Month: June 2021

Scams and Shows…

by MyBaconPress

Your money is important to us…
Can anybody explain to me, please, why I pay tiered rates for PG&E to deliver power to me? Let me be clear, here. I do not refer to power production. Charging tiered rates for power production makes perfect sense to me (though the tiers could be a little more realistic, if you ask me). The company I buy power from should, in my humble opinion, charge tiered rates, the idea being that the more one uses, the more one should pay. But I don’t buy power from PG&E. I buy it from another provider, who uses PG&E wires to deliver the power. So why does PG&E get to charge tiered rates for delivery?

It’s not like it puts an extra burden on the already otherwise charged lines. It’s not like it’s taking anything from anybody else and the power I buy from another provider is NOT what makes PG&E’s equipment so dangerous and unreliable. Those were corporate choices. (For those who may not know, in the name of profits, the private company PG&E has allowed their infrastructure to deteriorate so much they now have to turn the power off when the wind blows.) PG&E has a section on their website that says this:

“The State of California requires investor-owned utilities like PG&E to charge all residential customers on a tiered rate structure. With tiers, electricity is charged at a progressively increasing rate based on a household’s electricity usage. That is to say, the higher the tier, the more the customer will pay for a kilowatt-hour of electricity. A customer can find their baseline quantity on page 1 of your monthly PG&E energy statement.

As a CCA customer, this tiered rate structure remains in place for your delivery (non-generation) charges and is included in the Conservation Incentive Adjustment section of PG&E delivery charges.“

Alright, so they tell us they’re going to do it but they don’t explain why. A CCA customer is a community choice aggregation customer. Some municipalities have become SO concerned about PG&E’s horrifying business practices, they started managing their own power companies. These are the CCA’s.

Really, it just looks like more corruption from the Public Utilities Commission. PG&E IS going to get their “vig.” If they can’t gouge us on the price of power itself, then they’ll just have to gouge us on the delivery. It sort of feels like PG&E is allowed to slap me on the wrist every month because I chose a better power company. I don’t understand why the state of California lets them get away with it. I mean, it’s not like PG&E is using all of that beautiful lucre to maintain their grid…

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I suspect that, from this point forward, it’s showtime!
I don’t think I’m the only one who has noticed that when Republicans have the Congressional majority, they get to do whatever they want. Conversely, when Democrats have the Congressional majority, the Republicans still get to do whatever they want. I DO feel like I must be part of a minority who has taken the next step in understanding that neither party is working for the people any more – if they ever did.

I hear a LOT of plans, hopes, mights, and maybes. But the Dems ALWAYS find a way to lose. ALWAYS. Okay, almost always. When they take power, the Dems are allowed one thing. One. After that, it’s no, no, no. Obama got the Affordable Care Act then, eight years of nothing. The fair-and-square winner of the 2020 Presidential election, President Biden, got to do a “stimulus” (actually disaster relief). Now he claims he has big plans, things he wants to do. But the Republicans won’t let him. They get to rely on the fraudulent filibuster to keep anything from happening. There was talk for awhile of eliminating the filibuster but the Democrats won’t let that happen, either. By the way, the choice between fraudulent filibuster and no filibuster at all is a false choice. There’s the third, and proper, option, returning to the talking filibuster. I never even hear anybody talking about that option, though. It’s always all or nothing.

But that, too, is a choice that prevents the Dems from making any progress. After awhile, it’s all too depressingly clear. It CAN’T be an accident that the Democrats CAN do the things they want to do but the Democrats manage to put enough obstacles in their own way to ensure they’ll never get anything done. (Unless it benefits the wealthy, of course. BOTH parties can get those things done in a heartbeat…)

