photo – Los Angeles Times

FOR POLITICALLY “CONNECTED” CONTRACTORS – CALIFORNIA’S HOMELESS CRISIS IS A WINDFALL BONANAZA

Messenger News – 9-15-23

Los Angeles officials prioritized speed over cost while building a new city-sanction tent village for homeless people in East Hollywood, reportedly shelling out $44,000 for each individual tent — about the price of a new Tesla Model Y.

All told, it cost about $4 million to put up fencing, bathrooms, and staffing facilities for the village. Catering services and 24-7 staffing cost an additional $3 million per year, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Despite the high costs, the site is only temporary. It’s located on a parking lot that will eventually be turned into public housing. But because it will take years for construction to commence on that project, the city decided to fill the space with tents in the meantime.

Urban Alchemy, a San Francisco-based nonprofit, maintains the camp village, but not without controversy.

When the nonprofit launched with a small grant in 2018, it mostly hired former prisoners because they had the “ability to read people in unpredictable situations.” Lawsuits have since accused some of these employees of abusive behavior.

The nonprofit brought in $51 million in 2021 after expanding into Austin and Portland

Urban Alchemy says it’s offering a practical solution to build quick and affordable housing for California’s 172,000 homeless people, while also offering more intangible perks, like safety and autonomy.

The tents in the East Hollywood location are of higher quality than anything someone could buy from a typical camping store. They have raised wooden platforms, full beds, and storage lockers. The site has reportedly been close to capacity since opening in February 2022.

The nonprofit Coalition for Responsible Community Development, meanwhile, set up an office across the street to attract people who might be interested in reentering the workforce.

The nonprofit already oversees several camp villages across the state with varying styles. The residences at a tent city in Culver City are made from sturdy white canvas, while those in South Los Angeles are more humble, resembling store-bought camping gear.

Only about 2% of the guests have since moved on to permanent housing, a statistic Urban Alchemy blames on a lack of affordable housing in the city, according to the Times.

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It is hard for me to add to the above.  These multi-million dollar homeless “solutions” are really only an endless “Cash Cow” for our politicians and their “well connected” supporters.

Do you want to speculate what these pristine white tents will look like after a couple of months of occupancy by drug and alcohol addicted vagrants? It has been my experience in life that, not in every case, but in general, people show the same care and discipline in caring for the place where the lay their heads at night as they do in managing their own day to day lives.  What do the areas these homeless vagrants have occupied so far look like?

Reminds me of the spoof I wrote some months back about Mayor Conrad Blowhard which follows:

A SPIN CITY NARRATIVE

Conrad Blowhard is the Mayor of Spin City, California.  His city has become infested with homeless encampments and vagrants numbering in the thousands.  To some this would seem a problem but Mayor Blowhard sees an opportunity.  

He will convince his City Council that in an effort to help the homeless and decrease their numbers on the cities streets and alleys he would like them to pass a funding bill in the amount of 80 Million Dollars with the proceeds dedicated to renovating a dilapidated, nearly abandoned hotel down on “Skid Row” and convert it’s 80 rooms into housing for the homeless.  The City Council passes the funding request and pats themselves on the back for “caring” about the homeless.

Closed bidding contracts are let out to major contractors who are supporters and donors to the Mayor for the work to be done.  A ceremonial event is held at the Foggy Bottom Hotel with the Mayor swinging a sledge hammer through a faded door of a shoddy 200 square foot room in front of live television cameras.  Everybody applauds.

Work begins.  Some effort is made to rid the building of most of the rats, termites and other vermin which infest it.  The leaking roof is patched.  Contractors workers “freshen up” the rooms with new paint, carpet, updated (cheap) fixtures from China and new window coverings.  Cost per room renovated is $400,000.  In addition, the hotel gets a new name:  “NEW BEGINNING’S” and a single fresh coat of exterior paint. 

Grand Opening Day arrives.  Brass Bands and Ribbon Cutting.  Mayor Blowhard and City Council members make grandiose speeches about how they have solved the cities Homeless Crisis.  A few ragged homeless people are seen entering the building to take occupancy of their renovated 200 square foot “apartments”.

The Mayor’s handpicked contractors, sub-contractors and suppliers go out and spend their profits on new boats, sports cars and luxury vacations but not forgetting to “tithe” back some of those profits to the Majors campaign re-election coffers.

The 80 “new” tenants of the once dilapidated hotel settle in and begin the task of de-renovation on the hotel to turn it back into a Skid Row Manor.  

