Stop Pulling the Wagon

Heard on Fox News yesterday that the Biden – Harris Administration has granted citizenship to 3,000,000 “immigrants”.  That would be some 30% of the 10,000,000 who have crossed the border illegally in the last 3 1/2+ years.  Just guessing but since these folks were “invited” in and given all kinds of “freebies” once they arrived it would seem logical whom these new “citizens” are likely to vote for and vote they will, read on.

Strange, but in my memory there used to be a rather lengthy and involved process for a legal immigrant to become a citizen.  Background checks, proof of employment, a Constitution and American History Test, references, etc. etc. – you know – red tape.  The process could take years.  Guess the Administration has found a way to “fast track” the process.

What the heck, it is not hard to get into voting with or without proof of citizenship.  In point of fact, in many states and locales,  government workers are not allowed to even question you about your status.  I live in California (born here), now a “Sanctuary” State and the last time I had to renew my drivers license the form had boxes to check for citizen, non-citizen or “decline to state” and offered “automatic” voter registration.  Some states, like Minnesota, have an “opt-out” box on their registration form.  The form clearly states “Do nothing and you will be registered to vote” – you have to tell them if you do not want to register.

Once on these voter rolls it is “easy pickins” for political workers to get names and addresses of “Registered Voters” and then get paper “mail-in” ballots to vote for you….  they are doing you a favor so you don’t need to vote…. isn’t that kind of them.  It is virtually impossible for “Poll Workers” to verify signatures and validity on these ballots.  Some places they call this simply “Ballot Harvesting”.  I have for years made the joke that my mother was a lifelong Democrat until her later years when she became a Republican.  Now that she is “gone” I am sure she is voting Democrat again,  no doubt in many different voting locations.  I remember the last Presidential voting cycle where there was at least one major city  where more votes were cast than there were registered voters, and that was before you subtract the “graveyard” voters.

But, there is more good news.  Election time and mail in ballots present opportunities for entrepreneurs.  Homeless encampments are fields “ripe for the harvest” for individuals looking to make a “quick buck”.  All that is needed is a bundle of Voter Registration Forms, a little “seed money” and paper Mail In Ballots.  The loyal campaign worker only has to share a little beer or “weed” cash, a helping hand in filling out the paperwork and a quick trip to the nearest “Progressive” campaign headquarters to be financially rewarded for helping to “get out the vote”.  Those completed forms and ballots are like gold.  Win-Win! 

Who needs those “Wascally Wepublicans” and their silly ideas about voting in person and showing ID.  How old fashioned and out of date! Hey, you don’t need an ID to cross the border, why should you need an ID to vote?  I mean, it’s not something important like attending a Concert where ID is required.  It’s just voting.

It is just possible by the next election we can just let Google do the whole thing with Artificial Intelligence they have programmed and no need for the voting public at all.  All those previously voting citizens can just sit at home and watch commercials and “managed” news reports.  Just cogs in the wheels of the controlled proletariat masses.

Bob Bandy – August 2024

Above represents current passenger option for

 CALIFORNIA HIGH SPEED RAIL – Fresno to Bakersfield

CURRENT ESTIMATED COST 88 TO 128 BILLION DOLLARS AND STILL RISING

I first wrote about California’s proposed High Speed Rail plan to connect San Francisco and Los Angeles back in 2013 in an article titled:   California – It Is What It Is (still available) when California approved the plan and using some $9 Billion Dollars in borrowed funds began a project which they claimed would be completed in some 3-5 years.  By 2019 they had spent the $9 Billion Dollars (or more-since real numbers are hard to pry out of State) and had scaled back the project with a hope to complete some 110 miles between Fresno and Bakersfield.  (See: California High Speed Rail 2.0  also still available).  Every year they have budgeted amounts in the range of $1 Billion more dollars for this money pit and, to date, –  this is 2024, not one single passenger has ridden one single mile on a High Speed Train.

