Really Right – Page 59 – Religion, Politics, and Culture: Explained and Defined

Why Race Relations Will Never Be Repaired

There will be a lot to unpack in this article, but I want to highlight a few key issues as to why race relations will never get better here. I ask you set aside any preconceived notions and put aside your bias and take this in before jumping to a conclusion. It actually is painful to write this because race relations actually got a lot better up until Barack Obama took office in 2008. It can actually be argued he set us back several generations.

1 Police Bias:

This kind of cuts both ways, the Rodney King incident, as well as the war on drugs has put scores of minorities (black, Hispanic, Asian etc.) in jail for crimes some could argue are petty in today’s world. The Rodney King incident caused the black community as a whole to no longer trust police; and as a result they mostly do not cooperate, and in some cases even shield perpetrators from justice.

As a result police look skeptically on young black men, and in some neighborhoods police even refuse to patrol out of fear for their own safety. Bottom line, the bias cuts both ways. When JJ Clavo was murdered in Del Paso Heights, the community did not help assist in finding the murderer, and the same holds true when a young/old white man in Folsom or Granite Bay goes on a crime spree and is not shot…there will always be a bias. But neither community is helping the matter

2 False Narratives:

Think Sharpton, Jackson Jr., Marcos Breton, and Benjamin Crump (the prominent civil rights lawyer) these guys decide to take a narrative they think fits the crime and run with it, and worse yet some in the media are more than happy to run with it. Examples include; hands up, don’t shoot! He was reaching for his wallet…not a gun. You can add Barack Obama too this as well saying, “If I had a son he would look like Trayvon Martin!” This did nothing but fan the flames and like anything else in this country, the partisans took sides and a screaming match ensued. Members of Congress even took to the dais and spoke about how the deceased or the police were 100% in the right and if you viewed it any other way you were a racist, or you hated the police!

3 Creating a False Prophet:

In Florida, Trayvon Martin is viewed as a martyr. He attacked a night watchmen and ultimately paid with his own life. Regardless of what human piece of waste George Zimmerman (the watchman) did, we should not be honoring this kid. Michael Brown in Ferguson is getting a statue in his name and he is being compared to Martin Luther King Jr. Are you kidding me! This kid was hocked up on drugs and tried to steal a police officer’s service weapon to kill him. This guy is no civil rights icon and frankly he got what he deserved. Eric Garner in New York, he of “I can’t breathe fame.” He was a known criminal with a very long rap sheet to boot, including major drug usage. I will add, I think the police went too far, but at the same time when you have a record and a history, police treat you far different than someone with no record…check the stats. Stephon Clark in Sacramento? He had every drug in his body and quite a sum of alcohol, and now they are talking about naming a library after him? Huh?

This George Zimmerman did not found Men’s Warehouse

4 Hypocrisy:

In the cases of Martin, Brown, and Clark; those who defended them wanted to make sure their criminal histories, drug/alcohol abuse, and personal life info were not allowed anywhere near the trial, as to not cloud the judge/juries minds. However in the case of Amber Guyger (white police officer who entered wrong apartment and shot a black man), the prosecutor wanted all her texts/love life/history, everything you could think of included because…well somehow this was different. I guess justice for all, unless we wish to tip the scales!

5 The Amber Guyger Trial:

From the first minute, they made this into a racial crime, white police officer killing an unarmed black man, and in a sense it was true. Black Lives Matter did their usual, essentially portraying all white people as police sympathizers. Guyger, in the eyes of this young, white, male, made a major mistake that night. While I believe her testimony was a large steaming pile of crap, I feel bad for her in certain ways. First, her life is over. She, like the police officers in the other shootings, will be remembered as such for the remainder of her life. God may forgive but people do not.

Second, those clapping, whooping & hollering, and rejoicing after the guilty verdict should be ashamed. It is a courtroom not a local tavern or bar. Just remember, while Guyger may have been found guilty, her family was in attendance. Imagine the officers acting as such after being cleared of wrong doing??? Then BLM shouted and took to the streets after the sentencing phase the following day…there you go again, when you don’t get your way act out! While I will admit a sentence of 10 years, likely only being 5 years served seems a little light, just remember that the victim’s brother said he didn’t want the officer to go to jail. Also, a known police officer in prison has a target on their back for the duration of the prison stay. Lastly, this is Texas, where you are also sentenced by the jury, as opposed to a judge…most people do not want to send a peer away for a long time, especially someone with no criminal record.

6 The Guyger Trial Sentencing Phase:

I have mixed feelings about a lot of this as many of you probably do too. The optics of the bailiff stroking Guyger’s hair and comforting her do not look great; as anyone who wasn’t law enforcement would be getting handcuffed at this point. I have zero issue with the victim’s brother hugging Guyger, and the two of them showing raw emotion, actually this could have been a healing moment.

I also didn’t care for the judge (Mrs. Kemp) hugging the defendant either. In this case, I do sympathize with the victim’s family. They lost a loved one and what happens? A police officer is convicted of murder, gets a light sentence, and a hug from the judge?

Judge hugging Guyger after guilty verdict

I don’t think many defendants have ever gotten so lucky. I have no issue with the judge giving Guyger a copy of the Holy Bible, actually in most of these cases, I believe the defendant should read the good book in hopes they can turn their life around and be a change agent. Fear not, a group has already filed a complaint about this judge for her actions regarding the Bible. Glad to see the atheists and agnostics decide to weigh in, and now the judge will face a commission investigating her actions. Were this in California, the judge would get a harsher sentence than the defendant.

This leads me to my conclusion.

