree from Stanford and change the world for the better!!!!!!

Ok shifting gears, one thing that comes to mind when reading this article is that it describes today’s political society to a T, INTOLERANCE . Just look at the dynamic in Washington between President Donald J. Trump, the Republican Party, and the opposition. Think about it, if you are a true conservative, you live what Candice did every day.
• You are a heterosexual human being, congrats you are a homophobe.
• Approve of a vetting of persons from certain Muslim countries, congrats you are islamaphobic.
• Claim to support Trump, congrats you are a fascist.

I don’t pretend to know Candice Wiggins, I don’t, but what she described is bubbling up in this country, the opposition driven by teachers unions and students who grew up knowing nothing but safe spaces, pipeline protestors in the Dakotas imported from other states. Conform or else, well, myself and the Blog Father won’t, and you shouldn’t either.

Liberal Playbook to Stop Trump 101

The ink on President Donald J Trump’s executive order regarding a travel ban from certain countries was not even dry yet when liberal Senator Chuck Schumer went straight to his old bag of tricks to stop it. He went directly to a judge located in the 9th circus court of appeals; err wait circuit court of appeals—without a doubt the most liberal in the country. The country, including most members of the CRA were shocked, how in the world a judge could rule against a sitting president so quickly! This was insanity! Or was it? Really this is the “go to” move in the Democrat bag of tricks 101, the Blog Father and I have seen it for decades.

Liberals know they are smarter then everyone on earth; just ask a grad from Cal Berkeley or any Ivy League institution, they will tell you. Only they are properly equipped to lead the unwashed masses of the world.

I do give them credit for one thing though, when the Left doesn’t get their way they know what to do to remedy the situation.

Witness Proposition 8 in California. A little over 8 years ago, the majority of Californians—albeit a small one—voted in favor of a state constitutional amendment signifying married as a sacrament of unity between one man and one woman. Before the measure was voted on, democrats already had their legal challenge written and the morning following passage, they had a lackey waiting outside the courtroom of their favorite judge to request a temporary restraining order to again thwart the will of the people. The judge of course ruled in their favor and here we are in few years later with marriage between anyone and anybody to anyone and anybody; it’s a free for all for Christ sake!

Frustratingly, not a single person on the Right did anything about it here in Soviet California. Our so called leaders in the party wallowed along and said “by golly gee we will get them next election cycle!” Remember that President Barack Obama won an historical election that night, winning California handily, yet Californians by a majority voted for a gay marriage ban. The Democrat Far Left does not care to turn over their fate to the will of voters in the name of so called fairness or equality. Point being, this is how Democrats have governed for years. When they find themselves in the minority in Congress or because of an election result, they find a friendly judge and immediately file for a temporary restraining order; often before the votes are even counted. Then they have a federal appeal take place in the 9th circus court of appeals. The sad fact is that Republicans in California never learned how to fight back and as a result they are a minority third party today. Because of their failure, most true conservatives have either left the state or become apathetic to our current one party rule.

This will all be changing under anti-CRA, pro-Constitution President Donald J Trump. No wonder the CRA hates his guts and feels Ted Cruz would have been a better choice. Trump took the fight right to the judge who granted a temporary restraining order calling him a “so-called judge.” After hearing the appeals arguments in the 9th circus court of appeals, Trump called the court biased, and pondered his next move, knowing full well the court upholding the temporary restraining order would send the case to a still divided Supreme Court. Trump is smarter than all the democrats (and many of the Republicans) and has moved to fast-track the nomination of his pick for Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch. In addition, he is moving to swiftly break up the 9th circuit court of appeals, much like the Blog Father stated in his earlier posts.

There’s a new sheriff in town and it’s fun to watch the way he makes the Beltway Elites scurry about like cockroaches. I’m going to grab some popcorn, this is going to be a fun next four years.

