Economy – Page 5 – Really Right

Sacramento County Supervisors Ignore Stalinist Bureaucrat

Yep, even with a Democrat majority running the county, they managed to do the right thing at the Supervisor’s December meeting. Most people that I talked to didn’t even know the county was considering fines up to$10,000 on businesses that didn’t follow the federal/state/county rules on Covid—whatever they might have been on that particular day.

But folks, that’s not the half of it, it contained full-blown Soviet Union secret police, guilty by anonymous accusation, type language. Ironically, similar rules in parts of New York are also being considering. Lastly, please remember that this ordinance was the departing gift that Sacramento County’s top health official, Peter Beilenson, was trying to leave to local citizens as his lasting legacy.

The following are quotes from Sue Frost, one of the five county supervisors.

…I was baffled by the notion that we should be threatening them with fines of up to $10,000. Still, that notion took form in a proposal brought forward by our Public Health Department as an urgency ordinance.
Relief, Not Fines for Small Businesses

The ordinance included the property owner as the potentially responsible party.

Further, it gave the Public Health Department the authority to designate anyone they saw fit as an enforcement officer. That means it would not necessarily be the Sheriff, Code Enforcement, or even a health inspector going into businesses to investigate violations. Under this ordinance, any county employee could be given the authority to enter a business and cite them for a perceived violation.. I say perceived violation because not only are enforcement officers potentially untrained county employees, but they would not be required to even witness a violation under the ordinance. If adopted, the enforcement officer could issue citations based on “investigations” or simply being told by other county staff a violation occurred.

The ordinance did include an appeal process, but only when the fines were for more than $1000. With the fines being as much as $500 for every day a perceived violation occurs, I am sure many would be granted the opportunity for an appeal. However, the appeal process would require a $750 deposit…

Yep, be accused and get fined. Great thinking there Doc Beilenson. Who needs evidence? Oh, and for the privilege to prove your innocence you have to pay $750 in advance. Plus, you are subject to additional “administrative fees” while fighting for your economic life.

To illustrate administrative fees, here’s a brief story. Last week, at the Speak Easy here in Elk Grove, a local business that provides opportunities for the consumption of adult beverages both indoors and out, I was with a guy that told me his son blew-off a $25 bill from DMV. The dumb kid ignored the warning letters and his $25 bill escalated to one thousand dollars. That folks is what administrative fees can mean to normal people in the real world. Take a look at you next speeding ticket and you’ll see the amount of the traffic fine is only about half of the amount of your payment to the county.

Good thing for business owners that Trump won four more years, or you’d really be screwed. Oh, wait, you are screwed.

Where Have the Conservatives Gone?

By The Chief

No not like the Paul Shanklin parody played when John McCain was trying to say he was a Reagan conservative when running against Barack Obama in 2008. I’m talking about 2021 in the People’s Republic of California.

First some background. The state GOP loves to talk tough with rhetoric such as “the other side are a bunch of weenies”, “government shouldn’t pick winners and losers”, and “Obama Care is nothing but death panels”. These phrases we all uttered during the Obama’s years in the White House. Fast forward to 2020. Governor Newsom orders massive shutdowns; included are churches, indoor dining, theatres, barber shops, and others. Nary a word from the same folks who told me government shouldn’t pick winners and losers. Rest assured Newsom kept the liquor stores, weed dispensaries, and big box stores open, under a weird guise of being essential.

But wait there is more; now that we have a vaccine, a real-life death panel has been formed of current and former medial types (think Fauci, and his ilk) who are deciding who gets the shots and in what order. A real-life death panel, I say again, and again nary a word from the same folks who screamed about Obama killing grandma. Glad to see most all political types were given a shot prior to, I don’t know, the folks working in ICU/ER or old folks’ homes! Teachers will be in the next rotation; however, they have mostly been distance learning. Students will be following shortly afterward, again the distance learning thing. No comment on when folks who are old/infirm or those who have COPD/Asthma or other pre-existing conditions that make them high risk will get the shot.

Just to go a step further, in LA county, ambulances have been advised not to bring patients to the ER if they think they have zero chance at survival. Again, nothing from the same so-called conservatives who warned about death panels and rationing of care. I thought that was the major conservative talking point during the Obama years.

