Month: April 2017

Vacation season is finally here. Tomorrow we leave for Cancun, Mexico for seven days in the sun. Yeah, Baby!

We’ve packed (lightly) and rubbed on the instant tan, so we won’t look too pasty. Our buddy, Chris Doubleday, is going to Uber-drive us to LAX tomorrow morning. Hopefully, the drive into Los Angeles and the flight down to Mexico will be uneventful. We will be staying at a resort named The Royal Cancun, and will be taken there by our kids (son Jeff and wife Carol), who have a week’s head start on us. We don’t anticipate doing much down there except lazing around on the beach, drinking, eating at local dives, and taking one overnight excursion to Chichen Itza.

Our son Tim (and family) will babysit the dogs for the week. Baby is still not 100% potty-trained, so the babysitters will have to watch where they step. She just dropped a couple of PayDay bars on our stairs about ten minutes ago. Damn! But, the dogs love it over there, and Tim’s family love them, so the dogs will probably have as much fun this week as we will.

In local news, the grinch who lives across the street (Sharon) is running for the Master Association Board of Directors. Even though the current Board is totally f’up, I can’t bring myself to vote for Sharon. She’s a horrible, vindictive, and petty human being, and she becomes even worse when in a position of power (for example, since she has been on the sub-association HOA Board of Directors). So, as often happens in American politics, we voters have to choose between poor candidates, and end up with unqualified elected officials.

Speaking of that, President Trump recently concluded his first 100 days in office. During the campaign, he promised that he would accomplish so many major things in his first 100 days that our heads would be spinning. What has actually happened is quite the opposite: other than appointing a Supreme Court Justice, and filling key positions with inexperienced toadies, lobbyists, and relatives, nothing much of consequence has been accomplished.

The repeal of Obamacare never happened, the vaunted Mexican Wall hasn’t been funded, and the Administration’s “yuge” tax cut plan was greeted, almost universally, with disdain. It’s like Amateur Hour.

The President continues to be hounded by the Russiagate issues. The latest news involves former Lt. General Michael Flynn, the guy that Trump picked to head up the National Security Agency. It turned out that Flynn was pretty cozy with the Russians (accepting lots of fees as a consultant, which he didn’t report, in violation of Federal law), so Trump had to dismiss him. But, Flynn’s troubles continue, and the stench follows Trump wherever he goes.

The President has the bad habit of changing his mind every other day on major policy matters. One day he’s going to tear-up major trade agreements, and the next day he’s cool with them. Trump’s understanding of international trade, and the impact that his odd ideas could have on American businesses, is juvenile, at best. He doesn’t seem to appreciate the fact that pretty smart people have crafted these agreements after many years of vetting the fine points.

One of the problems that our President faces is that he scoffs at expert opinion and analysis that is provided by our experienced Federal agencies, and, instead, gets his “intelligence” from the talking heads at Fox News, WikiLeaks, and his many Twitter followers. It would be funny if it weren’t…the President of the United States that were talking about. Oy, Vey!

I hope that President Trump doesn’t declare war on North Korea or pull some other goofy stunt while we’re out of country. The guy is dangerous.

 

 

 

 

I hate hypocrisy. That’s where someone doesn’t practice what they preach. I can’t stand those phonies.

It’s part of the reason that I’m not religious. Virtually all religions would like one to believe that they are all about peace, being nice to your fellow man, etc. But, then, take a close look at the fine print…the Bible, the Koran, etc. You need not delve too far into the prose before you discover racism, misogyny, bad behavior rationalized by platitudes, etc. Religions and greed have caused most of the wars in history, and it’s not surprising because they have a lot in common.

For the past thirty years, the Republican party has been the so-called “deficit watchers”, the Party of No, the Tea Partiers, and such. To hear tell, they should not, will not, shall not pass spending measures which increase the Federal Budget deficit (i.e. spending more money than we take in). It makes sense to me. Anytime the Democratic party rolled out a program to benefit Americans, the Republicans would be all over it like stink on dirty diapers. Conservative think tanks would pooh-pooh the idea, and Grover Norquist would enlist Congressmen to take pledges against such heresy. Rallies would be held, effigies would be burned.