The whole process is “spun” as a huge success and praise and credit is layered on all who participated in the project.  What could possibly go wrong.  Housing was provided, at least temporarily, for 80 homeless people for only 80 Million Dollars.  “WINK – WINK”.

P.S. I would like to give inspirational credit to Michael J. Fox and his long ago television series “Spin City”.

Bob Bandy – September 2023

photo – Epoch Times

EVERY DAY – I find myself thinking that our government cannot become any more overbearing and intrusive in our lives than it was last night when I went to bed.  EVERY DAY – they find some new way to make my life more fearful of a ruthless totalitarian regime bent on making my day to day existence less content with endless mechanisms to pick my pockets of the few remaining, hard earned pennies left to me after a plethora of taxes on anything and everything.  This from a Federal Bureaucracy that cannot stop spending money and have our nation on the verge of 33 Trillion Dollars in debt. A debt which they cannot even pay the interest on.

Now they are going to unleash on us “Artificial Intelligence” to “sniff out” every possible corner of our lives for the very last bit they can glean to steal from us and waste.  This in preparation for the implementation of unwanted (by the public) a forced “Digital Currency” which they can monitor and control your spending with.  To the last “Nickel”.  The government will be able to control what you can, and cannot buy with a few clicks on some bureaucrats keyboard.  “Hey Bob”, you’ve been eating too much ground beef!  We will fix that – for your own good – of course!”

Hello George Orwell’s “Big Brother”.  Goodbye peace and privacy.  

And just last evening I hear on the news that our government is heading to a “Universal” “Global” Digital Identity Card which will contain every bit of information about you.  This card will be able to be read by government agencies and bureaucrats around the world.

WE CAN ALL BECOME DIGITS IN THE WORLDWIDE PROLETARIAT DATABASE!  

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IRS Launches ‘Sweeping, Historic’ Tax Enforcement Crackdown Using AI

Tom Ozimek – The Epoch Times – September 9, 2023

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has announced that, thanks to a new funding boost, it’s launching a “sweeping, historic” tax enforcement initiative using artificial intelligence and other cutting-edge technologies to catch tax evaders more effectively.

“The changes will be driven with the help of improved technology as well as Artificial Intelligence that will help IRS compliance teams better detect tax cheating, identify emerging compliance threats and improve case selection tools to avoid burdening taxpayers with needless ‘no-change’ audits,” Mr. Werfel said.

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Don’t you feel better knowing that your government is constantly looking for ways to help you?  Happy dreams!

And to think, just a few years ago I coined the phrase “Clowns, Criminals and Lunatics” to describe those we have elected to lead us.  I am now thinking that label is too kind.  Makes me want to sleep with one eye open….  as if that would help!

Bob Bandy – September 2023

From: California Globe – August 28, 2023

The following is excerpted from an article titled “Californians Live In Fear Of Government” – by Katy Grimes in the California Globe.  It is one of the very best articles that I have read anywhere describing what is happening not only in California, but throughout “Blue States” in America.  I am only sharing a portion of it but the entire article is available on line at: CaliforniaGlobe.com

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Californians Live in Fear of Government

It’s not just us – most Blue State citizens are subjected to government terrorism

by Katy Grimes – California Globe – August 23, 2023

Across the state, Californians are witnessing the total breakdown of society – primarily, and noticeably confined to larger cities. Scenes of drug addled homeless vagrants living in tents along city sidewalks play out daily. Public sex acts and open drug deals have become ho hum – “avert your eyes, kids.” Smash and grab thefts are becoming routine news reports. Daily news reports of “sex trafficking” fail to elicit anger – “that’s just awful,” people say. And then they scroll to the next article.

The one area of concern many people quietly acknowledge in whispered tones is the new-normal of living in fear of the government.

From the White House to the State House, and to City Hall, people in California and other blue states are fearful because of politicians and leftists who won’t let them defend themselves, their children, their homes, businesses, churches and schools.

Californians are afraid of the government – afraid they will get locked up for life for defending their family, home or business. They are afraid of resisting a drug crazed vagrant harassing them in the grocery store parking lot… or chasing them away from their business or storefront… or pushing back if their children are with them when a zombie-like homeless dude yelling at unseen demons crosses their path.

