Mayorkas testifies DHS is creating ‘Disinformation Governance Board’

California Congressman Adam Schiff

 Chairman of the House (lack of) Intelligence Committee

Congressman Schiff during the “Russia Russia Russia” Investigation repeatedly told the media, the American public and again under oath, during the Senate Impeachment Trial of Donald Trump, that he had positive, factual information that President Trump had colluded with the Russian’s during the Trump/Clinton Presidential campaigns. It was a lie, he knew it was a lie and he told the lie over and over again.  He is in fact a known serial liar and yet stays out of jail.

But he is not alone,  Congress and the Administration lie to the American people on a daily basis.  Let’s send the Misinformation Governing Board after Congress and those members of the Administration who habitually lie to us.

Speaking of lies, do you remember:  “If you like your doctor you can keep him and that’s a promise.”

There are endless examples.  The Administration and Congress come up with spending schemes that will cost Trillions of dollars and then tell us the plan is all “paid for” with tax increases on the “wealthy” and higher tax rates on “greedy” Corporations.  This is the kind of big lie that has gotten America Thirty Trillion Dollars in debt.

The fact is you could tax Elon Musk & Jeff Bezos, the two richest men in the country at 100% – take every dollar they have and leave them penniless in the street – and not fund our government for two months.  Further, if you taxed every one of the super rich in our country at 100% you could not fund our government, the way it spends money, for a year and then who would you tax after that.  And, all the people they employed would be out of work and not paying taxes either.

The other big lie is you can just raise taxes on Corporations.  CORPORATIONS DON’T PAY TAXES – THEIR CUSTOMERS DO.  If you raise taxes on Corporations, you just raise taxes on taxpayers the next time they buy a bottle of shampoo or a Hershey Bar.

Our government is a source of “Disinformation” on a daily basis. Let’s “root some of them out” and put them in jail before we go after common citizens who don’t agree with the “in vogue” political party.

When I see one of the Clinton’s or a John Brennan behind bars for  providing “misinformation” (lying) to the American People, especially while under oath, then this new “Misinformation Governance Board” can send their “Truth Enforcers” to knock on my door. 

Until then I will just consider them for what they are – another group of corrupt Political Operatives using the Governments power to try to intimidate me into shutting up and parroting the ruling parties political correctness.

Keeping the First Amendment

As for me, I plan to keep and exercise my First Amendment Rights and fight for those Rights should the need arise.  

Bob Bandy – May 2022

Franken – Legislation

CALIFORNIA – THEY ARE AT IT AGAIN!

AB2932

32-Hour Workweek Bill

Presented as a bill to allow California employees to work fewer hours each week, Assembly Bill 2932 by Assembly members Cristina Garcia (D-Bell Gardens) and Evan Low (D–Campbell), would require all businesses in the state with 500+ employees to redefine a full-time workweek to 32 hours instead of 40 hours.

AB 2932 exempts union businesses and public employees.

• Any hours worked by an employee over 32 hours would be considered overtime. The bill would require significant changes to overtime rules.
• The bill would require the employers to pay employees at the same rate of pay as their current 40 hour week, meaning employees will be getting a raise. AB 2932 prohibits an employer from reducing an employee’s regular rate of pay as a result of this reduced hourly workweek requirement.
• This is a backdoor minimum wage increase without having to vote on one.” 

From:  California Globe By Katy Grimes, April 13, 2022

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I have money to wager that if this bill becomes law,  the ink from the Governors signature won’t be dry before ALL Public Employees will be demanding the same deal for them.  And, you can expect Union Employees to follow right on their heels.  You can also be assured that Hourly Workers for smaller employers will start demanding the same 32 hour work week in the name of “Equity”. 

Want to take me up on my wager?

California’s Democratic Controlled Legislature is hard at work on a plan to turn California into a 32 hour workweek State.  They seem to come up with these ideas without ever thinking them through and believe everything can be paid for by the Tooth Fairy.

Knowing how the hearts and minds of California’s Legislators work, I am sure they will promptly and rapidly acquiesce to a Public Employees demand for a 32 hour workweek.  After all, the Public Employees and their unions represent a large percentage of the Democratic Legislators voter base. 

Further, the members of California’s Legislature may be fiscal morons but even they know you cannot expect work requiring 40 hours of labor a week to be done in 32 hours.  Fortunately for the Public Employees there is an “easy fix”.  The State Legislature will simply authorize the hiring of the additional workers to fill in the 20% reduction in hours being worked now,  and,  raise taxes to cover the cost of the increased  payroll and benefits.  

