OK, geniuses, come up with a better idea(s).

Up to this point, I have been supporting Congressional efforts to provide financial relief as a result of the impacts of the Chinese virus, AKA Kung Flu, AKA COVID-19, AKA Wuhan Virus, etc.

As a result of that support, right wingers have accused me of everything up to and including becoming a socialist.

What NONE of them have been able to do is come up with ANY viable alternative.

I spent 6 years on Legislative staff in Olympia. I was frequently met with complaints about what was going on in Sodom-on-Sound.

What I was rarely met with were viable alternatives.

Over the years, I'm learned that anyone can complain. It's easy. I've certainly done it myself.

But when *I* do it, I have alternatives to what's being done. I have the same thing I demand from others: Viable alternatives.

What those on the far right are doing is complaining incessantly. All of this, you see, makes them feel both better and superior.

"Our rights are disappearing. We shouldn't be spending a dime on bail-outs. We're becoming slaves. This is all fake. It's an excuse for government over reach. You're a statist boot-licker."

Etcetera.

OK, says I.... come up with better ideas.

Many of these coalflakes have no idea what else to do. Cryptic responses to this challenge will typically go like this:

Consider not begging government. Go home, pray, read the bible. That sort of thing.

Oh, yeah, and by the way, another anti-vaxxer steps up and claims "high doses of vitamin C will fix all of this."

Apparently, the now-dead doctors who've been treating this have been completely unaware that the internet generally and facebook particularly contained such high levels of medical genius from people who have no more of any idea about what they cut and paste than they do how to perform an abdominal resection.

So, here's the thing. Thousands have died around the world from this disease. Tens of thousands more are likely to, 738 died in Italy along just yesterday.

I make the following request from the naysayers:

When you get any kind of aid from any government source related to this situation, reject it.

If you or your family get a check of any kind, tear it up.

If they develop a vaccine effective against this virus, refuse it and refuse any medical treatment that you would otherwise need as a result.

Document your efforts to walk the walk. Take pictures of the shredded check(s). Take pictures/video of you refusing any medical treatment.

And if you're going to whine, bitch, moan and complain.... without coming up with realistic, viable, working alternatives?

Then spare us. You're just becoming background noise anyway.

More idiocy from Gas Tax Rivers: corporate boards and "self-identifying as a woman."

For the past 5 years, Sen. Ann "Gas Tax" Rivers has tilted steadily left while "representing" the 18th District.

Among her other accomplishments has been to lie about her opposition to the largest gas tax and tab fee increases in the history of this state, increases that cost the people of Clark County $700 million; her bungling of the sellout on the McCleary budget scam that cost us... and will cost us, 10's of billions of dollars among others.

To that list, we can add this particular idiocy, SB6037, Corporate Board Gender Diversity.

Rivers has come up with the perfect excuse for supporting the same bill that Nancy Pelosi wanted to ram down America's throats as part of her stimulus package extortion yesterday:  Go to the 17:20 mark.

When asked to remove her cosponsorship of this insanity, she responded thusly:

thank you for sharing your concerns with me regarding SB 6037. I supported this bill because of the changes made to it. Previously, it imposed financial fines on companies that did not have female representation and it applied to all companies in our state. From the minority side, in order to make changes to the bill, we needed to support it. In the final version, we got the fines replaced by a simple statement explaining why women weren't on the board. We also got it applied to just publicly traded companies, which greatly reduced the number of businesses this applies to. The businesses still covered are fairly large corporations that either already meet these requirements or can easily explain why, if they do not. While I don't agree with the premise of the bill, these important changes were necessary and in order to get them I had to vote for the bill. While[sic] might not agree on this issue, I am sure there are many others that we stand shoulder to shoulder on. Thanks again for reaching out!

Besides the obvious: there never was a reason to support this bill, period, fines or no, Rivers co-sponsorship of this bill made zero difference except to cement her leftist cred.

The reality is this is government forcing their view down the throats of company's ownership and direction based not on gender alone, but by those who IDENTIFY as women.

9 must have a gender-diverse board of directors or that public company

10 must comply with the requirements in subsection (2) of this section.

11 For purposes of this section, a public company is deemed to have a

12 gender-diverse board of directors if, for at least two hundred

13 seventy days of the fiscal year preceding the applicable annual14 meeting of shareholders, individuals who self-identify as women

15 comprised at least twenty-five percent of the directors serving on

16 the board of directors.

So, you don't actually have to BE a woman... you just have to SAY you're a woman.

Seriously.

No Republican should EVER support increasing government authority, particularly of this leftist affirmative action ilk.

And, of course, the idiocy of claiming "While I don't agree with the premise of the bill, these important changes were necessary and in order to get them I had to vote for the bill."

Think about this for a minute.  It's a cute response in an effort to try and justify her leftist bent.  Kinda like Herrera's justification for voting to continue Obamacare.

Using this reasoning, Rivers can effectively ALWAYS vote like a democrat.

Using this reasoning, she can cosponsor ANY democrat bill.

Even though I don't agree with the premise of the bill, these important changes were necessary and in order to get them I had to vote for the bill.Why, I had to do X, because my mere presence as a cosponsor made this bad bill better, and I had to vote for it or ALL of the changes (which wouldn't have happened if *I* hadn't cosponsored and voted for this bill) or else...…"

Or else what?

Rivers pulled this same scam to justify our betrayal on the gas tax she had pledged to oppose:

See the pattern?

Now she has formulized her incessant betrayals on the bills that matter.  Slowly but surely, she gnaws away at our paychecks, while blowing up property taxes and attacking our rights.

She never makes a mistake that she admits to.  She always finds excuses as she did above... when she blamed her "political naivete'" for making a pledge to get elected that she had no intention of keeping... a "political naivete'" after having served on legislative staff in the Alaska for years and having been a political consultant, state representative and state senator for at least 12 years.

It will never change as long as she's in office.  And it's long past time for her to go.

MY thoughts on the Corona Virus (Kung Flu)

It's difficult not to think about it, since it's in our face 24/7.

I'm in what has been declared to be the highest risk group: 60+

So, I'm taking what I consider to be practical precautions. I'm also waiting and seeing... while I look at impacts around the world.

Some of them are pretty bad.

Facebook is filled with conspiracy theories written by people who have no more idea about this issue than they do on how to perform and abdominal resection.

Many of these posts are pure bullshit, comparing long since dead outbreak totals with the Corona virus impacts which have just started.

Those "comparisons" are statistically irrelevant and frequently use completely outdated numbers to "prove" their point.

The policy of this group is to keep all posts up, excluding those that we get warned about: neither of us will risk the continuation of the group to satisfy the desire of people to spread their perspective around the internet. And that includes the high volume of posts from those who are merely parroting what they've been told.

They post this stuff, it would seem, in an effort to convince people that their position is right.

For most of my life, I've been hearing or seeing a variation of the that same theme concerning Christianity.

If Christianity doesn't exist... then what harm has been caused by living a Christian life, or as close to it as possible?

If Christianity DOES exist... well, we've been acquainted with the harm that guessing wrong will cause you.

Which brings me to why I wrote this post.

THIS post, for example, is designed to be informative, not to tell you what or how to think.

MY conclusions, therefore, are mine alone. You, of course may, and no doubt will, think what you want. That's up to you.

But here's the reality: I'm not remotely interested in conspiracy theories concerning this issue.

Rightly or wrongly, We The People voted Inslee the power to respond the way he has in a recent election. Look up SJR8200, which WE passed by a 2:1 margin, granting the governor emergency powers, my thoughts of his idiotic political actions aside

There are many who feel both Inslee and the President have acted unconstitutionally. There are many, historically, who felt that Lincoln and Roosevelt acted unconstitutionally when they suspended habeas corpus.

The Supreme Court disagreed.

People are dying. ONE death is one too many. The nature of these responses to these deaths is based on the unknown. NO ONE knows how many will be infected. NO ONE knows how many will die from this.

I find myself in the position of supporting the actions of government in this matter for a few simple reasons.

1. Here in Washington State, WE gave Inslee these powers. We cannot, on one hand, enable him to do these things and then bitch when he does them.

2. NO ONE has a complete handle on this issue. Both sides quote doctors and articles and everything that goes with it. Both sides "prove" their points.

3. Many of these same attitudes have been expressed on a variety of issues, such as HIV and so forth.

I don't know a whole lot about medicine. And as a result, I've adopted a "wait and see" attitude.

I may be wrong. But I'm not willing to bet my life or anyone else's on it.

By all means, think what you like. As for me?

When the alternative is martial law?

I'll get over it.

And, BTW? Leave Franklin out of it.

(If you have any better ideas, then feel free to put them here. But coming across like an anti-vaxxer won't help your case.)

Time to STOP trying to justify our opposition to the Sexxx bill

This was a response to a leftist trashing opposition to this insane bill.  (SB5395)

The premise here is that she wants to know what basis we have for opposing this idiocy and she'd "really like to know."

Here is my response:

No you wouldn't. Your mind is made up and you'll deflect anyone who wrote anything in response.

See, this issue is up to parents. I get that as a leftist, you believe parental rights are an arcane concept, and that as parents, you demand that we be totally responsible for everything our kids do, including financially responsible, while believing in simultaneously decreasing parental authority every way you can.

You assign adult rights to children and cut the parents out as part of your communist agenda.... all while we remain responsible for our kid's actions.  That attitude would fit in perfectly with Stalinists or Nazis.

Our theoretical 14 year old daughter gets an abortion without our knowledge. Complications set in, and we wind up taking her to the hospital, where she hopefully survives.

Who pays for that? Who helps the daughter that now may no longer ever be capable of having kids when she's an adult?

See, as parents, we don't have to justify any decision we make to you, or to government.

When we say "no" to this, then "no" it is.

And what this has accomplished, besides reinforcing the reality that schools are less for education and more for inculcation, is that it will result in a massive exodus from our horrific, non-performing schools that are pumping out illiterate cretins instead of educated adults.

In many school districts, we're lucky if 50% of kids perform at grade level, massive, unjustifiable, unconscionable pay raises notwithstanding, and this idiocy will take even more time away from what kids are in school to learn: math, reading, English and science.

Not that any of that matters to you.

That was my response and it needs to become our response.

We don't have to justify opposition to any bill or rule... because our opposition will not make any difference to their agenda.

That we oppose it is enough.  Why we oppose it makes zero difference to those supporting this.  So stop trying to justify or explain the basis for our opposition because there is NOTHING we can say that will convince any of them.

There is an initiative being written up to repeal this stupidity.  Let's focus our efforts on that.