Month: March 2023

We all realize that bad things can happen to good people. This is not what many of us might call “fair,” and although most might rightfully feel bad for that individual … “c’est la vie,” or “that’s life.” On the other hand, sometimes bad things happen to bad people, and although some may not wish that bad things happen to anyone, it might be said, if it’s going to happen, it couldn’t happen to a “nicer” guy. Well the same things can happen to companies, e.g. Disney Corp.

From Breitbart:

Entertainment giant Disney is set to eliminate up to 4,000 jobs as part of CEO Bob Iger’s $5.5 billion budget cut plan as the company faces repeated box office bombs, billions in losses over its streaming service, and political setbacks due to its radical left-wing policies in Florida.

The 4,000 layoffs may be just the beginning. In Feb., it was reported that Iger was looking to end up to 7,000 jobs, or more than 3 percent of the workforce.

It was also reported that the company is scaling back spending on new programing, marketing, and owned enterprises such as ESPN and other entertainment divisions.

Disney’s financial worries come as the company has increasingly embraced the extreme woke agenda, transgenderism, and critical race theory, especially in its entertainment aimed at children. As Breitbart News recently reported, the Disney+ streaming channel series The Proud Family: Louder and Prouderstirred controversy by pushing reparations for slavery, claiming in its latest episode that America was founded on “white supremacy” and “still has not atoned” for its racism.

All these pressures are compounded by repeated box office disappointments as woke features including Lightyear, Enchanto, Mulan, Strange World and others fail to live up to expectations at the theater. Not to mention that its much ballyhooed streaming service is still not making a profit.

The company has also lost a string of political battles in Florida, home of its Disney World theme park, after attempting and failing to force Florida to allow young school children to be exposed to radical gender politics by opposing the state’s recent education laws, and losing its special taxing and self-governing status.

I feel bad for the thousands that are going to lose their jobs. However, whereas my response to these Disney Corp. travails could be c’est la vie, more appropriately it is, “it couldn’t happen to a nicer company!”

3/31/23

One of things I wondered after reading a recent news update … “does living at high altitude affect one’s thinking.” Consider the following out of Louisville, Colorado, which is a Denver suburb. Denver is located at about 5280 feet, “the mile high city,” and I have to assume that Louisville is at approximately the same elevation.

From The Daily Mail:

The blue-run city of Louisville, Colorado will ban all new gas stations as local lawmakers say they feel an ‘obligation’ to fight climate change. 

City councilors in the town of 21,000 approved a proposal on 3/21 to cap the number of gas stations for their constituents to just six. 

‘We have an obligation to take every step possible to address the changes to our climate that are ravaging our planet and directly impacting the health, well-being and livelihoods of the constituents we represent in Louisville,’ council member Maxine Most told Fox News. 

Speaking before the vote, councilwoman Most admitted that the move wouldn’t stop climate change, but said the small community should continue with the plan anyway. … Smart?

‘We should be taking whatever incremental steps to not create additional fossil fuel infrastructure,’ said the councilmember, who also serves on the city’s Economic Vitality Committee. 

Louisville’s green policies are intended to meet several of its climate change fighting goals, including meeting the entire city’s municipal electricity needs with carbon-free sources by 2025. … Smart?

This last sentence tells one all that he needs to know about the looney-tunes in the Louisville city council. But just in case there is any doubt, let’s think logically. If you work in Denver and commute back and forth to Louisville, you will probably stop somewhere on your commute rather than risking longer lines at the limited number of gas stations in Louisville.  In this situation the involved individual will continue to work in Denver, and the gas tax money will go to someplace other than Louisville. (Not too smart, Louisville City Council!)

Similarly if one chooses to fill up on the weekend, longer lines at fewer gas stations will lead to longer idling times and thus increased air pollution in Louisville itself! (Not too smart, Louisville City Council!)

3/30/23

How has the liberal push of ESG investing turned out thus far? 

From CNS News:

While powerful asset managers, such as BlackRock, are pressuring companies to cater to liberal environmental, social and governance (ESG) agendas, a new analysis finds that companies that aren’t influenced by politics outperform those that are.

During the period from June 30, 2021-January 31, 2023, companies were far more likely to be liberal than either neutral or conservative.

