Pesky Legalities

 

  In the throes of dealing with the perpetually stupid, more than half of our country finds itself still trying to reconcile our seemingly hopeless illegal alien imposition.

Created by anointed guvment anti-sovereignty infidels under the Joseph Robinette Biden administration, an invasion comprised of reprobates from nations world-wide poured over our once-sacred borders – with impunity – to wreak havoc throughout the hearts and souls of America.

In concert with Blue State gubenors and mayors, along with the complicit media, we were summarily introduced to a form of make believe ‘reality.’ This indoctrination was magically injected into everyday language by stretching Peter Mark Roget’s Thesaurus in ways previously unimaginable.

By referring to illegal aliens as undocumented guests, the homeless as unhoused, black and brown individuals as people of color, and drug users as pharmaceutically challenged, our once-reliable English language was being modified right before our eyes to fit an icky agenda to contort the facts.

Begun decades earlier, the dictionary has been subject to erasure in order to fit agendas as a means of preventing debates, as well as neatly fitting square pegs into round holes. Adamantly claiming “no one is illegal,” editing titles to falsely reflect trespassing miscreants as “undocumented visitors” provided a means to an end.

Casting a wearisome tone to related conversations, changing the words also effectively changed the narratives. Suddenly, if a person was an undocumented visitor, they seemed to have a newfound air of credibility. With that credibility also came additional benefits.

Freebies likened to a form of a winning lottery jackpot were showered on these encroachers by benevolent politicians who so enjoyed their turns at the helm they discovered that it was necessary to create a permanent needy group of ignorant citizens, thereby reaping the underclass vote in perpetuity.

Pretty neat, eh?

All that was required was to accomplish this brilliant grift was to afford themselves sanctuary status. As if by magic, one-by-one, cities and states nationwide modified their standing with the federal guvment as now being exempt from federal rules and regulations for the sake of providing safe areas free from legal actions and authority.

Two important haters with an axe against
President Trump, to grind

In other words: Take a hike, Mr. Trump; you’re not our president.

All the while, those self-important politicians from both sides of the aisle decided they were exempt from any and all rules and laws because - well, just because they can.

As such, these political thieves realized, throughout the decades, that they were largely exempt from being held liable for their discretions all in the name of fairness. Unfortunately, that fairness abruptly ended at the steps of the House of Representatives as well as the Senate. As that classic line from Seinfeld went, “No soup for you!”

It seems as though that aforementioned soup comes in many forms when it is being served by our anointed elected schemers. Regularly exempting themselves from mandates in life to which we peons are subject, those politicos receive many lucrative benefits that would make a king blush.

Movie and television personalities; local prosecutors; along with federal, state, and local pols, are regularly seen as far more important than the rest of society to be subject to the rules of civil society.

For example, name calling appears to be a new past time for most of American Leftists. Included in this specialized category of retards are television “news” hosts and pundits. Once thought to be an exaggeration of ‘must-see,’ made-for-TV sensationalism, such raucousness has become commonplace in our once polite society.

Names referring to horrific historical murderers are bandied about with regularity, although without substance. Denigrating entire swaths of people – such as the Jewish race – is embraced with glee without a trace of remorse or consequence.

Vilifying white men for other perceived injudicial sleights has become popular, as has bemoaning white women who are viewed as enemies of societal fairness. Such slurs are employed to demean those who rightly and justifiably earned their places in domestic and corporate America.

Instead, the Lefties – both the lawmakers and cheerleaders alike – have been on a successful campaign to drive a solid wedge between the sane and insane in our fragile culture.

Politicians, such a former vice-presidential candidate Tim Walz, has promised to wage war on those members of America who do not believe men cannot have babies, and those who feel the male and female sexes are different from one another. Go figure.

Still, similar thinking legislators on the federal, state, and local levels have been ardently pushing to continue the misguided approach to permit men to compete against women in sports.

(As an aside: a decade, or so, ago, we were told women in the military were not to be allowed to fight in a war if they were pregnant. During the Kuwait and Iraq wars, many, many female soldiers escaped battle status by becoming pregnant.)

Here’s some free information from a non-doctor and non-biologist: The sexes are NOT the same. FYI.

Yet here we are discussing the situation in which we find ourselves today. Driven by berserk political leaders to believe men are women, racism and misogyny are fine, public humiliation of duly elected public officials is justified, and allowing unvetted miscreants into our nation to degrade our lifestyle is not only accepted, but encouraged has led us into national purgatory.

