This week an actress employed by Disney’s Star Wars subsidiary was fired for saying that we should respect people’s political opinions even when we disagree with them. Yep, this revolutionary concept used to be a bedrock value when this country was known as America, but no longer.
Here’s the story. Please understand that due to the transitory nature of content on the Internet that the original and allegedly offensive comments were purged. Furthermore, most news stories on this incident don’t have the courtesy and objectivity to tell you what was actually said. I recall that journalism once prided itself on telling you all sides of a story and trusting readers to make up their own minds. This has not bee true in many decades.
According to Variety, Carano, 38, shared a message on the social media platform in which she compared today’s political divide to the events in Nazi Germany.
“Jews were beaten in the streets, not by Nazi soldiers but by their neighbors…even by children. Because history is edited, most people today don’t realize that to get to the point where Nazi soldiers could easily round up thousands of Jews, the government first made their own neighbors hate them simply for being Jews. How is that any different from hating someone for their political views,”
Two things to point out on the above; first, she did not write this comment, it appears that she reposted the comment; and secondly, is the end where it states, “How is that any different from hating someone for their political views?”
Note to Liberals: Those of us that are devout Christians see many parallels with the treatment of Jews in Nazi Germany and the current treatment of Christians in this country. Our faith has been under attack; especially over the last 15 years. Our love for Trump is based in large part to his removing the heavy hand of the federal government from restricting religious liberty. Joe Biden has been signaling that persecution of people of faith will resume under his leadership. California government has never stopped persecuting us, but they have had their agenda derailed while focusing on Covid. Thus, the comparison above which appeared on social media is in fact a valid comparison.
Thus, Gina Carano is saying that we should not hate people that have different views from ours. Translation don’t hate me or other conservatives that disagree with you.
Oh, she also once posted a meme disagreeing with the stupid mask requirements.
A second post contained a photo of a person wearing cloth masks to cover their face and head with the caption: “Meanwhile in California.”
Gina also posted the following:
“Expecting everyone you encounter to agree with every belief or view you hold is fucking wild”
This is not the first time Carano, who played former Rebel Alliance soldier Cara Dune on The Mandalorian, has been the focus of social media ire for her political comments. Last November, she issued contentious tweets, one in which she mocked mask-wearing amid the novel coronavirus pandemic and another in which she falsely suggested voter fraud occurred during the 2020 presidential election.
“They have been looking for a reason to fire her for two months, and today was the final straw,” a source with knowledge of Lucasfilm’s thinking tells THR.
If you want to find the pot calling the kettle black, search for James Gunn liking the posts about Carano being fired. Gunn was fired by Disney and was subsequently rehired for actually posting derogatory stuff on social media. Also, note that at the time, I posted a blog in support of Gunn. I don’t have a problem with free speech only with people demanding that I have to agree with them.
The following excerpts are posted without comment:
A peer-reviewed study contends the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention violated federal law by inflating Coronavirus fatality numbers.
The figures were inflated by at least 1,600%…
That fact, the National File notes, corresponds with the CDC’s “quiet admission that it blended viral and antibody test results for its case numbers and that people can test positive on an antibody test if they have antibodies from a family of viruses that cause the common cold.“
Among the notable findings in the study is the conclusion that the CDC “illegally enacted new rules for data collection and reporting exclusively for COVID-19 that resulted in a 1,600% inflation of current COVID-19 fatality totals,” the watchdog group All Concerned Citizens said in a statement provided to National File.
COVID-19 was to be listed in Part I of death certificates as a definitive cause of death, regardless of confirmatory evidence, rather than in Part II as a contributor to death in the presence of pre-existing conditions.
On its website, the CDC says, just 6% of the people counted as COVID-19 deaths died of COVID-19 alone.
The researchers estimated the COVID-19 recorded fatalities “are inflated nationwide by as much as 1600% above what they would be had the CDC used the 2003 handbooks,” said All Concerned Citizens.
Folks, the merry band of health officials claiming that a vaccine will fix everything Covid related are once again showing their hand… and it’s a very empty bluff that needs calling. If you get the vaccine, it changes nothing.