Last week I was on a 4-mile hike around my neighborhood and regional park, sans big dog as he is recovering from a sprain. I’ve altered my route into the neighborhood because I encounter so many crazed, drug-frenzied, violent homeless people, and because several have attacked women who run alone in the park. So I am hoofing it on the main boulevard in the neighborhood. A school is to my left, traffic to my right. And coming straight at me is a large, shirtless, homeless male transient carrying a tree branch across his shoulders. He had meth-mouth. He was arguing loudly with unseen demons, flailing his arms and the branch. I have nowhere to go but to turn tail and run if he charges me – the traffic is too steady to run into the street and the school’s tall fence prevented me from seeking relief in the nearby field. He gets closer and I veer toward the street hoping as I go around him that he doesn’t attack.

And that is a daily occurrence in Sacramento, CA. I would have preferred to have been armed for my own safety. But in the City of Sacramento, such a confrontation would not end well – for me. Mr. Meth Mouth would have been given a courtesy ride to the nearest shelter for a free meal and some clean clothes.

Californians are afraid for their own health and welfare, but more afraid of the unequal consequences they will undoubtedly suffer if they dare to protect themselves against the homeless meth-heads, crackheads, and heroin addicts, to the roving bands of thieves and opportunistic criminals, as well as the violent offenders encountered daily now that Gov. Gavin Newsom has let tens of thousands out of prison onto the streets.

The people who do not pay taxes, and do not follow societal rules are being allowed to roam free, unfettered by police in far too many cases, while those who do pay taxes and follow the rules are held to account should they encounter violence and defend themselves.

People in my neighborhood won’t even sleep with downstairs windows open for fear of a brazen nighttime break-in.

The broken windows theory is being lived out in California – when police stop policing, crime gets worse. And then criminals get emboldened, as we are witnessing in Los Angeles where thieves are getting fearless and smash and grab crimes and retail theft is only getting bigger.

Politicians and government officials want responsible tax paying citizens to follow the rules, so we take our shoes off and stand in line for TSA, obey traffic rules, and separate our recyclables, but we see government failing to police an entire segment of society for retail theft, sex crimes, drug crimes, vagrancy, illegal public camping, loitering, and yes, assault…….

……….This is why good, decent people are afraid of the government unjustly using laws and the courts against them instead of criminals.

In third world countries, guerillas go where the government can’t control them – the drugged up homeless and criminals in the U.S. are the same. Homeless and criminals go where their behavior is tolerated – where they are in fact, rewarded and allowed to live on the streets.

While far too many politicians appear to have devolved into nothing more than a cash distribution system for favorite nonprofits, NGOs and special interest groups, the people – voters – cast a vote expecting the elected politicians to be responsive to the needs of the community.

This is a fool’s paradise. We see politicians in every level of government responding as a wholly owned subsidiary of their funders and special interest groups. This is blatantly evident when a citizen makes the trek to the State Capitol to testify or just watch committee hearings. Despite hundreds of people testifying their opposition or support for a bill, Democrats will pass it or kill it – for their special interest investors. Often when the public is testifying, lawmakers play with their cell phones or get up and leave the hearing until it is time to cast a vote.

We’ve seen this play out on a horrific level in Washington D.C. California’s own Nancy Pelosi and Adam Schiff and the dishonorable double-dealing Democrat-dominated House of Representatives “J6Committee,” would have marched in lockstep with Joseph Stalin. The Soviet-style trials in DC, the judges who pretended to run legitimate courtrooms, who criminalize political speech and the First Amendment protected petitioning of the federal government, would have marched in lockstep with Joseph Stalin.

That they have ordered and kept untold numbers of peaceful protestors, who believed that the 2020 Presidential election was stolen, in solitary confinement is a disgrace of the U.S. Judicial system, and on the U.S. Constitution. It is also a stain on Congress that these people are still imprisoned, rather than the corrupt judges and prosecutors who violated the Constitution to put them there. American citizens are rotting in the DC Gulag while members of Congress fly home each weekend to their families.

This is what Californians and blue state citizens fear. It could make for a record turnout in the 2024 Election. If the parents fighting back against corrupted public school boards is any indication, channeling that fear into big election changes, while vowing that this will never again happen is about the only move that could right this country.

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I can only agree with and echo what Katy Grimes has written in her article.  What is happening in “Blue State America” is no less than criminal negligence on the part of government whose primary responsibility is the safety and welfare of LAW ABIDING CITIZENS and not coddling law breakers.