Race in this country will continue to divide us, even long after all of us, the living are dead. To be very clear, America has a very rough history in regards to slavery and rights of others, but it is the year of our Lord 2019 and we are moving in the wrong direction. It will take leadership from all sides and making adults act like they have an IQ above that of a piece of lunch meat. I would like to see a citizen review commission created in place of the current internal affairs model that the police currently use. My reasoning is simple, “policing your own” pardon the pun will always be looked at through jaundiced eyes. Next we need so called “journalists” to quite the sensationalism. You are stoking the flames of hate and causing an unnecessary uprising. This goes for political types as well. So called leaders of the black community should focus on getting their people out of poverty and more importantly focus on the future. However none of this will happen. We no longer believe in the rule of law, instead we only believe in selective information that we deem to be factual. You have your “facts” and I have mine. You can look at any of the above examples and fallacies exist in every one….stoked by a media and partisans looking to push an agenda. Rather than trying to punish a white police officer, maybe take a page from the Jean family playbook, forgive and allow someone to move on? Except that is not in our DNA anymore. Everything now is “gotcha” and punishing one to atone for the sins of the whole. The charlatans such as Breton need to find real work and quit stirring up the natives. Also we need to be very wary of the prophet seeking profits (Sharpton, Jackson and Crump.) Race relations will never get better in this country until we try to move forward, and as I tell people, we must get into a car with a gas pedal, no brake pads, and no mirrors, the past is the past. Leave it there. We can never apologize enough, and frankly reparations are not a means to an end, just a temporary band aid.

Sadly Botham Jean was killed by mistake, and he will never come back to this earth, and Amber Guyger will go away to prison and will never be the same, as she will always be connected to this tragedy. Additionally how sad that we as a country used Botham Jean, Amber Guyger, and the judge as puppets in a sick, twisted game to litigate race relations.

Sound off in the comments!

Chief

Joe Biden’s Political Aspirations Are Over

Yesterday, the Washington Examiner simultaneously ended Joe Biden’s flailing political campaign for President not just for 2020 but forever and they also ended the farce of impeaching President Trump.

The 2020 Democratic candidate with whom the CIA whistleblower had a “professional” tie is Joe Biden, according to intelligence officers and former White House officials.

Lawyers for the whistleblower said he had worked only “in the executive branch.” The Washington Examiner has established that he is a career CIA analyst who was detailed to the National Security Council at the White House and has since left. On Sept. 26, the New York Times reported that he was a CIA officer. On Oct. 4, the newspaper added that he “was detailed to the National Security Council at one point.”

Michael Atkinson, the Intelligence Community’s inspector general, told members of Congress that the whistleblower had a “professional tie” to a 2020 Democratic candidate. He had written earlier that while the whistleblower’s complaint was credible, he had shown “some indicia of an arguable political bias … in favor of a rival political candidate.”

A retired CIA officer told the Washington Examiner, “From everything we know about the whistleblower and his work in the executive branch then, there is absolutely no doubt he would have been working with Biden when he was vice president.”

As an experienced CIA official on the NSC with the deep knowledge of Ukraine that he demonstrated in his complaint, it is probable that the whistleblower briefed Biden and likely that he accompanied him on Air Force Two during at least one of the six visits the 2020 candidate made to the country.
Joe Biden worked with whistleblower when he was vice president, officials reveal

But folks it’s even worse than this. Did you know that the Ukraine energy company in question paid Joe Biden $900,000?

As the son of then-Vice President Joe Biden, it seems pretty clear that he was there selling access. That’s the allegation. It’s a question that hasn’t gone away, and one that has irritated Joe Biden to no end. And now we’re hearing that Joe Biden was also paid $900,000 which was part of his lobbying fee on behalf of Burisma. The former vice president has repeatedly said that he and his son never discussed overseas business, despite being pictured in a photograph golfing with two Ukrainian energy executives. They didn’t talk business. Who are you kidding?
Joe AND Hunter Biden Were Both Paid by Burisma

Joe & Hunter Biden with Ukraine energy officials 2014

Rudy Giuliani has alleged that a Ukrainian natural-gas company that employed Joe Biden’s son Hunter also paid the former vice president $900,000 in lobbying fees.

Appearing on Fox News’ “Hannity” Wednesday, President Trump’s personal lawyer cited as evidence claims made by Andriy Derkach, a member of Ukraine’s parliament.

“Biden, his son and his brother had a 30-year-long scam to make money, millions, selling his public office,” Giuliani told host Sean Hannity.

Derkach held a press conference earlier Wednesday in Kyiv where he claimed to have documents showing how Burisma Holdings paid Joe Biden the lobbying fees.

Hunter Biden worked for Burisma while his father served as vice president and acted as the point man on US effort to stamp out corruption in Ukraine. Hunter was paid $50,000 a month.

“Funds in the amount of $900,000 were transferred to the US-based company Rosemont Seneca Partners,” Derkach told reporters, referring to the investment company the younger Biden founded with Chris Heinz, the stepson of former Secretary of State John Kerry.
Giuliani claims Ukrainian company paid Joe Biden $900,000 in lobbying fees

Please note again that this is how people in Washington become multimillionaires on $125K a year salaries. Joe Biden gets a cut for allowing access, his son gets millions of dollars while Joe is Vice President and magically, we have John Kerry’s son involved in this too. Do you see the pattern?

Bill and Hillary Clinton lived off Bill’s $35K a year salary as Arkansas Governor and were flat broke when Bill took office. Now they are worth close to a billion dollars. Similar story with the Obamas. Go back and look at Lyndon Johnson, same song second verse… This has been going on for decades in Washington circles.

