“Seattle’s Best” Decides to Retire

By The Chief

In case you have missed the rioting, looting, and outright lawlessness in big cities throughout the country, Seattle voted Monday to slash the police department budget by 3 million. While that seems like a small number, the result will be a reduction of 100 police on the streets. Top staffers are taking forced pay cuts, and that is just the beginning of yet another “pass it to find out what’s in it, bill.” Seattle considered the bill, a favorite of BLM folks because they all think if they appease the mob, the mob will either stop, or target them last.

When the agenda item came up, both Mayor Durkan and Police Chief Carmen Best opposed this action saying it will affect minority (AKA non-white) officers the most and will encourage yet more lawlessness and crime. The motion carried 7-1, with one abstention. The “no” vote was Kshada Sawant a socialist who stated her no vote was because this measure did not go far enough. Keep in mind that Seattle had a foreign country (Chop/Chaz) inside of it for 6 weeks or so. A country that erected its own borders, tracked the I.D.s of all who entered or left, and had a group of rogue security guards armed with guns far more illegal than the ones you or I are permitted to own to enforce its laws!

Chief Best announced the following day she was retiring. She had been with the department for 28 years. She was a lifer in a field where so many spend their career hunting for the next higher paying job to spike their retirement. Just as a comparison, William’s and my hometown is on its 4th chief in 16 years! Best, who is black by the way, actually did a great job over the years and as a lifer knew the department well. She made it more diverse while enforcing the law fairly. Isn’t diversity a calling card of the BLM/far left/Soros types? Best saw her life’s work wiped out with the stroke of a pen via a unanimous vote! It was unanimous because the dissent was only because it didn’t go far enough.

Here are some highlights from the presser:

But more than anything during her press conference, she was frank as she explained she couldn’t bring herself to carry out the layoffs. She read a letter written to her by a new black officer.

“He is one of the people that will probably not keep a job here. And that for me, I’m done. Can’t do it,” Best explained.

Best is the first black woman to lead the SPD. She rose through the ranks from a patrol officer in the East Precinct to sergeant, lieutenant, captain, and deputy chief. Mayor Jenny Durkan appointed her to Chief two years ago after a controversial snub that led to a large public outcry.  

But on Tuesday, the past was behind them as Durkan reiterated her unwavering support for Best and even appeared emotional.

“My heart is obviously heavy to lose her and I will freely admit, I wish she were staying,” said Durkan.

Best said she wrestled with the decision and made it before the Council’s Monday vote.

Durkan said she believes Best is the right person to “reimagine” policing in the city.

Best voiced her resistance to the City Council’s plan to slash the department’s budget by 50%, and the decision for officers to leave the East Precinct in June, when the “Capitol Hill Occupied Protest” or CHOP, took over several blocks surrounding the building for weeks. Protesters even targeted Best’s home.

Durkan and Best both took shots at the City Council who they say sought to defund the SPD without a real plan.

“This is not about the money. And it’s not about the demonstrators. Be real. I have a lot thicker skin than that. It really is about the overarching lack of respect for the officers – the men and women who work so hard, day in and day out,” Best said.

“This was a difficult decision for me, but when it’s time, it’s time,” Best wrote in an email to her 1,400 officers Monday night, hours after.

Notice, Mayor Durkan mentioned in the quote above? This lady is very conflicted. First, she knew, supported, knelt with, etc. supporters of BLM/CHOP/CHAZ—at least until they decided to protest at her house. Next time we hear about her is when she is supporting her chief and taking shots at her fellow council members for cutting the police department. Durkan is the worst type of politician. Such political types support a fringe movement when it has no cost, but then when it comes time to put pen to paper, they decide to take a different tact. Also notice crime is way up, the violent, lawless type especially, and the answer from city leaders is to reduce the number of police…. doesn’t seem too smart.

