Stop Pulling the Wagon

 

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

 

Clowns, Criminals and Lunatics.

So hard to choose only one example with so many to choose from.

 

The Only Thing Necessary for the Triumph of Evil is that Good Men do Nothing.

 quote credited to Edmund Burke

I have a growing fear of being enslaved by a corrupt ruling class of demigods driven by ambition and a thirst for power.  

In addition we are seeing negation of  our Constitutional rights through massive government overreach in the supposed cause of protecting the public health.  Governors, Mayors and Federal Agencies are acting with Dictatorial edicts which we are not even supposed to question.

We have also learned of abuse of power and corruption that occurred at the highest levels of the FBI, the Justice Department,  the Central Intelligence Agency and other related government agencies.  The “Deep State” at its worst.

Too many elected politicians, and often un-elected “public servants”,   demonstrate they are little more than Clowns, Criminals or Lunatics.

These folks, who consider themselves superior, have also made themselves immune from prosecution for actions they would put us in jail for if we acted in the same way.    

There are good people in government but I no longer have any faith or trust in most agencies because of the “bad apples”, too often “at the top”of the political food chain, who have politicized everything because of their political parties ambitions.   

I would not even consider answering questions from the FBI without a good lawyer present and duct tape firmly in place over my mouth.

The mainstream “Tabloid” Media cannot be trusted.  They have become no more than Propaganda Lemmings for the political agenda of their chosen party.  You can get more accurate reporting from “The Enquirer” and other “Supermarket Tabloids”.    

Elected officials in places of power that are willing to bankrupt, even destroy our country if it will achieve their desired goal of turning the United States into Cuba, Venezuela or some other Socialist “Paradise”.

Too many politicians who have come to view this Coronavirus Covid-19 not as a Pandemic threatening the lives of all us but as an opportunity to pursue their own political agenda. “Never let a crisis go to waste”.

Sad to say,  I have lost faith in our government.  I wish it were not so.  Lie to me once, shame on you.  Lie to me twice, shame on me.  

Bob Bandy – May 2020 

 

THIS IS GOING TO MAKE SOME READERS ANGRY , BUT….. I HOPE IT WILL ALSO MAKE THEM THINK ABOUT WHAT IS WRITTEN HERE AND REFLECT ON PRIOR “EXPERT CLIMATE PREDICTIONS”.

I am more than a skeptic of self proclaimed “Scientific Experts and Prophets of the Apocalyptic Doomsday of Civilization and Life as we know it”.

I believe that there are both Politicians and Bureaucrats with an “agenda” that have decided the best course to pursue for turning us all into obedient, glassy eyed drones is to get control of every aspect of our daily lives. What we eat, where we live, what we are allowed to hear, what we can drive etc.. Their goal is seizing absolute dictatorial control of all, and especially, “fossil fuel” energy resources and access to them.

I can visualize them carrying bags of taxpayer cash to “New Age, Progressive, Socialist Colleges and Universities”. They seek out like minded science students and professors willing to prostitute there “research” with the goal of “proving” their predetermined “Theorems” regarding “Man Made Global Climate Change”.

This is how the game is played. If your “Research” demonstrates what “we” Bureaucrats and “Progressive” Politicians want it to show, the sacks of taxpayer cash will continue to flow – if it does not then the sacks of cash will discontinue flowing.

Pretty cynical, aren’t I? I have gotten this way observing and remembering the last 50+ years of “Predictions” from “Experts”.

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.

Remember that 70% of our planet is covered by water and of the remaining 30% mankind only really occupies a tiny percentage of the land area.

Lets look at the record of some of the “Prophets of Doom”.

The Population Bomb – a best selling book written by Stanford University Professor Paul Ehrlich (and his wife Anne, who was not credited) in 1968 predicted worldwide famine in the 1970’s and 1980’s due to overpopulation, as well as other Societal upheavals unless immediate steps were taken to limit population growth. At the time there were some 3.8 Billion people on earth and today the number is more like 7.6 Billion. Statistically, hunger is no greater problem now than it was then. Paul Ehrlich was wrong but created near panic in sections of the population due to his predictions.

In the 1970’s “Scientists” predicted an imminent Global Cooling trend leading to a new “Ice Age”. One view of this prophecy can be seen in the movie “The Day After Tomorrow” (2004). This prediction was given great credibility by Newsweek, Time, Life, The National Geographic and the news media. Instead, what actually happened was a slight warming trend. The so-called “Scientists” and “Experts” were wrong again.

Perhaps one of the biggest “hucksters” of all is former Vice President Al Gore who has made a fortune with his book, “An Inconvenient Truth” – 2006, and his following exploitation and “marketing” of his conjecture, all of which was supposed to happen long before now. Let’s look at some of his “predictions” and “science” while on his way to the bank:

1. Rising Sea Levels – inaccurate and misleading. Both Al Gore and former President Barack Obama have since bought Beachfront Mansions

2. New Ice Age in Europe – they’ve been spared; it never happened.

3. South Sahara Drying Up – completely untrue.

4. Massive Flooding in China and India – again, didn’t happen.

5. Polar Bear Extinction – The Polar Bear population is increasing.

6. The Earth would be in a “True Planetary Emergency Within a Decade Unless Drastic Action was Taken to Reduce Greenhouse Gasses” – never happened.

