Category: Uncategorized

As I do every Sunday, today I am writing about a true hero. Today it is Jimmie Sinatra.

From Epoch Bright:

Jimmie Sinatra grew up in Lakewood, Ohio, and bought a house with his wife in the area in 1995. That same year, he invested in his first snowblower. Soon, he upgraded to a Craftsman snowblower that he can walk behind and has been maintaining the prized apparatus ever since.

Why is Jimmie Sinatra an unknown hero? … well for years he has been clearing snow from his neighbor’s sidewalks.

Initially, only his immediate neighbors knew that he was helping clear snow for the neighborhood, and those living further down the street had no idea about it. However, over the years, a couple of people have noticed his handiwork and have asked if he could clear their driveways, too.

At 81-year Jimmie Sinatra has been clearing snowy sidewalks in his neighborhood for over 20 years. He refuses to accept cash donations, insisting he loves the snow and helping his neighbors. Now he is helping 34 neighbors!

“I don’t ask for money, I don’t ask for anything, I just do it to help the neighbors,” Mr. Sinatra said. “It’s something for me to do. I enjoy it, that’s all. I enjoy helping people.”

At the age of 81, Mr. Sinatra has his own health problems. In May 2023 he was diagnosed with stage four chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and emphysema in both lungs. He has trouble breathing so he wears a scarf to keep warm and carries an inhaler when he leaves the house to clear snow.”

The picture of him on Epoch Bright shows him dressed warmly while using his snow blower. What I noticed the most about that picture was his portable nasal oxygen!.

Jimmie Sinatra … a true hero!

2/4/24

As I have stated before I think there was something fishy about what occurred in and around the Capital on Jan 6. … Increased security was turned down! Hundreds of undercover agents in the crowd! Doors being opened as if to invite people in!

However, what I just read makes the situation even worse for those who were charged with various infractions.

It’s my understanding that in a fair trial, the accused has to be tried by a jury of his peers. If the jury pool is predominantly made up of individuals who have diametrically opposed political views compared to a defendant, does this satisfy the requirement about being judged by one’s peers? In general, I do not think that jurors should be asked about their political affiliation or who they voted for in the last election. However, here I am concerned with the jury pool in general. The results of a survey of potential Washington D.C.  jury pool participants was just released and the findings are deeply disturbing.

Is there a reason to think that the jury pool is biased against these Jan 6 defendants in the first place? 

An analysis published on Jan. 5 by the Associated Press shows that 1,241 people have been charged so far for their participation in the protests, which took place at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Of those, 905 have been convicted, 768 have been sentenced, and 322 are pending. Only one has been acquitted.

So far, over half of the defendants chose to have a judge decide their case rather than face a jury of Washington residents.

Of the 74 defendants who opted for a bench trial, 72 were convicted.

With the overwhelming number of guilty verdicts is it possible that the jury pool is a biased group even before they enter the courtroom?

Perhaps a survey could be taken. … sounds like a good idea, and so a survey was done.

(For the sake of clarity Edward Jacob “Jake” Lang, a Jan. 6 defendant from Newburgh, New York, who has been incarcerated in the D.C. jail for three years without a trial, is the one who commissioned the survey. It was paid for through donations to the January 6th Legal Fund to support Jan. 6 defendants.)

A survey (pdf) conducted by Triton Polling and Research between Jan. 1-8 and obtained exclusively by The Epoch Times reveals an extreme level of bias among potential jurors living in Washington toward anyone who participated in the protests at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

For those of you who wish to read about the results of this survey in detail, I need to refer you to the Epoch Times article on 1/25/24 by Patricia Tolson. 

What follows are the more egregious results of this survey.

Of the 422 “jury eligible residents” surveyed, 27.5 percent describe Jan. 6 protestors as “insurrectionists.” Others describe them as “criminals” (13 percent), “domestic terrorists” (14.9 percent), or “traitors” (11.6 percent).

The overwhelming majority also “strongly” (75 percent) or “somewhat agree” (14.4 percent) that former President Donald Trump is to blame for what happened, and 76.6 percent “strongly agree” that Mr. Trump’s supporters are racists.

Asked if they thought Jan. 6 was “an act of terrorism,” 63.6 percent said they “strongly agree.” Just 8 percent said they “strongly disagree.”

After informing survey participants that “the penalty for insurrection, treason, or committing an act of domestic terrorism is life imprisonment or death,” 26.9 percent said they “strongly agree” and 21.1 percent said they “somewhat agree” that those penalties would “be a fair punishment for anyone who participated in any of the events of January 6.”

