Stop Pulling the Wagon

I see in the news that the City of San Francisco is going to spend Six Hundred Thousand Dollars to eradicate murals of George Washington’s life including scenes from Mount Vernon.

Rather than uniting us, sadly, such decisions and events serve more to divide us further as a people. I believe they mimic the actions of both the Taliban and ISIS in destroying treasured Historical Icons that are a reminder of where we have come from.

I am remembering an article I posted less than two years ago about what I can only describe as a “Pogram” at the time to remove all statues and other landmarks and public reminders of anything connected to the Civil War and slavery, to include destroying all historical tributes to Christopher Columbus and others.

Back then, in September of 2017, I began the article condemning the institution of Slavery in the strongest terms and believe that it was, is and will always be wrong. I don’t believe God intended for humans to live in slavery or to own slaves.

Having said the above I also wrote the following which is excerpted from that article and I believe we should all be mindful of:

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I am witnessing in our media and on our streets a form of mass hysteria and hate.  It scares me in the sense that I can see it ripping our society apart. I hear and read about “non-negotiable” demands to erase and tear down any relics of real or imagined links to slavery in our nation.  

It seems that anyone with any cultural, racial, or historical ties to slavery by any association or relationship in any way, is marked for removal from the annals of  our nations heritage.

The other day it was announced that ESPN removed a Sportscaster from the commentary at a Sporting event because the man, who had an Asian background, shared the same name as a Confederate General.

Let me share something with you.  I have a 60+ year fascination with history.

Don’t take my word for it, study for yourself.  When you study you will find that slavery in various forms was practiced by: The Carthaginians, the Romans, The Greeks, The Persians (Iranians), The Babylonians, The Chinese, The Mongols, The Huns (Europeans), England, The Vikings, The Russians, Southern Asian Peoples (including India), Egyptians, Middle Eastern and North African Islamic States, Native Americans (North, Central and South America), The People, Tribes and Nations of Central and South Africa.  Also, many Island Nations including Japan. And, I have probably missed naming a few.

Also keep in mind that the horror of slavery is still practiced in parts of the world.

I could be wrong but the only Continent that I am aware of that has no history of slavery in some part or way is Antarctica.  So, if you can firmly establish that all of your ancestors were Native Antarcticans you are stain free. Otherwise, join the rest of us in the cesspool.  

Virtually all of us have a skeleton or two in our closet if we want to dig a little and drag them out.

If it is decided to eradicate all statues, memorials, hospitals, schools, parks, highways, malls, airports, landmarks etc. etc. etc. with the names of anybody who has any ties in history to slavery, racism, a now despised group or family heirloom associated with such, you are going to be very busy.

Just one example:  Democratic Senator Robert Byrd of West Virginia. Besides being a Senator, was a former Grand Wizard in the Ku Klux Klan.  I have heard an estimate, probably exaggerated, that perhaps half the airports, schools, hospitals, parks, highways etc. in the State of West Virginia are named after him.  You are going to need a lot of shovels, backhoes, “whitewash” and other equipment to eradicate his name and memory from the state.

But, not to pick on just the Senator.  Many, most or all of our great leaders, as well as us common folk, have historical skeletons we would probably just as soon not know about.  If we decide to eliminate everything and everyone who has ever had some trace of Slavery in their family history at any time ever, there won’t be very many of us left.

Slavery was abolished in the United States more than 150 years ago.  

The stain of racism is still with us and is practiced by people of all colors.  It will be with us until we all learn to love one another, forgive one another and be enriched by one another.  You cannot erase it by painting over historic works of art, law, edict, marching in the streets or hating one another.  Unfortunately, the latter is what I see being practiced in the media and on the streets.  Pity.

Bob Bandy – July 2019

photo – Yahoo News

The Democratic Presidential Debates

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All participants agreed in principal to the following:

First, Donald Trump is the Firstborn Son of Satan and has destroyed the United States.  He must be put in jail either before his term ends through impeachment or after leaving office following conviction by a mob…. er …. Kangaroo Court with a jury comprised of Hollywood Celebrities.  Aw shucks, who needs a jury, somebody get a rope!

All immigrants from anywhere in the world are welcome here without the need of paperwork,  identification, background checks, health checks, or any other documentation.  All borders should be open without restrictions and the current policing force will be replaced with a kind of “Welcome Wagon” for all comers including instructions on how to acquire free housing, free food, free healthcare, etc.  Authors Note:  Maybe this information could be shared with the homeless living on the streets of Los Angeles, San Francisco, Sacramento, Portland, Seattle, etc. ??

Everybody, whether citizen or not, is entitled to “free” lifetime healthcare.  Authors Note:  Many candidates called for “Medicare For All” without noting that Medicare is not “free”, at least to current participants.

