DID YOU KNOW? Bonnie Donovan
We see every day more overreach of governments and watch the people in charge of our policies, regulations and the direction of our nation, take no blame for anything, as they continually face the TV camera and tell us that everything is fine, get used to it, expect more inflation. It’s good for your digestion.
After all, you won’t be able to afford food nor the gas to drive to the empty store, anyway.
And all the problems are someone else’s fault. The energy prices are Russian President Vladimir Putin’s fault, yet our own government closed pipelines, canceled oil leases, raised the delivery fees and made us hostages to hostile countries. These are our leaders? Where are they leading us?
Inflation? Whose fault is that? It’s government officials. They give away money as fast as they can print it. And the idea of a budget, is just a list of handouts for those to go along, to get along.
Our government is based on, “of the people, by the people, for the people.” What we have now is “screw the people.”
COVID-19 relief funds? Even locally, with what they call “excess” COVID monopoly money, the Santa Barbara City Council decided to give “hero pay” to all city employees. What a joke. Only emergency services personnel were heroes. The rest were safe behind a computer screen.
And where does excess money come from with few working?
Speaking of COVID, our president’s handlers have decided to suspend Title 42, under the guise that COVID is manageable and the rates continue to plummet. Yet this policy gives our law enforcement the authority to quickly remove illegal immigrants flooding our borders. If COVID is no longer an emergency and hence Title 42 is no longer necessary, why are officials still threatening to terminate our military, police and fire employees, and whomever else they choose for not getting mandated.
COVID vaccinations and continuous boosters? The California Legislature continues to push bills through the Senate and Assembly (SB871, SB866, SB1479, AB1797) that increase their control of the citizens via COVID restrictions and threaten doctors because of the government’s idea of “misinformation” (AB2098).
California with no water, no housing, no money and our own in the street are going to absorb the illegal immigrants invading as the Title 42 deluge, but the real war refugees, the Ukrainians, are limited to 100,000. They too have found that our southern borders are an easy and rapid access.
Government officials show absolutely no concern for the prices at the pump (as high as $6.89 a gallon, with an average of $5.89 a gallon in Santa Barbara County); with their car allowances, and some even with drivers, which the taxpayer funds.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said,” … get used to high prices and buy an electric car…” At least France’s Marie Antoinette lost her head when she quipped, “Let them eat cake.”
That is part of the problem of today’s world: No heads roll. No accountability. No consequences for dereliction of duty.
And the price of gas for the American public is equally as criminal, as is buying energy from foreigners.
Just like the solar panels and wind turbines made in China, all this is destroying our energy, which is essential to our independence.
The oil companies were being blamed in the nation’s capital, after accusations of price gouging at the pumps.
In California, the additional fees/policies contribute to the high cost of fuel. A breakdown for fees in the last 10 years: 2012 was $0.30 a gallon for the summer blend, 2013: $0.25 per gallon for cap and trade for refineries; 2015 use of biofuels, $0.22 per gallon; 2017’s $0.12 excise tax, the addition of sales tax, and in Santa Barbara, the additional 1% for Measure C.
Even Santa Barbara City Council members receive a yearly car allowance of $7,452.
Did city staff who worked from home during COVID still receive their car allowance?
But Gov. Gavin Newsom to the rescue: Instead of relief at the gas pumps, he adds more tax there, to pay for the $400 debit card for each registered owner of vehicles. The winners are the electric car owners.
Is this because the United Nations decrees that the world must reduce carbon emissions by 48% by 2030?
Yet the buildup of global emissions took about 250 years to reach current levels, driven largely, by the demands of human population growth. We are now told that those emission levels must be reduced by 48% in eight years. Even at current levels of carbon emissions reduction in Europe, the result is that all the countries of Europe become dependent on Russian Coal, Gas and Oil. In effect, they mirror California. In their righteous attempts to avoid carbon production and nuclear power within their boundaries, they merely transfer carbon fuel production from their territories to other countries, mainly Russia.
Aren’t you getting tired of being told what to do with the city, state, and the federal government issuing demands?
The U.N. telling us to cut carbon emissions. Transportation Secretary Buttigieg is telling us to get used to high prices. Gov. Gavin Newsom demanding California build 3.5 million homes while he tells us to curtail our water use. The city and county is banning natural gas in new construction.
The public schools systems are telling parents it is the schools’ business, not their business, what the children are taught, and the Black Lives Matter/Healing Justice is demanding our city give them a controlling interest in our city police department! And our city council appears to be going along with the idea.
We object to the Police Formation Committee’s proposal to create a new city department for the oversight of the police department’s everything: policies, internal affairs and citizen complaint investigations, etc. — especially at the cost of $600,000!
Our city does not suffer from a police department like Baltimore or Minnesota. The city of Santa Barbara established the Fire and Police Commission in 1927, to ensure the smooth and professional functioning of the two departments.
The BLM’s PFC goes before the Santa Barbara Council on April 22. Concerned locals must participate. Remember the first rule and notion of setting up a new control bureaucracy, is that it never goes away.
Once created, the members and supporters holding that level of control fight every day to keep it going. Elected officials are ultimately held accountable to the public.
However, unelected bureaucrats wield more power than elected politicians. Accountable to no one, non-elected and non-employees serving on such an oversight board experience no boundaries and can cause continuing chaos, as we have seen in other cities.
The current proposal from BLM and city staff must be rejected.
We must keep the Ukrainian people in the forefront of our thoughts, prayers, and concerns.
It’s important that we do more for them than simply shine yellow and blue lights on buildings and monuments.
Some of our best and brightest, two young Harvard students are doing just that: Avi Schiffmann and Marco Burstein put their talents together to create a website ukrainetakeshelter.com to connect fleeing Ukrainians with hosts offering shelter around the world. Tens of thousands have responded within only a few days.
We cannot depend upon leadership to make a difference.We must act ourselves. That’s the way of the West. That’s how democracy flourishes. We step forward and take care of those in need.
This beautiful country, rich in tradition and culture, is being destroyed right before our eyes. Leave the wringing of the hand and pitch in!
We note that Vladimir Putin is demanding that the U.S. do any business with Russia, not with dollars, but using gold or rubles. Why does the U.S. continue to purchase anything from Russia? That speaks volumes about the character of our leadership.
“The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only object of good government.”
— Thomas Jefferson
