2026 Goals and Gripes

GOALS

My big goal for 2026 is to tie the knot with my special lady. Of course, I have a few obstacles to get out of my way first.

The biggest of these is to survive filing my 2025 taxes. Last year was a train wreck in terms of what it cost. I think this year will be better since I upped the withholdings. I will know February 2nd when I visit my tax man.

Then there is “the ring.” “One ring to rule them all …” comes to mind. My girl wants a diamond, I was hoping she would be happy with a ruby but have been overruled. I think I have a plan to get this done, but given the price of gold lately, this might be a pricey transaction. Such is life.

Then comes the ceremony. This will be a frugal event, but it will be great. The biggest issue is how to feed the guests. I have a venue in mind but of course my plan may not be hers.

By the time these things are ready, I figure it will be May. Then my last obstacle will be where to warehouse my dog for about six weeks. I have an idea, but I will see what happens. Frankly, this is the costliest part of going on a trip. If I can do better than $25 per day, then I will be happy.

GRIPES

As of this writing, I still have a few sour people trying to dump all over me and my girl. My mom doesn’t understand why I can’t find a white girl in the U.S. of A. She and some other family members have told me that it is even wrong of me to look. They literally have said that I should ignore seeking another relationship and God will bring someone in my life. I tried that with the first wife, and it took over 20 years. Translation, be alone and happy you’re not married. Why is it that married people keep telling single ones to be happy they aren’t married. Sounds to me like they have impaired judgement in selecting a life partner not me. I loved being married and want to do it again.

As always, zero people have put forth zero suggestions as to who I should pursue for marriage. Even back when my parents asked me to divorce my first wife, they had no suggestions as to who could do a better job. The bottom line is that they just like to find fault, point out what they feel are the shortcomings of others, and tear down others that they find inferior. How this builds them up, I’m not sure.

I had weird conversation with my sister the other day. I tried to explain my relationship with my girl and said that if the church is in charge of marriage, then I am walking on solid biblical ground in our relationship. She got hostile and denied that either the church or State was in charge of marriage. Instead, she claimed it was the Bible. The Bible in a vacuum with no institution underpinning it!

I tried to say that God had put the Church in charge of marriage, and she flat out denied it, stating that I was wrong. (I am most certainly correct. See Ray Sutton’s book Second Chance.) Then, she started to accuse me of adultery and began to lecture me that if I went to a Bible believing church then I would know the truth. She had gone over the logical cliff by then and kept going. I was sure the Roadrunner would pop up any second with the sign reading “Gravity” but he never materialized.

Good grief!

God created four governments and marriage must belong to at least one. Here are the choices of biblical government: Self, Church, State, Family. I believe that Christ has given marriage to the church.

My former church believes that marriage belongs primarily to the government and in a secondary capacity to the church. They would deny this but look at how they act. Deeds are louder than words; especially, when the actions don’t align with the words.

This example is true, but I am changing the names and some minor details because they don’t matter to the point I am trying to make.

Steve and Laura joined the church several years ago. They have three small children. Steve was highly regarded by the clergy and was a promising young guy that they wanted to make into an Elder in the congregation. It didn’t happen but …

As time when on, Steve started seeing Zelda, a coworker, on the side. The wife found out and Steve moved out to cohabitate with Zelda. Laura files for divorce. Then the church holds a trial and excommunicated Steve. Once the divorce is finalized in the family law court, Laura is then pronounced from the pulpit as eligible to remarry as the innocent party in the relationship. 

Why did the church defer to State action? You can only conclude that marriage belongs to the State. The State gives you a marriage license and licenses officiants so marriage must belong to them. The church has a minor and secondary role in marriage. In fact, a church is really not necessary to get married, it’s just a tradition that the State allows.