In a Wall Street Journal commentary, “Is ESG Profitable? The Numbers Don’t Lie,” veteran investment industry experts Mike Edleson and Andy Puzder present the findings of their study of the effect of ESG politics on company fortunes.

The study uses a ratings firm’s five-point sale (1 = most liberal, 5 = most conservative) scoring of U.S. large and midcap companies’ social and political involvement regarding the following six issues:

1. Environment,
2. Education,
3. Abortion,
4. Second Amendment rights,
5. Other basic constitutional freedoms, and
6. Support for a safe civil society.

When the performance of politically-neutral companies (those with a composite score of 3) was compared to that of either the overall market (S&P 500 and Russell 1000) or ESG-registered funds, the non-political companies came out on top.

The overall market and ESG indexes were down:

• S&P 500 down 1.8%,
• Russell 1000 down 3.2%
• ESG funds performed worse, with most losing 2.5% to 6.3%.

In contrast, a simple index composed of only neutral companies gained 2.9%, “significantly outperforming both broad-market and ESG indexes in up and down markets,” Edleson and Puzder report.

They also note that the performance-gap between neutral and politically-driven companies began to widen in 2017-2018, about the same time that powerful asset managers like BlackRock, State Street and Vanguard began to wield their considerable influence to pressure companies to embrace ESG, at the expense of profit.

Other studies appear to support their finds. A Bloomberg analysis found that, over the past five years, an ESG portfolio would have garnered a 6.3% return, while a non-ESG one would have increased by 8.9%.

One of my readers recently commented that she was going to get out of her Black Rock investments because of the politics involved  – a principled decision. If this present trend continues it appears that she has also made the right financial decision.

3/29/23

A question recently came up as to whether the savings on gas for an electric car paid for the increased cost of insurance for that EV. Obviously the saving on not having to purchase gas would depend on the number of miles driven. The more miles driven, the more savings on gas. However, does the cost of insurance on an EV also depend on the number of miles driven?

The average cost to insure a Tesla Model 3 is almost 30 percent higher than the national average for car insurance, Nerdwallet said.

It’s not like people aren’t paying to protect their Teslas. In late 2022, Nerdwallet reported that the average Tesla owner with a good driving history and good credit could expect to pay about $2040 a year for a Model Y and as much as $3044 for a Model X. 

Owners of certain automotive brands know that expensive repair bills come with the territory. But that doesn’t mean insurance companies want to play that game, and some of them are increasingly deciding to write off low-mileage Tesla electric vehicles because they are too expensive to fix, according to a new report from Reuters.

A recent article from 1/23/23 Car and Driver titled, “Tesla EVs, Even Mildly Damaged, Are Being Written Off by Insurance Companies” pointed out that:

• There were 120 Tesla Model Y electric vehicles listed in two large salvage auction houses recently, and the “vast majority” had under 10,000 miles on them, according to a report from the Reuters news service.
• The insurance companies that covered these vehicles decided that even with so few miles on them, these Teslas aren’t worth the $50,000 or so they sometimes cost to repair.
• Reuters was not able to determine the types of incidents that caused the damage in these cases but did note that multiple well-known insurance brands, including State Farm, Geico, and Progressive, all decided the fix wasn’t in.

If the insurance company deems that the EV is not fixable, how much do they reimburse the owner? Enough to buy a new EV? … I doubt it.

Hmmm! … Just another few things to think about before buying an EV.

3/28/23

This issue is a common sense issue … do parents deserve to know what their children are learning? To the Dems in the U.S. House of Representatives the answer is, “No!” On 3/24/23 all of the Dems in the House voted against H.R. 5, known as the “Parents Bill of Rights” to protect parental rights in education. 

From Townhall:

“The legislation gives parents the right to know what’s being taught in schools and to see school reading materials, the right to be heard by school officials, the right to see the school budget and spending, the right to protect their child’s privacy, and the right to be updated on any violent activity at school.”

So far this seems like common sense, as every good parent wants to know what is happening at their children’s school. Why would the Dems be against this? Perhaps, it had to do with an amendment to the bill, sponsored by Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO), says that parents have the right to know if their child’s school operates, sponsors or facilitates athletic programs that allow transgender athletes to join a team that aligns with their gender identity instead of their biological sex, The Hill reported. This same policy also goes for school restrooms and locker rooms.

