Monday, February 3, 2014

Stuff and Christie


There is so much to write about today I’m not sure where to start.  For one, it has rained in Central California, contrary to all of the hotshot computer prognostications that indicated no rain at all this winter.  We didn’t have much, but it did clear the air, wash off the plants and trees, and lessened the fire danger for a few days.  The drought certainly is not over for California, but blessed be rain!
Then there is the fact that with a miniscule tax on the wealthy in California, our economic system is much healthier this year than last.  And the state legislature and governor are using fiscal restraint in their budgeting.  Education, in all of its ramifications, is taking a deep breath and enjoying the fact that they no longer have to look at even more cuts in vital educational enterprises.  We might even get a really responsible pre-K system going, one that teaches English to children whose parents don’t speak it, thereby letting them enter kindergarten more able to learn.  A fallout from this is that children’s programs of all types are receiving more funding than they have in the past.  Particularly those that deal with children with special needs.
Another good thing that has happened is that because of the Affordable Care Act, our mental health services can expand somewhat.  Not as completely as they should, but every little bit helps.  Ronald Reagan, when Governor of California, closed our state hospitals for the mentally ill (those for the mentally retarded were cut way back), with the promise that the state would open community centers that would provide mental health services in order to allow people suffering from mental illness to live closer to friends and family.  Of course, those centers were never opened, thereby causing our county jails to become mental health facilities.  People who receive MediCal (California’s MedicAid) will now be able to receive some mental health services.
We journeyed over the Coastal Range hills yesterday to our daughter’s house to watch the Super Bowl.  We left at half-time, came home and watched the rest of it.  The best part really was the commercials.  Since we were all 49er fans we weren’t caught up at all in cheering for either the Seahawks or Broncos, so weren’t particularly disappointed in the outcome, only that it was a lousy game.  If the 49er’s hadn’t been robbed of a win the week before by some rotten officiating, it would have been a much closer game, and more fun to watch.  The refreshments, however, were outstanding, as usual.  And there were pool winners in the crowd, which is always good. 
So far I have refrained from writing about what I am beginning to call “my soap”.  That is the ‘ongoing story of Trenton place’.  Trenton, New Jersey, that is.  I was 69 years old when I was elected, live in a very isolated part of California, and after I was elected I was very careful to monitor every letter and every e-mail to make sure there was nothing in any written word that could be construed as damaging.  I never talked to anyone who was unknown to me without someone else there as a witness.  My legislative assistant even insisted that I turn off my computer whenever I left the office, even for a very short period of time, to prevent anyone from coming into my office and sending out a damaging e-mail from my computer.  I don’t believe there was anyone in our Supervisor’s chambers who would have sent out such damaging e-mails. 
Although there is a plethora of things I could write about the Christie mess, the very fact that as the top dog in his office, he allowed his staff to write such stuff in e-mails, in my opinion, prevents him from ever considering higher office.  My God, imagine him in the White House surrounded by such a selection of idiots.  If he couldn’t find anyone any better qualified as Governor to be his staff, what makes anyone think he would be any better at selecting staff as President?  I think the thing in BridgeGate that I find the most reprehensible, other than what he caused the citizens of Fort Lee, is the fact that his closest associate, David Samson, wasn’t as upset over the closure as he was with the Port Authority Commissioner, Foye, from New York for talking about it so that the press would hear what had happened!! 
Perhaps there is a God, and our country has just missed having a misogynistic, bullying, lying, conniving, New Jersey politician as President of the United States.  Or are those terms redundant?

 

No comments: