Stop Pulling the Wagon

This is something I feel I must write.  I do it with a measure of sorrow and it is not my intent to judge anyone or express anger or hatred toward anyone.  It is more an expression of grief at how far down the path of inhumanity I feel we have traveled.  Please just read it to the end and think about it.

The National Geographic Society did a multi-year study of  jails and prisons and prison life.  Made for television, one series is called “Lockdown” and another “Hard Time”.  It is a very interesting series and study in people, their choices and consequences.

One episode I watched recently I found particularly troubling.  I cannot remember the exact dialog and words used but the story (a true one) is about a young lady in jail as a repeat offender for use of heroin.  Because of her record for multiple arrests for drug addiction and heroin use she is awaiting trial to determine if she is facing serious prison time or a possible court supervised rehabilitation program, sort of a half-way house environment (?) as explained in the program.

She is pregnant and the father of the baby is also in jail on similar charges.  In her dialog she expresses some feelings of happiness and joy at the thought of the coming baby and also some thoughts of terminating the pregnancy.

She is excited when she hears that she might be a candidate for the supervised program on the “outside”.  Her day in court comes and she appears before the judge. 

The judge tells her that she (the judge) is inclined to put her into the “outside” program but that under the law, with her past history of drug abuse, the judge cannot put her into the program because with her drug record she is likely to re-offend and the drugs she would take could be a risk to the life of the baby she is carrying.  However, if she should decide to not be pregnant [sic],  she would no longer present this risk to her unborn baby and could qualify for the program.

Excuse me.  Read that again. 

Are there no other choices?  Is this the only options our legal system has left the judge with?  Is this what our social engineering has descended to? 

Our humanity appears to be devolving rather than evolving.

“And the people bowed and prayed to the neon god they made.”                                      (Paul Simon – The Sound of Silence)

Bob Bandy

G> S=k log W

To paraphrase an old fable: “If you put a frog in a pot of boiling water he will jump out but if you put the same frog into a pot of cold water and then raise the temperature one degree at a time he will stay there until he is boiled alive”.

There are many life applications this bit of wisdom can be applied to.  I have sometimes gotten myself into “hot water” one degree at a time until finding myself in a real mess.

Whether it is an addiction, debt, unhealthy relationships, bad eating habits or any number of other life altering and threatening situations, we are all potential victims of incremental disaster.

But it takes Government on steroids to turn this simple truth into an art form for picking our pockets clean.  I once heard the Comedian Gallagher say:  “Everywhere you leak, they hang a bucket”.

For example go to Walmart and purchase a bag of dog food.  Walmart is paying property taxes, utility taxes, employers share of employees payroll taxes, license fees, environmental fees, government regulatory fees, permit fees, etc. (I could go on but space is limited).

In addition, the truck that hauled the dog food to the store had to pay fuel taxes, license fees, special federal taxes on the tires on the truck, regulatory fees, highway use taxes, ad nauseum.

We could work our way throughout the store but the point is made.  Question:  Ultimately who pays all these taxes and fees?   (Pretend you are hearing game show music) – Da Da Da Da.   You guessed right!  You are!

Next and closer to home, just for fun pull out a recent phone, cable or other utility bill.  For example my recent Comcast Xfinity Cable+ bill has two itemized billing sections: One is called: Other Charges and Taxes and  one is called: surcharges and fees.  On my bill there are ten separate items including, but not limited to, items such as Regulatory Recovery Fees ($2.50) and one called PEG Access Support ($1.53).   The two sections total  $18.49 + $15.53.  Back when I went to school that would be a total of $34.02. 

Comcast public statistics state they have 29.3 million customers.  If my bill is average that would mean monthly revenues for all these various agencies, departments and “groups” would be (my calculator is smoking but if accurate) $996,786,000.

Stated another way that’s 996 Million, 786 Thousand dollars – rock throwing distance to One Billion Dollars a month from one tax and fee generating utility flowing into the pockets of all of these, sometimes mystery, groups, departments and agencies every month from just this one utility.

Shall we now review our telephone bill, gas bill, garbage bill etc.?

Government will never be satisfied with just our Income Tax, Payroll (FICA) Taxes, Property Taxes, Sales Taxes, Auto License, Registration & Fees, Parking Fees, etc. etc. 

