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If you want to learn how to govern a state, look no further than California. Then do everything they don't. They say California is really a beautiful place. I wouldn't know. I've never been there and have no desire to visit. But apparently the state richly deserves the derisive nickname of "the land of fruits and nuts." So many terrible ideas have had their origins in California, and these ill-advised anti-capitalist ideas have a tendency to spread to the other 49 states. If you're going to successfully manage a state, you'd be better off using Texas as an example. The state of Texas must be doing something right, because that's where people are going as they leave California. Years ago, I started a page about The California Energy Crunch of 2000, which was an energy crisis resulting entirely from rabid environmentalism, poor planning, price controls, and various other effects of leftist politics. Californians oppose the development of every practical source of energy, but then, when there's not enough electricity to go around, they whimper when the lights go out. The subsection about "Sanctuary Cities" has moved to a page of its own, located here. Subtopics on this page: Decades of leftist politics, resulting in a steady stream of bad ideas Wildfires in Australia share the same set of contributing factors as the fires in California Wildfires and intentional power outages Homeless people supported by California taxpayers Mass exodus: Individuals and companies are leaving California Radical environmentalism and restrictive environmental laws Decades of leftist politics Overview: Federal Judge Humiliates Power-Hungry Gavin Newsom, Slaps Injunction on Anti-Parody Law. We brought you the story of how a hilarious campaign parody video by the social media account "Mr Reagan" so triggered California Governor Gavin Newsom that he quickly signed a bill banning the production or dissemination of videos made with the use of artificial intelligence during election season. Many pundits including myself immediately called it what it was: unconstitutional. On Wednesday [10/2/2024], a federal court agreed and slapped an injunction on the law. Seeking to Cut Food Waste, California Bans 'Sell By' Labeling on Products. Food products sold in California will no longer have a "sell by" stamp after July 1, 2026, after Gov. Gavin Newsom approved the nation's first law governing food labeling. When it goes into effect, Assembly Bill 660 will require the use of two standard terms for food products that choose to use a date label — "best if used by" to indicate the quality date of food, or "use by" to indicate the safety of food. Newsom said in a statement he also believed the new law, which he signed on Sept. 28, would better inform consumers and "significantly reduce food waste." Gavin Newsom Signs Bill Barring Local Authorities from Requiring Voter ID. California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill Sunday that will bar local authorities from requiring photo ID to vote, which exceeds the state's requirements. California is one of 14 Democrat-run states that do not require any ID to vote, despite requiring it for many other purposes. Voters at polling places are checked off against voter rolls without further proof being required; voters who submit mail-in ballots must include their signatures on the envelopes that are checked by a machine against the signatures on file in voter registration records. [Advertisement] The City of Huntington Beach, one of the last conservative bastions in the state, which often opposes Democratic policies, planned to require photo ID for voting in 2024, after a ballot initiative passed to that effect in March. [Advertisement] The new law, SB 1174, "would prohibit a local government from enacting or enforcing any charter provision, ordinance, or regulation requiring a person to present identification for the purpose of voting or submitting a ballot at any polling place, vote center, or other location where ballots are cast or submitted, as specified." [Advertisement] Why Did Newsom Veto His Own Car Bill? Here's something you don't see every day. Normally the California legislature and the Governor's office work hand-in-glove like a well-oiled, liberal machine, cranking out one disastrous policy after another in the name of political correctness. But that wasn't the case in Sacramento this week. Governor Gavin Newsom vetoed a new bill dealing (supposedly) with automobile safety measures, despite having previously supported the legislation. The bill in question would have mandated all new cars in the state to monitor a driver's speed and issue a "beeping" alarm if the vehicle exceeded the posted speed limit by a significant margin. Typically, Newsome loves issuing new mandates on auto manufacturers no matter what the impact on drivers and owners might be. So what's different now? Could it have something to do with there being an election just around the corner and his poll numbers appear to be showing some cracks in his formerly solid blue wall? California Dems Want State-Owned Oil Refineries. California has some of the highest gas prices in the country because it has a ton of taxes and because it demands special gasoline blends that come through one single refinery and are far more expensive. This is not because oil companies are greedy (or at least a whole lot less greedy than your average politician which isn't saying much because California pols make piranhas seem discreet, that's why hundreds of them have been convicted of corruption in recent years) but because the Dems actively want to make gas too expensive. And yet they insist on pretending that they're not the reason gas prices are high. Gov. Gavin Newsom, who does shock at the consequences of his own policies better than any politician in the land, signed a bunch of bills raising energy prices while blasting oil companies for being greedy. California, a Free State, Apologizes for Slavery as Newsom Signs Reparations Bills. California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) signed a series of "reparations" bills on Thursday, including a formal apology for slavery, even though the state entered the Union as a free state in 1850. [...] Newsom signed several other bills passed by the state legislature and pushed by reparations activists. As Breitbart News noted, however, the bills did not include actual cash payments or a reparations fund, provoking protests. The movement for reparations gained traction during the chaotic summer of 2020, when protests and riots spread across the country in the wake of the murder of George Floyd by police in Democrat-run Minneapolis, Minnesota. Newsom signed legislation establishing a committee to study reparations. After it made recommendations that included massive cash payments and racially separate schools, legislators toned down the proposals. Newsom only included $12 million toward the reparations issue in his budget this year, which grappled with a near-$50 billion deficit. California Passes Law to Ban All Plastic Bags in Grocery Stores. On Sunday [9/22/2024], California Governor Gavin Newsom (D-Calif.) signed a bill into law that will ban the use of plastic bags at grocery stores all across the state. [Advertisement] As reported by Axios, the new law follows up on a previous law passed ten years prior which forced stores to start selling "thicker plastic carryout bags that were considered reusable and met certain recyclability standards," said State Senator Catherine Blakespear (D-Calif.), one of the legislators responsible for the new bill. [Advertisement] "The truth is almost none of those bags are reused or recycled," Blakespear claimed, without any evidence. "And they end up in landfills or polluting the environment." Radical environmentalists have repeatedly claimed that plastic bags make for one of the most commonly-found items in cleanup efforts at public places. Anja Brandon, a spokeswoman for the nonprofit group Ocean Conservancy, claimed that "volunteers have cleaned up enough plastic bags to span the length of the Golden Gate Bridge nearly 30 times." She also asserted that plastic bags "are not only one of the most common plastics polluting our beaches, but also one of the top five deadliest forms of plastic pollution to marine life." The Editor says... California Bans Election 'Deepfakes,' Celebrates Biological Ones. California Governor Gavin Newsom (D) on Tuesday signed a law immediately banning the sharing of election-related "deepfake" videos, images, or audio, enforceable up to 120 days before an election and 60 days after an election. He also signed two more laws, which take effect in January, requiring disclaimers on AI-generated political ads and requiring social media companies to remove deepfakes, or else courts will force them to do so. [...] The term "deepfake" describes electronic media that has been manipulated, altered, or entirely fabricated, but which is so true to life that it deceives people into thinking it is real. [...] My purpose here is not to litigate the debate between these two arguments, nor explore various compromises that could address the concerns of each. Instead, I write to demonstrate the contrast between California's aggressive pursuit of one form of technological deepfake (electronic) and their unquestioning embrace of another form of technological deepfake (biological). For that is what gender transition procedures are: a biological deepfake. Arrested by Kamala: A Black Mother's Story. [Scroll down] In no small part, Harris ascended to power on the backs of minority women, women like Cheree Peoples, a victim of Harris's crackdown on truancy. At the time, Harris was not shy about explaining the rationale for the crackdown. California schools are funded according to average daily attendance, at the time about $30 per student per day. Harris, whose supporters included teachers' unions, spoke openly about the need to increase school attendance in order to obtain more money from the state and federal governments. In addressing this issue, Kamala once declared on camera, "I want money!" Harris instituted a program in San Francisco beginning in 2007 to threaten parents with arrest and a year in jail if their children missed school. When she became California State Attorney General in 2010, Harris took her "arrest the parents" program statewide. She openly laughed on camera about mailing parents letters that threatened jail time, and boasted about sending her most vicious prosecutors from gang and homicide units to intimidate and prosecute parents who had been arrested. Gavin Newsom Signs Bill Into Law Allowing The Government To Ban 'Deceptive' Social Media Posts. CA Gov. Gavin Newsom signs bill into law that bans the distribution of "election communications that contain materially deceptive content." According to his own statement, content from the Kamala Harris Campaign X account could be banned but most likely won't. CNN recently released a report detailing all of the "deceptive" content coming from Kamala HQ. "A social media account run by Vice President Kamala Harris' campaign has been repeatedly deceptive." "[Kamala HQ] has made a habit of misleadingly clipping and inaccurately captioning video clips to attack former President Donald Trump." In Newsom's own statement, "deceptive content," as CNN described, is now banned. [Video clip] The Los Angeles Times blames Republicans for California's woes. One of the hallmarks of narcissism is that when things go wrong, it's always someone else's fault. Being a narcissist means never having to say you're sorry. Nothing more perfectly illustrates this truism than an essay from yesterday's Los Angeles Times blaming Republicans for California's myriad woes. While the author is correct that, when Republicans had the chance, they didn't make smart decisions, the reality is that it's the Democrats who have led California to the desperate place it's in now. Steve Lopez's essay doesn't make the mistake of blaming Republicans for all the state's problems. He concedes that Democrats have long controlled the former Golden State, which is plagued by homelessness, crime, out-of-control housing costs, and poverty. He contends, however, "that none of that happened overnight, nor did it happen exclusively under Democratic leadership." Lopez believes that Republican mismanagement during the times that Republicans controlled the government is as much to blame as Democrat mismanagement. The easy challenge to that argument is that, since 1970, the legislature has had a Democrat majority, which became a vetoproof supermajority in 2018. Positioning Kamala Harris, the California Candidate. As California native Kamala Harris continues her word salad presidential campaign, Americans in the other 49 states might wonder how someone who can't speak without a teleprompter rose to this political level. The key word is "California," a state so insanely blue that its super-Democrat majority legislature wants to give reparations to people who were never slaves paid by people who were never slave owners. California joined the union in 1850 as a free state! Currently, Governor Gavin "Hair Gel" Newsom has AB1840 sitting on his desk, a law that would help illegal aliens buy homes. "If Governor Newsom signs AB 1840, someone who has broken the law to illegally enter our country will be eligible to enter the lottery for a 20% downpayment loan on a home — a loan that legal California residents will pay for," explains East Valley Republican Women Patriots (EVRWP) President Joy Miedecke, "This privilege is on top of free healthcare for illegal aliens that the California Democrats passed last year." CA Senate Pro Tem Refuses to Convene Special Session Called By Governor. As he promised, California Gov. Gavin Newsom issued a proclamation convening a special legislative session on Saturday after the state Assembly and Senate failed to pass a proposal he submitted on August 15 that would require the state's refineries to maintain reserves to allegedly prevent "price gouging" when there are supply shortages. Of course, even analysts within Newsom's administration agreed that the measure would lead to a further increase in prices instead of bringing Californians any kind of relief at the pump. Newsom Tells CA Lawmakers He'll Force Special Session If They Don't Pass His Bill to Increase Gas Prices. Grasping for relevance, California Gov. Gavin Newsom is in the midst of a bit of a temper tantrum this week with the legislature — threatening to convene a special session if they don't pass his proposal to further regulate California's oil and gas industry. Industry analysts say that the proposal, which would force refineries to "maintain a minimum fuel reserve to avoid supply shortages," would lead to increased prices for drivers in California, Arizona, and Nevada. Interest free, no down payment home loans for illegals? California Democrat assemblymember Joaquin Arambula recently introduced Assembly Bill 1840, a piece of legislation that would extend a first-time homebuyer loan program to illegal aliens. Should the bill become law, illegal aliens would be eligible for a new program that would offer them a loan worth 20% of the purchase price of the property[,] with no monthly payments. And no interest would accrue on the loan. Ever. Instead, the loan would be paid back when the borrower either refinances or sells the property. Can't happen, you opine? Assembly Bill 1840 was approved by a key senate committee just this week. Yes, California is now one step closer to giving illegal aliens interest-free home loans with zero down payment. And preposterously generous repayment terms. A San Francisco program to produce black male teachers instead threw away taxpayer money. Democrat programs always sound good but, once in operation, they're consistently disastrous, whether because of inefficiency, graft, or being easy marks for grifters. San Francisco just added another program to that list, with taxpayers having coughed up over $700,000 to get black men as teachers in local elementary schools — and ending up with almost nothing to show for that money. Democrats believe that they, not the taxpayers who do the work and create actual wealth, know how to spend money virtuously and wisely. There is no indication that this is the case. The more money that Democrats get, the more they waste. Climate madness is creating a nation of building code scofflaws. REACH Codes are building ordinances that some local California governments have adopted. They go far beyond the requirements of California's Energy and Green Building standards codes. They are meant to reach "climate action" goals, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and accelerate "decarbonization" by mandating all-electric new construction, upgrades to solar with remodeling projects, and electrical system upgrades to encourage electric appliance upgrades. These plans take a huge chunk of out Californian's pocketbooks. If you look at a California energy bill, you'll see that our electric rates are obscenely high. And if you've ever suffered through one of California's increasingly frequent power outages, you'd be eternally thankful for elderly gas stoves and heaters that don't require electric switches to trigger them. State Regulations Force Bankruptcy of California Solar Company. On the one hand, the state of California has decided that it shall become an all-electric, all-renewable power state by, well, for practical purposes, next Thursday. On the other hand, the state gives utilities a massive break on how much they pay home solar generators for their excess power, leading to the just announced bankruptcy of California-based solar system installer SunPower. Welcome to schizophrenic Sacramento. San Francisco Hotels Collapsing, Record Vacancy. Hotels in San Francisco are experiencing massive financial losses as tourism to the city has continued to drop in the years after the pandemic and as quality of life issues including homelessness and crime continue to grow in the Golden Gate City. In June, weekend hotel occupancy rates in the San Francisco-San Mateo were shown as being down by 22% since the same period in 2019, compared to just 4% nationally, data firm CoStar Group shows, reports The Daily Mail. Many tourists are staying away because of several factors, including the expensive prices in San Francisco. California: Next Stop, Venezuela. The California Energy Commission (CEC) has proposed several government regulations of the petroleum industry in order to combat future gasoline price surges. CEC regulators announced proposed government controls of the petroleum industry, ostensibly to combat future gasoline price surges. CEC's proposed fiasco is unbelievable since it has a clear vision of the ultimate outcome: Venezuela. The CEC announcement comes as Chevron, one of the largest oil companies in the U.S., announced that it will relocate its operations to Houston, Texas, is moving out of San Ramon, California. Its decision to leave follows years of aggressive environmental policy making from Democrats that hurt the company's business. The CEC report is laughably called "Transportation Fuels Assessment: Policy Options for a Reliable Supply of Affordable and Safe Transportation Fuels in California". It's laughable because the report title includes the word 'Affordable.' The Remarkable Transformation of Kamala Harris. When William McKay killed Riverside Deputy Sheriff Isaiah Cordero during a traffic stop, the three-strike convicted felon was not in custody because of Harris's reduced bail rule, despite having been convicted of three previous violent crimes. Reduced (or no) bail policy along with charge reductions (from felonies to misdemeanors), and no crime at all if theft, viz., shoplifting, less than $950 — these were all elements of Harris's pro-crime posture when she was District Attorney of San Francisco (2003-2010). Her policies turned one of the most popular travel destinations into a dangerous, crime-, garbage-, and needle-infested, homeless dominated "unlivable hellhole." She extended her pro-crime approach, adding defund the police, to all of California when she became that state's Attorney General (2010-2017). Illegal immigration into the Golden State soared under her watch. Between the open border and Harris's pro-crime attitude, gang violence in general, and particularly murders in Los Angeles, reached new highs. Kamala Harris' Oakland Is a Disaster. [Scroll down] Oakland has every imaginable advantage of climate and geography. The weather is immaculate [...] and the city has a major port that is practically a tax gold mine. Yet, Oakland always seems to be on the verge of full-on implosion. With the departure of the Oakland A's, a Major League Baseball team, at the end of this season, the city will lose its third and last major sports franchise in a decade. The loss is symbolic of a city that feels like a collapsing settlement at the edge of the Roman Empire on the eve of the Dark Ages. It's worth noting that without the last-minute sale of the dilapidated Oakland Coliseum, the city was looking at a budget shortfall of over $100 million. The sale hardly solves the long-term problem. Oakland is pondering doling out reparations to black residents, but a reparations panel said it needed $5 million just to draw up a plan. This is a city that's used to treating taxpayers like a piggy bank for grifting. Of course, Oakland has been associated with high crime rates for decades, but following the mayhem of 2020 the challenge became acute. In 2021, the Oakland City Council in effect voted to defund its already beleaguered police department. Crime exploded. San Francisco's downtown Saks Fifth Avenue bans window shoppers from coming inside. San Francisco has suffered another blow as one of the most luxurious department stores downtown is banning window shoppers. Saks Fifth Avenue in Union Square has decided to change its customer experience by moving to 'appointment-only' this summer, according to KRON4. Locals will have to pre-book appointments at the store located on 384 Post Street from August 28. California: Groups Of Thugs Are Raiding Homes And Cars In The Suburbs. Thieves were caught on camera breaking into at least 8 cars, 5 garages, and several homes. Thieves targeted a neighborhood in the East Bay,[California] stealing garage openers from cars and breaking into homes. Surveillance footage shows the group breaking into cars, garages, and homes, driving a white Honda Accord around 7 a.m. on Sunday. In one instance, the thieves entered a home with a woman and children inside, but the woman chased them out after they tried to steal her car. [Video clip] California's New Law Lets Schools Keep Secrets from Parents. Child predators follow a common playbook: target the victim, gain their trust, fill a need, and, crucially, isolate the child from her parents. For several years, this has also been standard California state protocol with regard to schoolchildren questioning their gender identities. On Monday, this scheme became law. The "SAFETY Act," AB 1955, signed by California Democratic governor Gavin Newsom, legally forbids schools from adopting any policy that would force them to disclose "any information related to a pupil's sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression to any other person without the pupil's consent." Schools may not, as a matter of policy, inform parents of a child's new gender identity unless the child volunteers her approval. The law also prohibits schools from punishing any school employee found to have "supported a pupil" hurtling down a path toward risky and irreversible hormones and surgeries. The law effectively shuts down the local parents' rights movement in California by eliminating its most important tool: the ability to organize at the community level to stop schools from deceiving them. If criminals are everywhere, blame the bystanders. Kamala's Legacies. As California's attorney general in 2014, Harris named a proposition that changed thefts of property valued under $950 from felonies to misdemeanors. Harris called it the "Safe Neighborhoods and Schools Act" but failed to explain how legalizing crime made schools and neighborhoods safer. She has claimed she took no position on the act, but the ballot language has exposed that falsehood. Proposition 47 launched a crime wave across the state, with 31,322 vehicle break-ins in San Francisco alone in 2017, a 24-percent increase from the previous year. The measure empowered criminals to break into vehicles in broad daylight with bystanders present. The arrest rate in San Francisco, where Harris previously served as district attorney, was less than two percent, and under Proposition 47 criminals could expect at the most a citation. The consequences of the pro-crime measure were obvious to all but the willfully blind, but the attorney general kept on the quiet side. Independent report: As Newsom brags, all California job growth is in government. California Governor Gavin Newsom touted the state's job growth in his State of the State Address last week, but a new report from a state agency found the state's private sector employment has been declining since 2022, with public sector hiring accounting for the entire state net increase in jobs. California's state-funded, non-partisan Legislative Analyst's Office found the private sector lost 154,000 jobs and the public and public-supported sector has gained 361,000 jobs since the peak of the state's labor market in September 2022. This means on net, the state's 207,000 job increase in employment since September 2022 has been from growing government-related hiring. LGBTQ Activists Freak Out Over California Bill That Makes It A Felony To Purchase A Child For Sex. LGBTQ activists speak out against SB1414, a California bill that would make it a felony to purchase children for sex. They claim it will affect LGBTQ people more. When they tell you who they are, believe them. [Video clip] WalletHub ranks San Francisco 'worst run' city in America for the second year in a row. San Francisco just took home WalletHub's "worst-run" city in America title for the second year in a row — which is hardly surprising, considering this is the place where you download a "poop map" before braving the city sidewalks, open-air drug markets and dirty tents fill the formerly clean Tenderloin district, and a walking tour with a sardonic sales pitch sold out weeks in advance — participants were promised an intimate experience with the urban decay of the "progressive" city, and offered the chance to "get close and personal with the Doom and Squalor of downtown San Francisco." Adding Insult to Injury in San Francisco. What happens in San Francisco if your insurance drops you because crime is out of control and your store is broken into for the fourth time? You get a notice from the city that you better fix up your store before they come after you. [Advertisement] [Video clip] Robbed by the criminals and financially raped by the city. It's a perfect example of how the government prefers to police the law-abiding and ignore the criminals. After all, criminals are dangerous and will fight back. Californians With No Driver's License Or SSN Can Use A Credit Card Or Gym Membership To Vote. In California, voters with no government ID can still vote so long as they show a gym membership, credit card, utility bill, or other low-security identification. Individuals wishing to register to vote in California are prompted on the secretary of state's website to provide their driver's license identification number and/or the last four digits of their Social Security number. But both sections give applicants the option to select a box indicating they lack that form of identification. [Screenshot] If an applicant checks both boxes, he would later be prompted to provide other identification, the California secretary of state's office told The Federalist. Upon further inquiry, an office representative said individuals could provide proof of identity by showing items such as a credit card, a utility bill, or their gym membership. California Mandates Trains That Don't Exist. California has long been infamous for its regulatory regime, imposing harsh restrictions on businesses and individuals. This pattern has been accelerating since climate change alarmism took hold in the state, with demands for carbon emission reductions serving as an excuse to restrict or ban everything from charcoal grills to gas stoves and more. Vehicles of all sorts have been swept up in this craze, with electric cars, trucks, and buses becoming the mandatory modes of transportation. Now, however, the state has its eyes on another form of transportation. Under a new proposed rule, the operation of diesel freight trains older than 23 years will be banned so they must be replaced with electric trains. That will certainly come as welcome news to climate change alarmists, but there's one small problem with this proposal. There are currently no fully electric trains in commercial production and there is no estimated timeline for when such trains might be commercially available given the current state of the technology. In other words, California is looking to mandate the use of trains that do not exist. California Budget Deal Slashes Spending but Includes $12 Million for Reparations. Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) and state legislators struck a deal this weekend to close a $47 billion budget deficit — and agreed to spend $12 million to implement proposals to provide reparations for slavery. [...] CalMatters.org reported Saturday on the budget deal, which combines spending cuts and withdrawals from the state's "rainy day" fund to overcome the shortfall (which CalMatters says is even higher, at $56 billion): [...] The push for reparations began in 2020, at the height of the Black Lives Matter movement, at both the state and local levels, in left-wing cities like San Francisco. Proponents began recommending massive cash transfers, leading Newsom to back away cautiously from cash payments as a form of reparations. Democrats continued pushing for reparations, despite the fact that the state's $100 billion budget surplus in 2022 had crashed to a massive deficit by 2024. California's Minimum Wage Continues to Destroy Restaurants. Would you rather have some jobs available at $12 an hour or no jobs available at $20 an hour? The answer may vary depending on whether you're a business owner or job seeker — or politician or bureaucrat. Regardless, the opening question, which is of the kind late economist Walter E. Williams often asked, should be pondered with news that California's new $20 minimum wage is continually claiming victims. The latest is a San Francisco McDonald's franchisee who'd been in business for 30 years. This pales in comparison, though, to one of the new minimum wage's first victims: Rubio's Coastal Grill. That chain is closing 48 Golden State locations — more than a third of its 134 remaining restaurants across California, Arizona, and Nevada. Democracy Just Died a Painful Death in California. Well, it sure looks like California is beyond saving now. In a stunning anti-democratic move, the California Supreme Court ruled on Thursday to block an anti-tax initiative from appearing on the ballot. This initiative, known as the Taxpayer Protection and Government Accountability Act, was backed by the business community and sought to make it more difficult to increase taxes in California. Among other things, it would have required the legislature to obtain voter approval for any new or increased state taxes. There's nothing groundbreaking about it, as voters in other states have used the ballot box to approve or deny tax initiatives before. But Gavin Newsom and the Democrat-controlled legislature were having none of it and filed a lawsuit to block the measure last fall, claiming that the initiative represented an illegal effort to amend the California Constitution and would hinder critical government operations. And the California Supreme Court unanimously sided with Newsom. California Jewelry Store Looted In Broad Daylight. At what point do California voters finally realize that their Democratic Party leaders have abandoned trying to enforce the rule of law and shout "Enough!"? The latest example of California's decline into a lawless state is a bold daylight robbery where 20 masked intruders looted a Sunnyvale jewelry store in broad daylight. California Applies Broken Windows Theory in Reverse. Thanks go to the erstwhile Golden State for warning us what we have to look forward to if we do not pry Democrats from power and reject leftism root and branch: [Tweet with video clip] Shoplifting is effectively legal in California. Smashing through the front of a store so as to loot it is still against the law (until such law is found to have a disparate impact on Persons of Preferred Pigmentation), but by now it hardly matters. By encouraging low-level crime, California has thrown the broken windows theory into reverse and then into overdrive. Summer Surprise: The Looming Biden Replacement. In February, I predicted that it can't be Joe Biden representing the Democratic Party in November, and that he would be replaced sometime in the summer before the Democratic National Convention. [...] Who, after all, are the "many popular Democrats" that Nate Silver imagines Democrats to have on the bench? Gavin Newsom? California is a failing state at the moment, having gone from a $100 billion surplus after federal COVID stimulus to a $73 billion deficit in just two years. It is currently enduring an unprecedented homelessness crisis while also experiencing an exodus of high-income taxpayers. Meanwhile, it is welcoming illegal aliens and unskilled laborers who benefit from California's ambitious welfare state. Be Prepared for Chaos. I find it impossible to believe that President Biden will be the Democratic nominee, and if he is, that he can win. What do the Democrats do? They certainly can't substitute Kamala Harris for Biden; she's tanked in opinion polls even lower and faster than has Biden. There are no nationally known non-geriatric substitutes in the wings, save for California governor Gavin Newsom, whose record for screwing up is at least as bad as Biden's. Youth and a good haircut can only go so far outside Newsom's home state. Even liberals are now conceding the West Coast has lost its way and become dysfunctional, and who is a better avatar of West Coast progressives than Newsom? California's billionaire utopia may not be as eco-friendly as advertised. Silicon Valley billionaires are still aggressively moving forward with their attempt to create a utopian, sustainable "city of yesterday" near San Francisco atop what they describe as "non-prime farmland." However, an accredited land trust now claims California Forever's East Solano Plan is intentionally misleading local residents about the "detrimental harm" it will cause ecosystems, as well as its potential to "destroy some of the most self-reliant farmland and ranchland" in the state. California Gov. Gavin Newsom Caught Charging U.S. Taxpayers For Illegal Alien Healthcare. California Gov. Gavin Newsom has been caught charging U.S. taxpayers for the healthcare bills of the state's illegal alien population. According to local media, Newsom filed nearly $53 million worth of reimbursements that the state now must return to the federal government: [...] A review conducted by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services inspector general's office revealed that California employed an "outdated calculation" method for claiming federal reimbursements between October 2018 and June 2019. This method failed to exclude services provided to noncitizens, which must be paid for by the state. Is
California Moving Toward Government-Owned Electricity? The first obvious hurdle to
"public ownership" — socialism — is the Fifth Amendment, which concludes,
"nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation." Here are the
valuations of the state's two largest private utilities:
Newsom's Budget Crisis: Slashing Safety to Fund Climate Goals. California Governor Gavin Newsom has put forward a budget that includes significant cuts to public safety funding, even as the state grapples with a massive deficit and pushes for aggressive climate goals focused on equity. In his proposed budget, released in May, Newsom highlighted the necessity of "difficult decisions" to address the estimated $27.6 billion deficit expected to persist for years. The proposal includes a $97 million reduction in trial court operations, $10 million from the Department of Justice's Division of Law Enforcement, and more than $80 million from the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. First Defund or Abolish, Now Disarm the Police? Southern California, particularly the San Diego area, has already been beset with more than its fair share of problems. Illegal aliens are flooding the region, homelessness is out of control, and crime has been on the rise. The police in both San Diego and Los Angeles have had their hands full. But if one gun control group has its way, the cops' hands will be a bit more empty if they don't have any guns. CBS News just concluded a two-year study into how the police buy their firearms and how they dispose of them when they reach the end of their service life. They found that some of the old guns the police sold were later found at crime scenes. Further, they investigated the gun companies that sell firearms to the police and determined that some of them have been cited for violations when they improperly sold weapons or ammunition. Now, San Diego is considering a law that would ban the police from doing business with those companies. Why Does California Keep Acting Like Its Own Country? Two California governors have visited China and signed environmental accords as if they were the heads of state instead of the heads of a state. Now the madness continues with the EU lobbying California over AI. [...] States do not get to run their own foreign policy. They don't get to sign accords with foreign nations. And yet California Democrats keep doing this sort of thing. California Dems vote to continue protecting illegal alien pedophiles with 'sanctuary' policies. California Assemblyman Bill Essayli (R) on Tuesday forced a vote regarding his bill, Assembly Bill 2641, which would end "sanctuary state" protections for illegal aliens convicted of sex crimes against children. California's sanctuary policies prevent state authorities from turning over illegal immigrants to Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. The restricted cooperation forces ICE to expend more of its own resources to locate and detain illegal aliens who have committed additional crimes. Essayli proposed a motion on Tuesday that forced California lawmakers to vote on whether to hear his proposed bill. Assembly Speaker pro Tempore Jim Wood (D) cut off Essayli's microphone while he was announcing the motion. "Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I move to suspend the rules and invoke the California constitution to withdraw Assembly Bill 2641, which will end sanctuary state protections for convicted illegal immigrant pedophiles," Essayli stated. The speaker instructed Essayli to stop before turning off the assemblyman's microphone. California ranks last in opportunity due to cost living: U.S. News. According to new state rankings, California ranks dead last in opportunity due to its high cost of living, says the U.S. News and World Report. USNWR's report uses cost of living, economic opportunity, and equality to create its opportunity metric. California's nation-worst cost of living was the main driver of the opportunity ranking, as its economic opportunity and income inequality were both better than more than half of American states'. "California was the birthplace for opportunity where our ancestors came to seek a better life and pursue the California Dream," State Sen. Brian Dahle, R-Bieber, who was California Governor Newsom's opponent in the 2022 general election, told The Center Square. "Housing, electricity, and gas continue to rise, and [Democrats'] solution is to tax, regulate, and mandate no matter the outcome." The Democrats' Anti-Business Policies Create The Food Deserts They Decry. A decade ago, California made shoplifting under $950 a misdemeanor, so shoplifting is de facto legal. That basically means that you can steal $949 worth of merchandise every single day and likely never go to jail. So, if you steal that $949 worth of goods every day and sell them for 25 cents on the dollar, you can generate an income of $86,000 a year tax-free! [...] In the hellhole that has become San Francisco, city supervisors have proposed a bill that would allow citizens to sue retailers if they close without giving the city six months' notice. That means, basically, that after struggling to make a profit, when a store finally decides to bite the bullet and close its doors, the Democrats running the city will have decreed that the store must remain open for another six months, regardless of how much money it loses. California Looks to Ban 'Clear' Service. Are you a frequent flyer? If so, you really should get Clear, a service that allows you to shorten your wait time in the TSA security line. It costs $189 a year, so if you don't fly often, you might want to pay the time tax, but if you fly more than 2-3 times a year it is well worth it to simplify your airport experience and reduce aggravation. [Tweet] Aggravation, of course, is exactly what the DEI crowd wants people to experience, and since more White people are likely to buy Clear, two California legislators are looking to ban the service. To be clear, Clear is not the same as the federal government's TSA pre-check, which gets you around even more barriers than Clear does. Rather, the company uses biometric IDs to ensure the identity of the person preparing to fly. It is sort of a pre-screening, in which you exchange money and agree to give a company your fingerprints and a retina scan in exchange for a shorter line experience. Very dystopian, and yes, I pay for it. I hate lines. Blaming Victims: San Francisco's Irrational Grocery Store Proposal. A member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, Dean Preston, recently proposed that grocery stores in the city that decided to close their doors, perhaps because of continual theft from their shelves and threats to their staff, should be forced to give six months' notice of their intention to close and try to find another store willing to take over from them; moreover, they would be liable to claims for compensation from local residents whose lives are adversely affected by their decision if they fail to comply. When I read this, I laughed: I thought it must be satire. But no: the proposal was meant in deadly earnest. These days, satire is policy. [...] I think 99 out of 100 people would still think that the best way to deal with widespread theft would be to catch and punish the thieves rather than grant them impunity and license to continue. Mad as the idea may be to force stores to put up with theft rather than do something to reduce it in the first place, there is a certain contorted logic to it; namely, that the thieves are not so much criminals as victims, and that when they purloin goods they are not acting from greed, dishonesty, or other such disreputable motives, but are seeking compensation for all the wrongs that they have suffered for the past 400 years. Their theft, in fact, is therapeutic; it is restorative justice. California reparations bill on licensing unconstitutional say critics. A California reparations bill prioritizing black applicants in state professional licensing is likely unconstitutional and violates the U.S. Constitution's equal protections clause under the 14th Amendment, says the Pacific Legal Foundation. AB 2862, authored by Assemblymember Mike Gipson, D-Carson, would "require boards to prioritize African American applicants seeking licenses under these provisions, especially applicants who are descended from a person enslaved in the United States." The bill was introduced in February as a broader package of reparations for Black Californians, a package that did not include direct cash payments. San Francisco Bill Would Let People Sue Grocery Stores for Closing Too Quickly. The San Francisco Board of Supervisors is considering a remarkable policy that would allow people to sue grocery stores that close too quickly. Earlier this week, Supervisors Dean Preston and Aaron Peskin introduced an ordinance that, if passed, would require grocery stores to provide six months' written notice to the city before closing down. Supermarket operators would also have to make "good faith" efforts to ensure the continued availability of groceries at their shuttered location, either through finding a successor store, helping residents form a grocery co-op, or any other plan they might work out by meeting with city and neighborhood residents. Lest one thinks this is some heavy-handed City Hall intervention, the ordinance makes clear that owners still retain the ultimate power to close their store. It also creates a number of exemptions to the six-month notice requirement. Sacramento has a lot in common with Sodom and Gomorrah: Newsom exempts more 'friends' from $20/hour fast-food wage law. Not too long ago, Gavin Newsom got caught with his hand in the cookie jar of political cronyism. In response to a draconian law passed raising fast-food worker wages to $20 an hour, known as A.B. 1228, Newsom carved out a little exemption for his friends at Panera Bread on the laughable grounds that these establishments bake bread on the premises. In reality, the owner of several Panera establishments was a high school buddy who was a really good donor to his campaigns. Once caught, Newsom backed off, but right when he thought no one was looking, he went right back to the cookie jar again to carve out more little exemptions for his friends who donated well, as if word had gotten around, signing off on a "cleaned-up" bill known as A.B. 610. Proposition 103 Backfires, State Farm to Cancel 72,000 California Policies. Cap[p]ing insurance rates has the same effect as capping rents. The former leads to an exodus of insurers. The latter lead to an exodus of builders and repairs. State Farm Cuts 72,000 California Policies, Citing Wildfire Risk. State Farm General Insurance Co. will cut about 72,000 policies in California beginning in July, the latest move by the state's biggest insurer to cope with growing risks from wildfires and other natural disasters. The move comes just nine months after State Farm announced plans to stop issuing new coverage in the most populous US state. In the latest announcement on March 20, the company also cited reinsurance costs and constraints posed by decades-old insurance rules as reasons why it decided not to renew policies on 30,000 homes and 42,000 commercial apartments. The cuts account for about 2% of the insurer's policies in the state. State Farm said it reached its decision following an evaluation of the company's commitment to uphold its claims-paying capabilities and adhere to financial solvency laws. "This decision was not made lightly and only after careful analysis of State Farm General's financial health," the company said in a statement. Recalled San Francisco DA Says Victims Don't Have Rights Under the Constitution. Crime victims don't have rights under the Constitution, former San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin, who was recalled by voters in 2022 amid an escalation of crime, said during a conference here at UC Berkeley School of Law. Boudin's surprising comment came as part of a larger debate between the Left and Right on criminal justice issues at the March 8 gathering, called "Justice Unveiled: Debating Crime and Public Safety Conference." [Video clip] The ousted San Francisco prosecutor led a discussion with California district attorneys that also included Cully Stimson, a Heritage Foundation senior legal fellow who is a crime expert and former prosecutor. Hollywood Studios Reap $25 Billion from States' Film Tax Credits; Taxpayers See Massive Losses. Hollywood has reportedly received a whopping $25 billion in state tax incentives to date — a win for studios like Disney and Netflix but a big "L" for ordinary taxpayers, who are footing the bill for the giveaways. Frequently championed by Democrats, state tax credits for movie and TV productions are intended to juice local economies by creating jobs and boosting revenue for small businesses that provide services like catering and transportation. That, in turn, is supposed to generate more tax dollars. But despite the $25 billion spent so far, states are seeing paltry returns on their investment — sometimes less than 20 cents on each dollar given away, according to studies cited in a New York Times report. A week after primaries in California and they still haven't counted all the votes. "Count all the votes!" as the lefties liked to say loudly. That was their justification for mass mail-in ballots in California, ballot-harvesting by illegals, and extended voting for weeks and weeks. Election Day? No, election month. They said it was to expand the franchise to "marginalized communities" and raise turnout. Curiously, turnout has now hit a near-record low in a presidential primary year as this Secretary of State supplied data makes clear. Before these new "innovations" were enacted, mostly in the era of COVID, it was not unusual to have turnout in such years in the 70% range. Today, they got ... 34%, just slightly above 2022's 33.2%, which wasn't a presidential primary election year. Now we're onto the extended counting. [...] They said they'd count all the votes — and as of today, they haven't counted all the votes. Which is funny stuff, because supposedly less-developed nations like Brazil, Argentina and Mexico, with much larger populations of voters, can count all its ballots overnight on 100% turnout in some cases, and still come up with a result that's fair and normal. California city bans non-government flags, angering LGBTQ groups. Voters in California's conservative Huntington Beach approved a measure that would restrict all non-government flags from being flown on city property, prompting backlash from LGBTQ advocates. Measure B, authored by Huntington Beach City Councilman Pat Burns, passed with more than half of the city's vote, according to the latest tally on the county's registrar website. The measure, for which voters cast their ballots on Super Tuesday, will prohibit breast cancer awareness, Pride, Confederate and all other non-U.S flags on city property. Burns told Fox News Digital in an interview that the measure was not meant to be discriminatory against any group, but to encourage residents to unite under a common American identity. Most of the backlash Burns said he has received has been from LGBTQ advocates. I'm against the identity politics, I think it's divisive," Burns said Friday. "I think it's demeaning to be honest, that flag, that I find is so insulting to LGBTQ. And I know that they support it, but in my mind, it's demeaning that they need some kind of special recognition to feel like they're part of our community. People are equal and those kinds of things are divisive." California to help 'undocumented immigrants' purchase homes? California Assemblymember Joaquin Arambula has introduced Assembly Bill 1840, aimed at expanding home ownership opportunities for "undocumented immigrants" in the state. The bill would make illegal aliens eligible for first time homebuyer loans. The bill, as originally introduced earlier this year, was aimed at low- and middle-income citizens, but Arambula apparently decided that was too exclusive, and therefore recently proposed his updated version. This is yet another kick in the shorts to citizens, especially since the formerly Golden State has the highest priced housing — and by far the most homeless people — in the nation. California is already the only state to fund comprehensive health care for undocumented immigrants. And it has a stupefying projected budget deficit of $73 billion with an average personal debt of $84,730 ... which "undocumented immigrants" undoubtedly will not have to pay. Illegal migrants pouring across our Southern border have allegedly been handed credit cards and cell phones. In some cases, they are being put up in very nice hotels. Moreover, residents and property owners in places like Boston, Denver and New York City have been asked to take these immigrants into their own homes. Newsom Donor Greg Flynn Agrees to Pay $20 Minimum Wage Amid 'PaneraGate' Scandal. Panera Bread franchisee and Newsom donor Greg Flynn announced on Wednesday that he would be complying with the AB 1228 $20 per hour wage law for fast food companies when it begins next month following over a week of backlash against him and Governor Gavin Newsom over allegations that he had originally been exempt to the law because of his donor ties with Newsom. When AB 1228 was passed last year, all fast food companies were covered under the bill, directing them to make the new minimum wage for their industry only from $16 an hour to $20 an hour. Initially there were only a few exemptions: certain restaurants in grocery stores, and restaurants with on-site bakeries, with Panera Bread being the largest one exempted. For months, this went without question, as the reasoning behind it seemed reasonable. [...] News outlets began looking into who owned these Panera Bread locations. That's when it was discovered that Flynn, who owns well over a third of the exempted Panera Bread locations in the state, is a major donor of Governor Newsom, as well as a high school friend. It Looks Like Another Soros DA in California Will Face a Recall Election. It looks like another Soros DA in California will be facing a recall election. As we've been reporting, proponents of an effort to recall Alameda County's District Attorney, Pamela Price, have been gathering signatures for months to place a recall election on the ballot. On Monday those proponents turned in 123,387 signatures — 50,000 more than the 73,195 required. Alameda County Registrar of Voters Tim Dupris now has ten days to run validation checks to ensure that the signatures are from registered Alameda County voters and certify the number of valid signatures submitted. If his office certifies that at least 73,195 valid signatures were submitted, a recall election must be held. Illegal Aliens to Get Interest-Free Home Loans Under New Democrat-Backed California Bill. Illegal aliens will get interest-free home mortgage loans under a new California bill. Democrat assemblymember Joaquin Arambula (Fresno) recently introduced Assembly Bill 1840 to extend a first-time homebuyer loan program to illegal aliens. If the bill becomes law, illegal aliens will be eligible for a new program that offers a loan worth 20% of the purchase price of the residential property. There are no monthly payments and no interest accrues on the loan. Rather, the loan is paid back when the borrower refinances or sells the property. The borrower will have to pay back the original loan plus a 20% increase in the value of the property. Panera Bread Exempt From $20 Per Hour CA Minimum Wage Law, Because Newsom Protects His Wealthy Buddies. In September 2023, California passed a $20 an-hour minimum wage increase, which had an immediate chilling effect over fast food and fast casual chain dining. Many of these restaurants upped their already increased prices; some fired staff — like Pizza Hut did with its delivery drivers — and moved to more self-serve and robot checkout. Some are even closing locations. Unless you're Panera Bread. In California, Greg Flynn owns multiple Panera Bread chains in the state. Flynn also happens to be a "friend" of California Governor Gavin Newsom. You do the math. [Tweet] Coincidentally... Longtime Newsom Donor Owns Panera Bread, Which is Exempt From California Minimum Wage Increase. California Gov. Gavin Newsom fought to exempt fast-food chains from the new minimum wage increase if the company baked its own bread and sold it as a standalone item. The minimum wage will increase to $20. But why? The first and only restaurant you think of is Panera Bread. [...] [Panera Bread owner Greg] Flynn is a regular donator to Newsom. He gave $100,000 to fight against the recall. Newsom got another $64,800 during his 2022 reelection campaign. People close to Flynn told Bloomberg News he "has been known to tout his relationship with Newsom" and bragged "he can reach the governor via text." New $20 minimum wage law in California set to take effect, but people notice an 'obscure' exemption. Talk about fortuitous! In a strange turn of events, one of Gavin Newsom's biggest donors hits the jackpot, and when the state-mandated $20 minimum wage for certain fast-food workers takes effect in April, this lucky duck employer won't be subject to complying with the increase, thanks to an "obscure" exemption in the statute. [...] Greg Flynn is a billionaire, one of Newsom's (and other Democrats') most loyal and longtime benefactors, and according to Bloomberg, "the largest restaurant franchisee in the US, if not the world." Flynn's fast-food portfolio includes establishments like Taco Bell, Wendy's, and Pizza Hut[,] but his California fast-food portfolio is limited to one brand: Panera Bread. And, surprise surprise, the new law's "obscure exemption" seems only applicable to... Panera Bread. Federal Judge Clobbers California's Silly Ban on Billy Clubs in Devastating Ruling. A federal court has made a critical ruling related to the Second Amendment and the concept of self-defense. The decision strikes at the heart of California laws intended to limit one's ability to protect themselves against violent criminals. Judge Roger Benitez handed down a ruling in the case of Fouts v. Bonta on Friday, striking down a ban on citizens possessing or carrying billy clubs and other forms of less lethal weaponry. In his decision, Benitez questioned the legality of the statute, which criminalized Californians simply for owning a billy club, a tool that is commonly used by members of law enforcement, but is also used by civilians for personal defense. "Americans have an individual right to keep and bear arms, whether firearms or less lethal arms," the judge wrote, also arguing that "The Second Amendment to the United States Constitution 'guarantee[s] the individual right to possess and carry weapons in case of confrontation.'" California: North Korea of the USA. The Cold War presented the world with one of the largest controlled experiments in human history, which offered the contrast between East and West Germany, and North and South Korea. Both historic nations were reduced to rubble in war and then partitioned, after which they pursued diametrically opposed policies for the next two generations, with starkly contrasting results. Democratic capitalism rapidly made West Germany and South Korea into prosperous economic and cultural powerhouses, while East Germany and North Korea stagnated and remained mired in poverty and tyranny. Today the United States is repeating a parallel controlled experiment, between "red states" and "blue states." As was the case under Communism, Americans are voting with their feet, moving in large numbers from high-tax, high-regulation blue states to low-tax, business-friendly red states. The data show red states are experiencing faster economic and personal income growth, and better social performance on a number of key indicators, such as crime, affordable housing, and public education. San Francisco Totally Loses Its Mind By Electing A Chinese Woman Who Can't Vote Legally To The Elections Commission. San Francisco's Board of Supervisors appointed the first non-citizen to the San Francisco Elections Commission last week. The non-citizen appointee will now be responsible for helping oversee and develop policies for San Francisco's Department of Elections despite being currently ineligible to vote herself. According to KQED, Kelly Wong, who is an outspoken advocate for immigrant rights, was sworn in last Wednesday at San Francisco City Hall by Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin. Wong is believed to be the city's first non-citizen to become a member of the San Francisco Elections Commission. [Video clip] San Francisco Admits First Non-citizen to Elections Board. San Francisco has appointed a non-citizen to its elections commission for the first time, even though she cannot vote. [...] As Breitbart News has noted, non-citizens are allowed to vote in San Francisco in school board elections. It is not clear how firm the separation is between those registered to vote for school board elections and those registered to vote for all other elections. Democrat-run jurisdictions have attempted to expand voting rights to non-citizens, hoping to capitalize on the large number of immigrants — legal and illegal — that have entered the country thanks to loose Democratic Party border policies. Barbara Lee Wants Outrageous $50 Minimum Wage. Democratic House Rep Barbara Lee recently appeared on a debate stage and stated her case for a $50 federal minimum wage. Lee has been a House Rep in a district mainly covering Oakland since 1998. She was debating other candidates who were running for US Senate in California. [Tweet] The California Energy Scam: Newsom's Actions Of "Leaking" Emissions To Poorer Developing Countries. In California, Governor Gavin Newsom has been vocal about his commitment to reducing in-state greenhouse gas emissions, but much of his "success" has been accomplished by "leaking" those emissions to offshore locations with miniscule environmental regulations compared to California. The state also has the highest poverty rate in the nation, the highest state income tax in the nation, the highest gas taxes in the nation, and record homelessness. California is probably the most environmentally regulated location on the planet. The state also has the highest poverty rate in the nation, the highest state income tax in the nation, the highest gas taxes in the nation, and record homelessness. Yes, It Is Real: Woke Kindergarten Destroying Bay Area School. Woke Kindergarten. It sounds like a bad joke. But unfortunately, it is very real, and a Bay Area school is dropping $250,000 to this for-profit company to provide indoctrination to students who are already doing badly in school. [Tweet] It tells you something — nothing good, of course — that a school that is doing a horrendous job of giving kids a basic education is spending money to train teachers to turn children into woke warriors. Given that reasoning skills are counterproductive when you want children mindlessly mouthing platitudes about indigenous rights, the elimination of work and rent, and the need to eliminate Israel, it makes perfect sense. [Tweet] Newsom Stands By 'Equitable' Electricity Bills as Opposition Builds. California governor Gavin Newsom is standing by the state's soon-to-be-implemented "equitable" policy to base electricity bills on income, rather than usage, even as public and political opposition to the idea builds in the Democratic coalition. A spokesman for the governor said on Tuesday that Newsom is looking forward to seeing a final proposal from the state's utilities commission "that is consistent with" the 2022 law that required the agency to devise an income-based billing system. "California must combat climate change by rapidly expanding the use of clean electricity in our vehicles and buildings, while at the same time making it more affordable for low-income Californians," the spokesman said in a statement. Newsom's commitment to California's income-based electricity billing plan followed a press conference by a group of Democratic lawmakers who want to reverse the policy, after they voted in its favor as part of a 2022 budget bill. Citing public outcry, they condemned the plan as another price hike for Californians' astronomical energy bills that would punish conservation-minded households while also subjecting everyone to invasive income checks. California toddler killer to walk free unless Gov. Newsom overrules parole board. A California child killer who reportedly beat his girlfriend's 3-year-old son so badly he suffered dozens of traumatic injuries, broken bones and "pulverized" organs, is one step closer to walking free after state officials approved his parole despite a prosecutor's pledge to keep him behind bars for the rest of his life. The only chance to uphold that vow is now in the hands of Gov. Gavin Newsom. Patrick Goodman, now 49, killed Elijah Sanderson in early December 2000. The medical examiner reportedly found that some of the injuries had been caused by swinging the child by his wrist into a wall repeatedly. A parole hearing took place in December, where District Attorney Brooke Jenkins' office argued against Goodman's release. Critics have become more vocal after the San Francisco Public Safety News site published the transcript Wednesday. California Bill Calls for Tech to Make New Cars Unable to Speed. Someday in the not too distant future, it might no longer be possible to drive a brand-new car faster than 80 mph in California. That's because state senator Scott Wiener earlier this week proposed a new bill that aims to prevent certain new vehicles from going more than 10 mph over the speed limit. In California, the maximum posted speed limit is 70 mph, meaning anything north of 80 mph would be off limits. The Speeding and Fatality Emergency Reduction on California Streets — or SAFER California Streets, for short — is a package of bills that includes SB 961 that was published Tuesday, which essentially calls for speed governors on new cars and trucks built or sold in California starting with the 2027 model year. These vehicles would be required to have an "intelligent speed limiter system" that electronically prevents the driver from speeding above the aforementioned threshold. The Editor says... Wait Until Rep. Eric Swalwell Finds Out Who Is Responsible for the Carjackings He's Terrified Of. Congressman Eric Swalwell, who we occasionally must remind ourselves tried and failed miserably to run for President of the United States, has taken to social media to bemoan the state of crime in California. [...] But it's Swalwell's mention of "soft on violent-crime prosecutors" that intrigues me. It's definitely a partisan issue. I mean, you aren't seeing Republican prosecutors giving a slap on the wrist (or less) to misdemeanor offenders, nor are you seeing them refuse to prosecute some major crimes. But you are seeing this from Democrat prosecutors, like Diana Becton of Alameda County, California. Becton, if you'll recall, feels that officers need to consider whether or not looters "needed" the goods they were stealing. As one might guess, if looters can get away with just stealing whatever goods they "need," they tend to escalate. Escalation in stealing things usually tends to lead to stealing cars. Surely Swalwell understands this, right? Pro-abortion California state representative introduces bill to ban 'cruel' glue traps for rats and mice. Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA), a famously left-wing and pro-abortion member of Congress with a 100% rating from NARAL Pro-Choice America, recently introduced a bill to outlaw glue traps designed to eliminate rodents ... because he considers them to be "cruel" and "inhumane." The glue traps, that is. Lieu took to social media to lobby for the criminalization of glue traps, the use of which he deems to be "ruthless:" [Tweet] California Crazy: Woman Who Stabbed Date 108 Times, Killing Him, Gets Only 100 Hours of Community Service. I live in California and frequently write about its crime problems stemming from disastrous progressive policies like Proposition 47 — which changed a slew of offenses from felonies to misdemeanors — and woke George Soros-backed district attorneys like LA's George Gascón. But even my jaw dropped when I heard about this judge's decision in Ventura County. Bryn Spejcher, now 33, got high on marijuana in 2018, stabbed her boyfriend over a hundred times, knifed her dog and then herself, and yet received no jail time because defense experts deemed that she experienced "cannabis-induced psychosis" — a conclusion which the judge amazingly agreed with. To put it bluntly, this is absolute lunacy. Police recruiting: California self-destructs. Americans are used to calling their local police and receiving a rapid response. Or at least they were — in some places — some of the time. A case in point is Alameda, California, which like the rest of California, is self-destructing: [...] It's often said California sets trends for the rest of America. The current trends, however, would seem to be (1) buying U Haul stock is a very good idea, and (2) going to work anywhere in California as a police officer is a very, very bad idea. A Government that Sows Division and Subsidizes Madness. In the name of "social justice," San Francisco's Democrat-controlled government has responded to rising violent crime and general lawlessness in the city by attacking police officers as "white supremacists" (even the non-white ones) and reducing the penalties for and enforcement against violent crimes. (As the economists say, when you want more of something, subsidize it.) Because citizens and businesses have been left defenseless against organized theft (and, in fact, are even told not to resist the robbers and thieves who assault them), businesses and entrepreneurs have had no choice but to move away. Now that San Francisco's remaining residents (the ones who keep voting for poop-covered streets and subsidized crime) are finding it difficult to find (and maybe steal) basic necessities, they are very upset that grocery and convenience stores refuse to be perpetual victims. Have Democrats learned a lesson? Of course not. Adam Schiff Wants to Save 'Democracy' by Abolishing the Electoral College and Packing the Supreme Court. Rep. Adam Schiff has a new plan to save 'democracy' by abolishing the filibuster, getting rid of the Electoral College and packing the U.S. Supreme Court. At this point, it's pretty clear that when Democrats talk about 'democracy' what they really mean is anything that the far left likes. Schiff trying to present this as a defense of democracy is pure hilarity and he is the only one who doesn't get the joke. We
Are in an Abusive Relationship with Our Government. California is now covering the
costs of genital-mutilating surgeries for illegal aliens. Leftism's slippery slope invariably
leads to depraved absurdity. Consider how Governor (receding) Hairdo and the Pyrite State's
other communist saboteurs have greased the shifting ground under Californians' feet:
California proposes mere $8.5 billion spending cut against $68 billion deficit. California governor Gavin Newsom proposed a $292 billion state budget for the 2024-2025 fiscal year, driving economists to wonder why he plans only $8.5 billion in real spending cuts against what the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst's Office says is a projected $68 billion deficit. Newsom hit back against the LAO, claiming the state's deficit is only $37.8 billion. "Those of you who are writing about a different number I hope are immediately correcting that number," said Newsom in a press event announcing the budget. "We have been pretty [expletive] transparent with you by making the point publicly, not just privately, that that was not the number, but it continues to be reported as gospel." Judge Orders California School District To Reinstate Teachers Who Refused To Lie To Parents Under Trans Policy. A federal judge ruled Wednesday that two California teachers who were placed on administrative leave for refusing to hide students' gender transitions from parents should be reinstated. Elizabeth Mirabelli and Lori Ann West filed a lawsuit against the Escondido Union School District (EUSD) and the California State Board of Education in April last year over a policy that required educators to hide a child's preferred pronouns and gender identity if a student asks to keep parents in the dark. Mirabelli and West were put on administrative leave in May, but a judge ruled this week that the district must reinstate the teachers. Blue State Dems Introduce Law That Could Jail People For Using Gas Powered Lawn Mowers. Two Democratic Washington state representatives pre-filed a bill on Dec. 5 that would make operating a gas-powered lawn mower or leaf blower a gross misdemeanor punishable by jail time, a fine or both. State Reps. Amy Walen and Liz Berry authored a bill to be considered in their state's upcoming legislative session that would ban "gasoline-powered and diesel-powered landscaping and other outdoor power equipment," a group that includes common lawn care tools like lawn mowers, weed whackers, pressure washers and snow blowers, among others. Violating the new law would be punishable "by a fine of not more than ten thousand dollars, or by imprisonment in the county jail for up to three hundred sixty-four days, or by both for each separate violation." Making a crime out of something that is not a crime: California Will Soon Fine Stores That Don't Have A 'Gender Neutral' Kids Toy Section. A new California law slated to go into effect on January 1, 2024, will mandate stores that sell children's items to have a gender neutral section, according to a state government website. The law applies to stores that sell "childcare items" or toys and employs a minimum of 500 employees across store locations, and it requires that they offer a section where "a reasonable selection of the items and toys for children that it sells shall be displayed, regardless of whether they have been traditionally marketed for either girls or for boys," according to its text. Stores that do not comply with the law could face a civil penalty and charged $250 after the first offense or $500 for later offenses. Gavin Newsom Frees Gangster 154 Years Early. A former gang member and convicted mass shooter was released after serving just eight years of his life sentence by Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) — and given a new job in the California State Capitol. A Los Angeles Times puff piece aimed at softening the tale of violent offender Jarad Nava attempted to explain away his crimes by bringing up his rough childhood, and cited Newsom to make the case that he's a truly reformed member of society. [Tweet] Santa Ana, California, May Give Voting Rights to Illegal Aliens. Voters in Santa Ana, California, a deep-blue city in Orange County, will soon decide whether or not to give local voting rights to potentially tens of thousands of foreign nationals, including illegal aliens. Next year, during the November 5 election, voters in Santa Ana will be asked whether or not they want to approve giving the right to vote in municipal elections to foreign nationals, including illegal aliens, which would then go into effect by 2028. Understanding the 'Always Blue' Mindset. Republicans are invariably frustrated that facts don't move the dial in elections. No matter how bad Democrats are, nothing changes. [...] [There is] a commonly expressed philosophy of this voting block: "Always vote blue, no matter who." In a nutshell, that slogan/explanation provides the answer that has confounded so many observers over the years. They have puzzled over why California Democrat voters seem impervious to things like soaring homelessness, poverty, crime, taxes, and cost of living, a shrinking quality of life and population for the first time on record, the second worst public school system in the nation, massive unmet infrastructure needs now hovering near $1 [Trillion], state debt also measured in $Trillions, all topped with the leadership hypocrisy of things like maskless French Laundry dinners during mandated lockdowns. Not only did Governor Newsom survive the recall vote, he did so with a whopping 62% of voters supporting him. Many reasonable people scratch their heads and ask, "How does any logical person vote for more of this?" What those people don't understand is that logic is not in play. Records Show Adam Schiff Financed $1.7 Million Maryland Home As 'Prinicipal Residence'. A California Republican House hopeful told RedState she uncovered a scheme by Rep. Adam Schiff (D.-Calif.), who is running for the California Senate seat vacated by the passing of Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein, where the congressman reported his Maryland home as his primary residence to secure a lower mortgage interest rate — meaning he either lied on a federally-insured loan document or from 2003 to 2021, he was not a resident of his Burbank district. "I filed a complaint with the House Ethics Committee, and I did get an email receipt," said Christine Bish, who has worked as a real estate professional for two decades and who worked as an in-house investigator at a law firm. "They did receive my submission, and I followed up with them, and they said, once it's submitted, they cannot give me any updates." California Spent Over $4M On Gender-Related Surgeries For Prisoners In Past 6 Years. California has spent more than $4 million in taxpayer dollars on gender-related surgeries for inmates around the state, including numerous death row inmates, since 2017. The Washington Free Beacon released a report where it stated that millions of dollars have been spent on sex changes and other gender-related operations and procedures for 157 inmates since California became the first state to agree to pay for these types of operations for prisoners, with four of those criminals on death row. According to the report, since 2017, California paid for 35 male convicts to surgically receive artificial vaginas and vulvas at a cost of $2.5 million to taxpayers, and 11 male prisoners received breast implants at a cost of more than $180,000. The state government also paid more than $1 million for the removal of 40 female detainees' breasts. Newsom signs $25 minimum wage law for all hospital workers, finds out afterward it will cost California $4 billion. Governor Hairspray doesn't pay attention much to California's budget numbers when he signs off on a bill. [...] So now the state gets to pay the janitors, gardeners, Mexican cleaning ladies (yes, real ones, and they live in Mexico and commute), gift shop clerks, and anyone else in the employ of a hospital, $25 an hour, no exceptions, and no matter what the value of their jobs are in the free market. What a great way to spend the state's revenue at a time of a $14 billion deficit. Now Newsom gets an $18 billion deficit, but when you have a billion here, a billion there, who's counting? California's Adam Schiff Has Actually Been Living In Maryland For Two Decades, Docs Show. Democratic California Rep. Adam Schiff has reportedly been living in Maryland for two decades, documents that surfaced Wednesday showed. Mortgage records revealed Schiff claimed his 3,420 square foot property in Maryland as his primary residence, according to CNN. The congressman also reportedly claimed his 650 square foot condo in Burbank, California, as his primary residence to reduce his $7,000 tax bill. [Tweet] Schiff did not take an exemption on his Maryland home, the outlet reported. However, he reportedly signed documents stating both his Maryland and California properties were primary residences. A spokesperson for Schiff, Marisol Samayoa, claims the congressman's primary residence is in California. Adam Schiff, Who Wants to Replace Laphonza Butler of Maryland as California's Newest Senator, Lives in Maryland Too! Could Maryland soon have another Senator claiming to be from California representing them in the near future? Cristina Laila revealed last month that Gavin Newsom's senate replacement, radical Marxist lesbian Laphonza Butler, actually lives in the Old Line State rather the Golden State. She was even registered to vote there last year. Butler replaced the late Dianne Feinstein, who passed away in late September. Butler announced last month she would not run for a for a full six-year term. She will instead just serve out the remainder of Feinstein's term which expires in 2024. It turns out lying pencil-neck Adam Schiff, who wants to replace Butler, has a very similar problem. He too has claimed his primary residence as Maryland. Oakland, California, is falling apart. Last month, at a small church in East Oakland, Calif., hundreds of fed-up city residents gathered outside of a community safety meeting held by Mayor Sheng Thao and District Attorney Pamela Price. The group was as diverse as it was united, and despite the reduction in their quality of life over the past year, there was a palpable energy of hope. Seneca Scott, a community leader, hosted the get-together under the banner of his Neighbors Together Oakland (NTO) organization. A one-time Oakland mayoral candidate, Scott formed the group in 2021 as a response to the influx of outside money and special interest groups that have contributed to his city's decline. Gavin Newsom Pledges California Will Be Xi Jinping's 'Long-Term, Stable, and Strong Partner'. Chinese state media continued to gush over visiting California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Wednesday, hailing the Democrat's warm meeting with dictator Xi Jinping as a triumph of "mutual respect, peaceful coexistence, and win-win cooperation." Newsom said that under his leadership, California is ready to become "China's long-term, stable, and strong partner." [...] A good deal of Newsom's enthusiasm for doing business with China revolved around climate change, electric vehicles (EV), and green energy technology. A Dubious Legislative Move in California. California lawmakers have really outdone themselves with another entry in the wacky law hall of fame. You see, it's not their first rodeo in passing some head-scratching legislation, but this one takes the cake for unintended consequences. The new California law that's all about decriminalizing loitering has inadvertently turned into a pop-up open-air market for prostitution that you won't find in the tourism brochures. And guess what? It's the very folks they claim to be protecting, the Black community, who might feel the brunt of it. Black men, Black women, housing values, they're all in the mix, and it's hard not to think, "Is it time for some fresh faces in the legislature?" Crime-Ridden Blue City Residents Underreported Crimes By Nearly 50%. Nearly half of crime goes unreported in San Francisco, a poll published on Wednesday by local political research group GrowSF found. The survey, which received 458 responses, found that although nearly a quarter of San Francisco residents have been the victim of a crime, 47% chose not to report the incident to the police, according to GrowSF. Nearly 80% of respondents listed crime and public safety as a major concern for the city, while 65% said that they disapproved of how Democratic Mayor London Breed was responding to major issues in San Francisco. Newly appointed California Sen. Laphonza Butler will not seek election to a full term in 2024. Newly appointed California Democratic Sen. Laphonza Butler will not seek election to a full term in 2024. Butler — who was named earlier this month by Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom to complete the remaining term of the late Dianne Feinstein — says in a statement she made the decision after considering "what kind of life I want to have, what kind of service I want to offer and what kind of voice I want to bring forward." Due to Dem-Backed Law, Prostitution Spreads In California. Californians are complaining about barely-clothed prostitutes roaming the streets in broad daylight, an issue heightened by Democratic Gov. Newsom signing Senate Bill 357, local officials say. SB 357, which was authored by Democratic state Sen. Scott Wiener and backed by the ACLU, decriminalizes "loitering with intent to commit prostitution." Critics say the law effectively decriminalizes prostitution in California. National City Mayor Ron Morrison, an independent, recently criticized the law, telling Fox News that prostitutes are now "wearing less than what you would consider a scanty negligee" and "flaunting it in everybody's face." The Editor says... California to institute missing child alert system specifically for black youth. NBC News has reported that California Gov. Gavin Newsom recently signed Senate Bill 673 into law, thus making the erstwhile Golden State the first to create a missing child alert system specifically for black children. According to NBC: ["] [...] The Ebony Alert will be used for missing Black people aged 12 to 25.["] Fantastic. But what about missing black people under 12 or over 25? Perhaps there needs to be a separate alert for each of those groups. Twenty-one to twenty-five-year-olds don't seem like "youth" to me, yet those under 12 certainly are. What if Laphonza Butler decides to run for the Senate seat? The pipe dream of some Black women in California for the last three years has been getting one of their number into the United States Senate. Black women have been there before, in the persons of Carole Moseley Braun of Illinois, who served from 1993 to 1999, and California's own Kamala Harris from 2016 until elected vice president in 2020. But for almost four years after Harris' accession to the nation's nominal No. 2 political job, there were none. That left a void Gov. Gavin Newsom three years ago vowed to fill if another vacancy arose in a California Senate seat — and he named Laphonza Butler quickly after the pioneering Dianne Feinstein's death in late September. Butler was sworn in less than five days after Feinstein's demise. Newsom thus kept one promise. But by not requiring that Butler commit to being a mere caretaker, a seat filler, he broke another prior commitment. Newsom left it to Butler to decide whether or not to seek a full term next year, breaking his commitment to name a mere interim senator. CA Gov Newsom Lowers Consent Age to 12 for 'Gender Counseling' Without Parents 'OK'. Democratic California Governor Gavin Newsom has signed a bill into law that permits children as young as 12 to reside in government-funded "residential shelter services" to undergo mental health treatment or counseling for their gender identity without parental consent or even being informed by doctors. The bill, known as Assembly Bill 665, allows 12-year-olds to consent to such treatment if they are considered "mature enough to participate intelligently in the outpatient services or residential shelter services" and if they are the "alleged victim" of incest or child abuse who poses a risk to themselves or others — no proof of genuine harm is required. The bill, signed by Newson over the weekend, further states that medical professionals must consult with the minor to determine "whether involvement of the minor's parent or guardian would be inappropriate." Where is the red-state Laphonza Butler? The way to change the fundamental imbalance between the parties is by reforming the way we select nominees. Following the sudden death last week of U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), Governor Gavin Newsom needed to pick an interim replacement. He had a large bench of Democrats from which to choose in the once Golden State. So what did he do? He went with the biggest leftist imaginable — a registered voter from Maryland, no less! In Laphonza Butler, Newsom didn't find only a reliable leftist vote but also a ferocious voice and leader for every cause Democrats hold dear. By selecting a lesbian activist who is the head of the most prominent pro-abortion organization in the country, Newsom figured he'd floor the gas pedal in a state where Democrats cannot lose and elevate an out-of-state resident who has never held office. Why? Because it serves their interests. Newsom's bottomless cynicism reflected in his appointment of a black, lesbian, Maryland voter to fill remainder of Feinstein's Senate term. It's impossible to be too cynical about Gavin Newsom, the Brylcreem-topped governor of California who lusts after the Democrats' nomination for president, even as he publicly mouths support for Biden. This is a man who bedded his best friend's wife, after all. Caligula looks on in envy at the brazenness of Newsom's designation of Laphonza Butler to fill the remainder of Dianne Feinstein's Senate term, expiring in January 2025. As a way of mocking the institution, Caligula only joked about appointing his horse Incitatus as consul, a role reserved for senators, while Newsom has actually appointed a longtime Maryland resident and registered voter to represent California in the Senate, a body the Constitution designated to represent that sovereign states in the federal government. Butler will take a big pay cut to join the Senate, which pays $174,000 for non-leadership solons. The top-paid executive at Emily's List reportedly earns $950,000, almost five-and-a-half times what a Senator earns, and more than 30 times the average income in the United States. But don't expect the usual critics of CEO compensation to utter a peep. Newsom's 'First Black Lesbian' Senate Appointee Immediately Hit With Scandal, Cover-Up. The recent death of former Sen. Dianne Feinstein left Gov. Gavin Newsom in a predicament. Would he keep his promise to fill the seat with a black woman even though two white people (Adam Schiff and Katie Porter) are leading the 2024 race for the seat? As RedState reported, the answer is yes. Newsom appointed Laphonza Butler, whose only qualifications appear to be working on Kamala Harris' failed 2020 presidential campaign while being a "black lesbian." Naturally, the California governor is touting the latter. [Tweet with video clip] I'm just really glad we select the most powerful people in the country based on race and who they sleep with. I mean, what could possibly go wrong with such an approach? What does merit have to do with governing competently anyway? Let's ask Newsom, who apparently appointed a Maryland resident to the seat, birthing an immediate scandal. Gavin Newsom Picks The Perfect Democrat. Is it really that weird that Laphonza Butler, California Governor Gavin Newsom's pick to replace Diane Feinstein in the Senate, lives in Maryland? Now, incidentally, this isn't one of those instances where a politician is spending an inordinate amount of time in DC (before leaving office and becoming a lobbyist and making it official). Newsom's spokesperson confirms that Butler resides in Silver Spring, Maryland, and is registered to vote in that state. We're just skipping the part where we pretend senators represent states rather than political parties. [...] At this point, any Democrat who doesn't treat skin color as at least partly determinative of a person's worth is going to be in trouble. And it's not just moral preening over race. Butler, Newsom notes, will be the first "lesbian Black woman to join Congress in US history." In most news pieces on the appointment, we learn who Butler prefers to sleep with before we hear any of her accomplishments. Newsom's appointment confirms that abortion is the heart of the Democratic Party. It's normal, if mildly corrupt, for presidents to appoint their top fundraisers to ambassadorships. It's remarkable that Democrats have transferred one of their top fundraisers to a U.S. Senate seat. Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) has announced he is appointing Laphonza Butler to fill the Senate seat left vacant by Dianne Feinstein's death. Butler is one of the leaders of the abortion lobby, and as such she is one of the leading Democratic fundraisers. She is the president of EMILY's List, which raises money for Democratic women who defend abortion. [Tweet] "Fundraising juggernaut" is a good description of EMILY's List. In the prior presidential election, EMILY's List spent $79.6 million. It's one of the top ideological PACs in spending and fundraising, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Its affiliated super PAC, called Women Vote!, spent another $47 million in the 2020 cycle. But EMILY's List isn't merely a fundraising juggernaut. The group is basically a gatekeeper for the Democratic Party. California, the Great Destroyer. California is a one-party state. There are no statewide Republican elected officeholders. Progressive Democrats also enjoy a supermajority in both houses of the legislature. Only 12 of 52 congressional seats are held by Republicans. And almost all of California leftwing politicians are funded or influenced by Silicon Valley — the richest corridor in civilizational history, with $9 trillion in market capitalization. In sum, a now broke California became a medieval society of Leftwing ultra-rich and Leftwing ultra-poor. On one end, there was no longer the skill or expertise to modernize the state. And on the other, an elite became more interested in dreaming of heaven on earth for itself as it ensured a veritable hell for others. Newsom to Appoint Laphonza Butler to Fill Feinstein's Senate Seat — She Lives In Maryland. California Governor Gavin Newsom (D) will appoint Laphonza Butler to fill Feinstein's vacant Senate seat. "California Gov. Gavin Newsom will appoint EMILY's List President Laphonza Butler to fill the seat of the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein, elevating the head of a fundraising juggernaut that works to elect Democratic women who support abortion rights, according to a person familiar with the decision." Politico reported. Laphonza Butler lives in Maryland and registered to vote there last year! A COVID Tyrant For President? In addition to driving people from his state with policies that become more deranged with every passing year, Newsom was a malevolent pandemic warrior who should have been punished for his offenses. Voters deserve to know just how vicious he was — and that he remains unrepentant. It would be hard to argue that any another state mistreated its citizens more than California. Given the opportunity thanks to the novel coronavirus outbreak, Newsom smoothly tapped into his just-below-the-surface authoritarianism (the same urge to dictate that afflicts nearly every Democrat in the nation). When he issued his stay-at-home command in March 2020, which the Los Angeles Times called "unprecedented" in "modern California history," it was the first stomp of the heavy boot that Newsom would keep on Californians until February of this year. Only then did he surrender his self-granted emergency powers — five months after he vetoed a bill that would have limited the authority governors can wield during a declared crisis. Berkeley Retail Shutting Down Just Like San Francisco. Rising crime, looting, and tolerance of drug-addled transients taking over the streets has led to an exodus of retail establishments from San Francisco. Now another Democrat-controlled California city is enjoying the same exodus of retail establishments: Berkeley. Here YouTuber Metal Leo looks at streets near Cal Berkeley University, where store after store after store are closed, boarded up or for lease. [Video clip] Banks, pharmacies, cinemas, pizza chains: all closed. The only thing that seems to be open are Starbucks. California quietly passes bill repealing COVID 'medical misinformation' law. California legislators have subtly passed a bill that would repeal a law targeting doctors who take a stand against mainstream COVID-19 narratives after previously labeling them as engaging in "medical misinformation." Assembly Bill 2098, which Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom signed last year, considers medical doctors and surgeons to be guilty of "unprofessional conduct" if they "disseminate misinformation or disinformation related to COVID-19, including false or misleading information regarding the nature and risks of the virus, its prevention and treatment; and the development, safety, and effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines." The legislation also subjected physicians found to have violated the law to disciplinary action from the Medical Board of California and the Osteopathic Medical Board of California, including potential suspension of medical licenses. California launches lawsuit against Big Oil, but only wants cash 'damages' not an end to production. California is alleging a corrupt conspiracy in which fat cat capitalists prioritized profits before people and intentionally deceived the public about looming "catastrophic" climate change consequences they "knew" would manifest as a result of their product's use, but the state isn't even asking the court to prohibit the defendants from continuing this alleged criminal behavior? Instead, Gavin Newsom, California Attorney General Rob Bonta, and all the other Machiavellian civil servants will drop the lawfare just as long as the defendants agree to foot the bill for the recent spate of storm-related damages and finance a fund for future losses too? This sounds eerily similar to... extortion. The Bay Area is still struggling to recover from 'defund the police' (now they're hoping Texas can help). Three years after "defund the police" became a BLM rallying cry, San Francisco and other Bay Area cities are still trying to recover from the brief popularity that phrase once had with mayors and city councils. San Francisco is still down hundreds of police officers and has come up with a new plan to attract more recruits: Go to Texas. ["]The San Francisco Police Department is visiting four Texas university campuses through September as part of new recruiting efforts to find candidates outside of California. For the first time, police officer candidates will be tested outside of California, with a written test, a physical ability test and an oral interview.["] [...] You really have to soak in the comedic aspect of far left San Francisco going to bright red Texas to try to find officers. For six years, San Francisco had banned business with Texas. It's Really Time for Parents to Move Their Families Out of California. If you're a California resident and a parent, you really ought to leave the state now. On Friday, the California Assembly passed AB 957, which means that a parent who doesn't "affirm" their child's "gender identity" could lose custody of that child. AB 957 amends the state Family Code to include "a parent's affirmation of the child's gender identity or gender expression as part of the health, safety, and welfare of the child." The bill is now headed for Gov. Gavin Newsom's desk, where he will most certainly sign it. Why can't this overlap "Pride Month?" California Dems Could Remove Visitation Rights for 'Non-Affirming' Parents. California Democrats are threatening the visitation rights of divorced or separated parents who don't "affirm" their gender-confused child's identity under a last-minute change to a proposal meant to protect children from abusers. The Democrats have put forward two bills that would change California family law to make "gender affirmation" part of a child's health, safety, and welfare, trying to pass them side-by-side. The first, which was introduced earlier this year, would allow judges to remove custody from "non-affirming" parents. The second would force custody judges deciding visitation rights to consider "a parent's affirmation of the child's gender identity or gender expression," according to language added to the bill last week that will take effect if the first proposal passes. Why wind and solar power are running out of juice. Alternative energy madness — and that's what it is — has had its biggest impact in California. But New York and New Jersey have adopted most of that state's mandates. Sales of new internal combustion vehicles will be banned beginning in 2035 in the states. All of the electricity sold to retail consumers will have to be "zero-emissions." Homeowners and building owners will be forced to replace gas- and oil-burning space and water heaters with electric heat pumps. And, gas stoves will be regulated out of existence. New York also will soon implement another California import: a carbon "cap-and-invest" program, which will impose a tax on fossil fuels sold by wholesalers and utilities. The billions of dollars collected each year will provide a green slush fund, allowing the governor and legislators to hand out money to their politically favored cronies, as has so often been the case in the past. Washington State began its "cap-and-invest" program in January of this year. Modeled after California's, Governor Jay Inslee promised the program would have "minimal impact, if any. We are talking about pennies." Instead, the program has raised gasoline prices — almost 50 cents per gallon so far this year. "Nonviolent Crime" Is a Myth. Five days after sustaining serious injuries, a San Francisco store clerk named Yowhannes "John" Tewelde has died. He was beaten with a baseball bat by a man whom he tried to stop from stealing beer from his store. Tewelde's death marks yet another homicide in the Bay Area, which, between San Francisco and Oakland, has seen an enormous amount of crime and mayhem in recent years. The nature of Tewelde's death illustrates an important reality that progressives working to ease up on supposedly nonviolent crimes don't seem to appreciate: even "minor" offenses like retail theft, open-air drug use, and smoking on subway platforms are frequently backed by a threat of violence. Had Tewelde not intervened, allowing the thief to take what he wished, progressive prosecutors like former San Francisco district attorneys George Gascón and Chesa Boudin probably would have refused to prosecute him, citing the nonviolent nature of the offense. All we'd have is a lowly shop owner forced to shoulder the cost of a few cheap beers. No big deal, right? Wrong. The decision to ignore the theft would allow an individual who was in truth both willing and able to kill over $10 to remain on the street. It would be only a matter of time before he did something terrible. Bay Area Councilman Has Keys, Wallet Stolen While Speaking to Shopkeepers About Safety. A councilman in California's Bay Area was speaking to shopkeepers about safety when he had his wallet and keys stolen, according to a report from CBS Bay Area. Reportedly, Emeryville council member Kalimah Priforce rode his bike to Bay Street to spend the afternoon "visiting nearly every store to ask employees about their experience and sense of safety." "A lot of stores that can't afford private guards, they need panic buttons, a direct line to the police, so they don't actually have to pick up the phone, call the police dispatch," explained Priforce. While he was at the mall, Priforce phoned police because he discovered his wallet and keys were stolen from his bike bag. California Dem-led committee advances bill to let killers serving life without parole request re-sentencing. A bill that would allow killers serving a life sentence without parole to possibly be re-sentenced cleared a major hurdle Friday in California's Democratic-led state Legislature. The state Assembly Appropriations Committee advanced Senate Bill 94, which now moves to the next phase of voting. The bill would allow California prison inmates serving a sentence of life without parole (LWOP) for certain crimes to petition for re-sentencing if the offense occurred before June 5, 1990, and the completion of at least 25 years of their sentence. Those convicted of first-degree murder of a police officer would be exempt. Those who are re-sentenced would have the opportunity to someday go in front of a parole board, which could deny them release. Los Angeles (Just Like California) Is Dying A Slow And Painful Death. Just over a week ago, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass declared war on the recent smash-and-grab robbery trend infecting the county's retail stores. She announced a new regional task force consisting of 22 investigators to focus entirely on curbing the shoplifting phenomenon sweeping Southern California. Unfortunately, it seems lawless perpetrators did not get the message. Since the task force — including officers from police departments across the region, along with state and federal support — was assembled, at least three more large group incidents have been reported. On Tuesday of this past week, a video from the Citizen app showed five masked thieves ransacking a Dior counter inside a Macy's at the Shops of Santa Anita Mall. They grabbed boxed sets of perfumes, threw them into trash bags, and ran away as onlookers gasped. In a separate incident, also posted on the Citizen app, a video shows the aftermath of a flash-mob robbery at a Footlocker store on Melrose Avenue, one of the city's most popular shopping districts. L.A. Mayor Bass: Lack of Consequences for Crime Isn't Causing Retail Theft, 'Things Like This Happen' if There's Profit. On Friday's broadcast of "The Issue Is," Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass stated that the issue of retail theft in the city has "nothing to do" with a lack of consequences for crime in the city and "things like this happen" when there are profits. California's Newsom Hints at Legislative Crackdown on Parental Rights. California governor Gavin Newsom (D.) signaled Monday that Democratic lawmakers are crafting a last-minute legislative crackdown on school districts that alert parents if their child expresses a change in gender identity. "I'll be meeting with the [assembly speaker and senate leader] this evening, we'll be discussing it," Newsom said during a speech about public school funding where he touted California as pro-parents' rights. "I know that the LGBT [legislative] caucus has some language they're working on. I haven't had the privilege of looking at it. It's a work in progress." Newsom failed to give any further details on the forthcoming proposal. His impromptu announcement was in response to a reporter who asked him to weigh in on two Southern California school districts that passed policies to notify parents if their children say they are transgender or nonbinary. Representatives for Newsom and the state's top Democratic legislators did not respond to requests for comment. Power Vacuum. California Senate bill 233 [...] which has passed the Senate and is now winding its way through the Assembly — states that all new electric vehicles to be sold in California after 2030 be "bi-directional". Because the state has decided to essentially go all electric without having the ability to actually provide enough electricity, the climate warriors have gotten a bit creative and now see the millions of EVs in the state as tiny batteries to make up for their incompetence. Currently, not every EV can send power back to the grid (like home solar panels that ship excess power to their local utility.) The bill — almost certain to pass because it's stupid and this is California -- would change that. The bill, however, is only the first step in the process of being able to drain your EV as the actual technology to get the electricity back onto the grid, well, does not actually exist. As with so many other Golden State climate-related projects, it is based on being able to do it someday... probably... maybe. A Very Bad Week for Civilization in California. A group of "up to 30" teens poured into a Nordstrom's store in Topanga, Calif., in a "smash and grab" looting that went off with military precision. [Tweet with video clip] [...] Dear Californians: It ain't rocket science figuring out what's happening in your beautiful state. This is a direct result of lax enforcement of the law and a reluctance of prosecutors and district attorneys to uphold the basic values of civilization. Gavin Newsom wants to make America Oakland. The CNN report is just ghastly. One woman is crying her heart out as she leaves a place she's spent her whole life is. I should say, "Is forced to leave." But I also wonder who she's been voting for all these years as things went south. [Tweet with video clip] Gangs are targeting Asian families. We keep hearing that's a problem — a racist problem — but you never hear who's doing it, although we've all seen the videos. And then, when perpetrators are caught in these racially targeted crimes? What happens in Newsom's CA to offenders, when they are arrested for RACIST crimes against innocent people, usually elderly, who can't defend themselves? [Tweet] California Democrats Play Affirmative Action Games Over Feinstein Senate Seat. Race-based preferences are taking over the competition for Dianne Feinstein's California Senate seat. On Thursday, The New York Times revealed Feinstein surrendered power of attorney to her daughter in a report on the 90-year-old senator's failing health. The longtime legacy lawmaker is unable to make legal decisions of her own while making major legal decisions for the country. [...] If she resigns, Gov. Gavin Newsom has already pledged to appoint a black woman to the seat. Newsom made the commitment in 2021 after upsetting Democrats by appointing then-Secretary of State Alex Padilla, California's first Latino senator, to replace Kamala Harris after her election to vice president. It's no coincidence, then, the most vocal supporters of Feinstein's resignation, such as California Rep. Ro Khanna, have endorsed Rep. Barbara Lee in the crowded Senate primary. In fact, Khanna, who co-chairs Lee's campaign, was the first member of Congress to request Feinstein step down, according to The Hill. California's new Marxist math. California has approved new radical K-12 math standards that are openly a vehicle for Marxist ideology. The stated goal is equity in math learning for non-whites and those from low-income families. The framework notes that "black, latinx, indigenous, women and poor students" have been underrepresented in the curriculum throughout history." Equity will be implemented in the curriculum by dumbing down and sugar-coating the lessons and infusing them with political issues and student organizing. Orwellian or Kafkaesque? Kafka's brainchildren are recklessly coughing up tyrannic edicts while using for an excuse the artificial hysteria being generated over reasonably normal weather. The Biden administration has recently announced that all military vehicles will run on batteries as of 2030. Since the purpose of fighting a war is to not lose, vast quantities of diesel-powered field generators will be needed to keep the caissons rolling along. Governor Hair Gel of California has followed along by announcing a ban on the sale of gasoline-powered vehicles by 2035. The trick with this is to have enough lead time so the victims of such nonsense will have forgotten the original announcement — and will be more surprised than angry when they realize they've been screwed. As of next January, California's already legislated ban on the sale of gas-powered gardening equipment will take effect. Salesforce CEO Warns San Francisco's Downtown [is] "Never Going Back To The Way It Was". San Francisco is a 'hellhole' that epitomizes everything wrong with how progressives govern cities. That's because Democrats in City Hall believe that most criminals are victims — don't arrest them — which allows for open-air drug markets, homelessness, and violent crime to thrive. Due to failed social justice reform policies, the business conditions in downtown San Francisco have become challenging. Furthermore, the ongoing structural decline in demand for office space has thwarted any potential economic recovery in the area. [Tweet with video clip] Marc Benioff, chief executive officer of Salesforce, the city's largest employer and anchor tenant in its tallest skyscraper, understands the metro area is in trouble. How does the city bounce back from this? One of the enduring mysteries of life is how people and societies can see disaster coming and do nothing to avoid it. [...] We are seeing this principle in real time with the collapse of cities like San Francisco and Portland. They have been liberal bastions for so long that the idea of bucking the Democrat Party is unthinkable, no matter how bad things get. And they are getting very very bad in both cities. San Francisco has produced some of the most powerful politicians in California. Off the top of my head, I can name the current governor, Gavin Newsom, the current VP, Kamala Harris, and of course Senator Diane Feinstein. Many of the most powerful people in the legislature hail or hailed from the city, and the tradition of moving up the ladder from SF to the heights of power is ancient in political terms. When the Democrat Party took its radical Left turn the city moved with it — led it, in fact — and the results have been disastrous. The Classic Psychology Text That Predicted Today's Urban Decay. It's a question that most Americans who follow the news ask themselves daily: "How can the residents of so many of the nation's largest cities keep supporting local officials who tolerate the ongoing destruction of their communities?" [...] [Why ...] did San Franciscans elect a mayor, London Breed, whose obvious reluctance to crack down on criminal behavior has since forced the city's largest mall to close, two of its best hotels to declare bankruptcy, and tens of thousands of high-earning taxpayers to move away? [...] And why, in 2022, did Los Angelinos pick another progressive Democrat to be their next mayor, rather than the candidate who promised to finally do something about the city's exploding homelessness problem? Another day, another business closure in San Francisco (you'll never guess why). La Cocina opened in the Tenderloin in 2021. The concept was a single space with a bunch of different food options. It was always intended to be a temporary arrangement but not quite this temporary. [...] As with every other business that has closed this year, there are multiple reasons. For one thing, the decline of foot traffic thanks to people working from home means there just isn't the lunch rush there might have been prior to the pandemic. But the city's other well-known problems also played a role. California Bill Would Let Judges 'Rectify Racial Bias' in Sentencing, for 'Reparations'. The California state legislature is considering a bill that would allow judges to use sentencing in criminal cases to "rectify racial bias" in the criminal justice system as a whole. The bill, AB 852, passed the State Assembly in May and is currently going through the committee process in the State Senate. It notes that existing law already allows defendants to challenge their sentences as racially biased, but it would add that judges can consider race in sentencing. A Covid Postmortem. When the pandemic began, researchers in California were the first in the United States to analyze the threat accurately and offer sensible advice, urging focused protection for the elderly, while warning that school closures and lockdowns were futile and destructive. But instead of heeding their expertise, the progressives dominating the state's public and private institutions launched campaigns to defame, ostracize, and silence them. These experts, like so many other fleeing Californians, had to leave the state to find leaders who embraced scientific analysis and rational policies. No other state infringed upon individual liberties more zealously. California was the first to lock down and the last to end its state of emergency (at the end of February of this year). It closed not only schools and businesses but also playgrounds, parks, and beaches. A police boat in Malibu chased down a solitary surfer so that he could be arrested and handcuffed; another surfer was fined $1,000 for endangering precisely no one. Church gatherings were outlawed for nearly a year, until the Supreme Court finally overturned the ban. Other courts had to intervene to keep public schools in San Diego and Los Angeles from mandating vaccines for students. California suffered one of the nation's worst spikes in unemployment during the pandemic, and it was one of the slowest to recover economically, despite the increased profits flowing to Silicon Valley. California Is Set to Pass Laws Allowing for State-Sanctioned Kidnapping and Required 'Affirmation' of Gender-Confused Kids. My home state of California is Bizzarroland, totally over the edge. It was bad enough, but now it has crossed the Rubicon and blown up the bridge and burned the boats. The Golden State is set to take away parental rights and create a police state where a court and judge must (not may) affirm a child's chosen made-up gender "identity." But that same California requires permission for a minor to get a tattoo. Make sense of it. I can't. Soon in California, if the Democrat super-majority gets its way, confused children can be taken from a parent(s) and chemically castrated and mutilated at the minor's request. Think that sounds far-fetched? It isn't. Assemblymember named Wendy Carrillo is the author of AB 665. Eight days ago, during open debate and discussion on her bill, she made the gallery erupt in spontaneous laughter when she said: ["]We would never move policy that seeks to separate children from their parents.["] The AP and USA Today are all in for the left, so, of course, they published articles claiming the arguments against are overblown. No, they are not. AB 665 will alter the legal landscape and specific language. What does AB 665 say and ultimately do? It's the state of California amending the Family Law Code to legally kidnap confused children. The Endless Lies Democrats Tell In Defense Of Their Failed Californian Utopia. Democrats and the corporate media in general have invested an intense amount of energy into a propaganda campaign that paints California as the central pillar of the US economy and American governance. According to them, California is a socialist Utopia essentially holding the rest of the nation up on its shoulders, and without such blue states we would spiral into oblivion. For the sake of focus, I will only break down California's mismanagement here. Specifically, I think it's important to debunk many of the false fiscal claims made by Gavin Newsom; the same claims which are spreading like a cancer into leftist talking points all over the internet. California Residents Fear New Bill Gives Mental Health Professionals Authority To 'Emancipate' 12 Year Olds From Parents. California residents fear mental health professionals are one step closer to giving custody of minors 12 and older to the state after lawmakers advanced a bill on Tuesday that aligns with existing laws for children to receive certain services without parental consent. On Tuesday, lawmakers in the state's Senate Judiciary Committee advanced Assembly Bill 665, which gives minors over the targeted age group authority to receive mental health services from counselors and therapists who could allegedly sign off on children checking into state-run youth shelters as long they provide evidence of serious physical or mental harm to themselves or others, or if they're a victim of incest or child abuse. Although the bill's text does not explicitly contain language that changes the state's child welfare system or removal processes, some Californians allege the law — authored by Democrats Assembly Member Wendy Carrillo and State Senator Scott Wiener — indicates "parental separation and emancipation of minors." Gavin Newsom's shadow campaign for president. Democratic governors don't tend to jump at the chance for a sit-down interview with Sean Hannity on Fox News. They also don't tend to do tours of states they consider hostile to their own, like Florida. But then there's California's Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom . He prefers the national stage to dealing with the rampant dysfunction happening in his own state. And while Newsom claims he isn't running for president, the evidence suggests he actually is. True, Newsom may not be mounting a primary campaign against a sitting president of his own party who has announced he is running again. But Newsom is clearly running a shadow campaign just in case President Joe Biden doesn't fulfill his pledge to become the Democratic 2024 presidential nominee. State Senator Tells Parents to Flee His Own State Amid Law That Would Take Kids Away From Non-'Affirming' Parents. A California state senator told a gathered crowd of parents at the California Senate Judicial Committee to flee the state on June 13 during a hearing on a bill which would put parents who don't affirm their child's "gender transition" in danger of child abuse charges. Sen. Scott Wilk, R-Santa Clarita, is the lone Republican on California's Senate Judiciary Committee, and he has served in the California Legislature for 11 years. He was also the lone voice warning against language in AB 957, which a Democratic senator had amended on June 5 to rewrite the California Family Code to list "gender affirmation" alongside a child's need for "health, safety, and welfare." California Bill Would Charge Any Parent Who Doesn't Affirm Transgenderism With 'Child Abuse'. A recently amended California bill would add "affirming" the sexual transition of a child to the state's standard for parental responsibility and child welfare — making any parent who doesn't affirm transgenderism for their child guilty of abuse under California state law. AB 957 passed California's State Assembly on May 3, but a co-sponsor amended it after hours in California's State Senate on June 6. Assembly Member Lori Wilson, D-Suisun City, wrote the bill and introduced it on Feb. 14. State Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, co-sponsored it. Wilson's child identifies as transgender. Originally, AB 957 required courts to consider whether a child's parents were "gender-affirming" in custody cases. Wiener's amendment completely rewrites California's standard of child care. New Commiefornia Bill Would Take Custody Of Children Whose Parents Don't Give Them Sex Change Operations. A newly revised California bill would treat parents' refusal to "affirm" their child's gender identity as a violation of health, safety, and welfare in the context of custody disputes. The bill, which has already passed the State Assembly, would require judges adjudicating such disputes over transgender-identifying children to favor the parent who "affirms" the child's preferred identity. [Video clip] California to fall far short of energy needed to power EV mandate, report says. California will fall 20% short of generating the necessary electricity to meet the state's 100 percent electric vehicle mandates, according to a new report released by the California free-market think tank, the Pacific Research Institute. "California's green energy mandates will require more energy from the electricity grid instead of fossil fuels, making it less likely that the grid can generate the necessary power," Dr. Wayne Winegarden and Kerry Jackson, the study's authors, said in a press release. "These policies jeopardize California's energy security and, without a miracle leap in technology, are setting us up for future energy shortages." Governor Gavin Newsom signed an executive order in 2020 mandating that all new passenger cars and light trucks sold in California starting in 2035 must be zero-emission vehicles. Time for the Elephant to Use Its Tusks. [Scroll down] California's progressive Governor Brylcreem, silver spoon wedged firmly in cheek above his pencil neck, somehow manages the political trifecta of being unmistakably fascist, oily, and blow-dried. All of this makes him a heartthrob for the (D) electorate and a genuine threat to win the presidency, whether in 2024 or 2028. From his "nation state of California" pretensions to his homeless industrial complex; from his corrupt deals with China to Sacramento's proposed trillions in "reparations" for non-slaves; from his constant racial scapegoating of white men and fear and loathing of Republicans to California's Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) registering illegal aliens to vote; from his maskless bacchanals bursting the mercury on the hypocrisy meter to his unfortunate gamine of a wife feeling compelled to testify about an assignation of some sort with a hoary, encrusted Harvey Weinstein, this ridiculous fop and poseur of a governor and the horrifically degraded state of California are assuredly a sneak preview into America's near and increasingly [dismal] future if America doesn't pull back from the cliff's edge right now. New California Law Will Base Electricity Bills on Income Level. A new law in California will force those who make more money to pay more for their electricity. Under the new rules, higher-income earners will pay seven times more than low-income earners. [...] Customers will see the new changes starting in 2025. California Advances Bill To Help Shoplifters Steal. Shoplifting in California may get a lot easier, after the state Senate passed a controversial bill on May 31 that would make it illegal for store employees to confront thieves. SB 553, authored by Democrat Senator David Cortese (San Jose), requires employers to maintain violent incident logs, provide active shooter and shoplifter training, and to discard policies requiring workers to confront suspected active shoplifters, the Epoch Times reports. Radio Free America. [Scroll down] Look at what the nation's largest home insurer, State Farm, just did. They dropped California, no longer writing new property insurance policies. In our politically correct world, State Farm cited rising construction costs as a prime factor, but that also would apply to Florida, New York, and many other places. The real reason can only be their loss history in general, and fraud in particular. This has affected State Farm's ability to lay off exposure to the huge reinsurance market that all insurance companies access. Homelessness, lawlessness, and overly pro-consumer courts are bankrupting not just insurance companies, but businesses large and small. You Knew It Was Coming: CA Law Would Make It Child Abuse to Not Affirm Your Kid's 'Gender Identity'. You knew a bill like this was coming, and you knew it would probably emanate from the California legislature because while the Golden State state crumbles, its leaders spend most of their waking hours obsessing over transgenderism and what kind of car you drive. AB 957, the "Family law: gender identity" bill, passed California's State Assembly on May 3, but radical state Senator Scott Wiener (D-SF) added an amendment on June 6 that would change the state's standard of the well-being of a minor to "include a parent's affirmation of the child's gender identity as part of the health, safety, and welfare of the child." In other words, you're guilty of child abuse if you refuse to call your son "Jane" and buy him dresses. Authorities could take your kid away if you don't bend the knee. California Bill Would Classify Not Affirming Child's Transgenderism As 'Child Abuse'. A recently amended California bill would classify not affirming a child's gender identity by one or both parents as "child abuse." AB 957 was introduced into the California legislature by Assemblymember Lori Wilson (D-Suisun City) and state Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco). The bill rewrites much of the state's family law and classifies "a parent's affirmation of the child's gender identity as part of the health, safety, and welfare of the child." The bill amends Section 3011 of the Family Code, which deals with child custody disputes, and requires that a court determining the "best interests" of the child must consider affirmation of transgender identity. If a parent were to deny the child's "gender identity," it would be a violation of the child's health, safety, and welfare — equivalent to child abuse. Because the bill changes the definition of what constitutes the "health, safety, and welfare" of a child, any organization interacting with children — including schools, churches, and hospitals — would be required to affirm gender transitions in minors. California Bill Would Redefine 'Infertility' To Give Men Access to Pregnancy Treatments. California lawmakers are advancing a bill that would redefine the inability of men to get pregnant as "infertility" and entitle them to insurance-covered fertility treatments. The legislation, which passed in the Senate late last month and is about to be taken up by the Assembly, would require employer-sponsored insurance plans to cover in vitro fertilization, including implantation in pregnancy surrogates. Supporters of the legislation have touted it as an overdue step toward "fertility equality" for LGBT people. This is the equivalent of legalizing shoplifting. California Senate Approves $300 Weekly Checks for Unemployed Illegals. The California Senate on Tuesday voted to pay $300 weekly checks to unemployed illegal immigrants even as the state faces a roughly $31.5 billion deficit and mass illegal immigration. Democratic state senators passed Senate Bill 227 by Sen. María Elena Durazo (D.) with a 30-7 vote, sending the measure to the Assembly for approval. The legislation would offer undocumented aliens up to 20 weeks of unemployment benefits if they meet minimal work requirements. California's unemployment insurance fund, which was defrauded of some $31 billion during the COVID-19 pandemic, would be in charge of dispensing the checks. California employers are on the hook for the fund's $20 billion debt in the form of higher payroll taxes that threaten employee-heavy small businesses and restaurants already devastated by California Democrats' strict COVID-19 lockdowns. California Lawmakers Will Honor Anti-Catholic Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence Member. California lawmakers plan to honor a member of the "Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence" despite backlash over the Los Angeles Dodgers also honoring the anti-Catholic drag group. The "Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence" is an organization of men who dress in drag queen versions of Catholic religious habits and claim to have a "ministry," according to its website. The California State Legislature's LGBTQ Caucus will honor Michael Williams, a member of the "Sisters" who goes by "Sister Roma" and uses "she/her" pronouns. "For more than three decades, Sister Roma has been one of the most outspoken and globally recognized members of San Francisco's Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence," the caucus said in an announcement about its 2023 "Pride Honorees." Government Corruption Has Succeeded In Turning America Into A Banana Republic. Are you the type of person who works hard, saves money, and invests with the intent of accumulating lasting wealth? If so, you've likely noticed that things don't quite add up between what you're regularly told about how the economy and financial markets work and what you actually experience. [...] To be perfectly frank, prices are corrupted by governments for the purpose of extracting capital from the economy and rearranging society in strange and unnatural ways. In California, for instance, Assembly Bill No. 205, which was approved by Governor Newsom in 2022, requires power companies to charge customers a base fee that escalates by income bracket. A recent proposal, would forcibly compel high income earners to pay a base fee that's over 400 percent more than low income earners. This is in addition to the actual use rate. Is it fair and just to penalize people with high incomes? Does the government know how to spend money better than the people who earned it? Sacramento thinks so. As does Washington through its execution of federal income tax policies. The Left Has Pushed the Envelope. California is facing a crushing $32 billion deficit. Yet it flirts with an $800 billion-dollar "reparations" payout to the state's Black residents. No one has any idea where the money for that would come from. No one can define who would qualify. No one can explain why a state that never allowed slavery eight generations ago now owes selected Californians billions of dollars it does not have. One of the reparations board leaders asserts Blacks might be willing to accept an "installment" plan of payments. Gov. Newsom reportedly floated Oprah as a potential replacement for Sen. Dianne Feinstein. California Governor Gavin Newsom has floated appointing media mogul Oprah Winfrey if Sen. Dianne Feinstein's seat becomes vacant amid deepening health concerns. According to the Associated Press, Winfrey is among the names that Newsom is considering appointing should Feinstein willingly leave her seat. The 89-year-old California Senator returned to Washington on May 10, after a shingles diagnosis and treatment that kept her out of action for 10 weeks. And while the thought of slotting in a celebrity with no political experience into the high-profile seat may seem random, there may be some planning behind it. In 2021, Newsom promised to appoint a Black woman to Feinstein's post if her seat became vacant. Newsom Melts Down As Target Pulls Some 'Pride' Products Amid Outrage: 'Doesn't Stop Here'. The governor of the largest state in the country is lashing out on Twitter at the CEO of Target over its decision to remove some of its "Pride" collection products. On Tuesday night, California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) tweeted, "CEO of Target Brian Cornell selling out the LGBTQ+ community to extremists is a real profile in courage." "This isn't just a couple stores in the South. There is a systematic attack on the gay community happening across the country. Wake up America," he continued. Finally, the tweet took a bizarre, fearmongering turn as Newsom claimed, "This doesn't stop here. You're black? You're Asian? You're Jewish? You're a woman? You're next." [Tweet] Christian Broadcasters Join Pushback Against California's "Misinformation" Censorship Law. The National Religious Broadcasters (NRB) has announced that it has joined a lawsuit against a law in California, which its proponents say is aimed against online hate speech — but which is actually simple censorship. The NRB, an association of Christian communicators, in this way joined other plaintiffs — The Babylon Bee, Tim Pool, and Minds, Inc. — in a bid to block the implementation of the law, AB 587. Proposed by Democrat Jesse Gabriel and signed last September by California Governor Gavin Newsom, it mandates that companies behind social media platforms report what is deemed as hate speech, disinformation, radicalization, extremism, harassment and foreign political influence to the authorities, in this case, the California Attorney General. The law envisages fines of up to $15,000 per day for each violation for those who fail to comply. The Absurdities of Our Age. How could a dysfunctional state like California even contemplate $800 billion in reparations? The state currently faces a $31 billion annual deficit — and it's climbing. The state's $100 billion high-speed rail project is inert, a veritable Stonehenge of concrete monoliths without a foot of track laid down. California's income tax rates are already the highest in the nation. Its sales taxes, electricity rates, and gas taxes and prices are among the steepest in the country. And for what? Crime, homelessness, and medieval decay characterize the once great downtowns of San Francisco and Los Angeles. It is now not safe to walk alone in any major California city after dark. Shoplifting and smash-and-grab theft are no longer treated as real crimes. The result is the mass flight of brand stores from our downtowns and inner cities, with all the accustomed cries of "racism," even as racist public prosecutors pick and choose whether to indict the arrested on the basis of race. California infrastructure, once the best in the county, is now among the worst. Decaying and crowded freeways, inadequate water storage, and pot-holed streets are the new norm. Once robust gas, oil, mining, and timber industries are nearly inert. The state's public schools are dysfunctional. Gavin Newsom Backtracks: Open to Cash Reparations for Slavery, After All. California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) now says he is open to the idea of cash reparations for slavery, after he indicated several days ago he was opposed to the idea, which was recommended by his own task force on the issue. [...] Fox News Digital reported that Newsom was declining to back the committee's forthcoming recommendations, saying that confronting the legacy of slavery "is about much more than cash payments." Now, however, after a predictable media storm and backlash from the black activists whose hopes he had raised with the reparations task force, Newsom is moving back in the opposite direction. The Counterattack of Reason. The nonsensical notion fanned by California's Governor Gavin Newsom for votes that a state which never had slavery should compel those who never owned slaves to pay those who never were slaves, seems to have hit the rocks of reality. The reparations panel he installed to look into this was endorsing payments as high as $1.2 million for every black California resident. At this point, looking at a huge budget deficit, not incidentally due to the Democrat mismanagement of his state, Newsom blinked. It was reported that he denied he meant "cash reparations" and then, in the face of blowback from disappointed grifters, his spokesman denied that he meant what had been reported. CA Gov. Newsom Manages to Turn a Massive Budget Surplus Into a $32 Billion Deficit — in Just One Year. [F]ew other states are running at a deficit, and at $306 billion California has the largest budget of them all. Some critics argue that the fault lies with the state's progressive tax code which relies on wealthy taxpayers whose income fluctuates with the performance of the stock market. You could also argue that, like our president, Newsom loves to spend but doesn't seem to be so good at math. He proposed a variety of financial moves that he says will solve the problem: [...] Of course, the deficit has grown another $10 billion since he announced those plans, so their effectiveness is questionable. California Gov. Newsom [is] Less Than Enthusiastic About Reparations Checks. Legal Insurrection recently reported that the California Reparations Task Force formally recommended that the state offer payments of up to $1.2 million to every qualifying Black resident. Apparently, the thought of writing checks that exceed the California budget was more than super-progressive Governor Gavin Newsom could take. He has declined to endorse the reparations panel's payment plans. Reparations: A Slow Motion Riot. The California reparations controversy continues to spin out of control as we head for either a major confrontation or hyperinflation. It appears that Governor Gavin Newsom will reject the latest proposal, but expectations have already been stoked to the point where politicians will have no graceful exit. Less than two months ago it appeared that the California Reparations Task Force was set to recommend reparations payments in the amount of 640 billion dollars (despite California's total budget of less than half that amount). That number has since increased to 800 billion dollars in what is reported as a "cautious" estimate. Activists have denounced even this amount as insufficient while demanding 200 million dollars per person. It is apparent that the demands will only go higher. The numbers are staggering. More staggering is the callousness with which those that know better throw these numbers around with little regard for math, morality, or realism of any kind. Dems starting to discover that reparations demands are a political trap. In California, which likes to see itself as a trend-maker for the rest of the nation, the Democrat-dominated Legislature passed and Governor Gavin Newsom signed into law a bill, AB-3121, establishing a "Task Force to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African Americans," effective October 2, 2020. Nine members were to be appointed, 5 by the governor and 2 each by the leaders of the state house and senate. But despite the law's mandate that "Members shall be drawn from diverse backgrounds to represent the interests of communities of color throughout the state," 8 of the 9 members were African Americans — which means that they also had a personal stake in the outcome of their deliberations. Otherwise known as a "conflict of interest," as Daniel J. Flynn points out. Is it any surprise, then, that the task force ended up with a set of recommendations that would bankrupt the state, costing an estimated $800 billion, two-and-a-half times the state's annual budget? Shoplifters at San Francisco Target strike every 10 minutes. Workers in a San Francisco Target store say they are being shoplifted every ten minutes, as the city faces an exodus of retail stores due to theft. Employees say they have watched individuals actively 'shoveling' goods into bags before making off. Multiple products including shampoo, deodorant, toothbrushes and some foods are now kept behind barriers that require staff to open them. San Francisco's Doom Loop: What it's like to live in a city that no longer believes its problems can be fixed. [Scroll down] On Market, near 6th, a security guard stood in front of Blick art supply. He'd just ejected a man who had been smoking fentanyl inside the store, a man his bosses suggested he should refer to as "an unhoused guest." The guard, who described himself to me as "a cis white male who stands six feet tall," had previously worked security one block east at the Anthropologie. But that, he said, was just for show. He wasn't even supposed to try to stop shoplifters who, at other stores on Market Street, filled up bags, or sometimes even suitcases, with food they needed to feed themselves or their families or merchandise to sell on the black market on Mission Street. But here, the guard told me, his co-workers' pay depended on sales. His job was to make it tolerable for customers to shop. Reparations Derangement Syndrome. A panel in California, where rotten public policy ideas metastasize like a fungus growing in dark, slimy conditions, has approved paying reparations to descendants of slaves. It is impossible to overstate just how insane this is. The reparations task force, appointed by Boy Gov. Gavin Newsom, voted Saturday to recommend the state pay out as much as $800 billion to the descendants of enslaved or free black people who were in the U.S. by the end of the 19th century. That's 2.5 times the size of California's annual budget. Recipients could rake in as much as $1.2 million each. Or more. Much more. Because San Francisco's reparations advisory committee has recommended the city's qualified African American residents be given a $5 million lump sum. California Task Force Approves 1.1 Million In Reparations Per Black Person, Black Complain They Want 200 Million Each. California's reparations task force has approved recommendations which could give black residents $1.2 million each as compensation for slavery and discrimination. California's reparations task force has approved recommendations which could give black residents $1.2 million each as compensation for slavery and discrimination. [Video clip] California reparations panel approves payments of up to $1.2 million to every Black resident. The California Reparations Task Force formally recommended that the state offer payments of up to $1.2 million to every qualifying Black resident. The task force held a public meeting in Oakland, California, on Saturday and voted on the final set of recommendations to be sent to the state's legislators. The nine-member panel called on the state to offer its Black residents a formal apology in addition to the payments. "Reparations are not only morally justifiable, but they have the potential to address long-standing racial disparities and inequalities," Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif., said after attending the meeting. California Reparations: "Justice-Involved" Californians O.J. Simpson And Bill Cosby To Finally Get Their Just Deserts. A California panel approved recommendations on Saturday that could mean hundreds of billions of dollars in payments to Black residents to address past injustices. The proposals to state legislators are the nation's most sweeping effort to devise a program of reparations. The nine-member Reparations Task Force, whose work is being closely monitored by politicians, historians and economists across the country, produced a detailed plan for how restitution should be handled to address a myriad of racist harms, including housing discrimination, mass incarceration and unequal access to health care. Created through a bill signed into law by Gov. Gavin Newsom in the wake of the nationwide racial justice protests after the murder of George Floyd in 2020, the panel has spent more than a year conducting research and holding listening sessions from the Bay Area to San Diego. California reparations task force votes to approve restitution plan. California's reparations task force voted on Saturday in favor of a reparations program, the first of its kind in the United States. The committee of nine members voted to give final approval a plan with detailed explanations for how restitution should be made to victims of systemic racism, housing discrimination, mass incarceration, and health care inequities. The plan now goes to state legislature for approval. If passed, it could mean hundreds of billions of dollars in payments to black residents of the Golden State. Activists demand higher payments from California reparations task force: '$200 million' per person. Activists on Saturday demanded that the state of California pay millions of dollars to each Black resident in reparations as a way to make amends for slavery and subsequent discrimination, dismissing the mammoth proposals from California's reparations task force as too little. The demands were made at a highly explosive official meeting of the task force, which was created by state legislation signed by Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2020. The committee was hearing comments from the public as it considers final recommendations to submit to the California Legislature, which will then decide whether to implement the measures and send them to Newsom's desk to be signed into law. An activist identified as Reverend Tony Pierce was one of the most outspoken people at the gathering, making reference to the famous "40 acres and a mule" promise to former slaves when he took the podium. The modern corrupt legislative way of doing business: Know nothing, fund everything! This week the Democrat-controlled legislature of the state of California passed a bill allocating $150 million dollars from which cash-strapped hospitals could obtain loans to help pay their bills. [...] Loans will have to be repaid in six years, though it will be possible for the loan to be forgiven if the hospital meets certain requirements. In another news report describing the process in which this bill was approved and passed included one particular quote that illustrated magnificently the modern manner in which almost all American legislatures now function, from small city councils to Congress in Washington, regardless of party. As stated by one state senator during preliminary hearings before the bill passed: "We don't know how many hospitals, we don't know which hospitals. We don't know which areas those hospitals are (in), we don't know anything. [...]" California reparations panel hints at $1.2 million payments to each Black resident. Economists advising California's task force for reparations have estimated that it will cost $1.2 million per Black resident, paid over a lifetime. California is one of multiple states debating the feasibility of economic reparations for Black Americans whose ancestors were victimized by the Atlantic slave trade and its legacy, despite the fact California was designated as a free state when it joined the Union. The push for reparations gained major momentum in 2020 after the death of George Floyd at the hands of police, but it remains an economically and culturally controversial topic. California, which frequently makes national headlines for experimental progressive policies, has recently reached an economic estimate. California's Public School Exodus. No issue is more pressing in California than education. In late October, the state released scores for the first post-Covid-shutdown state standardized test, conducted earlier last year. The results were horrendous. Less than half of all students who took the Smarter Balanced test — 47.1 percent — met the state standard in English language arts, down 4 percentage points from 2018-19. One-third of students met the standard in math, down 6.5 percentage points. Only 16 percent of black students and 9.7 percent of English learners met standards in math. Not only did test scores plummet; the state's chronic absenteeism rate has also skyrocketed. The no-show rate leapt from 14.3 percent in 2020-21 to 30 percent in 2021-22. Nordstrom closing 2 San Francisco stores, cites 'dynamics' of downtown area. Nordstrom will close both of its downtown San Francisco stores in the coming months, citing the "dynamics" of the downtown market as the region continues to see a rash of retail thefts by brazen thieves. In a memo to employees, Chief Stores Officer Jamie Nordstrom said the company will not renew its lease for its San Francisco Centre Nordstrom store and the Market Street Rack store across the street. [...] The Westfield mall, where the downtown Nordstrom is located, and its owner, Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield, said the closures "underscores the deteriorating situation in Downtown San Francisco," the San Francisco Standard reported. "A growing number of retailers and businesses are leaving the area due to the unsafe conditions for customers, retailers, and employees, coupled with the fact that these significant issues are preventing an economic recovery of the area," a mall spokesperson said. The Real Gavin Newsom. In 2004, Newsom was elected mayor of San Francisco and instantly made national news by "authorizing city officials to issue same-sex marriage licenses, in defiance of state law." That was certainly another useful trait: He had no qualms about breaking the law. In 2009, Newsom took his first shot at running for governor of California. Failing at that, in 2011, he ran for and won the office of lieutenant governor under Jerry Brown. Yet another useful trait: Newsom knows all about hanging onto political coattails. Both Brown and Newsom were re-elected in 2014. Since Brown couldn't run again in 2018, Tikkanen observed, "Newsom coasted to victory" in the general election and took office in 2019. One of Newsom's first executive orders as governor was to do away with the death penalty. West Hollywood Had the Genius Idea to Replace Cops With Safety Ambassadors and It's Not Working Out Too Well. Notoriously liberal West Hollywood had the brilliant idea of replacing police officers with unarmed "safety ambassadors." Let's take a peek at how that's worked out during an assault in progress. [Video clip] San Francisco Ends Boycott of 30 States with Conservative Laws after Limitations Proved Ineffective, Costly. The San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to end a boycott of 30 states that passed conservatives laws after the rule proved costly and ineffective. The board voted 7-4 to repeal a 2016 law that prohibited city employees from traveling to or doing business with companies in states that passed conservative laws. The board of supervisors first enacted the law in an effort to punish states that had enacted what it viewed as restrictions on LGBT rights after the Supreme Court's decision in Obergefell v. Hodges legalized same-sex marriage nationwide. Since 2015, the board had amended the law to include states that, in its view, had limited voting rights and abortion access. "It's not achieving the goal we want to achieve," said Supervisor Rafael Mandelman, the sponsor of the legislation to repeal the boycott. "It is making our government less efficient." Another day, another store closing in San Francisco (actually two). Earlier this month I wrote about San Francisco's flagship Whole Foods supermarket which announced it was closing after just one year because of high theft and security issues for employees who worked there. Today, SFGate reports another store downtown is closing after two decades. [...] Anthropologie didn't say why it was closing. Is it inflation? Was it the pandemic and the subsequent urban doom loop? Or did it have to do with retail theft and threats against employees from deranged street people? The reality is it could be all three at once but don't discount theft as a big factor. San Francisco leads the nation in property crime. DA accused of 'extreme departure from California law' with charges in 5-year-old girl's murder. A radical California DA is under fire for going easy on three gangbangers charged with shooting a 5-year-old girl through the heart and killing her earlier this month. Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price declined to add gun and gang enhancements to murder raps against the suspects — a "staggering" move which could significantly lessen their sentences. "Not filing gun and gang enhancements in a case like this is an extreme departure from California criminal law practice," veteran Los Angeles County prosecutor Jason Lustig told The [New York] Post. "It's extreme." The Berkeley Scanner first reported the lack of enhancements alongside basic murder charges and called it a "break in precedent" and the "first time anything like it has happened in Alameda County" in such a serious case. CA musing on mandating your EV be able to help power the grid. This news is going to go in the Does California EVER Think Anything Through file, because I have seen no clear-cut proof that they do. [...] In a twisted way, this makes sense for a state that already can't keep the lights on — use all those lovely, honkin' yuge batteries in EVs sitting in driveways to take the load off the grid (vehicle-to-grid/V2G) or help consumers either keep their own electric bills down or function during an outage by powering their house with the Tesla in the driveway (vehicle-to-home/V2H). As CA legislators think, "If it works for 5 people, we can make everyone do it." What doesn't make sense is, again, CA can't keep the lights on. Vicious circle. For your car battery to be charged enough to run the house or help take the load off a failing grid, it has to be charged/juiced up to discharge. California Goes Full Communist: Utilities to Base What They Charge on How Much You Make. The state of California is implementing full Marxism before our very eyes under the guise of "equity." And so now there can be no possible doubt if there ever was for anyone: instituting Communism has been what "equity" initiatives have been about all along. Now three of its most powerful utility companies are saying that they're going to charge based not on how much of their product was used, but on how much money the user makes. In simpler times, if you bought something, you paid for it. Rich or poor, tall or short, black or white, female or male, wise or foolish, everyone paid the same amount for a product. But in our more enlightened era, we know how unjust that really is. It deprives the poor of access to vital goods and services, and that injustice must be redressed. California Electric Bills Will Be Based On How Much You Earn. What's next, a proposal for supermarkets that can charge you based on your income for bread and eggs? Also, Best Buy should charge you for a new phone based on your earnings. Airline tickets? There can be three tiers based on earnings. Not that it matters how much California utilities charge for power that they can't deliver anyway to people fleeing the state as fast as they can. If you like your Communism, you can keep your Communism. CA Rep. Kiley Introduces Constitutional Amendment Requiring Election of U.S. Senators. [Senator] Feinstein's term is up in 2024, and she's said she's not seeking re-election (though there was some confusion around that statement). [...] If Feinstein resigns before her term ends, under California law Gov. Gavin Newsom would have the power to appoint a replacement to serve until the next general election. Newsom already promised to appoint a black woman to the seat if Feinstein resigns before 2024. Since Lee (a black woman) has already declared her candidacy and has powerful endorsements, Newsom would be under massive pressure to appoint her. Newsom already appointed one of the state's senators, Sen. Alex Padilla (D-because of course), and he likely relishes the idea of being able to appoint another since he uses them as political patronage jobs and ways to gain DEI brownie points. California Republicans are getting weary of all of this appointing, which makes the climb toward electoral relevance in the state even more difficult. Freshman Rep. Kevin Kiley (R-CA) has now introduced a Constitutional Amendment providing that "U.S. Senators, like Members of the House, must always be elected rather than appointed." The Editor says... California Hits the Gas on Its Way to Failed Commie Statehood. [Gavin] Newsom began his political career in San Francisco, the city that spawned bottom-feeding haters of liberty like Dianne Feinstein, Granny Boxwine Pelosi, and the cackling weirdo who is currently one heartbeat away from the presidency, Kamala Harris. Under normal circumstances, the governor's vibe wouldn't affect so much of what goes on in the state. The Wuhan Chinese Bat Flu Plague, however, gave Democrat governors like Newsom a taste of tyrannical power that they have been reluctant to give up. The Golden State is now very much a reflection of its Soviet-esque chief executive. Welcome to Gavin Newsom's California, Where the Looting Is Easy. California Gov. Gavin Newsom has eyes on running for president if Joe Biden somehow moves out of the way. It's why Newsom has been attacking red states, and in particular, Florida, trying to pick a fight with Gov. Ron DeSantis. He's hoping that will up his national profile. [...] What's funny is that places like Florida are doing far better than his state. It's why people have fled California and other states like it by the hundreds of thousands. He's spending a lot of money to attack other places while he doesn't seem to [care] about the mess that he and other Democrats have made in the Golden State. Let's take a look at what he leaves behind whenever he leaves town — a completely out-of-control state, one which residents are fleeing. California Quietly Pushes Scary New Law — The State Could Take Kids Away From "Non-Affirming" Parents. California claims to be at the front of the progressive movement, and Gov. Gavin Newsom believes his state sets a precedent the entire country should follow. Newsom has made these remarks numerous times in the past, and we'll likely hear them a lot more often if he runs for President in 2024. "Turning America into Cali" might be his rallying cry. But several million parents won't be on board with what they're trying to do in the Golden State now. Currently, California lawmakers are considering a bill that would actually allow state officials to take kids away from families — and they wouldn't even have to tell the parents until afterward. A note from inside Gulag California. If it weren't so serious, Gavin Newsom's current assault on red states would be hilarious. What he is peddling as "democracy" is totalitarianism in its worst form. What's frightening is that there are millions of voters throughout America who will lap up what he's selling. Why? Because they are Zombie Voters; brain-dead people who do zero research and even less thinking before they vote. They get their news from TikTok and Facebook. They vote based on how they feel about a candidate instead of what they think about that candidate's positions. It's sad but true. California is full of them. Most California voters don't know how to think because most were never taught. [...] Children from California public schools are by and large the people who keep California deep blue. They show up at the polls and vote for candidates without knowing one single thing about them or giving one instant's thought to what that person will mean for them or their future. How Low Can Blue Cities Sink? Take San Francisco. Things are so bad there that Whole Foods, an iconic liberal company, has shut its flagship store in that city after just one year of operation, due to rampant crime and drug use that, the company said, made it impossible to assure the safety of its employees. But when it comes to commercial real estate, San Francisco, while very bad, is not the bottom of the barrel. John Phelan reports on a series of corporate departures from Minneapolis and St. Paul. The numbers are grim. [...] The reality is worse than these numbers indicate. Large chunks of downtown Minneapolis (and St. Paul) are not recorded as vacant because someone is paying rent on them, but in fact no one is working in those offices. Companies are simply waiting for their leases to expire. Thus the situation is getting worse, not better. As We Predicted, Gavin Newsom's Schtick Isn't Going Over Well With Democrats in Red States. I've consistently made the observation that California Democrats have a very tough time getting traction outside of the state because they've never been challenged on their positions or been held accountable by the media in any way. They don't even need to give campaign speeches or long-form interviews because at this point they don't need to. So, like Kamala Harris, once the rest of the country gets to see what they're all about, they're not fans. Gavin Newsom is the latest California political superstar to suffer this fate, and he hasn't even declared for POTUS yet. Over the last week or so he's been traveling to red states, acting like the savior who'll be bringing enlightenment to the rubes stuck there. Unsurprisingly, for anyone who's ever lived outside a narcissistic bubble, that doesn't go over well, especially in the South. The Nightmare of Reparations. The [California Reparations] Task Force is considering a payment of $360,000 each to 1.8 million black people in California. The total cost would be $640 billion. (California's total budget this year is only $286 billion — a number with which the Task Force is apparently unconcerned.) Undoubtedly, many Republicans will argue that the proposal is "too high." This argument will dominate the public debate, as it is the only anti-reparations argument that the national media will allow to break through the usual cloud of disinformation. The result of such a debate will be a lower number (also unaffordable) that might be enacted as a compromise. Try to imagine a number that would be affordable — either for California or the U.S. as a whole since the federal government is the ultimate source of payment. The U.S. is over 30 trillion dollars in debt. To make this proposal affordable, the payments would have to be reversed. Instead of receiving money, the 1.8 million black people contemplated in California would have to pay to the U.S. government $360,000 per person per year for the next 50 years. That would result in enough money to pay off the current U.S. debt. Of course, that will not happen and the U.S. debt will never be repaid. But it serves as a reminder that any amount of reparations would be too much. There is no acceptable compromise. LA County's proposal to 'decarcerate' jail population withdrawn after pushback from public, law enforcement. A controversial proposal by Los Angeles County Board members to "decarcerate" jails was withdrawn from Tuesday's agenda after opposition from the public and law enforcement. The agenda item was titled "Los Angeles County to take Actionable Next Steps to Depopulate and Decarcerate the Los Angeles County Jails." Introduced by Supervisors Lindsey Horvath and Hilda Solis, the proposal outlined that it would "Declare the state of mental health services and overcrowding in the Los Angeles County jails a humanitarian crisis, requiring the County to move with all deliberate speed on meaningful solutions; and prioritize decreasing the number of individuals entering the Los Angeles County Jails." Gavin Newsom is cornered by the reparations clown show he unleashed. California's Governor Gavin Newsom finds himself in such an awkward position that he is refusing comment on a gathering storm that will not go away, and which has the possibility of turning his presidential ambitions to ashes. Newsom is known to many as "Governor Brylcreem" for the large amount of greasy pomade he favors for his coiffure. He will need all the lubricant he can come up with to slip through the trap he has constructed for himself. [...] Democrats totally control both houses of the legislature, and who among them would vote against reparations? Blacks' share of California's population is well below the national average, but in a state utterly dominated by the left, it would take courage — and leadership from the governor — to go against the fad (and left wing obsession) of reparations. '$5 million is too little:' Activists tell California reparations committee to aim higher. Activists on Wednesday demanded that the state of California pay millions of dollars to each Black resident in reparations as a way to make amends for slavery and subsequent discrimination, dismissing the idea of payments of $5 million per person as "nothing" and "too little." The demands were made at an in-person meeting of the California Reparations Task Force, which was created by state legislation signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2020. The committee was hearing comments from the public as it considers final recommendations to submit to the California Legislature, which will then decide whether to implement the measures and send them to Newsom's desk to be signed into law. The task force is considering a proposal to give just under $360,000 per person to approximately 1.8 million Black Californians who had an ancestor enslaved in the U.S., putting the total cost of the program at about $640 billion. Dem Bill Will Allow School Psychologists to 'Kidnap' Kids as Young as 12 - Remove from Homes Without Parental Consent. A California legislative proposal that its sponsor says will increase mental health services for children is being attacked by its opponents as "state-sanctioned kidnapping." Democratic Assemblywoman Wendy Carrillo said her bill fixes an issue that denies poor kids on the state's Medi-Cal insurance plan the same coverage as other children. "[Assembly Bill] 665 is about making sure all young people, regardless if they have private health insurance or are Medi-Cal recipients, have access to mental health resources," Carrillo said, according to the Sierra Sun Times. The Editor says... Realigning California Would Realign America. California's role in influencing the future of the country is unparalleled. In addition to its economic and demographic weight, California remains the epicenter of America's media and entertainment industry, as well as its high-tech industry. Even if several American states defy the momentum of California's political class, laws governing California frequently end up becoming federal policy. The abyss is coming for us all, and its epicenter is in California. [...] In general, ballot initiatives are a good way to keep California's progressive elites off balance and drain their treasuries. Qualifying a ballot initiative in California today will cost proponents between $5 and $10 million. But if it represents a serious threat to the environmentalist industrial complex, the woke tycoons, or the government unions, they will spend many times that amount to defeat it. California Reparations Board Seeks to Resurrect 1860s Agency That Helped Freed Former Slaves. First, as we recently reported, San Francisco is poised to hand out $5 million in pretend "reparations" — taxpayer money — to every black resident of the city. And California was never a slave-owning state, mind you. Now, the California Reparations Task Force is recommending reviving a modern version of the Freedmen's Bureau — an all-encompassing agency created in 1865 to assist previously enslaved black people — to administer any benefits related to the aforementioned taxpayer handouts. Crazy? We're talking about the People's Republic of Woke California, what do you think? Will the Last One to Leave California Please Turn on the Lights. [T]he latest shoe to drop is the failure of Silicon Valley Bank last week. But fear not, like major U.S. corporations and some financial institutions that have been deemed as too big to fail, states like California now qualify to join that august body of TBTFs. The Feds have now made 'an exception' and have propped up SVB, guaranteeing that all depositors will now get all their money back (so much for our banking regulations that only safeguarded up to $250K per depositor). Why? The Feds say that they fear 'contagion' (read: a run on banks) and that this action is justified and is not to be considered a 'bailout.' Californians have once again been spared the pain of facing reality and the equal application of America's laws. They are still free to continue to live comfortably in the land of eternal darkness and self-delusion. California reparations panel RAISES amount it wants to give 1.8 million black people from $220,000 to $360,000 each. Black Californians could be in line for $360,000 each as part of the state's plan to dish out 'reparations' to descendants of slaves. Secretary of State Shirley Weber told a meeting today that California must 'admit its sins and change the narrative,' to pave the way for initiatives similar to ones already being considered in other states. But there has been no detail about how the $650 billion project will be funded amid concerns over California's growing deficit which is expected to worsen due to a jobs blood bath in its tax-generating Silicon Valley. Sequoia Capital executive admits 'even Democrats like me are fed up with San Francisco'. I guess all that "culture" (human feces and heroin needles) and "excitement" (rampant crime) of life in a big city is getting a little old for Michael Moritz, a partner at Sequoia Capital. But, don't you smug conservatives get any ideas, these blights aren't a byproduct of Democrat ideas — San Francisco is merely "held hostage" by "political classes." In an essay published by The New York Times today, Moritz acknowledged the city was indeed "crippled" by "homeless encampments" and "drug addicts" before he blamed conservatives for rubbing Democrat noses in the mess. [...] He describes this phenomenon as "tyranny of the minority." Is this a prelude to reinvigorated efforts to abolish the Electoral College? America Is Becoming a Corrupt Country. Shoplifting, flash robberies, and rampant crime have dramatically increased since so many jurisdictions have dramatically raised the dollar threshold of felony theft (in some places, stealing something worth $950 is a misdemeanor). Police won't waste time arresting crooks who prosecutors won't prosecute. The result is that petty theft on a grand scale has become a way of life for tens of thousands (maybe hundreds of thousands) of people. Target alone estimates that it lost $600 million last year to theft in the San Francisco Bay region. Add to this the rises in carjacking, burglary, and mugging. The rise in crime inherently means more criminals and more acceptance of living on someone else's money. California's Predicted Fiscal Firestorm Has Arrived. Democrats' profligate spending, greed, and lack of imagination on how to run America's most populous state have been disastrous. An investment research group says California's "tax policy is killing the Golden Goose in the Golden State." And that's not the only problem. Governor Gavin Newsom sent billions of Joe Biden's specially printed, inflation-causing Covid money to voters for "inflation relief" before his latest election. He teed up "free" kindergarten for four-year-olds, and gave out "free" healthcare to illegal aliens. His reckless spending was the fiscal equivalent of putting on a pork chop suit and heading out to the closest dog park. Now, of course, he'll be blaming this fiscal cliff on someone — anyone — else. Newsom helped destroy contracting jobs and continued to waste money on the Train to Nowhere. We Deserve Reparations From Stupid People. The City of San Francisco, the bayside burg that gave us Nancy Pelosi and sidewalk toilets, is now proposing the ultimate in nonsense — a few million bucks of reparations for everyone whose grandparents came from the right continent at the right time. Actually, it's more generous than that, because you may also be eligible if you were a victim of the Drug War — that is, if you were a scumbag drug dealer justly imprisoned for slinging poison before the narcotics were effectively legalized by the same leftists whose hometown proposes this giveaway. Well, if a bunch of people who were never slaves should get free money from people who never owned slaves, I propose that the people forking over the dollars be the liberal San Francisco Democrats who never owned slaves. Most of us agree that California is leading the nation — in the wrong direction. If
Reparations Are Owed, the Democratic Party Should Pay Them. Let's analyze the issue of reparations from
the standpoint of morality and practicality. Most people believe that compensation for misdeeds should come from
the people who caused the misdeeds. For example, if John Smith and Joe Brown recklessly damage your car, you
expect Smith and Brown (or their insurance companies) to pay for the repairs. Normally, you would not expect the
repairs to be financed by the entire town in which you live: That would make no sense. What if Joe Brown died
shortly after the accident? Would you expect his children or grandchildren to pay you? Probably not.
Instead, your claim for compensation would be focused on the surviving reckless driver, John Smith. We can apply
this logic to the reparations issue. Obviously, no person alive today existed during the slave era or as an adult in
the subsequent Jim Crow or Ku Klux Klan eras. However, there are certain responsible entities that existed then and now:
'Defund the Police' LA City Council member asks LAPD for extra patrols around his office. A newly-elected Los Angeles city councillor who campaigned on a pledge to abolish the police has been left red-faced after a staff member rang the LAPD to request protection for his broken-down car. Hugo Soto-Martinez, a trade union activist and member of the Democratic Socialist party, was elected in December. Soto-Martinez campaigned against 'armed militias occupying our neighborhoods,' saying that the existing policing system was 'completely corrupt, immoral, and needs to be changed drastically.' Court Slaps Down California's Attempt To Muzzle Doctors Who Dissent From Covid Groupthink. [Scroll down] In passing the law, the California legislature made multiple "findings," including facts purveyed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that there is a much higher risk of death for unvaccinated individuals from Covid-19 than the vaccinated. The legislature also found that "the spread of misinformation and disinformation about COVID-19 vaccines has weakened public confidence and placed lives at serious risk" and that "major news outlets have reported that some of the most dangerous propagators of inaccurate information regarding the COVID-19 vaccines are licensed health care professionals." Soon after Newsom signed AB 2098, a group of doctors and organizations representing doctors filed suit in federal court in California. California's plan to power EVs has one glaring shortcoming. You may have already heard about California Governor Gavin Newsom's announcement last year that his state will ban the sale of gasoline-powered vehicles by 2035. Restrictions on how many non-electric vehicles can be sold will begin in just three years. This is making all of the climate alarmists very happy, of course, but there is a significantly large fly in the ointment of this plan. In order to charge up roughly 12.5 million EVs on a daily basis, the state will need to have a lot of electricity available on the power grid. But nobody seems to have run through all of the numbers with the Governor. Some people who actually did the math work with the Institute for Energy Research, and they have some bad news for Governor Newsom. The state's plan is based on "a myriad of assumptions" about its electrical grid, and a lot of those assumptions are simply unrealistic in a very big way. California's
fake water crisis. This year, California was hit by not one but nine "atmospheric rivers" that drenched
the state, flooded communities, and filled reservoirs. [...] However, California officials are saying that the massive
storms have not solved the drought problem. Water customers may be asked to continue conservation efforts.
