Pension Fraud, Redevelopment Agencies and the Useless Mainstream Media

Anyone who has been reading this blog from the beginning knows that I spent a lot of time putting the dots together regarding Community Redevelopment Agencies and their illegal interaction with public pension funds on shady investments. I also talked about the extreme corruption and bribery. I couldn't understand why the media in
California did not follow the trails.

Now Ron Kaye and Zuma Dogg are pulling up the same dots. They are both bloggers in the Los Angeles area with large followings, still the newspapers aren't posting this stuff or following up. According to Zuma Dogg subpoenas are being issued (finally) and yet I do not read about this in the LA Times or Daily News or even in the LA Weekly, I wonder why?

A number of years back when downtown was being converted to lofts I contacted the LA Weekly and gave them leads that would have taken this all public. I pointed out that the conversions were being done illegally, that asbestos removals were not being done properly (as anyone could see). In fact to remove asbestos one is supposed to seal the building and provide breathing equipment. In Los Angeles illegal aliens were used to remove the asbestos and they were given paper masks, the buildings were left completely open. The LA Weekly never investigated it, too much at stake.

At the heart of all of this is the corrupt redevelopment agencies that tax with the promise to help the poor, Staples is not poor, AEG is not poor and a new football stadium will not help the poor, how bout some housing or basic services. We are in a frigging recession and LA wants to build a football field with redevelopment money at the same time that it is closing all of it's libraries and laying people off. Would you rather have police, fire, libraries and roads or a new football stadium?

Anyways, here is a nice article from the Ventura County Star on why Redevelopment Agencies need to be abolished. Enjoy. As for me, I hope they put them all in jail. I will repeat what I have said before, I believe small cities will be folded into bigger ones to stop the special favors that they bestow on friends and themselves and redevelopment agencies will be exposed for the crooks they are.

Holding on to the Cookie

All around we see governments in turmoil and nobody wants to compromise. In Wisconsin we see the establishment refusing to compromise and deal with the unions directly. For their part, the unions are also unwilling to give anything up. One Wisconsin official was caught on Twitter saying that the police should use live ammo against the demonstrators, he was let go. He is probably trying to get a job in Libya working for Gaddafi.

Iraq is a good example, imagine believing that you are entitled to own a country and do whatever you want without being questioned for 40 years, what arrogance. In Rhode Island one city has decided to fire EVERY teacher. It is a good trick, they can then hire back without considering seniority, watch this happen in Los Angeles also.

One Governor (I beleive it is also Wisconsin) talked about beating protestors with a baseball bat to someone he believed was a billionaire friend and wasn't. There is no longer enough to go around as it once did. Mother Jones (a left wing magazine) just posted a very good article on how the rich got richer and the rest of us got poorer over the past few decades. It is true except it ignores how much the average person stole. It ignores the underground economy of theft and drugs and prostitution and gambling. That is a pretty big industry.

Behind everything we are seeing in the news are a few themes. One theme is the idea of decision making, who gets to determine the laws. Jean Jaque Rousseau was a great philosopher and he developed the concept of "The Social Contract" along with Locke and Hobbs. The idea is that "legitimate" government has the approval of the majority of the people. That government and the citizens have a tacit agreement. When the people do not support the government you have social collapse as is occurring in the middle east.

Another theme is the distribution of wealth, how countries determine who gets what. We have seen the average person take a pay cut while we have seen bankers and executives of companies that failed take enormous bonuses. Another example is the corrupt politicians in small towns that took outrageous salaries while cutting civil servants.

One thing we have seen occur in more than one state was people refusing to be evicted from their homes once they have been foreclosed on. This is the same as Gaddhafi refusing to leave, it is the idea that you are entitled and don't have to keep your promises, your social contract.

I guess what I am talking about is letting go, letting go of anything, how quickly and when do we let go? It is like the idea of bankruptcy, when should we be allowed to not meet our obligations. It could be a marriage, a company, a government, any kind of mutual agreement. After ending the old agreement, how do you decide what the future of the relationship will be?

My wife decided to divorce me, she broke her vows. I sought to reconcile and she did not wish to, we divorced. Many people have been in this situation. After the old agreement is ended, what relationship do you have with your ex? I choose to have none at present, we will only see each other at funerals, weddings and births, if at all. Others like Bruce Willis and Demi Moore choose to continue seeing each other, thier divorce appears to have been mutually agreed upon. The same thing can happen with governments.