The following is from the State of California, specifically “Dr. Heidi Bauer, the head of public health for California Correctional Health Care Services.”
Let’s go through this one question at a time. Oh, please keep in mind that the text which I am quoting is the best arguments that your government can offer as to why you should get vaccinated.
After the vaccine, can I stop wearing a mask?
Unfortunately, the answer to that question is no. We as a society are going to need to continue to protect ourselves and to protect other people by masking and distancing for at least the next six months and possibly longer. It will take weeks to months to get enough people vaccinated before we can really let down our guard. Masking and distancing will continue to be really important prevention measures until we know more about the protection that we get from the vaccine.
Getting the vaccine will still require you to socially distance and wear a mask. You will need to do so for at least six months.
Note to readers, depending on the article that you read on vaccines, the Covid vaccine is claimed to be good for a period of three months to as long as a year. These claims are constantly being revised because the truth is that nobody really knows. Some articles are even claiming that you will need a Covid vaccine annually for the rest of your life or until Dr. Fauci changes his mind (yet again).
Oh, if you’ve had Covid, you will still have to get the shot because its assumed that you don’t develop any immunity by being infected. My question is, if surviving Covid—as over 99 percent of people do—does not result in immunity, then how does getting a shot do something your body’s immune system can’t do on its own by successfully fighting it off?
Am I exempt from testing after getting the vaccine?
Unfortunately, no. As I mentioned, people can still become infected even if they’ve been vaccinated so testing continues to be important for identifying people who become infected and may be infectious and pass along that infection to other people. We’re going to continue all of those other strategies. So the vaccine really gives us another tool in the tool kit. Unfortunately at this point. It doesn’t replace any of the tools that are already in use.
So, getting the vaccine doesn’t prevent you from getting Covid and getting Covid doesn’t prevent you from getting the vaccine. This is called circular reasoning; which by the way is a logical fallacy.
Given the above, the next question is at least a logical one. Please understand that the answer is directed at people working in the correctional system.
If I still have to wear a mask and get tested, what’s the point of the vaccine?
That’s a great question. People have many reasons for wanting to be vaccinated for COVID-19. The primary reason is for the benefit of health and the ongoing risk of exposure to COVID-19, particularly in congregate settings and prisons are very much congregate settings. And we know from our experience over the last nine or 10 months that there is very high risk of transmission, and these viruses some of them are becoming even more transmissible. And so the main reason I think that people want to be vaccinated and should be vaccinated is to protect their health. The other really important reason is to protect the health of people around you and family members and people that you come into contact with.
Did you catch the answer? You should get vaccinated to protect yourself and the people that you love even though it doesn’t really do anything but make you feel better. The ultimate reason is in your head (the mental health of vaccine recipient) and an appeal to your sense of citizenship not based on science.
Maybe the Surgeon General should require wording like this on the vaccine: Warning, any immunity that you develop to COVID-19 is purely coincidental and not necessarily the result of this highly experimental chemical cocktail that we are injecting into your body. Just in case this vaccine proves ineffective, keep pretending that you are the most highly infectious individual in your family/ church/ school/job or community by continuing to stay six feet away from other people and wearing a mask. Shouting out, “Unclean” when a stranger passes you by is encouraged but not yet required.”
Oh, and even though millions of folks have been vaccinated, its just a drop in the bucket. Which ties in with this next article. Please note the headline is: COVID-19 cases drop 40% since last week
The number of reported COVID-19 infections has plummeted 40% in the United States in just one week and 30% worldwide in the past three weeks.
And the primary reason is not the distribution of vaccines, contend experts, who point out that only 8% of Americans and 13% people worldwide have received their first dose, DailyMail.com reported.
A New York Times COVID-19 case tracker indicated cases in the U.S. were down 30% from just last week, according to Marketwatch.
Statistics from Johns Hopkins show the nation’s seven-day rolling average is down 40%.
Daily cases have dropped 45% since the latest peak Jan. 11, according to data from the COVID-19 Tracking Project.