Best served as the chief law enforcement officer in the city of Seattle but she was overruled by the Mayor during the protests. Following the mayor’s orders, the police were forbidden to enforce the law or keep order during the upheaval. Furthermore, agreeing with the protestors, the entire council voted to cut her department’s budget without any concern for public safety. Best knew the department is in trouble for the foreseeable future and did what any self-respecting human being would do, step down.

It may soon dawn on Mayor Durkan that not only has she lost control of her city council; she has also lost control of her city. Durkan has been on every possible side of this issue telling her audience whatever she thinks will be to her advantage. Clearly, she has lost whatever credibility and goodwill she may have had. Meanwhile, a recall petition was just green lit by the City Court. Now Durkan must survive a recall while grappling with finding a new chief of police willing to work in her city and deal with fellow councilmembers who will want to gut the police budget further.

This same scenario will be playing out all over the country in the next few months….

The Chief

Editor’s Note: This article proves Joe Biden’s V.P. pick was not the Best.

Spare Us from Harris

So many questions:
Does Joe Biden know that he even picked Kamala Harris? Assuming he got a say, was it because her hair smelled good, she got Biden’s endorsement the way she got Willie Brown’s, or because Harris was an articulate black woman?

Kamala Harris sharing a moment with Willie Brown

The obvious question is why? Does Biden need to shore-up his support in the once “golden state”? How does picking such a crazy lady help him win in middle America or the swing states? Harris not only represents California values—or lack thereof—but San Francisco values. Where else does that even play well? OK, maybe cities in flames or civil unrest like Seattle, Minneapolis, New York City, and Chicago.

Truthfully, Harris is the perfect choice for the cancel culture and Some Black Lives Matter. Nobody has a stronger track record of promoting the genocide of unborn black children better than Harris. Heck she makes Fay Wattleton look like a poser in comparison.

Harris also has a long track record of selective enforcement of the law—often ignoring it when it furthers her political career. Harris is the worst kind of swamp creature and given the opportunity, she would throw Joe under the bus or upstage him to make herself look good.

Biden’s VP pick is seen by some as a de facto successor since its speculated that he will expire in office with or without assistance from the Clintons.

Joe Biden has a tiger by the tail and Donald Trump will make him rue the day he selected Harris. What a gift Trump has been offered. Only a Supreme Court vacancy would help Trump more.

Look for Orange Man to put it out of reach early on election night.

Troll on Covid-19

By Troll

Gotta hand it to Gavin Newsom, or Comrade Newsom as he is known here. But he has a total read on this virus, so much so I would say he should add the acronym MD after his name! I mean look at what he has instilled to keep us unwashed masses safe from the ‘rona.

Banned indoor dining, apparently the virus only goes inside restaurants, it doesn’t affect those in tents outside.

Kept Indian Casinos open…. well I mean I guess the witch doctor knows it won’t enter a casino.

Closed gyms for indoor use, I guess once again this virus is attracted to indoors only, not the outdoor workout areas.

Can’t swim at the OUTDOOR pool at the gym, but you can use the city owned Wackford Water Park!

Can’t congregate at the local speakeasy, yet you can take your booze to go from a restaurant! MADD must just be trilled.

You can’t get a haircut inside, yet outside is ok …. what about all those chemicals used to dye, color, polish etc. girls nails and stuff? I guess we can overlook that.

Banks have strict social distancing requirements leading to very long lines outside the building, I guess Newsom wants us to go full Venezuela circa 2000. BTW what is this about a coin shortage?

Closed wineries unless you buy food…. Huh? remember again bars are closed with no food option allowed. By the way Plump Jack Winery in Napa, is still open, it happens to be owned by Comrade Newsom. He obviously thinks his own rules are silly.

Workers social distancing at Plump Jack Winery

Speaking of Plump Jacks anyone seen Hope Hicks lately?

Customers at Plump Jack Winery beat the ‘rona by dining outdoors

You cannot play basketball or use the jungle gym at the local park where your property tax is spent, but you can play soccer or have a picnic. This virus seems very selective with whom it impacts!

