Since former Starbucks Corp founder Howard Schultz gave a 60 Minutes interview that he was exploring running for president as a centrist independent, the left has been buzzing. Quite a few of my liberal friends agree as they feel this gives their nominee a better chance to defeat tyrannical dictator Donald Trump in 2020. They could not be further from the truth, and I’m going to explain why.
Howard Schultz is not very centrist, he definitely lines up with the left more than the right, especially if you look at the policies put into place by Starbucks during his reign as chair and CEO. But I am not going to discuss his politics, I’m going to take his run at face value and assume he will have moderate tendencies.
First and foremost let’s discuss where Schultz will play best on the ballot: Washington, Oregon, California, New York, New Jersey, likely a handful of New England Area states, maybe the upper Midwest, and possibly Florida. On one hand, yes, Schultz would not have a big effect in quite a few stronghold states for the Democrats: CA, IL, MD, and VT and OR.
However, look a little closer at some other states and if you are a Democrat there is major cause for concern: MI, MN, PA, and WI were barely won by Trump (MI, PA, WI) or barely a Hillary state (MN) if you assume Schultz gets 5% of the vote, Trump wins all 4 easily. VA, NV, ME and NH went to Hillary as well, under my formula, Trump would win them all. A couple other states like CO, Trump would barely lose. I think the Left Coast could get real interesting, a poor or wounded Democrat candidate could see Schultz score bigger percentages, leading to a closer call for Clinton winning. How does this help the Democrat cause at all? Now they have to attack Trump on one flank, while attacking Schultz on the other. It does not help their cause that Schultz is a billionaire like Trump and can self-fund his campaign with loads of cash.
Here is the issue, Schultz guarantees Trump wins re-election. The Left would go bonkers, and it would be all due to Howard Schultz. Please run Howard, do it for your country. People forget what H. Ross Perot did for Republican Presidential prospects; Democrats, now it’s your turn. Heck get Mark “#MeToo” Cuban to run on a separate ticket too, the time is now.
H. Ross Perot–Reform Party candidate. Known as a man that’s all ears.
By the way, here is how Schultz became the head of Starbucks….i guess the right to file suit for anything like ADA violations will continue to run rampant under a Schultz White House if elected, and I thought Trump was the bully with all the nasty lawyers?
“When he was running the coffee house Il Giorna, the owner of Starbucks (which then had only six locations in the Seattle area) approached Schultz to buy the six stores for $3.8 million. Schultz, while trying to raise the money, told his Il Giorna investors about the opportunity. One of those investors, who remains nameless to this day, contacted Starbucks and tried to buy out the coffeehouse without any involvement from Schultz. Schultz met with prominent attorney Bill Gates Sr. (yes, the father of you know who), and told him what had happened. Gates Sr. famously stormed into the office of the attempted buyer and told him that he would make his life hell by providing free legal representation to anyone injured on that man’s premises for the rest of his life, and the unnamed Il Giorna investor backed off.”
Bottom line……the only Schultz less qualified to run for President is Charles Schultz.
While it will not be official until January 29th, Today PG&E announced their intention to file chapter 11 bankruptcy so they can reorganize and become an efficient company again. I say it became official today because PG&E did not pay the interest on a bond obligation due 1/15/19. Even worse the company only has enough cash to cover 4% of their fire related obligations, due to their negligence. Chapter 11 is not liquidation, its reorganization. If you’re a stockholder you will be wiped out, a bondholder, you will see pennies on the dollar for your “investment” and if you’re an employee your paycheck and retirement may be effected slightly. However the company will be lent money by investment banks, so your power and gas will still be operational, and rest assured a monthly bill will still show up.
How did we arrive to this fateful day? Well the fires are the easy answer, and as mentioned in an earlier blog SoCal Edison is not far behind. Utilities as a whole are debt laden companies due to the extensive capital expenditures that are supposed to be occurring every year (more on this later) and are 100% reliant on the Public Utility Commission to allow them to raise rates to cover expenses. The fires occurred, they had no reserves and as a result had no cash to make the payment on the bonds.
What is the fallout going to be from this you may ask? As mentioned above your service will not change or be disrupted. Stockholders are wiped out, bond holders get some scraps from the table, and pensions are likely going to be restructured. CEO Geisha Williams was “axed” the question on Sunday and she chose to resign instead…don’t feel bad for her she gets a nice parting gift of 2.5 million severance. (Had she worked for a governmental agency in Elk Grove, she would have got lifetime medical benefits for being fired, too.) I need to find one of these jobs were apparently incompetence is rewarded.
Geisha Williams presides over PG&E’s scorching of California
Geisha spent a whole two years on the job by the way, thank god she wasn’t a teacher, she would have tenure right now and you couldn’t get rid of her if you tried.
