Cognitive Overload

When I was younger, much younger, life was a whole lot simpler.   

We got our local news from the radios in our cars.  The national news came from one of the 3 alphabet TV networks at 5:30 p.m.  Their programs lasted only 30 minutes, and only 22 of those minutes were some talking heads reading us the news.  The other 8 minutes were advertising.  Some company or other trying to sell us something and paying the networks for the time to do so.    

I can't tell you for sure, but I think we all actually watched those ads.  Mainly because there were so few of them and we had no other choice.

Later, when I had finally fought in the war and graduated from college, with a double major, psychology and economics, I got a job in marketing and sales.  I'd always wanted to know why people did what they did (psychology), and how they went about paying for it (economics).  

It wasn't long before I'd worked my way up to management.  And gotten promoted to where I was actually controlling the marketing and sales of a succession of companies.  And even wound up running my own company later on.  So successfully marketing its offerings became a matter of whether or not I'd eat.  And eating was a habit I'd formed and didn't wish to break...

I used to pore over the Harvard Business Review.  It was a valued resource I used to help guide my professional decisions.  And I recall an article about how many times a day the average citizen received marketing and/or sales messages back then.  As I recall, it was from 400 to 1,600 times a day.  From all sources.  TV, radio, blimp, park benches, buses, magazines, etc.  And avoiding those messages wasn't something we conciously chose to avoid.  

Yes, they were annoying, but no, they didn't make us crazy.  That was then, this is now...

Today, right here in River City, the average American is beseached with somewhere between 6,000 and 10,000 ad messages a day!  And thanks to cable, there's 500 TV channels to help deliver them.  And we have almost exactly twice the number of citizens to avertise to as in my day.    

Many more places to advertise, much more sophistocated advertisers, an Internet to blast us with ads, twice the people, and 15 or so TV news channels we must watch if we wish to stay informed.  It didn't get better.  And I'd say it's resulted in TMI:  

Too Much Information.

From my professional prospective, I'd say we've reached Cognitive Overload.  Too many advertisers, too many platforms on which to advertise, much more aggressive advertising, and a public who's gotten really good at ignoring them.  Because they must; otherwise they'd go nuts.  

Our brains are like super sophistocated computers.  They receive all those messages and then do a quick dump of those their owner doesn't need to function.  That's why those advertisers have become superb at fighting their way through our brain's host defenses.  They know that only 1% of the public is in a buying mood at any given time.  The other 99% of us must simply unhear and unsee those  messages in order to get to the news or information we want to receive.

Have you noticed that looking in your phone for a restaurant, or a place to get your oil changed, or the directions to a particular business, exposes you to "Banner Blindness?"  An annoying succession of 5 and 7 and 15 and 30 second and 1 minute ads you much see or intentionally "unsee" in order to get the answers you seek?  And then the algorythim exposes you to ads about the question you asked for the next 2 or 3 days?  

Ask Google about a brand of car and you'll receive ads for all kinds of cars all day long.  You won't be able to cruise through the Net without ads about cars.  New cars, used cars, guys who paint cars, floor mats for cars, car covers, etc.  So much so that you'll want to throw your phone in the trash.  But you won't.  Because you've become expert in dancing around those efforts with aplomb.  You won't even notice them.  Because you've trained yourself to do so.  They made us do that.  The bastards!

Your brain protects you, and you protect your brain.  Think about TV ads.  Many of them are for medications you don't need for ailments you don't have.  Ailments you've never heard of and cannot even pronouce.  One minute ads that tell you in the first 15 seconds what they're for, and then use the next 45 seconds to tell you that they'll make your hair fall out, give you diseases you don't want, and cause you to go insane.  Maybe even die.  The FDA makes them do that.  But reaching the tiny percentage of the public with those particular diseases and then convincing them to make their doctors prescribe them is their only goal.  

Think about this:  Bristol Meyers Squibb advertises for Eliquis.  It's a drug for Arterial Fibrilation.  They spent $257 million dollars last year on TV advertising.  Because that drug costs us $700 a month.  And once they've got you, considering it's a maintenance drug, they've got you.  

Ozempic, the latest craze, features a fat chick in a blue pantsuit, backed by 30 singers and dancers, along with an original jingle and 24-piece orchestra, commands a minute of your TV screen to try and get you to lose weight.  Their way.  They spent $310 million last year on TV advertising.  To force you to inject yourself with a drug that makes the fat molecules in what you eat so large they can't be absorbed by your digestive tract.  You pay for the food, you eat it, and then it goes straight through and out the poop chute.  For only $2,100 a month.  Of course, their package insert says in order to make their drug work as intended you need to exercize and eat less.   Or, you could exercize and eat less and lose weight without spending the $2,100 a month.  But that's advertising.  Doing what they want you to do the way they want you to do it, even if you can do it without them.  

