Boobus Americanus and the California Republican Party

Boobus Americanus and the sad state of the California Republican Party is the topic of this blog post.  I  think of myself as a political independent now. However for more than 10 years I considered myself as a Republican.  And while I do agree with some of their positions they are getting really bad.

For instance one of the ideas of California Governor Jerry Brown aka “Moonbeam” is a high-speed bullet train to nowhere that is a classic “white elephant”.  One California newspaper describes it as “The bullet train is still the same old, unneeded, overpriced, boondoggle it always has been, unlikely to attract enough customers to be profitable, unlikely to get more money from Washington on which it relies, and it still hasn't attracted a dime of private investment.”

The only people who support this idea are greedy pork barrel pigs feeding at the trough. And some of the surprising supporters of this idea are, guess who folks, California Republican legislators. They argue that it will create jobs.

I guess when it comes to those “limited government” folks that saying is just something that they trot out come election time when they tell the voters that “we want to get the government off of your backs.” Yeah right!  They want to get the government into your wallet so they can make money off of it. And they are not as enthusiastic about getting the government off of your back as they claim.

Another example is the California redevelopment law which Moonbeam himself helped to dismantle. Steven Greenhut was right when he said that Governor Brown was right and the California Republicans who supported redevelopment were wrong.  Chris Norby is one notable exception in that he was and is a fierce opponent of the law.

The law was designed to revive inner-city neighborhoods. Instead of its stated purpose, it instead turned a financial mess where officials subsidized auto malls and hotels to divert tax revenues that would go elsewhere.

True property rights advocates rightly despised redevelopment because it gave certain cities an excuse to take property via eminent domain and give it to developers who claimed at least that they had better plans for the property. Anything eyed by these agencies according to critics became blight.

From a competitive party in California to the political wilderness they now find themselves the California Republicans have done it to themselves.   A series of political blunders and plain old fashioned greed did them in.  As a result, the California Legislature is now heavily Democratic, almost to the point of being what is known as “veto proof” which means they can almost override any veto by the Governor. 

Party loyalists might claim that people like me left the Republican Party. That is not true. The Republican Party left me first. 

Stay tuned. More to come on Boobus Americanus and California in particular.

Boobus Americanus and California attorneys

Hello again loyal readers. The Old Cynic is back with Boobus Americanus and California attorneys.  This blog post discusses California attorney who have that fancy law degree but not much gray matter between their ears.  In other words they are either a a chickens*** attorney themselves or the cases they have are a chickens*** cases.  I should say chicken manure but I cannot help myself.

As long time readers are aware, I have worked for many years in the legal field in California and

worked with quite a few attorneys and other legal professionals.  This blog post discusses my

recent experience with two licensed California attorneys.

The first attorney e-mailed me and requested a quote from me to work on a probate cases.  The

signature at the bottom of their e-mail stated that they are not only a licensed attorney in

California, they are also licensed as an architect in both California and Texas. They are also a

licensed California real estate broker as well as a California notary public.  Sounds impressive

does it not?

I should have known this attorney was not the type that I would want to work with when they

asked me if I would agree to take a percentage of their fee once the Court approves their fee. That

is not legal and is specifically prohibited by the Rules of Professional Conduct that govern

California attorneys.  But as I could use the business I responded to their e-mail.

The estate was rather small so I quoted them two prices, the first for an easy probate for small

estates and a higher price for a standard probate.  I also informed them that a probate referee

would have to appraise the estate property and would charge a fee for that.  Their response was,

"How much does this probate referee charge?  How long will this take?  Does he get paid up

front or at the end?  The estate has little cash and no income."

Jeez talk out a chicken**** case! This person has all these degrees and is taking on a case from the “bottom of the barrel”.

I e-mailed them back and told them that based on their latest e-mail that I was not interested in

working on the probate case and suggested that they find someone else. I never heard back.

The second attorney was the latest one.  They stated that they wanted to respond to a petition for 

confirming a biding arbitration award that their company received the day before. The attorney

who studied law at Pepperdine University School of Law in Malibu, California (Yes folks I do

some checking on every attorney I work with. I learned the hard way what happens when you

don't) informed me that they did not want to spend their time on it. They also stated that while

they were “ licensed to practice in California, but really I manage a boutique residential real estate brokerage   so I should not be litigating”.

They added that they wanted to “petition to vacate or correct the arbitration award and also wanted to cross-complain for libel and slander, tortious interference with contractual relations, etc .”

They further stated that, “There are several "issues" with the Petition  most notably, that it names "_________________ , LLC, a California limited liability company" when in actuality we are _________________, a California Corporation I read your blog about specific demurrer and still don't know if that mistake is grounds for anything.”

They stated at the end of the e-mail, “Thoughts, pricing, timing.”

I e-mailed them back and told them that without more information I could not quote them a price and asked them when and where the arbitration hearing was held, the amount of the award and did they attend the hearing. I received no response at all.

