Stop Pulling the Wagon

CONGRESSWOMAN ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ

I have secret inside information from unnamed sources that Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is in reality a covert Republican operative  masquerading as a Progressive Democrat. 

I trust this information because it is from the same unnamed sources so often quoted by the New York Times, Washington Post, MSNBC and CNN in their coverage of the Trump Collusion Investigation.  How can you be more credible than that?

We should all do whatever we can to keep from “blowing” the Congresswoman’s cover story about being a Progressive Democrat.

As part of this long range, carefully crafted operation, Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez is reported to have graduated “with Honors” and a degree in Economics from Boston College.  A very clever cover with no doubt a realistic looking diploma hanging on a wall somewhere.

Lets look at the facts.  

• It is reported that Boston College charges students $70,000 a year tuition.  Even without a degree in Economics I believe that totals $280,000 for a four year degree. 
• No one with a degree in Economics who graduated “with Honors” from Boston College could really be as mathematically ignorant as she appears (pretends?) to be.  Could they? 
• Common sense tells us that a  real economics student would not expend that amount of effort and money  to graduate from a “respected” college and lack the ability to do simple math.  

Logically, the college degree ruse is just a cleverly orchestrated cover to provide her with the “credentials” to be a voice for the “Green New Deal” hoax.

To believe otherwise we would have to conclude that  Boston College is just a “Degree Mill” in business only to make money for overpaid Professors whose real mission is indoctrinating students with a “Progressive Liberal” agenda.

I have to surmise that the Congresswoman’s wide eyed,  “pretend to be a moron” act is just part of her clever cover story and that as a covert Republican operative she is working on a plan to  destroy not only the Progressive wing of the Democratic Party but, in the process she plans to cause Nancy Pelosi to lose her tenuous grasp on whatever remaining shreds of reality she clings to.

Let’s all support Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez!  We want to help her get as much support from her colleagues as she can.  

But…… Don’t tell anyone.  Let’s just keep this little secret to ourselves.

Bob Bandy

Rule #6   …….Control what children are taught in school.  Emphasize Progressive ideals only. (Saul Alinsky – Rules 4 Radicals).

Captain Jean-Luc Picard/Locutus Borg

Being old enough to remember  “Star Trek – The Next Generation” series I am finding similarities between the “New” Progressive Political movement and the Borg ‘Collective’.

The Borg were major players in some Twenty One episodes total but I remember them first in Season Two – Episode 16 – titled: “Q Who?”  

The Borg are “beings” with both Organic and Cybernetic Implants that function as a “One Mind Collective” of Drones who are incapable of independent thought and function more as a single purpose “Hive” controlled by one central entity.

Hmmmm.  

Just the other day I heard Speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi inform Democratic members of the “House” that they were to vote as a “Team” and voting with the Republicans was not allowed.  

Later, Democratic Freshman Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez told fellow Democrats that any of them caught voting with the Republicans would go on a “List” that would be used against them at the next election.

I don’t know about you but this sounds a lot like the Borg to me.  No independent thought allowed. No independent action allowed.  All are just “Drones” subject to the direction of “Central Command”.  

It gives me the feeling that the Progressive Left plans to convert all of us into “Borg Drones” trained to obey while they Create a Socialist State.  Maybe like the one in Venezuela or Cuba?

Below is a checklist for creating a Socialist State.  Please tell me a single one of these items that the “Progressive Left” does not have on its agenda and now demands total compliance to from the Democrats  in congress. 

I can even add a couple or more items to this list.  Just one example: the”Green New Deal”. 

Copied from “The Federalist” – January 15, 2018

Are you ready for your “Cybernetic Implants”

Bob Bandy

Star Trek the Next Generation is available on NetFlix and from other sources.

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 “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 Turn Texas Green Race”.

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 Environment Friendly 10,070 square foot mansion/estate/home  sharing quarters with Congresswoman 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 debate between three 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 Environment 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

NINE BILLION DOLLARS LATER

Back then:  January 6, 2015.  On a wonderful day in downtown Fresno,  California Governor Jerry Brown, accompanied by federal officials and city leaders, held a ceremonial groundbreaking at the site of the planned high-speed rail station.  Planned construction of the first phase was scheduled to be completed in 3-5 years.

