OK This is officially the WORST it’s ever been…

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I’m talking about the flatland ANIMALS from the areas surrounding Wrightwood.

In many ways my neighborhood is a microcosm of this area of Southern California, since the ANIMALS are able to surround my neighbors and I thanks to the flood control project.

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Yes, THAT flood control project. 

See, in addition to the gaping wound the Flood Control district left in their wake, they also smoothed out access to the nice wide channel, and they created lovely access roads on both sides of the channel.

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What was once a rocky, small, not so nice place to play in the snow, is now a great place and accommodates 300 people or more screaming and yelling.

But wait, it gets better!

People can now access the ENTIRE wash all the way up to the forestry service property line. Which means people want to park on our street, in our driveways, and on all the other streets and driveways going all the way up behind the houses that abut the wash.

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My neighbor was right. Her fence is actually keeping the ANIMALS off her property although they’re constantly peering through the slats, and trying the latch on her gate.

There was a strange car that drove up to the end of the road (A Private Road) and then turned around. As he came back down I told him “This isn’t the snow play area, your need to go to the ski resort at the other end of town.”

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He said, “I’m just going to park here,” I said “You can’t” He said, “Watch me” At which point I reached for my phone.

It’s out of hand here now. 

Too many people, too much trash, too many low class people.

These photos show the damage done to the newly planted pines and Mt. Mahogany plants. 

The trampling of the snow is after only one day. We counted over 100 people at one point in the area shown in the picture to the right, I snapped this photo after a sweep by the police.

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All told we believe that there were about 300 people up & down the wash area.

Then there’s these people, They just decided that they’d play in our street and on the neighbors property. 

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On the plus side,  We spoke today with a very nice officer who told us that we pretty much have no rights.

I appreciated his honesty. We, as homeowners have no right to ask any of the crowds to leave unless they are on our property. The police can only ask them to leave if they’re parked blocking the streets or firelanes, or if the police actually witness something amiss happening.

Just before sunset, the cops had to come again. This time after a fight broke out, they gave the order to disperse and waited until everyone got the hell out of the area. 

I suppose having a throw down is a nice end to the day for everyone, if you’re some kind of lowlife trash. On positive was that the crowds weren’t here into the evening like they were yesterday.

Yeah all these people want to have a nice day with their family, but what about my right to have a quiet day in my own home

Don’t get us wrong, we get that people want to have a fun snow day. We get that traffic is bad, and we get that it’s a holiday weekend. 

However, should we have to hunker down in our homes when there are designated, maintained play areas a short distance away? Should we have to watch the area be littered, and people urinating or defecating? Should we be expected to clean up dirty diapers, and fast food wrappers? This is OUR neighborhood! These people wouldn’t tolerate it, if we behaved this way where THEY live.

This is not disneyland and these ANIMALS are not paying guests.

I moved here from the beach to avoid this kind of crap. I live in the end of town furthest from the ski lifts and snow play areas. I chose this area precisely because it was off the beaten trail and because of its quiet family atmosphere. When I moved up here there wasn’t anyplace that remotely looked like a place to play in the snow. 

And for 15 years we had no trouble. 

Now, thanks to the county not listening, thinking, or planning…

My next door neighbor bailed out today. They just couldn’t take the chaos, and swarms of people wandering around us on all sides.

You feel like you’re trapped in your home. You feel like you have no privacy, the traffic is a nightmare, the police are stretched to the breaking point, and we have observed a number of “questionable” people checking out the vacation homes. 

There is of course no relief in sight, until the thaw. 

Insurance AGAIN…

Shopping

I swear I have other things that I’d rather be doing. You know, living my life, taking a huge dump, jerking off, drilling my own teeth, (although Dr. F would probably be pissed off if I did that.) In short, I’d rather be doing ANYTHING and I mean any fucking thing aside from dealing with trying to sort out the insurance bullshit again.