Al Gore made many other predictions. Wrong, wrong, wrong. Still he has created a huge following of “true believers” and a near panic in some quarters.

Now we have the newest prediction as shared with us by Presidential Candidate Bernie Sanders, Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortes and others that Civilization is Doomed within 12 years unless we immediately adopt their “Green New Deal” which will supposedly cost between 50 and 100 Trillion Dollars over the next ten years.

They have succeeded in causing panic among a large portion of the population with their “Progressive” agenda and even caused many prospective mothers to declare they will no longer have children because they to not want to bring babies into a world that is doomed to extinction in a short period of time. This is junk science and prophecy gone mad. Such fear mongering is beneath contempt. Shame on them.

Patrick Moore – Former President of Greenpeace has stated it well: “There is no definitive scientific proof through real-world observation that carbon dioxide is responsible for any of the slight warming of global climate which has occurred during the past 300 years.” He rejects the “science is settled” and “the debate is over” statements so popular in worldwide media.

I firmly expect to get a good deal of angry responses to this but before you fire off that angry reply or cancel your subscription, can you tell me the last doomsday climate prediction by the “experts” that came true? I will stand by what I have written.

Bob Bandy – November 2019

 

THE MUELLER REPORT 2.0

Starring

ROBERT DE NIRO 

I saw a video presentation on television featuring Robert De Niro with a cast of other mostly “has been” or “who cares” little known Hollywood personalities explaining that if you carefully read the entire Mueller Report there was plenty of evidence of Trump collusion with the Russian’s.  You just have to read it very slowly and “read between the lines”.  

Never mind that Robert Mueller and his band of overpaid “investigators” clearly said in his much anticipated report that there was no collusion.

The whole scene gave me mental images of Robert De Niro sitting in his robe and slippers at the Shady Acres Home for Washed Up Actors watching endless grainy re-runs of Raging Bull while the staff is trying to get him to take his medicine to stop his profane tirades.

I am having visions of a Hollywood Production with a re-write of the Mueller Report and this time it comes out the way Hollywood wanted it to and Donald Trump is “frog marched” off to prison for imagined crimes. 

Robert DeNiro can play the part of Robert Mueller and Alec Baldwin can re-play his Saturday Night Live portrayal of Donald Trump.  

There is no shortage of other Hollywood “wannabes” to fill in the supporting roles.

Writing the script should be easy.  Just avoid words with more than two syllables and let Robert De Niro and Alec Baldwin run wild with their imaginations.  If you subtract the “F” word from their musings, neither of them have much of a vocabulary to work with.

I can’t be the only person in the country that is sick of the media trotting out “Shopworn Hollywood Celebrities” who want to tell me what my political views ought to be and how I should live my life.  Frankly, I don’t care what they think and their “I’m smarter than you” attitude just turns me off.  

I have some news for them.  Just because you played a doctor in a movie or on a televisions series does not mean I want you as my doctor.

Bob Bandy 

June 2019

 

 

Unemployment benefits are creating jobs faster than practically any other program.

Nancy Pelosi

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It has been pointed out to me that most often the targets of my written angst is government and politicians.  I would be remiss if I did not point out that not all government or politicians are inherently evil or motivated by nefarious intent.  

Most government programs were not originally created with the intent to do damage to society and many young politicians go to Washington D.C. or Sacramento or other State Capitols with noble aspirations.  

The problem is that the above must work in an environment that is totally polluted  and infested with the power of money, the need to “go along to get along”, moral corruption, greed and the addictive qualities of raw political ambition.  While there will always remain a small fraction of male and female Don Quixote’s attempting to “Tilt at windmills with broken lances”, the majority succumb to the temptations of power and money achieved by prostituting their values to secure re-election and obtain their political immortality. 

The above being said I can sort of metaphorically shrug my shoulders and decide to just live my life while, to the best of my ability, keeping government at arms length, ignoring the “Idiocratic” burden on my life, pay the legal minimum in taxes and laugh with my friends at governments foibles and the politicians desire to leave their names in the footnotes of history.

Having stipulated that, what I cannot ignore and leave unanswered is the constant assault on my intelligence by people in power lying to me and then compounding the insult when they know that I know that they are lying but continue to lie to me anyway.  

I will admit that in some cases the lies are probably unintentional and just the fruit of the infertile soil of the mind of a politician who was not gifted intellectually.  Please notice the way I deftly avoided the word “moron”.

However, it often infuriates me when politicians make statements that are blatantly false and any eight year old can figure out they are either lying or stupid or both.

An example:  Sometime back a politician said:  “Welfare recipients pay taxes too.”  When asked what taxes they pay the politician said: “You know, sales taxes, gasoline taxes, utility taxes and even property taxes which are included in the rent they pay.” 

This is the kind of political statement that makes me want to go someplace private and just scream or find one of those “Cry Closets” that are gaining popularity in some corporate headquarters and on college campus’s.  Folks, you can only really pay taxes if you first EARN  the money.

You can’t truly pay taxes if your only source of income is money confiscated from those who work for it. The taxes you pay on the purchases you make using the money gifted to you by the workers who earned it are just a transfer of additional taxes from those who earned it and had it confiscated in the name of forced “charity”.

So please, Mr. or Ms. Congressperson or Senator, stop insulting our intelligence with what I can only refer to as idiotic statements.

Enough already!

Bob Bandy