“Regardless of what they did,” participants were asked if “anyone who participated in the events at the Capitol on January 6 should serve prison time.” Most (51.4 percent) said they “strongly agree” and 17.4 percent said they “somewhat agree.”

Most (68.6 percent) say Jan. 6 protesters should be “punished to the fullest extent of the law to prevent anything like this from happening again” and that “America is a safer place with them in prison” (40.1 percent).

Wow!!

Double Wow!!!!

No wonder the conviction rates are so one-sided. From my perspective, there is no way that any of these lemmings who were enticed to go into the Capitol can possibly get anywhere close to a “fair”trial. Actually the fact that Government prosecutors and judges insist there is no evidence to prove that they can’t get a fair trial in Washington is shameful!

Hopefully those who are already in jail because they were convicted by these “impartial” juries can use this survey to get their guilty verdicts overturned. For those who will not be successful and will remain in jail, hopefully President Trump will pardon them all.

2/3/24

The state of California seems to be circling the drain. Why do I say that? … actually there are multiple reasons why I am led to this conclusion.

First: California’s deficit is immense.

From California’s Legislative Budget Office:

California Faces a $68 Billion Deficit. Largely as a result of a severe revenue decline in 2022‑23, the state faces a serious budget deficit. Specifically, under the state’s current law and policy, we estimate the Legislature will need to solve a budget problem of $68 billion in the upcoming budget process.

Second, businesses are leaving California in droves, and Sacramento is either unaware of what’s happening or has chosen to ignore it.

– Chief Executive Magazine reports annually on the Best and Worst States for Business. Predictably, in their Best and Worst of 2023, California is ranked number #50 – again.

CEOs have solidified opinions about the welcoming top states, their assessment of the worst has ossified: No. 47 New Jersey, No. 48 Illinois, No. 49 New York and No. 50 California remain the same as in the 2022 survey.

What should be obvious is that when businesses leave, the employees go with them. These employees not only pay state income taxes, but also property taxes. This paying of taxes then cascades down to sales taxes, and so what looks initially to be the innocent movement of a small company turns into a big megillah as taxes are the revenue source for the state.

In addition, individuals, not affiliated with businesses are also leaving the state. Although the reasons are multi factorial, high taxes are high on the list. I personally know four individuals who have fled California for other locales (Florida, Missouri, Colorado, Nevada, and Tennessee). These individuals are all in one of the higher tax brackets, poof! … they are gone!

More than half of states have cut tax rates in the last two years, according to the Tax Foundation. This has set off big regional competitions. Colorado, for instance, adopted a 4.4 percent top rate on income, and Arizona slashed its rate to 2.5 percent, leapfrogging the rate cut to 5 percent that Utah adopted five years ago.

California’s income tax rate has been 13.3% for a decade, but effective January 1, 2024, the new top rate is an eye-watering 14.4%, Forbes reports.

Are you getting the picture? Sacramento certainly isn’t, and consequently the  circling of the fiscal disaster drain just continues!

2/2/24

Who bears the ultimate responsibility for the Department of Justice?

There is only one answer … the Executive branch of government. However that merely begs the question … Who is ultimately responsible for the actions of the Executive branch of the government? Again here there is only one answer. Since the President is ultimately responsible.for the Executive branch, the President is ultimately responsible for the Department of Justice and its actions.

Likewise, if the President denies any knowledge of something that the Department of Justice is doing or has done, then realistically there are only two possibilities. Either the President out of the loop, and the Department of Justice is acting independently, or the President is lying. Which is worse? 

If the President is clueless about what his Department of Justice is doing, I would think that most responsible individuals would view this as an abrogation of his presidential responsibility. Of course, it is possible that those who work at the Department of Justice are purposely keeping things from the President, but again this sort of dysfunction ultimately goes back to the President.

The other possibility is that the President is lying! If the President has repeatedly shown that he is an honest person, then this possibility is unlikely. However, if the President appears to have a penchant for not telling the whole truth and nothing but the truth to the American people, then the possibility that the President is lying goes up considerably. At this point, perhaps, we should recall the innumerable times that Joe Biden has said that he had no knowledge of and certainly no association with any of Hunter Biden’s business dealings! … Hmmm!

Now to the latest debacle in Georgia with DA Fani Willis and her probable paramour, Nathan Wade. To me the questionable actions of Fani Willis  will ultimately turn out to be the lesser of two evils for Democrats. Much more important will be the meetings between the prosecution (Willis/Wade, etc.) and the White House and the Department of Justice.