Now:  February 12, 2019.   California’s new Governor, Gavin Newsom,  announces plan to abandon California’s  goal of a high speed rail system between San Francisco and Los Angeles and announces a new plan  to completing a rail line between Merced to Bakersfield for a total of 165 miles.  Alternatively some published reports indicate completion only between Fresno and Bakersfield, a total of 110 miles. All subject to changes yet to be announced.

The above photo is a projection of the revised rail plan in operation down California’s Central Valley.  A happy Fresno family is zipping down the tracks for a fun  daylong tour of Bakersfield and the Oilfields followed by dinner at the local Truck Stop.  Finish the day with a return California High Speed Rail trip to Fresno.  Bakersfield and Fresno are both fine cities but it is hard to imagine them being the anchors for a profitable, high volume, high speed rail travel enterprise.  

This is California.  What could possibly go wrong?  

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As a kind of Postscript:  The following is from an article I wrote in Sept. 2013 about California’s High Speed Rail plans 

Against voter objections, California is now on a path to install the first phase of a High Speed Rail System using some Nine Billion borrowed  State and Federal Dollars.  The first phase has begun and should be completed in 3-5 years depending on lawsuits,  strikes, environmental reports, delays, cost overruns etc.

Upon completion of this first phase,  rail passengers will be able to drive some 15 miles west of their small central valley town to a rail station built on government seized, former farmland in the middle of nowhere.   Here they can park their car and board the High Speed Train traveling at speeds up to 160 miles per hour for some 28 miles to another rail station located on government seized, former farmland in the middle of nowhere.   On arrival at destination station,  they can disembark the train and get into another vehicle (friend, family member, bus or cab) and drive some 15 miles east to another small central valley town which, by the the way, is some 28 highway miles from their original point of departure in the small central valley town.  Disneyland, eat your heart out.

For those who think this is just another waste of money,  Government boondoggle and/or labor union payoff, California residents are promised that at some vague distant future date their grand children, or great-grand children will be able to travel from Los Angeles to San Francisco in about 2 hours  on a completed High Speed Rail system that will only cost about 40 Gazillion Dollars to complete and take some 15 -40 years to build.  Ticket prices on the High Speed Rail System are hoped to be only a few hundred dollars each way.

Did I mention that you can fly between San Francisco and Los Angeles in about an hour for around $100 on flights that leave every 30 minutes or so?

Completion of the whole High Speed Rail project is forecast by our governor for 2028 or so (fingers firmly crossed).

Of course, there may be a few delays.

Government negotiators are currently in meetings with Oprah Winfrey about running the future High Speed Train through the front yard of her Malibu mansion which just happens to lie on the only logical coastal route around the mountains between Bakersfield and the Los Angeles basin.

If those talks fail they will begin talks with the Sierra Club about  a sort of  Ski-Lift  operation (still in engineering design stages) to move the train over the mountains or, possibly, a forty mile tunnel through the mountains along the San Andreas Earthquake  fault line.

You can’t make this stuff up.

Bob Bandy

Original Story by Paul Galdone

Bob’s version of the Little Red Hen

ONCE UPON A TIME there was a little red hen who wanted to start her own oil company.

Who will help me find the oil she asked? Not us said the Federal Government!  Not us said the State Government!  Okay, said the Little Red Hen.  I will find it myself, and she did.

Who will help me get the oil out of the ground she asked? Not us said the Federal Government!  Not us said the State Government!  Okay, said the Little Red Hen.  So she did it herself.

Who will help me get the oil to the refinery? Not us said the Federal Government!  Not us said the State Government!  Okay, said the Little Red Hen.  I will transport it myself, and she did.

Who will help me refine the oil into gasoline she asked? Not us said the Federal Government!  Not us said the State Government!  Okay, said the Little Red Hen, I’ll do it by myself.  And she did.

Who will help me transport the gasoline to the Service Station she asked?  Not us said the Federal Government!  Not us said the State Government!  Okay, said the Little Red Hen, I will haul it there myself.

Finally the Little Red Hen’s gasoline is sold.

Who would like to share in the profits she asked?  

We would said the Federal Government and we demand 18.4 cents per gallon.

We would said California State Government and we demand 58.3 cents per gallon.

