Month: May 2023

I never thought that I would ever come to point that I would be singing the praises of a Democratic politician on a Sunday, as Sunday is the day in my blog that I reserve for someone who deserves our praise.

From BlazeNews:

Mesha Mainor is a Georgia Democratic General Assembly member, who slammed members of her party recently, accusing them of “lying about their address” to send their own children to better schools while simultaneously rejecting a school choice bill.

It takes a lot of fortitude for a Democratic politician to buck the trend and go against her fellow Democratic politicians.

She angered her fellow Democrats when she stood with Republicans in support of Georgia Senate Bill 233, which would have provided $6,500 vouchers to parents with students performing in the bottom 25% in the state. The vouchers could have been used to pay for private school tuition and homeschooling expenses.

Mainor, a supporter of “parent choice,” was the only Democrat to vote in favor of the legislation.

“Why is no one fighting for young Black minds? Why isn’t that one of the things that we’re fighting for?” Mainor told Fox News Digital. “I actually say you’re a hypocrite. That’s what I tell them directly. You are being a hypocrite. There are state lawmakers right now where their children are in schools that they’re not even zoned for … They’re lying about their address, state lawmakers, but they won’t vote for this bill.”

“I support parent choice because some parents have children in schools where their needs are not being met,” she continued. “In my district in particular, we have schools with 3% reading proficiency, 3% have obtained math proficiency by the eighth grade. And so to say that this is just how it is and that the kid needs to just suffer these consequences, I don’t agree with that. And I don’t think that all parents agree with that either.”

But her fellow Dems did not appreciate her sticking up for poor black children.

Again from BlazeNews:

Mainor’s fellow Democrats came after her after she failed to vote along party lines. Democratic state Senator Josh McLaurin offered $1,000 to anyone willing to run against Mainor. McLaurin posted a photograph of a check on his Twitter account with the caption, “All I need is a name.”

Mainor stated that there is a “collective effort” by her Democratic colleagues to get her out of office. She called the pushback “ludicrous.”

“I think my fellow Democrats – and not all of them, I hate to say that because it’s not all of them – some of my colleagues will march in the streets for abortion rights. I’m pro-choice. They were crying on the floor for transgender rights. They were very outspoken about antisemitism. My problem is, why is no one fighting for young Black minds? … And so to say that all these other issues are important, but a child living in poverty that’s of color is at the bottom of your totem pole of priorities, that’s a problem with the value system if you ask me,” she added.

Mesha Mainor is one tough lady! Sticking up for what is right against formidable opposition takes courage. I would vote for her in a New York minute!

5/21/23

This was written and posted on my blog over two years ago, and now we are seeing the long term consequences of belittling our police, especially when the rubber meets the road in big cities.

Shortage ? . . . “Duh!”

Many US cities are having difficulty keeping police officers.

Is this a surprise after all the anti-police rhetoric lately? … Duh!

From the Blaze:

Philadelphia:

The Philadelphia Police Department currently has 268 vacancies and is expecting even more shortages in the near future.

“From Jan. 1 through Apr 22, 79 Philadelphia officers have been accepted into the city’s Deferred Retirement Option Program, meaning they intend to retire within four years, according to Mayor Jim Kenney’s office,” the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. “During the same time period last year, just 13 officers had been accepted into the program, the office said.”

“It’s the perfect storm. We are anticipating that the department is going to be understaffed by several hundred members, because hundreds of guys are either retiring or taking other jobs and leaving the department,” Mike Neilon, spokesperson for the Philadelphia Fraternal Order of Police, told the newspaper.

New Jersey:

New Jersey is facing a “recruiting crisis,” according to Pat Colligan, president of the New Jersey State Policemen’s Benevolent Association.

Col. Patrick Callahan, the acting superintendent of the New Jersey State Police, said the state’s largest police agency received a “historically low” number of applications this year. In some years, the New Jersey State Police would usually receive between 15,000 to 20,000 applications – this year they only received 2,023 qualified applicants as of 4/22,21 according to NJ.com.

Baltimore:

The Baltimore City Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 3 said there were “recruitment and retention issues,” which prompted the “topic of closing police district(s).”

“Our Patrol numbers are now below 700 officers which is about 300-400 below what is needed,” the Baltimore FOP said, according to WBFF-TV. “This creates huge safety issues for our officers and for the citizens of Baltimore.”

Los Angeles:

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti (D) is proposing to increase the budget of the Los Angeles Police Department amid skyrocketing violent crime and increased vacancies within the department.

From Fox News:

Louisville:

Statistics provided by LMPD on Tuesday show the department has hired 26 new members so far this year, while 43 have left. The 1,069-person department falls 255 people short of its “authorized strength” of 1,324 — the number of personnel it is authorized to employ, statistics show.

Meanwhile as of 4/25/21 there had been 84% more non-fatal shootings so far this year, with 201, compared to the 109 instances reported during the same time in 2020, LMPD statistics show. There were 56 murders reported as of Sunday — a 75% increase from the 32 reported by April 25, 2020.

From the Chicago Sun-Times:

Minneapolis:

In Minneapolis, about 40 officers retired last year, and another 120 took leaves of absence. That’s nearly 20% of a police department with about 840 officers in the city. Police officials are waiting to see whether the leaves of absences in the Minnesota city become retirements.

Chicago:

In Chicago, 560 officers retired in 2020 in a police department that had about 13,100 sworn officers as of March, records show. That’s about 15% more cops retiring than during the previous year, when the number of retirements rose by nearly 30%.

John Catanzara, president of the Chicago Fraternal Order of Police union, said he can’t see how the police department’s recruiting can keep pace with the retirements and pointed to Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s latest budget, which eliminated 614 police vacancies.

“They have just made policing in this city and state near-impossible,” the police union boss said. “They have given control to the criminals.”

And from FreedomWire the coup de grâce:

New York:

In New York City, the nation’s largest metropolitan area, cops are retiring from/quitting the NYPD at alarming rates following last summer’s anti-policing riots, which have continued unabated this year.

The New York Post reported, “More than 5,300 NYPD uniformed officers retired or put in their papers to leave in 2020 — a 75 percent spike from the year before, department data show.

The exodus — amid the pandemic, anti-cop hostility, riots, and a skyrocketing number of NYC shootings — saw 2,600 officers say goodbye to the job and another 2,746 file for retirement, a combined 5,346.

In 2019, the NYPD had 1,509 uniformed officers leave and 1,544 file for retirement, for a total of 3,053.

The departures and planned departures of 5,300 officers represents about 15 percent of the force. Already, as of April 5, the NYPD headcount of uniformed officers has dropped to 34,974 from 36,900 in 2019.

All of these cities and many more are losing cops. Is it going to be a long deadly summer this year . . . “Duh!”

5/20/23

As you read about President Biden’s schedule, you have to wonder … WTF! For the forty years that I worked, I never had such an easy work day, and I would guess that the same statement could be made by many.

In April Axios reported that aides say it’s tough to schedule “public or private events” with Biden at certain times of day — namely weekends, mornings, and evenings.

From the NY Post:

In fact, the report adds, most of Biden’s public events happen between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. That works out to a 30-hour workweek — even less than the official 35-hour workweek in France.

So far this year, Biden has held just four events before 10 in the morning, 12 events after 6 p.m. — mainly state dinners, receptions, and Democratic fundraisers — and has spent a dozen more weekends without any public events.

“President Biden does nothing at 9 a.m.,” former White House press secretary-turned-MSNBC host Jen Psaki said on the air last month.

“Nice work if you can get it!”

What about vacation?  Most people get 2-3 weeks vacation a year. Even if you are lucky enough to get 4 weeks vacation a year, that amounts to 7.7% of a total year. What about J.B.?

