Tag: Government

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I wouldn’t want to be Mark Meadows

In a predictable move. After all we all knew it was coming. The Jan 6th commission has referred Meadows to the DOJ for Contempt of congress.

It doesn’t matter where you come down on the whole Jan 6th inquiry, you have to admit this guy is between a rock and a hard place.

He had been cooperating with the commission but then apparently felt he had to stop because the information they were requesting was coming up against executive privilege issues that Trump retains.

Trump has filed a lawsuit to protect executive privilege. That puts Meadows in a bind. If he continues to cooperate with the Jan 6th commission providing all the requested information and then Trumps executive privilege is upheld. Meadows could find that he’s violated the law on that side.

On the other hand by defying the Subpoena he’s pissing off congress.

The NPR article makes reference to the text messages Meadows received, calling them “Explosive”. Meh, I’d call them circumstantial.

Yeah, if you wanted to infer that Trump was at the heart of the Jan 6th event at the capital you could read them as the smoking gun. But if, as Trump maintains, he wasn’t coordinating and directing the Jan 6th event at the capital, that he’d only told folks to go and protest…

Then the text messages are nothing more than people sending texts without thinking about parsing out the language so that it could pass future legal tests. In fact the messages could be read as simply, informational and requests that Trump speak to the crowds to calm them down.

With the exception of the one talking about needing “aggressive strategy” most of the other messages could be taken to say, “Hey, Trump needs to remind the crowd about the rule of law. Protests are fine as long as they do not result in violence, destruction, fires, or looting.”

In fact if Trump had said something to that effect from the steps of the capital surrounded by security and police establishing crowd control, he would have thoroughly embarrassed and humiliated Pelosi again.

That being said, Pelosi and her cronies would have pointed to Trump being a leader as proof that he was at the bottom of the event in the first place and congress would have gone all rabid about it too. Either way, we’d probably be in the same situation. That’s the problem when abject hatred taints your world view.

I’m not saying the Trump didn’t incite the crowd. To what extent, will be determined by the courts. I think it’s pretty clear that he had a hand in what happened. I think that it spiraled out of control, and once the monster of a mob is let loose it’s really tough to control what the monster does.

We as a nation knew what mobs looked like, we’d seen it in Portland and Seattle for months. Trump, and everyone else should have known better.

As an aside, I thought about going to DC.

I could have, and I certainly had the time to do it. My reason for not going was that I’d paid attention to the lessons of Portland and Seattle. My other reason was that it was all becoming too about Trump.

I was then, and still am angry, not about the election results, but about the dismissal of the various voting irregularities that were reported in states across the country.

There was, in my opinion, enough circumstantial evidence to warrant investigations and hearings about those irregularities. I wasn’t particularly interested in overturning the election, I am far more interested in making sure that such irregularities never happen again.

It’s my opinion, that “The Big Lie” could have been easily deflated if the Supreme Court had publicly and with due seriousness addressed the issues raised and then made recommendations based on their findings.

For four solid and interminable years our nation was subjected to investigation after investigation of what turned out to be largely circumstantial evidence of wrongdoing on the part of Trump. Yep, there were some things that weren’t circumstantial, they were fact. Trump is supposed to answer for those things and the cases are winding their way through the legal system now.

I had expectation that on issues of voter fraud or irregularities, the same level of investigatory diligence would be applied. Hopefully not four long years worth, but at least some public display of diligence.

It frankly appeared that since folks got what they wanted in Biden, they were willing to ignore, and allow the courts to ignore, circumstantial evidence. Why was it okay to pursue circumstantial evidence on the one hand and ignore the same kind of evidence on the other? What it seemed was happening was that since Trump said it, it was inconsequential. He was just being a sore loser.

Yeah, did you expect anything less? Regardless, you have to take these allegations seriously, isn’t that the lesson Congress taught us over the preceding four years?

For me personally, the quick and apparently casual dismissals of concerns, is what made me angry.

