California Burns, Gavin Newsom Fiddles
If Gavin Newsom is not the worst governor of California, he will be by the time he gets through with it. Know-it-all "pretty boy" Newsom, predictably elected in a deeper-than-deep blue state, has no regard for anyone who thinks differently from how he does...if "thinks" is the word.
Newsom is willing enough to accept President Trump's pledge of federal funds to help California in its battle against the fires raging across the state. But he is not interested in any practical "advice" from the chief executive concerning fire prevention, since he labels Trump among those "deniers" who refuse to embrace the concept of global warming with the governor's cultist zeal.
It is convenient for liberals to blame all shortfalls on a heating planet, a condition for which they hold humans — especially those in capitalistic societies — largely responsible. Any caveats are dismissed in the dictatorial manner of rigid religious who condemn all opposition as heretical. (Perhaps they believe that all dissenters should be put to the stake.)
"Forest management" is not an original concept with the current administration. The clearing of debris from forest floors, the considered culling of trees to create fire-breaks, and the building of better access roads to and from forested areas make abundant good sense. So does the idea of not locating rural communities too close to the wilderness, and of making housing closer in to urban areas more affordable.
But even as the president emphasizes such cautionary measures, he is dismissed as an ignorant nuisance. Those who are allowed an opinion on the subject must first pledge allegiance to "global warming" as Public Enemy Number One. (Next to Trump himself, of course!) On the other hand, those who question the extent of man's role in climate change are labeled "flat earthers" by a global warming establishment that unscientifically cherry-picks opinions among scientists and excludes those that contradict the party line.
They are the saints, and all others are the sinners, destined for the fires of hell.
Saint Gavin's lack of judgment is not confined to this subject alone. If anyone dares, for instance, to blame Sacramento for not addressing the mounting numbers of homeless blighting California cities, Newsom turns his fire hose of wrath in that direction. The same denial of reality with which the Democrats viewed the "manufactured" border crisis is evident in their failure to acknowledge the severity of other national problems.
So despite California's current woes, Newsom remains defiantly full of braggadocio for his state and himself. One of the dubious claims he likes to throw in Trump's face is that California is more fiscally sound than is the federal government. But duplicitous accounting can easily add up to no more than a semblance of solvency, and among the budgetary smoke and mirrors is the un–factored in outsized pension obligation down the road to California's estimated 370,000 employees. And Newsom backs a Medicare-for-all single-payer plan, which the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst's Office in California estimates would cost more than double the state's current budget and put taxpayers on the hook for $200 billion a year.
Even without that costly medical system, economists predict that California is on a fast track to arrive at insolvency far sooner than ex-governor Jerry Brown's boondoggle bullet train could take them there. The undisclosed funds squandered (thus far) on that mismanaged project might have been better spent on, say, buying new forest-clearing and firefighting equipment and improving the infrastructure into communities nestled near California's forests.
Naturally, our "leaders" in Sacramento and Washington don't want to talk about that. Or if they do, it is all talk. While areas of Adam (Ahab) Schiff's district in Southern California burned to the ground, he hunkered down in a cramped Capitol basement office — possibly with a torture rack in one corner — figuring out how to harpoon the great orange whale in the White House.
It is hardly surprising that all Democrat presidential wannabes are obligated to worship the deity of global warming, even though the outrageous "Green New Deal" — first proposed by a radical congressional neophyte from the treeless New York jungle — would burn up all the money in the U.S. Treasury.
The most vociferous support for that draconian measure comes from those who won't have to pay for it, but who expect rich corporate fat cats — those responsible for global warming in the first place — to foot the outrageous bill. The guiltless "victims" might piously do without plastic straws or recycle cardboard pizza boxes, but that's where their noble intentions end. As for all the rhetoric about grounding airplanes or mandating costlier hybrid cars or predicting the end of the Earth within less than their own lifetimes — that's just meaningless, threatening chatter.
Would they feel the same if all electronic devices were suddenly found to contribute to global warming and thus had to be eliminated? The do-gooder line is consistently drawn at the point of self-interest. The Left would not be nearly as furious at Trump for "deserting" the Kurds or pulling out of endless wars, for example, if the United States had a policy of universal draft.
Meanwhile, California sporadically burns — and those living there also find themselves in the hot seat for high taxes; skyrocketing housing costs; deteriorating, gridlocked roads; and communities plagued by homelessness, litter, and crime.
So while Governor Newsom myopically sees greatness in the once-Golden State, others suspect that it is on a dangerous downward spiral to mediocrity. I was part of the growing exodus leaving California for other, "friendlier" states. Almost a year to the day, I relocated from Southern California to Las Vegas. The move, I'm pleased to report, has proved worth the gamble. As for Gavin Newsom, I'm sure he was more than happy to see me go.
Image: Gage Skidmore via Flickr.