Protecting law breakers in the form of unjustifiably released criminals from custody, in addition to illegal alien invaders, is not conducive to a safe and sane environment.

We are currently awaiting legal machinations to rectify our derailing of our “rule of law” tenets. Under the color of those laws, we fully deserve a course re-correction to return us to lucidity.

If those corrections include trials, incarcerations, hefty fines, or impeachments, so be it. This road on which we’ve been traveling is quickly approaching a dead end. It’s time for a U-Turn.

A Ride in the WABAC

 

  Now seems like an excellent time to dust off and roll out the WABAC machine. An acronym for Wormhole Activating and Bridging Automatic Computer, pronounced ‘wayback,’ this fictitious device was featured in the Sherman and Mr. Peabody cartoons.

It was instrumental in allowing the two titled characters to time travel for many episodes that were peppered with puns and amusing forgotten history adventures from, well, wayback.

Today, we seem forced to examine what the usually whiny Democrats are suddenly very publicly apoplectic about. Crying like colicky babies, Dems have been, as of late, trying to trip up President Donald J. Trump’s efforts to rein in out-of-control spending.

President Donald J. Trump
We don't deserve him

Beginning this effort with the help of Elon Musk, this pair of masterminds hit the ground running with the creation of DOGE, otherwise known as the Department of Government Efficiency. While not a real guvment agency, DOGE has been instrumental in finding, and subsequently exposing, waste in guvment.

Throughout that roughly 180-day run, seemingly countless fiscal horror stories were brought to light about hundreds of billions of tax dollars being frittered away by overly-generous guvment thieves. It just so happens that all those thieves are, in fact, your Representatives in Congress.

Of course, they aren’t necessarily wasting your money on inconsequential things because they need to, rather they are wasting your money on inconsequential things because they want to.

Imagine strolling about a sandy beach one morning. You’re desperately trying to locate seashells that naturally spell out something indecipherable in order for you to take a fortuitous photo for publication on your X account page to somehow denigrate the President of the United States.

Instead, you realized you, as a Congressclown – not a former FBI director – have the ability and authority to reach into the guvment coffers, to scratch your spendthrift itch. You recall your brother-in-law needs a job, or your cousin wants to travel to foreign lands, or even you’re thinking about feathering your retirement nest egg.

If, as luck would have it, you are not able to reach your grubby hand into the guvment lock box o’ cash, you realize you have a plan B in the works.

A House vote is nigh, and you appear to be one of the holdouts for a massive defense spending bill. You might, or might not, receive a phone call or visit from a defense contractor who would benefit greatly from the passage of this bill.

I’m not implying any money or favors are exchanged, but influence has its benefits far beyond a gratis cheese steak hoagie lunch. Beverage included.

But what concerns me personally, is the barrel of lies to which these Congressclowns are willing to spew to the American public in the name of politics.

Upon exiting the WABAC, we find something called Medicaid, which is a guvment program that provides health insurance for adults and children with limited income and resources. Established in 1965, Medicaid became another battle in the perpetual war on poverty.

Actually kicked around as an idea in 1930 – in the midst of the Great Depression – such a nation-wide health insurance idea was quickly abandoned, revisited later following WWII.

But insuring Americans wholesale would be prohibitively expensive, quickly depleting the U.S. Treasury within a few months.

Splitting the Medicare costs with the individual states seemed more financially palatable. Consequently, states with larger populations absorbing their own costs rather than having smaller, less affluent states footing the bill.

Still, many politicians have been cozying up to the medical community and health insurance giants, alike, for decades.

With the WABAC date set for 2010, we arrive at the passage of the much-touted Affordable Care Act (ACA), also known as ObamaCare. Capitol Hill denizens appeared to find all that nuzzling came with benefits, as is evidenced by the death struggle to pass this overly expensive legislature that seems to have little affect on the affordability of health care.

Immediately following its passage, the ACA was discovered to have been the punchline to the federal treasury joke. There were loopholes, maybes, what-ifs, all explained away by then-President Barack Hussein Obama as ‘too bad, get over it!’

Previously insured individuals often found themselves uninsured, uninsured people discovered they needed to pay sky-high premiums, while most everyone discovered Obama’s promise of being able to “keep your doctor” was a giant lie told with a toothy smile. But the worst part of this train wreck was that Congressclowns had the foresight to exempt themselves from the ACA, altogether. Neat, eh?

Not to worry. Congressional Democrats are currently livid that not only poor Americans are under-insured for catastrophic health disasters, but the estimated 12,000,000 illegal immigrants, let in to our nation under the hapless Biden Administration, are suffering, as well.

