The City of Sacramento will implement rent control in limited circumstances in an effort to get supporters to pull a more far reaching rent control ballot measure that was scheduled to go for a vote next March. To implement this new scheme of government intrusion, of course a new tax is required to be paid by property owners who no doubt will raise tenant rents as a result. The stories that I read in the media are silent on whether all rental property owners get to subsidize this program or only the ones covered by rent control—this being California you shouldn’t make assumptions on such matters.
The Sacramento City Council is expected to approve a local rent control measure Tuesday in a compromise between city officials, labor unions and developers. The agreement – which will cap rent increases for older housing – will avoid what likely would have been a bitter, multi-million dollar political campaign next year.
In its new form, the Sacramento Tenant Protection and Relief Act, which the council will consider at its 2 p.m. meeting Tuesday, will create a set of renter protections for tenants who live in housing built prior to Feb. 1, 1995. The ordinance will cap the amount that landlords can increase rent each year; prohibit landlords from evicting tenants without a reason; and create a process where tenants can report landlords who violate the act.
The proposal is a compromise that’s the result of months of talks between city officials and advocates who gathered signatures to put a stricter rent control measure on the local ballot in 2020, said Councilman Steve Hansen, who led the negotiations.
Create reporting system so city can help tenants fight property owners
For some reason, this law will only apply to housing built before 1995…at least for the first five years then the City Council will review the ordinance for further modification.
Rent Cap
The ordinance will prohibit landlords from raising rent more than 6 percent plus the “consumer price index” percentage for the West Region per year.
Landlords will never be able to increase rent more than 10 percent, even if the CPI ever exceeds 4 percent, the ordinance says.
Eviction
The ordinance will also prohibit landlords from evicting tenants, unless tenants stop paying rent, are criminally charged, are illegally selling drugs, fail to give landlords access to the unit, or otherwise violate their leases.
The ordinance will bar landlords from evicting tenants for no reason, and require they give tenants an option to renew their lease, Hansen said
Landlords will still be able to evict tenants if they are making certain repairs or selling the unit, under certain circumstances, but will have to show proof, and will need to give the tenants an extensive 120-day notice.
The act will cover tenants who signed leases that are month-to-month or longer, those who live in apartments, mobile home parks and single room occupancy hotels, Hansen said. The act cannot legally apply to tenants renting single-family homes, though, unless they have been converted in to multiple units, such as duplexes.
New City Bureaucracy
The ordinance will require property owners to pay a fee, likely between $15 and $20 per unit per year, Hansen said. The fees will go toward running the program, enforcement, and tenant/landlord education.
Landlords will be able to apply to impose higher rent increases in front of city hearing officers, but only if they plan to make significant improvements to the units, the release said.
Remarks
As with anything Liberals do, this is a beginning and not a destination. I expect rent control to be expanded further via one of three vectors.
1 When the five years is up, the City Council will move the year 1995 up to 2000 (ahead five years) or more thus including even newer construction. 2 Via the ballot measure which is supposed to be on the Statewide November 2020 ballot. 3 Via direct Legislative action.
In spite of the claims of landlords evicting tenants with ease, this is fantasy. It takes many months and thousands of dollars to get someone to move out of your property unless they voluntarily agree to do so. In such cases, property owners spend thousands of dollars to repair the property so they can rent to someone else. Folks that refuse to move out are typically the ones that ruin floor and wall coverings, strip the place bare of appliances, plumbing fixtures, and vandalize the crap out of places.
Any time rent control is implemented, it is a de facto confiscation of private property. The property owner is then a vassal of the government and in a practical sense, the control of the property is forfeited without just compensation. In short, rent control is theft using the power of the sword. In the old days we called such government acts “tyranny”, but now it’s called “fairness” or some other innocuous name. George Orwell would call this “doublespeak”.
Apparently, when it comes to President Trump, any pretext of journalists claiming to be unbiased is replaced by commentary disguised as news. An article that appeared following the shootings in El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio is all the evidence that I need to prove my point.
The shootings occurred thusly:
Late in the morning of Saturday August 3rd, a lone gunman entered a Walmart in El Paso and shot the place up for about ten minutes before fleeing the scene. Shortly thereafter, he surrendered to police.
Early in the morning of Sunday August 4th, a lone gunman in Dayton opened fire on a crowd of people. Within 30 seconds, police already in the area, shot and killed the man.
While many levels of law enforcement and several agencies responded, both incidents are local matters. However, the Associated Press didn’t see it that way.
BRIDGEWATER, N.J. (AP) — As the nation reeled from two mass shootings in less than a day, President Donald Trump spent the first hours after the tragedies out of sight at his New Jersey golf course, sending out tweets of support awkwardly mixed in with those promoting a celebrity fight and attacking his political foes.
Americans did not glimpse the Republican president in the immediate aftermath of a shooting in El Paso, Texas, that killed at least 20 people and, hours later, one in Dayton, Ohio, that claimed at least nine lives. Not until Trump and the first lady prepared to fly back to Washington in the late afternoon Sunday did he appear before cameras.
“Hate has no place in our country, and we’re going to take care of it,” Trump declared before boarding Air Force One.
Why does anyone need to see or hear from the President? Is he expected to do a Clinton and say he “feels our pain”? This is not a Federal issue so why is the first reflex to look to Washington? Trump is our President not our priest.
If the author had ended his story at this point, I wouldn’t be asking such questions. But he goes on…
While connecting “hate” and mental illness to the shootings, Trump made no direct mention of gun laws, a factor brought up by Democratic officials and those seeking their party’s nomination to challenge Trump’s reelection next year. He also ignored questions about the anti-immigration language in a manifesto written by the El Paso shooter that mirrors some of his own.
Trump tried to assure Americans he was dealing with the problem and defended his administration in light of criticism following the latest in a string of mass shootings.
“We have done much more than most administrations,” he said, without elaboration. “We have done actually a lot. But perhaps more has to be done.”
Never seemingly comfortable consoling a nation in grief, Trump will be carefully watched for his response to the attacks, again inviting comparison to his predecessors who have tried to heal the country in moments of national trauma.
Why are gun laws to blame for the shooting? This is assumed without any foundation introduced in the story.
Please note what comes next which is an attempt to blame Trump for the shooting in El Paso.” He also ignored questions about the anti-immigration language in a manifesto written by the El Paso shooter that mirrors some of his own.”
This is the good old bait and switch. The shooter is presumed to be mentally ill when he shoots people but rational when he wrote his manifesto. Yes, the shooter blames immigrants but what for? He blames illegal immigrants for being the reason that universal healthcare cannot be realized. Pop Quiz: Which political party is campaigning on Medicare for all and universal healthcare? Hint: It’s not the Party of Trump.
Achieving ambitions social projects like universal healthcare and UBI would become far more likely to succeed if tens of millions of dependents are removed.
(UBI in the above quote is universal basic income.)