Meanwhile, Trump has put his assets in a blind trust and is working for free—he donates his salary to various groups. Unlike the others, Trump is taking a pay cut to be President.

Oh, The New York Post ends the article with a fake news fig leaf for Joe Biden trying to excuse what he did.

Derkach claimed Joe Biden pressured Ukraine in December 2015 to force the resignation of Ukrainian Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin and dangled $1?billion in loan guarantees as an incentive.

Prosecutors have found no evidence that either Biden did anything wrong, and Giuliani did not respond to requests for comment about details of the alleged documents.

Joe Biden’s presidential campaign did not respond to a request for comment.

Trump and his allies, including Giuliani and Republican members of Congress, have alleged that Joe Biden sought to have Shokin fired because Shokin was investigating Burisma.

The fake news is “Trump and his allies…have alleged…” Yo dudes, Biden admitted it in front of a live audience. I’ve seen the tape and the transcript. Here’s one account of the event.

In his own words, with video cameras rolling, Biden described how he threatened Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko in March 2016 that the Obama administration would pull $1 billion in U.S. loan guarantees, sending the former Soviet republic toward insolvency, if it didn’t immediately fire Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin.

“I said, ‘You’re not getting the billion.’ I’m going to be leaving here in, I think it was about six hours. I looked at them and said: ‘I’m leaving in six hours. If the prosecutor is not fired, you’re not getting the money,’” Biden recalled telling Poroshenko.

“Well, son of a bitch, he got fired. And they put in place someone who was solid at the time,” Biden told the Council on Foreign Relations event, insisting that President Obama was in on the threat.
Joe Biden’s 2020 Ukrainian nightmare

Once and for all, America is saved from this pompous knucklehead ever being in the White House. Joe may be on the campaign trail for a while longer but his end is certain.

Cable Watchers Awaken

PG&E was able to accomplish something in the last 24 hours that has not happened since the Loma Prieto Earthquake. They shook all of NorCal to the core. PG&E announced they were going to shut off power to 600-800k homes in Northern California, in 34 different counties. This has been going on, albeit on a much smaller scale, over the last couple months because…well if PG&E is liable when their equipment causes a fire, they should have the right to cut the cord to your electricity. However it was never done on a scale this large, and as a result brought out a plethora of people who are; woke, shook, naïve, and others who get all their news from cable television.

Yikes! Boy is it fun to watch this drama unfold. As a result of watching the impending doom on the 24/7 news station of their choice, people suddenly started worrying that they could be without power for weeks…or that their area was affected…and as predicted by William in this space, panic began to set in. People suddenly began talking around the watercooler about solar power, backup batteries, and generators. Overnight these otherwise clueless people became armchair preppers.

I call these people; woke, naïve, shook, and cable watchers because they take a headline written for a cable news outlet (or their website) by some guy in Atlanta, New York, or Washington, D.C. and blow it way out of proportion.

Run for your lives, they’re cutting the power

Look at this text message I received…keep in mind if you live in Sacramento County like this guy does, you get your power from SMUD not PG&E. When I reminded him of this, it didn’t deter him in the least. He kept on objecting that it was on television and the radio so it must be true. What I told him didn’t matter; he wouldn’t believe me even after providing him irrefutable evidence.

He kept objecting, “But I saw it on the news.” It wasn’t until I finally sent him an official statement from SMUD saying no blackouts are planned that he finally backed down.

(Editor’s note: I heard people voicing similar concerns at work as this was unfolding. People had no clue who their electric provider is even though they pay a monthly electric bill. I was amazed that a graphic used in a television broadcast could so easily override common sense and create such an uproar.)

Another friend of mine in PG&E territory called in a panic. I told her she wouldn’t be affected either as she lives in a heavily populated urban area…still it wasn’t good enough. Even after I sent this person the official map of affected homes from PG&E, this did nothing because she “heard it on the news.”

The blackouts have started and they are only affecting very rural areas so far; think Angel’s Camp, Mokelumne Hill, Mill Valley, and most of rural counties. The crisis has so far been averted; however, on the way home from the gym last night, I stopped at a local Safeway…and found the shelves with bottled water looking pretty bare! Therein lies the problem folks, I live in Sacramento County and it will not be affected by this shut off, yet the people who tuned in to view cable news last night missed that memo.

The general point here being, find a trusted source to get your news. The cable channels specialize in sensationalism and therefore won’t release the story until it creates the necessary drama. Sadly it had its intended result; it stirred up the natives. As a result, a lot of older and just plain naïve people were stirred into a frenzy and scared.

But hey, look at it this way, you spend $200 a month for all those channels even though you can only watch one at a time! Me on the other hand, I don’t need cable. Instead, I get to watch all of you scurry around like cockroaches because you do. That dear readers is entertainment.

Johnnie Does

Zombie Apocalypse Day 1 Recap

Photo: Auburn, CA 10-09-2019 credit Sacramento Bee

For those of us in the shadow of the State Capitol, it’s just another day. However, if you live elsewhere in the State, things are anything but normal.

Shoot the Messenger

A PG&E employee was driving a truck Tuesday evening in Northern California’s Colusa County – before the electricity cutoffs – when a bullet shattered one of the vehicle’s windows, the California Highway Patrol told The Associated Press. The driver was not hurt, according to the AP.

