So many questions: Does Joe Biden know that he even picked Kamala Harris? Assuming he got a say, was it because her hair smelled good, she got Biden’s endorsement the way she got Willie Brown’s, or because Harris was an articulate black woman?
Kamala Harris sharing a moment with Willie Brown
The obvious question is why? Does Biden need to shore-up his support in the once “golden state”? How does picking such a crazy lady help him win in middle America or the swing states? Harris not only represents California values—or lack thereof—but San Francisco values. Where else does that even play well? OK, maybe cities in flames or civil unrest like Seattle, Minneapolis, New York City, and Chicago.
Truthfully, Harris is the perfect choice for the cancel culture and Some Black Lives Matter. Nobody has a stronger track record of promoting the genocide of unborn black children better than Harris. Heck she makes Fay Wattleton look like a poser in comparison.
Harris also has a long track record of selective enforcement of the law—often ignoring it when it furthers her political career. Harris is the worst kind of swamp creature and given the opportunity, she would throw Joe under the bus or upstage him to make herself look good.
Biden’s VP pick is seen by some as a de facto successor since its speculated that he will expire in office with or without assistance from the Clintons.
Joe Biden has a tiger by the tail and Donald Trump will make him rue the day he selected Harris. What a gift Trump has been offered. Only a Supreme Court vacancy would help Trump more.
Look for Orange Man to put it out of reach early on election night.
Have you wondered why so many companies are requiring customers to wear a mask? Why are so many people falling in line with the paranoia that somehow a mask will protect you from Covid when there really isn’t any proof?
Hint, the answer is one word: lawyers.
Yep, if your business bucks the orthodoxy of CNN and a customer happens to get Covid, said customer will blame you not because they have any proof but because you didn’t follow the rules so you must be the guy to blame. It’s a logical fallacy but the Jonathan Edwards crowd doesn’t care about facts just feelings. Emotions are the gateway to get big settlements and CNN viewers are the stooges to get you there.
Republicans say they know that they need to indemnify businesses but somehow the legislation is stuck in limbo. Folks, until we get meaningful indemnification for businesses, there will be no economic recovery. Tyrants in Democrat states will not be seriously challenged about arbitrary rules without legal protections for American’s institutions. This extends to more than businesses but also schools, churches, etc.
So next time you have to apply the “muzzle of the beast” to buy and sell, remember to blame Gavin Newsom and lawyers that support him, but also know that Congressional Republicans can stop this and haven’t.
Yep, SCO strikes again. As a follow-up to yesterday’s report on payroll problems with the State of California, today another error surfaced. This one is related to most State Employees represented by the good ole SEUI.
As part of the new contract that went into effect January 1, 2020, the SEIU got the Governor to agree to give all SEIU represented employees an extra $260 per month starting with the new fiscal year (July first). One bargaining unit already gets this perk but the rest were supposed to start getting it in July’s pay which was distributed yesterday. The number 260, is supposed to be the average amount that people in their bargaining units—notice I’m not limiting this to union members—are paying for their share of medical insurance for them and their families. Thus for many State Employees, there is no longer an employee contribution for medical insurance.
Note: Ok, technically there is because they are separate line items in the check, but in actuality, if you are only insuring yourself on the state’s dime and happen to have Kaiser, you get to bank about $140 each month. $260 minus ~ $120.
Here’s the official verbiage from the State Controller’s Office:
Improving Affordability and Access to Healthcare Employees in bargaining units R01, R03, R04, R11, R14, R15, R17, R20, R21, excluded employees, and certain classifications tied to Service Employees International Union (SEIU), who are eligible for state-sponsored health benefits, shall receive a $260 pay differential for Improving Affordability and Access to Health Care each month and can expect this pay differential to be issued as a supplemental payment, processed in a daily payroll cycle, following the close of the business month.
So taxpayers, thanks for the extra money during these tough times. And one last thing. I’ve talked with a few State workers today that told me that even with Garvin’s 10 percent pay cut, because of this money and a few accounting tricks, that many State Employees will now have HIGHER take-home pay than before the 10 percent cut.
If you mixed Peanuts, The Far Side, and Dilbert in just the right way, you might get a fictional result that’s almost as strange as what happened today.