Typically, Dems play a lot of attention to polling, but they missed it here.

A new poll recently found that the majority of registered voters believe that schools should not keep information surrounding a child’s gender identity from parents. And, the majority of voters supported legislation requiring schools to inform parents if their child wants to change their identity at school.

It will be interesting to see what happens to this bill in the Senate, as a few RINOs will actually have to decide what is actually important to middle Americans. Of course, in the end none of this will matter as our squishy President will veto anything that is important to the average citizen.

However, come 2024, parents will realize who is basically on their side, and as we all learned from last year’s Virginia’s governor’s race, parents vote.

3/27/23

As is my custom on Sunday I devote an entire piece to someone who I consider praiseworthy. James Reimer fits perfectly into this category.

From the Daily Wire: 

On a recent Saturday night  NHL’s San Jose Sharks goalie James Reimer opted not to wear the team’s specially designed warmup jersey before a game as the team celebrated Pride Night.

Reimer issued a statement explaining his decision which the NHL franchise shared on its Twitteraccount:

“For all 13 years of my NHL career, I have been a Christian — not just in title, but in how I choose to live my life daily. I have a personal faith in Jesus Christ who died on the cross for my sins and, in response, asks me to love everyone and follow him,” he said. “I have no hate in my heart for anyone, and I have always strived to treat everyone that I encounter with respect and kindness. In this specific instance, I am choosing not to endorse something that is counter to my personal convictions which are based on the Bible, the highest authority in my life,” Reimer continued. He concluded that “every person has value and worth” and should be “welcomed in all aspects in the game of hockey.”

I never thought that I would be praising the words and thought process of a hockey player, but to James Reimer, I say, “Right on, James. I admire you for taking a principled stance based on your beliefs. Hopefully, more athletes will have the courage to follow in your footsteps.”

3/26/23

The other day I was wondering whether Biden and his fellow Dems are evil in disguise, and that reminded me of something I wrote about two years ago.

Was Presley Prescient ?  

Ever since I was a kid, I have been an Elvis Presley fan. I can remember watching him on the Ed Sullivan Show on CBS at 7:00 pm central on a Sunday night back in the late 1950s.(At that time my dad predicted that he would never make it . . . I guess that my father was not prescient.)

For those not as old as myself, the Ed Sullivan Show was where many of the new singing sensations made their American debut in the 50s and the 60s. This included not only Elvis, but also The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Supremes, and The Beach Boys, to name but a few.

I have many Elvis favorites . . . All Shook Up, Too Much, Don’t Be Cruel, Love Me Tender, In The Ghetto,and The Devil in Disguise, to name but a few. However lately, for some reason recently, I have been recurrently singing the lyrics of The Devil in Disguise to myself. Why would I be singing the lyrics to this 1963 Elvis Presley hit now?

Perhaps a review of some of the lyrics will help:

You look like an angel

Walk like an angel

Talk like an angel

But I got wise

You’re the devil in disguise

Oh yes you are

The devil in disguise

Could it be that Elvis Presley was prescient? Could it be that I am recurrently singing this song because the lyrics remind me of someone in the limelight today? Could it be that these lyrics remind me of Joe Biden? Hmmm!

He certainly looks like an angel, albeit an old angel, with his white hair and nice suit. He walks like an angel – err, except when going up stairs.

He talks like an angel with his soft melodious voice, and although he talks very little, he does read well. In addition, he does not do “mean tweeting.”

But like Elvis in the song sings, “I got wise.” (Is he the devil in disguise?)

In contradistinction to his immediate predecessor, he is certainly the most pro-abortion president since  . . . Barack Obama under whom he was VP. To me, this sounds like the devil. 

In contradistinction to his predecessor, he is very pro-Trans and in being so, he is basically denying high school girls the ability to compete in sports, and thinks it’s okay for boys to be in the Girls’ bathroom. To me this sounds like the devil.

He is doing his best to turn the USA from an energy exporter to an energy importer. Certainly not angelic – at least to those of us who live in the USA. Shutting down the Keystone XL Pipeline has cost thousands and thousands of jobs. To me purposely making individuals unemployed sounds like the devil.