For example,

The special prosecutor appointed in the Trump case, Nathan Wade, had invoices submitted to the Fulton County District Attorney’s office that revealed he asked for reimbursement for at least two meetings with the White House counsel’s office while he was involved in the election interference case. Those meetings occurred in 2022 after he was named as a special prosecutor by Ms. Willis. … Hmmm!

Also in court on 1/27/24 Alex Bernick, a prosecutor from Willis’s office, was asked: “Is there something that’s actually in writing that shows communication between the office and the White House counsel?”

His answer was that there were two written letters from the White House Counsel’s office. … Hmmm!

It is also rumored that someone from the DA’s team travelled to the White House for discussions.

To me the ultimate question is whether Joe Biden was unaware that his team was actively participating in the prosecution of his political opponent, Donald Trump … or is Joe Biden lying?

Which is true? Which is worse?

2/1/24

Dear Justice Roberts,                            

From the beginning let’s be clear, whatever I am going to say should not be taken personally by you. However, because you are the Chief Justice, it seems fitting that you should bear more responsibility when a decision of SCOTUS goes awry.

Your (SCOTUS) latest decision about the barbed wire on the Texas border is merely a way of kicking the proverbial can down the proverbial road. Saying that the Federal Government can cut the barbed wire is like “dancing with your sister at the senior prom!” Saying that cutting the barbed wire is okay does not address the real problem on the Texas border. What was not addressed was the legality of Texas placing the barbed wire up in the first place. In addition what was not addressed was the illegality of the President opening the border to any Tom, Dick, Jose, or Mohammed that wants to come across.

Isn’t clear that your recent cursory ruling about who can or can’t cut the barbed wire is merely a delaying tactic to legal issues to come. For instance, it is okay for the Federal Government to ignore laws about preserving the integrity of our country’s borders?  Is it okay for a state government to then uphold the law when the Federal Government ignores it.? And then down the road what will happen when thousands of asylum seeking individuals do not show up for their hearings. If they are here with the blessing of the Federal Government, can they then legally be deported? If they came through where you allowed the Federal Government to cut the barbed wire, can they be deported?

Your inability to deal with the core issues here can only lead to a myriad of future problems. Just like your unwillingness to get involved with the legality of the 2020 election has led to many more legal issues, your “dancing with your sister” will not turn out well!

1/31/24

I recent.y wrote about the travails of EVs that are recently coming to the forefront. Tesla stock is down to about 190, having peaked at 296 last summer, and in the last month or so the stock price has dropped close to 30%. Hertz just sold about 1000 EVs, losing millions of dollars, because people did not want to rent them. Last month in Chicago there was chaos as the EV chargers were not working because of the very cold weather.

While this is bad news for electric autos, what is happening with electric buses (EBs)? Can the situation be any worse for EBs? … Yes it can! 

From Fox Business:

Cities from coast-to-coast are grappling with broken-down e-buses that cannot be fixed, are too expensive to fix, or they have scrapped their electric fleets altogether.

Officials in Asheville, North Carolina, recently expressed frustration that three of the five e-buses the city purchased for millions in 2018 are now sitting idle due to a combination of software issues, mechanical problems and an inability to obtain replacement parts.

Earlier this month, The Denver Gazette reported two of the four e-buses Colorado Springs’ Mountain Metropolitan Transit acquired in 2021 are not running. They cost $1.2 million a piece, mostly paid for by government grants. 

One of the large makers of electric buses, Proterra, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in August. The company, founded in 2004, rose to become the largest e-bus company in the U.S., representing nearly 40% of the market prior to going belly-up.

Asheville’s interim transportation director, Jessica Morriss, told local outlet WLOS-TV it has been impossible to get parts since Proterra filed for bankruptcy last summer. However, Asheville – and several other cities – had problems with the company’s buses long before then.

And the beat goes on …

Still from Fox Business:

In 2020, The Philadelphia Tribune reported SEPTA’s entire $24 million fleet of Proterras had been pulled out of commission. A spokesperson for the transit agency would not get into the specifics of why the 25 buses – the third-largest fleet of all-electric buses in the U.S. at the time – were put on ice.

San Joaquin Regional Transit District in Stockton, California, the Regional Transportation Commission of Washoe County in Reno, Nevada, and the Transit Authority of River City (TARC) in Louisville, Kentucky, were also struggling with Proterra buses sitting idle.

