I know that I haven’t written in a while and this brief blog is proof that I do feel some guilt about that.
My wife and I are getting the house ready to move and also overseeing the building of the new place. Our new house is nearing the completion of sheetrocking and will soon be ready for painting. Hopefully the tile guy will be ready to go soon so we can finally bathe in our place instead of trekking to the local church a few times a week for a real shower.
As one would expect, our utilities at the new place are a fraction of the rates in California. Our heater has been on nonstop since October. It was set to about 60 degrees up until January, when we upped it to 70. Even when the temperature outside was negative, the house stayed really warm—insulation is such a blessing. Anyway, it costs us about $65 for natural gas there while in warmer California, our bills from PG&E are running almost $300 per month—they gotta pay for those fires somehow.
During our visits to the new house, we were living off of one electrical outlet but this last trip saw us get five more outlets. What a blessing not to have extension cords running all over the place and having to unplug everything when using the circular saw. Also, I was able the get the Nest thermostat running along with a Nest “drone unit” in the crawl space. The crawl space (more like a basement) is now somewhat insulated and considered part of the inside envelope of the house. I wanted to see how that area is doing. It’s been a steady 58 degrees for most of the winter.
The upstairs is mostly painted and ready for other work but the downstairs will need a coat of sealer and a finish coat of paint. Then we plan to tackle the ceiling which is slated for tongue and groove pine. If I plan the work then this ought to go well in much of the house—the known tricky spots are upstairs.
The wife and I are selling things we once considered treasures on eBay and will soon have the mother of all garage sales. Anything not sold will probably go to a charity not named Goodwill.
Parting with large pieces of furniture is also on the list of things to do. Not having control of when friends and relations will actually take custody of stuff is somewhat frustrating.
I have much that I wish I would blog about but will get to it as time permits and the Spirit moves me.
A portion of our blog staff will remain in Elk Grove, and I can begin covering North Idaho once we get settled. The contrast will be fun to compare.
Yes, I said it and stay tuned because I mean it. Volodymyre Zelensky or however the heck you spell that Scrabble winning name has finally done it. He touched a nerve that cannot be untouched. Crossed the red line that cannot be crossed back. He has become an ungrateful prick.
This guy is a former actor or comedian or something. Frankly I do not care. He is not a leader; he is the definition of a bottom feeder.
He won election in 2019, as such he should have been well aware of Russia illegally annexing Crimea, and parts of the Donbass Region (Donetsk and Luhansk) back in 2014. This is when Russia rolled through and Ukraine more or less just let them take the area’s they wanted. No defense was raised, and little was ever done except international condemnation. I’m sure Putin is still shaking about other countries calling it “an illegal occupation.”
Biden with Zelensky earlier this week
He knew full well Ukraine was not a member of NATO or the EU because Ukraine didn’t want to be. They are and still remain one of the most corrupt nations in the world, just look it up for yourself. If you think the; Biden’s, Clinton’s, or Trump’s are bad, get ready to be stunned, Ukraine is very corrupt. Back to my point about NATO and EU, since they are not member nations, they are supposed to get no benefits. Think of it like declining to buy healthcare insurance, then after finding out you have cancer, you think you can buy and get benefits.
Well for about a year Russia was stockpiling troops, vehicles, and tanks at the border with Ukraine. For God only knows what reason, Ukraine didn’t seem to care or heed the warnings from the West about the build-up. Then came Russia putting up makeshift hospitals and blood banks. Again, Ukraine didn’t react. Finally in February of 2022, Russia attacked, and rolled through quite a bit of Ukrainian territory.
Once this occurred the supreme leader of Ukraine made daily demands of weapons and artillery from the West. Bear in mind, Ukraine is not a member of NATO or the EU, and the alliance was not bound to help. Keep in mind he ignored the Russian threats for about a year prior to the attack, it was all choreographed. SAD!
“Please sir, can I have some more?”
Zelensky’s demands grew louder by the day, and as a result some NATO countries sent supplies. Ukraine was fighting Russia with mostly the same military vehicles and the like. The problem with NATO and EU supplying Ukraine with military might is the Ukrainians are not trained to use it, so the host country would need to send trainers (military advisors) as well. As such, now NATO began to get involved in the war.