“X”

Link: Trump “See you in Court”

Link: Republicans push bill to split up ‘nutty 9th Circuit’

A Texas Sized Pension Crisis in Dallas

After awaking from my New Year’s celebration I decided to do a little catchup reading. One article that caught my eye was about a pension crisis in Dallas, Texas. The first thing that came to mind was this must be the county workers retirement pension system, I was wrong; this is the police and firefighters retirement pension system. A very small pension fund by comparison to some such as CALPers. However the problem in Dallas is strange, in a sense because Dallas has a booming downtown, cranes and skyscraper construction dot the skyline. People have been moving to Dallas in droves, this is not the case study of a braying Midwestern city struggling with population loss, and the mill or warehouse closing down. This really caught my eye.

Government and private sector accountants have been tussling in Dallas over how large the deficit in the pension funding crisis is, however they do agree on one thing, it’s between one and five billion dollars! Yeah, Billion, like Million but with a “B”. Dallas appointed a pension board about thirty years ago to oversee the investments of this fund; most states and municipalities do this. These board members are supposed to have a fiduciary duty to put the financial needs of the members over any short term profits or accounting gimmicks…they failed. I will go in to their misdeeds later; in the meantime the city is now facing a monumental crisis of epic proportions.

The pension system in most states and municipalities all work the same, work so many years, and contribute a small portion of your check, roughly 1% and you will get a defined payout amount each month for the remainder of your life once you retire. This is true with most pension plans; they are set up in a defined benefit manner not a defined contribution manner. This becomes a problem when the union designs a contract where employees can retire at 50 and collect full benefits until death some 30 years later. The problem is the pension fund essentially becomes a Ponzi scheme as new money is added from current workers that go to pay out the benefits to retired workers.

The fund receives money each month collected from current workers’ pay, and then hopes to invest the money, earn a decent return, and pay out benefits to those collecting retirement. The main problem is these funds always use pie in the sky projections for investment return, with some such as CALPers saying they expect around 7.5% a year! As per usual they didn’t come close to 7.5%, they actually did .41% which is well, awful especially considering the market is at all-time highs. Enough about California; now back to Dallas.

Dallas got creative about a decade ago, they created an option for retired members called (DROP) deferred retirement option program. This option allowed retired members to put their pension check in a separate account, which would be a savings account, with a 10% interest annually credited to it. If you’re scoring at home, once again this is a characteristic of a Ponzi scheme promising pie in the sky returns, risk free mind you. Many retirees participated and I cannot say I blame them, as a 10% risk free return that is likely guaranteed by the municipality or the state is a great option. Then as one would expect problems began to arise, since you can’t guarantee 10% returns while the fund was only projecting to earn 7%.

The fund was beginning to see trouble in 2008, and as a result the board of directors decided to make investments in real estate as opposed to stocks or equities. Investing in real estate is extremely risky, and the bets placed by the Dallas pension fund blew up right in their face. This was to be expected. (If X was tasked with generating a massive investment return, I admit I would have done something similar.) The fund began buying up real estate all over the world, a winery and hotel in Napa, and quite a few investments in foreign countries that were supposed to make up the difference and generate a return that could pay off the obligations to retirees. This solution is not an issue until the value of the real estate holdings drops, and predictably it did. The fund took over $500 million in write-offs over a two year period from 2014-2015. Which is not a problem until those expecting to receive pension benefits find out they may not be receiving said benefits, then mayhem ensues. Mayhem indeed did ensue later in 2016. Further adding fuel to the fire were an agreement to raise the cost of living adjustment by 4% a year rather than pegging the rate to inflation which would have saved over 15-20%.