The House of Representatives passed a thing called the ‘For the People Act.’ It established some Federal guidelines for elections. It is necessary because Republicans across the land are trying to rig elections to guarantee Republican wins. Sure, it’s outright cheating but Republicans know they can’t win on honest ideas so they have no choice but to cheat. Fortunately for them, they’re more than willing. Not surprisingly, when the For the People Act reached the Senate, it died and it died because of Democrats. Next up? Biden’s infrastructure proposal. Well, not Biden’s proposal. The Republicans have already said no to that. It would do FAR too much good for Americans and Republicans WILL NOT have that! So now the talking heads are all breathlessly intoning about how the Dems will get what’s left of Biden’s plan through. Oh, there’s this possibility and that chance and if they can only get this guy to do that thing well, then, maybe they’ll…

Whatever. It’s boring. The ‘For the People Act’ failed because the Democrats allowed it to fail. Biden’s infrastructure plan will fail because the Democrats will allow it to fail. All they need to do is “fail” until the mid-terms. Then the Republicans will take control of Congress again and they can provide cover for why the rich just keep getting richer and everyone else has no choice but to suffer.

I’ll tell you this: I’ve learned not to put much (any) stock in the noise about what might happen. Actions speak louder than words. If they ever actually DO anything, I’ll be very interested. But at this point, I’m pretty sure the two major parties have little to no interest in doing anything for the vast majority of Americans…

Immoral “Morality…”

by MyBaconPress

Apparently, the UK has a new media player, GB News. They’re far right. From what I hear, the programs are poorly produced and extreme in their views so some on the left aren’t taking it seriously. They should. When the Clinton administration issued a waiver to allow Fox “News” people may not have taken them seriously, either. Fox lost millions of dollars in it’s first few years. It takes a while to radicalize a large enough group to become profitable but Fox managed and this GB News might well manage as well. From that point forward the radicalized crowd become a contrarian force dedicated to the proposition that selfishness is and should be the ultimate human pursuit and if everybody’s selfish enough everything will work out well for everyone. Sure, it’s stupid but it’s a fundamental core of conservative “thought.”

To be sure, the UK has already had it’s share of conservative influence. Hell, conservatives lied their entire country into leaving the EU. The US is ahead of the UK in the hateful, selfish, and stupid media market but, apparently, the UK is bound and determined to catch up. It’s too bad, really…

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So…apparently, conservative “Christians” decided to heckle Mike Pence when he went to speak at the so-called ‘Faith and Freedom Coalition conference in (where else?) Florida. They called him a traitor for not overturning the outcome of the 2020 “election” even though he was QUITE clear about the fact that he had no power or authority to overturn the outcome of the 2020 “election.”

Pence IS a pro politician, though, and just plowed through his prepared speech while security removed the disruptors. Of course, he ALSO hit the highlights of conservative falsehoods and claimed to be fully on board with their positions (with the likely exception of their position that he should be hung for treason). HE thinks he has a chance to run for President in 2024. I don’t think the BASE thinks he has a chance. They still want the dumbass loser. The dumbass loser will continue to threaten to run again in 2024 – so long as it keeps his rubes sending the lazy son-of-a-bitch their hard-earned money…

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OMG, the freaking Catholics… Did you hear that a high ranking official is suggesting that Joe Biden shouldn’t be allowed to take Communion as long as he supports a woman’s right to choose? Still waiting on word of Priests being denied Communion for raping and molesting young boys. It’s the whole “forgiveness” issue and, they will tell you, has absolutely nothing, NOTHING, I tell you, to do with the profitability of the church…

Meanwhile, a woman named Mary Margaret Kreuper, a retired nun in California, got caught using Catholic church funds to support her lifestyle, specifically, her gambling addiction. She was the principal of a Catholic school and had a scheme to siphon money. It worked – to the tune of some $835,000 dollars. Of course, the Catholic church wanted to display some more of that “forgiveness” it’s always on about so they made her promise not to do it again and found her another school she could administer. They moved her quietly so nobody would know about the accusations in her past and gave her access to more of the church’s money. It was quite the compassionate gesture and I’m sure she… Wait, what? Arrested? But, but…the forgiveness…what about the forgiveness?

