I was asked to make my predictions for the upcoming State of the Union address by President Trump, and here is what you can expect to hear:
The speech will heavily feature the border wall
The bully pulpit will be used heavily
The shutdown will be a central issue
If you think Trump caved on the wall, you are sadly mistaken and likely still believe Russians intervened in the 2016 election. Trump wants to give the State of the Union because, just like Reagan, he knows what to do when the little red light on the camera is red. He is going to light into the Democrats so bad on this issue, Pelosi’s Botox filled head may explode.
Nancy Pelosi–Guardian of Gridlock
Yep I just said it, he is going to twist the few remaining neurons in her brain into a pretzel and then bake it on live television until done. This will be a spectacle for the entire country to see. He is going to invite every family who had a member killed by an illegal immigrant come to the speech, sit in the gallery and clap in unison every time he mentions the need for a border wall.
MS-13 the poster children for unfettered and open borders
Even better those invited will see first-hand the “lawmakers” who claim to be working for their best interests. Get ready, he is going to quote sitting Democrats who supported the wall in days past, and compare and contrast their statements today. Fasten on your chin straps folks, this game promises to be rougher than the Tom Brady show.
Regarding the bully pulpit, you guys haven’t seen nothing yet. Trump is going to obliterate those even in his own Party. I’ll call this gang the “America Caucus.” This caucus tends to form when a critical mass of vertebrate challenged Republicans are elected. The members of this group tend to be the squishiest we have to offer. Think Graham, Collins, Murkowski, and to replace the departing Flake (no pun intended) Mitt Romney is set to join.
The spirit of John McCain still haunts the hallowed Senate Chambers
Trump is going to go hard after them, he wants his border wall and he wants healthcare done, and he isn’t going to take the embarrassment of his last attempt sitting down. No holds will be barred, and this has the potential to look more like the OK Corral than a traditional State of the Union.
The shutdown will be addressed, but I guarantee the threat of another one is on the table. Trump is going to remind the nation that he made a good faith offer to the Democrats and that his offer was rebuked. He will then remind the country that he isn’t a politician, he is a negotiator and when the Democrats won’t work with him, he will call them out. Sound familiar? The GOP tried this type of obstruction under Obama, it failed. The Democrats will fail here as well. This concept of being against everything Trump is fine on paper, but the voters want more.
The Democrat’s –like the GOP congress before them—have offered no alternative. The shutdown being the best example. The Democrats kept telling Trump to re-open the government without addressing the wall. They missed a key chance to win an issue. What if: Schumer and Pelosi ok $5 billion for the wall, but in exchange asked for $20 billion for infrastructure? Trump likely goes for it, he touted his union support during the 2016 elections. Following such a deal, they both could have gone on the TV circuit and basically said they schooled “the Donald” and got a better deal. Yes a small border wall, but you averted a government shutdown crisis, and got lots of good union jobs coming to towns near you! Democrat leaders might even have thrown the issue at Republicans who voted for the budget saying Trump and the GOP are causing record spending due to their reckless wall demand. Don’t kid yourself, $5 billion isn’t building much of a wall. In contrast they showed the American Public they have no ideas and don’t care to negotiate.
Final word: Trump is going to mutilate your Party by using of the State of the Union and the bully pulpit made available to him. He has found his footing and is going full bore after you now. No one will be spared from his wrath. You will see quite a few Reagan like traits from Trump. I am even willing to bet some Democrats or all walk out in unison as a protest.
Pelosi leads Democrat walkout
Also does Trump even like being President? I ask for this reason; he seems to enjoy campaigning and giving speeches more than his work, and I think that is due to him being a former CEO. He wants to do it his way, not concede a bunch and hope he can claim victory in the end.
Tune in for the SOTU speech, I doubt you will be disappointed.
Since former Starbucks Corp founder Howard Schultz gave a 60 Minutes interview that he was exploring running for president as a centrist independent, the left has been buzzing. Quite a few of my liberal friends agree as they feel this gives their nominee a better chance to defeat tyrannical dictator Donald Trump in 2020. They could not be further from the truth, and I’m going to explain why.
Howard Schultz is not very centrist, he definitely lines up with the left more than the right, especially if you look at the policies put into place by Starbucks during his reign as chair and CEO. But I am not going to discuss his politics, I’m going to take his run at face value and assume he will have moderate tendencies.
First and foremost let’s discuss where Schultz will play best on the ballot: Washington, Oregon, California, New York, New Jersey, likely a handful of New England Area states, maybe the upper Midwest, and possibly Florida. On one hand, yes, Schultz would not have a big effect in quite a few stronghold states for the Democrats: CA, IL, MD, and VT and OR.