The American lifestyle affords our citizens an incredible quality of life. However, our lifestyle is destroying the environment of our country. The decimation of the environment is creating a massive burden for future generations. Corporations are heading the destruction of our environment by shamelessly overharvesting resources. This has been a problem for decades. For example, this phenomenon is brilliantly portrayed in the decades old classic “The Lorax”. Water sheds around the country, especially in agricultural areas, are being depleted. Fresh water is being polluted from farming and oil drilling operations. Consumer culture is creating thousands of tons of unnecessary plastic waste and electronic waste, and recycling to help slow this down is almost non-existent. Urban sprawl creates inefficient cities which unnecessarily destroys millions of acres of land.
Yes, there are other things in the guy’s manifesto that fit the mold for white supremacy but again, why is this document supposed to be written by a rational person? Oh, he posted this manifesto just minutes before opening fire in the Walmart.
My impression of the document is that he is a National Socialist that hates International Socialists. Other than his immigration beliefs, his views are echoed by many California Liberals.
Please notice also that the AP article is completely silent on the Ohio shooter. The Ohio shooter was a registered Democrat that supported Elizabeth Warren and he called himself a Satanist.
…he described himself as a leftist, anime fan, and metalhead. He had posted tweets that opposed Donald Trump and supported Elizabeth Warren, socialism, and Satan.
Somehow Associated Press left this second shooter out of their swipe at Trump hoping that you wouldn’t notice.
AP continues with a second whack at Trump.
Never seemingly comfortable consoling a nation in grief, Trump will be carefully watched for his response to the attacks…
Again, these were a local issues. Why does Trump have to be measured by how well he performs in front of the camera? I know that he does much in private because he, contrary to the narrative, likes to do things away from the camera. This also presupposes that Trump needs the media which he does not; hence the Twitter comments.
Oh, there’s even more from AP. I could try ripping the balance of the article but most of the rest of the article is a hit piece on Trump interspersed with a few nuggets about the investigations following the shootings. I will end with this paragraph which clearly has nothing to do with the shootings.
In recent weeks, the president has issued racist tweets about four women of color who serve in Congress, and in rallies has spoken of an “invasion” at the southern border. His reelection strategy has placed racial animus at the forefront in an effort that his aides say is designed to activate his base of conservative voters, an approach not seen by an American president in the modern era.
The first thing to understand about President Trump is that he rarely starts anything on Twitter. Virtually every time he is responding to something that occurred elsewhere. If you’re not paying attention, you might miss that nugget. The media won’t allow any context to his comments. They pretend that Trump is like Zeus on Mt. Olympus randomly slinging lightning bolts hither and yon to stir-up otherwise content people.
The so-called “racist tweets about four women of color” is such an episode. The “Broad Squad” has repeatedly attacked America; our laws, our government, our allies, and our way of life. Trump responded on Twitter to a particular set of events. He was defending our country, its borders, and in particular, Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Here is the background. Unlike AP, I exhaustively researched the context of Trump’s comments on Twitter which I will quote shortly.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez fired two shots aimed at House Speaker Nancy Pelosi; (July 8 & 9). First, Fox News ran a story that AOC and her associates were actively running a campaign to “take-out” incumbent Democrats and replace them with likeminded socialists.
The left-wing activist group that spearheaded the political rise of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is now working to take down several incumbent Democrats who have defied the party’s freshman progressive wing, leaving some of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s loyalists on Capitol Hill anxiously wondering if they might soon fall in the crosshairs themselves.
Justice Democrats, which was co-founded by Ocasio-Cortez chief of staff Saikat Chakrabarti, has already announced it is looking to unseat seven-term pro-life Texas Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar, who represents a conservative district and has boasted about his endorsement from the National Rifle Association. Also on the list: New York Rep. Eliot Engel, the House Foreign Affairs Committee chairman who’s currently in his 16th term.
At the same time this story broke, Pelosi was firing back at AOC & company over a vote to fund the border. AOC and the rest of the “Broad Squad” were the only four Democrat votes against this bill.
On Friday, Pelosi aired a series of grievances in The New York Times, hitting back at Ocasio-Cortez and fellow progressives, Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), and Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) for failing to fall in line behind the Democratic caucus and approve a $4.5 billion emergency spending bill aimed at addressing the humanitarian crisis at the southern border, even after the quartet complained loudly of the treatment asylum seekers were receiving.
“All these people have their public whatever and their Twitter world,” Pelosi said. “But they didn’t have any following. They’re four people and that’s how many votes they got.”
Pelosi seemed particularly aggrieved by a statement, put out by the four women (among others) chastising Democrats for funding what they believe to be a murderous organization hellbent on destroying the lives of immigrants.
“These radicalized, criminal agencies are destroying families and killing innocent children,” the statement read, according to Fox News, and called on Congress to defund both Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection, ostensibly in pursuit of an “open borders” immigration policy.
July 10th, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-NY, interjected race into the discussion.
“When these comments first started, I kind of thought that she was keeping the progressive flank at more of an arm’s distance in order to protect more moderate members, which I understood,” Ocasio-Cortez said.
“But the persistent singling out .?.?. it got to a point where it was just outright disrespectful .?.?. the explicit singling out of newly elected women of color.”
This was how OAC—the gift that keeps giving to the right—accused Nancy Pelosi of being a racist.
This set the narrative that an attack on the “Broad Squad” can’t be because of their policies, only because of their race. This is a false dilemma. This is like something you’d find in Rules for Radicals.
This is a textbook example of playing the race card in an attempt to inoculate you from a serious examination of your policy ideas. This is a logical fallacy but it works much of the time.
Trump came to Pelosi’s defense a few days later (July 12).
“I deal with Nancy Pelosi a lot, and we go back and forth and it’s fine, but I think that a group of people is being very disrespectful to her,” Trump said. “I’ll tell you something about Nancy Pelosi, she is not a racist, and for them to call her a racist is a disgrace.”
In my opinion, Trump was going after Ilhan Omar without naming her. In case you missed it, she’s the one that lied to get into the country and married her biological brother for several years to perpetrate the immigration fraud.
Below are the Twitter feeds from President Trump in Chronological order.
07/14/2019 Defending Pelosi
So sad to see the Democrats sticking up for people who speak so badly of our Country and who, in addition, hate Israel with a true and unbridled passion. Whenever confronted, they call their adversaries, including Nancy Pelosi, “RACIST.” Their disgusting language and the many terrible things they say about the United States must not be allowed to go unchallenged. If the Democrat Party wants to continue to condone such disgraceful behavior, then we look even more forward to seeing you at the ballot box in 2020!
So interesting to see “Progressive” Democrat Congresswomen, who originally came from countries whose governments are a complete and total catastrophe, the worst, most corrupt and inept anywhere in the world (if they even have a functioning government at all), now loudly and viciously telling the people of the United States, the greatest and most powerful Nation on earth, how our government is to be run. Why don’t they go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came. Then come back and show us how it is done. These places need your help badly, you can’t leave fast enough. I’m sure that Nancy Pelosi would be very happy to quickly work out free travel arrangements!
07/15/2019 America Love It or Leave It
When will the Radical Left Congresswomen apologize to our Country, the people of Israel and even to the Office of the President, for the foul language they have used, and the terrible things they have said. So many people are angry at them & their horrible & disgusting actions!