Government is a bottomless pit for your money with little accountability.

On the other hand, I am sure that the folks at PEG Access Support are spending their 44+ Million Dollar monthly share of the “take” wisely.

Bob Bandy

This will not be my usual posting.  I feel compelled to write this but you might find it unlike anything you are familiar with in my writings.  Feel free to stop reading at any point.

Confucius has been credited with the saying: “Before embarking on a journey of revenge, first dig two graves”.  The message being that you will need two graves, one for the object of your revenge and the other for yourself. 

To which I would add this corollary:  Before embarking on a path of hatred, first dig two graves.  One for yourself and the other for the people and things you loved which will be destroyed in the process of fueling your rage to destroy that which you hate.

Hate is a poison and a powerful emotion.  It can destroy your logic, your reason, your compassion and your humanity.  It is a cancer which can rapidly spread to consume every aspect of your life.  

I once experienced such a hatred in my own life.  A person whom I believed to be a  friend double crossed me and destroyed me financially.  I was faced with starting all over again.  For more than a year I was consumed by my hatred for this person.  I allowed it to nearly destroy me personally. 

One day a light kind of came on inside me and I realized that when it says in the Bible to forgive your enemies, it is not maybe so much for their sake as it is for your own.  I began practicing “letting go” of my anger and hate.  It took a while but in the process I learned to forgive and not to hate individuals or groups of individuals. 

I may strongly disagree with their words and deeds to the point I will speak out against what I see happening.  I may be appalled at the destruction to lives that I witness due to their actions.  I am willing to engage in logical verbal combat with them.  By my actions I will peacefully and legally oppose those systems I deem destructive that they are attempting to put into place. 

But….   I will not hate them individually.  I will not call them Nazi’s.  I will not tell lies about them,  I will not try to harm their families.  I will not threaten their safety.  I will not propose or use physical violence against them.  

It grieves me to see what is happening in America, land of my birth and land that I love. We are split into what can only be called warring camps.  One of those camps is so consumed by hatred that they will do literally anything to destroy the other side.  Lies, unnamed sources, gossip, corruption of government agencies, distortions, “Spin”, half truths (which are lies in lipstick),  etc. etc..   They will call people they disagree with Nazi’s, compare their opponents to some of the great monsters of history (Stalin, Hitler, etc.).    

A growing, toxic and dangerous hate in America.  Those who disagree with them must be destroyed by any means possible.  There seems no words or actions they will not advocate resorting to in order to destroy their political enemies. They will  propose surrounding their opponents children’s schools to intimidate the children and their parents. (Tweet – Peter Fonda).

This group seems prepared to destroy our whole country and way of life if it will fulfill the goals of their political agenda.

I fear for the very survival of America as a nation. 

In my writings here I do not often quote from the Bible* but, in the book of Mark, chapter 3 – verse 24, Jesus says that “If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand.”    History is littered with the carcasses of kingdoms and nations that demonstrate this to be true.

Can we learn to agree to disagree and find common ground to come together as a nation or are we condemned to a world of non-negotiable demands where the “other side” must be destroyed at all costs?  Are we doomed to the fruits of hatred.  Must America dig two graves?  

Bob Bandy

Lord, Make me an instrument of you peace.  Where there is hatred, let me sow love…  Prayer for Peace – St. Francis of Assisi

Bible – NIV – New International Version

IF YOU FIND YOURSELF IN A HOLE, STOP DIGGING

Will Rogers

I have read and heard the above and many versions of it most of my life.  It represents the most basic kind of common sense,  yet….. 

In my own experience I have found myself in many holes of my own creation digging away.

Observation has shown me that this seems a common human failing. 

From those addicted  to gambling – what’s the old line – went to Reno in a twenty thousand dollar Chevrolet and came home on a ninety thousand dollar Greyhound – and keep on digging –

To those who pour their life savings and huge amounts of borrowed capital into a business venture that was doomed from the start – and keep on digging –

Many others give everything they have into a destructive relationship – whether it is a  personal relationship with another individual, or some failed ideology, political agenda, drugs, alcohol, debt, accumulation of “toys” or……  – and keep on digging.