NATO countries Turkey, Britain, Germany, Canada, and the US all sent surplus weapons, drones, supplies etc. Ukraine demanded more, and better ones to boot. Turkey sent quite a few drones, and applicable bombs, the US sent Javelin anti-tank missiles, and NATO began to empty old stockpiles and it became a proxy war. This still was not good enough as Ukraine continued to want more and more, also for free. Now Ukraine has begun getting even more modern NATO weapons such as the US HIMARS (a very expensive mobile missile launcher.) AKA a massive killing machine with very long range. Poland sent the Krab, France has sent the Caesar, all of these are modern killing machines. Oh, now that Ukraine has exhausted the ammo, they now are demanding more ammo. Free gratis by the way.
Then came November 15th of last year, a missile hit NATO country Poland, killing at least one. Poland summoned Russia to essentially ask what happened, Ukraine claimed it was all the fault of Russia and for NATO to enact title 5. Title 5 is NATO’s way of saying an attack on 1 is an attack on all, and basically God have mercy on the attacker’s soul because NATO will not. Turns out it was a Ukrainian missile, yup.
Ukraine has also been employing Taliban type tactics of housing military under hospitals, or air defense inside a school…. don’t believe me? Check out the news. Sure, Russia has blown up homes and schools, but they also blew up the air defense system located right on top of it. Of course, that won’t be reported here by the mainstream media as it doesn’t fit the narrative. Also, the news about the wayward missile that hit Poland? Oh yeah it is no longer discussed.
Now there is talk of a major Russian attack coming. Our intelligence has told Ukraine this for a couple weeks now, again Ukraine did nothing, and now they are demanding fighter jets, more modern weapons including our signature tank. Free again; well because we hate Putin too.
I don’t know about you, but I am tired of seeing this Zelenskyy guy all over the media/news all the time. He never says thanks, demands all kinds of stuff. Like the homeless guy you walk by each day, first you gave pocket change, now he wants dollar bills, then higher bills, now he wants lodging and food for free. Where does it end? How come they had no military? Why did they never join the EU or NATO? Nothing is good enough for this guy. I feel bad for what is happening there but I’m sorry you aren’t in the alliance; we have no duty to help you. Biden keeps sending more and more, and by the way did you see the report from the Pentagon that Ukraine cannot account for about a third of what we have sent them? No breakdown of equipment or money, but they cannot account for it. Corrupt nation anyone?
The disturbing thing about that last sentence is not the unaccounted for money, we have a bigger problem with that at home than abroad, it’s the equipment. You see in NATO, countries share technology and in essence can buy weapons off one another. All weaponry is equipped with a kill switch so if a plane, tank, or what not is taken down or disabled, the kill switch blows up the equipment. Thus, you cannot copy the IP. If Ukraine has lost NATO’s state of the art weapons who is to say China won’t copy the IP?
And we want to let Ukraine into NATO when this is over?
A friend of mine does very well for herself, she makes $125k a year. Keep in mind that is double the MEDIAN US income per person. So, she makes more than double the average worker. She informed me Sunday that her spending on her credit card is unsustainable. One would think this is a good thing, a wake-up call of sorts. Negative ghost rider.
Her biggest issue is she tries way too hard to fit in, for someone in their mid-20s to mid-30s this is understandable. You are likely in an apartment, a small one and hanging out with colleagues after work, and the like. You may also be going on dates/parties etc. However, this behavior needs to be grown out of, it’s a sign of a maturity process. It hasn’t stopped in fact it got worse.
I do not care what part of the country you live in, a 6-figure income should be more than enough to sustain the life of a couple/family, let alone a single person. This is where budgeting, and expense management comes into play. In addition, knowing needs vs wants as well. This person has shown repeatedly they are not capable of doing this.
Interest rate on car loan? Yeah, it’s over 30%, that’s not a good rate, that’s a good loan shark rate. The credit card rate is likely about the same mind you. You wreck your credit in this country you will pay at every turn.