CHP is investigating the incident, which occurred north of the town of Maxwell as the staffer headed southbound on Interstate 5, according to authorities. A white pickup may have pulled up beside the PG&E truck before the shooting, CHP Officer J. Sherwood told the San Francisco Chronicle.
PG&E pleads for employee safety amid outage; police report gunfire at vehicle

Welcome to Venezuela

More than a million people in California were without electricity Wednesday as the state’s largest utility pulled the plug to prevent a repeat of the past two years when windblown power lines sparked deadly wildfires that destroyed thousands of homes.

The unpopular move that disrupted daily life — prompted by forecasts calling for dry, gusty weather — came after catastrophic fires sent Pacific Gas & Electric Co. into bankruptcy and forced it to take more aggressive steps to prevent blazes.

The drastic measure caused long lines at supermarkets and hardware stores as people rushed to buy ice, coolers, flashlights and batteries across a swath of Northern California. Cars backed up at traffic lights that had gone dark. Schools and universities canceled classes. And many businesses closed.
Lights out: Power cut in California to prevent deadly fires

Why have forest management when you can just pull the plug at random?

“I wish we weren’t in a situation where, in maybe one of the wealthiest jurisdictions in the world, we are turning power off to large swaths of the population every few weeks,” said Michael Wara, director of the Climate and Energy Policy program at Stanford University. “But it is better than what we’ve been through, and I very much hope that we get through this fire season without a repeat of 2017 or 2018.”

PG&E declared bankruptcy in January, in part because of potential liabilities from its role in some of the 2017 northern California fires and the 2018 Camp fire that killed a total of 129 people and destroyed tens of thousands of homes.

“Is it a huge inconvenience? Yes. Is it going to be dangerous? Yes,” Wara said. “There are lots of risks on the other side. Someone could die because they have a medical device.

PG&E should have been maintaining and updating its infrastructure before the crisis reached this point, said Mindy Spatt, a spokeswoman for the Utility Reform Network.

“PG&E should be held to higher standards than this,” she said. “No one wants to see another fire like the fires we’ve seen in the past, but we have to remember that the problem that these shutoffs are hopefully going to address are PG&E’s negligence and incompetence, and PG&E’s propensity to ignite fires.”

Now PG&E customers must bear the burden of navigating possibly days without power, with businesses losing money and people in possibly unsafe situations, Spatt said.

“Consumers would rather have their power shut off than have their homes and businesses burnt down, but they would also rather have a utility that didn’t start fires,” Spatt said.
Record power shutoffs in California are set to become the new normal

The shutoffs are part of its wildfire mitigation plan, mandated by the state and agreed to by the California Public Utilities Commission, the state’s top power regulator. — Kevin Stark
Why Is This Happening? Answers to Your Questions on the PG&E Shutdown

Folks, when you live in a socialist state, you get socialist utilities too. We keep being told the lie by the ruling class that wind and solar are the way to energy independence so what happens on a sunny, windy day—conditions that we are told are best for energy production—why we cut the power off to people in the state’s flyover country.

But elites take care of their own. Tesla is prominently mentioned in two articles that I saw about the scheduled blackouts yesterday.

One article mentioned that the scheduled outages stopped just short of Tesla’s production facility in the San Jose area and the other was to juice-up before the lights go out.

The electric automaker issued a preemptive over-the-air advisory overnight to many vehicle owners, telling them to charge up ahead of the planned outages, which utility Pacific Gas & Electric began rolling out Wednesday to try to lessen the risk of wildfires.

“A utility company in your area announced they may turn off power in some areas of Northern California beginning October 9 as part of public safety power shut-offs, which may affect power to charging options,” the message read, according to social media posts. “We recommend charging your Tesla to 100% today to ensure your drive remains uninterrupted.”
California’s power outage means problems for electric cars. Tesla says charge up, quick.

So what ever happened to Elon’s promise that his cars could be charged as they were driven by solar cells built into the car? Actually, Toyota was promising something similar a few years ago but I digress…

I still haven’t heard whether Oakland participated in the lights out festivities.

Closing Comments

All of this bowing to the environmentalists goes back to the oil spill in Santa Barbara back in 1969. Up until that happened, nobody cared about the environmentalists. From that point forward, they increasingly gained access to influence public policy in California. Now nobody dares to act without their blessing.

Environmentalists purposely destroyed the logging industry in California and now we have tens of millions of dead and dying trees in our forests and nobody to cut them down. This is why we have decades of fuel gathering on the forest floor.

Dead and diseased trees in California #1

While PG&E did spark some fires, many in our State are the result of arson and nobody has been arrested for most of the manmade forest fires.

Dead and diseased trees in California #2

Any way you slice it, government failure is to blame for the current mess.

How Statewide Rent Control Keeps Poor Folks Poor

As predicted, Governor Newsom signed AB 1482 into law yesterday at a ceremony in Oakland. Any rental properties still standing when PG&E turns the power back on will be subject to this law beginning January first. The fact that this is a huge power grab by state officials and that voters just rejected a similar measure be damned.

Folks, this is just a fancy way to keep poor people poor and enhance the portfolios of the rich. You see, in recent history, the best place to get a return on your investment has been Wall Street. Arguably, the stock market is overvalued and there are some bubbles in various sectors that increase the risk of investing. Now, rich Liberals can invest in corporations that specialize in rent control properties and boutique housing in Oregon and California and get 25 times (not a typo) the return that you can get in a bank savings account, risk free and guaranteed forever. This revenue stream increases each year, plus they get a cost of living increase to keep ahead of inflation as well. This diversifies the savings of the rich and has a better return than traditional “Blue Chip” investments.

Folks when you hear that Warren Buffett gets rich on the backs of the poor, its stuff like this that he uses to gain and keep his wealth. If managed properly, any investment in a rent control scheme will double your money about every decade.

