Bad Ideas, Like Bad Verdicts, Last Forever (Originally Published in March of 2013)

Of all of the stupid things we do, changing our clocks each spring and fall, has to rank near the top. The anarchists of Arizona don't recognize the spring forward, fall back national stupidity that occurs twice a year at 2 a.m. on a Sunday morning.

In fact, Arizona seems to do just fine without that bi-annual disruption. Odd.

The question I have isn't whether or not the time change is useful- clearly it is not. The real fun occurs when we ask ourselves, "How do we get rid of it?"

Society clings to useless ideas- ideas that have lost their utility or didn't really have any utility to begin with. Nobody wants to say, "that whole time change thing was bullshit." Because if we do that, somebody's feelings might get hurt. Or we might have to actually admit we were idiots for trying it in the first place. So instead, 300 million of us- minus those heartless heathens in Arizona- dutifully disrupt our lives because we are sheep. That's what sheep do. We can't even get rid of some make believe energy saving practice that hasn't saved any energy at all. This has been going on for 40 years. Some dip shit named Hudson started all of this, thus I blame him and in all fairness- back in the 1800's it might have been useful. Now rather than argue about it anymore- we just do the sheep thing twice a year. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daylight_saving_time

So probably, we will never get rid of this piece of national insanity despite Arizona's trailblazing. The point of this blog will have you scratching your head, I hope, when I beam down the real reason I showcase this sheep-like behavior.

As a nation, we are absolutely outstanding when it comes to implementing ideas. We are true professionals. We will try any lame brained shit based on an outlier, a glimmer of potential success. But where this nation really falls flat on it's face, where we really suck- is our inability to measure the success of something and get rid of it... if it doesn't work. We never make plans to measure the success of a new program or law and if it's not working- have some plan in place to get rid of it. Definable and measurable results. Did the plan achieve measurable results? What a novel idea!

More often than not- our shitty ideas languish like antiquated liquor laws- forever wasting time, taking up space, and irritating folks who are forced to comply with some foolishness generated in the 30's.

Sometimes, bad ideas just make me feel stupid. Near my house and less than a mile away, is a red light that should never have gone up in the first place. It just isn't needed. But rather than get rid of the light in this fully developed area with no potential for future growth- the light will undoubtedly remain in place for eternity. I feel stupid when I am stopped at this light with absolutely no traffic for miles. It is on a two minute timer. I am on a 30 second timer. Sometimes I look both ways and then I run it.

I cannot tell you the amount of joy and exhilaration I get when I run this thing. I do not feel shame or remorse. It is my middle finger to a world where everything must be regulated and where nobody ever questions the need or usefulness of some government intrusion that has no utility or purpose other than it's mere existence.

In 2008, while the world was collapsing and hemorrhaging jobs left and right, it was my contention that  healthy people who had lost jobs would simply drop their health coverage. It was too expensive. The first people to get cut or laid off were always the most junior. The younger, healthier people. So as the healthy people did in fact that very thing- opt out of health care coverage- the old and unhealthy felt the pain. They could not opt out. The insurers, with their shrinking pools of healthy people and thus shrinking pools of available dollars, ratcheted premiums through the roof. This brought health care costs to absolute stratospheric heights as the greed of insurers, malpractice lawyers, administrators, fraud, government waste, patent protection and drug and device company gouging- were all put on full display.

The only way to recapture those healthy minions and their money- was to pass a law which forces the healthy all back in and then call it something else to really hide your true intentions. The affordable care act is bullshit and it most certainly is not affordable unless you live on the poverty line. Then it might be a good deal. More welfare.

Occam's razor. The simplest assumption is often the most accurate. Occam's razor (also written as Ockham's razor, Latin lex parsimoniae) is a principle of parsimony, economy, or succinctness used in logic and problem-solving. It states that among competing hypotheses, the one that makes the fewest assumptions should be selected. The healthy minions escaped and that was the collateral damage that occurred in 2008. The health care lobbyists and government want you back. They need your free and unencumbered money to redeploy to unhealthy people and keep their profits and margins intact.

It was always that simple.