Student loan debt? Sure, just make a minimum payment like your other loans. This person is checking all the boxes.
Her biggest problem? It’s not her debts believe it or not, it’s her lifestyle. She refuses to be an adult, instead opting to a college fueled party life. For someone closer to 40 than 37 mind you.
As hard as this may be to fathom, it is not hard to correct this, but it’s not a diet she needs, it’s a lifestyle change.
First? Knock off the happy hour and late-night partying. You are an adult not a college kid anymore. Happy hour is famous for the “I’ll have a couple drinks, well better get an app, well another drink please….aw shucks I better order food…. maybe dessert too?” Next thing you know that cheap mixed drink turned into a bill of around $100. Instead of this being a one-time thing, you have made it into a daily thing with your friends.
Second? Learn to cook at home, you have cable shows, YouTube, and cookbooks. Cooking at home costs a fraction of going out. You can even grab a bottle of booze/liquor/wine for a fraction of going out. Don’t believe me, look it up for yourself.
Third? Pay your bills first. Every paycheck. After paying rent, pay your bills. Your credit score will thank you later. Do not save money, extinguish all debt as humanly possible.
We here at Really Right are vindicated once again on the issue of Covid and church attendance.
The hireling fleeth, because he is an hireling, and careth not for the sheep. –John 10: 13
A survey released last week found that a third of Americans have stopped attending religious services in the wake of the COVID pandemic.
The survey, “Faith After the Pandemic: How COVID-19 Changed American Religion,” was released Thursday. Conducted by the American Enterprise Institute in conjunction with the University of Chicago’s National Opinion Research Center (NORC), the survey examined findings of the 2022 American Religious Benchmark Survey, which asked 9,425 participants about their religious self-identity and attendance from February to April 2022. The participants were selected for having previously taken part in similar surveys in 2018 and March 2020.
According to the results of the survey, 33% of Americans do not attend religious services at all post-COVID, as opposed to 25% before the pandemic. Also down is the number of Americans that attend either regularly (24%) or monthly (8%), as opposed to a pre-COVID cumulative number of 36% (26% and 10%, respectively), Religion News Service reported.
According to the survey, conservatives, adults 50 and older, married adults, and those with a college degree remained likely to attend a religious service. However, while the percentage of Americans who attend in-person religious services has more than doubled since July 2020 (then 13%), standing at 27% in March 2022, this is still below pre-COVID numbers, the survey notes.
Further, the survey also shows that the percentage of conservatives who never attended religious services post-COVID has gone up, from 14% to 20%. Likewise, women, who the survey contends are more likely to attend religious services, also experienced a decline in attendance, with the percentage of women not attending religious services up from 23% to 31% post-COVID. A similar increase happened in men, the survey notes, with 34% of men not attending religious services as opposed to 28% before COVID.
Among Catholics, the percentage of white Catholics who never attend services has gone up from 11% to 18%. Among Hispanic Catholics, the difference was higher, with 10% not attending as opposed to 20% post-COVID.
So, there you have it, proof that scattering God’s sheep has caused many to be lost—probably for good.
The survey also notes that “[C]hanges in worship help us understand how the pandemic has diminished — perhaps permanently — the role of religious participation in the lives of individual Americans and society as a whole.”
Oh, the church I have been attending has been hemorrhaging of members, money, and good will with many people angry with the clergy but not because of Covid.
Frankly, I think closing during Covid has put many congregations into a death spiral from which most will never recover. I look for a gradual death for my current church. Demographically, it’s all but a certainty. The fear of offending people with the Truth causes the clergy to fail in its mission of equipping the saints to deal biblically with life’s challenges.
My pastor hopes we can just hide-out within our church and all the bad stuff will Passover us. He seems to be perfectly fine with our culture and world going to hell as long as they leave us in peace. I seem to recall something about hiding your light under a bushel basket, but my sense was that it wasn’t a good thing for churches to do. Maybe seminary graduates know something we don’t.
I know, I know I’m whacking poor Speaker Kevin again, but I want to illustrate a point I failed to make in yesterday’s blog. One thing that irritated the establishment GOP and the Left is Trump’s negotiation skills. While many likely went out and bought Art of the Deal, you could have saved your money and just watched.
