Governmnent Experts, You Have To Love Them

It’s been raining pretty hard here in the People’s Republik of Kalifornia the past few days. Must be all this global warming.

You’ve probably heard on the news that the nation’s tallest dam, The Oroville Dam, has been having some “issues” and some fear might collapse.

To me, the interesting part is all of the information coming out that there have been warnings that the dam needed repairs and improvements for the past 12 years. Of course our oh so wise politicians have said that repairs are a low priority and besides the state doesn’t have the money to fix the dam. Oddly we have BILLIONS of DOLLAR$ to spend on Governor Moonbeam’s TRAIN TO NOWHERE.  And NOW, Moonbeam is asking the Federal Government for emergency money to fix the dam.  Hey Gov. Moonbeam, here’s a suggestion.  Why don’t you have some of our newly minted “SANCTUARY STATE” illegal aliens work for FREE to fix the dam?

It’s fun to read the reports from the government experts. Here’s a great quote regarding a structural failure of the dam, “…  sudden dam failure, the scenario was “hypothetical” and “not how dams typically fail in real life.” That was from Ed Wilson a state water agency spokesman.

I guess he never saw the pictures and footage of the Teton Dam failure in Idaho back in 1976. You can see the “hypothetical failure” in this video HERE

Hmm, must not be “real life”.

How much do you want to bet that Mr. Wilson (wasn’t that Dennis the Menace’s neighbor?) doesn’t live downstream of the Oroville Dam?

Drip Drip Drip

I have to agree with President Trump that those who are LEAKING classified information need to be uncovered and prosecuted.  Those are the left are up in arms over Russian “hacking”.  EVERYONE should be OUTRAGED over this meddling of how our country operates by unelected individuals within our own government.  I am.

On the first level, individuals trusted with classified information have a sworn duty to protect that information from dissemination. They may disagree with the administration, policies, or world events, but that does not excuse them from protecting the information. Giving out classified information to people who do not have an appropriate clearance AND a “need to know” is a violation of the law. It can rise to the level of a felony. In times of war it can rise to treason which carries an ultimate penalty of death.

On the second level, and more disturbing, is that this is the sort of behavior of organizations such as the KGB. Internal agencies who use their powers to manipulate the outcome of any policy or who persecute any other individual or entity is a very DANGEROUS organization. The leaks that President Trump is outraged over pertained to a PRIVATE CITIZEN. If a government agency can use its power to persecute any citizen without any law, any order, or due process should be FEARED.

Intelligence agencies are part of the Executive Branch within the THREE BRANCHES of government. They should execute the law and only the law. If they have a problem with their chain of command within the Executive Branch, they can go to Congress who has the power to issue an order to investigate and take appropriate action.

Selectively passing classified information to the press to affect change is NOT the way that our country is supposed to be run!

Intelligence agencies are tasked to collect and protect information to keep our country safe and allow our country to function, domestically and internationally.  They are NOT and should NEVER be the ruling dictatorship manipulating policies, events, direction, or laws of our country.

What Did He Say? Another Peeve

I just watched the opening moments of “The Round Table Discussion On Women In Business”, hosted by President Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau in the White House Cabinet Room.

Here’s my beef. I could barely hear what anyone was saying because of all those annoying press photographers!

The noise from all the cameras drowned out the voices.  A never ending cacophony of camera clacking sounds.

Here’s my peeve of the day. This is RIDICULOUS because the press could use silent cameras. In this day and age everyone is using digital cameras, which allows them to almost instantaneously transfer the images to their agencies. No one covers news stories with film cameras. There is no need to use a camera that has a shutter and a slapping mirror inside. They make digital cameras without mirrors that are completely silent.  They are called (obviously) “mirrorless cameras”.  Heck I owned a Canon camera called a Pellix that had no moving mirror which made it quieter.  That camera was made in the 1960’s for goodness sake!

Point of fact here folks, manufacturers of cameras have audio generators in the cameras to make them sound like a film camera of old.  They create the shutter sound because people are used to hearing it, I suppose. If you own a smart phone it makes a “camera like” sound when you press the button and take a picture.

I noticed that they must have mandated that no flashes were to be used as I didn’t see a single burst of light. Therefore they could make a rule that only silent cameras must be used to cover White House events.

Here’s another reason this is INSANE. At a professional golf game the photographers cannot make noise when the player is up. They can only use silent cameras.

Do we have our priorities straight?  Why is it that hitting a little white ball around with a stick has more stringent press coverage requirements than a meeting between international heads of states?