Thus, a church that gives lip service to Sola Scriptura doesn’t really believe it. If they believed the Church is biblically charged with administering marriage, they would not wait for the State. State action is irrelevant. They would not wait for Laura to file for divorce. They would try Steve without waiting. Furthermore, they would have simultaneously pronounced judgment on Steve and announced Laura, as the innocent party, eligible to remarry.

Biblically, the State has no part in marriage and until about 1900, they didn’t. Only when local governments began seeking additional income did licensing marriage become a thing. It was originally for the purpose of taxing marriage that it began to be licensed. But now that the church allowed the State to take over marriage, does the current situation exist.

Folks, just because this happened doesn’t make it right, but when your church denies the applicability of biblical law to the State, what do they have left? Such clergy agrees with Gavin Newsom that they are nonessential workers. This is how you know, no matter how nice the pastor might be, that in the final analysis that he is a hireling and not really a shepherd.

Once the State takes something away from the Church, it always belongs to the State.

Folks, the devil gets lots of credit in our society for taking stuff away from the church, but the truth is even more sinister, the church simply cedes the ground to the devil and usually without a fight. You know how you always get mad at Republicans for surrendering to Democrats and getting nothing in the bargain, ditto for the church. Unilateral Capitulation.

People that believe marriage belongs to the church are happy that I have found someone to love. Those that think marriage belongs to the State think I’m a notorious sinner because I assert that I don’t need to wait on the government to get their paperwork caught up with reality to date my girl or, gasp, marry her.

Oh, the other issue involved in my situation is that one part of the body of Christ doesn’t recognize any part of the body but their own denomination. The Apostle to the Gentiles was clear that all the parts are knitted together by the Holy Spirit but one body. Again, my former church claims to be Sola Scriptura but doesn’t believe this either. They want the right to sit in judgement over a church in another country because their method of baptism or whatever isn’t the same as theirs. BFD.

Folks, when you impose any presuppositions onto the Bible, be they cultural or eschatological, you will never rightly divide the Word of Truth. Your presuppositions get in the way.

In about a year, this will all get sorted out. When it does, you will find me standing near Charlie Kirk, Mark Steyn, and a few theologians that are or should be household names. I’m not right, I’m Really Right. I’ve stated this before; I have a plan, I’m working the plan, and it will be alright in the end. Just give me the grace to get there.

The Mental Health Card was a Lie

The 90-Day Guy lied. I have irrefutable evidence of his lie.  Mental health is not a sympathy card and f**k you if you are using it as one. 

How do I know he is lying?  An aunt of mine who worked as a primary care doctor, and a surgeon, was over for Christmas.  I asked for her expertise on this subject.

I told her what he had told me, that he told his doctor he was suicidal and had even picked out the knife to kill himself.  She said the doctor is obligated at that point to make a call to the health and human service or related county/state department.  She added that her medical malpractice insurance would not pay out if he had killed himself and she didn’t notify the correct channels.  She went on to say he would be required to see a specialist for an evaluation. I told her he went once or twice then quit going, for money reasons.  It’s always money with him, all the time.  She told me that’s a lie also, as the appropriate channel/group would have forced him to attend, again being suicidal is a big deal this day and age with all the mass shootings done by them. 

I further prodded, William will tell you it’s what I do, and her further responses crystalized his lying.  She said mental health is a huge thing right now and most insurance covers it 100%. This is due to different laws passed as result of these shootings/killings.  She said she had a feeling about what he did, I let her speak freely.  Full disclosure, she is from Illinois, but I feel the laws/regulations on the books are likely similar or the same to California, where I am based.  She said I can guarantee he went to an urgent care doctor, someone who is not his primary care doctor, he went in wanting to be diagnosed with a mental condition, and he won.  Her words and I quote “he squealed to a doctor who is not his own and got put on a pill that will not fix his issue, it’s a here you go drug.”  It’s a cover your butt, here you go, I guess you have a condition because you say you do.  He went to an urgent care doctor because the doctor has plausible deniability, he can claim he sees a ton of patients each day, insured or uninsured he doesn’t know.  It’s a free pass.  That doctor was done with him after payment was processed that day, he got what he wanted.

