Showing posts with label target. Show all posts
Showing posts with label target. Show all posts

Sunday, August 30, 2026

August, 2026, Part 2, Political Class Insanity: A California Rail Project May Finally Die, A Teachers' Union That Does Not Care About Teaching, and Food Poisoning On the Menu In LA

 We have spent a  lot of blog time recently on trying  to figure out which state or city government will go bankrupt first and the massive amount of criminal fraud that exists within many government programs. However, that does not  mean that other, regular political class insanity has stopped:


1)We have often written  about the total fiasco known as the California bullet train project. It was supposed to create a high  speed rail line to run from the northern part of the state to the southern  part of the state and deliver fast, efficient train  service. It should have been completed years ago but it is  nowhere close to being  completed despite billions of dollars already being spent.


And it appears that this political class  dream is finally going  to die forever:


  • According to a report from the  state’s office of the  Inspector General, the unfinished project “will  exhaust its current  funding  resources  as  soon as  December 2027 if it does not secure funding.”

  • The  report went on to say the project faces an almost $10 billion funding gap over the next five years and there is no plan right now to find that funding  in the state government  budget

  • Furthermore, there were "significant concerns" regarding the transparency and ever slipping completion date of the project.

  •  Not surprising since the current completion date estimate is 2034 and  there  is nothing in  the history of the project that says this is a hard date.

  • State politician Vince Fong, long an opponent of the project, called it for what it  is:  “California’s High-Speed Rail is the quintessential example of government mismanagement. I’ve called it out since day 1. Californians were promised a completed rail 6 years ago. Today we’ve spent billions and billions, for a total of zero trains. Gavin Newsom owes us an explanation. And an apology. It’s beyond time to shut this down.”


Another failure for the American political  class: lofty goals, massive budget overruns, grossly missed implementation dates, non-transparent disclosures, etc. This one had it all.


2)We have  often discussed the overall failure of the  public education  system in this  country:


  • Our discussion on  how a Baltimore high school  graduating class had  about 70% of its members reading  at only the third grade level or below.

  • How the  U.S. kids rank behind dozens  of  other countries’ kids when  it comes to education  proficiency.

  • How over  90% of Detroit public school  eighth graders were NOT proficient in  math and reading.


Given  the  sorry state of  most of  the public  education  complex in this country ,one  would expect and hope teachers  and  their union to be laser focused on  improving this dismal performance. But that hope  is probably not going to happen,  given  the latest from the teachers’ main union:


  • Randi Weingarten  is  the leader  of the American Federation  of Teachers.

  • One would hope that she  would be the leader  in improving school performance.

  • However, she has other priorities including badgering the Target  department store company for not kowtowing to  her demands  relative to illegal immigrants.

  • She is urging parents not to shop for back to school needs because Target has not condemned ICE actions against illegal immigrants, many of whom are rapists, murderers, drug  traffickers,  sex traffickers, and child abusers.

  • Specifically:  “We gave Target ample time to stand with the communities in which they operate and help their neighbors, but its silence about federal immigration abuses has been deafening, We wrote letters, passed resolutions and reached out to management in good faith but have yet to see any meaningful movement. The issue could not be more pressing. Seven months since the murders of Alex Pretti and RenĂ©e Good, masked ICE agents are still in our streets, our schools and our communities, terrorizing families in the name of Donald Trump’s illegal and immoral assault on immigrants striving for their American Dream. That’s why we’re urging our members to avoid Target and patronize more ethical shopping alternatives this back-to-school season.”


Seriously, your job  is to  educate  kids, and you are doing a very bad job at that,  and yet you are wasting time and energy and priorities to address an issue the union  has no reason to address? ICE is enforcing the law of the land relative to illegal immigrants. Renee  Good and Alex Pretti were illegally and violently  interfering with that obligation  and law enforcement. 


Ms  Weingarten,  stay in your lane and  do  what you have failed to  do: properly educate American  kids.


3)So many times  we have discussed the role that the government should play in our lives  with the utmost primary goal being  to protect the lives and property of the citizens of any government entity it serves. Most of the time we have discussed this basic tenet in the context of police and judicial protections. 


But there are also other  government functions that should be used to protect citizens’  lives. One of those would be public health  functions  that make sure that food, water, and  other common life necessities are safe  for consumption  and use via a board of health  duties


But apparently the mayor of Los Angeles, Karen  Bass, does not  understand that a basic  function of her  administration  is board of health functions and  safety relative to the selling of food and meals  in the city:


  • Most rationally run  cities have a  formal board  of health function that makes sure that restaurants and other food servers  comply with  hygiene and health  code rules and regulations  to ensure the safety of the citizens consuming that food.

  • That requires regular inspections of food processing operations and the  paying for permit  fees by those food providers.

  • Again, a very basic function of government, protecting the safety of its  citizens.

  • But Bass has prioritized illegal  immigrants’  welfare over the food safety of her  own U.S. citizens.

  • According to Breitbart reporting, Bass  ordered the LA Police Department  to  stop issuing criminal citations for  food vendors, many of whom are illegal  immigrants, in the streets of the  city for  not conforming to board of health  regulations and permitting rules.

  • Specifically:  “Street vending is a quintessential part of LA’s world-class food scene and a livelihood for thousands of hardworking Angelenos. Supporting LA’s street vendors is more important than ever given ongoing attacks by ICE.”

  • Thus, the hell with  public health, it  is more important to protect illegal immigrants from Federal law enforcement officers  enforcing the laws of the land, than public food safety.

  • Breitbart further reported that  there are about 50,000 food vendors in the city while the  city government has issued  only 700 active  board of health permits.

  • Those 700 food vendors pay fees, subject themselves to board of health inspections and  possible  fines, and comply with health code  laws and rules while tens of thousands of others get a free ride.

  • Thus, in addition to massive homeless encampments in  the city, there are thousands and  thousands  of illegal and unregulated food vendors  also  setting up  shop  on the  streets with no fear of being  arrested or fines, adding another dimension  to  the  zoo that is  LA.

  • These vendors may not always  comply with food sanitation rules  and common sense food storage and prep rules, endangering any consumers  of food from these unlicensed and uninspected food vendors.

  • Los Angeles County is following Bass’ lead on  dangerous food vending: “The Los Angeles County Health Department, citing immigration enforcement efforts by the Trump administration, last fall suspended all enforcement of thousands of noncompliant street food vendors who have proliferated with the massive influx of illegals under the Biden administration.”

  • Again,  the welfare of illegal immigrants at the county level is more important  than  the  food safety for citizens.

  • As a result  of  this negligence in enforcing  common  sense  board of health rules, the county reported almost 3,000 reported food poisoning  instances in 2025 with the feeling  being that the unreported instances of food poisoning never get reported is far greater  than 3,000.

  • Thus, on  average at least eight LA citizens  in the city and county  are getting  food poisoned every day.

  • One citizen on  social media pointed  out how ridiculous this  is: “You do everything legally, pay rent, employees, taxes, business licenses, and a street food vendor pops up across the street with no overhead, no license, cash only, and undercuts your business. L.A. city officials suck.”


Another example  of where Democratic and liberal politicians care more about  the welfare of illegal immigrants than their  own citizens. They give illegal immigrants free food, free  shelter,  free medical care, and other free services while Americans suffer from homelessness, food insecurity, and other unresolved problems.


And now in LA, illegal immigrant food vendors  are more important than legally run American citizen food establishments and operations, resulting in potentially massive health  harm by the unlicensed  and uncontrolled illegal immigrant  street food vendors.


Enough  insanity for  today: food poisoning  on the menu in LA, a teachers’  union that cares more  about politics than teaching, and a boondoggle project  may finally die.


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Sunday, November 3, 2019

November, 2019, Part 3,Political Class Insanity: Was Epstein Murdered, Math is Racist In Seattle, and Another $15 Minimum Wage Failure

It is another month which means it is again time to review the latest political class insanity from Washington and around the world. Political class insanity takes many forms including the wasting of taxpayer wealth, criminal fraud within government programs, inane and stupid political quotes and actions, the inability to create and implement effective and efficient government programs, stupid and ill performing economic policies and strategies, and other forms of insanity that continue to evolve and surprise and shock us.

Let’s get started:

1) It is our opinion that there is nothing too low, too dastardly that the American political class would not do to protect their power and greed. Which raises an interesting conspiracy theory: is the sudden interest in impeaching Trump for no notable or unlawful offenses just a cover to divert attention away from the Jeffrey Epstein pedophile scandal? Recall that Epstein was the famous pedophile that had been associated with many famous people including Democrats Bill Clinton, George Mitchell, Bill Richardson, and others.

Could it be that Democratic party powers have a lot more to hide and lose relative to pedophile Epstein and needed to get attention off of the suicide/murder of Epstein and that is why this false impeachment scenario is playing out and having the press obsess about it? While attention has been on the impeachment circus, consider some of the latest revelations in the Epstein matter that the mainstream press has basically ignored:
  • According to famous forensic pathologist Dr. Michael Baden, who sat in and observed Epstein’s autopsy, there is, in his professional opinion, an excellent chance that Epstein was murdered and did not take his own life.
  • In a Fox News interview, he says all of the evidence points to a likely murder.
  • According to the Fox interview: “Baden said the autopsy’s findings were more easily explained by homicidal strangulation, not suicide by hanging. Specifically, the doctor noted that Epstein suffered two fractures on the right and left sides of his throat at his Adam’s apple, and one fracture on a small bone just above his Adam’s apple.”
  • Furthermore: “Those three fractures are extremely unusual in suicidal hangings and could occur much more commonly in homicidal strangulation.” 
  • He said that in his 50 years of experience he had never seen those injuries in a suicide situation.
  • Thus, in his view, the official autopsy report is likely wrong and that Epstein was murdered.
Now, the doctor could be wrong. This rush to impeachment could have nothing to do with Epstein’s death. This conspiracy theory could be totally wrong. But we have seen in this blog many times how the political class will do anything to maintain the status quo and the murder of Epstein, especially since it involves the ultimate political power couple, the Clintons, does give one pause. 

Keep in mind that the embedded powers in Washington, including the Obama administration, the FBI, the CIA, and others in D.C. went to extreme lengths to create and push the Trump/Russia collusion fallacy to protect their own self interests. Two years ago few Americans would have believed that government entities would actually try to usurp a valid Presidential election. You cannot make that statement today. And if they were willing to overturn an election, it is not a stretch to think they would kill a pedophile to protect their interests.

2) In many liberals’ minds everything in the world today is racist. A Betsy Ross flag is racist according to Nike. The New York Times believes that suburban front lawns are racist. The list is endless which leads us to the observation: when everything is racist than nothing is racist. Trying to associate front lawns with the real racism battles that have been fought for equality is just plain stupid. And a disgrace to those brave individuals who stood up and faced real racism over the years and in some cases died for their bravery.

Which brings us to the latest idiocy when it comes to calling everyone and everything racist:
  • According to an article by Warner Todd Huston on October 24, 2019 on the Godfather Politics website, somehow the buffoons running the Seattle public schools have concluded that mathematics is racist.
  • Not that mathematicians are racists, the use of numbers is somehow racist.
  • According to the article: “The Seattle Public School system seems to feel that math is racist and the course needs to have “ethnic studies” added because math is a tool of “racial oppression.”
  • The school system has actually put a committee together to take racism out of math.
  • Apparently, according to the powers to be, there are different math “frameworks” and that the committee wants to eliminate the idea that there is only racist “western” math.
  • In the most ridiculous assertion, the committee claims that math is “subjective” and denies the concept that a math answer could be “right.”
  • Also, the committee somehow found that math is “used to disenfranchise people and communities of color.”
In the real world, two plus two is four, regardless of what version of math you are using. That is the beauty of math, it is precise, it is universal, it is unemotional. To think that 1) there are multiple answers to two plus two and 2) that somehow answer to two plus two is not necessarily four is ridiculous beyond belief. 

There are one and/or two processes at work here. Educators have nothing better to do than come up with this nonsense rather than become better teachers or that this is part of a bigger, Orwellian plot where both language and math is corrupted and usurped to serve those in power. I do not know the true reason for this nonsense but it is nothing but nonsense and a waste of time and taxpayer resources. It diverts attention from the failure of government controlled education to actually educate our kids.

When everything is racist, including math, then nothing is racist.

3) We have often pointed out the idiocy of having politicians force higher and higher minimum wages onto the marketplace. In all cases, the people that higher and higher minimum wages are supposed to help, the lower earning workers in the economy, the worse and worse the economic plight of those very people becomes.

Businesses only have a fixed amount of money they can use to operate their businesses. So when a government entity forces them to spend that limited amount of money on higher and higher wages, other parts of a business suffer. Often that means that businesses have to cut expenses and often the expenses they cut are their labor costs.This results in the cruel reality: the good news is that your hourly pay rate went up, the bad news is that you no longer have a job because I had to cut labor expenses.

We have seen this reality happen across the country whenever politicians mandate higher and higher minimum wages. And it recently happened at the Target department store chain where higher wages actually made workers worse off economically:
  • According to Bradley Cortright, writing for the Independent Journal Review, Target announced in 2017 that it would raise the minimum wage paid to its employees to $15 an hour by the end of 2020.
  • At that time, the move drew praise from liberals and labor organizers across the country.
  • But according to a report by CNN Business, things are not going well for Target employees despite the higher wages.
  • While wages at Target have been going up, the number of hours Target is giving employees to work has been going down, offsetting the higher wage rate per hour.
  • In many cases, employees are taking home less in their paychecks despite being paid higher per hour wage rates.
  • CNN Business found one Target employee who was paid more than before but her hours had been cut in half: “An employee named Heather told the news outlet that she used to work around 40 hours a week, and since the rate hike was announced her work week has been cut in half. I got that dollar raise but I’m getting $200 less in my paycheck.”
  • All of the employees interviewed by CNN Business said their working hours had been cut back significantly over the past year.
  • This in turn has caused them to lose their Target funded health insurance since they have to work over 30 hours a week to qualify.
  • The company has totally eliminated some backroom/inventory positions and has installed self-service kiosks where customers can check themselves out without the help of a human working a cash register.
  • But none of this should come as a surprise since back in 2014 the former head of Starbucks, Howard Schultz, warned of unintended consequences of a $15 minimum wage.
  • Heidi Shierholz, who was the chief economist at the Labor Department during the Obama Administration, said the drive for a $15 minimum wage was not always a good thing:, “Most workers aren’t getting any more of what they really need.”
And despite the warnings of economists and savvy business owners, despite the real life experiences of raising the minimum wage level too fast in Seattle and other places, liberal politicians continue to pander to the American people on what a great idea a $15 minimum wage is. They never tell those most affected by such policies, those in the lower income brackets, that while their wage rate will go up, the availability of jobs and the availability of working hours is likely to go down, along with their benefits, almost always resulting in a lower living standard.

Today’s insanity told us that: maybe impeachment is a diversion from the real reason and politically dangerous reason how and why Epstein died, liberals in Seattle have completely gone off the deep end thinking that mathematics is racist, and more examples why politicians who want to raise the minimum wage either are too stupid to understand basic economics or are too dishonest to tell voters what will happen if that rate is raised, i.e. they will be poorer.


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