In the latest “Pie in the Sky” investment proposal in this “Money Pit Black Hole”,:  The California Globe (Thomas Buckley – June 29, 2024)  reports:

“The consistently accurate and forward looking board of the California High Speed Rail Authority has decided that it is a good idea to dig 30 miles of tunnels to connect Burbank to Palmdale.

The purely political zig-zag to include Palmdale in the system (votes in the Antelope Valley) of the high speed rail from Los Angeles to San Francisco is about 38 miles and earlier this week the Board approved an environmental impact report that sets out an 8 mile above-ground, 30 mile below-ground route to make the connection.

The Authority claims the route will cost about $28 billion dollars to complete.  For comparison’s sake, that is about 80% of the originally promised costs of the entire system connecting San Diego to LA to SF to Sacramento.

It should be noted that the cost was originally reported by news outlets as being $22.6 billion – but the Authority clarified Thursday that was in 2018 dollars,  so now it’s really about $28 Billion Dollars.

The plan voters approved was to build a system of about 840 miles for about $33 billion.”

(For the complete article see: The California Globe – Thomas Buckley – June 29, 2024) CaliforniaGlobe.com

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My editors note:  According to Google the actual distance from Burbank to Palmdale is 52 miles – not 38 miles as stated by the High Speed Rail Authority “brain trust”.

I find it an interesting “co-incidence” that this $28 Billion Dollar High Speed Rail Tunnel project is almost the same amount as California’s $27+ Billion Dollar annual budget deficit under California Governor Gavin Newsom.  This whole project is and has been in my, and other critics, view never been anything more than a thinly veiled “Pork Barrel” payoff to Organized Labor and Equipment/Material Suppliers for supporting California’s One Party Democrat controlled Legislature.  Frankly they have no incentive to ever complete the project and stop fleecing taxpayers.  It is not a High Speed Rail Project.  It is “California’s Pork Gravy Train” for those who continue to glean money from the “Rat Hole” it has become.

For related articles see:

https://www.stoppullingthewagon.com/california-it-is-what-it-is/ and 

https://www.stoppullingthewagon.com/?s=California+high+speed+rail

Bob Bandy – July 2024

COME TO CALIFORNIA WHERE EVERYTHING PRICED BELOW $950 IS FREE

California decided to reduce its crime rate by putting into law that the theft of items valued at less than $950 is no longer a Felony Crime but a Misdemeanor/Infraction (think Parking Ticket).  This decision led to Proposition 47 which became law.  

AND

Your chance to live almost Free.  With California’s “Prop 47” in place you can help yourself to anything priced below $950 and not pay for it.  The worst thing that can happen to you is a misdemeanor citation and in the unlikely event you should ever find yourself in front of a judge you can just claim your “right” to a Jury Trial and a “Free” Public Defender as your Lawyer.  Since Jury Trial’s cost the City, County or State Thousands and Thousands of Dollars they will just dismiss your measly $949 case and you can go back to shopping. Talk about your land of “Milk and Honey”. 

California is a “Shoppers Paradise” with no need for cash or those pesky credit card statements.

There are documented cases of “shoppers” with calculators filling up shopping carts with items totaling less than $950 and giving Store Security personnel the “finger” on the way out the door and across the parking lot.  Oh, as an added bonus, shopping carts are “Free” in California.  What a great life if you don’t mind the homelessness, crime, drugs and filth!

Some near five years ago I wrote an article with the below title and it, still to this day, is one of the most commented on articles I have written.  It is reprinted below:

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YOU CAN’T MAKE THIS STUFF UP

photo – Google

In (Feb. 2012) I wrote a “spoof” article on this site titled: MARK OF THE BEAST – THE CLUB CARD. It is still available on this site (type Mark of the Beast in the search box).  The point of the article was that these “Club Cards” and other methods of tracking our purchases are being advertised as ways to “Serve Us Better” but are really only vehicles to monitor our lives for the sellers purposes and potentially for the government to control what we can buy, sell or consume. All, of course, “for our own good” because they, the government, know best how to manage our lives. “Scared yet?”

