Posts Tagged ‘Baldilocks’

Why I Stayed in California

Posted: December 28, 2019 by julietteochieng in economy, personal, politics, Uncomfortable Truths
Tags: ,

by baldilocks

Two reasons: family and church. One reason remains.

I wanted to leave California in 2006, but I didn’t because I couldn’t convince my then 85-year-old great-aunt to sell her home of 50 years and move to New Mexico, where the majority of our family lives.

My aunt passed away in 2012 and it’s easy to place “blame” on a person who isn’t here to give her side of the story, but I’m not the lone person who was trying to convince her to move. Neither of us couldn’t convince my aunt that California was sliding down the tubes, or that it would be tough for one person to take care of her if/when her health begin to fail. It lead to a lot of familial acrimony for a number of years.

In the end, I did take care of my great-aunt – mostly by myself – in her declining years. And yes, it was tough. But I’m glad I did it.

My aunt left her house to me, but she had taken out a reverse mortgage on it, so you can guess what happened. I tried to keep the house for two years, but I couldn’t.

So, when the time came to leave the house – in December 2014 – I had a choice to make: move to NM or stay. But if I stayed, where would I live? That was a question for God to answer, so I asked Him. Right afterward, the pastor at the church I’ve been attending since 2003, made this general plea to the congregation: “I know what’s happening with the economy, especially here in California, but I need you to stay and help this church get the Word out.”

There was my answer.

I knew then – at the beginning of 2015 – that this would involve homelessness. So, I said to God that if He wanted me to stay and be homeless, I had some requests: that I would not be on the street or be hungry, and that I would have a clean, safe, and temperature-controlled place to sleep, shower, and you know the rest.

In my nine months of homelessness during 2015, He held up His end of the bargain and continues to do so.

Should I stay any longer? Here’s the thing: we conservative Californians who stayed let this happen to our state. Others got out early and who can blame them? I wanted to do it, too. But it seems to me now that running away is a two-edged sword. We did nothing and now we will continue to do nothing and are slinking away.

I still want to have the option of leaving here in 2020, but not without putting up a fight. Simply, I want to be able to throw my belongings in my 18-year-old car and bounce on cue, but until I’m able to do that, I don’t want to sit here and just take it while California’s Organized political Left continues to herd the state’s middle-class resisters to its borders.

Also, I really don’t want to leave my church. I could still be a member via the magic of the Internet, but it won’t be the same.

One might say that I didn’t get wound up about California’s plight until it affected me personally, and one might be correct. But that means that it’s time to change. If there are only a few left in California who are willing to speak for me, it is what it is. And I can still speak — and take action — for myself.

Also, as we know, California’s Organized Leftism is spreading to other states, often riding in the car with former Californians as they take their liberal political mindsets to places like Colorado and Texas. It’s like an airborne pestilence.

So, for now, in spite of California Assembly Bill 5, I’m going to continue my regularly-scheduled posting here at DaTechGuy Blog – Tuesdays and Saturdays — until I can’t.

I do have a fund-raising campaign going on Facebook: Prep for Possible CA Exit.

You’ll note that I left open the possibility of staying and I’m doing that because I think that 2020 will be a year of big surprises for the entire country. California may be one of those surprises and if I can be a part of the change in direction for California at least for a few months of the upcoming year, I’m going to do what I can. I’ve been stagnant for too long.

If you’d like to help me be ready for mobility, you can contribute at the Facebook link or below at my Paypal link. But even if I don’t get another dime in this campaign, I’m done sitting around waiting for my beloved home state to fall.

And I know for a fact that God rewards action.

NECESSARY READING: My Vox Problem

Juliette Akinyi Ochieng has been blogging since 2003 as baldilocks. Her older blog is here.  She published her first novel, Tale of the Tigers: Love is Not a Game in 2012.

Follow Juliette on Facebook, Twitter, MeWe, Patreon and Social Quodverum.

Hit Da Tech Guy Blog’s Tip Jar !

Or hit Juliette’s!

Sweet Sound

Posted: December 24, 2019 by julietteochieng in culture
Tags: , , , ,

Show and Tell

by baldilocks

From Mark Deutchle at American Thinker:

You might be surprised at what you can see and hear while ringing the Christmas Bell for the Salvation Army.  These last two weeks, I saw hundreds of people going in and out of our local Walmart, all coming within just a few feet of my Salvation Army Bell and Red Kettle.  Soon after I started ringing the bell, a few people stopped to chat, and it was then that I realized that I had a great opportunity to learn some new things.  I found that I was in the presence of authentic people living life, who were wanting and striving toward the best life they could create for themselves and their loved ones. (…)

I noticed that most people going in and out of Walmart were really not paying attention to me and my ringing bell.  However, if I took the lead by greeting them with a robust “Merry Christmas!,” many would smile and return the greeting.  Over and over again, I watched as some would mentally stop in their tracks, turning from their inward focus so they could place a donation in the Kettle.