What is going to happen during bankruptcy? This is where things get very interesting, as I could see many different scenarios taking place. I think the most likely is a systematic parting out of the company over the course of several years while under state receivership. You could make an argument it should be broken up into a northern, coastal and inland utility. However I can see a big hang up, the infrastructure. A man in my office made a comment that the company owns quite a bit in valuable assets; this is somewhat true but mostly very false. True they own their headquarters in San Francisco, which is obviously worth quite a bit, but they are going to sell it to stave off creditors. As far as other assets, one mentioned by said man in my office was their wire line assets….really? I view those as a massive liability waiting to spark another fire. Ditto for their generators and transformer units, especially with their maintenance history as a company. Simply stated, buyer beware with these “assets” even if I got a sharp discount I wouldn’t touch them with a 100 foot insulated pole.
The aftermath with the bondholders could get very interesting though. CalPERS our state retirement system has not said how much in bonds they hold. Could the state bail them out just to keep CalPERS solvent? Could we see a state owned utility? Stay tuned! This is going to get messy.
Oh, the stock is down to around $6 a share, and don’t worry; they halted trading this morning, so you were unable to sell your shares, but retirement funds, institutional investors and those in the know were still able to bail out.
Pacific Gas & Electric–also known as the “Firestarter” for causing too many fires this past decade–has announced that it intends to split off its natural gas division and/or file for bankruptcy protection. This is a direct result of actions taken Thursday, January 3rd, by the largest insurance companies in the state; Allstate, State Farm General, and USAA filling suit to recover damages incurred by the Camp Fire.
The Camp Fire for those of you who; live under a rock, vote democrat, or are related to a Park Brother, is the fire that burned all of Paradise and Magalia late last year. The fire was started by a spark at a PG&E power generating facility, which had a myriad of maintenance issues by the way. The utility could be on the hook for over $15 billion in damages from fires over the last two years alone, an amount that could well exceed the company’s total value.
Camp Fire, Paradise , CA 2018
How did we get here you may ask? In short, California has a strange law (only 1 other state has it as well) called inverse liability. This law applies to utilities in the state, basically saying, if there is any chance your power lines/equipment may have caused the fire, you are 100% liable for all the damage. In the fires in Sonoma and Napa in 2017, as well as the Camp Fire in 2018, it appears PG&E will be liable for all damages under this law. So, whether the cause was sparks from a generator in Concow this year, a tree falling on a transmission line in Napa, or a short in the line in Sonoma, PG&E is on the hook, not your insurance company. Additionally, because this is set law, no judge will overturn this, or rule in the utility’s favor.
As a result of these liabilities, PG&E late Friday night began to look to implement “Project Falcon” named for the Peregrine Falcons that land on top of the San Francisco HQ’s roof. Project Falcon includes selling off their prime real estate in San Francisco and relocating elsewhere in the Bay Area. Maybe they should relocate somewhere less expensive…like I don’t know….ANYWHERE ELSE! It includes finding additional board members and directors with a background in safety…..yeah probably should have done this after San Bruno, but ok. In addition, they are looking to sell off/spin off their natural gas operations; i.e. the gas part of your bill.
This I have no opinion on, the entire company is ethically and morally bankrupt so I don’t know if two companies are better than one, but I digress. Actually, they lobbied State Senator Bill Dodd (D-Soviet Berkeley) to pass legislation to absolve them of all liability from fire stemming from their electrical lines. While Dodd may have been their puppet for a year, the bill went nowhere, and he has since reversed his stance calling PG&E one of the most corrupt companies he has ever dealt with. I guess the check never cleared the bank?
This issue is actually very complex, and I see it two ways:
On one hand, PG&E like other utilities are a legalized monopoly governed by a state regulator who essentially tells them how much they can charge and how much they can make. The other problem is their service territory is very large; they have over 5 million electricity customers in their territory. In addition, most of their territory is rural, meaning they must bury their lines (very expensive) or have them on towers running through heavily wooded areas or rugged terrain.
Electric Utility Service Area
For example, PG&E must somehow get power to the town of
Biggs. Since this is part of their service area, they must run power lines there
or have a generation plant for this community.
Let’s say that they run electrical transmission lines there and create a
defensible space of call it 20 feet on both sides of the lines. In theory, that
is all well and good, but along the route of the transmission lines are 100-foot-tall
trees. When the trees fall or large branches break off and knockdown the lines,
perhaps as the result of a storm or disease, not only could they disrupt power
but might start a fire. Since the
transmission lines belong to PG&E, they own the resulting repair costs even
if it was not directly their fault. While I do not feel sorry for them, the job
is not very easy, especially when you are a monopoly and have no choice but to
provide electrical and natural gas service.
On the other hand, I’m sorry; you are without a doubt the most ethically bankrupt company in the state, and by a wide margin. When the San Bruno pipe blast occurred, your company never admitted or accepted blame, they passed it off and gave traditional corporate speak answers.
San Bruno pipe blast
That pipe rupture and explosion killed people, and you were caught lying to a judge when they discovered the pipe was essentially “frankensteined” by welding together a bunch of scrap pieces.
