70,000 Hits and News Articles

This site has now had over 70,000 hits. Sort of surprising. I never planned on being around this long or having more that 1 or 2 thousand hits.

Yahoo - Business Insider - It's great that unemployed people in Europe are pretending they have real jobs. Because so many people cannot get jobs in Europe they are actually creating companies and working even though they have nothing to sell. These companies exist because people want to learn new skills. People like to work. Fox News and the financial media tries to make us believe that everyone is lazy and just wants government to pay for them. Are my readers lazy? I doubt it, they bother reading and looking beyond the obvious. Lazy people don't read my blog for too long. You know the sign or a good supervisor, he knows how to motivate, to show people how what they do matters and it is not that hard.

Fox Business - Exclusive: Cash for Slackers. Alright, I have to start by saying something. The linked article is the first part of a 3 part series (it says it is) and I have not read the next two articles yet. Instead I have been waiting for a week or two (I will not bother checking on the posting dates). This site is not read enough to matter so you can believe me when I say that I can guess what the next two articles will say. I can also say that after reading this first article, I read about the history of the writer. Now, lets have fun.

The article is about how the "federal unions" will stop at nothing to protect "slackers". I will state what I notice in the article and video and then we will examine her next two articles in the series. I should say that the writer made her name because she hates federal workers and to be specific, she hate the IRS and paying income tax. Here is an earlier article she wrote.

Fox Business - Replacing the Income Tax With a National Sales Tax. Same author and still a political zealot rather than a reporter or even analyst. Her articles are all propaganda and even without reading the next two parts in her "Exclusive" three part series, I can guarantee she will remain a propagandist. That rarely if ever changes. A prostitute doesn't just change, they just run out of buyers.

So, back to "Cash for Slackers". The article does some pretty slimy stuff. It starts by saying a sob story about how a man on the Federal Labor Relations Board claimed that after all his time on the board, he concluded that the federal unions were to blame for hurting American taxpayers. She lied. The man was saying that since his first decision on the board. It is nothing new. It is certainly not an exclusive. Want proof? FedsMill - A RESPONSE TO PATRICK PIZZELLA AND THE BROTHERS. That bog post is two years old long before his current comments when he was the newest person on the board. Here is a line from the blog back then, "Pizzella declared, as if anyone needs or cares to know, that he has taken the FLRA job not to protect federal employees or the federal government, but primarily to protect the “hardworking American taxpayers” from waste.  He believes taxpayers are being bilked by the frivolous claims federal employees and their unions file as well as the official time the law provides them." I should probably point out that the guy is a far right winger who worked with the Koch Brothers. Lets face it, the guy came with an agenda and an opinion and it never changed. Okay, it was still years ago when this guy was spewing his stuff, not some new revelation.

This writer now proceeds to take a few stories of what individual federal employees are accused of doing, I mean four stories to accuse millions of federal employees of all being slackers. Really, not very scientific or balanced. Would four stories of federal employees doing great things prove to you that every federal employee was a great person? That approach is either called bigotry or propaganda. What this writer is really against is unions and she will use any story and make any outrageous claim to pursue that goal. If she was sincere in her logic, she would use the same type of arguments to prove that we needed to get rid of the military; but, they have no unions or collective bargaining. They have no say, they are slaves for their term. She prefers that type of employee.

Fox Business - Exclusive: Cash for Slackers, Part II. What a shock, the writer continues to lie and be deceitful. There are federal workers that have been asked to telecommute. Not jus them though, all kinds of workers across the world are now working from home on a limited or full time basis. It was business that began this trend, it saved office space and money. Before retiring I was actually considering trying to have some of my operators work from home. It only cost my organization a laptop each and saved buying a desktop. a desk, a phone, a desk and all the other things that are needed in an office. I was also pretty sure it would improve call delay times. This writer claims that all these telecommuters are working on "union business" and this is not only a lie but is very stupid. Very few union employees ever bother doing anything to help their unions. Most resent having to pay their dues. Lets look at the third article, I doubt the lies will change much.

Fox Business - Exclusive: Cash for Slackers, Part III. I have to point out something really simple. You cannot claim that federal workers are doing too much and then claim that they spend all their time working on union business. This same woman claims that the IRS is working too hard to take away our money. Lets read this article. Well, I have just watched the video. Totally predictable and again garbage and lies or the writer is just really, really bad or stupid; but, I don't think so. I thing she is just an ideologue. Lets start with this, what hasn't she done that I always do? Someone in this classroom needs to raise their hand. I provide documentation, source documents when needed. She provides no proof of her claims, we cannot investigate them independently. That is garbage reporting. What is she hiding and why should we believe anything she claims. I always give my readers a way to check my news claims. Go back and read things I wrote years ago, I never changed.

