A word about trolls. What the hell are they, anyway?

 Well friends, trolls are a peculiar breed of human being. They've been around for years, ever since blogs and comments first appeared. Now normal people, like the readers of this fine blog make comments about blogs, or respond to someone else's comments, typically in a positive way, or  if they disagree they try to do so without starting a war. That's what healthy mentally stable people do. That's because they have lives and friends and family and they learned early in life how to interact with people.

Trolls are a whole different story. Typically trolls are people who have miserable lives, who have no friends. Nobody likes them. People avoid them. If you see them at a group function, they will be the guy in the corner all by himself stuffing his fat face with the appetizers. Nobody will be talking to him, because they know what will happen. He will go on bizarre rants, or say something wildly inappropriate.

But they love blogs. They can say anything, hiding behind a keyboard, never seen. They can insult, be rude, nasty whatever. But what they really like to do is start shit. They never actually add to the conversation. They don't express opinions, dispute facts or present alternative views. They say things with the sole intention of pissing people off, hoping to get a response and start a war. That's what they live for.

We have one of those that lurks on America's Blog. We moderate his comments so they never get seen. He still posts them. Sometimes a dozen a day or more. When Kevin sees them, he deletes them so I never see them. Same with me. But still he posts. He reads every word of every blog and every comment every day.

The fact that nobody ever sees his nasty posts doesn't stop him at all. He continues.

If I mention him in a comment, it seems to make him  happy and he posts a little less. If we ignore him, it makes him mad and he posts like crazy. 

He always warns us that he flags our posts all the time. He imagines I guess somebody out there cares. Here's the truth. Google host a lot of blogs. A lot. Estimates are in the tens of millions. So you can only imagine how many flags and complaints they get from the Karens of the world about people saying things they don't like. And you can imagine how much time they spend actually worrying about it. So I imagine our troll's posts just go straight to a spam folder. Cause after all those thousands of complaints, not a word from Google. Never a blog deleted or blocked. Not a post deleted. Not a word of warning or a caution. So on we go.

Anyway, this was just to let you know, as far as I'm concerned the troll doesn't exist any longer. No more comments, no more kicking his ass on the blog. No mention of him again. That just makes him happy. So, he is persona non grata as far as I am concerned. He can post all he wants, we'll do what we always do. Select all, delete. He can flag and complain and screen shot all he wants. I don't care. He's a POS and isn't worth the trouble. So goodbye troll. You will disappear as fast as you post, just like always. Enjoy you pathetic life. And keep reading every word we post. Maybe you'll learn something.

Back to business

 With all respect to Kevin and Linda's situation, I thought we might get back to what we do. While constantly continuing in prayer and support for them, I thought I would put up a blog. If I'm wrong, please let me know. It can come down. But this blog has always stayed in the fight, so here we go.

Let's talk about minimum wage. The democrat/communist party is fighting hard for a $15/hr minimum wage. And that would just be the start. It would over time go up, we all know that. So what's wrong with that idea? Don't untrained unskilled unmotivated workers deserve to get paid more than they are worth just because? Simple answer, no.

Labor is a commodity on the free market. Your labor is worth what an employer decides it is worth. In the free market system we are currently under, that's the price of everything. Mostly. I have something I make. Some gadget. I want to sell it. You want to buy it. I name my price, you decide if my gadget is worth the price. If you think it is, then you buy it. We're both happy. I have money now, you have the gadget. That's called free trade. Everything sold operates under that idea, including labor.

Any employer decides how much you add to his profit and pays wages accordingly. If you are being paid less than your skills are worth on the open market, get another job. If you don't think you are making enough money, acquire new skills. I learned computer skills when I wanted a better job. Excel, Word, Access. And I got a better job because my skills were of use to my boss. But when the government gets involved and fixes market prices, the market system gets damaged.

Now, why is that important today? Because the children running this country are Marxists. Marxism is based on the idea that there are oppressors and oppressed. If you work for a company, they are oppressing you. You wage is based on your skills. But Marxism says it should be based on how much money the owner makes and you are entitled to a share. Marxism exists based on the worst human qualities. Greed and envy. You have more than me. I am entitled to my share of what you have just because. Doesn't matter how hard you worked to achieve success. Or how little I worked. Greed and envy says you have to share the wealth with me.

How often do you hear these days "we just want the wealthy or the corporations to pay their fair share"? Well, what's your fair share of what I earn? But that's a pretty easy sell to a nation that has been slowly converted to beggars dependent on taxpayers handing over their wealth to them so they can live without working.