However, look a little closer at some other states and if you are a Democrat there is major cause for concern: MI, MN, PA, and WI were barely won by Trump (MI, PA, WI) or barely a Hillary state (MN) if you assume Schultz gets 5% of the vote, Trump wins all 4 easily. VA, NV, ME and NH went to Hillary as well, under my formula, Trump would win them all. A couple other states like CO, Trump would barely lose. I think the Left Coast could get real interesting, a poor or wounded Democrat candidate could see Schultz score bigger percentages, leading to a closer call for Clinton winning. How does this help the Democrat cause at all? Now they have to attack Trump on one flank, while attacking Schultz on the other. It does not help their cause that Schultz is a billionaire like Trump and can self-fund his campaign with loads of cash.
Here is the issue, Schultz guarantees Trump wins re-election. The Left would go bonkers, and it would be all due to Howard Schultz. Please run Howard, do it for your country. People forget what H. Ross Perot did for Republican Presidential prospects; Democrats, now it’s your turn. Heck get Mark “#MeToo” Cuban to run on a separate ticket too, the time is now.
H. Ross Perot–Reform Party candidate. Known as a man that’s all ears.
By the way, here is how Schultz became the head of Starbucks….i guess the right to file suit for anything like ADA violations will continue to run rampant under a Schultz White House if elected, and I thought Trump was the bully with all the nasty lawyers?
“When he was running the coffee house Il Giorna, the owner of Starbucks (which then had only six locations in the Seattle area) approached Schultz to buy the six stores for $3.8 million. Schultz, while trying to raise the money, told his Il Giorna investors about the opportunity. One of those investors, who remains nameless to this day, contacted Starbucks and tried to buy out the coffeehouse without any involvement from Schultz. Schultz met with prominent attorney Bill Gates Sr. (yes, the father of you know who), and told him what had happened. Gates Sr. famously stormed into the office of the attempted buyer and told him that he would make his life hell by providing free legal representation to anyone injured on that man’s premises for the rest of his life, and the unnamed Il Giorna investor backed off.”
Bottom line……the only Schultz less qualified to run for President is Charles Schultz.
Did Trump fail? I’m not so sure. He gets to do the State of the Union speech and once again make his case. He also has the emergency option that he can play. However, I don’t think any of this was his first choice.
Everyone thinks Trump can’t keep anything to himself and he just reacts and throws tantrums on Twitter, but I think that is not the case. I think there is more in play than appears at first glance.
First, he is not being public with the fact that his real problem is the Republicans in the Senate. I think the usual suspects (Lindsey Graham, Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, etc.) were ready to unilaterally surrender to the Democrats. This forced Trump to do a midcourse correction. He can’t throw them under the bus because he needs them to get judicial appointments confirmed.
Second, I think the ball is in Pelosi’s court and if she doesn’t make a counteroffer in the next few weeks, many Democrats will be peeled away to join Republicans and make a deal.
I expect Trump’s SOTU speech will be a Reagan-like address to ask people to call Congress and pressure their representatives to fix the border/immigration issue. I also think we will hear about his extensive list of accomplishments during his first two years. I also expect to hear about rebuilding infrastructure and other campaign promises; expect many proposals that should appeal to people in both parties.
Trump meant what he said when campaigning and the fact that he meant to say it and really believes it mystifies the crap out of the political class because they can’t imagine anybody that is honest with voters ever being elected. Politicians operate by telling voters at home what is they want to hear and then behaving as they will in Washington without ever being accountable for their actions.
Trump wants to unite us, but Washington is ruled by division and that is usually the purpose of the media coverage because controversy—ever if it is contrived— increases viewership and generates more advertising revenue.
Trump is still testing and prodding the new Congress to see what it takes to break the gridlock that everyone assumes will exist for the new two years. He didn’t run for office to preside over a “do nothing” Congress. He has experience working with Democrats in New York City and will eventually be able to work with some in the Congress to further his agenda.
Trump is playing the long game not just taking it one day at a time. What if Trump is playing chess with the Democrats and they are expecting him to play Republican checkers? They may greatly underestimate Trump to their detriment. I really hope so, it would be nice to see us turn this country away from the socialist iceberg.
Folks the Democrats have been talking about this since November of 2016 and the Atlantic publishes this headline today, January 18, 2019! How many new House members campaigned on this issue? Like most of them!
During the election, Nancy Pelosi had no mandate or issue to unite her Party except their visceral hatred of Donald Trump and their promise to get rid of him. Nancy has an impossible job of keeping her folks in line; especially given that many Democrats promised during the campaign to get rid of her. Yeah she’s Speaker now but who on her side of the aisle will be her Brutus and plunge the political knife in her back with a smile on their face?
The article says that Democrats might not wait for the Mueller Report to Impeach Trump. No surprise. They started saying two weeks ago that Mueller doesn’t have a “smoking gun” and the report will end with a whimper and not a bang. In fact his report may never be made public. If Mueller had the goods on Trump we would have had the Mother of all October Surprises but all we got was crickets.
The comments mark a noticeable shift in what had been the standard party line on the possibility of impeachment—that Democrats should wait to act until after Mueller issues his final report. But Attorney General nominee Bill Barr’s refusal to commit to providing Mueller’s findings to Congress and to the public, combined with BuzzFeed’s implication that the president committed a felony while in office, has given Democrats a new sense of urgency—and they won’t necessarily wait to hold Trump accountable…
“Hell hath no fury like a women scorned” but Michael Cohen seems to be coming really close. Every time he opens his mouth he undercuts his own credibility in an effort to say stuff trying to implicate Trump. The bottom line is Trump trusted him and Cohen was not deserving of that trust. Trump believes in delegation to subordinates and Cohen enriched himself off of Trump like a parasite.
Cohen solved things but he made no effort to stay within the lines. The truth is that someone as slimy as Cohen probably fits in well in New York City but that doesn’t play well in the rest of the country. During the campaign, Cohen experienced something new, scrutiny. He couldn’t operate in the dark as Trump’s lawyer. A high profile national campaign was shining the light on his deeds and once exposed, it was clear he had taken advantage of Trump to enrich himself.
Case in point, this article yesterday in the Firewalled Street Journal. (Subscription required to view this article)
In early 2015, a man who runs a small technology company showed up at Trump Tower to collect $50,000 for having helped Michael Cohen, then Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, try to rig online polls in his boss’s favor before the presidential campaign. In his Trump Organization office, Mr., Cohen surprised the man, John Gauger, by giving him both a blue Walmart bag containing between $12,000 and $13,000 in Cash and, randomly, a boxing glove that Mr. Cohen said had been worn by a Brazilian mixed-martial arts fighter, Mr. Gauger said.
John Gauger RedFinch IT
Mr. Gauger said he never got the rest of what he claimed he was owed. But Mr. Cohen in early 2017 still asked for—and received—a $50,000 reimbursement from Mr. Trump and his company for the work by RedFinch, according to a government document and a personal matter. The reimbursement—made on the sole basis of a handwritten note from Mr. Cohen and paid largely out of Mr. Trump’s personal account—demonstrates the level of trust the lawyer once held within the Trump Organization, whose officials arranged the repayment.
…Mr. Cohen said in a tweet that he attempted to have the polls rigged with Mr. Trump’s knowledge.
Rudy Giuliani, a lawyer for Mr. Trump, said of Mr. Cohen’s tweet: “My response will be a cleaned-up version of ‘Bullshit.’”
“Why anyone would believe Michael Cohen at this point is an amazement to me,” Mr. Giuliani said in an interview. “This is not true. The president did not know about this if it happened.” He added: “The real takeaway from your story is, didn’t he steal $37,000?”
In January 2014, Mr. Cohen asked Mr. Gauger to help Mr. Trump score well in a CNBC online poll to identify the country’s top business leaders by writing a computer script to repeatedly vote for him. Mr. Gauger was unable to get Trump into the top 100 candidates. In February 2015, Mr. Trump prepared to enter the presidential race, Mr. Cohen asked him to do the same thing for a Drudge Report poll of potential Republican candidates, Mr. Gauger said. Mr. Trump ranked fifth, with 24,000 votes, or 5% of the total.
To quote the beloved Aaron Park, this was an “epic failure.” Frankly, The Justice Brothers would have done a much better job than Cohen/Gauger plus Trump would have received an endorsed on their blog. This also would have prevented the horrible optic of Aaron and George on the front row of Jeb Bush’s 2015 appearance in Reno.
George and Aaron Park with Jeb Bush on 05-13-2015
As you can see, Cohen is a self-admitted thief and ethically challenged. Why Democrats would start putting all their faith in him shows how desperate that they are. I believe that they will likely impeach Trump just for being alive, the truth notwithstanding. If they unleash this circus, it will be the death of them in 2020.
So when I see a headline about Trump Impeachment, I think so what? Republicans had Clinton dead-to-rights and he skated just like he always has. How will this be any different?
Democrats are blowing a golden opportunity by not working with Trump right now. Within reason, they could ask for whatever they want in exchange for letting Trump have the wall and probably get it. If I was them, I would ask for something Trump promised on the campaign—like maybe infrastructure improvement, which would create many union blue-collar jobs—claim it as their issue, and declare victory. The low information voters would swallow the lie as they always do, and Washington could go back to business as usual. But no, it seems more important to takeout Trump than to get anything fixed.
A decade or so ago, it was fashionable to ask, “What would Jesus do?” Many people would walk around with little bracelets with the initials WWJD on their wrist. Today I would like to point out that the Bible talks about walls too. In fact Jesus himself addressed the issue directly:
“Very truly I tell you Pharisees, anyone who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber. The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger’s voice.” Jesus used this figure of speech, but the Pharisees did not understand what he was telling them. Therefore Jesus said again, “Very truly I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. All who have come before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep have not listened to them. I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. They will come in and go out, and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. John 10:1-11 (emphasis added)
This ladies and gents is Trump’s argument for the wall, enter thru the gate and be welcome, hop the fence and you are lawbreakers come to kill American citizens, steal from American taxpayers, and destroy the American way of life.
Please note that the Pharisees (for our purposes substitute Liberals or Democrats) don’t understand what they were being told.