The only other option would be to reduce hours of service to the public for places like the Department of Motor Vehicles etc..  You can be sure that is not going to happen.  The one thing we can take for granted is that Bureaucracies never get smaller.  They only grow larger.

For the private sector and those who work for an hourly wage, and for their employers, the 32 hour week in the “new” “Utopian” California, the options are less “Rosie”.  Private Employers and Companies cannot raise taxes to pay folks 40 hours of pay for 32 hours of work.

Some employers may simply choose, if fiscally possible, to simply cut their operations to a 4 day week business or, cut the hours of their current employees to 32 hours  a week (at their current hourly rate) and then hire additional, perhaps part time, employees (at that same hourly rate) to make up the other 8 hours of work needed to stay in business and still stay within their payroll budgets.  Remember, these are hourly, not salaried, employees. These employers live in the “real world”.    Private employers have to stay within fixed payroll budgets or go out of business.  No “Taxpayer Tooth Fairies” to raise taxes on.

The “good” news for their employee’s is that they will only be going to their “regular” job 32 hours a week.  The “bad” news is they will need that extra day to find a part time job to help make up for the lost income from that other 8 hours they used to work at the “old” job.  Ah, life in California!

If this passes it means California can expect a further “Exodus” of more businesses and their workers to other states with a more employer friendly work environment. 

Over my years of writing on these subjects I have come to wonder what happens to often well intentioned people who get into legislative office and then seem to forget what it is like in the “real” world of trying to run a business, provide jobs and services and stay within a budget so you can continue doing so. 

It seems like once they get elected and go to work at the Capitol or other offices, somebody drags them off into a back room and gives them “Stupid Pills” and they lose the ability to think about the (maybe) unintended consequences of their actions.

Bob Bandy April 2022

photo credit – Philadelphia Trumpet April 2022

Big Government – Big Pharma – Big Media

As pointed out in the Philadelphia Trumpet article,  the Covid Pandemic, while a disaster for tens of millions of ordinary Americans, was a money making bonanza for a select group of those in power. 

Think of them as members of America’s Oligarchy.

Dictionary:  An oligarch is one of the select few people who rule or influence leaders in an oligarchy—a government in which power is held by a select few individuals or a small class of powerful people.

LIVING IN AN OLIGARCHY

American Oligarch’s include, but are not limited to, the following:

1. Powerful members of the media including:  Google, Facebook, Twitter, You Tube, the “Mainstream” Media, Print, Television, Internet and others.

2. The current Political Administration including the Office of the President and various powerful Agencies like: The FBI, Department of Justice, Secret Service, Central Intelligence Agency, Joint Chiefs of Staff, Department of Defense, Department of Energy and a “laundry list” of other agencies, most/all of which have become Politicized and no longer feel bound by the U.S. Constitution or the laws levied on the rest of us.

3. The “Military Industrial Complex”  Which includes not only the Military but also manufacturers and distributors of the weapons of war and related materials.  Extremely profitable Industry when those Government Contracts come your way.

4. Major Corporations and their C.E.O.’s.  Include in this group Major Banks and their officers.

5.  The Federal Reserve Board and system which along with the Treasury Department have the authority to print endless amounts of “deficit” (phony) dollars, regulate interest rates and cause inflation.

Ad nauseum.

Historically, whether it is a Pandemic, War or Natural Disaster, “Bad News” is not bad for everyone out there.  If you are one of the few select people in power, it can be downright profitable.  An opportunity to make obscene amounts of money while acquiring ever more power.

During the recent Covid Pandemic Pfizer (and other Pharmaceutical companies), made Billions of Dollars in profits and are still doing so.  All being paid for by some 5 Trillion (deficit) Dollars in spending by our government.  In the process we are finding out some unknown number of Millions (Billions) of those dollars were diverted to Golf Course and other “Pork Barrel” projects in Congressional districts across the county to enrich various members of Congress through their “Government Contractor” (and other) supporters.  “Follow the Money”.

Blood and Treasure

The meaning of this phrase all too often signifies the “Blood of those who serve creates Treasure for those who produce the means of destruction”.

Our political leaders (Oligarch’s) keep getting us involved in various wars (Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, others).  The men and women who serve our nation do so with honor and at personal sacrifice.  Too often they must pay a price in blood and crippling injury and many with the ultimate sacrifice of their lives (50,000+ Americans lost their lives in Vietnam alone). Having said that, the Defense Contractor “Oligarch’s” made Billions of Dollars in profits.  Ever heard of the “Military Industrial Complex”?  “Follow the money.”