He claims its anxiety when my phone’s alert for a call is coming in or a text is incoming bothers him; however, the sounds at the local casino do not.  He gets off on things like this; it’s a sympathy card to him.  It’s wild. When things do not go his way, it’s a mental health thing, yet he seeks no treatment.  He is a liar.

There you have it folks, it’s been proven, truth always wins out. If you claim mental health and are lying about it, you are the lowest of the low.  Actually, I’ll use a term the young people use: SYBAU … it’s an acronym for shut your bitch ass up.  People with mental health issues need our help, not people who want to fake it.

The Chief

Rampant Fraud … My Solution

I’ve been thinking about the below Editor’s Note,

Editor’s Note: One issue that is not refuted in the above is stolen identities and organized crime. I suspect the bulk of fraud is via this mechanism. In my experience, government is ill equipped to deal with fraud as the presumption of any government program is that the applicant is eligible.

William is in fact correct. Fraud is likely coming from stolen identities, organized crime, and professional crooks.  The honest reality is that the fraudsters are always several steps ahead of normal people.  Think of it like this: to keep the honest person honest you put a lock on your front door.  However, the burglar doesn’t care that you have a lock and has a device to pry said door open.  Bottom line, if the bad guys want it, they will achieve their goal. In this case, the fraud is committed by folks who know how to avoid detection and may even have people on the inside doing the dirty work for them.

I am proposing a solution, unlike many in the Republican Party, I know I want to “throw this out there.”  It’s not perfect but here goes.

Universal Basic Income.

Yep, the 90-day guy called it the “stupidest thing he has ever heard.  Saying that’s socialism.”  The only thing he knows about socialism is that Sean Hannity rails against it. He is loyal to the folks at Fox News.  He describes his generation and Republicans in general pretty well, be against everything.  Folks voting NO on everything is not a long-term strategy. This mentality is what led us to Obamacare.  When asked for his plan, he shrugged.  With the amount of TV he consumes, he should know we are facing a serious crossroads in our country.

Think of it this way, we have so many government programs: Section 8, SNAP, disability, unemployment, welfare, just to name a few, what if we replaced them all.  Replace them with 1 federal government program.  Universal Income isn’t going to be $100,000, not even close.  Income would be verified by the IRS annually with your tax return. If you find work and earn an income over ____ you come off the program.  Steal my identity and apply?  You will be rejected because I earn too much income. This would be verified by the IRS not an administrative law judge.  Lose your job during the year?  You would have documentation of that to be sent in with your application!  To quote Dave Ramsey, folks on UBI (Universal Basic Income) aren’t going to be seeing the inside of very many restaurants.  This will probably be in the neighborhood of $35-55k a year depending on where you live, not work.

We have to start thinking differently about an ever-changing work environment.  People are having their jobs outsourced overseas constantly. Stores close simply because they “aren’t making enough profit” AI and quantum computing are going to replace a lot of jobs.  When workers retire, the replacement is hired for half or two thirds the salary to save money.  This constant cutting of expenses as the basic structure of profit and loss statements does not bode well for the workforce long term.

Our workforce of the future needs to be viewed differently too.  Some people are disabled and cannot work or cannot work full time.  Others will lack a skillset to work. Let’s be real. When Schools and Universities are saying that graduating high school students (incoming class) only read at a 4th grade level, we have a real issue!  That isn’t going to get better with time. That generation is going to be left toiling and twisting in the wind.  We shut down our country for 3 years and it has consequences which are just now being felt. Many didn’t finish high school/college.  Many students also picked up bad work habits due to the Covid shutdown. Most jobs do not get filled permanently. If they have something, it’s just on a temporary basis.  Sadly, these items are basically uncorrectable.  Automation is only going to eliminate more positions which again is making the population more and more unemployed.  Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy have both spoken about importing folks to the USA on H1-B? Visas to work here. Due to the structure of our educational system, that is the future of our workforce folks.

