Poll: Republican John Cox In Solid 2nd for California Governor Heading into June 5 Primary
Republican businessman John Cox has strengthened his second-place position in the race for California governor, making him likely to qualify for the general election against Democrat Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom after the June 5 primary, according to a new poll.
The Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies has Newsom at 33 percent of likely voters and Cox at 20 percent, according to the Sacramento Bee.
Former Los Angeles mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, the Democrat whom pundits thought likely to finish second and qualify for an all-Democrat general election, is a distant third at 13 percent. He is effectively tied with conservative Assemblyman Travis Allen (R-Huntington Beach), who polls at 12 percent.
The margin of error for the poll has not yet been reported.
The poll’s director says that President Donald Trump’s endorsement has made a difference in the race, helping Cox open up his lead against Allen, according to the Bee:
“We think it’s likely to be Cox against Newsom in the general election,” said Mark DiCamillo, director of the poll.…The poll, conducted after President Donald Trump’s endorsement of Cox, showed Republican support coalescing for Cox over the other leading Republican in the race, Assemblyman Travis Allen of Huntington Beach. In April, they were nearly neck-and-neck, with Cox at 47 percent and Allen at 38 percent among Republicans. The latest poll had Cox at 53 percent to Allen’s 32 percent.“It seems Trump’s endorsement put Cox over the top,” DiCamillo said. “He’s the president, and the Republican Party is very much supportive of Donald Trump. It’s his party these days, so when Trump weighs into the California gubernatorial primary, I think that has an impact on Republican voters.”
Republicans are increasingly hopeful that if Cox qualifies for the general election, the presence of a GOP candidate on the statewide ballot will improve turnout in November, helping to save vulnerable congressional seats in the state and hence keeping Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) from re-taking the Speakers’ gavel in the House of Representatives.
Some Democrats are backing Allen with mailings designed to look like they come from Republican sources, in an attempt to split the GOP vote and allow Villaraigosa to squeak through.
Voting by mail has already begun, and in-person voting will be held Tuesday.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News. He was named to Forward’s 50 “most influential” Jews in 2017. He is the co-author of How Trump Won: The Inside Story of a Revolution, which is available from Regnery. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
California Attorney
General Xavier Becerra and Former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa…..
Members of the racist, violent, fascist M.E.Ch.A. separatist movement.
“Many
wonder why Xavier Becerra was chosen by Brown. But all anyone has to do is
peek into the radical California Legislature, and fanatical Gov.
Jerry Brown, to see the trend of militant Marxist, Socialist, Jesuit,
Liberation Theology, Latino activism on the increase.”
"If the racist
"Sensenbrenner Legislation" passes the US Senate, there is no
doubt that a massive civil disobedience movement will emerge. Eventually
labor union power can merge with the immigrant civil rights and "Immigrant
Sanctuary" movements to enable us to either form a new political
party or to do heavy duty reforming of the existing Democratic Party. The
next and final
steps would follow and
that is to elect our own governors of all the
states within
Aztlan."
Professor Predicts 'Hispanic Homeland'
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A University of New Mexico Chicano Studies professor
predicts a new, sovereign Hispanic nation within the century, taking in the
Southwest and several northern states of Mexico. Charles Truxillo suggests the
“Republica del Norte,” the Republic of the North, is “an inevitability.” He
envisions it encompassing all of California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas and
southern Colorado.
FORMER
LOS ANGELES MAYOR ANTONIO VILLARAIGOSA and CA A.G. XAVIER BECERRA ARE MEMBERS
OF M.E.Ch.A.
And M.E.Ch.A's
goal is even more radical: an independent ''Aztlan,'' the collective name
this organization gives to the seven states of the U.S. Southwest –
Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas and Utah." NOW
ADD THE OTHER STATES!
JERRY BROWN, KAMALA HARRIS AND LA RAZA M.E.Ch.A. SEPARATIST XAVIER
BECERRA
THE BUILDING OF THE LA
RAZA SUPREMACY WELFARE STATE…. CALIFORNIA SURRENDERS TO MEXICO
JERRY BROWN, KAMALA HARRIS AND LA RAZA M.E.Ch.A. SEPARATIST XAVIER
BECERRA
XAVIER BECERRA IS
A LA RAZA “The Race” SUPREMACIST FASCIST AND MEMBER OF THE MEX SEPARTIST
MOVEMENT OF M.E.Ch.A.