The roundup begins later this year. Of course, people are absolutely going to shit bricks when they see just how bad all of this Obamacare really is. Expensive and terrible coverage. Most of us will just opt out and pay the penalty. The penalty is cheap the first year. It is only 95 dollars in 2014. Where else can you get less for more? That is real economy.

We are a long way from measuring the effects of Obamacare. Like daylight savings time and shitty stoplights- Obamacare might have been done with good intentions but the results will be disastrous.

Where did they screw up? Where they always screw up. They forgot to measure and address all of the failing components in the system. Outrageous litigation costs and awards, outrageous malpractice insurance costs. Ridiculous patent protection for drug makers and devices. Price gouging. Ballooning  administrative costs overpaid administrators. Fraud. Medicare and disability fraud. Non profit and tax exempt status.

They didn't lift one finger to fix our broken system. They don't care about fixing it. These aren't public servants- they are employees of the crony capitalists. Anything having to do with cost containment or regulation was simply ignored because those are the elite areas. Lawyers, lobbyists, big pharma, public companies, even bankers. Those people were left untouched because they write the re-election checks, they give the politicians' kids nice jobs.

Government doesn't care as long as they get the healthy minions and their money back.

And they will gouge and tweak Obamacare until such a point that we will all get tired and just "stfu." And it will be around forever. It will never be measured for effectiveness. Like daylight savings time or that light at Shoshone and Overland. It is here to stay.







         

It Has to Get a Lot Worse Before It Gets Better- The Sunday Collage

 As a young man researching the murder of Frank Little in Butte, Montana, I knew I was going to have my work cut out for me. It would be a diet of microfiche readers at the library and old documents at the Butte Archives which is a wonderful repository for all things associated with the history of Butte.

But the real problem I was going to have was the source or reference material. In 1917, the only source of information was print media. Newspapers. In Butte, every newspaper was owned by the Anaconda Copper Mining Company or the ACM. The ACM had acquired every mining property on the hill and employed tens of thousands of miners. They didn't just run Butte and own a sympathetic and crooked police force, they ran the state of Montana. That is well documented. In town, everyone just called them the "company."

I discovered a couple of things. That history really is- told by the winners. The company filtered out any death or story that cast them in a bad light. Since Frank Little was a union organizer and fiery orator, they especially hated him. They slandered him and his organization. His murder not only went unsolved- it went un-investigated.

So that was it. Radio would not be around for another 15 years. Newspapers, hopelessly biased, were going to be my only source of information. 

My father had been a news anchor on a small TV station in Williston, North Dakota in the late 1960's. Every night I would watch him report the local news and then I would watch the national news on one of two TV networks. Walter Cronkite was the anchor I remember most. I was about 8 years old. I have been a news junkie for over 55 years.

Cronkite was objective. There was no political bias or jaded subterfuge like today.

When networks reported the news in the 60's, 70's, and 80's- it appeared to be impartial and mostly truthful. There wasn't this heavily biased, editorialized opinions that we see today. Everything is suspect. Election rigging with no investigation. Fraudulent polls. Suspicious debates and moderators. Jaded celebrities offering platforms, endorsements, and liberal opinions. Unrelenting media hatred for one candidate and universal media love for the democratic party and whatever horrible candidate they conjure up. 

So what changed? Who murdered decency and objective reporting?

It was called the "Fairness Doctrine" and it was officially destroyed in 1987 and buried by Barack Obama in 2011.   

The demise of the Fairness Doctrine has been cited as the main reason for party polarization in the United States. So here it was. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairness_doctrine

Every contest has rules. Boxers, caged fighting, football, golf. Without rules and a fair playing field, there is simply cheating and chaos. So cheating and chaos now reign supreme on our political landscape. All sorts of illegal activities like importing votes via illegal aliens and blocking any effort to prove citizenship before casting ballots. Demonizing anyone who questions the breakdown of our system. Subjecting people to ridicule for simply questioning an outcome or refusing a shot. We even have the democrats trying to unseat justices on the Supreme Court for simply returning the abortion issue to individual states. No issue is more divisive than the abortion issue.

As a country, we are in pretty bad shape. We desperately need an intervention and a complete change in policy. Yet, I don't see anyone with that level of political courage. Trump has his hands full.