We will never be a Socialist or Communist Country. IF YOU ARE NOT HAPPY HERE, YOU CAN LEAVE! It is your choice, and your choice alone. This is about love for America. Certain people HATE our Country. They are anti-Israel, pro Al-Qaeda, and comment on the 9/11 attack, “some people did something.” Radical Left Democrats want Open Borders, which means drugs, crime, human trafficking, and much more. Detention facilities are not Concentration Camps! America has never been stronger than it is now – rebuilt Military, highest Stock Market EVER, lowest unemployment and more people working than ever before. Keep America Great!
The Dems were trying to distance themselves from the four “progressives,” but now they are forced to embrace them. That means they are endorsing Socialism, hate of Israel and the USA! Not good for the Democrats!
07/17/2019 The below was retweeted by Trump
“In America, if you hate our Country, you are free to leave. The simple fact of the matter is, the four Congresswomen think that America is wicked in its origins, they think that America is even more wicked now, that we are all racist and evil. They’re entitled to their opinion, they’re Americans. Now I’m entitled to my opinion, & I just think they’re left wing cranks. They’re the reason there are directions on a shampoo bottle, & we should ignore them. The “squad” has moved the Democrat Party substantially LEFT, and they are destroying the Democrat Party. I’m appalled that so many of our Presidential candidates are falling all over themselves to try to agree with the four horsewomen of the apocalypse. I’m entitled to say that they’re Wack Jobs.” Louisiana Senator John Kennedy
Trump never mentions race or color in any of these tweets.Remember this, OAC was the one that interjected race to go after a member of her own party. When Trump defended Pelosi and attacked them, the Dems did a circle-the-wagons move and did just what Trump said. They endorsed, “Socialism, hate of Israel and the USA!” They could just as easily have disavowed the “Broad Squad” but that’s not how they roll. Instead, the Democrats gave Trump some great fodder for the 2020 campaign.
Meanwhile back to the AP article as quotes above.
In recent weeks, the president has issued racist tweets about four women of color who serve in Congress, and in rallies has spoken of an “invasion” at the southern border. His reelection strategy has placed racial animus at the forefront in an effort that his aides say is designed to activate his base of conservative voters, an approach not seen by an American president in the modern era.
The above paragraph is commentary and history revisionism, not what happened. Trump was neither racist nor talking about color in anything he posted. As for “invasion” even the Democrats—with four exceptions—and the Old Gray Lady herself—The New York Times—have reluctantly admitted there is an invasion at the border.
Two months before AP mocked Trump for saying there is “an ‘invasion’ at the southern border”, the NYT editorial board began an op-ed with:
President Trump is right: There is a crisis at the southern border.
There has been a surge of migrants crossing into the U.S., despite Trump’s efforts to curtail illegal immigration. Some Democrats view granting Trump’s request for emergency funds as legitimizing his immigration stances they have railed against, but denying Trump’s request also puts them in the awkward position of turning down assistance for the migrants seeking asylum.
Oh, the Democrats did pass the bill as urged by The Times and that is what led to the spat between AOC and Pelosi.
Trump is vindicated with logic and evidence, not that it matters to his opponents.
Even the Los Angeles Times, in a roundabout way, came to Trump’s defense.
In the last week, more than 30 people have died in three separate mass shootings in Gilroy, El Paso and Dayton, Ohio. We believe that analyzing and understanding data about who commits such massacres can help prevent more lives being lost.
For two years, we’ve been studying the life histories of mass shooters in the United States for a project funded by the National Institute of Justice, the research arm of the U.S. Department of Justice. We’ve built a database dating back to 1966 of every mass shooter who shot and killed four or more people in a public place, and every shooting incident at schools, workplaces, and places of worship since 1999. We’ve interviewed incarcerated perpetrators and their families, shooting survivors and first responders. We’ve read media and social media, manifestos, suicide notes, trial transcripts and medical records.
First, the vast majority of mass shooters in our study experienced early childhood trauma and exposure to violence at a young age. The nature of their exposure included parental suicide, physical or sexual abuse, neglect, domestic violence, and/or severe bullying. The trauma was often a precursor to mental health concerns, including depression, anxiety, thought disorders or suicidality.
Second, practically every mass shooter we studied had reached an identifiable crisis point in the weeks or months leading up to the shooting. They often had become angry and despondent because of a specific grievance. For workplace shooters, a change in job status was frequently the trigger. For shooters in other contexts, relationship rejection or loss often played a role. Such crises were, in many cases, communicated to others through a marked change in behavior, an expression of suicidal thoughts or plans, or specific threats of violence.
Third, most of the shooters had studied the actions of other shooters and sought validation for their motives. People in crisis have always existed. But in the age of 24-hour rolling news and social media, there are scripts to follow that promise notoriety in death. Societal fear and fascination with mass shootings partly drives the motivation to commit them. Hence, as we have seen in the last week, mass shootings tend to come in clusters. They are socially contagious. Perpetrators study other perpetrators and model their acts after previous shootings. Many are radicalized online in their search for validation from others that their will to murder is justified.
Fourth, the shooters all had the means to carry out their plans. Once someone decides life is no longer worth living and that murdering others would be a proper revenge, only means and opportunity stand in the way of another mass shooting. Is an appropriate shooting site accessible? Can the would-be shooter obtain firearms? In 80% of school shootings, perpetrators got their weapons from family members, according to our data. Workplace shooters tended to use handguns they legally owned. Other public shooters were more likely to acquire them illegally.
The finding is that broken individuals are responsible for mass shootings. If nothing else, the Times article—which I recommend—takes a lot of ink to find common ground in the profile of such individuals and concludes by restating the age old axiom that we are our brother’s keeper.
Maybe if politicians spent more time building up our country instead of tearing each other down, we might actually solve some of the issues facing our nation. If Associated Press did their job and trusted their readers to make up their own minds, the political divide might be less divisive. Instead they resort to “fake news” and yellow journalism to score political points.
Trump is responsible for his actions and the shooters are responsible for theirs. Confusing the two and politicizing such tragic events is or should be shameful. Presidents—be they named Trump or Obama—are not responsible for mass shootings, the guys pulling the trigger are. These folks need help. Ultimately, psychology and psychiatry are unable to fix broken people, only God can do that by giving them a new heart.
This blog and commentary is the result of current events over the last year exposing CalRecycle as a farce and nothing more than a government mandated “feel good” program. This mostly came to a head with the shut down and bankruptcy of RePlanet, a large recycling conglomerate, on Tuesday of this week.
Citing the increased costs of processing recycled items, RePlanet, California’s largest operator of recycling redemption centers has closed, leaving 750 employees out of jobs.
The Ontario, California-based company has closed all 284 of its centers, according to the San Jose Mercury News.
Company President David Lawrence told the newspaper the decision to close was due to increased business costs and falling prices of recycled aluminum and polyethylene terephthalate, or PET, plastic.