“frankensteined” pipe welds
You decided to save face by running a bunch of feel good ads on TV essentially saying you are working harder than ever to keep our communities safe….liars! The fires in Sonoma, Napa and Paradise killed many people. This is a direct result of a total lack of maintenance and integrity. As much as I do not wish to see my gas provider go bankrupt or be split up/sold/etc. they need to be held accountable. So far, they never have been. I had to watch your annoying commercials then watch a town go up in flames because of your equipment and lack of accountability to your rate payers. When it came time for maintenance or tree trimming, I’m sure you just had a single employee check it, initial a log and move on to the next site. Rather than have a cross checker or someone to make sure the work was actually done, it was ignored, and people lost lives/homes and possessions as a result. Shame on you. You never learned your lesson, you just continue to repeat the same mistakes just hoping for a different outcome.
The Blog Father and I agree on several things involving this
corporation. First, it will be
interesting to see how the bankruptcy proceedings handle what is likely a much-underfunded
union pension plan for employees. This
state is very pro-union, and like most utilities, PG&E is very heavily
unionized. If the state swoops in and
takes them over, do the union pensions get bailed out by the taxpayers? Does the state bail the company out? It will be fun to watch. If the company splits, how does the gas
company make it on its own? Natural gas
prices are literally at their lowest levels and it has been this way a long
time. Also, what happens to both
companies? Splitting up is an easy
temporary solution but the problems will still exist. Finally does the company even know what it
actually owns or has infrastructure wise?
Some of these lines were laid decades and decades ago underground. As a matter of fact, PG&E scoped the
sewer lines in both our neighborhoods recently for some unknown reason. As I stated earlier no one even knows what
this company has infrastructure wise or the length of time it is guaranteed to
work for. My suspicions are that huge portions of underground infrastructure in
this state are decades past their useful life and in need of replacement.
Here is what needs to happen: CEO Geisha Williams needs to be led out in handcuffs, she may not work in the field but she as CEO is the captain of the ship and sadly the ship has been taking on water for too long. The failures happened under her watch. Come out and admit your failures and shortcomings in the maintenance division. Allow a judge to investigate the senior management including any supervisor in the areas where the issues occurred. The Public Utility Commission (PUC) should be allowed nowhere near this, they have direct oversight of all CA utilities and have been asleep at the switch. Talk directly to the ratepayers, PG&E’s electric rates are among the highest in the country, yet the upkeep has lacked badly. In addition, please stop running your statewide propaganda commercials about how safe you are and how you are removing tree branches to keep us safe. They are just that…propaganda. Thanks to your negligence, many people lost everything, some even paid with their own lives. Oh, and take a look at what you have done to your stockholders this past year. In addition to a free-falling stock price, your bond rating was cut to junk, and you eliminated the dividend–a traditional hallmark of all utility stocks…good thing I was never an owner!
Geisha Williams presides over PG&E’s scorching of California
What is going to happen: Xavier Becerra is going to take a break from suing Donald Trump and the feds for a minute to take up an investigation and sue PG&E. I guess that’s a good thing because he won’t be wasting taxpayer dollars for a bit, but isn’t this too little too late? I thought the job of government was supposed to be oversight? Instead they just read and react, suing after the fact to get their pound of flesh. Apparently, even your corporate record of supporting Liberal causes with large campaign contributions can’t buy you enough goodwill to get out of this mess. I’m still angry that you gave large sums of ratepayer money to fight against traditional marriage back when we were voting for Prop 8. Any linkage between electricity usage and what ratepayers do with their reproductive organs is beyond my comprehension, but then I don’t live in San Francisco.
Xavier Becerra
Becerra is talking about criminal charges against the corporation…how does that work? Send the transformer to jail? Put the power lines on supervised probation? Get it together! Sadly, I forsee a government owned utility coming soon to every part of the state near you, that includes you Southern CA Edison customers, your utility is in only slightly better shape. I offer up this evidence, PG&E wants to split into 2 companies as discussed above; gas and electric being separate. This runs against the current trend of electric utilities buying gas utilities, also both companies have a record of serious neglect for safety of its customers. The state knows this. They also know that PG&E has a very underfunded pension, and its bond credit rating has been cut to junk, essentially meaning the company faces insolvency very soon. Enter the State of California, coming in hot with a bailout, keeping the union workers happy, just simply folding them into CALPers. I’m sure the state looks at the electric rates charged by PG&E and salivates over being able to add that kind of coin to the general fund each month. Gov. Newsome is on his way to state run healthcare, might as well make utilities the same way, this way they can make you install solar, and simply take it and not pay you.