Agricultural users can expect only 30 percent of regular water deliveries. These drought provisions will
continue despite the following:
Judge blocks California's covid misinformation law. On January 25, the case of Hoeg v. Newsom prompted a federal judge to pause California's covid misinformation and disinformation law for violating the First and 14th Amendments to the Constitution. Five doctors who are plaintiffs in the case say Assembly Bill 2098 violates their constitutional rights. These include Drs. Tracy Hoeg, Ram Duriseti, Aaron Kheriaty, Pete Mazolewski, and Azadeh Khatibi. Gov. Gavin Newsom and other elected officials, including the president and members of the Medical Board of California, are named as defendants in the case (and there is also a second lawsuit, separate but related in nature, called Hoang v. Bonta that makes similar allegations). AB 2098 puts a muzzle on California doctors, preventing them from providing information to their patients that the state deems to be "misinformation" or "disinformation." Doctors who advise and treat their patients based on science rather than lies face the potential loss of their medical license under AB 2098. The most dangerous legislator in America? California State Senator Scott Wiener could be the most dangerous legislator in the nation. That's the lesson I took away from a great piece by Abigail Shrier I just read in City Journal, one of the best magazines in America. It shines a light on Weiner's one-man crusade to empower human traffickers in the State of California under the guise of protecting LGBTQIA+ rights. [...] And as Shrier describes in the opening to her piece, Weiner got a law passed that vastly expanded the street prostitution trade, by removing all penalties for a loitering law that gave police probable cause to arrest street prostitutes. In practical terms that meant that police couldn't identify minors who were being trafficked and separate them from their abusive pimps. The result has been drastic — the number of young women escaping sex slavery in California has dropped to near zero. Federal Judge Uses Covid Regime Case To Attack Key Leftist Tactics. A new California law that went into effect on January 1st is intended to punish doctors who spread "misinformation" about Covid — and especially about treatment options and the dangerous mRNA injections. That law has been challenged in federal court. In what follows I'll be drawing from an article in the Sacramento Bee, which was brought to my attention by Thomas Lifson. Yesterday Judge William Shubb stayed enforcement of the law, while subjecting it to a withering critique. What I found particularly encouraging is that a federal judge directly attacked a major shibboleth of Leftist ideology as well as one of the Left's key tactics in attacking the free flow of information to the American public. California's COVID-19 Misinformation Law Blocked by Judge. A federal judge in California on Jan. 25 paused the state's so-called COVID-19 misinformation and disinformation law that has been challenged by doctors in two lawsuits, claiming it violates their constitutional rights. In Hoeg v. Newsom, five doctors alleged that the state law, AB 2098, is unconstitutional under the First and 14th Amendments of the U.S. Constitution. The doctors, Tracy Hoeg, Ram Duriseti, Aaron Kheriaty, Pete Mazolewski, and Azadeh Khatibi, filed their lawsuit against Gov. Gavin Newsom and other officials, including the president and members of the Medical Board of California. A separate related lawsuit, Hoang v. Bonta, makes similar allegations. The doctors say the law prevents them from providing information to their patients that may contradict what the law permits or prohibits. They also alleged the law was used to intimidate and punish physicians who disagreed with prevailing views on COVID-19. Reckless Reparations Reckoning. Here are 10 reasons why the nation's — and especially California's — discussions of reparatory payouts are dangerous in a multiracial state, and why reparations are not viable either in an insolvent state or a bankrupt nation at large. [...] [#3] California is at the forefront of the reparation lobbying effort. Yet it was neither a slave nor a Jim-Crow state. On the eve of the Civil War, the federal census recorded only about 4,000 free black citizens residing in the free state of California, or about 1 percent of the nearly 400,000 residents in 1860. The relatively new state remained part of the Union, in which no major battles of the war over slavery were waged. The pathology did not exist anywhere in California and the population was overwhelmingly loyal to the Union. In other words, reparations based on slavery is not a cohesive argument for the current-day 40 millions of California, in which over one-quarter of the residents were not even born in the United States. [...] [#9] There has not been slavery in the United States in some 158 years since the end of the Civil War. If a generation can be defined as 25 years, there has not been a living American with personal experience of slavery in generations. California's 'Misinformation' Law Targets 'Doctor Zero'. A new and unconstitutional, Orwellian gag-order law took effect on Jan. 1. Titled "Physicians and surgeons: unprofessional conduct," the law permits the Medical Board of California to discipline doctors who "disseminate" misinformation. It's an obvious and direct attack on the First Amendment — freedom of speech — as well as the Fifth Amendment, which says an individual cannot be compelled by the government to provide incriminating information about himself, and the Fourteenth Amendment's equal protection under the laws. This law attempts to mandate a new and undefined standard known as "contemporary scientific consensus" and illegally suppress differing professional opinions counter to this consensus on COVID-19. Differing professional opinions are of course protected from governmental interference and censorship by the First Amendment. The importance of differing professional opinions is also enshrined in the practice of medicine by the longstanding right and traditional entitlement of patients to the time-honored "second opinion." If everyone were forced to adopt the undefinable "contemporary scientific consensus," second opinions could be deemed to be "misinformation." California's new digital license plates made cars trackable by hackers. Reviver says it's mission is to "modernize" the driving experience, and the way it does that is by developing the world's first digital license plate and connected vehicle platform. But security researchers looking into how safe that "modernization" is have found a way to poke significant holes in this design. Some of the vulnerabilities discovered show that malicious outside actors can track GPS location of digital license plates owners. Reviver rolled out digital license plates last October and is still the only company that sells them in California. They are being marketed as legal to use across the US, while it is also becoming legal to buy them in more and more states. Those who own such plates, or plan to do so, will be interested to hear that researcher Sam Curry shared in a blog post that it is possible for hackers to access the "super user" admin mode of any user, and from there on effectively remotely take over. California's Crazy New Year: Five Radical Laws Go into Effect. [#3] AB 2147: Decriminalizing Jaywalking Because of Racism — This law, called the "Freedom to Walk Act," presumes that jaywalking is a racist crime because it is supposedly enforced unevenly — by the nation's most left-wing state — in "communities of color" where people supposedly cannot afford to pay the fines. The law prevents police from stopping people who are crossing the street illegally unless they are in danger. [...] [#5] SB 357: Decriminalizing Loitering for Prostitution — This law, another by State Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco), decriminalizes loitering in public for the purpose of committing prostitution (which remains a crime). It also allows those convicted of such loitering to petition courts for the dismissal and sealing of their cases. The law aims to remove the social stigma of sex work; it also comes amid a statewide crime wave. An Actual Threat to Our Democracy. The ever-crazier California legislature has passed a law that, as the Wall Street Journal's editors describe it: ["]...creates a state council to dictate wages, working conditions and benefits, among other things, for fast-food workers who aren't unionized. The law is intended to coerce fast-food franchises to surrender to the Service Employees International Union (SEIU).["] Can that possibly be constitutional? I don't know, but it any event it is a terrible idea: ["]...the state council could issue edicts such as raising the minimum wage for fast-food workers to $22 a[n] hour.["] Year in Review: California Got Even Crazier in 2022. California Democrats love to say their state's laws lead the way. But where, exactly, are they leading us? Here are some guideposts. [#2] The Safer Streets For All Act: California's pimps can now operate in the open after legislators decriminalized streetside sex solicitation in the name of equity. Supporters of the bill, authored by state Sen. Scott Wiener (D.), sought this repeal of California's longtime anti-loitering law, claiming police used it to target minorities and transgender people. Victims of sex trafficking opposed the new legislation, since the anti-loitering policy helped cops find exploited kids. Black actor blasts $223,000 reparations payments suggested by California commission. Actor Faizon Love has lashed out at the notion that black people in California will be given $223,000 in reparations, saying that the money will only be used to purchase luxury cars. Love, 54, made the eye-opening response in an interview with YouTube channel Vlad TV as the debate over reparations for slavery in the Golden State continues. The Meteor Man star said: '[...] That's another trick man, because that money's gonna go right back to Cadillac and right back to [Mercedes] Benz.' The Editor says... San Bernardino County Residents Vote to Study Secession from Far-Left California. San Bernardino County residents voted for officials to study the possibility of seceding from California as more grow increasingly tired of the state's far-left policies. The county approved the advisory ballot proposal, which was voted upon in November, earlier this week, the Associated Press (AP) reported. San Bernardino's Board of Supervisors' next step is likely to form a committee that will study if state and federal public funds were fairly distributed with local governments within the county. Universal Basic Income Hits the Bay Area — If You're Black. At least three guaranteed income initiatives in the San Francisco Bay Area openly discriminate against white residents, limiting or entirely preventing their participation in programs that dole out no-strings-attached cash. The programs — all of which are publicly funded — violate both the United States and the California state constitution, lawyers say, as well as civil rights laws that ban race discrimination in contracting and by the recipients of government funds. The initiatives include the Black Economic Equity Movement, which provides $500 a month exclusively to "Black young adults," the Abundant Birth Project, which provides $1,000 a month to "Black and Pacific Islander mothers," and the Guaranteed Income for Transgender People program, which will dole out $1,200 a month and "prioritize enrollment" of transgender "Black, Indigenous, or People of Color (BIPOC)." They are financed by the National Institutes of Health, the California Department of Social Services, and the city of San Francisco, respectively. Condo prices in San Francisco plummet as drug abuse and crime soar. Luxury condo prices in the heart of downtown San Francisco have plummeted as drug abuse and crime have spiraled out control — and as many techies continue to work remotely. Data analyzed by Compass shows the Golden Gate city — once pegged as the hottest real estate market globally — has since fallen fast. The median sale price of a two-bedroom condo, for example, has fallen 16.5% since 2021, while sale prices in surrounding areas have slipped only 7%, according to the market report. Civil Disobedience Starts Here. As COVID-19 cases increase, the Los Angeles County public health director is threatening — yes, that's the right word — another indoor mask mandate. It's a hob-nailed boot on the neck. Angelenos need to resist, for themselves and the rest of the country. "As COVID cases and other viruses continue to rise, the Southland is inching closer to a mask mandate," the Los Angeles CBS affiliate reported Sunday. Barbara Ferrer, the county director of public health, who is not a physician, not a nurse, not even a paper shuffler at a doctor's office, but a social welfarist, said last week that "masking" is one of several "commonsense mitigation strategies" that "remains a very sensible approach." Don't mistake mask mandates as harmless cases of officials acting in an abundance of caution or just covering their backsides, as government always does. Mask mandates are open displays of outright meanness, a manifestation of authoritarian urges to control others. There is no data, no reputable research that tells us mask mandates works. In fact, the data tells the opposite. Yet officials such as Ferrer and the Sacramento schools chamberlains are insisting that masks must go back on. California voters may block the new fast food minimum wage law. In August, the California legislature narrowly passed a new law designed to micromanage the fast food industry in that state known as the FAST Act. (Fast Food Accountability and Standards Recovery Act.) Governor Gavin Newsom signed it into law on Labor Day. The food and beverage industry started raising the alarm immediately, describing all of the negative effects this legislation could produce. The law would allow the legislature to create an unelected board (the "Fast Food Council") that would oversee everything from benefits and wages to working hours. But one industry group began collecting signatures to demand a referendum on the new law. The deadline for submitting signatures was this Monday and it looks like they met the goal. California seeks to punish oil companies with new penalty. California lawmakers on Monday introduced legislation to penalize oil companies for alleged price gouging, setting up a showdown with an industry that has long wielded political influence in the Golden State. At the urging of Gov. Gavin Newsom, California Senate Budget Chair Nancy Skinner, D-Berkeley, proposed a new bill that would levy a penalty on oil companies when their profits exceeded a legally-established threshold. The money raised by the penalty would then be placed in a fund that would be directed back to taxpayers in the form of rebates. But the initial bill language is vague, failing to define the profit threshold that oil companies would be penalized for exceeding and lacking an explanation of who would be eligible for the rebates. Newsom said those specifics will be sorted out over the course of the special session. The move comes two months after the Democratic governor first unveiled a plan to levy a windfall profits tax on oil companies that were running up record earnings while Californians were getting squeezed at the pump. San Fran is a hellhole for a reason. Earlier today I wrote about an infant who overdosed on fentanyl while playing in a park. The child's nanny had taken her to the park for a walk and among the detritus left by druggies was enough fentanyl to cause a near-fatal overdose. Luckily the EMTs arrived and saved her life. This is modern San Francisco, Nancy Pelosi's shining city on a hill. The park is a few blocks from Pelosi's scene of the crime home. I stumbled across this new investigative report an hour after I finished writing that post, and it helps explain why San Francisco is a [...] mess. [Tweet] As I have said before, public employment in San Francisco isn't public service; it is nothing but another government grift. Not that most of the taxpayers in San Francisco don't deserve to lose money to the confidence men; they are idiotic enough to keep voting for this [stuff]. Still, David Sjostedt of the San Francisco Standard deserves kudos for reporting the story. If San Franciscans aren't engaged enough to care about the decline of their once-breathtaking city, at least people from more sane venues can learn from their experience. California Releases Thousands of Convicted Pedophiles Within a Year of Conviction. California has released thousands of convicted pedophiles after spending only a few months in prison. Such pedophiles have been convicted of "a range of horrific acts, including raping kids under 14," according to the study investigation conducted by the U.K. Daily Mail. More than 7,000 persons convicted of "lewd or lascivious acts with a child under 14 years of age" have been released in the same year they were convicted. Convicts who committed even more heinous crimes, such as sodomy and rape of children, also served short sentences. Keywords: Buying votes, money laundering, slush fund, graft. California Still Has More Than 250,000 Uncounted Ballots. While Arizona's handling of the midterm election has been the focus of media outlets and pundits for some time, California still has more than 250,000 uncounted ballots across the state. It's been more than two weeks since America voted in the 2022 midterms, yet the largest state in the country is still counting ballots. The vast majority of the uncounted ballots are from people who voted by mail, with Sacramento County failing to count a whopping 84,000 mail-in ballots. [...] The remaining ballots represent a tiny fraction of the total votes cast in the Golden State in 2022, but it's prompted some to ask what is taking so long. The answer is simple: In 2020, during the pandemic, California, along with other states, began mailing ballots to all registered voters. The practice became permanent in 2021, CNN reported, and ballots postmarked on or before Election Day must be accepted for up to seven days after the polls close. Five Developments That Waited Until After the Midterms. Did you notice that there have been many stories breaking recently that are inconvenient to the left-wing narrative? I did. And I noticed that they came out after the midterm elections were over — when they'd have no impact on the vote. Wasn't that nice and convenient? Here are four of those stories. [#1] Newsom's budget deficit: After back-to-back years of running surpluses, this week we learned that California is back in the red. Back in May, the Golden State had a nearly $98 billion surplus, but new projections show that California will have a $25 billion deficit in the 2023-2024 fiscal year. Luckily for Gov. Gavin Newsom, voters reelected him last week before the news broke. Los Angeles and L.A. County buy into guaranteed income movement. Following a national trend, Los Angeles and Los Angeles County have embraced the popular guaranteed income concept to combat poverty by offering low-income residents no-strings-attached money. The city of Los Angeles offers a guaranteed income program to 3,200 participants chosen at random to receive $1,000 per month for 12 months. Los Angeles County has responded with two guaranteed programs of its own. The county's pilot guaranteed income program involves 1,000 participants who will receive $1,000 monthly payments for three years. The budget is $16.3 million, and the county will use federal COVID-19 relief money to pay for the program, according to Los Angeles County. The program began in August. CEO blasts San Francisco as 'city of chaos,' closes store over rampant crime. The CEO of a popular clothing brand Cotopaxi is closing the company's only San Francisco store due to "organized theft rings" and a lack of safety in the city, he announced this week. CEO Davis Smith announced the closure in a lengthy post on social media, saying the location faces regular attacks by thieves with virtually no response from law enforcement. "We are closing the store due to rampant organized theft and lack of safety for our team. Our store is hit by organized theft rings several times per week. They brazenly enter the store and grab thousands of dollars of product and walk out," Smith wrote. "We started keeping the door locked and opening it only for customers, but even then, they'll have a woman go to the door, and then hiding individuals rush into the store as soon as the door opens. Our team is terrified. They feel unsafe. Security guards don't help because these theft rings know that security guards won't/can't stop them," he added. How 'woke' policies turned Downtown San Francisco into an urban drug-den. Earlier this month, old-fashioned Xeroxed copies of a newspaper article appeared across the Mid-Market neighborhood in Downtown San Francisco. The article, from the San Francisco Chronicle, featured the headline: "S.F. D.A. Brooke Jenkins says she'll consider murder charges for fentanyl dealers." The article was taped to walls on neighborhood corners regularly frequented by drug dealers. At least one of those Xerox copies had the headline translated into Spanish — all the better for the dealers in question, most of whom are Honduran nationals, to get the message. The photocopies were distributed by Matt Dorsey, Supervisor for the district that includes the Mid-Market area, which is adjacent to the Tenderloin (in San Francisco, which is both a county and a city, Supervisors are the equivalent of City Council members in other cities). Dorsey's office had organized a neighborhood clean-up and the Supervisor had handed the article for volunteers to promote. Dorsey is himself a recovering addict and prior to becoming Supervisor, he was the Communications Director for the San Francisco Police Department. Ridding the neighborhood of drug dealers is his number one priority — a goal he shares with new District Attorney Jenkins. California's Water Supply Falls Victim to CRT. California's agricultural production is as large as Texas and Iowa combined. The state's Mediterranean climate and fertile valleys help make it the fifth largest supplier of food and fiber in the world. It all depends on water. Most of the state's crops rely on irrigation as opposed to rain. Irrigation is regulated by a system of water rights held by public and private parties. Notice these are "rights" and not "privileges." The exercise of these rights to bring about beneficial uses of water such as growing food is a complicated area of law and policy. History proves that giving the government control over the food supply is usually a recipe for famine. Still, there are many environmental and so-called social justice organizations that would like to move all the privately held water rights to state control. One way to do so is by influencing state water rights agencies through Critical Race Theory. California makes it illegal for doctors to disagree with politicians. Conformity of thought is now required whether it is online, on college campuses, or, if you are in California, in a physician-patient relationship. PayPal recently introduced a $2,500 fine for anyone involved in "the sending, posting, or publication of any messages, content, or materials" that — in "PayPal's sole discretion" — "promote misinformation." After a firestorm of criticism, PayPal withdrew the policy, claiming the whole thing was a misunderstanding and was not official policy — hardly a convincing explanation from a site with a history of banning those it considers politically incorrect. But California physicians have had no such relief. Gov. Gavin Newsom recently signed California Assembly Bill 2098, making it the first state to attempt to censor what physicians can say about COVID-19 to their patients. This is a dangerous, and likely unconstitutional, effort that other states must resist. Rubber-stamped elections, California style. Welcome to the Grand Duchy of California, a place run so poorly that the streets and the homeless existing on them are both rotting, citizens have no expectation of public safety, our public schools ranked 38th for quality, and gas costs $6.49 a gallon (regular). We've mandated a move toward electric power as "clean" energy, no matter the outrageous cost and total inefficiency. We're heavily taxed, with income tax of up to 13% and about a 10% sales tax (that varies from county to county). Police policy in the cities seems to be to wait 15 minutes before responding to an in-progress report, lest the officer be endangered. Despite this path to destruction, voters have no real choice for governor this November. You'd think, given these examples (and I could go on), that we'd have a vibrant contest for governor. People were passionate enough to try a recall last year. Maybe that failure took the starch out of their sails. This year, we have a Republican candidate running, but you've probably never heard of him — he's basically invisible. Gavin Newsom, the worst governor in the history of the state, is running virtually unopposed. He didn't even bother putting a candidate statement in the official voter information guide. Ask anyone on the street, and he has no idea who Newsom's opponent is. California Decriminalizes Jaywalking Due to Alleged Racial Bias. Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) signed a law Friday that will decriminalize jaywalking across California, ending the familiar practice of police handing out tickets to pedestrians on the argument that the law is enforced more often against minorities than other people. The new law, AB 2147, known as the "Freedom to Walk Act," could bring an end to a cultural difference that has marked otherwise libertine Californians as being uniquely deferential to laws governing pedestrian traffic. The State of Dreams: Every utopia is a dystopia. Especially California. It's a cool dark night in California and all the lights are out. Sloping rooftops dotted with solar panels gleam even more darkly than usual. The air is still and not a single breeze stirs even the lightest wind turbine. Somewhere out in the darkness Diablo Canyon, the aging nuclear plant, still running, is keeping what power there is on. [...] The great westward drive that began with Lewis and Clark has been steadily rolling backward. Southern California is filled with moving trucks headed to Arizona, Texas and Nevada. Those who can afford it, fly to Florida. The Russians were here once and then the Spanish. The American presence in California was more comprehensive and lasted longer, but may one day leave sagging Wells Fargo banks and decrepit mini malls filled with sushi places and nail salons the way the Spanish left their names and their missions up Highway 101. It's a beautiful country, but so is Afghanistan and any number of otherwise unlivable places. California wants to listen in at your next doctor's appointment. There is a new bill making its way through the California Legislature that could punish doctors for straying from "the contemporary scientific consensus" for COVID-19: California's AB 2098 would discipline physicians for disseminating or promoting "misinformation" or "disinformation" as it relates to COVID-19. Aside from the problem that the "consensus" on COVID-19 is constantly changing, the bill's language is ambiguous and, as some California lawyers say, almost certainly infringes upon physicians' First Amendment right to freedom of speech. SF grocery store shut down due to rat infestation created by the birdseed lady. Who is up for another San Francisco story? This one starts in a neighborhood called Glen Park where there's a local grocery store called Canyon Market. It's a nice looking place. Yesterday, Canyon Market was shuttered by the health department after the city found evidence of a "severe" rodent infestation. [...] The birdseed woman may not be homeless but it sure sounds as if she has some mental problems. And just like every other person with mental problems wandering the streets of San Francisco (or Los Angeles), the city's default position is to do nothing until it creates a big enough crisis to make the local news. Then, finally, the city might stir itself to do something about the actual problem. In this particular case, it has taken two and a half years just to put out some rat bait. Real Estate CEO In Major Democrat City Says He Can't Convince Clients to Buy Due to Unmitigated Crime. San Francisco was once a crown jewel of California but is now a drug-infested, crime-ridden, tax-plagued example of how not to run a city. It's a city with its own "poop map," so needed because the homeless in the city defecate in the wide-open wherever they feel like it. According to Fox Business, the CEO of a real estate company says that he's at a point where convincing potential clients to move to or buy property in San Francisco is becoming very difficult. So much so that he wrote a letter to the city after he, himself, was robbed in front of his own home in broad daylight at gunpoint. Group Using West Virginia Model to Create "New California" Serves Gavin Newsome Notice of Constitutional Default. A massive group of concerned citizens and constitutionalists have had enough of the unconstitutional insanity taking place in the state of California. This group is using the West Virginia model to create a new state that will abide by the US Constitution separate from the state of California. The New California group has been working for months and years to get away from the radical and unconstitutional actions taken by the current leadership in California. This group has created its own committees in counties throughout the state. Flashback: Gavin Newsom Shipped Homeless People Out of San Francisco With 'One-Way Tickets'. Governor Gavin Newsom sent a letter to Merrick Garland on Thursday requesting the Attorney General look into "kidnapping" charges for those involved in Florida Governor Ron DeSantis' effort to send illegal immigrants to Martha's Vineyard. But if shipping people out of state to try and give them a better life amounts to "kidnapping," Newsom has some explaining to do. In July of 2019, SFist published an article critiquing a program called 'Homeward Bound,' an effort initiated by Newsom as mayor of San Francisco in 2004. The program paid for bus tickets out of town, presumably with the destination being to friends and family willing to take the homeless individual in. SFist, however, described it as a program with a nice name which masks the fact that it "gives unsheltered San Franciscans a one-way Greyhound bus ticket out of town and asks them to please never come back." Human Composting Is Now Legal in California, Leading the Way to 'Soylent Green'. It comes to mind, because this 1973 futuristic movie was set in 2022. Let that sink in. It also comes to mind because thanks to Biden's economic agenda (or lack thereof), much of the dystopian ethos of that world is being baked into our everyday lives. The World Economic Forum keeps pushing new forms of insect protein on us, and it was only a matter of time before cannibalism was happily presented as an idea whose time had come. For the sake of the environment, even our death traditions are being restructured to fit the paradigm of you will own nothing and you will be happy with it. It's wasteful to plant a headstone to memorialize your loved one, not to mention selfish. California Governor Signs 'Most Aggressive' Package of Green Laws. California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Friday announced a sweeping package of what he called the country's "most aggressive" climate measures to "accelerate the state's transition" to non-conventional energy sources. The package includes 40 bills that appear to provide new green rules on laws related to things ranging from large-scale industry to the family home and private and public transportation. The Democratic governor's office said in a statement the package of climate change-focused measures aims to cut pollution and target "big polluters." It comes as America's most populous state has struggled to provide stable electricity for residents amid a heat wave, which saw the state asking residents to use less power and suggest the best times to use air conditioners or charge electric cars. If You're Going to San Francisco... No, stop! Don't even think about going to San Francisco. The place is a disaster area, possibly as bad as Portland. If you think that is impossible, check out this photo essay in the Daily Mail. The story is about the city's new "soft touch" approach to drug addiction and homelessness. "Nobody's going to jail," city officials say. No, they're going straight to the morgue. San Francisco has seen nearly 1,700 fatal fentanyl overdoses so far in 2022. The text is depressing, but the message is really in the dozens of photographs that accompany it. Addicts openly shooting up; homeless encampments on the streets; filth everywhere. Inside LA's out-of-control juvenile jails where violence rules in the Newsom era. Imagine a jail where inmates rule over guards who fight for survival daily among killers, carjackers, and vicious gang members. That's life every day inside Los Angeles County Juvenile Hall. "Our juvenile halls are on the verge of collapse. I really believe someone is going to get killed at some point," one official told the Washington Examiner. A series of state and local laws designed to clear California lockups have reached down to juvenile facilities where inmates learn now that they can get away with anything short of murder, officials said. California [is] on [the] Verge of Threatening [the] Licenses of Doctors Who Dissent on Covid-19. California physicians who dissent from the prevailing view of Covid-19 and its vaccines could have their licenses revoked under a recently passed law. California Assembly Bill 2098 states: "It shall constitute unprofessional conduct for a physician ... to disseminate misinformation or disinformation related to COVID-19, including false or misleading information regarding the nature and risks of the virus, its prevention and treatment; and the development, safety, and effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines." A finding of "unprofessional conduct" would force the state bodies that license and regulate doctors "to take action against" the accused, the bill notes. It's a mental hospital without walls -- and without treatment. Democrats Can't Even Deliver Water and Electricity. Democrats are in complete control of California and can't deliver enough water and electricity to keep its citizens comfortable. This is outrageous. What's even more outrageous is the lack of outrage. Too many Americans have been gaslighted into accepting what should be wholly unacceptable as normal — their own government's ongoing failure to provide them with the basic necessities that sustain life. Call me an old fuddy-duddy, but there was a time when the least we expected from government was enough electricity and water. Ask Mr. One-Term President Jimmy Carter about that. The issue that derailed his presidency (along with the Iran hostage crisis) was gasoline shortages. California governor signs bill to keep last reactors running. California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom signed legislation Friday intended to open the way for the state's last operating nuclear power plant to run an additional five years, a move that he said was needed to ward off possible blackouts as the state transitions to solar and other renewable sources. His endorsement came one day after the plan was approved in a lopsided vote in the state Assembly and Senate, and despite criticism from environmentalists that the plant was dangerous and should be shut down as scheduled by 2025. Newsom has no direct authority over the twin-domed plant, which sits on a bluff above the Pacific midway between Los Angeles and San Francisco. PG&E must obtain approval for a longer run from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which oversees plant safety, as well as a string of state agencies. Democrats [are] Making California [a] 'Refuge' Hub for Teen Sex Surgery. California Democrats in the State Assembly and State Senate have advanced legislation that would make the state a sanctuary where out-of-state parents can take their children to undergo sex change procedures. On Monday [8/29/2022], the legislative body passed Senate Bill (SB) 107 along party lines, with all 19 Republican assemblymembers voting against it and 60 Democrats supporting it. State Senator Scott Weiner introduced the bill, and a release from his office asserted it would "provide refuge for trans kids and their families." The revolution brewing in San Francisco's Castro district sounds familiar. Olivia Murray wrote about the fact that business owners in San Francisco's Castro district are fed up that the city is doing nothing to stop the influx of homeless into the district, complete with bodies splayed on the sidewalk, litter and, of course, human waste. For those of us who remember the city in the 1970s, this is a familiar tale — and one rife with possibilities. Beginning in the 1960s, San Francisco had the biggest and most vibrant gay meccas in the world, located right on Castro Street, with the hub where Castro intersected with Market. By the mid-1970s, we high school students often went there for the great old movies at the Castro Theater, to visit the cool boutiques, to eat at the trendy-but-still-affordable restaurants and, naturally, take in the street scene. The hedonism was off the charts as mostly gay men and a few lesbian women, all fresh "out of the closet," reveled in their new freedoms. Poll: 71% in California Back Proposition 1, Abortion Until Birth. A new poll reveals that an overwhelming majority of registered voters in California approve Proposition 1, a constitutional amendment that would guarantee the right to abortion until birth if passed by a referendum in November. [...] Proposition 1 appears to extend the right to abortion through birth. The new poll, conducted by the UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies, suggests that 71% of registered voters approve of Proposition 1, and only 18% oppose it. Businesses bite back: Newsom's COVID mandates suffer triple court defeats. California courts dealt a blow this month against Gov. Gavin Newsom's COVID-19 mandates, which forced businesses to close and cleaned out churches for more than a year. It's been two years since Newsom locked down America's leading economic powerhouse with a strict disaster declaration that slowed commerce and prompted a pandemic exodus. A trio of rulings show that businesses are starting to see justice in the courts for alleged misery they say was unjustly imposed. "It will be a chilling effect for the tyrants of the future," civil rights attorney Mark Meuser told the Washington Examiner. "These [court rulings] are needed to rein in the abuse of emergency powers by tyrant Newsom." Gascón Recall Campaign Will Review Rejected Signatures; Possible Legal Action. The campaign to recall Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón will review the signatures that were rejected by county officials, a spokesperson told Breitbart News, one day after enough signatures were rejected to defeat the recall effort. Gascón, who took office in December 2020 after being elected with the help of millions of dollars in spending by left-wing billionaire George Soros, has pursued radical "reform" policies that many voters blame for a surge of violent crime in L.A. He is one of 75 "progressive" prosecutors Soros has installed across the country. In July, the recall campaign handed in 26% more than the required target of 566,857 signatures. But on Monday, county officials claimed that 27% of the signatures had been invalid for a variety of reasons, causing the recall effort to fail. George Gascon recall effort fails to qualify for ballot in Los Angeles. The effort to recall Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascon has failed to gain enough support for ballot qualification. A total of only 520,050 of the 715,833 signatures collected in the recall effort were valid, the registrar-recorder's office in Los Angeles County announced. The recall effort needed 566,857 signatures to qualify. A breakdown of the signatures deemed invalid found 88,464 signatures belonged to people who were not registered, 43,595 were duplicated, 32,187 were from different addresses, 9,490 had mismatched signatures, 7,344 were canceled, 5,374 were from out-of-county addresses, and 9,331 were deemed invalid for other reasons, according to the office. Huge California County Approves Measure of Possible Secession for 2022 Midterms. The San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors this week voted to add a November 2022 ballot measure that would allow the county to secede from California. The measure, which was voted on 4-0 by the supervisors Wednesday [8/3/2022], would ask San Bernardino residents: "Do the citizens of San Bernardino County want the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors to study all options to obtain its fair share of state and federal resources, up to and including secession?" [...] Over the years, some California counties have evaluated the possibility of seceding from the Golden State due to monetary, cultural, and other differences. In 2016, a failed ballot measure would have split California into six states, while a 2018 proposition that also failed would have created three new states. Just Who Is This Gavin Newsom Guy? California has America's highest state income tax, ranging up to 13.3% for high earners (and he wants to raise it further), plus a 1% "surcharge" tax for mental health services on those earning over $1 million. On top of this, we have a 7.25% state sales tax — again, the highest in America — to which are added local taxes. We also have America's high gas tax, which is meant to fix our crumbling highways and streets. Yet these same highways and streets are crumbling just as fast as they were before, filled with potholes, teeming with garbage. Despite the high tax rate and vast expenditures on education, California schools are failing. California ranks 44th of 50 states on education quality and outcome. Our K-12 curriculum is filled with Critical Race Theory doctrine. Before I retired, I hired a few public high school graduates and can attest to their poor basic reading and math skills. LA opened a fancy new bridge and locals are doing their best to shut it down every night. Los Angeles recently opened a half-billion dollar bridge which connects the neighborhood of Boyle Heights to downtown LA. The bridge is know as the Sixth Street Viaduct or, more commonly, the Sixth Street bridge and it was opened to traffic on July 10 but police have been forced to close it down four of the last five nights because of problems with some area residents: [...] It really is a pretty good looking bridge but for whatever reason it has become the hot spot to be seen and make videos. Someone set up a barber chair and was giving a haircut in the middle of the bridge last week. [Tweet] That stunt went viral and probably encouraged a lot more people to show up and try to capture their own moment of glory on the bridge. Two days ago the bridge saw it's [sic] first marriage proposal. [Tweet] New Los Angeles bridge opens, then quickly closes amid chaos. The newest bridge in Los Angeles, a $588-million architectural marvel with views of the downtown skyline, opened to great fanfare on July 10. It has already been closed, to great dismay, several times since then amid chaos and collisions. The 6th Street Viaduct — which soars over the concrete-lined Los Angeles River to connect downtown to the historic Eastside — quickly became a hotspot for street racing, graffiti and illegal takeovers that draw hundreds of spectators to watch drivers perform dangerous stunts in their vehicles. The Editor says... Taxpayers on hook as Gascon brings in nation's highest-paid attorney in legal battle with his own prosecutors. Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascon, whose own deputies sued him for permission to charge repeat offenders to the fullest extent of the law, has pulled out all the stops in his California Supreme Court appeal against them, retaining one of the nation's top lawyers. Neal K. Katyal, a former Acting U.S. Solicitor General who represented Al Gore in the 2000 election dispute and has appeared before the U.S. Supreme Court dozens of times, is also reportedly one of the country's highest-paid attorneys. Reuters reported in May that the Georgetown law professor and partner at Hogan Lovells was charging as much as $2,465 an hour to represent a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson in a bankruptcy case. At the time, that was more than the $2,295 an hour former Attorney General Eric Holder was billing. Gavin Newsom takes vacation to Montana — one of 22 states [to which] California bans state-funded travel. Gov. Gavin Newsom of California is spending time with his family in Montana — a state on California's list of banned places to travel to using state funds. The Office of the Governor said Newsom did not use state funds for the trip. The ban on state-funded trips to Montana, along with 21 other states, is because of the state's anti-LGBTQ policies. "The travel ban applies to expending state funds," Erin Mellon, the communications director for Newsom, told Insider. "The Governor's travel is not being paid for by the state. Connecting the two is irresponsible and falsely implies there is something untoward." Newsom departed for a vacation to the Treasure State Friday but did not initially announce where he was traveling to. He will return home on Monday, Mellon said. Th Newsom faceplant: Vacation in Montana despite Newsom-ordered travel bar on official business. So goes the Glorious 2024 Hope of Democrats — from the French Laundry frying pan into the LGBTQIA++ fire. Gavin Newsom just aired an ad in Florida lecturing California's burgeoning ex-pat population in the Sunshine State how much freedom they're losing, especially in regard to sexual choices and women's rights. After launching that salvo in clear anticipation of the 2024 election cycle, California's governor left for vacation — but his office stalled on answering questions as to where he went. And for good reason, as CalMatters reporter Emily Hoeven discovered. After griping about Florida's lack of liberty on such matters, Newsom went to Montana for his time off — a state that Newsom had barred California officials from traveling to conduct business on the very same issues Newsom highlighted in his lecture: [...] It Sure Seems Gavin Newsom Broke CA Law by Making His Security Detail Travel to Montana. As RedState's Cameron Arcand reported Tuesday, California Gov. Gavin Newsom vacationed in Montana with his family over the 4th of July holiday — a state that is currently on the list of states to which California has banned state-sponsored travel because it's deemed to have anti-LGBTQ "discriminatory laws." Well, he's on vacation, right? That's private travel, ostensibly paid for by the Newsom family, and no big deal? Not exactly. Newsom is afforded a state-funded security detail through the California Highway Patrol (CHP), and there's no indication that those officers are not with him. That apparently puts Newsom in violation of California's AB-1887, signed by Newsom's predecessor, Jerry Brown, in 2016. California announces it will become the first state to give health insurance to undocumented immigrants. Governor Gavin Newsom released attack ads on Monday urging Florida residents to move to California in the days after it became the first state to move to offer all illegal immigrants state-subsidized health insurance. Newsom bought $105,000 worth of ad spots that started airing on Fox News in Florida, which is sparking speculation that he could mount a presidential run in 2024. The ads urge Sunshine State residents who are fed up with their Republican Governor Ron DeSantis to head west. DeSantis is rumored to be considering a 2024 run as well[,] despite former President Donald Trump likely to seek the nomination. Californians Are Fleeing In Record Numbers, But Gavin Newsom Has This Solution. The similarities between California Governor Gavin "Gruesome" Newsom and Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau are quite remarkable. They both spend far too much time focusing on their hair and looking in the mirror. They're both entirely self-absorbed and are thoroughly impressed with themselves. And they're both completely incompetent, far-left clowns with virtually no morals. Newsom and Trudeau are truly despicable human beings. They also appear to be in a competition to see who's the biggest knucklehead. California Lt. Governor Calls for Defiance of Supreme Court Decision. The latest laugh riot comes from California Lieutenant Governor Eleni Kounalakis — yes, she is a Democrat — coming out with this amazing comedy routine that, even by the network on which it aired standards, namely MSNBC, was a tad over the top. [...] What stands out even above Kounalakis' open advocation of defying the law, which as a Democrat in California she is well-versed, as anyone who's taken a gander at the southern border can testify, is her odd dismissal of Supreme Court justice Clarance Thomas. Is it racist? Not really, but it is interesting. The Selfish Californian. We hear plenty of reasons for the perfect storm that imploded California. One-party, progressive government, of course. Decades of unchecked illegal immigration, without doubt. Years of mass flight out of state of the productive middle classes, certainly. But perhaps the most important, but overlooked, reason has been the infusion of trillions of dollars of mostly tech capital into the state. Unimaginable sums of market capital warped politics and led to a top-down, feudal society, run by progressive elites who are shielded from the ramifications of their own toxic ideologies. More specifically, the common denominator was the emergence in California of a selfish, monied, left-wing political class. In concrete terms, it cared little for others but masked that unconcern with abstract leftism, emulating medieval penance and indulgences to assuage guilt over its enjoyment of sheltered and very good lives. The 8 Most Insane Proposals in California's 492-Page Reparations Report. Black Californians could enjoy child support forgiveness, free college, free health care, fewer police, and a long-term "truth and reconciliation commission" should Golden State lawmakers pass the proposals outlined this week by the state's Reparations Task Force. Following a 2020 law to study the subject, a panel of left-wing academics and policymakers on Wednesday released their findings on how California can remedy the harm against the state's black residents caused by slavery and discrimination. All black Californians are eligible for the benefits of the program if they can prove they are "descendants of African Americans enslaved in the U.S. or of free Black people living in the country before the end of the 19th century." A new state agency, called the California African American Freedmen Affairs Agency, would provide genealogical tests for residents. Gabe and Steve: Look at your city. It's automatic. Every shooting is followed by a Democrat U.S. senator giving a speech about gun control, or else someone in San Francisco preaching to the rest of us. The latest is Gabe Kapler, the manager of the San Francisco Giants. Gabe was once a top prospect, played here in Texas with the Rangers and then went into coaching. This is what Kapler said: [...] I understand that Kapler is angry about what happened in Uvalde, Texas. Who isn't? Kapler follows Steve Kerr, the other local coach with Warriors, who once wanted to get police out of Oakland's schools. Memo to Steve and Gabe: How do you drive to work? Have you checked the state of your city? The decline of civil order? The people on the streets? The crime? The fact that people are leaving your city and state? The attacks on shops? [...] Uvalde was horrible. San Francisco is horrible 24/7. California law requiring women on corporate boards is unconstitutional, judge says. A Los Angeles judge has ruled that California's landmark law requiring women on corporate boards is unconstitutional. Superior Court Judge Maureen Duffy-Lewis said the law that would have required boards to have up to three female directors by this year violated the right to equal treatment. The ruling was dated Friday [5/13/2022]. The conservative legal group Judicial Watch had challenged the law, claiming it was illegal to use taxpayer funds to enforce a law that violates the equal protection clause of the California Constitution by mandating a gender-based quota. The law was on shaky ground from the get-go with a legislative analysis saying it could be difficult to defend and then-Gov. Jerry Brown saying he was signing it despite the potential for it to be overturned by a court. You can rent a 'bunk bed pod' in the Bay Area with 13 other people for $800 a month. The housing crisis in the San Francisco Bay Area has gotten so bad that one startup is now offering renters the chance to live in a "bunk bed pod" with 13 other people for just $800 a month. Brownstone Shared Housing posted an ad for anyone looking to live in Palo Alto, the birthplace of Silicon Valley and the home of Stanford University. Tenants are given the opportunity to shack up in a house with 13 other people. They sleep in a "bunk bed pod" while sharing two bathrooms. The pods are "fully equipped" with electrical outlets, shelves for books, a rack from which one can hang clothes and laundry, hooks to hang plants and other decorations, and black curtains at the end of each pod for privacy. Normally, the three-bedroom home would house a single family. New San Diego Ordinance Changes the Definition of 'Woman'. The San Diego County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday [5/10/2022] adopted a new definition of "woman" that would reportedly allow biological males identifying as females to be included as women in jails, homeless shelters, and even domestic violence shelters. Biological men in domestic violence shelters. That sounds like a recipe for disaster. The ordinance was passed on April 26 and officially ratified Tuesday, both by party-line, three to two votes. San Diego County Passes Ordinance to Change Definition of 'Woman'. The San Diego County Board of Supervisors has adopted a new definition of "woman" that would reportedly allow male-to-female transgender residents to demand inclusion as women in jails, homeless shelters, and domestic violence shelters. The ordinance, passed by a 3-2 vote on April 26, and ratified on May 10 by the same margin, adopts the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), an international treaty adopted in 1979. The treaty was signed by then-President Jimmy Carter in 1980, but it was never brought to the Senate for ratification. But the ordinance goes further, expanding the definition of "woman" to include those who simply identify as women: [...] Gavin Newsom: California Taxpayers to Subsidize Abortion Tourism. California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) announced plans Wednesday to spend an additional $57 million on abortions for uninsured, out-of-state residents who travel to the state to have abortions because of restrictions on abortion in their own states. The announcement brings Newsom's proposed spending on out-of-state abortion tourism to $125 million, over and above what he proposed in January. The new spending comes ahead of an anticipated decision by the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade, the controversial 1973 ruling that established a "right" to abortion. A leaked majority opinion by Justice Samuel Alito in the case of Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization would return authority over abortion to the separate states. The
Ongoing Concern Of The State Of California Is In Question. [In California,] there isn't one Republican
statewide officeholder. Republicans only have 11 of 53 Congressional seats. The rest are Democrats. Both
houses of the state legislature have super majorities (Democrats). The ninth federal appellate court is the most liberal
in the nation. So, they got what they wanted; the left did. [...] Because about four or five to 6 million
voters — we don't know the exact number of the old Ronald Reagan, Pete Wilson, Arnold Schwarzenegger voters (32 years
of Republican governors) — they moved. And they moved because:
Why Gavin Newsom Is Creating A Water & Energy Disaster. California Gov. Gavin Newsom yesterday claimed he was taking major action to address the drought affecting California and the West. More than 90% of California is in severe drought, up from 65% just one year ago. He said he had created an agreement that was a win-win-win for residents, farmers, and conservationists. In truth, Newsom is starving California of both water and energy. We are in the worst energy crisis in 50 years and yet Newsom is planning to shut down the largest single source of energy in California, Diablo Canyon nuclear plant. Meanwhile, he has failed to build a single new large water project, despite the fact that California voters in 2014 passed a $2.7 billion water bond to pay for them. Can't water conservation save us? It can't. Newsom declared a drought emergency last year and urged residents to reduce our water use by 15%. We only did so by 6%. It's true that mandatory restrictions between June 2015 and April 2016 reduced water use by 25%. But the state was ultimately rescued in 2017 by large atmospheric river storms, not conservation. Our third-world country on the West Coast. A few years ago, a friend from Brazil visited Los Angeles and was appalled at what he saw. He called it a third-world country, an amazing comment since my friend lives in São Paulo. He said that L.A. is not what he remembered 25 years ago. It was sad, or so he said. Well, California is in decline, no matter how wonderful the climate is. [...] How does such a failed state survive? Well, the rich live in well-protected gated communities and attend a climate change seminar often to feel relevant. The poor, and whatever is left of the middle class, have to survive the crime, high cost of living, and a collapse of law and order. Normally, such a political class would be thrown out of office by angry voters. Incredibly, the Democrats have achieved the winning formula: they win elections while refusing to take care of their constituents. I don't know how they do it, but they do it. California's Vanished Dream, by the Numbers. Even today amid a mounting exodus among those who can afford it, and with its appeal diminished to businesses and newcomers, California, legendary state of American dreams, continues to inspire optimism among progressive boosters. Laura Tyson, the longtime Democratic economist now at the University of California at Berkeley, praises the state for creating "the way forward" to a more enlightened "market capitalism." Like-minded analysts tout Silicon Valley's massive wealth generation as evidence of progressivism's promise. The Los Angeles Times suggested approvingly that the Biden administration's goal is to "make America California again." And, despite dark prospects in November's midterm elections, the President and his party still seem intent on proving it. But most Californians, according to recent surveys, see things differently. They point to rising poverty and inequality, believe the state is in recession and that it is headed in the wrong direction. Parting with the state's cheerleaders, the New York Times' Ezra Klein, a reliable progressive and native Californian, says the Golden State's failures are "making liberals squirm." Green-Lighting Infanticide in California. The Democrat party of 2022 continues to push the bounds of its radical agenda, with particular focus on "abortion rights." California Assembly Bill (A.B.) 2223 is the most egregious of the fourteen new abortion bills this year in California. It is critical that A.B. 2223 not become law. A.B. 2223 offers protections to people involved in the death of the unborn, as well as of recently born babies, from "the threat of criminal prosecution of pregnancy outcomes." This bill, as written, would implicitly protect those involved in infanticide from criminal prosecution. California proposes four-day work week for companies with more than 500 employees which would force firms to pay overtime to anyone working more than 32 hours per week. California's Democratic-led Legislature wants to mandate a three-day weekend for all workers at large companies in the state. A new bill being discussed in the state assembly would see the official working week reduced from 40 hours to 32 for companies with 500 employees of more. Any work carried out beyond the 32-hour limit would run into overtime and be paid at time-and-a-half, while those working more than 12 hours a day or for more than seven days a week would be paid double their normal wage. San Francisco Supervised Drug Use Site Operator Fabricated Data And Then City Officials Lied About It. The operator of San Francisco's supervised drug use site fabricated the number of people who the site allegedly served, according to a San Francisco Department of Public Health executive, whose emails were released as part of California's Public Records Act. "I think Gary is just making up random #s," wrote Dr. Rob Hoffman, Special Project Manager with the San Francisco Department of Health, in a February 8 email to other city employees including ones with the Department of Emergency Management and city homeless service agencies. Gina McDonald, co-founder of Mothers Against Drug Deaths, filed the public records request, and was the first to report that of the 23,367 drug users who have visited the Tenderloin Linkage Center, just 18 have received drug treatment. California's greenie 'food waste' law hits the reality wall. In their never-ending quest to remake and remodel California into a greenie socialist paradise, the tsentral planners running California have once again blundered like boobs again, failing to anticipate the unintended consequences of their feel-good 'food waste' law. The law, which went into effect this year, forbids restaurants and groceries, no matter where [...] they are, from discarding unused food and legally binds them to donate it to food banks instead. No word from the report on whether the items are old or expired or unfit for human consumption. We'll just have to take the greenie word for it that it's all a good thing. But as usual, there are problems they didn't expect from all this virtue-signalling in the name of saving the earth: [...] The report states that just the cost of driving around and picking up unused food in rural areas is a monster money-eater in the era of Joe Biden's "I did that" gasoline costs, piled on top of California's huge fuel mandates and taxes that were all in place earlier. California's "corporate diversity" law ruled unconstitutional. Between 2018 and 2020, California passed two so-called "corporate diversity" bills intended to put more women and minorities on the boards of directors for corporations having headquarters in the state. AB 826 required corporations to have an increasing number of women on their boards, up to as many as three if the board had six or more members. Then came AB 979, which mandated that boards have at least one member of an "underrepresented community" by the end of 2021. Companies found to not be in compliance would be fined hundreds of thousands of dollars. The latter bill ran into a major setback on Friday when Judge Terry Green of the Los Angeles County Superior Court ruled that Ab 979 was unconstitutional, violating the state constitution's equal protection clause. The Sheer Madness of Today's Left. Here in California, Governor Gavin Newsom has gone mad. He reigns over the most expensive gas and diesel prices in the history of the United States, at over $6 and $7 a gallon respectively in most parts of the state. Californians suffer under the highest gas taxes in the nation and are shutting down nuclear plants. They seek reductions in clean burning natural gas generators at a time of drought when hydroelectric production is constrained. So what does Newsom do? To fuel his state, and keep a shrinking middle class sustainable, does he tap California's huge gas and oil reserves? They are the seventh largest of the 50 states and might bring down prices in a state that consumes more fossil fuels than any state but Texas. No, that would be green heresy. So instead Newsom has proposed spending $11 billion in subsidies to drivers — at $400 per registered vehicle — so that the state's drivers can buy more smelly, dirty gasoline and diesel fuel that they otherwise would not at the prohibitive, but secretly desirable, $6-7 a gallon price. Who Are the Real Haters? When Governor Gavin Newsom disappeared for a few weeks after receiving a COVID shot, the public worried: was he alive? His wife did not like this curiosity. You might think citizens have a right to know where their leaders are. Nope. She viewed the nosy public as haters. Mrs. Newsom posted: "When someone cancels something, maybe they're just in the office working; maybe in their free time they're at home with their family, at their kids' sports matches, or dining out with their wife. Please stop hating and get a life." Hating? Who was hating? Note how this situation works. If you disagree with a liberal, in style or substance, you are therefore a hater. She reminds me of Hillary. Anybody who doesn't agree with her is a deplorable — i.e., someone who deserves to be hated. First Openly 'Transgender' Judge Appointed to California Bench. California has appointed its first openly 'transgender' judge, announced Governor Gavin Newsom (D) on Friday [3/25/2022]. Judge Andi Mudryk, 58, who "transitioned" four years ago, is one of eight new appointees to serve on the Sacramento County Superior Court. [...] Social justice advocates throughout the state lauded the move as a victory for "diversity and equity." California Gov. Gavin Newsom wants to give tax breaks and up to $800 debit cards to all Golden State drivers as gas hits $5.88 a gallon. California drivers shouldering the highest gas prices in the nation could soon get a tax break, free public transportation and up to $800 debit cards to help pay for fuel — but economics experts warn it'll drive up inflation even more. The proposal was revealed Wednesday by Gov. Gavin Newsom, as gas prices have continued to soar in recent weeks from pandemic-induced inflation and Russia's invasion of Ukraine. 'That direct relief will address the issue that we are all struggling to address and that is the issue of gas prices,' Newsom said in a video posted on Twitter this week. Gavin Newsom Signs Law to Make Abortions Free in California. Lawmakers are staying busy to make sure abortion on demand is the law of state as the United States Supreme Court revisits Roe v. Wade, including in California where women will be able to abort their unborn child for free. [California Governor quote omitted for brevity, among other things.] Senate Bill 245, named the Abortion Accessibility Act, prohibits insurance companies from charging a deductible, co-pay, or deductible for the procedure, which in California is available until "fetus viability." California Democrats Float $400 Checks to Taxpayers After Hiking Gas Taxes. California Democrats, who have raised gas taxes and vehicle license fees in recent years, are now proposing to send $400 checks to the state's taxpayers to help defray the high cost of fuel in the latest surge, which is hitting the state's drivers hard. While the entire country is paying more for gasoline, thanks to surging post-pandemic demand, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and the Biden administration's hostility to oil and gas development, California's price is the highest in the nation. Shoplifter struts behind [the] counter of [a] San Francisco Walgreens as staff watch helplessly, fills huge bag with stolen goods. A San Francisco shoplifter was filmed filling a bag with stolen goods behind the counter of a Walgreens store as staff stood helplessly and watched. The heist took place on Tuesday at a Walgreens in the Richmond area of the city, and saw the brazen shoplifter hurl bananas and cookies at one man who confronted him. It is the latest in a long line of shocking shoplifting outrages to hit the famously-liberal Bay Area. What if San Francisco Does Not Recover? San Francisco looks worse now than I've ever seen it. Like any major city, San Francisco had bad areas before 2020 — those rough areas you knew to avoid — but you could go anywhere else, basically unmolested. Today is something entirely different. The streets are dirty. Homeless encampments, trash, and excrement can be found all over. Car break-ins are so frequent that it has basically become a non-government-imposed tax for people who come here. Of course, some areas are much worse than others, but almost all areas of the city suffer from this decay, and it is appalling. Every year, the city seems to find new ways to dig deeper and deeper toward ruin. But what happens to San Francisco if it really does not recover? What if the financial woes, homeless encampments, rising crime, and dwindling police force are the new normal for this once great city? Doctors sue California for threatening to punish them for not facilitating assisted suicide. California doctors who object to assisted suicide are fighting an amended state law that implicates them in their patients' intentional deaths. They are suing California officials, including Attorney General Rob Bonta, Department of Public Health Director Tomas Aragon, and Medical Board members to block SB 380, which made it easier for patients to commit suicide under the End of Life Options Act that took effect in 2016. The original law issued a broad exemption for healthcare providers, granting them a liability shield for "refusing to inform" patients about their right to physician-assisted suicide and "not referring" patients to physicians who will assist in their suicides. The amended law removed it, leaving providers vulnerable to "civil, criminal, administrative, disciplinary, employment, credentialing, professional discipline, contractual liability, or medical staff action, sanction, or penalty or other liability." More word vomit, more racism, more pork. California Governor Gavin Newsom announced his new SMARTER plan yesterday. It purportedly moves our state forward to a COVID policy that acknowledges that the CCP virus is endemic rather than pandemic. [...] SMARTER stands for Shots, as in making more available; Masks, by promising to procure enough N95s for all; Awareness, in terms of having more-state infrastructure (my husband pointed out today that infrastructure replaces pork quite handily); Readiness, which again means throwing lots of money ($1.7 billion) at recruiting, training, hiring, and advancing "an ethnically and culturally inclusive HHS workforce." Then there's Testing, ramped up even more (why?); Education, AKA keeping kids in school (and vaccinated and masked), but also noting that $4.5 billion has been "devoted to improving mental and behavioral health for California's children and youth"; and Rx (treatment), which is again all about equity (distributing treatment resources and the non-specific "continuing evolution" of treatment). California Tyrants Self-Identify: Only The Vaxxed Can Work. It's not law yet, but there is legislation in California that requires all workers, even independent contractors, to take the coronavirus vaccine. [...] "Long-awaited workplace coronavirus vaccine mandate legislation drops today," Politico reported Last week. "The sweeping bill from Assembly member Buffy Wicks would apply to all employees and independent contractors, regardless of how big their employer is, and threatens penalties to noncompliant businesses." Wicks, a Democrat from Oakland, must have missed the truckers in Canada whose fuse was lit by a government vaccine mandate, as well as the Biden White House's failure — thanks to the Supreme Court — to force businesses to require employees to be vaccinated and regularly tested. But then, she is a lawmaker in California, a one-party state whose "leaders" care little about individual freedom. She is also a member of the party whose voters "support harsh measures" against the unvaccinated. Gov. Newsom announces no change to school masking policy because unions said no. Last Wednesday, Gov. Gavin Newsom said changes to the state's school mask mandate would be coming soon. The state's indoor mask mandate for the vaccinated ends Tuesday and the expectation reported at several news sites was that a change to the school policy would be announced today. But today [2/14/2022] came and instead of announcing a change, Newsome sent California's HHS Secretary out to issue a two week delay: [...] So why the change? There's really no doubt about that. California's teacher's unions demanded more time and as always they got what they wanted. Soros-Funded DA George Gascón Rationalizes Crime-Wave Epidemic. Like other cities run by Democrats, Los Angeles is going through an epidemic of violent crime. Its Soros-funded DA George Gascón has a lot of blood on his hands for increasing the mayhem. When he was sworn in, he said his office would not prosecute a host of misdemeanor crimes, or seek the death penalty for even the most heinous murders. No surprise that, as Broken Windows policing confirmed nearly two decades ago, tolerating "non-violent" crimes has increased violent ones. "The data," as City Journal's Soledad Ursúa, reports on LA, "show staggering surges of homicides, gun violence, and sexual assaults, and one can see with one's own eyes the open-air drug scenes, rampant homelessness, streets lined with human excrement and needles, prostitution, filth, and squalor. Last year saw 52 percent more homicides than in 2019; shooting incidents were up 59 percent over the same period, according to the LAPD." Much of this violence has come at the hands of street-bums and addicts. Chesa Boudin accused by San Francisco police chief of concealing evidence to frame a cop. It's one thing for a leftist district attorney of Chesa Boudin's stripe to fail to do his job prosecuting violent crime and focus only on prosecuting cops for malfeasance. We know about that part. It's quite another to frame those cops because you can't find any truly bad ones, in a bid to achieve the grand Sorosian narrative of bad cop, good criminal. That's what the San Francisco police chief is accusing Boudin of pulling. California Train Robberies Recall Wild West Lawlessness. According to Union Pacific Railroad's senior director of public affairs, Lupe Valdez, from October 2020 to October 2021, train robberies shot up by 356%. Not only that, but the railroad company is considering diverting its trains around Los Angeles to avoid the rampant theft. "Union Pacific Railroad says 90 containers on average are getting hit each day," The Wall Street Journal reported. "Thieves climb onto the trains when they stop, use bolt cutters to break into containers and help themselves to the goods, discarding what they don't want or can't carry." The result is undelivered packages and garbage strewn along the railroad tracks. California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Jan. 20 visited the site of the wreckage and spoke about how terrible it all looked. He acknowledged that the mess made California appear to be a "Third World country." California State University Prepares To Permanently Drop SAT, ACT From Admissions Process. California State University, the largest-four year university system in the country, is poised to eliminate SAT and ACT standardized tests from its undergraduate admissions process, following a trend in higher education over concerns that the exams are unfair to minority and low-income students. The Board of Trustees for the 23-campus CSU system will vote in March on recommendations to end the testing requirements, which were presented at a meeting Wednesday and met with widespread enthusiasm. Schadenfreude overload on virtue-signaling former mayor of San Luis Obispo who stepped down 'to fight climate change'. Few things delight me more than watching climate cultists with Big Plans to change the way we live running headlong into reality and discovering that their ideas just don't work. When those people are elected officials (or former ones) or when they hold leadership positions in NGOs, the schadenfreude meter redlines. The story of Heidi Harmon, who stepped down from being mayor of San Luis Obispo, California last August to battle climate change, is one to savor. For those unfamiliar with it, San Luis Obispo is a lovely coastal community of just under 50,000 people, founded as a Spanish mission town before the American Revolution, located roughly halfway between Los Angeles and San Francisco. It is home to California Polytechnic State University ("Cal Poly"), a well regarded state university campus of about 22,000 students that accepts roughly one in four applicants. Can Los Angeles Be Saved? On Monday, off-duty LAPD officer Fernando Arroyos and his girlfriend were out in South L.A. looking at houses, in anticipation of getting married and settling down there. Sure, it was after dark, and most Angelenos do not venture out at night these days, but Fernando was LAPD, highly trained in police work and educated at U.C. Berkeley, and thought he had it all down. Then four gangbangers from the local crime organization (too highly advanced to be called a gang), Florencia 13, saw the silver chains around his neck and decided to rob him. Arroyos told his girlfriend to run. Shots rang out, at least one hit Arroyos, and he died on the way to the hospital. [...] Usually, when a cop is murdered, the city's mayor and D.A. come out and angrily vow to catch and prosecute the killers to the fullest extent, and they file charges. After all, they are the apex of the law enforcement pyramid. If they don't care, the people are in deep trouble. This is the response from D.A. Gascon's office, though: a condolence tweet for the "death of an off-duty police officer" without even saying his name, without even admitting it was a murder.
Soft-on-crime Los Angeles DA ripped after child molester faces little or no time. Los Angeles' top prosecutor is under fire for allowing a transgender woman who sexually assaulted a 10-year-old girl as a minor to face a no-jail wrist-slap sentence. Hannah Tubbs, now 26, pleaded guilty to attacking the girl in a women's bathroom at a Denny's restaurant in 2014, two weeks before she turned 18, the Los Angeles Times reported. LA District Attorney George Gascón filed charges against Tubbs in early 2020, not long after taking office. But the progressive DA has refused to try juveniles as adults, citing studies that show adolescent brains aren't fully developed until age 25 and claiming that young offenders can be rehabilitated in juvenile facilities. California Extends Indoor Mask Mandate. California's mask mandate for indoor public settings will remain in place until at least Feb. 15, officials announced. The state's Health and Human Services Secretary Dr. Mark Ghaly made the announcement on Jan. 5, citing a rise in COVID-19 infections and hospitalizations. The statewide mandate was scheduled to expire on Jan. 15, one month after it was reintroduced. Among the indoor public spaces affected are retail stores, restaurants, theaters, family entertainment centers, and government offices. Ghaly said residents should consider wearing higher-grade masks, not simply scarves or loose-fitting cloth face-coverings. He said many masks that people donned in the early days of the pandemic are "not as helpful today," urging people to consider masks that are well-fitted on the face without gaps or ventilators. Here is what confuses me about San Francisco.. [Thread reader] We have the most liberal, left-wing government & population in the country. We have a $13B budget. And we have 8,000 people sleeping in the rain this week. [...] Progressives tend to blame Republicans for almost everything. Yet here we are — not a Republican in sight — and I think we may be the most deranged city on the planet. Nowhere is there such inequality. I have never seen destitution at this scale. Today's deep question: Do all California's education-equity execs live in Texas? Answer: Nope. One of them lived in Philadelphia, for instance. However, the latest California education executive to be discovered by Politico living out of state tendered her resignation ... from Dallas: [...] As a newly minted Texan, that irony makes my day. Gavin Newsom made a big show of launching that ban — which most Texans likely appreciated — while his patronage regime paid at least one of its executives to live in Texas. California's Zero-Bail Policies Have Been A Deadly Failure. In 2020, as an emergency measure during the COVID-19 pandemic, the California Judicial Council, hoping to prevent COVID's spread, had implemented zero-bail schedules to reduce jail populations. Senate Bill 262 was later introduced in another of a series of attempts to eliminate most monetary bail. For reasons having nothing to do with protecting health and safety, Senate Bill 262 would have made the schedules permanent. In effect, if defendants could not afford bail, they would simply be released. The grim reality of zero-bail policies became increasingly apparent as late summer turned to fall. Dramatic expansions in crime. Rampant retail theft. Law enforcement and prosecutors unified in their complaint that the zero-bail schedule was a problem. A big problem. In fact, the Judicial Council had terminated the zero-bail schedule order even before its emergency authority expired, presumably because these policies failed. No wonder why people and businesses are dumping California. [Scroll down] As to the loss of personal and economic freedom, consider the following examples. As of the end of 2021, a publicly held company headquartered in California must have between one and three female board members, depending upon its size, or face a fine of $100,000. The California Department of Education has proposed an "equitable math" framework. California Political Review says the framework "promotes the concept that working to figure out a correct answer is an example of racism and white supremacy invading the classroom." As of January 1, 2022, California's new bacon law is scheduled to take effect. According to the Associated Press: "Put simply, the law requires that breeding pigs, egg-laying chickens and veal calves be given enough space to stand and turn around. For pigs, that means they no longer can be kept in narrow 'gestation crates' and must have 24 square feet of usable space." Producers predict shortages and more expensive bacon and pork products. Why Progressives Defend Drug Dealers. If you asked most progressives if they'd be okay with having a highly-profitable, multi-billion dollar foreign corporation sell on their sidewalks a highly addictive product, which kills two people a day, most would say "no," and yet that's what San Francisco progressives are allowing by not shutting down the open air drug dealing by Honduran fentanyl dealers who work for a global cartel. Why is that? Why do people who claim to care so much about addicts, human dignity, and city life oppose shutting down the open drug scenes that are destroying them? Why LA Must Show the Gascon the Door. If Los Angeles district attorney George Gascon has his way, the City of Angels will have sex offenders and violent criminals in their teens roaming free, under the pretext that they are juveniles. Never mind that they may be repeat offenders. Never mind that such leniency will encourage gangs to get their work done by those who should be in school or on the playground. Thankfully, there is growing outrage against Gascon's abominable ideas and a campaign to have him recalled is gathering steam. It must succeed so that Los Angeles is spared the fate of San Francisco, which Gascon (as DA in 2011-19) left in shambles and, in the words of former San Francisco deputy DA Nancy Tung, with the reputation of a city "where you can commit a crime and get away with it." He Thought He Was Going To Walk Out With Free Stuff, She And Her Firearm Had Another Idea. Google "Shoplifting in San Francisco" and you will find more than 100,000 hits. And you will find lots of YouTube videos, where you can watch a single thief, or an entire gang, walk into an SF Walgreens or CVS and empty the shelves. Most walk in, go about their pilfering, and then walk out, though at least one thief rode their bike into the store and departed the same way, carefully navigating their two-wheeler down a narrow aisle. We probably shouldn't call it shoplifting anymore, since that term connotes the idea of a person trying to conceal their crime. In San Francisco, there is no attempt to conceal theft, and there is almost never any effort by store employees, including security personnel, to confront the thieves. The most they do is record the thefts with their cell phones. Why is shoplifting so rampant? Because state law holds that stealing merchandise worth $950 or less is just a misdemeanor, which means that law enforcement probably won't bother to investigate, and if they do, prosecutors will let it go. California education 'equity' official resigns because she lives in Texas. The California Department of Education's equity project manager has resigned due to the fact she lives in Texas. Pamela Kadakia worked for the California state department while living in Texas, according to Politico. Additionally, the Lone Star State is on California's state-funded travel ban list. California law mandates that state employees live there unless they need to live in another location for their work, such as lobbying in D.C. Kadakia is the second California education equity official to depart in recent weeks. The Golden State's first superintendent of equity, Daniel Lee, resigned earlier this month. Politico reported how Lee lived in Philadelphia while collecting a salary of more than $161,000 from the state of California. California Education Official, Exposed for Living in Texas, Resigns. A second California education official has resigned after it was revealed she had been working in the government job while living in the state of Texas. Pamela Kadakia has stepped down as California Department of Education equity project manager, and her departure has been confirmed by the department, Politico reported Thursday [12/23/2021]. "We sought to ensure that all our personnel were in line with the new guidance," a CDE statement read. "In doing so, we accepted Ms. Kadakia's resignation." Not only does the guidance require CDE officials to earn their government salary while working in the state, but the state also bans its employees from traveling to Texas and 17 other red states because they have laws the state disagrees with and deems "discriminatory," according to the report. The Editor says... California 'Deputy Superintendent of Equity' Resigns After Illegal Hiring [is] Revealed. A recent Politico investigation found that California's first Department of Education deputy superintendent of equity, Dr. Daniel Lee, was hired even though he "lives in Philadelphia and has a separate job there, more than 2,500 miles away" from the California schools he was charged with "fixing." Afterward, California Assemblyman Kevin Kiley (R-06) sent a letter to the Government Operations Agency in Sacramento questioning the lawfulness of Lee's hiring. [...] Remarkably, only a few days later Lee resigned from the position. However, if you're like me and don't live in woke world, you probably didn't even know there was such a position as a deputy superintendent of equity; nor is it likely you know what such a creature does. Don't worry, no one really knows what he does. Philadelphia resident who was high-ranking California Dept. of Education official resigns. A high-ranking official in the California Department of Education has resigned after a report showed he had been collecting more than $160,000 on the taxpayers' dime while living and mostly working on the East Coast. California's first-ever deputy superintendent of equity, Dr. Daniel Lee, has resigned, a spokesperson for the Department of Education confirmed Wednesday [12/15/2021]. The resignation comes after Politico first reported Lee is a Philadelphia resident who had been friends with California Superintendent Tony Thurmond for more than two decades. Man Dies Of Heart Attack Because Paramedics Refuses To Enter His Building Due To Commiefornia COVID LAWS. Paramedics in Southern California refused to enter a post-acute-care facility to treat a man in cardiac arrest last month because of "some COVID-19 law," according to a Rialto Police Department report. Body camera footage shows an officer arriving at the Rialto Post Acute Care Center on the evening of Nov. 11 and greeting two paramedics from the Rialto Fire Department, who were standing outside with their masks on. The first 30 seconds of the footage are muted, which is standard for many police body cameras, but the officer wrote in his report that the paramedics were there for an unrelated patient and said the facility was being "problematic." [Video clip] The Editor says... In San Francisco, People Now Leave Their Trunks Open So Thieves Won't Smash Their Windows. People in California are reportedly leaving their vehicles' trunks open to deter thieves from breaking their vehicles' windows. Vehicle break-ins are reportedly on the rise in San Francisco and Oakland. To keep potential thieves from damaging their property, some people are emptying out everything of value from their vehicle, unlocking their doors, and leaving the trunk open while they go about their business. [Video clip] America's Unamerican Smash-And-Grab. [Scroll down] Within the first section of Proposition 47 lies the primary driver of "smash and grabs." Shoplifting is defined as "entering a commercial establishment with the intent to commit larceny while that establishment is open during regular business hours" where the value of the property does not exceed $950." That is, according to the California penal code, if someone enters the store when employees are present (putting them at risk) and loots $950 worth of items (if not more, as seen in many of the smash-and-grab cases), they should be allowed to walk free without punishment. This reclassification only allows criminals to get away with crimes instead of reducing crime itself. For instance, on November 19th, 20 to 40 people organized a burglary at a San Francisco Louis Vuitton store. It was not an act of opportunity but a raid organized to some extent through social media and messaging apps. With only five officially arrested in the above case, criminals are growing bolder, leading to more smash and grab events, such as when 90 people raided a Nordstrom Rack at the Walnut Creek shopping facility on November 20th. An estimated $100,000 worth of goods were stolen there. San Francisco becomes first city to require sick leave for nannies, cleaners, gardeners. The San Francisco Board of Supervisors on Tuesday [12/14/2021] unanimously passed groundbreaking legislation to provide paid sick leave for cleaners, nannies, gardeners and other domestic workers. The measure — the first of its kind in the country — would affect some 10,000 people in San Francisco who work in private homes to clean, cook, tend children, garden, do personal organizing, or provide non-medical care for disabled people or seniors. This workforce is typically low-paid with many women and immigrants, supporters said. Liberal California Politicians Promise To Be Tough On Crime As Thefts, Shootings Increase. California Democrats are toughening their stance on crime amid increasing violence and homicides, with many politicians pledging to invest in law enforcement. Crime in California has skyrocketed over the past two years, with homicides in San Francisco jumping 15% in 2021 compared to 2020, and over 50% compared to 2019. Statewide, homicides, property crime, violent crime and larcenies have all risen since before the pandemic. Retail thefts in particular have plagued the state, most notably in Los Angeles and San Francisco, where organized gangs of criminals will break into and loot storefronts of their merchandise. Even San Fran residents are getting sick of their liberal reforms. To put it mildly, things haven't been going well in Nancy Pelosi's home stomping grounds of San Francisco. The homelessness plague is out of control and crime has been on the rise in ways that even the most liberal and forgiving residents can no longer ignore. The problem was compounded in multiple ways when Chesa Boudin was elected to be the District Attorney after running on a platform of getting rid of the police and promising to not prosecute "smaller crimes." (Boudin is now facing a recall election.) The filth and the property crime are driving some people to look for a way out and flee the city. The Associated Press talked to several such beleaguered residents recently and heard horror stories that are increasingly familiar. The California Crime Wave. Many people in the multi-troubled state of California are living in fear. It is bad enough that for almost two years the Democrats in charge of the state government have used the war on COVID as an excuse to expand their powers and abuse us with strict lockdowns, school closings and mandates. But seven years ago the state's so-called progressives brought us Proposition 47, a sentencing "reform" measure that among other things essentially decriminalized retail theft by making stealing anything with a value of less than $950 a mere misdemeanor. If you combine that dumb idea — which the Los Angeles Times points out "was co-authored by then-San Francisco — now Los Angeles — Dist. Atty. George Gascón and strongly supported by then-Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom" — with the even dumber idea of defunding the police, you will understand why California is in the midst of a crime wave. Brazen crime, open drug use and trashed streets have some residents of tolerant San Francisco say they've had enough. San Francisco's brazen crime, open drug use and trashed streets have made even the most progressive of the city's famed liberal residents demand a return to law and order as they seek to recall the woke district attorney. News of attacks on Asian American seniors, burglarized restaurants, and boarded-up storefronts in the city's once-vibrant downtown greet the citizens of the City by the Bay on a near-daily basis. And that was before a series of headline-grabbing crime stories in which mobs of looters smashed windows and grabbed luxury purses in the downtown Union Square shopping district. Breaking the Maritime Shipping Impasse. Two new laws in California have degraded the air quality in the Los Angeles area. One is Assembly Bill 5 and a new California Air Resources Board (CARB) regulation banning older diesel trucks from operating in the state. Assembly Bill 5 has basically outlawed independent truckers from hauling freight, thereby reducing the total number of trucks operating in the state. This, combined with the banning of the older diesel trucks, has created a supply chain backlog. leaving large container vessels either at anchor or steaming in lazy circles off shore because the anchorages are too crowded to safely anchor there. While at anchor or underway, these ships must run their engines to turn generators to power and maintain vital shipboard systems and doing so these ships emit huge quantities of oxides of Nitrogen (NOx), oxides of Sulfur (SOx), particulate pollution, and Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC). The offshore sea breezes carry this polluted air into the Los Angeles basin, adding to an already significantly polluted air shed. Oakland Unified among Calif. school districts phasing out D, F grades for high school students. Some of California's largest school districts are trying an unconventional tactic to help students re-engage in school after distance learning and boost their chances of acceptance into the state's public colleges: by dropping D and F grades. Los Angeles Unified, Oakland Unified, Sacramento City Unified, San Diego Unified and other districts are phasing out grades below a C for high school students. If a student fails a test or doesn't complete their homework, they'll be able to retake the test and get more time to turn in assignments. The idea is to encourage students to learn the course material and not be derailed by a low grade that could potentially disqualify them from admission to the University of California and California State University. The Editor says... California plans to be abortion sanctuary if Roe [is] overturned. With more than two dozen states poised to ban abortion if the U.S. Supreme Court gives them the OK next year, California clinics and their allies in the state Legislature on Wednesday revealed a plan to make the state a "sanctuary" for those seeking reproductive care, including possibly paying for travel, lodging and procedures for people from other states. California Needs To Stop Its Crime Spree Before It Goes National. Californians have only themselves to blame. They passed Proposition 47 in 2014 by a 60%-40% margin. Among the measure's provisions is a sort of decriminalization of some thefts. Members of the criminal class are well aware that Prop 47 allows them to steal as much as $950 worth of goods without being charged for a felony. That's why some have been seen adding up their "takes" on calculators to be sure they don't exceed the threshold, and will be busted for only a misdemeanor if arrested at all. The bandits have also been emboldened by prosecutors who are reluctant to prosecute — Chesa Boudin in San Francisco, George Gascon in Los Angeles — and a statewide no-cash-bail policy for suspects who can't afford the going rate. While in many cases the policy supports our system's presumed-innocent principle, it also acts as a get-out-of-jail-free card, allowing repeat offenders to steal again. Inspired by criminals' success in California, thieves have hit stores in Chicago and Minneapolis. How long before every big city in the country is overwhelmed by similar crimes? When intersectionality intersects with reality. When drug dealers complain about the lack of law enforcement protection, the boomerang has come full circle and hit us in the back of the head. Gangs of smash-and-grab thieves have targeted cannabis shops in the San Francisco Bay Area while firing 175 shots and stealing about $5 million's worth of products. Alphonso "Tucky" Blunt, owner of a legal cannabis shop, criticized poor police protection and the bureaucratic details of business in Oakland: "I was safer, and had more money, [selling] on the street, illegally." Such is the economic reality of the Bay area. The thieves resell the stolen pot on the streets. City supervisor Rafael Mandeman said, "Sadly, the illegal market is flourishing by undercutting the prices of legal businesses, which is bad for our economy as illegal businesses pay no taxes." For politicians, the sad part is the "no taxes" part. For the owners, it is the loss of their business. San Francisco restaurant that ordered cops out is poster child for the local wokester idiocy. [Scroll down] They actually turned cops, who would have been paying customers, away. Restaurants the world over are famous for welcoming cops to their establishments. Some give free food or discounts. This is how the cop-and-donut legends got started. Others do it to ensure that cops will always come if there's a problem. Customers find the presence of police comforting historically, the same way anyone would if there was a wildfire in the area and the fire truck decided to park in one's driveway, as happened to my sister during the big Bonsall "Lilac" fire a couple of years ago. When she saw the gargantuan CalFire truck parked at her residence on the nightly news, even with the sky red and the front-yard palm tree on fire, she knew it was going to be OK, and it was. It's natural. But not to these guys. Nothing is Anybody's Fault. [Scroll down] San Francisco has been the worst-hit of many Democrat-run cities by organized retail theft rings stealing for profit millions of dollars in merchandise. [...] It's of a piece with Soros-funded D.A. Chesa Boudin's policy of releasing people from jail unless they threaten public safety. His nonaccountability policies for crime this week forced the release of a woman who stole $40,000 worth of merchandise. You could also hold accountable California voters who in 2014 approved Prop 47, a ballot measure that put the threshold for felony theft at $951 — a figure that's not cumulative. You can rob $950 worth of stuff every day and walk out free as a bird. Maybe smart merchants will just label everything in the shop $951. Maybe Californians who can't find any available shops will rethink Prop 47 — along with the folks they elect to carry out the law. Maybe shops in California cities will shutter and close; commercial property tax revenues will sink; and Californians will drive to Nevada to buy their necessities and use drone deliveries from fortified warehouses in state. Why Looting Turned San Francisco Into A Ghost Town. Usually at this time of year, San Francisco's luxury stores are decked with holiday garlands. Instead, they're boarded up after widespread "flash mob" looting turned Union Square — the city's most fashionable shopping district — into an area resembling a blighted neighborhood in Detroit. "It's a ghost town," said Michelle Tandler, a San Francisco native and high-tech entrepreneur, whose photos of the stores barricaded in plywood went viral on social media this week. "Every store has a security guard. People are going to lose their jobs. And these things have a ripple effect." Two weeks ago, San Francisco was the first of several progressive cities hit by smash-and-grab mobs of thieves, sometimes as many as 80 in a group. Video from the San Francisco looting of Louis Vuitton shows criminals walking casually out of the store, goods in hand. Other cities hit include Los Angeles, Chicago and Minneapolis. 