In Egypt, Mubarak decided to leave of his own accord. In Libya Gaddafi will not step down. Gaddafi will probably be killed, at a minimum once deposed he will not be allowed to return. In Rhode Island the government found a neat little trick to avoid dealing with seniority issues with the teachers; but, now what. Once they fire them all and only hire back the ones they want, what trust will there be between them and the teachers? How do you make the system work when you cheated the end of the last one?

I want to go back to the beginning. How you reorganize society depends in a large part to how the old one ended, it is best when it ends by mutual consent, when there is still some trust left. Problem is nobody is willing to agree.

Spoke to a friend today

I have a friend in New York, we are sort of in the same industry. He called today and we talked about business and then about the world. I always enjoy talking to him about what is going on around us. My daughter likes him too.

The gentleman I spoke to met me at a bad time in my life. I was a train wreck, the only thing I still understood was my industry. I watched everything in my life go away or turn out to be lying to me. When your most basic understanding of your life turns out to be a lie your world is like water. When that happens to you, you have to go back to first principles and make sure you have defined yourself as you wished, I did and I had. If I had not been satisfied then I don't know where I would have looked, I guess I would have to start all over again.

Does the same thing apply to nations? I mean if a nation fails on it's most fundamental beliefs, does it have to start from scratch again? In Libya, Gadhaffi had his air force fire on civilians, that is how Russia lost to the communists. Already two of his pilots have defected, it is a hard thing to bomb your own family, most will not and cannot do it. When a government does something like that, it is almost impossible to get the support of the citizenry for anything. It is more likely that your military is about to turn on you as they did in Egypt.

BREAK:

While I was typing my computer locked up and I had to restart and repair, I have no idea what I was going to say and have completely lost my train of thought, sorry. Lets tell knock, knock jokes instead. Knock, knock. (This is where you are supposed to say, "Who's there"). I answer, "Mara" and then you say, "Mara who" and I say "Mara, Mara on the wall."

While I was writing earlier someone asked me a question, actually they brought up something. They brought up the fact that I have only been with one person. They told me how they thought this was probably very rare, I do not know that answer; but, it is probably true. I told them that I was happy with my decision and planned to be with only one more. I don't know why it was on their mind, it wasn't on mine. I was thinking about what I was writing and then the computer crashed.

While all of this was going on it occurred to me why he may have asked me what he did, he wondered how I might view him. He had referred to himself in a derogatory manner regarding how he had been with the ladies in the past. Men would like to think that women are better mannered (and historically they were), we would like to think that women are less impulsive and more moral. Young men do not feel that way anymore.

I don't look down on anyone, I don't know how to. I know how to disagree with what they do; but, we are all screwups. I screwed up with who I married, I fought hard to stay married; but, I married the wrong person. On some level I knew there was a problem in the beginning. Now, I will be with nobody or one other person. I don't want to keep learning the same lesson. I cannot look down on others who have also made the same mistake. The question is what is the mistake and how do we avoid making it again.

Lets start with the simplest things, lets respect each other and act in a caring manner. Wow, that was hard. Lets make love and affection important, lets have sympathy for pain regardless of why it exists. Lets take an attitude that everybody matters even that jerk next to you who is picking his nose and looking at it. I bet he still hurts when you kick him in the knee.

If we truly care about each other, we will wait for the right person rather than test them all and break hearts and have ours broken. I am glad and free by the fact that I can wait for the right person and look them in the eye and say, "I screwed up and then I waited for you". The other person might say that they did not wait and was with a few or many. The only question at that point is whether or not they knew I was the one for them.

I don't wish to be with someone who sees me as a sex machine, a friend with benefits, a booty call. I don't want to base our relationship on sex, I want that to be the smallest part, I want their soul, I want to be a soulmate, then we can have perfect sex. I thought we were supposed to fall in love and then have sex, apparently the world believes we are supposed to have sex and eventually will fall in love.

Forgot something, we have a new follower, don't know who it is. Still can't figure out how people find this little blog. Wait, I know who it is, Hi, internet is back up. LOL.

I may be erratic in my posting for a bit, I am still settling in and have to turn over the keys to my house this week. Please excuse me, I will try to find worthwhile things to talk about. Right now I believe the news I have posted is sufficient.

Why have the Chinese built cities with no people living in them? Who would nuke an empty City? Is that a possibility? That they did it in case they were nuked? LMAO. It is, in fact, a possibility. We live in a very weird world don't we?

I see two problems with the way we are, men are no longer gentlemen and women are no longer ladies. There are still some of each; but, we don't even revere the qualities anymore, we are confused by them. A gentleman never pushes a lady, he seeks one. A lady seeks a man who will exhibit honor and show integrity. Instead we seek the cookies and there are fewer and fewer to be found.