So maybe things just have to go the way they are going. And with luck, it will get so bad that good people will finally get off their asses and help.  I don't think we can stop what's coming. 

But we can sure as hell slow it down.

Could America Survive Without California?

 For years I have been listening to various asshats tell me that California produces more tax revenue than it receives. I have also read where California believes they are the 4th or 5th biggest economy in the world. So as Gavin Newsome aka the clown prince of Sacramento, trades barbs with President Trump- you have to wonder...could we live without California?

California has the tech industry and Silicon Valley. It has the film industry and Hollywood. But most importantly, California has a fantastic agricultural economy. They grow everything from soup to nuts in one of the most fertile, temperate climates in the world. California has fantastic weather, miles and miles of beautiful beaches, and the Pacific Ocean. It has nice people as well. We conservatives tend to throw out the baby with the bathwater when discussing the oppressive liberal politics that strangle the state. We think everyone is a liberal in California and that simply isn't true. I know many conservative people, more conservative than myself, who have fled California.

Let's agree to one other thing. It is California's great weather, beaches, and the ocean that people love. That is why so many corporations and people have moved there. It is quality of life. 

Nobody moved to California for the great governance. In fact, California boasts a list of idiot politicians like no other state. Waters, Pelosi, Schiff, Harris, Newsome. You have to look awfully hard to find a cadre of dipshits worse than that list. I can't imagine anyone saying, "Man I love those California politicians- let's move there!"

For the record, I briefly lived in Santa Ynez. It was a wonderful place, with wonderful people (many conservatives) but the cost of living was atrocious. Santa Ynez has no water. Water bills approaching 1000 per month are not unheard of and the residential rate in Santa Barbara for water, sewer, and trash is 254.00 per month.

So California has three giant industries, which are more or less, there because of the beauty and the weather. Two of them, tech and the movie industry, could easily be relocated. The agricultural industry, the one that feeds many of us, cannot be readily moved or relocated. It is mostly dependent on the weather, soil, and water California naturally has.

So just how much tax revenue does California send into the federal government compared to what they get back? While it is true that California provides a little excess revenue, it is not that much. I chose a couple of normal, or non covid years to make comparisons. In 2019, what California sent in was maybe 4% more than they received. You can play with this map and see all of the liberal states which love to tax and redistribute their citizens income. Balance of Payments Portal | Rockefeller Institute of Government

Can we live without Hollywood? Yes. Can we live without technology from Silicon Valley? Probably not. Can we live without the food California grows? No.

I used to love California. That was back in the Reagan days- maybe Schwarzenegger days. Now it has become a taxing, regulatory, expensive nightmare. Traffic is horrible, the roads are horrible, crime and homelessness are mired in the cities. The cost of everything is terrible. Insurance rates, utility rates, medical procedures, just the cost of doing business with all the government red tape and skim. In short, California has become noncompetitive. The only thing they produce better than anyone else is red tape and tax skim. They are very good at that.

I don't know how you turn around a Frankenstein government like California's. The six richest families, folks like the Gettys, understand that to keep the hoi polloi from stringing them up- you must keep the free shit army well fed, medicated, and pretend to care about them. This is accomplished by marching a few political stooges out there to administer your survival politics and make someone else pay for it. This is the role of folks like Pelosi and Newsome.

Could America live without California? I wouldn't want to. But we could sure live without all of those assholes who are currently running things.

"We Were Here First!"- The Sunday Collage

 (On a request by A86, I have returned the blog to it's original background colors. I am still screwing around with the header thing a ma jig. So that might change)

I have always been fascinated by the "we were here first" argument. I have been hearing that argument made in one form or another, my entire life. 

The popular television series "Yellowstone" was based on the premise that a ranch which had been homesteaded long ago, was under siege by airports and developers. Thus, our protagonists are the Duttons' versus the antagonists- greedy out of state development interests. 

Imagine sitting around your teepee in the 1850's and watching white European settlers' stream in and take giant tracts of land, land that you used to freely roam around on and hunt. Of course you are angry. However, you are essentially powerless. You can't communicate your concerns; you are facing overwhelming numbers and advanced weaponry. You can fight but you will be at a disadvantage. In the end, you are going to lose your land and your way of life.