County lines are also a red line in the sand for this virus, while it is active in Sacramento, Yuba, Sutter, Placer and San Joaquin county, it does not enter El Dorado County. I cannot quite figure that out. it’s not like Comrade Newsom is buying a house there….oh wait he is! Equipped with a fence, and guards. I mean can we get that at the border!!!!!!!!

Schools are closed for indoor learning, but fear not, your children can use Zoom to meet with their teachers and study, with breaks given to raid the cookie jar or liquor cabinet pending the age of said child.

Fear not the beaches are open, because apparently the ‘rona avoids hot women in bikinis like the plague, no chance it spreads there.

If you want to shake hands, please don’t, but if you want a Tinder hook up Dr. Falsie says its ok. Notice he left out Grindr the hook up app for gays…is Falsie a bigot? Tune in at 11 for more on this report!

Oh, and since this blog will likely be posted on the Sabbath, thank god churches are closed for indoor services, wouldn’t want the ‘rona affecting folks who socially distanced and wore masks. However, the Comrade is allowing outdoor services (except weddings or funerals), and our priest said we can attend and bring water and a blanket to sit on. So, I guess this is like the Civil War redux? Am I allowed to fire up the BBQ and put some brats on for after the 11 am service on Sunday?

This is so sad and wrong. Literally folks in 30 years will be laughing at us, and this will be the legacy of quite a few generations. Hence you think this is a far-rightwing blog written by a fringe knucklehead? The Blog Father and I are a decade or two apart and we seem to see eye to eye more often than not.

Oh, by the way, I have come up with new nicknames for the leadership of this state and county regarding this virus.

Heimrich Himmler – Gavin Newsom as we must praise him at every turn, cross or disobey him and you will be shut down and never seen again!

Josef Goebbels – Dr. Peter Beilenson, Goebbels was Hitler’s propaganda minister, we at the blog knew this but want to make sure its archived since we seem to be erasing history at a faster pace than the polar ice caps are melting.

Until next time, keep your eyes on the plump jacks of Hope Hicks….

The Troll

Why are Companies Really Making You Wear a Mask?

Have you wondered why so many companies are requiring customers to wear a mask? Why are so many people falling in line with the paranoia that somehow a mask will protect you from Covid when there really isn’t any proof?

Hint, the answer is one word: lawyers.

Yep, if your business bucks the orthodoxy of CNN and a customer happens to get Covid, said customer will blame you not because they have any proof but because you didn’t follow the rules so you must be the guy to blame. It’s a logical fallacy but the Jonathan Edwards crowd doesn’t care about facts just feelings. Emotions are the gateway to get big settlements and CNN viewers are the stooges to get you there.

Republicans say they know that they need to indemnify businesses but somehow the legislation is stuck in limbo. Folks, until we get meaningful indemnification for businesses, there will be no economic recovery. Tyrants in Democrat states will not be seriously challenged about arbitrary rules without legal protections for American’s institutions. This extends to more than businesses but also schools, churches, etc.

So next time you have to apply the “muzzle of the beast” to buy and sell, remember to blame Gavin Newsom and lawyers that support him, but also know that Congressional Republicans can stop this and haven’t.

Biden in a Blowout? Not So Fast!

By The Chief

About 100 days out from election day, the polls are showing a Biden landslide. I will not doubt it, Biden is very likely to win, but not the electoral college vote. I will explain why.

You see nationwide polls are extremely ineffective, as they have to sample a number of folks from each state proportional to their population. For example, Illinois, New York, and California are some of the most populous states in the union, all will go heavily for Biden. Very heavy, so much so, I don’t expect Trump to achieve more than about 35% of the vote in any of those states! So due to oversampling in those states, polling is made to appear that Biden has a very large nationwide lead. Truth is he does. If you called 75 folks in California for example, the lion’s share would have to be from LA, the Bay Area, and parts of the coast. Such a sample skews a nationwide and statewide poll significantly as most people that you speak to are voting for Biden and/or despise Trump. These three states account for most of Biden’s popular vote margin. Blogger’s Note: I don’t count WA, OR, or most New England states since they don’t have as many popular votes, however Biden will also do very well there.

