Stop Pulling the Wagon

With full credit to the author and to the Babylon Bee.  I love it.

Author Frank T Rutherford hits the nail on the head with this piece.

Op-Ed: Today’s Youth Simply Don’t Have The Work Ethic To Build The Gulags Needed For Their Communist Ideals

 

When I was young, there wasn’t nothing scarier than the Commies. They were out there, waiting to destroy all freedom and destroy all the world in a nuclear holocaust. You know, a real problem — not like everyone worrying about it getting a couple degrees hotter because of some so-called global warming.

Now, we thought we ended Communism in the ’80s, thought we strangled the last of them for their bad economic ideas, but we were wrong. Because we raised our kids wrong (part of letting everyone go hatless), they’ve started to embrace Communism. Suddenly we got Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in government — full of Commie evil — and the red menace is back.

Initially, I was excited. After Communism, we didn’t really have a good enemy. No one thought them Islamic terrorists were going to actually take over the world. Communists are a real enemy — worthy of America — but then all my hopes were dashed when I took a good look at these new Commies.

They suck.

They’re all just a bunch of lazy, whiny morons. I mean, the Commies of old were stupid and evil, but they at least knew enough to be a threat, like how to build a gulag. I doubt these Commies could build a desk from IKEA without having their mom help them. And they ain’t building no nuclear bombs, because they haven’t read any books on nuclear physics. I doubt they’ve even actually read Marx — ‘cause it ain’t got no wizarding school in it. All these Commies want to do is whine about how they have to pay rent.

Could you imagine Rambo going after these Commies? They’d just be running for their safe spaces. They ain’t going to take over the world; I doubt that Ocasio-Cortez could tie her own shoes without making a mess of it. And they ain’t going to execute dissidents — they’re just going to get you kicked off Twitter then order themselves some avocado toast and call it a day. They are a disgrace to the Commies from the good old days — whom I hated but have respect for.

What those Commies need to do is stop shouting about Russia and Trump and go talk to Putin and ask him nicely how to be big, good, scary Commies. They need to put down their phones and stop their tick-tocking and learn how to be proper, evil Commies — the threat America deserves. And then they need to come back here and try to destroy this country and its freedoms properly — Red Dawn style — so we can have the big war against Commies this country needs.

They need some self-respect. And then I’ll finally strangle them. For being Commies.

John Kerry photo – Slick Times

 

President Elect Joe Biden has announced that he will be putting John Kerry in the position of “Special Envoy on Climate Change”.  An interesting choice.

In the past John Kerry has been unkindly likened to the butler “Lurch” in the old Addams Family series (1964-66).  I say unkindly but in many ways the part of Lurch, played by actor Ted Cassidy, demonstrated more charm and wit than former Senator and Secretary of State John Kerry seems to possess.

In my own mind John Kerry appears more like a humorless and inept caricature of Cosmo Kramer from the Seinfeld Series (1989-98).

An unremarkable Senator and never more than a “Yes-Man Bobblehead”  for the inept foreign policy of the Obama Administration.  He bumbled and stumbled and fumbled his way from one assignment to another serving as Secretary of State (2013-17).

“Jan 15, 2020 The Boston Herald · John Kerry, sucking up to the Iranians, is ending his long political career the way he began it, and that is by befriending the country’s enemies.” 

Again – Jan 15, 2020 The Boston Herald – “If the mullahs in Tehran want to get on President Trump’s good side, they could start by returning the billions they extorted from a willing Barack Obama.” 

Thank you John Kerry for doing your part.

Other than what he has been spoon fed as “Pablum” Climate Change propaganda from “Man Made Global Climate Change” so called “experts”,  I suspect he has little to no knowledge on the subject.

“Experts”,  for example like our former Vice President and self made charlatan Al Gore who predicted the end of civilization as we know it by the year 2000 unless we did exactly as he told us to do.  We didn’t and it didn’t.  In the process he made himself a multi-millionaire and bought a beach front mansion with his get rich quick charade which he still peddles to this day to his Kool Aid drinking sycophants.

I seriously doubt that John Kerry can set a temperature on his own heating and cooling system without help.

“Does climate change? Of course. If we had been alive 10,000 years ago, the majority of us would have been up to our butts in year round glaciers, ice and snow. Today, large areas of the upper United States are flat lands created by glacial action. Thankfully, climate has changed and continues to change with warmer and cooler periods.” (see “Junk Science Ala Carte” – SPTW November 23, 2019).