So, if I have this right, according to the Catholics, you can fuck the kids but DO NOT fuck with the money. Just like Jesus would have wanted…

Circles…

by MyBaconPress

Quick question; can we just make Joe Manchin go away? He’s a moron from West Virginia. He pretends to be a Democrat but only works with Republicans. His (current) job is to make sure the Democrats fail – all while trying to appear “bi-partisan.” “Oh,” whine the Dems, “but we would lose the majority.” Listen, I don’t mean to be a buzzkill here but you don’t HAVE a majority as long as you’re saddled with Manchin or Kyrsten Sinema, for that matter. If nothing else, the Dems should withhold electoral support for them but they should ALSO start to claw back any money for those states that comes from the Federal government. I don’t really CARE that Manchin and Sinema claim to be Democrats. They’re Republicans. Let the effin’ Republicans pay for their campaigns…

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So…2 “good guys with guns” get into a dispute in Austin, Texas. They “decide” to settle their dispute using their “good guy guns” because…of course they do. Gun Rights Advocates (GRA’s) ALWAYS think they could take, say, Wild Bill Hickok in a gunfight, given the chance. They couldn’t. In this case, they couldn’t even take each other. They DID manage to shoot fourteen innocent bystanders. The interim police chief there, Joseph Chacon is quoted as saying, “One thing is clear – greater access to firearms does not equal greater public safety.” Well, duh…

Wild Bill was a famous lawman (among other things). He GOT famous cleaning up wild western towns, that is, making them safe for decent people to live out their normal lives. Wyatt Earp had the same reputation. Do you know how they did it? They took everybody’s guns. They didn’t KEEP them, of course. They just had town laws that said you had to surrender your weapons when entering the town. You could pick them back up as you left. That was the pretext of the famous Gunfight at the Okay Corral. The Clanton’s refused to relinquish their guns in town.

I’ve long felt that if anybody could understand the “guns as tools” argument, it would be law enforcement people in the old west but two of our most famous lawmen took the position that, important as they are as tools, they had no place in a civilized society. These were not “anti-gun” men. They just knew stupid when they saw it and allowing drunken men to carry weapons was – and is – stupid.

These days, because of the wrongly decided Heller decision (decided by conservatives so of course it’s wrong), GRA’s will respond with “Those guys were violating people’s Second Amendment rights.” I disagree. They were simply regulating where it may or may not be appropriate to carry guns, an idea perfectly in keeping with the Second Amendment – the “well-regulated” part. And regulating where it may or may not be appropriate to carry guns, an idea perfectly in keeping with the Second Amendment, they cleaned up several famously wild towns.

These days, cons are working as hard as possible to get guns BACK into the hands of any moron who can carry one and the whole freaking country needs “cleaning up” again. I’m sure many will never see the connection…

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According to the ‘USA Today’ (so…take THAT for what it’s worth) a Federal judge in Texas has tossed a case brought by hospital workers at Houston Methodist, the first hospital system in the country to require all of it’s employees receive the Covid-19 vaccine. Some, deceived by conservative media, didn’t want to. Houston Methodist said they were going to fire anyone who didn’t. They DID fire a couple of managers who had “missed” an earlier deadline for managers and then they put nearly 200 workers on suspension until they get the jab. If the DON’T get it by June21, they’re out. The con workers whined, of course. (They’d done their “research.” No, Karen, reading a meme on the internet is NOT “research.”) Then they filed suit. Now the suit has been tossed. They’re collecting money on a Go Fund Me campaign to appeal.

Those people (the anti-mask whiners) are never going to just do the right thing. And, oh, by the way, there IS a right thing in this case. The world is NOT all about precious little you. You have an obligation to the society in which you live. The group CANNOT reach herd immunity until the effing herd complies, right? You’re making choices for other people you would never allow other people to make for you. Selfish. But I don’t blame them directly. I KNOW most of the rank and file cons are deceived by the infotainment they prefer, the “opinion” machine.