This third "exclusive" article claims that government unions are bad because they want the government to talk to them before changing conditions of employment. I have dealt with this and have told unions what I was going to do in advance, it is not that hard and the law does not require that I negotiate in these instances. Why wouldn't you want to tell people you were going to change their working conditions in advance of doing it? The writer presents this as a national security issue because people had been allowed to use gmail at work and viruses could come in over gmail. The government told them they couldn't anymore and the unions asked why, they have that right. I was management and I have no problem with being asked why I would change things, a good manager should be able to explain their actions. Heck, a bad manager should still be able to explain their actions. It is nothing to be feared. Unless you are Fox news.

I don't care what my readers think about taxes or government. I state my opinions and welcome yours. I just don't manipulate the truth into lies and half lies to convince my readers nor do I keep them from source documents like Fox News does. I dare anyone to show where in talking about the news I have shown a pattern of not giving backup that can be researched by my readers. Claim it and I will even post your comments if it conforms to the rules for comments (no cussing, no slander or libel and no racially insulting remarks - not that hard).

The Street - Pension Panic Grips America's Heartland. I think this writer is probably friends with the last one. Look out for things that start with sensational and alarmist headlines. The article basically says that the states cannot pay their pension obligations (a lie as I have proven many times) and therefore should not have to have collective bargaining. Huh? That is their conclusion. Changing pensions allowances has nothing to do with collective bargaining. The connection is a lie and a dumb one at that. The real attack is on unions.

I have to point out that this writer also fails to link to the document he claims to be quitting so you cannot know if the quote he uses is in context. Anyone who claims to be telling the truth and is unwilling to show their sources needs to be questioned as to their integrity.

The Business Insider - Washington Post - Actually, the Fed's massive stimulus helped the middle class and poor more than the rich. The article claims that the stimulus increased jobs as show by the lower unemployment rate. Cute turn of a phrase; but, it is a lie. There are fewer jobs now than before. The number of jobs has not increased whereas the number of people who are able to work has. Don't forget that under government guidelines people working at McDonalds are now considered to be working in manufacturing because they put your burger on a bun.

Yahoo - Reuters - Google to release monthly data on self-driving car accidents. Just so you understand, by releasing data you will be forced to lose your argument against these machines once they have fewer accidents than human drivers. Think harder.

Wired - Techies have been trying to replace politicians for decades. This article talks about how there is a group that believes the world should be run by engineers. You know, no democracy, just perfect answers from science. You want to count how many times "science" was wrong? Hey, the world is still round and not flat. There is gravity. The earth is not the center of the universe. Nope, science, when following it's own rules never knows the truth. It is always searching for better answers or it is also a lie.

The Washington Post - We bailed you out, and now you want what!?!  Just read it and enjoy.

The Truth Is Inside You and News

I noticed that a lot of people get here by searching the terns, "the truth inside you". Turns out that a whole lot of sites have used names similar to mine since I began. This is the only site that I have and I have no site of Facebook or Twitter or anywhere else. For better or worse this is my only site. Now for the two news articles.

The Independent - Self-parking Volvo ploughs into journalists after owner neglects to pay for extra feature that stops cars crashing into people. Let me see if I understand, if you don't make a car totally self driving then you still have to pay attention and be responsible? Then I guess we have to pick.

BBC - Israel ex-PM Ehud Olmert given prison sentence. This is the ex Prime Minister for Israel, the same guy that brought many people who run public pensions and placement agents to Israel to invest in Israel and he has been found guilty of fraud and taking bribes. Maybe we should check out every investment ever made in Israel that he was involved in.

Short post, have a great day.

Thank You All For Being Polite

I just have to mention something. While this blog is moderated by me, I have only refused to post less than ten comments in 7 years. I will not post comments that use cuss words and have never received one like that. I will not post names of suspects unless it has been previously reported, I have had a couple like that. I will not allow comments that include racial slurs and have never received one. Don't you find that refreshing, I know I do.

A reader of this site can read any of the comments and not feel insulted. Even the comments that disagreed with me or questioned my reasons for writing were respectful. I guess jerks don't read this blog. My applause to the people who do. What a polite and intelligent bunch of people you are. Thank you for that.

If you would like to see how most sites are, read their comment sections, including those for newspapers. Horrible, rude and racist.

Thoughts at the end of a day

The Telegraph - Humans could download brains on to a computer and live forever. This Cambridge neuroscientist is claiming that we will be able to download our brains into computers. Now this is just one more moron that believes in transhumanism; but, it really does speak to how they view us. As nothing more than biological machines.

Discovery - Newly Created Fungus Is Part Human, Part Yeast. Did we really need to create a living thing, yeast, using human genes?

Forbes - Kentucky Fried Pensions. The article goes into how the same states that failed to make payments into their pension funds as required are the same ones that are utilizing crooked people to invest the pensions in "alternative investments".