I accepted that Biden was President, I didn’t think it was a good idea, but it was expected. Trump had caused a severe polarization in the electorate. In virtually every similar historic situation the response has always been the same. The electorate chooses the opposite pole.

Had I gone to DC, I would have been standing on the steps of The Supreme Court exercising my Constitutionally guaranteed right to demand redress. I’d have been holding a sign that simply said, “Justices, I respectfully ask you to do your job.”

I wouldn’t have entered or forced my way into any building. I’d have complied with law enforcement to move or remain in a particular area. I would never have threatened anyone, that’s just not appropriate. I’m a law abiding citizen, and you cannot demand investigations or that the law be upheld if you’re going to turn around and violate the law.

After Jan 6th, I was very glad I wasn’t in Washington that day.

See I’m a moron, I could see myself being invited into a building or following a crowd that appeared to be invited in and in total innocence, I’d have found myself in all kinds of trouble.

I’ve been to Washington DC once in my life. Most of the buildings were closed for the holidays, (we were there over a Christmas trip). But I got to walk around the monuments. I stood in front of The White House and was in awe. I stood in the Lincoln Memorial and I took the time to read the inscriptions. I walked the length of the reflecting pool and everywhere else we were allowed to walk. It was a magical and great experience. My only regret was that The Smithsonian wasn’t open. I’d have loved being lost there for as long as they’d have me.

As I was considering making the trip to Washington DC prior to the Jan 6th event. I was also planning to revisit those sites, and see the Vietnam Memorial.

Here’s the thing some people apparently have problems with.

I could have gone there, expressed my opinion by protesting, and then duty discharged, taken pride in being an American wandering the monuments and reading the words written by our forefathers.

I would have been super excited to go read with my own eyes, the actual Constitution of the United States. And yes, The Smithsonian would have had to ask me to leave at closing time.

So you see, after the Jan 6th event… I shuddered to think how my patriotism and innocence could have gotten me into a lot of trouble.

Perhaps it’s my belief in the law and The Constitution that makes me feel sorry for Meadows. He’s in a tough spot. Just because he worked for Trump doesn’t mean he’s inherently a bad person, nor does it mean he’s a good person. It just means that he in fact, worked for Trump.

If Meadows broke the law then he should suffer the consequences. Right now, I don’t think he’s breaking the law by restricting access to material he believes to be protected under executive privilege. He’s trying to honor the requirements of two laws that are in conflict. That’s a tough position to be in.

Meadows Attorney says it well;

“He has fully cooperated as to documents in his possession that are not privileged and has sought various means to provide other information while continuing to honor the former president’s privilege claims,” Terwillger said in a statement.

Until Trumps suit is decided, (a lower court ruled Trumps claim invalid and Trump unsurprisingly, is taking it to The Supreme Court,) Meadows is at an impasse. One that cannot be resolved until The Supreme Court makes its decision.

I think it’s unfair that Congress is dropping the hammer on Meadows when essentially he’s bound by law. Yes, Biden has said that executive privilege doesn’t apply. But is that legal? I ask honestly because there’s supposed to be a separation between the Executive and Legislative branches of the government. Isn’t the Supreme Court the arbiter of these issues?

I also feel for all the people who may have been caught up in the events of Jan 6th.

I could so easily see myself in their shoes. No, I wouldn’t have been climbing over walls, crawling through windows, or forcing doors open. But I wouldn’t have thought for an instant walking through an open door to The Capital Rotunda with guards standing on either side.

Hell, I’d have stayed in the roped areas and as long as I didn’t see or hear yelling or breaking glass I’d have been blithely ignorant that I was breaking the law. I would have been overjoyed to be standing in the rotunda looking at the pictures and art and feeling so privileged to be there in that place. If I was asked to leave, my response would have been, “Yes officer, which exit should I take?”

That’s one of the reasons that I think the whole congressional committee is wrong and that they’re being very heavy handed. Sure, there were people who clearly broke the law and they should suffer the consequences. But the Jan 6th committee has cast a very wide net, and I’m sure that many of the people they’ve terrorized, were people just like me.