Didn’t Michael Crichton tell us that “nature finds a way?”
Meanwhile the plethora of COVID-19 mutations which we told you about last Spring are finally being reported by the mainstream media. Some are finally asking in light of the virus’ ability to mutate, “will the vaccine remain effective?” Please note, this presupposes that the vaccine was effective to begin with. Give the responses by Dr. Heidi Bauer, this claim is very suspect to me.
The family voted to get one month of Disney Plus to watch the Mandalorian and see what else that they have to offer. We did a quick binge on the Marvel movies less anything Spider-Man (Sony stills owns the rights so not much Peter Parker on the Mouse channel) and then moved on to Star Wars.
Folks, the Star Wars franchise is one that editors tweak on a regular basis. Even before Disney bought the franchise from George Lucas, the original trilogy had been released in at least three different edits. As a rule, each of the edits added more special effects and content to the films. When Disney bought the franchise, they promptly killed-off almost every spin-off, series, or story idea marketed during the thirty or so years that Lucas owned the rights. In effect, Disney purged the “Star Wars cannon” so they could make the new Star Wars universe in their image—oh and market the crap out of the galaxy far, far away…
The latest trilogy—episodes seven thru nine—haven’t been out that long. Tonight, we watched #8 The Last Jedi (2017) and while the movie is much as I remember it, there was a noticeable edit at the end that didn’t escape my attention. I’m not that immersed in the Star Wars lore, but I do remember the end of episode 8 because it completely undid everything in all the previous films except maybe Jar Jar Binks. After Luke Skywalker dies, goes to his reward, or whatever— (“Die” just seems like the wrong word because just like a comic book, when is someone really dead enough not to come back to life? Even the grave didn’t keep Carrie Fisher out of the ninth movie.) — anyway, the last scene of the movie had shots of random children exercising “The Force” with the idea that it was now freely available to everyone. The Force was unleashed. When I saw it the first time, I was really angry that the whole idea of wrong versus right was gone and replaced by shades of gray and moral relativity. At the time I even blogged on my feelings. However, watching it this time, the stuff that offended me was absent. Magically, some uncredited person at Disney removed the offending material and set the story on a path more in tune with the concept used by Lucas of good versus evil. Star Wars was again a morality play in a galaxy far, far away…
As much as I disliked the theatrical release of The Last Jedi, I have a problem/gripe/concern with what I witnessed (or in this case didn’t witness). Most people will never own a physical copy of this or any other film that they can stream from the internet but folks, doesn’t the idea that some mega corporation can change content on a whim bother you just a little? If something can be added or removed without letting you know then isn’t that just a step or two nearer the dystopia of Orwell? Truth is reduced to what government or mega-corp. says it is. Isn’t that why many of us have left Facebook and Twitter? Yet when it comes to digital media, we usually don’t notice when they edit your eBook or flat out delete it from your Kindle reader. Real books are portable and immutable, but the internet and other forms of digital communication are malleable, ethereal, and transient.
So, while in this particular case, I think the edit strengthens the story, it bothers me that it was done without notice or disclaimer. How many other things have I streamed into my living room that have received edits which change the plotline of the story and I never knew the difference?
Folks, please keep my experience in mind when you interact with anything digital. It can be manipulated or removed from your device without any notice to you. If it’s important enough then buy a copy of the physical media whether that be a book, DVD, or whatever. If the content lives on some else’s computer then you don’t really own it no matter how much you paid for the illusion of ownership.
The Drunken Jedi (aka Jorge Riley) has finally screwed-up beyond the ability of his enablers to cover for him. He was arrested by the FBI and is currently being held without bail awaiting a hearing in Federal Court in early March. I’ll have more on this in just a moment.
First why is this individual called the Drunken Jedi on our blog? The short answer is that Sith Lord and Apprentice were taken. This individual is the polar opposite of the Sith Lord, thus in order stay with the Star Wars motif, he was a Jedi. Second, this individual has substance problems which his peers have enabled for decades, thus to point out the obvious is to mock them for enabling and even rewarding bad behavior. (Another blog contributor is going after these enablers via his own post so I will deal only with other aspects to this story.)