Here’s how Buffett does it:

Once the property needs maintenance, you can increase your wealth even more. You sell the rental property from Corporation A to Corporation B, both of which you own. Corporation B, fixes up the property using a third corporation that you also own to do the capital improvements. Once modernized, you can then increase the rent to current market values and then get new tenants and repeat the cycle.

Since nobody on the low end of the income ladder gets five percent wage increases each year plus a cost of living adjustment, the poor will get even poorer while the rich get richer. As an added bonus, at election time, the rich Liberals will play the class envy card and blame Republicans for the plight of the poor which they engineered.

Zombie Apocalypse Begins Tomorrow

In an historic first, humanity has been given advance warning that the Zombie Apocalypse is scheduled to begin tomorrow. Contrary to earlier reports, the evil corporate entity responsible for the end of life as we know it is not the Umbrella Corporation.

Instead, government officials have announced that the responsible entity is a bankrupt company bent on self-preservation at the expense of humanity and what passes for civilization in this once Golden State. Enter one Pacific Gas and Electric Company. No not the cheesy 1960’s rock band but the once proud public utility.

The spark responsible for the anticipated chaos is the purposeful and simultaneous loss of electrical power in 30 California counties. The affected areas are expected to include Silicon Valley and peace loving Oakland.

Here is the completed list of affected counties:

Alameda, Alpine, Amador, Butte, Calaveras, Colusa, Contra Costa, El Dorado, Glenn, Lake, Mariposa, Mendocino, Napa, Nevada, Placer, Plumas, San Joaquin, San Mateo, Santa Barbara, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Shasta, Sierra, Solano, Sonoma, Stanislaus, Tehama, Tuolumne, Yolo and Yuba

Personally, my money is on the Raider’s fans to be the backbone of the lawlessness which will ensue; especially, if the blackouts go into overtime.

If this materializes as promised, look for Silicon Valley folks to transfer critical operations to other states with cheaper and more abundant power and less government red tape.

Oh, and here is a typical newsfeed of the warning being broadcast.

Pacific Gas and Electric Co. is warning customers that the utility may shut off power to 30 California counties this week because of a potentially widespread wind event.

The potential Public Safety Power Shutoff could impact more than 600,000 customers across Northern and Central California, the utility said Monday night.

The strong and dry wind event, forecast for Wednesday morning through Thursday afternoon, could impact much of PG&E’s service area, which includes northern, coastal and Bay Area counties. The National Weather Service has issued a fire weather watch for midweek.

“If PG&E decides to implement a PSPS, the company expects to begin turning off power for safety early Wednesday morning,” the utility said Monday night.
PG&E: Power could be shut off for 600,000+ customers

If you live in one of these areas stock up on water and shotgun shells today.

Oh to identify the zombies, look for the stranger carrying your neighbor’s television set or dragging his wife down the street towards their gasoline powered vehicles. Zombies don’t drive Tesla’s in PG&E service areas.

Raiders fan rehearsing for Zombie Apocalypse

Stay tuned to this blog for further developments as the situation warrants.

Fear of China Governs American Life

When it comes to business and entertainment, China seems to be dictating American policy. Just as they govern their own nation with fear, American companies are succumbing to fear of the Dragon of the East. When given a choice, Americans are choosing profit over principle every time.

China has made a huge investment in Hollywood over the last several years. As a result, they have actively reshaped the plots and casting of many big budget movies. Sometimes the changes made headlines and other times it hasn’t. One of the earliest changes that I recall was the remake of Red Dawn.

In the original 1984 movie, troops from Cuba and Russia make a surprise attack on the United States and get bogged down in a protracted fight. A group of high school students wage a guerrilla war against the invader’s supply routes.

As Hollywood often does, they remade the movie in 2012. Since the Soviet Union had fallen decades before, they needed a new villain, an aggressor nation with the military might to take on the United States. The logical choice was China. However, a curious thing happened in the midst of post-production. The studio nixed the China thing and made the producers change the aggressor nation to North Korea.

Was China originally the country invading the USA?

Yes, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) was originally presented as the invading regime, but after pressure from the PRC government and studio concerns on how it could impact the international box office, the film was digitally altered in post-production to replace all the PRC flags, posters and dialogue with that of North Korea.
From IMDB Red Dawn (2012)

Since then, it has become commonplace to change scripts or edit movies in such a way to get distribution in China. Even Hollywood “tent pole” movies like the Avengers have been altered to make it marketable in China.

Such changes are just the tip of the proverbial spear.

Today, two more news stories about compromising to please China are in the headlines. First up, the National Basketball Association (NBA).

The headline from ultra-rightwing publication Rolling Stone says it all.

The NBA Chooses China’s Money Over Hong Kong’s Human Rights

Daryl Morey did the right thing — at first.

In a Friday night tweet that he has since deleted, the Houston Rockets general manager expressed support for the legions of protesters who have taken to the streets of Hong Kong.

However, the problem for Morey is that the Chinese also love basketball. And thanks surely to the stardom of former Rockets great Yao Ming — now the head of the Chinese Basketball Association — Houston trailed only Golden State in popularity in the nation, per a recent survey. There appears to be too much money to be made in China for the NBA to stand up for human rights.
Yao himself responded to Morey’s tweet with condemnation, calling it “an inappropriate comment related to Hong Kong” and the CBA suspended its “exchanges and cooperation” with the Rockets. Chinese sportswear maker Li-Ning did the same, suspending its association with the team. The Chinese government also weighed in via its consulate, saying that it was “deeply shocked” by the tweet. The Rockets owner, Tilman Fertitta, quickly disowned Morey’s tweet:

Listen….@dmorey does NOT speak for the @HoustonRockets. Our presence in Tokyo is all about the promotion of the @NBA internationally and we are NOT a political organization. @espn https://t.co/yNyQFtwTTi
— Tilman Fertitta (@TilmanJFertitta) October 5, 2019

The Rockets and the NBA could have stood up for Morey, for decency, and for the protesters and their human rights.