14 arrested over L.A. smash-and-grab thefts, but all released as leaders call for end to COVID no-bail policy. Authorities in Los Angeles on Thursday [12/2/2021] announced more than a dozen arrests in recent smash-and-grab thefts at stores where nearly $340,000 worth of merchandise was stolen, part of a rash of organized retail crime in California. Fourteen people were arrested in connection with 11 brazen robberies between November 18 and 28, but all were released from custody, police Chief Michel Moore said. Most bailed out or met no-bail criteria, and one is a juvenile, he said. At a joint news conference, both Moore and Mayor Eric Garcetti called for an end to a no-bail policy for some defendants aimed at reducing overcrowding at Los Angeles County jails during the coronavirus pandemic. Looters steal $5 million of products from 15 cannabis shops in the San Francisco Bay Area in a single month: One business. Cannabis shops across the San Francisco Bay Area have been thrown into dire straits as gangs of thieves broke into more than 15 shops throughout November during the series of 'smash-and-grab' robberies that are plaguing California. Oakland Police Chief LeRonne Armstrong told reporters that 'hundreds' of vehicles targeted marijuana stores in Oakland last month, firing 175 shots and stealing about $5 million worth of products. Alphonso 'Tucky' Blunt, owner of Blunts and Moore, told MJBizDaily that his store lost about $25,000 during a November 22 raid, where more than a dozen burglars ransacked the store. California Faces Statewide Mandatory Water Restrictions as Drought Worsens. California is currently facing mandatory water restrictions as drought grips the state. "Despite a wet start to the water year, conditions have dried out since that first storm and we are still planning for a below-average water year," Karla Nemeth, director of the Department of Water Resources, said in a statement. "That means we need to prepare now for a dry winter and severe drought conditions to continue through 2022." L.A. Arrests 14 for 'Mass Looting,' but Lets All of Them Go. Officials in Los Angeles announced Thursday with great fanfare that they had made 14 arrests in connection with recent "mass looting" events in the city — but all fourteen have since been released from jail, either with or without posting bail. [...] "Progressive" policies to reduce or eliminate bail have come under the spotlight recently, after a number of high-profile crimes allegedly committed by those released, including a mass murder in a Christmas parade in Waukesha, Wisconsin. California has a particular problem: not only is cash bail being removed, but the state is governed by Proposition 47 of 2014, which makes retail thefts of up to $950 misdemeanors instead of felonies, meaning that fewer are ever fully prosecuted. Both Los Angeles and San Francisco have seen mass looting events in the past several weeks. Having attacked truckers, California now has a new target. One of my correspondents is an incredibly acute observer of the Democrats' non-stop assaults on the State of California, especially in the transportation industry. He recently sent me an email about the fact that California didn't stop with its attack on trucking. Instead, California Democrats are also going after the shipping industry. Why Crime Is Out Of Control in San Francisco. When Chesa Boudin ran for San Francisco district attorney in 2019, he said crime was caused by poverty, wealth inequality and inadequate government spending on social programs. He called prostitution, open drug use and drug dealing "victimless crimes" and promised not to prosecute them. The result has been an increase in crime so sharp that San Francisco's liberal residents are now paying for private security guards, taking self-defense classes, and supporting a recall of Mr. Boudin, with a vote set for June 2022. Retailers like Walgreens and Target are closing stores in the city, citing rampant shoplifting. Last week, a shockingly organized mob of looters ransacked a downtown Louis Vuitton store. Mr. Boudin and his defenders say crime in San Francisco has actually declined under his watch. The store closings had little to do with shoplifting, they insist; Walgreens announced in 2019 it would close stores as a cost-saving measure. University of California system permanently abandons standardized testing for admissions. Too many of the "wrong" people are gaining admission to the University of California's nine campuses. The racial bean counters are therefore altering the process by which applicants are judged. The nation's premier public university system is not going to base its admissions process on standardized testing of any sort. "Test-free admissions" is to be the rule. [...] Admission will now rely on grades, student essays, and teacher recommendations. All of these factors seem much more vulnerable to bad actors and manipulation. The end of testing is brought to you by progressives who are convinced that standardized tests help maintain white supremacy. California Sued Over Law Forcing Appointment of Minorities and LGBT to Corporate Boards. A conservative think tank filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against California to halt a law that will force quotas on publicly held corporations headquartered in the state, requiring them to appoint board members based solely on their race and sexual orientation. The legislation at issue is the fruit of last year's race riots that caused more than $2 billion in property damage and were organized nationwide by Black Lives Matter and Antifa. The lawsuit, National Center for Public Policy Research (NCPPR) v. Weber, was filed on Nov. 22 in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California. Defendant Shirley Weber, a radical left-wing academic before entering politics, is being sued in her official capacity as California secretary of state. Until January of this year, the San Diego-area Democrat was a member of the California State Assembly, where she championed AB 3121, a law creating a task force to develop proposals to pay reparations to blacks to compensate them for having ancestors a century and a half ago who were enslaved. California County Issues Mask Mandate for Private Homes Ahead of Thanksgiving. Santa Cruz County in California issued a mask mandate for all indoor settings, including private homes, ahead of the holiday season. The mandate went into effect at 11:59 p.m. on November 21 and requires "all individuals to wear a face covering when indoors regardless of vaccination status." "Unfortunately, a potential winter surge appears to be a significant threat to the health and safety of our community," said Santa Cruz County Health Officer Dr. Gail Newel in the announcement. The Editor says... San Francisco's Mayor Has a 'Genius' Idea to Stop Looting Over the Holiday. Some people still don't believe this, but Prop 47 is a law — deceptively titled 'Safe Schools and Neighborhoods Act' — that reduces many felonies to misdemeanors and provides for the early release of certain violent offenders and sex offenders. One of the most unbelievable provisions of Prop 47 is one that makes it just a ticketable offense to steal up to $949 worth of goods from any given retailer on any given visit. That's right — visit. You can clean out the deodorant section at Walgreens, go back to your drug den, then come back an hour later and hit the diapers and feminine products if that's your jam. You've seen the videos. People do this. They take what they want and casually walk away. They know the law. They know law enforcement has no ability to stop any of it. It's not just San Francisco that is seeing this nonsense growing; it has pretty much permeated every part of the state by this point. What's worse — the broken windows theory has most definitely applied to the chaos in California. Criminals have become emboldened by the tacit permission to loot stores at will. Now they are becoming organized and hitting larger targets. Chesa Boudin gets religion on shoplifting. There's nothing like a smarmy, smug leftist who's realized he's cooked his own goose. That brings us to the case of Chesa Boudin, the district attorney of San Francisco, who's effectively legalized shoplifting in the name of "criminal justice reform." He's prompted massive store closures with ugly videos of broad-daylight robberies on large and small stores. Boudin's refusal to prosecute has turned San Francisco into another socialist crime pit, Caracas. And now, like his mentor Hugo Chávez, he's facing a voter recall. This seems to be concentrating his mind, given that he's suddenly changing his tune — and comically enough, fooling no one. Cultural Marxism, Are We Supposed to Ignore What All the San Francisco Looters Have in Common? Perhaps there is a rule book somewhere that says you must not point out that all of the San Francisco looters who hit Nordstrom and Louis Vuitton are black. There are hundreds of media reports talking about the brazen nature of the ongoing mob and rob situations, but no one seems to point out what they all have in common. All of the people doing the robbing are black. Here's an example of CBS outlining a massive mob-n-rob of Nordstroms just outside San Francisco. [Video clip] Dozens Of Looters Storm Nordstroms In Commiefornia — Where Else. Dozens of looters swarmed into the Nordstrom store in downtown Walnut Creek Saturday night [11/20/2021], terrorizing shoppers, ripping off bag loads of merchandise and ransacking shelves before fleeing in a several vehicles waiting for them on the street. Walnut Creek Lt. Ryan Hibbs told KPIX 5 that police began receiving calls about the looting at around 9 p.m. He said there were approximately 80 individuals who ran into the store and began looting and smashing shelves. Video shot at the scene shows the masked looters streaming out of the store, carrying bags and boxes, jumping into the cars. Dozens of police vehicles also responded to the scene. [Video clip] Three California school districts vote to defy state's vaccine mandates for children, risk losing state aid. Updated: A third California school district has boted to resist the childten's vaccine mandate[.] Two school districts in a mountainous rural county of California are leading the way in resisting a medical experiment on its children. Calaveras County is rebelling against the State of California's plan to force children 5 [to] 11 years old to receive the experimental Covid pseudo-vaccines to protect against a virus which is of essentially no risk to otherwise healthy kids. The county is neither heavily populated (estimated 45,000 souls) nor wealthy and lies at high altitude in the gold country of the Sierra Nevada Mountains and foothills. It is so rural that there is only one incorporated town, Angels Camp, in the entire county. San Francisco tourists are being warned not to rent cars. People who have opted to go to San Francisco for vacation are being told not to rent vehicles. Why? Because of the extreme increase in vehicle burglaries in the city. The reason behind the advice that is being given to tourists is easy — there are too many vehicle burglaries that are occurring in the city. Criminals are going through town and breaking into different vehicles looking for quick items they can take off with and later sell or trade. Gavin Newsom Extends Emergency Order Yet Again, Until March 2022. On Wednesday, Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) who two months ago survived his recall election, extended the COVID state of emergency yet again. It will now extend until March 31, 2022, which is a full four and a half months from now, and a little over two years since the World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 a pandemic. As Tom Tapp reported for Deadline, this is the third time that Newsom has issued such an extension. California Fraudsters Get Rich Off Unemployment Benefits. California has shelled out at least $20 billion in fraudulent unemployment benefits since the beginning of the pandemic, with 11% of all benefits paid in the Golden State. That is more than the 2021 budgets of Delaware, Maine, and Montana combined. The $20 billion given to criminals who fraudulently collected benefits comes out of the more than $178 billion in unemployment benefits since the start of the pandemic, the Los Angeles Times reported. State officials have blamed that on Congress' quick expansion of unemployment benefits that allowed people to get weekly checks without safeguards to stop people who weren't eligible. California state officials approved at least $810 million in benefits in the names of people who were in prison, including dozens of infamous killers on death row, the Los Angeles Times reported, and even $21,000 in benefits were sent to an address in Roseville under the name and Social Security number of U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif. The Left's Bungled Revolution. The supply chain debacle has been portrayed by media as one of those inexplicable black swans that come out of nowhere and are beyond human comprehension. This is nonsense. The sole cause of this "crisis" is a demented diktat from Gavin Newsom forbidding trucks more than three years old from loading at California ports. The logic behind this is unknown, but presumably has something to do with Gaia being angry. The end result is what we see: ships backed up off LA, containers piling up in the ports (or even dumped in hapless LA neighborhoods), and shortages as far as the eye can see. Lost amid all the uproar are the nation's truckers, who must be boiling over with fury. (Try to find a single quote from one in the legacy media.) Florida governor Ron DeSantis has immediately leapt in to offer his state's ports to all comers, and will presumably be followed by other governors, so long-term, the situation will right itself, as tends to happen in capitalist economies. But the wounds inflicted will last a long time — and California slides ever closer to the precipice. Gavin Newsom's Double Jab of Covid booster and flu shot made him sick enough to cancel Scotland trip and disappear from public view for nearly two weeks. California governor Gavin Newsom had an adverse reaction to getting the Covid booster and a flu shot within days of each other, leaving him with muscle weakness and fatigue, claim sources in the family's inner circle. The governor was last seen in public on October 27, after receiving a COVID-19 booster shot in Oakland. He had gotten a flu shot on October 22. Newsom finally appeared in a photo attending Ivy Getty's star-studded wedding this past weekend after disappearing from the public eye for nearly two weeks. Why San Francisco DA Chesa Boudin is unlikely to survive his recall. How's George Soros feeling these days? Seems his fair-haired boy, San Francisco's radical left-wing district attorney, Chesa Boudin, who's pretty much letting every thug in the city escape prosecution as San Francisco goes to hell, has drawn enough signatures to ensure his placement on a recall ballot come June 7, 2022 — and then some. Where's Gavin Newsom been? At Getty heiress's wedding. The Twitter-sphere, The Daily Mail, and even The Sacramento Bee were looking everywhere for Gavin Newsom on Monday after the California governor canceled events and ducked out of sight for a few days. Did he have COVID or a reaction to his recent booster shot? Nope. Newsom was at the Ivy Getty wedding on Saturday at City Hall, a guest and two media outlets say. Getty is a billionaire oil heiress and great-granddaughter of oil tycoon J. Paul Getty. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi officiated the 500-person wedding under the grand rotunda of the closed City Hall. It Looks Like Gavin Newsom's Been Located — at an Ostentatious Getty Wedding. As our Jennifer O'Connell reported earlier today, California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-French Laundry) hasn't been seen in public since October 27, the day he received his COVID-19 vaccine booster. Newsom was scheduled to fly to Glasgow to attend the COP26 climate change conference two days later, but his trip was abruptly canceled. Initially some speculated that perhaps he realized how silly it was to fly across the globe to speak at a climate change conference when he could simply participate virtually. Then, Newsom's office claimed he was attending to "unspecified family issues" and his office wouldn't elaborate when asked by the press. San Francisco grocery store closing earlier due to shoplifting. A 24-hour San Francisco grocery store will now be closing early due to excessive thefts at night, joining other retailers that have been forced to alter their hours due to rampant stealing. The Safeway grocery in the Castro neighborhood of San Francisco has moved from operating 24 hours a day to closing from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m., KPIX reported. The news station reported that customers were surprised by this decision. [...] This decision by the Castro Safeway comes less than a month after pharmacy retail giant Walgreens announced it would be closing some locations in San Francisco due to organized retail theft. One San Francisco Walgreens that was closed last year was reportedly losing $1,000 to theft a day. Brazen Thugs Just Walk Out Of Nike Store With Boxes Of Expensive Sneakers In California. This is what happens when an entire state decides $950 or less is now a misdemeanor instead of a felony. Watch as these thugs just casually walk out of a Nike store in California with expensive sneakers, knowing the worst that will happen to them is a slap on the wrist. [Video clip] Shippers fear 'catastrophic' fallout from 'crazy' California port fees. The cure is worse than the disease, say critics of an emergency plan of the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach backed by the Biden administration. If you think port congestion is bad now, just wait for what comes next. On Wednesday [10/27/2021], two days after the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach announced a surprise emergency fee for containers lingering too long at terminals, the National Shippers Advisory Council (NSAC) held its inaugural meeting. NSAC, created to advise the Federal Maritime Commission, is composed of 12 U.S. importers and 12 exporters. Members include heavy hitters like Amazon, Walmart, Target, Office Depot and Ikea. Council members had a lot to say about the California port fees — none of it good. Former Soros Activist Explains How Progressive Policies Ruined San Francisco. There's a crisis in San Francisco. Homelessness has skyrocketed and drug use is rampant. Michael Shellenberger moved to San Francisco in 1993 to work on liberal causes, and even spent time working for George Soros' foundation. He advocated the decriminalization of drugs and promoted drug treatment programs. But, Shellenberger says, he began to worry when he saw the number of drug overdose deaths in America rise from 17,000 in 2000 to more than 70,000 by 2017. "Clearly, we are in the midst of a massive drug crisis," Shellenberger says, "and it felt like nobody was offering a particularly clear explanation of it or offering very good solutions." Out of frustration over the problems he was seeing in San Francisco and other liberal cities, Shellenberger became determined to diagnose the problems driving the homeless crisis and find solutions. He presents the result of his research and investigation in his new book "San Fransicko: Why Progressives Ruin Cities." As Expected, Joe Biden Pledge To Speed Up California Ports Amounts to Absolutely Nothing. In a rare act of journalism, NBC actually followed up on the October 13th grand proclamation of Joe Biden to speed up California ports. What they found is exactly what everyone suspected, the grand prose from the White House was a political pantomime — absolutely nothing has changed. [Video clip] As noted, and as previously outlined, the issues with the backlog of the California ports have absolutely nothing to do with rapid unloading of ships and container vessels. The issue is the inability of California truckers to move those containers. The problem is a shortage of CA emission compliant internal transportation trucks to move the containers out of the port and into the U.S. mainland. The California Version of The Green New Deal is What's Creating The Container Shipping Backlog. Hundreds of requests for details on the specifics of the container shipping backlog. So, I spent 3 days calling sources, digging for details and gathering information on the substantive issue at hand. The epicenter of the problem is not what is being outlined by financial media, corporate media and politicians who have a specific interest in distracting from the issues at hand. This has nothing to do with COVID-19. The issues being discussed today relate to events that happened a long time ago. As a matter of fact, it was so predictable that Amazon, Walmart, UPS, FedEx, Samsung, The Home Depot and Target all had taken actions years ago — long before COVID — because they knew this day would come. It was not accidental that those companies showed up at the White House to discuss the issue, because there's now a full court press to hide it. California Drove Truckers Out of Business. Now Store Shelves Are Empty. 2019 was described as a "bloodbath" for the trucking industry with 640 trucking companies across the country filing for bankruptcy in just the first half of the year. Thousands of truck drivers were left unemployed. Many went into the expanding last mile delivery business, some as contractors for Amazon. But California truckers and businesses had their own special woes. Two years ago, Governor Newsom signed the Democrat supermajority's Assembly Bill 5 into law. While AB5 was billed as a crackdown on Uber and Lyft, forcing the companies to treat l freelance contractors as employees, the gig economy companies pushed Proposition 22 so that they were the only ones exempt from the law. (A Democrat judge has since illegally blocked the approved ballot measure while falsely claiming that it was unconstitutional.) AB5 however was less about Uber than it was about outlawing freelance employees in order to force them into unions. The union power grab inconvenienced Uber and Lyft, but crushed freelance workers in a variety of fields including journalism. One of the fields was trucking. Target's iconic downtown San Francisco store closing amid shoplifting frenzy. Target is disputing a report that it is closing its iconic downtown San Francisco store amid claims the store is plagued by shoplifting threats costing the retailer at least $25,000. The California Globe reported that Target is shuttering its store on Mission Street between Third and Fourth Streets. But Target says the story isn't true. A Target spokesperson said it is not closing the Mission Street store, but confirmed the retailer will close a different downtown San Francisco store on Bush Street in November because of underperforming sales. Is Newsom Punishing Those Who Tried To Recall Him? Ralph Waldo Emerson said "when you strike at a king, you must kill him." Gov. Gavin Newsom is no king, and last month's recall campaign was not intended to harm him physically. But it's foolish to believe he won't respond as a monarch who narrowly missed losing his crown would. The recall failure has emboldened the man. He now feels he has a greater mandate than ever before to push through his blue-state agenda. In the recall results, the governor saw a California where the opposition to progressive policies is so weak, and so utterly irrelevant to the work of the state's ruling class, that he and the legislature can roll right over those who see politics and policy differently. They're a group to be punished for daring to challenge his office. Can California Be Saved? Part One. California has so many problems, can it be saved? I mean for regular Californians. The tech billionaires and top government workers obviously have it good. But the rest of us? It's worth trying, anyway. A timely new book offers a blueprint for advancing solutions to 10 problems. Three are below. I'll cover the other seven later. This isn't a typical "bash California" book. It's the best collection of solutions available today. All the authors are experts. I have worked with most of them, or they have been my sources. "Saving California: Solutions to the state's biggest policy problems" is edited by Steven Greenhut for the Pacific Research Institute in a nicely designed paperback or Kindle ebook. The California Supply Crisis Was Entirely Predictable: Just Ask Hayek. In short, [Friedrich] Hayek and the "Chicago school" argue no central planning is adequate in anticipating and distributing economic resources in a society. No individual despot or group of central planners have enough knowledge to act prudently and with foresight. It will, instead, always result in inefficiencies, supply and demand distortions, and lowered economic growth. In addition, because central planners, by definition, must take control away from individuals, it reduces the people to a form of "serfdom." The people in a socialist system are coerced to comply. We do not yet have a socialist political system in this country, though California may be as close as we've come with its governmental overreach in economic, employment, educational and social matters. The California Version of The Green New Deal is What's Creating The Container Shipping Backlog. Hundreds of requests for details on the specifics of the container shipping backlog. So, I spent 3 days calling sources, digging for details and gathering information on the substantive issue at hand. The epicenter of the problem is not what is being outlined by financial media, corporate media and politicians who have a specific interest in distracting from the issues at hand. This has nothing to do with COVID-19. The issues being discussed today relate to events that happened a long time ago. As a matter of fact, it was so predictable that Amazon, Walmart, UPS, FedEx, Samsung, The Home Depot and Target all had taken actions years ago -long before COVID- because they knew this day would come. It was not accidental that those companies showed up at the White House to discuss the issue, because there's now a full court press to hide it. There is one very specific regional issue driving the problem. [...] How California seriously messed up its drought problem. At the beginning of the 20th century, both relied on well water to sustain their populations. And both had ambitious plans to build aqueducts to import snow melt from the fairly distant Sierra Nevada mountains. It was then that renowned naturalist John Muir formed the Sierra Club to fight the San Francisco project. He was successful only in delaying the building of the O'Shaughnessy Dam that formed the Hetch Hetchy reservoir. That delay allowed William Mulholland to be first by completing the Los Angeles-Owens Valley aqueduct in 1913. When the gate releasing the water opened, Mulholland famously said, "Here it is. Take it." And thus, Los Angeles eclipsed San Francisco as the primate city of California. In order for the L.A. city fathers to pass the construction bond for the aqueduct, they had to play up a major drought in the 1880s. The bond was passed, but the drought was a fiction...that wasn't exposed until the late 1970s by Scot Stine, at that time a graduate student at U.C. Berkeley. Stine's subsequent work nonetheless shows serious droughts in California's past. Corrupt democrat Los Angeles city councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas indicted in federal corruption probe. The New York Post is reporting that a high-level Los Angeles Democrat has been indicted in a federal corruption probe. Councilman Mark Ridley Thomas, 66 along with former dean Marilyn Louise Flynn, 83 are expected to be arraigned in the next few days on charges of conspiracy, bribery, honest services mail fraud and honest services wire fraud. The charges carry decades in prison if they are convicted, although honestly at their age, the chances of any type of lengthy sentence is questionable. Lawn Companies Issue Blistering Response to Newsom After He Moves To Destroy Their Businesses. Back in the days when humor writer Dave Barry had a regular newspaper column, he would frequently mention some outlandish thing that was actually true and follow it with the statement: "I am not making this up." Regarding a new law signed by Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom: I am not making this up. California, the place where reality goes to die, has outlawed the sale of off-road gasoline engines beginning in 2024, according to The Washington Post. Theft-plagued Walgreens shuts down five more stores in San Francisco: At least 17 have already closed due to 'legalized shoplifting'. Walgreens is shuttering another five of its stores in crime-ridden San Francisco because of rampant shoplifting by thieves who waltz past security guards and sell the items outside the drugstore chain's doors. The national chain has closed 17 of its 70 San Francisco locations in the past two years because of the shelf raiders, who have swiped everything not behind lock and key. Thefts in the chain's 53 remaining stores are five times the average for their stores elsewhere in the country, according to company officials. Walgreens closing 5 more San Francisco stores due to theft. Walgreens said Tuesday that it will be closing another five San Francisco locations, citing the ongoing rampant theft plaguing the city. "Due to ongoing organized retail crime, we have made the difficult decision to close five stores across San Francisco," a Walgreens spokesperson told FOX Business in a statement. "Each store will transfer prescriptions to a nearby Walgreens location within a mile radius and we expect to place the stores' team members in other nearby locations." In just two days, California governor signs [a bunch of stuff] into law. California Governor Gavin Newsom signed a number of 'woke' bills into law over the weekend including a ban on gas-powered leaf blowers to schools requiring students to be taught 'ethnic studies'. One liberal-pleasing law will see gender-neutral children's sections being required in large toy stores while female students in schools and colleges will be provided free menstrual supplies in women's bathrooms. Newsom hastily signed the flurry of new bills into law on Saturday night ahead of his Sunday night deadline for approving or vetoing new legislation for the year. People's Republik Of California: Say Goodbye To Your Gas Mowers And Lawn Implements. You know, this is For Your Own Good. That seems familiar. The definition of Progressivism is "Nice Fascism". That doesn't mean these are nice people, it means they'll run your life for you own good. It makes sense when mom and dad do this when you're a kid. Not when you're an adult. But, hey, a goodly chunk of you moonbats in California keep voting for this stuff[.] Gavin Newsom signs woke law forcing stores to have 'gender neutral' sections where traditional blue and pink toys and toothbrushes are banned. California Governor Gavin Newsom signed a woke law on Saturday forcing stores to have 'gender neutral' sections where traditional blue and pink toys and toothbrushes are banned. Large department stores must now display products like toys and toothbrushes in gender-neutral ways — a win for LGBT advocates who say the pink and blue hues of traditional marketing methods pressure children to conform to gender stereotypes. The new law, however, does not completely outlaw traditional boys and girls sections at department stores. Instead it says large stores must also have a gender neutral section to display 'a reasonable selection' of items 'regardless of whether they have been traditionally marketed for either girls or for boys'. California law bans small off-road gas engines, including lawnmowers and chainsaws. California took another step toward its goal of ridding the state of all gas-powered engines thanks to a new bill signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom on Saturday [10/9/2021]. The new law will ban the sale of all off-road, gas-powered engines, including generators, lawn equipment, pressure washers, chainsaws, weed trimmers, and even golf carts. Under the new law, these machines must be zero-emissions, meaning they will have to be either battery-powered or plug-in, according to the Los Angeles Times. Nero Newsom Fiddles With Ridiculous Laws, as California Continues to Implode. Last week, Huntington Beach, CA suffered an oil spill, caused by an undersea fuel pipeline being pierced by a ship's anchor. As I mentioned here, that damage could have been caused by one of the thousands of ships clogging the Southern California waters around the Port of Los Angeles. This is currently under investigation. In the meantime, the ships are waiting to be off loaded, but cannot because of the inefficiency of dock workers. Thank you, Labor Unions. Governor Gavin Newsom does not care about the causation, the fact that our supply chain of goods and services has been horrifically disrupted, and that hundreds of truckers, retailers, and average citizens are losing money by the day. No, Governor Hair Gel is urgently concerned about a "greener future", and getting rid of fossil fuels by 2035. New California law mandates that big retailers maintain gender-neutral kid aisles. Gov. Gavin Newsom on Saturday [10/9/2021] signed a law that requires large California retailers to maintain gender neutral toy and childcare sections. The new law, Assembly Bill 1084, requires that retailers with 500 or more employees in the state of California "maintain a gender neutral section or area, to be labeled at the discretion of the retailer, in which a reasonable selection of the items and toys for children that it sells shall be displayed, regardless of whether they have been traditionally marketed for either girls or for boys," according to the legislative counsel's digest. California Gov Gavin Newsom signs law to eventually ban gas-powered lawn equipment. California will soon ban the sale of new gas-powered leaf blowers and lawn mowers after Governor Gavin Newsom signed off on the new law on Saturday [10/9/2021]. The move is aimed at curbing emissions from a category of small engines on pace to produce more pollution each year than passenger vehicles. The gas-powered equipment to be banned uses small off-road engines, a broad category that includes generators, lawn equipment, pressure washers, chainsaws, weed trimmers and even golf carts. California becomes first state to bring in compulsory ethnic studies for high school students. California became the first state in the nation to make ethnic studies a required class for high school students after five years of debate. The requirement would apply to students who graduate in 2030 and was created and approved by the state Board of Education in March after Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed a similar measure last year until it was 'inclusive of all communities.' During the bill signing on Friday [10/8/2021], Newsom said students 'must understand our nation's full history if we expect them to one day build a more just society. If America's going to split apart, here's what will happen to you. California — it's always California, isn't it? — recently banned any state-sponsored trips by its employees to Ohio. This is based on a 2016 California law that imposes penalties on states that California officials deem to be discriminating against lesbians, homosexuals, bisexuals, or transgender residents. At issue is Ohio's new "conscience law," which allows medical providers to refuse to perform certain procedures, such as gender mutilation surgeries, if they violate a doctor's religious or moral beliefs. The Land of Gavin Newsom now restricts state-financed travel to 18 other states which have a combined population of 116 million people. And recently California slapped its travel restriction on states that require transgender athletes to participate in high school sports based on their sex. This trend is spreading among other states and even to cities. For ten years, Los Angeles has been restricting travel by city employees to Arizona because of its immigration policies. City departments have also been told not to do business with Arizona firms. A few years after that, L.A. added restriction on trips to North Carolina and Mississippi over their transgender bathroom laws. California Now Bans State-funded Travel to One-third of America. California's Democrats have now banned state-funded travel to so many states in protest at their legislation on social issues that the bans now cover one-third of the United States by population, after a new ban on Ohio was introduced last month. Gov. Newsom mandates shots for ALL California students from 7th to 12th grade - but exempts staff. Governor Gavin Newsom has been condemned for his 'wrong and cowardly' mandate which demands all California students from 7th to 12th grade get the COVID-19 vaccine but does not require their teachers to get the shot. Social media erupted in outrage Friday night as people pointed out the alarming difference between the rules for children and staff, with many accusing the governor of being influenced by the powerful teachers' unions. 'Kids must get vaccine, but teacher don't have to. The lesson? Kids need a better union,' one person tweeted. Newsom signs sweeping reforms, raises age for new cops to 21, can lose badge for 'racial bias'. California Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed a number of sweeping police reform bills that take aim at alleged law enforcement misconduct and will allow officers to be stripped of their badges for "racial bias" and other deemed offenses. On Thursday [9/30/2021], surrounded by what Newsom called "moral leadership" and the family members of those killed by law enforcement officers, he signed into law eight police reform bills claiming that they would increase transparency and accountability. He was joined by California Attorney General Rob Bonta who proclaimed that there is a "crisis of trust" between citizens and officers. Here's a way to guarantee 110 percent voter turnout: California Gov. Newsom Signs Law Making Universal Vote-by-Mail Permanent in State. Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a measure Monday [9/27/2021] that makes vote-by-mail permanent in California, coming after the tactic was used in 2020 and was left in place during this month's recall election. The Democrat governor issued a statement as he signed Assembly Bill 37, which now requires the state to send ballots with prepaid return envelopes to all voters in statewide elections and local contests. "As states across our country continue to enact undemocratic voter suppression laws, California is increasing voter access, expanding voting options, and bolstering elections integrity and transparency," Newsom said. We're coming up on the bad part of the 'cycle of democracy'. The cycle of democracy is attributed to Scottish economist Alexander Tytler: ["]A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship.["] With the restoration of Gavin Newsom to his California governorship through the failing 2021 recall process, the state cements its trajectory of collapse. California's Audit-Proof Scheme to Steal Elections. [Scroll down] As in 2020, ballots for the September 14 recall were mailed to every registered voter in the state, which includes at least one million illegals the DMV automatically registered to vote when they got driver's licenses. Alex Padilla handled the "motor voter" program before Newsom tapped him for the Senate seat of Kamala Harris, when Joe Biden sniffed her out for his running mate. Shirley Weber, San Diego Democrat, took over as secretary of state, and first tried to keep Larry Elder off the ballot, claiming that he failed to file the proper forms etc. Elder sued and won, and that gave the black conservative a boost in the polls. Newsom's handlers didn't like it. "I have my own operation working," crowed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and the San Francisco Democrat is also "making calls to defeat the recall of our governor." Newsom was once Pelosi's nephew by marriage, but the governor's connections are far more extensive. Gavin Newsom's grandfather was a crony of the first Gov. Brown and his son, Gov. Jerry Brown, appointed Newsom's father to a judgeship. When he announced the state of emergency in March of 2020, Newsom hailed the leadership of Nancy Pelosi, and ever since he has ruled as virtual autocrat. Newsom signed a $1 billion deal for masks with a Chinese company and hid the details even from fellow Democrats. Newsom locked down Californians while cavorting with colleagues sans mask at the upscale French Laundry. While many public schools remained shuttered, Newsom sent his own children to an upscale private school. And so on. Newsom Says Biden Supported His Move to Abolish Suburbs in California. California Governor Gavin Newsom's first move after he beat the recall effort in California was to sign legislation allowing lots to be subdivided which would effectively eliminate suburbs. The legislation was obviously frowned upon by suburban voters. As The New York Times reported, lawmakers were worried about "angering suburban voters, whose preferences for single-family home living have been regarded as politically sacrosanct." SB 9 "was furiously opposed by homeowners and local government groups who said it 'crushes single-family zoning' and would be 'the beginning of the end of homeownership in California,'" the Times said. Watch out, NIMBYs. Newsom just dumped single-family zoning. In one of his first moves after surviving the recall, Gov. Gavin Newsom took his boldest steps yet to fix California's housing shortage by signing a package of bills that will transform the state by getting rid of single-family zoning and making it easier to build the housing the state so desperately needs. Of the three housing bills Newsom signed Thursday, the most consequential is Senate Bill 9 because it will allow up to four units of housing on a single-family lot. Another, Senate Bill 10, creates a voluntary program that makes it easier for cities to upzone any urban or transit-adjacent parcel of land, including a single-family lot, to allow a building of 10 units or fewer. Democrats have little to cheer about in California recall victory. Democrats are crowing about California's Gov. Gavin Newsom surviving his recall election, and by a 64% to 35% margin. [...] Democrats outnumber Republicans in voter registrations 40-25, and Democrats who've been elected have made the state a shambles for decades. In other words, it's not just from Newsom that the state is a mess, and there's no sense of a huge sudden crisis, which probably worked to Newsom's advantage. Rolling blackouts, high energy prices, wildfires, unchecked crime, and homelessness have all become a way of life in California. Republican voter registrations have declined because a lot of Republicans have fled. So not that big a surprise that Newsom won. Democrats shouldn't count on this as a national model. Newsom in fact ran an ad hominem hate-Elder campaign, painting him solely as "Trump," and unfortunately, Elder could not fight it. Newsom had cash from his billionaire patrons across the country that Elder could not match, as well as the support of the entire Democrat political machinery. Newsom also had unions working hard to increase turnout, which means he's got favors to repay. California's Democrat Machine Protects Newsom From Defeat. The Democrat machine in California has been successful in defending Governor Gavin Newsom from defeat in Tuesday night's recall election. On Monday night, President Joe Biden campaigned for Newsom in Long Beach and made the election a referendum on President Donald Trump. Ahead of the election, Newsom's administration sent mail-in ballots to every registered voter in the state and used federal Wuhan coronavirus relief money to issue checks to voters. California: A legit recall result but evidence of fraud remains. Here are some examples of fraud in this go-round that have been reported from multiple sources: Multiple ballots mailed to residents in the mass mail-in balloting — these were reported all over, often from duplicate registrations (I know someone in Glendale who got one of these) and registered residents who had moved away decades ago. Ballot secrecy compromised as voter choices were visible from the holes in the ballot envelopes as well as through a flashlight. That's incompetent design or more likely, quite intentional. Actual problems casting ballots, for Republicans only, based on faulty or rigged election machinery. This happened in the corruption-plagued San Fernando Valley and hasn't been addressed. Evidence of tainteed voter rolls based on the 449,000 Californians who were dismissed from jury duty for not being citizens. Leftist fact-checkers who have tried to dismiss this by saying illegals aren't allowed to vote beg the question of whether such people are registered — it turns out they are, because the Superior Court Judicial Branch of California has explicitly stated that it selects jury pools based on voter rolls. It also says it gets those names from DMV registrations, which, the DMV supposedly has separated carefully citizen from noncitizen — which we know they haven't. California Governor Newsom Survives Recall Election. California voters overwhelmingly chose to keep Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom in office in a recall election on Tuesday [9/14/2021]. Newsom was spared after a projection by the Associated Press showed that a majority of voters opted against recalling him. With 61 percent of the estimated vote in, early returns showed that 5.3 million voters supported keeping Newsom in office, while 2.5 million Californians voted in favor of his removal. In remarks Tuesday evening at the California Democratic Party headquarters in Sacramento, Newsom said it "appears we are enjoying an overwhelmingly 'no' vote here tonight." One-Party Rule: When Corruption and Radicalism Collide. New York and California are glaring examples of one-party rule gone bad, resulting in tyrannies of the hard left. They are also contrasts of how the populace in one state is impotent to reject corrupt, one-party rule and how the populace of the other has availed itself of a constitutional pressure valve, the recall petition, for political self-correction. Each state demonstrates the extreme dangers of one-party rule recognized 250 years ago by America's Founders and addressed by the U.S. Constitution through federalism at the national level. [...] Californians exercised their constitutional right to recall the unpopular Governor Gavin Newsom. The September 14 election will determine whether Newsom stays or is replaced by a Republican, most likely talk-show host Larry Elder. The reasons why Californians are giving Newsom an up or down vote are several: huge encampments of the homeless, gasoline prices at $5 a gallon, fires raging, water scarce, drug use rampant, and schools among the worst in the nation. Newsom also grossly mismanaged COVID shutdowns, hurting many small businesses. [Some] California Republicans [have been] told they already voted[,] due to something 'wonky' with computers, KTLA reports. Reports of voting issues are coming out of California in advance of Tuesday's special recall election when the fate of embattled Governor Gavin Newsom will be decided, leading to confusion and suspicion among some voters. According to a local news report, residents who went to cast their votes at a Woodland Hills high school were shocked when they were told that they had already voted according to computers. The problems occurred at an early voting site at El Camino Real Charter High School where several people were informed by staffers that they wouldn't be able to cast their ballots and were given provisional ballots instead. Those who were turned away appear to have one thing in common — they are Republicans. What 'Big Government' and individual liberty mean to me: Larry Elder. California Gov. Gavin Newsom [...] who used the coronavirus to abuse his authority, overstepped his role as governor, virtually locking down the entire state and shuttering businesses, while he enjoyed himself — mask-free and indoors — with friends and supporters at a world-famous fancy restaurant. We saw the same with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi at her hair salon in San Francisco. Such hypocrisy merely adds insult to injury, however. Nearly a third of California's restaurants have permanently closed due to COVID. The state's unemployment rate is 7.6% — the second highest in the nation. Nearly 69,000 Californians filed new jobless claims for the week ending August 14, the highest total in three months for the state. One group disproportionately hurt by the type of repressive COVID policies are women — because they are often overrepresented in industries most affected by the shutdowns, such as tourism, cleaning and domestic services, and entertainment. Ironically, Newsom fervently claims that he cares about women. By contrast, I believe individuals do not need the government to tell them how to think and what to do. The notion of individual liberty and personal responsibility is the complete opposite of big government. The liberty to choose to get vaccinated, or how much to pay someone who agrees to work for me — and the responsibility for any negative outcome — is what allows a society to be healthy and strong. Somebody Paid $3.7 Million Cash for CA Gov Newsom's Estate — But Who? Somebody paid $3.7 million cash, through an LLC, for a 12,663 square foot, 8-acre estate in December 2018 that was then transferred (or gifted) to California Gov. Gavin Newsom and his wife shortly before the First Couple obtained a $2.7 million cashout mortgage loan on the property. A year after originally breaking that story we still don't know who that somebody is and whether the transaction was legal or not. Newsom's spokesperson, Nathan Click, has given two diametrically opposed explanations as to the origin of the cash, and neither hold up to scrutiny. Recall the California Ideology: The Golden State is heading for a colossal train wreck. California once was run by alternating conservatives and mostly centrist Democrats. True, paleo-liberal governors like Pat Brown greatly expanded the welfare state. But they also believed in pushing integration, building freeways, dams, aqueducts, and power plants, while preventing forest fires, directing the mentally ill into state hospitals, and ensuring the state enhanced the housing, timber, oil and gas, nuclear, and agricultural industries. So why and how would anyone deliberately destroy that heritage? Why allow California to have the highest aggregate basket of income, sales, property, and capital gains taxes in the nation, the highest gas and power prices in the continental United States, and nearly the worst schools and infrastructure, the largest populations of homeless, welfare recipients, illegal aliens, and, soon, criminals? Biden heads to Cali, accused of working harder to save Gavin Newsom's skin than US hostages. With the recall vote for California Governor Gavin Newsom now less than a week away, Democrats are frantically working to save his hide and even President Joe Biden will be pitching in as voters go to the polls to render their verdict on his political career. In news confirming what many have speculated, Biden will emerge to hit the campaign trail for the embattled governor who faces a serious threat that could derail the dreams of the ambitious product of the corrupt San Francisco Democrat machine. On Tuesday [9/7/2021], White House press secretary Jen Psaki said that Biden would travel to the left coast "early next week" where he will join efforts to energize the party faithful and to prevent a nightmare scenario for Democrats if the recall is successful. Unpopular Former CA Senator to Campaign for Unpopular Governor. Speaking as a current Californian, I wouldn't treat the recall as a done deal. Far from it. Democrats have a huge organizational advantage that they can use to rig elections (think of the 2020 presidential race as the Californication of national elections) and a pretty big cultural advantage. Newsom has bet that he can counter his unpopularity in the state by nationalizing the election. It's why his ads don't tout his accomplishments. Not only because they don't exist, but because the state machine has put all of its money on turning this into a national race so California voters don't think about what a mess the state is. Newsom's biggest ad used to feature Elizabeth Warren decrying Texas. A newer ad features Bernie Sanders. Neither of them are especially pleasant, but they make Newsom seem personable by comparison. It's a reverse shakedown. It's also unsustainable. The official explanation for California's suspicious recall election envelopes. In California, Jacqueline Timmer of American Voters Alliance reports that, in at least three California counties, the return envelopes for the recall election of Gov. Gavin Newsom have circular punch-holes in them that allow a person to see whether a voter voted to retain Newsom or not. In response, through a tweet, and through a later comment to Fox News, the clerk of one the counties (Los Angeles) said that the punch-holes assisted "accessibility for low vision voters to locate where to sign the envelope[.]" Apparently, the clerk was saying that such voters could feel on the envelope where to sign. But if a voter needs punch-holes for that, how was he able to complete the ballot in the first place? [...] Is this really an intentional scheme, or is it simply a case of innocent error? Even if it were intentional, how would we ever know? All we do know is that, under mail-in voting, such a question may arise; under direct, in-person voting, it cannot. California's Recall Election Has Already Been Stolen. California's gubernatorial recall election is officially September 14, but "Election Day" has ceased to have any meaning, Mail-in ballots were automatically sent to every registered voter on August 16. Return postage is "free," pre-paid by California taxpayers. The registration deadline was August 30, but you can still register to vote "conditionally" and cast your vote immediately, right up to and including on the 14th. Mail ballots do not have to be received by "Election Day." Ballots received up through September 21, a week after the election, will still count. Which gives the people in power plenty of time to correct any "mistakes" revealed by the initial vote tallying on September 14. You will recall that a drug-addled miscreant was recently apprehended in his car with 300 stolen mail-in ballots. The police found these ballots not due to brilliant detective work but because someone reported a man passed out in his vehicle. "Police are working with officials to ensure that all voters affected by the thefts get new ballots," reported the Los Angeles Times. The Obscenity of Paroling Sirhan Sirhan, Assassin of Robert F. Kennedy. Last week, a California parole board voted to allow the release of Sirhan Sirhan, the Palestinian immigrant to shot and killed Sen. Robert F. Kennedy (D-NY) immediately after he won the state's crucial presidential primary in June 1968. The decision to accept the parole board's recommendation now goes to the governor — who could be Gov. Gavin Newsom (D), or a replacement, if Newsom loses the Sep. 14 recall election and does not decide on the parole before he leaves. California Governor Worries His Recall is a Referendum on Joe Biden and Democrats. The Atlantic Article interviewing the perpetually inept far-left advocate for all things big government, Gavin Newsom, doesn't specifically say the California governor is worried about his recall being a wider referendum on Joe Biden, but the gorilla in the room is visible through the fear the interview conveys. The Editor says... Latest Alleged Election Fraud in California May Have Changed Election Outcome. [Scroll down] According to the complaint that was filed on Aug. 13, and which the government will ultimately have to prove, four of the defendants registered to vote at the home of another defendant, Jace Dawson, who was also a candidate for the City Council, even though they didn't live there, in order to vote in the election. Another defendant registered to vote at Galvan's house despite also not actually living in Compton. Dawson apparently saw an opportunity for mischief when Compton decided to have an all-mail election, responding to a text from another defendant giving him that news and saying Dawson should "come for that seat baby!" Dawson responded "Yeeeees absolutely!!!!" Dawson lost the primary election in April to Galvan and then apparently conspired with Galvan to help Galvan win the June general election. The texts outlined in the criminal complaint among the various defendants about their possession of the absentee or mail-in ballots of voters are disturbing. In one text, Dawson tells Galvan he has "the ballo[t]s but they didn't fill it out or sign it so I have to track them down to sign the ballot at least." Galvan responded by telling Dawson to bring "them over." In other words, Dawson apparently had possession of voters' blank absentee ballots, giving him and/or Galvan the opportunity to fill them out with the votes they wanted. And this was not an isolated incident with one ballot. White House Confirms: Joe Biden to Campaign for Gavin Newsom in California Recall. White House press secretary Jen Psaki confirmed Wednesday that President Joe Biden still intends to campaign for Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) in the Sep. 14 California recall election, despite the ongoing crisis in Afghanistan. "I can confirm, the president does still plan to go and campaign for Governor Newsom in California ... that is still certainly his plan," Psaki said. Psaki added that she did not have any particular dates or details about Biden's plans to travel to, and campaign in, California. Conservative talk radio host Larry Elder (R) leads most opinion polls among potential replacements for Newsom, should he be recalled. On Tuesday, in an exclusive interview with Breitbart News, Elder dared Biden to campaign for Newsom: [...] Larry Elder Dares Joe Biden to Campaign for Gavin Newsom. Conservative radio host Larry Elder told Breitbart News in an exclusive interview on Tuesday evening that he would welcome the prospect of President Joe Biden campaigning for incumbent Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) in the recall election. Biden issued a message of support for Newsom earlier this month. [...] Vice President Kamala Harris, a former U.S. Senator from the state, will campaign with Newsom in the San Francisco Bay Area on Friday [8/27/2021]. Voter fraud concerns [are] mounting in tight California recall election. Facing the political fight of his life and sinking polls indicating he could lose in the Sept. 14 recall election, California Gov. Gavin Newsom is now plagued by rising concerns over alleged voter fraud after the Secretary of State's Office sent out mail ballots to 20 million voters. Earlier in the year, the state legislature passed a measure to send out mail ballots to every registered voter whether they asked for one or not. Newsom's opponents argue this was done as a way to protect him from losing, suggesting the only way he could win was through fraud. Two legislators sued Newsom last year over an executive order he issued changing election procedure. The lawsuit is on appeal and expected to go to the U.S. Supreme Court. One of the plaintiffs, State Rep. Kevin Kiley (R-Rocklin), is running to replace Newsom. If you're on the fence about the Gavin Newsom recall...
[Thread reader] [H]ere are reasons with references why you should vote YES to recall Gavin Newsom:
California
Earthquakes Can't Do As Much Damage As Progressive, Blue State Government. Here's where California is today after two decades of
progressive, Blue State governance:
Prop. 22 is ruled unconstitutional, a blow to California gig economy law. California's giant ride-hailing and delivery companies suffered a setback Friday [8/20/2021] as a state Superior Court judge invalidated a 2020 ballot proposition that allowed Uber, Lyft, DoorDash, Instacart and other app-based businesses to classify their workers as independent contractors. In a lawsuit brought by the Service Employees International Union and several drivers, Alameda County Superior Court Judge Frank Roesch ruled that Proposition 22 is unconstitutional and unenforceable. That's in part because the law, Roesch wrote, infringes on the power of the Legislature explicitly granted by the state Constitution to regulate compensation for workers' injuries. Can Larry Elder Save California? The answer to the question posed by the title is "No," at least not alone, and I suspect Larry Elder would agree. But the hack cliché is that every journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, and dumping Governor Hairstyle in favor of someone who is not a complete buffoon is a necessary first step. Word on the street is that Larry Elder is the most likely to win if Question 1 ("Should we dump this idiot Newsom?") and move on to Question 2 ("Now that we're rid of that twit, who do we want to foist this thankless job upon?"). [...] The Democrats thought they were smart, and among their antics (like moving up the recall election to mid-September thinking it would help them but instead planting it right inside the Delta wave) was not entering any big-name Democrat for Question 2. In California, your recall vote is not secret. As the California recall referendum approaches, we know that the leftist California gang determined to entrench Gov. Gavin Newsom in power, no matter how unpopular he is with voters and no matter how much they want him out, has been busy. So here's the latest rig they've cooked up, exposed very well by an apparently concerned liberal named Jennifer Asper. [Video clip] Seems the envelope to the state's mail-in ballots, which have already gone out except reportedly to people who signed the recall referendum petition, contains two holes. Those two holes expose the contents of the one-vote ballot in exactly the right strategic place. Asper's Instagram and Twitter video, done very well, demonstrate the problem. Larry Elder vows to do away with vaccine, mask mandates in Calif. if elected governor. Larry Elder, prominent conservative talk radio host and a leading candidate in the California gubernatorial recall election, vows to end mask and vaccine mandates in the Golden State if elected. "When I become governor, assuming there are mandates for masks and statewide mandates for vaccines, they will be suspended right away," said Elder during a news conference on Zoom, according to a report by the San Francisco Chronicle. "This is America. We have freedom in America." While Elder himself has been vaccinated and believes "vaccines work" he said he doesn't believe the government should decide for people. He thinks that the irreversible health care decision of whether or not to get a vaccine should be up to each person. Elder indicated that he personally chose to get vaccinated under his doctor's advice due to his age, 69, and an underlying health condition. Elder, who calls himself the "The Sage from South Central," also took to Twitter to confirm his position and make clear that any face mask or vaccine mandates in place will be "immediately revoked," not if, but when he is elected governor. Elder Ignores Mainstream Media in First Online Press Conference. Neither the Los Angeles Times nor Politico (both of whom had multiple reporters) and a host of other mainstream media suspects, including the Associated Press, got to ask a single question Friday at Larry Elder's first online Zoom press conference for the California gubernatorial recall. The likes of the Bay Area Yu Channel, the Sing Tao Daily and Lynn Ku of KTSF did. If you enjoy seeing MSM stuffed shirts being upended, it was quite a hoot. A reporter from the LAT — I won't name him out of a courtesy he didn't seem to have himself — was throwing a tantrum in the Zoom chat room due to his receiving a lack of attention. And if you sense a pro-Asian bias in all this, you are obviously correct and it was obviously deliberate on the part of the Elder campaign. These seemingly small Asian outlets — considering the size of California's Asian community, they could be quite big in actuality — were given the only opportunities to ask questions. And their questions were quite substantive. It was rather like the reverse of a White House press conference, particularly during the Trump era, when question after question from CNN et al was of the "When did you stop beating your wife?" nature. The LA Times begs Californians not to boot Newsom. We're one month out from the California recall election and the polls have continued to tighten, though most of them predict Newsom surviving by a slim margin. Perhaps it's the unexpected closeness of the vote that moved the editorial board of the Los Angeles Times to publish a beseeching letter to Californians, urging them to not be tempted into opting for some new blood in the Governor's mansion. Their concern for the welfare of the state (or should we simply say "the welfare state?") seems touching, but the editors also don't do a very good job of hiding their real reason for wanting to keep him. Also, when they get around to attempting to defend Newsom's performance as governor during his first term, it comes off as more of an apology for him than a defense. Don't Call It a Comeback — Biden, Harris to Stump for Newsom. [T]he man who shuttered businesses and dined at French Laundry of all places amid the wineries he shut down (except, of course, his own), has turned most of his state into a giant homeless encampment — complete with needles and excrement maps — and raised taxes to a level normally occupied by the Big Dipper is calling on an administration that has overseen ballooning inflation, a massive influx of illegal immigrants, and a hike in fuel prices that could eventually rival the '70s to save his backside? And that isn't even a deep dive into the policies of the White House and Newsom's office. Those are just the greatest hits. Oakland Chinatown Leader Demands Gov. Newsom Declare State Of Emergency. Oakland Chinatown Chamber of Commerce President Carl Chan asked Gov. Gavin Newsom on Tuesday to deploy California Highway Patrol officers to the city's troubled streets and declare a local state of emergency in an attempt to stem the rapidly rising tide of brazen robberies and violent assaults. Chan and other officials spoke at a press event late Tuesday morning [8/10/2021] that called for additional measures in Oakland to curb crime, including the deployment of more law enforcement officers and installation of more surveillance cameras. Newsom's Recall Problem Is with Hispanic Voters. Two new independent polls on California's September 14 recall election have a startling explanation for why Governor Gavin Newsom is in trouble. His support among minority communities is crumbling as issues such as crime, COVID restrictions, and a huge unemployment-benefits scandal dominate the race. The Emerson College poll found that among likely voters, 48 percent favored keeping Newsom in office versus 46 percent who want him gone — a slim two-point margin. In a new poll by SurveyUSA taken for three media outlets, the recall leads 51 percent to 40 percent. California GOP Won't Endorse A Candidate In Special Election To Recall Democratic Gov. Newsom. On Saturday morning, California Republican Party delegates opted to withhold an endorsement in the upcoming special recall election set for September 14 when Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom could be ousted from office. Officials said the decision was made "with nearly 90 percent support" during a virtual meeting the day after two influential California Republicans reportedly encouraged members of the state GOP not to endorse a candidate. Mayor of major U.S. city to pay nearly $23,000 for ethics violations. San Francisco Mayor London Breed will personally pay $22,792 in fines imposed by the city's Ethics Commission for violating ethics standards while in office, according to various reports. London Breed agreed to pay the fines imposed by the Ethics Commission, calling them "fair," the San Francisco Chronicle reported. The commission said the fines were "significant," as Breed had misused her mayoral title for her personal benefit. The Ethics Commission fined Breed for several violations, including asking then-California Gov. Jerry Brown in October 2018 to release her brother Napoleon Brown from prison, where he was serving a 44-year sentence for involuntary manslaughter and armed robbery, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. Breed and family members sent the letter to Brown in October 2018, asking for the release of her brother for crimes for which she said he had faced excessive punishment. In California, Recalls are not Just for the Governor. Just about everyone in America is aware that California Governor Gavin Newsom is facing a recall election. But California has a lot more recall news than simply the recall of its governor. In fact, the state is in the midst of a genuine recallapalooza. The state has recall challenges underway for not just the governor, but also two district attorneys and over 48 assorted mayors, city councilmen, and school board members. And that recall count is only as of July. It seems that it's not all love and harmony in the Golden State. Poll: Gavin Newsom [is] Down [by] Double-Digits In [his] Recall Election. Results of a new poll out Thursday show California Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom deep underwater with little more than a month to go until voters cast their ballots in a statewide referendum. According to a survey of 1,100 Californians conducted Aug. 2-4, more than half were in favor of Newsom's firing, while only 40 percent were opposed. The poll, conducted by Survey USA with the San Diego Union Tribune, illustrated bipartisan support for the recall effort that was also showcased in the petitions drawing about a third of all signatures collected from Democrats and independents. Republicans said they supported Newsom's removal by an 8:1 margin, while Democrats said the same 3:1. The survey is raising the alarm for team Newsom with 40 days to go until recall day on Sept. 14, when voters will decide in a yes/no question whether the governor should remain in office or be removed. Residents will then vote on a replacement. Unless a majority vote for removal, the results of the second ballot will be meaningless except for a showing of who might be the front-runner in 2022. 54% Of Hispanic Voters In California Say They Would Vote To Recall Newsom. More than half of Hispanics in California say they would vote to recall Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, according to an Inside California Politics/Emerson College poll published Tuesday [8/3/2021]. The poll of 1,000 registered voters, with a margin of error of plus or minus 3%, showed Californians are split on the issue with 46% in favor of recalling Newsom and 48% are against it. Among Hispanics, 54% said they would vote to recall. A majority of black and Asian respondents support keeping Newsom, while among whites, support for and opposition to removing the governor is evenly split, according to the poll. Newsom's response to COVID-19, a rise in crime in his state, and an uptick in unemployment are the major reasons why some people want to recall him. The special election is scheduled for Sept. 14, and 41 Californians are officially running against Newsom. Soon, no one in California will be able to bring home the bacon. In just five months, California may well be the first state in America that effectively bans any pork products. This is because, back in 2018, voters approved an animal welfare proposition setting out space requirements standards for those who breed pigs, egg-laying chickens, and veal calves. While chicken farmers and veal producers across America have mostly met those standards, it seems the hog farmers have had a harder time. This is an interesting story because it touches upon the laws of unintended consequences and the effect a state like California has on the rest of America. The Editor says... Chesa Boudin stands up for shoplifters and drug dealers. San Francisco's broad-daylight retail heists have shocked the nation in their brazenness. They've triggered the closings of stores, such as Walgreens, and the shortening of hours from retail giants such as Target. Forty-four percent of city is planning to move out, with 80% citing out-of-control crime. But the shoplifters have got a defender, too — in San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin. So do the drug dealers. The only problems out that Chesa sees are the victims. Which tells us a lot about the state of moral bankruptcy of the wokester movement, and what the New Yorker dismisses as the "backlash." Bacon in California May Soon Be More Hard to Find as Pig Rules Take Effect. Thanks to a reworked menu and long hours, Jeannie Kim managed to keep her San Francisco restaurant alive during the coronavirus pandemic. That makes it all the more frustrating that she fears her breakfast-focused diner could be ruined within months by new rules that could make one of her top menu items — bacon — hard to get in California. [...] Animal welfare organizations for years have been pushing for more humane treatment of farm animals but the California rules could be a rare case of consumers clearly paying a price for their beliefs. California's recall is America's final warning. On September 14, Californians of all political persuasions will answer two questions on their ballot: 1) Do you want to recall Gov. Gavin Newsom? 2) Whom do you want to replace him? The fate of our nation will be determined by the outcome of those two questions. How can I say that? First, you have to know what's really going on, so let's pull back the curtain. Months ago, Ric Grenell publicly said he had no interest in running for governor because Pelosi's daughter said there wasn't going to be a recall. If it came down to it, Feinstein would have a sudden reason to retire, and Newsom would appoint himself to fill that Senate seat. Yet here we are, with a recall election on the calendar. What changed? We the People. The recall signature effort shocked the world just by forcing the vote to happen. The establishment greatly underestimated how much Californians loathe this governor. He's toast. Damaged goods. The challenge now is to mitigate his impact going forward. The Dissident California Right Is the Future. The new Left came to power convincing voters to let it run the state on behalf of multiple imagined victims and social inequities, but it has been so long since their leftist politics delivered anything of actual use to anyone that no honest person in the state can be ignorant of the actual political system and its objective anymore. California is now composed of an enormous priestly class of state and municipal workers, together with myriad quasi-independent contractors and semi-private companies which are essentially dependent upon state government contracts and largesse for their economic survival, united with extremely profitable nonprofit activists and the already fantastically wealthy using the sympathetic story of the state's enormous homeless, poor, and immigrant population to ensure perpetual rule for themselves. It doesn't matter that nothing ever gets better for this last group — that homelessness increases exponentially, or that the poor are increasingly without decent housing, energy, education, or healthcare. SEIU to Newsom: Stuff your vaccine mandate. The civil war brewing between Democratic executives and the unions that elect them spread to California yesterday — and at the worst moment for Gavin Newsom. Facing a recall election prompted by his incompetent handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, Newsom rushed to match Joe Biden's actions by imposing a vaccine-or-mask-and-test mandate on the state's workforce. The union representing the largest number of those workers publicly blasted Newsom for his unilateral abrogation of the collective bargaining agreement and declared that they would refuse to cooperate. California governor Gavin Newsom compares unvaccinated to drunk drivers. California Governor Gavin Newsom has compared unvaccinated individuals to drunk drivers. He appeared on CNN to discuss the recent spike in coronavirus cases due to the Delta variant. As US health authorities are considering re-instating mask guidelines even for vaccinated adults due to the surge of cases, Mr Newsom claimed that individuals who refused to take the vaccine posed a risk to the public similar to drunk driving. "It's like drunk drivers, you don't have the right to go out and drink and drive and put everybody else at risk including your own life," Mr Newsom said. San Fran to spend $300,000 on designer garbage cans despite worsening homeless crisis. Thanks to misplaced Democrat priorities on the local and state level, the entire state of California is slowly turning into a dumpster fire. On the state level, Democrat-run cities like San Francisco are preparing to spend up to $300,000 for designer trash cans as crime continues to spike. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the city's Board of Supervisors is convinced that the root of the city's endless crisis is all the trash and litter on the streets. "Our streets and our sidewalks are a mess and the cans we have out there now are actually part of the problem," one supervisor, Matt Haney, said to the Chronicle. Plummeting reservoir levels could soon force Oroville hydropower offline. A major California hydroelectric power plant could soon stop generating power amid worsening drought conditions. According to state water officials, the Edward Hyatt Powerplant at Lake Oroville could go offline as soon as August or September — a time frame that would coincide with a feared power crunch this summer. The plant, which opened in the late 1960s, has never been forced offline by low lake levels before. "I think it's a bit shocking," said Jordan Kern, a professor at the department of forestry and environmental resources at North Carolina State University. "The fact that it's projected to go offline just speaks to how severe the drought is," said Kern, who studies how power grids are impacted by extreme weather. 'Their Hands Are Tied': San Francisco Locals Demand Change To Stop Brazen Crime. San Francisco local businesses and employees are calling for change as they describe increasingly brazen shoplifting and car break-ins. Many residents told Fox News they believe changing California law Proposition 47 is the solution. "The police are actually wonderful, their hands are tied, that's what's going on out here." Gianni, a local who works in Fisherman's Wharf, told Fox News. San Francisco Police Department's Public Information Officer, Robert Rueca explained "There's a threshold of 950 dollars that needs to be met in order for a misdemeanor to turn into a felony when it comes to theft." Judge Orders California to Include Larry Elder on Recall Election Ballot. Late Wednesday afternoon, attorney Harmeet K. Dhillon announced that a California judge has ordered Secretary of State Shirley N. Weber to include Republican Larry Elder on the final ballot for the September 14 gubernatorial recall election. The ruling applies to two concurrent suits brought against Weber to remedy the fact that Elder was left off Monday's preliminary list of candidate names. Dhillon and her colleague attorney Mark Meuser represented California voter Betty Chu while Larry Elder was represented by attorney Steve Baric: [Tweet] Newsom threatens: We might be headed back to lockdowns and school closures if people don't get vaccinated. It's an indirect threat. He doesn't say anything will definitely happen, rather that Californians won't need to "worry" about in-class instruction and closing small businesses again if more people get vaccinated. And if they don't, then...? My memory's starting to fail in old age but I could have sworn that the CDC and the American Academy of Pediatrics issued guidance within the past two weeks that schools must reopen this fall. No matter how bad the pandemic gets, depriving kids of any more classroom time is too dangerous to their development. Make 'em mask up, spread out, open the windows, do whatever you've gotta do. But keep them in class. Evidently Newsom didn't get the memo. License to shoplift: Two thieves brazenly stroll out of TJ Maxx with armfuls of clothes. Two men casually walked out of a Los Angeles area TJ Maxx with their arms full of what appears to be stolen goods as brazen shoplifters continue to rampage through California retail stores. Viral video posted earlier this week shows two men carrying armfuls of jeans, jackets and other apparel as they casually saunter out of a TJ Maxx in the Granada Hills section of the San Fernando Valley north of Los Angeles. 'That looks great,' one man is heard saying in the video as the two men head toward the door with the stolen loot, making no haste as they leave. This Is What's Become Of California Since They Decriminalized Shoplifting. This is what is happening daily in California these days now that legislators voted in Prop 47, where thefts under $950 will not be prosecuted, so cops will not bother showing up. The account shared a shocking video Tuesday of what they call an "organized shoplifting crew" hitting a TJ Maxx store in La Canada Flintridge, an L.A. environ. The video shows two black men casually strolling out of the store with their arms full of merchandise still on their hangers. One of the men carries a large, oversized duffle bag on his back, clearly filled with more items. Pausing a minute to consider the damage leftism does to America. In California, robberies of items worth less than $950 are misdemeanors, not felonies. Moreover, in both San Francisco and Los Angeles, the prosecutors whom George Soros placed in office will not prosecute crimes. They exist to protect criminals, not law-abiding citizens. And that is how you end up with this video: [Video clip] This Shocking Video Shows Just How Brazen Crime In California Has Become. California's slide into chaos has not been an accident. A huge reason for the striking rise in homelessness and both petty and violent crime is Prop 47, a bill deceptively titled the Safe Neighborhoods and Schools Act. The actual bill couldn't be further from the title. It reduces the penalties for felony crimes, allows for early release of violent criminals, changes some violent felonies to misdemeanors, and allows criminals to steal up to $950 dollars per day in property without prosecution. As a result, police officers are less and less likely to respond to calls reporting petty theft, as there isn't much they can do with a suspect. California is releasing 76K inmates early, including violent felons. With little notice, California on Saturday is increasing early release credits for 76,000 inmates, including violent and repeat felons, as it further trims the population of what once was the nation's largest state correctional system. More than 63,000 inmates convicted of violent crimes will be eligible for good behavior credits that shorten their sentences by one-third instead of the one-fifth that had been in place since 2017. That includes nearly 20,000 inmates who are serving life sentences with the possibility of parole. LAPD to stop charging criminals for many offenses. Law enforcement and the incarceration of known criminals is such a 20th-century concept, right? That seems to be the message once again coming out of Los Angeles now that ultra-liberal George Gascon is in charge of the county District Attorney's office. The latest announcement coming from the LAPD is that more suspects who are arrested for a variety of non-violent crimes, including some felonies, will not be taken to court, prosecuted, or put in jail. Instead, they will be "diverted" to community support programs and social services. Rather than incarceration, the suspects will be provided with "care and treatment" without facing the stigma of being treated like a criminal. And just as a reminder, this new policy is being put in place at the same time that the city is facing a historic surge in crimes of all types. California pays Liberty Counsel $1.35 million to settle Harvest Rock lawsuit. One year after Liberty Counsel sued Gov. Gavin Newsom on behalf of Harvest Rock Church and Harvest International Ministry, the state of California paid a settlement of $1.35 million on July 15. As a result of Liberty Counsel's lawsuit, a federal district court in May approved the first state-wide permanent injunction in the U.S. against COVID restrictions on churches and places of worship. Under the statewide permanent injunction, all California churches were allowed to hold worship services without discriminatory restrictions. The injunction also required the state of California to pay $1.35 million to Liberty Counsel to cover attorney's fees and other costs. The money will be used to continue litigation on behalf of other churches against COVID restrictions, including a case pending before the U.S. Supreme Court, the nonprofit religious freedom organization said in a statement. Why Joe Biden Won't Defend Women from Transgenders. The issue of transgender 'rights' is hot right now because more people are beginning to understand that they are waging a rights war on women and girls. Recently, at the Wi Spa in Los Angeles, a man escorted by two self-professed lesbian activists paraded his intact male genitalia around in the area of the spa supposedly reserved for the female clientele (including very young girls). California Civil Code 51(b) is being interpreted as meaning that male indecent exposure is now legally acceptable. Which means that adult males can parade around exposed in full view of young girls and claim this is a transgender 'right.' After San Francisco shoplifting video goes viral, officials argue thefts aren't rampant. A flurry of shoplifters in masks and hooded jackets sprinted from a downtown Neiman Marcus last week and into getaway cars with armfuls of designer handbags — a scene captured on video and raising fears that rings of thieves were hitting retail businesses. The incident, which remains under investigation, was only the latest to give an impression of lawlessness running rampant in San Francisco's stores, where people have been caught on recordings openly swiping products seemingly without repercussion. But city leaders are pushing back at that image after the release Monday [7/12/2021] of a midyear public safety report. Police data shows overall thefts are down 9 percent in the first six months of the year compared to the same period in 2020, when the city was on lockdown and many businesses closed during the onset of the pandemic. California issues school mask mandate and rescinds it within hours. This turned out to be one of the quicker cases of a governmental about-face in recent memory. Despite the CDC's recent guidance saying that it was safe to go back to in-person learning at schools and universities without the need for masks, the state of California decided to make up its own rules yesterday. State health officials not only ignored the CDC guidance but went several steps further. The new instructions would have forced schools to bar students from campus if they refused to wear a mask. That lasted for approximately four hours. Then Gavin Newsom and state public health Director Mark Ghaly apparently thought better of it. They won't be issuing orders for colleges and universities, and the "mandate" for public K-12 schools will leave the decision up to the schools. So in reality, there is no mandate at all. San Francisco Political Leaders Out of Touch as City Descends Into Lawlessness. If you don't like the explosion of violent crime, you're a racist. That's the message sent by a top aide to the San Francisco district attorney to a self-described "Democrat" who had said on Twitter that the jump in crime had made people afraid for their lives and dubious about the city's future. The Democrat tweeted that "every single one of my friends right now is considering leaving" San Francisco because of the big increase in crime, adding: "My friends are scared for their children, and their husbands are scared for their wives." Kate Chatfield, a senior director for San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin, responded from a now-locked Twitter account: "'Husbands are scared for their wives' — your reminder that the 'crime surge' crowd shares the same ideology as The Birth of a Nation." The Unlivable City. People are fleeing California in general, and San Francisco in particular, in droves. As to San Francisco, the fundamental problem is lawlessness. Which means not just violent crime, which the city has in abundance, but a breakdown in the fundamental norms of civilization that make urban living possible. The main problem is that San Francisco's far-left city administration has decided not to prosecute theft. The result, naturally, is an epidemic of theft. Thus Target, for example, is now closing its San Francisco stores at 6 p.m. [...] How low has San Francisco sunk? Check out this video of thieves openly stealing handbags and similar products from a Neiman Marcus store: [Video clip] What's happening in San Francisco goes far beyond 'shoplifting'. We're hearing a lot about the overwhelming number of murders and attempted murders in Chicago and New York. San Francisco, however, has gone in a different direction. It seems to have become the "shoplifting" capital of America. This honor goes along with its long having been the capital of America for car break-ins. It's so bad that I know suburbanites who refuse to drive in the City. The latest "shoplifting" video is an impressive one, showing a whole gang of thieves racing out of San Francisco's Neiman Marcus store on Union Square, clutching what appears to be thousands of dollars in handbags. California taxpayers to pay $1.3 billion to enroll more illegal immigrants in Medicaid. California taxpayers will soon pay more in taxes to enroll more illegal immigrants in Medicaid, a plan that was part of a recently approved state budget. Younger illegal immigrants are already enrolled in Medicaid, SNAP and other federally funded programs. The plan proposed by California Democrats guarantees that low-income illegal immigrants older than age 50 will receive health insurance. Coverage would take effect in 2022 and cost taxpayers $1.3 billion per year. It follows a $213 billion taxpayer-funded plan proposed in 2019 to allow low-income illegal immigrants between the ages of 19 and 25 to enroll in Medicaid. Democrats then estimated that adding 90,000 people to Medicaid would cost taxpayers $98 million per year. The Genesis of Our American Collective Meltdown. [Scroll down] California is the worst run of our states. But it is also always a helpful bellwether of where we are descending. The state has plenty of oil and natural gas. There are still remnants of a once thriving nuclear and hydroelectric industry. But power outages are now commonplace — to the point that, like Third-Worlders, we merely shrug when the lights go out as if it were a green way of reducing carbon emissions. Forty million people driving on roads and highways intended for 20 million people [...] Gas can range from $4.00 to over $5.00 a gallon; $100 fill-ups are common. [...] Californians are leaving in droves, but housing costs are still soaring. [...] High-speed rail is a tragic joke. It is inert and unfinished. The ostentatious half-built overpasses stand like modern graffiti-stained versions of Stonehenge. [...] Mention San Francisco to a Californian, and the same, monotonous warnings arise: don't go there! And if you must, don't park there — since smashing into a car and stealing its contents are viewed as understandable redistribution rather than criminal acts. [...] In California, logging an acre of timber is insurrectionary; 400,000 acres going up in smoke is "stuff happens." Target, Walgreens make drastic changes due to increase in San Francisco thefts. According to the California Retailer's Association three cities in our state are among the top 10 in the country when it comes to organized retail crime — Los Angeles, San Francisco and Sacramento. Already we are seeing the negative impact it is having in San Francisco with stores permanently shutting down or closing early. It has become one of the most pressing issues in our city today. Target has now acknowledged that San Francisco is the only city in America where they have decided to close some stores early because of the escalating retail crime. California bans state travel to Florida, 4 more over anti-LGBTQ laws. California officials have added Florida and four other states to a list of places where state-funded travel is banned over laws that purportedly discriminate against LGBTQ individuals. State Attorney General Rob Bonta, a Democrat, announced Monday that Arkansas, Montana, North Dakota and West Virginia had joined Alabama, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee and Texas on the no-go list, which was first created in 2016. "When states discriminate against LGBTQ+ Americans, California law requires our office to take action," Bonta said in a statement. "These new additions to the state-funded travel restrictions list are about exactly that ... Rather than focusing on solving real issues, some politicians think it's in their best interest to demonize trans youth and block life-saving care. What Was California Thinking? Back in 2014, the political leadership of California became alarmed at the rapidly rising prison population in the state. The state was also under court order to reduce the overcrowding in state prisons. [...] The first thing they did was pass Proposition 47 — the Safe Neighborhoods and Schools Act. That sounds like something everyone would want. 58% of Californians voted in favor of the measure. [...] Nothing in Prop 47 was designed to actually reduce crime. It redefined drug use and theft of property valued at under $950 as misdemeanors rather than felonies. Punishment would no longer be imprisonment, but a fine of $1,000. The objective of prison population reduction was achieved by not incarcerating criminals, rather than by eliminating criminal behavior. [...] Prop 47 also allows those imprisoned under previous guidelines to petition for early release. If a convict is in prison for stealing less than $950, he is now eligible for early release. As many as 10,000 state prisoners have been released. Amid Surging Crime Rates And Murders, Oakland City Council Votes To Defund Police. Despite recently receiving $190 million from the Biden Administration, the City Council of Oakland, California voted Thursday to defund their police department by almost $18 million. The city's crime rates have skyrocketed, seeing a 90 percent increase in murders, 88 percent increase in carjackings, and 70 percent increase in shootings all in the last year. Sixty-five lives have been lost, and 1,300 robberies have been recorded, yet, the city redirected police funds toward the Department of Violence Prevention, "with the intention of improving public safety" via alternate means. On Monday [6/28/2021], the Department of Violence Prevention's chief was interrupted during an on-camera interview by an attempted armed robbery. The department's chief was being interviewed on the steps of Oakland City Hall, when they were attacked. The suspects remain outstanding. California Democrats seek to change rules ahead of Newsom recall. California Democrats hope to pass an election reform bill that would help Gov. Gavin Newsom stave off a likely recall election later this year. Assembly Bill 152, first proposed in the California State Assembly in January and currently under consideration by the state Senate, would "allow the Secretary of State to certify the sufficiency of the signatures before the Joint Legislative Budget Committee has had 30 days to review and comment on the estimate if the Legislature has appropriated funds it determines are reasonably necessary to conduct the recall election and has designated funds for that purpose in the Budget Act or another statute." Under current state law, the Department of Finance issues a cost estimate, and then the Joint Legislative Budget Committee has 30 days to review and comment on the costs. Why Newsom Needs to be Recalled. [Scroll down] A large part of the focus of the recall effort has been Newsom's response to the pandemic, which has seemed heavy-handed to many residents, with questionable lockdowns and other restrictions on daily life. And, of course, there's the nausea-inducing spectacle of Newsom flouting his own lockdown to party it up at one of the most exclusive restaurants in the country, Napa's famous French Laundry. While Newsom deserves all the scorn rained down on him for that incident, it is a sideshow, really. Its only long-term value may be to awaken the residents of California to Newsom's shallow approach to governing the state and his reluctance to address California's chronic problems. Finally, there's the issue of Newsom's dereliction as the head of California's administrative bureaucracy. There hasn't been a lot of reporting on the billions of dollars in fraud discovered in California's unemployment insurance program, but it is an outrage and as the chief executive of the state, he bears ultimate responsibility. The Solution To California's Water Crisis Lies Off Its Coast. In California 1 to 1.5 acre-feet will supply a year's water for the average household. Lake Shasta, the largest reservoir, holds 4,552,000 acre-feet. It would cost about $1.4 million to add 634,000 acre-feet, enough to support 2 million people yearly, including adding more water to be added to agriculture. However, the SWCB is environmentally opposed to any height addition to the Shasta dam. Indeed, across California, deep-rooted environmentalism has made it difficult to put into practice solutions to increase water storage or produce new water through desalination. California set to extend state eviction moratorium beyond June and cover 100% unpaid rent for struggling tenants. Lawmakers in Sacramento are poised to extend statewide eviction protections beyond the end of June to ensure emergency rental aid reaches struggling tenants in time to cover potentially all of their unpaid rent during the pandemic, a move strongly backed by local renter advocates and met with resistance by many landlords. The underlying issue is that state and county governments have been slow to distribute the $2.6 billion in federal funds to cover back rent. In Sonoma County, officials have so far disbursed less than 10% of the $32 million set aside for its rental aid program. Renter advocates fear that if a statewide moratorium on most evictions is not extended, many tenants won't receive assistance in time to stay in their homes and avoid crushing debt. San Francisco cops say viral Walgreens shoplifting incident is par for the course. San Francisco has become a shoplifter's paradise — with thieves like the one caught on video looting a Walgreens emboldened by relaxed punishment for the crime as businesses shutter, cops say. The Walgreens heist, which happened right in front of a security guard, renewed the debate over a controversial city law called Proposition 47. "What happened in that Walgreens has been going on in that city for quite a while," San Francisco police Lt. Tracy McCray said on Fox News' "America's Newsroom" Wednesday. "I'm used to it," McCray continued. "I mean, we can have a greatest hits compilation of people just walking in and cleaning out the store shelves and security guards, the people who work there, just standing by helplessly because they can't do anything." Police investigating attempt to steal SF school board recall petitions. This actually happened about two weeks ago but it just got covered in the San Francisco Chronicle last Friday [6/11/2021]. The backstory here is that a group of parents in San Francisco have launched a recall petition aimed at three members of the school board. Fed up with the board's focus on renaming schools (on the grounds that current names are racist) and ending merit based admissions to Lowell High School (on the grounds that meritocracy is racist), the group is trying get Board President Gabriela Lopez, former Board VP Alison Collins and Faauuga Moliga recalled. They have been collecting signatures to get the issue on the ballot. Gov. Newsom won't lift virus 'state of emergency'. While California will end most of its coronavirus restrictions on June 15, Gov. Gavin Newsom said Friday he will not lift the statewide "state of emergency" that gives him broad powers to either suspend or declare new rules and regulations. California has been under a state of emergency since March 4, 2020. Since then, Newsom has authorized billions of dollars in emergency spending and issued at least 47 executive orders to alter or suspend 200 state laws and regulations because of the virus, according to a resolution authored by Republican state senators. California Gov. Newsom Releases His Political Prisoners. June 15 should be celebrated as the Golden State Independence Day. On this date, more than 15 long months after he issued his first imperial order limiting the movements of an ostensibly free people, Gov. Gavin Newsom reopened the state. "Never Again" should replace "Eureka" on the Great Seal of California as a reminder of the misery inflicted by the governor. It's arguable that no other state was more restrictive during the coronavirus pandemic. WalletHub ranked California 45th in "fewest COVID-19 restrictions." But because California has, at nearly 40 million, more residents than the five states (and District of Columbia) that were more restrictive, a case can be made that its lockdown rules were more stringent since they affected a greater number of people. Newsom, sued 55 times by Californians who felt they had been unfairly bound by his commandments, took a heavy-handed approach to the coronavirus outbreak. Columnist Steven Greenhut observed as early as May of last year that Newsom was acting as the "King of Sacramento" and Californians had little choice but to serve at his pleasure. Slammed by COVID-19 Shutdown, San Luis Obispo Boosts Newsom Recall. Though in-person service came and went at the Paso Robles winery Paix Sur Terre during the pandemic, alcohol consumption skyrocketed, making for winemaker Ryan Pease's "best year ever." But despite personal gains, Pease couldn't shake the feeling of guilt when talking to neighbors who struggled to run restaurants and small businesses throughout San Luis Obispo County. When the opportunity came to back a recall petition to oust Gov. Gavin Newsom, the lifelong Democrat signed his name. "Our mindset here is, because we're so isolated from other metropolitan areas, we take care of each other. We create our own economy," said Pease, 37. "Even though I'm a Democrat and blue, we don't like to be told what to do here." Gavin Newsom Goes Back on His Word, State of Emergency Will Remain in Place After June 15 Deadline. On Friday, Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) alerted state residents that he was not going to lift he state of emergency on June 15, which was the proposed date. Newsom made the announcement during a press conference while announcing winners of a vaccine lottery, "Vax for the Win," where those selected win $50,000 cash prizes. By the way, it's taxable. Welcome to California, the state with the highest income tax. The casual reveal came during what Eric Ting of SF Gate called a "testy press conference" in his headline, also indicating in his piece that it was "often tense." The exchange was between Newsom and AP reporter Adam Beam, who referenced the June 15 date. California State Water Board is Manufacturing a Drought by Draining Reservoirs into the Ocean. "In the last 14 days, 90% of Delta inflow went to sea. It's equal to a year's supply of water for 1 million people. #ManMadeDrought," Central Valley farmer Kristi Diener said. Diener, a California water expert and farmer, has been warning steadily that water is unnecessarily being let out to sea as the state faces a normal dry year. "Are we having a dry year? Yes," Diener says. "That is normal for us. Should we be having water shortages in the start of our second dry year? No. Our reservoirs were designed to provide a steady five year supply for all users, and were filled to the top in June 2019." If there's one thing a tyrant loves, it's a "state of emergency." California Ordered to Pay $2 Million in Legal Fees to Church that Violated Coronavirus Restrictions. After a lengthy court battle, the government of the state of California backed down in its efforts to enforce coronavirus restrictions on a church that continued hosting in-person worship services, and has now agreed in a settlement to pay the church's $2 million worth of legal fees, Breitbart reports. When the state repeatedly attempted to enforce strict capacity limits, mask mandates, and other "social distancing" requirements on the San Diego-based Pentecostal church, the church's lawyers filed suit with the United States Supreme Court, winning all three suits. This ultimately led to lawyers on behalf of the state of California agreeing to the settlement, which was approved by a federal judge. Responding to the settlement, an attorney with the Thomas More Society, a legal group that represents churches facing suppression of their First Amendment rights, pointed out that while businesses such as Costco were limited to 50 percent capacity, while churches were forced to stay as low as 25 percent, and sometimes even lower. Chesa Boudin blames lazy, racist cops for San Francisco's crime surge and his own unpopularity. Apparently, all would be paradise in crime-pit San Francisco if it weren't for all those lazy, racist cops who are persecuting poor, heroic Chesa Boudin, the city's leftist do-nothing district attorney. That's the word from young Chesa, stepson of Bill Ayers, son of a terrorist convicted of killing a black cop, and former Hugo Chávez adviser, who's suddenly found himself unpopular in the city and facing a voter recall. Judge orders Calif gov Newsom to pay $1.35 million for illegally locking down church. I am pretty certain that California taxpayers will have to cough up the money to pay for Gavin Newsom's misbehavior, even as cop-haters press to make police officers personally liable for judgments against their actions on the job. Nonetheless, it is a satisfying development in the disposal of Newsom's unconstitutional shutdown of religious services in the name of COVID. [...] The order came as part of a settlement agreement between Harvest Rock Church, represented by Liberty Counsel, and the state of California that also included a permanent injunction against imposing restrictions on churches and other houses of worship. CA Gov. Newsom Ordered to Pay $1.35M in Legal Fees for Shutting Down Churches. This week, a California District Court approved the settlement of Harvest Rock Church and Harvest International Ministry's lawsuit against Gov. Gavin Newsom, establishing the first state-wide permanent injunction in the country against COVID restrictions on churches and places of worship. The Liberty Counsel, a nonprofit religious rights law firm, represented Harvest Rock in their legal proceedings against the governor and the state. Under the settlement agreement, discriminatory restrictions on worship and religious gatherings may no longer be applied to churches and places of worship. Newsom Forced to Pay 1.35 Million in Church Lawsuit, Continues to Happily Gaslight. Last week, a California District Court approved and entered a Settlement Agreement between Harvest Rock Church (HRC), Harvest International Ministries, and Governor Gavin Newsom. HRC filed a lawsuit back in 2020 opposing the COVID restrictions that shut down in-person worship throughout the state. The Supreme Court's April decision was the catalyst that allowed the settlement of a number of cases against Newsom and the State of California. Facing Dry Year, CA State Water Board is Draining California Reservoirs. "In the last 14 days, 90% of Delta inflow went to sea. It's equal to a year's supply of water for 1 million people. #ManMadeDrought," Central Valley farmer Kristi Diener said. Diener, a California water expert and farmer, has been warning steadily that water is unnecessarily being let out to sea as the state faces a normal dry year. "Are we having a dry year? Yes," Diener says. "That is normal for us. Should we be having water shortages in the start of our second dry year? No. Our reservoirs were designed to provide a steady five year supply for all users, and were filled to the top in June 2019." California Democratic lawmakers look to remove penalty for possessing firearm during crime. Reform-minded activists in California vow to move forward after a bill that would have dramatically reduced, and in some cases eliminated, enhanced sentences for crimes committed while using a gun failed to advance through the legislature Thursday [5/20/2021]. "AB 1509 was held in the Appropriations committee and will not move forward this year," Greg Fidell, policy manager of Initiate Justice, wrote on Twitter. "This is very painful — but we will be back stronger next year." The state lawmakers who backed the Anti-Racism Sentencing Reform Act claim the existing law, which allows prosecutors to seek additional time behind bars, is racist — 89% of the roughly 40,000 inmates serving gun enhancement sentences in California are people of color, according to figures from Restore Justice. Court Permanently Stops Gavin Newsom From Locking Down Churches. Today, a California District Court entered an order approving Liberty Counsel's settlement of the lawsuit on behalf of Harvest Rock Church and Harvest International Ministry against California Gov. Gavin Newsom. The full and final settlement was approved today the District Court and thus is the first state-wide permanent injunction in the country against COVID restrictions on churches and places of worship. Once entered by the District Court, this full settlement will be the first state-wide permanent injunction in the country against COVID restrictions on churches and places of worship. Under the agreed state-wide permanent injunction, all California churches may hold worship without discriminatory restrictions. Under the settlement, California may no longer impose discriminatory restrictions upon houses of worship. The governor must also pay Liberty Counsel $1,350,000 to reimburse attorney's fees and costs. California Governor Newsom Using Federal COVID Bailout Money to Bail Himself Out of COVID Recall Effort. California Governor Gavin Newsom is taking the federal COVID bailout money to new levels of manipulated intent by using the funds to bail himself out of a recall that is based on the COVID dictates he initiated. Thus part of the reason why the highly political federal agencies lifted the COVID rules surfaces. Politically the blue state shutdowns were backfiring, and the ramifications were getting more serious by the day. The CDC responded to the political shift against JoeBama and lifted their mandates. Simultaneously, Governor Newsom goes on a spending spree in California to provide bailout money to all the favored leftist causes. Paywatch: Thanks to the Public Employee Union, Multiple LA Lifeguards Make Nearly $400K a Year. As reported by Forbes, lifeguards in The Golden State can really clean up. Per OpenTheBooks.com CEO Adam Andrzejewski, his organization found that, in 2019, 82 LA County guardians of the shore raked in more than $200,000. Seven lifeguards reeled in more than $300,000. And — look out, Mitch Buchannon — one swim-trunked savior pulled in $391,971. Here's how Fernando Boiteux's earnings break down: $205,619 in salary, $60,452 in perks, and $125,900 in benefits. These incremental changes only go in one direction, and that is the direction of more government control of your life. Red Pills Are Falling Down All Over the Golden State. Californians are realizing how deeply deluded they have been about the condition of their state. The first signs of enlightenment came when an intrepid band of dissidents tried yet again to gather enough signatures to force a recall election of Governor Gavin Newsom. With no money, and four failed attempts already on record, nobody expected the fifth effort to succeed. But a year later, this volunteer army of several thousand Californians gathered nearly 2.2 million signed petitions. In early May, California's secretary of state will almost certainly announce certification of the signatures. And later this year, California's feckless governor will be fighting for his political life. Recalls are contagious. Inspired by the Newsom recall, efforts are now underway to force recall elections in San Francisco and Los Angeles County, targeting the District Attorneys in those cities. In the Name of Equity, California Will Discourage Students Who Are Gifted at Math. California's Department of Education is working on a new framework for K-12 mathematics that discourages gifted students from enrolling in accelerated classes that study advanced concepts like calculus. The draft of the framework is hundreds of pages long and covers a wide range of topics. But its overriding concern is inequity. The department is worried that too many students are sorted into different math tracks based on their natural abilities, which leads some to take calculus by their senior year of high school while others don't make it past basic algebra. The department's solution is to prohibit any sorting until high school, keeping gifted kids in the same classrooms as their less mathematically inclined peers until at least grade nine. Keeping the dangerous criminals out of prison isn't a winning plan. All decent people want our prisons to be safe places. One could, potentially, make prisons safer by removing the dangerous criminals from the prisons and releasing them onto the streets. Yes, the logic is there. The sense, the morality, and the justice, on the other hand, are totally absent. Sadly, California is part of a growing trend of states that believe they are choosing freedom over punishment. Instead, they are diminishing society's freedom by abandoning justice and safety. Of course, offering second chances to those who earn them is a good thing. Failing to penalize offenders adequately or deter them in the first place, though, is an invitation to cultural rot and mayhem. California Granting Early Release to 76K Inmates — Including Some Pretty Nasty Dudes. This just in from the no-longer-Golden State: California is giving 76,000 inmates, including violent and repeat felons, the opportunity to leave prison earlier as the state aims to further trim the population of what once was the nation's largest state correctional system. Shocked? Me neither. As reported by AP, more than 63,000 of the 76,000 inmates, who were convicted of violent crimes, will be eligible for "good behavior credits" that shorten their sentences by one-third instead of the one-fifth that had been in place since 2017. That includes nearly 20,000 inmates who are serving life sentences with the possibility of parole. 