Paying for it?  Well, this is the stumbling block. I’m too lazy to look it up as of press time but collapsing all the federal/state aid programs and their subsequent employees would free up quite a bit of cash to fund this.  We do not know how much fraud is truly going on, but this collapses several programs into one program. Streamlines the process and makes it so theIRS will be annually verifying income.  It may not be the answer, but I think it’s a start.  I have also heard Mark Zuckerburg, and others discuss funding this with some of their own wealth, so there is that.

As far as the obvious Fox News comeback, what will stop people from just not working, or working for cash under the table?  There isn’t, but I will say $35-50k is not a whole lot of money, so your lifestyle won’t be great.  Much like my remark about food stamps, I highly doubt those folks are using them to buy a filet mignon.

Make the application in person only, verified by a government issued ID, and must have a bank account verified in their name.  If they do not possess all three of these, sorry can’t help you.  No judge to sign off, no paperwork mistakes.  Income verified and viola.  As mentioned above, IRS checked each year for fraud purposes.  Get caught, you are arrested and permanently removed from the program.  Check has to go to an address not a PO Box.   Will it stop all fraud?  No.  Will folks on the program use the funds for illicit activities?  Sure.  The point isn’t to stop all fraud going on, that’s impossible. But my idea is to make it a lot more difficult, that’s all.

If you hate my idea…. May I respectfully ask for your submission?

The Chief

Editor’s Note: I don’t wish to speak directly to the merits of this idea, although collapsing the infamous social safety net into a handful of programs instead of the thousands of existing and overlapping programs being administered currently appears to have merit. I just want to remind you of the plans that Joe Biden had for the IRS. Biden wanted every financial transaction in the United States reported to and tracked by the IRS. The goal of the plan was that the IRS would become our financial Big Brother. Part of the proposal was that the IRS would eliminate income tax filing for individuals. At year end, they would either send you a tax bill or a refund for overpaid taxes. One reason for the program was to eliminate fraud (that it would boost tax revenue was assumed as well).

Prop 50 in CA is going to Pass?  Blame the GOP

There is another election on Tuesday, next week or this week pending the publishment of this blog.  The editor is on sabbatical out of the country; we pray his Visa or Passport paperwork is in order.

CA is voting on a Proposition 50, which they labeled Stop the Trump Gerrymander or something like that. It’s funny, the ballot is quite literally 2/3 of a page. We out here, on the Left Coast, are used to ballots being about 5 pages.  Simply put, this measure will re-draw our congressional maps and basically elect 5 more Democrats to Congress in November of NEXT year. 

So why do I blame the GOP you ask? Simple, I’ll lay it out in bullet point form with my thoughts.

  1.  Trump is the anti-Christ in California.  Anything he does, we hate it; or at least a very large majority hate it. Clever on Newsom and Bonta for drawing the legal language as an “anti-Trump” move. 
  2. Using very bad surrogates on the campaign.  Kevin McCarthy and former Governor Arnold Schwarzengger, two very unpopular ex-politicians, who rank low in respectability among GOP Voters, are somehow the voice of reason? Worse, these guys lack any credibility with the voting majority in California.  Seriously folks, who thought putting up a Governor who essentially became a Democrat and a very, very moderate former Speaker as the face of the opposition would be a smart thing?  If the CAGOP and CRA hate them (to their credit btw), what do you think the rest of the voters think?
  3. Voter apathy never happened.  Elections, especially special ones, have a very, very muted turnout. Typically, it’s just hyper-partisan voters.  The hyper-partisan ones on the Right come nowhere near the level of the ones on the Left.
  4. Trump cannot and will not get out of his own way.  First, I do not understand the need to redistrict Texas, but I digress.  This thing would have died out (Prop 50) had he just moved on, instead they moved on to North Carolina, Missouri, and now Indiana, and possibly Florida are going to redraw.  Keeping this issue in the news just further enrages the anti-Trump voter. 
  5. Touching on the point above, the opposition has centered on “its illegal.” While that may be true in California, it’s also unconstitutional in the other states where the GOP did it.  The argument sounds like one child taunting another, “I can do it, but you can’t.”  Its poor messaging and actually energizes the other side more wanting to vote.
  6. CA GOP Leader, James Gallagher, is another problem.  He proposed a 2-state solution.  I heard and read about this and thought “is this Jimmy Carter in disguise?”  Really, he is comparing California to Israel and Gaza?  When they were in the midst of an actual war?  No way would that ever work.
  7. The shutdown isn’t helping.  It doesn’t matter whose fault the shutdown in Washington DC is blamed on.  Again, Trump is not popular here. The proposition is framed to voters as a way to stop Trump.  See my point?