Case in point, I mentioned the stunt the other day when people hopped the wall at Nancy Pelosi’s house and claimed to seek refuge as they were from Guatemala. I said that I thought it was funny and a clever way to illustrate the hypocrisy that a wall is OK from rich Democrats like her but giving the same protection to the American people is immoral?
My coworker, thought it was wrong for anyone to hop the fence around her house but he saw no connection to the border wall dispute. I explained it to him and he still didn’t understand. Ironically, he said they should enter by the gate if they want in. No wonder Jesus said things like, “for those that have ears let them hear.”
Jesus “I am the gate”
The Bible also has much to say about respecting boundaries and property lines and specifically calls it a sin to tamper with such. Also the Bible is very committed to the principle that the foreigner is expected to follow the religious and civil laws of Israel when they are within its borders including honoring the labor and Sabbath laws. In fact this like treatment of citizen and sojourner is part of the Western (Christian) basis for equal protection under the law, not that anyone in a government school would ever acknowledge this fact.
So if Trump is on Jesus’ side, where does that leave Pelosi, Schumer, et al? Why with the liars, murders, and thieves. If you have any doubt just look at their views on abortion. No wonder the Democrats are screaming like demons; they work with them.
I think I speak for the entire rest of the country in extending a hearty thank you to the CRA. Their piss poor performance on election night has only bolstered the ranks of other state’s Republican Party rolls. Sadly, the CRA “leadership” —I guess that is still a thing—likely feels they are doing a mighty fine job. The Republican Party was decimated at every level and the CRA was more than happy to be the ship’s captain. Not a single statewide candidate got over the 40% threshold; keep in mind one of the most liberal politicians ever was on the top of the ballot. Down ballot we did even worse as a party. However, I don’t want to focus on the CAGOP for this blog—we all know they lack any competence—I want to focus on the group that calls itself the “conscious” of the Republican Party.
I used to be a CRA board member, so I am keenly aware of the ins and outs of the CRA. I can tell you as much as they may blame “vote harvesting” or “same day registration” or pick any other excuse, the fault lies with them. Since I know many of them read this blog, I will offer up undebatable concrete examples of their incompetence.
First their opposition to all things Jeff Denham. I will stipulate that Denham is not perfect, but the CRA wanted no part of him and never endorsed him. As a result, he finally lost his seat. Sadly, it’s a seat we will likely never get back. Many in the CRA saw this as a chance to be rid of a congressman whose first vote as a member would be for a Republican speaker! Appears that wasn’t good enough for the CRA!
Look at some of the Orange County based seats…. Several years ago, these seats were all easy victories for the good guys; that was until the CRA started meddling. As a result of their interference, additional seats were lost, again most of these seats were lost for good. Rohrabacher’s seat we can likely win back, but not the others. Hopefully the CRA stays far away from that race since it could be winnable without their meddling. As far as the legislative races, we lost a seat we should have had no issue keeping and lost a few more again due to CRA meddling. All in all, it was a disaster on election night, however I think the CRA spent the night celebrating! I’ll get in to that below.
The biggest issue with the CRA has been their evolution (or should I call it intelligent design?) The CRA used to be the premier volunteer organization in the entire state. We sent forth an army of volunteers and we tipped many races in our favor! We held our elected officials accountable and vowed to hold the other side in contempt! Then something changed, we became a club. We were no different from the CAGOP which we used to view as the moderate machine! We even branded ourselves as a sane version of the Tea Party after they were corrupted and taken over by Republican political consultants—can you say Sal Russo?
What is a top political operator, who owns a multimillion-dollar lobbying firm and has had a hand in many of California’s crucial election campaigns since Ronald Reagan was governor, doing at the head of an anti-establishment grassroots phenomenon like the Tea Party movement? Sal Russo is the brains behind one of the largest and most politically effective groups, the Tea Party Express. The movement exists to end what its followers call “business as usual” – the cosy club of politicians and vested interests in Washington. Yet Russo himself could be said to come from precisely that same cosy club.
Now CRA is just the old guard club. It is the political equivalent to the VFW; just a bunch of old, used-up soldiers sitting around tell war stories of the glory days of their youth. From that time to now, everything is different; I mean everything. I’m glad I left when I did.
Nowadays, CRA meetings consist of the club President speaking for hours at a time about mindless drivel like: lower government, less spending, tax cuts, and how over forty years ago Ronald Reagan called us the conscious of the Party. Heck, most voting age people in California weren’t even born when “The Gipper” uttered those words. Undeterred, CRA folks—like a cult using its mantra to focus power— say that conscious thing at every meeting. These days, they are never able to get a decent speaker and they have run off most of their membership. Heck you could put everyone attending my old CRA chapter’s month meeting in a corner booth at Denny’s and still have room for visitors.
You see, when you join the CRA you must be either completely nuts or very weak kneed; I’ll discuss the latter in a minute. On the topic of being completely nuts I mean that you are a one issue person who could care less about any other issue. I witnessed firsthand this group ignore a tax hike measure in Sacramento county and instead put all their effort behind an unwinnable school board race…by the way the tax failed by about one hundred votes, no thanks to the “conscious” of the Party which sat it out.