Is he The Devil in Disguise?

Was Presley prescient?

3/31/21

3/25/23

Last week I wrote about another apparently healthy athlete experiencing sudden death, and I queried whether this was due to Covid vaccine induced myocarditis. One of my RINO friends essentially told me that I was exaggerating the apparent numbers of young athletes experiencing cardiac sudden death.(Paraphrasing him … young athletes are dying all the time. This is nothing new.) 

Today I read something that piqued my interest … not because it involved athletes per se, but because it involved young people. 

From The Epoch Times:

Former BlackRock fund manager Edward Dowd is bringing attention to the surge in deaths and disability that has occurred since the COVID-19 shot campaign rolled out.

Group life policyholders, who are typically healthier than the general population, experienced mortality spikes of 40 percent in 2021

Disability numbers among the workforce reached a high of 33.2 million in September 2022, with numbers still trending up—a highly unusual increase.

Dowd’s book, “Cause Unknown” details data, some of which comes from private insurance companies, which love to sell group life insurance policies to large Fortune 500 corporations and mid-sized companies because they hardly ever have to pay out on a claim.

Workers at these corporations tend to be in good health, with industry data suggesting the group life policyholders have one-third the mortality rate of the general U.S. population. The death rates have historically been highly predictable among this group—until 2021. A report released by the Society of Actuaries found mortality spikes of 40 percent or more that year.

Insurance companies had sizable increases in payouts for death and disability. Dowd tweeted Feb. 1, 2022, that financial insurance company Unum reported a significant increase in their benefit ratio (payouts versus premiums) in their life segment. Dowd tweeted:

“In 2021 they saw a 17.4% increase vs 2020. This is higher than the 13.3% increase vs 2019. So the higher payouts in 21 are occurring with a miracle vaccine & less virulent strains … In 2019 the unit had $266 million profit, last year a profit of $82 million & this year a loss of -$192 million. A swing of $458 million lower over 2 years. Important to remember these are employed working age folks.”

Dowd also looked into the number of disabled people in the United States, using high-frequency data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The agency uses a monthly telephone survey that asks, “Are you or someone in your home disabled and not able to work?” Prior to COVID-19 shots, Dowd said, there were 29 million to 30 million disabled people on an absolute basis, a rate that remained steady for four or five years.

In February 2021, a trend change occurred, reaching a high of 33.2 million in September 2022, with numbers still trending up. That’s a three standard deviation rate of change since May 2021, which means that the chance of this happening is 0.03 percent—highly unusual.

Dowd explains, “Of the 3.2 million newly disabled Americans, 1.7 were employed but came from the employed population of the country.” This is significant, he says, because: “The employed people of this country are, generally speaking, by the very fact that they wake up in the morning, get in their car and drive to work, healthier than the general U.S. population.

“By the very nature of doing work, you’re healthier. And that’s a fact that’s never been challenged before. The health outcome for the employed has been disastrous. Since February 2021, their disability rate is up 31 percent … the general U.S. population’s disability rate is up 9 percent.”

Dowd and colleagues have been tracking what they call Humanity Projects at their website, Phinance Technologies.

These stats are not just in the U.S.

One trend they’ve found is that the more vaccinated the country, the higher the excess mortality. Denmark, which is one of the most highly vaccinated, stands out.

So, let me summarize something to my RINO friend:

Deaths in young people are up … impressively up, including healthy young people. Athletes are young healthy people, and so, it should not be surprising if their deaths were also up. Yes, athletes have been dying over the ages, but not at this rate. At this point my suspicion is that Covid vaccine induced myocarditis is the predominant underlying cause of this unusual statistical occurrence. Prove me wrong!

3/24/23

I moved to Southern California over forty years ago, and this winter has been the coldest that I can recall since I have lived here. Granted I do not claim to have a perfect memory, but I asked my neighbor who is in his forties what he thought. He agreed with me, and since he was born and raised here, I have to ask, “Is this the new normal?” While I know that daily/weekly variations in temperature are not supposed to have any relationship to Global Warming, I ponder whether or not this is what is what those that know best are referring to as Climate Change. Of course, if getting colder here in SoCal is indicative of the climate actually changing, I am struggling to relate this to CO2.

