Poor Puree (Part Deux)

My spleen is so large it needs venting several times a day.  And requires me to write about those ventings at least once a week.  So here goes...

I come from an era where very little pissed me off.  And that which did, I did something about.  Today?  There's so many things that piss me off, there's simply no way to resolve it all.  But my A.I. therapist tells me to cough up that hairball and let everyone know how I'm feeling.  I've therefore picked three more you might enjoy reading about.

1.  Mail-In Election Ballots:

I awoke to a raging blizzard that early November morning.  I was 9 and my Dad had told me to get dressed as he was going to drive me to school.  He wanted to show me something special on the way.  I would have normally mounted my new Schwinn Black Phantom* for the 10 block ride.  But that day I'd be riding with Dad. 

I jumped into the car quickly to get out of the snowstorm.  Dad then drove me the few blocks it took to reach our nearest poling place.  We saw the line around the block of people waiting to vote.  In a blizzard.  All wearing winter coats and hats, with scarves wrappped tightly around their faces.  Dad said the only thing we owe our Government is to vote.  To show up and stand up and express our preference via a vote.  Just like the several dozen waiting in line that day.  

That memory sticks with me like glue.  

Dad had scarlet fever as a kid, so his heart was too weak to enlist in the Big War.  In spite of his illness he volunteered at the Sunflower Ordinance Plant in Kansas to build the 500 pound bombs our boys dropped on Germany.  He was that patriotic.  And I got my patriotism from him.  Voting where I came from wasn't for a week.  Or a month.  Or, like California, for a season.  Voting was a day.  And that's how it should always remain.  

Just like Florida, which has 23 million residents yet counts votes in one day.  California mails ballots to everybody, plus a few extra million just in case.  And then counts votes until they have all they need to win.**  Maybe someday someone will turn California back around to the place it used to be when I got here.  But until then, it reeks of socialism.  And its residents seem to be so accustomed to being mistreated by those it hires and pays to serve them, they keep on voting them back in.  It's like an advanced case of "Stockholm Syndrome."  You're taken hostage and kept until you fall in love with your captors.  And then forget what it was like when you had freedom.  

I arrived here exactly 50 years ago.  Back when it was a center-Right State.  Remember, we had two terms of Ronnie Reagan, two terms of Pete Wilson, two terms of Deukmajian, and two terms of Ahhnold Swartzenhoozits.  And then 16 straight years of all Democrats, all the time.  16 years of Democrat governors.  16 years of Democrats in statewide offices.  And 16 years of the Legislature being 2/3rds supermajority Democrat, so they could pass anything they wanted.  And they have.  Some of the dummest damm laws one could imagine.  Look around you.  This is what you get if you vote Democrat in November...

2.  Sanctuaries:

There's a "Supremacy Clause" in our Constitution. That means the Federal Gubmint takes charge should state laws and Federal laws bump into one another.  Such as regards immigration, to include who gets in, and who goes out. 

Even so, there's 256 counties, cities, townships, and villages in our Great Country which have declared themselves "sanctuaries" from Federal immigration laws.  Think about that.  They've decided to pick and choose which Federal laws they wish to obey, and which they do not.  And they can't do that.

Sort of like a Chinese restaurant.  One from column "A," and two from column "B."  And surprisingly, the Feds haven't made them pay a price for their intransigence.  Yet.  Although the Feds are now considering pulling all immigration and enforcement personnel from airports in sanctuary cities.  Such as New York City, Chicago, San Francisco and Lost Angeles.  Just in time for the Olympics.  

This action would keep international passengers from disembarking in those cities.  Depriving those cities of hundreds of millions of $Dollars they receive from those services.  I'm hoping they will. Maybe they can be coerced into following the law.  By holding a symbolic gun to their socialist heads.  I doubt it, but maybe.

Just imagine if we, the public, were to treat those cities' laws the same way.  You get stopped for speeding and you tell the cop you've declared a "sanctuary" from their driving laws.  Or refuse to pay their property taxes until they start acceding to Federal law.  The reason tens of millions of illegal aliens have set up housekeeping in sanctuary cities is because of their posture on following Federal law.  

Maybe it's time we make them pay.  I think we should.

3.  HOA's:

I'm betting you'll be surprised when I tell you how many of your neighbors and mine are living under the cruel and regimented thumb of an HOA.  That stands for "Home Owners Association," doncha' know.  And the answer is...