Now I see on television that Insurance Company’s are “offering” an “App” to monitor your driving habits in order to offer discounts on your car insurance if you drive the way they have decided you should. This, and similar “Apps” can also track your movements, i.e., where you go, What you do, how long you stay and other morsels of personal data to be harvested by Google, Facebook and other entities.

Goodbye, private get-a-way weekend with your loved one. Your Cell Phone companion is a “tattle-tale” to all those companies and Government Agencies who want to monitor your life. “Scared yet?”

Facebook is offering a handy “Portal” to install in your home so that you can always be “on camera” for whoever has access to your “Portal” “on the other end”. Family, Friends, Facebook, IRS etc. Can you spell “hacked”? I am thinking of ordering one of these “Portal’s”, putting it in our house, then hanging a picture of a horses butt in front of the lens just for fun.

Google (and others) have “Algorithms” – no this is not a “hot” Latin Dance – that can monitor and predict your nearly every move, voting habits, purchases, favorite foods, character flaws, weaknesses etc. etc. Now, are you scared?

Our day to day world is filled with cameras, everywhere you go and no matter what you are doing. More and more of these cameras have “Facial Recognition” software. Not to mention listening devices and “other ways” to track our every activity.

We live in a fish bowl.

Hmmmmm! On the other hand, maybe this could present us with an opportunity to have a little fun? Want to trade “Apps”, identity and habits for a while?

Since the “Apps” and tracking often seem to depend on our Cell Phones, perhaps we could do something creative with said phones. Like using “disposable” phones purchased at Walmart while in disguise, using them for a short time and then slipping them into the pocket of non-English speaking tourists at the airport or duct tape them inconspicuously to a local commuter bus. That could keep the Fed’s busy for a while. Lots of possibilities!

(September 2019)

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California prides itself on being the leader in “New Ideas” and “Cultural Change”.  California has banned the sale of new gasoline powered cars after 2035.  California has the highest gasoline taxes in the country (and some of the poorest roads). In California your 9 year old child can be recruited by “LGBTQ & Transgender Activist” School Employees and receive “Gender Affirming Care” including Castration without parental consent or even the foreknowledge it is being planned. I could go on and on.  As said above: 

YOU CAN’T MAKE THIS STUFF UP

Bob Bandy  –  June 2024

SACRAMENTO – CALIFORNIA’S  CAPITOL

   HOMELESS UP 52% IN TWO YEARS

For the record:  All the following numbers are taken from Google.

The State of California under (failed) Governor Newsom is facing a $60 Billion Dollar or more deficit depending on what current numbers are being “floated” from the State Capitol. 

California’s State Capitol City of Sacramento is facing a $50 Million Dollar (or more) Budget deficit thanks in part to the $60 Million Dollar renovation last year of a dilapidated hotel to house 134 of the Cities multi-thousand homeless.

San Francisco, California’s once “Jewel” on the Pacific is facing a Budget deficit of $1.4 Billion Dollars with rampant crime and homelessness.

Los Angeles is staring at a $476 Million Dollar Budget deficit as it is inundated with crime, illegal immigrants, homeless encampments and a shrinking tax base.

The above four entities all have one thing in common.  They are all under proudly “Blue” mis-management, WOKE, wedded to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion principles in a race to the bottom.

Silly me.  I grew up thinking that government’s (City, County, State, Federal) Primary Mission and Responsibility was to provide we Taxpaying Citizens with a Safe and Clean environment and to spend the Taxpayers hard earned dollars in a way to accomplish this mission with restraint in a responsible manner just as a family has to live within a budget. 

Was I gullible or was I just wrong?

Turns out these, sometimes well meaning, folks too often turn into teen agers with keys to Mom & Dad’s new car, a credit card and a bottle of Jack Daniels finest.  Hello National Debt of  $34+ Trillion Dollars, invasion over open borders, rampant unchecked crime, mushrooming homeless encampments, heavily in debt students joining the cause of Terrorists, crippling inflation and loss of worldwide respect.

Some near 5 years ago (August 2019) I wrote a “spoof” article titled “Momma Tried”.  Over the years it has been one of the most commented on articles I have ever written.  Don’t have a counter on how many times it has been read and don’t keep track of more than a very small percentage of comments received but have gotten many, many thousands of comments submitted with 95% + being positive .  While the article was satirical in nature the underlying premise is that the homeless destruction of some of our cities could be stopped with a few simple, common sense steps rather than the mega-million dollar pork barrel projects government keeps implementing with little or no accountability of where the money is going.  Last year California State “lost track of” some $24 Billion Dollars “earmarked” for “Homeless solutions”.  The money has “vanished -poof” and there is no accountability for it.

A copy of my original article is printed below or you can find it anytime by typing Momma Tried in the search box and hitting enter.

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MOMMA TRIED

Recently while watching a documentary on prisons and prisoners, I saw a prisoner with “MOMMA TRIED” tattooed across his chest.

It got me to thinking. And, no I am not talking about the unfortunate homeless living on the streets.

I am talking about the City Administrators of these cities, like San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle, Portland and, yes, sadly Sacramento and too many others.

Yesterday, I heard on the news that San Francisco was going to provide elevator operators in buildings because the “homeless” have been using elevators as public toilets.

I am ashamed to admit that in a moment of anger I would like to take these so-called “Administrators” and “Guardians” of their citizenry, and have “MOMMA TRIED” tattooed across their foreheads.

Their first duty is to provide the citizens of their city with safety in a clean, healthy environment – not hold meetings and talk about grandiose plans which will cost a gazillion more taxpayer dollars and in the end not produce the desired result. I have heard on the news that the State of Washington has spent a Billion (with a “B”) Dollars on homeless plans and the situation on the streets of Seattle are, if anything, worse.

Here is a two step plan to clean the streets:

First, provide Charter Buses to relocate these poor, miserable people living in filth and degradation to new, clean and prosperous locales. May I suggest places like Marin County (home of Nancy Pelosi), Malibu, Brentwood, Beverly Hills, Hollywood and other places filled with those smart, politically connected folks who believe they have all the answers for all problems. Be sure they arrive with a nice box lunch, map of the area of their new “home” and a crisp new $100 bill.

Second, using scrapers, loaders and dump trucks, remove the debris and trash from the streets. Then Fire Hose the remaining human waste and filth into a containment location (similar to the ones required on construction sites) and have it “sucked” up and disposed of in a sanitation facility. Preferably one in Marin County etc..

After completing these steps put up signs (in multiple languages) that henceforth the streets will be water-blasted on a regular basis for public health and safety reasons on an unannounced basis as needed. Then do it.

Problem solved at far less cost than all those “solutions” provided by those “Administrator” meetings.

Sorry about the “MOMMA TRIED” tattoo crack. Most of those Administrators foreheads are probably too narrow for it anyway.

Bob Bandy – (August 2019)

California Roads

photo – Google

California is a state filled with “Good Intentions”.  It’s two largest Cities, Los Angeles and San Francisco, as well as it’s State Capitol, Sacramento, are entrenched “Feel Good” Liberal Bastions offering Sanctuary to “undocumented” (illegal) “no questions asked or permitted of immigrants”.  In fact, the whole state is a proud “Sanctuary” and you can face prosecution in court if you ask to see proof of citizenship.

California had, and I believe still has, the highest Gasoline Taxes in the nation and despite the fact that those taxes, on paper, are supposed to be used for road maintenance and repair, it has some of the worst, if not worst, potholes and poor maintenance in the nation.  Good intentions do not fill potholes.  Many/most of those Gasoline Tax Dollars through “slight of hand” and “smoke and mirrors” end up being redirected/spent on other “pet projects” of the “Ruling Junta” on things like “Free College” for “undocumented” migrants, “Free Healthcare” for “undocumented migrants” and “dog and pony show” special projects that sound soooo good and accomplish little or nothing other than put taxpayer Dollars into the pockets of political supporters and their ilk.  