Now I will discuss the values and beliefs of this group. I call it “beliefs you can change in” because on paper, they have a plethora of issues; however, they never take a stand on them in some cycles and in others they act as if they picked that very issue to die on. For a group that claims to be based on principles, they are an inconsistent lot. Abortion tends to be a mainstay issue with these guys, even though there is little chance that Roe v Wade gets overturned outright—even if it did, nothing in California would change because Democrats covered that base decades ago… just in case. Taxes seem to be an issue that comes and goes, depending on what races they want to get involved with.
The CRA has a litmus test for both candidates and members that is enforced on a “when we feel like it” basis; however, if you support Donald Trump…you’re out. Support Jeff Denham…. you’re a moderate, support Ling Ling Chang…..you’re a gun grabber, the list goes on and on. They love to keep their members in check, however when it comes to holding candidates and elected officials accountable? Don’t count on the CRA.
The board members are the worst, they’ve been rotating deck chairs on the Titanic for a while now. It seems like a tradition to permanently expel officers by forcing them to walk the plank every few years and tell everyone that with a smaller crew, things will get better. CRA then celebrates their victory of principle, the opportunity for improvement, and the promise of better days ahead…but, it never arrives.
How about this for ways to treat your membership: conning delegates into traveling 2+ hours by car to an endorsement convention that features only 1 person running for said office! Talk about a waste of time and resources. Or conning a member to call the question about a candidate’s past or a rule change, only to have the floor pulled from under them by the same person who prompted them to call said question. Bylaws may keep the same wording from meeting-to-meeting but be interpreted differently by the same guys depending on what outcome leadership requires in a particular situation.
Johnny “Captain” Morgan, CRA savior?
Hopefully Johnnie “Captain” Morgan can turn this around, and by that, I mean fire the entire incompetent board immediately. I still would like to know how “The Wookie” and “Drunken Jedi” remaining on the board due to their myriad of issues.
Lastly, where is any sense of activism within your club? You have members in your group that claim to be “insiders” or “in the know” regarding local events. 9 times out of 10 you have no idea about the goings on. Two concrete examples, Governor Gavin Newsom in his inaugural address mentioned 2 tax increases he was going to propose with help from the super majority legislature, elected in no small part due to CRA incompetence. Has the CRA put out anything regarding these tax hikes? Do they even know about them? I would say “No” on both counts! The tax hikes for those of you wondering are a new tax on phones to fund a 911 system overhaul, and a tax on drinking water to help underprivileged communities. Only commentary out of the CRA is hopefully Ted Cruz is running in 2020. These are things the CRA should be out on front of…instead apathy, or maybe boycott Dick’s Sporting Goods since they want to ID people who buy guns?
We all know that the Trump tax-cut made changes to the Standard Deduction and Payroll Tax Withholding Tables but wait ‘til you sit down and try doing your taxes this year. When you do, forget everything that you thought you knew about filling out the tax forms. The forms that you knew and loved don’t exist!
Form 1040 EZ
Deleted
Form 1040A
Deleted
Form 1040
Nuked
Instead, now there is one form to rule them all and one form to find them, there is only the 1040…and a bucket load of worksheets to bind them.
For Tax Year 2018, you will no longer use Form 1040A or Form 1040EZ, but instead will use the redesigned Form 1040. Many people will only need to file Form 1040 and no schedules.
While its not the mythical postcard form that we were promised decades ago, the form has taxpayer information on the first page and all the math on the second. For the most part, the actual calculations are on the six new worksheets. Page 2 of the 1040 is just filling in totals or leaving nonapplicable boxes blank. The tax tables don’t even go above earnings of $100K. If you and the spouse, make over $100K then you take the earning amount and multiple it by a decimal number and that’s your tax! Easy Peasy.
While my wife and I will probably use the Standard Deduction
and thus not need to itemize for a Federal filing, the question is what in the
heck will California do? We know they don’t like Trump or how the tax cut was
crafted but will I miss deductions on the California return if I do the quick
and dirty math on the federal form and send it in? Usually states try to mirror
what the national government does but, in this instance, I have no confidence that
this is the case.
Presently I have no clue; partially because TurboTax doesn’t work yet. I bought the software on December 31st and got hard stops in the program when I put in my estimates for 2018 taxes. Schedule A –the form where you itemize everything–was broken. Intuit is promising to have the software up and going in mid-January (about now) but I suspect they will be pushing out updates for many more weeks.
W-2s are required to be mailed by the end of January. The government shutdown may affect your ability to get a refund but somehow, I think if you send Uncle Sam a check, he will be happy to cash it anyway.
Based on what I can discern thus far, it appears that our days of getting a big refund are at an end. By lowering the withholding amount from each paycheck and giving me more monthly take home pay, it looks like I may actually stand a chance of writing a check to the government for the first time. If you usually bank on a big refund, I’m warning you that it may not happen. Both my wife and I claim married with zero dependents, this is the largest amount withheld on the tax tables. If we’re sweating about not getting a refund, some on you are probably in big
trouble. Don’t wait until the last minute, especially this year.