In nearly all cases the above is the result of individuals finding themselves in a hole of their own making and needing someone, or some set of circumstances, to “slap them up side the head” to get them to stop digging and work on building a ladder out of the hole they got themselves into.  Then fill the hole.

In too many cases, folks do not get that helpful “slap up side the head” and end up with their lives in tatters and the only possibility is some form of  Bankruptcy or worse. 

I was once told by a Pastor that not every broken life can be fixed by our good intentions and personal efforts and we must first sometimes let folks “crash and burn” before they are willing to accept a helping hand.

BUT…..

For truly colossal hole digging on steroids you need Government.  For these folks there is no program or scheme ever devised that has dug itself into a hole that cannot be “fixed” with more…..    More Tax Dollars.  More Bureauocrats.  More Regulations.  More time…..   All forms of digging.  They never get that “slap up side the head” and say “wow, this isn’t working…..  let’s shut it down, stop digging and fill this hole in.”

Governments never seems to learn and can’t file Bankruptcy.  Whether like the Romans, who came up with “free” Bread and Circus’s  (today’s “free” Welfare and Flatscreens), until they could no longer fund it through ever increasing taxes and worth less and less fiat money, and their Empire collapsed.  Or, any number of other Governments and Empires that litter the dust bin of history.   All governments seen to – just keep on digging.  

Government.  We voted for them.  Will we ever learn?  Or, just keep on digging.

Common sense yes,  but to quote Will Rogers again: “Common Sense ain’t common”.  

Bob Bandy    

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

CONGRESS AND THE ATTRACTIVE HAZARD LAW

We have laws in America that state if you build something dangerous but attractive and make it accessible to the public you can be held liable in court for any damages the public might incur.  Including Punitive Damages.

A common example is that if you put a swimming pool on your property that children might find inviting and fun but you fail to fence it so that children cannot get into it and drown, you can be held liable in court should that occur

Simply put: If you create something that is attractive but  ends up hurting people because you failed to provide safeguards, you can be held legally and financially responsible. 

I suggest that we all find a “Good Attorney” – cross that out – “Good Attorney” is a contradiction in terms – make that a “Ruthless Attorney” – that’s better – and file a Class Action Lawsuit against Congress for creating not one, but many “Attractive Hazard Government Programs” that have not only damaged our Country but in the process  caused great damage and harm to our culture and the american family. 

Members of Congress, House and Senate, should be held, individually and collectively, financially responsible for the damage they have caused.  Some Punitive Damages would be well deserved also.

Example: The 1960’s Great American Society program to eliminate poverty in America.  Sounded good, looked good on paper and was perhaps well intended but poorly thought out and loaded with unintended consequences.  A sort of  Rube Goldberg Contraption  imposed on the American public without a test flight.  (The above pictured “flying machine” could well have been designed by a Congressional Committee.)

There are now more poor people trapped in poverty than when the program to eliminate poverty began.  Millions of American families were destroyed in the process.  Filling the country with angry, frustrated, fatherless young men raised without the discipline young boys need.   By passing this law Congress said it was “okay” for men to create families and then abandon them to go “play” while “Government” would step into the void created and be “daddy”.  The damage caused is most obvious in poverty riddled and crime ridden  inner-cities but also has manifested itself throughout the land.  Who is most responsible for this mess?  Congress. They should be held liable.

Can Congress realistically be sued and held to account financially?  Unfortunately I think not. Congress creates all kinds of exceptions for themselves legally when they pass these “Programs” and have exempted themselves from most every law they pass, like “The (un)Affordable Health Care Act” and so many others.

Supposedly this can all be “fixed” at the ballot box.  How has that worked out so far?  I live in California and have voted all of my life.  California is so corrupt, over taxed and mismanaged that I am ashamed to admit that I live here.  It claims to have a “Balanced Budget” but has an almost One Trillion Dollar UNFUNDED Liability to its “Public Service Employees Retirement and Healthcare System”.  “Who gonna pay for dat”.  It cannot be Bankrupted. 

The Trifecta of Clowns, Criminals and Lunatics have won.  Voting is now a waste of time unless you enjoy the reality of living under the “Dark Lords” who run Sacramento.

Where is there a “good” attorney when you need one?

Bob Bandy