Okay I’m really over this!

California retailers are responding to the insanity of legal thieving ($900).

Stealing is okay according to the morons in California’s legislature, as long as you don’t steal too much. (They should heed their own advice!)

California retailers are locking the damn doors, even though they’re open. So someone like me. You know, a decent law abiding person for whom stealing is the furthest thing from their mind, can’t just shop.

No, I have to ask permission to walk into some stores. I have to be buzzed in, or I have to be escorted while I’m in the store.

People don’t understand that when I’m shopping I’m moving. I’m not lingering over something unless it catches my eye. My mode of shopping annoys retailers who’ve had to open locked doors and give the super secret hand shake.

I’ll zip through a store in 5 minutes or less, if I don’t see something I like, I’m gone!

If we’ve gotten to the point that lawlessness is the rule, not the exception, we’ve got serious problems. Problems that might only be solved by gunfire.

Unfortunately if retailers are resorting to these tactics in my area (60 miles away from Los Angeles, 500 miles from Oakland and San Francisco, 100 miles north of San Diego), then in California at least, crime has apparently become the norm.

I remember being told in school that one major difference between America and Russia was that, in Russia there were lots of criminals and high crime. In America we had law and order, we could safely walk the streets.

40 some odd years later and i find myself asking is that still true?

I found myself enjoying that the Russians had found four of the assholes who shot up a music hall within 2 days. They didn’t give a shit about those pieces of filth. The Russians went ‘old school ‘to get information out of the criminals. One dude had his private parts wired up to some electrical device. Another had an eyeball fall out, (oops), a Third had an ear removed, the fourth was beat senseless and appeared for his arraignment unconscious.

Apparently, these criminals started singing like birds. So the Russians knew who to hunt down next.

The Russian people walk the streets of Moscow tonight safe. They get onto and off of subway trains that are clean. They walk through stations that are brightly lit, clean and beautiful.

We used to be the same.

If you’ve ever been to San Francisco, you may have seen BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) Stations. There was a time 30 years or so ago when me going to the Bay Area meant riding BART. I loved it. The stations were all clean, the trains were clean, it was safe and I think many, if not all of the stations were unique works of art. it was a pleasure to use the system, and I looked forward to my visits.

San Francisco was a beautiful jewel of a city. It was safe. It was a walking town, and if you got tired there were always the Streetcars, MUNI busses, or BART. On a sunny day, walking the streets of the city was a joy. The color and vibrancy, the oddball businesses tucked into old buildings made every block a new discovery.

I wanted to live in San Francisco. I wanted to get rid of my car, use mass transit, live in a quirky old building, work in the city, and watch the sun set over the bay every night. Of every place I’d been, San Francisco was the first and only city I’ve ever fallen in love with.

The last time I was there was about 10 years ago. I felt unsafe from the moment I walked into the BART station from the airport. At every station, there were people who were obviously ill. Either from drug addiction or psychological impairment, they appeared to be homeless, living in the stations. It was necessary to run a gauntlet of mentally ill or “high” people just to get to a train.

The trains formerly, sparkling clean and comfortable, were filthy as were the stations. When the train I was riding entered the tunnel going under San Francisco Bay, I hoped that at least the tunnel maintenance had been done properly. That had never been a concern for me before.

That was the last time I was in San Francisco. Now in the post COVID era I have no desire to go back since it’s gotten so much worse. It’s heart breaking what has happened to what was a model of efficient transportation, and a spectacularly beautiful city itself.

Permissiveness, has destroyed or is destroying California. It has been eroding all aspects of the state for a very long time.

I’d really like to see police allowed to do whatever it takes to put a stop to crime. If that means nightsticks liberally applied, or saving the taxpayers money by putting down criminals with a bullet I’m good with it.

I suppose I’m saying, I no longer see criminals as humans. They rip through stores like locusts and I’m all for them being exterminated like locusts.

Probably a little harsh… I’m just really tired of accommodating criminal behavior.


Update: 3/29/2024

Well, I’m going to be looking for a new barber. The owner of the shop has decided that they need to charge 1/2 upfront for an appointment.

This was slightly annoying when I booked my every 4 week appointment. Then I thought about it.

My Barber said the upfront charge was because of excessive cancellations, without the individuals having the courtesy to call.

Okay, but… I’ve never missed an appointment, and the 1 time in a year that I needed to reschedule. I called to reschedule 2.5 weeks ahead of the appointment. In contrast, due to health issues my barber has rescheduled on me 2 or 3 times.

I really like my barber, but I really don’t like being punished for the “crimes” of other people. I understand that the shop has a problem with the appearance of preferential treatment so they have to treat everyone equally.

I on the other hand, can express my displeasure with this new policy by not making appointments in the future. This will likely mean I will take my trade elsewhere. Being able to walk in for a haircut isn’t something that works because as the only barber shop in town they’re pretty busy.

OR maybe they were busy. I honestly wonder what this new policy is going to do to the business.

I can say, they’re pricy. I’ve stuck with them for two reasons. 1) I like my barber. 2) I like to support local businesses.

I’ll not be making another appointment. Especially since perhaps Sports Clips will work out better for me. I can combine a less expensive hair cut with shopping for groceries, and puppy supplies.

This is just another example of how the breakdown of civil behavior, courtesy and professionalism, negatively affects us all.

How can people not see the problem here?

Arthur F. Engoron.I’m very, very, confused about this whole Trump affair in New York.

The Judge found Trump Guilty of a crime for which there were no victims, in fact the supposed Victims testified in court they’d be pleased as punch for the Trump organization to victimize them some more.

The “Fraudulent” business dealings in question provided  the City and State of New York substantial tax revenue and Wall Street investors via their proxies (The Banks) profited.

I’m not seeing the criminality here.

Having worked in mortgage banking for a while during my career, I know that no bank takes at face value what the person or company applying for the loan claims the property is worth. Banks always review and independently verify the property value.

I’m not seeing where the fraud is,

If I have a penny that’s got some unique property and you want that penny. If you offer me $100 for that penny, then the penny has a current value of $100. If someone else offers $200 for the penny, The current value of the penny is $200. If you really want the penny and you go to a bank for a loan, The Bank and you may come to an agreement wherein the bank agrees to the value of the Penny and is willing to loan you $200.

Now you can pay me up to  $300 for the penny. I agree to sell you the penny for $300. I pay the income tax on the $300. You pay the Sales Tax on the $300. Nothing has changed about the penny but its value is now $300. You pay the Bank interest on the $200 they loaned you and the bank pays income tax on that interest. 

In addition, the bank pays its employees, You pay a guard to protect your Penny. The bank employees and your guard buy gas, and groceries, and lattes at Starbucks. Through it all the state and city derive tax revenue all from the sale of one unique  Penny.

Leticia James.This in a very simplistic fashion is what Donald Trump is “Guilty” of in New York.

I don’t see the crime Trump committed.

What I do see is an egregious miscarriage of Justice. I see breath taking corruption. I feel Shame, that our vaunted justice system has been degraded and dragged through the mud.

Lady justice lies naked, beaten, and bloodied. She’s been brutally raped by New York Attorney General Letitia James, and New York Judge Arthur Engoron.

(As an aside, I can’t think of too many things more horrible than being raped by Arthur Engoron. Damn! That visual is gonna give me nightmares.)

The miscarriage of justice doesn’t end there. The way Engoron wrote his order forces Trump to post into a New York Court system account 387 million dollars before Trump can appeal to a higher court. Further, Trump cannot leverage or sell  his real estate holdings in New York to obtain the cash bond to file the appeal, and  locks Trump out of using banks in New York to obtain a loan.

Honestly, this looks like the State of New York confiscating property to prevent the defendant from filing an appeal. In other words The City and State of New York is effectively denying a defendant their right to appeal. Leticia James is talking about taking Trumps Buildings. If she were to do this, then the State and City of New York will be committing outright THEFT! Not that the Democrats in New York give a shit. They won’t give a shit until their Condos and apartments are seized.

But it’s worse, it’s more disgusting.  The law requires that interest be charged on the unpaid bond daily until the bond is secured. So Trump must cough up something like 400 million dollars now, and that number keeps going up.

Kathy Hochul.This is an obscenity that is stomach turning. I don’t give a shit about Trump. I give a shit about the justice system being so corrupt that the accused never has a chance.