And writing big checks all the while... 

It's an implied contract.  They spend $Millions to bring you new TV programming, and you watch their advertisements.  Except somebody changed the game by creating 500 channels ands inventing "fast forward."  Now folks record their programs and watch them later.  They can then click a button and jump 30 seconds ahead.  Jumping past all those pricey ads.  That must really grate on all those marketing and advertising folks who pay $Jillions of Dollars to produce those programs.  Too bad, so sad.  10,000 ads a day can made you go mad.

The guy that gets ahead these days is the one who figures out how to break through the host defenses we've mounted to try and avoid watching and listening to those ads.  And if you don't know how that works, just think about the last time your wife unloaded on you with a bunch of "honey do's."  Your eyes go out of focus and you start thinking about fishing.  Yeah, like that.  

Of course, you could always sign up for those terribly expensive "streaming" services that pipe ad-free content directly into your home.  And then instead of waiting for a commercial to go to the bathroom, like we used to do, you can just click on the "pause" button.  

It'll surely make your bladder gladder. 

The Dreaded Minimum Wage.

Everytime the Gubmint spends too much of our money on unnecessary crap, like the $9 Trillion in extra dollars spent during the Biden Adminisitration, the cost of living goes up.  That's because they're in competition with the taxpayers, i.e. you and me, for the goods and services they must buy, and that we must buy.  The very same goods and services. 

And they can print money!  You and I cannot.

And the next thing that will surely happen is that same Gubmint will hike the Minimum Wage to force employers to pay their employees more.  So as to offset the heightened cost of living they're responsible for increasing.  

And as absolute, incontrovertible proof of the legitimacy of my accusation, we're now more than $38 TRILLION DOLLARS IN DEBT!  It was $9 TRILLION the day Barry Obama took office.  And that wasn't so very long ago!

This all started with one Franklin Delano Roosevelt in the aftermath of the Second World War.  He spent so much borrowed money that the cost of living went through the roof.  To help with the problem he created the "Fair Labor Standards Act" of 1938.  It demanded that employers pay their employees at least $0.25 cents per hour.  And back then, a $Quarter an hour could enable one to live quite nicely.  

But there's a better question that must necessarily follow:  Why does the Gubmint get a say in how much an employer pays his employees?  Isn't the deal between the employer and the employee a private contract matter?  A civil matter?  

Through the years that same Gubmint has required, under the force of statute, i.e., "LAW," to pay his or her (or its...California, doncha' know) employees an ever higher Minimum Wage.  From that $Quarter an hour it went to a $Dollar, then $Two, and up to the now Federal Standard of $7.25 cents an hour.  

Yet, several of our states discovered that they, too, could get in on the folly of telling employers within their borders how much they had to pay.  California, as an eggregious example, has now mandated a MinWage of $20.00 an hour, or even more in some cases.  They are, in essence, forcing their businesses to spend money.  For every time they force a MinWage increase, those same businesses must increase the price of their goods and services to stay solvent.  Like stairsteps, the MinWage goes up, the prices go up.  And the populace suffers.  Those who have to buy that coffee, or those cookies, or that lawnmower must then pay more due to the heavy hand of their Gubmint.  And the cost of living goes up in lockstep.

Now, Lost Angeles' mayor has just signed into law a new mandate forcing that those hotels and restaurants within her city pay $30.00 an hour.  It was $10.00 an hour just 4 years ago.  These, the folks who make the beds at the Motel 6, if fully employed, are now making $60,000 a year!  Perhaps substantially more than those who are frequenting those same motels.

Apparently destroying what was once a beautiful city by attending a cocktail party in Uganda while her town burned down wasn't enough.  Leaving the reservoir empty and telling the fire department to stand down wasn't enough, either.  Then watching by long distance 16,000 dwellings burn and dozens killed.  Now she's going to finish off what's left by forcing her businesses into backruptcy.  What did they ever do to her?

BoyGuv ("Hairgod") Newsom unilaterally hiked the pay last year of those folks who ask "Would you like fries with that" to $20.00 an hour.  Not seeming to care if such a monumental increase in the pay of workers in fast food joints would pose a detriment to owners of those businesses, he went ahead and did it anyway.  I used to constult with owners of MickeyD's franchises, and I can tell you this increase costs the average 24-hour restaurant about $250,000 a year.  Or about the total profits of a MickeyD's.  Rendering the value of their stores to just about zero (businesses like those are valued at their ability to produce profits.  No profits, nobody to buy them). 