Make no mistake, having Federal Marshalls banging on your door when you believe you’ve done nothing wrong would be a terrifying thing. Especially if the media reports labeled you as a white supremacist who was involved in an insurrection, or treason. Those are really serious charges! One of them, I believe, still carries the death penalty.

The Marshalls drag you off to prison. You and by extension, your family are labeled white supremacists, or terrorists, and there’s nothing you can do to defend your reputation or your family from the vengeance of the mob…

That would absolutely break me. Especially, given that I’d have had no malice, no guilt, and I’d have been sharing pictures of those hallowed halls describing my presence there as a joy and privilege.

Heavy handed justice often is not justice.

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That’s it! I want to get the HELL out of California!

In addition to all of the absolute bullshit that is California…

Traffic, Lockdowns, Abridgment of rights, Water shortages, Electricity Shortages, $500 Auto Registration Fees, Incompetence of the State Government and all the state’s government offices, State waste of tax dollars. Complete lack of planning, Crime, Outrageous Property Taxes, Outrageous Gas prices .55 on every gallon of gas really? Shitty roads, Outrageous State Income Taxes, and on and on and on…

I mean, pick literally any subject and then look to California to see how to do it exactly wrong.

I hate this place and everything about it.

There was a time when the benefits outweighed the hassle. That time is long gone.

This is a losing proposition any way you cut it.

That’s not to say that there aren’t some good people here and even some good Representatives in the Legislature. The problem is there are too few people with any common sense and those numbers apparently are dwindling.

The straw that has broken this camels back is EDD.

I don’t think there’s ever been a more incompetent government entity short of perhaps the last of the Roman Empire, maybe King George III’s tax collectors or court.

First EDD screwed up their modernization of their computer systems. They contracted with, and hired a bunch more people to actually do the work. Apparently the work not only didn’t get done, but they bought a shit ton of equipment that sat in its boxes until the warranties expired. Then the equipment sat for another few years until it was literally obsolete and had to be scrapped.

They were completely unprepared for the number of unemployment claims that were being filed when the pandemic hit. How did they address this? By putting more people on the phones supposedly to answer phone calls, which of course still didn’t get answered.

Oh yeah, there were hearings and excuses and in the end, after the uproar died down nothing was done. No heads rolled, and EDD went right back to its usual incompetent self.

They screwed up who was being paid during the pandemic. Turns out they paid a lot of people that perhaps weren’t eligible for benefits.

What? You mean they threw taxpayers dollars at people that shouldn’t have received benefits??? Yep… in at least the hundreds of millions of dollars range if not billions.

Now, EDD is sending out stupid emails that demand the people who received benefits prove they were eligible to receive those benefits and they’re threatening to charge 30% penalties on those benefits.

But of course the email they send you provides links to the EDD website that frankly is a hot steaming pile of shit. So even if you want to comply with their demand the odds are you can’t since the site sucks so bad.

Just connecting to their web site makes me and my computer morons. The intellect draining capacity of California’s EDD site should be harnessed and used to combat hackers and cyberterrorists the world over.

Come to think of it, the EDD site could be used as a firewall. It’s amazing at creating endless loops of login after login.

The funny parts of EDD’s demands are that they seem to think; A) The criminals who gamed the system are going to send documentation. B) That they’re going to get the money they threw away back from criminals who gamed the system.

Hey California EDD, NEWSFLASH Those people are in the wind and you’re not going to find them!

D’Oh!

But for people who had legitimate claims. We’re having to jump through hoops to clean up EDD’s fuckup.

When you talk to EDD they predictably absolve themselves of responsibility by saying the Federal Government is who is requesting this information.

That is probably true, however EDD should have all the data. They should not be asking for tax returns. After all if EDD approved a person for unemployment benefits that presumes that EDD knows who your previous employer was and verified that you were eligible for benefits in the first place. RIGHT?

It gets better, the EDD representatives are apparently unsure what exact documents you need to provide. Do you need to provide the entirety of your tax returns or just a copy of the W2 or will pages from your California Tax return suffice? They’re not sure.