MEChA Supports
"Reconquering" California For Mexico And "Urges All Latinos To
Resist Assimilation With White Americans"
"Xavier Becerra As Fox News
pointed out in a 2003 interview on
the Sean Hannitty Show, Becerra has a devout relationship with MEChA,
as well as The Fabian Society. But don’t go looking for the
clip; it is apparent Becerra’s people have been busy at work cleaning
up his online reputation and record." Katy Grimes and Megan Barth
“Many
wonder why Xavier Becerra was chosen by Brown. But all anyone has to do is
peek into the radical California Legislature, and fanatical Gov.
Jerry Brown, to see the trend of militant Marxist, Socialist, Jesuit,
Liberation Theology, Latino activism on the increase.”
ILLEGALS
VOTING:
WILL
MEXICO ELECT ALL FUTURE U.S. PRESIDENTS?
“Mexicans cheat,
distribute drugs, lie, forge documents, steal and kill as if it’s a normal way
of life. For them, it is. Mexico’s civilization stands diametrically opposed to
America’s culture.” FROSTY WOOLDRIDGE
*
“Based on that investigation, a federal grand jury in
Sacramento recently returned a nine-count indictment against Gustavo Araujo
Lerma, 62, and his wife Maria Eva Velez, 64. Araujo is charged with
aggravated identity theft, passport fraud, conspiracy to commit
unlawful procurement of naturalization and citizenship, and five counts of
voting by an alien.” LLOYD BILLINGSLEY
MURDERING MS-13 GANGS EXPAND ACROSS AMERICA’S OPEN BORDERS!
http://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2018/04/operation-matador-nabs-475-gang-members.html
AMERICA’S OPEN BORDERS TO TERRORIST… as we defend the borders of every Muslim dictator on earth!
Recommended Video:
What is MS-13?
http://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2018/02/americas-open-borders-border-to-open.html
10,000 LOSE IN OUR OPEN BORDERS RAPING, MURDERING AND VOTING DEMOCRAT FOR MORE ANCHOR BABY WELFARE.
THE LA RAZA INVASION:
The Washington-imposed economic policy of economic growth via mass-immigration floods the market with foreign labor, spikes profits and Wall Street values by cutting salaries for manual and skilled labor offered by blue-collar and white-collar employees. It also drives up real estate prices, widens wealth-gaps, reduces high-tech investment, increases state and local tax burdens, hurts kids’ schools and college education, pushes Americans away from high-tech careers, and sidelines at least 5 million marginalized Americans and their families, including many who are now struggling with opioid addictions. NEIL MUNRO
PARTNER WITH MEXICO, the LA RAZA DEMOCRAT PARTY and the PRO-BUSINESS GOP to keep wages for LEGALS depressed (today they are depressed to 1973 levels).
But you will still get the tax bills for the Mex welfare state and crime tidal wave!
“Illegal aliens are not supposed to work, and knowingly providing shelter for illegal aliens can be construed as harboring and shielding, elements of a felony under federal law, Title 8 U.S. Code § 1324.”
“Where aliens and jobs are concerned, even many categories of nonimmigrant aliens (temporary visitors) including aliens who lawfully enter under the Visa Waiver Program or with tourist visas may not work in the United States and immediately become subject to removal (deportation) if they seek gainful employment.” ----MICHAEL CUTLER – FRONTPAGE mag
Trump Blasts ‘MS-13 Lover Nancy Pelosi’ in Nashville: ‘She Loves MS-13’
President Trump blasted House Minority Leader Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) during a rally in Nashville, Tennesee on Tuesday night.
While campaigning for Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), who is running for U.S. Senate, Trump slammed her Democratic opponent, Gov. Phil Bredesen (D), calling Pelosi an “MS-13 lover” after she defended the gang weeks ago.
“So Marsha’s very liberal Democrat opponent, Phil Bredesen, I never heard of this guy, who is he,” Trump asked the crowd. “He’s an absolute total tool of Chuck Schumer.”
“And of course the MS-13 lover Nancy Pelosi,” Trump said.
“She loves MS-13, can you imagine,” Trump continued. “Remember, I said they’re ‘animals’ and she said, how dare you say that.”
White House Spox: ‘Unbelievable Democrats Standing with MS-13’ Gang, Rather than ‘Defending Americans’
Democrats’ defense of the violent El Salvadorian MS-13 gang — where many of the group’s members are illegal aliens — is “unbelievable,” says White House Deputy Press Secretary Hogan Gidley.
In an interview with SiriusXM’s Breitbart News Daily, Gidley told Breitbart News Deputy Political Editor Amanda House that he is stunned by Democrats and the establishment media’s defense of MS-13 after President Trump called members of the organization “animals.”