The Marxists believe employers are obligated to follow their rules, even if it bankrupts them. Which is usually does. But our system, the best system ever invented works pretty well. The market controls the flow of goods. Prices are controlled by supply and demand. Demand being the magic word. Make a poor product, or charge too much and it won't sell. Make good stuff and it will.

It's not anybody's job to supply you with goods without making money. If they don't make money, they have no incentive to produce and sell goods. Adam Smith in the Wealth of Nations said this:

“It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own self-interest. We address ourselves not to their humanity but to their self-love, and never talk to them of our own necessities, but of their advantages”

So this is why we are so alarmed at the constant pressure to adopt Marxist ideas. CRT is Marxism rebundled. Oppressed and oppressors. Bernie Sanders is a Marxist. Most of the democrat/communist party are Marxist now. It's the constant mantra from them. 

So when you hear their talking points, look for the Marxist ideas buried in there. And remember, Karl Marx was a bum who never worked but lived off the support of his friends. He was a horrible person, but his ideas have thrived because greed and envy never go out of fashion.

So that's it. Keep praying for Kevin and Linda. I am.

We're all with you, Kevin

 I'm sure you all saw Kevin's news on the blog. I know I speak for everybody when I say our prayers are with Kevin and his wife, and we will continue to pray for them. God can handle this. 

I'm not going to go into some long theological diatribe here. Not the time or place. But I will say this. God loves us. And God wants the best for us in everything. I believe if God does something, he has a reason. We can't always understand. But God will make this work for his purposes.

Kevin has always been the leader of this little pack of malcontents, going back to the CJ Urinal days. He had a blog back then, and he still does. We have all followed him for many many years, most of us. And we all consider him a friend. And friends stand together through good times and tough times.

So speaking for me and my house, we'll be standing with you. Not much we can do from here, but we will stand fast on God's word. We will pray. 

And Kevin, I want you to know we're all there for you.

That's all I got. That's all I can really say. But old friends are rare, and I feel like you are all my old friends. And I know you'll all be there for him back in Topeka, because that's who you are. You even have a pastor among the ranks who can give Kevin a lot more comfort than I can.

So start the fight, brother. We'll all do what we can.

What's happening out here in the land of fruit and nuts? Or the left coast as we call it.

 Well, all kinds of things. As you all know, I moved out here two years ago to be near the family. Daughter, her hubby and our charming now six year old grandson. We love that, no regrets. The Chinese flu fouled things up for a year, we haven't seen them as much as we would have liked, but overall it's good.

It's a beautiful place, no doubt. Mountains. The ocean with the many beaches. Deserts. Everything you want. Great restaurants. Lots of fun stuff. But the politics. Oh my God, the politics.

California was once a great state. Ronald Reagan was President. They were prosperous. A working person could afford a house. Taxes were reasonable. California was one of the great success stories of America. 

During the dust bowl, thousands of okies and others who were wiped out migrated here to work picking crops. Central California, where I live was home to them. Their influence here is still strong. Merle Haggard wrote songs about it. But somewhere it all changed.

Today, the democrat/communists have total control. Taxes are the highest in the nation. Gas taxes are the highest in the nation. And just went up six cents yesterday. The poverty level is the highest in the nation. We have more homeless and illegal aliens than any other state. They pass laws constantly that are insane. Examples:

You can steal up to $950 at any given time without being arrested. Just a minor offense. So, shoplifting and theft is out of control. Stores in San Francisco are closing because they can't absorb the cost of theft. And they can't stop them when they catch them, because the crime is so minor.

No bail. You just walk out of jail on a promise.

And they've released thousands of violent criminals from prison for no apparent reason, so the streets are filled with these people.

But, things change sometimes. The Supreme Court just reversed on of the laws the commies passed. It required non profits to release the names of their donors. This was obviously aimed at Conservatives, and the democrat/communist party had plans to expose the names of donors to prevent people in the future from donating out of fear of the same.

The commies didn't count on a whole bunch of right and left organizations suing, and winning. So that got shut down.

But this state truly is a mess. They claim to be prosperous. But the liabilities are hidden. They owe trillions in unfunded liabilities, primarily government pensions. See, if you work for the state of California, say a teacher, when you retire you get your full salary for life. So that adds up.

Anyway, that's just a little look at what it's like to live here. Crime, theft, poverty, high taxes, gas at $4.39 a gallon. Highest electric rates in the country, with occasional blackouts because they can't produce enough power to keep the lights on. No water, because the greenies refused since the sixties to build reservoirs to store water, and they let the water flowing from the north flow to the ocean, for the fish. Starve thousand of farmers and farm workers, but the fish are happy.

It's something else. If it wasn't for the family I never would have come. But they make it all worth it. So I'll stay. We're about to recall the commie governor so maybe that will change things. I doubt it.