Yet here I am, dealing with web sites Cigna (for example) that has incorrect information published about which providers currently take their insurance. Yep, they say my Doctor is accepting the Cigna plans, but turns out Cigna only offers HMO policies in Orange County and my Doctor doesn’t actually take any HMO patients from Cigna.

So who do I believe?

You know who I believe? I believe the lady that handles the billing and money.

Which leads me back to the bullshit of shopping policies. Anthem Blue Cross is right the fuck out. They’ve already screwed me for a year.

As it turns out Blue Shield actually offers a real PPO to people like me, and that PPO has no regional limits. However THEY demand a bunch of information before you even get a chance to ask them IF they sell private policies at all. 

They wanted to know how much money I was making BEFORE they would even let me talk to an agent. I pulled a number out of my ass. Then I’m talking to an agent that tells me I should go to Covered California, get a number of some kind, and then we’ll talk because I’m eligible for a subsidy based on the number I just pulled out of my ass.

This agent was all excited to tell me that I was eligible for a subsidy and something inside me twisted. That subsidy money is taxpayer money and honestly the unsubsidized premium wasn’t all that bad.  She was all excited about my getting money from other taxpayers to pay for my insurance.

Is it me??? Am I the only person that has a problem with this?

Pragmatically, she’s right in telling me not to leave money on the table that can effectively halve my premiums. But there is something so inherently wrong with this that I can’t wrap my head around it.

This is SOCIALISM, plain & simple. I’m greedy, I’d love to have someone pay my premiums for me, but I can’t help but think this is wrong. 

SO what to do? Follow my ethics and pay full pop even thought I can’t really afford it, or sign up on the exchange and get a subsidy even though I fundamentally disagree with the whole system. 

If I go for the subsidy, does that make me a sell out?

Situational Awareness

Wheee

I was doing a little shopping in the OC yesterday.  It was a little rainy so… well, people were more than a little nuts.

Water! FROM THE SKY??? It’s the END of the world!

Growing up on the East coast I think nothing of rain. Hail on the other hand just pisses me off if I’m driving in it, it’s hell on the paint.

I digress!


Glad I didn't buy lunch

As I’m walking around in the mall, I’m noticing people walking around and texting. I can only think that I’d like to position myself in front of the nearest fountain, have a nice cup of coffee and wait for some dumbass to try to walk on water.

Then I notice that the majority of the people in the mall are women. That makes sense, these are soccer moms and they’re trying to get ahead on the shopping while the kids are at school.

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As I walk past the Sony store (yes really) there’s a CNN report blaring about the “War on Women” and that idiot publicity seeker Lena Dunham. Suddenly it hits me like a ton of bricks…

Every single one of these women I’ve been having to avoid because they aren’t watching what they’re doing, is a potential target.

I’m probably going to take some flack about this. But really ladies get a freaking clue, if you’re so focused on texting or looking something up on your phone in a mall that you don’t notice a guy walking toward you, then you turn directly into his path and stand still, you’re a target.

It’s equally possible for someone to be walking behind you waiting to pass in front of one of the service hallways or a construction barrier, then grab you, cover your mouth, and drag you out of the sight of anyone who could help. 

Texting Lady

If it’s a rapist they’re going to have their way with you and no-one would be the wiser. If it’s just someone who wants your purse, phone, or the bags you’re carrying they too are going to take your shit and be gone before you’ve even figured out what’s happening.

In addition to you being completely checked out of life, you’re rude as hell.

Ladies, if you need to text someone, move out of the walkway. Find a spot on a bench or with your back against a wall then text away!

This serves two functions.

1) You’re out of the way of the rest of the mall’s patrons.

2) At least you’ve narrowed the directions that attack could come from. Who knows, you might even see someone coming at you out of the corner of your eye.

The message I’m trying to convey ladies is; don’t be so clueless that you become a victim.

The Michael Brown riots are the lynch pin for me.

Dr. King

After almost 50 years of indoctrination, after listening to / reading Dr. Martin Luther King’s awesome “I have a dream speech” in school dissecting it’s meanings and discussing how America could be better if we all believed in that dream and believing that education was the answer that would finally heal 150 year old wounds…

Today, I give up.