From Daybreak Insider:

“Despite having the most important and powerful job in the world, few people on earth take more vacations than Joe Biden. The Biden administration’s incompetence has once again been in the news recently, with the escalation of the inevitable border crisis. With the end of Title 42, many have expected further chaos across the Southern border. So what is Joe Biden, the leader of the free world, doing in response? Going on vacation. Of course. And what’s worse is that this latest trip means he’ll have spent 40% of his presidency on vacation (Outkick). Since taking office, Biden has spent 333 days — 40% of his presidency — on vacation.”

40%!!! … “Nice work if you can get it!”

5/20/23

On the afternoon of 5/18/23 by happenstance, I happened to tune in on the “Select Subcommittee on Weaponization of the Federal Government” hearing. Let’s be clear I did not specifically search and select this hearing out, but boy am I glad I did! 

I was enjoying watching Sen.Kennedy (R,LA) interviewing two of Biden’s judicial nominees on YouTube and exposing how incapable each of them was.(Certainly, one would think that Biden’s judicial nominees should have some knowledge of basic law and recent Supreme decisions!) Anyway, after two of these question and answer sessions, I innocently clicked on this Select Subcommittee hearing. After only about fifteen seconds, I watch was mesmerized. Prior to this coincidental and random landing on this Subcommittee hearing, I had not paid much attention to whistleblowers and the FBI.

But let me tell you … “Wow!”

Once I started watching it, I literally could not stop. There were multiple things that impressed me about the approximate forty-five minutes that I watched.

First: The FBI is now a nasty nasty vengeful organization. It certainly seems that  if one speaks up and disagrees with what the FBI is politically doing, they (the FBI) is then out to crush that individual. The initial piece of the FBI vendetta scheme is to first take away that individual’s security clearance. Without the security clearance, all pay is stopped. All benefits are stopped. And that individual cannot look for another job. If that individual has no way to feed his family … tough sh*t. There is no question that the FBI was intending to send a very discreet message to anyone who is considering bringing some untoward things out into the open … “do it and we will crush you!”

Second: A lot of the minority Democrats were just plain nasty and insulting to the three whistleblowers (Steve Friend, Garret O’Boyle, and Marcus Allen). Some went full bore with ad hominem attacks, trying any falsehood to attempt to cast doubt on their reputations, and thus their testimony. One Democrat was quoting tweets from Marcus Allen’s Twitter posts  The problem was the tweeter was a completely different Marcus Allen! Was there then, “Oops, my bad?” Not a chance.Just continue to attack.

Third: Although I did not see the opening statements by any of the three whistleblowers, during the questioning each of the three were professional, courteous, and gentlemanly. They did not return insults with the dastardly minority questioners.

Fourth: Congressman Jim Jordan ran a tight ship. Each member of the committee was allowed five minutes for questioning, and five minutes was all that was allowed.

Fifth: To me it was apparent that most of the Democrats on the Committee were not interested in learning the truth about the skullduggery that is going on in the FBI. If either the FBI or the DOJ have broken the law, I do not think that they give a rat’s ass.

** If you have a chance watch this Whistleblowers Subcommittee hearing on YouTube. Guaranteed … that you will be disappointed in both the FBI and the DOJ.

5/19/23

Perhaps one of the reasons that the cost of a college education has skyrocketed is that colleges and universities now have an increasingly  uber number of administrators. So what does notoriously liberal Oberlin College do when there is an obvious issue? … Hire another administrator!

As many of you may recall progressive Oberlin College was recently  involved in the Gibson’s Bakery case.

From The College Fix:

The college most famously paid out $36.6 million to local Gibson’s Bakery after its administrators were found complicit in damaging and false accusations of racism against the town staple. The damaging false accusations of racism came after a bakery employee chased several black individuals out of the store after they had stolen alcohol, back in November 2016.

But that apparently is not the only legal trouble the school has run into, according to an article in the Oberlin Review. The opinion piece from the student newspaper’s editorial board lamented how the school’s uneasiness around further lawsuits might stifle its legacy as a liberal bastion.