                              35% 

Yes friends, one-third of us live in concentration camps with neatly manicured lawns.  With homes all painted the same shade of tan, and mailboxes all pointing the same direction.  And back yards free from swing sets and bird feeders.  And God help you if your property is different in any way from the HOA rules and regs.  If so, they'll fine you into the Stone Age.  Or, only $100 at a time, now that the courts have gotten involved.  It used to be $1,000's at a time until the courts' recent ruling.  

Truth is, HOA's boards of directors are made up mainly of those who never had any authority of any kind in their entire lives.  They were the postal carriers, and the secretaries, and the cashiers from Wal-Mart.  They always had a boss telling them what to do.  And they didn't like it.    

And then they retired and moved into an HOA-managed development.  Then ran for the board of their HOA, got a clipboard and a pencil and a ruler, and started looking for violations at YOUR home.  They're filled with venom and fueled with righteousness.  They're finally able to talk back to somebody for the first time in their lives.  To order folks around.  And they're going to take it out on you.  In spades.

Please, Fellow Patriots, do yourself a favor and make sure there's no HOA running things in the home you're thinking about buying.  I didn't, and wound up being pursued by a retired professional quilter (!) all around my kitchen for trying to install solar panels on my roof.  She yelled at me for fully 30 minutes after having been awakened by a hammer falling at 7:05 a.m., 5 full minutes after their legal starting time.  

She then called the sheriff and highway patrol.  And the city's permitting office to see if the job had been officially approved.  Before long there were 2 Samoan solar panel installers, 4 HOA board members, their poor, mistreated husbands, and a sheriff's deputy and a policeman in my back yard.  Trying to figure out if the installers could start installing. The HOA's rules said they could.  The quilter broke down and admitted herself for psychiatric treatment. 

I've owned 12 homes in 4 states and never before had an HOA trying to ruin my life.  The good news is there's not too much of it left, so this problem will naturally go away before long.  Make sure it doesn't happen to you.

So these things piss me off.  Maybe you too.  And I intend to keep writing about them until they stop.  It's cathartic.  It makes my spleen feel better.  Maybe yours too.  Or maybe you're piss off-free and just need to read how others are suffering.  If so, keep reading.  It's good for us both...

*   That bike cost me $120 of my newpaper route money.  And it was so special then its worth more than $3,500 today.  Wish I had it back.

**  I attended Rep. Dana Rohrbacher's relection party at Skosh Monahan's one night awhile back.  Back when Orange County, CA was turning from bright red to purple.  He was so far ahead on Election eve that we all toasted his return to Congress.  Where he'd  been for 30 years.  Excepppppt, two weeks later a ballot harvester pulled up in front of the Secretary of the Election's office to drop off 250,000 ballots.  Which put Dana's opponent into the lead.  Like what just happened to Pratt in Lost Angeles.  They just keep on counting until they get it right.  Remember the Golden Rule:  He who has the gold, rules...

Awwwwww...

You know who I feel sorry for?  The so-called "MainStreamMedia," that's who.

Those poor schlubs have been doing "Orange Man Bad" non-stop, 24/7 for nigh on to five years now.  Nothing else.  Just Trump Bad.  All day.  All night.  For Five. Full. Years.  

First, Trump was a Russian spy.  Incredulously, they seemed to believe that they could make America believe that Donald J. Trump, (in)famous raconteur, man-about-town, philanderer, builder of hotels, golf courses, casinos and brands, reality TV star and dedicated Democrat for more than 40 years, was a - gulp! - Russian spy!  In the pocket of Putin, they said.  Yeah, sure.  

The ABC/NBC/CBS/CNN/MSNBC/PBS/NPR blow-dried, bed-wetting crowd hippppmotizzzed themselves into believing that Trump could not possibly have won in 2016, against deeply-flawed, universally despised, inveterate liar and screaming harpy Hillary Clinton, without Russian assistance.  Or assistance from SOMEbody!  No way he could have convinced America to vote for him against a proven liar with a voice like fingernails on a blackboard without Vladamir's help.  No way...

So they built their entire daily programming around and against Trump.  Everything they did was designed to turn America against him, and everyone who represented him.  And everyone who might vote for him.  And business was good.  Their ratings were stupendous, and their ad revenue soared.  