Trump is a master at negotiating because he knows exactly what he needs and has his finger on what the other side wants. He knows he can give the other side some while getting all of what he wants. A perfect example is the stimulus checks, he insisted they have his name and signature on them. The Democrats got a check, the GOP was fine with it (the bloggers here were not) but Trump got what he wanted. Also look at the judges Trump got onto the court, he tried to negotiate, knew it was pointless and told Mitch McConnell via the media to “go nuclear.” Suddenly Mitch turned conservative on Trump’s judges. Bottom line, Trump knew how to negotiate and when to let someone else (media) do it for him. Case in point, Lindsey Graham. Either his balls finally dropped, or he realized getting called out in the media was going to burn him badly, suddenly he became a fire breathing conservative.
Contrast that to Kevin McCarthy, our new Speaker. McCarthy strikes me as the awkward kid no one liked growing up, then he realized if he gained power folks would like him, and if they didn’t, he could wield his power and change their mind. His negotiating skills bear that out. During his time in the Assembly in Sacramento, and in Congress he always seemed to negotiate from behind. This is the opposite of Trump. McCarthy would start at zero and try to get to 50/50. He would call that a win, to be fair Ryan, and Boehner before him operated the same way. Boehner was known for chain smoking and crying, Ryan was known for being a policy wonk and speaking in robotic terms about GOP talking points. It is because of these 3 “conservatives” that people like those on this blog have given up on the party.
In fairness to the 3 aforementioned leaders of the party, I will say again, what does the GOP actually stand for? I heard my entire adult life, get us elected and we will; cut taxes, reduce spending, yada, yada, yada. It never happens like that. I’ve watched for 20 years the GOP giving the other side at least half of every deal, likely more, even when we had sizable majorities in the House and Senate.
Even the Trump tax cuts had to be bulldozed through by the Trumpster himself, and even then, they are temporary.
I will go back to my point on McCarthy and my perception of his upbringing again. McCarthy and other folks who negotiate like him are always trying to “buy friends” or in their case “buy votes.” They do not want to be the mean guy who upsets anyone, so as a result I’ll give you what your side wants if you don’t say mean things about me. Remember the chief goal of a politician is not making good on campaign promises, slogans, or other sayings, it’s about getting re-elected. In the case of McCarthy, it’s about keeping a majority as to guarantee him the speakership.
Congrats to the Democrats on getting at least half of what they want.
Happy New Year. To those of us in California, I hope you are weathering the storm. It has been a crazy first couple of weeks for the national GOP. Speaker McCarthy has already been a trash fire. Here is my take on things.
First off, remember back to when Donald Trump was elected President. First thing he said to Congress was “Let’s get a plan to repeal and replace the health law.” Predictably they did nothing. The law stands in place today. I see this current Congress playing out the same way.
First, the Speaker vote was embarrassing on every level. How does it take 15 votes to elevate the Minority Leader to Speaker when no one else even ran against him? How can one be so tone deaf? McCarthy had to have known the hard right, aka the real conservatives, were tired of the status quo. Why didn’t he reach out to this group and negotiate behind the scenes with them? He only had two months to work out a deal, but it seems he did nothing until after he started losing votes.
Did McCarthy think being a smug prick was wise toward this group? They embarrassed him! The items the Group of 20 or so asked for aren’t out of line at all. A motion to dismiss the chair is never out of order, unless Madam Pelosi is Speaker, but McCarthy didn’t want to lose power. The members of that Group of 20 who lost committee assignments wanting them back, this isn’t out of line either. Term limits goes back to the old Contract with America circa 1994. I’m not seeing much out of order here. Put it up for a vote, when it goes nowhere…. say sorry, I tried but we must move on.
However somehow McCarthy was not the biggest clown in the circus these past couple weeks, that award goes to Sean Hannity of Fox News fame. Full disclosure, I do not have cable. I watch bits and pieces while I work-out daily, about 20 minutes max then I turn something else on. Hannity spent each night on his show trying to go to bat for McCarthy for reasons I do not understand. Hannity kept saying its “his turn.”