In the process of leaving Afghanistan, because of political miscalculation and the failure of leadership, the Taliban were “gifted” an estimated One Billion Dollars (probably a “low ball” estimate) in military hardware paid for by the American Taxpayer. “Follow the Money”.

Fire, Flood & Earthquake

The same goes for Natural Disasters.  Only one example (one I have used before) out of many, the Haiti Earthquake in 1993.  The U.S., and other countries, pledged Billions of dollars in Reconstruction Aid.  Several Billion of those dollars were “flushed” through the Clinton Foundation.  Very little Reconstruction was done but those Billions ended up in somebodies pockets – friends of the Clintons or ??.  Again, Bad News for Some is Good News for others.  “Follow the Money.”  

But not to pick on just the Clinton’s,  this happens over and over and over.  Hugh amounts of money are allocated and much of it just vanishes “poof” into a more and more corrupt system that enriches the few and does all too little to help those most in need.

Social Justice and other “Causes”

When Black Lives Matter were at their height of activity,  Billions of Dollars were pledged and spent by government agencies and major corporations to aid the cause.  Except for some money that can be traced to mansion purchases by the leaders of the organization, can anyone point to improvement in the lives of the poor black citizens they were pledged to help?  How about Chicago, Baltimore and other major cities that are home to ghettos and struggling people of color.  “Follow the Money”.

The above are only a few examples.  There are countless others.  Right now, the U.S. and other governments are funneling Millions and Billions of dollars in an effort to help Ukraine.  I am not opposed to helping the Ukraine in their effort to expel the Russian invaders.  Still while my heart is with the Ukrainian people, others will make a lot of money from producing and shipping the armaments and other help to Ukraine.  The cause is no doubt just, still one needs to “Follow the Money”.

America has its full share of Oligarch’s including the Super Rich, like George Soros, and our “Ruling Class”.  Where else can a person with no real job resume become a Senator for many years, a Vice President and later President, all on a “Public Servants Salary” and be worth Millions and Millions of dollars.  And this story is repeated over and over in our Congress and Senate.

The name of the game is corruption on a massive scale and some get Oligarch Rich in the process.

Russia is not the only country with Oligarch’s.  Under other names virtually all countries have their share and we “common folk” must live in their shadow.

The best way to identify them is to “Follow the Money”!

“For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil.”  I Timothy 6:10

Bob Bandy – April 2022

Chinese President Xi Jinping & Russian President Vladimir Putin

Photo: BBC News

Russian President Vladimir Putin seems to believe that he has formed a mutually beneficial and long term relationship with President Xi Jinping of China.

Business Insider.com had even referred to their relationship as a “Blossoming Bromance” in a July 2019 article.

In recent months, before the Ukraine Invasion by Russia, the Chinese and Russians signed huge wheat, coal and oil deals worth more than 100 Billion Dollars to the Russians.

Would it be just conspiratorial conjecture to suspect that the crafty Chinese President “outfoxed” the Russian President by tacitly approving the invasion, and subsequent near genocide of the Ukrainians.  Letting the never popular Russian President become one of the most despised and never to be trusted leaders in the world and now an outcast among civilized nations?

Did President Xi all along just look at President Putin as a “goose” to be fattened and then harvested to serve the expansion of China’s Empire?

Where else among civilized nations can the killer of civilians, whole families, children, even babies, turn to after an unprovoked, barbarous invasion and slaughter of innocents?

I suspect that as time passes Russia will descend into little more than a client “state” of China. A resource rich “goose” to feed the growing needs of China. 

It is more China’s way to use “client states” to do their “dirty work”.  Places like North Korea, as an example, and now perhaps Russia.  In the process China just smiles and practices “plausible deniability”.

Lest you think I am engaging in just wild speculation, consider the following:  China is a brutal, totalitarian country and its citizens have no human or civil rights.  Having said that, can you name for me one “foreign” country China has sent its armies to invade in the last 200 years.  They have used their armies to ruthlessly quell rebellions in many of China’s provinces but not other nations.  Before World War II Japan invaded China but China never invaded Japan.

What China does is acquire influence and power in foreign lands by buying and investing in the resources of foreign nations.  For example:  China became the largest buyer of milk products from New Zealand.  New Zealand expanded milk production by dairy farmers borrowing money to increase their herds to meet China’s growing demand.  Then China cut off buying the milk products.  Many of New Zealand’s dairy farmers could no longer pay the bank loans and filed for bankruptcy.  Chinese “investors” bought up the bankrupt dairy farms.  Chinese “investors” are buying up land, mineral resources and businesses around the world, including here in the United States.  In this way China expands its Empire and influence without ever firing a shot.  Smart like a fox.