Remember those DROP accounts? The pension system had over 500 worth more than 1 million dollars, as a result of the shortfall; retirees began pulling all their money out of the system. Who can blame them? It was money and benefits they had earned. As a result, the mayor of Dallas, pension board leaders, and the state have been looking for a solution, including the temporary halting of withdrawals from the plan. Which as per usual from governments and the CRA these days, answers nothing. Panic has set in among retirees and as a result lawsuits have started flying in Dallas, as well as an FBI investigation as well as an SEC investigation. The mayor of Dallas predictably wants a state bailout, which predictably the state government told him politely no thank you. Now he wants to raise property tax by 130% on Dallas residents. Remember this is Dallas, not a small decaying city, but one that is lined with skyscrapers. Stay tuned, and I will report as more details come available.

ESPN Supports Domestic Violence?

It was a Friday night and I was watching ESPN with Mrs. X. ESPN came back from a commercial to announce breaking news regarding the Oklahoma Football Team. I wondered aloud, the team is done until their bowl game? What could the breaking news be? A coach leaving to coach elsewhere? A player being ineligible due to grades?

Neither, it involved a video that was “very violent in nature” and the public was warned “to turn away” if easily offended. Only after this admonition did the anchor state that the this video is from two years ago and the athlete shown claims he was provoked by the female calling him a racial slur and spitting on him.

At this point I’m thinking, “UMMMMMMMMM, okay?”

Then the video began playing. I was floored by what I saw. (The Oklahoma Sooners college football team has a player who is a budding star in the upcoming NFL draft named Joe Mixon) Mixon is featured in this “video” by ESPN.

Viewer warning, the video is very disturbing and may be unsuitable for many audiences, is how the clip starts out. Then you see a white women and one other white man enter what appears to be a fast food restaurant. Shortly thereafter Mixon—a black player—walks in. He confronts the white girl; it appears that words are exchanged. Then the white girl lunges at Mixon, and Mixon throws a hard right hook at the poor girl, knocking her clean over. Mixon probably out weighs the victim by 90 pounds. After decking her, Mixon calmly leaves the store.

I will not reveal the accusers name—she has been through enough already—I want to focus on the University of Oklahoma and Mr. Mixon.

The girl btw suffered four broken bones to her face. Mixon pled guilty to a lesser crime, did some community service, and was back to playing football a year later. He was never disciplined by the school for his behavior.

Link: Mixon Video The video is on a split screen and you can clearly see the punch on the right-hand side.

Mixon is a very talented football player. I must admit that if I had not known the details or seen the video from the incident that night that I would consider taking him high in the draft next year!

ESPN closed the coverage by saying the attack was brought on by the girl calling Mixon a “Ni**er.”

Based on the punishment that Mixon received, apparently calling someone a racial slur makes it ok to coldcock someone these days.

First and foremost, regardless of what clown ESPN had hosting SportsCenter that night, Mixon is a coward…you never hit women, period.

The release of the video was held up for over two and a half years by legal proceedings. The case eventually made it to the Oklahoma Supreme Court. Mixon’s lawyers wanted no part of this footage leaking out. After the Supreme Court ruled, the video was released on a Friday afternoon/night. This is a ploy because everyone knows Fridays are very slow news days and typically end in date night, family game night, or some other form of entertainment not involving television.

ESPN foolishly took the bait and ran with it, offering up a low life host who claimed to be a journalist to try to make Mixon seem like the victim here.

Then the screen cut to commercial, no additional commentary was offered. They returned from commercial and went right on doing sports highlights as if the incident never happened. By the way, ESPN showed the video on the same day the victim graduated from Oklahoma, classy!

The victim of this assault had to have her jaw wired shut, lost feeling in the side of her face for several months, and was blamed around campus for the incident because she was trying to destroy their football team!!!

As much as I am upset with their “coverage” of this issue—the reality is that a large plurality of viewers and commentators at ESPN probably believe the women is at least somewhat at fault for what happened that night in that restaurant.

Fast forward to the following Monday, 12/19. Paul Finebaum, an ESPN SEC Network radio host and commentator, delivered a scathing analysis of Mixon, saying he had no business being anywhere near a football field following this incident and should be expelled immediately. I don’t agree with Finebaum much, but he couldn’t have said it any better.