(Editor’s Note: this is the same logic that gave us such great political luminaries as Bob Dole and John Kerry as frontrunners for President. It was their turn. Yuck. Also, this was actually McCarthy’s second turn to try for Speaker, but he dropped out last time after it went public that he was poking interns on the side. Somehow, I missed the apology tour where he got the wife to “stand by her man” as he faked contrition for getting caught.)
Hannity’s argument was that the Speaker’s job is reserved for only the powerful elite. Hannity rolled out Newt Gingrich and a whole host of GOP establishment types to bully the Group of 20 to “just relent.” He even went as far while interviewing Lauren Boebert, one of the Group of 20, to tell her “You and your colleagues should stop your circus.” Little did Sean understand, no one else wanted the job of Speaker, they just wanted concessions on a couple of things.
Sean and Kevin got their way, but at a major price. McCarthy is wounded. First why hold a vote when you will not win, then decide to hold a “vote-a-rama” whilst watching your vote totals keep dropping? What is the definition of insanity? This shows an alarming lack of leadership. McCarty had to have known this would happen. Then he, just like Hannity, chose to sit back and insult and make fun of that group. This creates hurt that can backfire big time. Little does Hannity understand that Group of 20 is not a rubber stamp for McCarthy. Worse yet, if they vote in blocks against it, his “agenda” goes nowhere.
Speaking of which, what is the GOP agenda? I never heard a plan, let alone ideas. Seems to me the plan is just block Biden and investigate Democrats. While that is admirable, fixing the issues plaguing this country would be a better start. McCarthy and Hannity do not understand that voters want solutions not more inaction. I am seeing nothing out of either.
In closing I will say this Hannity looks and comes off as a total clown. I think he views himself as a kingmaker in the GOP, he is the opposite. I actually used to like him. He held the Democrats to the fire and held the GOP accountable. He does not hold the GOP accountable at all anymore. His ardent support of McCarthy proves one of two things; either Fox executives are telling him what to say, or he just wants to remain relevant with the GOP leadership.
It’s odd really. Hannity used to go on nightly monologues about lower spending, less regulations, lower taxes. Now he goes out of his way to elevate a CA moderate who at best likes to play nice with the other side. And folks wonder why no writer for this blog is registered as a Republican anymore? Hannity blew all of his credibility; or maybe he was always this way? At his best, maybe he just mimicked Rush Limbaugh for his nightly talking points and now that Rush is gone he’s showing his true colors. Makes you wonder.
The Chief
PS Wanna bet Hannity called McCarthy a “good conservative” as the Speaker votes were being held?
By the time I’ve posted this blog, I will have two weeks until I kiss my state job goodbye. I think on my calendar at work, its marked as Bobby’s Johnny Paycheck Day or some such thing. Oh, Johnny Paycheck is best known for a song he did in the 1970’s called, “Take this job and shove it.” I doubt anybody but me knows or cares about this one last slap at my employer, but it’s intended as sarcasm.
Anyway, I’m making a bunch of decisions with little time to think about them. Thankfully my wife is in on my decisions and deliberations. As long as we agree, things should be OK. Oh, one benefit of retiring in January is that I have only one five-day work week during my last month of employment.
Just for entertainment value, I also got a jury duty summons for my last week. Since it’s a four-day work week, and my group number is just over halfway thru the pack, I doubt I have to show up but who knows? Whatever happens, its my last jury duty in California. I can’t wait to get out of this place.
Our new home, in a much more freedom loving place, is slowly coming together. The inside is warm and cozy but in need of drywall and finishes. Also, the wife seems to agree that we each need our own area to work so Really Right looks to be on track for a full-time office. No, I don’t plan on going full blogger 24/7 but I might finally write a book or two like I’ve been wanting to do.
The reduction in income is balanced against the payoff in completing the house. I’m looking forward to having more of a hand in completing our house. When I do work on projects, I harken back to some sage advice offered in one of Clint Eastwood’s Dirty Harry movies; “A man’s got to know his limitations”. Sometimes I skip doing work due to a lack of knowledge and sometimes due to a lack of insurance. I’d rather let the guy with liability insurance do some types of work rather than do it myself.