Looking in her pocketbook the Little Red Hen found that she only made a net profit of 7 cents per gallon.  (source Forbes & Factcheck)

Later, Federal Government and California State Government notified the Little Red Hen that since she was so greedy they were going to tax her income for the excessive profits she had made.  

7 cents a gallon profit.  Those darn oil companies sure are greedy aren’t they!

You can’t make this stuff up.

Bob Bandy

PROLOGUE

My wife and I love and are very proud of our daughter.  She always did well in grade school.  She was in the top of her classes in both High School and College.  Worked and paid her own way through College and graduated with a degree in her career field and money in the bank.

Following college she got a job in her chosen field and is well established on her career path.  She likes what she does, who she works with and the city she works in.  She is liked and respected by her co-workers and on a secure path in her employment.  She has a good paying job with benefits.

BUT IN CALIFORNIA

A wonderful daughter and model citizen who has done everything right cannot find a place to live that she can afford in the city where she works.  A one bedroom apartment is $1500 a month plus utilities.

Why is housing so expensive and scarce in California?  In a word, Government at all levels.

Many years ago California voters passed a ballot initiative titled Proposition 13 to stabilize and limit government property tax increases to 1% a year.  In other words they could not increase your properties tax value base more than 1% a year as long as you lived in your home no matter what happened to property values in your neighborhood.

If you sold your home or did a major add-on you could trigger a revaluation process.  Otherwise you were protected by Proposition 13 from property tax increases of more than 1% a year by greedy government. 

City, County and State Government in California have an endless thirst for more revenue.  If they can’t raise property taxes more than 1% a year they must find other ways.  Fees and assessments are one route they have taken.  Both are just tax increases with an identity crises.

Now many (all?) cities/counties have raised the fees for a Building Permit, associated fees and assessments.  If you want to read a fee schedule for one city go to:

  https://www.cityofranchocordova.org/home/showdocument?id=13958 

This is a 79 page document with a “laundry list” of fees for new construction.  You need to read the whole “book” to see all the various assessments/fees added to the basic original “Permit” fee.

I don’t have information on all cities/counties but, based on information I have received from reliable sources,  the “average”  for “new”  Building Permit and Property Development fees that use to average about 65 cents per square foot have risen to an average of about Ten Dollars and 65 cents per square foot. 

Using these numbers as an example:  You want to build a 1,500 square foot house.  With patio, walkway, driveway and garage you are “building/developing” a total of 3,000 square feet.   Based on the old rate of 65 cents a square foot,  the Building Permit Fee would have cost you $1,950.  Under the new fee structure that same permit now costs you $31,950.  This is before you turn over the first shovelful of dirt or drive the first nail.  That raises the cost of building your house by $30,000 in this example.  

If a developer wants to put in a housing, condo or apartment complex that increase in cost has to be passed on to the buyer.  

This is one of the reasons you see so many new housing developments  with two story houses built on tiny lots almost touching each other and having little or no front or back yards.  The added per square foot fee cost raises the cost of construction and the final price of the house, condo or apartment.  Hence, $1500 per month rent on a one bedroom  apartment.

This added on cost of building now raises your property value for tax purposes and lets government tax you on that additional $30,000 they charged you for “permission to build” on a “forever” basis as Property Tax.  To put it another way you are now paying property taxes year after year on a Government Fee!   The perfect End-Around tax hike.

It also forces up property values for existing houses and creates additional tax “opportunities” for government to collect even more property taxes as “value inflated” properties are sold on the market.  Government “wins” again.  Even as more and more citizens find they cannot find affordable housing.

Another reason for high housing costs is the demands put on builders to meet ever new and changing requirements for housing.  Many are desirable but expensive.  For example:  Solar panels will soon  (or may now) be required on new construction which can quickly add $20,000 to the cost of a house and its property value tax base.   

I remember many years ago in California, when property taxes  included Police and Fire Protection, schools, street maintenance, water and sewer service plus “garbage” service.  Now many of these are separate billed services or assessments on your annual property tax bill.  Those earlier days are long gone.

The above described Government greed for revenue is one of the reasons that housing is un-affordable in California and we see “tent cities” springing up in our cities and along our roads.  

“If God had not wanted them shorn, He would not have made them sheep.”  –  The Bandit Calvera – The Magnificent Seven – United Artists 1960

Bob Bandy