Farm Pays Millions in Taxes, Gets Less Federal Help than Taliban
27 CommentsPress Enterprise Scandalized!
Jennifer Iyer of the Redlands Daily Facts got an earful from me last week when she called about our “Commie Distancing” ad in the Yucaipa News Mirror. The truth is our commitment to “old normal” is extremely popular with our guests (read the comments), and the farm really is a nicer, more friendly place without a lot of high-maintenance Covid Pharisees walking around.
A lot of local news has descended into “reporter as busy-bee gossip,” trying to summarize the really juicy, and vicious commentary that surrounds neighborhood social media. Seriously, if you want to read entertaining neighbor-bashing there’s nothing quite like a Facebook community group. It’s a great mix of the completely uninformed and the occasional genius–and it’s brutally honest, unlike “official” media. Jennifer did her part, in 2018, to cover a public school teacher on campaign against us (anonymously, on taxpayer time) and that all resulted in a case now before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Old guys like me, on our own time, simply can’t use the First Amendment to warn people against genocidal monsters like Louis Farrakhan or Constitutional dolts like David Hogg.
Or can they? I guess we’ll see. Judging by the three judge panel’s questions, there may be grounds for hope. (Video)
The Money
A little background on our Covid era financial help: I did some rough ciphering and my guess is that during our time in Oak Glen, our part of the Riley family has shelled out $23 million in payroll and at least $6 million in taxes. We do what very few “smart” business people even think of doing. (Guess what the “highest and best use” of this land would be, conventionally thinking? Five acre estates. Housing.) We take largely unimproved farm land and we open it up to the public, at great financial risk. We don’t pay ourselves that well. We teach children history. We host dances and stage plays. We let families know what it’s like to pick apples and pumpkins. Our guests love the place, and we do too, but it’s not easy. We may make it look easy, but it’s not. Expensive well pumps die. Liability insurance has to be paid. Property taxes come due. A new headache every day, just to keep the blessings on their toes.
Along comes a virus engineered in a lab and paid for by our tax dollars. If that weren’t bad enough, global policy elites, with their hair on fire, decide to scare potential victims half to death–unnecessarily as it turns out. If you count people who die “with” as opposed to “of” Covid, it appears to kill about 0.18% of the population, and those heavily skewed in the direction of the very old, the obese, and the diabetic. Unlike Sweden, where leadership calmed down, followed the science, and looked at how respiratory viruses behave, a lot of the world locked-down. Bill Gates opined, weirdly, that baseball games and mass assemblies would never come back.
What did this do to us? Riley’s Farm? Well it immediately wiped more than a million dollars off the books. It sent 105 employees home. I can remember how foggy those weeks were, the loneliness of the place, taking the trash out by myself and wondering whether Mary and I would have to finish our years in a trailer, or on someone’s couch. We had enormous bills coming due — insurance, property taxes, our last payroll. For those of you who have never run a business, you can’t just wipe all of your sales off the books and keep paying bills incurred when times were normal. One extended relative actually lectured me: “you should always have enough in reserve to weather things like this.” That’s a bit like saying “have a financial plan for Nagasaki.”
Did we take the federal loan? Of course we did. We took every dollar we could find. The federal government owes us that and more.
If I designed a virus that killed your grandmother and scared your customers into isolating at home for months on end, would you seek damages from me? You bet your @ss you would.
Now, in the flawed world in which we live, the federal government won’t see it that way. They will demand their money back, and, frankly, rather than face that burden, we considered shutting down completely — just like millions of small businesses across the country, who properly concluded federal policy makers were too dumb to stabilize the markets, and provide any hope for the future. We remained in business because this is our purpose, our lives, our love.
We realize there were lots of people who transitioned to working at home, who saw it all as “loving your neighbor,” who called this little pandemic response an “inconvenience,” I ask you to put yourself in the shoes of millions of small service businesses–restaurants, salons, inns–who didn’t have that option. Ponder the people who saw their life’s work destroyed. Are you loving that neighbor too? Moreover, have you thought this all through? Have you considered what it will do to the global economy? We can’t place orders these days without warnings about delays on vital materials. Are you anxious to slip into third world poverty?