They both got on my naughty list this month for the same thing, redefining marriage. Sorry culturally compromising people but marriage is between a man and woman. God didn’t make Adam and Steve, or Ellen and Eve as Ole Dave Waddell used to opine. When people in a homosexual relationship want to stay together it’s not a marriage. Anyone that calls it that demeans the institution and the Biblical view of God. There can be no such thing as marriage in a homosexual union; in fact, rightly viewed there is no such thing, its just a convenient fiction, an imitation, a demonic copy.
First Trump. And folks this is likely just a bridge too far for me to enthusiastically support the Orange Man in 2024.
Thursday’s “Spirit of Lincoln” gala was in honor of the “Log Cabin Republicans” a pro-homosexual activist group formed 45 years ago. The party, held in the ballroom of Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago beachfront country club and residence, was a joyous celebration of gay rights and —by coincidence— the historic “Respect for Marriage Act,” obliging the federal government to recognize same-sex marriage, signed into law by President Joe Biden just days earlier, after 12 GOP senators defected and voted with all the Democrat senators (at the urging of the Seventh-day Adventist Public Affairs and Religious Liberty Department).
The long-planned event in honor of the Log Cabin Republicans’ 45th anniversary brought in Republican notables like former Ambassador Ric Grenell, Rep. Kat Cammack (R-Fla.), former State Department spokesperson Morgan Ortagus, who emceed the evening in a feathered turquoise gown, and former GOP gubernatorial candidate from Arizona Kari Lake, who was swarmed by guests eager to meet her and take a photo.
“We are fighting for the gay community, and we are fighting and fighting hard,” Former President Trump said. “With the help of many of the people here tonight in recent years, our movement has taken incredible strides, the strides you’ve made here is incredible.”
Throughout the evening, speakers praised Trump for his embrace of the gay community. They credited him for his initiatives to combat the criminalization of homosexuality, his work pushing for public heath initiatives to combat the HIV epidemic, and for appointing the first openly homosexual Cabinet member, Ric Grenell, as DNI, Director of National Intelligence.
In fairness, Trump didn’t mention Sleepy Joe’s law attempting to enshrine homosexual marriage into federal law, but it was enough of an issue that Politico called the party “a celebration of the same-sex marriage law”.
Next up is Amy Grant.
Seems Amy has thrown in the towel on the Bible being the highest authority in her life. Instead, she has thrown in with the rainbow people and made love—however pervertedly you wish to define it—as the highest value in life. Rev Franklin Graham has taken her to task over this, but shouldn’t her local pastor be leading the charge on the issue? Well local pastors did so well with Covid, by comparison this issue should be a sinch since its specifically condemned in the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, but sadly let’s get back to reality. Here’s the meat of the story.
Upon learning that her niece declared her sexuality, Grant openly said her reaction was: “What a gift to our whole family to just widen the experience of our whole family.” “Honestly, from a faith perspective, I do always say, ‘Jesus, you just narrowed it down to two things: love God and love each other,'” Grant said. “I mean, hey — that’s pretty simple.”
In 2013, Grant did her first interview for PrideSource.com, an LGBT news website, where she shared her views on faith and LGBT issues.
“I know that the religious community has not been very welcoming, but I just want to stress that the journey of faith brings us into community, but it’s really about one relationship. The journey of faith is just being willing and open to have a relationship with God. And everybody is welcome. Everybody,” Grant said.
The wife and Christian singer also told “Proud Radio” host Hunter Kelly last year about why it’s important for her to set a “welcome table.” Grant stated that she was invited to a “table where someone said, ‘Don’t be afraid, you’re loved.’ Gay. Straight. It does not matter.”
“[It] doesn’t matter how we behave. It doesn’t matter how we’re wired,” Grant said, according to Church Leaders. “We’re all our best selves when we believe to our core: ‘I’m loved.’ And then our creativity flourishes. We’re like, ‘I’m gonna arrange flowers on your table and my table.’ When we’re loved, we’re brave enough to say yes to every good impulse that comes to us.”