Recycling was essentially mandated in California in 1989 and on its surface it actually was a good idea. The premise was that we should try to divert as much waste as possible from our landfills. The program introduced recycling and green waste composting programs to help toward a goal of diverting 50% of all waste over a period of 30 years. In Sacramento County, we had just a garbage cart, then we got a green waste cart for all yard waste, and got 3 small bins for recycling. We had to separate the recycling into a separate bin for paper, glass, and plastics and aluminum. As a result, instead of 1 truck picking up said waste now a 2nd truck was required since the yard waste and recycling is collected on alternate weeks. In some parts of California such as the Bay Area, recycling is picked-up on a weekly basis.
As with any government program, an entire new department was created “The California Integrated Waste Management Board” to oversee this program as well as the California Redemption Value Program (CRV). This CRV is what you pay to the State of California on most plastic, glass, and aluminum products when they are bought at the grocery or liquor store. Prior to this, glass recycling was done at a local level by the private sector. Buy a Coke or Pepsi product at the grocery store and return the bottle and you got a nickel from the store. Government was not involved or mandating this program, it was purely a function of the private sector. Now, what the store collects is remitted to the State. I will now discuss the demise and issues with this system.
First the city and county administered programs: I cannot blame them entirely since when the state mandates it, you either do it or face a daily fine until you comply. After a few years, the 3 separate bin system with replaced with an additional cart, for mixed recycling. This was due largely to more material being eligible to be recycled, but I have a feeling worker comp payouts mounted due to a person having to physically lift and dump these bins into a contraption that loaded into the truck.
I am in favor of collecting more recycling and diverting it from the landfill, but this was a case that backfired. There was never a system or check in place in regard to contamination….this is how the program was destroyed. You see the bin is collected, and the contents of the truck are compacted and smashed repeatedly until the truck unloads at a sorting facility. There workers manually separate, combine and package the recyclables to be sold to China or another broker who does the physical recycling. Up until a couple of years ago, China took everything and asked no questions. Recently, they have tightened up their contamination standards and as a result quite a bit of “recyclable product” has been diverted to the landfill. Please note that China’s change of heart on taking our trash to be recycled predates any controversy related to President Trump’s trade policies.
Yep, we aint recycling the contents of your recycle bin, just burying it in the ground like everything else…but hey…you still get to feel good about saving the environment and the planet (at least until you read this blog).
Let’s take look at how lucrative this program has been to Sac City residents….according to their website “recycling sales” or product sold to China/broker etc. totals .79% of the revenue….OUCH!
The reserves have been depleted to a point the City will be increasing residents monthly trash bills by $12 a month over the next 5 years. Think about that one! Also the City has to start collecting “food waste” by 2021, so an additional cart, added fees, and a new rodent problem anyone? The program is literally bankrupting a local municipality.
Now let’s take a look at the downfall of RePlanet. RePlanet is or was a recycling outfit known for their small container sized booths usually located in shopping center parking lots that collected cans and sometimes plastics for recycling and paid you for the product.
On Tuesday, RePlanet closed all of its 284 locations and laid off all 750 employees citing an uncompetitive environment to do business. Digging deeper, the dirty little secret of how this business failed should not surprise anyone, as 40% of all recycling locations have closed in the past 5 years. It was a scam. Did you ever notice that at the register you were charged $.05 or $.10 “deposit” on the product, that is per item, but if you then took the container to a recycler, you were paid a rate “per pound” meaning you collected far less than your deposit. So if you didn’t actually recycle the material yourself, say you put it in your bin, the state kept the money and subsidized these operations taking place all over the state. The state payments did not keep up with inflation/regulation and as a result, these recycling centers have disappeared.
As someone who recycled religiously, I can say firsthand that it started making very little sense to do so a few years ago. The payments became less and less to the point where you questioned even making the trip. Honestly, if you think about it, look at it this way; RePlanet–like any other non-government entity–is in business to make money. They have to rent the space for their booth (this isn’t cheap, and can run about $1000 a month by the way), pay the employee minimum wage (this company had Bay Area locations paying higher than Sac County wages), benefits, workers comp, and had to pay customers for the product. The numbers did not add up at all. Couple that with smugglers bringing product in from over state lines (NV and AZ don’t have a recycling program) so they use ours to their advantage and you have a basically bankrupt CalRecycle program. RePlanet’s demise is a very big hit to a portion of the population that recycles for the cash as a means to make ends meet, and believe me there are quite a few. In years past, you might remember homeless folks scavenging your recycle bin the night before pickup but they haven’t been doing that lately, now you know why.
So here we are, stuck in a nasty catch 22; on one hand, we have a state department of recycling mandating that we divert 50% of our waste (that number is going higher by the way) and on the other hand, we have China is no longer accepting our recyclables. State officials are presiding over a bankrupted system as far as redemptions go, but they are still happily collecting the CRV taxes.
I spoke to a member of my church who was heavily involved in creating the program for the state and he was very contrite with me saying the program had good intentions but has badly missed the mark…he even spoke of regret setting this system up. He said the idea of household recycling was great, except people intentionally contaminated their bin, leading to the load being trashed as opposed to re-used. You encourage people to bag their own recyclables and take to a recycler, but when you are paid only a pittance, what is the point? He also shared that before he retired, for 10 years in a row, more pounds of aluminum cans were recycled through one of these “redemption centers” than were actually sold in California! Try that one on! Especially when he said participation among residents could not have been higher than 20%. In addition, the cost to recycle items in this state far outweighs keeping them out of the landfill…his words not mine.
Final Thoughts: It should surprise no one this is ending badly; whenever the government gets involved, the outcome is less than ideal. A new department was created, hundreds or thousands were hired, and here we are trying to pick up the pieces and do an autopsy on the recycling program while the CRV program is charging full speed ahead on autopilot. It started as a great idea and it remains a good idea, which may upset some readers of this blog, but keeping things out of our landfill where they can leach into our water supply is paramount to our existence. The problem is when the program is taken advantage of by scammers or intentionally contaminated by people not caring. As a result everyone is losing, we pay more for garbage service, can no longer reap a benefit of recycling, and now have reusable bags and containers foisted upon us constantly.
I think the answer is something of a hybrid, I think the recycling system for residents should be optional… but you pay a higher price if you opt out. This stops people who don’t care or intentionally are contaminating. Opting in, gives the local hauler or municipality the right to inspect your container to make sure it isn’t contaminated…you’re getting a substantial discount so you give up privacy, sorry. The centers that collect products should be more readily available and maybe this is a collaboration of business and government where a detailed business plan and rate of return can be achieved. Ok maybe not the greatest answer to a problem, but once again a crisis has come out of something we thought was an easily solvable “green” answer.
The Chief
Editor’s Comments:
I think the State of California needing to ship our waste to another country to run a sustainable recycling program is proof that this recycling scheme was poorly thought out. By the way, California is not the only State shipping waste to other countries. To lift a phrase, what happens in California should stay in California. We should recycle our own waste. While I prefer a private sector solution, this might be something the Prison Industry Authority (PIA) might want to get involved in. How about some welfare to work program opportunities? Folks, as rare as it is for me to say it, this kind of problem is one where Elon Musk might actually be the go to guy. Elon likes to dream stuff up and use taxpayer money to make it happen; plus, he likes a challenge.