What do you wish for your children, that they sleep around alot until they find someone that they like? Do you wish them to have a good time, to emulate you? Do you wish them to be corrupt, cheat on their taxes and steal really well? I like the movie "The Godfather", heck I like the whole series. In the end, it is about doing wrong and hoping that your chidren will not emulate you, can't live that way, they will.

Same thing is true for a country, when you stop prosecuting the guilty and reward the corrupt, you are headed for a failure. Eventually everyone is out just for themselves and that guarentees failure, just like it did for Rome. History is wonderful. The Bible is a good account of a history and every civilization is made up of the same kind of people, the same mix. It is about the sytems that we create that dictate how we interact, the rules that define a nation.

Only freemen can pick good leaders; but, they have to understand who are better leaders. No leader can force people to follow, then he is not a good leader. What we are seeing in Egypt and Libya and the whole area is the recognition that you can't be a leader by force, only a tyrant and they all fall eventually, their systems are not sustainable, watch what happens in Korea.

So how do you repair any relationship, you start from basics and find out where you made your mistake and then find the relationship that is right for you. Same applies to governments or businesses, you have to finally accept that you failed, your company failed, your partners failed, your society failed and then start from the beginning, "Why are we together in the first place". The answer should be, "because we work well together and want to work together".

The reason I didn't sleep with other women is because I didn't get the first part right and had start over. I had to learn to be around women again, I needed to see what kind of gentleman I was. I needed to be with ladies and I was. I needed to understand that I could be loved and understand what I wanted to be with. I had to date as I never had. I had to finish my growing up because it was interrupted and accelerated. My whole life I was responsible and steady, I needed to be free to re-evaluate my choices and I still liked them, so I am still living by them.

This post is another complete mess; but, the man said, if you are a writer than write. So I do. Be well and have a great week.

Africa, the Middle East and being a partner

I have been busy and busy. Frantic drives back and forth to the high desert. I haven't even finished unloading my car. It was strange to see my house empty, it was strange to see the end so close. It happened so quick, life does that sometimes.

Every now and then I write about the purpose of life and the importance of relationships, sometimes they don't work out. You cannot make another person love you or even like you. You cannot make them have integrity or follow their vows or contracts, doesn't matter if the relationship is love or business.

People used to make more effort in their relationships. In business and in personal life I see little if any concern for relationships. I have a pretty good reputation in business and it makes a differance. Trust in business is rare anymore. On more than one occassion I have had people who did me wrong come to me and ask for my help, how many people can say that, how many have earned that respect, not many.

We have built a world around selfishness and self-interest, we revere "Looking out for number one". "They" say that we cannot love someone unless we love ourselves and that we cannot help others unless we take care of ourselves first, this is garbage. We hear phrases about how we "deserve" the best, nonsense. Too many look down on the homeless or the out of work. With a 20% unemployment rate (the real rate) everyone cannot get a job because there are not jobs out there for everyone.

There is revolution in the air all over Africa and the Middle East. There is even talk of revolution in China. We are seeing traditional governments uprooted in Europe. People in the United States are even talking about revolution. This is not a good thing. In Libya, the unheard of is happening, people are taking to the streets and their leadership is saying that they will kill everyone rather than lose power. That is madness. Neither the governments nor the citizens are any longer looking to work together.

I am sorry, you can hate President Obama and his policies; but, he was legally elected, I don't care if you think he isn't an American, he is. If he wasn't it still wouldn't matter. It is ridiculous to argue that children born here are not citizens and that they are Mexican because their parents were here illegally and then turn around and complain that Obama, whose mother was a US citizen, is not an American.

Personally, I don't like Obama's policies; but, he is our president. There have been many presidents I did not like; but, I respected their position. I can see a day when congress will pass laws and the citizens will have to approve them by a simple majority oever the internet. Gridlock results.

How do you repair a relationship once it is broken? Arnold Toynbee (the greatest of all historians) said that societies fail when they can no longer effectively deal with their challenges. It occurs when people stop trying to work together, I think we are just about there.

In Libya, the government is saying that it doesn't want to work with the people, in the United States and Europe people are saying they don't wish to work with their governments anymore. Where is compromise, there is none when people are only looking out for themselves. Rome is a great example, they survived bad leaders; but, could not survive when they collapsed from within because people only looked out for themselves.

Perhaps it is best to ask how societies start. They begin when people come together because they recognize that we have common needs and that it is easier to meet all of our needs by working together. If the society then rewards based on a basis of worth and effort it will flourish. Babies are the most selfish thing in the universe, they have to be taught empathy and team work. They have to be taught that others matter.