I still think Dr. King was right. His general premise that no one should live in fear because of the color of their skin, is correct. He envisioned a world where our differences were differences in character not color, like most dreams, his was a good and happy one.

Unfortunately, it was just a dream.

Obama

I proudly voted for Mr. Obama in 2008, not because of his color, but because I believed that he was the best candidate for the job. I wanted the Hope and Change he was describing. I thought it was time for our President to pay a bit more attention to matters at home. I hoped that candidate Obama would feed our homeless, improve our economy, and ultimately lead us forward capitalizing on our limitless potential.

As I have stated in this blog before, I did not vote for President Obama in the 2012 election cycle.

My Reason was simply that, in four short years I saw a country that was less united, and more racially charged than the 1960s. I indeed saw  change, I saw squabbling and infighting like children in our highest offices, and a President who spent more time obfuscating truth, covering up scandals, blaming others, and playing golf, than he did actually doing his job.

Ferguson Thugs

I don’t consider the Presidents job to be writing executive orders, I think his job is to mediate between the parties, so that the House and Senate get their jobs done.

The President demonstrated to me in those first four years that he was, as I feared, too young and inexperienced to bring opposing sides to the negotiation table. He was far too likely to choose sides when he should have been carefully neutral. That is why by 2012, I’d decided we needed someone with a bit more experience facilitating “spirited” discussions and negotiations.

President Obama as we know was re-elected.

During the subsequent two years issues of race have come to the forefront of our society. The lionization of St. Travon and subsequent media trial of George Zimmerman followed by selective reporting of the actual trial created a narrative that seems to say all white people in America are racist.

The media in the Travon Martin case went so far as to say that George Zimmerman was white regardless of the fact that he Identified as hispanic.

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St. Travon was presented to us by a media, all too wiling to use him for ratings, as an innocent. The Angelic picture of St. Travon presented by the media, stands in stark contrast to the “selfies” St Travon posted of himself on social media.

The Rev Al Sharpton ginned up donations to his organization and causes by painting Zimmerman as a hateful racist who was hell bent on killing poor St. Travon. Donations, I might add, that he still hasn’t paid taxes on.

Even when the legal case fell apart, with the forensic evidence saying that Zimmerman was the victim and Dear St. Travon of the Hoodie was the aggressor; no one listened to the truth. It wasn’t the approved narrative, The media and black activists had given the people St. Travon of the Hoodie… Who was the jury, or the truth they saw, to take him away?

Ferguson Cop Line

In the intervening years, the word “Racist” has come to have the same impact as the word “N——-” used to have. When “Racist” is shouted at a White person it no longer describes a characteristic. The word is meant to be hurtful, and shut down any further discussion.

Calling a White person “Racist” calls into question that person’s worth to society, their upbringing, values, and discounts anything that person may have done in the past or currently to end racism. Essentially the person being called “Racist” is “unmade” and somehow considered “less than”.  They’re supposed to go to the back of the bus and shut the hell up.

No Whites Allowed

Does any of this sound familiar?

The further coloring of “Racist” with other descriptors “Hick, Redneck, Hillbilly,” serves to solidify “Racists” can only be white and are ignorant as well.

I’m not even going to talk about “White Privilege” I don’t think that term should be dignified with any discussion.

Now we’ve suffered through months of St. Michael Brown of the quickie mart. Two out of three autopsies don’t agree with witness accounts of what happened.

The grand jury came to the conclusion based on the forensic evidence, and eye witnesses recanting their testimony that officer Wilson acted well within the limits of his office, and decided not to indict.

This should have been the end of it…

But it wasn’t…

We have a more strident replay of St Travon. This time violence, and destruction has become the norm.

Al Sharpton

Al Sharpton recently made statements that frankly blew my mind. He said, and I’m paraphrasing here, That black men couldn’t be responsible if congress didn’t give MORE money to black causes. I shit you not, here’s a link to the article.