The fact is our planet is 70% covered in oceans and of the remaining 30% man occupies a tiny fraction of 1% of the land area and lacks the ability to effect the climate by more than an almost immeasurable amount.  Natural Solar cycles and volcanic action contribute much, much more to climate change.

But if, repeat if, John Kerry really thinks he can make a difference then let him take on the real polluters, China and India who have been all but exempted from the Paris Climate Accords till the mid 2030’s.  If he can’t do that then what can he hope to do other than eliminate a lot of jobs here in the United States.

Fact is, the United States does not have now, and will not have even 75% of the ability to provide our electrical and energy needs from solar and wind sources until at least 2050.

Have any of these “Green New Deal” zealots told us how, if you put everybody into electric cars, those cars and their batteries will have electricity pumped into them at the end of each day and from what source?

Of course, a Biden choice like John Kerry seems to be the “norm” for the coming Biden/Harris presidency which appears to be trying to re-create the Obama Administration.  Is former President Obama going to have a desk in the Biden Whitehouse?

Shall we be looking forward to Obama 3.0?  Ambassador Hillary Clinton?  Secretary of State Michelle Obama?

Bob Bandy – December 2020

 

 

 

 

Our Constitution was written in great part to provide a guarantee to all Americans certain Rights and Freedoms.  The First 10 Articles/Amendments to the Constitution spell these out clearly.

While a number of these Amendments are under attack by various groups, organizations, companies  and quasi-government agencies as well as on the campus’s of many of our Colleges and Universities, this writing is particularly directed at the First Amendment and Freedom of Speech and Freedom of the Press.

Article I – First Amendment

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

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Companies like Google, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and many College’s and “Movements” have now decided they should be in charge of what we are allowed to read or say and have developed their own “Truth Bureaus” and filters on what is, and is not allowed to appear in print or spoken in public forums and, coming soon, in your homes and private gatherings. 

Expect Churches, especially Christian Churches to become even more restricted or very tightly monitored and regulated.  Already Pastors and Ministers must be careful of what is said from the pulpit for fear of bringing on the wrath of the Dark Lords in Sacramento, Washington D.C. or headquarters of powerful, influential groups with their own social agendas. 

I am quite sure that they would censor our very thoughts if and when it becomes possible and I believe they are working on it in their “Dark Chambers of Horror”.

It’s all about control.  Think George Orwell’s ‘1984’ and “Big Brother” (published 1949 by Secker & Warburg).  

Can a “Borg Progressive Collective Society” be far behind? (in the Search box type – The Borg Initiative – for an article I wrote back in March 2019 on the theme of central command and control . 

This could all seem like just a scary intellectual exercise if the potential impact on our freedom was not so deadly serious.

So how do we deal with this seemingly unstoppable march to control what we are allowed to say, write and eventually even think?  I’m not sure.  So far I have come up with three possible scenarios.  

#1.  Go ahead and speak your mind.  Expect to be sent to a Chinese Communist inspired “Re-education Labor Camp” sponsored by a Consortium backed by Google, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook,  the “Deep State”, Hollywood,  “Mainstream” Media, “New Age” Academia and “Uber Billionaires” like George Soros.  After some time at one of these camps you will emerge as a glassy eyed drone chanting a Mantra of how much you love Political Correctness, all the while with downcast eyes and carefully folded hands while closing each repeat of the approved Kumbaya Mantra with a soft “Yes Master”.  You will no longer be burdened with the need to think for yourself.  

#2  Go off the “Grid” and move to a remote place in the frozen tundra of Alaska, a place in the desert or deep woods or any other hard to reach location.  None, or only minimum communication with this “Progressive Approved United States”.   My personal favorite is the “Cabin in the woods with a good dog, fishing gear, good guns, my wife and a minimum two year supply of staple goods.  However, as attractive as this option sounds I must admit my advanced years would make such a rustic retreat a real challenge. 

#3  Pay someone to steal my identity.  That way those in charge of our “Brave New World” of total Government Control could make life miserable for whatever poor soul is now stuck with my “old” identity.   Since I live in California I could then clothe myself in secondhand clothing, wander into the nearest State office, tell them, in broken English, I am here ill-legally from an unnamed foreign land, without papers or documentation of any kind.  Give them an untraceable name (remember no documentation is required).  Maybe I could become Phineas Ulysses Phartswehl?  In California it is against the law to question Citizenship and  I can then demand directions to the nearest State facilities where I can receive free public aid, free housing and free medical care.  California, with its “Open Borders” laws is a wonderful place to “get lost in” if you are “on the ‘Lam’. As a bonus,  maybe whoever paid to take my “old” identity could help pay for all this with his tax money.  Win-Win!