I am okay because I have good friends. It is one of the reasons why I don't just chuck it all and leave. I still care about my City, so I keep my job for the moment. I believe we can work together, I just don't see too many willing to stop chasing the darn cookies and try. Maybe that is what the Devil accuses us of day and night.

I believe we can change governments and nothing will improve. I believe we can vote on things directly and nothing will improve. I believe you can have all the prosperity in the world and not be successful. The Unibomber wrote a "manifesto", some in the tech field have quoted him. He was a Harvard graduate and one of the finest mathmaticians in the world. He believed we would allow technology to become our reality and that it would dehumanize us. He talked about what he believed to be a basic human need, the need to feel achievement.

Ted Kazynski believed that people needed to feel some sense of achievement and that if they could not do it in a meaningful way (ways that improved people's lives) then they could find it in sports or other things. He would be horrified by the virtual lives that people are living now. People go home to find their achievement in video games or on facebook. It is a purely subjective achievement.

Tomorrow is President's day, a day on which we recognize the people who have led our country, the United States. I will say a prayer for President Obama, not because I agree with him, because he has the worst job in the world and everybody can use a prayer. There are two things that have never hurt me, a prayer for me and a hug. Be well. I will post on the news soon enough, perhaps I will talk about the "extra" planet they are saying is in our solar system.

You gotta love it. First we are told that we may have two suns and then that we have an extra planet and we just figured it out. Have a great week.

I Am Back And Still Twisted

I finally have my internet connection back up and have a thing or two to say. Take care and wait. Be well.

Still no internet connection

Sorry all, no connection from my house. Be well. I will be back when I can.

Heard some bad news

Sorry guys, no big post tonight unless my mind completely wanders. My best female friend had a tragedy in her life. A young relative died in a freak accident. Freak accidents suck. It tripped my friend out and that is understandable. She is a strong woman; but, some stuff is very heavy. She will overcome.

We have lost one of the special ones, her relative was quite unique and brilliant. Special. One of my best male friends lost a son, that was heart wrenching. Sons should not die before fathers, that is how we all feel. I do not know for a fact, I only know what I feel. The older we get, the harder it is to watch the younger ones go. We would prefer to go first and not out of selfishness, there is so much more that we can do and the young don't get the chance to prove themselves.

That is how it feels, it may not be how it is. Perhaps they get it sooner and don't have to stick around; but, how can you tell that to a parent? There was a time that I was convinced that one of my children would die before I did. I prepared myself for it because I had to. It was shear hell and it almost came true a couple of times. As we age we have to accept that it does occur sometimes, I hate that; but, it is what it is.

I knew a woman, she hated God, she believed in him; but, hated him. She hated him because a young child had died and she said she couldn't love a God that took young children. I feel the opposite, this place ain't that great. Maybe only the good do die young. Hey, if there is nothing after this life than there is no God. If there is something after this life then it is probably a better place. We are all just doing time on planet earth and I believe it is so we can better understand our decision making, define ourselves.

Now, if there is life after this life than we are here for a reason. That is why I am completely against suicide. It is a philosophical issue. The apostle Paul spoke well, he wished to leave this place; but, he said his job was to give it all up till the end. He was an amazing guy. Sometimes I wonder about the people in the bible, how their lives seemed to them. If you have read any of the apostles you should wonder how they saw their lives, not like we do. They got up, hit the restroom, ate, went out to get abuse, came home, ate, talked about their day and went to bed. Peter got nailed to a cross and had it turned upside down, that doesn't sound fun.

Imagine Noah's life. What a joke that was. God talks to him one day (like that is easy) and he tells Noah to build a big boat. Wait, it gets better, then he tells Noah that he is going to kill everyone on the earth. I bet Noah was a pretty chipper guy, how do you take what he was told. Yeah, everyone is gonna die but you? You think he was happy, I doubt it.

After everyone died, Noah got hammered. I mean the guy got piss drunk and passed out. His sons found him and one of them laughed at him, the others covered him. Why did Noah get piss drunk? Nobody ever asks these questions. Noah knew God and got sloppy drunk and God loved him. Why? Because God knew how challenged Noah had been and knew that Noah needed a break. If you never had it good, God will give you a break. The break was small for Noah, everyone was dead except the small remnant. He knew it was coming and had to watch it, knowing what it meant. That sounds heavy.

I drove down the street. It was dark, that happens when it is 11:00 at night, it gets dark. The street lights illuminated the road like so many pearls on a string. I followed the lights even more than the lines on the road. The lights knew the way. I traveled till I got to where we were to meet. I like that, sort of Raymond Chandleresque. Be well.