And, more important, have you considered the social and spiritual consequences of raising your children with masks over their faces from toddler to teen? Are you really willing to give up on weddings, funerals, birthday parties, church, travel, celebration? Are you going to do everything the federal government tells you to do, no matter how evil or ridiculous? Warning: don’t read this link if you have a weak stomach. The same academic discipline that considers 12,000 dead vaccine victims a necessary evil, uses fetal tissue, apparently without the slightest regret. Are we really taking orders now from the sort of people who can graft a fetal scalp onto the back of a mouse, for “testing?”
Maybe so. Joe Biden just gave the Taliban billions in military equipment, and pallets of cash–and a few local Covid Karens are worried that a tax-paying American business is getting a little “relief.”
Go figure. (Unless that is now illegal too.)
Tags: Commie Virus, Covid, Federal Loans, Jennifer Iyer, Press Enterprise
Categorised in: News
This post was written by Jim Riley
27 Comments
Entertaining, intelligent, and informative as usual. I am really interested in your take on Joe Stalin’s, I mean Biden’s lastest tyrannical edict and how the farm plans to handle it as I look at the copy of the constitution I have pinned to my wall that my daughter bought me in your mercantile last week.
Jim, you’re family means more to our family, friends, and communities than the loud mouths writing hit pieces. Your a bulwark for our constitution and a reminder of the simpler but not necessarily easier times… we are inspired by your faith, perseverance, and healthy masculinity which seems to be missing so much today!!!
Blessings from our family to yours – Tim
I so appreciate you putting into words what so many feel but, for whatever reason, don’t say. Our family regularly reminisces about our visits to the farm (we finally packed up and left the state earlier this year). It was your willingness to allow people to come walk the trails and wander the orchards that gave us some semblance of normalcy during those early days of this madness. And we are so grateful for that outlet. Keep doing what you’re doing and the best of luck and blessings to everyone at the farm!
Yess!
Jim you are not afraid to speak up for all of us. Having been in business, who better to run things than a small busness owner. Very few in the Government know what it takes to be in business.
Joe Biden is an idiot. We need Trump more than ever.
Well written as usual and spot on facts. Our country has lots her way and there are few safe havens left. Your values and your farm are much appreciated by normal people that are still left.
Thank you
Since this plandemic started- my wife and I have visited the farm 5 or 6 times. Each time has been amazing! Educational, comfortable, beautiful, and always with lots to do. We have also gone to many of your dinner shows. (I regret not getting tickets to the sleep hollow dinner early)
Thank you for everything. We will continue to visit the farm.
The money line “If I designed a virus that killed your grandmother and scared your customers into isolating at home for months on end, would you seek damages from me? You bet your @ss you would.” Love it, just love it. Keep fighting the good fight my friend!!!
Good to hear you, Tim. Please encourage my former FB friends to re-post this.. Thanks!
Thank you for speaking up and sharing! We look forward to visiting the beautiful farm again. Praying this election changes things for California.
Add another name to that immortal list of The Sons of Liberty…Jimmy Riley!
I love that you speak up and speak the truth. Makes us love you and your farm even more. We cannot wait to make a visit this fall.
This has got to be the best written piece about our times right now. The Redlands Daily facts are filled with left wing nut jobs. I wish the paper would go out business. 11 years ago my son Raymond Alcaraz was killed in Afghanistan 8/31/10 by a Taliban bomber and brought home 11 days later today on Sept 11 2010. There were reports of the Westboro Baptist church members were going to protest our sons military funeral and we asked the Redlands daily facts not to give these wackos the time of day. They responded that is was news and had to cover them. Well that set off a chain reaction of events where the Patriot Guard riders banded together to prevent these POS from coming within 500 yards of us. I lost every ounce of respect that day with the RDF. Why do I explain this today? Because Riley farms is the last of a dying breed of family owned businesses that are there to provide a service and entertainment to the locals and are being constantly attacked by left wing progressive nut jobs and now Covid Karens at RDF. Everyone needs to book a showing or a day trip to Riley farms and support this incredible business. We love Riley Farms from the Murphy family. GoldStar parents of fallen Hero SGT Raymond ALcaraz.
Thank you, and thank you for raising such a son. God bless.
Right on! As a teacher amidst left wingers spouting communist praises daily, I appreciate a raw, brave soul speaking out. Love your farm and the atmosphere it presents. Keep up the good fight.
I heard about your farm through SBSUN and have to say I’m 110% behind your vision of Riley’s Farm and think the article was definitely one-sided (I wonder whyyy). This “Plandemic” has made it hard for businesses and consumers alike and we need to find a way back to our grounded selves. We can never get back what we once had, but can start again and try and have an open mind rather that keeping stagnant and worrying for the rest of our days… Keep doing what your doing! We need more people like you to keep the community going!