Given time I am sure I, or one of my readers could come up with other alternatives.  Move to Paraguay anyone?

Just a thought but you might want to save this article to a thumb drive, separate hard drive or printed copy before Google – et-al decide to have the ghouls in their “Truth Bureau” edit it for content and you end up with a  page of “Kumbaya” implanted on your mind.

Bob Bandy – October 2020

 

 

 

 

Slip slidin’ away
Slip slidin’ away
You know the nearer your destination
The more you’re slip slidin’ away

Paul Simon

 

With California mired in unfunded debt,  wildlands on fire due at least in part to poor forest management, record numbers of homeless living in tents and makeshift shelters, power and water shortages, racial strife and violence and taxpayers and businesses  fleeing the state for greener pastures elsewhere while California is forced to go, tin cup in hand, looking for Billions of Dollars in Aid from the Federal Government for handouts funded by taxes paid by better managed States…….

whew! …….

One has to wonder why our Emperor, um, Governor would put his blessing on a 2021 Budget Proposal from the California High Speed Rail Authority to flush another 2.9 Billion Dollars of non-existent Taxpayer Funds down the “toilet” that California’s failed High Speed Rail Project has become.  (source: Legislative Analyst’s Office).  

A project whose completion just keeps “Slip Slidin’ Away” from him.

For an earlier treatise on California’s high speed rail history: type –  California’s High Speed Rail 2.0 into the “Search For Articles” box on this page (left) and press enter – or – type or copy/paste:

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

into your browser. 

For many years disappointed Californians have wondered why the State would undertake such an ill-conceived, un-needed, cost prohibitive, environmentally challenged excursion. Perhaps a pipe dream by a prior governor  and then handed off to his chosen successor in a “One Political Party” State.

Many might think it simply an effort to mimic Japan or China, who do not have the Environmental or Regulatory quagmires that plague any large project in California.

Being a cynic, it has been my long held belief the project was driven more by the fantasy of an ego driven, past his prime Governor Jerry Brown whose dream it was to memorialize himself in history.  Perhaps equally important a “political payoff” to large Labor Unions, such as the Operating Engineers Union, for their support of the Democratic Party. 

But then, I am just a cynic hardened by years of observing how government really works.

Bob Bandy – September 2020

I spent more than 17 years, and quasi-retired from a company that was in the computer data processing and billing business as well as systems design and fabrication.

My own positions were in administration and management and not technical “stuff” but I spent hundreds, if not thousands of hours with technical people including programmers and engineers.

I remember one technical manager in particular that used to “remind” me over and over that everyone seems to think “Computers are smart but actually they are stupid – they can just process data very, very fast.”

Or, as was often mentioned as a “great truth” by countless programmers and technicians that we must never forget: “Garbage In – Garbage Out”. Computer systems can only produce results based on the the data that is input into them. In other words, if you provide the computer program with incomplete or inaccurate data they will produce faulty or misleading results.

For example, early in the current Coronavirus Pandemic, “modeling” was predicting United States potential fatalities from the virus could run 2.2 million by August of this year, this was later revised to 1.4 million and still later to maybe 140 thousand and it now appears the actual number with likely come in well below that number. That is a huge differential in predictions and is why the task force kept reiterating that they needed accurate data for “modeling”.

These experts are not stupid or inept, these are educated, intelligent and dedicated people. Apparently the first “models” were based on input data that nothing would be done to mitigate the spread of the virus. As mitigation factors were input, the modeling predictions changed.

(Definition of mitigate: Spreading the impact of possible contamination over a longer period of time to avoid overwhelming hospitals by social distancing, closing of non-essential businesses and instituting modified house arrest for citizenry.)

My real fear of relying on computer modeling is that it can, and has been abused by those with an agenda to make “junk science” predictions on subjects from global famine to global freezing to climate change prognostications that have a history of causing unnecessary fear and panic only to be ultimately proven false.

By “picking and choosing” what data fits your agenda and you want to use in your computer modeling, you can skew the computer output to fit your goals. This is not true science, it is an example of “Garbage in – Garbage out”.

Politicians use Pollsters to do something similar by carefully wording questions and then polling segments of the population likely to produce their desired results. “Garbage in – Garbage out”.