And now amazingly, it is all the fault of President Donald Trump. How can that be?

Thanks for asking.

Modifying the current Medicaid plan in order to save precious tax dollars is paramount to the survival of our nation and our sovereignty. Hemorrhaging money to pay for the birth of illegal immigrants’ births, gender reassignments, and abortions sounds awfully noble. But it exudes ignorance on the part of us – the hosts of these law breakers.

Because of the large influx of miscreants, our tax dollars and community chest funds are more than depleted, demanding mo’ money through higher taxes to the point of causing national exsanguination.

Congressclowns are adamant to defile President Trump and his supporters for the sake of Democratic votes. They’re not the “team players,” who “reach across the aisle,” are they? No, they are bitter, angry, evil, vile, and spiteful narcissists deserving of a trip to oblivion.

Let’s hope that someday we will need the WABAC machine to take us to faint memories of the extinct Democrat Party.

Thin Skinned

 

  It’s nearly impossible to greet the day without hearing of someone with an axe to grind.

Just yesterday morning, I was listening to a weekly gardening show on the radio when the topic gravitated towards Gypsy Moths. Gypsy Moths are a serious threat to trees and shrubs in North America. According to the show’s host, Gypsy Moths are insatiable eaters; one fully grown caterpillar can eat up to a square foot of tree leaves in just one day.

This defoliation process can significantly damage a tree, and if the infestation is bad enough, strip the entire tree of leaves within a matter of days. And that is pretty bad.

Thinking I was quite fortunate to not have a Gypsy Moth infestation in my yard, a few callers later introduced the radio horticultural world to someone I would call a “whiner.”

This caller expressed outrage about the host referring to the Gypsy Moths by name. Yep. No kidding. She pontificated about the word “gypsy” being a slur, offending anyone who was a nomadic European Romani.

It seems as though these people originated in India, migrating into Europe. Being referred to as a gypsy is akin to being called someone with street smarts who are constantly searching for their next grift. Con artists, these now-settled Americans are generally grouped with traveling nomads who move from town-to-town scamming unsuspecting people out of money, hence the word “gypped.”

In my opinion, if the shoe fits, wear it. However, this radio caller was angry that the gypsy moniker was applied to a moth. Of course neither the host nor the caller assigned the name to these destructive insects. Yet, she felt it necessary to berate the host thereby demonstrating her superior moral authority.

Too bad she failed. You see, some other anointed gasbag felt compelled to introduce a better name for the Gypsy Moth as “Spongy Moth.” Let’s keep our fingers crossed sponges don’t take issue now.

That got me to thinking about other brilliant ways total strangers attempt to foist their personal principles on the rest of society, if for nothing else than for an imaginary gold star.

Growing up, my grandmother had old, heavy, dark furniture positioned upon oriental rugs. Those rugs were colorful examples of art sewn into patterns with wool yarn that were kaleidoscopic. They certainly brightened up the area, adding a sense of elan to an otherwise drab room.

Once again, those hand-made oriental carpets have been deemed offensive because of their name.

Upon examination, according to sleepbloom.com, “The term ‘oriental rug’ can be seen as outdated and sometimes offensive. It typically refers to a specific style of rug. However, using ‘Oriental’ to describe people lacks cultural sensitivity.”

One example of an Oriental rug

Sleepbloom.com further states, “Critics argue that using ‘Oriental’ perpetuates stereotypes and aligns with colonial perspectives. These viewpoints can create a disconnect between the vibrant cultures that produce these rugs and the general public’s understanding of them. Replacing ‘Oriental rug’ with more specific terms, like ‘Persian’ or ‘Turkish rug,’ offers a more respectful acknowledgment of the unique artistry involved in rug-making.”

You bet.

It so happens that Australian Santa Clauses were forced to revolt, in 2007, for the right to say “Ho, Ho, Ho.” Per medium.com, a firm that supplied Santa characters for Christmas “told trainees that ‘ho, ho, ho’ could frighten children and be derogatory to women. Why? Because it was too close the American slang for prostitute.” Correct.

Next, we stumble upon the horrendous word, “homosexual.” That horrible linguistic unit is deemed unusable due to the fact that homosexuals would rather be referred to as “gay.” I don’t know why, and don’t particularly care.

Then there are the homeless, who take a shine to “outdoor urban dwellers.”

The insane prefer “reality challenged,” as opposed to Democratic Representative, I suppose.