In Nov. 2022, WDRB-TV reported that TARC’s entire fleet of Proterra electric buses had not operated in two years. The outlet said $9 million had been shelled out for Louisville’s e-buses.

Note that other than Reno these cities do not have much in the way cold, Chicago-like weather. One can only imagine the disaster that electric buses would be in Milwaukee, Minneapolis, or Kansas City! 

The real life experiences with electric buses can only be referred to as another ‘BB,’ … ‘Biden Boondoggle!’

1/30/24

I’m sure that a lot of you remember how President Trump dealt with our enemies in the Middle East. He was pro-active. That approach worked because they only understand a show of force.

In addition President Trump designated the Houthi’s as a terrorist organization. As most of you remember, Joe Biden almost immediately removed the Houthi’s from this list. In the last few months the Houthi’s have been terrorizing shipping in the Yemen-Somalia Red Sea area. As a reaction to this, Joe Biden moved many American Navy ships into the area. Finally, Biden re-designated the Houthi’s as a terrorist group, and subsequently reactively started firing missiles into the Houthi’s locations in Yemen. Too little? Too late?

In January, two Navy SEALS were presumed by the U.S. military to have died after going missing during an operation near the coast of Somalia, although few details were provided. Officials said they were attempting to seize Iranian-made weapons that were being sent to the Houthi terrorist group based in Yemen, which has carried out a number of attacks on U.S. military ships and commercial vehicles since the start of the Israel–Gaza conflict.

Now on Jan 28, 2024 after months of attacks on our troops stationed around the Mideast, what everyone knew was very possible, happened.

Three American servicemembers were killed early on Jan. 28 in a drone attack on a small U.S. base in Jordan, the Biden administration said in a statement. At least two dozen other troops were injured in the incident, according to U.S. officials.

They were the first U.S. fatalities after at least 150 strikes by Iranian-backed groups against American forces across the Middle East. Joe Biden vowed to hold the perpetrators to account; so far, no organization or government has claimed responsibility.

Two important things:

First, Two months of attacks on our troops. Not two days. Not two weeks. But two months! More than 150 attacks on our troops. Not ten. Not fifty. Not one hundred. But more than 150!

Second, Joe Biden has now vowed to hold the perpetrators accountable. Perhaps, if Joe Biden was more pro-active, these three servicemen would still be alive, and he would not have to now be reactive.

1/29/24

The following is an amazing Sunday story from Epoch Inspired:

Mr. Sean Desmangles’s son, 18-year-old Niem, was born with a rare blood disorder that caused brain damage, preventing him from developing and leaving him unable to talk or walk. Every three weeks, his father chaperones him to NYU Langone Health for a blood transfusion.

When Niem turned 18, it got difficult for Mr. Desmangles to continue carrying his son up and down the stairs so he created a GoFundMe page to raise money for a stairlift.

“Sometimes you have to swallow your pride when it comes to doing stuff for family,” Mr. Desmangles told The Epoch Times. “I was trying to figure all my friends, send them the links.”

Mr. Desmangles also reached out to Officer Abdelaziz, whom he’d known for more than a decade.

New York City Police Officer Kareem Abdelaziz, 38, and his brother, New York Fire Department Lt. Abdelrahman Abdelaziz, 43, have known 51-year-old Sean Desmangles since he moved to their neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York, from St. Lucia in the Caribbean for better medical care for his teen son.

“He was a customer at my dad’s convenience store that we had for nearly four decades,” Officer Abdelaziz said. “He would bring his disabled son in a wheelchair on a daily basis, buy groceries, and hang out on the weekends.”

When Officer Abdelaziz first learned about Niem’s condition, he became very emotional.

“It’s a lifetime condition that he has to live with so it was just more about supporting him and his family from day one,” he said.

So when Mr. Desmangles sent the GoFundMe link to Officer Abdelaziz on a December morning asking for help, he immediately reached out to his brother.

‘I didn’t even get to finish my sentence; my brother absolutely said, ‘We’ll help him out, there’s no question about it,’” the officer said. “I hung up the phone. I got my thoughts together, my emotions together, and I reached out to Sean.’”

To make a long story short the Abdelaziz brothers funded the installation of the stairlift. After the stairlift was installed, Mr. Desmangles was able to show the life-changing apparatus to his son. It “meant a lot” for the Abdelaziz brothers to relieve their friend’s burden ahead of the holiday season.

“In the afternoon my son came and used it for the first time,” Mr. Desmangles said. “My son had the right to smile, and, for me, it was a great help because no more carrying over steps. He is heavy, he is big.”