The reason for this short form rant is this: those folks never actually believed their own talking points. Remember “Repeal and Replace” and then finding out Republicans never had a plan to replace anything—it was just campaign talking points to stir-up voters. In truth Rahm Emanuel said it best, “never let a good crisis go to waste.” These same folks, when it was politically expedient, railed against it, now when they find themselves in a predicament, they are strangely silent. The truth is most of those same folks are scared of this virus and work for government, are retired, or other essential jobs meaning they can live as usual. However, they wish to see others suffer under the guise of a “deadly pandemic.” See the 90-Day Guy, its ok to go to an Indian Casino, but the bars better remain closed or else. Same applies to the vaccine distribution, make sure I am at the front of the line and I will keep quiet, who cares about other people, it’s all about me.

Sadly, the CA GOP wonders why it continues to drift into irrelevance. The truth is, they lack any sort of leadership and would rather be a voice of loyal opposition. Conservativism has been dead for a decade plus now, George W. Bush may have declared the era of big government to be over, but in reality, he helped hasten the move toward socialism. Nice going so called conservatives, funny how when shutting down businesses to slow the spread and letting a death panel play God is only a bad thing when the outcome may not benefit you.

Chief

What the New Year Means to Small Businesses

Hi. I trust everyone survived the holidays hiding from your relatives. I think some elites just didn’t want to discuss politics and religion at their holiday meal and found a new way not to invite those less desirable members of their extended family. Hiding behind the China flu might work this year but what will they think of next year. Well, if you live in New York, and the state Assembly gets their way, you can get your neighbor (or family member) locked-up indefinitely if you accuse them of spreading a communicable disease—like Covid or Christianity. Next, we’ll all be given gold stars? It worked in socialist Germany so why not here?

Anyway, to the topic at hand. Folks, to lift a phrase from the Lutheran Church, I’ve been in, under, and around small business for a number of years so please trust me on this, a tsunami of bankruptcies is coming in the next few months. People have gone thru their cash and when that ran out, thru the money that should be earmarked for state payroll taxes. They may have limped thru the Christmas season but who does better in January than December? Given a choice, small business will pay federal taxes before state because the federal government can seize your bank account and assets, something state revenue agents can only dream about. Also, January marks the highest payroll tax burden on employers because the bulk of unemployment tax revenue for the year is collected on employee wages in this quarter—January to March. As a result of cash flow problems, many businesses will be going under in the next few months.

In addition to tax revenue not making it to the state treasury, vendors will be stiffed on many of their receivables and the supply chain in many sectors will be sorely tested. Watch the aging category of 60 to 90 days and consider anything over the 90-day mark as lost revenue.

Many folks that didn’t see it coming will find themselves out of work and the economic disruption will be significant.

Look for whatever economic solutions that the federal government offers to make the situation even worse.

Joe Biden is threatening a nationwide shutdown like what has happened in England and Australia. If this happens, you can amp up my prediction 20 or 30-fold. What is coming will be the death knell of many more businesses. Also look for the feigned shock and surprise of the so-called experts when all this happens.

Many words may describe 2021 but “happy” is not going to be used much this year.

More Contrary Info on Covid-Did Fauci, et al. Lie Even More?

In a shocker, a new study says there is no such thing as asymptomatic spread of Covid; thus, the justification for locking us up for the last ten months has been a lie. Oh, the study was of ten million people not 12 volunteers at Stanford or Harvard.

A study of almost 10 million people in Wuhan, China, found that asymptomatic spread of COVID-19 did not occur at all, thus undermining the need for lockdowns, which are built on the premise of the virus being unwittingly spread by infectious, asymptomatic people.
Published in November in the scientific journal Nature Communications, the paper was compiled by 19 scientists, mainly from the Huazhong University of Science and Technology in Wuhan, but also from scientific institutions across China as well as in the U.K. and Australia. It focused on the residents of Wuhan, ground zero for COVID-19, where 9,899,828 people took part in a screening program between May 14 and June 1, which provided clear results as to the possibility of any asymptomatic transmission of the virus.
Asymptomatic transmission has been the underlying justification of lockdowns enforced all across the world. The most recent guidance from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) still states that the virus “can be spread by people who do not have symptoms.” In fact, the CDC claimed that asymptomatic people “are estimated to account for more than 50 percent of transmissions.” . . .
However, the new study in Nature Communications, titled “Post-lockdown SARS-CoV-2 nucleic acid screening in nearly 10 million residents of Wuhan, China,” debunked the concept of asymptomatic transmission.
Massive Study: Asymptomatic Transmission of COVID-19 Didn’t Occur at All

Lie, damn lies, and statistics… comes to mind. So I guess it really is just the flu.

Tyranny is what you get when you trust the “experts” inside the swamp instead of the people that make the country work. Oh, I bet the censors from “Big Tech” will call this fake news too since it doesn’t fit their worldview—whatever that might be today.

$600?

By frequent contributor The Chief

Well Congress went and acted, passed a large bill, without reading it, sending millions in aid to other countries, kept transit running, bailed out some businesses that don’t deserve to be bailed out, and sent you $600. Yep, some scraps from the table courtesy of Congress. You should see some of the aid money sent to other countries; countries in the Middle East are featured quite a bit, yep those same countries where we send our young people to die in pointless wars, then pay to “rebuild” and “remodel” their governments after ours….winning proposition huh? Trivia question, name a country the US has left after a successful military operation there? I’ll hold the line.

Yet almost every member of Congress–to a man–is nominating themselves for sainthood after approving a package to keep the government running and send out a cool $600 to certain people. The criteria has yet to be fully released but I would think it’s the same lucky winners from the last go round, regardless or employment status, or if Covid has even had an effect on you. This is because we have no reliable system, as witnessed by California’s EDD (unemployment benefit distributor) sending out fraudulent checks to inmates etc. and ignoring legitimate claims. Trust me on this one, Sen Diane Feinstein, yeah the sitting Senator, “applied for and got a weekly check” yeah…… wild. Not a soul at EDD could catch that one, or Scott Peterson (the one on death row) didn’t get caught either, but for those who actually are eligible, yup many are on their fifth month or more of waiting for the claim to be processed. SAD!

Back to the $600. What makes me most upset is that’s a very small amount. For me, a single guy, that covers my utilities for about 2 months. Think about folks 9 months behind on rent, utilities, mortgages, car payments, credit cards, student loans….so on so forth. Doesn’t inspire much confidence does it? In truth the $600 will please the 90 Day Guys, since the stocks hit a new record high as of this writing. And for most, that buys Christmas gifts, especially when you add on the extra $600 per child. However I see no one making an effort to pay off past due debt, because well, what’s the point? The government has no answer, and we have always rewarded bad behavior.

In closing, look for the bleeding hearts to come out and demand larger checks, think $2-4,000. (This has already started) Then look for cries that these checks should be monthly, until we hit a pre-Covid unemployment or economic growth numbers. These numbers are not likely to be matched for years, so in essence we will have Universal Basic Income. Ironically its Republicans such as Josh Hawley of Missouri pushing for this. Stupidly the GOP will fall for this gamut, and we will be the co-authors of UBI. Good luck taking these payments away once they start. If you are on the receiving end of these checks….well it’s your money so do as you please, congrats.

BTW $600 when you have shut businesses down for 9 months and counting is pathetic, very Marie Antoinette-like I may add.

The Chief

Coming Soon to a Theatre Near You: $40 billion in uncollected Utility Bills

By frequent correspondent The Chief

While the theatres are still closed, there is a storm a brewing and it will likely premier around January of next year. I came across an article on Seeking Alpha, (the hard news part not the commentary part) about $40 billion in uncollected utility payments so far during the pandemic. If that doesn’t shock you, I do not know what will.

Link: Who will pay $40B in COVID-19 debt owed to utility companies?

I am not going to long form blog this like I usually do, but I just want to point out that is a debt that is not repayable. During the beginning of this two week shutdown to flatten the curve back in March, most governors, if not all, declared utilities cannot disconnect. Thus, folks with past due accounts, because Covid, got free utilities. Unlike the government, they cannot print money and will have to account for this loss some way or another.

What is the answer? Sadly, I lost my crystal ball, but my thoughts are the following: the moratorium on this will continue as the optics of turning off heating in the winter for grandma doesn’t look great. Ditto for low-income families, or renters. I feel the answer will be blended; to those who faithfully paid their bills (most Republicans and responsible folks), will be told thanks and get nothing and like it. For those who didn’t pay, it will depend on your local PUC (Public Utility Corp) to decide. Maybe you make small “catchup” payments, or they wipe out your balance and you get to start over (just like PG&E). I’m thinking its option 2. I can see Biden bailing out the “green” utilities, or incentivizing those who phase out coal etc. This will be the way of pushing the Green New Deal. I also think the PUC will grant a “Covid recovery fee” to be added to all bills to make those folks current. Once again, in this country, those who are responsible will get nothing and those who refused to pay (you must remember, the moratorium applied to anyone, not people Covid positive) get bailed out. This will be the Biden/AOC way to force the Green New Deal on us.