Conclusion: I think the answer lies somewhere in between these two scenarios. I see the state essentially “parting out” PG&E. In the past (2005), SMUD put out a study and a ballot initiative to annex Davis and Woodland as mentioned above. PG&E spent big to defeat it. I think this plan could come back to fruition. I could see the State selling off the territory to SMUD under an agreement that SMUD also take the surrounding rural areas and agree to a massive overhaul of the maintenance of existing infrastructure.
I see this scenario playing out all over the state to be honest. I don’t really see criminal charges, but I do see a major fine coming. When you look at PG&E’s service territory you can also see a case to break up the company into about 3 – 4 smaller companies, similar to AT&T’s breakup. Bottom line, this company needs to be gone ASAP and take all their employees with them. This has to be the most corrupt company in CA history.
Quite a few people in this country have the IQ of a potted plant, meaning the bane of their existence is to be taken care of by someone else, their owner. In other cases, you have people–mostly those who write for newspapers–who have the IQ of a piece of meat.
US Supreme Court Fall 2018
These two wrote an article about Ruth Bader Ginsberg (RBG) giving “side eye” –a sign of disrespect to a colleague of hers, Brett Kavanaugh–in the annual Supreme Court photo. Jenny Holander and Marie Claire will never win a Pulitzer. Furthermore, I doubt they could ever pass a test that proves their IQ is positive. The article is a thinly veiled hit piece written by a couple women who knowing very little think they know more than anyone else on this earth. This is why they cannot find work anywhere else and have to resort to click bait articles. Kind of ironic, but she is giving “side eye” to Sam Alito, as Brett Kavanaugh is pictured in back over her shoulder…….strange.
Get a load of this quote…..
Don’t get me wrong-I could certainly be seeing what I want to see here, mostly because RBG is a women’s rights icon. Meanwhile, Kavanaugh behaved like a spoiled child when asked about assault allegations at his confirmation hearings and got a spot on the bench anyway. Also, in fairness, RBG has adopted this facial expression in previous SCOTUS shots that did not include Kavanaugh, so there’s that.
Hmm…so I guess Americans no longer have the right to defend themselves in court? Throw out the Constitution?
Here’s an even better quote from these two way smarter than you or me authors……
Friday is portrait day at the Supreme Court of the United States, and you know what that means-a spot of shade-throwing by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, or so it seems. The November 30 portrait is the first that includes now-Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who replaced Antonin Scalia after a bitter tug-of-war about whether the multiple sexual harassment claims against him (which Kavanaugh denies) should render him ineligible. (Meanwhile, Christine Blasey Ford has only recently been able to return home due to death threats, but I digress.)
So, I guess Kavanaugh replaced Scalia (may he rest in peace) ummmmmmmmmmmmm no Neil Gorsuch did, or maybe I’m just too dumb to believe what I think these people just told me. Maybe I should ask the Blog Father’s wife who is a teacher about this one?
Good grief! Journalism is dead but wow. You two really are so off the reservation even Elizabeth Warren won’t call you among her brethren tribe. Maybe you should take up a career with a declining paper like the Sacramento Bee. Their standards were lowered a long time ago and are likely looking for people with IQ’s below that of a slug! But honestly; thank God you’re employed. I wouldn’t want my hard-earned tax dollars paying you two idiots to stay at home. However, if you want to go play in traffic, I endorse it, you won’t be missed. Your journalistic skills make you prime candidates for the Darwin Awards because you clearly have nothing worthwhile to contribute to humanity.
Just a quick lesson; feel free to check my stats on this……. Neil Gorsuch replaced Antonin Scalia……Brett Kavanaugh replaced Anthony Kennedy; but since I’m a white male, you think I probably have Mien Kompf and the Communist Manifesto by my bed every night so check with someone else to confirm my facts!
I came across an editorial in the Orange County Register newspaper Saturday, it was written by a Republican strategist (whatever the hell is that?) and proclaimed that the Party in California isn’t dead, they just need to change their messaging. It spoke about how John Cox picked up more than 500k votes than the Republican congressional candidates statewide! The editorial was kind of much ado about nothing, made claims about how the tax cuts didn’t help anyone, etc. I’m going to give my take on what happened and the steps to take to rebuild the Party.
The Party is dead. This is due to many reasons, but generally due to the consultants and upper political elites who run the Party.
This rung true under Ron Nehring, who used the GOP job as a reason to take multiple trips to Australia??? Thomas Del Beccaro who used the GOP job as a personal dating service, and current chair, former State Senator Jim Brulte, who is basically just a graveyard caretaker, we will have a new chair in January. While none of these three are directly involved in the loss of several House, Assembly, and State Senate seats, nevertheless, they are the chairmen, the Party’s decline falls on them.
I blame the consultants on many levels, first being that they essentially territorialized the Party. Meaning they have a candidate for Congress, maybe a candidate for a State Senate seat, but they care very little after that. This is very apparent in far northern CA, think Chico, Redding, Roseville, and Rocklin areas, the central valley area, and in Orange and San Diego areas. These consultants have also become very adept at protecting their own, want to run against one of their people? Prepare to be carpet bombed.