Or, to hike the price of a Big Mac meal to $12 or $13, rendering it out of the price range for the average wage earner.  The guy for whom it was originally created.  MickeyD's is now "fine dining."     

Now that Mayor Bass, a person who's only mayor because she's both Black and a woman, and of sub-average I.Q., has increased the wages of hotel and restaurant workers to $30.00 an hour, those same hotels and restaurants must now increase their prices by 15% or even more.  And if they do not, they'll go tits up just in time for the Olympics.  Of course, Bass doesn't care about that.  Or perhaps isn't even smart enough to have considered it.  Or even to know she should have considered it! 

One would have to be pretty damn dumb to open a business in a state that's proven itself willing to mess with a business owners' finances by unilaterlly hiking their employees' pay.  Imagine waking up one morning and finding out your cost of doing business just went up by 15% or 20%, or even more.*  How would you react?  Remember, 75% of all American businesses are 50 employees or less.  And owned by families just like yours.  It's like having the State stick a gun in your face and asking for protection money.  The Mafia learned how to do business from watching our Gubmint!  Do yourself a favor, become a painter, or a writer, or a shoer of horses.  That way you don't need employees.  And the state cannot screw you to the wall on a whim like they're now doing.  

When I come back next go around I want to be both Black and a woman.  Or maybe just a guy like I am but identify as Black and a woman (the Democrats have told us "identifying" is all that's necessary).  Plus gay and transgender and "two-spirit."  Whatever that means.  I'll surely be the King of America... 

*   My sainted wife and I ran a small medical services company for 39 years here in Taxifornia.  We had at our peak 50 nurses working for us.  And we not only had to compete with other providers, we had to compete with Sacramento!  You know the old saying, "You can't fight City Hall?"  Yeah, etch it in concrete.  

So What Do We Get Out Of It?

The guy who wins the pool game is the one who plays several shots ahead.

I know a little bit about that wonderful game as I used to play it professionally.  And well.  So what's that got to do with our military actions in Iran?  A lot, as you'll soon see.

It's like playing three dimensional chess.  You've seen that, right?  Three chess boards, one on top of the other.  It's hard, very hard.  And winning requires one to play several moves ahead, and on multiple levels.  And we're playing several moves ahead with our actions in Iran.  How?  China, as everyone knows, is one of our two major competitors.  And some say, enemies.  The other is Russia.  But Russia's involved in a forever war with Ukraine, so we don't have to worry too much about them right now.  Maybe later, but not now.  However, we can make it more difficult for them to move their oil on the international stage.  

But China?  They want to bury us.  They want to chew us up and spit us out.  We know that.  They've told us so.  And they know we know that.  But we cannot simply bomb China like we're bombing Iran.  They could lose a couple of million people, or even a couple of hundred million people, and be better off.  They wouldn't have to feed them, which would be a benefit.  And they would respond, strike for strike, and likely kill half of us.  Or maybe all of us.  A problem.

So if we can't fight them, and beat them, what does America do to weaken China so much they no longer pose a threat?  They have one major weakness.  They have no oil.  And they need petroleum to fuel their industries.  And their military.  In fact, they import 10,000,000 barrels of crude oil per day.  Ten Million!  And up to now they've been getting all that oil from two places; Venezuela and Iran.  They've invested $Billions in shoring up their relationships with both countries.  Secure in the thought they'd guaranteed a forever supply of crude.  

But a couple of months ago we grabbed Venezuela's Marxist Prez Maduro, China's friend and oil supplier.  We turned Venezuela into a friend of America, whether they liked it or not.  We now direct Venezuela's oil to where we want it to go.  And one of those places isn't China.  In fact, we've taken some 80 million barrels of their oil directly to America at no cost to us whatsoever.  And we've siezed a dozen of their illegal shadow oil tankers on the open ocean, and taken that oil directly to Louisiana.  For refining into gasoline.  That's oil that would have gone to China.

You should know that 90% of Iran's oil has been going to China.  90%!  Iran's been selling that oil to China at a discount.  To fuel its war machine.  To pay off the Houtis and Hezbollah to threaten Israel, and to make missiles and drones.  It's not going there now.  

In addition to eliminating the Ayatollah and his henchmen, and giving the Iranians their one chance to overthrow their hard-line Muslim mullahs, we've sunk their navy, bombed their air defenses into oblivion, and stopped the flow of oil to China.  We even sunk their most valuable warship yesterday with a torpedo from one of our submarines.  The first time since the Second World War!  We'll likely wind up controlling where that oil goes as well, or at least making sure China gets no more of it.  Or if they do, they'll be paying market rates for it, a 40% increase over what they've been paying.  This puts a damper on their foreign currency stores, makes it much more costly to run their country, and renders them less capable of harming us or our friends.