Kudos to these two brothers. Certainly New York’s finest!

1/28/24

Even though it is only January I already have two candidates for “Bozo of the year!” (Last year the “Bozo of the year” serendipitously had a last name that began with ‘B,’ but that is not a hard and fast rule.)

The first candidate is Swiss banker, Hubert Keller.  

From Valuetainment: 

During a panel discussion at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland last week, Swiss banker and ‘agenda contributor’ Hubert Keller said coffee production is bad for the environment and is exacerbating climate change.

At a panel discussion Keller said, ‘The coffee that we all drink emits between 15 and 20 tonnes of CO2 per tonne of coffee… Every time we drink coffee, we are basically putting CO2 into the atmosphere.”

Keller went on: ‘And one of the reasons is because most of the coffee plantation or most of the coffee is produced through monoculture and monoculture is also affected by climate change… The quality of these natural assets is deteriorating quite rapidly.’

Not surprising, Keller is a managing partner of global wealth management firm Lombard Odier Darier Hentsch, a bank deeply committed to Environmental, Social, and corporate Governenace (ESG) philosophy.

However before you cast your “Bozo of the year” vote for Keller, consider another WEF speaker, Jojo Mehta, who described fishing and farming as environmentally destructive activities. She advocated for destructive activities to be recognized as “ecocide” under new international laws that would punish crimes against nature in the same way genocide is prosecuted.

BTW: Jojo Mehta, the co-founder and CEO of Stop Ecocide International, which compared the side effects of “farming,” “fishing,” and energy production to mass murder and torture. Her organization is currently working with diplomats, politicians, corporations, NGOs, and academics to advocate for the recognition of such acts of “ecocide” as serious crimes.

I am sure as the months pass by, other noteworthy candidates will arise.

However, keep in mind that future candidates do not have to be members of WEF!

1/27/24

To me throughout this whole Jan 6th thing there are many things which just do not add up. Each take individually .. well okay. But when one questionable thing is on top of another … my suspicion antenna goes up.

First, there is the Jan 6 house panel on which Nancy Pelosi would not put a reasonable Republican representative, but rather chose two very suspect pseudo-Republicans, neither of which will be back in the House. 

Then as has recently become apparent, that committee released only partial selected tapes of what happened. Apparently what was withheld did not fit the forgone conclusion that the Democrats had predetermined ahead of time.

Many many FBI agents (some think up to 200) were infiltrated into the crowd, and although there were many suspicions that something untoward was going to occur on that day, nobody felt that additional security was necessary. I still cannot understand that, and thus far there has been no credible explanation for the absence of additional security.

The doors to the Capitol were held open by those on the inside … very mysterious!

Next, the only one who died on that day was a rather small female Air Force veteran. She was unarmed and yet was shot point blank. The individual who shot her was neither charged nor prosecuted. Apparently this  shooting was quietly “taken cate of” by someone who knew best.

In December, the Supreme Court decided it would take up the appeal by Jan. 6 defendant Joseph W. Fisher of the Biden administration’s novel use of an Enron-era evidence-tampering law to prosecute hundreds of defendants for obstruction of Congress during the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol incident.

Many of these defendants were charged with obstruction of Congress based on 18 U.S. Code Section 1512(c)(2), or “Tampering with a witness, victim, or an informant.”

Several legal experts have said, in earlier interviews that the high court is likely to find that 1512(c)(2) is being improperly used against Jan. 6 defendants.

The implications extend beyond individual cases to the core strategy employed by the Justice Department (DOJ) in securing convictions.

Defense lawyer Kira Anne West, who has been involved in more than 50 Jan. 6 cases, has accused the Justice Department of overreach in prosecuting some of the approximately 1,300 Jan. 6 cases.

Ms. West, who volunteered to defend dozens of Jan. 6 defendants, said during a recent C-SPAN “Booknotes” podcast that most of her Jan. 6 clients had neither a criminal history nor did they engage in any violence that day.

“Some simply went into the building, turned around, and went out,” she said. “Many were in for a very short period of time, less than 20 minutes. Yet the government is charging them with felony charges that you can get up to 20 years in prison for. That makes absolutely no sense to me.”

Going into the Capitol on January 6th is not excusable. A misdemeanor … yes, but a felony warranting 20 years in federal prison? … not hardly!

Hopefully the Supreme Court will make amends for turning its back on all of the fraud and illegality surrounding the 2020 election. If they had done what they should have done in the first place, January 6th would have never happened.

1/26/