76,000 California Violent, Repeat Felons Get Earlier Releases. California is giving 76,000 inmates, including violent and repeat felons, the opportunity to leave prison earlier as the state aims to further trim the population of what once was the nation's largest state correctional system. More than 63,000 inmates convicted of violent crimes will be eligible for good behavior credits that shorten their sentences by one-third instead of the one-fifth that had been in place since 2017. That includes nearly 20,000 inmates who are serving life sentences with the possibility of parole. The new rules take effect Saturday but it will be months or years before any inmates go free earlier. Corrections officials say the goal is to reward inmates who better themselves while critics said the move will endanger the public. 76,000 California Inmates [are] Now Eligible for Earlier Releases. California is giving 76,000 inmates, including violent and repeat felons, the opportunity to leave prison earlier as the state aims to further trim the population of what once was the nation's largest state correctional system. More than 63,000 inmates convicted of violent crimes will be eligible for good behavior credits that shorten their sentences by one-third instead of the one-fifth that had been in place since 2017. Enough verified signatures submitted to qualify for recall of California Gov. Gavin Newsom. California Gov. Gavin Newsom will likely face a recall election after the campaign to recall the Democrat reached the requisite number of signatures to qualify for the question to be placed on the ballot this year. More than 1,626,000 verified signatures were collected, California Secretary of State Shirley Weber reported on Monday, which is more than 100,000 above what is needed to force a recount. The window for signature collection ended in March, and since then, officials have conducted a lengthy signature verification process. Voters will now have the opportunity to submit a written request to their county registrar of voters over the next 30 business days to have their name removed from the petition. Chesa Boudin and now the dead baby. It's getting harder and harder to justify San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin's let-'em-all-out prosecutorial policies. He calls it 'restorative justice.' In reality, it's bad guys go free. Last December, the radical leftwing D.A. tried to extricate himself from the deaths of two innocent women hit by a drunken thug in a stolen car who mowed them down in a hit-and-run following a burglary. The thug was a parolee who was only out on the streets because Chesa let him out of jail. After that travesty, Chesa said that other people did it, claiming "systemic failure." That excuse didn't work, and shortly afterward, triggered a public effort to recall him. Public school enrollment plunges in California — and everywhere else. Have the wokesters finally reached a tipping point? Leftists of multiple stripes have been making public schools horrible places, and now students are bolting. [...] In California, it's white students who are bolting most. The AP reports that they constitute 22% of school enrollment but account for half of the exits. They're moving on to private schools, whose enrollments are up, or to homeschooling, which is available to anyone with a literate and motivated parent. Or else just moving to a better state. It suggests that poor black and Latino kids, who form far larger demographic groups within the California districts, might just be not bolting because economically, they can't. Kroger Closing Ralphs And Food 4 Less In Long Beach Saturday Over Hero Pay Law. Kroger is closing two of its stores, Ralphs and Food 4 Less, on Saturday after the City of Long Beach mandated that the company pay employees $4 extra an hour in "hero pay" amid the coronavirus pandemic. As customers came by the store on Saturday [4/17/2021], there wasn't much left to buy and the shelves were visibly empty, but people in the neighborhood said they wanted to shop there one more time. California Dems Want the Name, Address of Everyone Who Signs a Recall Petition. California Democrats are doing it again. Whenever they're afraid that the electorate might have a mind of its own and might be tired of their shenanigans — so much that a recall against one of them might be successful — they attempt to change the rules midstream. They did this in 2017 when State Sen. Josh Newman (D-Orange County) was successfully recalled despite Democrats passing legislation that retroactively changed the number of signatures needed to qualify a recall petition. [...] Now Newman is back in the State Senate and has sponsored legislation that would allow politicians targeted by a recall to get a copy of the petition — including the names of everyone who signed it and their contact information. Why would they need that? Newman believes people who signed a recall petition against him were given false information about what they were signing and that he should have had an opportunity to correct that. Supreme Court Rules Against California's Limits On In-Home Religious Gatherings. The U.S. Supreme Court in a divided decision late Friday ruled in favor of lifting restrictions on in-home religious gatherings, overturning a lower court ruling that upheld Gov. Gavin Newsom's limits on people from different homes. The 5-4 unsigned ruling follows other similar decisions recently regarding churches and the coronavirus pandemic. The decision noted it was the fifth time the court has rejected the Ninth Circuit's analysis of California coronavirus restrictions. Chief Justice John Roberts dissented but did not sign the dissenting statement submitted by justices Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor and Stephen Breyer. The ruling stated that before it can limit religious gatherings, the government must prove they pose a greater danger than secular activities that remain open, such as shopping or attending movies. Ex-Trump Official Launches Group Looking to Flip California Red. When it comes to potential Republican challengers for Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom in a recall, Ric Grenell, the former acting director of national intelligence under then-President Donald Trump, is a name that gets mentioned frequently. Whether or not he runs is still up in the air, although he's reportedly been laying the groundwork. However, talking to Fox News this week, Grenell detailed a more ambitious goal: He wants to "Fix California." That's at least the name of his new group, which he's launching to bring "permanent" change to the Golden State after the Democratic Party there has lurched to the left. The Editor says... California's migrant mess. California, epicenter of the nation's illegal immigrant population and the first sanctuary state, hasn't seen its borders overrun due to the nearly complete border wall. The state's economy had already been smothered by extended COVID-19 lockdowns, businesses fleeing to other states, and children kept home and out of school. But relief was short-lived. San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria, County Supervisor Nathan Fletcher, and Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, all Democrats, worked out a plan to bring 1,450 minor girls to the San Diego Convention Center as a way to ease conditions in Texas. More than 500 girls are now on-site, with the rest to arrive shortly. And 70 brought COVID-19 with them. The California Left's Abuse of IRS Info. Judicial Watch is fighting to protect the First Amendment rights of non-profit donors across America from a new California law which "compels the disclosure of certain organization's donors [to its state government]." "This challenge to California law has now made its way to the Supreme Court," Fitton explained last month. Filing an amici curiae (friends of the court) brief, Judicial Watch is asking the Supreme Court to consider or take up the case. "We're obviously asking for this California law to be overturned," Fitton continued. The 'most terrifying story I have ever had to report': Glenn Beck reveals newly approved CA school curriculum. California's Board of Education voted unanimously to approve a new, multimillion-dollar Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum, which will be offered statewide with many of the state's largest school districts making it a requirement for graduation. According to National Review, the curriculum is "probably the most radical, polemical, and ideologically loaded educational document ever offered up for public consideration in the free world." On the radio program Tuesday [3/30/2021], Glenn Beck reacted to the newly approved curriculum, calling it "the craziest, most terrifying story I have ever had to report." Against California's Ethnic-Studies Curriculum. To graduate from high school in the state of California, students have to take just three years of English and two years of math. Democrats in the state are now trying to add another subject to these paltry requirements, which are among the most lax and lenient in the nation. Chemistry, biology, physics, history, geography, civics, and foreign languages have all been passed over. As it turns out, the subject that California's political machine wants taught to all children in the state without exception is ethnic studies. Today, the state's Board of Education will vote on whether or not to approve a model curriculum for this subject to be used in each and every Californian public school. The state legislature has signaled its intention to make the curriculum mandatory if the Board of Education gives its approval. If such a bill is signed into law, ethnic studies will be the only subject in California with the same pedagogical priority in K-12 classrooms as reading, writing, and arithmetic. California county funds welfare program that excludes whites and males. Something strange is going on out in Marin County, California. The elected officials there have instituted a pilot program offering a universal basic income in the form of a monthly stipend to a limited number of participants. That in and of itself isn't unique, as programs such as this have been tested in other places, such as Stockton, California. A couple of aspects of this program, however, really are unique. The most glaring among these is the fact that in order to qualify, participants have to be women. No males need apply. On top of that, the program is not available to white women, but only to women of color. Los Angeles agency votes for $36M police funding boost as crime surges. Officials in Los Angeles voted this week to re-fund their police amid an upswing in crime. Less than a year after "defund the police" fervor swept across major cities from coast to coast, Los Angeles County Metro, the region's public transportation agency, voted Thursday [3/25/2021] to boost police funding by $36 million. The vote passed 12-0, including a "yea" from Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, a major advocate of defund the police measures, who chairs the board. The money will go toward the agency's law-enforcement contracts with the Los Angeles Police Department, Long Beach Police Department and Los Angeles Sherriff's Department. Los Angeles has been among the nation's leading communities in efforts to defund the police. The Editor says... Whites need not apply. Asian-Americans Worry About Democrat Bill 'Legalizing' Mugging. Here's a snapshot of why these violent assaults keep happening. And why they're happening so often in California and New York, in areas where crime has essentially been legalized. The upsurge in store robberies in California was driven by pro-crime measures that essentially legalized shoplifting. Now the Democrats want to all but legalize robbery. [...] SB82 specifically states that, "This bill would define the crime of petty theft in the first degree as taking the property from the person of another or from a commercial establishment by means of force or fear without the use of a deadly weapon or great bodily injury." That means a mugging is now petty theft as long as the thugs don't use a gun or cause 'great bodily injury[.]' California Police Reform Bill May Ban Christians From Law Enforcement. California Assembly Bill 655 would require police departments to investigate whether not potential cops had "engaged in membership in a hate group, participation in hate group activities, or public expressions of hate." It would make such activities "grounds for termination." When Americans think of a "hate group," many minds would conjure up a domestic terrorist group motivated by racial animus like the Ku Klux Klan. Yet some transgender activists and organizations like the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) use the term "hate group" as an epithet to demonize their political and ideological opposition. The SPLC has become notorious for branding mainstream conservative and Christian groups as "hate groups" because they advocate against same-sex marriage or transgender activism. Congressional Democrats push a job-killing law even Californians couldn't stand. In the 2020 election, 63% of California voters backed President Biden. On the same ballot, those voters essentially repealed a job-killing state law that Biden and Democrats now want to impose on a national level in the form of the PRO Act. That California law, A.B. 5, attempted to force businesses that use contract and freelance workers into hiring them with employee benefits. Instead, it predictably caused freelance work to dry up throughout the state. News conglomerates cut loose their California-based freelancers. A variety of independent contractors, such as truck drivers, professional service providers, and interpreters, suddenly faced financial ruin. Legislators were forced to carve out multiple exceptions to their ill-considered law in a last-ditch effort to save it, but even that wasn't enough. In the end, Uber and Lyft, the iconic ride-share applications that the law had originally targeted, came within a hair's breadth of shutting down all service in California. A judge stepped in and blocked the law just in time. CA Dept of Ed voting on curriculum that would encourage students to chant to Aztec god of sacrifice. The California Department of Education (CDE) is set to vote on a new ethnic studies curriculum that reportedly calls for the "decolonization" of society in America and encourages students to chant to the Aztec god of human sacrifice. The curriculum will focus on "social consciousness" and cultures that have allegedly not gotten enough attention in textbooks. That would include "African American, Chicana/o/x and Latina/o/x, Native American, and Asian American and Pacific Islander studies," according to the CDE. "By affirming the identities and contributions of marginalized groups in our society, ethnic studies helps students see themselves and each other as part of the narrative of the United States," the overview states. San Francisco's Poop-Patrol Boss Made $380K, Didn't Do [His Job], And Has Been Charged With Corruption. In 2019, we highlighted a tripling in reported human waste in the public way. Citizens filed 10,644 complaints in 2014 and the number of complaints escalated to 30,996 cases by 2019. [...] Mohammed Nuru, the public works director and self-titled @MrCleanSF, was in charge of keeping city streets clean and oversaw a $500 million budget. He was indicted by the Department of Justice (DOJ) in 2020. Nuru was charged with one count of alleged public corruption and is innocent until proven guilty. "The complaint describes a web of corruption involving bribery, kickbacks, and side deals by one of San Francisco's highest-ranking city employees," said U.S. Attorney David L. Anderson. "The public is entitled to honest work from public officials, free from manipulation for the official's own personal benefit and profit." Soros' SF DA Chesa Boudin Tried Zero Murders and Only 2 Sex Assaults. There's a pro-crimes arms race among Soros DAs bent on freeing the most criminals and convicting the fewest. But even within that fishbowl, Chesa Boudin, Weatherman royalty backed by Soros, is something special. The Marina Times, which California Democrats have been trying to stamp out, has the numbers and they're something special. [...] Just keep in mind, Chesa Boudin is the DA of San Francisco, not a small town in Iowa. These are staggeringly insane numbers that paint a picture of a justice system that has essentially shut down. Gavin Newsom, In Recall Hole, Keeps Digging. California Governor Gavin Newsom gave his "State of the State" address last night [3/9/2021] and decided he wasn't giving his opponents and advocates for his recall enough ammunition. So he obliged them by choosing to frame his campaign for "equity" as a question of not going back to "normal" when the pandemic ends because "normal accepts inequity." Telling people that things will not "return to normal" after what they've been through is not a way to win friends and influence voters. It is, in fact, another reason to sign a recall petition and vote the incompetent governor out of office. Gavin Newsom's State of the State: 'I Have Made Mistakes ... but We Own Them'. California Governor Gavin Newsom delivered his annual "State of the State" address from an empty Dodger Stadium on Tuesday night [3/9/2021], hoping to rally support as he faces a likely recall election in the coming months. Newsom struck an optimistic tone, noting that the state's coronavirus numbers were improving. And he admitted errors: "We have made mistakes," he said. "I have made mistakes. But we own them. We learn from them. And we never stop trying." The Editor says... Newsom recall leaders say they have enough signatures to trigger an election. Leaders of the effort to recall California Gov. Gavin Newsom said Sunday [3/7/2021] they've collected 1.95 million signatures a little more than a week before the deadline, a number they believe will be more than enough to trigger a special recall election. County and state elections officials still need to verify that nearly 1.5 million are valid signatures from registered California voters before the recall can qualify for the ballot. But recall supporters said Sunday that they're confident they've collected enough. The most recent signature verification numbers from the Secretary of State's Office found that about 83% of the signatures counted by early February were valid. There's no guarantee that validity rate will hold for the remaining signatures, but if it does, proponents would reach the threshold needed to trigger a special recall election. Newsom films pro-vaccine PSA inside restaurant that's closed due to pandemic restrictions. Via Breitbart, is it really so hard for this guy to stay out of restaurants during a pandemic? His night out at one a few months ago might end up costing him his job. If that's not a reason to dine in until COVID is over, I don't know what is. This PSA was filmed at Los Amigos restaurant in Fresno. Fresno is in California's "purple tier," per Fox News, which means indoor dining isn't allowed. Yet there was Newsom with comedian George Lopez, firing off this PSA about vaccinations inside the building. Fox notes that he was at Los Amigos to discuss a relief grant received by the restaurant's owners to help them weather the economic storm until restrictions are finally lifted. Okay, but why did they need to meet indoors to do that? California Bill Would Give $1,000 Fines to Retailers With Separate 'Girls' and 'Boys' Toy Sections. Retail stores in most of California are only allowed to operate at 25 percent capacity. A new bill in the state legislature would ensure that whatever part of their shop is allowed to be open is as inclusive as possible. Last week, Assembly Members Evan Low (D-Cupertino) and Cristina Garcia (D-Los Angeles) introduced a bill that would require retailers to offer their toys and childcare products in a gender-neutral format. Brick-and-mortar shops would have to display the majority of their products and clothing aimed at children in one undivided, unisex area on the sales floor. They'd also be barred from putting up signage that would indicate whether a product was intended for a boy or girl. Vox vs. Reality: California unemployment fraud. [Scroll down] The problems with the California system weren't new ones and Vox pointed to California Assembly member David Chiu who it reported was "spearheading the charge" to improve it. The article contains a link to this piece in the LA Times from last August. It's headlined, "California lawmakers ask Newsom to act immediately on unemployment claims" and it describes a letter which Assembly member Chiu and a bipartisan group of lawmakers had sent to the governor. [...] You get the picture. Chiu was telling the governor to get the money out the door fast and worry about the paperwork later. And Vox was citing this as the kind of effort needed to fix the problems with the California system. In the same piece we're also informed that one of the problems with some unemployment systems is an emphasis on detecting fraud. Meet George Gascón, the Rogue Prosecutor Whose Policies Are Wreaking Havoc in Los Angeles. If you have followed our rogue prosecutor series, no doubt you were disturbed by Boston's Rachael Rollins and her list of "15 crimes" you can now commit there, appalled at the anti-police policies of Philadelphia's Larry Krasner, disgusted by the actions of Baltimore's Marilyn Mosby, nauseated by the weekly death tolls caused by the apathy of Chicago's Kim Foxx, and disconcerted by the predictable anti-victim policies of Fairfax's Steve Descano. The goal of each of these Soros-backed rogue prosecutors, as we wrote in our research paper on the topic, is to "fundamentally reverse engineer" the role of the prosecutor and to fundamentally transform our criminal justice system. To that end, they have enacted policies that favor defendants, ignore drug laws, prohibit prosecutors from filing certain misdemeanors, and require prosecutors to cut sweetheart deals with many offenders. California Suddenly Pushes Strict 'Signature Match' for Gavin Newsom Recall Drive. California Governor Gavin Newsom, once considered a rising superstar in the Democratic Party, is suddenly facing a serious effort to get him removed from power. The petition "Rescue California" has gathered over 1.5 million signatures, enough to qualify to put his recall up for a vote; but the State of California is poised to go into overdrive to throw out signatures that do not match exactly. [...] Robert Barnes, a constitutional attorney, notes that California resident Kanye West was removed from the 2020 election ticket due to signature-matching. "How did Democrats kick Kanye West off the ballot in his home state?" he tweeted. "By demanding a strict signature match. Guess what rate of signatures were rejected by the election officials? Over half. Yet the signatures magically match for the general election?" The Rescue California petition drive is thus pushing to drive far beyond the 1.4 million minumum for signatures and has set a target of at least 1.9 million, according to organizer Thomas Del Beccaro. 5.7 million Californians to receive $600 stimulus payments. On Tuesday [2/23/2021], California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a $7.6 billion coronavirus relief package providing aid to 5.7 million people. Under the package, $600 one-time payments will go to qualifying Californians, including many who were left out of receiving federal stimulus funding. "Regardless of your status, those who have been left behind in the federal stimulus, California is not going to leave you behind," said Newsom. The Editor says... California, land of delusion. The latest verbal gymnastics our local San Francisco Bay Area, 11 o'clock news team tried and failed to explain was why, when COVID cases are rapidly plummeting, we are not opening the state. There are only five counties that have "graduated" out of the deadly Purple Tier as of this morning [2/21/2021]. After months of touting the so-called crisis in ICU capacity, now we get no mention of that issue. Instead, we're treated to ten minutes of proud stories about massive new vaccination sites. These are immediately followed by stories about the lack of available vaccine doses. It's almost funny. We are exhorted to do our duty and get vaccinated, for the common good, if we can find any vaccine. I know people who desperately wanted it and had to drive for hours to locate doses. Personally, I wouldn't get the vaccine. But that's another story. Gavin Newsom's crony capitalism racket. Now that California's Gov. Gavin Newsom has a recall petition apparently reaching the threshold for ballot qualification, there's some renewed press interest in what he's about and what he really does. Unlike, say, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, whose style seems to be bullying, machine politics, and use of snarling political muscle, Newsom's racket for maintaining power seems to be crony capitalism, or, perhaps more accurately, crony socialism. This isn't surprising in a state with the highest inequality ratios in the nation — big billionaires in a couple of urban enclaves and a lot of impoverished and marginalized people pretty much everywhere else. Reason magazine points out that Newsom has found a way to positively thrive on it and, with COVID restrictions, positively supercharge himself for it. Donations 'Requested' by Newsom Exploded as His Emergency Powers Ballooned. In 2020, California Gov. Gavin Newsom's office reported that individuals or organizations made $226 million in private donations to organizations at Newsom's request. These "behested payments" were a record-setting haul eclipsing all prior donations on record by nearly $100 million. While most donations supported COVID-19 relief efforts, a closer look suggests Newsom's fundraising was supercharged not just by the pandemic, but also by the broad emergency powers the Democratic governor has assumed because of it. Behested payments are a unique feature of California politics. State law defines a behested payment as a donation to a government program or charity made "at the request, suggestion, or solicitation of, or made in cooperation, consultation, coordination or concert" with a public official. While payments of $5,000 or more are disclosed to the public, they remain an overlooked portion of politicians' finances, even though contributions often come from businesses with interests in the state government. Last year, Newsom raised a combined $45 million from insurance giants Blue Shield of California and Kaiser Permanente for Project Homekey, his housing initiative. Newsom had selected Blue Shield CEO Paul Markovich to co-chair California's task force on COVID-19 testing. In January, the governor again tapped Blue Shield, with assistance from Kaiser Permanente, to manage vaccine distribution across the state.  Funk & Wagnall's Standard Dictionary of the English Language, 1964 International Edition, Volume One, page 548. California's Multibillionaires Intend to Conquer the World. As the oldest man ever to be elected U.S. president begins his administration, his immediate blizzard of executive actions suggests the energy of someone much younger. The reason for this is obvious. Joe Biden is not running the country. He is a president in name only. The edicts coming out of the Oval Office, along with the imminent legislative initiatives, are produced by the American equivalent of a Soviet politburo, with the political and financial power behind this politburo coming from California. The political actors occupying key roles include Kamala Harris, whose role as the tie-breaker in the U.S. Senate makes her the most powerful vice president in recent memory, and Nancy Pelosi, who presides over the U.S. House of Representatives — both San Francisco Democrats. These two politicians are only the most visible Californians in a group that includes cabinet secretaries, administrative appointees, and what is by far the largest state Democratic congressional caucus. More significant is the fact that Californians also provide the financial power behind the Biden politburo, as well as the cultural power that propels the Democratic narrative. California is collapsing. The on-the-ground reality — as opposed to that portrayed in the media or popular culture — is more Dickensian than utopian. Rather than the state where dreams are made, in reality California increasingly presents the prototype of a new feudalism fused oddly with a supposedly progressive model in which inequality is growing, not falling. California now suffers the highest cost-adjusted poverty rate in the country, and the widest gap between middle and upper-middle income earners. It also has one of the nation's highest Gini ratios, which measures the inequality of wealth distribution from the richest to poorest residents — and the disparity is growing. Incredibly, California's level of inequality is greater than that of neighbouring Mexico, and closer to Central American countries like Guatemala and Honduras than developed nations like Canada and Norway. Rural Californians are fighting to reclaim their state, even if that means starting their own. Mark Baird is a third-generation Californian who hopes to one day be a first-generation Jeffersonian. Baird, like many in California's sprawling, mostly rural north, is disillusioned with his state's Sacramento-based government, which he believes no longer represents northern interests. That's why Baird and many others in the 23 counties above Sacramento have officially declared the reclamation of their state, even if it means breaking away and starting anew in the proposed 51st state of Jefferson, named for the third U.S. president. Are you feeling safer yet? A New York Post editorial quotes New York City police commissioner Dermot Shea: "We have made staggering numbers of gun arrests, taking guns off the streets from felons, but when you look, three days later, four days later, those individuals are back on the street committing more gun violence." The editorial continues by saying that years of often ill conceived criminal justice reform has set up a revolving door that frees even repeat offenders almost instantly. And "[w]orse, because everyone knows the perp will be back in the neighborhood again — and the no-bail law lets the defense know right away who has talked — witnesses are ever-harder to come by." Well, that's in one Democrat-run state. What about California? According to Hotair.com: "Through a series of measures starting back in 2014, the state of California has made it increasingly easy for people to commit property theft and get away with it[.] ... Even in cases where they do manage to catch somebody stealing, it's too often not worth the trouble of taking them down to the station because they'll just be released immediately without bail anyway." One result of this is that California businesses are shutting down for good. Organizers Reportedly Hit Number Of Signatures Required To Force Recall Vote For Gavin Newsom. Organizers behind the effort to recall California Democrat Governor Gavin Newsom said late on Wednesday evening that they have reached the number of signatures required to force a recall election this year. The multi-million dollar movement to oust Newsom from office comes in response to his handling of the coronavirus pandemic. California has had nearly a million more cases than the state with the second highest number, and just recently passed New York as the state that has had the most deaths from the pandemic. 'Woke' warriors at San Francisco school board deny gay white dad with a mixed-race daughter a place on volunteer parent committee because he is not diverse enough. A gay white father of a mixed-race child has been denied a spot on the San Francisco Board of Education's volunteer parent committee because his race doesn't bring enough diversity to the group. The issue of whether to allow Seth Brenzel to volunteer for the 15-person parent advisory council was debated for almost two hours on Tuesday night during a board meeting. The parent advisory council, who had unanimously supported Brenzel to join their all-female committee, had submitted his name to be approved by the school board. His candidacy, however, faced opposition from some board members and members of the public who argued that there wasn't enough diversity on the council — even though there are five seats currently empty. DDA Jonathan Hatami Files a Harassment Lawsuit Against LA County District Attorney George Gascon. Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon has only been in office a little over two months, but he is already a boil on the side of Lady Justice. Gascon has not only raised the ire of the Deputy District Attorneys in his office, but of District Attorneys in other counties across the State. Gascon's "Special Directives" are being disregarded by local and regional law enforcement, and the liberal-leaning District Attorneys Union has filed a restraining order against him. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Mark Arnold, and Judge James C. Chalfant have recently neutered Gascon's policies of removing enhancements and special circumstances in criminal cases, and not enforcing three-strike allegations. Several of D.A. George Gascón's reforms [have been] blocked by L.A. County judge. Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. George Gascón was barred from implementing a significant part of his sprawling criminal justice reform platform Monday, after a judge ruled his plan to end the use of sentencing enhancements in thousands of criminal cases violates California law. The order stemmed from a lawsuit filed late last year by the union that represents hundreds of L.A. County prosecutors, alleging some of Gascón's plans exceeded his legal authority and put line prosecutors in an ethical bind. Sentencing enhancements can add several years to a defendant's time in prison if certain criteria are met, such as using a gun causing severe injury during the commission of a crime, or being a documented gang member. Effort to recall Gavin Newsom moves closer to becoming a reality. An effort to recall California Gov. Gavin Newsom is nearing the number of signatures needed with over a month to go before the deadline. "It's highly possible we could get to 1.5 or 1.6 [million signatures] by the end of this week," said Anne Dunsmore, the campaign manager and finance director of Rescue California, one of the two groups responsible for the recall effort. The groups have collected 1.4 million of the 1,495,709 required to force a recall election but will likely have to collect more than the minimum as some signatures will be invalidated upon review. Dunsmore's group is hoping it can collect 2 million total signatures ahead of the March 17 deadline, something she says she is confident the group can accomplish. California's latest move to thwart its own law enforcement efforts. The day may yet come when the California legislature proposes a new bill that will actually improve the lives of its citizens, my friends, but today is not that day. The latest bit of madness to come out of the Golden State is known as Senate Bill 271, and it's clearly designed to make people less safe rather than safer. Currently, anyone wishing to run for Sheriff in any of California's counties must have either a certification of competence from the Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training or recent, equivalent salaried law enforcement experience. Makes sense, right? If you're going to put someone in charge of a major law enforcement agency, it might be nice if they actually knew something about law enforcement and the challenges that officers face out on the streets. But SB-271 would eliminate that requirement entirely. The stated reason is clear. They want people who are interested in reforming, defunding or abolishing the police to be able to run for the position. California politicians demand grocery stores pay workers more; groceries close instead. Every business operates at a risk, and the risk-reward ratio was obviously closed to the point that it didn't make sense to put effort into a store with declining profits. Is this so hard to understand? Apparently, it is, because an emotionally driven, fact-bereft city councilperson going by the name of Mary Zendejas, who sponsored the bill, said that "it really saddens me that they'd rather take away 200 jobs instead of doing the right thing, which is paying hazard pay for these local grocery store workers who risk their lives everyday they come in and who are putting their lives on the line every second they're working." There is so much wrong with this sentiment. In Zendejas's world, there is now a moral obligation of private companies to pay whatever rate is deemed appropriate by leftists on a given day. Today it's a $4-an-hour boost because everyone is a hero. Tomorrow it's a national $15-an-hour increase. These are entirely arbitrary numbers, and by Biden's logic, if there is no evidence that they upset the balance of supply and demand, then why stop there? Are TVs Attracting the Pandemic? Now that Joe Biden has been elected president of the United States and Calif. Gov. Gavin Newsom is the target of a recall effort, the science on the "Flumanchu" has miraculously changed. KTLA informs us, "After a two-month ban, Los Angeles County restaurants are once again welcoming customers for outdoor dining Friday." The get-out-of-"Wuflu"-jail order includes restaurants, wineries and breweries. Then the troll takes effect: "But when the eateries reopen, they can't have televisions on, according to the county's new health officer order." What's the science behind that senseless royal decree? Nowhere else in the country are restaurants forbidden to operate their TVs. Costco's electronics' departments have multiple TVs going from open to close, some with a screen as big as a bedsheet. Yet there have been no reports of coronavirus outbreaks in Costco. Why are televisions only potentially deadly when patrons are chewing? Pelosi, Biden and Newsom Show How Grift and Fraud Makes the Democrat World go Round. The big news out of California this week is that the utterly incompetent jackasses in the Newsom administration paid out no less than $31 billion in fraudulent unemployment payments since last April. I say "no less than" because some reports peg the number at a cool $50 billion. And that's just in one state. [...] Yeah, I guess when you're sending unemployment checks to crime organizations in China and Russia, your security measures could be said to be lacking. Facebook Says No More Ads For Movement To Recall Gavin Newsom. Fascbook is doubling down. Since the violence at the Capitol our dear leader, the almighty Zuck, has sought out to silence dissent against his comrades in the Democrat party. While of course Fascbook is free to do as they please as a private company, somehow claiming to be a free and open forum at the same time is a bit disingenuous. Their actions continue to threaten the free exercise of speech by individuals and by the press, as numerous personal accounts have been suspended for alleged "hate speech" and seemingly innocuous articles posted by news organizations on only one side of the aisle (guess which side) are now being flagged by Fascbook's "fact checkers" as false or for other vague violations. Carlsbad, CA Says No More to Lockdowns. May It Be a National Model! [Scroll down] A different, more local revolt began last weekend in Carlsbad, CA, a town just north of San Diego. Its restaurant and bar owners decided they're weren't going to take it anymore. They're no longer going to allow witless politicians to destroy what they've worked so long to build. They're going to open their businesses to eager customers. Some will ask what California legislators right up to Governor Gavin Newsom will say. Ideally the mini-revolt will wake these sick people up to the extraordinary damage they're doing, but if not it's worth reminding everyone that the very individuals in government who are presently limiting your right to work, operate your business, and live your life as you desire, used to not be in government. Some even used to have regular jobs in the private sector. The main thing is that they're not experts on medical matters, nor are they abnormally smart. They just happen to be good at politics. They're in no position to tell us how to live, or operate our businesses, or whether or not we should have a job to go to. They're just people who want power, prestige and money, only they want it the easy way. Gov. Newsom plans to cancel California's COVID-19 stay-at-home orders. California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday [1/25/2021] plans to lift regional stay-at-home orders across the state — allowing restaurants to resume outdoor dining amid the coronavirus pandemic, according to a report. Sources briefed on the governor's plans told the Los Angeles Times that all counties will return to a colored tier system that assigns local risk levels based on the number of cases and positivity rates. Most counties will go into the "widespread" risk tier, which allows hair salons to provide limited services indoors but restricts many other nonessential indoor business operations. Some elected officials and the restaurant industry have fought in and out of court to overturn the highly controversial outdoor dining ban, according to the newspaper. Calif Gov Newsom appears to be retreating on Covid restriction as recall petition signatures surge. [Scroll down] Newsom is fighting for his political life in the face of a recall petition that already has garnered 80% of the signatures necessary for a recall election to be conducted by the state. [...] The immediate spark of the surge in signatures was the release of photographs of Newsom attending a lavish birthday party at the French Laundry in the Napa Valley, one of the most famous and expensive restaurants in America, with no mask and sitting shoulder-to-shoulder with his pals, including the honoree for the occasion, a lobbyist. This in defiance of the lockdown orders he had imposed on lesser Californians. SF DA Boudin Skips Memorial For Women Killed By Drunk Parolee — to Tweet About Inmates Not Receiving Vaccines. On Friday afternoon [1/22/2021], a grieving mother who'd flown to San Francisco from Japan to collect her daughter's body and belongings spoke at a memorial for that daughter, which was held on a sidewalk near the intersection where a drunk parolee in a stolen car mowed her and another woman down on New Year's Eve. After running over Hanaka Abe, 27, and Elizabeth Platt, 60, the parolee kept going, but was quickly apprehended by law enforcement. The crash has been big news in San Francisco because the man who committed the horrific crime shouldn't have been on the street. Troy McAllister, 45, was released from prison and placed on parole in April 2020 after serving five years for robbery. He was arrested in November and December on felony charges, but instead of actually filing the charges the San Francisco DA's office simply notified McAllister's parole officer that he'd been arrested [...] Why Is Gavin Newsom Hiding Coronavirus Data from the Public? California Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom is hiding key coronavirus data from the public while inexplicably allowing several counties in the state to reopen. Following a surge in November, Newsom unveiled new lockdown orders that divided the state into five regions, with each region locking down whenever ICU hospital capacity dipped below 15 percent. Before long, about 98 percent of the state's population fell under the new restrictions. Despite ICU capacity still south of 15 percent, the governor has lifted restrictions for 13 counties in the Greater Sacramento area, the AP reported. State data updated daily shows the Sacramento region currently has an ICU capacity of around 7.8 percent at the time of this writing. Effort to Recall California Governor Gavin Newsom Attracts More Than 1.2 Million Signatures. The effort to recall California Governor Gavin Newsom (D) has attracted more than 1.2 million signatures. Recall organizers have until March 17th to collect 1,495,709 signatures. Californians are fed up with Newsom's authoritarian Covid lockdown orders that have destroyed thousands of small businesses. Newsom came under fire after he ordered businesses to close while keeping his own winery, Plumpjack Winery open. Biden's HHS Appointee Launches Civil Rights Investigation Of Nation's Largest Sheriff's Dept. On Friday [1/22/2021], California's Democratic Attorney General Xavier Becerra, who is also President Joe Biden's choice to head the Department of Health and Human Services, announced that he is launching a civil rights probe into the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department (LASD). The agency is the largest sheriff's department in the United States and operates America's biggest jail system. According to a news release from Becerra's office, "the investigation will seek to determine whether LASD has engaged in a pattern or practice of unconstitutional policing." California state senator trying to legalize hard drugs. Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) has made good on his promise to begin his effort to "decriminalize all drug use" step by step with the introduction of several bills at the start of the new legislative session. Senate Bill 57 creates "safe injection sites" where drug addicts can use illicit drugs under medical supervision. Senate Bill 73 lowers the criminal penalties on users and dealers of heroin, opiates or opium derivatives, salts, cannabis, phencyclidine (PCP), and other dangerous drugs. Still promised, but not yet introduced, is a bill Wiener says will legalize all psychedelic drugs such as LSD and magic mushrooms. California Democrat floats $23 minimum wage. California Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., asked his Twitter followers this week to consider the benefits of raising the minimum wage above $20 per hour. In a since-deleted post captured by ProPublica, Khanna noted that raising the minimum wage to $15 per hour is expected to lift 1 million people out of poverty — while envisioning what an even steeper increase would do. "Raising the minimum wage to $15 would lift 1 million people out of poverty. Imagine how many more lives would be impacted if we matched the rate of productivity and made it $23/hr," the post read. A spokesperson for Khanna's office did not return FOX Business' request for comment as to why the post was deleted. It's no time for Biden to be California dreamin'. We did a double take at the report this week that Joe Biden, once inaugurated as president, would treat California as the administration's "de facto think tank," placing it "center stage again in Washington's policy arena." Surely, only Biden's enemies would spread such a vicious rumor about the new chief executive. But the sources for the extraordinary story are supporters of Biden and his Californian running mate Kamala Harris. The wonder is not that Biden would try to imitate California on policy — he's always been ready to try anything harebrained — but rather that his allies would admit they planned to do something so obviously foolhardy. California COVID-19 benefits fraud could reach $9.8 billion. California may have paid out nearly $10 billion in phony coronavirus unemployment claims — more than double the previous estimate — with some of that money going to organized crime in Russia, China and other countries, according to a security firm hired to investigate the fraud. At least 10% of claims submitted to the state Employment Development Department before controls were installed in October may have been fraudulent, Blake Hall, founder and CEO of ID.me told the Los Angeles Times. The Times on Friday [1/15/2021] said that would work out to $9.8 billion of the benefits paid from March through September. A Successful Recall of California Gov. Newsom Could Portend a Disaster for Democrats in 2022. As has long been transparently predictable, the eve of the inauguration of Joe Biden has coincided with the determination of state and local elected Democrat officials that the threat of a COVID-19 pandemic has passed, and economic and social life in Democrat-controlled cities and states can now begin to return to "normal". [...] Democrat Mayor Lori Lightfoot suddenly has a plan for reopening bars and restaurants in Chicago. [...] But one Governor who apparently has not received the message that the political imperative of knee-capping the economy to get rid of Donald Trump has now passed is California Governor Gavin Newsom. He is maintaining the restrictions that have been in place for months, continuing to impose regulatory restrictions in California on a per county basis. An L.A. councilman lied to the FBI. Probation officials say he deserves no jail time. It was the first blockbuster case to surface in the federal corruption probe of Los Angeles City Hall — a multi-count indictment accusing former Councilman Mitchell Englander of taking envelopes of cash, lying to the FBI about that money and obstructing its investigation. Englander, while serving in office, made false statements to FBI agents during three separate interviews, prosecutors said, providing untrue information about his dealings with a businessman who gave him $15,000 in two casino bathrooms. The case was resolved quickly, with Englander pleading guilty to a single count of scheming to falsify material facts. But now, prosecutors are voicing objections to the sentence recommended by federal probation officials: three years' probation, a $9,500 fine and no jail time or community service. Re-Open
Cal Now, Day 2: Sheriffs John D'Agostini and Scott Jones -- Constitutionality of the Lockdown Orders and the Rule of Law. The necessary element
of a "Police State" is cooperation from law enforcement to do just that: "enforce" the orders given, no matter how burdensome, unreasonable, and more
importantly, unconstitutional. Thankfully, there are Sheriffs in certain California Counties who take seriously their oath to the Constitution, the
rule of law, and their commitment to serve the people over and above a Governor's or unelected bureaucrat's executive orders or restrictions. [...] Then he
laid out simpler questions that even a 6th grader could understand:
Docs reveal Governor Newsom's secret $1B CCP mask deal. A conservative legal watchdog group has announced that it received hundreds of pages of documents revealing the contract materials and communications related to a $1 billion contract for face masks between the California Office of Emergency Services (OES) and the Chinese Communist Party linked BYD. BYD reportedly has been barred by law from some federal contracts for providing faulty electric vehicles and lithium batteries to U.S. buyers. The documents, all 848 pages of which can be viewed here, reveal that an OES legal representative admits that the state deviated from their normal procurement process for this contract. Additionally, in the contract with the OES, BYD uses a different name, Global Healthcare Product Solutions, LLC., and BYD provides no liability or warranty for the masks if they are faulty. Elected DA's Throughout California Slam LA County DA Gascon's Policies, Refuse to Grant Jurisdiction. Now it's not just the majority of his 1,000 subordinates who are publicly and vehemently opposed to new Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon's policy directives. Three elected California District Attorneys (all female, interestingly enough) have slammed Gascon's policies, and two of them sent letters directly to Gascon refusing to allow him to prosecute any cases that arose in their counties. New California COVID Orders: Residents Can Travel No More Than 120 Miles From Their Homes. Despite insanely restrictive lockdowns for 10 months, travel restrictions, quarantine requirements, business closures, mask mandates and school closures, California has some of the worst COVID numbers in the nation. The state currently has a total of just over 3,800 COVID fatalities. Of course, in a state of 40 million that is .0095% of the population, but we're really not allowed to put perspective on COVID-19 numbers these days. That little tidbit was for the curious. In a state like this one, there is no such thing as policy failure. If a policy isn't working, we just get more of it. On Wednesday, the California Department of Public Health announced new "guidance" for people in California who have the nerve to want to wander around their free country. CDPH wants Californians to stay within 120 miles of their residences except for "essential" travel. Petition to Recall California Gov. Gavin Newsom Exceeds 1 Million Signatures. The petition to recall California Gov. Gavin Newsom exceeded one million signatures this week. "The people are being heard loud and clear, and it is not a matter of IF we are going to reach our goal necessary that will trigger a recall election of Newsom, it is just when we cross the finish line," Orrin Heatlie, the lead proponent of the effort to remove the Democrat, in a statement. There are approximately nine weeks for organizers to gather 500,000 additional signatures, which would put the petition on the ballot for Californians to vote on. March 17 is the deadline. Heatlie called the recall campaign a "literal steamroller and Gavin Newsom's failed policies are being runover and flatten [sic] by the People of California who will no longer be held hostage to his dictatorial failed policies." Newsom's office hasn't responded to requests for comment on the petition. Soros Soars, GOP Cowards Cower. I devoted my Dec. 15 column to newly elected Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón and his benefactor George Soros. Gascón has one goal: to put the people of L.A. at the mercy of criminals. He's the face of anarcho-tyranny, and George Soros is the wallet. [...] As I wrote in my Dec. 15 column, a key element in Gascón's victory was the fact that the local GOP didn't lift a finger to oppose him. The riskiest American county to live in might surprise you. There are more than 3,000 counties in the United States. If I were to ask you which one of them was the riskiest place to live, you might be tempted to say it would be a county encompassing Baltimore or Portland. Perhaps New York City and Chicago would make your list. In some cases, you might be correct, but not for the reasons you think, at least according to a new study compiled by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. You see, my initial reaction was to think about places with the highest violent crime rates, gang violence and street mobs. But what FEMA was looking at was the odds of a natural disaster striking and wreaking havoc on residents. And coming in at the top spot on the National Risk Index was Los Angeles County. The reasons have nothing to do with the Crips and the Bloods or their incompetent government, however. Los Angeles County Prosecutors Sue Gascon For Not Enforcing The Law. Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon hasn't even been in office for a month yet but he's been making more headlines than the pandemic. Unfortunately for Gascon (and the citizens of his county), few of those breaking news items have been of the good variety. The wildly liberal, anti-cop DA has been working overtime to empty the jails and prevent the prosecution of criminals, even as crime rates have been surging in the City of Angels. The latest news out of his office won't be changing that pattern at all. His own prosecutors are going to court to ask a judge to block their new boss's orders and prevent them from having to break the law themselves by carrying out his directives. And it looks like they have a pretty solid case. San Francisco will give $5,000 to help your small business, unless you're a white guy. No check for the privileged. At least that's the plan in San Francisco where they're passing out $5k grants to small businesses, but making sure only the right kind of people get the relief. They say they are using this as an opportunity to advance the city's "equity goals." In a press release from the mayor, she says they are prioritizing "minority-owned businesses including women-owned, immigrant-owned, people of color-owned businesses," with the money. For those unfamiliar with history, this is a practice formerly known as "discrimination." Maybe after these white male business owners watch their livelihoods crumble to nothing around them, they can take some time to examine their privilege. San Francisco Proves It's In Full Societal Regression by Embracing Pre-Civil Rights Era Methods. San Francisco apparently forgot that we in America judge people by the content of their character, not by the color of their skin, but the radical left that has taken over the city has long abandoned the idea that virtues we've learned over the past decades mean anything. According to a press release by San Francisco Mayor London Breed, money is to be distributed to struggling businesses across the city. The catch? Priority will be given to businesses according to race and sex. LA Orders Everyone to Stay Home; Asks Hollywood to Maybe Pause. If anyone needed any further reminders that not only are we not all in this together, but a handful of powerful special interests are calling all the shots. The essential and non-essential categories are gigantic scams. In California, not only is Hollywood considered essential, but while people are being ordered to stay home, Hollywood is being asked nicely if it wouldn't possibly consider pausing production. [...] This isn't the treatment that restaurants are getting. It's also not the treatment that so many other businesses are on the receiving end of. Small businesses that are told to close and don't close, are harassed by inspectors. [B]ut Hollywood is politely requested to maybe please consider pausing production. Don't expect the entertainment industry, which pays the bills of California Democrats, to abide by this any more than they abided by the early proposed curfew for filming, which was almost immediately rescinded. We're not all in this together. 4 California Small Business Owners Share Their Struggles to Survive Under Lockdowns. California small businesses are crumbling under the weight of a new stay-at-home order and a lack of meaningful financial assistance. Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, issued a new region-based lockdown order for California on Dec. 3, forcing more California businesses to close their doors or severely limit operations. "We are at a tipping point in our fight against the virus, and we need to take decisive action now to prevent California's hospital system from being overwhelmed in the coming weeks," Newsom said in a statement announcing the new restrictions. The Editor says... California Supreme Court Rules Thousands Of Sex Offenders Are Eligible For Early Release. On Monday [12/28/2020], the California Supreme Court ruled that thousands of inmates convicted of non-forcible sex crimes may be eligible for early release under a ballot measure that was overwhelmingly approved by voters four years ago. The initiative, called Proposition 57, was written by then-Governor Jerry Brown (D) and passed by nearly two-thirds of the electorate. It was crafted to reduce the state's prison population, saying any person found guilty of a "nonviolent felony offense" would be eligible for early parole. Brown said it was never intended to cover sex offenders. However, the original language did not exempt them from consideration. Lower appeals courts had ruled that nonviolent sex offenders could not be excluded, and the high court affirmed those rulings. California is clobbering small businesses with a retroactive tax grab. Isabel Rubinas of Glen Ellyn, Ill., operates Lollipop Seeds, a virtual boutique that sells clothing for young children online. And like many small specialty businesses, its sales have slumped badly during the COVID-19 pandemic. It's also being clobbered by the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration, the state agency that oversees the collection of sales and use taxes. This month the CDTFA froze Rubinas' business bank account in Illinois in an effort to collect thousands of dollars in taxes on sales that Lollipop Seeds made to California shoppers through Amazon.com in 2017, 2018 and 2019. The freeze threatens to push Lollipop Seeds out of business. And her dilemma is not unique. California Gives Criminals Vaccine Before Elderly. Criminals are currently the top victim class among Democrats. And that means privileging killers, muggers, and rapists above everyone else. California, as usual, leads the way in the pro-crime dystopia. The Sovietization of California. [Scroll down] Yet, here I am, sitting in a state where corruption reigns (one of the leading Democrats of the last half-century told me years ago that politicians in California are window dressing; the real power in California is wielded by unions) and where, for nine months, normal life has been shut down, schools have been closed and small businesses have been destroyed in unprecedented numbers. During these last five days in Florida, a state governed by the pro-freedom party, I went anywhere I wanted. First and foremost, I could eat both inside and outside restaurants. At one of them, when I stood up to take photos of people dining, a patron who recognized me walked over and said, "I assume you're just taking pictures of people eating in a restaurant." That's exactly what I was doing. I even took my two grandchildren to a bowling alley, which was filled with people enjoying themselves playing myriad arcade games as well as bowling. None of that is allowed almost anywhere in California. It is becoming a police state, rooted in deception and irrationality. Restaurants have been shut down (except for takeout orders), even for outdoor dining, for no scientific reason. After ordering Los Angeles county restaurants closed, the health authorities of Los Angeles county acknowledged in court that they had no evidence that outdoor dining was dangerous; they ordered restaurants closed, even to outdoor dining, solely in order to keep people home. The left's claim to "follow the science" is a lie. The left does not follow science; it follows scientists it agrees with and dismisses all other scientists as "anti-science." Recalling Gavin Newsom. Governor Gavin Newsom is a disaster. Newsom is hypocritical, incompetent, and a non-thinker. How bad does California have to get before people will consider someone who has an "R" after their name? Just look at his actions over the past year. American Thinker interviewed many who think that the governor needs to be recalled. Orrin Heatlie is the lead proponent of the nonpartisan recall effort. He feels that the governor is acting as a tyrant, taking action over and over against the will of the people. He thinks, with plnety of evidence, that the governor is out of touch with reality: the bill that put independent contractors out of work, the bill to reduce penalties for certain sex crimes, the worsening of the homeless problem, mismanaging the gas tax, the high-speed rail line to nowhere, fumbling fire management, and of course his handling of the pandemic, just to name a few of his missteps. Under the state law for recalls, a hard copy of the petition must be signed in ink, rather than handling it online. Heatlie is hoping every Californian will sign the petition. The court has granted an extension until March 17th because they are halfway there but need about 900,000 more signatures. Tom Del Beccaro is working in synch with Heatlie in an effort to recall Newsom. Del Beccaro agrees with Heatlie on all the reasons why Newsom should be recalled. California Dems Shut Down State Over Lack of ICU Beds, After Adding Only 7% More ICU Beds in 8 Months. Governor Newsom's latest shutdown order closes down small businesses and warns residents to stay at home if their area's number of available beds in intensive care units drops below 15%. "By invoking a Stay at Home Order for regions where ICU capacity falls below 15 percent, we can flatten the curve as we've done before and reduce stress on our health care system," Governor Newsom, fresh from partying at the French Laundry, declared. Spring had given way to summer and then to autumn and winter, and California Democrats are still using the pretext of preserving "ICU capacity" and "flattening the curve". The rationale of shutting down an entire state, not so much for the sake of stopping the virus, but for keeping enough beds open in intensive care units, never made much sense even back then. It's insane now. Is Small Business Aware of California's $21 Billion Surplus? A report from the bipartisan Legislative Analyst's Office says California's savings account could grow to more than $18 billion by the end of 2021. California had a record $21.5 billion surplus in the state budget in 2018. Newsom and the Democratic-controlled state Legislature spent more than half of that money on paying down debts and boosting reserves. About $4 billion of it went to support ongoing programs while the rest was used for one-time projects. Where did it go exactly and where is it going? Small business owners deserve to know. As Congress debates more funding, a contentious point was federal dollars bailing out states[, and] we see now that Pelosi is lying as California does not need a bailout. Motion Filed To Depose Gov. Newsom Over Calif. Protest Bans At Capitol. The complaints continue to pile up for California Governor Gavin Newsom. Not only is Newsom combating a massive recall effort across the state, but some are calling on him to testify about the ban on protests he made at the Capitol last spring. A motion requesting a deposition was filed by plaintiffs Ron Givens and Christine Bish. Both are involved in a lawsuit that began in April when California Highway Patrol refused to issue permits for demonstrators at the Sacramento Capitol. CHP claimed the decision was made in the interest of public safety amid the pandemic. As it's a civil case, attorneys for the state argued that Newsom, the former highway patrol commissioner, and the public health director cannot be deposed because all witnesses currently or previously held public office. California Sheriff Rejects Court Order To Reduce Inmate Population, Blasts The ACLU. The sheriff of Orange County, California, said on Wednesday that he would fight a recent order issued by a local superior court judge to significantly reduce the number of inmates housed in the county's jail system due to COVID-19 concerns. According to FOX 11 News, Sheriff Don Barnes "is refusing to release any more" incarcerated people despite the mandate. "These people who remain in the jail, they may have diabetes, but they're also charged with murder," Barnes told the outlet during an online interview. "Or they may be over 65, but may be a child molester." Sheriff Barnes posted an open letter to social media on Wednesday afternoon announcing his intention to appeal last Friday's directive by Judge Peter Wilson to cut the detainee population in all congregate living areas by 50%. The ruling came in response to a lawsuit filed in April by the America Civil Liberties Union seeking to protect medically vulnerable people from coronavirus infection. California Sheriff Refuses To Release 1,800 Inmates After Judge's Order. A California sheriff is refusing to comply with a judge's order to release 1,800 inmates from Orange County jails, including individuals who have been imprisoned for murder, due to the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus pandemic. County Superior Court Judge Peter Wilson on Friday ordered the release of 50 percent — or 1,858 inmates out of 3,716 — to curb the transmission of COVID-19, the disease caused by the CCP virus. "I have no intention of releasing any of these individuals from my custody," said Sheriff Don Barnes, pushing back against the order. "We are going to file an appeal and we're going to fight it and if the judge has any intent of releasing any one of these individuals, he will have to go through line by line, name by name, and tell me which ones he is ordering released." With his star dimmed, California's Newsom could face recall. California Gov. Gavin Newsom has had a rough year. The next one might be even tougher as a recall effort appears to be gaining momentum, fueled partly by outrage over the first-term Democrat dining with friends at an opulent restaurant while telling state residents to spurn social gatherings and stay home. It's not uncommon in California for residents to seek recalls but they rarely get on the ballot — and even fewer succeed. Several launched against Newsom faded but another attempt is drawing greater attention as his fortunes change while he enters a critical stretch in his governorship. Inside Soros DA George Gascon's Office: Deputy DA's Threatened, Intimidated to Uphold New Policies. Soros-funded Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascon, as we've reported, made major waves during his first week in office. On day one, he issued nine Special Directives instituting "criminals first" policies like failing to prosecute many misdemeanors, a blanket prohibition on seeking the death penalty or life without parole, and a ban on charging juveniles as adults. Throughout the week, victims, law enforcement officers, and court personnel were shocked to see the results of those policies in action in the courtroom (including a failure to charge enhancements or "strikes" against a man accused of decapitating two of his children). Judge to California's 3rd Largest County: On Account of COVID, Release Half Your Convicts. How do you empty a large county's jail system by half? That's a question currently demanding an answer, as a West Coast judge has ordered that very thing. As reported by The Daily Wire, on Friday, Superior Court Judge Peter Wilson dictated Sheriff Don Barnes must liquidate Orange County's jail system by 50%. The decision comes following the American Civil Liberties Union's April lawsuit demanding the release of disabled and vulnerable inmates in light of the pandemic. New DA Gascon to decline prosecution on range of low-level crimes. The Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office will no longer prosecute a range of misdemeanor crimes, from resisting arrest to drug possession to making criminal threats, according to a memo issued this week by new DA George Gascon. [...] The memo spells out misdemeanors which should be declined or dismissed before arraignment, with a number of exceptions at the discretion of the prosecutor. Among them: Trespassing, disturbing the peace, driving with no license or a suspended license, making criminal threats, drug possession, drinking in public, loitering to commit prostitution and resisting arrest, among others. As The CA Recall Grows and Small Businesses Revolt, Newsom Gaslights and Says he Has "Great Reverence" for Small Business. Governor Gavin Newsom is feeling the heat of a growing Recall effort that already has over 800,000 signatures, small businesses that are refusing to go through a second lockdown, and County Sheriffs who are refusing to enforce this latest Stay-At-Home effort and are essentially telling him to go pound sand. [...] When confronted with his hostile policies toward small business via some regulation he has allowed the legislature to vote in and that he signs, or another tax, he does a song and dance about his "humble" small business beginnings and how much he "respects" them. Nobody is buying it anymore. Tyranny Reversed: California Judge Slaps Down Newsom Over Religious-Worship Shutdowns. Just how huge a precedent will the recent Supreme Court decision in Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn turn out to be? We can take one measure from a California court late yesterday [12/10/2020] in Father Trevor Burfitt v Gavin Newsom. In a stinging rebuke to Gov. Newsom, Judge Gregory Pulskamp imposed an injunction against enforcement of California's planned COVID-19 restrictions. Using Brooklyn as a guide, Pulskamp ripped California's arbitrary decision to shut down houses of worship while allowing commercial businesses to remain open. Any such limitation on an explicit and textual constitutional right requires a strict scrutiny standard, Pulskamp ruled and cited Brooklyn for support. But Pulskamp wonders whether the restrictions even pass a smell test. White males are no longer considered. Isn't that racial discrimination? LA District Attorney Whistleblower: Gascon's Sentencing Special Directive Is Illegal. New Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascon has had the most active first week on the job of probably any officeholder ever, anywhere. On Day One he issued nine Special Directives to his staff, instituting a wet dream of Black Lives Matter and Antifa justice policies — and decreed that those policies should be implemented in all pending cases and even up to 20,000 cases in which the criminals were already sentenced. On Day Two he dropped charges against a "protester" accused of trying to wreck a train (you read that right) during a protest against the LA Sheriff's Department after deputies shot and killed a known gang member and drug dealer, Dijon Kizzee, who'd pulled a gun on them. We can't wait to see what the rest of the week will bring. New Los Angeles DA Snubs Staff, Meets With BLM, Will Implement Radical Progressive Agenda. The worst fears about the new district attorney in Los Angeles County, George Gascón, are already materializing. After defeating the incumbent DA on November 3, Gascón was sworn in on Monday [12/7/2020]. Gascón announced that his office would immediately end cash bail for many offenses, refuse to pursue the death penalty, and cease trying juveniles as adults for violent offenses. California Court Order Frees 250 Criminal Illegal Aliens into U.S.. Criminal illegal aliens who were released from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody due to a court order in Adelanto, California, have been re-arrested for child sex crimes, burglary, drug possession, and drunk driving. By October, ICE released more than 250 illegal aliens from their Adelanto detention facility after a court order mandated that they free up space. Those released were put in the Alternatives to Detention (ATD) program that places GPS ankle bracelets on each illegal alien as they are freed into the interior of the United States. LA Restaurant Owner Rips Garcetti Hypocrisy: Why Shut Me Down While Allowing A Hollywood Canteen In My Parking Lot? Earlier this week, Los Angeles mayor Eric Garcetti banned outdoor service at restaurants in response to the COVID-19 transmission spike. That includes Pineapple Hill Grill and Saloon in Sherman Oaks, whose owner Angela Marsden sunk $80,000 into social-distanced outdoor dining infrastructure and had planned to reopen today. Marsden went to the store yesterday to collect a few items for a planned protest, but got a big surprise when she arrived at the parking lot adjacent to her dining patio. [Video clip] Bar Owner Forced To Close Her Business in LA Livid After Movie Studio Gets Approval for Food Tent Next Door. Bar Owner: "And I walked into my parking lot and obviously Mayor Garcetti has approve this, has approve this being set up. This is being set up for a movie company." [Video clip] Supreme Court sides with church challenging Calif.'s COVID-19 restrictions. The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday [12/3/2020] ruled against a pandemic-related order by California Gov. Gavin Newsom banning some indoor religious services, agreeing with critics that it is unconstitutional. In a one-page order, the high court granted a petition from lawyers for Harvest Rock Church in Pasadena, Calif., seeking to set aside a lower court ruling upholding Newsom's ban. California Secedes from Black America. [Scroll down] Proposition 16, which would have allowed for favoritism of nonwhites in public employment, education, and contracting, lost by a wide margin. Yet the backers of Prop. 16 outspent the opposition $30 million to $2 million. And what a list of backers it was! The California Democrat Party and every Democrat officeholder in the state championed Prop. 16, as did every major newspaper. Every leftist "social justice" organization — the ACLU, NAACP, NOW, the ADL, BLM, even the Sierra Club and the PTA — backed Prop. 16. So did the Chamber of Commerce, Twitter, Facebook, Netflix, Microsoft, Uber, Dropbox, Reddit, Lyft, Yelp, AirBnB, Instacart, Gap, Levi's, United Airlines, Wells Fargo, the 49ers, the Giants, and the Oakland A's. Soros backed it. The Chan/Zuckerberg Initiative backed it. Ava DuVernay backed it. Kaiser, Blue Shield, and PG&E backed it. All those heavy hitters. All that money, and in a "blue state" no less. And yet... it wasn't even close. The big bucks, the big endorsements, the push from big business and big tech, came to nothing. Governor Preen. If Hollywood were to cast a governor and future president, and if a straight white male were still politically acceptable, he would look like California's Gavin Newsom. The 53-year-old governor, a former mayor of San Francisco, Newsom handsomely epitomizes the preening politics of the California elite class that has nurtured and financed his career from the beginning. Like aristocrats of the past, Newsom seems oblivious to the realities felt by constituents among the lower orders. In the face of massive wildfires, he postures on climate change, conflating fires with an angry mother Earth — as opposed to poor land management — and uses the conflagration to justify a radical policy of switching to all-electric power over the next decade, with the elimination of gas-powered cars by 2035. In the midst of a near economic free-fall, he favors raising taxes and works to tighten pandemic lockdowns; and, with the state losing its ability to train workers, he backs an education system where almost three out of five California high schoolers graduate unprepared for either college or a career. Who Paid For the (Alleged) $15,000 Wine Bill Gavin Newsom and Friends Racked Up at French Laundry? [Scroll down] Newsom can receive up to $500/year in gifts from someone who's not a registered state lobbyist. Could they get around that restriction by claiming it was Newsom's wife who received the gift, and not the Governor? Nope. A gift to Jennifer Siebel Newsom is considered a gift to Gavin Newsom for the purposes of FPPC reporting. If someone else paid for Newsom's dinner, the only possible way that could be done without skirting required financial disclosure rules would be if his longtime friend, the birthday boy, paid for the dinner, and if none of the lobbyist birthday boy's clients had business currently before the state. Given that executives from the California Medical Association, clients of lobbyist birthday boy, were in attendance, and that we're in the middle of a pandemic, claiming that exemption might not work. But who knows. This is Teflon Gavin we're talking about. Gov. Newsom's Regime Is Crumbling. The era of one-man rule in California is over. A California Superior Court has ruled in favor of me and fellow legislator James Gallagher in our lawsuit challenging Gov. Gavin Newsom's abuse of power. The judge ruled that Newsom violated the state constitution by unilaterally ordering that all registered voters be sent mail-in ballots. More importantly, she found good cause for a permanent injunction restraining Newsom from issuing any further unconstitutional orders that make "new statutory law or legislative policy." The court rejected Newsom's extraordinary claim that a state of emergency centralizes the state's powers in the hands of the governor, thus turning California into an autocracy. This is the unlawful basis on which Newsom has collapsed our system of checks and balances, issuing 58 executive orders and changing over 400 laws unilaterally. Gavin Newsom's apology for flouting his mask and social distancing regs make him the most obvious liar since Joe Isuzu. I am enjoying the squirming of Nancy Pelosi's nephew, California Governor Gavin Newsom, now that he has been exposed as completely disregarding the COVID guidelines he is trying to force 40 million Californians to follow. The very same man who told us that when dining out we should put a mask on in-between bites, that we should have no more than 10 people (from no more than 3 households) at our outdoor Thanksgiving celebrations was spotted and photographed violating all of his strictures on the rest of us. Even worse, the party was held at The French Laundry, one of the fanciest and most famous restaurants in the world. And it was a 50th birthday party for one of his old friends, who just happens to be a lobbyist. Also in attendance: The CEO and chief lobbyist of the California Medical Association, who like Newsom obviously don't believe the mask and social distancing regulations are genuinely important. You've probably seen the utterly phony "apology" he made to Californians at a press conference. But take a good look at his smiles as he lies like a Persian rug. He seems to think that the rubes, who are expected to give up their family gatherings at Thanksgiving, are so dumb that they will buy it. Gavin Newsom Manufactures a COVID Crisis to Make California Miserable Again. Fresh on the heels of the Sacramento Bee's criticism of Gavin Newsom's multi-family extravaganza at the famous French Laundry, a swanky $350-a-person-before-the-wine-is-ordered restaurant in Yountville, California, and after having his wrist slapped by the state Judiciary for exceeding his constitutional authority in issuing emergency lockdown orders, he's decided that he really doesn't care what the plebs of his state think or what the law says about his executive limitations. He's locking the state down again. The reason, as he and the media would have you believe, is that California is experiencing a surge in positive COVID-19 tests, having just crossed the one million mark in cases. You're supposed to focus on that big, scary number and not Gavin Newsom's blatant hypocrisy or his unlawful executive overreach, and certainly not the many questions swirling about the looming prospect of the Trump legal team's potentially exposing massive election fraud, which could have an enormous impact on the future of our republic. Rules For Us and Rules For Them. Of all the quotable lines in George Orwell's Animal Farm, few resonate as much as this one: "All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others." [...] That quotation has been referred to often in recent days after Gov. Gavin Newsom — fresh off of issuing a new set of edicts admonishing Californians to dine alone at home and curtail their Thanksgiving celebrations — was caught dining with his wife and 10 other friends at a birthday party for a prominent lobbyist at the French Laundry in Yountville. It's bad enough for the governor to seemingly violate his own edicts, but to do so in Napa Valley, at one of the nation's toniest restaurants, certainly gave off the wrong vibe. Don't [Bring California's Problems To] The Rest Of America. California's political class is widely regarded as among the most corrupt, irresponsible, hypocritical, hard left and incompetent of any comparable group of state politicians in the country, which is saying a lot. The troubles have been on full display this week. A week after imposing sweeping new restaurant closures across much of the state and telling Californians not to gather in groups for Thanksgiving, California Gov. Gavin Newsom admitted on Monday that he attended a birthday party for an old friend at an ultra-swank Napa Valley restaurant, The French Laundry. Never mind that the party for his buddy, himself a lobbyist, also included a bunch of medical industry lobbyists. The photos show not only more people in attendance than allowed under state guidelines, neither the governor nor his wife were wearing masks. Gavin Newsom's Thanksgiving hypocrisy: Witness at 3-star Michelin restaurant says governor ate inside and NOT outdoors like he claims. California governor Gavin Newsom dined indoors when he joined friends for a birthday dinner earlier this month, a witness has claimed, challenging the governor's account of the celebrations. The witness, a woman who has not been identified, said she was eating at the French Laundry restaurant on the same night as Newsom — who was dining in a private room with 11 other people. She said a sliding glass door to the room was initially left open, but was pulled across because the governor and his party were being 'very loud'. Newsom considering statewide curfew as he orders emergency business shutdowns. Nearly three-quarters of California counties must now operate under the state's most stringent pandemic restrictions, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced on Monday, and health officials are considering a statewide curfew as coronavirus cases surge more dramatically than they did during a summer spike. Indoor dining, gyms and movie theaters, among other businesses, must either remain closed or shut down in 41 of the state's 58 counties. The governor said he is "sounding the alarm" due to "the fastest increase California has seen" since the pandemic began. Coronavirus cases have doubled in the last 10 days across the state, which hit the grim milestone of 1 million coronavirus cases last week. The California Elections Pandemic. The once Golden State, renowned for creating and exporting much of what constitutes American popular culture, now exports a vote-fraud rich, elections-stealing contagion across the nation. [...] A consequence of Californizing elections will be rampant cynicism. Sullen distrust will take hold. Voters, in droves, may elect not to vote. Yet nonparticipation may be the best case. In time, the nation may devolve into warring political factions, who thuggishly vie to control the levers of power. Does that seem surreal? Investigate Latin America, where countries are colored with rigged elections and associated violence. California judge rules Gov. Gavin Newsom overstepped authority with mail ballot order. A California judge has ruled that Gov. Gavin Newsom overstepped his authority when he issued an executive order requiring vote-by-mail ballots sent to all registered voters, according to reports. Sutter County Superior Court Judge Sarah Heckman ruled Friday [11/13/2020] that Newsom did not have the authority to amend or change existing election law — even during a pandemic. The ruling put a permanent injunction on Newsom, prohibiting him from changing existing law under the California Emergency Services Act (CESA), according to KCRA. The ruling does not affect the results of the 2020 general election. One-Party Democrat Rule Is Killing California, And It's Coming For The Country. [Scroll down] COVID sucked the air out of the room in the presidential debates, and in the media in general. However, my home state was never debilitated by the Wuhan virus, which likely hit the West Coast in the early months of this year before spreading through the rest of the country, and never overwhelmed our hospitals. The real epidemic we are witnessing on our streets daily and with which so many of us have firsthand experience is the drug epidemic. Corona victims are not falling down dead on our streets, like they did in videos from China; opiate addicts are. During our never-ending lockdown, drug overdoses in San Francisco reached two a day. For comparison, San Francisco has seen a total of 149 COVID deaths. While nearly all coronavirus patients eventually recover, few druggies do, so they stay on our streets until death, blocking off entire sections of the city and taking over public transportation. Newsom's
Latest COVID Regs [are] Nuttier Than a Holiday Fruitcake. Not many Californians will be trekking over the river
and through the woods to Grandmother's house for the holidays this year if Gov. Gavin Newsom has his way.
According to guidelines issued by his office, Thanksgiving and Christmas celebrations in the Golden State can include members
of no more than three households, including everyone present — hosts as well as guests. Granny will
obviously have to be a little more careful about which set of aunts, uncles, nieces, and nephews she invites this year.