The NBA issued a sorry statement, declaring the league realizes that the tweet may have “deeply offended” Chinese fans and that they “have great respect for the history and culture of China,” as if that had anything to do with a bill that could be used to disappear journalists and critics of an autocratic regime. Morey, who The Ringer reports was at one point in jeopardy of losing his job, tweeted his own apology that read like it was dictated by his boss. Brooklyn Nets owner Joe Tsai, a co-founder of Chinese e-commerce conglomerate Alibaba, published an open letter on Facebook that referred to protesters as a “separatist movement.” Even James Harden, the Rockets’ star guard, issued a mea culpa for some reason, even though he wasn’t involved.

That last bit of rank submission to an autocratic regime captured the full extent of the NBA’s sellout to China. Several politicians on the left and right, including presidential candidate Julián Castro and Rep. Ben Sasse (R-MO), called out the NBA’s cowardice. Even Rockets fan Ted Cruz took a principled stand:

We’re better than this; human rights shouldn’t be for sale & the NBA shouldn’t be assisting Chinese communist censorship.
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) October 7, 2019

Wow. Folks when Rolling Stone is singing the praises of Ted Cruz, you know that something is seriously wrong.

The next story probably won’t make it to your INBOX but it goes much the same way. Before getting into the particulars here’s a few nuggets of background. eSports is a big thing in a small segment of popular culture. This is where aspiring kids go to make millions of dollars playing video games competitively. A big hub of this activity is South Korea. Blizzard Entertainment was purchased a few years ago by Activision. Blizzard is best known for their World of Warcraft game. Hearthstone is a virtual card game that is modeled after Warcraft type characters.

Blizzard’s Hearthstone

The popular player ended a recent livestream with a call for his country’s liberation in a post-game interview. “Liberate Hong Kong,” Ng Wai said. “Revolution of our age!”

During the Hearthstone Grandmasters stream, the Hearthstone Pro was wearing a mask similar to those used by rioters in Hong Kong.

After the livestream ended, Ng Wai was immediately removed from the game’s Grandmasters rank and the developer is currently withholding his tournament prize money. The player also received a 12-month ban from the game’s professional events. The player will be unable to participate in Hearthstone eSports until October 5th 2020.

Unfortunately, government interference within China is a constant issue for its citizens. Even amongst the horrendous police brutality shown within the Hong Kong riots, the country still finds time for rampant censorship. With some developers being destroyed for slight anti-government inclusions, Blizzard’s huge Chinese presence does need to be protected in a business standpoint. From a moral and ethical standpoint, however, Blizzard is certainly not looking good.
Hearthstone Pro player Chung Blitzchung Ng Wai has been exiled by game developer Blizzard after supporting the Hong Kong riots.

For those of you that self-identify as low information voters, this is why I have problems with the way we conduct business with China. This also should help explain why I support President Trump’s efforts to change our relationship with China. Do I agree with everything Trump does with China? Probably not, but his instinct is correct. America businesses that put profit over principle are behaving shamefully.

Tesla Bad for Environment

It doesn’t take a genius to know that electric vehicles are a scam based on wishful thinking and junk science plus a healthy dose of government intervention to try to manipulate markets to be more favorable to these politically endorsed ideas. If you needed a little more documentation to share with friends to prove the obvious, here are three more articles for your consideration. Oh, if you look them up, there are links in them to even more evidence.

Article One

A Tesla Model 3 is touted as a zero-emissions car by government regulators, but it actually results in more carbon dioxide than a comparable diesel-powered car, according to a recent study.

When the CO2 emissions from battery production is included, electric cars, like Teslas, are “in the best case, slightly higher than those of a diesel engine, and are otherwise much higher,” reads a release from the German think tank IFO.

“It’s better read as a warning that new technologies aren’t a climate-change panacea. Recall the false promises about corn and cellulosic ethanol,” The Wall Street Journal editorial board wrote of the study.

A study released in 2018 also found driving electric cars might come with higher emissions than diesel vehicles, largely because of lithium-ion battery production.
Likewise, a Manhattan Institute study from 2018 also found putting more electric cars on the road would likely increase emissions compared to internal combustion engine vehicles.
Driving A Tesla Results In More CO2 Than A Mercedes Diesel Car, Study Finds

Article Two

A battery pack for a Tesla Model 3 pollutes the climate with 11 to 15 tonnes of CO2. Each battery pack has a lifespan of approximately ten years and total mileage of 94,000, would mean 73 to 98 grams of CO2 per kilometer (116 to 156 grams of CO2 per mile), Buchal said. Add to this the CO2 emissions of the electricity from powerplants that power such vehicles, and the actual Tesla emissions could be between 156 to 180 grams of CO2 per kilometer (249 and 289 grams of CO2 per mile).

German researchers criticized the fact that EU legislation classifies electric cars as zero-emission cars; they call it a deception because electric cars, like the Model 3, with all the factors, included, produce more emissions than diesel vehicles by Mercedes.

They further wrote that the EU target of 59 grams of CO2 per kilometer by 2030 is “technically unrealistic.”