What is playing out before our eyes is the very Nazi, Communist, system that our grandfathers and fathers fought to stop in World War II, Korea, Vietnam, and the Cold War.

The heart break is that so many people are in a joyful tizzy that Trump is on the hook and completely missing that this shit could happen to them.

It gets even more disgusting when you realize that if Engoron’s ruling stands. Trump and his companies can’t do business in New York for 3 years. Meaning that they can’t liquidate their properties to exit New York and they must remain to be Financially Raped by the State of New York. Liquidation of assets is doing business. So they can’t move, they can’t conduct business, and they still have to pay the tax burden on the properties they can’t get rid of.

This is similar to some of the stuff I believe we fought a revolution against the King of England about.

Governor Kathy Hochul of New York went on television to assure other corporations and businesses that they had nothing to worry about. Trump was a special case.  Every businessman or corporation should be asking the question, “When do I become a special case?”

If any of these businesses have a lick of sense they’d better be looking for the door out of New York. I guarantee there will not be enough “Snake Pliskins” to help them escape from New York later.

The Truckers, while I’m glad to see them refusing to deliver to NYC, are unfortunately missing the point. Many of these Truckers are independent small business owners. They too get loans for trucks, and trailers. They also are likely to “Exaggerate” the worth of their business, property, or vehicles to secure a loan to advance their business. 

What New York has done is a direct threat to them all. Especially any of these truckers operating out of a state that thinks like New York. What happens if one of these guys makes a politician or a judge angry? 

Kathy Hochul’s reassurances notwithstanding to the people of New York… This new legal tool, and that’s exactly what it is, being successfully used on Trump, means it will be used again and again to drive anyone who questions authority into debtor’s prison. (Remember those? England under King George had a lot of them and emptied them onto boats to settle the colonies.)

Do you know anyone who could afford to pay even $500,000 to post a bond without being able to leverage their property or work with a bank in the state in which they reside? You realize that banks have rules imposed by the US Government that make opening an account in another state very difficult, much less depositing cash or getting a loan. 

These independent truckers shouldn’t be carrying water for Donald Trump.

They should be screaming bloody murder about the way the justice system has been perverted in New York and their platform should be to make sure nothing like this happens in any other state.

It’s not too far a step from having to buy an appeal, to just buying an appellate judge to rule in your favor.

I know, there are a lot of you reading this and saying “That Can’t Happen! WWDucat you’re out of your mind!”

Okay, over the past 4 years how much that “Couldn’t Happen” or “Couldn’t be True” has happened or been proven?

I never in my whole life imagined that I’d see a criminal case where the Defendant was found guilty with no Victims. I never believed that the Justice system could be weaponized with legislators of a state reconfiguring the statute of limitations to be able to try one man. I Never thought it was possible for a man to be tried for a sexual assault in a public place that didn’t happen, be found innocent, then be tried again and found guilty because he said he didn’t know the person and he believed she was clearly ill. 

Oh, and just to be clear, the woman in question has a history of false accusations of sexual assault. She couldn’t remember the exact date, she says she didn’t cry out in a public place with people not 20 feet away, she claimed she was too shocked to do anything but take it.

Uh huh, RIGHT! I’ve actually been the guy who opened the door to a female friend 1/2 hour after she’d been raped. I can’t in any way imagine any unimpaired woman just accepting being raped. That’s doubly true if the woman is in a freaking Macy’s. My friend was raped in her own apartment and the place looked like a bomb went off. She apparently fought like a demon and lost only because he beat her unconscious. So based on my knowledge of my friend, nah… Trump probably wasn’t ever in the same building with E Jean Carrol until the first bullshit trial.

Before I leave this particular aspect of Trumps NYC legal issues, I want to point something else out. Every single woman should be pissed as hell at E Jean Carrol and New York City, because now any woman claiming to have been raped by a well to do or wealthy man will be treated with suspicion and derision. “Oh don’t listen to her, she’s just trying to pull an E Jean Carrol on me because she’s mad at me for some reason or another. You know how women are…”

Trump spoke the truth and got fined 87 million dollars because the nut job had her feelings hurt.

So all of these “Can’t Happen” things have happened in the past 2 years who’s to say the “Can’t Happen” stuff won’t keep happening?

Trump might be the lightening rod. 