Happy Memorial Day - Bits and Pieces

Medium.com - Self-Driving Trucks Are Going to Hit Us Like a Human-Driven Truck. Here is the first paragraph from the article.

"Late last year, I took a road trip with my partner from our home in New Orleans, Louisiana to Orlando, Florida and as we drove by town after town, we got to talking about the potential effects self-driving vehicle technology would have not only on truckers themselves, but on all the local economies dependent on trucker salaries. Once one starts wondering about this kind of one-two punch to America’s gut, one sees the prospects aren’t pretty."

I know I have been talking about this technology for years; but, it is on our roads now and people don't want to believe it is here or that it will be prevalent over the next few years. Truck Drivers account for 3.5 million jobs with 5.7 million involved in the industry. It is the number one job in 29 states including California and New York. What happens when those jobs go away or are replaced by people making minimum wage?

Yahoo - Reuters - Global banks admit guilt in forex probe, fined nearly $6 billion. How is it that these banks continue to admit to stealing from us; but, nobody goes to jail?

Yahoo - AP - Oregon to test pay-per-mile idea as replacement for gas tax. This program starts July 1st of this year.

Late Night Television

David Letterman has retired and people have made a big deal about it. The truth is that while Letterman has done well, he did not bring anything new to late night television. The person responsible for late night talk shows was Steve Allen, the original host of the Tonight Show and that was back in the 1950s. Letterman's place in history will be as the last standard bearer of true late night television.

Back in the 1950s and 1960s television stations used to sign off for the night, they were not broadcasting 24/7. The Tonight Show proved that people, working people, would stay up past 11:30. Late night television when there was any was stations showing old movies, no on air personalities. Steve Allen changed that and then Johnny Carson made it an institution.

Carson was successful because he tailored his show to the fact that it was late night. Others tried to compete by duplicating daytime television and failed miserably. If there was another person who understood the time it was Tom Snyder. Tom understood that there was a limited audience at that time of night and that the tone had to reflect the time of day.

In the late 70s I moved to Massachusetts and there was a show on called "Up All Night". They had one camera, a cheap set and whoever they could get as guests. It was real local television. It is also where I first saw Jay Leno. He was a local comedian at the time and just getting a foothold in the business. He was a guest on the show. You don't see that anymore, local shows at night that would give local talent a chance to be seen.

Back in the day there was no cable television and no internet. When the stations shut down for the night the only media you could get was radio. Now we have all these media outlets and that has killed local programming at night. What a shame.

CIM Group and Water - Still Thinking of You

I was worried that I had not written about the CIM Group in awhile and didn't want them to think that I had forgotten them, I haven't. In fact, I have been thinking and reading about them a lot lately. I will promise to write a lengthy post about them in the future and their link to Ares Management, Apollo Global, Elliot Broidy, Alfred J.R. Villalobos (recently deceased via suicide) and Federico Buenrostro Jr. Really, I haven't forgotten about you all. In the meantime I will just make this little post.

Back in 2009 a man named J. Ari Swiller (a friend and advisor to then Mayor Villaraigosa) and CIM Group partnered up and bought some land that the City's Department of Water and Power wanted to buy. The land was in Kern county and was supposedly wanted by DWP to build a solar plant. Anyways, it came out in the news and CIM sold the property to another city that paid about the same price as CIM paid. CIM kept the water rights though. It is assumed that the water writes are worth even more than the land rights were so they have already doubled their money on the deal.

In the scheme of things that deal was highly suspicious and as CIM is funded by public pensions, I question the conflict of interests; but, it is only one piece in a large tapestry so I rarely think of it, until I read an couple of things this week.

Alliance Resource Consulting - Job Announcement - General Manager, Antelope Valley Water Storage.

Sorry, I got distracted. I will return to the water thing. You know, how do two friends from Israel get Visas and permanent status in the United States at the same time. I mean Walter O'Brien (the guy the show Scorpion is based on with a purported IQ of 197) had to get a an E11 visa. An E11 is for people with unusual skills of value to this country. How did Mr. Kuba and Mr. Shemesh get into this country in the first place? What are the rules for being given billions of dollars in public pension funds to companies owned by foreigners? Never mind, they must be citizens by now and that means that they had to apply for their visas and citizenship under a determined criteria. I bet that is public record. Do you have to report if you were in a foreign nations military to be allowed in this country or become a citizen?

That is right, we were talking about water. CIM bought land in the Antelope Valley and apparently the write to provide water storage for the area to the tune of 500,000 acres of underground water storage. The job description makes it clear that they will charge everytime an organization stores water with them, they overlook the water and another fee for when you ask for your water back. This is what happened after energy deregulation, it is how Enron made it's money, by controlling the supply chain. A market is being made for water that closely resembles other recent innovations in market creation. There is a name for that; but, I will remember and write about it later. Peace.