Now let’s look at the other candidate in the race and how he will do popular vote wise. Donald Trump will perform very well in sparsely populated states, think ND, SD, Arkansas, Idaho, Wyoming, and Oklahoma, problem is these margins don’t come close to offsetting the 3 large states Biden will win easily. Digging deeper, the normal “safe GOP states” of Texas, Georgia, South Carolina, and Arizona are no longer safe. While I do not see Biden winning them, the margin of victory will be small. Thus, Trump will not pick-up enough votes to make up the difference.

However Trump will and still can win the presidency, even while getting blown out at the popular vote level! The election does not focus on so called “safe states” it focuses on the swing states. Ohio, Florida, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Michigan, Wisconsin, Nevada, Minnesota, and Iowa. Simply put, the candidates will spend all their time in those states. Actually in comes down to just a handful of counties at the state level to win. This is a built-in advantage for Trump, he doesn’t need to spend his time appealing to the masses, he just needs to move a few thousand votes. He did exactly that in 2016, winning MI, PA, and WI. (Below is 2016 election map by county Trump-red, Clinton-blue.)

This is my theory on election night, it will be 2016 all over again. The polling will show a Trump loss, the media will have begun measuring the curtains in the White House for a triumphant Joe Biden, then Trump will win PA again. Rioting will ensue…actually will it have stopped by then? There will be calls to change the electoral college, all because the Democrats took their eyes off the ball during the Obama years.

More to come soon, but just remember, nationwide polling is often skewed or very incorrect.

State of California Muffs the Football Again

Yep, SCO strikes again. As a follow-up to yesterday’s report on payroll problems with the State of California, today another error surfaced. This one is related to most State Employees represented by the good ole SEUI.

As part of the new contract that went into effect January 1, 2020, the SEIU got the Governor to agree to give all SEIU represented employees an extra $260 per month starting with the new fiscal year (July first). One bargaining unit already gets this perk but the rest were supposed to start getting it in July’s pay which was distributed yesterday. The number 260, is supposed to be the average amount that people in their bargaining units—notice I’m not limiting this to union members—are paying for their share of medical insurance for them and their families. Thus for many State Employees, there is no longer an employee contribution for medical insurance.

Note: Ok, technically there is because they are separate line items in the check, but in actuality, if you are only insuring yourself on the state’s dime and happen to have Kaiser, you get to bank about $140 each month. $260 minus ~ $120.

Here’s the official verbiage from the State Controller’s Office:

Improving Affordability and Access to Healthcare
Employees in bargaining units R01, R03, R04, R11, R14, R15, R17, R20, R21, excluded employees, and certain classifications tied to Service Employees International Union (SEIU), who are eligible for state-sponsored health benefits, shall receive a $260 pay differential for Improving Affordability and Access to Health Care each month and can expect this pay differential to be issued as a supplemental payment, processed in a daily payroll cycle, following the close of the business month.

So taxpayers, thanks for the extra money during these tough times. And one last thing. I’ve talked with a few State workers today that told me that even with Garvin’s 10 percent pay cut, because of this money and a few accounting tricks, that many State Employees will now have HIGHER take-home pay than before the 10 percent cut.

State of California Muffs the Football

If you mixed Peanuts, The Far Side, and Dilbert in just the right way, you might get a fictional result that’s almost as strange as what happened today.

Remember those pay cuts that Governor Newsom was supposed to give to State Employees? Well today, after most State Workers got their checks, the gang at the State Controller’s Office figured out that they calculated ALL the state employee’s pay wrong.

The miscalculation affected the employee and employer share of the retirement deductions. Depending on the employee’s circumstances, the calculation varies. The employee share amount ranges based on the gross subject to retirement amount but is estimated to be between approximately $.01 to $100, depending on the amount of retirement deduction.