Sadly, I see this same issue playing out in other sectors of the economy as well; how many folks haven’t paid rent due to this? In addition, how about unpaid mortgages? That number will dwarf the 80 billion easily. Credit cards? Ditto, especially after this year’s Christmas Season. Buckle up, I do not see a very pretty 2021, you won’t be able to kick this can very far.

The Chief

Sheila Kuehl of LA Supervisor Fame joins the #IDIOT list

By frequent contributor The Chief

You can’t make this up, actually that phrase has gotten old with all the Democrat electeds breaking their own Covid rules, but here is yet another embarrassing situation. Sheila Kuehl is a democrat supervisor from LA County. As you might recall, she voted to shutdown all dining operations in LA on Tuesday of last week. The vote carried 3-2, and as such all outdoor dining had to cease. I guess this would be ok if there was science or you know, facts to back this up…but there are none, as noted in this space about a week ago. Let’s see what Sheila did the DAY AFTER SHE VOTED TO SHUT DOWN DINING.

“She did dine al fresco at Il Forno on the very last day it was permissible. She loves Il Forno, has been saddened to see it, like so many restaurants, suffer from a decline in revenue. She ate there, taking appropriate precautions, and sadly will not dine there again until our Public Health Orders permit.”
LA County Supervisor dines at restaurant hours after voting to ban outdoor dining

See that folks, ole Sheila couldn’t help herself and dined out the very following day. Check out some statements she made during the remarks portion prior to her vote, these are some doozy’s….

During Tuesday’s L.A. County Board of Supervisors meeting, Kuehl referred to outside dining as “a most dangerous situation” over what she described as a risk of tables of unmasked patrons potentially exposing their servers to the coronavirus.
“This is a serious health emergency and we must take it seriously,” Kuehl said.
“The servers are not protected from us, and they’re not protected from their other tables that they’re serving at that particular time, plus all the hours in which they’re working.”

Wow, imagine being that lacking of self-awareness. She literally dined out the day after, at her favorite place. Re-read her thoughts again, and notice she seemed very concerned with the servers not being protected. Looks like multiple restaurant owners in LA are less than impressed…

Michael Voltaggio is a local restaurant owner who is stunned by Kuehl’s decision.
“That sends a message that we’re getting direction from people that aren’t really believing in messages they’re making,” he said.
Voltaggio tells FOX 11, “For me it’s just proof of the continuous hypocrisy and just the lack of leadership and education as to what’s happening right now in this sort of shoot from the hip mentality that’s not doing anybody any good.”
Josiah Citrin also owns multiple restaurants across L.A. County.
Citrin said, “I’m like wait a minute, restaurants are so dangerous, but you’re gonna go eat in a restaurant? I mean it just blows me away.”

We tried to warn you here that these shutdowns have nothing to do with Covid or death, and everything to do with government putting their hands on the scale. This is so sad to see. Kuehl and other electeds have access to better healthcare than us, an army of lobbyists with whom they can milk for cash, and connections we can only dream of having. Both her and Newsom put out laws and decided that they were exempt. Not only is this a disastrous look, it makes folks lose faith in their leaders. Want to know why Covid is spreading? Look to these two idiots first. Reality is neither will likely lose an election, supervisor is a glorified city council membership, and Governor of a state like CA comes down to how bad they will wallop the GOP candidate, so no cause for concern.

Just shows it pays to be in government. Also Kuehl is a very ugly human being; making her even easier to spot while out. Hope you enjoyed your meal supervisor; I heard your next course is a plate of crow.

The Chief

Editor’s note:
Sheila Kuehl has been like this all her life. She is one of the worst enemies of the unborn ever to serve in the state legislature. If she’s willing to use your tax dollars to kill a few million unborn Californians, why are we surprised when she throws almost a million more under the economic bus to be ground-up under her tyrannical heal?

Aimee Sisson Proves us Really Right again

The haters continue to hate, Aaron Park continues to spew sewage from his mouth and keyboard on a daily basis, but man are we ever right over here! I warned about former Placer County Health Chief Aimee Sisson about a month ago after she left for “greener” pastures in Yolo County. Well she already proved me right.

“On Wednesday, Yolo County issued a health order placing a new restriction on social gatherings that is even more restrictive than the state’s guidance. The new COVID-19 order comes as the county is seeing a rise in cases.