Free College for everyone (citizens and non-citizens) with the added bonus of debt forgiveness for some 1.5 Trillion Dollars in outstanding Student Loans.

Unrestricted “Free” abortion for all with one candidate calling for free abortion for Transgender males who become pregnant.  It was left unclear how long after natural birth the mother could still elect to abort the child, a few hours, a few days, third grade? 

The planet only has 12 years left unless all Americans immediately discontinue all use of fossil fuels and convert to only electric powered vehicles.  No mention was made that to re-charge an all electric vehicle you must “plug in” to the power grid which is incapable of completing this task if  said power grid is totally sourced by solar and wind power, at least within the next 30-50 years.  

I look forward to the day when all working Americans get home from work on a July day when it is 105 degrees, plug their electric vehicles in for a re-charge and then walk into their air conditioned home during the hottest part of the day.

It was also not mentioned that the World’s major polluters (beginning with China & India) have “deferred” there own participation in the Paris Climate Accords till “at least” 2030 or beyond.   Further, there is no mechanism in place requiring penalties or enforceable legal consequences on any participating country who ignores these “feel good” “Global Accords”.

One participant unveiled his plan to give every resident in America (legal citizens and non-citizens) $1000 per month.  When asked how this would be paid for he said with a “value added” tax paid for by everyone which would return the money to government – at least that is what I heard.

Lots of other “free” stuff all to be paid for by taxing the greedy rich and corporations.  Authors note:  You could not pay for all of these “freebies” if you taxed all of the rich at 100% and it is also a fact that corporations don’t really pay taxes, their customers do.  Corporations pass along tax increases to their customers in the form of higher prices….  they have to, or go out of business.

Santa Claus may as well close up shop and lay off his Reindeer – He can’t compete with this bunch!

Did I miss something?

Bob Bandy – July 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

 

 

 

 

Typical Workplace Entry Level Job

 

LOOKING BEYOND THE “GOOD INTENTIONS”

Like most folks I want everyone willing to work to make as much money as possible.

I am always suspicious of Government efforts to “fix” perceived problems with “Feel Good” Legislation which is often just a way for Congress to “buy” votes.

If the Government mandates a $15 hour minimum wage, who are the Winners and the Losers?

While some workers who currently make less than that will get a boost in pay,  other workers will lose jobs which will be replaced by automation or simply eliminated because the job they were doing is not viable at $15 an hour.  

A mandated $15 an hour minimum wage would not allow me to accept less than $15 an hour even if I want to.    What about the freedom to work out a compensation plan with a prospective “employer” that is mutually acceptable?  What about working for less than $15 an hour to help a friend in a struggling “start-up” business?  What about apprenticeships? 

I believe that there is value in having entry level jobs where workers can learn the discipline and basics of creating value in the marketplace through their efforts while they develop skills and habits to increase their value to those who pay their wages.  It is fair to say that many entry level employees are getting paid while getting an education in the “real” world of work – sort of “cheap” College. 

If you require employers to pay wages that can’t be compensated for in the price of the goods and services they are selling, those jobs will be eliminated by either automation or bankruptcy of the place of business.  It is what it is.

Minimum wage jobs were never meant to be career jobs frozen at minimum wage which cannot adequately support a family.  Think of them more as “training for better things” positions or supplemental jobs.  Often these jobs are filled by students or others looking for extra spending money or to subsidize special purchases.  

Question?  If $15 an hour is good, would $25 an hour be even better?  Why not $50 an hour?  Or $100 an hour? 

Whatever the hourly rate is the money to pay it has to come from somewhere.  Some would say to take the higher wages out of the greedy employers profits.  That may sound good till you realize that without profits the so-called “greedy” employers have no incentive to put up with the grief and headaches of being in business.  At some point the cost of automation starts looking pretty attractive to those who are actually paying “salaries”.  Robots don’t call in sick on critical days.  They don’t come in late to work because the dog hid the car keys,  they don’t …… fill in the blank. 

In my life I learned that if I wanted more income, I needed to make my efforts worth more to either my employer or my customer.  Discipline, education, effort.

If enacted into law, a $15 an hour minimum wage will benefit some number of current minimum wage employees who will see a boost in pay but the real beneficiary of a higher minimum wage is Government.  A higher minimum wage means Government gets to skim more off the top of larger payments confiscated from both employees and the employers and funneled into the Social Security Ponzi Scheme.  

There will also be losers due to the inflationary pressures from higher labor costs: 

• Folks on fixed income (like the elderly and disabled).
• Those whose jobs would be eliminated (students, entry level workers etc.).
• Many who are currently in “apprenticeship” positions.
• Many employees for marginally profitable to non-profit businesses.