My God give me a break. This person has been a licensed attorney in California for over 15 years and went to a big name law school. And they are stating things that a layperson would be stating.  And they expect me to respond in some way with such little information.

Talk about a chickens*** attorney. For the life of me I still cannot say which one of these attorneys is the bigger chickens*** ! And believe me folks when I tell you that there are many attorneys out there just like these two examples.  That is the scary part!!

Stay tuned. More to come on Boobus American, not only as attorneys but in all aspects as well.

Boobus Americanus as California attorney

Boobus Americanus as California attorney is the subject of this blog post. As I have mentioned in my earlier blog posts I have worked in the legal field in California for many years. While I am no longer located in California I do try to keep with at least some of what is happening there.

I mentioned a Chintzy attorney in one of my earlier blog posts.  Loyal readers will remember him. He is so cheap he is not just a penny pincher he is a fraction of a penny pincher. See my earlier blog post: http://boobusamericanus.blogspot.com/2012/04/boobus-americanus-as-attorneys.html

This guy is a real piece of work.   He must have had a half decent attorney because it took almost 2 years to bring this case to trial in the United States District Court located in Santa Ana, California.  I was thinking that he might be able to delay it until crucial evidence was no longer available.  Not a chance.  The feds had tape recordings that his own client had made of their conversation. Incredible! Finally in May of 2013 he was convicted by a jury of bribing a federal government employee! And Chintzy did not even get any money out of the deal! Talk about not having the sense that God gave a crab apple. This guy is not only a shyster, he is incredibly stupid as well.  As a result of his stupidity he will be disbarred and lose his law license very quickly.

I have to admit I got a certain smug feeling when I read about his conviction.  This guy really was something else.  He was truly a “lawyer in name only”, what I like to call a LINO. The only time this guy wanted to be the attorney was when it was time to collect the money!!

His attitude was something else.  This guy was such a dumbsh** he once turned down someone I had referred to him who wanted to have his criminal record expunged which in this persons case would have been pretty close to a “slam dunk”. Chintzy did not want to do the job because he thought $1,500.00 was not enough money!!  He wanted at least $2,500.00 And this was almost 15 years ago! Yet Chintzy took on another case where the client\s former attorney stated “good luck getting paid by this guy”. Chintzy took on the case very close to the trial date for a measly retainer of $1,000.00!!!

I could write several more blog posts just about Chintzy but I will close with this. His long time law office administrator whom he worked with for around 20 years or so is a twice convicted felon!! And one of the cases actually went to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals which in a published case upheld his conviction.

Stay tuned. More to come on the subject of Boobus Americanus as California attorney.

Boobus Americanus and the California legal system

Hello again loyal readers. The Old Cynic is back with Boobus Americanus and the California legal system.  As long time readers are aware, I have worked for many years in the legal field here in California and worked with quite a few people. Some good ones to be sure.

Let me begin with some examples. 

I am working on some cases for an attorney right now that are something else. In one case, his clients are trying to claim that a forklift driver who used to work for them was an independent contractor! Give me a break! The guy drives a forklift for God’s sake.  The attorney e-mailed me the payment records and do you know what they show. Yes folks, they were paying this guy like an employee! They deducted money from his check for taxes, social security, everything that they would for a normal employee! I have no idea what they are planning to do when this goes to trial. I would not want to be the attorney on that case. I do not care what I am getting paid!

And to top things off, the attorney wanted me to research on whether the “employee” who does not have the proper immigration paperwork, hey he is “undocumented”, lol, is entitled to even receive unpaid wages.  I did the research and guess what. Yes he is entitled to all of the same protections that everyone else gets, regardless of his immigration status. It’s California for God’s sake.  I look at it this way. I do not really want to work on these types of cases any more. There is an old legal saying, “Between those who are equally in the right, or equally in the wrong, the law does not interpose.” In other words the law will not get in the middle of a dispute between two people who both have “unclean hands.”  And I do not want to either. I was a legal immigrant to the United States and went through all of the hoops. On the other hand I would bet money that this company knew this guy did not have the right immigration papers when they took him on.

I just finished working on another case for the same attorney where this guy had loaned some money to a California Limited Liability Company. I read the Promissory Note and the terms stated that the money owed was subject to a flat 20% interest, no matter how soon the money was paid back!  If they paid the money back within one week it was still 20%. And to top it off, the guy wanted a late charge of 3% per month!!! Even though the Promissory Note just said a flat late charge of 3%, it did NOT say 3% per month. Even the attorney agreed with me that this guy was going to be lucky just to get the 20% per year interest, let alone everything else that he wanted.

I am so sick of working in the legal field.  I am getting allergic to all of the horsesh**! Oops I mean horse manure. Sorry about that folks. I am sure that it is all that exposure to the horse manure that has caused me to develop an allergy.  Like people who develop an allergy to latex after wearing latex gloves for so long. Same principle.

Stay tuned. More to come on Boobus American, not only as attorneys but in all aspects as well.