Gidley said:
When you contrast where this administration is, where this president is, on eradicating MS-13, you contrast that with Democrats like Nancy Pelosi who are angry at the president for using the term ‘animals’ to describe a group whose function is basically animalistic — to kill other people without remorse, without care. [Emphasis added]It’s unbelievable that the Democrats would cast their lot in with this type of group and choose to defend them as opposed to defending the American people and also just anyone who would fall victim and prey to an MS-13 gang. [Emphasis added]It’s unbelievable to watch where we are in this country politically with the Democrats standing with MS-13 and defending them instead of coming out and agreeing [with Trump]. [Emphasis added]
Listen to Gidley’s full interview with Breitbart News Daily here:
After Trump attacked MS-13, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi leaped to the groups’ defense, saying “Does [Trump] not believe in the spark of divinity, the dignity and worth of every person? ‘These are not people, these are animals.’ The president of the United States.”
Likewise, the left-wing Southern Poverty Law Center has continued defending MS-13 following Trump’s attack, writing in an online post that calling the violent gang members “animals” is “racist” and “dehumanizing:”
Deported Illegal Alien Rapist, Kidnapper, Burglar Reenters U.S., Nabbed by Border Agents
Border Patrol agents patrolling the area of San Luis, Arizona arrested a Mexican national with previous felony convictions of first-degree rape, second-degree kidnapping, and first-degree burglary early Thursday evening, U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) announced Friday.
Yuma Station agents arrested the male subject at approximately 4:34 p.m. on Thursday after he illegally entered the United States two miles east of the San Luis Port of Entry.
During processing, agents identified the 50-year-old male from Jalisco, Mexico as Deonicio Torres-Salazar who has felony convictions of first-degree rape, second-degree kidnapping, and first-degree burglary out of La Grande, Oregon in 1993.
He was previously removed from the United States through the Del Rio, Texas Port of Entry in September 2017. After further questioning, Salazar stated he was traveling to San Luis, Arizona.
Salazar has been charged with re-entry after deportation.
THE MURDEROUS MEXICANS….IN PELOSI, FEINSTEIN AND KAMALA’S HOMETOWN!
HOW MANY PRAYERS HAS KAMALA HARRIS SAID FOR KATE STEINLE?
Everyday there are 12 Americans murdered and 8 children molested by Mexicans!
Steinle’s murderer, Jose Zarate and been deported 5xs!
"While walking with her father on a pier in San Francisco in 2015, Steinle was shot by the illegal alien. Steinle pleaded with her father to not let her die, but she soon passed in her father’s arms."
Mexican Authorities Capture Drug Lord’s Brother Wanted for Cartel Hit in Texas
Mexican authorities arrested the brother of a top Mexican drug lord in connection with his alleged role in ordering a cartel murder near Dallas in 2013.
This week, agents with Nuevo Leon’s State Investigation Agency tracked down and, with the help of the Mexican Navy, arrested Ramon “El Gatillo or El Ramoncillo” Villarreal Hernandez. After the arrest, the agents turned him over to Mexico’s Attorney General’s Office who is handling an extradition request from the U.S. government, where Villarreal is wanted in connection with ordering a cartel hit near Dallas.
Law enforcement sources in Nuevo Leon revealed to Breitbart Texas that Villarreal has been investigated for assault and robbery charges in the municipality of China, However, he was not arrested and has a clean criminal history. Villarreal is the brother of Rodolfo “El Gato” Villarreal Hernandez, a top lieutenant with the Beltran Leyva Cartel. The cartel has been taking part in a fierce fight for control of the state with rival Beltran Leyva boss Hector “La Burra or HH” Huerta Rios. The two Villarreal brothers are believed to have been the men who ordered the murder of Mexican attorney Juan Jesus Guerrero Chapa in Southlake, Texas, not far from Dallas. Guerrero Chapa represented Gulf Cartel boss Osiel Cardenas Guillen who currently in a U.S. prison.
For the murder, the Villarreal brothers allegedly sent Mexican police officers Jesus Gerardo “Chuy” Ledezma, his son Jesus Gerardo Ledezma Campano and their relative Jose Luis Cepeda Cortez to stalk Guerrero Chapa, Breitbart Texas reported. For several months, the men placed surveillance cameras throughout Chapa’s neighborhood and placed GPS trackers on the attorney’s vehicle. Once the Mexican cops were able to get Guerrero Chapa’s movements down, Villarreal sent two hitmen from Mexico who shot and killed Guerrero Chapa as he came out of a shopping center in the ritzy suburb of Southlake.
Despite Guerrero Chapa’s ties to the Gulf Cartel, the murder is linked to the Villarreal brothers blaming the attorney for their father’s death.