I witnessed this personally by a central valley/bay area based consultant. I was at a fundraiser for a candidate for Assembly in San Ramon. At this event, the consultant walked up to a rumored future candidate and told them he would personally see to it they are defeated for re-election to the seat they were running for as a result of thinking about running! This person was a Republican, essentially being told, screw off. Want to run against a Democrat in a safe seat? You will get no money and no support from the Party apparatus. Keep in mind, the Party leadership largely signs off on this.
Our candidates didn’t understand the political climate. We have a very unpopular president in this state at the top of the ticket, our governor nominee was largely running a “I know I’m going to lose but I want to make the Democrats spend money campaign”….I don’t fault him for our struggles. No offense to Mr. Cox, but it was a bloodbath in the statewide races and the trickle down was brutal. Diane Harkey and Jeff Denham never took their races seriously post primary. In the case of Denham, I don’t think he took it seriously at all. I think these seats are lost for good. Dana Rohrabacher was a weird incumbent and made enough weird comments to doom his re-election, I think we win can back this seat in 2 years. Steve Knight and Mimi Walters seats are harder to predict. I think we could win them back but they may well be lost for good in 2022 after redistricting. The seat Young Kim ran for is tougher to read; however, I think it’s gone. There was a strange ethnic twist here being it was an Asian American against a Hispanic American. I think its likely toast after redistricting.
The bloodshed continued in the State Assembly and Senate. We even lost seats that we should have won handily! In my opinion our incumbents suffer from what I call Dan Lungren syndrome. Lungren worked hard to get elected, then stopped working the district and as a result faced a very close election in 2008, he lost in 2012. He fell victim to the thought “I have been elected so many times how could I possibly lose?”
Now back to the consultants and these seats we lost, who do we run in 2 years? That is a question that cannot be answered. We have no bench in many of these areas. In reality, you could argue the Democrats have better future candidates then we do. This speaks to the fact that consultants have essentially locked out other Republicans from seeking elected office in “their territories” as they wanted to keep their own brand.
Now how I would fix the Party in California, keep in mind this will take about a decade or so. Here are some ideas.
Republicans need a full-time chair and a full-time professional staff.
We need to seek out fresh thinkers and new ideas, not settle for a journeyman or a newbie looking to hop from one job to the next. Mark Standriff did this years ago. He was press secretary, spoke to a local group of Republicans about how we are doing great things and he was so happy to be a part of it…he took a job the following day in Fresno.
Break up the consultant good old boy network. They never bought a franchise, so why do they have territorial rights?
Work closely with local GOP groups. This should go without saying, but it’s funny how most of these groups don’t even communicate with each other.
Have a slate card that involves ALL GOP Candidates running in the election. The Democrats do this why don’t we? Their campaigns coordinate….so why don’t we?
We need a platform stating our policy positions on everything, this should be done ASAP. We also need to enforce the platform so candidates don’t agree with it when campaigning and sell us out once they get to Sacramento or Washington.
Also, how come we don’t play in every race? We have essentially become a regional Party; playing in rural northern CA, some parts of the valley, Orange County and surrounding areas, and parts of San Diego. When I say play everywhere, obviously we won’t be winning anytime soon, but in most of those other area’s people refuse to vote for us because they have never heard our message. Work the area, put a token candidate up and see what happens, maybe after several election cycles we could make inroads. This is how Donald Trump won, he wasn’t afraid of the inner city.
We need to partner with every small Party in the state to overturn the top 2 primary! This is a no brainer, the other parties are just as jilted as us, take this to the Supreme Court if need be. This likely nets us a gain of about 6-8 seats in various districts.
Challenge the citizens redistricting in court as well, this is a sham! I would argue just like the Pennsylvania Democrats did, how come the GOP gets 40% of the vote, yet we have just 20% representation, and have judges draw a new map. This could net 10 new seats.
The Ragin’ Cajun’ himself was in rare form Saturday morning, serving as a celebrity guest picker on ESPN’s College Football Game Day. I use the term celebrity very loosely, I doubt he profiles as a “D” list celebrity, but I digress. The show airs every Saturday morning at the site of a major college football game to be played later that day, in this case #1 Alabama vs #3 Louisiana State University (LSU). Since LSU was the home team, ESPN always picks a local “celebrity”–in this case it was James Carville–to make a pick of who will win the game. What ensued, we will just call it the rant of the year that exposed both the deep state in the SEC (Southeastern Football Conference) and at ESPN.
Carville:
“Tennessee’s best defensive player couldn’t play against Alabama because of the SEC,” Carville said. “Missouri’s best defensive player couldn’t play against Alabama because the SEC kicked him out. A&M’s best defensive player couldn’t play against because Alabama because he was taken out and now the best defensive player in the conference is not going to play in the first half for nothing. For nothing.”