Boy, Amy sure seems to have lost her way. Sadly, she’s not the only one. Enabling people on the way to hell by cheering them on in their spiritual darkness is a much different proposition from warning them of their peril and telling them to turn from the wrath to come.
I have friends that know Amy personally but until I read about Graham taking her to task, I had no idea she was so immersed in heresy and compromise on this clearly stated Scriptural teaching.
Amy once did a song about “love will find a way” but if that Way is not to the Cross then its in vain.
Had a client of mine come in this week; specifically, to chat about his 22-year-old son. This son has had 5 moving violation/accidents in 3 years of driving. The average is about 1 incident per decade by the way. So as you can imagine his insurance is very expensive and the parents have been paying it. Usually when you encounter this, it’s the parents saying “get Jr. off my policy, he is too expensive” or they grin and bear it while paying. In this case they wanted to keep the cost the same, make excuses for Jr. and try to get us to find a solution.
It was insane. The father (the one who came into my office) complained how his son has not worked for over 4 years. He then circled back with “He has a job with Vector but I do not know what he does.” He says the company is so secretive his son never talks about it, but he works from home. Obviously, my BS sensors went off quickly, so I Googled them. Vector marketing…LOL its CUTCO knives. AKA an MLM Pyramid scheme. So much so a link provided on their website explains how Vector is not a scam.
El Oh El!
So, Jr. got a sales job with a pyramid scheme company. His son, according to his dad when he confronted him, could not produce a pay stub (what are those?) so he doesn’t believe him. Well Vector makes all of its money off new recruits, not so much actual sales. The new recruits like his son pay a fee, and then get told, “Here’s your knives. Go get it.” MLM pyramid schemes are famous for marketing to young people and single mothers.
Enough about scams.
Don’t let your son be a “meathead”.
He went on that his son is a good kid, but smokes weed with his buddies every night after he and his wife go to sleep. They sneak off to a local park and basically eat all the snack food, and smoke weed. This seems to be normal behavior for these types. He spends a late night out and sleeps till around noon. The parents can’t figure out what gives, and he is unmotivated. They speak of how he plays video games all hours of the day, but again he is a hard worker and a good kid.
They kept saying how can we help motivate him.
My thoughts were simple, lay out all of his “costs” i.e., insurance, car payment, phone plan, gym, etc. and make it known if you want this lifestyle, he needs to contribute. He shot that down saying he tells his kid he we’ll pay till age 26. So, I guess Jr. has 4 more years of freeloading?
Fatal Error
Archie and the “Meathead”
My business partner said he has a son just like this other fellow’s son, problem is the correct word would be “had” not “has.” Make no mistake the son is still alive but he has been making a great living for the last 23 years, he was also 22 when he experienced this growth. The error is now the client felt he was “on a journey” with my business partner.
The client continued to filibuster, and as far as I am concerned, hope is lost. He wants to be a “cool parent” not a father. He just doesn’t want to admit it. Allowing your adult child to sneak out of the house, engage in drug type behavior (I don’t care that CA legalized it) while living in your house is dumb. It’s your house not theirs. As far as work goes; if they don’t want to work, they pay rent or move out. Sorry, this is not a vacation resort, restaurant, nor a hotel. At a certain point, you must be a parent again, even if the kid is 22. He lacks motivation and is gaming you. Sorry, not to be mean, but every move you make, he is 3 steps ahead.
Get a job……Got one at a MLM deal that doesn’t pay
Get your own bills paid for yourself…..sorry I’m good till 26, your words pops.
If you don’t put your foot down, the kids don’t grow.
I can guarantee this kid aint doin nuthin until 26, and calls his father’s bluff, his father won’t budge. Book it!
I’ve worked at the agency that is the posterchild of government waste, fraud, and fiduciary abuse for almost two years now. This agency is not only irredeemably broken but it’s so far down the sewer (or rabbit hole) depending on which metaphor you wish to employ that it seems beyond reform.
Here is a partial list of systemic problems that no one seems interesting in fixing.