If you think you’re going to come up short, file you tax
return anyway. The biggest penalties from the IRS are for not filing. I know
you can arrange payment but do this before April 15th and I think it
will go better for you.
Pacific Gas & Electric–also known as the “Firestarter” for causing too many fires this past decade–has announced that it intends to split off its natural gas division and/or file for bankruptcy protection. This is a direct result of actions taken Thursday, January 3rd, by the largest insurance companies in the state; Allstate, State Farm General, and USAA filling suit to recover damages incurred by the Camp Fire.
The Camp Fire for those of you who; live under a rock, vote democrat, or are related to a Park Brother, is the fire that burned all of Paradise and Magalia late last year. The fire was started by a spark at a PG&E power generating facility, which had a myriad of maintenance issues by the way. The utility could be on the hook for over $15 billion in damages from fires over the last two years alone, an amount that could well exceed the company’s total value.
Camp Fire, Paradise , CA 2018
How did we get here you may ask? In short, California has a strange law (only 1 other state has it as well) called inverse liability. This law applies to utilities in the state, basically saying, if there is any chance your power lines/equipment may have caused the fire, you are 100% liable for all the damage. In the fires in Sonoma and Napa in 2017, as well as the Camp Fire in 2018, it appears PG&E will be liable for all damages under this law. So, whether the cause was sparks from a generator in Concow this year, a tree falling on a transmission line in Napa, or a short in the line in Sonoma, PG&E is on the hook, not your insurance company. Additionally, because this is set law, no judge will overturn this, or rule in the utility’s favor.
As a result of these liabilities, PG&E late Friday night began to look to implement “Project Falcon” named for the Peregrine Falcons that land on top of the San Francisco HQ’s roof. Project Falcon includes selling off their prime real estate in San Francisco and relocating elsewhere in the Bay Area. Maybe they should relocate somewhere less expensive…like I don’t know….ANYWHERE ELSE! It includes finding additional board members and directors with a background in safety…..yeah probably should have done this after San Bruno, but ok. In addition, they are looking to sell off/spin off their natural gas operations; i.e. the gas part of your bill.
This I have no opinion on, the entire company is ethically and morally bankrupt so I don’t know if two companies are better than one, but I digress. Actually, they lobbied State Senator Bill Dodd (D-Soviet Berkeley) to pass legislation to absolve them of all liability from fire stemming from their electrical lines. While Dodd may have been their puppet for a year, the bill went nowhere, and he has since reversed his stance calling PG&E one of the most corrupt companies he has ever dealt with. I guess the check never cleared the bank?
This issue is actually very complex, and I see it two ways:
On one hand, PG&E like other utilities are a legalized monopoly governed by a state regulator who essentially tells them how much they can charge and how much they can make. The other problem is their service territory is very large; they have over 5 million electricity customers in their territory. In addition, most of their territory is rural, meaning they must bury their lines (very expensive) or have them on towers running through heavily wooded areas or rugged terrain.
Electric Utility Service Area
For example, PG&E must somehow get power to the town of
Biggs. Since this is part of their service area, they must run power lines there
or have a generation plant for this community.
Let’s say that they run electrical transmission lines there and create a
defensible space of call it 20 feet on both sides of the lines. In theory, that
is all well and good, but along the route of the transmission lines are 100-foot-tall
trees. When the trees fall or large branches break off and knockdown the lines,
perhaps as the result of a storm or disease, not only could they disrupt power
but might start a fire. Since the
transmission lines belong to PG&E, they own the resulting repair costs even
if it was not directly their fault. While I do not feel sorry for them, the job
is not very easy, especially when you are a monopoly and have no choice but to
provide electrical and natural gas service.
On the other hand, I’m sorry; you are without a doubt the most ethically bankrupt company in the state, and by a wide margin. When the San Bruno pipe blast occurred, your company never admitted or accepted blame, they passed it off and gave traditional corporate speak answers.
San Bruno pipe blast
That pipe rupture and explosion killed people, and you were caught lying to a judge when they discovered the pipe was essentially “frankensteined” by welding together a bunch of scrap pieces.
“frankensteined” pipe welds
You decided to save face by running a bunch of feel good ads on TV essentially saying you are working harder than ever to keep our communities safe….liars! The fires in Sonoma, Napa and Paradise killed many people. This is a direct result of a total lack of maintenance and integrity. As much as I do not wish to see my gas provider go bankrupt or be split up/sold/etc. they need to be held accountable. So far, they never have been. I had to watch your annoying commercials then watch a town go up in flames because of your equipment and lack of accountability to your rate payers. When it came time for maintenance or tree trimming, I’m sure you just had a single employee check it, initial a log and move on to the next site. Rather than have a cross checker or someone to make sure the work was actually done, it was ignored, and people lost lives/homes and possessions as a result. Shame on you. You never learned your lesson, you just continue to repeat the same mistakes just hoping for a different outcome.