And next, we will no doubt continue this chess game by negotiating the overthrow of Cuba and its communist leadership's 70 year stranglehold over its freedom-loving citizens.  After China, Venezuela's second biggest customer was Cuba.  It had been supplying them with cheap, wholesale oil.  Fueling Cuba's ability to govern their people with an iron fist.  Now?  We're making sure they get no more Venezuelan oil.  Recent news states their planes can't fly and their tourism industry, their major source of income, is collapsing.  Interesting, don't you think?  

In one quick but well reasoned chess move, Trump has defanged China, hampered Russia's ability to ship its oil, cut off Cuba's oil supply, and reduced our enemies to paper tigers.  Or in Venezuela's case, our vassal.  Three dimensional chess.  Trump and his advisors have been playing it.  His global competitors, haven't...     

It's About Damn Time!

One of the (few) benefits of age is we get to sometimes see both the beginning, and the end, of momentous events.  This is one such time.  

In my case I got to see the beginning and end of the Korean conflict.  And the Viet Nam Police Action.  And the Panama armed intervention.  And so with the Grenada assault.  And many others as well.  In fact, there have been 212 armed conflicts the United States has entered into in its almost 250 years.  12 of them major.  

In fact, there has not been a military action since the Second World War proclaimed by Congress as a "war."  We weren't smart enough to learn from the French when they got their ass handed to them in Viet Nam with their involvement at Dien Bien Phu (look it up).  So we invaded.  And lost 55,000 of our finest.  

We've had the Iraq invasion.  And 20 years of the Afghanistan debacle, costing us 4,000 soldiers and airmen.  Still no "war."  It seems we've used our military on a whim.  And depending upon which party's in power, whether outrage follows, or quiet acceptance.

And as someone who's worn the uniform of our Great Country, that pisses me off.  We've often sent our young men and women off to foreign wars to fight and die without knowing whether their impending sacrifices were warranted.  Or justified.  And that pisses me off.

However, every now and again there's a need so great that our military intervention is demanded.  Nay required.  So much so that we must gather ourselves up and bite the bullet.  Literally.  The events and circumstances over the past few days are one such need.

I'm blessed with a great memory.  Or plagued, perhaps.  I recall vividly when Jimmy Carter decided that the perceived human rights of foreigners was more important to him than our National Security.  In fact, I believe he put it above our national interests.  And if you're a part of the half of America that wasn't alive when all this unfolded, sit back and let me take you on a quick memory tour.

Raza Pahlevi, the Shah of Iran, was a fully westernized Middle Eastern leader, and one of few we could call a friend in that most dangerous part of the world.  Although a Suni Muslim, he led a secular government.  Women were fully integrated in their society, and equal.  They wore the latest Paris fashions and modern hairstyles, and paraded them openly on Tehran's streets.  His military was powerful.  We made it so.  In fact, at one time he owned 120 F-4 Phantom jet fighters he'd bought from us.  Second only to our own force.    

This angered his more hard-line religious leaders and their followers.  They openly protested, and he quickly imprisoned them.  This caused newly installed President Carter to object.  Strenously.  So much so that he refused to support the Shah with our full might.  And he was overthrown as a result.

That occurred in Early 1979.  Just as quickly the Ahatollah Khomeini left his palatial apartment on Paris' Champs Elysee and flew to Tehran.  And into the leadership of when then became a theocratic, American-hating dictatorship.  Thank you Jimmy Carter.

Soon, the Ahatollah's followers attacked our embassey.  They quickly took 66 hostages and held them for 444 days.  Thank you Jimmy Carter.  Carter tried to retrieve them, but the two planes he sent crashed into each other in a desert sandstorm and 17 of our soldiers and airmen were killed.  Another black eye.  

And then unfolded what became years of attacks on us and our friend Israel.  They blew up Saudi Arabia's Kobar Towers, killing 18 of our soldiers.  They shot a 737 out of the sky killing 200-plus Americans and Israelis.  Their proxies shot down a Pan-Am jet, killing more than 280 souls.  It went on.  And on.

In short, Iran and it's proxies, later funded by some $8.7 Billion Dollars of our money, gifted by B. Hussein Obama, proceeded to kill our soldiers and airmen.  This continued over a 47 year period.  

Reagan tried to talk them out of their goals.  So did Carter.  And Obama.  And even Trump in his first term.  It didn't work.  Death to America, the Big Satan, and Israel, the Little Satan, was their only goal.  And they funded those efforts by selling oil to our enemies at wholesale prices.  Many of us wondered when somebody, ANYBODY, would do somthing about it.  I had given up.  I was sure I'd die before I saw an end to this outrage.  I was wrong.  Somebody did something.  His name is Donald J. Trump.