Then Finebaum floored me. He told the audience about a meeting that took place during the pre-trial phase involving Head Football Coach Bob Stoops, Athletic Director Joe Castiglione, OU Campus President David Boren, and the local District Attorney Greg Mashburn at the Oklahoma campus. After this meeting it was agreed that Mixon would get offered a favorable plea deal, serve no jail time, and could be reinstated to the football team after one year. Keep in mind he broke a women’s face in four or five places and gets community service. It seems like a fairly light sentence.

Hang on just a darn minute. Did I hear that right? The DA who is in charge of prosecuting the case, met with the head football coach—who in a state like Oklahoma is probably as powerful as the Governor?! The DA, who is very well respected and well known in college athletics circles, and the campus President, who by the way is the same David Boren that was a former US Senator and Governor, were all in the same room, admitting to having seen the video, and agree this sentence fit the crime? I’m speechless.

Oh and on Tuesday, the ESPN website has an article up about the confrontation that night with the caption quoting Mixon, saying “I felt like I got hit by a man”. Well if that’s what you felt Mixon, imagine what your victim felt.
Link: Joe Mixon to police: ‘It felt like a dude hit me’

Mixon treats women like Michael Vick treats his hounds and everybody rallies around him to save him from himself. This gutless wonder wants a multimillion dollar contract with an NFL team to play football so he can get hit by men, talk about irony.

ESPN, stay classy, keep defending athletes for the sake of higher ratings, remember Ray Rice was just a victim of unfortunate circumstances.

Pathetic,

Until next time,

ESPN #EPICFAIL

I was ready to touch on the pension issue in Dallas but that will have to wait.

ESPN… seriously? This past weekend was huge for college football and you chose to push your liberal agenda. First things first, William has done a great job recently laying out the agenda that ESPN and other major television networks have been subjecting viewers to in the name of entertainment. However credit X for bringing this to the light a while back in one of his earlier articles.

Anyway back to the college football game X was watching this past Saturday night. Virginia Tech and Clemson, not because I like college football—honestly X could care less—but after working outside all day it was a nice break. The game hadn’t started yet, and Chris Fowler, the announcer of the game (more on him later) begins the game by saying, the ACC Championship game is usually held in North Carolina, but is being held in Florida this year due to HB2. (HB 2 is the so called “bathroom bill” saying use the bathroom of your gender, not the gender you think you might be that day.) In all fairness, I have no issue with this statement by ESPN resident lowlife Chris Fowler, however he couldn’t help himself. Fowler continued, “…this law is very harmful and discriminatory of transgendered people, and I support the ACC moving the game out of North Carolina.”

Sadly this has been the standard method of operation for ESPN for a while.

William and I have both laid out that ESPN has been bleeding viewers for about two years now as more and more people such as William have cut the cord. X has delayed cutting the cord as his “great deal” from Frontier has yet to run out. But back to my point, I do not tune in to ESPN to get my political news; if I wanted that I could turn to the CRA website…..oh wait they aren’t relevant, so I would probably turn to Fox News. At least Fox News would have been fair and balanced—even Megyn Kelly would have been better than that political crusader, Chris Fowler.

In all honesty, I’m not sure what Fowler thought he was doing. I’m not sure if Fowler is a) transgendered himself, or b) has a friend or family member who is transgendered. I really don’t care whether he does or doesn’t or with whom; enough of your political rants already. I don’t want to hear it. I’m trying to watch a game and relax not get your take on the political hot button issue of the day.