That is what happened to the American Indian. They were here first but as it turns out, that argument fell on unsympathetic ears. 

So we have "reservations" now. Large tracts of land inhabited by native Americans. This is where we put the Indians after the Indian wars were over. Are the Indians still pissed some 150 years later?

Oh yea. Last year, I was on the Pine Ridge Reservation at Wounded Knee and I tried to ask a tribal cop a few questions about a ceremony going on at the cemetery. Not only would he not look at me or answer my questions, he told me he had things to do. As I departed, I noted that he did not move at all.

Which brings me to the latest, "we were here first" argument.

Here in my little town in Southern Utah- we have another evolving "we were here first" saga going on between four surrounding subdivisions and a gravel pit or mining operation right smack dab in the middle. The gravel pit and it's owners are seeking a special designation which would essentially protect their operations from interference by local governments. They would be free to strip sand and gravel from their 177 acres and at some futuristic point- turn the whole site into a subdivision.

The problem for them is that they are surrounded by four subdivisions of people who don't particularly care to be subject to back up alarms, rock crushers, dust and debris, and crumbling roads. Never mind that the gravel pit will destroy the terrain and hills- the landscape itself seems to be some secondary concern not even worth mentioning.

The city in which this gravel pit operates in is governed by relatives of the owners of the mining operation. Where I come from, we call that the "good ol boys" and from every early indication- it appears that the gravel pit operators and the good ol boys have the upper hand. 

Remember, townsfolk aren't asking them to stop their operations. We are simply asking the city not to grant them a special designation that will allow them to operate with little or no oversight.

So a clash between the gravel miners and the surrounding homeowners is developing. The homeowners are attending the planning and zoning meetings, council meetings, and they are arming themselves with lawyers. That is how we do battle in the 21st century. 

So, it remains to be seen how this will end. I don't think anyone will be asking native Americans for their advice.

Being Authentic

 Many years ago, I worked with a deputy who I really didn't care for at first. He was gruff, jaded, and tough. He had been on a riverboat gunship in Vietnam. Prior to that he had killed a kid towing irrigation pipe on an unlit trailer near his hometown. Despite all that, Eugene became a deputy sheriff.

The first few times that Eugene and I squared off- things didn't go very well. Eventually, we had a conversation where I asked him, "You don't like me very much, do you?"

At that moment he stared back at me and said, "no I don't." He explained that I was a smart ass and a know it all who didn't know shit. I think he even called me a punk.

I listened to what he had to say. Therein lies the secret to our friendship which lasted until the day he died.

He told me the truth. His truth. What I did with that was up to me.

What I did do was evaluate all the things that I had said to him, about him, and the way I had treated him.

I looked for understanding. I realized he was right and as gruff as he was, he helped me grow up. It was the greatest gift anyone ever did for me. But I think he was smart enough to know that I might actually evaluate what he had to say.

From that point on, I worked hard to be a better person. I learned to value honesty and the truth. The truth has great value and it works in the long run.

Being authentic or having integrity is absolutely essential. If you don't have that, you have nothing. Your relationships are all superficial and shallow, Animosity and bad feelings begin to grow. People do not trust folks because they aren't sure whether they are telling the truth or not. Once your credibility is shot, people no longer seek you out for friendly activities or advice.

It is one of the biggest choices you will ever make. People respect the truth. Anything less will not work.

I felt a great deal of remorse when Eugene passed away. He was one of the few people who told the truth no matter what the situation was or who might leave with hurt feelings. It took me many years to understand that Eugene had made a decision sometime in his life. A conscious decision. One of the very few people with the courage to make the correct decision knowing people would find it unpleasant.

Choose wisely.

 

Back in the Saddle!

 Man, I am afraid to turn my computer off.

A few months ago, I lost my sign in information, my email, and my password. I tried several times to get back into Frankenstein Government. No luck.

This morning, I tried once again. I dredged up an old email, password, went thru a bunch of Google nonsense and voila!