Editor’s Note: Breitbart Texas traveled to the Mexican States of Tamaulipas, Coahuila, and Nuevo León to recruit citizen journalists willing to risk their lives and expose the cartels silencing their communities. The writers would face certain death at the hands of the various cartels that operate in those areas including the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas if a pseudonym were not used. Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles are published in both English and in their original Spanish. This article was written by Tony Aranda from Nuevo León and “J.M. Martinez” from Coahuila.
HIGHLY GRAPHIC!
IMAGES OF AMERICA UNDER LA RAZA MEX OCCUPATION… gruesome!
http://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2013/10/america-la-raza-mexicos-wide-open.html
BEHEADINGS LONG U.S. OPEN BORDERS WITH NARCOMEX: The La Raza Heroin Cartels Take the Border and Leave Heads
http://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2018/05/highly-graphic-la-raza-heroin-cartels.html
BEHEADINGS LONG U.S. OPEN BORDERS WITH NARCOMEX: The La Raza Heroin Cartels Take the Border and Leave Heads
http://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2018/05/highly-graphic-la-raza-heroin-cartels.html
JUDICIAL WATCH:
Officials in Linden, North Carolina, discovered 120 gallons of liquid methamphetamine hidden inside the fuel tank of a semi truck being driven by an alleged illegal alien, reports say.
FBI ‘Most Wanted’ Cartel Leader Arrested in Mexican Border State
The National Security Commissioner for Mexico, Renato Sales, confirmed the capture of Carlos Arturo Quintana, “El 80,” the leader of “La LÃnea”–the armed wing of the Juárez Cartel (Nuevo Cartel de Juárez) and one of the FBI’s most wanted fugitives.
The National Security Commissioner announced the apprehension occurred on the morning of May 18, by the Mexican Army in coordination with the National Security Commission and Federal Police in Namiquipa, Chihuahua.
Quintana, currently listed under the FBI’s Criminal Enterprise Investigations, is wanted for drug trafficking charges in New Mexico. La LÃnea is considered one of the most violent in Chihuahua.
According to law enforcement sources from the Security Cabinet, they confirmed to La Jornada the participation of “an elite group” involved in the capture of Quintana.
Quintana was singled out by authorities for making threats against journalist Miroslava Breach Velducea, a correspondent for La Jornada in Chihuahua, murdered in March 2017.
According to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), La LÃnea is currently involved in a bitter dispute for valuable territory in Chihuahua against the Sinaloa Cartel factions led by Rafael Caro-Quintero and Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada—both are wanted by the FBI.
Breitbart Texas reported extensively on the criminal activities of La LÃnea regarding the arrest of two former police officers from Ciudad Madera, Chihuahua, for weapons and drug violations. They later admitted to working for the faction. Breitbart Texas also reported on the arrest of the Deputy Police Director of Namiquipa for kidnapping—he was later found working for La LÃnea and is the cousin of Carlos Arturo Quintana, “El 80.”
Breitbart Texas reported on the ongoing cartel violence in Ciudad Juárez and the return of military assets to help quell the escalating bloodshed.
Robert Arce is a retired Phoenix Police detective with extensive experience working Mexican organized crime and street gangs. Arce has worked in the Balkans, Iraq, Haiti, and recently completed a three-year assignment in Monterrey, Mexico, working out of the Consulate for the United States Department of State, International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Program, where he was the Regional Program Manager for Northeast Mexico (Coahuila, Tamaulipas, Nuevo Leon, Durango, San Luis Potosi, Zacatecas.) You can follow him on Twitter. He can be reached at robertrarce@gmail.com
HIGHLY GRAPHIC!
IMAGES OF AMERICA UNDER LA RAZA MEX OCCUPATION… gruesome!
http://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2013/10/america-la-raza-mexicos-wide-open.html
BEHEADINGS LONG U.S. OPEN BORDERS WITH NARCOMEX: The La Raza Heroin Cartels Take the Border and Leave Heads
http://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2018/05/highly-graphic-la-raza-heroin-cartels.html
BEHEADINGS LONG U.S. OPEN BORDERS WITH NARCOMEX: The La Raza Heroin Cartels Take the Border and Leave Heads
http://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2018/05/highly-graphic-la-raza-heroin-cartels.html
LOS ANGELES – GATEWAY FOR THE MEXICAN DRUG CARTELS
THE LA RAZA MEXICAN DRUG CARTELS REMIND AMERICANS (Legals) THAT THERE IS NO (REAL) BORDER WITH NARCOMEX!