“It’s the Federal Government that’s asking, it goes into a computer to determine if the document is right…“

Uh huh.

Having spent some time working for a Federal contractor, I can tell you that the Feds are pretty damn specific about what they want to see.

But wait, there’s more! EDD told a representative from a legislator’s office yesterday that they’d called me, (they did). I wasn’t available to take their call so they went to voice mail. This same person told the same legislative representative that they’d left a voice mail, (they did not). I sent screen shots proving the point to the legislators representative. So I have a little bit of a trust issue with EDD.

I have a real problem with providing EDD documents of this sensitive nature.

They’re incompetent, they’ve reported at least one data breach if I recall correctly. I’ve caught them literally lying to a California Legislator’s office.

Given their incompetence and Laissez-faire attitude about what they seem to need I’m concerned that by providing these documents in an electronic format I’m just setting myself up for identity theft.

After all what better hacking target than an organization with a proven track record of stupidity? Just imagine all the wonderful identities that will suddenly be available for the picking.

EDD appears to be auditing the citizens. EDD needs to be audited by a totally independent source. Maybe a group of accountants from Texas or Florida? Someone who’s not likely to sweep things under the carpet in the interest of not embarrassing California.

They made this mess. Why should the citizens be hassled, threatened, or further annoyed to help them clean it up?

I believe, California’s corruption and incompetence goes from the top all the way down to the local level.

I’m sick of it.

Voting is pointless because the people who’ve created this fucked up system greatly outnumber the people in this state who demand fiscal responsibility.

With that realization, I choose to work to get my ass out of here.

Even if that means divorce after 33 years and leaving the house and everything else behind. Honestly at this point I’m thinking about cutting my losses and doing anything to be free of this third world shit hole.

At least in another state I might have a shot at a job where I don’t have to worry about skin color quotas and layer upon layer of politically correct bullshit!

Fuck California!

p.s. In case you had any doubt… I’m not in a very good mood today.

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Well this will make things easier…

Ran across this on Breitbart. There’s a link to the paper in the article as well.

The upshot is that another of Biden’s nominees has some questionable theories.

Saule Omarova puts forth in the paper, what looks like a plan to make the Fed, The Bank of the people.

That would certainly make the IRS’s job easier when they have to monitor our bank accounts for all transactions over $600.

Instead of messing about with paperwork and reporting structures from 100s of banks, they’ll just be able to link their computers to the Federal Bank and bingo! Every citizens transactions will be available and taxed real time.

No more worry about filing your taxes either. The IRS would know how much you made, from what sources, and they could just take their percentage of your earnings right off the top. (Pretty much like today…)

I could see an initial run on banks if this nominee is approved. The secondary run on the banks will be if the US government put her theories into practice. There’ll be folks who move their money into offshore banks as well but not everyone has the cash to make that a viable option.

I’d be right there demanding all my money from the bank, my retirement fund, and my small pension too. Then I’d do my best to convert all of it into some kind of durable goods that could be exchanged. The barter system is looking better and better all the time.

Imagine the chaos if something like a centralized Federal Bank suddenly made all your private bank accounts illegal.

It would make your life ever so much easier. Get a ticket, don’t worry it’s automatically pulled from your one single account.

Need to pay your ACA bill? No worries That will be taken out of your account before your mortgage. Oh, and about your mortgage… well the Federal Bank has determined that you’re not actually eligible for that mortgage, so you’ll have to move to lower cost housing.

I could see a situation where we each had only one credit card with percentage rates based on your Government loyalty score. BTW your credit line is decreased the older you are because… well your life isn’t going to be that long, and you’ll need to repay your debt before you die.

I know I’m being somewhat reactionary, but come on folks. When has our government ever not taken advantage of the citizens?

Why the heck is it that all of the administration’s nominees appear to be complete whack-jobs?

At first I could excuse it, because I thought that they were trying to get their feet under them. But now? How is it possible that nominee after nominee has some kind of weird questionable, perhaps anti American philosophy? One or two I could let pass, but now it’s starting to look like a systematic plan to screw everyone over.