Yes, its time for the Service Employee’s International Union (SEIU) to negotiate contracts with the State of California again. If you want to follow all the action, see it for yourself here. Bargaining Unit Updates
Four years ago, Jerry Brown showed restraint when negotiating with this union, but this time around, the union is asking for the moon and very likely to get most of it from Gavin Newsom. Look at this laundry list of goodies.
Economic Justice
21 percent salary increase over three years. This is partially because many SEIU members are making starting wages less than the magical $15 an hour that is somehow the holy grail of wages.
GoePay If union members live in high cost areas like Los Angeles or San Francisco, they want members to get extra pay due to the higher cost of living.
Housing differential If employee is paying more than 30 percent of income in housing costs then you get more loot.
Comments
A 7 percent a year wage increase on its face is ridiculous in the current environment; however, due to the stupid political endorsements of this union, 21 percent over 3 years would almost restore the relative earning power members had before the last contract was enacted. You see SEIU endorsed candidates that raised taxes and fees so much in California that their members were worse off and had less take-home pay (in real dollars) at the end of the day than before the last contract was signed. To site a few specific examples, gas taxes increased, DMV fees increased, minimum wage increased which cause things in the state to become more expensive while simultaneously reducing earning power of people represented by the union, etc.
GeoPay and regional adjustments sound good on its face but…
What does this do for retirement? Is retirement now based on base wages plus regional earnings so in equal job classifications, two people from different parts of the state get different amounts when they both retire to Arizona? How is this fair? Remember when spiking retirement was an issue?
Housing differential…
Regional housing allowance? How do you pull this off? Actual numbers reported to state and union? Median pricing in a given area? What are housing costs? Rent? Mortgage? Water, gas, electricity, sewer, garbage? Does this make cable TV or Internet a right? Wouldn’t raising the renter’s credit on California income tax returns make more sense? Currently its $60 per year for single filers.
Healthcare Justice
SEIU wants all healthcare and vision paid by the state, pay for insurance for employees living in other states, and cap contributions to retiree healthcare at current levels.
Comments
California’s state employees currently have most of their personal health insurance paid by the State—80 Percent. In addition state employees are covered by basic dental and vision plans. For an additional cost, premium versions of this insurance are offered to employees as well.
As for California paying for health insurance in other states, wow! So I can live in Oregon and work at Pelican Bay Prison and Gavin will pay my insurance in the Oregon healthcare system? Or you work for Cal Trans and live on the Nevada side of Lake Tahoe and you can get Nevada’s insurance. Arizona would have to be in this mix too but where else? Would such a move allow California politicians to deploy lobbyists to other states to influence their healthcare laws to be in compliance with our laws?
The retiree healthcare contribution was implemented in the current contract as a way to set aside money now for healthcare premiums in the future. This fund is earmarked for use when current employees retire. This currently is 3.5 percent of wages. The final 1.2 percent of this withholding is scheduled to begin with the paychecks July 1, 2020. Total tax 5.38 percent.
partial clip of current contract showing phase-in deduction
Worker and Family Justice
More flexible hours, telecommuting, 20/20 program, and long commutes.
Comments
Many SEIU employees work in offices with set business hours. SEIU wants flexibility of hours and schedules but for many people this is just not practical. Other than not offering a work schedule of four ten, hour days, the state offers many options where I work including lots of time off without using their generous vacation and sick policies. Apparently the union wants even more.
Telecommuting is not practical for many people represented by SEIU. Imaging allowing someone in the accounting department to work from home. The state will insist on supplying a secure laptop to such employees that have access to names, addresses, and social security numbers, plus info on wages and benefits; all from the comfort of home or Starbucks or Panera Bread, or … What could possibly go wrong with this? Note: if this idea doesn’t bother you, ask a high school kid how secure he thinks your personal info–and everyone else’s that you have access to–will be in this scenario and whatever dire things he says, triple the severity and you’ll be close.
The 20/20 plan is getting paid up to 20 hours a week while you attend college and then work the other 20 hours. This does not appear to be limited to improving your knowledge to better perform your job for the State but for the sake of self-improvement.
Below is standard language for an existing program:
Employees interested in pursuing this opportunity shall develop an education plan and/or Individual Development Plan with supervisor input. The 20/20 program endeavors to provide the opportunity for employees to participate in state sponsored, college or university courses for up to twenty (20) hours per week without loss of compensation when employees would otherwise be scheduled for work. At the request of the Union, individual department(s) shall meet to explore the development of a 20/20 program(s).
MOU Page 311
Oh, applications for this program are sent up the department’s chain of command as well as carbon copied to the union.
Conclusion
Dear taxpayers, thanks for generously volunteering to pay for all these wonderful benefits for government workers. It’s too bad your employer doesn’t have any money left to give you the same deal.
I’ll keep you updated as our political class negotiates goodies for the unions that keep them in power. After all, it’s the least I can do for you.
In the 1989 Kevin Costner movie, the lesson is that “if you build it, they will come.” Waxing nostalgic about the golden age of baseball might be magic for my grandparents—all of whom are deceased—but for the living, it’s a bygone era.
Time and time again we have seen Conservatives invoke the same belief in magic as the Costner character in this movie. A more realistic and therefore cynical view is that, for Conservatives, there is nothing left to believe in except tilting at windmills.
Background
Windmill tilting is nothing new, it has been going on for most of my adult life; especially when it comes to social issues like abortion. I remember when Reagan was President, we thought Roe was one court appointment away from being overturned. Ditto when both Presidents named Bush were in office but it never materialized. Later, we fought the battle for marriage naively believing that our votes actually mattered only to be undone by activist judges as the other two branches of government did nothing. Talk about conversations with the naïve.
All the while we were hoping for the magic silver bullet that would end the controversy and let us go home and live our lives in peace. To this end, people claiming to represent us raked in millions of dollars from the faithful with little or nothing to show. As we learned later—especially in California—many of these causes were pretexts for fundraising campaigns not serious efforts at reform or change. The poster child for this during several campaign cycles was the Capitol Resource Institute (CRI).
CRI was guilty many times of running shadow campaigns parallel with real efforts. Prop 8 to define marriage as between a man and woman was one. CRI raised money they said was to support Prop 8 but they kept the funds, they were never given to the real Prop 8 organization. Instead, CRI put their own people on the payroll of their fake Prop 8 PAC and used up all the money.
In the years following, CRI did this time and again. They created signature gathering efforts for things that never got to the ballot. CRI had no ability to finish what they started in any of these campaigns. They adopted their version of the Costner motto, “if we do it they will come.” The reality was that they hurt the causes for which they postured. Their tilting at windmills backfired and hurt us all in the long run.
I’m picking on CRI because they never had the money to get anything on the ballot let alone fund a statewide campaign to get anything passed.