SHOCKING IMAGES OF CARTELS ON U.S. BORDERS:
“Heroin is not produced in the United States. Every gram of heroin present in the United States provides unequivocal evidence of a failure of border security because every gram of heroin was smuggled into the United States. Indeed, this is precisely a point that Attorney General Jeff Sessions made during his appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on October 18, 2017 when he again raised the need to secure the U.S./Mexican border to protect American lives.” Michael Cutler …..FrontPageMag.com
JUDICIAL WATCH:
“The greatest criminal threat to the daily lives of American citizens are the Mexican drug cartels.”
“Mexican drug cartels are the “other” terrorist threat to America. Militant Islamists have the goal of destroying the United States. Mexican drug cartels are now accomplishing that mission – from within, every day, in virtually every community across this country.” JUDICIALWATCH
*
“Mexican authorities have arrested the former mayor of a rural community in the border state of Coahuila in connection with the kidnapping, murder and incineration of hundreds of victims through a network of ovens at the hands of the Los Zetas cartel. The arrest comes after Breitbart Texas exposed not only the horrors of the mass extermination, but also the cover-up and complicity of the Mexican government.”
*
“Heroin is not produced in the United States. Every gram of heroin present in the United States provides unequivocal evidence of a failure of border security because every gram of heroin was smuggled into the United States. Indeed, this is precisely a point that Attorney General Jeff Sessions made during his appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on October 18, 2017 when he again raised the need to secure the U.S./Mexican border to protect American lives.” Michael Cutler …..FrontPageMag.com
THE MEXICAN DRUG CARTELS OPERATING IN AMERICA’S OPEN BORDERS
Overall, in the 2017 Fiscal Year, officials revealed that a record-breaking 455,000 pounds plus of drugs had already been seized. In 2016, that number amounted to 443,000 pounds. The 2017 haul is worth an estimated $6.1 billion – BREITBART – JEFF SESSION’S DRUG BUST ON SAN DIEGO
http://www.breitbart.com/texas/2017/09/20/ag-sessions-touts-record-breaking-drug-seizure-san-diego/’
NC Police Find $90 Million in Meth Hidden in Truck Driven by Alleged Illegal Alien
Harnett County Sheriff’s officers pulled the truck over on May 19 and discovered the large amount of the liquefied drug. According to WRAL, the liquid was destined to be turned into 454 kilograms of crystal methamphetamine and would have had a street value of $90.8 million.
The seizure was part of a wider investigation into the trafficking of meth in the area.
The truck was crewed by Raul Topete Arreola, 49, and Aquileo Perez Pineda, 48. Pineda was quickly put on an immigration hold while immigration officials looked into Arreola’s immigration status.
The pair were charged with three counts each of trafficking methamphetamine and placed under a three million dollar bond.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston.
REALITIES OF A STATE IN MELTDOWN:
THE INVISIBLE CALIFORNIA
De facto apartheid world in the Golden State.
https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/270265/invisible-california-bruce-thornton
ABOUT BRUCE THORNTON
By Wayne Allyn Root
Separate Country’
you get an idea of exactly how corrupt and sick Pelosi and her scheme of surrendering America's borders truly is by her standing with MS-13 terrorist!
THE PLUNDERING BARONESS PELOSI:
Nancy Pelosi triples her loot since the banksters nearly destroyed America’s economy and demands endless hordes of illegals to keep wages depressed!
MAKES YOU WONDER HOW MANY ILLEGALS SHE EMPLOYS AT HER ST. HELENA, NAPA WINERY …. The same county where an ILLEGAL started a fire that killed dozens and did millions of dollars in property damage!
May 30, 2018
The left's newest aggrieved minority in need of emergency liberal help: Millionaires
CNBC reports that some blue-state governors are now concerned that since their states' high taxes can no longer be fully deducted from federal income taxes, some of their wealthy residents will leave. Thus, millionaires are the new minority in need.
One of the core beliefs of the Democratic party is fairness. Tax the rich, help the poor and spread the gains of a growing economy more widely. It has been a consistent message by federal and state lawmakers alike. Until now. On the heels of the new Republican tax law, blue state Democrats, who until recently were advocating higher taxes on the rich, are suddenly fighting to protect their own members of the top 1 percent from higher taxes. Some Dems are even proposing both – raise taxes on the wealthy with one hand and help them with the other.
According to CNBC, a number of states have passed laws that allow the well heeled to make tax-deductible charitable donations to groups that support government activities, such as education. The irony is rich.
All of these special laws are aimed squarely at helping the wealthy. It's chiefly the high earners and affluent who suffer from the SALT deduction cap of $10,000. According to one analysis, nearly 60 percent of the added revenue from the SALT changes will come from the top 1 percent. While the Democratic politicians still say they're fighting for fairness, the gap is more political than economic – the red-state rich will get a big tax cut while many of the blue-state rich will pay more.
Among the victims of this discrimination is House minority leader and multi-millionaire Nancy Pelosi. The Washington Free Beacon highlighted her personal efforts to save her family's $137,000 deduction on their three luxury homes.
Like many taxpayers with big property tax bills across the country, the Pelosi's in late December prepaid the second half of their 2017-2018 property tax bills for their $7.2 million estate in San Francisco's tony Pacific Heights and Napa vineyard and residence worth more than $4 million, according to San Francisco city-county and Napa county property records.The couple paid the full annual property taxes on their luxury Washington Harbor condo on the Georgetown waterfront before the tax bill became law.Paying the taxes earlier than the 2018 bills require is a smart accounting move that could save the Pelosi's tens of thousands of dollars. However, it also illustrates a Republican talking point about the tax bill: that the new law is eliminating tax breaks that primarily benefit the wealthy.
These shenanigans, however, may be the germ of an interesting conservative concept. By selecting charities that support specific government activities, donors are indirectly earmarking their taxes. There's a thought: a federal budget built around the activities of government that are most popular – a "People's Budget." That's exactly why the courts will likely strike these plans down.
Now pretty much every American is, in some way, shape, or form, "Hey, Big Brother, can you spare a dime?"
THE INVISIBLE CALIFORNIA
De facto apartheid world in the Golden State.
https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/270265/invisible-california-bruce-thornton
Reprinted from Hoover.org.
In 1973, as I was going through customs in New York, the customs agent rifling my bag looked at my passport and said, with a Bronx sneer, “Bruce Thornton, huh. Must be one of them Hollywood names.”
Hearing that astonishing statement, I realized for the first time that California is as much an idea as a place. There were few regions in America more distant from Hollywood than the rural, mostly poor, multiethnic San Joaquin Valley where my family lived and ranched. Yet to this New Yorker, the Valley was invisible.
BLOG: FEINSTEIN & BOXER THREE TIMES ATTEMPTED TO INSERT IN VARIOUS BILLS AN AMNESTY FOR FARM WORKERS TO REPAY THEIR BIG AG BIG DONORS.
ONE-THIRD OF ALL FARM WORKERS END UP ON WELFARE AS SOON AS THE ANCHOR BABIES START COMING
Coastal Californians are sometimes just as blind to the world on the other side of the Coast Range, even though its farms, orchards, vineyards, dairies, and ranches comprise more than half the state’s $46 billion agriculture industry, which grows over 400 commodities, including over a third of the country’s vegetables and two-thirds of its fruits and nuts.
Granted, Silicon Valley is an economic colossus compared to the ag industry, but agriculture’s importance can’t be measured just in dollars and cents. Tech, movies, and every other industry tends to forget that their lives and businesses, indeed civilization itself, all rest on the shoulders of those who produce the food. You can live without your iPhone or your Mac or the latest Marvel Studios blockbuster. But you can’t live without the food grown by the one out of a 100 people who work to feed the other 99.
A Politically Invisible Valley
Living in the most conservative counties in the
deepest-blue state, Valley residents constantly see
their concerns, beliefs, and needs seldom taken
into account at the state or federal level.
Registered Democrats in California outnumber registered Republicans by over 19%, and the State Legislature seats about twice as many Democrats as Republicans (California’s one of only eight states nationwide with a trifecta of a Democratic and two Democratic controlled legislative bodies).
California’s Congressional delegation is even more unbalanced: in the House of Representatives, currently there are fourteen Republicans compared to thirty-nine House Democrats (at least half of those GOP districts are in danger of turning blue this fall); half the Republicans represent Central Valley districts, none bordering the Pacific Ocean. The last elected Republican US Senator left office in 1991. The last Republican governor was the politically light-pink action-movie star Arnold Schwarzenegger, whose second term ended in 2011.
This progressive dominance of the state has led to policies and priorities that has damaged its agricultural economy and seriously degraded the quality of life in the Valley.
Despite a long drought that has diminished the run-off of snow from the Sierra Nevada, projects for dams and reservoirs are on hold, seriously impacting the ag industry that relies on the snowmelt for most of its water. Worse yet, since 2008, a period including the height of the drought, 1.4 trillion gallons of water have been dumped into the Pacific Ocean to protect the endangered Delta Smelt, a two-inch bait-fish. Thousands of agricultural jobs have been lost and farmland left uncultivated, all to satisfy the sensibilities of affluent urban environmentalists. And even after a few years of abundant rain, Valley farmers this year are receiving just 20% of their South-of-the-Delta water allocation.
Or take California’s high-speed rail project, currently moribund and $10 billion over budget just for construction of the easiest section, through the flat center of the Valley. Meanwhile, State Highway 99, which bisects the Valley from north to south for 500 miles, is pot-holed, inefficient, and crammed with 18-wheel semis. It is the bloodiest highway in the country, in dire need of widening and repair. Yet to gratify our Democratic governor’s
high-tech green obsession, billions of dollars are
being squandered to create an unnecessary link
between the Bay Area and Los Angeles. That’s $10 billion that could have been spent building more reservoirs instead of dumping water into the ocean because there’s no place to store it.
The common thread of these two examples of
mismanagement and waste is the romantic
environmentalism of the well-heeled coastal left.
They serially support government projects and
regulations that impact the poor and the aged, who
are left to bear their costs.
The same idealized nature-love has led to regulations and taxes on energy that have made California home of the third-worst energy poverty in the country. In sweltering San Joaquin Valley counties like Madera and Tulare, energy poverty rates are 15% compared to 3–4% in cool, deep-blue coastal enclaves. Impoverished Kings County averages over $500 a month in electric bills, while tony Marin Country, with an average income twice that of Kings County, averages $200. Again, it’s the poor, aged, and working class who bear the brunt of these costs, especially in the Valley where temperatures regularly reach triple digits in the summer; unlike the coast, where the clement climate makes expensive air-conditioning unnecessary.
Deteriorating Quality of Life
It’s no wonder then that Fresno, in the heart of the
Valley, is the second most impoverished city in the
poorest region of a state that has the highest
poverty levels in the country and one of the
highest rates of income inequality. Over one-fifth
of its residents live below the poverty line, and it
The greatest impact on the Valley’s
deteriorating quality of life, however, has been
the influx of illegal aliens. Some are attracted by
plentiful agriculture and construction work, and
others by California’s generous welfare transfers
— California is home to one in three of the
country’s welfare recipients— all facilitated by
California’s status as a “sanctuary state” that
regularly releases felons rather than cooperate
with Immigration and Customs Enforcement
(ICE). As a result, one-quarter of the country’s
illegal alien population lives in California, many
from underdeveloped regions of Mexico and Latin
America that have different social and cultural
mores and attitudes to the law and civic
responsibility.
The consequences of these feckless policies are
found throughout the state. But they are
especially noticeable in rural California. There
high levels of crime and daily disorder—from
murders, assaults, and drug trafficking, to
driving without insurance, DUIs, hit-and-runs,
and ignoring building and sanitation codes—
have degraded or, in some cases, destroyed the
once-orderly farming towns that used to be
populated by earlier immigrants, including
many legal immigrants from Mexico, who over
a few generations of sometimes rocky
coexistence assimilated to American culture
and society.
Marginalized Cultural Minorities
More broadly, the dominant cultures and mores of the dot.com north and the Hollywood south are inimical to those of the Valley. Whether it is gun-ownership, hunting, church-going, or military service, many people in the San Joaquin Valley of all races are quickly becoming cultural minorities marginalized by the increasingly radical positions on issues such as abortion, guns, and religion.
Despite the liberal assumption that all Hispanics favor progressive policies, many Latino immigrants and their children find more in common with Valley farmers and natives with whom they live and work than they do with distant urban elites.
Indeed, as a vocal conservative professor in the local university (Fresno State), I have survived mainly because my students, now more than half Latino and Mexican immigrants or children of immigrants, are traditional and practical in a way that makes them impatient with the patronizing victim-politics of more affluent professors. They have more experience with physical labor, they are more religious and, like me, they are often the first in their families to graduate from college. As I did with the rural Mexican Americans I grew up with, I usually have more in common with my students than I do with many of my colleagues.
And this is the great irony of the invisibility of the “other” California: the blue-coast policies that suit the prejudices and sensibilities of the affluent have damaged the prospects of the “others of color” they claim they want to help. Over-
represented on the poverty and welfare rolls, many
migrants both legal and illegal have seen water
policies that destroy agricultural jobs, building
restrictions that drive up the cost of housing,
energy policies that increase their cost of living,
“sanctuary city” policies that put back on the
streets thugs and criminals who prey mainly on
their ethnic fellows, and economic policies that
favor the redistribution rather than the creation of
wealth and jobs.