Bob Bandy – August 2023

Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer

photo – Real Clear Politics

Over the last 15+ years I have published some 200+ articles.  Because of space and time requirements I do not allow comments on all articles and can share but a tiny fraction of those I do receive.  Some of these articles have vanished into the dustbin of times past.  In full disclosure I recognize many were not that memorable.  I have a few thousand regular tabulated subscribers (a list I do not share or sell and keep confidential).  In addition there is an unknown (to me) number of thousands, perhaps tens of thousands or more, of readers who follow me on the “Free Subscriber RSS Feed” offered on the main page.  I am not “Tech Smart” but apparently every time I publish they get notification of a newly published article.  I have no true idea of how large a number this is but get enough feedback in comments to know it is a sizeable number.  In addition I get feedback that this or that article was featured on a Yahoo or other “Bulletin Board” or website on the “Web”.

I continue to get some feedback and comments on some articles for months and years after they were written.  Some of this from readers who have searched the site and become fans.  Many times comments shared indicate an article that is still being featured somewhere (out in web-land) and shared within families, groups or even larger organizations.  

Over the fifteen or so years lifetime of this site I have had perhaps a couple of dozen or more articles that get a lot of comments even years after my writing them.  Keeping in mind that some small percentage of readers take the time to comment, either positive or negative, it is of interest that there is an active reader base for them. 

The following article which I wrote more than three years ago during the Covid-19 Pandemic is perhaps the most commented on article I have written.  I still get numerous comments on an almost daily basis.  Last week, in about a 24 hour period,  I received 135 comments on this one article written some 39 months ago.  What spurred the article was my observation that our Government used the opportunity presented by the Pandemic to assume ever greater and greater power over our daily lives.  “Never let a crisis go to waste”  – Day by day “our” Government is becoming more and more of a political machine and less and less a representative and servant of the people.  Sad.

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May 2020 

GO TO YOUR ROOM AND STAY THERE

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.  

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The America many of us grew up in is dying and becoming a “Banana Republic”.  To our collective shame, our children and grandchildren will likely inherit an America that more closely resembles Cuba or Venezuela or some other Totalitarian “Hell Hole”.

Bob Bandy – August 2023

No government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size. Government programs, once launched, never disappear. Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we’ll ever see on this earth!

Ronald Reagan

Back in February of 2015 I wrote a satirical article titled “Paperwork Reduction” with the goal of showing how a good idea can lead to a sprawling government “make work” department that starts out with a noble goal and metastasizes  into a “forever” deep state bureaucracy.  The people working in this bureaucracy are not evil.  Mostly good folks like you and I doing a job to make a living and hoping the job will never go away and they can retire to a comfortable old age. 

What gets lost in the process is what is actually being accomplished and what is the end result of their efforts in the way of practical “stuff” that benefits the lives of we citizens?  Our governments, federal, state and even local have many such departments, agencies, bureaus etc. which started out with a perceived need to solve a problem and have grown into behemoth monsters that consume huge amounts of tax dollars to operate and produce little or no tangible results from their original goal and charter.

Just to mention a couple:  1. The 158 Billion Dollar a year Department of Energy  which was formed in 1977 and was originally tasked with making the United States Energy independent.  After 40+ years of effort, we achieved energy independence for only a short period of time when the department got out of the way of private enterprise.  2. The 88 Billion Dollar a year Federal Department of Education was formed in 1980.  Why do they exist?  Education should be a state function.  There are many others.  Many of these departments and agencies have budgets in the Tens of Billions of Dollars and employees in the Tens of Thousands or more.  Ever wonder why our nations “Debt Clock” is at 32 Trillion Dollars and growing?

Do any of the above noted government departments put groceries on our table, gas in our tanks or pay our rent?  You can say yes if you get your paycheck from them.  Otherwise the tax money they take from you to run these agencies only makes the cost for these necessities of life more expensive for you.  Remember, these agencies and departments don’t make anything you wear, eat or drive around in.  They don’t have to make a profit or justify why they are there.

So, just for fun, and keeping the above in mind, I again share the following “oldie but goodie” asking only if you can justify, beyond keeping some folks employed, what this imaginary department actually accomplishes “at the end of the day” as far as the stated goal for its existence?

PAPERWORK REDUCTION

Just imagine: 

Last night I dreamed that I was working in the California State Department of Paperwork Reduction.

A wonderful place to work that was a model of diversity.  We had one of every race, creed, gender, nationality, religion, mental and physical handicap and everything else you can imagine.  Even different political parties were represented though it was rumored that the token Republican had not been seen in a while and was possibly in a 24 step recovery program.  This is California after all.

We also had employees whose only job was to act as interpreters for employees engaged in conversations in different languages.