“The board recognized our claims history was a lot greater than it should be for an institution of Oberlin’s size,” Trustee Chuck Birenbaum told the campus newspaper.

Now to me there is a common sense solution to this issue of an increasing number of lawsuits. … “Stop acting like a woke inebriant, start using common sense, and pay attention to the Constitution.

But ne-qua-quam, in accordance with its progressive nature, because Oberlin College’s record on lawsuits is so bad, it hired a new role this school year – a dedicated risk manager.

Again from The College Fix:

“The number of lawsuits, employment cases, Title IX claims, personal injury cases, the Gibson’s case — which we can call a torts case — all these claims demonstrated that Oberlin needed to take a hard look at itself in some ways that it hasn’t before,” Birenbaum, an employment and labor attorney by trade, told the campus newspaper. “One of the things that [Oberlin] did was it sought professional advice on risk management.”

My prediction is that if this “professional adviser” is as woke as the Oberlin Board of Trustees, this liberal college will continue circling the financial drain. If he/she does not use common sense, the number of lawsuits will not go down, and the costs to attend Oberlin College will just continue to go up and up.

5/18/23

After realizing that California is deeply in debt, does anybody think that the Dems in Sacramento will stop and say that the planned reparations for African Americans presently living in California are financially impossible? 

From the Washington Examiner:

The California Reparations Task Force is considering direct monetary payments for black citizens, which could go as high as $1.2 million per person. The cost for the monetary payments alone is estimated to be $800 billion, nearly 2.5 times the entire state budget of California. All this comes as the state faces a $22.5 billion budget deficit for fiscal 2024 

Putting the financial ludicrousness aside for a second, this is still a ridiculous idea as California was never a slave state, and there is no one still alive today that was around at the time of slavery.  Pure and simple this is obviously Pandering! Plan A! We wanted to give all of you black folks money, but we weren’t allowed to. Vote for us anyway!”)

The Governor of California has implied that he will not sign on to this version of financial suicide. (At present he doesn’t need to pander.) Ergo the Dems in California must come up with a pandering alternative … Hmmm!

From the Daily Mail: 

California’s reparations task force has said that black people should be given priority in the renting and buying market – and demanded that a state agency should have the veto power over real estate decisions to ‘lessen racial segregation.’ 

This should be referred to as Pandering Plan B.

While anyone with half a brain knows that this will never fly as it is blatantly unconstitutional, that is really not the actual point. … (“We tried to get a great real estate deal for all you black folks, but we weren’t allowed to. Vote for us anyway!)

What will be Pandering Plan C?

5/17/23

One might suspect that the title of this piece is a misprint, but you would be wrong as the title refers to Akio Toyoda, the sixty-six year old CEO of Toyota Motors. Back at the end of September in Las Vegas he simply stated he would like his legacy to be: “I love cars.”

Personally I have a lot of respect for Akio Toyoda because he is the CEO of a company that makes a quality product. (As an aside, I have owned nothing but Toyotas since 1985, including a Tercel, Camry x2, a Four Runner, and RAV4 x2. If you are thinking that Toyotas do not last, you’d be wrong, as over the years I have passed five of these down to my kids.)

Toyota is somewhat of a rebel these days among car makers, as it is not going full bore, 100%, into EVs, and Akio Toyoda  is the one behind this reticence. 

From CNBC in October, 2022:

“Toyota, the world’s largest automaker, plans to invest $70 billion in electrified vehicles over the next nine years. Half of that will be for all-electric battery ones. While it’s a substantial investment in EVs, it’s smaller than some competitors’ plans, and not as much as some would like given Toyota’s global footprint.

“Despite criticism from some investors and environmental groups, Toyoda this past week doubled down on his strategy to continue investing in a range of electrified vehicles as opposed to competitors such as Volkswagen and General Motors, which have said they are going all-in on all-electric vehicles.

