Author: Californiacontrarian

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

I just read some interesting data in the San Diego Union Tribune, a notoriously liberal “newspaper.” The data in this article had to do with the number of individuals in California who were unable to pay their monthly gas & electric bill. 

In California there are three major suppliers of electricity, SDGE, PGE, and SCE. For those who got their power from SDGE, 25.1% were not able to pay their bill as of 3/31/23. (the average amount owed was $743.91!)

For PGE, 20.4% of its customers could not pay their monthly bill (the average amount owed was $850.89!). For SCE, 16.1% were not able to pay their 3/31/23 bill ( the average amount owed was $977.64!) 

All in all, 4 million out of 14.7 million residential units in the state of California were at least one month behind. Over 27% could not pay their 3/31/23 power bill!

Keep in mind that solar panels are quite the rage here in California, and these individuals who have solar panels basically pay nothing for electricity as their solar panels are generating more than enough power for their own individual use, and most are able to sell their excess power back to the local electric company. If a lot of homes are paying nothing for electricity, then it means that eventually those without solar panels will have to pay more for electricity, because the fixed expenses of the electrical company do not suddenly disappear.

Could what is happening here in California be a so-called canary in the coal mine  … a preview of what’s to come.

Is this deluge of people who are not able to pay their gas/electric bills similar to the canary in the coal mine? If so, what’s in store for the rest of California’s 14.7 million residential units? … Hmmm!

5/11/23

A few months ago, in January, NYC Mayor Eric Adams promised migrants at a shelter in Texas that he would do everything in his power to help them achieve their American dream. Note specifically the words  … “everything in his power.”

Not long thereafter, Adams excoriated Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who had taken to busing illegal aliens from his state to NYC and other Democrat-led cities which were known as “sanctuary cities.”

In February, Canadian officials demanded in a statement that New York City Mayor Eric Adams “immediately” stop sending illegal aliens across the border to Canadian soil.

Quebec Premier Francois Legault accused Adams of helping illegal aliens make entry into Canada through a spokesperson, according to the New York Post.

The New York Post had previously reported that the city government was buying bus tickets for illegal aliens to travel to Plattsburgh, a city in upstate New York only 30 mins away from the Canadian border and 60 miles from Montreal.

Canadian social services were being overwhelmed by migrants and added that 39,161 illegal aliens had crossed the border near Plattsburgh last year.

“No, we don’t send migrants to Canada!” laughed Adams while speaking to Don Lemon on CNN. “That needs to be clear!”  While Adam’s statement is technically true as Plattsburgh is not in Canada, there is little question as to Adam’s intent. Perhaps using the city of Plattsburgh as a jumping off point is merely a demonstration of Mayor Adams “just being neighborly!”

Now with fewer than 48 hours remaining until Title 42 comes to an end, two New York counties have declared states of emergency over NYC Mayor Eric Adams’ threat to bus migrants into the suburbs.

Monday, Orange County joined Rockland County in declaring a state of emergency in advance of migrants’ arrival in the repsective communities

“The mayor is still insisting on committing two illegal acts in furtherance of his failure to handle the immigrant crisis in New York City,” Rockland County Executive Ed Day (R) said in an interview Tuesday morning on Fox News Channel’s “America’s Newsroom.”

The first illegal act involves boarding the migrants in a hotel in the county for more than 30 days, Day alleged. The second is violating the state of emergency that the county has already established, an act Day says is a class B misdemeanor.

“As an ex-police officer, Eric Adams should know better.” 

“To have 300 people dropped on us at one time is ridiculous. There’s just no way we can handle that; … 300 people is five times what the homeless count is [currently] in Rockland County.”

Perhaps this is also merely a demonstration of Mayor Adams “just being neighborly!”

5/10/23