Now that the Republicans control the White House, the Senate, and the Congress, it seems that GOP leaders are singing a different tune. Proposals to increase military spending by 10 percent while significantly lowering tax rates are being bandied about. Excuse me, Sirs, but we’ve seen these pie-in-the-sky solutions attempted before, under the guise of “Trickle Down” or “Voodoo” economics. Basically, they don’t work, and the budget deficit tin can just gets kicked down the road by Congress, throwing as-yet-unborn Americans further under the bus. That’s how deficits happened in the first place: a promise earn our way out of debt. It never seems to happen, for some reason.

Under this particular Republican administration, where facts don’t seem to matter, and perception is the only thing that counts, there is going to be great impetus to come up with a huge, barnburner of a tax cut to make everyone fat and happy. Rallie and parades will be occasioned, the Flag will be waved, and Republicans will thump their chests. Unfortunately, the Federal Budget, which has been out of balance for decades, will then be even further out of balance, which would mean that the deficit will grow exponentially.

This would have curled the hair on GOP Congressmen two years ago; now, not so big a problem. The reason: “those tax cuts will stimulate business”, thereby offsetting the income tax revenue reductions. Well, that may be, but, if that happens, it will be the first time that the Trickle Down/Voodoo plan actually bore fruit. Nixon couldn’t do it, nor could Reagan, nor could the Bushes. But, then, they were experienced government hands who understood democracy and politics.

President Trump, whose background is business and using the tax code to rescue his failing businesses, is going to give it his best shot, though. He’s got operatives writing up daily Executive Orders to strip Federal watchdog agencies of any authority, so that Big Business will be free to rape and pillage in the name of free enterprise. Profits should go up. However, we’ve been there before…i.e. the Gilded Age…and the excesses that typified that era were the stimulus for Big Government. Big Business got too big for it’s britches, and America throttled back the industrial tycoons with a raft of regulations. Despite that, our financial institutions have found ways to work around the regulations and kick the country in the crotch on several occasions (Stock Market Crash of 1929, Savings and Loan Debacle of 1989-1995, the Great Recession of 2007-2009). Now that the Trump Administration is declawing the market regulatory agencies, we can expect more of the “Greed is Good” mentality and subsequent economic bubble bursting. We may not survive the next one.

It will be interesting to watch the GOP Congress leaders wordsmith their way around the coming tax and budget plans. Lying and hypocrisy has always gone hand-in-hand with being a successful politician, so I’m fully expecting world class bullshit to emerge in the coming weeks, trying to convince us (with a straight face) that “Two plus Two equals Five”, “Deficits are actually Good!”, or some other 360-degree philosophical flip-flop. This is going to be entertaining.

There are many phonies in the nation’s capital, but one of the biggest idiots and bullshitters is Senator Ted Cruz. He’s the shameless self-promoting Tea Party doofus who couldn’t even beat Trump in the primaries. The distinguished legislator (?) today floated a Mexico Wall funding proposal that would utilize seized assets of the drug cartel strongman El Chapo Guzman. That is not going to happen in my lifetime, and certainly not during Trump’s presidency. But, if it did, and the Wall was built (miraculously) tomorrow, what would be the impact? I’m pretty sure that the labor market for homebuilders, farmers, domestic help, and landscaping (not to mention many factories which employ illegals) would dry up, causing the economy to tailspin into another recession, at the minimum. It certainly would in California.

This is the way it is in politics. It’s like a balloon which is squeezed down on one end, only to get larger on the other end.  A “Zero Sum” game, in many respects. There are reasons for all the laws (hint: constituencies), the governmental agencies, the lobbyists, and the complicated tax code. All of it is designed to support the American Way of Life, as we have come to know it. Well-intentioned modifications are fine, but quick, wholesale changes are problematic. If it were easy, smart guys would have perfected this long ago.

I hope that the entire crew in Washington D.C., Republicans and Democrats alike, take the time to figure this out. All ideas should be on the table, but, in the end, the math needs to work.

It’s gonna be hot today…93 degrees! Spring is upon us here in Southern California.

Lots of things going on. Preparations for our Cancun trip, continued potty training for Baby, a patio party, car for sale, RV repairs and spiffs, my Mom is about ready to be relocated into a Board and Care, and tax season is over. Yippee!

Son Jeff and wife Carol left this morning for Tulum, Mexico (actually, Tankah Bay), where they will vacation with others for a week. Then, they will  mosey up to Cancun, where they will meet Charlie and I next Saturday for our week’s stay at The Villas at the Royal Cancun resort. They will look like raisins when we Pasty White Folks arrive for our week in the Caribbean sun.

Our little puppy Baby is still working on her potty training in the house. She seems to “get it” about half the time, but, then, she’ll crouch down and drop a gooey turd on the hardwood floor while staring right at me. WTF! We’ve given her some leeway on this project due to the fact that she had a nasty case of Giardia (intestinal parasite), but…now the gloves are off, Dammit! We’ve only got 5 weeks left before we all have to live in the close confines of the RV, and pee and poo on the floor there simply will not be tolerated. No, Maam..

We threw a small patio party for our long-time friend, Marilynn Robinson, last night. She’s just turned 80 years old, and still has all of her marbles (and lots of money, too). Anyway, she and five other long-time Bear Creekers ate and drank and bullshitted for several hours, reminiscing about “the good old days” in the community and catching up on all of the local gossip. One of the guests, Larry, and I recalled some of the characters who’d been involved in the BC Golf Club and some of the goofy incidents that we remembered from our 30 years in this garden paradise.

Larry was once part of a group of well-heeled Southern California redneck golfers called “The Good Ol’ Boys”. They would descend upon a golf course for a day’s entertainment and proceed to get sloshed before, during, and after the round, during which large sums of money were wagered. Then, they would re-assemble at a local bar, drink some more, and become even more obnoxious. After they closed down that joint, they might go on to pester someone in their home. That’s what happened to our joint friend, Bud Reid, who was a “Good Ol’Boy”. After a GOB tournament here at Bear Creek, the drunkards eventually ended up at Bud’s mansion in the wee hours, enjoying free booze from Bud’s well-stocked bar. He finally gave up, left them in the bar, and went to bed. When he awoke in the morning, his carousing buddies were gone, but on the bar top was an uncorked, almost entirely un-sipped, $1,000 bottle of vintage wine that was a prized possession of Mr. Reid. According to my friend Larry, this was par for the course for the fun-lovin’ Good Ol’ Boys. With friends like that, who needs enemies?

My 2012 Hyundai Veloster in on the block. It’s surplus now that we have the 2017 Jeep Cherokee 4×4. I put ads on Autotrader and RVT.com, but have not had any serious inquiries as of yet. What I have received is phishing/scam hits on the ads, where someone has tried to fleece me out of money and/or the car. It’s amazing how these criminals sniff out ads like this so quickly (within a few hours of the ad going on line!), and descend upon their would-be victim in earnest. I was suspicious about one of them, who asked the wierdest questions about the car, so I did some Internet research and found that this scammer used the exact same language and questions over and over when he approached (via email) his marks. What is the world coming to?!

The RV is almost ready for the 2017 Road Trip (to begin on May 29th). The last step is to have a local paint guy touch up some of the dings and scratches that we’ve collected over the past two years. Most of them were caused by the cliff scrape incident in Sedona two years ago. Anyway, once our paint tech Nelsio Castillo gets through with his magic, the rig will look brand spanking new.

My 89 year-old Mom, who broke her hip over a month ago, is about done with rehab and will be discharged this coming week. Little does she know that her days of living alone in her home are over. Doctors have agreed that it is not safe for her to live unsupervised, so she’s going to be relocated to a Board and Care facility and we kids are going to sell her house. It will be another adjustment for her, and it’s a tough time for the four of us siblings, having to shut down that part of my Mom’s life. My son Tim, who is a licensed Realtor, is going to help the family sell the Vista home. We’re expecting perhaps $300K to $340K proceeds from the sale, which will be needed to keep the Trust solvent while my Mom lives in B&C facilities for the rest of her life. The net draw on her estate will be about $20K per year, so she has plenty of money at this rate. We are all hoping that she will adjust to this type of living and not deteriorate (mentally) too fast. It’s been tough experiencing her mental demise over the past year. But, at least she still recognizes me and we can share fond family stories. I’m going to see her today.

Tax season ended four days ago. Life is resuming it’s slower pace now, smiles are beginning to form on my wife’s face more often, and we can now look forward to the fun part of the year.

Donald Trump, while campaigning for the Presidency, admonished then-President Obama to stay the Hell out of the mess in Syria. When he actually became President, Mr. Trump came up with the idea that the Syrian dictator Assad (supported by Vladimir Putin) was an integral part of the “plan” for stability in the region.

A week later, President Trump pulverized one of Assad’s air bases with 59 Tomahawk missiles because the Syrians had bombed one of their own communities with sarin gas. (Of course, President Assad was infamous in international circles for previously gassing his own citizens on many occasions.)

Then, it came out that the Russians and Syrians were given advance notice of the Tomahawk barrage…so that none of their troops would be hurt. It also became known that the Syrians were using the air base again within a few days. So, what was the point of sending 59 missiles, which cost $1 million apiece, to Syria? Other than a photo op of the President appearing presidential…

…and deflecting attention from the President’s “Russiagate” problems?

Is it just possible that the President was trying to show just how far he has distanced himself from his buddy, President Putin? (The White House and its minions quickly released sound bites alleging that U.S.-Russian relations were at their “lowest point of all time”…forgetting, of course, the Cuban Missile Crisis.)

The ruse worked so well that it was used again, within a week, when the U.S. dropped the “Mother of All Bombs” upon some ISIS caves in Afghanistan.

That worked so well that the new Secretary of State Rex Tillerson began to talk some heavy smack in the direction of the tinpot North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il, who then doubled-down on his usual threats to send nuclear missiles down upon the American bullies. As the week ended, each side was practically daring the other to push the “red button”.

It appears that we have elected a Super Hawk, a guy who likes to “Speak loudly and threaten with a big stick”. This is quite a turn-around for a guy who was too chickenshit to serve his country’s military…does anyone recall the stories about how he cleverly, and proudly, escaped the Draft during his college years? It’s the stuff of legend. Anyway, now he has no problem with other folks fighting and dying for their country.

President Trump’s latest imbroglio is his response to thousands of Tax Day protests…bringing up the fact that Donald Trump has never released his Tax Returns for public scrutiny. It was something that he promised to do during his campaign (“after the audit”), but later declared that the public had no right to see them. Of course, he would  be the first President in the last 4 decades to withhold such information. And, with all the relatives and lobbyists that he has hired, and all the government business being conducted at Trump hotels, there is a high probability of self-dealing and self-enrichment. Not to mention any deals that he might have cut with his Russian friends in exchange for help getting elected.

Trump’s response to the protests was pure Trump…”Isn’t the election over?”, and “Who hired these protesters?”

I was afraid that this might be the outcome, that America might have elected a President whose imagination is severely limited by his own greed and inexperience. It brings to mind the old saying that “If the only thing in your toolbox is a hammer, then all problems begin to look like a nail.” Diplomacy doesn’t appear to be something that our new President is much interested in. His own immature temperament and business experience is heavily-laden with bombast, threats, bullying, and using lawsuits to bulldoze people out of the way.

As President, he’s got some new tools to play with: Tomahawk and GBU-43/B ordinance, dropped from the sky.

Let’s hope that the Tweeter-In-Chief doesn’t play around with the Nuclear stuff.

 

 

Our little Baby dog is in the veterinary hospital today getting spayed. Bummer, for her, I guess; no babies of her own.

We’ve all been concerned about her weight lately, because she’s very lean. She looks like a Somalian “skinny”; Charlie says she looks like an Auchwitz survivor. All bones, no meat. Lots of energy, though.

Here she is after being caught eating one of her poops:

Our son Tim, who used to head up an Antech Inc. (animal lab) division, arranged for his son Joshua, who still works there, to do a complete stool sample analysis on Baby’s poop. The result: big-time Giardia (intestinal parasite) infestation. That, plus the fact that she often eats her own poop, would explain some of the weight-gain problem. Anyway, as a result, Baby and her housemates will all be on a de-worming regime for the next nine days. We’ve got to stamp this out right now.

Here’s our little darling, sleeping off a long day (of eating poop, peeing in the house, etc.!):

Charlie’s tax season is virtually over. She’s got just a few clients remaining and, then, we can go back to servicing her usual bookkeeping clients, which is very doable for the two of us. We can hardly wait.

Speaking of that, our Cancun getaway is only a few weeks away! Time to start the diet.

My bowling is starting to come around, now that we’re about to leave town for many months. I’m averaging about 190 in one league and almost 200 in another. I’ve been putting up some decent games in the past couple of weeks: had a 244 and 248 yesterday. I’m hoping to do a 300 game before the end of May. It’s been a couple of years now.

I’m about ready to put my Hyundai Veloster up for sale. We don’t really need two cars anymore. I think I’ll ask $10K. Hopefully, I can get that car out of the garage before we leave town in late May.

The weather is heating up now; it’s beginning to feel like Spring. I’m starting to actually envision my monumental hike from the South Rim down to the Colorado River and back up. That’s going to be a cool day (I hope!). The plan is for my friend Jason to accompany me, but, if he doesn’t show, I will do it on my own. It’s a Bucket List item.

The RV is back in the shop undergoing some general maintenance work. And, the new Jeep is being fitted (today) with a base plate so I can town it with my Blue Ox hardware.

We’re all looking forward to our Home Away from Home.

 

Up until now, the Watergate scandal has been the most attention-grabbing, titillating, train-wreck of a political drama in my lifetime. It was the O.J. Simpson trial…on steroids. Every one was glued to the television set, hearing the sordid details of the cover-up, watching high government officials soil themselves, and observing, in real time, the collapse of the once-promising Nixon presidency. (I even voted for the guy!)

That a man so intelligent and experienced, with so much to offer, could fuck up so bad was…astounding. President Nixon’s biggest mistake: blatently lying to the American people, and, then, clumsily trying to hide the evidence under the carpet, so to speak. What a doofus.

It now appears that we have another one of these “once-in-a-lifetime” spectacles to suffer through. It’s being labeled “Russiagate”, for lack of a better word. It seems that a day doesn’t go by where we hear of another juicy tidbit of evidence that something amiss occurred during the 2016 Presidential campaign and…that the Trump/Russia skullduggery might be ongoing.

President Trump has done his best to deny that there was any collusion between his campaign and the Russian government with the objective of tilting the outcome in Mr. Trump’s favor. “Never happened!”, “Fake news!”, etc.

Even worse has been the praise and soft-peddling approach of the Trump administration toward Russia during the campaign and afterward, as if there were some sort of love affair a’brewing. Interestingly, many of the President’s key advisors, Cabinet appointments, his family, and business associates have close ties to Vladimir Putin’s kleptocracy in Moscow. Yet, Trump denies any sort of relationship, prior to, or continuing after, his inauguration.

The problem with those denials is the multitude of suspicious liasions, connections, meetings, financial dealings, phone calls, etc. between Trump campaign strategists, advisors, and relatives that have already been uncovered by a multitude of sources. A bigger problem is that our President sees nothing wrong with hopping into bed with the brutal Russian leader.

“Where there’s smoke, there’s fire” is an axiom of the journalistic trade, and, in this case, there is a hell of a lot of smoke. Something’s rotten in Denmark…er, the White House…and professional journalists around the world are circling, like bloodthirsty sharks. They know that this is a good story, with legs.

Trump and his crew of apologists, who have been caught in lies virtually every day since his election, on a variety of subjects, have been throwing out denials right and left. So has Vladimir Putin. But, they’re not very effective denials.

The more that the President denies obvious red-flag problems, the more his standing with the public declines. Approval ratings and credibility are in the toilet.

Over the past few weeks, the Administration has unleashed a counterattack…an obvious diversionary tactic…which attempts to focus the media’s attention on alleged wiretapping and snooping of the Trump campaign by Obama’s forces.

The lapdog Fox News Network, and Congressman Nunes, have outdone themselves in trying to develop this subterfuge, but have not surfaced a single fact to bolster Trump’s clumsy parlor trick. Seeing the desperation of the President and his cronies, journalists are digging deep into the steaming Russiagate story, and…are finding more golden nuggets. Every day, a new lead or expose. Just like the Watergate debacle, with a cover-up more likely every time a new diversionary tactic or adamant denial is thrown against the wall to see if it sticks.

It’s shaping up to be the story of a lifetime…again. The President of the United States reduced to a caricature of a vain, clueless clown, and the status of the Greatest Nation on Earth knocked down a peg or two. One wonders what world leaders think of this guy.

I don’t think this is what voters had in mind when they fell for the “Make America Great Again” slogan.

This is the guy who was, with one hand tied behind his back, going to correct everything that was/is wrong with Washington D.C. He was going to “drain the swamp” and make life wonderful for everyone. (At least that’s what the toadying National Enquirer tabloid reported…from the Trump press-release)

Meanwhile, back at the ranch (i.e. White House) the fuck up continues. The Trump-supported GOP plan to repeal and replace Obamacare, something that was in the works for seven years (?), debuted to an overwhelming cacophony of boos from both sides of the political aisle, and was quickly hidden out of sight, like some embarrassing relative. So, much for a centerpiece of the Trump presidential campaign.

Meanwhile, the chorus grows within the Trump administration to silence the critics, whistleblowers, and leakers who know a shit sandwich when they see one, and can’t stomach the mess. The President has already banned certain media outlets and journalists from his press conferences, lest they ask any embarrassing questions.

This could be the worst audition for a job in the history of employment.

Probably, in the end, this entire Keystone Cops-like charade will simply be known by historians as Trumpgate.

 

 

 

 

Not doing much this week, but last week was interesting.

My Mom, who turned 89 on Thursday, is in a rehab facility for a broken hip. She’s doing OK with the rehab, but her mind is (seemingly) rapidly losing focus, and she’s starting to lash out at caregivers and loved ones. We’ve all put a lot of time in with her in the past week or so, trying to show the love. But, her dementia is progressing. It’s so sad to experience, right there before your eyes. The only good thing is that she always brightens up with a smile when she sees me, and she always tells me, “I love you, Craig!”. I need to savor that while it lasts.

Speaking of health, I went down for the count on Saturday in the early a.m. with a bout of vertigo. I’d never experienced it before, so it scared the crap out of me. I awoke not feeling well, opened my eyes, and the entire room was spinning around, like a carousel. It would not go away, a cold sweat came over me, I became nauseous and barely made it to the porcelain throne before commencing the dry heaves. That’s where Charlie found me. I was a mess. So, we headed over to the hospital emergency room, where they checked me out, did a cat scan, and proclaimed the malady to be “benign” positional vertigo. Yeah, benign my ass…it sucked! Anyway, now that I think of it, I had experienced a slight earache and pressure in my inner ear area for a few days prior, so I’m guessing that I contracted some kind of virus that messed with my semi-circular canals. All I know is that I don’t want to experience that again, ever.

We bought a new car the other day. It is a 2017 Jeep Cherokee Trailhawk 4×4, which will replace my wife’s Hyundai Sonata sedan. This will allow us to tow a car behind our motor home that my wife can drive (i.e. my Hyundai Veloster tow car is a stick-shift, and Charlie can’t, or won’t, abide it). Anyway, I doubt that we will ever use the 4×4 features, but the Jeep is extremely easy to place into the “flat tow” mode, which I like a lot. It cost a bit, but, hey, in for a dime, in for a dollar…right?

Our power went out again, as did our Internet service. This is becoming a regular occurrence. The Frontier Communications guy who came out was nice, and he fixed the problem in short order. But, Charlie was extremely annoyed, again, that the electronic infrastructure failed us again during tax season, which we affectionately refer to as “heart attack season”. One more good reason to give up the tax work, I reminded my wife. She’s getting the message, and is beginning to siphon off some of her load to Jonathan, our son, in Montana. He is capable and can use the money, so we need to continue with this thought.

What else is going on? Well, our trip to Cancun is only a little over three weeks away, so we had to have a BBQ at our house with fellow travelers Jeff and Carol (son and his wife) to salivate over the details. One bit of good news: One of Charlie’s clients is an Uber driver, and she did his taxes for trade. Jeff and Carol  leave for Mexico a week earlier than we do (they’re going to spend a pre-Cancun vacation in Tonka Bay, near Tulum with relatives), so they get a free Uber ride to LAX. So do we when we leave a week later. Then, when we both return to LAX on May 6th, our guy will pick us up for the return ride to Murrieta. Pretty cool!

What isn’t cool is President Trump’s on-the-job-training, on our dime, while America’s reputation goes into the shitter. I’m sure he’s trying to do his best, but his business experience and temperament just don’t translate well into the responsibility of running a massive government under a democracy. It’s embarrassing to watch.