He has a point; Tennessee’s Alontae Taylor, Missouri’s Terez Hall, Texas A&M’s Donovan Wilson, and LSU’s Devin White were all ejected for helmet to helmet hits either during the Alabama game or the game before the Alabama game. Keep in mind all ejectable plays are reviewed by a crew in the league office, led by SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey. Carville is on to something here. Alabama is a dynasty winning 3 of the last 4 national championships and pulling off a remarkable feat three years ago of not getting called for a holding penalty all year long. Just to let you know holding can be called every play, most teams are flagged several times in a game, but somehow, someway, Alabama never was called for it. This is the deep state! As a Tennessee fan, I am completely in agreement with Mr. Carville.
So, Carville goes on this rant, then the show ends and the early games start. Then the game is interrupted by something called a Chris Cotter to say the following
“We have an apology to make on behalf of ESPN. While appearing as a guest on College Game Day earlier today, James Carville offered his thoughts on SEC commissioner Greg Sankey. As we regularly demonstrate here on ESPN, diverse opinions are encouraged. However, his actions were over the top, and we would like to apologize to Commissioner Sankey for them.”
Huh? You encourage diverse opinions? Like Jemele Hill and worthless Michael Smith ripping Donald Trump with opinions devoid of any facts? Or that you fired Curt Schilling because he tended to be pro-Republican? Most importantly, why are you apologizing to the SEC, their TV contract rights for the best games are held by CBS? Carville was simply pointing out a disturbing trend. Also, you should have known this, Carville like most political types are known more for hot takes then for anything else. By the way Alabama won 29-0.
This callous political correctness from “the world-wide loser” annoys The Chief.
Especially because in Alabama, Ancestry.com and Match.com are the same thing.
The wheels have come off the Democrat Party since the election of Donald Trump as our 45th President. So much so that they have had to abandon their usual talking points of Republicans are racist, sexist, homophobic, or even white supremacists. Now the Democrats have what I call a very odd relationship with children; not so much in a Catholic priest or disgraced Congressman Mark Foley kind of way, more just in general terms.
Exhibit A – Healthcare Repeal
Democrats wheeled out all kinds of children saying my (insert constituent’s name here) son/daughter/binary has (insert condition here) and will be kicked off my health plan after you bad guys repeal it. Blatantly false! Even under the former healthcare plans you were still covered in most every case until at least 18, in some cases far longer. In addition, let’s clear up the “pre-existing conditions” malarkey. If you are under a current plan and come down with let’s say a broken foot, your plan would pay for the injury and all subsequent treatments because you were injured while your plan was in force. A pre-existing condition is if I sign up during open enrollment, because I never had health insurance, and go to my pre-approval physical with said broken leg seeking treatment I would be denied. As that is called a pre-existing condition.
Exhibit B – Immigration
Democrats paint this really nasty picture of children being ripped out of their parents arms a la Elian Gonzalez with said parents being driven back to Mexico in a bus and booted out whenever we darn well please. Then taking said child and essentially sending him to any random Central American country and hoping for the best. False. First these immigration raids usually coincide with a employment or felony/drug/gang sweep led by federal agents. We legally cannot leave a child under 18 alone, so we round them up too and place them in holding trying to find a home for them, or reunite with parents and send back to their former home country. Notice the camera is always on the children, not the parents who are hardened criminals or gang members?
“The Caravan”
Exhibit C – The Caravan
All the Democrats talk about is how we have to take all these people coming here because, look at all the children! Forget the fact we have no clue who any of these people are, they have no regard for the laws of any country they pass through, let alone ours! However we must think of those poor children who will have nowhere to go as if they don’t have any other relatives or anything.
Exhibit D – Children with PTSD Study
This “study” I saw where 1 out of every 4 children has signs of PTSD since Trump got elected? Really? Think it could be their crazy deranged parents? How many children know what PTSD is let alone can spell it!
PTSD is typically experienced by soldiers exposed to brutal combat such as house-to-house fighting, trench warfare, or other combat which is up close, personal, and emotionally traumatic. Think looking the other guy in the face as you plunge a knife into his chest and he’s trying to do likewise to you. The idea that losing an election is anything like that is a perversion. No wonder these folks are called “snowflakes”.
US Marines
The Snowflake Generation can’t handle the truth which is why so many are still living at home
I think this claim of children with PTSD is a ploy by liberal parents trying to get their children on medical record as being “on the spectrum”. Children on such lists are often candidates for unnecessary medication; especially boys. Once children are listed as being medicated or in a classification that they may be at risk, this history will be used as a backdoor way that will result in making it so anyone with such a history cannot own a gun. Thus Liberals will slowly chip away at the 2nd Amendment by creating a new category of people prohibited from bearing arms. Think about it. Also, would this disqualify them from future military service?
As you can see, this has become a recurring theme of the Liberals. Don’t focus on our bankrupted medical system, or broken healthcare system, focus on these poor needy children. Don’t focus on the gang member parents, or the fact they broke the law to enter here, focus on the poor children. Don’t focus on who the people in this caravan are, focus on the children. Children are now a pawn in the game of elections in our country and frankly it is sick.