Remember those pay cuts that Governor Newsom was supposed to give to State Employees? Well today, after most State Workers got their checks, the gang at the State Controller’s Office figured out that they calculated ALL the state employee’s pay wrong.
The miscalculation affected the employee and employer share of the retirement deductions. Depending on the employee’s circumstances, the calculation varies. The employee share amount ranges based on the gross subject to retirement amount but is estimated to be between approximately $.01 to $100, depending on the amount of retirement deduction.
SCO has corrected the calculation and payroll will process accurately, beginning with all payments issued July 24, 2020, and forward. SCO will process retirement adjustments with the August 2020 payroll to correct the July 2020 payroll discrepancy. The adjustment will be shown as deduction *PERS ADJ on the earnings statement…
By the way, SCO is way worse than DMV but you folks in the public don’t have to try to sort thru their crap which is a blessing. Betty Yee has run that place into the ground. They are further behind than EDD and DMV put together. (Years not months.) SCO’s processes and procedures were developed in the 1970’s and technology wise, I expect they are still running those computers from Y2K. Oh, I’ve been to their check processing facility. It looked like it was state of the art when Ronald Reagan was leaving the White House and they keep nursing the antique equipment along as best they can. When is the last time you saw someone using industrial equipment made by Pitney Bowes?
One reason I’m hitting SCO is this: instead of sending an electronic record of each error correction to each department’s accounting office, which anybody on the private sector would do, SCO’s practice is to print one 8 ½ x 11 sheet of paper for each payroll error correction that is made. This paper is then mailed to each department every few days. In a typical year they print and mail well over 100,000 of these sheets of paper. Folks per my quick Internet search, there are reportedly 210,916 full time employees! I hope they don’t really waste that much paper. Last time I remember them making a big mistake in payroll was when open enrollment changes took effect and they botched deductions on over 30,000 checks. I got to touch over 17,000 of their error corrections myself. Oh, once the error corrections arrive, they are scanned and attached in the accounting system to the corresponding line item. If handled in the usual way, the current error will not waste man-hours, it will waste man-years of time.
I could explain more about how wasteful SCO is, but you get the idea. You’d think in a state like California, they could find a tech company to computerize the state’s financial processes but truthfully the state isn’t that interested. You taxpayers have already spent a billion dollars on the latest attempt to try. Do an Internet search on FI$CAL cost over-runs.
The state has no incentive to innovate or become more efficient. They refuse to change processes to assist in automating operations. The lack of a profit motive has that result. It’s much simpler to confiscate more money from you than be better with what they already take. Also, they have a contract with the union that nobody can be fired if their position is replaced by technology. Take comfort that no one will lose their job over this. SEIU, or somebody like that, has their back.
In discussions with my wife, the subject of Internet availability came up in the context of “Distance Learning.” In our local school district, tens of thousands of kids will all simultaneously be logging on to their respective Zoom classroom sessions at 8:00 AM on August 13th.
My wife is grateful to be attempting this from home because her school lacks the capacity for teachers to reliably replay YouTube videos, let alone for twenty something teachers to sustain connections to 24 plus children each, all with live video feeds.
Oh, I forgot to mention that over the summer, a plan was put forward that all teachers must live broadcast to their children from their respective classrooms each day. The teacher’s union mercifully killed the idea.
Let’s look at the bandwidth requirements for August 13 and beyond. Much cable and television content as well as streaming in delivered via the Internet. Also, many people are working from home and not their offices. This work is predicated on Internet availability. Now the district here in Elk Grove, and sometime in August every other school in California, will be simultaneously logged in as well.
Much of the Internet is provided by traditional telephone lines or coax cable and not fiber optic lines. Providers such as Comcast have limits as to how much they can push through an old-fashioned strand of copper. Yes, they have figured a way to do this with channels to give short bursts of higher speed based on demand but wow! They just might be sitting on a throttling nightmare or worse. Frontier Communications is shoddier than Comcast and happens to serve many schools as well as customers in more rural or older parts of town. They’re a mess on a good day but I think this will go bad for them too.
Folks Zoom and/or local Internet providers can’t handle the load of teacher training during summertime. People at home didn’t have the bandwidth to support it.Many Zoom meetings for the purpose of training teachers were asking participants to turn off their cameras because the connection kept lagging, and nobody could hear the presentation. Teachers don’t have the luxury of telling students to turn off their cameras. Without being able to see them, how will the teacher be able to gauge comprehension and know when students have a question, etc.