P.S. Great News today (Monday): Our granddaughter Jessica dropped by to give us some good news: (1) She’s made the Certified Nursing Associate cut at Cal  Baptist University, so she’ll embark immediately upon her three-year Registered Nurse program, rather than waiting another year…kudos to our straight A student!!!; and (2) She’s engaged to be married to her long-time beau, Nathan Torres! They are planning a Summer  wedding, and have timed it so that we will be back in town (in August) and can attend. Wonderful! We’ve known Nathan for several years now, and he seems to be a very fine man. He’s agreed to forego continuing his college career at Azusa Pacific so he can support her quest of the Nursing degree. Then, he will resume his studies. What a guy!

 

 

Talk is cheap, especially when you’re campaigning for public office. It’s easy to demean the performance of someone who actually has had to do the job; it’s another thing to accomplish the changes that you promised once you are elected. President Trump is finding this out now.

I live in a “country club” community in Southern California. It is called Bear Creek, and the centerpiece of the large development is the Bear Creek Golf Club, which was designed by Jack Nicklaus. Our community holds the distinction, I believe, of being the only Jack Nicklaus master-planned community where Mr. Nicklaus actually lost money. The reason for that was probably two-fold: it was a bit premature for the area, and there was a significant economic recession in the early years, which fouled up a promising start. Anyway, it is a beautiful place to live; Charlie and I have owned two homes here over the past 29 years.

There are a scad of homeowners’ associations in Bear Creek. One is the Master HOA, of which all property owners are members. And, then, there are a number of tract-level HOA’s, which serve the different condominium developments that were built within the community over the many years. Probably two-thirds of the Bear Creek population live in condominiums, while the remaining one-third reside on estate lots. The price of the condo units range from $350K to $800K, while residences on the individual lots sell for several million dollars.

From the beginning, the “estate” owners have made it a quest to control the Board of Directors of the Master HOA, and have had majority control for most of the past 30 years. It would have been easy for the condominium owners to dominate said Board, had they tried to, because they control two-thirds of the voting membership. However, I suppose there has been a deference to the estate lot residents, the “rich guys”, who are mostly successful captains of industry, business owners, and professionals. They talk a good game, promising to maintain a high quality of life in this prestigious community.

What has actually happened, over the years, is that the Board of Directors has usually supported ideas and schemes that benefit the estate lot owners more so than the condo owners. Lots of money has been spent (wasted?) on excessive security, fancy gym equipment, improvements to the private golf club, and lawsuits. The Board members seem to think that they are smarter than most people, and, yet, every time that they get involved in some matter, the HOA ends up on the losing end of a lawsuit, costing every property owner a bunch of money.

This has gone on for so long that the Board, no matter who is on it, has zero credibility. The members talk a good game, but never deliver the goods. More often than not, there’s flim-flam involved, a promise of one thing, but delivery of something entirely different in the end. That’s because they just aren’t that smart, and are bad politicians, to boot.

The latest example of Board futility is it’s attempt to cram a multi-issue ballot measure down the throats of Bear Creekers. On the ballot are several items: (1) clean-up of the CC&R’s; (2) consolidation of sub-association HOA duties into the Master HOA; (3) a large, expensive flood control project; and, (4) a change in the requirement that capital improvement items require a 75% voter plurality, lessening it to a 50% plus 1 bare majority approval.

There are something like 611 voting properties in Bear Creek, and I’ve yet to find any property owner that is voting “Yes” on this multi-issue ballot measure. I’m sure that a good quantity of the estate lot owners support the measure, but they are vastly out-numbered by the condo owners, and, for once, the “poor folks” aren’t bending over.

As usual, there is flim-flam involved. The centerpiece of the ballot is the flood control project. It’s very expensive, addresses a problem that we’ve never experienced here in Bear Creek, and primarily benefits 123 estate lots. The proposal is t0 spread the costs of this project evenly among all 611 property owners, so that the other 488 properties will be subsidizing the 123 “rich guys”. It’s communism in reverse, brought to us by a staunchly conservative Board. Their pitch: What could be more fair than spreading the cost evenly?

It’s a populist message, for sure; something that sounds right, but, upon close inspection, is wrong on so many levels. That’s how Trump got elected.

Anyway, as Twisted Sister says, “We’re not gonna take it anymore!”