Trump just unleashed the full fury of our military on Iran.  He assembled the largest armada of ships since the beginning of the Iraq conflict.  More than 200 war planes were sent to blow the crap out of Iran on Saturday morning.  F-15's.  And F-18's.  And F-22's.  And F-35's.  And A-10's.  And B-1's and B-2's.  And more than 60 refueling planes to keep them fighting.  And bombing.

This operation started on Israel's Sabath.  And in the daylight.  Iran's leaders weren't expecting that.  That's why we did it.  And we blew the Ayatollah and 46 of his henchmen our of their sandals in one swell foop.  And I jumped up and down.  No, actually, I can't jump up and down.  But I raised my fist in the air and yelled my support.  So did all my fellow Americans who knew enough to know this was the right thing to do.  And the right time to do it.

A succession of U. S. Presidents have tried to use words to change Iran's mind.  We talked.  And met.  And talked some more.  These efforts were unsuccessful.  Even though we bombed their nuclear fuel enrichment efforts last June, they hadn't learned.  Sometimes only bombs and bullets will work.  This was one such time.  No matter how this ends up, I say it's about damed time.

This unassuming little blog enables me to vent my overly large spleen.  I have.  I trust you'll agree with my views on the matter.  Not everybody's lived long enough or knows enough to support America in this effort.  I trust this little missive has changed a few minds... 

   

Now Here's a Question.

Have you ever noticed that every time we have an inflationary period, such as just happened with the Biden Administration, our elected representatives spend all their time trying to raise wages to meet the new higher prices, as opposed to lowering prices back to where they were before?

I know, I know.  Long sentence.  But it clearly states the reason for this blog posting.  Although I identify as a Black, gay and transgender San Franciscan, awaiting my reparations payment, I further identify as a straight, White male.  And the Left has taught us that identifying is all that counts, right?  However, I also sport a degree in Economics, enabling me to pontificate with unusual authority on the subject of today's rant.  

I normally don't need to know anything about the subjects I preach.  But in this case, I actually do. So if you're in a hurry, go ahead and wink off.  You've already got the gist of this little spleen venting.  But if you're got a few more minutes, please allow me to continue blathering...

Millions and millions of pensioners and retirees and those relying solely on Social Security benefits are now stuck with sky-high prices visited upon us by the Democrats.  Our Congressweenies bleat about their efforts to raise wages to meet the new prices.  The $15.00 cheeseburger that was $7.00 four years ago.  The average price of a new car is...ready for it?...$50,332.  Almost exactly double the price of just 8 years ago.  The $700 car payment is now the average.  That was your rent payment 4 years ago! Is that inflation?  Yes, Fellow Patriots, it is.  

I'd like you to think about the moving walkway at Los Angeles International Airport.  The one that takes you from the ticket counter to the gates, and back from the gates to the baggage claim.  It runs at exactly 8 miles per hour.  Much faster than the poor schlubs dragging their baggage alongside you as you roll along, standing still.  But if and when you step off, you're immediately left behind.  

That's also true if and when you retire.  You're immediately left behind.  You can no longer expect raises in income to offset continually increasing prices.  You're stuck with whatever you had, while others will receive wage bumps to stay even or ahead of inflation.  Like stairsteps that only go up, never down.  

What is someone who's trying to live on yesterday's money supposed to do in today's economic climate?  Their money is now worth 21% less than when Joe O'Biden took office.  And overspent us by more than $9 Trillion dollars during his 4 disasterous years.  Even though our Treasury took in $4.3 Trillion Dollars in tax revenues in 2023, an all-time record, Biden spent $6.4 Trillion that same year.  Remember, the definitiion of inflation is "Too many dollars chasing too few goods."  The Gubmint is competing with its own citizens as they both buy food, and clothing, and gas, and automobiles.  Resulting in ever-higher prices.

Remember, the Gubmint can print money.  You can't.  

Not all our elderly are capable of getting a job to supplement their withering income.  Many are infirm.  Not all can be a Wal-Mart greeter, especially if they cannot walk.  But the reality is they're screwed by their own Gubment.  A Gubment that forgets them while pandering to the unions with mandated wage hikes.

My first job sweeping out a store after school and on weekends paid me $0.75 cents an hour.  Today?  Our BoyGuv ("Hairgod") Newsom jacked up the pay for those who ask, "Would you like fries with that?," to $20.00 an hour.  Even though the Federal MinWage is only $7.62.  That caused the price of a Big Mac meal to increase to more than $13.00 in most states.  Your money's worth less, and it buys less.  How do those who are living on fixed incomes supposed to pay for those increases?  