According to the county, the three main causes for the recent rise in cases are “social gatherings, people returning to workplaces and the outbreak at Alderson Convalescent Hospital.” Credit KCRA 3

Folks take a look at that last sentence again, specifically the part about the convalescent hospital. How is this occurring? I thought only folks who were tested daily had access? I have heard the outbreak is about 80 people, yet, Sisson claims it’s from people returning to work and social gatherings? Yes, people returning to work….sigh. We tried to warn you, this “woman” is pure evil and being put in position to lock down that county again. I have heard rumblings they are trying to blame the outbreak on Students at UC Davis, I doubt this as well.

This Sisson is much like Dr. Anthony Fauci, neither have the slightest clue and are just making it up as they go. This is an infectious disease, that is transmitted via similar to the cold/flu, no one knows when/how they get it or how bad it will be. Some will never even show symptoms. I’d love to ask Fauci and Sisson, “Why do you think businesses are the enemy here?” “How much lost wages and tax revenue will come from this?” However, neither of them will care, as they and their cronies have “essential” jobs so they will see no reduction in lifestyle. Their respective employers have the ability to take on massive debt since they are a government authority with taxation powers. All while you or a loved one cannot go to work and have to deal with screaming children wanting to know why they cannot play on the playground or go to a friend’s house.

We tried to warn you, Sisson was in essence fired by Placer County since the Board of Supervisors no longer fell for her BS. As soon as she had her walking papers, she ran to a county who was more friendly to her point of view and willing to let this unelected bureaucrat wield power over people forced at the point of a government sword to obey her every whim. The economic damage this “woman” is capable of is yet to be seen. She literally went more restrictive than Comrade Newsom on Thanksgiving Covid regulations. I would say this “woman” has a screw or two loose, but I don’t think her name and the word screw or screwed belong in the same sentence (Hat Tip Troll for the joke).

The Chief

Exiting California–Here’s My Real Estate Recommendation

For those of you planning to flee California, here’s some advice that will save you time, money, and frustration.

I can tell you from firsthand experience that getting recommendations for a realtor via a friend or word of mouth is a waste of time. Both realtors that my wife and I have found in Idaho by this method have been colossal disasters. Neither person that was recommended to us knew the market or cared to take time with us to find what we wanted. Don’t be fooled by flashy websites or other marketing tools.

Oh, by the way, Zillow is the least accurate website that we found. Often its lot locations are wrong, sometimes by a factor of miles, especially in rural areas. Sometimes listings aren’t shown because they don’t have a street number. Also, Zillow is many days behind in terms of showing listings and their current status. The site does have some value but if you rely solely on it, you will not have accurate and up to date information.

So, if you can’t trust recommendations or the Internet, where should you look? Lucky for you that this is the purpose of today’s blog. If you want a realtor that cares about you as a person and doesn’t see you as just as another commission then you’ve come to the right place. Oh, my advice is free and nationwide, so you have no excuses. Also, the people that I’m about to recommend have all been vetted to the same high standards.

Go to Dave Ramsey dot Com, click on Dave Recommends, and select Endorsed Local Providers (ELP). You can pick from Real Estate, Insurance, and Tax Services. Both people that we worked with from the ELP list took lots of time with us as I will briefly explain below.

In order to be in a position to purchase real estate in Idaho, we had to do a refinance of our California home. Strictly speaking, this probably is not a Ramsey approved method; however, due to our closeness to retiring and the rising costs of real estate in desirable areas in Idaho (in some parts of Idaho, prices are increasing at over 15% a year) this is what we ended up doing.

We found a finance guy in Roseville that spent about two hours with us on the telephone going over our financial situation. This person was fully aware that he probably wouldn’t make a dime off of us but was willing to help us anyway. He said that he had enough paying clients to make a living so that gave him the flexibility to help others. In Evangelical terms, he viewed helping us as a ministry opportunity.

Through him, we were referred to another person that helped us do a cash-out refi of our house. She was able to knock about two percent off the interest rate of our mortgage and get us $130K out of the house. The net was a mortgage payment increase of about $300 more each month. With this “seed money” we were then able to try purchasing a property in Idaho.

The ELP real estate lady that we found in Idaho was fantastic. She spent most of three days with us driving around to various properties in the Treasure Valley area of Idaho—think within a one-hour radius of Boise. We learned a lot about Idaho that you won’t be finding on the Internet. We put in an offer for a piece of land with a terrific view. Sadly, we couldn’t agree on a price within our means. (The property owners have had the property listed for two years and weren’t willing to flex too much on their price which is why it’s still for sale.)