Just to be clear I’m being somewhat facetious here but I no longer trust this wannabe. Meyer is the definition of a modern day Pharisee; which for those non-believers or those who attend Catholic service on Sunday but seldom listen, a Pharisee is someone who is self-righteous and a hypocrite. Meyer who as was previously detailed in this space is a master of public relations, having coached both Aaron Hernandez, and Tim Tebow at the same time! Hernandez being best known for killing at least 2 people and “allegedly” killing 2 more, killed himself in jail earlier this year. Tebow of course being known as the heir apparent to the papacy when Pope Francis decides he wants to step down.
All kidding aside Urban Meyer’s Florida teams were some of the best I have ever seen, winning 2 national championships and could have played for a third had they not run into a buzz saw known as Alabama. In January of 2009 he was admitted into the hospital, saying he was not going to resign but would be ready for next season…Urban lied, and coached the bowl game in January. Following this game, he announced he would take a leave of absence, funny how this occurred after Tebow, Hernandez and the rest of the felons were leaving Florida. Meyer returned in 2010 and proceeded to have his worst year at Florida, 7-5. He resigned at the conclusion of the year citing health reasons relating to his heart. Yeah, read that again, his heart! Probably the one human organ that can single handedly make your spouse a widow in a matter of minutes. This dude apparently coached all year having heart issues….I call BS.
So then Meyer literally started working for ESPN calling games, so think brutal travel schedule, preparations during the week and sitting through some of the best college football games literally eight months after resigning. Again…BS. Then the Ohio State job opened up prior to the year starting, and suddenly I knew his plan all along. He knew the cupboard was empty at Florida, but Ohio State had a scandal ridden coach leave, and now he could swoop in. The white knight was back in business, and this all went down before the end of November 2011. His third year at Ohio State, he won the national championship. You can’t write a better script. Earlier this season he was suspended due to the actions of one of his assistant coaches, but ole Urban had ‘em up and running; cruising into last week’s game against lowly Purdue undefeated. Purdue beat ‘em 49-20, then something weird happened Tuesday 10/30. Meyer called a press conference and once again citing health issues, this time a cyst on his brain diagnosed in 1998! Is a reason for his possibly wanting to resign when “he can no longer give his all for Ohio State.” Apparently he fell over on the sideline during a game a few weeks ago. Yet he has been able to coach this entire time leading up to his one embarrassing loss.
I’m not impressed. Honestly, far be It from me to accuse someone of being a liar, but this guy checks every box. Seems like once things start to go against him he has to find a convenient excuse to exit stage right. I’m sorry for your health issues, but I would be remiss if I didn’t say this, but you’re insufferable. You somehow go out of your way to make it all about you all the time, even though you “allegedly” lead a college program. Best of luck with your “health issues” that are over 20 years old.
Just to clarify, the 70 million has nothing to do with that rigged mega millions jackpot you Americans play. That is the amount of DEMOCRAT/HOLLYWOOD/SILICON VALLEY money that has flown to Texas to attack Sen Ted Cruz. Cruz is in the Senator who will be winning re-election in a week by around 10% mind you. Cruz may have his misgivings and may have angered the Donald Trump coalition but he was not going to lose re-election, especially with very popular Governor Greg Abbott leading the ticket. Again to re-iterate if you are from Rio Linda or think the Russia colluded, Ted will win with at least around 10% of the vote. Forget about Beto O’Rourke for a minute, I’m going to lay out why those in charge of the Democrat’s Senatorial Campaign arm should be drawn and quartered.
Ted Cruz—CRA Savior
While they were blowing all this money on Cruz the same way Charlie Sheen blows the booger sugar, look at what happened to some of the other races for control of the Senate.
First look at North Dakota. Now full disclosure, the candidate had some missteps, but what if she got $10 million of that allotment? Ten million is a ton in North Dakota, you could even dig up all my dead brethren to vote Left. That seat? Yeah it’s lost as well, GOP +1.
Now let’s take a look at Missouri. The incumbent has had a rough couple weeks since the Kavanaugh “No” vote. She is falling behind her challenger. Again could an infusion of $10 million help? Sorry already went to Beto in Texas. I will call this race for the GOP as well, +2.
Trek up north to Indiana. This race should not be close. The GOP had a disaster of a primary with a challenger emerging mortally wounded. Again the race has closed and appears to be falling the way of the good guys. Polling again is close, but leaning GOP at this time. We will call this +3 again. I think Democrats have been oversampled yet again here. So we still would have had 50 million left, maybe another $10 here?
In Florida it’s a giant unknown who will come out on top, but a 24 year veteran Senator being virtually tied with–let’s say a Governor who carries a lot of baggage with him–is not good for the Democrats; especially headed down the stretch here. It probably would have taken $15 million here but you have a late emerging race where the Democrats could lose.