The Blog Father and I agree on several things involving this
corporation. First, it will be
interesting to see how the bankruptcy proceedings handle what is likely a much-underfunded
union pension plan for employees. This
state is very pro-union, and like most utilities, PG&E is very heavily
unionized. If the state swoops in and
takes them over, do the union pensions get bailed out by the taxpayers? Does the state bail the company out? It will be fun to watch. If the company splits, how does the gas
company make it on its own? Natural gas
prices are literally at their lowest levels and it has been this way a long
time. Also, what happens to both
companies? Splitting up is an easy
temporary solution but the problems will still exist. Finally does the company even know what it
actually owns or has infrastructure wise?
Some of these lines were laid decades and decades ago underground. As a matter of fact, PG&E scoped the
sewer lines in both our neighborhoods recently for some unknown reason. As I stated earlier no one even knows what
this company has infrastructure wise or the length of time it is guaranteed to
work for. My suspicions are that huge portions of underground infrastructure in
this state are decades past their useful life and in need of replacement.
Here is what needs to happen: CEO Geisha Williams needs to be led out in handcuffs, she may not work in the field but she as CEO is the captain of the ship and sadly the ship has been taking on water for too long. The failures happened under her watch. Come out and admit your failures and shortcomings in the maintenance division. Allow a judge to investigate the senior management including any supervisor in the areas where the issues occurred. The Public Utility Commission (PUC) should be allowed nowhere near this, they have direct oversight of all CA utilities and have been asleep at the switch. Talk directly to the ratepayers, PG&E’s electric rates are among the highest in the country, yet the upkeep has lacked badly. In addition, please stop running your statewide propaganda commercials about how safe you are and how you are removing tree branches to keep us safe. They are just that…propaganda. Thanks to your negligence, many people lost everything, some even paid with their own lives. Oh, and take a look at what you have done to your stockholders this past year. In addition to a free-falling stock price, your bond rating was cut to junk, and you eliminated the dividend–a traditional hallmark of all utility stocks…good thing I was never an owner!
Geisha Williams presides over PG&E’s scorching of California
What is going to happen: Xavier Becerra is going to take a break from suing Donald Trump and the feds for a minute to take up an investigation and sue PG&E. I guess that’s a good thing because he won’t be wasting taxpayer dollars for a bit, but isn’t this too little too late? I thought the job of government was supposed to be oversight? Instead they just read and react, suing after the fact to get their pound of flesh. Apparently, even your corporate record of supporting Liberal causes with large campaign contributions can’t buy you enough goodwill to get out of this mess. I’m still angry that you gave large sums of ratepayer money to fight against traditional marriage back when we were voting for Prop 8. Any linkage between electricity usage and what ratepayers do with their reproductive organs is beyond my comprehension, but then I don’t live in San Francisco.
Xavier Becerra
Becerra is talking about criminal charges against the corporation…how does that work? Send the transformer to jail? Put the power lines on supervised probation? Get it together! Sadly, I forsee a government owned utility coming soon to every part of the state near you, that includes you Southern CA Edison customers, your utility is in only slightly better shape. I offer up this evidence, PG&E wants to split into 2 companies as discussed above; gas and electric being separate. This runs against the current trend of electric utilities buying gas utilities, also both companies have a record of serious neglect for safety of its customers. The state knows this. They also know that PG&E has a very underfunded pension, and its bond credit rating has been cut to junk, essentially meaning the company faces insolvency very soon. Enter the State of California, coming in hot with a bailout, keeping the union workers happy, just simply folding them into CALPers. I’m sure the state looks at the electric rates charged by PG&E and salivates over being able to add that kind of coin to the general fund each month. Gov. Newsome is on his way to state run healthcare, might as well make utilities the same way, this way they can make you install solar, and simply take it and not pay you.
Conclusion: I think the answer lies somewhere in between these two scenarios. I see the state essentially “parting out” PG&E. In the past (2005), SMUD put out a study and a ballot initiative to annex Davis and Woodland as mentioned above. PG&E spent big to defeat it. I think this plan could come back to fruition. I could see the State selling off the territory to SMUD under an agreement that SMUD also take the surrounding rural areas and agree to a massive overhaul of the maintenance of existing infrastructure.
I see this scenario playing out all over the state to be honest. I don’t really see criminal charges, but I do see a major fine coming. When you look at PG&E’s service territory you can also see a case to break up the company into about 3 – 4 smaller companies, similar to AT&T’s breakup. Bottom line, this company needs to be gone ASAP and take all their employees with them. This has to be the most corrupt company in CA history.
As expected, Senator John McCain left the United States Senate feet first. McCain—who was a legend in his own mind—was controversial for being wrong and undercutting his own Party in very public ways. While he did serve in the military, it is a wonder that he didn’t get discharged for some of the antics that he pulled; however, having a daddy who is an admiral has its privileges. I hesitate to be as critical as some of his fellow veterans who say that the Forrestal fire and his time as a POW were both his fault. Whatever the truth may be, no one disputes that McCain flaunted the rules when it suited him.