By Wayne Allyn Root
Newsmax.com, October 31, 2019
. . .
https://www.newsmax.com/wayneallynroot/california-fires-power-outage-immigration/2019/10/31/id/939607/
Illegal
Immigration Is the Reason California Is Burning
Left-wing
progressives are embracing a political alliance with Silicon Valley oligarchs
who would trap Americans in a cramped future without hope of upward
mobility for themselves or their children, says a left-wing political analyst
in California.
Illegal
Immigration Is the Reason California Is Burning
By Wayne Allyn Root
Newsmax.com, October 31, 2019
. . .
https://www.newsmax.com/wayneallynroot/california-fires-power-outage-immigration/2019/10/31/id/939607/
Illegal
Immigration Is the Reason California Is Burning
A
firefighting helicopter makes a water drop over the Easy Fire on October 30,
2019, near Simi Valley, California. (David McNew/Getty Images)
·
·
·
·
California is collapsing
in front of our eyes. Everyone with the money and common sense is running for
their lives. The question is why is this happening to such a rich and beautiful
state?
Let's start
with a comparison of the taxes in California with my state of Nevada (right
next door to California). While California was burying its citizens with among
the nation’s highest personal income taxes, highest corporate income taxes,
highest sales taxes, and highest gas taxes, Nevada’s citizens have enjoyed
among the lowest taxes in the country.
That could be
why millions of people have left California in the past decade — almost all for
the low tax states like Nevada, Texas, Florida, Utah, Colorado, Washington, and
Arizona. Those states lead the nation in population growth, while California
and other high tax, blue states lead the nation in population loss.
Keep in mind
this was all before the
nonstop blackouts and $6 per gallon gas in California.
Who can live
in a place where the electric utility company shuts off the power to homes and
businesses for days on end, multiple times per year? Because the wind is
blowing hard? California has truly become a Third World Nation.
Keep in mind,
this is what you got for all those high taxes.
So why is this
happening? I lived in California for 15 wonderful years. The winds howled back
then too. We had 80 MPH Santa Ana winds. And plenty of fires, floods,
mudslides, and earthquakes. I lived through all of them. My home almost burned
three times. My car was almost carried away by a massive mudslide.
Yet in my 15
years in California, no one shut off electricity because the wind was blowing.
No one shut off electricity because there was the threat of a fire.
I’m not a
California hater. I loved my time in California. It is the most beautiful state
in America, with the greatest weather. But something has dramatically changed
since I left. Today I wouldn’t live there if you gave me a $5 million
oceanfront mansion for free.
What’s changed is disastrous
liberal policy.
Lots of
liberal ideas ruined California: high taxes, stifling regulations, climate
change policy, permissive policies towards homeless encampments, the highest
welfare benefits in the nation, a $15 minimum wage. It’s impossible to run a
business in California. Restaurants are closing by the hundreds.
And did I
mention poop, pee, and drug needles in the streets? And homeless camps
everywhere.
Now add in
blackouts that make life
miserable
and bankrupt businesses.
California
has become an unlivable third-
world
hellhole.
But despite
all those liberal policies that have contributed to the rot of California, one
issue is at the root of California’s current problems. One issue stands heads
and tails above all the rest.
First and
foremost, illegal immigration is the problem. Since I left two decades ago,
California has collectively spent hundreds of billions of dollars on illegal
aliens and their bills — public schools, free meals at school, special
bi-lingual teachers, healthcare, housing allowances, low income energy
assistance, aid to families with dependent children, prisons, cops, courts,
public defenders, welfare, food stamps, and a hundred other government
handouts. And don’t forget special lower college tuition for illegal
immigrants.
Can you
imagine if all those billions of dollars were instead spent on new
infrastructure, moving power poles underground, upgraded electrical equipment,
modernized electrical systems, homeless vets, more cops, and better schools for
children born in California. Can you imagine what a better place California
would be for its own citizens?
Think about it
in personal terms. What if a husband and father has a drug problem. He's
addicted to cocaine or heroin. He spends $20,000 a year on his drug addiction
for 20 years. That's $400,000. But his life remains in control. Until one day
he finds out his child has cancer. The bill is $100,000 (after insurance pays).
But he doesn't have the $100,000. His child is dying. If only he had the
$400,000 back that he wasted on drugs.
That's
California and illegal immigration. The state has squandered hundreds of
billions on illegal immigration in the 20 years since I've been gone. They
could use that money today. They desperately need it back to pay for the
hundred billion dollar job of upgrading and modernizing their electric grid.
But they don't
have the money. It's all
been wasted on
illegal aliens. And it's
gone forever.
I guarantee
you one thing Californians: if you had all that money back, you wouldn’t be
sitting in the dark.
In my next
column, I’ll get to Part II of the disastrous mistakes of liberalism that have
destroyed California. Think idiotic environmental policies and climate change
fraud.
That's another
few hundred billion dollars wasted — and gone forever. Think about that, as you
sit in the dark, shivering or sizzling, with your food spoiling.
Think about
that as you fill up your gas tank with $5 our $6 per gallon gas, driving on
crumbling highways, in massive traffic jams.
All the
money to fix your misery was spent
on illegal
aliens, not you. How does that
make you
feel?
Trust me, if
you impeach President Trump and elect Democrats to run the country, Democrats
will turn the whole America into one big crappy, miserable, unlivable
California.
Except you
won't even get the sunshine and perfect 75 degree days.
Wayne Allyn Root is the host of
"The Wayne Allyn Root Show" on Newsmax TV, nightly at 8 p.m. ET,
found on DirecTV channel 349, Dish TV channel 216, or at NewsmaxTV.com. He is also a nationally
syndicated radio host. Wayne Allyn Root is a former libertarian vice
presidential nominee. He is the best-selling author of "The Power of
Relentless." Read more reports from Wayne Allyn Root — Click Here Now.
Democrats Move Towards
‘Oligarchical Socialism,’ Says Forecaster Joel Kotkin
Associated Press
Left-wing
progressives are embracing a political alliance with Silicon Valley oligarchs
who would trap Americans in a cramped future without hope of upward
mobility for themselves or their children, says a left-wing political analyst
in California.
Historically, liberals advocated helping the middle class
achieve greater independence, notably by owning houses and starting companies.
But the tech oligarchy — the people who run the five most capitalized firms on
Wall Street — have a far less egalitarian vision. Greg Fehrenstein, who
interviewed 147 digital company founders, says most believe that “an
increasingly greater share of economic wealth will be generated by a smaller
slice of very talented or original people. Everyone else will increasingly
subsist on some combination of part-time entrepreneurial ’gig work‘ and
government aid.”
Numerous oligarchs — Mark Zuckerberg, Pierre Omidyar, founder of
eBay, Elon Musk and Sam Altman, founder of the Y Combinator — have embraced
this vision including a “guaranteed wage,” usually $500 or a $1,000 monthly.
Our new economic overlords are not typical anti-tax billionaires in the
traditional mode; they see government spending as a means of keeping the
populist pitchforks away. This may be the only politically sustainable way to
expand “the gig economy,” which grew to 7 million workers this year, 26 percent
above the year before.
Handouts, including housing subsidies, could guarantee for the
next generation a future not of owned houses, but rented small, modest
apartments. Unable to grow into property-owning adults, they will subsist while
playing with their phones, video games and virtual reality in what Google calls
“immersive computing.”
This plan, however, is being challenged by the return of
populism and nationalism when President Donald Trump defeated the GOP’s
corporatist candidates and the progressives’ candidate in 2016. In his 2017
inauguration, Trump declared:
For too long, a small group in our nation’s capital
has reaped the rewards of government while the people have borne the
cost. Washington flourished, but the people did not share in its wealth.
Politicians prospered, but the jobs left and the factories closed. The
establishment protected itself, but not the citizens of our country. Their
victories have not been your victories. Their triumphs have not been your
triumphs. And while they celebrated in our nation’s capital, there was little
to celebrate for struggling families all across our land.
That all changes starting right here and right now because this
moment is your moment, it belongs to you …
What truly matters is not which party controls our government,
but whether our government is controlled by the people.
For several years, Kotkin has been dissecting the Democrats’
shift from working-class politics toward a tacit alliance with the billionaires
in the new information-technology industries that are centralizing wealth and
power through the United States. In 2013, for example, he argued that
California’s politics were increasingly “feudal“:
As late as the 80s, California was democratic in a fundamental
sense, a place for outsiders and, increasingly, immigrants—roughly 60 percent
of the population was considered middle class. Now, instead of a land of
opportunity, California has become increasingly feudal. According to recent
census estimates, the state suffers some of the highest levels of inequality in the country. By some
estimates, the state’s level of inequality compares with that of such global models as the Dominican
Republic, Gambia, and the Republic of the Congo.
At the same time, the Golden State now suffers the highest level
of poverty in the country—23.5 percent compared to 16 percent nationally—worse
than long-term hard luck cases like Mississippi. It is also now home to
roughly one-third of the
nation’s welfare recipients, almost three times its proportion of the nation’s
population.
Like medieval serfs, increasing numbers of Californians are
downwardly mobile, and doing worse than their parents: native born Latinos
actually have shorter lifespans than their parents, according to one
recent report. Nor are things expected to get
better any time soon. According to a recent Hoover Institution survey, most Californians expect their
incomes to stagnate in the coming six months, a sense widely shared among the
young, whites, Latinos, females, and the less educated.
“Protecting
citizens from industrial capitalism’s giant corporations? Where were the
Securities and Exchange Commission, the Federal Reserve, the Office of Thrift
Supervision, and the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight as the
mortgage bubble blew up in 2008, nearly taking the whole financial system with
it and producing the worst economic bust since the Great Depression, which even
today has sunk the labor-force participation rate and hiked the suicide rate
among working-class men and women to record levels?”
No comments:
Post a Comment