Be that as it may, today I read about another “new normal” in New York.

state where they are lowering cutoff scores for standardized tests due to ‘learning loss’ from COVID lockdowns.

From BlazeNews:

New York state will lower its threshold for what is considered to be “proficient” on its standardized tests to account for a loss of learning in students from 2019 to 2022, according to reporting by the Daily Caller.

The state’s scoring committee will being using data from 2022 as the benchmark for student scoring, despite standardized scores in subjects such as math proficiency dropping by 7.6 points compared to 2019, according to Spectrum News.

“Only a quarter of students in the 8th grade, which is the latest grade that we have test scores for, were able to be proficient in math,” said David Bloomfield, professor of education leadership, law, and policy at Brooklyn College and the CUNY Graduate Center.

“That’s really worrisome,” he added.

Let me see if I’ve got this straight … because school children did not learn what they were supposed to learn as a consequence of government mandated school closures in New York, New York is going to lower their standards of achievement on testing. Are they doing this so that the children will not feel bad when their test scores are poor? I guess in New York, rather than trying to increase what the children are learning, it is more important that children feel good about themselves! If they ultimately do not learn as much, it might work out if the future new normal is that New Yorkers are only competing against other New Yorkers for future jobs. However, children of New York, a warning … “do not attempt to get future jobs on merit if you are competing against children from red states, such as Florida, because then the new normal will be that you will definitely feel bad about yourselves.”

3/23/23

As best I can tell very few, including yours truly, are familiar with Harold Shurtleff. Granted even though Harold Robert Shurtleff  (January 6, 1883 – December 6, 1938) was a Harvard graduate and an American painter, (who wrote a book describing who actually lived in colonial log cabins), this is not the Harold Shurtleff to whom I am referring. I am referencing the Harold Shurtleff who filed suit against the city of Boston in 2017 … Shurtleff vs. Boston.

From the First Amendment Encyclopedia:

U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Boston violated a private organization’s First Amendment religious free exercise rights by refusing to allow them to temporarily raise a Christian flag on a flagpole outside Boston City Hall, given that Boston had previously allowed various organizations to temporarily raise secular flags on the same flagpole.

The court’s ruling depended on its conclusion that, given Boston’s policies, temporarily raising a flag on this flagpole outside Boston City Hall was an act of private expression, not government speech.

The court’s decision was narrowly applied to the facts in this specific case. The court did not rule that as a general matter raising a flag on a flagpole outside a government building is an act of private expression. On the contrary, the court’s reasoning suggested that usually such acts are government speech.

There are three flagpoles outside Boston City Hall. One flies the United States flag. Another flies the Massachusetts state flag. The third typically flies the Boston city flag. But for many years, Boston has allowed other groups to request to temporarily raise other flags on the third flagpole. Most of the flags have been those of other governmental entities or have been associated with a day of observance in Boston.

In 2017, Harold Shurtleff — on behalf of Camp Constitution, a private organization seeking to “enhance understanding” of the United States’ “Judeo-Christian moral heritage” — requested to temporarily fly “the Christian flag,” which is a flag used to represent Christianity by many Protestant churches and denominations in the U.S.

Citing concerns about violating the First Amendment’s establishment clause, Boston twice denied Shurtleff’s request. After the second denial, Shurtleff sued.

In a unanimous decision, the Supreme Court reversed the lower courts’ decisions. The key reason why the court reversed was because it disagreed with the lower courts that temporarily raising the Christian flag would have been government speech, not private action.

This decision is important for two reasons.

First: It was unanimous.

Second from PJ Media:

Shurtleff restored the right of every American to practice and express their religious beliefs, as guaranteed by the First Amendment. As Liberty Counsel Founder and Chairman Mat Staver put it recently …

This 9-0 decision from the Supreme Court involving the Christian flag continues to have an impact across the nation. The clear message from the Supreme Court is that government must not discriminate based on viewpoint. The government cannot favor one viewpoint and censor another and cannot censor religious viewpoints under the guise of government speech. Any governments that are ignoring this ruling are setting themselves up for potential lawsuits.

As best I can tell, this decision will have far-reaching implications for a long time! 

Thank you, Harold Shurtleff.

2/22/23