In the past 10 or 15 years, I have used some form of Atkin's Diet to lose weight fast. I am currently doing the same thing. At day 41, I have only lost 24 pounds. Some 15 years ago, I lost 31 pounds in 41 days. I documented it here.

The worst part about my keto dieting is that I have never been more disciplined than I have this past 6 weeks. I have not consumed more than 10 carbs in any day. 

I am left with only one explanation for my shortcomings. Metabolism. 

So I am going to keep on trucking and trust the process. This time I am willing to go 62 days and praying to lose a total of 34 pounds. 

After I found my way back into the blog this morning, I started reading some of my old stuff. Some of it was pretty good. 

I think the Obama years fucked me up. He was such a sneaky prick that I think I lost hope. By the time Trump got in- Obama had sabotaged his presidency so thoroughly that it was one bad thing after another. If that wasn't bad enough, the election steal happened in 2020 and ushered in the drooling idiot who truly screwed up everything he touched.

I cannot think of one good thing Biden accomplished.

Anyway, I'm glad to be back in. I'm going to try and write like the old days. I have never been more hopeful than I am now- seeing Trump hit the ground running and listening to the libtards and dramacrats howling like babies.

That is the sound of winning!

Justice Comes on Swift Wings

There is a giant swath of folks in this country who simply cannot believe what is happening. They cannot believe that a "convicted felon" is our President. They have been so cleverly indoctrinated by colleges, media, and their like minded friends- that they simply cannot self examine. They cannot ask the question of themselves, "maybe I'm wrong." They are so ego invested in being right, so smug and superior, that all that is left for them as they lose- is to ridicule their perceived enemies.

I knew President Trump would win last fall. I knew it when I drove around Montana's most democratic city and observed Trump signs in many yards. I had never seen this.

People have had enough. 

We just lived through the worst four years in our country's history. They invented, then lied, about the origins of covid. They killed millions weaponizing a virus carried by horseshoe bats in China. 

The liberals stole an election and covered it up. They forced people to take unproven vaccines. They fired people who were simply exercising their rights not to be guinea pigs. Fear driven liberals closed the private sector down. They want on a free money binge that ignited the worst inflation since the '70s. They suppressed and censored free speech and alternative treatment methods. They got people killed in Afghanistan and stoked the fires of war in the Ukraine with 100's of billions of dollars. While Rome was burning, they then set their sights on defaming and discrediting former President Trump through our court system which is littered with Obama appointees.

There are three problems that the left never counted on. President Trump has "fuck you" money. He has the where with all to fight it out in the courts. President Trump is a terminator. He does not quit. Knock this guy down 15 times and he gets up 16 times. He has proven this over and over again.

The left counted on us to believe. We were supposed to believe their election lies. That the Hunter Biden laptop was Russian disinformation. We were supposed to believe "51 experts" when we knew they were full of shit. We were supposed to believe all those liberal prosecutors and judges and those doctored charges. We were supposed to believe a search warrant at Mara Lago was necessary.

What do invading armies do first? They knock out communications.

Thus, the single biggest problem that the liberals never counted on, was a change of ownership at Twitter. They had control of that communication platform as well as Facebook. When Elon Musk bought Twitter- it was all over for the Obama regime and his minions. I don't think I understood at the time just how important that event was.

It was a true watershed moment. It changed the course of American history. Free speech returned. Elon Musk fired three quarters of the staff and suspended accounts were restored. The deep state government, who had controlled speech on the platform mostly through the FBI, were discovered and kicked out.

So justice comes on swift wings. The old criminal, the one who should have been prosecuted, pardoned a few thousand convicts and his family on the way out. 

The porous border was once again shut down. Illegal aliens are being deported. The J6 crowd, mostly a bunch of trespassers, have been pardoned from their years' long confinement. Government workers were told to return to work, offered buyouts, and eventually will be terminated. The FBI agents that conjured up charges and served search warrants on President Trump have been fired. All the DEI hires of Biden are being eliminated. Tom Homan is deporting thousands of criminals. Elon Musk is finding billions in waste and fraud. Military personnel refusing the jab are being offered their jobs back with back pay.

So the reckoning is here.