I learned of this story via a friend that happened to be dining with the Sith Lord when stuff hit the fan. Folks, this one incident did more to unite the California Republican Party than anything else the CRA (California Republican Assembly) has done in decades. This was the day prior to this story hitting both local television stations KOVR and KCRA. It seems after the raid on the Capitol building January 6th that the Drunken Jedi did an interview video telling how he was in the front of the pack entering the Capitol building and Speaker Pelosi’s office. He talked of getting maced on three occasions as he went about pillaging the People’s House.
The day of the Sith Lord’s fateful meal, knowledge of the video was circulating thru the Republican electeds at the California Capitol. They were reaching out to anybody they could find in CRA and the Sith Lord got his share of calls demanding that CRA repudiate this guy and his actions.
The following day, the story hit the local TV news stations. Understandably they got a few key details wrong and were unaware of other information which I will attempt to correct in the following paragraphs. But first, the news accounts.
A Sacramento man who admitted his involvement in the U.S. Capitol riot in a video has resigned from his position as a local Republican leader.
The California Republican Assembly is condemning the actions of board member Jorge Riley, who they identify as the man in the video, and any plans for further violence.
A Sacramento Republican leader was forced to resign on Thursday after backlash following his involvement in the pro-Trump mob that stormed the nation’s Capitol on Jan. 6.
Jorge Riley, corresponding secretary of the California Republican Assembly and president of the Sacramento Republican Assembly, resigned from both positions Thursday afternoon. Photos and posts on his personal Facebook page document his participation in the siege.
The California Republican Assembly issued a press release condemning Riley’s actions, and said the CRA was not involved in the incident.
The statement also said the CRA president demanded Riley resign his membership immediately or be removed.
“CRA President Johnnie Morgan has demanded that the member, Jorge Riley of Sacramento, resign his membership in CRA immediately as it is important to have leaders who’s actions exemplify positive engagement in the civil governance process. If he does not resign, we will seek his expulsion from the organization.” Members with the CRA told KCRA 3 Riley resigned from both positions at 4 p.m. Thursday.
KCRA 3 reviewed photos, videos and comments posted to Riley’s Facebook page during and after the riot, including a since-deleted Jan. 8 post that read “You will all die.” That post was removed Thursday evening.
In a series of photos and videos, he is seen participating in the rally with President Trump, before moving with the group to the Capitol. As the photos continue, Riley is seen with the group storming the Capitol building. He also shared photos of broken windows inside the Capitol hallways and outside Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office. Photos of Riley inside the Capitol were removed Friday afternoon.
Folks, sorry but Mr. Riley didn’t cut his ties with CRA as stated in the press accounts. I have been unable to get any confirmation that Riley has submitted anything in writing resigning as statewide Correspondence Secretary, President of the Sacramento Chapter of CRA, or resigning from CRA itself.
Whether Riley leaves the Board voluntarily or is removed, such an action cannot be taken without a duly called Board meeting. As of this writing, two weeks after the media accounts above, such a meeting has not been called. CRA is incorporated in California and all Board members, including Riley, are officers of the corporation. Removal is not official until certified by the Board at a properly called and noticed Board meeting.
Riley has not been replaced as President by Sac CRA.
Riley has not been removed as a CRA member.
In fact, some CRA members are fighting behind the scenes to keep him in the organization.
Oh, there’s more. Riley is the keeper of CRA’s membership rolls. Yep, he has the master copy of who is in the organization and who has paid their dues. This information is needed for Board meetings and conventions.
Riley also owns the web servers hosting the CRA website. Thus, he owns the CRA’s website! Without his cooperation, he can hold the CRA hostage and prevent them from updating content. This is more proof that the CRA leadership learned nothing from their dust-up with the Just Us Brothers.
The FBI has also arrested a Sacramento man, Jorge Riley. Though no court documents have been filed against him, he can be seen on videos posted to Reddit storming the United States Capitol.