SCO has corrected the calculation and payroll will process accurately, beginning with all payments issued July 24, 2020, and forward. SCO will process retirement adjustments with the August 2020 payroll to correct the July 2020 payroll discrepancy. The adjustment will be shown as deduction *PERS ADJ on the earnings statement…

By the way, SCO is way worse than DMV but you folks in the public don’t have to try to sort thru their crap which is a blessing. Betty Yee has run that place into the ground. They are further behind than EDD and DMV put together. (Years not months.) SCO’s processes and procedures were developed in the 1970’s and technology wise, I expect they are still running those computers from Y2K. Oh, I’ve been to their check processing facility. It looked like it was state of the art when Ronald Reagan was leaving the White House and they keep nursing the antique equipment along as best they can. When is the last time you saw someone using industrial equipment made by Pitney Bowes?

One reason I’m hitting SCO is this: instead of sending an electronic record of each error correction to each department’s accounting office, which anybody on the private sector would do, SCO’s practice is to print one 8 ½ x 11 sheet of paper for each payroll error correction that is made. This paper is then mailed to each department every few days. In a typical year they print and mail well over 100,000 of these sheets of paper. Folks per my quick Internet search, there are reportedly 210,916 full time employees! I hope they don’t really waste that much paper. Last time I remember them making a big mistake in payroll was when open enrollment changes took effect and they botched deductions on over 30,000 checks. I got to touch over 17,000 of their error corrections myself. Oh, once the error corrections arrive, they are scanned and attached in the accounting system to the corresponding line item. If handled in the usual way, the current error will not waste man-hours, it will waste man-years of time.

I could explain more about how wasteful SCO is, but you get the idea. You’d think in a state like California, they could find a tech company to computerize the state’s financial processes but truthfully the state isn’t that interested. You taxpayers have already spent a billion dollars on the latest attempt to try. Do an Internet search on FI$CAL cost over-runs.

The state has no incentive to innovate or become more efficient. They refuse to change processes to assist in automating operations. The lack of a profit motive has that result. It’s much simpler to confiscate more money from you than be better with what they already take. Also, they have a contract with the union that nobody can be fired if their position is replaced by technology. Take comfort that no one will lose their job over this. SEIU, or somebody like that, has their back.

Bandwidth Apocalypse

In discussions with my wife, the subject of Internet availability came up in the context of “Distance Learning.” In our local school district, tens of thousands of kids will all simultaneously be logging on to their respective Zoom classroom sessions at 8:00 AM on August 13th.

My wife is grateful to be attempting this from home because her school lacks the capacity for teachers to reliably replay YouTube videos, let alone for twenty something teachers to sustain connections to 24 plus children each, all with live video feeds.

Oh, I forgot to mention that over the summer, a plan was put forward that all teachers must live broadcast to their children from their respective classrooms each day. The teacher’s union mercifully killed the idea.

Let’s look at the bandwidth requirements for August 13 and beyond. Much cable and television content as well as streaming in delivered via the Internet. Also, many people are working from home and not their offices. This work is predicated on Internet availability. Now the district here in Elk Grove, and sometime in August every other school in California, will be simultaneously logged in as well.

Much of the Internet is provided by traditional telephone lines or coax cable and not fiber optic lines. Providers such as Comcast have limits as to how much they can push through an old-fashioned strand of copper. Yes, they have figured a way to do this with channels to give short bursts of higher speed based on demand but wow! They just might be sitting on a throttling nightmare or worse. Frontier Communications is shoddier than Comcast and happens to serve many schools as well as customers in more rural or older parts of town. They’re a mess on a good day but I think this will go bad for them too.

Folks Zoom and/or local Internet providers can’t handle the load of teacher training during summertime. People at home didn’t have the bandwidth to support it. Many Zoom meetings for the purpose of training teachers were asking participants to turn off their cameras because the connection kept lagging, and nobody could hear the presentation. Teachers don’t have the luxury of telling students to turn off their cameras. Without being able to see them, how will the teacher be able to gauge comprehension and know when students have a question, etc.