My comment the SBSUN seems unwilling to approve..
Hilarious article. For the real story go to rileysfarm.com and read our farm blog. The idea that largely outdoor activities (picking apples, going on field trips) increases the risk of Covid in people who are not over 70, not obese, not diabetic is absurd, as the science is proving more and more surely as time goes by. Highly vaccinated countries like Israel and Britain are experiencing higher death curves. We should understand that Covid is with us and we should all lose weight, take vitamins, and ask the truly vulnerable — not the healthy! — to isolate themselves. It’s a pain in the @ass having common sense in a world without it. As to the $$, if the government pays Communists to develop a virus, the government has an obligation to fix its mistakes.
Hi Jim,
I hold completely different views as you. However, I love your farm. I planned to go again soon this year. I don’t subscribe to cancel culture. But here I ask you: as an Asian woman, would I be treated by your staff as a valued guest, or a communist killer? Would I need to show proof that I was a legal immigrant, a taxpayer contributing to this country, and I do not wish anyone harm from COVID? Can I believe that my elderly mother and my young child to be treated with respect? Can I expect the same respect from guests at your farm like the people from these comments?
Respectfully, I am scared for my family. If I end up not going to your farm this year, I would in fact be disappointed.
I wish you all well in this complicated time.
You would be treated with respect and love. That’s what we tell our staff: “LOVE the guests; they love you.”
“Asian” and “Communist” are not the same thing. Misguided Russians and Cubans and Europeans have been Communists. My problem is with an _ideology_, not a race, that has killed millions of people in pursuit of worker’s utopia that doesn’t exist.
Thank you for your reply. I am not saying that I equate “Asian” and “Communists”. I asked because there are some that do. I’m glad you and your staff don’t subscribe to these rhetoric, but among the people who share your view points, some are yelling at any Asians to “go back to China” or even causing them harm. That’s where I’m coming from when I wonder how I would be treated at your farm. If not by your staff, but by your guests. I know you have no control over that, but it does remain a factor in my decision whether to visit your farm.
I hope if we do visit, we will continue to experience the open orchard of apples and pears, pumpkin patches, good bbq and food as we have done in the past, with happy and kind guests only aiming for the same experience.
People who assume all Asians are Communists are too dumb to be our customers. We celebrate, and study, history here. I would love to chat with you if you come by again.
I am so happy you stayed open it was so nice to escape to the farm and have a great day out!! I know your work is hard, I am so thankful that you do all that you do. I love when all the employees speak in their accents, it adds the cherry on top of all the amazing things on the farm!! I really love you guys!
Our family has enjoyed your farm for years. We travel all the way from Arcadia at least once per year with our homeschool group. Last fall, after months of terrible things being said about and done to our country, the field trip was an extra special balm to our souls. And the speech at the end about truth and courage brought me to tears. Thank you for the witness that Riley’s Farm is. It is a light in a dark time.
Jim, I love the farm, & everything that it represents, & I hate to say this, but thinking like yours is why we aren’t out of this f’d up mess. Iit has been a struggle for everyone, not just the farm, but your claims that this disease kills only .018% are exactly that, false. That is a 2% death rate, not .018. The decimal gets moved over… A .018% death rate would be .0018. By comparison, a 100% rate would be equal to 1.0. 2% of infected individuals dying is significant. My father, a man who is not obese as you claim, is highly at risk for this. He also happens to be the same person that introduced me to your farm, & made me want to come back again & again. While I respect your right to run your business, & to have an opinion that differs from my own, I do not respect the fact that you are spreading disinformation, & causing people to take chances with their health. I wish you well, & I pray that the farm gets through these tough times relatively unscathed, but I also wish that you would take a moment to consider the impact that your words have on others…
You need both a math and a reading lesson. I wrote “.18%” not “.018%.” Your claim that Covid kills 2% of the population is patently absurd. 2% of the United States Population would represent 6,564,000 deaths, instead of the 680,274 claimed, tonight, by worldometer, and that includes all those who died “with” as opposed to “of” Covid. You are the purveyor of disinformation, and lunatic fear, not me.
P.S. Take total global Covid deaths (4,654,317) and divide it by world population (7,900,000,000). Put it in terms of a percentage.
Can’t wait for another visit this Fall without the demand to social distance and wear face masks. We love you guys and what you stand for!