About the time that the FBI narrative came to my attention, I was given information that Riley was being held with no bail and a preliminary hearing date of March 5. It appears that Mr. Riley is slated to be the poster boy for what happens to you when you raise hell in the Swamp and then brag about it on social media.
Folks I have lots of questions about this whole incident not the least of which is why travel from Sacramento to Washington DC in the first place? Several folks arrested at the protest were from the Left Coast. I have yet to hear of any of these people who were arrested making political contributions to President Trump’s campaign. I’m sure if the Dems could tie them to Trump via donations that they would do it. Given the above, how did they afford to travel to DC if they wouldn’t even write a check to Trump’s campaign? (It only takes a $100 contribution for your name to appear on campaign contribution records filed with the FEC.)
I was just at the Capitol Building a year and a half ago and I thought there was an enormous amount of security so how did these guys get in the building en masse? What about reports that the raid on the Capitol started 20 minutes before Trump spoke to the crowd? Did some protesters get in the building thru security before this started? Or stated another way, was this truly spontaneous or planned?
Media reports raised the possibility that Riley and others would be tried in Virginia or elsewhere in the DC area. Is it necessary to extradite them to the other side of the country or can the preliminary court appearances be done locally?
Apparently, we didn’t have to wait very long for the answer to my last question. Hours after I penned the above, a staff member forwarded the answer to my question with this update.
Jorge Riley, the Sacramento man accused of participating in the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol riots, was in a heated hearing Wednesday where a federal judge ordered he remain in custody and be transported to Washington, D.C. courts, calling him “a man of impulse and poor judgment.” Judge Carolyn Delaney held firm that there was plenty of evidence against Riley, saying that his incarceration will be a lengthy one if he is convicted. Timothy Zindell, Riley’s attorney, vehemently argued against the judge, saying that the former Sacramento Republican leader was neither a flight risk nor a risk to public. Zindell also argued that Riley is a disabled veteran with no money and that he had to use his $600 stimulus check intended for coronavirus relief to buy a plane ticket to Washington.
These paragraphs contain a lot of info related to the theme of this post.
First, Riley will be sent to DC for trial.
Being in a “heated hearing” with a federal judge is never a good thing.
The judge, as we suspected, thinks Riley will be on ice for a long time.
It’s interesting that Riley—who allegedly resigned from his positions in CRA—is still described as a “Republican leader.” As we all know, were he a Democrat, his Party affiliation would never be mentioned in the story. This type of media bias has been the case for the last forty-plus years.
If Riley is transported out of California-which I understand happened yesterday-then maybe CRA will have grounds to remove him since he no longer resides in California, although we learned during the most recent election that living in another state is not necessarily a barrier to voting in the once golden state. The only sure way to ensure Riley’s removal from the CRA and Republican voter rolls is if he is convicted of a crime that results in his loss of the right to vote. Again, many within CRA don’t want Riley removed from office or the organization.
Lastly, if Riley had done the exact same things that he is accused of now and been a member of Some Black Lives Matter, Antifa, or another liberal group of malcontents, he would be out on bail and not be facing any charges as they would be dismissed by prosecutors.
Riley’s day of reckoning has been a long time coming. Had some in CRA said “NO” to him years ago, maybe he wouldn’t be drowning in this pool of excrement today.
Folks, its not that we haven’t addressed the topic of the complete capitulation of virtually all the churches in this country in the face of the Covid nonsense at times in the past; however, it seems to be getting worse. Clearly those claiming the name of Christ fear microbes more that God. The shepherds of the faithful have chosen to scatter their flocks to the four winds to be thrashed by the Evil One while they hide their lamps under the bushel basket cringing in fear and looking to government for salvation.
I took this photo on my way to work this morning.
Oh, on a side note, California taxpayers, thanks for the full paycheck this month when I have spent less than five hours in the office all month. This is the “new normal” for government employment in case you missed that. Yet another story you won’t know if you only watch cable news.