So what does this say?

To me, it says that as a white minority in California, I’m probably screwed. Why? That’s simple, people don’t view white people as a minority even when they are.

As such, white people will not have access to the same services that persons of color will have. You’re not going to see the National Association for the Advancement of White People coming into existence, much less getting government funding.

In fact I suspect if someone was to try to create a White organization like that they’d be branded as NeoNazis and tracked by the FBI & Southern Poverty law center.

Additionally, if White people were to start rioting nationwide over the number of people that had been hurt by things like the Knock out game, old men and women being beaten, or state fairs being closed by black gangs, it wouldn’t be looked at as a social movement it would be looked at as a freaking RIOT!

Oh and lets not forget about the White Kid that was shot by the black cop even though the kid was naked, stoned out of his mind and thought he was on fire. Yeah! White lives matter! Damn cops killing our white boys all the time for no reason.

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It sounds stupid when you frame it that way, why does any of this take on any more weight just because a cop is white and the person resisting arrest happens to be black?

I’m a firm believer that racism and the harm it causes does in fact cut both ways.

If the media reports that the police are looking for a man in connection with a burglary where an old woman was beaten, that’s great. But have you noticed that the media will say “Police are looking for a” white man or a hispanic man. But they’ll never say a black man, or African American?  How the hell is the public supposed to help the police find the suspect without a description?

Again, It cuts both ways.

I’ve come to the point that I’m not listening anymore to the narrative about non-white people being treated differently. I’m over it and I honestly don’t give a shit anymore.

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Call me whatever name you want, so the hell what?

The race card has melted and is smoldering in a little pile on the ground. The next Michael Brown or the next Eric Garner is, in my opinion irrelevant. Yet another failure of our educational system and a victim not of mean racist police but of Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, Lou Farrakhan President Obama and others like them.

That blood will be on their hands.

As for me, I’m not interested in the false narratives or white guilt. I’m done. I tried, and I’m tired now.

50 years later and nothing has changed, so you’ll pardon me if I want to try finding a place where there are faces just like mine.

The nationwide Ferguson riots, have taught me one thing, the racists were right, we can’t live with each other, so why keep trying?

The race baiters should be reconsidering the method they choose to convey their message.

Justice? Ferguson, I don’t that that word means what YOU think it means.

Ferguson Exm1

By now we’ve all heard that Ferguson is essentially in a panic, (or so the main stream media would have us believe) and that regardless of the Grand Jury’s decision there is going to be rioting, looting, demonstrations, and all sorts of mayhem. I strongly suspect that Wilson will be indicted, not because of the evidence but out of fear of the looters and damage that will be done to the community if the Grand Jury doesn’t indict him.

I feel sorry for officer Wilson, his life will never be the same, his life was forever altered the moment he encountered Michael Brown. When officer Wilson fired his weapon even, without the controversy Wilson himself was irrevocably changed. 

Ferguson Exm2

I’ve personally witnessed the grief, guilt, and depression that follows an officer involved shooting. What no-one sees is the officer’s torment and second guessing themselves. “Did I do the right thing? Was there an alternative? Why did I have to be on duty then?” If the suspect dies, there’s this; “My God, I just killed another human being.”

I’ve held a cop in my arms while he cried. I watched a kangaroo court of “Justice” destroy him and his wife.

Even after the inquest determined that the shooting was justified and in defense of he and his partner, his career was destroyed… sacrificed on the altar of Politically Correct bullshit, in the wake of the Rodney King riots.

Truth

My friend was never right again, his relationship with his wife was almost destroyed, certainly it was permanently altered. That’s what’s not covered by the media.

When he moved to a new city, he became a heavy equipment operator trying to pick up the pieces of his life I realized for the first time; Lady Justice is lying on the court house steps beaten, bloody, and raped

There is no law or justice, when the whims of public opinion rule the day. 


I may write more after we hear the decision.

I’m surprised that the Grand Jury didn’t indict officer Wilson