The mission of our department is to reduce the excessive use of paper within California to help in the war against Global Climate Change.  Three Hundred and Fifty, dedicated to the cause employees occupying four floors of a state office building in Sacramento.  Working diligently three, sometimes four days a week depending on holidays, vacations, jury duty, sick leave, comp time etc.

To fulfill our mission our job is to produce a 172 page workbook every year that is to be mailed to every place of business in California.  The title of this workbook is: YOUR PLACE IN PAPERWORK REDUCTION.

Within the information packed workbook will be a snap out set of forms (12 pages) which is to be copied and distributed to every employee at each place of business. Each employee is to fill out the 12 page questionnaire, sign it, copy it and then mail back the original to the California State Department of Paperwork Reduction for tabulation and completion of a 1500 page report which is to be distributed annually to all other State Departments.

In addition a copy of the 1500 page tabulated “Final Report” will be sent to each of the businesses within California who participated.

What could possibly go wrong?  This is government at work.

Just for fun,

Bob Bandy – August 2023

Union Square San Francisco – circa 1950’s – 60s’

San Francisco today – post Gavin Newsom

I can remember as a young man how I loved to visit San Francisco which was kind of the “Jewel of California”.  Union Square, Cable Cars, China Town, Pier 39, Coit Tower, Flowers and Greenery.  The City was clean, filled with life and a joy to visit.  In those days you dressed up to visit Union Square.  Sport Coat or Suit.  Ties were required in most Restaurants and if you didn’t have one they would loan you one. Laws were enforced and you felt safe on the bustling streets.

Today San Francisco is in the end stages of becoming a “Hell Hole” of drugs, crime, filth, debris, tents and broken lives.  It was reported that the remaining businesses in the downtown area had to go back to providing elevator operators because the cities homeless were using the elevators as public toilets.  Businesses  are struggling and many shutting down and leaving because of unpunished criminal activity including theft and rampant vandalism.  California passed a law that theft of property of less than $950 in value is only a misdemeanor and punishable by a citation only.  Police report that they sometimes do not write the citations as there is no follow-up or consequences for the thieves who just laugh and tear them up.  

THANK YOU FORMER SAN FRANCISCO MAYOR GAVIN NEWSOM – YOU AND YOUR LIBERAL CO-CONSPIRATORS HAVE VIRTURALLY DESTROYED ONE OF AMERICA’S MOST BEAUTIFUL CITIES

Leaving San Francisco, Gavin the Destroyer moved on to the Governor’s Mansion and is doing to the rest of California what he did to San Francisco.  Many, most of California’s major cities, including the State Capitol in Sacramento are turning into homeless camps plagued with crime, filth, drugs and broken lives.  In Sacramento, the area around the County Courthouse became an area of public drinking, drugs, sex acts, camp fires, filth and criminal acts to the point the presiding judge pleaded with the mayor that something “has to be done”.  The mayor responded by attempting to move as many of the street people as possible into tents in a nearby public park which they will convert into a dump in a very few days or weeks.

Californian’s, those with the resources to do so, are fleeing the state in record numbers.  Housing is literally unaffordable for a vast number of people.  In the Sacramento area an average apartment can rent for $2,500 a month.  With first and last months rent and a security deposit of $2,500 it can cost a total of $7,500 to get into an apartment – plus utility deposits. 

Typical Los Angeles Homeless Camp

THANK YOU GOVERNOR NEWSOM – YOU HAVE DONE FOR CALIFORNIA WHAT YOU DID TO SAN FRANCISCO

You have turned the former GOLDEN STATE into a sanctuary for criminals, drug users and their Cartel suppliers, illegal and “undocumented” migrants from around the world, border to border homeless encampments filled with filth and trash, George Soros paid for “do nothing” law enforcement and small children can be mutilated in the “cause” of Gender change on the recommendation of a teacher with an agenda and without parental consent or knowledge.  In California the drivers license application has a place where you can check you “Decline to State” your citizenship status.  

AND NOW GAVIN THE DESTROYER WANTS TO DO FOR AMERICA WHAT HE DID TO SAN FRANCISO AND THE REST OF CALIFORNIA

ARE YOU READY AMERICA – IT IS RUMORED THE DEMOCRATS PLAN TO “SLIP” GAVIN NEWSOME INTO THE FADING BIDEN CAMPAIGN FOR PRESIDENT WHICH SEEMS TO BE NEARING THE LAP ROBE AND WARM COCOA PHASE

Bob Bandy  –  July 2023