Anyway, back to the topic at hand. Its one thing when our Governor calls churches nonessential but it’s a whole ‘nother level of stupid when the churches agree with the proposition and call themselves “nonessential” as in the photo above.
The truth is that the offering plate at your local house of worship is really empty these days. Many places of worship—especially in high-cost areas such as here in California—will never recover either the money or the members that they had prior to the Covid collapse. In fact, Jake the Snake said that his parish-which had 1.5 million cash in the bank before Covid-just applied to get a government loan to keep the church’s payroll afloat. This bothered both of us. We talked that such bailouts would come with strings and we wondered aloud if churches would soon lose their tax-exempt status under the Harris/Biden administration.
Folks there’s even worse news for churches than all the above. Last Thursday, I was at the men’s gathering at the local Speak Easy and learned that the men of my congregation are perfectly OK with complying with all the Covid restrictions and see no difference between church on YouTube and worship in person. In fact, they want to hand over more money to Facebook and Twitter to advertise the fact that either way to attend church is equally valid. Oh, when I brought up the historic and biblical model of church being in person and there is no such thing as virtual Sacraments, I was told that watching YouTube services by yourself was not good but if you invoked the “whenever two or three are gathered in my name” that such virtual worship with the family was just fine. (I let it slide that the application of this verse to worship is completely out of context with the passage.) Oh, YouTube is also great because why just watch our service on YouTube when you can watch all them other guys too?
In a congregation that once numbered between 800 and a thousand, three services once a week with a one-hundred-person limit is fine with these guys. In my opinion, its congregational suicide.
Oh, Jake and I also agree that our congregations have buried way more folks than they have either baptized or confirmed since Covid started. The trend line is indisputably in the wrong direction.
Lastly, as I’ve pointed out before, there is a cause-and-effect relationship between closing churches and the rise of socialism in our nation. If your pastor neglects to fill the spiritual vacuum in our society with Christianity, then people will fill it with other stuff to sooth their itching ears. Trust me that there’s much more stuff like that on YouTube than anything with spiritual substance to it. If your church has ceased or restricted in person worship, then your church is part of the problem and not offering solutions.
In my last installment I talked about cancelling some of my social media accounts and then detailed cancelling my 11-year-old Facebook account. In the course of these discussions, I also mentioned exploring options. This post is to provide more information on that search. This post will explore Internet options which are either friendly to conservatives or those wishing more privacy and less tracking by “Big Tech” companies. As always, I value feedback from readers.
Brave
Many of the companies that make web browsers have censored Conservatives or have pledged to punish them for their views. These include Google (Chrome), Apple (Safari), Microsoft (Internet Explorer, Edge), Mozilla (Firefox). An exception to this trend appears to be Brave. It is made by a guy that helped found Mozilla and another guy that created JavaScript. These guys have made a Chromium based browser with privacy built in. You can opt-in to their system of advertising but if you do, it won’t track your computer with personally identifiable information or your IP address as you sail the Internet.
Brave is on a mission to fix the web by giving users a safer, faster and better browsing experience while growing support for content creators through a new attention-based ecosystem of rewards.
Oh, and Brave has DuckDuckGo baked-in as a choice for Internet searches. If you’re tired of being tracked by Google and others, try browsing with privacy.
DuckDuckGo
DuckDuckGo is the go-to search engine for privacy and searches not prioritized by Google’s pay-to-play advertising and political bias algorithms.
MeWe is not as mature and feature rich as Facebook is but it also lets you speak your mind without repercussions or warning banners placed on your posts because you dare to disagree with Big Tech.
Now that Donald Trump is off Twitter, there’s no reason to be on there anymore. You can try Signal.org if you want to communicate mostly on an IOS or Android device.
Parler
When Amazon, Apple, and Google coordinated their attack on Parler, Parler was claiming 15 million users and a valuation of over half a billion dollars. I expect Parler to be back up soon. Perhaps with new software and backend support.
Wouldn’t it be funny if Parler found a home in Russia or some Eastern European country? Then suppose they let Trump have a big presence there too. CNN and the Huffington Post would really go ballistic with conspiracy theories. Fact is, such a move would be an indictment of the Democrats. Think about it, this would show there’s more freedom in the former Soviet Union than in the United States.