For more about Government and the Social Security Ponzi Scheme just type Ponzi Scheme into the Search window on the left side of  the Home page and hit enter on your keyboard.  It will take you to an article I wrote back in March of 2018 about what the thieves in Congress did with “your” Social Security “Trust Fund” dollars.

You can agree or disagree but I offer this as food for thought.

Bob Bandy

May 2019

 

THE NEW MILLENNIAL GENERATION

 

Forgive me – This is a bit long but too important to shorten.

Young “Millennial’s” are widely reported to be fearful of their financial futures and blame the current and previous generations for the fiscal mess they are inheriting.  

They have a valid point.

Following the “Great Depression” and starting with the “New Deal”,  America has been on a spending spree, much of that on “borrowed from the future” money.  A sort of national credit card with no spending limit.  Some of it was caused by wars but most of it was greatly aggravated by a combination of the collateral costs of the Vietnam War and introduction of the “War on Poverty and The Great Society” in the 1960’s with its ever expanding  beaurocracy and growth of Government Social Programs  – aka – Big Daddy. 

In just the period between 2008-2016 our Government doubled the National Debt mostly through expenditures on Social Programs.

Our Government is now 22+ Trillion Dollars in debt with no way to pay for it except prohibitive taxation or through inflation, and if continued, hyper-inflation.  Government even pays the interest on the debt with more borrowed money.  Like paying your Visa Card with your Mastercard.

Fiscal discipline was thrown to the wind as Congress spent borrowed dollars to buy votes for election and re-election.  Modern day “Robber Baron’s”.

Over the last 50 years Government at all levels has become a sort of undisciplined, poorly managed, authoritarian, dis-organized criminal enterprise unable to manage any kind of reasonable budget. Taxing everything at every level and still unable to pay its own way.

Example: College Student loans were at one time made by local banks to students, usually with a parental guarantee of payment.  During the Obama Administration the Federal Government took over the Student Loan Program with Government funds and Government guarantees on a virtually unlimited basis.  

Colleges took advantage of this by raising costs.  The Government made these “New” Student loans “Secure” by demanding, in some cases, a near lifetime of payments and the condition that the loans cannot be discharged in Bankruptcy.  

Colleges and Administrators got rich and graduating students, (and in many cases “drop-out” students), found themselves poor with a mountain of debt and degrees in fields for which there are often no waiting jobs.  

Many of these young students would have been much better served with an  apprenticeship in such things as auto mechanics, building trades, Plumbers, Electricians, Carpenters etc., as well as “on the job” Business Management training for which there is a real world need at attractive wages.

In the process, taxpayers find themselves “on the hook” for 1 1/2 Trillion dollars in taxpayer money transferred to the nations colleges via student loans.

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“College debt is crushing an entire generation. Colleges are richer than ever. It’s a scam. Student loans are the biggest source of personal debt in the U.S..  Student debt crisis is impacting young American’s ability to thrive, purchase homes.”  …..Tucker Carlson Tweet and video –  5:35 PM – 19 Mar 2019

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College’s get rich  and too many students graduate to find there is no way to pay their loans and live in hyper-inflated housing looking for jobs that don’t pay enough for loan payments, housing and inflated living costs, so they end up “back home” angry and frustrated while College Administrators  are sipping Mai Tai’s at expensive resorts on bloated salaries which are paid for by Government Guaranteed Student Loans.

I don’t blame the Millennial’s for being very, very angry and feeling betrayed. 

Can this financial crisis be “fixed”? 

Some running for office are calling for College debt “forgiveness” which is just another word for Bankruptcy.  If Government does this what do we say to all those who worked hard and paid their own way through College?  What do we say to those who committed several years of their life to Military Service with the promise of College Tuition money?  What do we do about those who exhausted Unemployment Compensation and became “College Students” so the loan program would provide them with an income till they could find a job?  And, what do you say to those who have paid off their Student Loan debt?

Can this financial “mess” that our Government created and the Millennial’s are inheriting be fixed?   

I fear Government “Solutions”.  Government Solutions invariably lead to large expenditures of more deficit spending with the end result of making things worse. 

A day of accounting is inevitable and may be upon this generation. 

Would I be being too cynical to suggest that the Government intentionally created the Student Loan Program as a pipeline to channel too much money to  too many Colleges with too many Professors whose main agenda is teaching too many heavily indebted, now angry voters to hate America as it was founded and exists today?  

Bob Bandy 

April 2019

Rule#3 – Increase debt to unsustainable levels. This will allow Government to increase taxes, produce more poverty and further control the people.   Saul Alinsky – How to Create a Socialist State – Rules 4 Radicals

 

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).