Now in death, a measure of payback has been given to him. In the waning hours of the current Senate, the move to rename the Russell Senate building as the McCain Senate building is dead.
FYI Russell was:
US Senator Richard Russell
The 109-year-old building is named after Sen. Richard Russell, a Georgia Democrat who, like McCain, chaired the Armed Services panel. Russell, who died in 1971, was a segregationist and led Southern opposition to anti-lynching bills and other civil rights legislation, including the 1964 Civil Rights Act. He co-authored the “Southern Manifesto” to slow the integration of public schools after the Supreme Court unanimously ordered it in 1954. Previously known simply as the Senate Office Building, it was renamed in Russell’s honor the year after his death.
Following McCain’s death, this idea was put forth by two of the better known malcontents in the Senate, Chuck “What Wall?” Schumer and Jeff “Never Trump” Flake.
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer had proposed renaming the Russell building in McCain’s honor after the veteran Republican senator died Saturday from brain cancer.
Senator Jeff Flake
Republican Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona, who co-sponsored the measure, said renaming the building would be “a particularly good” way to honor McCain, but wanted to make sure McCain’s family agreed.
Over four months have passed since McCain died and what does the Senate have to show? Actually not much.
Four months later, the resolution was never introduced. Mr. Schumer’s spokesman clammed up when asked what happened. Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican floor leader, had seemed cool to the renaming idea, instead promising a bipartisan committee to look at other good ways to honor their departed colleague.
Eventually McCain will get his name on a federal building somewhere. I suggest perhaps an outhouse at a national park in rural Arizona. This will afford folks from other states the opportunity to return to him a measure of crap for all the excrement that we had to endure from him in life.
Earlier this week, Senate Majority Leader, Mitch McConnell, counted heads and quickly concluded that he didn’t have the votes to fund the border wall/fence/barrier. Thus he unilaterally threw in the towel and didn’t even try to fight for funding when the Senate voted to pass a continuing spending resolution to keep the government funded for another seven weeks. Instead, he just said let’s fund everything else and the President will have to try again later. The Senate voted and everyone in D.C. thought it was time to go home.
The Senate approved a seven-week funding bill on Wednesday, preventing a partial government shutdown that was expected to begin on Saturday. Senators passed the legislation by voice vote, which represented the final item on the Senate’s to-do list as they wrap up their work for the year this week.
Republican senators say that while they believe Trump is unhappy with Congress passing a short-term fix, they believe he will sign it because they were able to keep other controversial policy riders off of it.
But both sides remained far apart on funding for the U.S.–Mexico border wall. Trump and House Republicans want $5 billion for the wall.
Later that same day, Nancy Pelosi was seen partying like it was 1992 because Democrats (and some Republicans) had stopped President Trump in his tracks with a clear message that he would get no border protection.
The video was the lead item as of Thursday morning on the Drudge Report, which suggested that Pelosi was celebrating President Trump’s decision to back off his demand that a government funding bill this week include $5 billion to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.
The following day, Trump threw the D.C. Elites in a tizzy when he said that he expects a border wall to be part of the bill and will shutdown the government until he gets it. Had he been any other Republican, he would have rolled-over and just signed the continuing resolution; but thankfully Trump has a spine.
Now the boys in the Senate are scurrying around like cockroaches trying to decide what to do. It’s bad form to leave The Beltway to go home on vacation while the folks in D.C. are going without a paycheck. The optics of this are terrible. Too bad for them that the House threw this mess right back at them—the ingrates—and are forcing them to act. This is not the congeniality that is expected of Senators. The Senate is the saucer and is expected to cool the tea of the House’s rash action or so the story goes.
Conventional wisdoms is that this is Trump’s best chance at funding the wall for the next two years and everybody knows it. Whether he ultimately prevails in the next few days, I boldly predict that the wall will be funded before Trump takes the oath of office again. If Congress fails to act, Trump will hang this issue around the Democrat’s necks like a wreath of garlic on Dracula’s throat until Democrats are tired of being associated with the issue. Just to make him shut-up, the Democrats will eventually deal.
Note to Senators, Trump is making a list (of how you vote) checking it twice, he has a long memory of who is naughty or nice. Remember this before you plan your next campaign for re-election.
Surprise, this just in: Senators may have an agreed framework to give Trump what he wants to avoid a government shutdown.
Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), emerging from a meeting in Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-Ky.) office, said Friday that Senate leaders have an “agreement” on how to proceed on a House-passed measure funding President Trump’s border wall.
McConnell and Senate Democratic Leader Charles Schumer (N.Y.) are expected to enter into the agreement on the Senate floor. “This is will be an agreement between McConnell and Schumer about what next happens on the Senate floor. You’ll see them to enter into a little discussion,” Corker said. “It charts the course forward that gives us the best chance of actually coming to a solution.”
The potential breakthrough comes after Schumer met with Vice President Pence, incoming White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney and White House advisor Jared Kushner on Friday afternoon.