That’s my Internet alternatives round-up for now. Watch this space for more as the situation warrants.
Folks, we know that Congress’s attempt to impeach President Trump—who is no longer the President—is illegal and unconstitutional. (The penalty if convicted is to remove Trump from office which is impossible.) Since this is true, why go through the exercise? Yes, Congressional Democrats think it will cripple Trump and possibly disqualify or discourage him from running in four years, but why do it?
We know that the Democrats are engaging in the politics of personal destruction and will be coming for us too, in some form or another. But why engage in this tactic?
The answer is in two parts. First this is how Democrats in California operate. This is San Francisco values in action. The Democrat’s attitude is the same regarding Trump as it is in the California Legislature; namely, we will ignore the law and do what we feel like and if you don’t like it then take us to court.
Since following the law is irrelevant and Democrats are making this process up as they go to get the outcome that they want, I expect that Trump will be convicted after Pelosi’s kangaroo court. (Thanks Mitt Romney.) Trump will then take the matter to the Supreme Court. Should the Court follow the Constitution and throw out Trump’s conviction, then the Democrats win again. Oh, how can the Dems win when the Court throws out Trump’s conviction? Because this will give Democrats the ammo that they need to justify packing the Court.
So, my answer is that they wish to harass Trump enough that he won’t run again in 2024 and also have the excuse that they need to pack the Court.
Before you discount me remember that you are trying to look at issues like this with reason, but Democrats have no use for reason, they argue emotion and feelings, facts are irrelevant to them. They will argue the lie that Trump’s conviction was reversed by an activist conservative Supreme Court and the only remedy is to add loyal justices to the Court. If the court upholds Trump’s conviction, then the Court has compromised their integrity and ruled based on something other than the Constitution, thus caving to politics over principle. Short of a unanimous ruling by the Court, this will be the likely outcome.
In a state which has move registered voters than citizens of voting age, punishes workers and rewards the slothful, and thinks we are just one more tax on the wealthy from utopia, is it any wonder to read the following story on California’s new unemployment numbers?
California is reporting a surge in coronavirus unemployment claims last week for independent contractors, gig workers and the self-employed, and the tens of thousands of claims are raising renewed concerns about widespread fraud.
The state received more than 77,000 additional claims compared with a week earlier, accounting for more than a quarter of all such claims nationally, according to numbers released Thursday by the U.S. Department of Labor.
Ok, let’s think about this introduction a little bit. Businesses are closing, people that were temporary hires during the holidays are off the payroll once again, and the big one that nobody is talking about is the federal government is once again paying more money to people that don’t work. Yeah, why would being paid more for not working be a factor in who files for unemployment? Please note the above in the article, “…for independent contractors, gig workers and the self-employed…” and compare it to this from CNBC.
The latest stimulus bill signed into law on Dec. 27, 2020, extends federal programs by 11 weeks to help freelancers, self-employed, gig workers and the long-term unemployed, and it reinstates the weekly federal enhancement that expired in July 2020, this time at a reduced rate of $300 per week.
Clearly the linkage between government policy and behavior can been seen in the above.
Oh, but we’re just getting warmed up with this article.
The KCRA article continues:
The state Employment Development Department has been overwhelmed with unemployment claims since March, when Gov. Gavin Newsom imposed the nation’s first statewide stay-at-home order that shuttered many businesses. The state has processed more than 19 million claims and paid out more than $113 billion in benefits.
In less than 10 months, California has spent over half this amount on just one social welfare program.
Also note that there were 19 million claims in a state with a population of 36 to 40 million folks. This includes both children and the elderly. On a statistical basis, most eligible workers in the state are on government assistance and not working. This is a disturbing statistic.
The state thinks that many of these claims are fraudulent, but they seem perplexed at how to prove it.
About 4 million claims and $43 billion in payments fall under the program for independent contractors. The program has helped a lot of people who are self-employed weather economic shutdowns from the virus. But its broad eligibility requirements have made it a target of criminals seeking easy paydays.