Sex change has become “gender reassignment.” Preferential treatment is now known as “affirmative action.” Robbery is much more succinct in the words “wealth redistribution.” And wanted criminal has been suddenly transformed into “person of interest.”

Dishonest people like the words “ethically challenged.” I see a more precise verbal description in the word “politician.”

You can almost imagine Chuck Schumer using the words “quantitative easing” to really mean “printing money for which we really don’t have the backing.”

We’ve come a long way since the days when a word was a word, while being descriptive without fluff. I believe it’s time to throw this juggernaut of psychopathy into reverse for the sake of clarity without window dressing to prevent hurt feelings.

Cultural appropriation is flattering, not offensive.

Finally, if you’re too thin skinned, remain indoors.

Too Much of a Good Thing

 

  If you hang around cerebral folks, you’ve likely heard the words “adage” and “idiom” escape their mouths.

For the record, “Adages, such as ‘a stitch in time saves nine,’ typically offer advice based on common sense or experience and are easily understood by people across different cultures. Whereas idioms, like ‘kick the bucket,’ convey meanings that can be puzzling to non-native speakers and often culturally specific,” according to askdifference.com

So, when someone uses the words “Too much of a good thing,” that, to me, can be very confusing. In my puny mind, that sentence can neatly fit into both of the adage, as well as idiom category. How can that be?

Let’s say you won the Powerball lottery which carries a jackpot that cannot be described as insignificant. Usually totaling in the multi-million-dollar range, that money brings as much angst as it does glee. Suddenly acquiring previously unknown friends and relatives, magically causes such needy people to appear, wholesale, with open hands.

The same holds true for those people from other cultures who cannot fathom there being any good thing that might be overburdening. Once again, too much of a good thing,

Think about trying to invest, save, be benevolent, even squander your newly found bonanza. Buying a deserving person a car, bar patrons a ‘round of drinks,’ or setting up a trust fund for a favorite relative or lifelong friend, can exude wealth that often creates rifts.

Too much of a good thing, again. As is evident, sharing the wealth, not unlike adages and idioms, can quickly become confusing.

But it was my sainted wife who unintentionally introduced a conundrum into our otherwise simplistic life. Being the end of July, when temperatures are regularly reaching three digits, and humidity on The Eastern Shore approaches 98% – a pleasant 98%, that is.

Personally, I’ve been planting a very modest 4’x6’ garden for over fifty-years, usually consisting of two cherry tomato plants, two Big Boy tomato plants, and often a couple of okras, as well as cucumbers. Each has their own place on my table. The cherries are for salads, Big Boys are used on sandwiches, while okra is for gumbo, and cukes are used in my salads, as well.

Not seeming like an extraordinary number of crops, planted correctly, the cherry tomatoes can yield several two-gallon buckets of fruit, as can the Big Boys, both of which are usually shared with friends and neighbors. The aforementioned okra excess must be frozen or pickled as people refer to them as slimy in their refusal of free veggies; for the record, they’re not.

But over the past few years with the expansion of my modest garden into a 7’x32’ plot, I am now able to plant more everything. I’ve written about cucumbers from my garden before, but now I decided we needed two additional cucumber plants since there was a five foot space adjacent to my newly introduced eggplants.

As luck would have it, this year is thus far promising to be a bumper year for many crops.

From time-to-time, a growing cycle appears in the fruit and vegetable growing seasons. Every four-years, or so, my black walnut trees produced an extraordinary abundance of nuts; other years, my plum trees thrived as did pears and apples in still different seasons.

Alignment of the planets – or whatever causes this phenomenon – seems to be right this year of 2025. As such, our first tomato was picked July 1^st. Since then, it’s been tomatoes upon tomatoes from the Big Boy vines finding their way to our kitchen table.

Quickly approaching the beginning of August, we’ve also been harvesting an extraordinary number of cucumbers. In an effort of efficiency and frugality, my sainted wife has been accumulating Mason jars in order to can these green garden denizens.

A small portion of the cucumber bonanza

Buying them by the case she’s become the best friend of the local hardware store who is delighted to sell these canning necessities. The good news is the washing, sterilizing, creating a brine, peeling, chopping, slicing, and finally canning more than 20-cucumbers yielded eight quarts of pickles.

The bad news is that the very next day, she picked another seven cukes with five more in the wings. Of course she panicked. Of course.

‘

Without a preconceived plan for excess cucumber disposal, she took to making casual, unannounced “welfare” visits to neighbors. And how fortuitous she had a small bag containing at least five fresh cucumbers with her.