So, in closing, I’m thinking a result of around 58-42 or so in favor.  There are just way too many Democrats and anti-Trump folks out here.  Things may have been different if the above were not true, but I doubt it.  I do not understand why any of this is actually necessary. President Trump has used Congress for only the “Big Beautiful Bill” as far as I know.  It seems weird to go all in on this when he doesn’t actually seem to need anything to get passed by Congress.

Chief.

Full disclosure, I had a different blog written on this, but I thought it was a “little too inside baseball” and will publish it later.  It deals more with the nuts and bolts of redistricting than this post.

Peace in the Middle East–Dream On

Donald Trump is taking a victory lap for getting Hamas to release the Israeli hostages after two years of “war.” Can you say, “Pyric victory.”

Sorry, but this is just a pause in hostilities so both sides can regroup.

Hamas has no hostages, so now Israel can blow-up stuff with impunity. Also, thanks to Trump, the United States now has troops in the middle of this mess in Gaza. That can only mean that when some of our guys die, that we will green light even more bombardment of Gaza in the name of vengeance.

Hamas is ok with folks getting killed in Gaza. They are hoping that enough wanton destruction will force their Arab Brothers to retaliate. Dream-on baby. Iran and its proxies may funnel arms into the conflict, but most other nations will sit it out.

What has really happened is that Trump, Israel, and Hamas have just agreed to a genocide program to rid Israel of Palestinian Christians. Nobody speaks for them, and nobody cares.

If you weren’t paying attention, you may have skipped the part about Hamas publicly executing people just hours after the Israeli hostages were released. There are no coincidences. Hamas will not disarm or relinquish power. They have only learned to play in their own backyard.

Peace only comes through victory. This war is not over, just paused. I predict that it will continue, just via more subtle means.

Civilians always suffer, but even more so when combatants don’t wear uniforms.

It is stupid that we are involved in this war.

Other Thoughts

Israel is one of the biggest lobbying organizations in Washington D.C. That coupled with the false theology found in many Christian churches that have swallowed the lies of premillennial dispensationalism have created an environment where the current nation called “Israel” is the same nation as that found in the Bible. This is fantasy.

As a result of this false equivalence, many Evangelicals believe that national Israel can do no wrong, and whatever they do is in accord with God’s will, prophetic or otherwise. Thus, Israel is given a pass on behavior. For them, to question or oppose any actions by the current government based in Jerusalem, is to oppose God Almighty.

In fact, for many, to criticize Israel is to prevent the return of Christ. Yep, oppose Israel, prevent or delay the Second Coming. Of course, these same Evangelicals also believe that the price of Christ returning is that two thirds of all Jews will perish in wanton slaughter which somehow causes the rest to believe in Jesus. Good luck with that.

Thus, folks like Ted Cruz support Zionism so that Jews will die which results in Jesus returning to rule. This makes Jesus the king of a ball of radioactive slag not king of a world that has believed the Gospel and been transformed by it. And we think Liberals are mentally ill. Good grief.