The reality is, in addition to the CO2 emissions generated in mining the raw materials for the production of electric vehicles, all EU countries generate significant CO2 emissions from charging the vehicles’ batteries using dirty power plants.

For true emission reductions, researchers concluded the study by saying methane-powered gasoline engines or hydrogen motors could cut CO2 emissions by a third and possibly eliminate the need for diesel motors.
“Methane technology is ideal for the transition from natural gas vehicles with conventional engines to engines that will one day run on methane from CO2-free energy sources. This being the case, the German federal government should treat all technologies equally and promote hydrogen and methane solutions as well.”

So maybe Elon Musk’s plan to save the world with electric cars is the biggest scam of our lifetime…
Electric Car-Owners Shocked: New Study Confirms EVs Considerably Worse For Climate Than Diesel Cars

Article Three

It’s becoming a joke all around the world — the EVs in Australia powered by dirty diesel. But what’s the difference?

Most EVs in Australia are running on fossil fuel — the generators are just hidden behind longer extension cords. (Ones that carry 240,000V). EVs on our grid are running on 80% of fossil fuels every day.

The sign on the charger above says “Nullarbor” — the vast treeless and grid-free center of Australia — but this is actually a test site in Perth (the trees were the giveaway).

The 3,000 kilometer trip across the Nullarbor from Perth to Adelaide is such an achievement for an EV that it’s practically a news story each time one makes it.

Electric Car owners carry a chip about not being able to drive across the country as any real car owner could.

So Jon Edwards, a retired engineer from Perth, set up this test site in his backyard. He wanted to know if it could be a realistic stop-gap for our far remote roads.

To me, this looks like a chain of efficiency losses going from diesel to mechanical to electrical to battery to mechanical, but Edwards tested it with ten friend’s cars last December and estimates it works out slightly better on fuel use than just driving a diesel.

The charger is a Tritium Veefil 50kW DC (a big fast one) and took 9 hours to charge all 10 cars and used 108L of fuel. Good for fuel. Bad for time. (The 6,600km return trip across the Nullabor took 13 days in case you were wondering, though they were not in a race).

There’s a good reason EVs are only 0.2% of all new Australian car purchases — with vast distances, a fragile grid, expensive electricity and heavy towing loads.

Plus these fast chargers are like adding “20 houses” to our grid, so will cripple the system or require billions of dollars of infrastructure costs.

The dumbest thing is that as long as they run off fossil fuels, they’ll probably increase our CO2 emissions, doing the exact opposite of what they’re supposed to be doing, but yet perversely helping plants grow.

Their big environmental benefit being mainly achieved by failing to do what they are intended to do.
What’s Powering The Electric Car Charging Station? A Diesel Generator

Makes you wonder which uses more energy in their production life-cycle a Tesla or a Humvee?

Tesla’s PR Can’t Fix This

These next two stories hit so many different strands of product liability and malfeasance for Tesla that I couldn’t pass them up. Photos are from the respective articles quoted below. Oh, and NHTSA is National Highway Transportation Safety Administration.

It was just days ago that we reported that the NHTSA was opening an inquiry into the use of Tesla’s “Smart Summon” feature. Then, just hours ago we followed up by reporting that a petition had been filed with the NHTSA claiming that Tesla was using over the air software updates to cover up dangerous battery issues.

Today, we offer a stark reminder that just because the NHTSA has started to perk up its ears, doesn’t mean that Teslas haven’t stopped going up in flames all over the world. The most recent example comes from Austria, where after a Tesla was involved in an accident and caught fire, firefighters had to use a special container to transport the remains of the vehicle and the battery.

According to a translated version of this ORF News story, a 57 year old driver lost control of his Tesla and crashed into a tree, after first hitting the guardrail. It was then that the vehicle caught fire.

The driver was lucky, as “people passing by the scene of the accident took the man out of the vehicle and called emergency services.”

In order to put out the fire, the street had to be closed and fire authorities had to bring in a container user to cool the vehicle. The container held 11,000 liters (11 tons) of water and was designed to eliminate the biggest risk in an EV accident which is the battery catching fire.

The Tesla battery is mounted on the underside of the vehicle and contains acids and chemicals that can easily escape during a fire, placing the firefighters in danger.

Here is the problem: according to the article, some 11,000 liters of water are needed to finally extinguish a burning Tesla but an average fire engine only carries around 2,000 liters of water.

Fire brigade spokesman Peter Hölzl warned that the car could still catch fire for up to three days after the initial fire.

Bath tank to insure car doesn’t re-ignite

The container used is said to be suitable for all common electric vehicles. It measures 6.8 meters long, 2.4 meters wide and 1.5 meters high, it is (obviously) waterproof and weighs three tons.
11 Tons Of Water And “Special Container” Used To Extinguish Burning Tesla In Austria

(emphasis in original story)

We have previously documented the failure of Tesla’s Smart Summons on the blog and now we learn of another issue about Tesla batteries which I will get to in a moment. Then the hazards faced by firefighters. Why does Europe have a full immersion bathtub for electric vehicle fires, and nobody here does? You did catch the part about a Tesla can catch fire up to three days after an accident? I bet that little nugget isn’t in the owner handbook.

Here’s part of the battery story.

A notice published on Tuesday by the NHTSA said they had received reports about a possible defect in Tesla battery packs that could cause fires. The battery packs affected reportedly received new management software as part of over the air updates that were issued by Tesla in May.

The petition was filed by the Law Offices of Edward C. Chen, a California law firm representing a number of Tesla drivers in the U.S., according to Bloomberg.