All to often public tax revenue is allocated out for political agendas.

See: CONRAD BLOWHARD STRIKES AGAIN  

https://www.stoppullingthewagon.com/conrad-blowhard-strikes-again/ 

SPENDING PLANS SUCH AS

Homeless Housing for the states number one in the nation homeless population.  Things like $41,000 tents on pallets,  $400,000 two hundred square foot remodeled hotel rooms for the drug and alcohol addicted homeless and other “Blue Sky” projects..  On a recent news broadcast it was reported that California spent last year $43,000,000,000 ($43 Billion Dollars) on “Homeless Housing” projects and now has more Homeless than before they spent the money.  Note: News Reports that California has “no data” on $24,000,000,000($24 Billion) of those dollars…  the money is gone… “Poof”.

AND

https://www.stoppullingthewagon.com/?s=California+High+Speed+Rail+2.0

California High Speed Rail 2.0

Nine Billion Dollars Later (March 2019)

Its “never will be completed”, now estimated to cost in excess of $100,000,000,000 (that’s One Hundred Billion Dollars) High Speed Rail System which after some 10+ years of construction and numerous projections, has never hauled a single passenger a single mile. 

AND

Removing smaller dams, reservoirs and even hydro-electric plants.  US regulators have approved the largest dam removal project in the country’s history, which is slated to take place on the Klamath River in California.  A $500 million Dollar proposal to demolish four dams on the Klamath River has been approved by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. (Associated Press). “Some people might ask in this time of great need for zero emissions, ‘Why are we removing the dams?’  The project has been a priority for environmental activists and Native American tribes for years.

Government is not so much intentionally “evil” as it is just addicted to programs that sound good without being thought through to possible unintentional outcomes, corruption, fraud, waste, graft, mismanagement, lack of accountability and poor judgement.  Government has a history of “solving problems” by throwing money at them and when that doesn’t work reaching a conclusion that the problem wasn’t solved because they didn’t throw enough money at it sooooo…..  lets increase spending.  But money and good Intentions don’t solve problems and they don’t fill potholes in the states roads.

Programs like these and many others are why California has a 70+ BILLION DOLLAR BUDGET DEFICIT, its State Capitol City – Sacramento has a 60+MILLION DOLLAR BUDGET DEFICIT and other major cities like San Francisco and Los Angeles have similar fiscal woes.  Mind you, most or all of the above were/are the product of the “Good Intentions” in the mind and agenda of some Bureaucrat at some point in time.  But…..

California Potholes – Google

GOOD INTENTIONS DON’T FILL POTHOLES

Late News Update – 4-10-24 – KCRA News: Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration announced a new directive on Wednesday that will require state employees to work in the office at least two days a week.  “Talk about your ‘Sweatshop’ working environment!” “Way to run a tight ship Governor!”

Bob Bandy – April 2024

I grew up in an era where I used to hear folks say that they lived for the day they would make their last mortgage payment, burn their mortgage and own their home “free and clear”.  Not quite.

My great grandfather was a Texas Ranger and his brother, John, was a (the first?) Tax Collector in Bandera County, Texas.  This I have documentation on and so, I can trace Property Taxes at least back to the circa 1880’s and feel sure they precede that by several decades.  Perhaps in early “Frontier” days on territorial lands you could “Homestead” a piece of land with no “Revenuer” knocking on your door and demanding you pay a fee to live on your own land.  Not today.  In today’s world you never really “own” your land and home, more like, rent it from the “Government”.  Try not paying your property taxes for a while and see what happens to “your” home.

Governments are “Taxaholics” and continue to find new ways to tax you, sometimes in not so obvious, subtle ways that go on “Till the Twelfth of Never”.