‘

Wearing a giant smile, she would begin her conversation with an expression of concern that she had not seen our neighbor in several days. (The reason for that is the aforementioned oppressive heat and humidity.)

While extending her hand holding the bag chock full o’ cukes, she learned how to release the bag, turn her body in mid-air, and skedaddle before the unsuspecting neighbor could scream, “NOOOOO!”

Unfortunately, the neighbors quickly caught on to her shenanigans and subsequent visits were met with them hiding like felons anticipating a felony warrant being served. It soon became apparent the jig was up, and time for implementing Plan B.

My sainted wife seemed to be leaving the house often, at random times. Her excuses varied from “Goin’ shoppin’,” to “Returning a library book,” even “Visiting some sick friend.”

Suspecting something nefarious was going on I decided to surreptitiously follow her. Sure enough, she wound up at the Tallmart store where I espied her sneakily placing our surplus cucumbers in the store’s vegetable bins, cleverly camouflaging them as genuine Tallmart produce which an unsuspecting consumer would hopefully give a new home.

It’s quite a shame that we have so much available food that we are unable to give it away.

And now you have another example of both an adage and idiom: Too much of a good thing.

The Inevitable

 

  “Our new Constitution is now established, and has an appearance that promises permanency; but in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.”

That profound sentence was written by Founding Father Benjamin Franklin, in a letter to Jean-Baptiste Le Roy, in 1789.

Eventually becoming a popular idiom, those words are now commonly used to point at anything that is both annoying and inevitable.

So, I was curious as to how we arrived at our present location in life regarding taxes and their punitive affects on our daily lives. Buckle-up and prepare for a wild ride through the true history of taxes, taxers, and taxees.

(Psst: Save yourself some time and trouble of looking up the word “taxees,” as I just made it up to improve that sentence.)

Real estate speculator, King George III

The federal income tax in the United States was officially established with the ratification of the 16^th Amendment on February 3, 1913. Its origins trace back to the Civil War when the first income tax was introduced in 1862 to help finance war expenses.

It should be noted that early taxation relied heavily on tariffs and excise taxes. Odd that this means of finding money worked well until Congress felt they were the smartest people in the country. By the way, what worked so well until then – tariffs – are suddenly vilified since it’s now President Donald Trump’s idea. Oh, my.

However, the income tax was repealed in 1872 due to public opposition. Go figure.

Not to be denied their exercise of power, Congress, in 1894, attempted to reintroduce a 2% income tax on incomes over $4,000, but the Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional. Not to be deterred, Congress flexed its muscle by proposing the 16^th Amendment in 1909; it was ratified in 1913.

The first federal income tax under this amendment was a 1% tax on incomes above $3,000, with a 6% surtax on incomes over $500,000. Clearly this paved the way for the annual pickpocketing known as the “Congress Can Spend Your Money More Wisely Than You” Amendment. (Not really, but it should have been named that for accuracy.)

This brilliant maneuver fundamentally changed federal revenue sources, making income tax a primary means of funding guvment operations. With sleazy Congressmen AND women in charge, over time, income tax brackets have evolved significantly impacting American economic policy and society.

Not unlike sharks, Congress suddenly developed a taste for blood, beginning a campaign to see how quickly they could bleed Americans, along with their work ethic. With a seemingly endless supply of dollars from the then-estimated population of 92,000,000 Americans, Congress’ crusade on class warfare began in earnest. Let the exsanguination begin!

But what exactly is the aforementioned excise tax? I’m here to explain.

An excise tax is a specific tax imposed on certain goods or services at the time of purchase, such as fuel, tobacco, and alcohol. It is typically paid by businesses, but passed on to consumers through higher prices. This excise tax is local in nature, collected by municipalities and states, very much like sales taxes are.

To help the federal guvment feel more included, the feds began adding their “fair share” of taxes on goods such as vehicle tires. Tires are subject to various taxes, including federal excise tax (FET) and state-specific fees such as the Tire User Fee in Illinois, which is imposed on the sale of new and used tires. These taxes help fund road maintenance and tire disposal programs. Wink, wink.

Unfortunately, Americans are sold a bill of goods each time the excise fuel prices are raised, lying to us about the need for mo’ money to repair roads and bridges. Uh, huh.

It seems as though the FET, sales tax, and Tire User Fee, is in addition to the ever-present federal income tax. Not a bad legal haul for a politician-generated robbery, but most certainly a crime for Al Capone.

Let’s skip ahead to the calendar. The federal guvment’s budget is on a one-year cycle. Beginning on October 1^st, and ending on September 30^th, this period is known as a “fiscal year.” Fiscal years are determined to set budget deadlines as well as spending periods.

These budget plans are set by Congress who hold the proverbial checkbook and pen. ONLY Congress may spend money from the Department of Treasury; not the President, Vice President, Speaker of the House, or janitor, can authorize spending money. Period.

If – IF – the federal guvment runs out of money, they cannot spend more because the pre-established limit has already been spent, and the checkbook balance is $0.00. In American dollars, that is ZERO.

Oftentimes, the guvment runs out of money, though. Natural disasters, civil unrest, over-exaggerations of the flu, foreign wars, and other unforeseen emergencies quickly deplete the coffers, at which time it is necessary to still spend money in the name of humanity and public safety. That’s when Congress meets to raise the budget in the form of a loan – a loan that needs to be repaid – hence, the name “loan.”

Currently, the loan as of late stands at a nosebleed $37,000,000,000,000. That’s 37 trillion dollars!

Click here for the actual Debt Clock   https://www.usdebtclock.org/

No matter who you are, that is a lot of money, but the brain trust in Congress think there’s room to write more bad checks for frivolous things. And they are quick to tell you that if only they had more money, all would be well. It wouldn’t, because they’ll only spend more. Trust me.

Now for the big question: Where will Congress get the money?  Answer: You.

And the little question to which you also know the answer: How will Congress extort your money? Little answer: Taxes.

Don’t forget that America became a nation because Britain’s King George III raised the excise tax on tea. Don’t forget.

Forward to 1865

 

  What was old is now new. Take, for example, electric cars. Electric vehicles were experimented with by several auto manufacturers as far back as the 1830’s, in Scotland. Attempting to find a suitable battery was difficult, inasmuch as electricity for charging was still widely unavailable.

After a period of deep thinking, European auto manufacturers decided, in 1901, that the internal combustion engine was far less expensive to manufacture and maintain than electric vehicles. But now they’re new again in 2025.

Then there are bell bottom britches. Exactly where bell bottom pants were born is a mystery, but they were adopted by the U.S. Navy in 1901, for use by sailors. They were found to be more easily able to be doffed by an overboard sailor preventing drowning. Used during World War I, they became accepted as a fashion must for both men and women.

Eventually, they disappeared until being “rediscovered” in the 1960’s and 1970’s as an accessory in the fashion world, again, when thought of as new. (As an aside, I also had a pair of bell bottoms, and I looked good.)

Not to be outdone, the brain trust of California’s transportation system thought it would be a terrific idea to make traveling throughout the Eureka State more safe, comfortable, and efficient by building a railway system.

You read that right. Someone who didn’t learn about the rail systems of America, Europe, or the Far East, in elementary school apparently stumbled upon something termed “trains.”

Trains have been around for hundreds of years in varying forms to include electric, steam, plus diesel, that have not only proved efficient, but cost effective, as well. They were successful in transporting both goods and people across a developing nation for many, many years.

Trains began waning following the Civil War ending in 1865, in favor of the new mode of transportation called the automobile.

As with all things, they age; some things age better than others. And just because they were once beneficial to ‘their times,’ doesn’t mean they should or could be revived. 

Gavin Newsom pointing to the direction 
his popularity is heading

Creating the California High-Speed Rail Program (CHSRP), California Gubernor Gavin Newsom thought it would be amazing if he could build this much-wanted boondoggle to showcase his forward-thinking abilities.

Promising this rail system would service areas from San Francisco to Los Angeles, was the easy part. Using a media blitz to promote and continue enthusiasm has become arduous, though.

With the CHSRP using the ol’ razzle dazzle game, they continue to cheer lead this bottomless money pit. Visiting

https://hsr.ca.gov/2025/01/06/news-release-californias-high-speed-rail-program-celebrates-progress-and-highlights-next-steps-towards-operations/

will take you to a website of fluff, along with nebulous platitudes that may actually invoke a case of Type 2 Diabetes.

Enthusiastically bragging about working on 171-miles of track, following the creation of more than 14,500 construction jobs, this statement from CHSRP gives one the impression this exercise was making great headway.

Unfortunately, this saga has been seemingly never ending. Beginning with early visions in the 1990’s, this high speed rail system had planned to remove cars from the roadways thereby relieving congestion.

With $9.95 billion in bonds sold in 2008, this pipe dream was well underway to becoming a reality.