The thing is, if only one or two whack-jobs were appointed we could keep an eye on them. But when so many are being exposed in the nomination process, I have to wonder how many have been installed in the halls of government without undergoing some kind of congressional approval process.

I’m not intending to suggest that there isn’t room for change or improvement in our banking systems, or in fact any other systems. I’m saying that when you talk about changing things, perhaps a lighter touch is necessary.

Update:

Since I wrote this, it appears that 5 Democratic Senators have announced they will not support Saule Omarova’s nomination for the position. That pretty much causes this Biden nominee to crash and burn.

It does beg the question of who Biden will nominate next. Given his history of nominees, I wonder if he’ll choose someone only slightly better, or will he nominate the corpse of Mao Zedong (forgetting the Mao is dead)? I guess only time will tell.

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Well… I’ll be dipped!

President Biden’s inauguration speech talked about unity in America.

At the time, I was like oh yeah, sure you have never been about unity, you senile old fossil.

But here we are 9 months later and sonofabitch if the old fossil hasn’t started to deliver.

Based on Biden’s poll numbers, he has created unity among Democrats, Republicans, Independents, and Libertarians.

Unity against him!

That unification also extends to Vice President Kamala Harris whose personal poll numbers are even lower.

Biden’s been able to unify opposition to handgun bans. In 2014 it was about 50/50 pro or against. Now according to a recent poll, only 19% of persons polled are in favor of banning handguns.

He’s also unified 160 Senators (and counting) against his unconstitutional vaccine mandate. That’s a surprise too.

Some 53% of a recent politico poll believe that Biden is not mentally fit for the position of President. Wow! Another win for Biden’s unification speech.

In the same poll voters were asked;

If they believed he is a strong leader (56% said “No”)

If he is trustworthy (51% said “No”)

If he is honest (51% said “No”)

If he keeps his promises (52% said “No”)

Is Energetic (60% said “No”)

Is a clear communicator (57% said “No”)

Is stable ( 48% said “No”)

Is capable of leading the country (53% said “No”)

But, but… President Biden won the election with better numbers than President Obama. How then could he have lost so much support in so short a time?

One word.

Incompetence

I have to give credit where credit is due, Former President Obama is credited with saying something like; no matter what job you give to Joe, he’s gonna fuck it up. Perhaps one of the few things I agree with Former President Obama about.

Biden could have been dumb as a post but still done a decent job, if he’d surrounded himself with smart people. But instead, he seems to have surrounded himself with people who are his mental equals. Some of the things these people say are simply astounding.

So astounding, that I’ll often go to any video presentation of their speeches or comments to hear every word in context. I always finish viewing these videos with the hairs on the back of my neck standing on end. I usually can’t make it through one of these videos without having my brain reboot at least twice.

On the other hand, I’ve done due diligence in making sure the printed material I read wasn’t a bunch of snippets taken out of context and strung together. ( You know the way the press would often do with another former President… Just sayin.)

More’s the pity, they have said exactly the stupidest things that were reported in print. I’m always left with a cold pit in my stomach when I remember these are the people in control of our country.

On the bright side, The Biden Administration has in fact gone a long way to unifying the country.

Again, we must give credit where credit is due.

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Triggered, First thing in the morning! Yeah!

After years of working in corporate America, there are a few things that really trigger me.

One of those things is Emails with the words, “Mandatory”, “Comply”, “You Must”, “Required”, and my favorite is “Compliance is Mandatory”.

You see, these words or phrases never herald good news for any employee.

The term; “Mandatory Overtime” Only occurs in corporate email in the Summer when you’re planning a vacation, or in Fall/Winter before Thanksgiving or Christmas. That’s been my experience, your milage will vary.

Much like COVID’s 10 days to slow the spread there’s always a time component. Corporations always start with 30 days but all the employees know that’s complete bullshit. Whatever failures in planning that led to “Mandatory Overtime” in the first place are cumulative failures that cannot be resolved in 30 days and are much more likely to require 90 to 120 days.