In 1966 former Vice President Al Gore’s “modeling” and his book (An Inconvenient Truth) predicted global warming unless immediate and drastic action was taken within a decade. He predicted, among other things, rising sea levels and worldwide massive flooding along with Polar Bear Extinction (Polar Bear populations have actually increased) and the South Sahara drying up among other dire warnings. None of these things happened. Despite his predictions of rising sea levels, the former Vice President and author bought himself a beachfront home.

In his book “The Population Bomb”, by Stanford Professor Paul Ehrlich, his modeling predicted worldwide famine in the 70’s and 80’s due to overpopulation. The worldwide famine never occurred but caused near panic in many quarters of academia.

In the 1970’s more “modeling” led scientists to predict an imminent new “ice age”, a vision of which can be seen in the 2004 movie “The Day After Tomorrow” which was based on this prediction. It never happened.

More recently, a “Progressive Green New Deal” movement within our own country predicted, based on their own accepted “modeling” in 2019 that our planet only had 12 years left for human survival unless we immediately adopt their agenda, part of which is to abruptly abandon all use of “fossil” fuels (oil and natural gas) and switch to only solar and wind power on a crisis basis. This is “junk” science on steroids but they have caused tremendous fear and panic, especially on our young and vulnerable. In my opinion this is fear mongering on a criminal level. The climate is not going to make the earth uninhabitable by humans within the next, now 11 years and there is no definitive scientific proof to the fact. Only predictions based on computer “modeling” from often skewed, cherry picked questionable data.

You will forgive me if I do not trust “modeling”. Good people can be led far from the truth by inaccurate, faulty or fraudulent data. There are too many “experts” out there with an agenda looking for a way to further that agenda with “modeling” data.

To close on a more humorous note. Many of these experts are telling us that we will need to permanently change our behavior in the future and practice social distancing everywhere and at every age. I want to be a “fly on the wall” of a third grade classroom and watch all the the 8-9 year old’s maintain, at all times, a six foot spacing in the classroom, cafeteria and playground. I pity the teachers!

Bob Bandy – April 2020

I first published this humor article a year ago under a different title. It was popular and copies often requested. Recent events in the news reminded me of it. Now is a time I think we could all use something to smile about. It is intended in good humor. We all need to laugh at ourselves from time to time. I have slightly edited it. Enjoy!

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Rule Number One – Smile – You can’t take these folks too seriously or it will make you crazy. Instead of getting mad it is better to keep our sense of humor and have some fun.

Let’s propose to the “Progressive Green New Deal” folks that they promote their ideas via sponsorship of a new Reality Show on television.  We could call it “Survivor Plus” and the challenge the contestants face will be called:  “The Great Green Race II”.

The plan: A race across the state of Texas for the contestants in Solar Powered Cars (similar to the one above).

The race will be from the West Texas town of  El Paso to the East Texas town of Beaumont.  Distance: 830 miles through the heart of Texas.

Each car will be decorated with Bumper Stickers and signs that say things like:  NO MORE NRA – HILLARY IN 2020 – OUTLAW ALL GUNS – SHUT DOWN ALL OIL WELLS – NO MORE CATTLE.

First contestant to reach Beaumont, Texas alive wins a free lunch with Al Gore.

Second place winner will get two lunches with all Gore.

Any remaining surviving contestants that finish the race will win a three day stay at Al Gore’s Environmentally Friendly 10,070 square foot mansion/estate/home  sharing quarters with Congresswoman and Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi, Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Congressman Adam Schiff and Congressman Jerry Nadler.  Sounds like a great time doesn’t it? 

Enjoy a tour of Al Gore’s reconstructed library.  His old library was destroyed in a fire and all three of his books burned, including one he had not finished coloring yet.

Have your mind stimulated at a third grade math class taught by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortes.

Laugh yourself silly at the “Battle of Wits” between Nancy Pelosi, Adam Schiff and Jerry Nadler.  Spirited intellectual combat between three intellectually unarmed combatants.

Indulge yourself at the Environment Friendly Bar-B-Que featuring cow-flatulent-free Tofu Burgers. Yum, Yum!

Just for entering the race, all contestants will receive an Al Gore autographed 8 x 10 glossy color photograph of his Environmentally Friendly private jet.

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This was written for fun and a smile.  Some of your friends and neighbors might enjoy this.  Many folks who call themselves “Progressives” demonstrate little to no sense of humor.  Share accordingly.

Bob Bandy – March 2020