Thursday, September 20, 2018

JERRY BROWN'S CRONY CAPITALISM.... And the bribes kept rolling in!



Jerry Brown ‘Un-Appointed’ Latina to Make Room for Crony’s Wife on State Board



Jerry Brown (Justin Sullivan / