Straight out of Orwell: Vaccine Influencer Training

12 Aug

I heard something so Orwellian on the news the other day, I had to google it just be sure.

https://www.kcra.com/article/thousands-without-power-elk-grove-after-vehicle-crashes-power-pole/37296304

Vaccine Influencers? I don’t know if that’s Orwellian or Pythonian.

First this article uses shaming, naming the zip code area that has the lowest rate of vaccination? How about the zip code area with the highest rate of smoking? Domestic violence? Obesity? Diabetes? Oh yeah – that’s all considered personal information.

In an effort to bring those numbers up, La Familia Counseling Center, a community-based organization, is hosting “Vaccine Influencer” trainings via Zoom.

Then concerns about the vaccine are belittled, they don’t even mention the side-effects that are listed on the CDC site. They offer one woman’s vague concern – “I’ve heard sometimes that people get worse when they get the vaccination and it concerns me a little bit to get it,” What does she mean by “get worse”? Does she mean blood clots? Heart inflammation? They don’t mention any of that.

And then this – “Vaccine Influencers who take people to receive their first dose will receive gift cards in exchange.“

That seems a little inappropriate to me – are you going to trust people who are motivated by the promise of a gift card? Is there a limit, or is this some kind of bonanza? They’re targeting non-English speaking groups – again, can we trust these “influencers” to be truthful? Is there any oversight?

The world gets weirder by the minute. Again, I’m not an “anti-vaxxer,” but I do believe in full disclosure and honest discussions. This report from the CDC (Center for Disease Control, the accepted authority on COVID) admits cases of myocarditis and pericarditis in adolescents, but seems more concerned with suppressing the news of the risk than truly educating folks about it. They don’t give actual numbers, they don’t explain why it happened, and there’s no promise that it won’t happen again. They are more interested in killing any conversation about it.

Click to access SoVC_myocarditis.pdf

The report details threats to COVID-19 vaccine confidence, content gaps and information voids, circulating mis- and disinformation, and action steps to take.

They just want to throw shit on people like me who want the real truth. We’re ” circulating mis- and disinformation ” just because we are asking questions.

How do you think most people would react if their neighbor came knocking on the door to tell them they are overweight and need to lose 20 or 30 pounds? How about a neighbor who wants to know what a single man is doing living in a three bedroom house when there’s a housing shortage? Should your neighbor be able to rifle through your grocery purchases and advise you as to your diet? Should they be able to look in your garbage? Come over to chide you about your smoking? Your porno collection? Your television habits? Arguments could easily be made that all those behaviors are bad for the community at large. How far are you willing to let other people “influence” your personal behavior?

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Steven Greenhut: “Frankly, union power drives state and local firefighting policies”

10 Aug
Environmentalists Destroyed California’s Forests

Thanks Cynthia for sharing this 2020 article from Ed Ring. Ring documents the 20 year decline in California forest management, citing both the Sierra Club and the firefighters unions as the problem.

I think the title is a little broad – “Environmentalists”? A word that has become just another slur for people you don’t agree with, like Tree Huggers? I consider myself an environmentalist. I believe in proper forest management, thinning of dead and dying fuel, raking and burning tree trash – “biochar”.

And yeah, if I see a good looking tree, I’m liable to hug it.

No, we’re talking about The Sierra Club, an organization made up of the rich and entitled, for the rich and entitled, and supported by the rich and entitled. They don’t represent “environmentalists” as a class of people. Hey, do you pick up litter? Do you turn off the hose when you’re not using it? Congratulations, you’re an environmentalist!

“Sen. Feinstein blames Sierra Club for blocking wildfire bill,” reads the provocative headline on a 2002 story in California’s Napa Valley Register. Feinstein had brokered a congressional consensus on legislation to thin “overstocked” forests close to homes and communities, but could not overcome the environmental lobby’s disagreement over expediting the permit process to thin forests everywhere else.

I don’t agree with Ring that the lawsuit brought us where we are today. Our courts and legislature allowed that to happen, they backed down to a PAC that also donates heavily at election time – what do you think?

In 2014, Republican members of Congress tried again to reduce the bureaucracy associated with “hazardous fuel projects” that thin out overgrown forests. True to form, the bill got nowhere thanks to environmental lobbyists who worried it would undermine the 1969 National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), the law that requires thorough impact assessments ahead of government decisions on public lands.

Here’s what I think – as late as 2019, Feinstein bowed to pressure from the Sierra Club and the new Sunrise Movement, as well as her coworkers in the senate, and dropped her competing “more moderate” resolution on climate change.

The Viral Confrontation With Dianne Feinstein Had a Political Impact Most Pundits Missed

Her protest was weak, she really doesn’t want to go against these people. These PACs have a lot more influence than the average voter because of entrenched politicians like Dianne Feinstein. We need term limits as well as a limit on PAC contributions.

I have to agree with Ring’s friend Steven Greenhut, whom Ring quotes below – the firefighters’ unions are too powerful and they aren’t working for anybody but themselves:

Meanwhile, tragically, expect California’s politically powerful firefighters’ union to do little or nothing to support the timber industry or rural inhabitants who don’t want to move into urban condos.

As Steve Greenhut explained in a recent column in the Orange County Register: “Frankly, union power drives state and local firefighting policies. The median compensation package for firefighters has topped $240,000 a year in some locales. California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection firefighters earn less, but their packages still total nearly $150,000 a year. The number of California firefighters who receive compensation packages above $500,000 a year is mind-blowing.”

No wonder firefighters are overwhelmed during California’s wildfire season. The state can’t afford to hire enough of them.

As long as PACs like Sierra Club and the unions are allowed to make enormous contributions at election time we will continue to see fire policy failure from the State of California.

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Greenville has been “contained”! They call that “management”. New USFS chief says they will suppress fires in future – we’ll see if he can get that policy into place before Cal Fire burns down any more towns!

7 Aug

Enjoying the air quality? Smells like CANCER! Well, when you get your terminal lung cancer diagnosis, you can thank the US Forest Service and Cal Fire. It’s official – USFS policy is LET IT BURN. They call it “management”, which sounds appropriate, when you consider, they just MANAGED to burn down another town.

Greenville was a damned nice town. Not only did my husband lay a lot of flooring in that area, but I have relatives scattered all over the little towns between Chester and Quincy. What Cal Fire has done is criminal.

I’ve asked this question on various social media sites, but nobody ever comes back with an answer. If the Dixie Fire is growing by thousands of acres per day, how the hell can they say it’s “contained”? Well, my neighbor, who is retired law enforcement, told me, “that means, ‘burned’, it won’t burn again… not right away anyway…”

According to this article from Wildfire Today,

Forest Service Chief says wildfires will be suppressed, rather than “managed”, for now

our new USFS chief, Randy Moore, is going to change this policy.

“In an August 2 letter to the field, new US Forest Service Chief Randy Moore said that because there is in a “national crisis”, they will not “manage fires for resource benefit”. In other words, instead of allowing fires to burn in order to replicate natural conditions and improve the ecosystem, they will put them out — at least to the best of their ability. “

Given the resources, money, and manpower – including inmates from prisons – this fire should have been out already. They’ve admitted they are allowing it to burn, even increasing the burn area (and the toxic smoke) by setting “back fires”.

Another article on the same page says the vegetation in the Dixie Fire has not burned for over 40 years. I don’t know if that’s entirely true, but I know, when I was a kid, which was over 40 years ago, they did “controlled” burns in the winter, having cleared and stacked dead and diseased vegetation over the spring and summer. Who in their right mind would try to “control” or “manage” a fire in the conditions we’re facing right now, instead of during winter rains?

Apparently, USFS had a historic policy called the “10 am Rule” – meaning, put the fire out by 10 am on the second day. But every time there’s a new chief for USFS or Cal Fire, policy changes. In 2008, Cal Fire officially stopped doing fire prevention, saying this was up to the various counties and other local agencies. That was it, and now here we are.

I know, I’ll get some nasty comments on this one – go for it idiots. What the problem is right now, is all these cowboys are on overtime. They work 48 hour shifts, do the math. We’ve watched them pour in from departments all over the state, from as far away as Hawaii! It’s an overtime party, is all it is, and we’re paying for it in more ways than one.

RECALL NEWSOM!

Yes, both Newsom and Biden want a mileage tax to pay for roads – the question being, how will they do it?

6 Aug

I got a note from a friend of mine regarding a proposed federal mileage tax. I’d heard something about it, and yesterday I read that California is already working on it.

The hold-up is that they don’t know how to collect it. You know, our silly civil liberties. They aren’t allowed to track us, are they?

I hear you – silly Juanita! Just today I got an email from Google, a complete report as to where I had been on my vacation. Even a roadside produce shack. I suddenly realized – we’d used Google maps to get around to various destinations. That’s like putting a tracking device behind your tire!

So welcome to 1984, Big Brother is watching, and don’t trust Big Sis either. I’m going to assume new cars will have the same technology standard, if they don’t already.

State of California’s rationale for the mileage tax is pretty thin – proponents claim that as more people purchase electric cars, gas sales will go down and the Gas Tax will be moot. Then there won’t be any money for road maintenance. Again they throw that at us.

Here’s one problem with that line – gas and diesel are used well beyond cars. As for my family, all of our landscaping equipment, our tractor, our generator, and other items we need in our daily routine require gas. Big rigs that haul our goods, workers that haul their own tools and equipment all use gas. And how about those firefighters – I don’t see them driving electric vehicles in their daily migration between the Dixie fire front and their night quarters in Chico. Those giant bulldozers they tote back and forth all run on petroleum, as do the enormous rigs that haul them. And the planes that fly all the way to and from Sacramento and Chico all use gas.

Furthermore, instead of taxing people TWICE, why couldn’t electric car drivers make up the difference with higher registration fees? When I told a friend of mine that he reminded me that gas is over $4.50 a gallon right now, and over 50 cents of that is the gas tax. According to CBS News California has the highest gas tax in the country. And it goes up exponentially every January.

Powering California Network, “A Coalition of Californians Advocating for Economic Mobility for Working Families,” also points out that both the Gas Tax and this proposed mileage tax are both regressive, meaning, they hit working and poor people harder because they have to drive farther to work.

https://poweringcalifornia.com/powering-california-network/

https://poweringcalifornia.com/analysis-vehicle-miles-traveled-vmt-tax/

“California also has the highest housing costs in the country. California residents who cannot afford to live close to their work have to drive long distances to get to their place of employment, and as a result, they would have to pay more VMT taxes than those who can afford pricier homes near city centers. In many cases, these commuters driving longer distances are blue collar working families. And those working for minimum wage will be the most impacted. Many hardworking Californians living paycheck to paycheck cannot fill their tanks due to the high cost of fuel. The VMT would be an additional financial burden on them.“

Not all people work at the same location every day, some have to drive to various locations in one day. Public transportation is not an option. But, our gas taxes go to pay for trains, busses and bike trails that only serve a fraction of the population. Those people use the roads, but only those of us who buy gas pay for the maintenance? That’s whack.

Now Biden has a proposal for a national mileage tax. Both California proponents and national proponents are saying that a mileage tax could replace the gas taxes now in place, but there’s no guarantee.

It’s a good time to let your representatives know you’re paying attention.

Here comes the recall! Are you ready?

3 Aug

As you may know, proponents of the Recall Newsom group gathered enough signatures from registered voters to get a special election. Of course that doesn’t mean Newsom is out, that’s up to all the voters. Remember, there are two questions – do you vote to recall, and then, either way, who do you want for governor.  A majority vote (2/3) is required for Newsom to be recalled. The candidate with the most votes on the second question would win the election, no majority required.

Forty-six candidates, including nine Democrats and 24 Republicans, are running for Newsom’s seat in the event the recall is successful. Yep. Whomever you decide to take seriously, you can check the box. Don’t skip the second question, or make a facetious vote for some outrageous celebrity – just because you don’t want the recall to succeed, doesn’t mean you want to throw out your right to vote for a viable candidate to take his place.

I was pleased to see Kevin Kiley was running. I don’t agree with him on everything but he’s been pushing to reopen schools and businesses after the COVID closures. He’s made detailed charges of abuse of power by Newsom. I’ve seen him in the news for a year or more now, and I like the issues that he’s raising. I could live with him as Governor for the short remainder of Newsom’s term. It’s not a decision we have to live with forever, but it should send a message to politicians who think they can make up the rules as they go along.

Normally I wouldn’t support recalls, they seem like a waste of money and time. But the COVID shut-downs really hurt our schools and our economy, and left our communities ugly and divided. Want to find out how ugly – walk into a crowded bar and loudly ask if everybody has been vaccinated! Or mention it on your blog!

And Newsom’s blatant misbehavior – not just outrageous stuff like the French Laundry, but his abuse of power, making weird, subjective, often conflicting and short-lived rulings on everybody else’s behavior. It was like when the adults would go out and leave the kids under the iron thumb of the oldest sibling. A little bit of power can go to a person’s head. We need to let them know, they work for us, not the other way around. Hopefully the message will reverberate out of California all the way to Washington DC.

However you feel, get ready, because it’s coming up fast – September 14. Registered Butte County voters should have already got a notice from Candace Grubbs asking if they want to get their ballot electronically or through the mail. That is also your choice, go get ’em!

God Bless Us Every One.

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To vax or not to vax: at least read up on it before you decide

28 Jul

When will the madness end? According to the LA Times, “The CDC on Tuesday issued new guidance that vaccinated people should return to wearing masks indoors in public settings in parts of the country where the coronavirus is widely spreading.” As of yesterday Yolo County brought back their mask mandate.

Here in Butte County the mask mandate is being handled differently by different agencies. City of Chico meeting agendas no longer have any notice whatsoever about COVID, and meetings are open to the public again.

“The public is encouraged to participate in the City’s decision-making process and is invited to attend City Council meetings or view them live on Channel 11 or via streaming video here.  If you can’t attend a meeting, you can always submit your comments at Civic Engaged.“j

Butte County Board of Supervisors still has a notice, but apparently, they will be operating on the Honor System.

“Board of Supervisors meetings are open to the public. Pursuant to CDPH guidelines, face masks are not required for individuals fully vaccinated against COVID-19.  Entering the meeting without a mask will be considered a self-attestation that an individual is fully vaccinated against COVID-19. “

Chico Unified School District is still pondering the mask mandate. Recall supporters are asking that it be dropped. We’ll see where that goes as Parents for In-Person Learning continue to gather signatures on their petitions. Frankly, I’ve had kids, and I’ve known a lot of kids, and kids can’t even take care of their jacket or shoes half the time. I hate to think how dirty and disgusting a kid’s mask gets. Is the teacher going to be responsible for that? I’m just glad, so very grateful, that I don’t have kids in CUSD.

Last I heard, Chico State will require vaccination if you want to get a degree. If it were me, I’d definitely go to a better school.

My kids got the shot for their jobs, and they got very sick afterwards. Who calls these reactions “mild side effects”:

  • Pain, redness or swelling where the shot was given
  • Fever
  • Fatigue
  • Headache
  • Muscle pain
  • Chills
  • Joint pain
  • Nausea and vomiting
  • Swollen lymph nodes

Well, the Mayo Clinic, for one. These are symptoms that can keep a person in bed, unable to care for themselves, and out of work, as Mayo also states, for one to three days. That’s hardly “mild”. My kids were totally KO-d for two days.

The information just gets worse as you read along. Blood clots. Heart problems, especially in young people? If you are considering this vaccination, you better read up on it:

https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/coronavirus/in-depth/coronavirus-vaccine/art-20484859#side-effects

And before you go, remember to stock up on simple foods like instant soup, easy to eat stuff like crackers, apples, bananas. You might want to get some bottled water to have next to your bed. Get some cold packs, or just frozen vegies – they make a nice cold pack, and they’re nice to eat when you have a fever. Make sure your bed is clean and comfortable and your laundry is caught up. If you have children, arrange for somebody else to take care of them for maybe three days.

Good luck!

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Chico Unified Recall: Petition signing event Aug 4, 4pm, at PV High

27 Jul

Chico Parents for In-person Learning report they are still receiving support and gathering signatures for the recall of four members of the Chico Unified School District Board – Kathy Kaiser, Elaine Robinson, Tom Lando and Caitlin Dalby.

https://www.chicoparents.org/

You can download and print your own petition and send it in, but I personally prefer to sign in person. There will be a signature gathering event at 4pm on August 4 at Pleasant Valley (PV) High School. You can get more information at their facebook site.

These four shut Chico schools down for a year of instruction, putting children behind in their studies, and leaving parents struggling between childcare and work. They hurt our community and our economy. All the while, teachers continued to get paid. The straw that broke my back was back in April, when the district divvied up almost two and a half MILLION in COVID relief funding in bonuses to those teachers. For what?

Of course, as you may have seen, my letters to the editor were answered by a shower of arrows from local union operatives, attacking figures I got out of a CUSD agenda. That speaks volumes about the need for this recall. All four recall candidates are union members, which I find a little lopsided. I’d like to see more parents of various backgrounds on the board, but with union support these people had the advantage and the insider edge. If you read those letters, you see what the union is all about – bullying.

So I hope you will support this effort made, not only on behalf of Chico’s kids, but Chico’s future. Do you want to live under the Union Thumb? Do you want your children to live under that type of fascism?

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Did PG&E start the Dixie Fire? Have they even done the clearance ordered after the Camp Fire?

18 Jul

Did PG&E start the Dixie Fire? Well, according to Cal Fire, the fire originated under the same, crumbling PG&E lines that started the Camp Fire.

If you drive into the foothills, it’s obvious that PG&E is not doing the clearance they were ordered to do, at least one federal judge has already called them on it.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/federal-judge-slams-pg-e-efforts-to-trim-trees-near-power-lines-to-prevent-wildfires-11582149085

A judge has actually called for more power shut-offs for safety, saying the trees have not been adequately cleared.

Judge might make PG&E shut off power more often

My family owns a piece of property in the foothills that was threatened by the Camp Fire. PG&E has sent three different contractors over the last three years, they’ve marked trees on our property that are near our neighbors’ power lines with three different colors of spray paint. They’ve noticed us each time of a specific date that they would be coming onto our property to cut those trees. We’ve driven up to our property and stayed for days with the gate open, but they’ve never shown up. We do our own clean-up, but are not able to cut trees towering over power lines.

So, if you have a good enough imagination, you should drive up Hwy 32 toward Chester, and just imagine every tree along the road fully engulfed. That’s what people experienced escaping Paradise three years ago. You saw the cars with plastic fixtures and paint melted off all over Chico for weeks.

Butte County should also be doing work, all along county roads, the brush is thick under the power lines. Garland Road was a major evacuation route during both the 2008 Paradise fire and the Camp Fire. The brush sticks out so far along the side of that road, right under power lines, trees towering above, it scrapes the side of our truck in many places. Folks we know who live along that road have also been contacted multiple times by various PG&E contractors who never showed up to do the work.

I sent this information, with pictures, to former Enterprise Reporter and Pulitzer Prize winner Natalie Hanson but she never responded. Our local media is just crap. I saw this story, a three part series, on the Ch 10 news out of Sacramento – Fire, Power, Money.

Our governor is also to blame. Here we read that Newsome and other California politicians continued to take campaign contributions from PG&E even after the convictions for 84 deaths in Paradise and don’t forget those people incinerated in their homes in San Bruno. The Sonoma Fire. The Zogg Fire. I can’t remember all the fires PG&E has started or people they’ve killed.

https://www.abc10.com/article/news/politics/california-politicians-campaigns-2-million-pge/103-4161feb9-1591-4ffc-9fda-d9c49d7173b8

I wonder, but don’t have time to look it up – how much money has PG&E given Newsome to fight the recall?

Oroville is rethinking fire department management – Chico needs to do same

13 Jul

I got this video from a reader, and I got such a kick out of it, I had to post it.

Yes, there’s crude language, I’m sorry if you find that offensive. But I’ve had conversations like this with members of Chico Fire, including a guy who told me, “wait until your fat husband has a stroke… we won’t be there to carry his fat ass to the amubulance…”

As this video points out, firefighters don’t even make the Top Ten Most Dangerous Jobs list. You can google that yourself, I found several different lists that put even landscape maintenance workers ahead of fire department employees in terms of risk, injuries, and deaths on the job.

A firefighter hasn’t died in Chico since the 1970’s. The biggest issue we’ve had here was the mold at Station 5.

In fact, if you look at the report the city puts out every year, you find the average Chico Fire employee spends more time escorting ambulances – that don’t pay – than they do putting out fires.

Look, I know we need them, but do we need them to be working 48 hour shifts, getting paid to sleep, shower, eat, and do their grocery shopping in the ladder truck? We need to rethink our fire management, like Oroville is doing right now.

It’s a better time than ever to pay attention

11 Jul

We have a super-aggressive hummingbird in our yard this year. I call him Mighty Max, because he’s about the same size as that classic toy, and feisty as heck. Whenever I water the plants that he feeds from, he buzzes my head, like a warning volley. I put up with him, because he eats at least his weight in mosquitoes. And I like his attitude – just because you’re small, doesn’t mean you have to let yourself be kicked around.

While it’s good to stand your own ground when you need to, its also good to have a big friend, like Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association. Yes, On Friday June 25, HJTA filed an Answer in response to city of Chico’s request for validation of their Pension Obligation Bond in the Butte Superior Court. An Answer is the threat to sue if the city were to go forward with the validation process. The city, according to a spokeswoman from HJTA, decided to dismiss their request for validation, but, they have not formally rescinded, as explained below.

“HJTA filed an Answer to the City’s validation action, but it is hopefully a mere cautionary exercise. The City indicated it will be dismissing the validation action, and rescinding its resolution to pass the pension obligation bond. Because the City could technically dismiss the action and then not rescind the resolution, we filed our Answer to be sure it happens as promised. Only in the unlikely event that the resolution is not rescinded would we need to continue the court case.“

So there’s another wait-and-see. While I can’t believe the city would take on a lawsuit at this point, they’ve shocked me before. I’d like to remind people, if you can make a $15 donation to HJTA, they make good use of the money.

Again I’ll say, I was sorry to see Kami Denlay go, because she was the only council member to vote No on the POB, reminding other council members that instituting a tax without voter approval is against the California Constitution. The rest of council went along with it, and I find that very disturbing.

I wasn’t sorry to see Scott Huber go – he has high expectations for the taxpayers, with low expectations for city services, and that’s just not logical. At one Finance Committee meeting he declared that “if Chico doesn’t want to pay more taxes then they won’t get services…” It seems obvious from a statement like that, Huber was out of touch with his constituents, very much at odds the general public. Instead of serving the taxpayers who pay for everything he seemed to want to punish us. That’s not the appropriate attitude for a public servant, we’re not here to pay for his fantasy land agenda.

I do find the circumstances of both their departures to be questionable, especially the ease with which they rolled over to the mobs, even after city clerk Debbie Presson cited the laws and said both were compliant. That’s what you get with a public position, it’s not a popularity contest like so many people think. This will just strengthen the bullies on both sides.

As for council appointments to fill their seats, well, that’s legal within the charter. Remember, council (majority in charge) writes and rewrites the charter with every change in the wind. This conversation has been had a few times since Colleen Jarvis abruptly died of cancer and the Esplanade League tried to shove her husband into her vacant seat. Council has gone over various options, including each council member naming their own replacement at the get-go. I lost track of what they finally decided to do.

But what I expect of the council sitting now is that it will be 4-1 on both appointments, as Coolidge and Morgan, with Reynold’s/Tandon’s blessing, fill both seats with their own friends. Meaning, people willing to go along with tax increases. I don’t think those four “conservatives” shed any tears over Denlay’s departure. While she was willing to go along with the exorbitant contracts, her conscience seemed to override taxation without voter approval.

So, I don’t know about you, but I will expect a shitstorm of tax measures coming around through the usual committee discussions. Or will they? Staff has learned that the less the public hears about tax measures, the easier it is to get council to put them on the ballot. I hope you’ll all join me in watching the committee agendas for these discussions. You might also want to contact your district representative, if you still have one, and just point blank ask them about the proposal for a sales tax measure and “road” bonds.

Ever vigilant folks, cause evil and greed never sleep.

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