Meanwhile, the coastal liberals who tout a cosmetic diversity live in a de facto apartheid world, surrounded by those of similar income, taste, and politics. Many look down on the people whom they view as racists and xenophobes at worst, and intellectually challenged rubes at best. This disdain has been evident in the way the media regularly sneer that House Intelligence Committee Chair Devin Nunes is a “former dairy-farmer” from Tulare County, an origin that makes “the match between his backstory and his prominence” seem “wholly incongruous,” per Roll Call's David Hawkings.
Finally, those of us who grew up and live in the rural Valley did so among a genuine diversity, one that reflected the more complex identities beyond the crude categories of “white” or “black” or “Hispanic.”
Italians, Basques, Portuguese, Armenians, Swedes, Mexicans, Filipinos, Southern blacks, Chinese, Japanese, Volga Germans, Scotch-Irish Dust Bowl migrants—all migrated to the Valley to work the fields and better their lives. Their children and grandchildren went to the same schools, danced together and drank together, helped round up each other’s animals when they got loose, were best friends or deadly enemies, dated and intermarried, got drafted into the Army or joined the Marines—all of them Americans who managed to honor their diverse heritages and faiths, but still be a community. Their most important distinctions were not so much between races and ethnicities, though those of course often collided, but between the respectable people––those who obeyed the law, went to church, and raised their kids right–– and those we all called “no damned good.” Skin-color or accents couldn’t sort one from the other.
What most of us learned from living in real diversity in the Valley is that being an American means taking people one at a time.
That world still exists, but it is slowly fading away—in part because of the policies and politics of those to our west, who can see nothing on the other side of the Coast Range.
ABOUT BRUCE THORNTON
Bruce Thornton is a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the Freedom Center, a Research Fellow at Stanford's Hoover Institution, and a Professor of Classics and Humanities at the California State University. He is the author of nine books and numerous essays on classical culture and its influence on Western Civilization. His most recent book, Democracy's Dangers and Discontents (Hoover Institution Press), is now available for purchase.
California, the Shithole State and Getting Worse by the Day.
By Wayne Allyn Root
Gateway Pundit,
California is Exhibit A. It’s filled with immigrants. Ten million to be exact. Many of them illegal. 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.
While California accounts for 12% of America’s population, it accounts for one third of America’s welfare checks. California leads the country in food stamp use. California has more people on welfare than most countries around the world.
. . .
If immigration is so great for our country and illegal aliens “contribute a net positive” to society…how do you explain what’s happening in California?
I haven’t even gotten to the taxes. The income taxes, business taxes, sales taxes and gas taxes are all the highest in the nation. Why do you think that is? To pay the enormous costs of illegal immigration. To pay for the education costs, healthcare costs, police, courts, lawyers, prisons, and hundreds of different welfare programs for millions of California’s illegal aliens and struggling legal immigrants too.
But you haven’t heard the worst yet. California- the immigrant capital of America- is filthy. Perhaps the filthiest place on earth. Filthier than the slums of Calcutta. Filthier than the poorest slums of Brazil and Africa.
NBC journalists recently conducted a survey of San Francisco. They found piles of smelly garbage on the streets, used needles, gallons of urine and piles of feces- all near famous tourist attractions, fancy hotels, government buildings and children’s playgrounds.
While California accounts for 12% of America’s population, it accounts for one third of America’s welfare checks. California leads the country in food stamp use. California has more people on welfare than most countries around the world.
. . .
If immigration is so great for our country and illegal aliens “contribute a net positive” to society…how do you explain what’s happening in California?
I haven’t even gotten to the taxes. The income taxes, business taxes, sales taxes and gas taxes are all the highest in the nation. Why do you think that is? To pay the enormous costs of illegal immigration. To pay for the education costs, healthcare costs, police, courts, lawyers, prisons, and hundreds of different welfare programs for millions of California’s illegal aliens and struggling legal immigrants too.
But you haven’t heard the worst yet. California- the immigrant capital of America- is filthy. Perhaps the filthiest place on earth. Filthier than the slums of Calcutta. Filthier than the poorest slums of Brazil and Africa.
NBC journalists recently conducted a survey of San Francisco. They found piles of smelly garbage on the streets, used needles, gallons of urine and piles of feces- all near famous tourist attractions, fancy hotels, government buildings and children’s playgrounds.
Laura Ingraham: ‘California
Is Almost Acting Like It’s a
Separate Country’
Earlier this week on Fox News Channel’s “The Ingraham Angle,” host Laura Ingraham slammed California and its leaders for its sanctuary city policies and its open defiance of the federal government seeking to uphold existing immigration law.
Transcript as follows:
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