I think my wife is on to something. This distance learning idea may collapse under the weight of too much demand on existing infrastructure. Can you imagine the masses hiding out from Covid-19 without Internet? Gavin would not be able to suppress the masses without the bread and circuses of entertainment provided by the Internet to pacify them.

I know some people think this possibility is far fetched but consider this, again giving credit to my wife; when we did “Distance Learning” during the spring, there were no set times or duration of time required to be online with the children. Furthermore, much if the instruction was via prerecorded video that could be viewed on demand. In other words, instruction was ad hoc in nature. Now the bureaucrats want everything structured and in lockstep order. We have set schedules—all at the same time—and set hours of performance. In other words, ad hoc has been sacrificed for regimentation and uniformity.

Folks, it will be fun to watch but if the wife is right then I may have trouble posting a blog with a told ya so as a topic.

PS: For the sake of the above discussion, we are assuming that Google Classroom and other educational platforms will not be the bottleneck during live instruction.

A “Republican” Shows his True Colors

By Johnnie Does

One thing we can all learn from a crisis like Covid-19 is that people’s true colors will come out and often the end result is ugly. Today we will look at how big of a cow paddy the 90-Day Guy stepped in with regards to this crisis.

First some background. In 2016 he refused to say Donald Trump had a chance to win. It was always “the coasts pick the president”, “voter fraud will win the day for the Dems”, and my favorite, “We have never had a Hollywood Politician before.” So, I guess Ronald Reagan, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Fredrick Grandy (Love Boat), Jesse Ventura, Al Franken, and Sonny Bono don’t count?

Fred Grandy — US Congressman (Iowa)

As the votes were tabulated that night and the pendulum swung toward Trump, he quickly morphed into a “Trump Truther” saying he was behind him all along, and it was me who doubted him. As his presidency raged on, he backed the orange man through and through. Then Covid-19 hit….

Once again, his true colors came out. He immediately said I was required to go to the office daily…not a problem, me and all sane folks knew this was just a virus and things would calm down. He fired off a series of texts to me over the next few weeks saying he needed to provide for this family and that since I didn’t have one, I needed to go to the office. Again, just for the record I did not complain or raise any issues. I guess since I am a single guy, I’m just a throwaway in today’s society? Not sure why the Blog Father joins me for lunch, maybe I would be better utilized under “Operation Human Shield” in the Army? I told 90-Day Guy that he was overreacting and not to watch so much cable, clearly it was getting to him.

One day, when Governor Newsom said we would be re-opening, he had a massive anxiety attack, perfectly timed before one of our worst customers was set to come to the office. He went and played golf the following day, and while it isn’t my business, I find it odd sharing a golf cart isn’t something that would cause anxiety. He claims over and over he doesn’t watch TV or cable, yet he always seems up to date about how the virus spreads and where it is causing a hot spot. The re-opening continued and one night I was at the gym watching Fox (I do not have cable, so I watch at the gym) and I noticed Tucker, Hannity, and Laura Ingraham were 100% anti-Covid for their respective hour long shows. This continued for about 3 weeks until Newsom shut the gyms back down. In the meantime, 90-Day Guy morphed into a Truther again, saying Covid was never a big deal (keep in mind deaths are going up) completely contradicting his earlier stance. The following day I called his cell and heard clanging in the background, he sheepishly told me he was at an Indian Casino! Hmmm office bad! Golf and casino good! He also started using “we” instead of other pronouns, giving himself cover if challenged.

But wait the story turns again. Newsom ordered bars and indoor dining shut. Now most folks; especially Republicans, would take umbrage at this idea. 90-Day Guy embraced it saying those places are dirty and filled with unsavory folks. Doesn’t that sound like Hillary’s deplorables remark? Or Obama’s clinging to their guns and religion remark? Too me it does! The bottom line is he is your typical country club liberal who believes if they don’t do it, it must remain shut. He is way too cultured to leave California. While it may be a foreign concept to most, many folks gather at a local bar after work for happy hour to discuss the rigors of the day. Actually, a local started his own craft brewery called the Hungry Pecker and sunk a lot of his own money into the venture but he has yet to open since he isn’t allowed to.