‘For me, playing to win also means doing things differently. Doing things that others may question, but that we believe will put us in the winner’s circle the longest,’ he said during Toyota’s annual dealer meeting in Las Vegas, which, by the way, was called ‘Playing to Win.’

Toyoda reiterated that he does not believe all-electric vehicles will be adopted as quickly as policy regulators and competitors think, due to a variety of reasons. He cited lack of infrastructure, pricing and how customers’ choices vary region to region as examples of possible roadblocks.

Toyoda also believes there will be ‘tremendous shortages’ of lithium and battery grade nickel in the next five to 10 years, leading to production and supply chain problems.”

That was Toyoda’s opinion back in September. Has he changed his mind?

From BlazeNews in December:

“Toyota Motor Corporation president Akio Toyoda is pumping the brakes on the idea of an all-in approach to EVs.

‘People involved in the auto industry are largely a silent majority,’ Toyoda told reporters during a trip to Thailand, according to the Wall Street Journal. ‘That silent majority is wondering whether EVs are really OK to have as a single option. But they think it’s the trend so they can’t speak out loudly.’

‘Because the right answer is still unclear, we shouldn’t limit ourselves to just one option,’ he said, according to the outlet — during the past few years, he said, he has attempted to communicate this idea to stakeholders in the automotive space, including government figures, but he indicated that his effort had been tiring at points.

According to the Journal, Toyoda said that other options like hydrogen-powered vehicles were starting to receive a better reception from government leaders, media figures, and people in the vehicle industry.”

Is Toyota again prescient as it was with the Prius? Will the future prove Akio Toyoda to be right?

Presently Toyota stock is selling at about $145 per share. This is down from a high of about $210 a year ago. If Akio Toyoda is correct, perhaps, this a good time to buy.

5/16/23

Years down the road we will address lessons learned from these excruciating four years under President Joe Biden. I believe that the major retrospective take will be the J.B. was a buffoon. Perhaps a simple marionette, but a buffoon nonetheless. This morning I read three stories in a row which point out what a buffoon JB actually is.

1. From Townhall and Daybreak Insider:

CNN suddenly ended an interview after a migrant said he illegally crossed the border because of the recent expiration of Title 42. As a CNN reporter strolled the streets near the U.S.-Mexico border, he stopped to ask a migrant, “Were you aware of Title 42 and that they were going to open the border like before the pandemic?” In response, the migrant said “yes,” telling the reporter that he heard the southern border would be wide open following the Biden Administration’s decision to lift the Trump-era policy and decided to make the trip. The CNN reporter then abruptly thanked the man and quickly ended the interview.

Republican Mayra Flores criticized the Biden Administration for “ignoring the border crisis” and allowing Title 42 to expire. Flores is warning President Joe Biden that his lax open border policies will enable dangerous Mexican cartels to wreak havoc on the country further. “They don’t want to fix this issue because they want to continue using the immigration issue every election cycle to get support from the Hispanic community. Then, once they get the support from the Hispanic community, they toss them aside,” she continued.

1. FromFox News:

Border Patrol agents arrested an Afghan national on the FBI’s terror watchlist after he crossed into the U.S. illegally Wednesday in California. The Afghan national crossed the border with a group of migrants near Otay Mesa, California, the sources said. Border Patrol agents took the migrants to a processing station, where a fingerprint scan determined the Afghan was a match on the Terrorist Screening Database. 

1. From the Daily Wire:

President Joe Biden ginned up racial tensions at the graduation ceremony for Howard University on Saturday, claiming that America’s greatest threat comes in the form of “white supremacy.” 

BIDEN AT HOWARD UNIVERSITY: “The most dangerous terrorist threat to our homeland is white supremacy — and I’m not saying this because I’m at a Black HBCU. I say it wherever I go” 

Duh!

Let me get this straight. These illegals are coming because JB basically invited them. Among the throngs that are coming across the southern border there are terrorists which are undoubtedly here to do harm to us, and yet JB thinks that the greatest threat to our country is white supremacy! OMG! … Buffoonery!