It all brings us back, full circle, to Joe Manchin’s ridiculous pretense that such a thing as bi-partisanship is possible. The cons are SO dedicated to their contrarian positions they’re literally willing to kill themselves and the people around them just to “own a lib.” To me, that’s stupid to a staggering degree…

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As a public service announcement, I’d like to share something I heard on the radio. A woman called into a talk show and said her father had been fully vaccinated, waited through the two-week buildup period, went back to living his life, then contracted Covid-19 and ended up in the hospital with a full-blown case that very nearly killed him. Why? He was taking immunosuppressants for arthritis. They “suppressed” the vaccine. He didn’t have the anti-bodies but he didn’t know it. The medical community is catching on to this but if YOU take immunosuppressants and had the shots, get checked. You MAY not be as safe as you think you are…

Living Their Principles…

by MyBaconPress

Okay, so…a gun rights activist (GRA) judge named Roger T. Benitez has overturned California’s assault weapons ban. He seems to be one of those guys who reads the sentence and comes away with half of it. The Second Amendment says, “A well-regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed” Always-wrong conservatives are SO focused on the last 14 words of that sentence, they completely disregard the first 13. All of this is based on the wrongly decided District of Columbia vs Heller. The cons MADE their faulty decision based on the last 14 words without regarding the impact of the first 13.

GRA’s try to have it both ways. They’ll insist they ARE part of the citizen militia but at the SAME time, they’ll insist the “well-regulated” part doesn’t apply to average citizens. They’re wrong. The Second Amendment was written because the young idealists who founded this once-great nation thought they could get by without a standing army. The idea was, the citizens would fall out to defend the country until a formal army could be raised, trained, and fielded. Really, it was a dumb idea. It was the kind of idea I call a philosophical position. On paper, it SEEMS correct but there IS no practical application. The error of the thinking was first exposed during George Washington’s administration. John Adams, only the second President, realized we needed a navy and built one. Thomas Jefferson, ever the moron conservative, first dismantled Adams’ navy, THEN realized we needed a standing navy after all and began rebuilding it. We’ve had a standing military ever since and the Second Amendment became moot. It should have been removed at that point.

Spoiler alert: It wasn’t. Now we have Americans gunning people down at, well, military rates. As we’ve seen over and over and over, one can murder an AWFUL lot of people in just a few seconds, thanks to wrongheaded decisions by the Sour Cream Court and those of the horrifying Roger T. Benitez and his ilk. I find myself hoping that Judge Benitez or one of his loved ones become among the first killed in California by an AR-15 as a result of his ruling… (Quick note to the authorities: this statement is not intended as a threat. I just think people should have to live their “principles…”)

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There’s a golfer, Jon Rahm. He was golfing in a tournament and was playing brilliantly. He was kicking butt and taking no names, just rolling over everyone. Then, on the 18th green, officials came out and told him he had tested positive for Covid-19 and had to drop out of the tournament. Apparently, he doubled over, saying, “Oh, no, not again!” (“Not again?!?”) The media coverage is playing up the emotional angle. How sad he was, what a bummer such a great run was interrupted, that kind of thing. I felt badly for the guy, too. Then I read this in the Guardian: “Players who are fully vaccinated – 14 days past the full vaccination cycle – are not subject to testing as a result of close contact.”

To me, this indicates that his awesome, record-chasing performance was interrupted because Mr. Rahm is an anti-vaccer. Whatever compassion I may have been feeling went right out the window. At this point, anti-vaccers get what they deserve. (That’s why I don’t support all of these bribes being offered by the states to entice people to get on board. No, I know. I understand about herd immunity…) Conservative media convinced Rahm Bill Gates was out to get him so he passed on the vaccine? Really, if conservative’s wrong-headed thinking wasn’t so effing dangerous to children and other living things, it would be fun to watch them walk into wall after wall wondering why their foreheads hurt. Oh yeah, did I mention this guy was closing in on winning a $1.67 million dollar prize? Living his “principles,” I guess, but that’s some expensive stupid…