Officially breaking ground in 2015, the section between Bakersfield and Merced, seemed like the easiest place to start. “The goal was to complete this segment first and then connect to the more populace areas,” according to brilliantmaps.com. That was ten-years ago, for your information.

This lofty project was expected to be complete by 2020, but the timeline has now reached beyond 2030. Financial issues have also plagued the project. “Originally projected to cost $33 billion,” brilliantmaps.com continues, “the project’s estimated cost has ballooned to over $128 billion. As a result, the funding shortfalls have become a significant obstacle. The federal government initially provided some support through stimulus funding during the Obama administration.”

Gubernor Newsom has arrived at a place where he, as well as his CHSRP, must explain where all those billions and billions of tax dollars went over the last 17-years. The bigger mystery is where the additional $95,000,000,000 will go. However, the biggest enigma is what are all those 14,500-construction people doing? Something to ponder.

California is proud to declare itself a state in which a resident needs a vehicle to travel. Widespread, Los Angeles itself is nearly impossible to navigate without a car, thereby demanding more wider roads, which create more pollution, necessitating additional traffic enforcement, besides vehicle registrations and inspections – all of which demand additional citizen’s taxes, handled by an obese bureaucracy.

Leading this charge, Gubernor Newsom fancies himself as frugal, when in fact, he is a spendthrift. Showing little regard for taxpayers, residents, drivers, and consumers, Newsom has been attempting to use this as one of his résumé items for 2028 presidential bid.

It’s too bad he’s desperately reaching backward into 1865 for tomorrow’s answers; not the brilliance for which one would hope in a leader.

His 2024 visit to The White House appeared to signal his own intention to run for the highest office. Seemingly measuring the Oval Office for new drapes, Newsom remained tight-lipped when asked speculative questions concerning this clear perusal of his future Washington, D.C. residence.

Pretending to not know of what reporters are referring, Newsom, to this day, has been making ‘presidential-like’ statements regarding current President Donald Trump’s behavior and actions concerning day-to-day operations. His scowl, complimented by his furrowed brow is a dead giveaway when determining if his audition is, indeed, authentic.

With poor decisions dangling from his neck much like cheap jewelry, Gubernor Newsom has been ignoring those faux pas collected akin to cheesy Mardi Gras beads. Wildfires, riotous protests, anti-Semitic rallies, transgender (Title IX) sports issues, illegal alien invaders, his environmental debacle, accompanied by outrageous and punitive tax policies, have all been gleefully explained away as “progress.”

Newsom apparently feels as though there’s a secret reset button that he’s able to push that will effectively erase all his past sins.

Sniffing out media cameras and microphones better than a bloodhound, Newsom seems to enjoy any and all havoc he creates in the name of forward thinking.

Unfortunately, all this forward thinking doesn’t include a Venn Diagram that encompasses from where all his stellar policies and dictums funding will come.

As with many – maybe most – guvment projects, funding monies be damned. The populace is seen as a giant cash cow to create a facade that rarely can be called a success without politicians and other guvment honchos digging into the wallet pockets of constituents.

If Gubernor Newsom wants to sit at America’s helm, he will need to quickly learn that our nation is not hankering for another spend-then-tax the populace. Based on his political track record, he doesn’t have a clue about budgets, much less constituents.

It’s time to send him into the private sector for a taste of how a real job works.

Promises, Promises

 

  Once again America is divided because of news. Unfortunately, this time around it is not fake news.

Parsing out and subsequently digesting this ‘new news’ has become rather laborious what with all the goings-on in the world and individuals’ private lives. As such, news consumers have resorted to finding means by which to expedite their news feeds, one of which being the internet.

Loaded chock full of eager advertisers trying to sell their wares to anyone, anywhere, has created a medium that rudely interrupts “normal” web surfing. Pop-ups blaze across the screen to not only antagonize but also disrupt any attempt to get to the core of a particular search.

Throughout its short existence, the internet had become a mixed hotbed of news-agency propaganda besides distractions in the form of those pesky pop-ups. As an aside, most of those pop-ups are titillating to the point of ‘train wreck’ status.

We’ve all been there: Driving down the highway when traffic comes to an abrupt stop. Flashing lights, wailing emergency vehicle sirens, tow trucks, citizens standing roadside weeping and often covered in blood, draws enough attention to make you want to look – like it or not. We must witness the train wreck.

Akin to the roadside train wreck is something generated by brief those hokey news briefs I call “click bait.”