5/15/23

One of my friends sent me this true story from timburt.org. Granted this is not in the same genre, as my usual “Sunday hero” piece, but because I liked it, and it reminded me of the ending of one of my books (Charles Hyde and  the #7),  I thought what the heck.

The story involves Mr. Miller, an  Idahoan fruit and vegetable stand peddler during the Depression. Not infrequently local poor boys would wander over to his fruit and vegetable stand, not so much to buy, but to gaze longingly at some of Mr. Miller’s produce. During the Depression bartering was frequent as many had no money, and obvious to Mr. Miller, these boys had no money. Mr. Miller’s usual modus operandi was to ask the hungry lads if they had any marbles at home. When they nodded yes, he would offer to give them some produce in exchange for a red marble, because he said that red was his favorite color. In a few days when each boy would individually return with a red marble, Mr. Miller would tell him that his favorite color was now green, and to bring a green marble back to him the next time. The next time he would tell the boy that his favorite had changed again … it was now blue! Et cetera. Each time when Mr. Miller “changed his mind” as to his favorite color,  a little more produce was given to each boy. Mr. Miller explained that the additional produce was to make sure that the boy would not forget Mr. Miller’s new “favorite” color!

Twenty years later Mr. Miller died,and many many locals attended his wake. Standing in the long line were three young men, each in distinctly different attire than the other country folk that were there. One was in an Army uniform, and two were dressed in suits and ties. After expressing their individual condolences to Mrs. Miller, each young man individually approached the open casket, placed his right hand on top of Mr. Miller’s cold hands, and said a prayer. It was apparent to all that these three young men all had tears in their eyes.

It was only later that the undertaker found the three red marbles that had been placed beneath Mr. Miller’s folded hands.

5/14/

Just read something that is not good news for California. As most of you are aware California is losing citizens, but more important is losing citizens that pay taxes. The pattern of this loss reminds me more of a hemorrhage than the little loss of blood that occurs when you cut your hand. When hemorrhaging occurs in real life to a real person, if nothing is down to stop the blood loss, it is only a matter of time before really bad stuff happens to that hemorrhaging individual. Loss of blood pressure leading to loss of consciousness, leading to loss of life. If we metaphorically compare hemorrhaging  California to a hemorrhaging individual,  California is now being transferred to the ICU. How much longer can the hemorrhaging California survive?

From The Epoch Times:

“Recently released data from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) reveals the extent of migration out of California, with a significant number of people moving out between 2020–2021 and taking their billions of dollars in income with them.

Approximately 332,000 more taxpayers left the state than entered in the year following the onset of the pandemic, according to IRS data analyzing differences in zip codes on tax filings as compared to the prior year.

According to the data, the state lost $29.1 billion in taxable personal income in 2021 following a loss of $18 billion in 2020.”

And the bad news continues to get worse, as California’s hemorrhaging  just continues:

“Businesses are leaving as well, and more are considering a move soon, according to a survey of CEOs conducted by Professor of Economics Jim Doti at Chapman University in collaboration with three University of California campuses: Irvine, Los Angeles, and San Diego.

“As many as 50 percent of CEOs are suggesting they’re planning to leave California,” he said in EpochTV’s Leaving California documentary, citing high taxes, regulations, and housing prices as the motivating factors.”

And the blood loss will continue to get worse:

Professor Doti additionally said “it’s not just about a loss of tax revenue.

The greatest loss to a state is the loss of human capital, not just jobs or businesses,” Doti said. “If graduate students move to Texas and Florida, it will have a negative impact that is magnified because we’re losing our best and brightest.”

As I’ve already mentioned if nothing is done to stop the hemorrhaging in a live person, disaster follows. Unfortunately in California since nothing is being done to address the cause of the hemorrhaging (high taxes, high crime rate, a high and increasing rate of homelessness, outlandish energy costs), to me the main question is how long before California is transferred from the ICU to the morgue?

5/13/23