But then, lightning stuck.  The Mueller Report exonerated Trump.  Mueller spent two and one-half years and $40 Million of our tax dollars an effort to run Trump out of office.  He was unsuccessful.  So the "MSM" then had a hard decision to face; apologize to their audiences for having lied to them for 3+ years, and promise to do better in the future, or just keep on shoveling out the lies and the bullshi*t to their believe-anything audiences.  

They chose the latter.

And then it was impeachment time!  The "MSM" slavishly reported on the trial as it unfolded.  Every day brought another breathless accounting of just how mean and nasty Trump really is.  Months were wasted as they scorched Trump all day every day.  For a phone call!  To Ukraine, of all things!  You may recall that a Chinese Wuhan Coronavirus pandemic was raging outside the Capitol Dome, yet the Congress - with the help from their friends in the "MSM" - preferred to spend their time on destroying Trump.  On running him out of town on a rail.  Perhaps they were all worried he might win reelection so they had to dirty him up a little...

How prescient of them...

But now, the Election is over.  It seems that our Orange Man has been defeated by a scrawny old coot who's biggest challenge may now well be dodging Karmela's efforts to unseat him.  So while Biden putters around the Rose Garden, looking over his shoulder continuously, the "MSM" will be busying itself in an effort to try and find somebody else to blame...for everything.  But I predict that for the next several months, at least, no matter what happens, it will still be Trump's fault.  Pay attention.  You will learn.  It Will Still Be Trump's Fault! 

NoKo no longer making nice?  Trump's fault.

Manufacturers heading on back to China?  Trump's fault.

Black-clad "Antifa" and "Black Lives Matter" hellions still burning and looting?  Trump's fault.

The "rich" still unwilling to pay their "fair share?"  Trump's fault.

Fearful folks still buying guns in droves?"  Trump's fault.

Unemployment rate heading skyward?  Trump's fault.

Virus still uncontained?  Trump's fault.  

Iran not universally disarming?  Trump's fault.  

Israel still building settlements in the Golan?  Trump's fault.  

Climate still "changing?"  Trump's fault.

Everything even remotely negative, all Trump's fault.  You get the idea...

But while the "MSM" and the raging harpies who've been nipping at Trump's heels waste their time in such a futile effort, I predict Trump will be working overtime to try and put a hole in their collective boats.  And whether or not he ultimately wins this particular contest, and it just might be best for the Democrats if he did, he will still be a turd in their punchbowls for the foreseeable future.  But while they're still doing their best to blame him for everything, including all of Biden's screwups, he'll be hiding in the bushes just waiting for any chance to throw rocks at them.  With nothing... NOTHING...to stop him.  And more than 74 Million Angry Voters still believing that this Election was stolen from them.  And they are the ones will all the guns... 

And you and I and everybody else will be able to sit back and watch it unfold.  And it will be glorious.  And pay attention here Netflix, it will all be free! 

bin Laden's Dead, but the AQMD Lives...

Do you know who…or what…is the AQMD? If you're from Southern California, you're likely aware that this bureaucratic acronym stands for the South Coast Air Quality Management District. Sounds innocuous, right? Wrongo, oh smog breath. These are the unelected cronies of various cities and counties in our piece of the once-golden state, or current or former members of the Assembly or Senate, or just highly-placed political insiders, or perhaps well-healed donors who wrangled these high-paying jobs just to screw with your puny little unimportant lives. There are currently 13 members of the Board of Governors of the AQMD, and together they decide whether or not the air is dirty, and if so, what's causing it, and then whether or not to go after the purported culprits with the full power and authority of the State of California and all their law enforcement options. They can tell us to stop whatever they think we're doing that they've decided is bad. And if we don't, they can fine us. Or imprison us. In short, there's basically no upper limit to their power over our little lives. And, once again, they are APPOINTED!

It used to be that you could take your car to a local shop and have it repainted. Or have the bumper rechromed. Or have your furniture sanded down and revarnished. No longer. The AQMD has legislated these mom and pop businesses out of existence. Sad, to be sure, but the victims have been relatively few, as has the overall impact on our lives, up to now, at least. But now they've gone just a wee bit too far.

State air-quality regulators just passed sweeping new auto emission standards this past week that include a mandate to have 1.4 million electric and hybrid vehicles on California roads by 2025 (emphasis mine). The AQMD board unanimously approved the new rules that require that one in seven new cars sold in the state in 2025 be an electric or other zero-emission vehicle
(once again, my emphasis). The plan formed by these ivory tower pinheads calls for a 75 percent reduction in smog-forming pollutants by 2025 and a 50 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emission from today's standards (I got tired of adding emphases, but I could have, and maybe should have).