But the HR department and management in general, lie in hopes of not having a bunch of people simply walk off the job.

Invariably Paid Time Off will be impacted and your employer will be looking for some kind of proof that you have a trip planned or are going in for surgery. The last company I worked for even added penalties if you were sick during Mandatory Overtime. They also had one guy drop dead at his desk because he was so terrified of losing his job, he neglected to seek medical assistance for a heart attack. Instead, he drove to work and died at his desk. Did the company relent? Hell NO! There were also miscellaneous people who went out on stress leave never to return.

If you’re a salaried employee, mandatory overtime actually reduces your hourly wage because you get no bonus or incentive to put in those hours. Usually, salaried employees don’t have enough “time in position” to benefit from stock options either. So even if the company succeeds due to salaried employees accepting their reduction in pay, there isn’t any long term benefit to them. But the executives see huge bonuses, and get plenty of accolades, even though they weren’t included in the “Mandatory Overtime” edict.

Having been in exactly the position above more times than I can count. The word “mandatory” has become a triggering word to me.

Over the years, “Comply”, “Compliance”, and “Must” have also become triggers for similar reasons.

“You must comply with the new standard”, means that you as an employee will have to set aside time to attend training. Often that time is supposed to be given to the company during some kind “lunch and learn” but the truth is you’re still working even though you’re not technically on the clock. After all, “this new training is for your benefit,” uh right…

If the training is from HR, it’s not for your benefit, it’s so the company can cover their ass.

Training of this type often includes: Sexual Harassment Training, New policies, (I assume new pronoun usage these days), Cheapening of Insurance, or Workplace Safety.

All of these sound like great things, until you read the fine print when you sign that you’ve taken the “Training”. 99% of my experience is that HR is making modifications to the terms of your employment and providing a mechanism that allows any perceived slight to be grounds for termination. Couple that with so called “Zero Tolerance Policies” and well being a white male… You’re screwed!

HR is not the employee’s friend and hasn’t been for decades.

Which leads me to my triggering this morning.

The California EDD sent an email that says in part;

“Urgent: You Must Verify Your Employment or Self-Employment for Your PUA Claim“

“Even though your Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) benefits have ended, federal rules require you to provide documentation to prove that you were, or planned to be, self-employed or employed at some point between 01/01/2019 and 11/15/2020.”

They start the email by SHOUTING my name because apparently, the state of California doesn’t know how to use lower case.

They direct me to the State of California’s shitty website which is always a pain in the ass to log into, and is in fact, such a pain in the ass that I stopped using it, opting instead for snail mail.

Triggered though I am, I’m curious to know what the hell EDD is talking about and what kind of documentation they’re asking for, so I try to log in anyway. Don’t they already have all that documentation? It should be in their files.

The login inevitably fails and I’m locked out of the account for an hour. What’s new? EDD couldn’t program their way out of a one bit puzzle.

In this particular case it also looks like they’ve changed or updated their login page and are now showing me a security picture of a die and a comment that says 1997 Chevy.

This leads me to wonder if the login is fucked up or if someone has been playing around at stealing my account. Neither would surprise me with California EDD.

As an aside, I’ve applied to work for California EDD on several occasions since it’s obvious they could use someone testing their shitty software. They, like every single other potential employer, promptly ignored my application.

Honestly, at this point I’d be happy with a response from any potential employer that said literally, “Fuck off you piece of shit!” At least then I’d know where I stood.

While EDD was sending me money, I felt compelled to respond to their shit. Technically since they were paying me, I considered myself an employee. But now that they’re not sending me money, and I’m still unemployed…

I’m much less inclined to go out of my way to deal with them.

I’ll wait another 30 minutes and try again. If I still am unable to log into the web site I’ll have to decide to ignore them, or contact my state representative’s office. In the past the representative’s office has been the only way to make headway with the EDD.

I hate having to involve them in this bullshit but I may have no choice.