Rahm Emanuel put it best, never let a good crisis go to waste. We now have major unemployment and there is no V-shaped recovery happening. Folks, we needed restaurants to re-open at 100% for a rapid recover to happen. Ditto for bars and other businesses. Sadly, it’s now too later for many small businesses. To 90-Day Guy, the issue isn’t one of personal rights and actions (liberty), but its “I don’t want to get Covid” and therefore we must close permanently any establishments I don’t like. Special treatment for me, but not for thee anyone?

As far as his claim about not having cable anymore, I’m looking right at a Comcast Xfinity bill on his desk. $351.85 a month. That is one very expensive landline and wireless internet bill!

Johnnie Does

PS: Oh, here is a cute tidbit. He came into the office saying he was planning on voting for Biden. Reason being Trump won’t win out here in California, and he doesn’t want his house destroyed by protestors. Why do I have a feeling this guy has been a Democrat all along and is just now using this as an excuse to show his true colors? Oh well, I guess if you always straddle the fence one can never be wrong!

The Magic of Outdoor Dining

Folks, no one that I have encountered has ever given me a scientific explanation as to why prohibited indoor activities that are moved outside are magically blessed and good in the era of arbitrary Covid-19 rules. This includes church, haircuts, sit-down dining, fitness centers, and so on.

While I’m sure you can sense my disdain and loathing of such tyranny, I would like to set my political views and emotions aside and just comment on outdoor dining. In the last few days, I have had lunch at three different local restaurants. Of the three places, two are national chains and the other a mom and pop Mexican place. All three failed in fundamental rules issued by Governor Newsom as a conditions of their continued operation.

The mom and pop place no longer gives customers disposable paper menus but their regular ones which are paper inserted into place folders. I don’t recall this being allowed again and I also got no assurance from the restaurant that these things are scrubbed between uses. They have however put a plastic sheet on top of the wrought iron patio furniture table they are using for outdoor service. At least this way the table can be wiped between customers.

In contrast, both national chains that I have visited in the last few days also have wrought iron furniture for outdoor service; however, they don’t clean anything in the customer seating areas. And they don’t cover the tables. Yep, just like normal, one person eats their meal and then the next customer comes along and sits in the very same place with no effort at sanitation. Neither place allows indoor seating and expects customers to eat outside or get food to go. Both places require that I wear a facemask in their business but neither actually takes any meaningful steps to protect their customers from germs.

What prompted me to write about this today was the table of four eating at the national chain with their baby crawling all over the table. When they were ready to leave, the mother told one of the other adults in her party that she couldn’t lift her child off the table because she had catsup on her fingers. So, catsup on your fingers is a problem but letting your infant crawl all over a table that never gets cleaned unless it happens to rain or get blasted by an errant sprinkler is ok? In what universe? Oh, did I say baby was only wearing a diaper? (Said diaper looked like it was full.) How does this make any sense or keep anyone safe from Covid-19?

Folks, the irony is that if these same customers were eating indoors at these establishments, then the tables would get bussed between customers. Thus, it is more sanitary when indoor eating is allowed and more unsanitary when outdoor eating is mandated. Also, said restaurants have more staff when regularly operating.

In my mind, this just further illustrates the absurdity of living in a place governed by fear. Again, I affix much of the blame for this on feckless clergy who fear men more than God and capitulated on following biblical principles. Keeping the 501 (c) (3) is more important. The ghost of L.B.J. looms much larger on this country than just the Great Society and Vietnam War.

Anyway, I hope you think about what I’ve said next time you decide to eat out for lunch or give the wife a night off and let someone else do the cooking.