Trump is not the issue. The issue is the clear, persistent, and unchecked corruption evident in every single branch and level of our government.

If the people and I mean all the people of this country do not unite against this corruption regardless of their political party or personal hatred of Trump, the United States of America is done.

We The People must not be cowed into submission due to fear of our corrupt government.


Update:

Praise Jesus!

Not 10 minutes after I wrote this piece and scheduled it for publication, I flipped on the TV and there was an interview with a truck driver from Louisiana who gets it.

Thank God for us Southern Men!

He said and I’m paraphrasing,  Lets forget Trump, don’t matter if you call him President, Criminal, or what ever. If these people can do it to Trump, they can do it to any one of us.

DAMN! I’m not fucking alone! My People, crazy as some of us may be, aren’t stupid sheep! I’ve always been proud of my Southern Roots, but today my heart is bursting with Southern Pride.

The truckers are apparently going to boycott delivery of goods to NYC. 

That’s likely to be interesting. What happens when the criminals, the illegals, and the dumbass liberals all go hungry in a city where the police force has been decimated?

Good Golly, I’m gonna have to make sure I’ve got Popcorn and Beer. This is likely to be really fucking entertaining!

Yeaaaa! Comming to a grocery Store Near you

I’m officially looking for a new grocery store.

I’d been shopping at the local Stater Brothers but that was getting to the point that they never had anything that I wanted in stock.

So I started going to Ralphs (a.k.a.) Kroger

I started today with the intention to have a short grocery trip and went to the Staters. They were literally out of the first three items on my shopping list.

I grabbed my bags and walked out of the store. I drove the 45 minutes to the Ralphs. It’s in a shopping center with a Lowes, Costco, Home Depot, Pet Co, and Boot Barn.

Before shopping for groceries, I did a little shopping at the pet co and boot barn. I’m looking for a good leather belt, and Im also looking for a non-hooded water resistant winter jacket. Something like a Carhart or whatever. I just want something that’s going to last.

I was singularly disappointed. Shopping for stuff like that used to be fun. Now, not so much. Maybe I’ll try REI but I doubt I’ll find anything at a price I want to pay.

Giving up I headed to the grocery store and began shopping. It’s nice to be able to just go down my list and get the items on the list without it turning into an exercise in futility.

All was going well, there were the usual moronic people blocking the aisles but that’s become so typical I almost don’t notice it anymore. I did notice that a lot more men were shopping I think I noticed because it typically wasn’t the men who were blocking the aisles but we were all shaking our heads waiting for a woman to wake the hell up.

Then I found that I couldn’t get all the way down 2 aisles because they were blocked by the store employees. In this case they were restructuring the seasonal section. But they’d managed to obstruct access to Kleenex and Toilet paper. Ahem, bad Idea. 

Annoying but I finally managed to get the items I needed.

Moving along, I was happy because my list was rapidly being crossed off. Then I wandered into the section that had soap, shampoo etc. except that entire area was under construction because now they’re going to lock these items in a large cage and if you want one of these Items you enter the cage, make your selection, and have to PAY for it before leaving the cage. Then you can continue your shopping for food.

Great! Inconvenient! This is because of increasing theft.

I am not shopping in a shit hole neighborhood. Well it wasn’t a shit hole.

I don’t think I’ll be shopping at this particular Ralphs anymore. I was trying to figure out why this disturbed me so much.

On the way home I came up with a partial explanation. 

I don’t like being treated as if I’m a thief. I don’t like associating with people who are thieves. I don’t like shopping in crime ridden areas, and for a grocery store to be taking this action, suggests that this neighborhood is crime ridden and dangerous. 

Perhaps this is California in general these days. I can suggest a solution. Make Crime Illegal again, MCIA! (That’s mine!) I’m to the point where cops shooting criminals in the streets would be fine!

I firmly believe that when thieves bodies start stacking up on the sidewalks, crime will drop to freaking zero over night.

That will never happen! California seems to think that 900 bucks of theft per person per store is perfectly fine and moreover it is a sustainable business model.

We’ve already seen where this ends up. Stores closing. 

I’m very disappointed, I thought I was far enough away from the shit, I guess the entire state is going to shit. I also think this means I need to sell my home.  It’s time to leave before this gets really ugly and destroys my home value.