There are 58 million retired citizens in America.  Wouldn't you think a smart politician would start sponsoring legislation to help lower prices instead of increasing wages?

I'm pissed.  Pay attention, legislators!  Start trying to restore the buying power of your retired constituents!  Remember, they vote!

A Plea For Normalcy From the Wokest State...

I'd guess about half of the residents of this once-Golden State have forgotten, or never knew, that we were at one time considered rather Conservative.

Yes, Fellow Patriots, since I arrived we've had the shank end of Reagan's two terms, two terms of Deukmejian, two terms of Wilson, and two terms of Ahhhhnold.  That's 32 of my 50 years here.  So how, one wonders, did California go off the rails in the past 14?  As an example, after blowing $92 Billion Dollars over a 14 year period on a bullet train, without a single mile of track having being laid, how did this State green light such a monumentally stupid idea?  Unless somebody, or several somebodies, intended to get rich as a result?  

And after the Supermajority Democrat Legislature gave our BoyGuv ("Hairgod") Newsom $25 Billion Dollars to eliminate our homeless (unhoused?) problem, our homeless encampment has grown to fully 40% of the Nation's total!  40% of 1.6 million!  And nobody has a reckoning as to where all that money went.

Did I mention somebody(ies) getting rich?

And how, after being fiscally prudent and notably low tax, did the Democrats who seized control of CA manage to take us over the proverbial cliff?  We have the highest income taxes, the most eggregious anti-gun laws, the most electric cars along with the highest electricity rates, out-of-control housing costs, the crappiest freeways, the most unemployed and the highest gasoline prices?  

In other words, we suck!  

I didn't arrive at that decision hurredly.  It took me nigh on to 50 years.  I recall driving over the San Bernardino Mountains and into the Los Angeles Basin that sunny day back in 1975.  I was moving here for a new job and couldn't have been happier.  I'd finally gotten my wish: a company to offer me a job and agree to pick up the tab for the move from Missouri.  

And on that day in June, '75, there were 50 gasoline refineries in California.  Proven oil reserves by the geological survey places CA at 6th, right behind Alaska.  We're sitting on top of the 7th richest oil and gas production areas among the states.  However, a succession of anti-oil and gas, "sky-is-falling" climate doom administrations has permitted the infrastructures to go sideways.  And a terrible tax and fee policy have forced many of those refineries to simply go out of business.  Just throw the keys over their shoulder and head for the hills.  So much so that we now rely on only 8 refineries to produce our gasoline.  Resulting in the highest gas prices in the Nation. 

Phillips 66 moved its operations out of CA and to Texas last year.  Chevron did as well.  And Valero, the USA's largest refiner, has made the decision to shell out over $One Billion Dollars to move out of Taxifornia by April, '26.  To escape California's gravitational pull.  Leaving us with only 7 refiners.  In other words, to run to greener pastures.  And any pasture is greener...

Think of it:  Our largest refiner was willing to spend $One Billion in cash not to improve production, or enhance efficiencies, or find new methods, but just pack up and leave.  Leave all the contracts and the contacts and the employees and an 85 year history, just to bolt CA.  

They still have facilities in Louisiana, and Texas, and Pennsylvania, and the U. K., and Wales, so they'll be okay.  They've shuttered their Benecia facility in Northern California.  They tried to sell it but nobody would buy it.  They knew it would be unprofitable if operated here in the single most awful place to do business in America.  Leaving us with 8% less production, resulting in a new loss of 20% of our refined gas and oil.  

While the rest of America pays an average of $2.18 for a gallon of gas, with some as low as $1.88, we pay $4.48.  And to that another $0.40 cents in extra fees will be tacked on when the "Summer Blend" kicks in come June.  A "Summer Blend" no other state requires, and a blend forced only to placate the global warming crowd.  It's predicted we'll be paying as much as $8 or $9 Dollars a gallon by '27.  In short, those of us who decided to live here and drive a car, are f**ked.  

We live on the West side of the Rocky Mountains.  Along with our other partners in Progressive Socialism, Oregon and Washington.  We have no pipelines over the Sierra Nevada to save us.  No way to rebuff the loss of refining capacity.  No way to sidestep the coming train wreck.  Reducing us to buying more than 40% of all our fuel from...the Bahamas?  Yes, Fellow Patriots, our gas is delivered via gigondo container ships that come around the Panama Canal from the Bahamas.  Forcing us to pay the freight for all that unneeded shipping and handling.  We're sitting on top of a heavy load of oil and gas, but the climate doomsayers won't let us take it out of the Earth.  They want solar and wind and, what?  Nothing?  Put everybody back on bicycles?  Or horse and buggies?  