Thursday’s increase was in new claims, not those from people extending or renewing them under a Congressional extension.
That alarmed Michael Bernick, a former Employment Development Department director and attorney with the Duane Morris firm.
Most independent contractors in California should already have filed new claims in the previous nine months, he said.
“The (new) claims numbers make no sense, other than indicating the re-emergence of fraudulent claims,” Bernick said.
Overall, the state has acknowledged paying at least $400 million in phony claims, including thousands in the names of prison inmates, including some on death row. However, fraudulent claims have fallen significantly since last fall, when the state installed new safeguards, including contracting with the companies ID.me and Pondera Solutions to better verify claimants’ identities.California was flooded with claims in the early days of the pandemic after Newsom imposed stay-at-home orders in mid-March that closed most businesses. The department managed to resolve a backlog that peaked last year at 1.6 million claims. But the pile has grown again and now stands at more than 800,000 people.
Blake Hall, founder and CEO of ID.me, told the Los Angeles Times last week that at least 10% of claims submitted to the state before controls were installed in October may have been fraudulent — which could result in nearly $10 billion in fraudulent payments.
Folks, the statistics in this story are mind-blowing. Just the mere facts presented in this article are an indictment of the state’s fiscal mismanagement.
Just to recap
19 million unemployment claims as a result of Covid.
Costing $113 billion.
Ten percent of claims are fraudulent (and perhaps more)
One fourth of all new claims in the US are from California.
EDD has 80,000 claim backlog.
No way to really know what is legitimate or fraudulent.
No end in sight or effort to put people back to work.
For those of us that believe there was widespread fraud in the last election, you might be surprised to know that all the promises of proof via the legal process have evaporated with the coronation of President Harris and her Crazy Uncle Joe.
Not surprisingly, the Republicans in Washington DC disavowed Donald Trump and his MAGA agenda before his jet even left Andrews Air Force Base. Close behind were his attorneys including Rudy Giuliani and Sydney Powell. Success has many fathers, but failure is an orphan.
Why is everybody dumping on Trump? To me the explanation is simple, Trump was supported by two groups of people in the political world. The political class will support you if you are winning or appear to have the support of the people and others in DC will support you if it has no personal cost to them. I guess a third reason people would support Trump is because they thought they could get something from him. Think “use him” or “leverage him” for some perceived advantage.
Mitt Romney and Mitch McConnell both wanted Trump’s support and endorsement when running for election but as soon as their victory was assured, they dumped all over Trump and kicked him to the curb. (Please lump any Senators from Maine or Alaska in this basket as well…something about the latitude I guess.)
Trump’s lawyers did it for different reasons, as did many others, they want to live to fight another day—or at least continue earning paychecks while in the Beltway. As you may recall, Democrats in many areas threatened Trump’s lawyers with disbarment and shame if they tried to prove election fraud in court. It wasn’t for lack of evidence that they dropped the cases but because once Sleepy Joe became President the cases became mute. Tilting at windmills might be in style in the CRA but serious people in politics know that they need to pick their battles and live to fight another day.
Finally, the political class is terrified of being called bad names by the mainstream media. The only thing worse for them was being called bad names by Trump and then having the media repeat them. Little Rubio and Lyin’ Ted are names that still echo fives years after the 2016 debates. Oh, Trump did prove he has larger hands …but I digress.
Folks, once Joe and crew anoint 23 million illegals as citizens—Oh, the 11 million number is nonsense and been static in political discourse since W was President, the real number is likely much higher—election fraud won’t be needed any more for Democrats to maintain power.
Again, I maintain that Donald J Trump was the last Republican that will ever be a US President. Welcome to a United States under one Party rule. Oh, and Yes Virginia, the last election was to remake America into a nation with San Francisco values instead of American ones. Funny how we’ve gone from Republicans hoping to “Release the Kraken!” to Democrats promising to “Unleash hell” in the space of a few weeks. Oh, and look for Democrats to keep their word.