Rulers like Vladimir Putin invade places like Ukraine, destroy its infrastructure, severely damage its resources, kill and alienate its citizenry and then takes charge of a country that despises him and is in ruins. This also creates fear and loathing in other nations who understand they could be the next target of aggression.   This is not smart like a fox. It is the actions of a power mad Barbarian.

Tell me, am I wrong?

Bob Bandy – March 2022

Valdimir Putin

HISTORY is replete with the record of Barbarian killers.  Whether they titled themselves as “Emperor”, “King”, “The Great Khan”, “Attila the Hun”, “President” or some other fancy title, they all have a record of filling the annals of time with the deaths of thousands, tens of thousands and often millions of innocent people just trying to live out their lives and care for their children.

Vladimir Putin is not the first, and, unfortunately will likely not be the last of these soulless killers of humanity.

I find myself laying awake at night, my mind haunted by a televised image of a sorrowful man sitting beside a table on which lays a dead child covered with a bloodstained sheet.  The child was killed because of the ambition of Vladimir Putin.  I grieve with this man and the people of the Ukraine and I am tormented with a desire to find a way to stop this kind of madness.

Like many others, I find myself praying that the barbarism and killing will stop.

Following World War I the League of Nations was formed with the intent of making sure another such war would never happen again. Adolph Hitler put that dream in the dust bin of history and is responsible for the death of seven million Jews and so many others.  But, he is not alone in the reign of Barbarians.  Pol Pot, Joseph Stalin and numerous others have caused the death and misery of millions upon millions of humans.

The United Nations was formed following World War II.  It to, has failed in so many ways.  The most it seems to do is issue “Non-Binding Resolutions” of condemnation.  Like wagging your finger at a two year old for breaking his siblings toys with no other consequences.

It has been reported that the United States is sending Vice President Kamala Harris over to Europe.  Maybe to give them another geography lesson on how the Ukraine is located right next to Russia and remind them that our President might need to go “toe to toe” with Putin again as he said he had done in a statement while on the campaign trail.  I am sure this will be every bit as effective as the “Non-Binding Resolution” from the United Nations has been.  With Vice President Harris in charge what could possibly go wrong?

Back in 2009 when one of our political parties was accusing the other party of “pulling the plug” on Grandma’s Heath Care,  I wrote a satirical piece  suggesting the United States would do well to “Pull the Plug” on the United Nations and ship it off to another country before dropping our membership. The message of the article was that the United Nations was no more than a Toothless Tiger which had become mostly a sounding board where other countries, after taking our Foreign Aid money voted against the U.S. whenever possible.

Different era, different tyrants and dictators.  Same “Toothless”  United Nations.

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PULL THE PLUG

September 2009

Bob Bandy

Drawing by Syl Mateo

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Dictator names and nations have changed but not the ineffectiveness of the United Nations.  What a waste.  Sad.

Bob Bandy – March 2022

The following article reprinted from the Philadelphia Trumpet – March 2022 – by Joel Hilliker is one of the best Synopsis of exactly what America has done, and is doing to itself that I have read anywhere.  It is both eye opening and a frightening piece of carefully documented concise, articulate commentary on the subject.   Bob

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photo: google

THE GREATEST NATION ON EARTH?

FACE REALITY: YOU ARE NO LONGER IN IT.

By Joel Hilliker – January 19, 2022

Do you believe America is the strongest country in the world? It’s time to open your eyes: You are living in the post-American world.

The United States has enjoyed the world’s largest economy for about two lifetimes. But depending on the measurement, China has already surpassed it, or is about to. It is building a sprawling trading network that encompasses more than 140 nations. Recently, it signed an agreement with virtually every nation in Latin America and the Caribbean that helps it replace the United States as the region’s top trade partner. The plan covers almost all aspects of life, from learning Chinese to mining to exploring space, for more than 680 million people in 33 countries—and is plainly aimed at taking over America’s backyard.

Such are the deals China is securing that enable it to flood the world with inexpensive exports and thus amass mountains of cash. This wealth it reinvests in foreign countries, then uses this as leverage to gain control of their resources and infrastructure. China is building a global empire, quickly and relentlessly. Meanwhile America, opposed to tyrannies but war weary, relies on economic weapons, freezing regimes like Russia, North Korea, Pakistan, Zimbabwe, Sudan, Venezuela and Cuba out of diplomacy and trade. China, itself a tyrannical regime, is happy to welcome them as they rush into its arms. It just signed a “comprehensive strategic partnership” with Iran that will flood the Islamist terrorist state with cash, as well as providing military training, weapons development and intelligence sharing that could upend the Middle East’s balance of power.