The inmates are in clearly in charge of the asylum...

More than 1,000,000 highly-paid Californians have already packed up themselves and their families and ran for the exits over over the past 4 years.  And with them their tax base.  And the proposed "Billionaire's Tax" has caused more than $800 Billion of the $2 Trillion in wealth owned by the 200 or so Silicon Valley Boys to head Eastward.  To Vegas.  To Texas.  And to Florida.  Taking with them their tax base.  

The co-founder of Google just bought a $147 million dollar spread in Miami.  Meta's chairman Zuckerberg just moved to Vegas (for 184 days a year, one assumes).  Spielberg just moved to New York.  More than $800 Billion of our billionaires' $2 Trillion Dollars of wealth have already moved out.  With more to follow.  

And now the 2-dimenional, light thinkers in Sacramento have discovered that forcing everyone into electric cars has so reduced the gas taxes they don't pay at any pump, they must now find a new income source to pay for highway maintenance.  Taxing us by the mile driven, they're planning.  Six and one-half cents a mile, they say.  Are these people smoking some of those anti-God cigarettes?  Would that not necessarily create another expensive bureaucratic behemoth to worm its way into our lives?  Some $100,000 a year guy coming to our house in a Tesla to check our odometers so as to verify the mileage we put on our tax returns? 

In addtion to being raped at the gas pumps, who do you think will be forced to pony up more taxes that these escapees from that asylum won't now be paying?  They were writing checks for more than 51% of Taxifornia's total income taxes before the CPDLW (Commie Pinko Dummass Liberal Weenies) decided to finally murder the Golden Goose.  The heavy hitters are gone.  The future is known.  We are a failed enterprize.

I need to buy gas today.  I'll be heading for my friendly "Sam's" cheepass gas pumps to open my wallet.  One almost needs a "Heloc" or a 2nd mortgage to buy a full tank of fuel in Taxifornia these days.  I recall a gas war between Phillips and Standard Oil back when I was young.  We paid $0.19 cents a gallon.  And we burned it up with glee!  We got it pumped for us by an old guy in a uniform, who also cleaned our windshields, checked our tire pressures and our oil levels, took our money and delivered our change.  And then wished us a blessed day on our way out, while we made those soothing little "ding-ding" noises as we ran over the hoses.  Without our ever having to lift our asses out of the driver's seat.

I think I'll just go back to bed, assume the prenatal position, bring the covers up over my nose and hope to dream about something else.  Anything else.  

Are you feeling as I am?  Like the sheep who's been shorn a bit too often?   

It's Time to 'SAVE' America.

My Dad said, "Get up early tomorrow morning.  It's Election Day..."

One of my most indelible memories is the day my Dad drove me to middle school by way of several poling places.  

I normally rode my bike to middle school, but this day was different.  Even though it was November in Missouri, and was snowing heavily, and cold as a well digger's ass in the Klondike, he wanted to show me the lines forming around each of the polling places where our fellow citizens would be casting their votes.  He wanted to show me how much they valued their votes, and how much they cared about America.  Spitting snow, below freezing, but still lined up, awaiting their turn.  

On Election Day.  Not Election Week, or Election month, or Election Season.  Just Election Day.  One day to vote.  Take it or leave it...

Today is Presidents Day.  Funny, after 46 presidents, not including Trump, we cannot seem to give the more important of them their own day.  Just lump them all together and take the day off.  

For years now several of our "Bluer" states have been working overtime to subvert both the meaning, and the legitimacy, of the votes we cast.  They permit mail-in voting.  Even prefering mail-in voting.*  They do so because, they say, it's easier on their citizens.  It's also easier to cheat, as we've all heard, a fact they somehow fail to recognize.  Or fail to publicly recognize.  And they want it to stay that way.  

Our elected Republican Representatives in Congress have crafted what's called the "SAVE Act."  That stands for "Safeguard American Voter Eligibility" Act.  And it seeks to return America to the time when only citizens could vote.  Not illegal aliens, just citizens.  And also to return us to the time when we had an Election Day, not an Election Decade.  And they face an uphill battle.

A vote was just held in the House of Representatives on the SAVE Act.  It was passed 218 - 213.  213 Democrats voted against it.  All but one of our elected Democrats voted against citizens proving they are citizens before being allowed to vote.  One has to wonder why.  I think I know...