Click bait is an enticement to divert your attention away from what you were doing, causing you to focus attention elsewhere. They begin with sensational headlines such as “Pope interviews space alien,” or “Donald Trump cheated with golf partner.”

Of course, the Pope story is about Jimmy Pope from the Bronx who is a heavy LSD user, while the Trump story misleads by omitting his golf partner actually gave him a Mulligan. Neither of these click baits were honest or informational. But they made you look.

Which is where we find ourselves less than several weeks after the New York City (NYC) Democratic Mayoral primary race. We couldn’t avoid the hoopla which was an exposé of showcasing failed New York State (NYS) governor Andrew Cuomo, along with a relatively newcomer named Zohran Mamdani.

Being a long-time governor spending ten-years in office, Cuomo has proven himself to be a genuine sleaze bag, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, when he ordered nursing homes to admit patients from hospitals without testing them for COVID-19. He was blamed for a large number of those nursing home deaths.

Mamdani’s, appearance on the Democratic ticket generated a considerable amount of interest and enthusiasm. Being a relatively newcomer – he’s been representing the 36^th district in NYS since 2021. He’s also a member of the Democratic Party and the Democratic Socialists of America. And proud of it.

With the aid of another Socialistic-leaning Congressional Representative, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, 33-year-old Mamdani seemingly coasted to a wide-margin victory over Cuomo.

Immediately thereafter, the hoopla began to resonate across the media. Wearing an insincere smile, Mamdani continued to make the rounds while spouting his brilliant plan for “fairness,” and “equity.”

It all sounded so good to the downtrodden and spiteful New Yorkers who suddenly demanded a pound of flesh from smart investors plus business owners, alike. Take no prisoners!

Forgetting who was feeding them, those under educated voters could easily see lots of freebies in their future.

Promises of free bus rides, free subway trips, free cell phones, free food from city-owned and operated grocery stores, as well as free clinics, we on the tongues of every financial analyst and news pundit in America. This was revolutionary. REVOLUTIONARY!

Similar to attracting flies to poop, Mamdani was drawing larger and larger crowds of admirers and well-wishers on his trek to Gracie Mansion, following every spoken word. But from whence will the money for all the newly incurred bills come?

I’m glad you asked.

Evidently, Mr. Mamdani has this vision of taxing the “wealthy” for their fair share. It appears as though the actual numbers that separate the rich from the poor remain somewhat nebulous to our new Democratic shooting star. All we need to know is that a Mayor Mamdani will conjure up a clear number after his election.

Of course, that will be much too late to put the proverbial genie back into the lamp. Not to worry, though, as something desperate needs to be done to help the NYC underclass in such dire times.

He’s mentioned he will aim at stopping the current Commander-in-Chief, President Donald J. Trump, inasmuch as President Trump has been unfairly targeting needy illegal immigrants in America’s throes. Mamdani is angry that America’s resources, innovation, and subsequent wealth are too precious to waste on Americans.

Currently bragging about his socialist tendencies, Mamdani mentioned his brilliant programs that would spread his generosity would have to be likely confiscated from those not sharing his benevolence.

For the record, socialism is term used to describe an economic system that advocates a system of shared ownership and wealth equity. Communism, on the other hand, is similar to socialism, however communism receives its monies and holdings from state confiscation.

As is evident, socialism is nothing but communism light. Confiscation without guns...socialism for all!

Former PM Margaret Thatcher

Margaret Thatcher, the former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, once said, “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people’s money.” That pretty well sums up the situation in which Zohran Mamdani hopes America’s NYC will head.

This sleazy tactic is very, very similar to one used in 1930’s Germany. A political newcomer from Austria felt Germany was in need of a more robust economy that would help most German people. With Jewish, homosexuals, and anti-National Socialist Party citizens serving as scapegoats, Adolph Hitler turned that nation against his perceived enemies to drive Germany into a world war. It should be noted that his newly contrived National Socialist Party – NAZI, for short – is nothing like what our modern media is comparing to President Trump.

This razzle dazzle plunged the world into desperation, poverty, mayhem, with international divisions felt to this day.

These wacky ideas from such immigrant transplants such as Mamdani should not be ignored, but rather heeded to prevent such dangerously stupid ideas from being implemented.

To prevent this derailing of America – this step having its inception at a low level – must be stomped out with education and an historic perspective.

Mamdani is not a clown. He is a dangerous threat that will turn the minds of ignorant, complacent Americans into slaves for his grandiose hare-brained idea of changing NYC into a socialist-run entity.