I am now a “Senior Citizen” that has worked his whole life.  I can remember some 40 to 50 years ago working as a carpenter and contractor building houses for folks in the Sacramento and Sierra Foothills area.  In those days if someone wanted a house built they would bring their blueprints to either one of the contactors I worked with or to me and we would go to the County Offices and secure a “Building Permit”.  My memory is not perfect but as I remember the total permit cost for a typical house would run in the $200 to $400 range.  Since then, Cities and Counties have seized the opportunity to raise money by not only increasing the cost of  building permits but the “secret” source of revenue with added on fees for all sorts of things to provide them an increased property tax revenue.  More in a moment.

It is tempting and would be easy at this point to launch into one of my tirades on all of the taxes, overt and covert, that we all pay on a day to day basis ad nauseum, but for the sake of this little essay, I want to focus attention on just this one area of onerous taxation that is somewhat subtle and NEVER goes away.

What used to be a $200-$400 building permit fee for most cities and counties in California has turned into a tens of thousands of dollars “Taxmageddon”  that has driven the cost of housing and living in California to the brink of meltdown and created a homeless nightmare statewide.  What used to be a $200-$400 fee has now morphed into a “Fee” generating income source for Cities, Counties and the State and a de-facto forever “surtax” on private real estate property.  As examples: a good friend of mine tells me that to get a building permit for a home in Roseville, California with fees now costs some $70,000 for the permit.  Another friend tells me that a building permit with fees in El Dorado County, California can cost as much as $100,000 just for them to permit you to build a home on “your” land.

An example of just one such fee:  For new home construction in El Dorado Hills they imposed a “Traffic Impact Fee” (effective thru June 2023 which may have since been raised).  On a new home of 1500 – 1999 square feet, the fee is $32,687.  In other words they are going to charge you $32,687 to drive on “their” roads to “your” land – and silly you,  you thought roads were paid for with your Gasoline Tax Dollars. (Their fee schedule is available on line) That is just one of a “laundry list” of fees for all kinds of things.  The point of this being that this fee cost is added to the cost of the home you are buying and will be paying mortgage rates on for some 30 years.  In addition, once you pay off your mortgage you will be paying property taxes based on the property value which is assessed on what you paid for the home which includes all the fees added at the time of construction.  So you will be paying forever a tax on all of the “Fees”.  To the Taxing Authorities this is a gift that keeps on giving.  As an added bonus,  new housing that costs more has raised the value of existing properties which as they are sold are now taxed at the inflated value in part caused by the fees on new construction.  The “Tax and Fee People” win again!

IN SIMPLE PLAIN ENGLISH – ALL THOSE FEES END UP IN THE TAX APPRAISED VALUE OF ‘YOUR’ HOME AND YOU WILL PAY PROPERTY TAX ON THOSE FEES ‘FOREVER’.

This inflation cycle goes on and on and the result is home ownership becomes more and more expensive and less and less affordable.  Hello “homelessness”.  So where does all this extra “Fee” revenue go?  Unfortunately too much of it ends up indirectly in the pockets of Bureaucrats and directly in the pockets of sycophant political supporters like “Consultants”, “Contractors”, “Advisors” etc. etc. for bloated “Public Works” contracts and the public sees:

  $44,000 (each) tents for the Homeless 

https://www.stoppullingthewagon.com/?s=44%2C000+tents+for+the+homeless

AND

$478,000 Tiny Homeless apartments from a “remodeled” old run-down hotel at $1,707 per square foot.

https://www.stoppullingthewagon.com/?s=conrad+blowhard+strikes+again

OR

California’s High Speed Rail 

Now estimated to cost another $100 Billion Dollars or more on completion

https://www.stoppullingthewagon.com/?s=another+6+Billion+Dollar+rathole

At least you can take comfort in knowing your hard earned dollars are being spent wisely!

To paraphrase the “Johnny Mathis song – the “Twelfth Of Never” – (1956) 

“Until the twelfth of never – I’ll still be taxing you”.

Bob Bandy – March 2024