Let's first recognize the obvious: It takes an I.D. to board an airplane.  Or a bus.  Or a train.  It takes an I.D. to open a bank account.  Or buy cigarettes, or alcohol, or cash a check.  It even takes an I.D. to sign up for Obamacare.  It takes an I.D. to do almost anything these days, and Black folks and Hispanics need them also.  In fact, 72% of Democrats want the Save Act to pass.  And 79% of Hispanics and 82% of Blacks agree with them.  And fully 90% of Republicans desperately want it to pass.

And all that this new legislation asks is that you present proof of citizenship.  A birth certificate, a passport, or any other proof.  Easy to obtain.  And Black and Brown folks already have it.  

It's an 80 - 20 issue, Democrats!  When will you decide to recognize the obvious?

But Democrats won't drop their opposition for one primary reason.  Each Representative in Congress represents approximately 750,000 citizens.  And each state can either gain or lose seats in the House by the population of their respective states when the census comes around.  Total population.  Not of Whites or Blacks or citizens or illegal aliens, just how many bodies are residing in their respective states.  We know that the Biden Administration permitted more than 20,000,000 illegal aliens to flood into our Country from everywhere on Earth during his interminable 4 years, bolstering numerous sanctuary state populations.  And Democrats have alienated their own historical support groups of labor unions and the working poor and welfare recipients.  And they want to keep their new imported constituents from being deported by our ICE officers.  Because, once again, the 2030 Census counts only 'bodies,' not 'citizens.'  

In short, they'd rather keep murderers, rapists, thieves and pedophiles in their states than to have Immigration and Customs Enforcement run them down and deport them.  That is shocking, but not too terribly surprising.  They'll do anything to defeat Trump, including putting their own citizens at risk from illegal alien felons.  Felons who just might predate them on the streets of their states.  That's why they're losing representatives.  Because their citizens are running for the exits.  Illegals are fighting to stay in those states, and those states are helping them.  

Citizens, however, are heading for greener pastures.  And almost any pasture is greener.  Taxifornia, for example, has lost more than 1,000,000 high-earning citizens in just the past 4 years.  And during that period it's welcomed in more than 40% of the Nation's 1.6 million illegals.  Agreeing to give them free abortions, free legal representation, free lodging, free meals and free medical care.  Paid for by their taxpayers.  Who weren't asked if that was their choice.  Illegals may be illegal, but with our mild weather, they're certainly not stupid.  

Democrats don't care what their legal citizens want.  Only what their illegal non-citizens want.  Non-citizens they dearly hope to turn into voters.  Any way they can.  And they'll do so if they regain the House and the Senate in the Fall.

And now they're contending with the "Billionaire's Tax," which will undoubedly be on the 2026 ballot.  That will peel 5% of their 200 billionaire's net wealth, including artworks, vehicles, property, and stocks and bonds, to pay for illegal aliens' healthcare.  The illegal healthcare Trump has taken from them.  Really.  Not just cash or earnings, net wealth.  

Here's a shocker:  Billionaires may have much if not all their wealth in a company's stock.  Which they just might have to sell to pay the "soak the rich" tax.  They don't want to do that.  And neither do their employees.  That's why they're leaving in droves.  Duh!  

California's 200 billionaires had more than $2 TRILLION dollars in wealth while this bill was being considered.  And knowing the Lefties in this State would vote for it, more than $800,000,000,000, with a "B," of that wealth has already left.  Before they could be taxed.  One of the co-founders of Google, one Sergei Brin, just bought a house in Florida for $147,000,000.  Mark Zuckerberg just moved to Las Vegas.  Two zip codes in Silicon Valley just lost more than 40% of their tax base.  What are they going to do when they don't have these fat cats to tax?  They're going to tax their less-well-off citizens.  The middle-class is due to be screwed.  Duh!  

A blurb in today's news from a Las Vegas realtor indicated that fully 25% of their new buyers were from just 5 zip codes in California.  Chiefly from Los Angeles and Silicon Valley.  Not just billionaires, but the mobile rich.  Duh!

Let's return to those good old days when people voted on Election Day.  Only.  No more Election month, or year.  Just 'Day."  And also the only ones voting were those who legally could.  How about it, Fellow Patriots?  Call or write your representative and senator and demand they do the right thing.  And do it today.  They'll be voting on it in the Senate next week...

*  I went to Dana Rohrabacher's election night party.  He'd been in Congress for 30 years, was its recognized expert on Afghanistan, He was expected to win reelection handily.  He was far ahead when the evening closed and we all toasted him on his victory.  Exceppppt, two weeks later somebody dropped off more than 250,000 ballots to the County Registrar of Voters, and almost all of which were for Harley Rouda.  Rouda defeated Rohrabacher by a few votes, thus proving why ballot harvesting and group voting and a month to count votes are how the Left will win any way it can.  They've done it, they'll continue doing it.  Unless we stop them...