Chen argued that Tesla is using software updates to cover up a potentially wide spread and dangerous issue: “Tesla is using over-the-air software updates to mask and cover up a potentially widespread and dangerous issue with the batteries in their vehicles.”

Chen has also argued that Tesla owners “saw the range of their Teslas on a charge fall by 25 miles (40 kilometers) or more after Tesla released two battery software updates beginning in May.”

The notice states: “The petitioner alleges that the software updates were in response to a potential defect that could result in non-crash fires in the affected battery packs and that Tesla should have notified NHTSA of the existence of this potential defect and conducted a safety recall. The petitioner also alleges that this software update reduces the driving range of the affected vehicles.”
The NHTSA Is Now (Finally) Looking Into Tesla Battery Fire Issues

(emphasis in original story)

Folks, I keep saying that the moment the government subjects Tesla to the same standards as other automakers that they are in for a world of hurt. Thankfully that day may finally be approaching.

Electric vehicles are a novelty not a solution. In a fair and free market, they would all but disappear. We tried electric vehicles a century ago and they failed in the market. It would take much more than cheap and abundant electrical power to make them mainstream. The proof that such a day is still far from us is the insistence of politicians and environmentalists that wind and solar are the answer.

Johnnie Does: Dickey’s BBQ

Dickey’s BBQ is a franchised BBQ concept headquartered in Dallas, Texas. They spend a ton of money advertising on cable calling themselves “real, Texas, BBQ.” They had a store in my town….it shut down, re-opened as a Side Burn BBQ, which I aided and abetted in their shut down (RIP). Now they have found a new sucker to re-open the store in the same location! So, without further ado here is the review.

Ambiance: When you walk into the restaurant, they yell out “Welcome to Dickey’s.” I found this weird because no one was there, sans one lady who ordered a large takeout order of sliders for her office.

Dickey’s, like everyone else, is trying to copy Moe’s Southwest Grill concept with the whole “Welcome to____” when anyone walks in, very unoriginal. Anyway, after walking in I saw one guy who was assembling the women’s order who was in front of me, the other two workers were just staring at me like I was a co-star in the “Invasion of the body snatchers.” I stood their statue like, jaw jutting out in deep thought “maybe it was a union shop and the other two couldn’t cut the meat?” Did I interrupt their break at lunchtime? Who knows?

Inspiring workplace poster for Dickey’s employees

Finally, Micaela asked what I wanted. I guess the union break was over, so I ordered the $3 pulled pork sandwich. 0/5 Literally I have seen a morgue with more ambiance.

Food: They offer BBQ faire like that found pretty much everywhere. The menu was pulled pork, brisket, chicken, ham (wtf??) ribs, spicy cheddar sausage, and polish sausage. They also offer an abundance of BBQ sandwiches like I ordered, as well as side dishes, salads, and baked potatoes. But as far as this being unique to Texas or anything…it stinks. Like literally there is nothing special about this joint. Why would you advertise Texas in California, a state that literally hates everything about Texas, without it somehow being better in flavor, portion, and quality? 1.5/5

I ordered the pulled pork using my coupon for $3 BBQ sandwich. Knowing this was likely a loss leader, I figured I would help them out and order a side of waffle fries for …. yeah $2.50. WOOF. My pulled pork was pulled from a warmer vat (not a smoker or a warmer) and the girl squeezed all the juice with her gloves. She reassured me this is how it was supposed to be made. I was born in the South and I know BBQ, this girl is either retarded or dumb, frankly you can choose.

Overall: Here is the kicker. Remember my coupon for the $3 sandwich? The staff didn’t honor it. I even showed them the digital coupon on my trusty smartphone. Maybe I am blind, but it would stand to reason when someone gets a digital coupon from corporate that the price would be honored. It wasn’t. I was charged the full amount of $6.50 for the sandwich and $2.50 for the side. I paid because, well you cannot fix stupid and I would rather these 3 idiots remain employed rather than collect unemployment. The gal told me she would bring my sandwich and fries out together after my fries were cooked because that way, they were fresh…. bad idea.

The sandwich was cold and dry, and the fries were cold…weird because they were “fried fresh.” The sandwich was somehow worse. It was dryer than dry. Like Mojave Desert dry…I had one bite and a couple of fries. I voiced my disappointment and the crew did not care. I left and when I returned to the office, I had a sleeve of Oreo’s for lunch. 0/5

This place stinks, it stinks, it stinks, it stinks. Legit Texas BBQ? Yeah, I guess not. I am certain my pulled pork was bought at the Safeway down the way, no chance they have a smoker in shop. The BBQ sauces they claim are homemade? I saw a delivery of sauces with a national name brands on them…not original, sorry. The shop was empty and it’s not hard to see why. The service is god awful and the food is a wild mashup of store-bought microwaved trash. Maybe try being legit and buy a BBQ or a smoker? Southerners everywhere must turn their noses up at this. Microwaved BBQ is what Yankees do!

Once, safely back at the office and stuffed with Oreo cookies, I complained to corporate and soon after, the franchisee called me and asked to have a meeting with me…I suggested maybe somewhere with authentic ethnic food like Taco Bell? He has been begging me to give it another try, and I have declined. He told me they pit smoke their meat every day for several hours, I guess Barney Fife and Col. Klink are minding the smoker? I feel bad for him because the food was bad and his employees stink…almost as bad as the food does. Long and short of it, save your money, because you will either get horrible food, or be overcharged for horrible food.

This place stinks….as Jon Taffer would say SHUT IT DOWN!

Johnnie Does