I think my wife is on to something. This distance learning idea may collapse under the weight of too much demand on existing infrastructure. Can you imagine the masses hiding out from Covid-19 without Internet?Gavin would not be able to suppress the masses without the bread and circuses of entertainment provided by the Internet to pacify them.
I know some people think this possibility is far fetched but consider this, again giving credit to my wife; when we did “Distance Learning” during the spring, there were no set times or duration of time required to be online with the children. Furthermore, much if the instruction was via prerecorded video that could be viewed on demand. In other words, instruction was ad hoc in nature.Now the bureaucrats want everything structured and in lockstep order. We have set schedules—all at the same time—and set hours of performance. In other words, ad hoc has been sacrificed for regimentation and uniformity.
Folks, it will be fun to watch but if the wife is right then I may have trouble posting a blog with a told ya so as a topic.
PS: For the sake of the above discussion, we are assuming that Google Classroom and other educational platforms will not be the bottleneck during live instruction.
Folks, no one that I have encountered has ever given me a scientific explanation as to why prohibited indoor activities that are moved outside are magically blessed and good in the era of arbitrary Covid-19 rules. This includes church, haircuts, sit-down dining, fitness centers, and so on.
While I’m sure you can sense my disdain and loathing of such tyranny, I would like to set my political views and emotions aside and just comment on outdoor dining. In the last few days, I have had lunch at three different local restaurants. Of the three places, two are national chains and the other a mom and pop Mexican place. All three failed in fundamental rules issued by Governor Newsom as a conditions of their continued operation.
The mom and pop place no longer gives customers disposable paper menus but their regular ones which are paper inserted into place folders. I don’t recall this being allowed again and I also got no assurance from the restaurant that these things are scrubbed between uses. They have however put a plastic sheet on top of the wrought iron patio furniture table they are using for outdoor service. At least this way the table can be wiped between customers.
In contrast, both national chains that I have visited in the last few days also have wrought iron furniture for outdoor service; however, they don’t clean anything in the customer seating areas. And they don’t cover the tables. Yep, just like normal, one person eats their meal and then the next customer comes along and sits in the very same place with no effort at sanitation. Neither place allows indoor seating and expects customers to eat outside or get food to go. Both places require that I wear a facemask in their business but neither actually takes any meaningful steps to protect their customers from germs.
What prompted me to write about this today was the table of four eating at the national chain with their baby crawling all over the table. When they were ready to leave, the mother told one of the other adults in her party that she couldn’t lift her child off the table because she had catsup on her fingers. So, catsup on your fingers is a problem but letting your infant crawl all over a table that never gets cleaned unless it happens to rain or get blasted by an errant sprinkler is ok? In what universe? Oh, did I say baby was only wearing a diaper? (Said diaper looked like it was full.) How does this make any sense or keep anyone safe from Covid-19?
Folks, the irony is that if these same customers were eating indoors at these establishments, then the tables would get bussed between customers. Thus, it is more sanitary when indoor eating is allowed and more unsanitary when outdoor eating is mandated. Also, said restaurants have more staff when regularly operating.
In my mind, this just further illustrates the absurdity of living in a place governed by fear. Again, I affix much of the blame for this on feckless clergy who fear men more than God and capitulated on following biblical principles. Keeping the 501 (c) (3) is more important. The ghost of L.B.J. looms much larger on this country than just the Great Society and Vietnam War.
Anyway, I hope you think about what I’ve said next time you decide to eat out for lunch or give the wife a night off and let someone else do the cooking.
In journalism class, we learned that ‘if it bleeds, it leads.” We also learned that you write news copy so the important stuff goes at the beginning of the story so if it needs to be edited for length, the basic facts are still communicated to readers.
Given those two concepts, let’s look at this story published today by KOVR-TV in Sacramento.
COLUSA (CBS13) — During a press conference earlier this week, President Donald Trump stood in front of a U.S. map highlighting the nation’s coronavirus hotspots, including Colusa County.
“Whether it goes to the White House or not, it’s still a huge issue of concern for the community,” Colusa County Councilmember Marcos Kropf said.
The 22,000-person county has reached a positivity rate of 21% over a seven-day period.
If you read the story in its entirety, it contains four numbers—three of which are in one sentence, quoted above. Twenty-two thousand, seven, and twenty-one percent. Oh, the fourth number is nineteen as in Covid-19.
Setting aside, the nineteen in Covid-19, let’s do some math.
The story implies that in a seven day period, 21 percent of a county of 22,000 souls tested positive for Covid-19.
Thus 22,000 x 0.21 yields 4,620 caught the virus in a week.
Do you believe that? I hope not. Sadly, this is typical of “hard news” in today’s media.
Oh, remember what I said about the important stuff at the beginning of the story? Why are first two paragraphs about Donald Trump and the White House anyway? Is this a subliminal way of associating Trump with 21 percent being infected?Pelosi did call Covid-19 the Trump virus.
Nowhere in the story is an explanation of how many were tested, where, or why. Thus we have a text without context and as Dr. Martin used to say, this is often a pretext for error. Such is the case here.
The very last paragraph gives you slightly more information that confirms your suspicion that all the preceding numbers are bogus.
Colusa County says the majority of their cases are coming from family gatherings and an outbreak at a skilled nursing facility.
Thus the story ends with another whack at Fourth of July gatherings and warehousing the elderly as they await the arrival of the Grim Reaper. However, no actual, usable information was presented anywhere in this story.
The Rest of the Story
I, your intrepid blogger, dared to do what the paid media didn’t, I went to the Colusa County website to get it straight from the source. Before I present this shocking data, please I beg you, SIT DOWN AND HOLD ON.
Here’s what I learned:
The first death of a Colusa County resident related to COVID-19 has been confirmed. The death occurred on July 20, 2020…
Yep, the very first death occurred this week. We’ve been sheltering in place for four months now and the Reaper finally got his first elderly person.
But it gets even better. Remember our news story about 21 percent positive?
Here’s what the county says about their testing. Remember, this is the data from four months of intensive lab work. As of yesterday, 1,845 tests were administered—in four months!!!!!!! Oh, and 250 were positive.
Doing real math, 13 percent of those tests given by the county have been positive. This is not out of the whole county’s population but out of sick people tested. Also, we have no information on whether somebody received more than one test before getting a positive. Any bets that the people in the old folk’s home have had multiple tests? Yep, the county admits it.
Colusa County is announcing an outbreak of coronavirus (COVID-19) at a local Skilled Nursing Facility (nursing facility). At this time, pursuant to the California Department of Public Health (CDPH), there are 30 confirmed active cases (16 residents and 14 staff). COVID-19 testing is still ongoing for all facility staff and residents.
If you want to know about folks getting multiple tests, here’s an example from our very own staff.
The Chief told me that a family friend was tested three times before coming up positive even after the guy was clearly sick for several days. Per his account, turning up positive is a lagging indicator. Chief’s friend had every symptom in the book prior to a positive result.
Oh, 250 divided by 22K yields an infection rate of 1.1 percent and two deaths in the county is a rate of .009 percent. If you factor out all the people locked-up in the old folk’s home, your chances are very good of seeing the next sunrise. Nevertheless, wanna bet Gavin uses stories like those from KOVR to justify shelter-in-place orders again? Wal-Mart is not the only guys with a reputation of rolling stuff back.
Just when you thought you could breath easy again and be welcome back to your local church, Gavin Newsom has again shutdown worship and a bunch of other activities that America citizens once called “freedoms.” Gone again is freedom of association and freedom to worship in California. Yep, Gavin has unilaterally suspended the First Amendment of the US Constitution again. Of course in a state this liberal, he will be able to find a host of judges that will agree with him—especially since these guys won’t be bound to their oath to uphold and defend the Constitution from all enemies foreign and domestic. Since the biggest domestic threat to America is the political party in power in California, it isn’t a surprise to us here at ReallyRight; however, we are disappointed that our fellow citizens are so willing to give-up their freedoms for security—or the promise thereof.
As I often say, ideas have consequences. Shutting down churches and releasing even more criminals into our society in the name of protecting us from Covid-19 will have the opposite effect. Newsom’s abdication of protecting citizens from evil doers and locking up all the law-abiding citizens in their homes will endanger many people. Look for a return to shelter in place in most of the State. I told you this crackdown would happen about mid-July.