In contrast to a great real estate experience, is the one we have been living for the last few weeks. A few hundred miles away from the Treasure Valley area, a property was listed that checked a lot of the boxes that we were looking for. We had a relationship with another realtor thru a recommendation. Since the listing was exclusively on his website, we contacted him. (FYI the listing showed up on RedFin a few days later and Zillow on the fifth day after it was listed.)

The realtor was a California refugee that had been in this part of Idaho for over two decades. On the surface we thought we had found a great realtor but as time went on, we discovered otherwise. This guy had very little idea what he was doing, was extremely passive, and failed to be proactive on our behalf. Much of the time when we asked him questions, we were either referred to someone who gave us bad information or found that the realtor just didn’t know and didn’t want to find out for us. Were he a newly licensed individual, this would be understandable but for a guy doing this for a living for many years, it was profoundly disappointing. It got so bad that last week, I literally had to take time off from work and fly up there just to see for myself.

Just as a for instance, the land we are trying to purchase has never been developed before and was on the outskirts of the city limits. We were told that we would need to get water on the property, but the realtor didn’t know whether connecting to the city water (about 500 feet from the property) or drilling a well would be cheaper. After two days of looking, I found out that the city required us to hook-up to the city’s water supply and it was illegal to drill a well within the city limits. Shortly after I found the regulation stating this on the city’s website, the well drilling contractor—recommended to me by the realtor—told me the same thing. Oh, said regulation stated that the city would provide service up to the property, whereas the realtor and his buddy at the city told me that it was on me to figure out how to get water on the property.

This is just one example of several that we have experienced while working with this guy. The only reason that we didn’t use a Ramsey ELP was that we felt we already had established a relationship with this person. In retrospect, we should have sought an ELP anyway.

If all goes well, we may end-up property owners despite our realtor and not because of him. Please learn from our experience. Whether you always agree with Dave Ramsey or not, use his Endorsed Local Providers program and save yourself from tying your fate to some clueless individual with a slick website.

Ikea Mob

The wife and I decided to take a trip to Ikea today to window shop and dream about making some upgrades to the house. As you can see, we were not alone.

When we arrived just before 10:30 this morning, there were hundreds of folks waiting outside to get in, plus several hundred already in the store. Oh, and about another hundred waiting outside in the return line. Yes, men, women, and children were crammed into the “cattle call” lines just to get a dose of Swedish retail therapy. Folks if you thought your last trip to Home Depot was an ordeal, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet.

We talked to a few folks waiting in line and this is what we were told.

We spoke with a lady that was getting close to the entrance—a few dozen people away—and she had been in line for over an hour to get this far. Calculating backwards, this means she arrived shortly after nine am for a chance to get in Ikea when it opened at 10 am. FYI the line was halted because the store was at capacity and she would have to wait until some people finished shopping before more customers would be allowed to enter so she might be waiting another hour to actually enter the store.

But that’s nothing compared to the lady we spoke with that had just finished going thru the return line. This was her fourth day* trying to make a return at Ikea. She had driven from her home in Fairfield and arrived at 7:30 this morning. She said at 7:30 that there were already 15 people in line ahead of her. Again, Ikea opens at 10 am.

* Folks, 3 ½ round trips form Fairfield to West Sacramento is about 280 miles of driving.

As I pondered the possibilities of what to do while waiting in this ridiculously long line, I thought this might be a great place to have a church service. As you can see in the photos, much of the line is shaded by a whole series of coverings. Just put your pastor at the front of the line with his congregation behind him. Then the group could sing, pray, and listen to the sermon as they wait to enter Ikea. In the line, there’s no social distancing, just face masks. The whole congregation could literally gather in one accord, at one time: to heck with the pesky 100-person limit and all the rest. Towards the end of the service, the minister could just stop advancing thru the line, stay in one spot and as people pass him, they could take Communion and give an offering.

Such a service would be more dignified than having a flash mob service at Wal-Mart or Home Depot. Such crafty skirting of Governor Newsom’s bias against Christian worship would be mitigated by conducting the worship at a government approved essential business.

21st Century churches—the big ones, anyway, are big into marketing. However, I’m stumbling to create a reverential, yet marketable slogan for such a gathering. Our advertising department has rejected the following suggestions.

Mass and Meatballs.
Sacraments and Sawdust.
Preaching and Particleboard.
I Am and Ikea.
Faith and Furnishings.
Lines for Living

Anyway, if you need something to do for a few hours while we are in the midst of triple digit temperatures, try the line at Ikea.