I might mention that today's standards for vehicle emissions are over 1,000 times more stringent than those in effect in 1974
(okay, I reverted to my previous predilection for serial emphasis). According to Mary Nichols, Chairman of the AQMD Board of Governors, "Today's vote…represents a new chapter for clean cars in California and in the nation as a whole. Californians have always loved their cars. We buy a lot of them and drive them. Now we will have cleaner and more efficient cars to love." God bless her micromanaging little soul. There's just one problem. The technology to develop such vehicles does not exist. And, according to automakers, is not likely to exist by the time 2025 rolls around. But sadly deluded, but "proud," Mary seems to think she can force it into existence by simply mandating it. Poof! It will happen! And if it doesn't, somebody's going to jail!

Mary's little pronunciamento also fails to recognize another factoid. Californians don't like weenie little piss-ant electric or zero-emissions cars. And they're not buying them. The Chevy Volt, the brainchild of our Redistributor-in-Chief, was originally projected to sell 10,000 cars in 2011 and 40,000 a year by 2013. They sold less than 7,000 Volts last year. Have of those sold are still on dealers' lots, and half of the remainder were purchased by the Federal or state governments. It has been stated by those in the know that the majority of the remaining few hundred Volts were bought as a fourth or fifth car by wealthy lefty enviro-whackos so they could show their ass to their less environmentally-conscious neighbors. In fact, Chevy dealers are now refusing to take their Volt allotments, having learned that they cannot sell them. And yes, they cost $43,000 each. They are actually based on the Chevy Cruze platform, which costs $18,000. Think of the Volt this way: you'd be buying a Chevy Cruze with a $25,000 battery. The good (or bad news, depending upon your particular perspective), is that you get a $7,500 tax rebate from the Feds for buying this little piece of crap. Put another way, your neighbors will have some of their hard-earned tax dollars redirected your way by the Big Redistributor as a D.C. bribe for buying this car. Makes you feel all squishy, doesn't it?

Oh, and by the way, the Volt has a tendency to spontaneously combust a week or two after a side impact accident. Every one of them, so far. And all have been total losses. In order to sell cars in this country you have to crash them to determine just how badly they fare when squished. In the Volt's case, they squished okay but later caught fire due to battery leakage. Green energy turns into a nice bright orange, it seems.

But it's not just electric cars that are falling short of customer expectations. Even the vaunted Honda Civic Hybrid has left some buyers feeling shafted because the promised 50 or so miles per gallon has not materialized. In fact, roughly 10,000 Civic Hybrid owners have joined together in a class action suit to get some moolah back from Honda. It seems 50 mpg is more like 40 in the Real World, or even less. Just last week a nice Southern California lady named Heather Peters successfully sued Honda because her Civic returned only 30 mpg. The judge in her small claims court suit awarded her $9,867 in damages! Clearly, this "green" agenda we've been having stuffed down our throats leaves a lot to be desired.

So, you say, no biggie. I'll just go across the border into Nevada or Arizona or Utah and buy my new F-150 pickup or Suburban. Ummm, not so fast. You won't be able to register it in California. In fact, there's some talk that the AQMD may OUTLAW all non-complying vehicles a "suitable" period after these new regs kick in if enough Californians don't voluntarily submit to this tyranny and head on down to wherever they have to go to buy these overpriced, underperforming, tiny and tinny little cars.

Not to worry, says the Board. The happy new owners of these wussy cars will save enough on gas to more than pay for the additional $6,000 premium they say you'll have to fork over. I'd like know what kind of air – or other substance – they've been breathing if they actually believe this patent B.S. It'll be three or four times that premium amount, or even more, and it will take 20 or more years to recoup the investment, if it can be recouped at all. The batteries on these turkeys shoot craps after 8 or 10 years and cost a fortune to replace. And, by the way, getting rid of them requires a call to your local HazMat team. Nickel Metal Hydride, the key component in many of these batteries, is a serious pollutant, both to mine and to discard, don't you know. Maybe you could just quietly drop the depleted battery in the dumpster behind your nearest supermarket. If, of course, it didn't weigh 1,200 lbs.

The stats are clear: An average of 5.6 businesses each employing over 100 people are leaving California every week (no more emphasis required). This little AQMD should serve to increase that number markedly…