It became obvious to me that the Salvation Army has earned for itself a tremendous reputation in America.  One can only wonder how many millions of lives the organization may have touched.  My brief time ringing the bell was encouraging, as I witnessed all kinds of people taking a few moments to donate to the Kettle: whites, blacks, Hispanics, Asians, vets, young and old.  All were acting on an impulse to improve the lives of others at their own expense.

At the end of Psalm 91, God says that, if we trust Him and are not afraid of all the stuff that life throws at us, He will show us His Salvation. It occurs to me that this means that He will show us Jesus the Christ and He will show us what Salvation looks like in action — what it looks like when it is on the march – like an army.

Mr. Deutschle got it from two perspectives: he saw it and was a part of it.

And it’s my opinion that each one of us can see it — if we are looking for it.

Merry Christmas.

By the way, I promised an update to this post. That will happen this Saturday.

Juliette Akinyi Ochieng has been blogging since 2003 as baldilocks. Her older blog is here.  She published her first novel, Tale of the Tigers: Love is Not a Game in 2012.

Follow Juliette on Facebook, Twitter, MeWe, Patreon and Social Quodverum.

Hit Da Tech Guy Blog’s Tip Jar !

Or hit Juliette’s!

Pelosi Plays Her Role

Posted: December 21, 2019 by julietteochieng in Always look at the bright side of Trump, elections, News/opinion, politics, war
Tags: , , , , ,

Who will gavel who?

Nancy Pelosi during less stressful times — at least for her.

by baldilocks

Finger pointed forever.

“He just got impeached. He’ll be impeached forever. No matter what the Senate does. He’s impeached forever because he violated our Constitution,” she said.

Trump doesn’t care about the stigma of impeachment. He knew they were planning it before the election and, once he got elected, it was on.

Some of them even said so in public on Inauguration Day.

So, after the Mueller investigation came up empty, President Trump goaded them into doing it; he was the one who made sure that the second Ukraine call got into the hands of the “whistle-blower.” I theorized about this weeks ago.

He did it so that there would be a trial and, of course, during the trial, all eyes will be watching. That’s when all the things that our government has been doing to us will come out and those things will come out of the mouth of the President of the United States.

That’s when we’ll find out the height, weight, breadth and time length of all the graft and money-laundering that has been going on in the US government at least for the last 50 years, perpetrated by all three branches of government and by both parties.

Pelosi knows this and it’s why she’s holding up progress. The House voted in favor of impeachment and then promptly departed for Christmas break without sending the articles of impeachment to the senate, as is necessary for a true impeachment to occur.

She didn’t want the impeachment at all for this very reason. But her caucus is much dumber and more vocal than she is, so she had no choice. So, now she’ll play the role of Grand Impeacher of Trump and avoid sending the articles of impeachment to the senate for as long as she can. She knows it won’t last, but she’ll play Trump-slayer — figuratively speaking — while she can.

Her caucus and her constituency will buy this because they, too, care more  about looking tough against Trump, even while barely knowing anything about how the process is supposed to go. Fun fact: many Democrats thought that the House impeachment meant that President Trump was supposed to be immediately thrown out of office.

So, Pelosi will bask in the sunlight as Anti-Trump Champion while she can because she knows it will end soon.

How could she not know what’s coming? Thomas Wictor has been pointing out for months that President Trump plans to be the lone witness for the defense during the senate trial and once you see that and listen to what the president says about it, you’ll discover that he has warned the Democrats over and over again that this is what he will do.

But they are blind and deaf to their own error.

And here’s something interesting: the State of the Union address is coming up in February. On her way out the door for Christmas break, Speaker Pelosi invited President Trump to the House to give it, as if everything is normal.

Will that be the grand collision of powers? Will President Trump decide to spill the beans then?

This SOTU address will be an all-eyes-on-Trump affair, too, and I suspect that there will be a lot of misbehavior by the audience-in-attendance during that speech. The Speaker may be setting the President up for that, but I bet his set-up for her and for the rest of the Democrats will be grander, not to mention more effective than, say, Rashida Tlaib leading a screeching chorus of “IMPEACHED MOTHERF*CKER!!” (I hope they try that. Heh.)

Speaker Pelosi is correct in observing that President Trump will have the distinction that only two other presidents have. But I bet he will also have the distinction of showing the entire world how crooked those who claim to lead us and represent us have been for decades. If he does that, he’ll be by himself in history.

I think that he’ll do it and so does Madame Speaker, as do many of the other beak-wetters, past and present.

It’s why they have hated him from the beginning.

Juliette Akinyi Ochieng has been blogging since 2003 as baldilocks. Her older blog is here.  She published her first novel, Tale of the Tigers: Love is Not a Game in 2012.

Follow Juliette on Facebook, Twitter, MeWe, Patreon and Social Quodverum.

Hit Da Tech Guy Blog’s Tip Jar !

Or hit Juliette’s!

Update DTG: Instalanche, thanks Glenn. Nice to have you here, check out my five thoughts on impeachment, plus five key quotes from the Dem debate, let Jon test your knowledge of the Bill of Rights and let RH explain why we should call out Russia.

If you’re free Sunday from 6 AM to 8 AM EST listen to me guest host the Joe Mangiacotti show on the 50,000 watt WCRM AM 830 in Worcester MA and if you have any info on shoulder surgery either if you had surgery or used therapy instead let me know here.

My Vox Problem

Posted: December 17, 2019 by julietteochieng in economy, local, News/opinion, politics, Uncomfortable Truths
Tags: , , , , ,

So much for freedom of the press in CA

by baldilocks

The urge is to laugh. But I’m not laughing.

Hundreds of freelance writers at Vox Media, primarily those covering sports for the SB Nation site, will lose their jobs in the coming months as the company prepares for a California law to go into effect that will force companies to reclassify contractors [freelancers] in the state as employees.

“This is a bittersweet note of thanks to our California independent contractors,” John Ness, executive director of SB Nation, wrote in a post on Monday. “In 2020, we will move California’s team blogs from our established system with hundreds of contractors to a new one run by a team of new SB Nation employees.”

The law in question is California Assembly Bill 5.

Back in September, Vox thought AB5 was a good thing.

Pushing AB 5 through the legislature is perhaps one of the most significant labor wins in decades, if only because the labor movement has had very few victories in the past 40 years. But it’s particularly significant because of California’s position as one of the world’s largest economies and its outsized influence in national politics. If any state can start to reverse the trend of shrinking labor unions, it’s California. (…)

However, hundreds of thousands of workers — possibly millions — will see an immediate impact on their working conditions after the switch.

Emphasis mine and that last statement is certainly correct.

On January 1, 2020, it will severely limit all of my gigs. In short, AB5 limits me to 35 pieces of freelance work per year for an individual recipient.

This includes my blogging here at DaTechGuy Blog.

Most of you know that I live in Los Angeles. Back in 2013, Peter invited to me to be one of his Da Magnificent Seven. Initially, each of us contributed one blog post per week, but, a few years back, we upped the number to two  a week which, of course, means that I post here 104 times per year.

You can figure out the impact. By the way, Peter — who lives in Massachusetts — is an awesome boss and a great guy.

I told you about California’s new law – and its purpose – weeks ago.

I’ve been saying to any who will listen that the goal of California’s Organized Left (OL) is to drive out the middle class. The OL’s dream population will consist of the rich and the servant class, with the latter being composed mostly of illegal aliens. (…)

Freelance writers – even itinerant “street artists” like me – are considered part of the middle class by the OL because we all have the potential of upward mobility and, most importantly, we cannot be controlled by an employer.

Problem laid out.

In my next DMS blog post — this Saturday — I will tell you what my options are.

HERE ARE THE OPTIONS:  Why I Stayed in California.

Juliette Akinyi Ochieng has been blogging since 2003 as baldilocks. Her older blog is here.  She published her first novel, Tale of the Tigers: Love is Not a Game in 2012.

Follow Juliette on Facebook, Twitter, MeWe, Patreon and Social Quodverum.

Hit Da Tech Guy Blog’s Tip Jar !

Or hit Juliette’s!

Update DTG: Thanks Juliette for your kind words and thanks Glenn for the Instalanche. Hi folks, the template might be the same but the host is different so I hope you’re loading faster and without issue. While you’re here don’t forget to check out Juliette’s other pieces and

Hope to see you again soon

Older Entries
Newer Entries