Month: October 2022

For the most part, the meme, “You get what you pay for” has held up over the years. This certainly seems to be the case at the White House. Here I am not only specifically referring to President Biden, although that certainly appears to be the case with him. However, he is not what I am concentrating on here. Here I am referring to the present White House Press Secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre (KJP). Joe Biden choose her to be the present Press Secretary because … (long pregnant pause) … because she was uber qualified for that job? … Err, “No!” 

Perhaps she was chosen because she is a woman?

Perhaps she was chosen because she is black? (Before you go all P.C. on me, “black” is actually the correct descriptive term, as she was born in Martinique – not Africa.)

Perhaps she was chosen because she is LGBTQ?

I think she was chosen because she had the above trifecta, and certainly not because she was the best person for the job. Again supporting that meme, “you get what you pay for!”

Just about every time KJP takes questions, her ineptness is on display. Granted part of the problem could well be that she is supposedly speaking for Biden, and he can hardly speak for himself. She started off last week demonstrating her XXX … (Here I am searching for a word whose meaning describes totally out of her league, and yet unaware of it.) Anyway the encounter with Peter Doocy on 9/26/22 and the subsequent comments from social media leave little doubt that she is still there only because of her “trifecta of non-qualifications.”  She is not good at the job. Ugh!

Fox News reporter Peter Doocy questioned Jean-Pierre on what President Biden thinks of rising crimestatistics affecting major cities over the past year. She ultimately declined to answer directly, claiming that Biden has already done plenty to help cities.

“Does President Biden think America’s big cities are safe?” Doocy asked.

KJP responded, “It is not a yes or no question. It is very much a question of what has he done …”

Further questions on the subject only led to further tap-dancing from KJP.

Her repeated dodging was attacked on Twitter as crime continues to be a major issue for voters.

Media Research Center associate editor Nicholas Fondacaro wrote, “Peter Doocy trips up Karine Jean-Pierre with one simple question: ‘Does President Biden think America’s big cities are safe?’ ‘It is not a yes or no question,’ she answers.”

“Why does KJP even bother to pretend to answer questions? She should just hand out her notebook that has the same 3 excuses written on every page to save everyone time,” comedian Tim Young tweeted.

CNN commentator Scott Jennings wrote, “the ability to look into a camera and just completely and totally lie with a straight face is … something.” And this is from CNN!!!

Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., tweeted, “Today, Karine Jean-Pierre dodged several questions about rising crime in America. Meanwhile, she claimed ‘it’s important to have this conversation’ about changing the name of the Atlanta Braves.”

While innocents in major cities cannot safely walk to their cars, she is talking about the name of the Atlanta Braves. … OMG! 

What was that meme again?

Do we need another reminder that “you get what you pay for?”

10/3/22

As is my usual modus operandi on Sundays this true story is about individuals who are to be admired for what they did. However, today is unique in that it involves two different pairs.

There is a video on Epoch Bright, and I will attempt to summarize the story as best I can:

Samantha and her fiancé, George, are the true heroes of this story, although without the loyalty and/or friendship of Corey the following would have never happened.

First off, Samantha and George traveled fifty miles to help. They had seen a Facebook post from a postman who described what he saw, but because of his job commitment could not give aid.

When Samantha and George arrived at the scene, a bedraggled and dirty Corey was sitting on the side of the road. He was obviously waiting and hoping for help, because his friend lay in a ditch on the side of the road. What makes this story unusual is that both Corey and his friend, Mathew, are dogs. Mathew was lying in a ditch about twenty feet off the side of the road … too far off the road to have been spotted by a passing car. Mathew would have never been spotted if it wasn’t for the vigilance of Corey marking the spot.

Mathew had and obviously had been hit by a car and had sustained multiple injuries. His rapid breathing indicated that his condition was critical. With some difficulty Samantha and George were able to get both Mathew and Corey into their car and to a vet, who saved Mathew and was able to patch up Corey. At the end of the video the two dogs are reunited with both tails wagging.

It was only at the end that I realized how much Mathew and Corey looked alike, with Corey being smaller and Mathew bigger. My guess is father and son. 

So who are the ones that we should all look up to and admire here? 

Obviously, Samantha and George who went way out of their way to help.

However, let’s not forget Corey who would not leave the scene until his friend, possibly his father, was helped. 

Would that we would all act like these heroes in similar circumstances.

BTW, the video is well worth it.

10/2/22

In just the last few months, I am aware of three different individuals leaving California, and all for different reasons. Just as interesting, all three are markedly different in terms of their ages … one about 37, one around 55, and the third in his upper seventies.

The thirty-seven year old basically said that it was just too expensive to live here. He and his girlfriend moved to Oregon with the hope that the less expensive cost of living up there would be their ticket to a more 

comfortable life style as well as a future.

The fifty-five year old was a native Californian, and because he could retire, he decided to leave. He basically felt that California was growing more and more evil, he decided to get away from that evil, namely to get away from California. At last report he was going to be headed to either Tennessee or West Virginia. Why he had narrowed his destination to those two states, I don’t know. Nonetheless, he is gone.

The seventy-eight year old was increasingly tired of worsening traffic and his more frequent encounters with homeless individuals. According to him, the fact that there was family in Missouri, “made my decision easy.”

What I find especially interesting with these three individuals is not only the diversity of the reasons as to why they left, but also the range in terms of their economic status … one was lower-middle class; one was smack-dab in the middle of the middle class; one was upper-middle class. The unifying concept with these three were that they were all middle class.

Do the stories of these three represent outliers or are they merely examples of what is happening to an increasing subset of Californians?

Around 367,000 people left California in the year leading up to July 2021, representing the highest domestic migration loss in the nation, according to Census data.

According to Terry Gilliam, founder of the Facebook groups “Leaving California” and “Life After California,”the reason people are moving is multifaceted. (Similar to the three personal examples noted above.) The cost of living, crime, homelessness, and climate policies are a few reasons families say they’re making the big move.

Gilliam continued, “What California is doing is they’re eliminating the middle class. There’s not going to be a middle class anymore,” he said. “You have the super wealthy who don’t care how much it costs to live here, because they love living here, and you’re going to have the poor who get everything subsidized.” (Again note the similarity to the three “used to live in California” middle class examples that I described above.)

What is going to be the ultimate outcome for California, of all those thousands of taxpayers now paying their taxes elsewhere? 

Me? … at this point, I am to old to use common sense and relocate out of state. At this point I do not know what holds for the future of California … but I do know that it will not be pretty!

9/1/22