Historically, it takes about 3 million dollars to qualify a ballot measure and then an additional amount of $15-20 million to run a credible campaign. Back when Republicans ran for governor, the winning campaign was spending more than $50 million.
As a Christian group, CRI seemed really averse to follow Jesus’ advice to count the cost before doing something. Jesus says don’t start something unless you have the resources to finish it. It’s not magic, its common sense.
For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it?
Lest haply, after he hath laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it, all that behold it begin to mock him,
Saying, This man began to build, and was not able to finish.
Luke 14:28-30
Jesus’ story says that to begin something that you know you can’t finish only results in others mocking you for being foolish with your resources; such a person is a dreamer not someone to take seriously.
California Conservatives’ Newest Windmill
So why bring up the past now? Because it’s happening again. Another Conservative effort with no prayer of success is underway which not only can’t succeed, it will embolden the other side to do even more crazy stuff without fear of consequences. Sadly, this is the legacy of CRI and others that tilt at windmills. They have no resources other than convincing the gullible to follow them over the political cliff. Their failure encourages the other side to double down on whatever social evil was the target of their ire.
The newest effort is recalling Governor Gavin Newsom. Yep, they want to take out the Gov. I’m not really sure why. Gavin is doing exactly what he promised and we knew he would do. Nobody is mad enough to dump him except maybe a few of his old girlfriends, yet somehow this brain trust of nuts down in San Diego thinks, if only we can get this on the ballot, people will rise up and rally to the cause.
California Governor and recall target Gavin Newsom
Here’s the details from a July 22, 2019 article:
A physician who twice lost bids for Congress is taking steps to launch a recall drive against Gov. Gavin Newsom, even signing up the treasurer of the successful effort to oust Gov. Gray Davis in 2003.
Dr. James Veltmeyer of La Jolla is using social media and email to collect “proponents” for a notice of intention to circulate a recall petition, said political consultant Andrew Russo on Monday.
“We’re in a process of setting up our committee,” said Russo, who also managed Republican Veltmeyer’s 2018 campaign against Rep. Scott Peters in the 52nd Congressional District. “We should have that by tomorrow.”
James Veltmeyer
But Veltmeyer felt it was time to launch a serious effort, Russo, 54, said in a phone interview. Online petitions are of “no value in something like this.”
On Thursday, Veltmeyer announced a recall website whose FAQ says: “We’ve set a goal of 2 million signatures to ensure we have the required number of valid signatures. We expect our deadline to be approximately February 1, 2020.”
Ok, now this guy needs 2 million signatures but he doesn’t have enough fundraising ability to successfully run for Congress. I promise you he has no funding for this effort and there is no way, even with paid signature gatherers, that he gets anywhere close to 2 million signatures.
Look at the series of things needing to happen for this recall to be successful and you tell me what the chances are.
You need to collect enough valid signatures to get this recall on the ballot, run a campaign to convince a majority of Democrats and left leaning folks that Gavin–and by extension his Party–are wrong about these policies (which are common values shared by many Californians), then you need voters to pick someone that believes like a Republican, then without any shift in the Democrat supermajorities in both houses of our legislature, get them to voluntarily overturn the policies that they enacted so the new governor can sign them into law.
Veltmeyer has no money for this effort, no candidate that is electable and willing to enact said changes, and no hope the Legislature will be so intimidated by the Governor’s recall that they will unilaterally undo all the policies enacted in these areas and give him what he wants, even if he says, “Pretty please.”
Folks, this is the mother of all windmills but that is what Conservative people have been reduced to in California. Anyone give me odds that Veltmeyer is or was a CRA member?
Conclusion
Tilting at windmills is folly. It makes a mockery of whatever issue or perceived wrong that you are trying to correct as well as making a mockery and an object of scorn out its adherents. It emboldens those you oppose to do more of whatever you campaign against because it shows them that they have no fear of reprisal. Tilting at windmills makes things markedly worse than if you had never acted.
Editor’s Note: the following article by Troll discusses, in passing, Bill Clinton’s conduct while in the White House and therefore may be offensive to Liberals and is definitely inappropriate for small children.
House Judiciary Committee Chair and resident idiot, Jarrold Nadler–who honestly has nothing better to do with his pathetic existence on this earth–has decided Hope Hicks needs to return to Congress and testify yet again about hush money payments by “Trump” to Stormy Daniels.
Stormy Daniels
Allegedly Hicks was involved in a three way phone call with Michael Cohen and Donald Trump, regarding payments to Daniels, and Hicks may have “misled” Congress in her testimony. First of all, why is a women on a call when discussing payments to another women for…let’s call it “services rendered?” It literally makes no sense…that being said, is it a wonder Hicks forget or couldn’t remember what was being discussed? I mean really, what girl wants to know what you did with a stripper, and on top of that (pun intended) how much you paid for the deed? (Allegedly) Then I found out Stormy’s real name is Stephanie Clifford….and get this, she is not related to that big red dog from my childhood….big letdown!
In case you missed it, back in the Clinton era I’ve been told first-hand accounts there was more sex going on in the Oval Office than in some brothels. Guess what? Aside from Joe Lieberman nary a Democrat cared! What a difference a couple decades makes. Clinton stuck his pepperoni in all kinds of women’s tomato patches, got a blowie while on the phone with dignitaries, and no one in his party had an issue.
Now because a very wealthy, non-politician and a crooked lawyer made couple hush money payments the world stops? Hardly the crime of the century…also why does the country suddenly believe a crooked lawyer who is in jail right now looking for a way to reduce his sentence?
The truth of the matter is that both Michaels–Cohen and Avenatti–both of whom are going to spend a while in jail–stayed true to form this entire time. Both were more than happy to collect retainers and high billable hours from their clients, but when the ship started taking on water it was too late for them to bail. Both thought for sure they knew where the skeletons were buried, however that didn’t work out so well. This is because the GOP insiders, the Democrats, and these two idiots under estimated Trump as a person. Trump may be morally bankrupt (allegedly) however he is very bright, and always kept an arm’s length between him and any wrong doing….sorry folks he is here to stay.
In closing, Nadler you grease ball, you’re so fat you should roll up a hill! Lay off the cold cuts you blowhard!
Jerrold Nadler Idiot–New York
And quit calling my girlfriend back so you can ogle her or ask about her dating life. She isn’t going to date you, she is attracted to people who actually have intellectual abilities. By the way scum bag, she is a model, the only thing you’re a model for is what not to aspire to be! She didn’t lie, or misspeak, maybe…just maybe, she like other women does not give a flying rip about other people’s sex lives or hush money.
Hope Hicks
Keep in mind, you idiots took control of the House due to Republicans not wanting to work with Trump, and you’re wasting everyone’s time on this. Look at the multitude of problems facing our country, we have high debt, student loans, cost of healthcare, tuition, homelessness, and I’m just naming a few, pick a couple, pass decent legislation, and brand yourselves the problem solvers. Go away you lard tub! So Trump did the dirty with someone and paid them off, look at those bolt-on’s Daniels bought herself? Talk about stimulating more than just the economy! But in the meantime I will continue to investigate Ms. Hicks and try to stay on top of her…I will update as necessary.