First and foremost, old claims never die, they simply loose their appeal. What I mean by this is that both the claimant—person that filed the claim—or any random staff person at EDD can revive a claim, no matter how old. Like your stereotypical B Movie, there is really no such thing as a dead claim. There is always room for a sequel. I have seen claims as old as ten years be brought back to life again either at the request of staff or the claimant. Claims that died due to lack of authentic documents or California wages years ago are routinely appealed and benefits rewarded. Often these claims were filed with forged documents and when denied, the fraudster simply submits more and different fraudulent documents to someone different and if persistent enough, they often are rewarded not for honesty but for perseverance.
The bureaucratic vehicle for successful fraud is often via the ALJ-Administrative Law Judge. If a claim is denied for whatever reason, it can be appealed to the Administrative Law Judge where a person can try again to become eligible for benefits. The ALJ will accept new documents not previously submitted to the agency. This in theory is OK because some folks need a second chance to get a claim properly submitted. Think of people in public school that can only eek-out a C minus if the class is graded on a curve. These folks can’t abide by the normal rules and need extra babying or babysitting to get to the correct result. This is likely why they are unemployed in the first place. Following certain societal rules is necessary for getting and maintaining a job and some folks just can’t cut it without extra help.
The problem with that ALJ system is that they never check any documents. They do not verify Social Security Numbers. They do not verify Drivers License Numbers. They do not verify U.S. Passports. They do not verify any documents submitted to them at all. Oh, and everything submitted to them is photocopies or scanned. Furthermore, they do not verify if applicant ever lived or worked in California.
Worse yet, if EDD staff flags something as fraudulent, the ALJ will often ignore their findings.
Doubly worse is that any documents submitted at an ALJ hearing are purposely kept from EDD staff in the Identity Unit. Thus, the people charged with verifying the authenticity of documents have zero input to evaluate the authenticity of new documents presented at an ALJ hearing.
In cases where the fraudulent claim uses the same documents found in the initial application process, ALJ judges have often excoriated EDD staff for not accepting the forged documents as part of their decision to approve claims for people that don’t deserve them. The ALJ judge is often busy grading the quality of art work done on Photoshop and not interested in looking too hard for the veracity of the documents.
The Identity Unit is not formally trained on what to look for when it come to fraud. There are no master or example documents that we know are correct to use to compare with stuff submitted by claimants. The only advice some are given is look up such and such a document on the Internet and compare that to what you were sent. FYI most of what you see on the Internet are forgeries, so this advice is worse that worthless.
For example, try looking up a U.S. Passport on the Internet under images. Most of what you see in this search are fakes, some better than others. If I want to evaluate a passport, I need to get mine out of my fireproof lockbox and compare it to the scanned copy that I’m looking at as part of someone’s application for benefits. Ditto for a California Driver License—except that there are multiple versions, some of which I’ve never seen before.
Different staff are given limited tools to verify certain documents, but these tools are not all equal. Counting me, there are three in my working group and each of us has a different software package for checking the same identity documents. Each software varies in the detail that can be researched.
This is the next issue with EDD and that is that a myriad of different software is used by the department. None of these programs can talk with each other and all serve different functions. As with all California’s government agencies, the backbone of the department’s automation is still the Unix systems that were brought online in the 1980’s. I would guess that about two dozen different programs are used daily by various parts of the agency.
California claims to be the technology capital of the world but has the worst and most archaic computers around. There is talk of wanting to modernize, whatever that may be, but whatever they decide to do, you know it will be fraught with waste, fraud, abuse, and delays. Also, it will cost several times whatever the winning bid will be. Think, costs of hi speed rail over time.
So, if you’re handy with Photoshop, have lots of free time, and don’t mind shopping on the “dark web” for identity information, you too can join the California gold rush. California’s EDD, where you get money for nothin’ and your checks for free. Multiple entries do increase your chances of winning.
Folks, I’m glad I’m leaving there in seven weeks.
PS I think the ALJ (and the Department) are inclined to ignore identity documents in part because Newsom and the boys at the “bill mill” don’t want to be accused of excluding illegal immigrants from cashing in. Today’s recipients are tomorrow’s Democrat voters.