Now we will look at 3 additional races, 2 held by the GOP. I’m going to ignore the Tennessee seat, because it looks too far for Democrats to reach. In Arizona, I cannot really get a feel on this one, I think the GOP challenger is a good one. The Democrat seems like a Code Pink whacko. Hard to tell here but another $10 million out of that pot may push the Democrat across. This is the seat of aptly named Jeff Flake who basically is making Lindsay Graham into a fire breathing conservative. Much like the Nevada seat we will discuss next I like the fact that the GOP is winning the Governor’s race in both states at current polling.
Nevada is a tough state for the GOP. Clark County, think Las Vegas, is growing and becoming more left quickly. The Senator is an incumbent and has made some missteps. He leads in polling but I think this is one we lose. I think between Arizona and Nevada we lose 1. Montana is another seat just out of our grasp, and a race Democrats could be wondering why they didn’t spend more there. I think the Democrat wins. So far if you’re keeping score at home GOP +2 with 1 pure toss up in Florida. With the House looking likely to switch parties I cannot help but wonder what some Democrats will be thinking after seeing the Senate results.
You smell that smell? Not the ethnic food you ate last night, I mean that other smell, like burned toast? That’s what a certain soon to be former Senator from North Dakota smells like today. No, not because she voted no on Kavanaugh, but for the reason she gave. Sen Heidi Heitkamp who by the way comes from a political family a la the Clintons in North Dakota, said she didn’t vote to confirm the good judge because she believed Dr. Ford, the accuser, not Judge Kavanaugh the accused. Even though the accuser’s story could not be verified and the FBI came to a similar conclusion after their own investigation…Heitkamp still voted no. Then proceeded to say the investigation was not thorough enough. Keep that last sentence in mind as I drop this new revelation that came out about then Attorney General of North Dakota Heitkamp…..
US Senator Heidi Heitkamp
While Heitkamp was Attorney General AKA the second most powerful law enforcement official in North Dakota from 1992 and 2000 she ignored rampant sexual harassment and assault at Wahpeton Indian School. This is a boarding school for troubled Native American Students (No word on if Elizabeth Warren is familiar with said school). A teacher was accused of sexually assaulting a young girl. Heitkamp looked the other way. Heitkamp you may recall gave this reason for not voting to confirm Kavanaugh “Our actions tonight are a poignant signal to young girls and women across this country.” “I will continue to stand up for them.” This leads to an obvious question, where were you when your “constituents” needed you most clown? Why didn’t you stand up for women during your time as Attorney General? Apparently you believe Native Americans, most in North Dakota live far below the poverty line and have no access to running water or electricity are just throwaways, shame on you. Heitkamp for what it’s worth said it is not the Attorney General’s job to sue or enforce the law it’s the bureaucracy’s job. Maybe someone should make sure Xavier Beccerra of CA gets that memo? He sues the Trump administration by the hour. Glad you feel so self-righteous about a vote to oppose a duly qualified judge to the highest court. Maybe you can charge yourself with some sort of failure to prosecute crime?
But wait there is more…..
The Heitkamp campaign over the weekend took out a full page ad in an “open letter” to her opponent criticizing his position on protecting sexual assault victims. This printed AD listed over 100 names of women who were victims of sexual assault…..allegedly. Allegedly, because several named women have come forward saying they never gave permission to use their name publicly! Kind of a big deal. Other names were discovered as never being victims of sexual assault, yeah the women came forward saying #NotMeToo. Heitkamp denied any involvement saying it was the first time she had seen the ad, kinda funny being it was paid for by her campaign. Either she delegated this campaign job to Aaron Park or she is lying. Woah! I think we can gather up the hymn books on this one, and I think I hear a portly sized women warming her vocal chords up…I think this one is over!
Heitkamp looks to be borrowing a chapter out of the Democrats new playbook, accuse someone erroneously of sexual assault. Back it up with omitted facts and errors and then when all else fails just deny you ever had a part in any of it. Even worse it seems the playbook also includes denying the same accusations decades ago, ala Bill Clinton. Heitkamp could well face charges for running that ad without obtaining permission from those women. Also I think it’s Libel when someone writes something publicly that isn’t true? I will defer to Heitkamp on this one, since she is you know an attorney…allegedly. I feel kind of bad for her, her family’s political name is officially tarnished for generations.
That is the one nice thing about a dumpster fire, no one puts it out; it just keeps raging until it no longer has fuel.
a dumpster fire waiting to be extinguished
I predict a big win by her Republican opponent Kevin Cramer…actually YYYUUUUUUUGGGGEEEEE!
BTW the “Chief” will have no comment on my now fellow Indian by blood Elizabeth Warren, however as the Chief I designate your new tribal name as “Squaw of Crazy Ideas.”
Republicans need a full-time chair and a full-time professional staff.