Hope Hicks
I wish I could have had a three way with Hope Hicks and Jennifer Aniston that woulda been great!
UPDATE: It has come to the attention of this blogger the “Broad Squad” (h/t Blog Father) is trying to get a primary challenge to Nadler for not being liberal enough…maybe you and Trump have something in common after all?
Troll
PS thoughts and prayers for “The Chief” as his Twitter account was suspended for 20 hours for engaging in a beef with OJ Simpson in regards to him finding the “real killer.” Also pray for the Blog Father, apparently there is a FBI Surveillance Van on his street, so says a potential Wi-Fi connection, did the Blog Father commit a heinous crime? Or did Karen England give the FBI the wrong address for Aaron Park?
We will update when info is passed along.
With two regular contributors to this blog potentially sidelined, we must plan for a future of just myself and that food blogger Johnnie Does being the only bloggers left here.
First they banned plastic bags, then straws, and now the environmental wackos want to ban toilet paper. The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) has declared war on toilet paper—at least if it is soft and squeezable—and especially if it is sold at Costco.
If you recall, under Islam, a thief will have his right hand amputated. Why? Because thru most of history, the right hand was used to eat and the left to wipe your butt.
Press play to watch a guy go “old school” in Italy
Next time you read about Jesus judging mankind at the final judgment remember this. Verses like below have just a bit more meaning when you read:
When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory: And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats: And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:
Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:
Matthew 25:31-34, 41
NRDC Truth Claim
Here’s the meat of the article against T.P. (Oh, can I say the word “meat” when talking about environmental wackos?)
The manufacture of bathroom tissue — particularly the soft, fluffy kind marketed for American bottoms — is one of the most “environmentally destructive” processes on the planet, according to the NRDC.
“Future generations are going to look at the way we make toilet paper as one of the greatest excesses of our age,” NRDC scientist Allen Hershkowitz told the Guardian in 2009. “Making toilet paper from virgin wood is a lot worse than driving Hummers in terms of global warming pollution.”
Folks saying anything is worse than a Hummer—especially since they succeeded in getting them outlawed—is really fighting words. It communicates just how serious these guys are to outlaw toilet paper.
Toilet Paper by the Numbers
The article then goes on to introduce the math portion of this article.
The boreal forest is a vast landscape of aspen, evergreen and birch trees covering more than half of Canada, but since 1996, 22 million acres — an area roughly the size of Indiana — have been cut down to produce virgin fiber pulp, the key ingredient in premium toilet paper and hand tissues. With the exception of China, no country uses more tissue products than the U.S. despite the latter having only about 4 percent of the world’s population.
From 1996 to 2019 is 23 years. Since they can’t have complied statistics for this year yet, it is safe to say that we are talking about 1 million acres per year going to toilet paper production for sale in the U.S. market.
And of course, loggers—not having any interest in the sustainability of the forest since they work for evil corporations—would never think to replant trees to replace the ones they harvested.
Per the Canadian government, their country has 347,069,000 hectares of forest land.
Using a conversion tool found on the Internet this equals 857,626,176 acres of forest land in Canada.
Microsoft Excel icon
Plugging these two numbers into my handy copy of Microsoft Excel yield a whopping 2.56522 percent of Canadian forest has been harvested in 22 years for toilet paper production.
Put another way, if 1milion acres a year is harvested for toilet paper and there are 857,626,176 acres of forest land then the forest will all be converted to toilet paper in a mere 857 years—assuming nothing is planted to replace the harvested trees!
Oh, the Hypocrisy
Please note that this article which is critical of Canadian forest management is from San Francisco. Yes, a California based environmentalist is criticizing folks in other countries that may actually know what they are doing.
Last year, 2018, California lost 1,893,913 acres —much of it forest land—to wildfires. I don’t know about you, but the thought of wiping my back side with smoldering ashes or Charmin is a stark and clear choice for me.
California has the worst managed forest land on the planet and they want to impose their values not only on other states but other countries. Oh the hubris.
But the article yields even more nuggets of wisdom.
The boreal forest is critically important because it serves as an effective check on climate change, according to the NRDC-Stand.earth study, dubbed “The Issue with Tissue.” Cutting down millions of trees each year erodes the forest’s ability to absorb man-made greenhouse gas emissions. In addition, logging releases immense quantities of carbon safely stored in forests’ soil and vegetation.
“Most Americans probably do not know that the toilet paper they flush away comes from ancient forests, but clear-cutting those forests is costing the planet a great deal,” Anthony Swift, director of the NRDC’s Canada Project, said in a news release. “Maintaining the Canadian boreal forest is vital to avoiding the worst impacts of climate change.”
Toilet paper creation caused the release of greenhouse gases while wildfires in California have no detrimental effect on the release of carbon.
Carbon by the way is an essential element of all life on the planet except maybe a few bacteria (Unless you believe in silicon based lifeforms as found in Danish brothels or movie characters named Commander Data, Terminator, or Alien.)
The Bottom Line
The American way of life is somehow destroying the planet just so our butts can be clean and fresh.
In 2012, CNBC reported that toilet paper was Costco’s top-selling product, its “crown jewel,” with more than a billion rolls sold per year.
The three companies with the largest market shares in the tissue business — Procter & Gamble, Kimberly-Clark and Georgia-Pacific — use virgin pulp almost exclusively for at-home tissue brands. In 2017, those brands made up 80 percent of all toilet paper sales in the U.S, a study published in Statista found.
Oh, let’s consider the so-called virgin forests. Words have meaning so I guess the virgin forests are raped by the evil corporations. The virgin forest is defenseless and thus needs to be protected by guilty Western Liberals that have benefitted from the progress afforded them by Christianity and its economic engine, Capitalism.
Oh, if nature is so superior, sacrosanct, and needing to be followed, why do us humans put out the fires that nature starts that burn her own forests? Aren’t forest fires part of the natural order? Why should we not bow at the power of nature? Who are we to interfere with this goddess? Isn’t this the lesson; nature knows, man interferes?
Conclusion
Most of the world does not enjoy the luxury of toilet paper and those that do rarely get as good a quality as we can buy. When I was in Europe many years ago, all you could buy was stuff that looked like the crape paper used here to decorate for parties and felt like sandpaper.
Russia paper
These attacks are yet another attempt to limit people’s freedom, take our way of life down a few notches, and give more power to the State. If people in California really cared about the forest they would allow timber to be harvested and properly managed. Much of what passes as old growth or virgin wilderness in various parts of the world really is not, but once cultivated land that has gone feral from neglect.
This issue is very much a religious one. If you believe the Bible then you can’t be a rabid environmentalist or statist. God commanded man to make the whole world into The Garden. This mandates us to manage the planet and its resources not neglect them and let them burn.
OAC and the gang think they are the political version of Charlie’s Angels but those of us in the Heartland think they’re nuts (or something worse). President Trump nailed them on Twitter a few days ago. Trump’s stock with average Americans has risen sharply since then. OAC says her gang is “The Squad” but clearly the name is missing an adjective to describe them further.
Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y.; Ilhan Omar, D-Minn.; Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass.; and Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., have collectively come to be known by that label since taking office in January. The four have found common cause on a number of issues, most recently by becoming the only Democrats to vote against the House version of a border funding bill that was backed by Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
You know there’s a dumpster fire in the Democrat Party when Donald Trump is defending Nancy Pelosi‘s character from these crazy chicks. But its been entertaining to watch.
While discussing these events at work earlier today, a female coworker made a suggestion that fits in so many ways. Her solution was to call them “The Broad Squad.”
I like Donald Trump and think he’s doing a good job despite encountering the strongest headwinds of any President in my lifetime. But the one thing he does that I fear will blow up in his face is taking credit for the great performance of the stock market. By taking credit for the highs in the market he also becomes the owner of the lows when they occur at some point in the future.
Trump doesn’t really get to decide how the market does. He can get the government out of the way of certain sectors by reducing regulation or imposing tariffs but that’s about it. He is more of a cheerleader for corporate growth but that’s about all he can do.
The good thing about this is at least Trump seems willing to own the things that happen while he is in office. In contrast, Obama blamed every bad thing on his predecessor, G.W. Bush, until after his reelection. Trump is a good man and I’m glad he is in our corner.
Another story has surfaced about Amazon.com burning books. In a previous installment, it was documented that Amazon had deleted books warning of the existential threat of Islam and its incompatibility with Western Culture (i.e. Christianity).
On January 7 of this year, I published an article at PJ Media about Amazon removing doormats featuring Qur’an verses from sale because the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) found them offensive. In that article, I asked:
“How long will it be before Hamas-linked CAIR starts demanding that books that criticize jihad terror and Sharia oppression of women, gays, and others also be dropped by Amazon? “
The answer turned out to be 51 days.
It’s the British government and the BBC, rather than CAIR, that are likely behind this, but Amazon has just dropped the book Mohammed’s Koran by the renowned British activist Tommy Robinson and Peter McLoughlin — and apparently only because its censors dislike Robinson. In the last two weeks, Robinson spectacularly embarrassed the BBC by exposing the bias and dishonesty of its reporter John Sweeney. The retaliation has been swift and severe: Robinson has been banned from YouTube and Facebook, and now his book has been withdrawn from sale.
This is an extremely ominous development. Amazon and Barnes and Noble — which is also not carrying this book — have a virtual monopoly on book sales. When these two giants refuse to carry a book, that book effectively does not exist.
This time Amazon has banned books that say homosexuals can be cured of their sinful lifestyle (my words).
Amazon has removed English-language books by a man largely considered “the father of conversion therapy” from its site following mounting pressure from LGBTQ activists.
Dr. Joseph Nicolosi, founder of the now-shuttered Thomas Aquinas Psychological Clinic, as well as the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH), authored several how-to guides directed to parents of LGBTQ youth, including “A Parent’s Guide to Preventing Homosexuality.” His books are some of the most well-known works about conversion therapy, the pseudoscientific practice of trying to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity.
Coincidently, the Bible also talks about some first century Christians being former homosexuals. (The Greek word for homosexual is highlighted in blue below.)
Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.
I Corinthians 6: 9-11
So, is the Bible next? Actually, yes; but not by Amazon. Enter the State of California. Specifically, ACR-99. Oh, before I get to the specifics of this little gem, consider this. ACR-99 is sponsored by three assembly members and 56 co-sponsors out of 80 members. So, 59/80 is 74 percent support. Yep. This baby is a done deal with bipartisan support and a veto proof majority.
Those of you that are naive enough to think government doesn’t legislate morality, here is clear proof to the contrary.
So, what is it?
This measure would call upon all Californians to embrace the individual and social benefits of family and community acceptance, upon religious leaders to counsel on LGBTQ matters from a place of love, compassion, and knowledge of the psychological and other harms of conversion therapy, and upon the people of California and the institutions of California with great moral influence to model equitable treatment of all people of the state.
The bottom line is that the government is telling your pastor, among others, that trying to convince a homosexual that living that lifestyle is sinful and they should repent because God’s model is heterosexuality is against the beliefs of the people of California. Public policy in this state is now to oppose anyone that teaches beliefs contrary to the government’s position.
So, your pastor is now being told that he must accept homosexuals as normal and affirm their lifestyle…or else. The flipside is that telling them to repent is harmful. Sorry but I think letting someone go to Hell is harmful and not warning them is wrong.
You saw already what the Bible had to say but the government knows better.
WHEREAS, The California State Legislature has found that being lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender (LGBTQ) is not a disease, disorder, illness, deficiency, or shortcoming; and
i.e. homosexuality is not a sin
WHEREAS, Practices or therapies that attempt to create a change in a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity are often referred to as conversion therapy; and
This included pastoral counseling.
WHEREAS, Some family, caregivers, and communities promote conversion therapy when a person is known or thought to be LGBTQ; and California law recognizes that performing conversion therapy on young persons is ineffective, unethical, and harmful; and
Such pastoral counseling is declared as “ineffective, unethical, and harmful”
WHEREAS, The stigma associated with being LGBTQ often created by groups in society, including therapists and religious groups, has caused disproportionately high rates of suicide, attempted suicide, depression, rejection, and isolation amongst LGBTQ and questioning individuals; and
The State’s declaration is not that homosexuality is a mental and spiritual illness but the opposite.Calling homosexuality wrong, sinful, or deviant—all things declared in the Bible about those that practice such behavior—is now and forevermore to be anathema in California.
Don’t believe me, read the next clause:
WHEREAS, The State of California has a compelling interest in protecting the physical and psychological well-being of minors, including LGBTQ youth, and in protecting its minors against exposure to serious harms caused by family rejection and attempts to change sexual orientation or gender identity; and
This is the same rational that is used in Canada to prosecute Christians and discriminate against them for believing God instead of man. This is not hypothetical and tin foil hat nonsense, but stuff already done to Christian families, churches, and colleges and upheld by Canadian courts.
Resolved, That in addressing the stigma often associated with persons who identify as LGBTQ, we call on the people of California–especially its counselors, pastors, religious workers, educators, and legislators–and the institutions of California with great moral influence–especially its churches, universities, colleges, and other schools, counseling centers, activist groups, and religious centers–to model equitable treatment of all people of the state.
There’s the game plan in a short paragraph. Conform or else. As much as they can, this resolution is presenting a public policy framework to stamp-out opposition to homosexuality anywhere it is found.
Like all things Liberals do, this is a beginning and not the end. Look for this new foundation to be rapidly built upon.
If you want to know where this leads then look to Canada. They are a few years ahead of where California is now. Students of private colleges can’t get government loans. Degrees grant by said colleges are not recognized for government employment or professional licensing. Parents opposed to government positions on morality have their children taken away by child protective services never to be returned. The goal is to use the power of the state to stop the propagation of Christianity. You will find similar tactics in places ruled by totalitarian governments.
Today is July 4th. We should be celebrating freedom but beware the future. We are one generation from losing it.