And for those who do wrangle an invitation, forget about singing any Christmas carols — or music of any kind, for
that matter. Newsom's edict directs that: Liberal California Emigrants are Toxic. Since 2012, California has overwhelmingly sent more transplants to Arizona than any other state. When surveyed, escaping Californians cite high taxes, high crime rates, unaffordable housing, out-of-control homelessness, and high unemployment rates as their top reasons for fleeing. Who is responsible for creating such an alarming living environment within the state? California liberals. A November, 2020 report produced by the Mercatus Center at George Mason University stated that California has 395,608 regulatory restrictions. The sheer volume and scope of California regulations creates such a compliance nightmare that they kill entire industries, send housing prices to unattainable heights, and restrict even commonplace liberties for which conservative leaning states are known. Piled onto California's endless river of regulations are its nonsensical laws and policies. Twenty major metropolitan cities or counties in California have established laws, ordinances, regulations, or other practices that shield illegal immigrants from prosecution after committing a crime. Judge rules California Gov. Newsom's vote-by-mail order was improper. A California judge ruled that Gov. Gavin Newsom's executive order requiring mail-in ballots to be sent to every registered voter in the state was unconstitutional. Sutter County Superior Court Judge Sarah Heckman issued her ruling on Monday [11/2/2020], which also contained a permanent injunction, instructing the governor not to issue further orders that would be similarly improper. Tuesday's election will be unaffected by the ruling because a vote-by-mail order was ultimately passed by the state's Legislature. Judge rules California's Newsom overstepped his authority with election order. A California judge on Monday [11/2/2020] issued a tentative ruling in favor of two Republican state lawmakers who had filed an abuse of power lawsuit against Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom. Executive Order N-67-20, which Newsom signed in June, required that counties mail all eligible voters vote-by-mail ballots before Election Day and regulated the number of polling stations. Assemblymembers James Gallagher, R-Yuba City, and Kevin Kiley, R-Rocklin, challenged Newsom's order in court, arguing that Newsom's Emergency Services Act — implemented in March amid the burgeoning coronavirus pandemic — prevented the governor from issuing more executive orders or creating new laws. California governor sends his children to private school as local public schools remain closed. California Gov. Gavin Newsom is sending his children to attend modified in-person instruction at a private school even as the public schools that serve his local district remain closed for now. Newsom's children are "phasing back into school," he told media on Friday [10/30/2020], "and we are phasing out of our very challenging distance learning that we've been doing, so many parents are doing up and down the state." The governor and his wife Jennifer Newsom have four children. They were in private school prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. CA Governor Gavin Newsom Ignores Crime Surge yet Claims Preparation for Post-Election Chaos. The headline in the Hill yesterday, "California governor preparing state for civil unrest following election," is laughable. Governor Gavin Newsom's idea of any form of preparedness is to stay at home and wear a mask. If anything, his policies of the last year have guaranteed the civil unrest, rather than any measures to quell it. [...] Of course, King Gavin gave no specifics about exactly what he planned to do to prepare for any potential election night chaos. Chief Dominick Rivetti of the Beverly Hills Police Department has already announced that he will close down Rodeo Drive on Election Day and the day after, and his police department will be on high alert from the Halloween weekend through Tuesday [11/3/2020]. King Newsom bans indoor gatherings for Thanksgiving and Christmas. California won't allow indoor family gatherings for the holidays, Christmas and Thanksgiving, and outdoor gatherings are limited to three families for a maximum of two hours. This is arbitrary and tyrannical. "Gatherings that include more than 3 households are prohibited. This includes everyone present, including hosts and guests. Remember, the smaller the number of people, the safer," reads the "Guidance for Private Gatherings," issued by the California Department of Public Health on October 9. SF DA Chesa Boudin surveys crime victims on how to make life easier for their attackers. Chesa Boudin, the radical left-wing San Francisco District Attorney on whose watch San Francisco has become a crime-infested Caracas-like hellhole, is starting to draw criticism from crime victims for his unwillingness to prosecute crimes. And adding insult to injury, he's now using them as fodder for a survey on how to make their attackers' lives better. [...] The aim of course is to use the responses to advance his political career, smothering out the victims' real concerns in order to advance his let-'em-out political agenda in a quest for higher office. Always the P.R. man, Chesa is focused on gaslighting the public for his own self-aggrandisement, claiming he's prosecuting criminals, while he's mainly attempting to get the victims of crimes he never prosecuted to answer his survey with carefully worded options on what his priorities should be, leaving off the option of 'prosecuting violent crime' and taking violent thugs off the streets as choices. L.A. County Sends Health Department Workers To Fine Church That Sued Newsom. A Catholic church in Los Angeles County is alleging that the local government dispatched two health department officials to harass them in retaliation for their priest suing Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom and other state officials. On Oct. 15, two health officials showed up at Our Lady of the Angels Church in Arcadia, California, a congregation affiliated with the dissident Society of St. Pius X. The officials watched approximately 11 parishioners leave the building from the sidewalk and then cited them for holding indoor worship services in violation of COVID-19 restrictions, according to a copy of the citation forwarded to The Daily Wire. The citation carried with it a $1,000 fine. California's Gavin Newsom goes bonkers issuing Thanksgiving COVID orders. For someone whose previous career was in San Francisco's trendy restaurant industry, California's Gov. Gavin Newsom has some bizarre ideas about why people gather; what a comfortable dining experience is; and how people, as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says, will do what they do. Nope, he's got some weird stuff up, motivated, he says, by a supposed new wave of COVID: [...] Anyone with a lick of common sense knows that neither he nor his constituents are going to observe these ridiculous diktats on the country's biggest family holiday from the comfort of their own homes. The arbitrariness of these regulations is incredible. Two hours together? Why not one point five hours instead? Thousands of lives could be saved! The Grinch Who Stole Thanksgiving. Governor Gavin Newsom's Department of Health has issued an updated "Guidance for Private Gatherings" in time for Thanksgiving. Basically, fun is illegal in California: ["]Gatherings that include more than 3 households are prohibited. This includes everyone present, including hosts and guests.["] So if you have three kids, you can invite two of them. ["]All gatherings must be held outside. Attendees may go inside to use restrooms as long as the restrooms are frequently sanitized.["] This would not work well in Minnesota. California Just Declared War On Thanksgiving With Kafka-Level Regulations. Gov. Gavin Newsom just gave Californians more regulations for an early Christmas present — and anyone hoping to celebrate the holidays with family better hope there's a gift receipt. Just in time for the Thanksgiving and Christmas festivities, when most families gather with loved ones, California's Democrat governor has issued a new set of regulations that bans gatherings of more than three households. Additionally, no indoor gatherings are permitted, so don't plan on eating around the dining room table unless you lug it out into your backyard. Newsom's ban on gatherings of more than three households means that a family with more than two grown children can only have two visit at the same time. According to the Pew Research Center, almost two-thirds of mothers in their young forties in 1976 had three or more children. If those mothers are grandmothers now and their children are grown, that means up to two-thirds of families would be banned from bringing all their children under one roof for the holidays. Close To Half A Million Ballots [have been] Sent To California Voters Who Have Moved Or Died. Why do you suppose California Republicans are setting up their own ballot drop boxes at churches and gun shops to offer voters a safe way to ensure their votes make it to election officials for counting? Do you suppose they have some concerns about how well the mass mail-in voting system will perform when it's put to the full test on November 3rd? Perish the thought. I'm sure everything will be fine. Well... nearly everything. But we might not be entirely confident about the eventual fate of roughly 400,000 ballots that went out this month. That's because their voter rolls don't appear to have been tended very well over the years and that huge slug of ballots went to people who had either moved out of the state or taken up residence in cemeteries. Freshman House Democrat offers the GOP a pickup opportunity amid crumbling campaign. California's 21st Congressional District was the last district to be called in the 2018 election, with Democrat T.J. Cox defeating incumbent Republican David Valadao one month after election day. In a year of crazy election news, their rematch has become even more chaotic. Cox started his 2018 run in California's 10th District, abandoning the crowded primary after the only Democrat running against Valadao dropped out. Cox's carpetbagging didn't seem to matter too much as he landed the endorsement of the Fresno Bee, the district's largest paper. Valadao had won his district in 2016 by nearly the same margin as Hillary Clinton had, but the 2018 Democratic wave proved too much to survive. California Democrat Legislature Passed a Stupid "Vote Harvesting" Law and Are Now Paying the Price. To begin with, California has the most ridiculously lax ballot harvesting law ever imagined. They passed it in late Nov. 2016 after Donald Trump won the Presidency, and they clearly had in mind making use of it in a variety of nefarious ways in 2018. They did so to great benefit, flipping several Congressional races in traditionally GOP districts that had become purple over the course of several election cycles. The basic practice, as employed by Democrats, was to know the home address of every Democrat who requested an absentee ballot in the 2018 election. One way they did that was by aggressively pushing registered Democrat voters to ask for absentee ballots and track those who did by their home address given when they sought the ballot through the party. In the days leading up to the election, an army of volunteers — many of them union members from all parts of the labor movement in California, started knocking on the doors of those voters. Many were elderly or otherwise housebound. How California Is Turning Into a State Governed by Identity Politics. If you thought racial identity politics were just a fleeting flirtation of the radical left, California's new laws suggest otherwise. On Sept. 30, California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into state law a bill setting up a nine-member board to study the amount of reparations that should be owed to black people for slavery and Jim Crow. [...] But that's hardly the only racially divisive law California has passed this year, since the Legislature convened in a coronavirus-racked session in June. The same day, Newsom signed a bill to establish diversity quotas on corporate boards for racial minorities. Corporations with between four and nine board members will now be required to have at least two racial minorities, while corporations with more than nine board members will be required to have at least three represented. Gov. Newsom Says He Is in 'No Hurry' to Reopen Disneyland, Universal Studios Hollywood. Don't expect Disneyland, Universal Studios Hollywood and Knott's Berry Farm to open anytime soon, according to California Gov. Gavin Newsom at a press conference Wednesday [10/7/2020]. He said there is "no hurry in putting out guidelines," but state officials are continuing to work with amusement parks in California after the pandemic prompted closures in March. He called the process "very complex," adding, "We don't anticipate, in the immediate term, any of these larger theme parks opening until we see more stability in terms of the data." Ignoring Current Problems, California Cooks up Illogical Reparations Bill. Apparently, when California's one-party government cannot find solutions to current existential crises, it turns to divisive issues that have little to do with the safety and well-being of its 40 million citizens. California has the highest gas taxes in the nation, even as its ossified state highways remain clogged and dangerous. Why, then, does Sacramento kept pouring billions of dollars into the now-calcified high-speed rail project? When fires raged, killed dozens, polluted the air for months, consumed thousands of structures and scorched 4 million acres of forest, in response the governor thundered about global warming. But Newsom was mostly mute about state and federal green polices that discouraged the removal of millions of dead and drought-stricken trees, which provided the kindling for the infernos. When gasoline, sales and income taxes rose, and yet state schools became even worse, infrastructure remained decrepit and deficits grew, California demanded that federal COVID-19 money bail out its own financial mismanagement. Masks Are Turning America Into Northern California. [Scroll down] Palo Alto, like much of Northern California, was a cesspool of fear and grievance. The work being done was obviously incredible; the coolest and most useful technology on the planet was all being born up and down the Bay Area. But the culture outside of the cushy campuses and start-ups was one of persistent paranoia. You couldn't cross a street in Palo Alto without hearing voices warning you of the dangers that lurk about. No, seriously. They had little recordings in the crosswalks that were on a 24×7 loop warning of general dangers. It was creepy. [...] And with the help of masks, that's how Jake Tapper and Anthony Fauci (the posterboys for their leftist institutions) want all of America to be. And there are plenty of people across the country who would gladly move into that kind of reality. Gavin Newsom goes 'Bananas': 'Don't forget to keep your mask on in between bites'. So Gavin Newsom of California has gotten excited about masks again, just as Joe Biden and assorted leftists have made it mask-wearing the most recitable part of the Democrats' party platform in the wake of President Trump's diagnosis of COVID. Joe Biden is out preaching for the wearing of masks, but for Newsom, merely wearing them at the grocery store is no longer enough. [...] It's also a day late and a dollar short, being ordered a time when COVID cases are way down in California and deaths are precipitously declining. [...] A ridiculous order like this, detrimental to public health, is nothing short of the whims of a dictator drunk on power. It's like a scene from Woody Allen's 1971 Bananas about a fictional tropical dictator who looks like Fidel Castro. Newsom's office tells Californians to wear masks 'in between bites' of food when dining with members from same household in public. Gov. Gavin Newsom's office told California residents they should wear masks "in between bites" of food while dining in public spaces with people from the same household. "Going out to eat with members of your household this weekend? Don't forget to keep your mask on in between bites," the office of the governor tweeted over the weekend. "Do your part to keep those around you healthy," the tweet added. The Editor says... California governor's office tells diners to wear masks 'in between bites'. The office of California Gov. Gavin Newsom has told residents in the Golden State that if they go out to eat, they should be wearing a mask "in between bites" to protect themselves from COVID-19. [...] For emphasis, the tweet shows an image of someone at a dining seat wearing a mask, then not wearing a mask while taking a bite, and then putting the mask on again. However, the image then advises people to "minimize the number of times you take your mask off." California has allowed limited indoor dining to resume in a number of counties. San Francisco allowed indoor dining last week at 25% capacity. California has had more than 800,000 cases and more than 16,000 deaths due to the virus. The Editor says... Oops! What an unfortunate error! Better luck in 2024. The Editor says... Gavin Newsom Edges Ahead in the Country's Dumbest Governor Competition. COVID-19 has certainly exposed one of two things. Either some of the dumbest people in the country are leading our states, or they are so hyperpartisan they will beclown themselves to toe the Democrats' preferred narrative on the virus. The latest ridiculous instructions come from Gavin Newsom's office: ["]Going out to eat with members of your household this weekend? Don't forget to keep your mask on in between bites.["] [...] One of the primary reasons that masking is controversial is because people don't know how to use [them]. Apparently, this lack of knowledge goes straight up to the governor's office in California. As a former healthcare worker trained on how to don and doff personal protective equipment (PPE) properly, this is painfully stupid. A man wanted to open an ice cream shop, unfortunately he was in San Francisco. It's difficult to open a business in some parts of the country because of all the red tape involved. One of the places where that's definitely the case is San Francisco. Last Friday the San Francisco Chronicle published a column outlining Jason Yu's attempt to open an ice cream shop in the city and the months and months of delays he has faced trying to take his project through various slow-moving departments. Yu decided he wanted to open a shop selling green tea flavored ice cream back in 2018. Eventually, he found an empty storefront and in June 2019 he signed a lease which cost him $7,300 per month. He knew it would take a few months to open but he was prepared for that. He hired an architect to make plans for new electrical and plumbing but there were no structural changes needed and no changes to the outside of the building. Six months later, in June 2019, he submitted his plans to the Department of Building Inspection. And that's when his real nightmare began. California Is a Cautionary Tale for America. Anyone with the means to flee Detroit, does so. Likewise, the Golden State hemorrhages residents, as they build their lives in differently managed states. [...] California bounds from one crisis to another, with most of them being self-imposed. The latest one involves the raging wildfires that turned our air into a putrid soup. Obviously, heat waves and high winds were the proximate cause, but poor land management, ill-conceived liability and insurance laws, and the misuse of existing firefighting budgets are the fundamental problems. The last crisis involved homelessness. Just because COVID-19 pushed it off of the front pages doesn't mean that it's become any less severe. L.A. Ordered to Pay NRA Six Figures After Losing First Amendment Case. The Washington Free Beacon reports, a federal court ordered the city of Los Angeles to pay the NRA's lawyer fees of approximately $150,000, just months after he ruled a city ordinance violated the gun-rights group's First Amendment rights. The City of Los Angeles tried to penalize any contractor with ties to the NRA. The NRA sued over the ordinance and federal district court judge Stephen Wilson ruled it was an unconstitutional violation of the NRA's First Amendment rights. The city eventually repealed it and on Tuesday, the judge ordered city officials to pay the NRA's attorney fees totaling about $150,000. Bob Iger quits California economic task force as Disney lays off 28,000 workers. Disney chairman Bob Iger quit California Gov. Gavin Newsom's coronavirus recovery task force just two days after the Mouse House said it was cutting 28,000 jobs at its US parks business. A Disney rep wouldn't say why or exactly when Iger resigned from the task force, which was formed in April, according to the Sacramento Bee, which first reported the news late Thursday [10/1/2020]. Disney didn't immediately respond to a request for comment from The [New York] Post. California governor signs corporate boardroom diversity law. Hundreds of California-based corporations must have directors from racial or sexual minorities on their boards under a first-in-the-nation bill signed Wednesday by Gov. Gavin Newsom. The diversity legislation is similar to a 2018 measure that required boardrooms to have at least one female director by 2019. Like that measure, it could face court challenges from conservative groups who view it as a discriminatory quota. Supporters evoked both the coronavirus pandemic that is disproportionately affecting minorities and weeks of unrest and calls for inclusion that followed the slaying of George Floyd in May in the custody of Minneapolis police. EPA chief to Newsom: You don't have the power to ban gas-powered vehicles. EPA administrator Andrew Wheeler rebuked California governor Gavin Newsom yesterday [9/28/2020] for his executive order barring sales of gas-powered vehicles in the state by 2035. California no longer has the authority to impose such regulations, Wheeler reminded Newsom, and it also lacks the power, literally: Newsom OKs sterilizing treatments for teens. Despite the medical evidence and moral outcry, Gov. Gavin Newsom celebrated the signing of a bill that allows gender clinics to provide transgender drugs and surgery known to sterilize children and adults. Newsom praised AB 2218 for "strengthening protections for LGBTQ+ Californians" and providing an "additional step forward" in "our march towards equality," in a weekend press release. "By rejecting the concerns of doctors and parents, and siding with LGBT activists, Governor Newsom is yet again ignoring the heartbreak his policies will unleash," said Jonathan Keller, President of California Family Council. California: The Golden State in Utter Decay. With increasing homelessness, a soft approach to criminal prosecution, and the ongoing embracing of illegal immigration, violent crimes are increasing after having seen a reduction the past few years. According to The Trace, "homicides are sharply up this year" in California as a whole, and cities such as Oakland, with a 26% increase, have seen a significant increase in the number of murders. With the jump in violent crimes, what steps has California's government taken to reduce certain crimes? They recently passed the controversial bill S.B. 145, which will ultimately end up reducing accountability and sentences for adults who sexually assault children as young as 14. What a brilliant idea. Apparently, California's leadership believes that the pedophile community had been treated unfairly. Group Robs A CVS In Broad Daylight As Employees And Manager Just Watch. Ever since California decriminalized what the state considers 'petty crime', this sort of brazen robberies of stores has become more and more common. Add mask laws to the mix, which conceals criminals' identities, you can bet on a lot more of these broad daylight heists. [Video clip] California Wants Me to Vote, Even Though I Haven't Lived There for Over 8 Years. States across the country are experimenting with a mass switch to mail-in elections in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. But is it wise for states to make such a big change, especially in light of messy voter rolls around the country? What I was sent earlier this month by election officials in Alameda County, California, makes me worried that ballots going to the wrong locations will be a significant concern this year. The Alameda County Registrar of Voters notified me by mail at my parents' address in Oakland that I would receive a ballot when the state sends them out Oct. 5. This is following Gov. Gavin Newsom's executive order that all California voters receive a mail-in ballot before the Nov. 3 election. Pregnant Black, Pacific Islander women in San Francisco to receive $1,000 monthly supplement. Approximately 150 pregnant Black and Pacific Islander women in San Francisco will receive a $1,000 monthly supplement during their pregnancies and for the first six months of their babies' lives, the city's mayor announced. Mayor London Breed's (D) office said on Monday that the Abundant Birth Project is the first of its kind in the country. The project's goal is to eventually provide a supplement for as long as two years post-pregnancy. [...] Black infants are nearly twice as likely to be born prematurely than white infants in San Francisco. Pacific Islander infants have the second-highest preterm birth rate in the city, according to the mayor's office. Black families also account for half of maternal deaths in the city and 15 percent of infant deaths, although they represent just 4 percent of all births. The Editor says... California imposes racial quotas on corporate boards. California's legislature is mandating racial quotas for corporate boards. "Experts say" that "runs afoul of constitutional principles," according to the Wall Street Journal. "New legislation passed over the weekend would mandate that publicly-traded companies headquartered in the state must have at least one director from a minority community by the close of 2021. There are more than 500 public companies based in California in the Russell 3000, which accounts for the vast majority of companies." Poll: Californians oppose gender mutilation and sterilization bill. Sixty-four percent of California voters do not want Gov. Gavin Newsom to sign a bill to pay for transgender drugs and surgeries known to sterilize minors and adults, according to a new poll. The survey, conducted by Spry Strategies in conjunction with the Women's Liberation Front, shows that conservative Christians and radical feminists, who have joined forces to oppose AB 2218, are more in step with California voters than state legislators. The controversial bill passed the Assembly 54-10 and the Senate 28-9 late last month, and now sits on Newsom's desk awaiting his decision. LA County's Public Health Director says what we suspected about the lockdown. [Scroll down] Los Angeles County is America's most populous county, the largest government entity in America that is not a state or the federal government, and the third-largest metropolitan economy in the world. It's also entirely Democrat-run, as evidenced by poverty, drugs, and homelessness, as well as its vast wealth inequality. Los Angeles students still cannot go to school but must, instead, do online learning. We already know that part of the problem is that the teachers' union had some pretty stringent demands, few related to the students' physical and mental well-being. However, it turns out the continued school closures are also because of politics. We know this because LA County's Public Health Director, Barbara Ferrer, admitted as much when speaking to a gathering of school nurses and other school administrators: [...] There is no scientific connection between the election and the Wuhan virus. There is, however, a cynical connection between the lockdown and the election. The Democrats know that, and Ferrer finally said it out loud. Los Angeles County bans trick-or-treating this Halloween due to coronavirus. Traditional Halloween activities won't be allowed for residents in Los Angeles County this year due to the coronavirus pandemic, according to local health officials. The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health announced a ban on door-to-door trick-or-treating, carnivals, festivals, live entertainment and haunted houses. "Door to door trick or treating is not allowed because it can be very difficult to maintain proper social distancing on porches and at front doors especially in neighborhoods that are popular with trick or treaters," officials said in a news release detailing guidelines for the annual tradition. Update: California to Offer Drive-Thru Voting for November Election in Orange County. Orange County, California, is offering voters the option to submit a drive-thru ballot this November election season to stem the spread of the coronavirus. The county will use the Honda Center in Anaheim as a staging location, allowing voters to cast their ballots from their cars or in person inside the arena, the Daily Pilot reported. California DA's new policy to consider looters' 'needs' before charging them. A California district attorney is requiring her prosecutors to consider looters' "needs" when weighing criminal charges against them. The new mandate, set forth by Contra Costa County District Attorney Diane Becton, makes it tougher to prosecute looting cases in the county, which sits just outside San Francisco. Investigators must now consider "was this theft offense substantially motivated by the state of emergency, or simply a theft offense which occurred contemporaneously to the declared state of emergency?," according to the policy reported by local outlet East County Today. California Legislature Passes Bill Reducing Penalties for Oral, Anal Sex with Willing Children. California lawmakers passed a bill Monday that would reduce penalties for adults who have oral or anal sex with a willing minor child if the sex offender is within ten years of the age of the victim. The bill now heads to the desk of Gov. Gavin Newsom (D). California legislature passes bill easing sex offender registry requirements for sodomy with minors. California legislators passed a law Monday easing sex offender registry rules for those who commit sodomy or other sex acts with minors in order to end "discrimination against LGBTQ young people on the sex offender registry." The bill, which now heads to Gov. Gavin Newsom's desk, would "exempt from mandatory registration under the act a person convicted of certain offenses involving minors if the person is not more than 10 years older than the minor and if that offense is the only one requiring the person to register," according to the bill. Californiastan Continues Its War on Christians. [Scroll down] But even if a genuine pandemic rather than COVID-Con raged, pastors should never close churches. Both liberty and the Lord demand that we defy such dictatorship. California bill to form reparations task force advances after 33-3 state Senate vote. State senators in California overwhelmingly supported setting up a task force to study potential reparations for slavery in a bipartisan vote Saturday [8/29/2020]. The panel would study the effects slavery had on California and recommend to the legislature no later than 2023 what type of compensation would be appropriate, how it might be dispersed and who could be eligible to receive it. The task force could also recommend other forms of redress besides money. Having a party is a crime now? In California, cops banned from pro-police speech but pro-BLM speech is mandatory. A California Highway Patrol division in Southern California prohibited officers this month from displaying Thin Blue Line items, meant to honor law enforcement. Meanwhile, the San Francisco Police Department is decorating its precincts with materials celebrating Black Lives Matter, an organization calling for the defunding of the police. The CHP memo, a roll call briefing document with the Border Division dated Aug. 14, directed officers to "remove all Thin Blue Line paraphernalia, including anything resembling it ... immediately. This includes any paraphernalia hung anywhere in the office, stickers/patches on State or personal property that may be seen by the public during the course of duties, and email signature blocks." The Thin Blue Line, depicted as a black and white U.S. flag with a blue stripe, represents the sacrifices that law enforcement make to protect the public and prevent civil unrest. Civilians display the symbol to show their support for the nation's authorities. Progressive activists, however, liken the symbol to white supremacy and police misconduct. A California police officer who reviewed the document said it amounted to an official order because of the use of the word "shall." "It's all political so I understand why they sent it out," he said. California Gov. Newsom failed to take promised pay cut, newspaper finds. California Gov. Gavin Newsom has been drawing his full monthly salary despite asking state workers in May to take a pay cut to alleviate the state's burden in fighting the coronavirus pandemic. Though elected state officials are exempt from such pay cuts, Newsom pledged that he would voluntarily slash his salary when he asked state workers to make that same sacrifice. But a Thursday [8/20/2020] report from the Sacramento Bee revealed that Newsom has continued drawing his full monthly salary of $17,479. A spokesman for Newsom's office blamed the matter on an "administrative error." Killing Los Angeles. Things are so bad in so many American cities that our mainstream media outlets do not have the space or the time to cover it all. Even if they wanted to cover it all, which they clearly don't want to do. After all, the decline and fall of America's great cities does not make Donald Trump look bad. And the only news that is fit to print these days is news that makes Trump look bad. As Democrat run cities collapse before our eyes, the media assure us that there's nothing worth watching there. New York, Chicago, Portland, Seattle... down the drink, as they say. And the news media are trying to cover up the story, or, at the least, blame it on white Trump supporters. Anyway, today's story of decline and fall concerns Los Angeles. Broke California wants to fund youth sterilizations and sex changes. The California Senate will consider legislation soon to use taxpayer funds to pay for hormone blockers and sex change operations for minors. The bill, after passing the Senate Health Committee by a 7-1 vote last week, now moves to the Senate Appropriation Committee and then to the floor of the Senate before the end of the month. As noted by numerous health experts, the use of cross-sex hormones and surgeries for adolescents would permanently destroy their reproductive systems, a fact which AB2218 backers seem inclined to ignore. With Kamala Harris as VP pick, Gavin Newsom's White House hopes have stalled. Maybe you've noticed: Gov. Gavin Newsom no longer looks like a promising future presidential prospect. He has been leaped over and left behind by a California ally, Sen. Kamala Harris. Since Newsom was elected governor in 2018, the expectation has been that he would seize the first opportunity after this year to run for president. Newsom, 52, wasn't ready this year. But if President Trump won reelection, the Oval Office would be open in 2024. And if a Democrat ousted Trump, there'd be another opportunity in 2028. Hollywood Apocalypse. Gold's Gym has become synonymous with the Hollywood Dream. [...] Yet today Gold's sits amid post-apocalyptic scenes which have consumed much of LA, turning the City of Dreams into an urban nightmare from which people are fleeing in droves. A makeshift tent city made up of flapping tarpaulins and cardboard boxes surrounds the gym on all sides. Junkies and the homeless, many of whom are clearly mentally ill, walk the palm-lined streets like zombies — all just three blocks from multi-million-dollar homes overlooking the Pacific. Stolen bicycles are piled high on pavements littered with broken syringes. TV bulletins are filled with horror stories from across the city; of women being attacked during their morning jog or residents returning home to find strangers defecating in their front gardens. Los Angeles: Why politicians' COVID bullying attacks will work. Los Angeles mayor Eric Garcetti has learned how to govern like a third-world dictator. His threat to shut down the water and power to large house parties that violate the city's coronavirus guidelines is right out of the totalitarian government handbook. [...] Starting on Friday [8/7/2020], Mayor Garcetti announced that the city would shut off the power and water to houses, businesses, and other venues that violated the strict corona virus safety guidelines. This is in response to a large house party that police attempted to shut down. It turns out these parties are cropping up because the bars and nightclubs are closed as the city institutes greater restrictions as reported cases increase. [...] And it will work. In the Third World, which is what many of these cities have come to resemble, practical and authoritarian solutions prevail, especially when there is no one to enforce the rule of law. Local Politicians: America's Achilles Heel. Capping a long, impressive streak of dumb proclamations and declarations, including suggesting that members of the LAPD put down their batons and "walk hand-in-hand" with the same rioters who were then torching LAPD vehicles, attacking officers, and looting numerous businesses, Garcetti recently declared that water and power would be shut off to any residence caught hosting a "large house party." What exactly constitutes a gathering that is too "large?" Can/should a mayor shut off water and power to privately owned residences during the dog days of summer, two utilities that the State of California and Garcetti's own Housing Authority have explicitly deemed essential services necessary for habitation? Crowd in California blasts Gov. Newsom for not reopening the state. Hundreds of President Trump supporters descended onto the streets of Beverly Hills to protest property destruction and the 'villainization' of police while two similar demonstrations were held in Texas. [...] On Saturday [8/8/2020], a crowd of around 200 Americans carried signs reading 'Trump 2020' as they marched from West Hollywood to Beverly Hills. Footage showed several protesters waving American flags, signs reading 'United We Stand,' Thin Blue Line American flags celebrating law enforcement and a plethora of 'Make America Great Again' paraphernalia. L.A. County Supervisors Vote to Put Defunding Police on November Ballot. The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors approved a proposal on Tuesday to amend the city's charter — which will be presented to voters on November 3 via ballot — to remove $880 million from law enforcement and "reinvest" the money in "direct community investment" and "alternatives to incarceration." The Editor says... San Fran is crawling with drugs. DA shows more concern for dealers. District attorney Chesa Boudin acknowledges that the Tenderloin District of the city is plagued by drug sellers from Honduras, but frets that arresting them isn't really worth it. Boudin, a former public defender who vowed as a candidate to prosecute fewer criminals, is not inclined to address how the surge in drug sales during Covid lockdowns was affecting city residents, and instead focused on the plight of the drug dealers themselves. Many were trafficked and their families were at risk at home if they cooperated with authorities, Boudin said in a webinar last week. California's Woke Hypocrisy. No state wears its multicultural veneer more ostentatiously than California. The Golden State's leaders believe that they lead a progressive paradise, ushering in what theorists Laura Tyson and Lenny Mendonca call "a new progressive era." Others see California as deserving of nationhood; it reflects, as a New York Times columnist put it, "the shared values of our increasingly tolerant and pluralistic society." In response to the brutal killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Los Angeles mayor Eric Garcetti announced plans to defund the police — a move applauded by Senator Kamala Harris, a prospective Democratic vice presidential candidate, despite the city's steep rise in homicides. San Francisco mayor London Breed wants to do the same in her increasingly crime-ridden, disordered city. This follows state attorney general Xavier Becerra's numerous immigration-related lawsuits against the Trump administration, even as his state has become a sanctuary for illegal immigrants — complete with driver's licenses for some 1 million and free health care. Gavin Newsom's $3.7 Million Estate Was Gifted to Him in 2019; 3 Months Later He Got a $2.7 Million Tax Free Cash-Out. One thing that's become extraordinarily clear to Californians in 2020 is that there's one set of rules for Gov. Gavin Newsom, and there's another set of rules for the rest of us. He preaches that we're all in this together and that we have to sacrifice to "meet this moment," yet he's not missing a paycheck. As California businesses struggle, he sends a $1 billion contract for masks to a Chinese company. When he shut down wineries throughout 80 percent of California, he kept his open. While the dream of owning a home is increasingly out of reach for California's families, it appears that Newsom received a $3.7 million estate from an LLC owned by his cousin then, a few months later took out a $2.695 million (tax-free) cash-out mortgage on it — and didn't report the gift on any of his financial disclosure forms. Gavin Newsom Rages at Trump Discounting Illegal Aliens for States' Representation. California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) on Tuesday [7/21/2020] decried President Donald Trump's executive order which will exclude Illegal aliens from being counted for purposes of congressional apportioning. "Counting every person in our country through the Census is a principle so foundational that it is written into our Constitution," Newsom said in a statement. "This latest action by the administration to exclude undocumented immigrants when determining representation in Congress, rooted in racism and xenophobia, is a blatant attack on our institutions and our neighbors." The Editor says... City removes 'Black Lives Matter' street mural because of 'MAGA 2020' request. Street graffiti for me, but not for thee. That's what lawmakers in Redwood City, California basically told a Trump supporter who wanted to paint "MAGA 2020" on the same street where left-wing activists had painted a Black Lives Matter mural. Last week, Redwood City (which is located on the San Francisco peninsula) washed away the "Black Lives Matter" mural after a local attorney — a Trump supporter — argued that since the street was now a public forum, she should be allowed to paint "MAGA 2020" on it. California City Chooses No Speech over MAGA Speech. When faced with the choice of giving a Donald Trump supporter the exact same right to free expression as the left-wing terrorist group Black Lives Matter, Redwood City, California, chose to outlaw everyone's speech. How revealing. As Breitbart News reported Monday, Redwood City was so eager to allow one of its residents to paint a Black Lives Matter mural on city property, the city — and therefore the taxpayers — provided him with some of the materials. Los Angeles mayor says city is 'on the brink' of declaring another stay-at-home order. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti told CNN's Jake Tapper Sunday [7/19/2020] that Los Angeles is "on the brink" of another stay-at-home order. Los Angeles County has seen a surge of cases recently, with new record high hospitalizations and infections. The city has more than 150,000 cases. "A lot of things went wrong," Garcetti said. He pointed out that cases haven't increased as quickly in LA as in some cities, but said there is "no national leadership" in efforts to slow or stop the pandemic. "It was politicized when it should have been unified." California Gov. Newsom Helps Chinese Get $1 Billion in COVID Aid. [...] I've learned my lesson this time: Don't give Democratic governors the benefit of the doubt. I thought I'd learned it the first time. When New York's Andrew Cuomo looked like he was showing strong leadership in the opening week or two of the coronavirus crisis, I thought maybe we could put aside our petty differences and praise a politician from the other side. In fact, I did just that. And then it all ended in tears. It wasn't the rambling, empurpled news conferences that made the much-criticized presidential media briefings look like relative models of restraint. No, for me the moment I made a clean break was when I learned the much-hailed hand sanitizer production program Cuomo was fond of touting consisted of little more than inmates rebottling an outside product inside the Empire State's prisons in order to make the governor look good. Berkeley Bans Police-Conducted Traffic Stops, Will Send in Unarmed Civilians. Berkeley, California has approved a plan that prohibits police officers from conducting traffics stops. The plan, proposed by the mayor and approved in a virtual city council meeting early Wednesday morning [7/15/2020], is just one part of a major "defund the police" overhaul planned by the city, Fox News reported. The move to separate traffic enforcement from police work is believed to be the first of its kind in the U.S, according to the report. Instead of having trained officers conducting traffic stops, the new policy will send in unarmed civilian city workers to deal with traffic offenders. Police unions for Los Angeles, San Jose and San Francisco said in a joint statement that serious violations such as speeding, reckless driving, and driving under the influence — are dangerous offenses and confronting violators can be dangerous work best handled by sworn officers. California to Release 18,000 Prisoners by End of August to 'Slow the Spread of COVID-19'. According to the California Department of Corrections, the state is set to release up to 18,000 prisoners by the end of August to 'slow the spread of COVID-19.' Officials in California say releasing prisoners will help protect the "health and safety of the incarcerated population." "These actions are taken to provide for the health and safety of the incarcerated population and staff," Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation Secretary Ralph Diaz said in a news release. "We aim to implement these decompression measures in a way that aligns both public health and public safety." Nine politicians can stop teen sterilizations in California, but will they? The fate of a bill to fund transgender treatments that permanently destroy the reproductive systems of minors is now in the hands of nine California State Senators. AB 2218, authored by Assemblyman Miguel Santiago (D) Los Angeles with principal co-author Senator Scott Wiener (D) San Francisco, will be heard before the nine members Senate Health Committee when they return to the capitol at the end of the month. The bill has already made its way through the Democrat-dominated state Assembly with little debate and approved largely along party lines. It establishes an "LGBT Transgender Wellness Fund," to provide grants to nonprofits, hospitals, health care clinics (like Planned Parenthood), and other medical providers to pay for puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and mastectomies for minors, as well as cross-sex hormones and "sex-change" operations for adults. COVID Madness — Comrade Newsom Shuts Down California Indoor Activities. This is nuts. In an effort to fundamentally destroy the livelihoods of millions of California small businesses, Comrade Governor Gavin Newsom has declared that all indoor activities must shut down to top the spread of COVID-19. The overwhelming majority of dictates around COVID-19 mitigation are not laws. There was no debate; no input from representative government; and no option for the public to weigh-in on the decisions. Newsom shuts bars, indoor dining and most gyms, churches amid rise in virus cases. California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday extended the closure of bars and indoor dining statewide and ordered gyms, churches and hair salons closed in most places as coronavirus cases keep rising in the nation's most populated state. On July 1, Newsom ordered 19 counties with a surging number of confirmed infections to close bars and indoor operations at restaurants, wineries, zoos and family entertainment centers like bowling alleys and miniature golf. Gavin Newsom gives Californians a glimpse of their future. Once upon a time, California's Governor Gavin Newsom, the leftist boy wonder of America's largest and most leftist state, was considered to be a top future contender for the White House. That future is not so clear now that he's made it clear to Californians that every time the Wuhan virus rears its head, he's again going to shut down their places of work and imprison them in their homes. California may release 10% of inmates in pandemic response. California officials will soon release another 2,100 inmates from state prisons in response to the coronavirus pandemic and in all now plans to release a total of more than 10,000 inmates, or nearly 10 percent of prisoners, as Gov. Gavin Newsom responds to intensifying pressure from advocates, lawmakers and federal judges. California Legislators Violate Our Constitutional Rights. In multiple ways Gov. Newsom has become a monarch — a benevolent monarch, but a monarch nonetheless. I am amazed at how many aspects of that document the governor has violated. He would of course argue that his acts are for the public good, but he has tossed the Constitution out the window. For example, Article 1, Section 8, says that Congress alone has the authority "to regulate commerce with foreign nations and among the several states." Yet Gov. Newsom has unilaterally shut down varieties of commerce and restricted travel, even excursions from one's home. Much of this commerce becomes interstate. State Lawmakers Urge Newsom to Stop Transferring People in Prison to ICE in Pandemic. Dozens of state lawmakers called on Gov. Gavin Newsom Monday [7/6/2020] to stop California prison officials from transferring people to federal immigration detention during the coronavirus pandemic. In a letter signed by 44 members of the state Senate and Assembly — as well as 18 local elected officials, including Mayor Libby Schaaf of Oakland and Mayor Michael Tubbs of Stockton — the political leaders said ending the transfers is urgently needed to help reduce the spread of COVID-19 between detention systems in California. After calling for no fireworks for California's 4th of July, Gavin Newsom was in for a surprise. Amid a new outbreak of the coronavirus, California's Gavin Newsom was adamant that no firework celebrations be done on the Fourth of July, because the public simply could not be trusted to socially distance. [...] Illegal fireworks were once the province of illegal immigrants bringing in the lawless ways of Mexico, but now it appears that everyone is doing them, thumbing their nose at the law same as is done in Mexico and beyond. It goes to show that when the state overreaches, and puts out an unreasonable demand, widespread disobedience is going to be the result. It happens in Mexico, now it's happening here. With the Wuhan virus, Gavin Newsom discovers the perils of crying 'Wolf'. In March, California Governor Gavin Newsom put California in lockdown to flatten the Wuhan virus curve. Newsom, like Gov. Cuomo, placed virus patients in nursing homes, which may have contributed to the 2,531 resident and 93 care worker deaths in those homes. The government also had a hand in the virus's rampage through San Quentin prison, which killed three death row inmates. In other words, Democrat policies in California managed to produce 42% of the state's 6,263 virus fatalities. With its lockdown, which initially was to last for two weeks and that instead continued for months, Newsom weakened the California economy, drove its citizens to despair, prevented people from getting healthcare for other potentially deadly conditions, and deprived citizens of their constitutional rights. California's Governor Forbids Christians From Singing in Church Houses. Golden State Christians have been ordered by California's governor to stop singing in church. This is a direct assault on the First Amendment, [...] The new guidance for places of worship was issued on July 1. "Discontinue singing (in rehearsals, services, etc.), chanting, and other practices and performances where there is increased likelihood for transmission from contaminated exhaled droplets. Consider practicing these activities through alternative methods (such as internet streaming) that ensure individual congregation members perform these activities separately in their own homes," the 14-page order reads. The previous guidelines only encouraged churches to "strongly consider" ending corporate worship, the Sacramento Bee reported. The governor's office did not indicate how he intends to enforce the law. Can you imagine the optics of National Guard troops storming into California church houses and arresting choir members for singing, "A Mighty Fortress is Our God"? Newsom Bans Singing In Houses Of Worship After Downplaying Spread Of Coronavirus At Protests. Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) has issued new restrictions limiting the reopening of the economy in nearly 20 counties across the Golden State. One of the more controversial measures introduced Thursday will ban singing and chanting at houses of worships, which are already restricted to allowing 25% of guests or just 100 worshippers (whichever is lower). The Sacramento Bee reported that in late May, Newsom simply encouraged houses of worship to "strongly consider discontinuing singing, group recitation, and other practices and performances." Recall Gavin 2020. Everywhere you look, the failures of Governor Newsom are obvious and appalling to everyone. For this reason, the Recall Gavin 2020 campaign is not conservative or liberal, or right or left, or Republican or Democrat. This is a mass uprising. Our Recall Gavin campaign is building a grassroots organization with over 80,000 California voters already signed up as volunteers to sign and circulate recall petitions. That number is growing every week. And this is just the beginning. Are you tired of being locked up, unable to make a living, at the same time as California's prisons are being emptied? Do you wonder why Gavin Newsom's cronies are building "supportive housing" for the homeless at a cost of over a half-million dollars per unit, instead of just getting them help in less expensive facilities? Then join the Recall Gavin 2020 movement. Gov Newsom orders closing of Calif restaurants, wineries — but HIS remains open. In what is seen as a major rollback, Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom has ordered the closures of numerous businesses across 19 counties in California to counter a surge in coronavirus cases. The order will be enforced for at least three weeks, and includes restaurants, wineries and tasting rooms, movie theaters, family entertainment centers, zoos and museums, cardrooms, and bars, Fox 26 reported. While a number of Central Valley counties are included, Napa County, where Gov. Newsom owns a winery and tasting room is not among the counties affected and the business remains open as of the July 1, 2020 order, according to the Fox affiliate. San Francisco will end mug shots release, citing racial bias. San Francisco police will stop making public the mug shots of people who have been arrested unless they pose a threat to the public, as part of an effort to stop perpetuating racial stereotypes, the city's police chief announced Wednesday [7/1/2020]. San Francisco Police Chief Bill Scott said the department will no longer release booking photos of suspects to the media or allow officers to post them online. The policy takes effect Wednesday. Los Angeles school police chief releases powerful resignation statement after board slashes funding. Los Angeles School Police Chief Todd Chamberlain resigned following a decision by the school board to cut millions in funding and remove officers from campuses. Chamberlain, who stepped into the job just last year, turned in his resignation on Wednesday [7/1/2020], according to district spokeswoman Shannon Haber, the Los Angeles Times reported. With over 35 years in law enforcement, Chamberlain made the decision one day after the school board gave in to what he called a "potentially life-threatening" choice to cut the school police budget by $25 million. In the Name of Tolerance, California Blacklists Idaho. In a bizarre show of authoritarianism — even for them — California state officials have decided to ban state-funded travel to Idaho because of its transgender law. In a press release, California's attorney general, Xavier Becerra, said: "Where states legislate discrimination, California unambiguously speaks out. The state of Idaho has taken drastic steps to undermine the rights of the transgender community, preventing people from playing sports in school or having documentation that reflects their identity." In his comments Monday [6/22/2020], Becerra was referring to legislation signed by Idaho Gov. Brad Little that banned biological males who say they identify as girls or women from participating in female sports at public schools, colleges, and universities. House Bill 500, the Fairness in Women's Sports Act, passed by a significant margin in Idaho's House and Senate. It wasn't even controversial among Idaho residents. A
meaty issue: California tries to override the commerce clause. In late 2018, California voters passed
Proposition 12, banning the in-state sale of any pork or veal (regardless of origin) from an animal that had been "confined
in a cruel manner," defined as that which prevents an animal from lying down or turning around freely. [...] Yet, the issue
here is not just that Proposition 12 is bad policy. It's also likely unconstitutional under the Supreme Court's
commerce clause precedents, including its "extraterritorial doctrine." In Mailing It In. Assembly Bill 860, signed by Governor Gavin Newsom on June 18, is premised on ensuring safety in the era of the coronavirus. Yet Wisconsinites voted in person in April, and the predicted spike in coronavirus cases from that public assembly never materialized. The state's caseload did climb, but no steep increase occurred in the days and weeks after the primary, just a steady rise that has continued, partly driven by expanded testing. Apparently the same can be said for the locations where George Floyd marches, encouraged by the media and many public officials, were held. The pandemic, it appears, was a useful crisis — voting by mail has long been a priority among progressives, and the coronavirus outbreak provided sufficient cover to institute it. Oakland Abolishes School Police Department. The Oakland Unified School District abolished its own police force at a school board meeting on Wednesday night, bowing to the wishes of radical left-wing activists and the Black Lives Matter movement. The decision came a day after the Los Angeles Unified School District board could not agree on a similar proposal. It follows nationwide demands from activists, including many Democrats, to defund or abolish the police. What Happens When the Madness Ends? What will California's multimillionaire Governor Gavin Newsom do when his silly press conferences end, but his 13.3 percent income tax rate and 47-cent gas tax still don't come close to closing his $50 billion annual deficit? Give more adolescent lectures about how the virus and lockdown are "reimagining a progressive era as it pertains to capitalism"? There's a reason racial tension is rising in America - it's by design. In California, Democrats are moving to repeal Proposition 209. Proposition 209 explicitly bans racial discrimination in hiring and education. In other words, Democrats in California are now fighting for discrimination. This is not considered strange in 2020. No one even mentions it. A couple of weeks ago, Gov. Andy Beshear of Kentucky announced plans to bring universal health insurance to his state, but not for all citizens, just for people with the right skin color. Everyone else would pay, but only certain ethnic groups would benefit. Andy Beshear is still in office. No one has tried to impeach him for suggesting this because ideas like this are everywhere now. They're totally unchallenged. This is the most divisive possible way to run a country. If you wanted to make certain that your children would hate each other, you would hold them to different standards, and they certainly would. There is a reason that racial tension is rising in this country — it's by design. Mask-wearing is becoming increasingly politicized. California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, announced Thursday [6/18/2020] that mask-wearing is compulsory in most public settings, making California the 11th state to mandate that people wear masks. Public spaces include every workspace, public transit, and any facility in which people receive medical care. President Trump, meanwhile, has discounted the benefits of wearing a mask to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. Panic In Beverly Hills: Emergency Order Bans Protests In Residential Areas. The rich and famous are all about protesting and declaring themselves down with the struggle until protesters forget their place and invade residential areas of Beverly Hills. Then the masks drop. It's the ultimate Not In My Back Yard (NIMBY) — the City of Beverly Hills issued an emergency order Saturday night [6/13/2020] that bans public gatherings of more than 10 people in residential areas between 9 PM and 8 AM. What brought this on? Well, it seems a group calling themselves "Occupy" disrupted the beauty sleep of locals in their posh neighborhood on June 12 between the hours of 10 PM until 1 AM. The group used bullhorns and "amplified music". The residents want their tranquility back. The emergency order remains in effect until further notice. California City Officials Admit to Accepting Bribes. A former Calexico City, California councilman along with a former commissioner on the city's Economic Development and Financial Advisory Commission, pleaded guilty in federal court Thursday to corruption charges, admitting that they accepted cash bribes in exchange for promises of official action by the city. David Romero and Bruno Suarez Soto entered their pleas before U.S. Magistrate Judge Bernard G. Skomal, who set sentencing for Sept. 4, 2020, before U.S. District Judge Cathy Ann Bencivengo. Romero and Soto, who were charged in federal court in May, were allowed to remain free on $10,000 personal appearance bonds secured by their own signatures. Judge Smacks Down Gavin Newsom's Election Executive Order: "Impermissible Use of Legislative Powers". Throughout the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic and shutdowns the nation's Democrat governors have shown us just how dictatorial their aspirations are by issuing reams of overreaching executive orders they claim are allowable due to the public health emergency. California's Gavin Newsom has been one of the worst offenders, but an order issued Friday [6/12/2020] by Sutter County Superior Court Judge Perry Parker could put a stop to a number of items on Newsom's wish list. Two GOP members of the California State Assembly, Kevin Kiley and James Gallagher, filed suit Thursday seeking to invalidate Newsom's Executive Order N-67-20 pertaining to the November general election and requesting "interim declaratory relief and a temporary restraining order." [...] Friday morning Parker issued a temporary restraining order suspending implementation of the executive order, saying it was "an impermissible use of legislative powers in violation of the California Constitution and the laws of the State of California." Some in LAPD Slam City Council Over Private Security Details Amid Budget Cut. While LA City Council President Nury Martinez was filing a motion last week seeking to cut $150 million from the LAPD budget, she had an LAPD unit standing watch outside her home providing her family with a private security detail since April. [...] "It's kind of ironic. Here she is demanding $150 million be reallocated from the police budget, but yet she has security at her house by the Los Angeles Police Department," said Det. Jamie McBride, who serves as director of the Los Angeles Police Protective League, the LAPD's union. Kamala Harris, calling for $150 million LAPD defunding, also used LAPD as her private security detail. A Los Angeles city councilwoman was exposed as a hypocrite for introducing a bill to cut $150 million from the Los Angeles Police Department budget, while maintaining an LAPD private detail at her home for herself. Security for me, but not for thee, see, the leftist political elites always gets their takings first. Guess who else is just as hypocritical? Sure enough, Kamala Harris, Democratic vice presidential frontrunner, who's loudly endorsed these $150 million police defundings, supporting the idea, along with her political ally, Mayor Eric Garcetti, who was last seen calling the LAPD 'killers.' Gavin Newsom to close 200-person veteran's home after budgeting handouts to illegal aliens. Grandstanding Calif. Gov. Gavin Newsom reportedly wants to close a 200-resident veterans nursing home in a budget-cutting measure while at the same time enthusiastically handing out about $75 million in direct cash benefits to illegal aliens living in the state. In an extreme example of questionable priorities to say the least, Newsom, a far-left Democrat who is enabled by a Democrat-controlled legislature, targeted the Veterans Home of California-Barstow for closure to save $2.6 million (or perhaps less) as the formerly Golden State faces a corona-virus-induced budget crisis. For Democrats, illegal immigrants are among their primary constituencies, particularlyin California where, as noted above, they essentially run a one-party dictatorship in state that could be the epicenter of voter fraud. Wealthy buyers reportedly in 'mad rush' to leave San Francisco. Amid the depths of a global pandemic and financial downturn, the demand for real estate is unexpectedly rocketing in wealthy regions outside San Francisco, reports Bloomberg. Agents say that demand is soaring in affluent areas around the Bay Area such as Napa, Marin and further afield in Carmel, as people who have the means look to get away from the city. LA Mayor Garcetti Calls His Cops 'Killers.' The 'Killers' Just Sent a Reply to the 'Unstable' Mayor. Mayors and governors across the land have run to the cameras and microphones to be among the first to kneel in supplication to the riotous mobs in the streets. They eagerly do what the Leftists at Black Lives Matter (BLM) and George Soros call for, such as defunding police departments. They call for rule changes so that cops are defanged in the face of riotous antifa and BLM mobs. [...] Just two weeks ago, mayors and governors across the land were lauding their first responders for keeping the peace during COVID. Those days are over. The mob has spoken. 'Abolish The Police' Is A Slogan For The Destruction Of America. If you thought "abolish the police" — or it's more moderate iteration, "defund the police" — was just some asinine slogan blue-check journalists, woke academics, and pandering public officials post on Twitter to show they support the Black Lives Matter movement, then you're not keeping up with the revolution. This week Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, announced the city would be slashing the police department's budget by $100 to $150 million and instead "reinvesting in black communities and communities of color." The cuts to the LA police will make up the bulk of $250 million in funds to be reallocated to "end racism in our city," Garcetti said. LAPD Rips Into Councilwoman Over Reactionary Department Cuts: "We'll Take Care Of It At The Ballot Box". America is in a free fall and none of our state and local leaders seem to have a clue how to fix it. Minneapolis got the brilliant idea to completely eradicate their police department and replace it with some "citizen patrol" weirdness and what could possibly go wrong with that? Los Angeles mayor Eric Garcetti made sure the media got lots of pictures of him kneeling just before he announced the City of Angels would cut $250 million from its policing budget to give to "communities of color." If you think he meant that he'd be handing out the cash personally to black business and home owners who just had their livelihoods burned to the ground by looters and rioters, you are wrong. He will be handing that cash directly over to Black Lives Matter. Where it goes from there is anyone's guess but hey, at least Garcetti will feel like a good person. Understandably LAPD is not pleased. Not only were they deliberately prevented from stepping in to protect communities from Antifa during the first days of the riot, they have been maligned and insulted by their own leadership. As 'defund LAPD' becomes a rallying cry, Garcetti will seek cuts up to $150 million. When Los Angeles was plunged into a budget crisis earlier this year, progressive activists demanded that the City Council slash spending at the Police Department, saying it's wrong to boost funding for officers while cutting other urgently needed services. The debate over police spending at City Hall has only intensified after several days of protests against police brutality, the LAPD's response to those demonstrations and the looting that sometimes followed. Activists with Black Lives Matter, Ground Game LA and other grassroots groups say incidents in recent days where officers have used aggressive tactics including projectiles and batons only reinforce the need to defund the LAPD. Eric Garcetti bows to rioters, vows to cut police budget. Los Angeles is lost. As a resident of Southern California, I can tell you with a heavy heart that we lost. Los Angeles, arguably the heart of the west coast of America, has been demolished by leftist policies for years. But in the face of riots over George Floyd's murder, Mayor Eric Garcetti has done the exact opposite of what he should be doing. Instead of cracking down on crime, he's pulling money out of law enforcement. On top of that, he's making ludicrous moves like declaring a moratorium on putting people in the gang data base. As many leftist mayors and governors across the country are doing, Garcetti is making law enforcement out to be the bad guys, only the Los Angeles Mayor is doing everything he can to be the most "woke" mayor of them all. America in the 21st Century: 20 Long Years of Constant Brainwashing. The campaign to brainwash America about the Wuhan Virus has basically run its course along with the virus itself, and has now been replaced by a brainwashing campaign to convince us that we should all run out to the nearest riot and take a knee, just like Joe Biden did in that black church on Sunday. [...] In Los Angeles yesterday [6/3/2020], the National Guard there took a knee before the rioters, which means the rioters are now in charge of Los Angeles, which is presumably how Mayor Eric Garcetti wanted it anyway. Garcetti: LAPD budget to be cut by $150M to fund programs in black communities. Amid nationwide protests ignited by the police-involved killing of George Floyd early last week, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti announced that up to $150 million will be cut from the L.A. Police Department as part of relocating some $250 million from the city's budget to fund programs in communities of color. The Editor says... California Tried to Bail Out Illegal Aliens - and It's a Disaster. California's illegal alien population is its shadow economy and with many of the industries that employ them shut down, the Democrats who depend on ghost districts populated by illegals decided that something had to be urgently done to keep the illegal aliens from fleeing back across the border. The Democrats figured that giving them checks would be cheaper than building a wall to keep them in. But who knew that a $125 million stimulus program for illegal aliens would become such a disaster? Illegal aliens were eligible to apply for up to $1,000 with $75 million coming from the California taxpayers bailing out illegals who don't pay taxes. And another $50 million was supposed to be donated by wealthy lefties. But while the taxpayers of the state were forced to put up their $75 million, the wealthy politically correct elites who have poured fortunes into electing Democrats didn't pay up. Newsom Fiat: No California Protest Can Have More Than 100 People. Regressive Supreme Leader Gavin Newsom is angry. On Saturday more than 2,000 showed up at the Capitol to protest his dictatorship, issuing 40 Executive Orders and changing close to 200 State laws, without a vote of the Legislature or even telling them in advance. He signed over 400 NO BID contracts — some for firms owned by the Chinese Communist Party. People are angry — so they protest. Now, in the name of "safety and health", Newsom has issued another illegal edict — no protest can have more than 100 people. Watch as that edict is violated in every corner of the State. This is no different than what the Chinese Communist Party is doing to the people of Hong Kong. Ballot harvesting bounty: How Dems apparently used election law change to rout California Republicans. A minor change in California's election laws may have had a major effect on last month's midterm elections that saw Democrats steamroll their Republican rivals and claim all but seven of the Golden State's 53 House seats. Despite holding substantial leads on Election Day, many Republican candidates in California saw their advantage shrink, and then disappear, as late-arriving Democratic votes were counted in the weeks following the election. While no hard evidence is available, many observers point to the Democrats use of "ballot harvesting" as a key to their success in the elections. Hundreds protest in Sacramento against stay-at-home order. Hundreds of protesters rallied outside the state Capitol on Saturday [5/23/2020] to protest against California's stay-at-home orders even as residents entered the Memorial Day weekend with newly expanded options for beachgoing, barbecuing and shopping. The rally to demand that Gov. Gavin Newsom lift his restrictions on business, religious gatherings and other activities took on the atmosphere of a political rally and festival on a closed-off street. California Democrats Want to Bring Racial Preferences Back. Rather than focus on COVID-19 or the economic recovery, California liberals insist on pushing their pet issues. The "stimulus" bill rammed through the House this month by Speaker Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco was a liberal wish list of subsidies and spending. Now other California Democrats are ramming through an effort to repeal the state's ban on racial preferences. Two things often happen when a single political party dominates a state the way Democrats dominate California. First, an echo chamber of the dominant party convinces its leaders they can steamroll over any opposition. Second, that conviction leads to political overreach. Caucasian Americans are now only 19 percent of UC students, down from 38 percent a quarter century ago — this change reflects the increasing ethnic diversity of Californians. Gavin Newsom responds to Justice Department warning over church closures. After receiving a formal warning from the United States Justice Department over church closures, California Gov. Gavin Newsom said his state is "weeks away" from allowing in-person religious services to resume. A group of federal attorneys wrote a letter to Newsom warning him that prolonged church closures likely violate the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment due to the fact that similar non-religious businesses are receiving the green light to reopen in Stage 2. Darrell Issa, Judicial Watch Sue Gavin Newsom over Vote by Mail. Former Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) and Judicial Watch sued California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Thursday [5/21/2020] over his May 8 executive order allowing all voters in the state to vote by mail — whether they had formally requested to do so, or not. Newsom's order cites the threat of coronavirus: because "it is unknown to what degree COVID-19 will pose a threat to public health in November," mail-in ballots must be sent to everyone — but in-person voting must also be provided. California's Budget Bust-Up. Every state and municipal budget in America will take a big hit because of the coronavirus lockdowns, but no public purse is in as much trouble as California's. Its Department of Finance recently estimated that the Golden State could face a $54 billion shortfall in the fiscal year beginning July 1, which surely must be the largest deficit any state has ever accumulated, surpassing the $40 billion hole that nearly swallowed Sacramento in 2008. Still, though Governor Gavin Newsome said last weekend that the staggering deficit was "a direct result of Covid-19," that's clearly not true. Critics have long warned that the state's tax base is volatile, being increasingly reliant on wealthy residents and vulnerable to sharp contraction in the next recession. Combine that with California's spending spree — including expenditures to fix problems that the state's own bad policies have worsened — and the swing from prosperity to penury isn't hard to understand. Illegal Aliens Jam Phone Lines as California Offers $500 Each in Coronavirus Relief. The State of California is offering $500 each to illegal aliens as part of a $75 million coronavirus relief program — even as it asks federal taxpayers for help paying for its $54 billion deficit. The program, which launched on Monday [5/18/2020], saw phone lines jammed as "undocumented immigrants," who are ineligible for the federal aid provided thus far, called a state hotline. Tyranny as far as the eye can see. California governor Gavin Newsom is now warning of the potential for a third and fourth wave of the coronavirus, stating that we must remain humble by what we still don't know about it. While there may be a lot that we don't know about this sickening virus that was thrust upon the world by communist China, we do know that what is unfolding is unsustainable and unconstitutional. Our society is nearing a state of partial collapse due to protracted mitigation in blue states as the Constitution is trampled upon and set on fire. Newsom, like Dr. Fauci, appears to view our lives through the singular lens of this virus. But life is more complex than that (duh), and Newson is ignoring the larger reality (or at least pretending to) in order to hold onto power. Citing what we still don't know about the virus leaves the door wide open for him to continue to rule like an evil emperor. California: Give Us Money Or We'll Fire Cops and Firefighters. Governor Newsom is behind in the Most Loathsome Governor in America race, largely because he hasn't managed to kill as many nursing home residents as rivals like Cuomo and Murphy. But here he is trying to take first responders hostage. [...] Cops and firefighters are the most expendable employees in California. Not the billion dollar homeless services infrastructure. Not all the social justice and diversity personnel. Not, for that matter, the vast useless corps of educational administrators. Nope. We're gonna fire cops and firefighters because we decided to shut down the state and the rest of the country won't send us money. Judicial Watch sues to stop Newsom from giving 75 million tax dollars to illegals. Conservative watchdog Judicial Watch is asking a California Court to appeals to issue a temporary restraining order to stop Governor Newsom from paying out $75 million tax dollars to people here illegally. The Lower Court found that JW's lawsuit is likely to succeed on the merits since Newsom has no right to dole out the money, but illegal aliens need the money and that outweighs everything. Today's [5/18/2020] filing asks the Court of Appeal to command the Superior Court to issue the restraining order against California Governor Gavin Newsom and his Director of the California Department of Social Services Kim Johnson, enjoining them from making what is now an imminent, May 18, 2020, illegal expenditure of $79.8 million of taxpayers' funds to illegal aliens pending the final determination of the taxpayer action brought by Judicial Watch in the lower court. California is offering $500 cash payments to unauthorized immigrants who don't qualify for stimulus checks or unemployment benefits. California is rolling out a program on Monday that will give $500 cash payments to unauthorized immigrants shut out of traditional government aid programs because of their immigration status. The New York Times reported the $75 million taxpayer-funded program funded will be conducted by phone to reduce in-person contacts. It's expected to distribute cash to 150,000 people and the maximum amount awarded per household is $1,000. "California is the most diverse state in the nation. Our diversity makes us stronger and more resilient," Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a statement last month about the program. "Every Californian, including our undocumented neighbors and friends, should know that California is here to support them during this crisis. We are all in this together." The Editor says... Gavin Newsom: First responders 'first ones laid off' unless California gets federal COVID-19 funds. California Gov. Gavin Newsom says first responders will be the "first ones laid" off unless federal bucks arrive in the Golden State in the near future. The Democrat appeared to be playing a political game of chicken with Republicans in Congress over the weekend during a discussion about the coronavirus pandemic with CNN's Jake Tapper. Mr. Newsom specifically had a message for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and other Republicans when asked about a $3 trillion relief bill being "dead on arrival." There's Something Happening Here. Thousands of flag-waving Californians descended upon the State Capitol Friday [5/15/2020] for a protest of Gov. Gavin Newsom's statewide stay-at-home lockdown order, which has caused millions of residents to lose their jobs and businesses," wrote Katy Grimes in the California Globe. Down in Huntington Beach in Orange County, as Fox News explained, protesters were backing up traffic for a mile on Pacific Coast Highway, while others staged rallies in San Diego, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. What could have prompted these Californians to get out in the streets? Governor Gavin Newsom had declared them "nonessential" and they showed up with signs reading "All jobs are essential." So, basically they want their lives back. This is not what their governor wants, however. On Wednesday, Newsom told reporters, "we believe we are weeks, not months, away from making meaningful modifications to that indicator," a reference to his shelter-in-place order. The San Francisco Democrat didn't say what the modifications would be or when he would make them, and he didn't want people expressing their opposition in public. Dems discovering that with sanctuary cities, what goes around, comes around. Atwater, California, has declared itself a sanctuary city — sanctuary from tyrannical government draining the lifeblood from the people. If leftist tyrants can provide safe haven to illegal invaders, why not have sanctuary cities that protect Americans from our newly anointed dictators? So this rural city of fewer than 30,000 people located in the center of California has decided to free itself from the suffocating chokehold of the state. At the end of April, the City Council voted unanimously to open businesses and churches. California town declares itself 'sanctuary city' for businesses, opens up in defiance of stay-at-home order. A central California city has declared itself a "sanctuary city" for businesses and will open up in defiance of the state's stay-at-home order. The city council in Atwater passed a resolution Friday allowing businesses to open despite Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom's order for businesses to remain closed, according to ABC30's Vanessa Vasconcelos. California City To Allow Reopenings, Declares Itself A 'Sanctuary City' For Business. The central California city of Atwater has declared itself a "sanctuary city" for businesses. The Friday [5/15/2020] resolution passed by the Atwater City Council allows business owners to open, openly defying Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom's coronavirus-related stay-at-home order. The resolution affirms "the city's commitment" to "fundamental" human rights. Churches and other nonprofits are included in the resolution, according to ABC30's Vanessa Vasconcelos. California governor: Shrink prisons to help cut budget. Gov. Gavin Newsom is proposing to significantly shrink the footprint of California's prison system, partly because of massive budget cuts prompted by the pandemic but also because of philosophy. The revised budget he sent to state lawmakers this week envisions closing two state prisons in the coming years; cutting nearly one in five of the 43 inmate firefighter camps; and eventually closing all three state-run juvenile prisons. California Democrats say 10-year rent-relief plan 'not a giveaway'. California Democrats on Tuesday proposed giving tenants struggling during the coronavirus pandemic 10 years to pay their rent. The state would purchase unpaid rents and allow renters a decade, starting in 2024, to pay it back without interest, under the proposal by Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins, tthe Sacramento Bee reported. Landlords would receive a tax credit dependent on committing to not evict tenants. "This is not a giveaway," Democratic state Sen. Steven Bradford said, according to The Associated Press. "Our goal is to keep tenants houses and keep landlords out of foreclosure." California Revives Affirmative Action. On May 5, just a day after the California Legislature reconvened, an assembly hearing was held for the controversial Assembly Constitutional Amendment NO. 5 (ACA-5) in the Committee of Public Employment and Retirement. With a long session of contested public comments over the phone, ACA-5 was passed with a 6-to-1 vote under the moralistic appeal of "hope for all." While purporting to increase diversity and representation, ACA-5 fails to meaningfully address structural issues behind achievement gaps and racial discrepancies for both political and philosophical reasons. Instead, the bill proposes a statewide reinstitution of government preferences in public employment, education, and contracting along rigid racial lines. The utopian and myopic scheme, wrapped around feel-good rhetoric with a steep price tag, will not only fall short of establishing long-lasting diversity, but can further compromise true equality and the merit-based principle, both of which are bedrocks of American democracy. California: Gavin Newsom Orders Vote-by-Mail for November Election. California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) on Friday signed an executive order permitting all registered voters in the Golden State to vote by mail in the upcoming presidential election, citing concerns stemming from the Chinese coronavirus pandemic. "I signed an executive order that will allow every registered voter in California to receive a mail-in ballot," Newsom said. "That mail-in ballot is important but it's not an exclusive substitute to physical locations." The Editor says... San Francisco DA Says His Father, Convicted Murderer And Former Member Of Terrorist Group, Should Get Out Of Prison. San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin believes his father, convicted murderer and former Weather Underground member David Gilbert, should be released from prison due to the coronavirus pandemic. Gilbert and Boudin's mother, Kathy Boudin, were convicted of murder in 1983 for serving as getaway drivers during a bank robbery that left three people dead at the hands of their co-conspirators. California Is Ready to Get Rid of Gavin Newsom. Across California on May 1, tens of thousands protested in defiance of statewide lockdown orders. In Sacramento, the west lawn of the state capitol building was filled with protesters, with thousands more marching along the sidewalk surrounding the capitol grounds. Additional thousands driving their cars and honking their horns created three hours of total gridlock on the streets that loop around the capitol. Noteworthy protests have taken place in San Diego, Encinitas, Laguna Beach, Huntington Beach, Paso Robles, Santa Rosa, and even tiny Lakeport on the shores of Clear Lake. There is no end in sight. While the media has typecast these growing protests as populated by right-wing extremists, Trump supporters, and remnants of a geriatric Tea Party movement, the reality in California is different. In Laguna Beach, the protest was organized by surfers. Overall, these protests included people who claimed never to have been involved in politics, people who identified themselves as former Democrats, and young people. Thousands and thousands of youth: children, teenagers, college students, twentysomethings. A generation is waking up. Is California Thinking About Coronavirus Internment Camps? Gavin Newsom, governor of the "nation-state" of California, is raising what he calls an "army" of 20,000 government employees who will trace the spread of coronavirus across the state. Those found guilty, or rather, infected, are likely to run into an uncomfortable change in their lives. In Ventura County, northwest of Los Angeles, a pilot program was launched this week to trace infections and exposure, according to County Health Director Dr. Robert Levin. When infected persons are found, he said, they are "immediately isolated." As more people are tested, Levin continued, "we will find more and more people who have COVID-19." "We will isolate every one of them, and we will find every one of their contacts, and we will make sure that they stayed quarantined, and we'll check in with them every day." Seems innocuous, even helpful. But: [...] Liberal District Attorney Boasts 'I'm Keeping San Francisco Safer by Emptying the Jail'. San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin is bragging about his city's jailbreak policies that have been implemented throughout the coronavirus pandemic, claiming in a Los Angeles Times op/ed that he is "keeping San Francisco safer by emptying the jail." Uber, Lyft Sued by California in Major Gig-Economy Crackdown. Uber Technologies Inc. and Lyft Inc. were sued by California for allegedly violating a new state law designed to give gig-economy workers the benefits of employees. While expected, the lawsuit filed Tuesday [5/5/2020] in state court marks a serious threat to the business model of an array of companies that save on labor costs by classifying workers as independent contractors. If the companies ultimately lose the suit, they could be forced to pay for overtime, health care and other benefits. Free O.C. California governor Gavin Newsom's executive order closing the beaches of Orange County, Calif., is what you get when you govern by Twitter: A news photo showing a crowded Orange County beach makes the social-media rounds, provoking the predictable outrage storm; Governor Newsom, rather than investigate, issues an executive order to placate the social-media circus; that executive order is based on powers that the governor does not enjoy, and the Democratic governor singles out the historically Republican cities of Orange County. It is not even clear that there was a real problem for Newsom to solve. One photograph did indeed show an Orange County beach looking like spring break; other photographs showed a much more dispersed and socially distanced crowd. Orange County DA 'outraged' after commissioner releases 7 dangerous sex offenders due to COVID-19 restrictions. Orange County, Calif. District Attorney Todd Spitzer stated Saturday [5/2/2020] that he is "outraged" after the state ordered the release of seven high-risk sex offenders from the county's jails over concerns they could contract coronavirus. Appearing on "Fox & Friends Weekend" with host Jason Chaffetz, Spitzer said that the issue at hand is not just in Orange County or California, but "is a ruse that has been pulled on the American public, on jails and custodial facilities all over the nation." Gov. Newsom Puts Politics Over Data in California Shutdown. Los Angeles County, which has implemented the most draconian beach closures in the country, has in excess of 1,000 coronavirus deaths. Orange County, which has consistently taken a less restrictive approach, has had 45 deaths going into this weekend. Orange County's population of 3.3 million is larger than 22 states. If it were a state, Orange County's death rate of 0.0014% would be the 49th lowest in the country. The primary hospital in Newport Beach has a 475-beds capacity and has never treated more than 25 people for coronavirus issues at any given time. The leaders of that hospital system believe that the curve has flattened, and that Orange County needs to responsibly reopen. Judicial Watch Sues California to Stop Governor Newsom's Initiative to Provide $75 Million in Cash Benefits to Illegal Aliens. Judicial Watch announced it filed a lawsuit in the Superior Court of California County of Los Angeles on behalf of two California taxpayers, Robin Crest and Howard Myers, asking the court to stop the state from expending $75 million of taxpayer funds to provide direct cash assistance to unlawfully present aliens. The lawsuit alleges California Governor Gavin Newsom overstepped his authority and violated federal law when, without affirmative state legislative approval, he took executive action to create the "Disaster Relief Assistance for Immigrants Project" and provide cash benefits to illegal aliens who otherwise are ineligible for state or federal insurance or other benefits due to their unlawful presence in the United States. Thousands of protesters flock to Huntington Beach following state-ordered OC beach closures. Large crowds opposing the state's coronavirus stay-at-home mandate took to the streets of downtown Huntington Beach on Friday [5/1/2020], a day after the governor closed Orange County beaches and drew frustration and criticism from some residents and city leaders. Protesters gathered near the Huntington Beach pier shortly before noon, with the crowd eventually swelling to some 2,500-3,000 people, according to Huntington Beach police Chief Robert Handy. The tightly packed crowd, with most people not wearing protective masks, repeatedly chanted "U.S.A." as they waited for the demonstration to begin. California Cities Vote To Sue Governor For Closing Their Beaches. The cities of Huntington Beach and Dana Point have voted to take legal action against the state of California after Governor Gavin Newsom (D-CA) said he would close all beaches and state parks inside of their cities and the rest of Orange County. According to The Los Angeles Times, Huntington Beach voted 5-2 in a last-minute meeting in favor of seeking an injunction against the governor, who announced in Thursday's coronavirus press conference that the state would close all beaches in Orange County in response to "alarm bells," including packed crowds and a lack of reportedly improper physical distancing. Governor Grundy puts Orange County, but not San Diego County, on restriction. Just a few hours ago, I got back from La Jolla, a rich and deep-blue enclave of the city of San Diego that's the home of Mitt Romney. The just-after-sunset beach traipse was to see the bioluminescence event. Beach waves turn glow-in-the-dark at night as a result of the red tide, and it's a rare and completely yowza thing to see. Of course it drew a crowd. Street parking was competitive. The cars just kept coming and coming on Coast Boulevard near Wipeout Beach, and visitors bunched up at stoplights to use crosswalks — no slipping across the streets real quick to get to the shore view from the cliffs. Here's a bit of the pre-weekend flavor, and this was far from the most crowded scene I saw. You can see that the groups have masks, look more like friends than families, and aren't socially distancing. Gavin Newsom, beach cop taking on all California. California's Gov. Gavin Newsom is shutting down the beaches, just as the entire population of California goes stir-crazy and the sunniest weekend of the year beckons. [...] Unless city officials intend to deploy every police officer to politicing the beaches, it's very unlikely to be the sort of order that's going to work. Already there are signs the order will never be heeded. The opening of the beaches, about a week ago, was brought on by public pressure to open the public space, and that's just for starters. The surfer enclaves of Encinitas and Huntington Beach have already seen fierce protests and calls to end the lockdown. No California-wide beach shutdown: Gavin Newsom went for narrow closure. State officials pushed to close all beaches and state parks in California to try to prevent overcrowding they feared could spread the coronavirus, but Gov. Gavin Newsom decided Thursday only to temporarily close beaches in Orange County, an administration official said. Newsom said at a news conference he was ordering a "hard close" in Orange County after beaches in Newport Beach and Huntington Beach drew tens of thousands of visitors during a heat wave last weekend. He said he was particularly concerned about the beach activity because Orange County has more coronavirus cases and hospitalizations than many other areas. The Editor says... CA Gov Newsom [is] Only Closing Beaches in (Conservative) Orange County. In a move that makes him look even more petty and dictatorial than before, California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Thursday that he's announcing state parks and beach closures only in Orange County this weekend instead of closing state parks and state beaches throughout the entire state as he'd planned, and which my colleague Kira Davis reported. The reasoning outlined by Newsom in the press conference was nonsensical and inconsistent. More likely is that Newsom wants to punish Orange County officials, whom he sees as uncooperative (despite his public claims), particularly Supervisor and former Assemblymember Don Wagner. Orange County was one of the Republican Party's last strongholds in the state until the 2018 election, in which Democrats swept all seven House seats in the county. Newsom to close all California beaches, state parks over coronavirus: memo. California Gov. Gavin Newsom will be closing all beaches and state parks across the state starting Friday to help slow the spread of the coronavirus, according to a memo sent to California police chiefs on Wednesday [4/29/2020]. The decision comes after Newsom called out the massive crowds that flocked to Newport Beach in Orange County last weekend during a heat wave. Newsom called the beach crowds an example of "what not to do" to make progress toward easing restrictions in the statewide stay-at-home order. CA Gov Newsom Warns Sun-Loving Newport Beachgoers "Aggressive" Measures Coming. In a livestreamed update on the Golden State's response to COVID-19 this afternoon [4/27/2020], California Governor Gavin Newsom threw down the gauntlet to sun-worshippers in his state, who he was disappointed appeared to be enjoying life over the weekend. That's something that just can't stand, man! Newsom began his speech with a smile, by thanking "the 40 million" Californians who "over the course of the last number of weeks have not only bent the curve... but stabilized it." But the governor's smile only lasted about 24 seconds, when he said this: [...] California to close all beaches after crowds ignore social distancing rules. California will reportedly close all beaches and state parks beginning Friday [5/1/2020] after swells of beachgoers fled to the shore last weekend in defiance of social distancing rules. The state's governor, Gavin Newsom, will formally announce the decision Thursday, according to a memo outlining the move obtained by FOX 11. "After well-publicized media coverage of overcrowded beaches this past weekend, in violation of Governor Newson's shelter in place order, the governor will be announcing tomorrow that beaches and all state parks in California will be closed, effective Friday, May 1," said the notification, which was sent out to all California police chiefs on Wednesday. San Francisco Bay Area Extends Lock-Down Order Throughout May. It is being reported the San Francisco Bay area will remain in a state of forced lock-down with an extension of the stay-at-home orders throughout May. Considering this is the home of Speaker Nancy Pelosi, this decision highlights an expectation that the federal government will bail out local and state governments. We anticipated this type of approach where Blue states & Blue regions will keep their economies closed as long as possible to inflict maximum political damage. Simply, if San Francisco were not confident they will gain a federal bailout they would not be keeping their economic system closed for another entire month. To Help Out with the Pandemic and Unemployment, California Will Now Pay Seniors to Order From Restaurants. If you're a restaurant-lovin' California senior citizen and lookin' to make a few extra bucks, you're in luck. Assuming you fit the profile, the state will now pay you to wine and dine yourself — if you order your grub. On Friday [4/24/2020], Gov. Gavin Newsom announced a new program wherein local, state, and federal money (so if you're local, will you be triple-taxed for this?) will be paid out to eligible seniors who order food from nearby restaurants. Newsom Ordered by CA Supreme Court to Defend $75 Million Giveaway to Illegals. Californians struggling to make ends meet during extended coronavirus shutdowns were not amused when their governor, Gavin Newsom, announced the creation of a public-private partnership to give away $125 million ($500/person) in pandemic relief grants to illegal immigrants who are ineligible to receive unemployment benefits or federal stimulus checks (because they are not here legally, duh). Newsom further explained that of the $125 million in funding, $75 million would come from taxpayer funds (without explaining any legislative process appropriating such funds) and that "a group of charities" had promised to chip in $50 million. Democrats' Fascism Shines Through. On April 14, California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced that he's planning to give $125 million in public and private funds to 150,000 adults living in the state illegally. Newsom understands that illegal immigration is the future of the Democratic party. Californians are ordered to stay at home. Illegal aliens are welcome to come there any time. Everything that Newsom and his party have done for illegals — sanctuary cities, free health care, driver's licenses, in-state tuition — will encourage more to come here in violation of our immigration laws. Fascists don't believe in the rule of law, unless it benefits them directly. Newsom won't share details on $1B mask deal with China. California Gov. Gavin Newsom is facing pushback as state lawmakers have begun demanding details of his nearly $1 billion deal to receive 200 million masks per month from a Chinese manufacturer. Just two weeks after announcing the deal, Newsom has remained largely mum on the specifics. Advisers to the California Democrat have declined requests for comment from the Los Angeles Times about the agreement, which was inked with Chinese electric car manufacturer BYD — which stands for Build Your Dreams — earlier this month. BYD was formed in 1995 as a battery manufacturer. In 2008, Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway purchased a 24.8% stake in the company. California's 'Reopening' Economic Task Force Is As Absurd As It Gets. California Governor Gavin Newsom has introduced his new economic task force to begin plans for reopening the economy. The task force is 80 members and will include: [#1] Former Governor Gray Davis, who — in a rare event of complete voter unity — was recalled from the governorship for his utter incompetence. [#2] Former Governor Jerry Brown, who brought us our disastrous pension liability. [#3] Former Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who gave us the current Democrat super majority by bringing us the insane notion of "jungle primaries." [#4] Failed presidential candidate and very rich man Tom Steyer, who proudly supports a New Green Deal and is very vocal about working to end vital business in the energy sector. Let's not forget that Newsom said recently he views this crisis as a chance to usher in a "new era" of progressive policies. How Much Do The Pelosi's Have Invested In China? Pelosi may present herself as the defender of the little guy. She is anything but. In 2018 her net worth was roughly $160 million. She is married to Paul Pelosi who runs a top tier investment and real estate firm in San Francisco. Over the course of decades, as Nancy has risen through the ranks of the Democratic Party, the Pelosi's have gotten fabulously wealthy. There have been any number of allegations over the decades that Nancy and her husband have profited in ways that are clearly illegal from the access a senior politician enjoys. Over a span of years, Nancy Pelosi used her influence to steer more than $1 billion to the expansion of a light rail line into a San Francisco neighborhood where her husband owned commercial property and in which business associates of his then purchased additional properties. The value of real estate in the area exploded with the arrival of light rail, and the Pelosi's made a killing. There has also been an almost unending number of allegations that Paul Pelosi has benefited from what is known as insider trading. That is, he has made sometimes enormous purchases of stocks based on information allegedly provided to him by Nancy, who was privy to sensitive, non-public information by way of her position. Newsom: California unemployment center hours extended, $125M fund created for undocumented immigrants. California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Wednesday [4/15/2020] said he has extended the unemployment call center hours to help the record 2.7 million Californians who have filed claims and created a fund to help undocumented immigrants, who comprise 10% of the state's workforce. The Employment Development Department's call center will be open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. seven days a week, rather than closing at noon Monday through Friday. Newsom extended the hours through an executive order. Because the state has a HUGE budget surplus... The Editor says... Illegal Immigrants in Los Angeles Can Apply for Pre-Paid Debit Cards. Los Angeles will be doling out pre-paid debit cards to residents who have faced economic hardship due to the coronavirus lockdown, and living in the country illegally won't disqualify you from getting the cash. Los Angeles officials have begun accepting applications for a no-fee debit card that provides cash to residents who were already living under the poverty line before the coronavirus crisis began and have since had their incomes dramatically reduced because of the outbreak, KTLA5 reported. Gavin Newsom Declares California a "Nation-State," Suggesting It is Independent of Federal Authority. Look, either formally secede — with my enthusiastic Bon voyage! — or get ready for invocation of the Insurrection Act and civil war by the usual means. We're not going to have this [nonsense] where every state has to buckle under leftwing federal diktats but that liberal states are free to secede-in-part whenever the federal government is not leftwing. If America isn't working for you anymore — Leave. We can work out the details later. I suggest that all border counties be permitted to vote to leave or stay on a county-by-county basis. We don't need to keep states intact when we're dividing the country. Then I suggest we mutually agree that any citizen of one America has the right to move to the other America as a citizen within five years of division. After five years, you're a foreign immigrant like any other, and the countries can choose to accept or reject your request for citizenship as they like. The five year period will permit a lot of self-sorting. California governor planning coronavirus aid for illegal immigrants. California Gov. Gavin Newsom and the state Legislature are working on a coronavirus aid plan for the state's illegal immigrants and others not covered by the federal government's $2.2 trillion relief package. Newsom, a Democrat, disclosed the plans Tuesday [4/7/2020], according to The Associated Press. "Californians care deeply about undocumented residents in this state," the governor, a former mayor of San Francisco, said. Newsom is Giving Emergency Grants to Illegal Alien Small Business Owners. On Friday [4/3/2020], a reporter from Telemundo asked California's Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom what emergency relief he would be providing for illegal aliens amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. "No state in America does more to help residents regardless of their immigration status," the governor rightly assured the reporter. Newsom first bragged about the state's healthcare coverage for illegal aliens before explaining how his administration is now helping illegal alien small business owners obtain grants while a large part of the American economy remains shut down. California to release 3,500 inmates early as coronavirus spreads inside prisons. California is granting early release to 3,500 inmates in an effort to reduce crowding as coronavirus infections begin spreading through the state prison system. Lawyers for Gov. Gavin Newsom on Tuesday told a panel of federal judges the state is taking "extraordinary and unprecedented protective measures" to slow the spread of the virus and protect those who live and work within California's 35 prisons. The accelerated parole policy — affecting inmates due to be released over the next 60 days — comes in the face of pressure to do much more. LA County Sheriff Orders Closure of Gun Stores, Releases 1,700 Inmates. Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva has released 1,700 inmates from county facilities and is ordering gun stores in the county closed. Fox 11 reports the gun store closures are part of the coronavirus stay-at-home order while the release of the inmates is an attempt to slow the spread of the virus in county facilities. Gov. Gavin Newsom says state won't issue guidance on whether gun stores are essential businesses. California Gov. Gavin Newsom will not offer official guidance on whether gun stores can be classified as essential businesses and remain open during the state's shelter-in-place order. Newsom was asked about the issue after Los Angeles County reversed course on a move to close gun stores amid the spread of coronavirus in the region and the county's shelter-in-place order. L.A. County Sheriff Alex Villanueva initially ordered the closing of gun stores, but legal counsel for the county determined gun stores are essential businesses and must remain open. Villanueva then rescinded the order. LA Sheriff Suspends Efforts To Close Gun Stores. Confusion swirled as the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Tuesday temporarily suspended its efforts to close gun stores during the coronavirus outbreak. The decision was made as the county counsel's office works to clarify whether gun stores are considered essential businesses under California Gov. Gavin Newsom's statewide order, a sheriff's spokesperson confirmed to CBS2 Tuesday night [3/24/2020]. California's Stay-at-Home Order Is a Legal Mess. California Governor Gavin Newsom's stay-at-home order may well be necessary as a matter of public health in the face of the new coronavirus — I will leave that to epidemiologists to determine. But viewed as a legal declaration, it's a total mess. [...] The order is also drafted so badly that it creates contradictions with the state's own website explaining it, with the governor's own speech rolling it out, and with common sense. As written, the order does not say clearly that Californians can leave their homes to buy food or medicine or other necessities. It doesn't say whether they can go out to help family members or friends who are themselves vulnerable or otherwise in need. It is silent on going out for exercise. Although context suggests all these may be permitted, the formal legal implication of the text would be that all are prohibited. Newsom executive order allows California to commandeer hotels, motels to house coronavirus patients. Gov. Gavin Newsom, the California Democrat, released an executive order on Thursday [3/12/2020] that includes the authority for Sacramento to take over hotels and motels for medical use for coronavirus patients, in a move he said will help the state of 40 million prepare for any widespread outbreak. Some patients in the state have already been moved to hotels. The Desert Sun reported that a 120-room hotel in San Carlos, which is near San Francisco, has been already tapped to house passengers from the Grand Princess cruise ship. The first-term governor told reporters that besides hotels and motels, state officials are also scouting for potential lodging in "mothballed" facilities and state parks. The executive order, according to the report, has been designed to allow the state's Health and Human Services Agency and the Office of Emergency Services to commandeer private property for coronavirus treatment. Government Outlaws Freelance Work. Freelance jobs are "feudalism," says California Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez. She persuaded California's legislature to pass a new law reclassifying freelance workers as employees. That means many people who hire them must now give them benefits like overtime, unemployment insurance, etc. Politicians said it would help freelancers a lot. Of course, much of the media agreed. [...] Young reporters just don't understand that stifling economic freedom always creates nasty side effects. California Is a Cruel Medieval State. One way of understanding California is simply to invert traditional morality. What for centuries would be considered selfish, callous, and greedy is now recalibrated as caring, empathetic, and generous. The current ethos of evaluating someone by his or her superficial appearance — gender or race — has returned to the premodern values of 19th-century California when race and gender calibrated careers. We don't pay medieval priests for indulgences of our past and ongoing sin, but we do tweet out displays of our goodness as the penance price of acting amoral. A paradox ensues that Californians both have a high, indeed smug, view of themselves and yet do a lot of damage to their fellow human beings. California's Gig Law Comes For the Scooters, Destroys Independent "Juicers". California's "gig economy" law — AB5 — continues to have disastrous consequences across the state. The list of jobs affected or outright destroyed is huge and growing every day. The wedding industry is collapsing. Festivals are closing. Theaters and music venues are closing. A nursing shortage is now upon us because qualified nurses can no longer pick up extra side-jobs in areas like hospice care. The law has even killed Christmas: mall Santas can no longer contract their services. Calif. Bill Would Fine Stores With "Boys" and "Girls" Departments. [Scroll down] But should [Evan] Low's bill become law, a retailer could actually have some fun with it. I'd comply and combine the sections, for instance, but then label different displays as "blue" or "pink." Were it questioned by a government bureaucrat, I'd ask how he could be so closed-minded as to associate a color with a sex. Better still might be to label displays as "Little XY" or "Little XX." Upon interrogation, I'd expound upon how "experts" maintain that one can be genotypically male but phenotypically female. "How could you be such a bigot, sir (or is it madam?), as to assume that the girls entering my establishment don't have an XY chromosome configuration?" As for Low, he justified his bill with the usual lowbrow leftist boilerplate. New California Bill Requires Retailers Create 'Gender-Neutral' Aisles For Children. A new bill introduced in the California Assembly would require retailers to create "gender-neutral" floor-spaces for children's merchandise, with the goal of banning sex-specific labeling labeling such as "girls aisles" and "boys aisles." The bill proposed by Democratic Assemblyman Evan Low, requires all retail department stores with 500 employees or more to comply with the newfound gender standards of the Left. The Editor says... Sorry, Democrats: Party's Over. It makes me smile to know that fewer people are watching CNN than have fled from California in the last few years. These days even Jed Clampett wouldn't be convinced that Californy is the place he ought to be. He would have the sense to take his money to Texas where the taxes are reasonable and you won't be flash-mobbed by SJWs chanting that you're an eco-criminal for striking it rich in the energy sector. Modest as Jed's education may have been, I think he would have understood that energy is a good thing and letting junkies poop in the aisle at Costco is a bad thing. Even cousin Jethro would have winced at the mountain of filth that Pelosi and her party have made. New California bill would require gender neutral sections in retail stores. A new California bill would require some retailers to have gender neutral floor space inside their stores, Politico reports. The bill, called Assembly Bill 2826, was introduced by Assemblymember Evan Low, a Democrat from Campbell. According to Politico, retailers would be able to sell the same products, as long as they dedicate space where customers can find clothes and toys regardless of whether the items have been marketed to boys or girls. Housing crisis: Berkeley law would put renters first. City officials say the Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act would give tenants more leverage and help them stay housed in one of the country's most expensive real estate markets, which has pushed rents sky high and contributed to a growing homeless crisis. The median home price in Berkeley was $1.3 million last year, nearly doubled from $704,000 in 2013, [Berkeley Mayor Jesse] Arreguin said. Gavin Newsom Says Doctors Should Write Prescriptions For Housing. Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom said that medical doctors should be able to prescribe housing in the same way they prescribe medication to sick people Wednesday during his 2020 State of the State Address. "Health care and housing can no longer be divorced. After all, what's more fundamental to a person's well-being than a roof over their head?" Newsom asked during the address. "Doctors should be able to write prescriptions for housing the same way they do for insulin and antibiotics." The crowd erupted in applause. AB5 Backfire: California's poorly designed "gig-work" law is already having unintended consequences. AB5 took effect on January 1, and it's already causing trouble. A limit on the number of articles that freelance writers could produce for one publication resulted in layoffs for some California journalists and a First Amendment lawsuit from others. Workers in more than 135 occupations claim that losing contractor status hurts them, while independent theater and arts groups are facing thousands of dollars in costs they can't afford because they must now treat staff as employees. Lorena Gonzalez, the assemblywoman who wrote AB5, has introduced another law to remove the article cap for writers and address the status of musicians. A sign of poor legislation is the need to rewrite it immediately after it takes effect. A California-style Brexit. Since AB5 took effect on January 1, hundreds of thousands of Californians are finding their businesses in tatters. Musicians can't join bands for a one-night gig, chefs can't join forces with caterers, nurses can't work at various hospitals, and writers must cap their submissions per media outlet to 35 per year. Under the law, these freelancers can no longer conduct the same business-to-business transactions they have for years or even decades. Clients with whom they fostered valuable relationships are gone — as are their successful careers and incomes. An overwhelming majority of professionals in fields affected by AB5 identify as liberals and have generally voted along the blue line. Today, however, many are so disillusioned with their representatives that they're changing political loyalties. Congressman Calls on California to Fire Pension Official Tied to Chinese Spy Program. A Republican lawmaker urged California to fire a top pension fund official because he participated in a Chinese program that the FBI has called "non-traditional espionage against the United States." Rep. Jim Banks (R., Ind.) asked Gov. Gavin Newsom to investigate Yu Ben Meng, the chief investment officer at California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS), for his "long and cozy relationship" with the Chinese Communist Party. The letter also decried CalPERS's investment in Chinese companies that built up the regime's military presence in contested waters of the South China Sea and produced surveillance equipment used for China's brutal crackdown in Xinjiang. "Governor Newsom, if it were up to me, I would fire Mr. Meng immediately," Banks said in a letter to the governor. San Francisco's mayor admits to affair and accepting gifts from the city's disgraced homelessness chief. San Francisco's mayor has admitted to having a fling with and to accepting thousands of dollars in unreported gifts from the city's disgraced former homelessness chief who is now at the center of an FBI corruption probe for accepting kickbacks. Mayor London Breed admitted on Friday to briefly dating Mohammed Nuru, San Francisco's former Director of Public Works, around 20 years ago, leading to calls for her resignation from the city's top job. Nuru, 58, resigned from his post earlier this week after he was arrested and charged by the FBI in January for a series of alleged public corruption schemes. SF Mayor London Breed says she 'dated' now-indicted poop-patrol chief Mohammed Nuru. Apparently, Kamala Harris wasn't the only ambitious and comely San Francisco female pol who "dated" a San Francisco political pooh-bah to advance her career. Harris dated San Francisco mayor Willie Brown. Now San Francisco mayor London Breed says she dated Mohammed Nuru, San Francisco's entrenched director of public works (famous for its "poop patrols"), taking a $5,600 "gift" from him and "forgetting" to disclose it. [...] Nuru's now under indictment for kickbacks, pay to play, bribery, wire fraud, and use of public services for private gain in what's called San Francisco's biggest political scandal in years. [...] The pair have known each other, apparently intimately, for 20 years. And Nuru is a very powerful, entrenched fixture on the scene in San Francisco politics. Maxine Waters: CA Should Have More Say In Primary Because Of Big Money Raised At Beverly Hills Parties. For years now, Democrats have been claiming they want big money out of politics. Yet Maxine Waters just claimed on national television that California should have more sway in the Democrat primary process because of all the big cash generated for Democrats at fancy parties in Beverly Hills. San Francisco car break-ins are so common that the city's district attorney is proposing reimbursing residents whose windows are smashed. San Francisco's district attorney is proposing creating an auto-burglary-assistance fund that would reimburse residents for the cost required to repair shattered windows from break-ins. The DA, Chesa Boudin, is proposing using $1.5 million from the mayor's office to fill the fund. If it passes, it could be the country's first fund of this kind. Texas Sues California Over Economic Sanctions on Religious States. One of the more bizarre elements of our cold civil war is California's imposition of economic sanctions on any states that provide any element of religious freedom. California has currently imposed economic sanctions on eleven states. And then it messed with Texas. Sorry, you cannot compel Americans to vote. Democratic California Assemblyman Marc Levine has introduced a clearly unconstitutional bill which mandates that anyone registered to vote must attend a voting booth and file a response. Levine says his intended law is justified and necessary because "democracy is not a spectator sport — it requires the active participation of all its citizens ... Those rights come with a responsibility by registered voters to cast their ballot and make sure that their voice is heard by their government." While registered voters would not have to select a candidate in order to conform with Levine's desired law, they would have to file a ballot return, even if unmarked. But as I say, this bill is patently unconstitutional. Orange County Has Released Thousands Of Criminal Illegal Aliens Because Of California's Sanctuary Law. The Orange County Sheriff's Department has been forced to release thousands of criminal illegal aliens in the past two years, with both the sheriff's department and Immigration and Customs Enforcement blaming California's statewide sanctuary law. California's SB 54, legislation that largely restricts cooperation between ICE and law enforcement, went into effect in January 2018. Since that time, Orange County has released over 2,100 illegal aliens back into the community despite ICE detainers placed on every single one of them, the agency announced in a Wednesday press release. The sheriff's department released 1,106 inmates without notifying ICE in 2018 and released another 1,015 again in 2019 without notifying the agency. California's primary vote count could take longer than ever. Californians start voting Monday in a high-profile Democratic presidential primary that has no clear front-runner and could take longer to count than any previous election in a state already notorious for slow ballot counting. Coastal States Are in the Fight of Their Lives. Is the Rest of America Listening? AB5 — otherwise known as the "Gig Economy" bill is much more dangerous and not just for us, but everyone in the nation. This bill makes independent contracting illegal. It is absolutely the most communist legislation I have ever seen passed in my lifetime as an American. It was aimed to get at Uber and Lyft and instead entrapped anyone who contracts their services. And I do mean anyone. I spoke to a man who had to close his theater production because how can you hire 42 seasonal actors as W-2 employees every few months and then fire them and then rehire and on and on? You can't. Independent theater will die. Linguists, courtroom reporters, translators, transcribers, truckers, rideshare drivers, musicians, caterers, bartenders, writers, freelance journalists... anyone who earns money by contracting their services is now out of work or about to be. It is the most massive and disturbing overreach I have ever seen, and yet hardly anyone else in the country is paying attention. How the Golden State Embraced Corporate Socialism. Gavin Newsom, the lily white, urbane, coiffed scion of San Francisco's posh royalty, is California's highest-ranking Democrat. He presides over a party that has taken progressive ideals beyond absurdity to the brink of tyranny, a socialist party that openly disparages whiteness and wealth. One would think that the party of Gavin Newsom is bent on destroying everything Gavin Newsom represents. So what's going on? To understand the rise of Newsom, and every other hyper-privileged Democrat who even today remain in firm control of the progressive movement, it is necessary to define a 21st-century version of corporate socialism. This goes well beyond the use of the term merely to describe government subsidies for, say, the oil and gas industry, or, for that matter, the wind and solar industry. Oklahoma governor bans state-funded travel to California after being put on Golden State's blacklist. The governor of Oklahoma has banned all state-funded travel to California after officials there placed a similar ban on travel to his state. Oklahoma's Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt, who is in his first term, announced the ban in an executive order on Thursday, barring all non-essential travel by state employees to the Golden State, with exceptions for business recruiting trips, college sports games and trips by schools to participate in out-of-state programs. Oakland Becomes First California City To Ban Background Checks For Prospective Renters. Following a unanimous vote by the city council Tuesday night, Oakland has now become the first city in California to ban criminal background checks on potential renters. "Indescribable emotions and feelings," said John Jones III of Oakland, who got out of prison in 2012 and struggled to find a place to live in Oakland despite his well-paying job as an aviation mechanic. Jones said he's among the many who left prison only to end up on the streets, contributing to Oakland's homeless crisis. That's why he's been lobbying hard for the Oakland City Council to pass the Fair Chance Housing Ordinance, which says landlords will no longer be allowed to turn down potential renters because of criminal convictions. California Now Pushing Free Health Care for Illegal Immigrant Seniors. California has waged a war on the concept of citizenship by essentially sidestepping the will of the American people and intentionally undermining immigration laws. Worse, by extending social welfare to those illegal immigrants, the state is signaling that the concept of citizenship itself is meaningless. It's clear that California's craziness doesn't stop, as [Governor] Newsom and the state's Democrats have doubled down to extend free health care coverage to even greater numbers of illegal immigrants. Newsom's latest proposed budget now aims to extend free health care coverage to illegal immigrants 65 years old and older as a part of the state's Medi-Cal program. This would add $80.5 million to the budget this year and $350 million annually once fully implemented, according to Politico. Tents, Homelessness, and Misery: 9 Things I Saw in San Francisco. Home to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's congressional district, San Francisco is reliably and overwhelmingly blue in every election (with perhaps a few votes going to the Green Party). In just the past year, the city's Board of Supervisors declared the National Rifle Association to be a "domestic terrorist organization," and the school board voted first to paint over, and then to hide, a mural of George Washington in one of the city's high schools — a mural, incidentally, painted by a leftist who strove to show both Washington's greatness and flaws. Such actions are just par for the course for San Francisco, a city of more than 884,000 that in the past decade also banned fast-food restaurants from including toys with most children's meals; prohibited city-funded travel by local employees to 22 pro-life states; raised the minimum wage from $9.79 to $15.59 an hour; and, after banning plastic bags in 2007, first set a 10-cent fee for each nonreusable bag at stores, and then a 25-cent fee per bag. Yes, leftist insanity has long been the norm for San Francisco. First, the purges: Comrade Chesa Boudin fires prosecutors for ... prosecuting. What would it be like if Hugo Chávez and Bill Ayers ran the city prosecutor's office? San Franciscans are about to find out, now that Ayers's stepson, Chesa Boudin, son of Weather Underground terrorists and translator to none other than Hugo himself, has made his first move as San Francisco district attorney. He's kicked off his term with purges for insufficient revolutionary fervor, taking a page from Andrei Vyshinsky, Stalin's famous show trial prosecutor who enforced ideological purity. [...] Bottom line: Chesa has no use for such prosecutors who prosecute, and the only thing he wants prosecuted is "the system," the idea of there being laws against crimes. It goes to show the depth of ideological conformity being demanded now in what's clearly going to be a highly politicized D.A.'s office. Professionalism is the enemy of the people now. San Francisco, solid blue city of — empty storefronts and missing young people. San Francisco is getting to be a hellhole and not just because crooks are having a field day, or a vast homeless army has prompted new tech 'innovations' in poop-map apps. It's actually becoming a city with a hollowed out look, redolent of some place like Steubenville, Ohio or maybe Utica, New York, during the bad years, empty storefronts and missing young people. So much for the trope that leftwing cities, with their walkable boulevards full of food trucks, handmade crafts, knitting shops, bookstores, artisan cheese shops, gourmet restaurants, and cafes are more lively and liveable than rightwing places. For awhile, that did seem to be the story. But it's coming to an end. Sure, there's vast wealth. But despite California being in an economic boom, the place is starting to look like Venezuela. Abortions are okay, but stray dogs must be preserved. Does California Want to Secede? On Friday [1/10/2020], Governor Gavin Newsom will present the state's budget for the next fiscal year. In it, he will propose that the state of California sell its own brand of prescription drugs in order to "increase competition in the generic drug marketplace and lower the cost of medications by having Sacramento contract drugmakers to manufacture certain prescriptions under a state label." [...] Because California is so large, with such a huge economy and so many people, the state's dominance generally steers industry and other governments in the direction it wants. No company that does business with state governments can afford to ignore what California is doing. Bloomberg sees California as model for U.S. The Democratic presidential candidate and former New York City mayor likes a lot of what he sees in the Golden State and thinks its efforts on climate change, gun control and criminal justice reform sets a benchmark for other states to emulate. "I think that California can serve as a great example for the rest of this country," Bloomberg told supporters at the opening of his Angeles headquarters. Workers Resist California's Newest Bad Law. As of Jan. 2, Uber and Lyft drivers, independent truckers, freelance writers, photographers, artists and musicians and the companies who hire their services have to abide by AB 5. The law, which was originally concocted to destroy the business models of Uber and Lyft and has exemptions for 50 professions, is a cynical and transparent gift to unions from the same Democrats who have been wrecking my one-party state for decades. AB 5's proud mother, leftwing Democrat Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez of San Diego, claims it's intended to protect part-timers and freelancers from being "exploited" by their evil, greedy employers. Her law is supposed to provide independent contractors with the same benefits and workplace protections that full-time employees get and — most important to the Democrats — therefore make it possible for them to unionize. New California Law Prohibits Showering and Doing Laundry on the Same Day. "So all of the sudden I can smoke marijuana as much as I want but I can't take a shower?," newsman Mark Kriski said. "Unbelievable. That's where our state has gone." KTLA news anchors and reporters debated on LIVE TV the stupidity of a new California law that effectively prohibits showering and doing laundry on the same day. A tale of two states in decline. Taxpayers in California and New York shoulder some of the heaviest tax burdens in the nation, and now new data show the two have something else in common: Their growth rates have slowed. It's probably no coincidence. According to the California Department of Finance, during the year that ended June 30, more people left the Golden State than moved in — the first time that's happened since 2010. [...] One obvious reason: As the Los Angeles Times notes, the Golden State has one of the highest tax burdens in America. Here in New York, meanwhile, taxpayers also bear some of the nation's highest tax burdens. And guess what: This state has long been watching its share of the national population shrink. No, taxes alone aren't to blame: Both states, for example, are famous for their progressive policies, hostility to businesses and onerous mandates. California Preening. In truth, the Golden State is becoming a semi-feudal kingdom, with the nation's widest gap between middle and upper incomes — 72 percent, compared with the U.S. average of 57 percent — and its highest poverty rate. Roughly half of America's homeless live in Los Angeles or San Francisco, which now has the highest property crime rate among major cities. California hasn't yet become a full-scale dystopia, of course, but it's heading in a troubling direction. New California law to provide subsidized healthcare for undocumented immigrants. Under the new law SB 104 California will offer government subsidized health benefits for undocumented immigrants under the age of 26. Previously only undocumented immigrant children could apply. It's part of new funding for MediCal. Gov. Gavin Newsom says there will be "An additional $450 a month in subsidies reducing premiums by 25%. No state in America does that." Sarah Dar from the California Immigrant Policy Center says this will make a healthier community. Least-Educated State: 2,471,189 California Residents 25 and Older Never Completed 9th Grade; Highest Percentage in Nation. California once again ranked No. 1 among the 50 states for the percentage of its residents 25 and older who have never completed ninth grade and 50th for the percentage who have at least graduated from high school, according to new five-year estimates (2014-2018) released Thursday by the Census Bureau's American Community Survey. California, as CNSNews.com reported last year, also ranked No. 1 for the percentage who never completed ninth grade and No. 50 for the percentage who had graduated from high school in the five-year estimates (2013-2017) the Census Bureau released in December 2018. In California, according to the new five-year estimate, 2,471,189 residents 25 and older had never completed ninth grade. The Editor says... Car burglaries in some California cities are at crisis levels. Prosecutors say their hands are tied. An epidemic of car burglaries in San Francisco over the last few years has led one Democratic lawmaker to propose plugging a loophole in state law that allows some break-ins to go unpunished, but the Legislature has balked at prosecutors' requests to make obtaining convictions easier. The proposal, which would eliminate a requirement that prosecutors prove a car's doors were locked at the time of a break-in, has been shelved two years in a row in legislative committees. Lawmakers struggling with prison crowding and public pressure to enact criminal justice reform have been reluctant to do anything to put more people behind bars. Why the Law? The latest and most high-profile district attorney race victory went to none other than the stinking, crime infested city of San Francisco. Does the name Chesa Boudin ring a bell? No not to me either, at first. Not until it was revealed he is the son of 1960s radical leftist, American terrorist bomber Bill Ayers. It matters not that Boudin, a defense attorney, has never prosecuted a single case. I bet he'll make a great district attorney for victims of crimes (sarc.). Boudin has already stated he will not prosecute public urination, prostitution and "quality of life crimes" for the homeless. What about quality of life for the hardworking tax payers and business owners? Supporters of Boudin claim he wasn't financed by George Soros, but this statement is disingenuous. Thought San Francisco's Quality Of Life Couldn't Get Worse? Think Again. San Francisco garnered national headlines with the election of its new district attorney, a progressive, which means there will be zero progress made in the homelessness crisis, and little if any made toward reducing crime in the city and county. Chesa Boudin, a one-time deputy public defender who has never tried a case, was elected in a close race, and will assume office in January. Before he had a chance to decide if the new drapes in his office were going to be socialist red or blue state blue, Boudin announced that he would not prosecute quality-of-life crimes such as "public camping, offering or soliciting sex, public urination, blocking a sidewalk, etc." We assume public defecating on streets and sidewalks, today's San Francisco "treat," will also go unprosecuted. California DMV Makes 50 Million Dollars a Year Selling Drivers' Info to Private Companies. A California Department of Motor Vehicles document revealed that the government agency is generating $50 million a year by selling drivers' personal information to private companies. According to a report from VICE, which received the document through a public records request, revenue from selling information — which includes names, physical addresses, and car registration information — has climbed from $41 million in fiscal year 2013-2014 to $51 million in 2018-2019. In an email explaining the numbers, the California DMV did not specify which private companies have purchased the data, but said the list may include insurance companies, vehicle manufacturers, and prospective employers. Most city workers pay $0 in healthcare premiums. Garcetti said he'd change that. He hasn't. In a major policy reversal that critics say will cost the city and taxpayers millions of dollars, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti has abandoned his long-stated goal of getting the city's public employee unions to pay a portion of their healthcare costs. Under contracts signed this year that were supported by the mayor, many of City Hall's largest unions will continue to contribute nothing toward their healthcare premiums. Garcetti also backed agreements with several smaller unions, allowing those employees who had been contributing 10% of their premiums to stop paying in January. Correcting Voters' Mistakes. Californians must no longer have recourse to the recall election. If Golden Staters still have the recall, surely they'd be using it to oust their useless mayors who have allowed their once-beautiful cities to degenerate into filth and ruin. They'd also be mounting a recall of their new governor, Gavin Newsom. Back in 2003, before the mass exodus to Texas, there were still enough decent Californians remaining to recall and oust Gov. Gray Davis. Davis's replacement, Arnold Schwarzenegger, might have become a terrific governor had he been paired with a decent legislature. But the Governator didn't have a decent legislature; it was populated with progressives. What Happened to California Republicans? [Scroll down] A cynic might argue that once a federal judge allowed undocumented immigrants to enjoy the full array of state services and entitlements, there were incentives for millions of other immigrants to enter the U.S. illegally, and California in particular. Statistics suggests they did just that — often to the chagrin of Democratic politicians, the United Farm Workers and other liberal groups who worried about the negative effects of illegal immigration on entry-level wages, unionization and poor citizens' access to overtaxed social services. [...] The final irony? Those most hurt — and growing the most angry — are the immigrants who once fled to a different California that now no longer exists. California's Burning. California's young and bold new progressive governor Gavin Newsom, the former mayor of San Francisco, probably figured he'd be thrust into the national limelight after signing a host of must-do liberal measures ranging from statewide rent control to a new union-crafted law that seeks to essentially ban companies from using outside contractors. He also signed a ban on the sale of animal furs, stopped state agencies from leasing public lands for any oil-and-gas-related infrastructure (to stop the Trump administration from expanding resource "exploitation" on neighboring federal lands) — and even signed a law forbidding hotels from handing out those little bottles of shampoo and conditioner. Son of Two Unrepentant Terrorists Wins DA San Fran Race. "Chesa Boudin has won the election to become San Francisco's next district attorney," CBS News reported late Saturday. "The people of San Francisco have sent a powerful and clear message," Boudin said in a statement. "It's time for radical change to how we envision justice. I'm humbled to be a part of this movement that is unwavering in its demand for transformation." People in the vast hinterland to the east might wonder who Chesa is, exactly, and what kind of transformation he has in mind. Bernie Sanders was first to congratulate the victor, and San Francisco voters knew Chesa served as a translator for the regime of Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez. Still, a full understanding must start with Chesa's mother, Kathy Boudin, a Weather Underground terrorist. Lucky San Francisco: With Chesa Boudin as DA, good luck getting a cop when you want one. Well, Chesa Boudin has finally done it: he's gotten himself into the San Francisco D.A.'s seat, after a lifetime of standing up for crooks and mastering criminal "justice" from Bill Ayers's stepdad berth and Hugo Chávez's knee. Like the way criminal justice works in Caracas? In San Francisco, Hugo Chávez's trusted adviser is now there to help. He's there to "transform," as he says. That's his brand, as the Bay Area tech marketing hipsters say. This won't work out too well if you've got bums vomiting at your doorstep, gang members shooting with muzzle flashes 'round corners, and junkies setting up camp on your sidewalk. We've already seen the boulder-warfare some of the homeowners are putting up in a desperate bid to stop it. Such people can probably now look forward to getting arrested. San Francisco Voters Elect Radical District Attorney, Son of Cop-killing Terrorists. Progressive candidate Chesa Boudin wants to free criminals but prosecute police and ICE agents for doing their jobs. It's no surprise Boudin hates cops so much. His parents did, too. Kathy Boudin and David Gilbert were terrorists in the Weather Underground who murdered two police officers and a security guard during a 1981 robbery of a Brinks armored security car outside New York City. There should be a law that children of terrorists who share their parents' worldview are barred from holding public office, especially the role of the chief law enforcement officer. Boudin's dad is still in prison so he can't kill any more cops, but his mother is out. Naturally, she is an assistant professor at Columbia University. After his parents killed the cops, Boudin was sent to live with two other terrorists, Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn. Dohrn declared war on the United States and was on the FBI's Most Wanted list. California Gov. Gavin Newsom blasted for skipping funeral of deputy allegedly killed by illegal immigrants. The same day a federal grand jury indicted two illegal immigrants accused of murdering Deputy Brian Ishmael, El Dorado Sheriff John D'Agostini took aim at California's drug and sanctuary policies, singling out Gov. Gavin Newsom for skipping his funeral in favor of a meeting with the state's beleaguered power provider. Newsom runs up against US Justice Department rules in pardoning immigrants. Attorney General William Barr is trying to deport some legal immigrants who were convicted of crimes many years ago. Gov. Gavin Newsom is trying to spare some of the same immigrants from deportation by pardoning them. It's shaping up as another round in the Trump administration vs. California. The immigrants are legal U.S. residents who, because they have not become citizens, face potential deportation for past crimes that were punishable by sentences of a year or more. Barr, overturning long-standing decisions by immigration courts, declared last month that migrants convicted of long-ago crimes could be deported even when their home states had retroactively reduced or erased their sentences. San Francisco Supervisor Chants [in Opposition to] the [Police Officers Association] During DA Candidate's Campaign Rally. Heading into 2020, it seems we've entered into an age in which anyone, from Twitter troll to elected public official, can say whatever strikes their fancy no matter how abhorrent, destructive or violent, from any microphone they can manage to find, and with near impunity. Oh, sorry. I mean, any liberal. Conservatives can't do that. Take, for example, San Francisco Supervisor Sandra Lee Fewer, who, after clunking her way up to the stage to stump for left-wing district attorney candidate Chesa Boudin, used her moment at the podium to rant against the city's 2,000-member police union by leading the audience in the chant, [...] English Is the International Language of Success — Except in California. It's been two decades, but I still remember the excitement of helping to pass California's Proposition 227, which I thought would rescue Spanish-speaking kids from an education ghetto of frustration and failure. It was an uphill battle. We fought an education bureaucracy including California's powerful teachers' unions, book publishers who received lucrative government contracts, and even Jerry Perenchio, the late Republican billionaire CEO of Univision, who donated $1.5 million to the efforts to maintain California's "bilingual" education system. We won. Sixty-one percent of Californians were ready for a change. Amid chants of racism and cultural insensitivity, Latino parents would tell me they knew that education and learning English in their adopted country were key to their kids' futures. Unfortunately, the victory wouldn't last. Power and Gas Cutoffs in Blue States Represent a Failure of Governance. California — a state that by itself constitutes the world's fifth-largest economy, is endowed with vast stores of human and natural resources, and has one of the planet's most amenable climates for human habitation — is failing. The Golden State is host to one of the country's worst homelessness epidemics. It's a state in which 19th century diseases such as typhus and tuberculosis are making a comeback. More people are moving out of the state than into it. Its rates of violent crime are on the rise. It has more failing schools than any other state in the Union. And now, true to basket-case form, California is home to massive, rolling power outages. But unlike in the developing world, these blackouts are not a result of resource deficiency but the voluntary imposition of darkness on the public. California's Prop 47 leads to [a] rise in shoplifting, thefts, [and] criminal activity across [the] state. These brazen acts of petty theft and shoplifting are a dangerous and all-too-common consequence of Proposition 47, a referendum passed five years ago that critics say effectively gives shoplifters and addicts the green light to commit crimes as long as the merchandise they steal or the drugs they take are less than $950 in value. The decision to downgrade theft of property valued below the arbitrary figure from felony to misdemeanor, together with selective enforcement that focuses on more "serious" crimes, has resulted in thieves knowing they can brazenly shoplift and merchants knowing the police will not respond to their complaints, say critics. Is California Becoming Premodern? California is now a one-party state. Democrats have supermajorities in both houses of the legislature. Only seven of the state's 53 congressional seats are held by Republicans. The result is that there is no credible check on a mostly coastal majority. Huge global wealth in high-tech, finance, trade and academia poured into the coastal corridor, creating a new nobility with unprecedented riches. Unfortunately, the new aristocracy adopted mindsets antithetical to the general welfare of Californians living outside their coastal enclaves. The nobodies have struggled to buy high-priced gas, pay exorbitant power bills and deal with shoddy infrastructure — all of which resulted from the policies of the distant somebodies. California to train poll workers how to interact with transgender voters. All poll workers in California will be trained on how to properly interact with and assist transgender and gender-nonconforming voters when they cast ballots. California Secretary of State Alex Padilla (D) announced the new initiative last week, saying his office is partnering with the Equality California Institute ahead of next year's presidential primary. Is California's governor really this clueless about high gas prices and power outages? California Gov. Gavin Newsom finally noticed that his state has the highest gas prices in the nation, and he's angry. So angry, in fact, he ordered his Attorney General to investigate the decades-long mystery. "There is no identifiable evidence to justify these premium prices," Newsom wrote in a letter to state Attorney General Xavier Becerra. "If oil companies are engaging in false advertising or price fixing, then legal action should be taken to protect the public." Newsom correctly identified the symptom but remains clueless about the cause. He at least pretends to be. Why California's AB-5 is a threat to the American way of life. I am freelancing this article. Doing so means that I work from home, set my own schedule and have most days of the week free to write books. While books provide the bulk of my income, freelancing provides substantial extra money that my family and I have come to expect. Barring any unforeseen change in circumstances, over the next year I'll freelance dozens of articles at a rate of one or occasionally two a week. If I did that in California, I'd be opening up my employers to legal penalties. Bill AB-5, authored by Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez, has just passed, limiting California freelancers to submitting 35 articles to a publication a year without being hired by that company. Thirty-five may seem like a lot, but that limit makes a weekly column impossible, let alone working for online companies where you might submit a short article or two daily and reach that limit within a month. How California's new gig economy law could put freelancers out of business. If I lived in California, I'd be staring down unemployment. A new law governing freelance work was signed into law late last month. It isn't scheduled to take effect until January, but if panicking freelancers aren't able to force a change before then, many will be banned from doing their jobs. It's a classic case of well-intended but functionally destructive regulation: In the name of protecting workers, Assembly Bill 5 will prohibit some them from working. In the resultant chaos, a lucky few will secure full-time jobs while the rest are "helped" right out of a stable income stream. A.B. 5's primary target is gig employers like ridesharing apps Uber and Lyft, whose drivers are classified as contract workers, not employees. That means they aren't entitled to benefits like health insurance or paid time off even if they're working full-time hours, which A.B. 5 seeks to change. California's legal weed profits going up in smoke. Legal marijuana in California as a business was supposed to be a no-brainer. How could it not be profitable in a liberal state pushing 40 million residents where some of the best weed in the world has been grown for decades? But nearly three years after Proposition 64, the law legalizing the adult use of the drug, was passed, California cannabis producers are not seeing the windfalls predicted. [...] The California law gives local governments the right to regulate the pot shops so towns can prohibit them. A whopping 80% of the state's towns and cities have turned legal pot shops down. Rev. Franklin Graham Condemns San Francisco Ban on Travel to Pro-Life States. Christian evangelist Rev. Franklin Graham said progressive leaders in San Francisco who have banned travel for city employees to states that have enacted abortion restrictions "want everyone to swallow the lie that abortion is a woman's right." The Editor says... California's War on Citizenship. California — a one-party state dominated by progressives — has become the model for where progressivism will go when completely unchecked. Now, even the basic concept of citizenship is under full-blown assault as the state has moved on from being a "sanctuary state" for illegal immigrants to outright insisting that noncitizens have the same access to the levers of power as citizens. California Gov. Gavin Newsom recently signed legislation that would allow illegal immigrants to serve on government boards and commissions. He also signed another bill that would make it illegal to make immigration-related arrests at courthouses. San Francisco bans city employees from business travel to 22 states with pro-life laws. The City of San Francisco has added 22 states with pro-life laws to a blacklist that prevents city employees from traveling to those states using city funds or dealing with businesses based in them. California says independents can vote in Democrats' 2020 primary, but not Republicans'. California's more than 5.6 million independent voters will be allowed to vote in the 2020 Democratic presidential primary, but not in the Republican contest, Secretary of State Alex Padilla announced Monday [10/21/2019]. California governor pardons three convicted immigrants to help block deportations. California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Friday [10/18/2019] he's pardoning three immigrants who've been convicted of crimes as part of an effort to protect them from deportation to their home countries. The three men — originally from El Salvador, Iran and Cambodia — broke the law as teens or young adults, served their sentences and have taken steps to rehabilitate themselves, the governor's office said. California legalizes eating roadkill. Awash in feces, blackouts, wildfires, opioids, junkyard highways, homelessness, illegals, measles, typhus, and leprosy, California's one-party blue Legislature and its far-left governor have nevertheless gotten around to the important things. California opens state boards to undocumented immigrants and other non-citizens. Undocumented immigrants and other non-citizens will be allowed to serve on state boards and commissions after Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a package of bills Saturday [10/12/2019] intended to integrate immigrants further into society. SB225 by Sen. Maria Elena Durazo, D-Los Angeles, expands eligibility for state appointments to any California resident over the age of 18. In a signing message, Newsom said applicants deserved to be considered on their merits, rather than their immigration status. California Gov. Gavin Newsom Signs Bill Forcing Public Universities to Dispense Abortion Drugs. California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) signed a bill into law that requires public colleges and universities in the state to distribute abortion drugs, effectively turning the schools into first-trimester abortion clinics. On Friday [10/11/2019], Newsom signed SB 24, which was championed in the State Senate by Sen. Connie Leyva (D) as a reproductive rights issue. California adopts nation's broadest gun seizure laws. California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom signed 15 gun-related bills into law Friday, tightening the state's already-stringent Second Amendment restrictions. One of the bills, which expands a so-called "red flag" law to allow co-workers, employers and educators to seek gun violence restraining orders against firearms owners they fear are a danger to themselves and others, was vetoed twice by Newsom's predecessor, Jerry Brown. Newsom also signed a companion bill allowing the gun violence restraining orders to last one and five years, although the gun owners could petition to end those restrictions earlier. The bill also allows judges to issue search warrants at the same time as they grant the orders. The warrants can be used immediately if the gun owners are served with the relinquishment orders but fail to turn over the firearms or ammunition. Say Goodbye to Charter Schools. There's no way to reform public schools, in California or elsewhere, given that they are government monopolies that are dominated by unions. They will put kids first, as one former teachers' union official reportedly said, after the kids start paying dues. People who think that such schools can be improved through new reforms and more money probably believed that the Soviet economy could have been fixed with a better-developed five-year plan. The only way to deal with that reality is to escape. In 1992, California passed one of the nation's most far-reaching school-reform experiments, by making it easy to create publicly funded alternative schools where kids could flee. The original law authorized the establishment of 100 charters. The state now has more than 1,300 of them, and they educate 11 percent of the state's students. Democrats [are] turning California into a third-world hellhole. While they try to blame climate change and the infrastructure, the reality is that neither of those has caused any significant changes in the last ten years — but now, suddenly, due to Democrat policies, Californians have to start living in the 18th century. The Democrats who run California also refuse to build more water storage capacity even though the state's population has dramatically increased, ensuring that water has to be rationed during droughts. Democrats are turning California into a third-world country economically. The income inequality between the über-rich Silicon Valley workers and the rest of Californians is huge, just like in third-world countries, while the elites live in luxury and the rest live in squalor. Federal Judge Halts California Law Requiring Trump to Release Tax Returns in Order to Appear on 2020 Primary Ballot. US District Judge Morrison England on Tuesday issued a temporary injunction against a California law which required Trump to release his tax returns in order to appear on the 2020 primary ballot. Last month, the federal judge temporarily suspended the law and announced he would be releasing a formal written injunction by October 1st. On Tuesday [10/1/2019], Judge Morrison, a George W. Bush appointee, released a written opinion and argued the law signed by Governor Gavin Newsom violated the Presidential Qualifications Clause contained in Article II of the US Constitution and violated the Constitution's Equal Protection Clause as set forth in the 14th Amendment. California Shocked To Find Bill Decriminalizing Retail Theft Resulted In... More Retail Theft. A few years ago, California passed one in a series of bills aimed at emptying the jails and prisons. Proposition 47 carried the disingenuous name of "the Safe Neighborhoods and Schools Act and its stated purpose was to keep non-violent offenders out of jail. To achieve this goal, the state decriminalized a number of lesser offenses, including retail theft. The law raised the value of the amount of merchandise someone could steal while still only being charged with a misdemeanor to nearly one thousand dollars. To the great surprise of the government, people noticed this change and began taking advantage of it. They have now recorded multiple years of steadily increasing, organized robbery. These plots are known as "mass grab and dash" thefts and they generally involve large numbers of young people all entering a store at the same time, grabbing armfuls of merchandise and dashing back out to their vehicles and hitting the highway. Not only are robberies on the rise, but arrests and prosecutions are down. Who could possibly have predicted this? Gavin Newsom calls for impeaching Trump, gets slapped with recall petition from California's locals. California's far-left governor, Gavin Newsom, is out there with the best of them, loudly calling for the impeachment of President Trump. It's nothing new for him, given that he ran for governor in 2017 on this platform. [...] From his point of view, it makes sense, because even though he's been on the job for only about a year, he's shown that he's always been more interested in sounding woke than actually governing. Just tour the poop-strewn, disease-ridden streets of any California blue city with a high Newsom vote count for a whiff of it. Federal Judge Blocks California Law That Would Force Trump To Disclose Tax Returns. A federal judge temporarily blocked California's law requiring presidential candidates to disclose their tax returns in order to gain a spot on the primary ballot Thursday [9/19/2019]. The California law would require any candidate running for president or governor to give the IRS tax forms for the past five years, after which portions of them would be edited for public viewing, the Los Angeles Times reported. This could be an issue for President Donald Trump as he runs for president again in 2020 because he has refused to disclose his tax returns, despite efforts by Democrats to force his hand. California judge blocks law requiring Trump to submit tax returns to compete in state's 2020 primary. A federal judge in California Thursday granted the Trump campaign's request to block a new law that requires presidential and gubernatorial candidates to release five years of tax returns to run in the state's primary elections. The law signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, in July would have left the sitting president off of the ballot in California's March 2020 primary unless he submitted five years' worth of his tax returns by a Nov. 26 deadline, the Los Angeles Times reported. Under SB 27, Trump would be included on the general election ballot in November 2020. Oppoenents [sic] of the law argue depressed GOP voter turnout in the primary could discourage voters from showing up to vote for the president in the main race. Federal Judge: This Tax-Return Requirement For California's Presidential Primaries Smells Unconstitutional. Indeed it does, and the injunction issued by US district court Judge Morrison England Jr represents a victory for Donald Trump — if a temporary one. California had passed a law requiring all presidential primary candidates in the state to publicly release the last five years of their income tax returns to qualify for the ballot. A former fringe candidate joined Donald Trump in challenging the law for its super-constitutional efforts to add state-level qualifiers to federal office, and Judge England issued an injunction against its enforcement. The Editor says... California adds Iowa to 'travel ban' over refusal to fund gender transitions. California announced last week that it has added Iowa to the list of states on its ever-expanding "travel ban" list because of that state's new prohibition against funding gender-transition surgeries under Medicaid. The announcement by state Attorney General Xavier Becerra means that as of Oct. 4, California will no longer offer taxpayer-funded trips to Iowa for any public employee or student at a state-run university. Becerra's authority came from a 2016 California law signed by then-Gov. Jerry Brown that bars state-funded travel to other states that undercut LGBT rights. The blacklist already included Alabama, Kentucky, North Carolina, Texas, Oklahoma and Mississippi. The Editor says... Gov. Newsom Commutes Sentences of 21 Violent Criminals Incarcerated in CA Prisons, Including 4 Murderers with Life Sentences. Far-left California Governor Gavin Newsom commuted sentences of 21 violent criminals including 4 murderers with life sentences without possibility of parole. One of the murderers was arrested in 1993 for fatally shooting a man during a carjacking and another was incarcerated in 1991 for killing an armed guard during a robbery. A man who served 31 years of 2 life sentences for a double murder in 1988 was also given clemency by Newsom. California Introduces Bill to Ban ICE Detention Centers, Private Prisons. The state of California is cracking down on "private for-profit prisons" after introducing a bill to ban the facilities. Moreover, it means shutting down U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's privately run detention centers. The bill AB-42 passed the state assembly Wednesday [9/11/2019] with 65 votes in favorable votes. According to Newsweek, it would mean shutting down four detention centers holding "up to 4,500 inmates." The Left's determination to destroy us from within. Governor Newsom of California has reached into the gutter for a new and obscene low. So dishonorable is this man that he signed into law a bill that "struck down a more than century-old law that required any able-bodied persons 18 years of age or older to assist a police officer who requested help during an arrest." [...] Newsom, and the rest of the Democrat governors and mayors that destroyed their own states and cities, have not only ruined the municipalities that they control, but have destroyed countless lives — namely, of those who barely subsist on the streets of these cities: Los Angeles, San Francisco, Sacramento, Seattle, Baltimore, Chicago. They willingly promulgate the drug use of their homeless (they pass out free syringes) and seem to tolerate the vast homeless encampments and all they entail: discarded needles, public defecation, crime, disease — in short, the destruction of the cities they've been allowed to take over and ruin. Gov Newsom signs bill, now legal for citizens to refuse police officers' request for help. Gov. Gavin Newsom just made it legal for anyone in the state of California to refuse to help a police officer requesting assistance. The California Democrat on Tuesday [9/3/2019] signed into law a bill that struck down a more than century-old law which required any "able-bodied person 18 years of age or older" to assist a police officer who requested help during an arrest, The Sacramento Bee reported. California's Newsom signs bill allowing citizen to refuse to help a police officer. California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, on Tuesday [9/3/2019] signed a bill that no longer requires any "able-bodied person 18 years of age or older" in the state to help an officer who requests assistance during an arrest. The Sacramento Bee reported that the old law, the California Posse Comitatus Act of 1872, was common in the country's early days, but Sen. Bob Hertzberg, a Los Angeles Democrat who sponsored the bill, called the old law a "vestige of a bygone era." The law was employed to help catch runaway slaves, the report said. The old law made it a misdemeanor that carried a fine of up to $1,000 for refusing to help a police officer who requested assistance during an arrest. The Editor says... San Francisco Board of Supervisors Declares NRA a Domestic Terrorist Organization. San Francisco's legislative body has challenged other American cities and states to follow its lead and formally condemn the National Rifle Association (NRA). The Californian city's board of supervisors passed a resolution on Tuesday officially labeling the gun rights' group a domestic terrorist organization. [...] It said the NRA "musters its considerable wealth and organizational strength to promote gun ownership and incite gun owners to acts of violence." San Francisco Declares NRA a 'Domestic Terrorist Organization'. San Francisco, the "sanctuary city" for illegal aliens — now crowded with homeless people camping and defecating on sidewalks — has just declared the National Rifle Association a "domestic terrorist organization." The resolution, which the Board of Supervisors passed unanimously Tuesday, urges the rest of the country to "do the same." The resolution accuses the NRA or mustering "its considerable wealth and organizational strength to promote gun ownership and incite gun owners to acts of violence." Crony Capitalism on Steroids. California lawmakers want to bring back central-planning agencies that squander taxpayer dollars on corporate welfare and abuse eminent domain — in the name of fixing a housing shortage that these agencies helped create. California's War on Cars. Traffic has long been horrific throughout California, especially in the Los Angeles basin and the Bay Area. But like every bad thing in this state, it just keeps getting worse. The 2018 INRIX Global Traffic Scorecard tops the ranking of most congested cities, with drivers spending an annual average of 104 hours stuck in gridlock. Other California cities made the ranks of 50 most congested cities across the globe. The obvious solution is to, well, build more roads, even though decades of neglect — and reams of environmental impediments such as the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) — would make that a daunting task if state officials wanted to do so. But they have no interest in doing so. Their goal is to coerce us into giving up our cars or at least driving much less. They've caused the crisis and are not about to let it go to waste. Armchair quarterbacks: Cosmic Injustice. In the last years of Arnold Schwarzenegger's governorship, Arnold more or less gave up on the existential crises of illegal immigration, sanctuary cities, soaring taxes, water shortages, decrepit roads and bridges, homelessness, plummeting public school performance, and a huge exodus out of state of middle-class Californians. Instead he began to lecture the state, the nation, and indeed the world on the need for massive wind and solar projects and assorted green fantasies. California prefers 'free range rats' over humans. Proposed poison ban. California is prepared to sacrifice human lives for the sake of wildlife apparently. The wise Progressives have let fester a growing health risk in allowing their rat population to explode with no interest in controlling their expanding population. The Democrats want to ban rat poison. You can't call them lazy. Once a female rat reproduces, she could have 15,000 descendants by the end of just one year! Note: Your rat mileage may vary. 'Flagrantly illegal.' Trump sues California over new law targeting his tax returns. President Donald Trump, the California Republican Party, and the national GOP joined together Tuesday [8/6/2019] to sue California over a new tax-return law Gov. Gavin Newsom signed last week. The law requires Trump and other presidential candidates to release the last five years of their tax returns to get their names on the state's 2020 primary ballot. California's Gavin Newsom torched as red-hot hypocrite for calling Trump's wall wasteful. California's leftist governor, Gavin Newsom, got it in the teeth on Twitter after he tried to decry President Trump's border wall as, of all things, government waste. [...] And it didn't end well for him. He drew about 6,000 replies, virtually all of them negative, with a large number of them clearly from the locals. Berkeley becomes first US city to ban natural gas in new buildings. Berkeley became the first city nationwide to ban the use of natural gas in new low-rise residential buildings in a unanimous vote Tuesday by the City Council. [...] In June 2018, the council declared a climate emergency and called for a review of Berkeley's greenhouse emission reduction strategies. The city determined in a report last year that gas-related emissions have increased due to an 18% population growth since 2000. The Editor says... In California, don't call them 'public servants,' call them 'the government gang'. As a Californian of more than three decades, I have watched the highways deteriorate, with no new construction of freeways (or reservoirs for that matter) while the population soared. I have watched the schools go from bad to horrendous. Meanwhile, taxes have soared to levels that are driving out middle class taxpayers in very large numbers. The rest of us who are not members of the government gang watch as the gang members get rich. California Gives Green Light to Health Care for Illegal Aliens. California is the first state to allow taxpayer-funded health care benefits to go towards people residing in the U.S. illegally. Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill into law on Tuesday which would allow low-income adults under the age of 25 to receive state Medicaid benefits through its Medi-Cal program regardless of immigration status. Democrats take their next step to destroy the USA. California has approved a new budget expanding Medi-Cal coverage to illegal aliens up to the age of 26. This will cost the state hundreds of millions of dollars, even without factoring in the costs created by the obvious incentive the program will create for illegals to move to California. Moreover, the formerly Golden State is bringing back the individual mandate, in part to fund the Medi-Cal expansion for non-residents of California. This means that residents of the state who don't want to — or need to — buy health insurance, as well as those who can't afford it, will have their money confiscated by the government to provide health care to illegal aliens. California Assembly Approves Resolution That Calls for Church Acceptance of LGBTQ. The California State Assembly voted 9-2 to send to the state senate a resolution calling on "religious leaders to counsel on LGBTQ matters from a place of love, compassion, and knowledge of the psychological and other harms of conversion therapy." While no one would argue with the aim of being more loving and more compassionate in our counsel of our fellow man, the people's representatives do not possess any authority in the arena of religious practice. California Democrats Propose Bill to Allow Illegal Immigrants to Hold Party Leadership Positions. Democratic lawmakers in California have introduced a bill that will allow illegal immigrants to hold leadership positions within the Democrat Party on the state and local level, Breitbart reports. Current state law limits noncitizen participation in party politics, but the bill, SB 288, would change that, letting noncitizens, including illegal immigrants like Dreamers, serve as state convention delegates and county committee leaders within the Democratic Party, which will allow them to be involved with party platform and other issues. California Democrats Push Bill Allowing Illegals Party Roles: 'They're Already Leaders'. A bill proposed last week by California lawmakers could grant illegal aliens the ability to serve in Democrat Party leadership positions locally and statewide. The new bill, SB 288, would allow them to be part of shaping the party's platform, including serving as state convention delegates and county committee leaders. The Plan to "Make America, American Again". California Dems made sure the people of Mexico and other foreign countries understood the borders were open, no one would ever be sent back, and Democrats would give them every form of welfare for free. Then they gave illegals drivers licenses. They registered illegals automatically at DMV. They made sure there was no Voter ID at the polls. Recognize the plan? Gavin Newsom gave it away. This is now the national plan for Democrats. Make the whole country into California. California's Gov. Gavin Newsom puts out a video for illegals on how to obstruct ICE. I thought it was satire, something cooked up by his political enemies. You couldn't put out a less attractive video than the one Gavin Newsom did for illegal aliens on Twitter, advising them himself on how to obstruct ICE from any deportation maneuvers. [...] Leave aside the fact that he's the governor of a U.S. state, supposedly there to represent the interests of that state's citizens rather than those of the foreigners who come here without papers, quite illegally, and run up the tab using his state's services. Hillary's People's Republic of California Jungle Primary Voter Suppression. In the 2018 midterm general election California voters had the choice for US Senate on the general election ballot between liberal Democrat Senator Diane Feinstein or even more liberal Democrat opponent. There were no Republicans on the US Senate General Election ballot in 2018. Two years earlier, in 2016, liberal Democrat Kamala Harris was elected US Senator by defeating Liberal Democrat opponent Loretta Sanchez in the general election. Again, There were no Republican candidates on the general election ballot for Senator in 2016. California's Progressive Betrayal. The recent California Democratic Party convention in San Francisco exposed the divide between the state's progressive and working-class voters. Progressives, in their militant certitude, support left-wing policies that often don't affect them; it's the working class that suffers the consequences of these proposals. But the Green New Deal, widely embraced by party leaders, pushed too far, triggering a backlash at the convention. The state's private-sector labor unions, notably the building trades, organized a "Blue Collar Revolution" protest against the Democrats' climate legislation. The Democrats are calling for the elimination of fossil fuels by 2030, which would result in California's immiseration, especially for workers in the state's energy-production sector, the nation's fourth-largest. In 2012, the oil and gas industry employed over 400,000 Californians, but these workers — unionized and well-paid — can expect pink slips with the green package. California Says, 'Go West Young Illegals, Go West'. Doctors and hospitals are in the gunsights of many Democrats who want Medicare-for-all as a draconian price control scheme by government over all medical care in the US. Hospitals are told they charge too much and doctors are vilified for earning too much. What a relief that a sugar daddy has appeared, a rich boyfriend, a benefactor with a fat wallet, ready to bestow his financial largess on financially strapped healthcare providers. This sugar daddy is named Gavin, tall and handsome with good hair. I speak of California Governor Gavin Newsom, who finalized a deal with the California legislature, "to provide full health benefits to low-income illegal immigrants under the age of 26." Can California Be Saved, or Is It Too Late? How did this state, once the envy of all others, become the pathetic, indebted loser state it is today? The answer is simple, single-party Democratic rule. [...] State taxes in California are the highest in the nation, as are our sales taxes. We fall nearly last in education. We have the most homeless, the most illegal migrants. The state spends $30 [billion] on illegal immigration per year. Like all cities run by progressives, our entire state is a disaster of Democratic making. California lawmakers weigh budget proposals to cover health care for illegal immigrants. California lawmakers are weighing proposals this week that would offer government-funded health care to adult illegal immigrants but are at odds over how far to go. Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom has proposed $98 million a year to cover low-income illegal immigrants between the ages of 19 and 25, but the state Assembly's bill would cover all illegal immigrants over the age of 19 living in California — a proposal that would cost an estimated $3.4 billion. California to pay full health benefits for illegal immigrants. Democrats in the [California] state Legislature reached an agreement Sunday afternoon [6/9/2019] as part of a broader plan to spend $213 billion of state and federal tax money over the next year. The agreement means low-income adults between the ages of 19 and 25 living in California illegally would be eligible for California's Medicaid program, the joint state and federal health insurance program for the poor and disabled. The dystopian nightmare that is California has been brought to you by... Democrats. Steve Lopez of the Los Angeles Times reported a week ago on the obscene condition of downtown Los Angeles, "A mountain of rotting, oozing, stinking trash ... stretching a good 20 yards along a skid row alley. Rats popped their heads out of the debris like they were in a game of Whac-A-Mole, then scampered for cover as a tractor with a scoop lurched toward them. ... The trash problem is not confined to any one street, but this particular location on the 800 block of Ceres Avenue is surrounded by food distribution companies that sell to shoppers, vendors, stores and restaurants. I counted seven within a block, so you have to wonder — given the colonies of football-size rats — about the potential contamination of the food supply chain and the spread of disease." What does the city say when confronted about the slow, or nonexistent, pace of cleanup? Berkeley loves its sanctuary label, but a housing crisis is testing its liberal values. This eccentric Northern California enclave was a sanctuary long before the designation became a must-have merit badge for any left-leaning city. Berkeley politicians proclaimed the place a refuge for Navy sailors resisting deployment to the Vietnam War nearly a half-century ago. It was the birth of a movement to protect the outcast — and, in some cases, the outlaw — from rules that this beat-of-its-own-drum city and its followers found immoral, most recently the deportation of undocumented immigrants. But California's housing crisis is testing whether Berkeley can remain that kind of place. SF supes get 12% pay raise while everyone else at City Hall gets a lot less. San Francisco's supervisors will be getting a 12% raise this year, more than three times the size of those being given to other elected officials and city employees. The raise was approved by a 3-1 vote of the Civil Service Commission on Monday [5/20/2019] and represents a $15,016 pay hike, bringing the board members' salaries to $140,148 this year — plus benefits. Los Angeles Prohibits Employees From Traveling to Alabama Because It Banned Abortions. Los Angeles County has imposed a one-year travel ban to Alabama in response to the state's new abortion law, which is the most restrictive in the country. Los Angeles County Supervisor Hilda Solia, author of the motion, said the state's law is an "attack not only confined to the residents of those states, but an act of aggression upon all of us." "We must stand in solidarity and in opposition against extremist and unconstitutional laws that put the health and wellbeing of families at risk," Solis said. "The constitutional and human right to a safe and legal abortion is part of the very fabric of the United States." California lawmakers weigh budget proposals to cover health care for illegal immigrants. California lawmakers are weighing proposals this week that would offer government-funded health care to adult illegal immigrants but are at odds over how far to go. Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom has proposed $98 million a year to cover low-income illegal immigrants between the ages of 19 and 25, but the state Assembly's bill would cover all illegal immigrants over the age of 19 living in California — a proposal that would cost an estimated $3.4 billion. Sacramento's Biggest Gasbags. Don't be alarmed by soaring California gasoline prices, which have topped $4 a gallon at most gas stations around the state. Gov. Gavin Newsom and Democratic legislative leaders are on the job, as they sniff out the culprit behind rising prices. They are pretty sure it has something to do with bad corporate behavior, based on their latest public statements. Stay tuned — but you might not want to buy that giant gas-sucking SUV just yet. The cause of the high prices is obvious to those of us familiar with the state's gasoline-related policies. In 2017, then-Gov. Jerry Brown pushed through his signature increase in gas taxes to fund the road-infrastructure improvements that his administration had neglected as it ramped up social spending. The law adds 12 cents to each gallon of gasoline and 20 cents to each gallon of diesel and could add far more to the price in coming decades. Trump, Pareto, and the Fall of the Elites. Encouraging mass immigration of illegals who compete for lower-level jobs does not help the underprivileged, rather it creates a new group of voters that will support the Democrats. It also helps privileged groups by supplying cheap labor. Take, for example, wealthy Marin County, California. Marin is largely populated by well-to-do and highly educated professional people. An underclass of often illegal immigrants provides affordable services such as yard work and babysitting. In the 2012 presidential election, Marin voted 74% for Obama. In the 2016 election, Marin voted 77% for Hillary and only 16% for Trump. Another wealthy California county, Santa Clara County, is the heart of Silicon Valley. In the 2016 election, Santa Clara County voted only 21% for Trump. Fresno County, California, a county that is majority Hispanic with a very high poverty rate, voted 43% for Trump. California as a whole voted 32% for Trump. The nation as a whole voted 46% for Trump. In the borough of Manhattan, in New York City, one of the wealthiest places in the country, only 10% of the votes went for Trump. Clearly the privileged class votes Democratic and strongly opposes Trump. In places inhabited by elites, the Democrats dominate. California moves to keep Trump off 2020 primary ballot. The California Legislature is trying again to force presidential candidates to publicly disclose their tax returns, hoping a new Democratic governor known for his clashes with President Donald Trump won't block them this time. California Politicians Hiked Gas Tax, Now Demand Investigation Into State's $4 Per Gallon Gas Prices. As lieutenant governor, Gavin Newsom supported a 2017 bill increasing the state's gas taxes. When running for governor in 2018, he opposed a ballot initiative that would have repealed that same increase. It's 2019, and Newson, now the state's governor, is demanding an investigation into why the state's gas prices are so high. On Tuesday [4/23/2019], the governor sent a letter to the California Energy Commission (CEC) asking that the state agency investigate the Golden State's roughly $4.03 per gallon gas prices, currently the highest in the country (and well above the national average of $2.86 per gallon). What 'Free Money' Means to Me. Officials in Stockton, Calif., a hard-pressed agricultural and industrial city 75 miles northeast of San Jose, are enjoying the glow of media attention from their ongoing, first-in-America program to provide residents with a Universal Basic Income, or UBI. [...] This is about more than helping a few residents in a mid-size city pay medical bills, buy groceries, repair the car, or spend the weekend in the Sierra foothills gambling at the Jackson Rancheria Indian casino (there are no limits on how the money is spent, after all). It's about setting the stage for a national political "discussion" that might eventually involve large, direct taxpayer payments to lower-income residents. The research and storytelling will be used to soften us up for the hard sell, which will come in various state or federal proposals, and will sometimes be linked to plans for reparations. California.Gov.Con. If Gavin Newsom runs for president, [Eleni] Kounalakis may run for governor, or even higher office. In that quest, Eleni will again deploy daddy's money and promotional support from Markos, who believes that a woman's proper place is in the White House. Eleni gets all this, plus California's imported electoral college, from places like El Salvador and Mexico. For Clinton cronies, California offers the best of all possible worlds. Government 'Oversight' Is a Very Bad Joke. [Scroll down] The 67-page audit of [the California] DMV found a "reactive culture that has adversely impacted the field office customer experience," outdated management structures, a third of customer-service windows closed even as people waited in lines that went around the DMV field offices — and pretty much everything else that anyone who has visited a California DMV office would know. The audit suggested changes, but the agency reacted in normal fashion and requested more money. DMV offices, which I've described as a cross between bus stations and Soviet bread lines, have been like this since time immemorial (although they're better in some states) and will always be this way. We must deal with the agency if we want to drive. There are no customers that must be satisfied because we have no other choice. Money in the Toilet — The Billion Dollar Cost of Public Bathrooms. The fastest rising item in the country isn't gold or bitcoin, it's the cost of a public bathroom. In '08, a San Francisco Weekly article fumed that a park restroom in Golden Gate Park was costing taxpayers $531,219. Fast forward, a decade later the cost of a park restroom in the Golden Gate Boathouse had ballooned to $2 million or $4,700 per square foot. The modern bathroom had a third All-Gender option that the '08 bathroom didn't. But adding a non-gender shouldn't have quadrupled the price. Inflation would have kept the cost well below a million. Why did a 15-foot by 28-foot bathroom cost millions? Part of the answer may be that San Fran privileges minority businesses and requires that 15% of work hours be carried out by "disadvantaged" workers. As Trump vows to shut the border to illegals, Gavin Newsom makes a suspicious trip to El Salvador. [Scroll down] One can just picture how this trip looks from the Salvadoran side of things. Here come Big Daddy, the California governor, the gringo who's already laid out a banquet of goodies for Salvadorans in California, from free health care to free education, to sanctuary state protections to enable illegals to work, coming there supposedly to find out how he can offer...even more goodies to Salvador's uneducated lower middle classes. The idea is to get even more of them to come over. Big Daddy comes down with the Santa sack full of goodies. California executes a 'moratorium' on the death penalty. During the past eight years, California voters have twice reiterated their support for the death penalty by defeating propositions seeking to overturn it. If anyone was confused about Californians' understanding of the death penalty representing an important part of justice, in 2016 they even passed a proposition calling for the speeding up of executions by shortening the decades-long appeals process. In other words, Californians want the death penalty, and they want to it happen faster and more often. Gavin Newsom Doesn't Care about Crime Victims. On March 13, California governor Gavin Newsom signed an executive order granting a reprieve to all 737 convicted murderers awaiting execution in the Golden State. [...] All 737 reprieved death-row inmates had been found guilty of murder by a jury of their peers, beyond any reasonable doubt. The convicted murderers had also exhausted all the possibilities of the appeal process, which in the California criminal justice system is quite extensive. Gavin Newsom is not an attorney and not a judge. The governor did not attend the trials and produced no new exculpatory evidence in any of the cases. Those awaiting execution include Richard Allen Davis, who kidnapped and killed twelve-year-old Polly Klaas, and "Tool Box Killer" Lawrence Bittaker, who raped and killed five teen girls in 1979 after torturing them with pliers and screwdrivers. Killing the Death Penalty via Edict. To my conservative friends who like when chief executives push the envelope on "national emergencies" and executive orders, I offer you California Gov. Gavin Newsom. Last week, he grabbed national headlines for his decision to grant reprieves to all 737 prisoners on California's death row based on his own personal feelings: [...] Governors have the power to pardon people and give reprieves. But just as advocates for limited government believe that presidents should let Congress take the lead on spending matters, they too should prefer that governors stick to the spirit and not just the letter of the law. Such reprieves are meant for particular cases — not as a means to change public policy. California Drug Legalization Leads to Political Corruption. California is going full narcosocialist and there's a price to pay for that. The price is deeper corruption and criminality. [...] While part of the LA Times story tilt claims that this is about "black market" drug dealers, most of these examples appear to involve those that were legal or trying to go legal. But that takes us to the baffling difference between a black market drug dealer and a legal drug dealer is that the latter is paying off the government. Now we have drug businesses getting in trouble for paying off government officials in the wrong sort of way. We want drug dealers to legalize by legally paying off the government. Gov. Newsom to order halt to California's death penalty. Gov. Gavin Newsom is suspending the death penalty in California, calling it discriminatory and immoral, and is granting reprieves to the 737 condemned inmates on the nation's largest Death Row. "I do not believe that a civilized society can claim to be a leader in the world as long as its government continues to sanction the premeditated and discriminatory execution of its people," Newsom said in a statement accompanying an executive order, to be issued Wednesday [3/13/2019], declaring a moratorium on capital punishment in the state. "The death penalty is inconsistent with our bedrock values and strikes at the very heart of what it means to be a Californian." California's Rendezvous With Reality. Californians brag that their state is the world's fifth-largest economy. They talk as reverentially of Silicon Valley companies Apple, Facebook and Google as the ancient Greeks did of their Olympian gods. Hollywood and universities such as Caltech, Stanford and Berkeley are cited as permanent proof of the intellectual, aesthetic and technological dominance of West Coast culture. Californians also see their progressive, one-party state as a neo-socialist model for a nation moving hard to the left. California's Gov. Newsom inherits a steaming load of scandal from Jerry Brown. California's Gov. Gavin Newsom has inherited a steaming load of financial scandals from Jerry Brown regarding high-speed rail and the Oroville Dam. Gavin Newsom is the first Democrat California governor to follow a sitting Democrat governor in over a century. Newsom campaigned as an ally of Gov. Jerry Brown by trumpeting how Brown eight years earlier had overcome a crisis projected by the non-partisan Legislative Analyst's Office to included a $6.4-billion current budget deficit, a $19-billion deficit for the following year, and another five years of $20-billion-plus deficits. North Carolina vote fraud case shows just why Congress should ban ballot-harvesting nationwide. [Scroll down] Sure enough, in California, this same ballot-harvesting that was illegally practiced in North Carolina is completely legal and completely responsible for deep-red Orange County suddenly going blue in the last congressional election. Candidate after candidate who had been leading in the 2018 midterm count all of a sudden saw those large leads reversed, with all of them shifting to the Democratic side, with leftists taking all the congressional slots. Gov. Gavin Newsom touts proposed $25 million in California aid to asylum seekers. Gov. Gavin Newsom and local officials in San Diego on Thursday [1/31/2019] touted a proposed $25 million in state funding to address a growing humanitarian crisis involving migrant families seeking asylum in the U.S. and blamed the Trump administration for manufacturing a problem at the border. With prodding from San Diego lawmakers, Newsom has called for spending $20 million over three years to aid local nonprofits and community organizations that provide services to asylum-seeking migrant families. The Editor says... See more under Welfare programs attract illegal aliens and other immigrants. California's Gavin Newsom Proposes Tax on Drinking Water in First Budget. California Governor Gavin Newsom proposed his first budget for the state on Friday [1/11/2019], and it includes a tax on drinking water. The budget, titled "California for All," declares drinking water a "fundamental right," and adds: "The Budget includes short-term measures to bring immediate relief to communities without safe drinking water and also proposes an ongoing sustainable funding source to address this problem into the future." The Editor says... California Gov. Gavin Newsom seeks to add more illegal immigrants to state health care plan. Newly sworn-in California Gov. Gavin Newsom, vowing to provide "sanctuary to all who seek it," has proposed extending state health care coverage to more illegal immigrants living within the Golden State's borders. Hours after assuming office, Mr. Newsom released sweeping health care proposals to raise the age limit for illegal aliens covered by Medi-Cal from 19 to 26, which would make California "the first state in the nation to cover young undocumented adults through a state Medicaid program," according to a Monday [1/7/2019] release from the governor's office. Cpl. Singh Was Laid to Rest. Guess Which Politicians Were Conveniently Absent. Just when we thought politicians in California couldn't get any more horrible, Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom proved us wrong. Apparently the reason he was absent from Cpl. Singh's funeral yesterday was because he was too busy watching the Sacramento Kings play basketball. Jerry Brown "Legacy": Highest Poverty in Nation, Highest Homelessness/Worst Affordable Housing. We are a few days away from the end of the Brown Administration. His legacy is clear, if you listen to the Democrats. They claim California has the most poverty in the nation — true. We have a shortage of homes — true. We have a massive homelessness problem — true. All of this has become his legacy. Add to this the $200 billion train boondoggle, his cutting off water for farmers and the worst roads and freeways in the nation — California is a Third world State. Fighting Trump and Freedom, California Creates 1,000 New 2018 Laws. That the Land of Fruits and Nuts is legislating from soup to nuts is significant because, while often forgotten, a law generally is a removal of a freedom. After all, laws virtually always state that there's something we must or mustn't do. Thus, the more laws we have, the less free we are from governmental control. And given that governments continually enact more laws but hardly ever rescind any, this means that every year we're progressively less free. So what liberties were robbed in California this time around? The Grapes of Wrath — in Reverse. [I]n the last decade and a half, about 6 million Californians over the age of 25 left the state; in the last 30 years, perhaps 10 million fled. There are no accurate statistics on the political ideologies of the departed or even their actual numbers. But most studies suggest that the reasons for radical outmigration were quality-of-life complaints, soaring home prices and taxes, poor state services, failing infrastructure and schools, and rising crime. [...] According to one study, at least 13,000 companies fled the state over the last decade. Democrats: A plague on the nation. Governor Brown has effectively destroyed California, now benighted by rampant homelessness and the crime that accompanies a population of illiterate, drug-addicted, gang-affiliated, criminally inclined persons adrift on our streets. And now another young officer has been killed by an illegal alien thanks to the left's obsession with protecting the throngs of migrants crossing the border into the U.S. It should be obvious to every American by now that our progressive left does not have the best interest of Americans at heart. California Spends $100 Million to Maximize Census Cash Jackpot. California is spending over $100 million preparing for the 2020 Census to maintain its top spot to maximize the federal population spending jackpot. The key for California to keep growing its top spot in state and local government spending that hit $587.9 billion this year is maximizing its number of legal and illegal residents who currently justify $107.5 billion in direct federal transfers and about $376 billion of indirect transfers to pay for federal salaries, income support, student financial aid, U.C. grants, corporate subsidies, and a slew of other items. California has allocated $100.3 million for "outreach" this year to maximize the number of state residents to be counted in the 2020 U.S. Census. Only 10 other states have allocated any cash for "outreach." California's funding is over 27 times the $2.3 million by number-two Georgia and 66 times the $1.5 million funded by number-three Illinois. San Francisco mayor trying to get brother, a convicted killer, out of lockup 20 years early. San Francisco Mayor London Breed sent a letter to departing Gov. Jerry Brown in late October asking him to "consider leniency" and commute the sentence of her older brother, who has served nearly two decades of a 44-year sentence on a manslaughter conviction, according to reports. The San Francisco Chronicle reported Wednesday that the mayor has joined other members of her family in requesting an early release from prison for Napoleon Brown, who struggled with drugs from a young age. Jerry Brown's 'Twin Tunnels' Project on Hold. The project, officially called the California Waterfix, aims to divert water from the Sacramento River underneath the California Delta to storage facilities further south, from which water can be pumped to southern California. The "twin tunnels" were to be Brown's major infrastructure legacy, in addition to the California High-Speed Rail system, which faces significant financial and engineering hurdles. But it faced intense local opposition from the communities in the Delta, who faced considerable disruption to their lives. The project was also opposed by many environmental groups, and farming groups that were meant to benefit — at a price — showed lukewarm support. DA Gascón carried guns on planes, then whistle-blower was fired, suit says. A former senior investigator says he was fired for blowing the whistle on his boss, San Francisco District Attorney George Gascón, who he alleged carried a gun while flying — in violation of federal law. Gascón reacted with a "pattern of retaliation and harassment" that culminated in the termination of senior investigator Henry G. McKenzie on Oct. 30, 2017, according to the suit filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco. Study: More than 7-in-10 California Immigrant Households Are on Welfare. More than 7-in-10 households headed by immigrants in the state of California are on taxpayer-funded welfare, a new study reveals. The latest Census Bureau data analyzed by the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) finds that about 72 percent of households headed by noncitizens and immigrants use one or more forms of taxpayer-funded welfare programs in California — the number one immigrant-receiving state in the U.S. Meanwhile, only about 35 percent of households headed by native-born Americans use welfare in California. After California's ballot harvest: What is to be done? The ballot-harvesting issue, which gave Democrats an absolute monopoly of power in even Orange County, signals a sort of the bottom dropping out in California. Now that Democrats have discovered they can flip any race based on selective collections of mail-in ballots by Democratic door-knockers from voters who didn't ask for them, their one-party state of the past 20 years in California has gotten even more entrenched in power. One gets the sense that the landscape has changed and what the voters want no longer matters. Voting is no longer about you, or what you think or the decisions you make, it's now all about that unasked-for piece of paper on the kitchen table known as a ballot and how Democrats can get their hands on it. You are incidental. The creepy Democratic machine, with its 1980s PRI-style politics, rigged this state this way, and in so doing would make Hugo Chávez or Daniel Ortega envious. PRI Mexico was, after all, once called "the perfect dictatorship." Now the title has moved on to California. It amounts to stolen democracy, which ultimately cries out for revolution. The Cloward-Piven strategy: Overload the system to intentionally break it. Trump: The Last President? The Governor isn't the Governor of California, especially when he won in a 57% to 43% victory. The Governor is the Governor of the Left, and will represent the Left, not the electorate in general. The swing vote, which has moderated elections nationally is absent in California. The swing vote means that the most uninterested people have the levers of power. That category of people simply does not exist in California. Party leader? Sure. Governor? Well, in name only. In reality, the recently elected Governor is the Democratic Party leader. Pelosi tells audience, 'San Francisco values, that's what we're about'. Has Nancy Pelosi joined the GOP team anxious to scare voters away from voting for the donkey party? The pejorative use of the expression "San Francisco values," to indicate a loss of decency, tradition, and sanity, has at least two decades of history, and arguably almost three and a half, since Jeanne Kirkpatrick denounced "San Francisco Democrats" at the 1984 Republican Convention. Today, San Francisco is the exemplar of a city that has driven out the middle class and features the worst-looking income gap between rich and poor. San Francisco's poor languish in its streets in the worst display of the degradation of poverty this side of Calcutta. San Francisco's homelessness, its open drug use, and the spread of human feces on the sidewalks there have made being a pedestrian there a health risk. Gavin Newsom Helped Mother's Assisted Suicide. A recent article in the New Yorker extolling the (probable) next Governor of California reveals that Gavin Newsom helped his mother commit assisted suicide. [...] When I first read the piece, I assumed she didn't die in California because assisted suicide was a felony there in 2002, and Newsom was a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors sworn to uphold the law. Wrong. She died in San Francisco. California city council candidate is caught dropping off his wheelchair-bound mom, 86, so she can panhandle. A nonpartisan candidate for city council in Southern California has been accused of dropping off his elderly, wheelchair-bound mother to panhandle for the last decade, even though they're not homeless. David Chey has been caught on camera leaving Soon Chey, 86, in her wheelchair in the downtown district of Laguna Beach with a sign that reads, 'please, help me.' 