Now to my commentary regarding Fowler…..Fowler is a sexual deviant. I know a very close friend who has seen it firsthand. A few years ago, Fowler was spotted by a person I will call “FOX” (a fiend of X) with fellow ESPN college game day host Kirk Herbstreit at a bar in Middle America. Both men were drinking adult beverages following a game they had announced together. What my friend observed was behavior so outrageous that it was reported by “FOX” to ESPN’s human resources department. The story relayed to me was this:
Fowler had way too much to drink, as did Herbstreit, but Fowler was acting a mad fool as the young people call it. Fowler was not only doing cat calls as young coeds walked by, he also was grabbing quite a bit of derriere. Actually Bill Cosby may have been jealous, as Fowler was so out of line. Worse yet he was openly bragging about how he worked for ESPN, and worst of all, Mr. Chris Fowler is married or at least he is when he is in his hometown…..yeah think about that for a minute, his wife, Jennifer Dempster, is a female model/bodybuilder.

Like a fool returning to his folly, Fowler stuck his foot in his mouth yet again after the broadcast. While commenting about a scenario in which the football playoffs had five eligible teams and only four could make the playoffs, Fowler, after listening to a couple guests, said he was flip-flopping on his picks and compared the situation as being similar to the winner of our recent Presidential election and his flip flopping. Thanks Fowler, you hate Donald Trump, we get it. Next time rather than listen to you, I’ll just cut the cord from cable, maybe then I can get some real rest and relaxation. I pray nightly that you make peace with your wife because based on the stories I’ve heard and those reported to me by witnesses, you need quite a bit of help.

Until next time,

Election Night Winner and Losers

Faithful readers, your humble correspondent X spent election night holed up in a hotel in Las Vegas with the wife watching the returns come in. We had a great night! When I say “we”, I mean conservatives, not wishy-washy phony republican wannabe types. I will lay out the winners and losers as well as provide my usual commentary as I sit in McCarran Airport waiting my flight home.

Winners:
The insurgents: by insurgents I mean the Trump brigade who were behind him since day 1, that would include many readers of this blog, as well as the Blog Father and myself. This group of people also known as “deplorables” carried Trump across the finish line; he somehow was able to connect with several hundred thousand more people than a traditional republican campaign could and won convincingly.

Senators and Congressman in tough districts that stood by Trump: This includes some favorites of “X” such as Ron Johnson and Pat Toomey, of Wisconsin and Pennsylvania respectively. They stood with Trump and as a result Trump voters selected them not their democrat challengers. By the way both were written off for dead by the national party! Additionally even republicans on the various networks thought we would lose more than a dozen seats in the House, as of this writing we lost only 6 seats! Once again if you stood with the silent majority you likely won, even a couple members won re-election in seats Obama carried two years in a row! Let that sink in for a minute.

Losers:
Established GOP politicians and “journalists.” I am going to name names, and not be very nice. Sen. Lindsay Graham and Gov. John Kasich, you both are the two biggest losers. First neither of you ever had a good thing to say about the nominee for President, nor did either of you honor your pledge to support the winner of the nomination. Worse yet, neither of you voted for Mr. Trump. Congrats, you’re officially losers!

Also a special shout-out to the RINO nominees of the past. George H. W. Bush, John McCain, George W. Bush, and Mitt Romney. We’ve held our noses to vote for you Country Club guys every four years since 1988 but when it’s your turn to take one for the team, you wash your hands of Trump and all of us. Clearly you guys are more interested in maintaining the status quo than rescuing the country from the Democrats. It just proves that Elites like you are the problem.

Sen. Mark Kirk and Sen. Kelly Ayotte, both of you ran from Trump, and both of you lost. I’m not sure why you decided to take that strategy but as a result you are both now joining the ranks of the unemployed.

Journalist losers: This includes; George Will and Bill Kristol, neither of you are worth the skid mark on the back of your drawers now to me. Will, you looked like a bumbling idiot on election night and thankfully Fox took you off the broadcast. Kristol, I’m not even sure where to start with you, first you hate Donald Trump, no need to cover those emotions anymore. Second you tried to recruit an independent candidate throughout the entire process to play spoiler. Congrats, your independent candidate did as well on election night as I did at the blackjack table! Kristol your new nickname is Pampers, because as far as I am concerned you are both full of the same thing!

Cal Thomas: you saved yourself by penning a column on the election eve saying you were in the Trump camp. You acted like a clown during the entire election process but you saved yourself; barely, in my eyes… you are still a loser; however, unlike Hillary you were somewhat able to save face.

Now the TV and local personalities: Michelle Malkin and Joe Scarborough, congrats, you bailed on Trump, now I’m bailing on you. Michelle Park Steel, you and your buddy Jon Fleishman both bailed on Trump. Steel even went as far as calling Trump a “clown” (well I am forced to give her the benefit of the doubt since she is married to one). Also, Sheriff Scott Jones needs recognition for waffling on several important issues and then compounding it by dissing Trump. Unlike some others this cycle, Jones does get to keep his day job.

The CRA and Tea Party: both organizations wanted nothing to do with Trump. The Tea Party reluctantly came around toward the end and did all they could. The CRA? Nothing but crickets out of that group of losers; all of them. Frankly I’m convinced the CRA leadership bought the domain name http://www.tedcruz2020.com anticipating a Trump loss. Oh well, I guess your guys can run third party in 2020. (Republicans are a third party in this state already.) Sad to watch honestly, that group is so leaderless, and responsible again for the CA GOP losing seats in the state assembly. In addition, the CRA did nothing about a tax increase in Sacramento County. Thank god a couple of people put up signs and it looks as if the tax will fail. CRA, instead of doing something constructive this cycle, you endorsed Ted Cruz and made him a part of your official platform and then sat out the election when he quit in disgrace. Instead of backing the nominee, the CRA faithful defected to the Never-Trump movement! Your movement and clubs are officially dead and gone.

Bonus Commentary from “X”
Trump and Obama actually have quite a bit in common, none of it being policy related. Both brought scores of new people into the political process by the nature of their campaigns. Obama promised hope to those in the black community, and as a result, twice he was re-elected by large margins. Trump went straight to the middle class- those affected by job losses, high health insurance premiums, and loss of home and autos. As a result he waged a war against the establishment of both parties and won a convincing victory. While the CRA and others tried to stop him; he prevailed. Now he has a mandate and we will see real change. Working class members of our society came out in record numbers, and as a result an electoral landslide occurred; one that has pundits on both sides reeling and trying to figure out how this could have possibly happened.

Democrats are left leaderless and need to search for the soul of their party. They will rebound, but they must do some major platform revisions. Voters threw out the Obamacare, free college, free programs, free trade agenda, they want it replaced. Democrats need to stop attacking people’s livelihood, such as banning guns, ammo, and coal mining. Sen. Sanders even acknowledged during the campaign guns are a large part of the economy in Vermont—his home state! Why can’t we mine for coal and export it to other countries?

Also, quit calling people names; “deplorables” and “angry Americans clinging to guns and religion” just makes the other side mad, stop that immediately. Stop making people feel inadequate; saying “if you don’t go to college you’re a loser” is a recipe for high college tuition and as a direct result, massive student loan debt that will never get repaid. (Besides it’s demonstrably true that many that dropped out of college are way richer than the rest of us, Bill Gates and Rush Limbaugh are two names that come to mind.—editor)

Quit kissing up to the Black Lives Matter crowd. See them for what they really are; a group of rabble rousers just looking for an excuse to riot. Sure there are a few in the movement that may mean well, but they have quickly become a fringe group. Stop giving out freebies, there simply are not enough voters at the low end of the spectrum and Hollywood elites to sustain any success in the long term. Take Obamacare as an example: the lower class got free health care, people were tricked into thinking that everyone got a Cadillac plan, but really the middle class was stuck with something they did not want, they lost their doctors and options, had to take high deductibles and co-pays and had to deal with massive premium hikes each year. The middle class revolted, and it cost you deeply.

Until next time…..