Oh, all these unemployed people at home will also see more destruction and protests, along with general societal unrest. Folks, Joe Biden is nowhere to be see. What you are witnessing now is the proxy campaign to defeat Donald Trump.Joe is just the figurehead of the revolution; Marxism is the religion and socialism is the philosophy that underpins it.
Norman Rockwell’s America is Dead
Folks we were told from our earliest days to be good, follow the rules, try hard, and we just might be successful. However, Newsom has thrown such American ideals in the crapper. Every business that Newsom shutdown this month has spent time, money, and talent to follow his edicts and open their businesses at reduced capacity and in a safe manner as dictated. Now thru absolutely no fault of these business owners and after following all the arbitrary rules imposed on them from Newsom, Garvin pulls the plug anyway.
Folks there is zero reason to do this. No data supports this decision. It is arbitrary and an abuse of the police powers given to the Executive Branch by the State Constitution and Legislature. In short, tyranny.
Oh, the stated reason for the shutdown is too many family gatherings. So where were said family gatherings? Why the Fourth of July celebrations that we all had. Told you that would be the reason. If you people weren’t so darn patriotic and love your country so much, none of this would be necessary?!
Hey Gavin, get a life…preferable in another country where they hate America as much as you and your Party do. In fact, take your Party leadership with you. May I suggest you consider a country where face coverings have been all the rage since the 7th Century.
Folks again remember that Newsom will not allow things to return to normal until there is a vaccine…which may never happen. In the meantime, face coverings will be required in California as long as a Republican occupies the White House. Remember those news stories last week about requiring face coverings for the next three or four years? This ain’t coincidence.
The Vaccine Windmill
Oh, the leading pharmaceutical companies researching a vaccine are jumpstarting their research by using human tissues from aborted babies. As such, is it moral to even get the vaccine? What do I do when required by my employer to get this vaccine—experimental as it will be—and considering its immoral origins? I will refuse if either is true. Con Law people are invited to send me their contact info just in case.
Another Reason Things Can’t Open
Folks, the other unspoken reason that Newsom and his fellow Democrat Governors can’t allow businesses to open is that it will improve the economic numbers which would increase Trump’s reelection chances.Newsom needs to suppress employment as much as he can to assist Biden. Since people will get their $600 a week in federal unemployment, Newsom and his ilk are getting a backdoor bailout to suppress people’s livelihoods. The fact that many of the businesses Newsom is shutting down will never reopen is irrelevant to him.He is a cold-hearted SOB. Newsom also benefits by wiping out a broad swath of the middle class. Democrats function better in the binary world of haves and have-nots, where they are the haves and the rest are totally dependent on them.
Meanwhile, the wife and I have our realtors lined-up in California and Idaho and the financing will be ready in the next few days. Trust me, I’m really ready to get the hell away from this miserable state of tyranny and one Party rule.
In yet another drive-by attack on the private sector and the American way of life, California’s Executive has demanded the closure of bars, restaurants, and beaches lest people might celebrate the Independence Day holiday coming up this weekend. This is in addition to local governments in most places cancelling fireworks displays that real people might actually attend and enjoy.
We all now know thanks to Some Black Lives Matter that all people that came before us were evil whether they supported or opposed black slavery—please note that present day slavery in order to build iPhones and mine raw materials to build electric cars and solar panels is perfectly ok—but I digress.
Anyway, the Pontiff of California has decided that people living their lives in liberty is a threat to his control of the populace. He can take all these punitive actions with a clear conscience because there is no way the Orange Man will win in his state and Gavin hopes that as goes California, so goes the nation will ring true. He’s banking that Uncle Sam will then use the power of the press—no not the liberal media and tech companies—but the printing press at the US Treasury to print their way out of this fiscal mess. We all know that once Hidin’ Biden is elected that China—you know that country that engineered the Wuhan Flu and gave it to the world —will once again be our ally and start buying our T-bills in record numbers like they used to before the Orange Man stole the election from the entitled Secretary Clinton.
Folks I’m so angry at all this nonsense I’m beyond words. In know that the restaurants have been following all the BS rules they have been shackled with and on the whole were doing a great job trying to stay open. Most people just want to make a living and be at peace with their neighbors and somehow that’s not good enough for Newsom. It is typical Liberal behavior, punish the innocent instead of the guilty.
Oh, lest you think this is just a blip on the radar, I’m warning you that Gavin is very close to trying to force us to shelter in place again. I predict about two weeks from now that he will claim the continuing spike in Covid-19 cases is due to family gatherings over the July 4th weekend and he has no choice but to further roll-back the openings. Remember that he says we can never safely and fully reopen without a vaccine. Also, his pronouncements were on the very same day that Congress renewed the $600 a week bonus for unemployment benefits. This is not a coincidence. Guess Newsom figures the optics aren’t that bad when the Feds have your fiscal back.
Against this backdrop, the fourth or fifth attempt to recall the governor is now underway. What a laughable windmill to battle. Not only do these guys have no money for such a venture—which is both typical and laughable—but they have no candidate that is better than Gavin to put in his place. Sorry but you can’t recall the governor and then leave the office vacant until the next election. If there was a guy better than Gavin, then why didn’t he run?
I told Johnnie Does and The Chief at our last Pow-Wow that the family is getting out of this wretched state as fast as we can make it work. Long ago, I promised you dear readers that Gavin Newsom would remake California—the whole state—into San Francisco. How’s that going for you? Just think, you folks get him for governor for six more years. I plan to be living in one of the free and thus prohibited states on Attorney General Becerra’s list long before Newsom is finished with his rampage.
I rarely, if ever write or talk about the Second Amendment on this blog. Its not that I don’t care about it, but that in my experience all people do is brag about how many cannons they have in their closet and whether they have a CCW permit. I have made it a habit of not talking like the rest because I don’t want to be on record anywhere about whether I own something or not because it’s not anybody’s business, especially the government. My feeling is that any record of bragging or self-disclosure is just giving the government a shopping list of what they need to pick-up when the decide to confiscate our guns. Having seen the 1984 version of Red Dawn, I know better. Gun registration is the path to gun confiscation.
On my recent trip thru Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming, I got to experience just how other states honor this Constitutional right and how little of it remains in California. California laws for firearms do not stop at the state line. In practical terms, I found that I had no more right to purchase a firearm in another state than your typical career criminal with an extensive felony record. Virtually nobody was willing to sell anything to someone with a California I.D.
Most people that I spent any amount of time with were armed. In Idaho, you can both open carry and conceal carry with no permit. Purchasing firearms is a matter of passing a Federal background check. I overheard one clerk tell an interested customer that the background search is $44. Montana and Wyoming had rules very similar to Idaho.
In Wyoming, we were told about an incident when Some Black Lives Matter sympathizers decided to hold a rally. They were permitted to have the protest because unlike liberal states, the First Amendment is still honored even when the position advocated is a minority view. The difference was that armed citizens were also allowed to show-up at the park and surround the park to protect property. Thus, the citizens protected the surrounding neighborhood, the protestors got to hold a peaceful protest, and then everybody got to go home to their families. No businesses were burned, no statues desecrated, and no rocks, bottles, etc. were deployed. Oh, and the police were there too. Reportedly, they spent most of their time visiting with the armed citizens and watching the protestors at a distance.
Cody Firearms Experience
In Wyoming, we found a place across from our hotel–Cody Firearms Experience–where you could pick from a huge assortment of firearms, pay a fee, and fire them in an indoor range. Yep, it was not just a large assortment of handguns and long guns (rifles) but also some more exotic weapons. If you were over 18, you could go full auto. You could fire the legendary Thompson submachine gun, an M-16, and FN P90. Anybody could also fire a Gatling gun. It was the poor man’s way of doing an episode of Top Shot.
Cody, Wyoming
Having been to Gettysburg last year, my choice was an 1861 Springfield black powder rifle. It was the very same gun that the Yankees used to fight the forces of General Lee and the Southern Confederacy.
William home on the range
Really Right Jr. opted for a Glock 9mm.
Folks I highly recommend if you ever get in the neighborhood of Yellowstone Park to get over to Cody and check this place out. I bet half the guns you can fire here are banned in California, just sayin’.
This vacation illustrated for me just how oppressed our Second Amendment rights really are in California.