'They have a brand new car, live in a condo in Irvine, yet beg for our help,' local business owner Heidi Miller told DailyMail.com. California Ranks as Poorest State, One of the Worst for Income Inequality. Despite all the wealth in the state and the Democrat control of state government, California actually ranks as the poorest state in the country after costs of living are factored in. A whopping 19 percent of Californians live below the poverty line. While California represents just 12 percent of the nation's population, Californians represent a third of all Americans on welfare. The average monthly cost of rent in the state is 43 percent higher than the national average. Nearly a third of Californians spend more than half of their earnings on housing. The situation is made worse by skyrocketing energy costs. "Residents who can afford rent or a mortgage are on the hook for electricity rates burdened by green initiatives and regulation that grew 500 percent faster than the national average from 2011 to 2017." San Francisco to Allow Illegal Aliens to Vote. In July, the Department of Elections issued voter registration forms to illegal aliens to vote for members of the San Francisco Board of Education in the 2018 election, reported ABC7 News. Now that the illegals are registered and ready, they will be voting in November. The piously politically correct blue state that bankrolls Putin. CalPERS, the $326-billion California state pension fund for some two million state cops, firefighters, and bureaucrats, has never been shy about its trumpeting its political correctness. It's positively famous for its pullouts of tobacco investments, Turkey investments, apartheid South Africa investments, and coal investments, and so famous that you probably would never have heard of the fund were it not for its pullouts. It's not that they are that awful in themselves — they often try to push back on calls to divest. But they've always been seen by leftists as a tool to oppose President Trump. So in general, name the lefty cause, and out they pull. Well, with one little exception: Putin's Russia. On that one, they've shelled out nearly half a billion dollars to the Russian government (not companies, but the government) through its bond buys. And hey, they're one of Russia's top foreign investors, top ten among foreigners. Rich San Francisco businesses could face homelessness tax. San Francisco has come to be known around the world as a place for aggressive panhandling, open-air drug use and sprawling tent camps, the dirt and despair all the more remarkable for the city's immense wealth. Jerry Brown's get-out-of-jail-free card in California. Here's a story that's making the news in San Diego as a local district attorney protests, but it's actually a state problem that goes back to the usual lefty suspects, starting with Gov. Jerry Brown. Thousands of murder convictions are likely to be vacated due to a change in state law that effectively says that if you were the guy sitting in the shotgun seat of the car as the other guy pulled the trigger, you get off scot-free — you're no longer convicted of murder, too. The County of San Diego alone is set to release about 150 such charmers onto the streets, and the other 57 counties are going to have to do similar. All told, about 800 of them are reportedly going to get let out. San Francisco: Land of the Living Dead. Effectively, there's nothing in this news story that you don't know already. Anyone who has followed the news and who reads this blog knows full well that downtown San Francisco has been given over to drug addicts and the homeless. In the most liberal blue city in America, Nancy Pelosi's home town, you cannot walk the streets in many neighborhoods. What's news is the place it appeared: The New York Times. The paper of record sent a reporter and a photographer out to document the nightmare that is the streets of San Francisco. They did not pull any punches. They told it like it is. The One-Party State. [Scroll down] Dan Walters, a longtime political journalist in Sacramento, will tell you it was the end of the Cold War that really brought about Democratic dominance. He points to the decline of the defense and aerospace industries, major employers in Southern California, which prompted an exodus of Republican voters — middle-class, white, and suburban — to cheaper states. Los Angeles County regularly went for the GOP in elections. It's simple arithmetic, says Walters. When the GOP lost Los Angeles, it turned California over completely to the Democrats. Today, the state is a liberal's dream. It's multicultural. It's largely urbanized. It is socially and environmentally progressive. People here frequently boast, without a trace of smugness, that if you want to see America in 10 years, look at California. Weak passwords banned in California from 2020. Default passwords such as "admin" and "password" will be illegal for electronics firms to use in California from 2020. The state has passed a law that sets higher security standards for net-connected devices made or sold in the region. It demands that each gadget be given a unique password when it is made. California's Socialist Oligarchy: Making the State Unaffordable. Nowhere are the consequences of California's oligarchical socialism more evident than in the cost of housing. State legislation has made it nearly impossible for developers to construct new housing outside the so-called "urban growth boundary." Instead, development is redirected into the footprint of existing urban areas. While there is a natural tendency as population increases to see higher density redevelopment in urban cores, by restricting outward expansion of urban areas, the value of the limited remaining eligible land becomes artificially inflated. But established landowners and large development firms benefit from these restrictions. They are able to withstand years, if not decades, of expensive permitting delays and endless litigation. They are able to afford millions in permit fees because these costs are offset by their ability to sell residence units — from high-rise condos to detached single family dwellings — at prices far beyond what they would cost in a normal market. These billionaire business interests get richer, while ordinary Californians who want to own or develop land cannot afford to go through the permit process. The One-Party State. The state [of California] has the most liberal environmental laws and regulations in the country, which hamper the development of affordable housing. A San Francisco Chronicle investigation in 2017 showed rising housing costs driving lower-income Californians out of their homes and into the streets. Homelessness has skyrocketed in both the cities and the rural areas of the state. While 12 percent of the U.S. population is in California, 25 percent of the country's homeless live there. From Sacramento to San Diego, you can't help but notice the multitudes of people living on the street. Look at the housing shortage and homelessness, the decline of manufacturing and other blue-collar jobs, and the growth of a tech economy that rewards disruption over predictability, and you see why some are suspicious of the California way. California will require women on corporate boards under bill signed by Brown. California became the first state in the country to require that women be included on companies' boards of directors, as Gov. Jerry Brown literally sent a message to Washington on Sunday [9/30/2018] in signing legislation that corporate associations opposed as unconstitutional. Brown signed SB826 into law after it passed the Assembly and the Senate last month. The bill mandates that all publicly traded California companies have at least one woman on their boards by the end of 2019. The Editor says... California Passes Law Allowing 12-Year-Olds To Get Tax-Paid Transgender Treatments. You have to be 16 obtain a driver's license in California, 18 to buy a rifle, engage in consensual sex, or get married without parental consent, and 21 to buy a handgun, alcohol, or marijuana. But in the nation's most progressive state, you only need to be 12 years old to privately seek and consent to treatment for gender transitioning. America, don't be like California. Once again, California has the highest poverty rate in America. According to the U.S. Census Bureau's most recent report, the Golden State's Supplemental Poverty Measure averaged 19 percent between 2015 and 2017. Nationwide, poverty dropped in 2017 from 14.7 percent to 14.1 percent, but California's rate was proportionately 35 percent higher than the national average. In spite of (or perhaps to divert attention from) its high poverty rate, California's left-wing political class continues its unrelenting sermonizing to the rest of us. California DMV Gives Illegal Voters a Surge. Last week California's Department of Motor Vehicles sent 23,000 "erroneous" voter registrations to the office of Secretary of State Alex Padilla, who maintains the list of registered voters. The DMV blamed it technical errors and said none of the erroneous registrations involved undocumented immigrants. Padilla was "extremely disappointed and deeply frustrated" and the DMV assured him it wouldn't happen again. Legitimate voters have good reason to believe Padilla was not disappointed but delighted. The odds are strong that illegals make up most if not all of the newly registered voters. The registrations of illegals will be happening again, in greater numbers, as the November election approaches. The day after the 23,000 registrations made news, it emerged that from late April to early August, the DMV registered 182,000 "new voters," with the largest number, 112,000, choosing "no party." Neither the DMV nor Padilla would explain the numbers but the trend is evident and all by design. San Fran Green Lights Illegals To Vote. Our country has twisted itself in knots over the possibility of foreigners (ie: Russia) having unduly influenced our elections (even though recounts and investigations have confirmed that the outcome was NOT changed by foreign interference). You'd think that would be reminder enough as to just how precious the individual value of a lawful voter is, and how it must be safeguarded against anything that would erode the value of that one vote. California moves toward corporate gender quotas, ignoring Norway's failure. Supporters of California's move toward the nation's first-ever corporate gender quotas have insisted the bill will be good for business, but that's not what happened in Norway. After the Norwegian Parliament required that women make up 40 percent of publicly traded corporate boards in 2006, stock prices plunged and firm values dropped as boards added less experienced female directors, while the numbers of public firms decreased and private companies increased. "The quota led to younger and less experienced boards, increases in leverage and acquisitions, and deterioration in operating performance, consistent with less capable boards," said the 2012 paper by USC professor Kenneth R. Ahern and University of Michigan professor Amy K. Dittmar. Trump on the Ground. For months, I've been driving on different routes through the vast San Joaquin Valley back and forth from the California coast — and through the usually economically depressed small towns on and near the Highway 99 corridor through the Central Valley. The poverty rate in many valley counties is higher than in West Virginia. It is a world away from Hollywood, Silicon Valley, the Stanford or Caltech campus, Malibu, and Pacific Heights. In an overregulated, overtaxed state of open borders and sanctuary cities, with the nation's near highest electricity and gasoline prices, and facing a looming state and local pension unfunded liability of well over $300 billion, one might not expect much of an uptick from the supposed Trump economic revival. California's calcified strategy, after all, is that global lucre pouring into coastal high-tech and finance will more than balance out the economic damage wrought by state government. Sacramento is a sort of court jester to Menlo Park. A last-ditch effort to pull California back from the brink. I fully understand the hatred and contempt many, if not most, conservatives feel toward California. A state blessed with so many advantages has surrendered to left-wing madness and, worst of all, pretends it has something to teach the rest of America. In the thirty-some years I have lived here, California has gone from Reagan Country to thrusting people on the order of Kamala Harris and Gavin Newsom onto the national stage. Of the two, Gavin Newsom, the former mayor of San Francisco (and former husband of Kimberly Guilfoyle, late of Fox News and currently rumored to be an intimate friend of Donald Trump, Jr.), is in a position to do more harm in the immediate future, as he is running for governor of California on a platform of state-paid universal health care, including for illegal aliens who manage to cross the state border, from Mexico or Nevada or Oregon. California, Poverty Capital. According to the Census Bureau's Supplemental Poverty Measure — which accounts for the cost of housing, food, utilities, and clothing, and which includes noncash government assistance as a form of income — nearly one out of four Californians is poor. Given robust job growth in the state and the prosperity generated by several industries, especially the supercharged tech sector, the question arises as to why California has so many poor people, especially when the state's per-capita GDP increased roughly twice as much as the U.S. average over the five years ending in 2016 (12.5 percent, compared with 6.27 percent). It's not as if California policymakers have neglected to wage war on poverty. Sacramento and local governments have spent massive amounts in the cause, for decades now. Why California's Gavin Newsom campaigns for free health care for illegals. Gavin Newsom, leading candidate for governor of California, and a Democrat, has a new goodie on offer: free health care for the state's three million illegals. The former mayor of San Francisco said so in this podcast, explaining that there is no reason not to "wait around" to extend Medi-Cal coverage to anyone who asks, regardless of immigration status. California craziness: Congress may have to stop state from giving 'free' health care to illegal immigrants. California has escalating crime, cities teaming with homeless people, clogged and crumbling roads, massive unpaid bills, some of America's highest taxes, and some of its worst public school systems. So what's the plan by Gavin Newsom, the Democratic Party's candidate for governor, to improve the situation? On Tuesday he suggested giving free health care to illegal immigrants. Speaking on a left-wing podcast, the former mayor of San Francisco said: "I did universal health care when I was mayor, fully implemented, regardless of pre-existing condition, ability to pay, and regardless of your immigration status. I'd like to see that extended to the rest of the state. San Francisco is the only universal health-care plan for all undocumented residents in America." Gavin Newsom: I'm Bringing Single Payer To Everyone In California, Regardless Of Immigration Status. Gavin Newsom is currently running for Governor in California and, barring something dramatic, he is going to win. So when he says he plans to bring single payer to California as Governor, there's a very good chance he'll get his shot. Today, Newsom appeared on the Pod Save America podcast where he was asked about his health care plans. Newsom made clear he wants a single paper system that is for everyone in the state regardless of immigration status. "I'd like to see if we can control our own destiny," Newsom said. He continued, "I'm not naive about it. I did universal health care when I was Mayor [of San Francisco], fully implemented regardless of pre-existing conditions, ability to pay, and regardless of your immigration status. Dem Gubernatorial Candidate: Gov't Should Pay for Universal Health Care for Illegal Immigrants. Gavin Newsom, Democratic candidate for governor of California, said on liberal podcast "Pod Save America" that the state government should pay for universal health care for illegal immigrants. In the episode, released Tuesday, the candidate and current lieutenant governor of California touted his involvement in San Francisco having "the only universal health care plan for all undocumented residents in America." "I did universal health care when I was mayor — fully implemented, regardless of pre-existing condition, ability to pay, and regardless of your immigration status. San Francisco is the only universal health care plan for all undocumented residents in America. Very proud of that," Newsom said. "I'd like to see that extended to the rest of the state." Just Another Word for Nothing Left to Lose. [Scroll down] And, of course, there's virtually no area of our lives — outside our sexual behavior and reproductive "choices" — that should be free from state interference. It should be no surprise, then, that the libertarian Cato Institute's latest "Freedom in the 50 States" report finds California nearly at the bottom, in 48th place. New York and Hawaii were worse, but California has been remarkably consistent in its ranking over the past 16 years. Whenever there's some think tank report comparing the states for some bad thing, I always start at the bottom to find my home state. Not surprisingly, we have the highest taxes in the country, even with 1978's Proposition 13 putting the kibosh on uncontrolled property-tax hikes. We have a high level of public debt, [of] course. As Cato points out, the state actually has one of the lowest percentages of government employees (11.2 percent of private employment). But the reason is simple: California pays its employees such astoundingly high pay and benefit packages that it simply can't afford to hire any more of them. California Gov. Jerry Brown Sets Record of 1,018 Pardons in 8 Years. California Gov. Jerry Brown used his executive powers to issue 36 gubernatorial pardons on Friday, to hit a record of 1,018 pardons in eight years in office. Although 22 of those were for murder and 13 for attempted murder or manslaughter, Brown said each of the pardons he provided went to individuals that had had "demonstrated exemplary behavior" and lived "productive and law-abiding lives" following their convictions and time served in prison, according to the Fresno Bee. California Initiative Filed to End Proposition 13 Protections for Commercial Properties. Funded by Silicon Valley deep pockets — including the Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative, the personal charity of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan; a coalition of teachers unions; the League of Women Voters; affordable housing advocates; and other "social justice warriors" organized as "Schools and Communities First," — the activists submitted the signatures to the Secretary of State on August 14 to place an initiative on the 2020 ballot to increase California commercial property tax revenue by $11 billion. Milk Or Water: California Bill Aims To Curb Kids' Soda Drinking At Restaurants. A new state bill would give kids two options with their meals at restaurants — water or milk. Senate Bill 1192 would make water or milk the default drink for kids meals in a push to reduce obesity and access to sugary drinks for children. The bill passed the Assembly and is on its way to Gov. Jerry Brown's desk. If he signs it, California would be the first state in the nation to have such a law. A Tale of Three Cities. San Francisco is being overrun with the homeless and illegal aliens due to its sanctuary city status and virtue-signaling leadership. The streets are littered with human feces, hypodermic needles, and syringes, turning the once beautiful "City by the Bay" into a cesspool. What's the response of San Francisco leaders? Banning plastic straws. California lawmakers grill DMV official over ballooning wait times. The leader of the state Department of Motor Vehicles apologized on Tuesday for a recent steep increase in hours-long wait times at the agency's locations across California, as complaints over excessive delays sparked new scrutiny from legislators. "The wait times you are experiencing are not what we ever want our customers to go through," said DMV Director Jean Shiomoto, who testified at an Assembly hearing convened to address the issue following months of public frustration. Secret DMV office serves lawmakers, Capitol staffers. In California, long lines are a fact of life at Department of Motor Vehicles offices across the state, but for California lawmakers and their legislative staffers, there's an alternative. KCRA has learned of a DMV office that is not open to the public. It's located inside the Legislative Office Building on N Street, adjacent to the state Capitol. The Mask Slips In Santa Barbara. A little noticed detail in Santa Barbara's recent drive to criminalize plastic straws, which culminated in the Santa Barbara city council taking testimony from a nine-year-old about the planetary menace, has come to light in recent days. During that council session, councilman Jesse Dominguez said the following in response to citizens who asked "what's next?": "Unfortunately, common sense is just not common. We have to regulate every aspect of people's lives." Take that one in for a moment, for it expresses the core impulse of liberalism today. 'We Have to Regulate Every Aspect of People's Lives'. A Santa Barbara city councilman inadvertently let slip the primary purpose of progressivism in 21st century America. The city recently criminalized the use of plastic straws. Speaking to that issue, Councilman Jesse Dominguez said, "Unfortunately, common sense is just not common. We have to regulate every aspect of people's lives." Got that? "We" are smarter than you and know what's best for you better than you do. Perhaps realizing that his comment revealed a fundamental truth of progressive thought, Dominguez tried to walk back his gaffe: [...] California Wants to Reinvent the Power Grid. So What Could Go Wrong? Two decades ago, when California deregulated the delivery of electric power, lawmakers, regulators and even some environmentalists hailed the decision as a way to lower consumers' bills. The strategy proved disastrous. The plan resulted in an energy crisis that sent power bills soaring, prompted billions in penalties against utilities and banks for manipulating the new electricity market, and led Congress to enact laws to help prevent it all from happening again. Now the state's leaders have a new proposal for an energy makeover, this time to create a single authority to manage the electric grid for most or all of the West. This plan, too, promises to cut costs for consumers — by as much as $1.5 billion a year — while helping to bolster use of carbon-free power sources. California's Tax War On Business Owners — Part 1. In the early 1990s, the U.S. economy was hit by a triple whammy: 1) the Savings & Loan Crisis, 2) high oil prices as the result of the first Gulf War, and 3) a good-sized recession. Following that recession, the U.S. economy experienced slow growth. So, recognizing that middle market companies are the primary source of economic growth, Congress amended the Internal Revenue Code to incentivize the creation of new companies — "mainstreet" companies and lower middle market companies. Subject to certain restrictions, upon sale of the company, founding owners would be able to exclude up to a certain amount of gain. With California's tax code "conforming" to the Internal Revenue Code, the same pro-growth incentive would have been available on a business owner's California income tax return. But, given the title of this article, it couldn't be that simple — and it's not. San Francisco: The City of Bans. Who would have guessed that cafeterias would even be a public-policy issue? I've worked at companies with them and without them. But I would have found it more likely for lefties to require such things rather than prohibit them. Many workers, even in well-paid industries where such cafeterias are common, struggle financially given the high cost of living in the Bay Area. Here's a chance for the city to help assure that they get a healthy meal while they work those long hours doing whatever IT people do. What did I miss? "The supervisors introduced the legislation because they say tech companies' employees are hurting local restaurants by taking advantage of the perk and eating in-house, rather than patronizing neighborhood eating establishments," reported Smart Cities Dive. 'Calexit' supporters revamp campaign with plan to convert half of California into 'autonomous Native American nation'. Organizers of a long-running initiative to secure California's secession from the United States now say they want to give away nearly half of the state, including all of its federal land, to form an "autonomous Native American nation." "Calexit," as the proposal for California's secession is known, was given the green light by the state government earlier this year to begin collecting signatures to place the measure on the November ballot. Advocates had until mid-October to gather 365,880 signatures of registered voters to put it up for a statewide vote. California Is Not as Big or Blue As You Think. The National Popular Vote plan is an interstate compact in which the compacting states agree to award their electoral votes to the person who gets the most votes in all 50 states. It is based on Art. I, Sec. 2 of the Constitution which grants state legislatures the plenary (and exclusive) power to award electors, and the founders' expectation that states would use that power to maximize their influence in the selection of the president. The first thing I hear, when the proposal is presented, is that "California is so big, it will run the country" (mainly because I am from California) if the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact takes effect. My conservative friends use California as an example of "what not to do" when it comes to public policy, and so, if California is going to run the country under the state statutes implementing the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, then, they say, the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact is dangerous. California's 'foreclosure capital' to give away $500 a month to residents in experimental welfare program. A California city is set to become the first in the nation to embark on an experiment of Universal Basic Income, paying 100 residents $500 a month without any conditions. The program's purpose is to eventually ensure that no one in Stockton, with a population of 300,000, lives in poverty. The receivers of the cash will be able to spend the money on anything they want without any strings attached. It will launch by 2019 and the 100 fortunate residents will receive the cash for a full 18 months as part of its testing phase before deciding whether to roll it out across Stockton. Cost of anti-ICE protests prompts California county to forgo $3M federal contract. Citing the cost of managing anti-ICE protests outside one of its facilities, authorities in a Northern California county this week severed a $3 million contract with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement that allowed the federal agency to detain illegal immigrants in one of its cities. Contra Costa County, across the bay from San Francisco, thus became the second county in the region this month to cut ties with ICE, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. The county's West County Detention Facility, in Richmond, which averaged 200 immigrant detainees a day, had drawn protesters for months. At a news conference, Sheriff David Livingston suggested the demonstrations played a large role in the contract's termination. Is California's Democratic Party swinging too far left? By Nov. 7, Democrats will learn if their left turn steered them to victory or took them off a cliff. The state party's endorsement of Kevin de León, a self-proclaimed socialist's upset of an establishment Democrat in a New York City congressional primary and talk of abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement and enacting single-payer health care show an embrace of progressive politics that heartens liberal activists enraged by conservative policies pursued by President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans. California's Pointless Net Neutrality Efforts. California is moving ahead with some of the most ambitious — and pointless — net neutrality laws in the country that will only make the patchwork laws springing up around the U.S even murkier. California's bill offers stronger language than the Federal Communication Commission's (FCC) rules established under the Obama administration and repealed this spring. The state legislation not only prevents internet service providers from throttling speeds or blocking websites, but it also bans excessive zero-rating practices of ISPs exempting its own services from data caps while counting the usage of third-party apps against the limits. California governor signs soda tax ban into law. California cities and counties are banned from taxing sodas and other sugary drinks for the next 12 years under a bill signed into law by Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown. The deal was rushed through the legislature and to the governor's desk on Thursday. In exchange for the law, the nonalcoholic beverage industry is withdrawing a ballot measure that had been slated for November. It would have raised the voter threshold to approve local sales tax increases on any item, not just soda taxes, from a majority vote to a supermajority vote. Signatures were gathered for the ballot through a campaign funded by the beverage industry. San Francisco: Poster-Child For The Failure Of U.S. Cities' Blue Model. By any standard, San Francisco is one of the most beautiful cities in the world. So why has it suddenly become an unappealing place to visit and to live? [...] San Francisco proudly calls itself a "progressive" city. It follows what writer and scholar Walter Russell Mead calls the progressive "Blue Model" of governance. Yet, the policies it follows — high taxes, inane regulations, petty nanny-state authoritarianism, tolerance for rising lawlessness and disorder on its streets in the name of "compassion" — are the very ones that have driven middle-class and working-class citizens out. Only the rich and the so-called homeless, who have been welcomed into the city and are a growing issue, can afford to live in the city. California's Oligarchs and Agitators. If one were to distill the essence of California's Democratic party into a one-page document, it would be hard to beat a recent mail piece showing the SEIU's candidate endorsements for California's top jobs. According to its website, the Service Employees International Union Local 1000 (SEIU) "is a united front of 96,000 working people employed by the State of California, making Local 1000 the largest public sector union in California and one of the largest in the country." Look What California Thinks is an Emergency Bill. California is a Socialist nightmare with oppressive government regulations and high taxes killing the middle class. Housing is so costly that it's greatly adding to the number of homeless. The open borders and sanctuary cities policies have allowed killers, perverts, and drug dealers to get protection everywhere in the state. With all the problems they have, they rushed through a bill that could make you laugh. According to the Washington Examiner, the oh-so-urgent bill that had to be rushed through bans California cities and counties from taxing sodas and other sugary drinks for 12 years. Are you surprised that a nanny state banned taxes? Don't be. The reason they did it was to keep high taxes on everything else! Court reinstates California law allowing terminally ill people to end their lives. The law allows adults to obtain a prescription for life-ending drugs if a doctor has determined that they have six months or less to live. The Editor says... California school board votes to name elementary school after illegal immigrant activist/journalist. At a divisive time for U.S. immigration policies, a California school board has decided to name a new elementary school after an award-winning journalist who disclosed in 2011 that he had been living in the U.S. illegally. Thefts rise after California reduces criminal penalties. California voters' decision to reduce penalties for drug and property crimes in 2014 contributed to a jump in car burglaries, shoplifting and other theft, researchers reported. Ridiculous Bay Area housing costs may be reflected in a large drop in births. A harbinger of the absurdly high cost of housing in the San Francisco Bay Area may be visible in the region's maternity wings. San Francisco is a city of few children. You're more likely to see a French bulldog roaming Alamo Square Park than packs of kids frolicking among the Victorians. The lack of youngsters is indicative of a larger issue in the city: the absurdly high cost of housing. According to a new study, when housing prices go up, the birth rate goes down. Soros push to elect progressive DAs in California fails to attract voters. New York billionaire George Soros' multimillion-dollar effort to reshape California's criminal justice system by propping up progressive district attorney candidates backfired Tuesday [6/5/2018], with most of his candidates suffering major defeats. Soros, together with other wealthy liberal donors and groups, spent millions on would-be prosecutors who favor lower incarceration rates, crackdowns on police misconduct and changes in a bail system that they argue discriminates against the poor. But most of the money went to waste as their candidates lost to more traditional law-and-order prosecutors who didn't share progressive views or have hostile attitudes toward police. America's King of Poverty. I know it is not a pleasant topic but let's take just a moment and think about poverty in this country. Which state do you think has the highest poverty rate? Must be Mississippi or Alabama or one of those Southern states. No it ain't. The state with the highest poverty rate is... wait for it, CALIFORNIA!!! Yep, our progressive, income redistributing state which accounts for 12% of the country's population is home to about 1 in 3 of all U.S. welfare recipients. Our poverty rate exceeds 20% when the national average is around 15%. It is not as though California policy makers have neglected to wage their assault on poverty. Since 1992 California has spent nearly $1 trillion on benefit programs. Clearly it hasn't worked. Then again paying poor people to be poor never does. The lawless, porn-respecting, MS-13-loving, humorless American left. [Nancy] Pelosi says the low unemployment is meaningless, the tax cuts are "crumbs," and that consumer confidence is low despite it being at an 18-year high. They see, hear, think, and propagate what they want to be true, not what is true. Even California voters made a tiny dent in the left's socialist grasp on the state. No one expected Republican John Cox to come in second. All Californians should be horrified by what has become of their once golden state. Thanks to the polices of Gov. Brown, ex-senator Boxer, Feinstein, Kamala Harris, A.G. Becerra, etc. (it is a one-party Marxist state), California is a disaster of incalculable proportions, drowning in the homeless, the illegal migrants, traffic, and the highest gas prices in the country. California Desperately Needs A State Electoral College. This November a Republican — businessman John Cox — will be one of two gubernatorial candidates in the state of California. This is significant because of the Golden State's unique "jungle primary" system in which the top-two vote-getters proceed to a run-off election regardless of party. The "jungle primary" was championed by former California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. His reasoning was that eliminating party-identification in a race would give Republican candidates a better chance in a deeply blue state. Of course, the effect was just the opposite. With so many blue voters, the controversial system virtually guarantees that the top two candidates are Democrats. The result has been that many voters not aligned with the Democrat platform have been repeatedly forced to choose between candidates that don't in any way represent them. California Attorney General adds Oklahoma to growing travel ban list. I am so old that I remember when California Attorney General Xavier Becerra was fighting against travel bans. Let's get in the Wayback Machine and turn the dial to March, 2017: ["]California Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra issued a statement Monday [6/4/2018] saying President Trump's decision to rescind a travel ban bogged down in court challenges 'confirms what we all knew: the travel ban was unconstitutional and un-American.'["] Becerra, a social justice warrior and leading general in the War on Trump, relies on one of the tried-and-tested tools of progressive activism: The Double Standard. This week, he issued his own travel ban on that red bastion of traditional values and implemented a travel ban on Oklahoma. Oklahoma officials unfazed after landing on California's state-travel blacklist. Oklahomans weren't exactly crying in their sweet tea after learning that their state has been added to California's blacklist on state-sponsored travel. "There appears to be more and more Californians sharing our values as we are seeing more Californians move to Oklahoma," said Michael McNutt, spokesman for Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin, in a statement. "With our state's economy being as strong as it is, we won't miss a few Californians traveling on state business showing up in our state." Prop 68: A Yes Vote is a Reward for Bad Behavior. This adds about $400 of new debt onto your family's tab, that you'll repay in future taxes plus interest. It promises to be used to prepare for droughts. Remember the $5 billion that was supposed to be used on new reservoirs a few years ago? It wasn't. The best way to prepare for droughts is to store water from wet years so that we have it in dry ones. With free health care for illegals, California Democrats hand a big campaign contribution to the GOP's Cox. For Democrats, succoring illegals and doling out nationalized "free" health care are signature issues. What better way to enact that agenda than to offer California's abundant illegal aliens free state health care? That's the scheme they've cooked up, in their relentless push to make California a West Coast imitation of socialist Venezuela. It's so bad that it's likely to draw California voters toward Republicans. California rebukes Trump with health care push for immigrants. California is poised to become the first state in the nation to offer full health coverage to undocumented adults even as the Trump administration intensifies its crackdown by separating families at the border. The proposal — which would build on Gov. Jerry Brown's 2015 decision to extend health coverage to all children, regardless of immigration status — is one of the most daring examples yet of blue-state Democrats thumbing their nose at President Donald Trump as they pursue diametrically opposed policies, whether on immigration, climate change, legalized marijuana or health care. California assisted death law overturned in court. A judge in Riverside County on Tuesday overturned California's controversial assisted death law nearly two years after it took effect, ruling that the Legislature improperly passed the measure during a special session on health care funding. Report finds cases of STDs reach all-time high in California. The number of cases of sexually transmitted diseases in California reached a record high last year and officials are particularly concerned by a spike in stillbirths due to congenital syphilis, state health authorities said Monday [5/14/2018]. California Bill Seeks to Replace Washington or Lincoln's Birthday Holidays with 'May Day'. A Democrat California assemblyman introduced a bill seeking to make "May Day," or International Workers Day, a state holiday that would replace President George Washington's or President Abraham Lincoln's birthday. Assemblyman Miguel Santiago's (D-Los Angeles) legislation calls for consolidating the two presidents' birthdays to be observed on the third Monday in February as a single "President's Day" holiday, but it also calls for the state to observe May 1 as "International Workers Day." Leftist pol in California proposes scrapping Washington's Birthday in favor of Marxist May Day. Leftists are notoriously touchy whenever anyone questions their patriotism, and the mask seems to be off with a California assemblyman's proposal to scrap Lincoln's or Washington's birthdays as holidays and replace them with the communist May Day. Surreal as this sounds, it's true. California Bill Wants To Drop Washington/Lincoln's Birthday And Replace It With Communist Holiday. The California Assembly discussed Thursday [5/10/2018] a bill that would replace Abraham Lincoln or George Washington's birthday with International Socialist Workers' Day as a paid holiday. California Democrat Assemblyman Miguel Santiago introduced Bill AB-3042, which would allow schools to replace Washington Day and Lincoln Day with Presidents' Day and install an "International Workers' Day" — conventionally known as "May Day" — as a second holiday. "I'm aghast that a bill like this would be able to get through committee," California Republican Assemblyman Matthew Harper said to the Assembly. "Are we in competition to be the laughing stock of the United States?" The Editor says... California Demands That Christians 'Evolve'. There's a new legislative proposal banning all conversion therapy as a fraudulent business practice — by not just mental health providers but anyone. Since the "independent fact-checkers" are quick to swarm around conservative "misinformation," FactCheck.org, PolitiFact and Snopes have all cried "False" at the idea that this bill is a threat to the sale of the Bible. They declared that a threat against Bible sales is nowhere in the text of California Assembly Bill 2943, offered by gay assembly member Evan Low. That is correct ... on its face. It doesn't mention the Bible. However, the bill would amend the state Consumer Legal Remedies Act, adding the ability to sue for damages for "advertising, offering to engage in, or engaging in sexual orientation change efforts with an individual." Any efforts to change someone's sexual orientation "in a transaction intended to result or that results in the sale or lease of goods or services to any consumer are unlawful." That's more than therapy. It's any kind of an argument. California Voters Oppose Arming Teachers to Shoot Back if Under Attack. By a wide margin California voters support more gun control and oppose arming teachers to shoot back if under attack. The opposition to armed teachers was uncovered via a Berkeley-IGS Poll and reported by the Sacramento Bee. The poll found 61 percent of voters opposed arming teachers while only 37 percent supported it. When viewed by political affiliation, 83 percent of Democrats opposed allowing teachers to be armed to protect themselves and their students, while 75 percent of Republicans supported the idea. Christians' Munich Moment in California. Scarcely any moment in American history is as important for America's Christians as the developing crises over religious freedom now happening in California. The legislature of Sacramento not only is underhandedly banning books opposed to the doctrines of the transgender religion (including the Bible), but also has threatened Christians' rights to free assembly and freedom of speech. According to its website, Summit Ministries, an organization devoted to advising Christian youths on how to live out a Christian worldview, has canceled its scheduled appearances at Biola University in Los Angeles "due to concerns that California will forbid some of what it teaches." Summit's concern is real. How Homeschoolers Defeated California's Push to Take Power From Parents. They came by the hundreds, one newspaper said — "perhaps thousands." Some traveled hours, others waited hours, all for the opportunity to protest one of the most outrageous homeschooling bills ever introduced: California's AB 2756. Spilling out into crammed hallways and overflow rooms, families poured into the Statehouse just for the opportunity to spend a few minutes speaking out on a measure that would give the government more power over parents who educate at home. Initially, the bill tried to mandate fire inspections of all homeschooling families (which, not surprisingly, firefighters rejected). Then the proposal was amended — this time to force homeschooling families to give out private information about the names and address of homeschooling families. They Keep Telling Us Who They Are. The California legislature is processing a bill to ban and criminalize all speech, all writing, that goes against "LGBTQ priorities". Assembly Bill 2943, which has already sailed through two committees, would criminalize "efforts to change behaviors or gender expressions." It seems to be aimed at practicing psychologists, psychiatrists, or counselors whose clients ask them to help them get rid of unwanted sexual attractions; but the bill is so vaguely written that it could be used against virtually anybody — commentators who dissent from the agenda of Organized Sodomy, parents who teach their children that there are only two "genders," and Biblically orthodox churches where homosexual acting-out is presented as a sin. Yes, California Is on the Verge of Banning Some Christian Books, Here's How. Late last week, I wrote an article that caused a bit of a furious reaction in social-justice Twitter. Activists claimed I was lying, arguing in bad faith, and/or exaggerating the effect of California's AB 2943, a bill that purports to declare "sexual orientation change efforts" to be an "unlawful business practice." I claimed the bill was so broad that it could even ban books. And I'm right. It can and would. California Bill Would Criminalize Speech, Books Opposing LGBT Agenda. In a direct assault on the freedoms of speech and religion, the California Assembly on Thursday [4/19/2018] overwhelmingly approved a bill that would, in effect, prohibit the dissemination of traditional Christian teaching on homosexuality and transgenderism. The Assembly voted 50-14 to criminalize "a transaction intended to result or that results in the sale or lease of goods or services to any consumer" that consists of "advertising, offering to engage in, or engaging in sexual orientation change efforts with an individual." The bill defines "sexual orientation change efforts" as "any practices that seek to change an individual's sexual orientation. This includes efforts to change behaviors or gender expressions, or to eliminate or reduce sexual or romantic attractions or feelings toward individuals of the same sex." New California Bill Would Mean Banning the Bible. The bill in question is California Assembly Bill 2943. It would treat as a criminal violation of the state's consumer fraud act "the sale or lease of goods or services to any consumer" that consists of "advertising, offering to engage in, or engaging in sexual orientation change efforts with an individual." Don't be misled into thinking that this bill bans only professional counselors from trying to alter same-sex attractions. It goes well beyond that. California launches an attack against churches!? A California State Assembly is gearing up to vote on new bill that could ban the sale of books and punish churches that encourage children to stick to traditional gender norms. Yes, you read that right — they want to ban books that say things like, "Girls wear dresses" and shutter churches that encourage boys to wear slacks. Assembly Bill 2943 would make it "unlawful business practice" to engage in "a transaction intended to result or that results in the sale or lease of good of services to any consumer" that engages in "sexual orientation change efforts with an individual." California's crazy-intrusive politicians can't keep their hands off anything — Next up? Homeschoolers! [Scroll down] The recently introduced Assembly Bills 2756 and 2926 are cases in point. This first, AB 2756, requires fire marshals to perform in-home inspections of home-schoolers every year, implying that somehow home-educators are less fire-safe than other individuals. This is, of course, egregiously discriminatory on its face. But wait. The second one is even worse! With AB 2926, Assembly Member Susan Eggman proposes forming an appointed committee to "investigate" homeschooling. The "instruction" committee would subsequently share its findings so that the California legislature might consider how best to regulate those families. Because there isn't anything a bureaucrat loves more than a new regulation! And these particular bureaucrats are already doing such a fine job of regulating our public schools that roughly half of California public school students surveyed reported experiencing bullying. California Has Highest Poverty Rate In America. Democrats in California have consistently rejected forcing work requirements on the able-bodied individuals who receive welfare. Forcing those who can work to look for a job and/or maintain employment before receiving benefits is a policy unpalatable for the democrats who control the state. Americans in California are mostly jobless and the ones who can find work are actually having their money taken through the highest state income tax in the union to support immigrants, the majority of which are on welfare. Why do Democrats love tax hikes so much? California is already seeing residents and businesses flee the state because of its sky-high taxes. Yet unbelievably, two Democratic state assemblymen have proposed to more than double the state business tax — hiking it from 8.84 percent to 18.84 percent on businesses with annual net incomes of more than $1 million. This would be the highest state corporate tax rate in America. The rationale for the giant tax hike? Denying the companies tax savings from the federal income tax cuts recently signed into law by President Trump. Soak the rich! Billions in new tax revenue for the state! What could possibly be wrong with that? California's latest contradictions — Welcoming criminals but warning about 'dangerous' coffee. Imagine a state that passes a law welcoming, embracing and protecting criminals, directly endangering citizens. Then imagine that same state passing laws, and judges issuing orders that make no sense except to micromanage people's lives in the name of keeping them safe. A contradiction indeed, and especially ripe in California. The same week that a number of cities and counties in California sued their own state over the dangerous law making the state a "sanctuary" for illegal alien criminals, a judge issued a ruling to save Californians from themselves and their coffee-drinking habit. Can America Survive the Latest Plague? The left survives within a self-made mirage that uses well written speeches containing caring and poetic language and emotional appeals that appear to be on the side of good, protecting the weak and needy in society. But in fact, the left exploits and manipulates both weak and poor to continue to remain in power. Consider the infected American cities of Detroit, Baltimore, and Chicago, where the left has total control and can implement whatever programs it wants, and look at the result: perpetual devastation, crime, and misery. California, a once wealthy and successful state, is now an insolvent laughingstock of the world. California Democrat Introduces Bill to Force Websites to Use 'Fact-Checkers'. California State Senator Dr. Richard Pan (D-Sacramento) has proposed a bill, the "Online False Information Act," that would require anyone who posts news on the Internet to verify their information through "fact-checkers." The bill, filed quietly in late February as SB 1424, requires all California-based websites to develop a plan to fight "fake news," to use "fact-checkers," and to warn readers — including via social media — of "false information." The Editor says... The Justice Department Sues California. On Monday [4/2/2018], the Department of Justice filed suit against the state of California, challenging a state law that purports to prevent the federal government from selling federal lands without the permission of a state agency. Passed by the California legislature in October 2017, Senate Bill 50 declares that, with limited exceptions, "conveyances of federal public lands in California are void" unless the State Lands Commission is provided a "right of first refusal" or "the right to arrange for the transfer of the federal public land to another entity." The statute also prohibits purchasers of federal land from recording the deed to the newly acquired property without an accompanying "certificate of compliance" from the state commission and provides for a $5,000 civil penalty for buyers who violate this provision. 'Remarkably stupid': Calif Dems push 'first of its kind' legislation restricting when a cop can use his gun. Talk about handcuffing police, California Democrats are pushing an unprecedented law to limit when a cop can use his/her weapon. Following the shooting death of an unarmed black man in Sacramento last month by police, state lawmakers have proposed legislation that raises the threshold for when an officer may open fire, Huffington Post reported. Trump is right — California is out of control. When President Trump recently visited California, he came away with the sense that it "is totally out of control." If he arrived at that conclusion from just a single visit, imagine how many who live in the state feel. To be fair, California itself isn't out of control. There are many among the 40 million who honorably and honestly go about their daily business. Outside of Antifa riots and some infantile behavior on college campuses, there are no mobs in the streets; crime is up but not unrestrained; there are multiple efforts brewing to break up the state, but none are threatening violent insurgencies (though there is a Calexit movement that calls for the state to leave the union). What is out of control is California's ruling class. Much of its political agenda is hostile to basic human liberty and mocks the limits on what government should be allowed to do in an ostensibly free society. Is The Golden State Trying To Secede? There may be hope in California yet. Despite the state's political descent into madness by illegally declaring itself a "sanctuary state," the resistance it growing. California has a political and legal fight on its hands, one it can't win. Is California Governor Jerry Brown Mentally Ill? The entire country is talking about the collapse of California due to decades of insane liberal policies. And what is Governor Brown's response? He implemented hundreds more destructive liberal rules, regulations, and giveaways to illegals. An article listing the top ten stupidest new California laws includes "Single-User Restrooms," "Controlling Cow Flatulence," "Legalizing Child Prostitution," and "Felons Voting." Governor Brown signed a new law making California a sanctuary state, doubling down on his bizarre quest to undermine American citizens. [...] Numerous California families have suffered devastating losses of family members killed by illegals with long felony records who have been deported several times and welcomed back with open arms by Brown. One mom whose son was killed by an illegal with two DUIs and two felonies said Brown should be arrested for treason. California Appoints Illegal Alien to State Office. California has its first illegal alien in state office, after Senate President pro Tem Kevin de León (D-Los Angeles) appointed Lizbeth Mateo to the California Student Opportunity and Access Program Project Grant Advisory Committee. Mateo, an attorney, was born in Mexico and came to the U.S. illegally at the age of 14 with her parents, who are also illegal aliens, according to the Sacramento Bee. San Francisco Is Suffering From The Excesses Of Its Own Liberalism. I live in a reasonably decent section of San Francisco, and from what I gathered in speaking to many others, everyone has had his or her version of San Franciscan traumas. San Francisco, one of the richest cities in the country and home to a booming center of intellectual capital, has suffered from the excesses of its own liberalism. Bloated and inefficient spending, combined with a gross shortage of housing only worsened by rent-control antics and a fat city bureaucracy, has left a city in utter disrepair. [...] The relative "coronation" of Democrats each election on the local and state level has led to a general erosion of performance from the reigning party, which rarely feels the pressure to perform, given the absence of a legitimately competitive rival party. Is California becoming America's Taiwan? Taiwan is an independent nation — in its ambitions, its economy, its democracy. But many countries refuse to recognize it as a separate country, deferring to mainland China, which claims Taiwan as a possession and responds with threats when Taiwan goes its own way. California shares aspects of this conundrum. Our state has the ambitions, economy, and democracy of a leading nation. But it remains very much a part of the United States, which responds with threats when California goes its own way. California Has Become a Disgraceful State. At one time, California was the envy of America, attracting people from around the nation to move to a state offering opportunity and the chance to pursue ambitious dreams. With scenic beauty, the Pacific Ocean coastline, the major cities of San Diego, Los Angeles and San Francisco, California recruited entrepreneurs looking for economic growth. As the home of Hollywood and multitudes of celebrities, California presented an enticing potential to enjoy "lifestyles of the rich and famous." Today, California has become an economic and cultural disaster. The state is home to over 114,000 homeless people, one quarter of the total in the nation. In San Francisco, a health crisis has developed as the homeless have created a mess in the downtown area, littering it with fecal matter, spent needles and piles of trash. I hope Democrats defend sanctuary cities. It's bad policy, and it'll cost them. The Justice Department is now challenging several laws in California that not only interfere with the nation's immigration policies but also place American citizens and law enforcement personnel at risk. The idea that laws can be ignored and that state and local politicians can affirmatively warn lawbreakers of how to escape apprehension is incredible. It is indefensible. We either have laws, or we don't. And if our elected leaders don't want to uphold the law, they can either change them or resign. The law is not optional once you have made a pledge to uphold the duties of your office. Open-border radicals in California and other liberal strongholds must be held accountable. Of course, liberals would have you believe that they are only interested in protecting the poor, the oppressed and the hardworking who have nowhere else to go. But in many cases, their actions allow dangerous and sometimes repeat criminals to be shielded from deportation or prison. Dear California: Call Me When the Commies Leave. I don't care what the libs do to the likes of New York, Chicago, or the Pacific Northwest. Let the progressive loons have cities and states that are already cold, wet and miserable. But, as I often asked audiences, why should we let them have a place as glorious as California? Apparently, no one was listening. When the Democrats gained a super-majority stranglehold on the California legislature, they didn't waste any time letting their far-left freak flag fly. As soon as some bills were floated, then passed, people began asking me in private and in public interviews about the legislative madness issuing forth from Sacramento. I thought most of it was boilerplate liberal lunacy that wouldn't stand up to any strict legal scrutiny, which made me shrug it off. How a list of 23 crimes now dominates California's debate over prison punishment. California has a long history of mixing crime and punishment with raw politics. But outrage doesn't always translate into coherent policy, and unintended consequences can spark even more public anger. With that in mind, consider the last two years of debate over what should, and should not, be a "violent" crime. That debate begins with the index of crimes in section 667.5 of the California Penal Code. The list was first enacted in 1976, and has been tinkered with so many times it's hard to say whether it's a fair representation of the most heinous crimes. California has worst 'quality of life' in US, study says. Awards season is in full swing in California, and the Golden State just took home a booby prize of its own. California ranks dead last among U.S. states in quality of life, according to a study by U.S. News, ranking behind New Jersey (49th) and Indiana (48th). The ignominious honor reflects California's low marks in the sub-categories of environmental quality and social engagement. The latter category measures voting participation and community bonds. Californians scored poorly in part because they're simply insufferable, U.S. News suggested. U.S. News Crowns California Worst State for 'Quality of Life'. The U.S. News & World Report has named California the worst state for "quality of life," largely due to the high cost of living. U.S. News ranks the 50 U.S. states each year on eight major social and economic categories to determine an overall competitive ranking. California received an overall score of 32 in 2018, based on sub-category rankings for a Health Care (11); Education (26); Economy (4); Opportunity (46); Infrastructure (38); Crime and Corrections (28); Fiscal Stability (43); and Quality of Life (50). U.S. News found California's high cost of living to be its biggest detriment, despite its having the largest economy in the nation. San Jose and San Francisco both ranked in the 20 top places to live in U.S., but two communities were also in the most expensive for housing. Pelosi the 'most right-wing'? Only in San Francisco. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi is regarded by most Republicans as a far-left liberal. But a recent column identifies the San Francisco Democrat as the "most right-wing" candidate running in her district this year. Emily Cadei, a correspondent for the Sacramento Bee, wrote Monday [2/26/2018] that Pelosi — who'll turn 78 on March 26 — will be forced to fight off three opponents, all coming at her from the left, when she seeks re-election later this year. Dianne Feinstein No Longer Left-Wing Enough for California. This is a woman who was once mayor of San Francisco, who has argued for the confiscation of guns from law-abiding gun owners, and whose lifetime ACU rating is under 10%. (Meaning she has voted conservatively less than 10% of the time.) But Kevin de Leon is an even bigger anti-gun zealot, a man so far left he introduced environmental regulation so radical (banning all fossil fuels in California) not even the hard-left Democrat legislature would go for it. (Probably because existing renewable energy bills have already made California's electric bills look like Michigan's car insurance premiums. Worse, actually. Democratic Lunacy on Full Display in California. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi has promised everything she can for the young illegal aliens and her increasingly restive left-leaning caucus. The House members are grousing privately about how their leader is ruining their brand across the country. As for the illegal aliens and their activist enablers, they overwhelmed one of her press conferences in San Francisco. They badgered her US Senate colleagues, including Chuck Schumer by protesting outside of his home in New York State. Two weeks ago, Pelosi stood for 8 hours to demand that a clean DREAM Act be attached to the latest budget-spending bill. Nothing happened. Meanwhile, since 2016 the Democratic Party has moved further left than anyone would have anticipated since 2016. They will embrace every letter in the LGBTQAI etc. list, they want to repeal the Second Amendment, abolish the First, get rid of the United States Constitution. San Francisco Prisons Implement Reforms Giving Transgenders Special Treatments. San Francisco prisons formally announced they are implementing a policy for transgenders that will respect their gender preferences, house them in the cells of their chosen identity, and offer other gender identity services. The San Francisco Sheriff's Department announced Wednesday [2/21/2018] that inmates who identify as transgender, gender variant or non-binary will be able to choose a name and gender identity upon entering the prison. They will also get to determine if a man or woman will search them before they're admitted into the prison, according to CBS San Fransisco. Diseased Streets. How dirty is San Francisco? An NBC Bay Area Investigation reveals a dangerous mix of drug needles, garbage, and feces throughout downtown San Francisco. California's Paradox: More Immigration, More Poverty. California is a land of untold opulence. Hollywood's glitter dazzles the gawking masses, while the world's most profitable companies, Google, Apple, and Facebook, funnel cash into the Golden State from every corner of the earth. And yet California is also desperately poor. One-in-five Californians live in poverty, the state's income inequality is worse than Mexico's, and untold thousands live on the streets. California is a dystopia. How can so much wealth and poverty coexist? This is the California paradox. It was not always this way. California used to be home to America's largest and most affluent middle class. Now it is a playground for the rich and a prison for the poor. How did the Golden State become America's poverty capital? Tucker: Violent Criminal Illegals Now a 'Protected Class' in California. Illegal aliens — including violent criminals — have become a protected class in California, Fox News host Tucker Carlson declared Tuesday [2/13/2018], reacting to the state's new sanctuary policy: "It doesn't matter even if they have a history of crime, even violent crime. In California, illegal aliens are now a protected class. And even more significant, the state itself is now in direct opposition to this country's most basic laws." Carlson listed several ways California's laws give special treatment to illegal aliens: [...] California Will Block Oil And Coal Shipments, Risks Constitutional Battle. California officials plan on preventing the federal government from transporting oil and gas using existing pipelines in the state, according to a report Wednesday [2/7/2018] from The San Francisco Chronicle. Officials on the California Coastal Commission are urging the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) to rescind plans allowing companies to drill for oil off the coast. They are still hoping for an exemption from the oil drilling plan, that Florida has received. Starting Today, San Francisco Is Erasing Everybody's Misdemeanor Pot Convictions. San Francisco District Attorney George Gascón announced today [1/31/2018] that his office will proactively expunge and seal the records of misdemeanor marijuana offenders, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. The office will also resentence offenders who received a felony pot conviction. Proposition 64, the 2016 referendum item that legalized recreational marijuana in California, allows pot offenders to petition for resentencing if their crime would have received a different penalty, or no penalty at all, under the new law. California's Soft Secession Accelerates. California's progressive government is one part healthy federalism and one part unhealthy separatism. If (and this is a big if) the state can temper its soft secession, California's progressives may actually — in all their radicalism — show us a path out of our dangerous national polarization. But first, let's chronicle what California is doing. Its resistance to the White House is well known. The state government has filed 26 separate lawsuits against the Trump administration. That's roughly one new complaint every two weeks, with challenges touching at least 17 different subject areas. Moreover, California is now a "sanctuary state" and therefore sharply limits the extent to which its citizens or public entities can voluntarily cooperate with federal immigration authorities. It's even considered imposing penalties on companies that worked to build a Trump border wall. Eek! A man! In the case of San Francisco city policy, it isn't so much how many heroin needles should be distributed outside the quinoa cafes, or what punishment to exact upon sippers of straws. It isn't about what to do with car break-ins, which have spiked to fever proportions and are growing at 26% annually. Nor is the debate about housing, where vibrantly successful Democrat policy has caused "inflation adjusted construction costs [to] increase in San Francisco over the last 16 years by 60% not including changes in land values." All of these policies are right on the mark. The trouble is the skin color and sex of the people in city hall. New California law will automatically register illegal immigrants to vote... and it all begins on April Fool's Day! A new law in California that goes into effect this spring will automatically register people to vote — including immigrants who are in the country illegally. In 2015, the state passed a law called the California New Motor Voter Act to increase voter rolls by simplifying the process to register to vote. The legislation, which goes into effect April 1, will automatically register people who apply for a new driver's license or new state ID at the Department of Motor Vehicles. Why are so many people poor in the Golden State? It's not as if California policymakers have neglected to wage war on poverty. Sacramento and local governments have spent massive amounts in the cause, for decades now. Myriad state and municipal benefit programs overlap with one another; in some cases, individuals with incomes 200 percent above the poverty line receive benefits, according to the California Policy Center. California state and local governments spent nearly $958 billion from 1992 through 2015 on public welfare programs, including cash-assistance payments, vendor payments, and "other public welfare," according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Unfortunately, California, with 12 percent of the American population, is home today to roughly one in three of the nation's welfare recipients. The generous spending, then, has not only failed to decrease poverty; it actually seems to have made it worse. California AG: 'We will prosecute' employers who violate sanctuary laws. California Attorney General Xavier Becerra warned employers Thursday of legal repercussions if they assist federal immigration officials in an impending crackdown in the sanctuary state, The Sacramento Bee reported. Under a new state law — the Immigration Worker Protection Act — employers and businesses could face fines of up to $10,000 if they provide employee information to U.S. Immigration Customs, Becerra said. If employers "start giving up information about their employees or access to their employees in ways that contradict our new California laws, they subject themselves to actions by my office. We will prosecute those who violate the law," he said at a news conference. California Democrats want businesses to give half their tax-cut savings to state. California lawmakers are targeting the expected windfall that companies in the state would see under the federal tax overhaul with a bill that would require businesses to turn over half to the state. A proposed Assembly Constitutional Amendment by Assemblymen Kevin McCarty, D-Sacramento, and Phil Ting, D-San Francisco, would create a tax surcharge on California companies making more than $1 million so that half of their federal tax cut would instead go to programs that benefit low-income and middle-class families. Crazed California AG Threatens Charges Against Employers Aiding ICE Raids On Illegal Aliens. In a shocking admission Thursday, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra (D-CA) threatened his office will charge employees cooperating with ICE raids on illegal aliens. [...] The news comes amid Homeland Security head Kirstjen Nielsen telling the Senate Judiciary Committee Tuesday [1/16/2018] that her Department is preparing to arrest leaders of sanctuary cities. 'We will prosecute' employers who help immigration sweeps, California AG says. The state's top cop issued a warning to California employers Thursday [1/18/2018] that businesses face legal repercussions, including fines up to $10,000, if they assist federal immigration authorities with a potential widespread immigration crackdown. "It's important, given these rumors that are out there, to let people know — more specifically today, employers — that if they voluntarily start giving up information about their employees or access to their employees in ways that contradict our new California laws, they subject themselves to actions by my office," state Attorney General Xavier Becerra said at a news conference. "We will prosecute those who violate the law." The Editor says... Does the California Model Really Work? The alleged success of the California model is one of the more intense controversies in the nerdier corners of public-policy debate. For many progressives, California's metastasizing liberalism proves you can have Scandinavian-style social policies and tax rates and still have robust economic growth. For conservatives, California is like a bumblebee. On paper, [it] shouldn't be able to fly — and yet it does. Thus the cottage industry on the right of prophesizing California's inevitable demise. Making California Mexico Again. After the November 2016 election, California governor Jerry Brown, a three-time presidential loser, denounced the victorious Donald Trump and pledged that the Golden State would go its own way, perhaps even launching its own satellites. Brown's attorney general Xavier Becerra, once on Hillary Clinton's short list as a running mate, also defies the federal government. Senate boss Kevin de León, which is not the name on his birth certificate and voter rolls, authored the state's sanctuary legislation that has made false-documented illegals, even criminals, a privileged, protected class. In early January, after the legislation kicked in, California's Assembly speaker Anthony Rendon took things to a new level. "There is no sensible place for barriers between California and Mexico," said Rendon, heading south with fellow Democrats on a four-day mission to Mexico. San Francisco Requires Poop Maps To Help Pedestrians Avoid Human Waste. For those who have maintained that San Francisco is full of ... whatever, there is now living proof. How much poop is there on the streets of the City by the Bay? Would you believe there is an online map to track human feces on the city's streets? There is. According to Fox News, one area of the city reported a 140% rise in feces. As Jay Caruso of RedState noted, "Public urination is so widespread it has damaged subway elevators and escalators, building walls and power poles." When did the gleaming jewel that was San Francisco become a repository for poop? Mayor Willie Brown terminated ordinances; city district Attorney Terence Hallinan would not prosecute "victimless" crimes involving drugs and prostitution. What's the Matter with California? The progressives who control every aspect of the state's government are not necessarily stupid people, but they are malign. They understand that increasing welfare spending only encourages the arrival of more recipients on whom to spend it, and the high likelihood that those new constituents will vote Democrat as soon as they are able, legally or otherwise. Already, some 55 percent of "immigrants" receive means-tested benefits, while only 30 percent of native Californians do so. California's army of bureaucrats contributes as well, as does the state's highly restrictive land-use ordinances and environmental restrictions, which drive up the cost of housing in what is already the nation's most expensive real-estate market. Why California is the 'poverty capital of the America'. An excellent op-ed in the L.A. Times today by Kerry Jackson is on why California — with its liberal politics and generous welfare system — is the "poverty capital of America." According to the Census Bureau, one out of five California residents is poor. This despite the state's per capita GDP rising twice as fast in the last five years as the national average. From 1992 to 2015, state and local governments spent nearly $1 trillion to help the poor. The state, with 12% of the American population, is home today to about one in three of the nation's welfare recipients. Jackson then reaches the not so astonishing conclusion: "The generous spending, then, has not only failed to decrease poverty; it actually seems to have made it worse." Why is liberal California the poverty capital of America? Guess which state has the highest poverty rate in the country? Not Mississippi, New Mexico, or West Virginia, but California, where nearly one out of five residents is poor. That's according to the Census Bureau's Supplemental Poverty Measure, which factors in the cost of housing, food, utilities and clothing, and which includes noncash government assistance as a form of income. Given robust job growth and the prosperity generated by several industries, it's worth asking why California has fallen behind, especially when the state's per-capita GDP increased approximately twice as much as the U.S. average over the five years ending in 2016 (12.5%, compared with 6.27%). Hate-speech Laws USA? California Prosecutes Man for Anti-Muslim Posts. California is already flouting federal immigration law with its "sanctuary" status. Now it's also ignoring the most American of laws — the First Amendment — prosecuting a man simply for posting five anti-Muslim messages to Facebook. The hapless defendant is 41-year-old Mark Feigin, who expressed his opinions at the Islamic Center of Southern California's (ICSC) Facebook page in 2016. Feigin is certainly an acerbic, acid-tongued, foul-mouthed fellow, and he admits to sending the messages. But while many may not like their substance and/or style, they're clearly an example of constitutionally protected speech. Rainbow Textbooks Adopted in California. Late last year, the California board of education brought to an end a decades-long campaign to emphasize lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender historical figures in state social-studies/history textbooks, approving K-8 volumes that make identity politics of all kinds the core of the subject. California has had enormous influence on the nation's history textbooks in the past, and single-interest groups have long flocked to Sacramento to try to gain expanded, favorable inclusion. The LGBT lobby has been notably assertive. [...] In 2006, Sen. Sheila Kuehl of Santa Monica — the state's first openly gay legislator — introduced a bill that would require textbooks to include LGBT contributions to state and national history. California federal court rules high school football player can't be ordered to stand for national anthem. A California federal court has ruled that a high school football player cannot be ordered to stand for the national anthem before games. The decision, made by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California on Dec. 21, struck down statutes enforced by the San Pasqual Valley Unified School District, the Los Angeles Times reported Saturday [12/30/2017]. The district prohibited students from "kneeling, sitting or similar forms of political protest" at sporting events and "required students and coaches to "stand and remove hats/helmets during the playing or singing of the national anthem," according to court documents. California Prosecuting Man For Anti-Muslim Insults. Here in the United States of America, the California Attorney General is actually prosecuting a man for Internet insults. Six Insane California Laws That Will Be Implemented On Monday. [#3] Employers can't ask applicants abouttheir salary history: Private employers — yes, private employers — can't ask people who want money from them silly questions like how much money they've made in the past or are making at their current job. It will be interesting to see the inevitable unintended consequences of AB 168. It will be at least a little more difficult for a company to gauge what a reasonable offer looks like without knowing what an applicant is currently making or recently made. Sure, employers will ask questions like, "What would you like to make?" and smart applicants will clarify their expectations at some point in the interview process. But, really, it's not the government's business how an employer and an applicant work out any mutually benecial agreement. Gov. Jerry Brown Pardons Immigrant Felons Facing Deportation. In California governor Jerry Brown's endless attempts to drag California to third world nation status, he is now pardoning immigrants convicted of felonies in order to save them from being deported. California becomes 'sanctuary state' as Gov. Brown defies Trump administration. California became a "sanctuary state" on Thursday [12/21/2017] as Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown signed legislation protecting illegal immigrants in defiance of the Trump administration. The bill, approved by the state's legislature last month, bars police from asking people about their immigration status or participating in federal immigration enforcement activities in most cases starting Jan. 1. Mileage Tax Could Drive More Middle-class Residents From California. A proposal to charge California drivers for every mile they drive threatens to bring an end to a way of life in the Golden State. For decades, the California lifestyle was almost synonymous with Californians' love affair with the automobile. The Golden State's freeways were legendary, and Californians' fascination with cars was celebrated in a number of car-themed songs during the 1960s (e.g., "The Little Old Lady From Pasadena," "Little Deuce Coupe"). The scenes of teenagers cruising in their cars in American Graffiti were based on the memories of the film's director, George Lucas, during his own teenage years in early 1960s Modesto. But the combination of impossibly heavy traffic on those beloved freeways, the state's imposition of ultra-strict automobile emissions requirements, and increasingly higher gasoline taxes have diminished considerably the joy that Californians experienced driving their cars. Report: California's $15 Minimum Wage Will Destroy 400,000 Jobs. California's massive state-wide jump to a $15 minimum wage could conservatively cost around 400,000 potential jobs, according to a new Employment Policy Institute study. "California Dreamin' of Higher Wages," strives to evaluate what the state's jump to a $15 minimum wage will mean when it fully kicks in in 2022 by attempting to contextualize it with the empirical effects of previous minimum wage increases in the state going back to 1990. The results are pretty dire. They believe that by the time the minimum wage fully kicks in the state will have lost 400,000 jobs as a consequence. These job losses will not be evenly distributed throughout the state's workforce. They will hit food service, retail, and agriculture jobs the hardest. Overall, this a four percent loss of jobs out of workforce estimated at around 10 million. Some Real Talk For Conservatives About 2018. We conservatives need to get our heads right about the mid-terms or liberals will end up guzzling patriot tears and their gloating will be flat-out intolerable. We're not doomed in 2018 — I mean, it's not like tax reform or pulling out of the Paris Climate Scam, which have already killed millions of people, including me and you. But, if we fail to get on course for victory then we're going to see Nancy Pelosi and the Gropeocrats back in charge and trying to make America into California. Trust me. You do not want to live in the United States of California. California still hasn't paid a dime of the $1.2 billion in claims from people whose homes and businesses were destroyed by Oroville Dam crisis. California has not paid any of the $1.2 billion claims stemming from the Oroville Dam crisis, it has emerged. The main spillway of the nation's tallest dam was heavily damaged in February, after heavy rains forced the dam operators to continue using it[.] The flows exacerbated damage to the structure, eventually carving a massive gash through the concrete spillway. California Sued by Students & Parents for Failing to Teach Literacy. A group of parents and students has filed what it hopes will be a landmark lawsuit against the State of California for its public schools failing to teach literacy. Public Counsel and the prestigious Law Firm of Morrison & Foerster sued the State of California, the State Board of Education, the State Department of Education, and State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson for their collective failure to provide every child in the state access to literacy as required under the California Constitution. Poll: CA Dems in Trouble Over High Costs, Jobs, Taxes & Illegal Aliens. California Democrats could be in trouble in 2018, with the latest USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times Poll finding registered voters' top concerns are the traditionally Republican issues of high cost of living, jobs, taxes, and illegal immigrants. The USC poll found that the most important concerns for voters are the high cost of living, at 21.8 percent; followed by jobs, at 9.9 percent; taxes and fees, at 8.9 percent; and illegal immigration, at 6.9 percent. Politico: Jerry Brown, President of the Independent Republic of California. David Siders writes in Politico that California Governor Jerry Brown, as he visits Europe en route to the United Nations climate talks, is functioning rather more like the leader of a country distinct from the United States than merely the governor of one of fifty states within that powerful union. Average price per gallon up 17 cents in Los Angeles since gas tax took effect. The average price for a gallon of gas in Los Angeles County is up 17 cents compared to last week after a new 12-cent gas tax was tacked on at the pump. In Orange County, the average price-per-gallon is 18 cents more than it was one week ago. California: Proof That Everything The Liberals Run Turns [Bad]. [Scroll down] It seems to be a habit of government leadership on the far Left to make everything they govern worse than they found it. It's not only a habit, it seems to be a requirement. If you challenge them they double down! Again, why? California Democrats want a free college education for all, including illegals. Free healthcare for all, including illegals. They want more taxes and, according to Governor Brown, Californians that don't want to pay more taxes are selfish. Democrats who run this state don't want to explain what they did with the tens of millions of dollars they took from Californians in the guise of taxes then redirected away from the projects they collected it for. And now, not only do they want Californian's to pay again, but they also want the Federal government to bail them out. Yup, it's everyone's fault but theirs! And we all get to pay for it. California, the sanctuary state, will reap the whirlwind. Earlier this month, California Gov. Jerry Brown signed SB 54, a historic state law that thumbs his state's nose at federal authority. Beginning in January, the law states, California officially becomes a so-called sanctuary state. The term "sanctuary" is, of course, not univocal. It was once used to describe a sensible law enforcement strategy, by which otherwise law-abiding illegal immigrants who report crimes or cooperate with the police are not asked about their immigration status, lest they hesitate to help authorities in the future. Unfortunately, that is not what "sanctuary" means in this case. California first state to legally recognize third gender option. California Gov. Jerry Brown (D) on Sunday [10/15/2017] signed new legislation that will allow state residents to choose a gender option other than male or female on official documents. The legislation, a top priority of civil rights groups, also makes it easier for transgender people to change their gender identification on birth certificates or driver's licenses. New California law allows jail time for using wrong gender pronoun, sponsor denies that would happen. California health care workers who "willfully and repeatedly" decline to use a senior transgender patient's "preferred name or pronouns" could face punishments ranging from a fine to jail time under a newly signed law. [...] The bill itself is aimed at protecting transgender and other LGBT individuals in hospitals, retirement homes and assisted living facilities. The bill would ensure those facilities accommodate transgender people and their needs, including letting them decide which gender-specific bathroom they prefer to use. "It shall be unlawful for a long-term care facility or facility staff to take any of the following actions wholly or partially on the basis of a person's actual or perceived sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, or human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) status," the bill reads. California Sues Trump For Granting Employer 'Choice' on Obama Birth Control Mandate. California wasted no time filing a lawsuit against the Trump Administration, claiming it discriminated against women when it rescinded the Obama-era mandate that requires employers to pay for birth control in their healthcare plans. Knowingly exposing others to HIV will no longer be a felony in California. Gov. Jerry Brown signed a bill Friday that lowers from a felony to a misdemeanor the crime of knowingly exposing a sexual partner to HIV without disclosing the infection. The measure also applies to those who give blood without telling the blood bank that they are HIV-positive. Modern medicine allows those with HIV to live longer lives and nearly eliminates the possibility of transmission, according to state Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) and Assemblyman Todd Gloria (D-San Diego), authors of the bill. California to become a 'sanctuary state' in 2018. Gov. Jerry Brown placed new limitations on state and local law enforcement's ability to help the federal government enforce immigration violations by signing California's controversial "sanctuary state" bill into law on Thursday [10/5/2017]. Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de León introduced Senate Bill 54 weeks after the 2016 election to stifle President Donald Trump's campaign pledge to ramp up deportations and prevent the federal government from using California police officers to accomplish his goal. Leftists Never Fight. [Scroll down] California passed Prop 8, with Blacks supporting it at the 70%+ level, which defined marriage as between a man and a woman. Prop 8 passed with 52% of the voters supporting it. Yet the Democrat governor and the Democrat attorney general refused to defend the law as they were required by their oath of office. That alone shows that Democrats are fascists; it's not up to the governor to decide which laws are constitutional or not; that's the job of the courts. However, the state courts supported the legality of Prop 8. Not to be deterred, Democrats took it to a federal court where a closeted gay judge who stood to benefit from ruling against Prop 8 suppressed the will of the people of California. Bill advancing universal free school meals for California's hungriest kids heads to Assembly. A bill approved in Assembly Appropriations this past week would expand free and reduced breakfast and lunch for hundreds of thousands of students on Medi-Cal. SB 138 — the "Feed the Kids Act" will address childhood hunger by removing a massive layer of bureaucratic red tape from the State school meal program enrollment process and by serving all students in very high poverty schools for free. The legislation would develop a universal enrollment process by ensuring that all school districts utilize Medi-Cal data to seamlessly enroll income-eligible students in free and reduced-price school meals. With 220 languages spoken in California, courts face an interpreter shortage. Federal law enforcement began investigating California's courts seven years ago after receiving complaints that two Korea |
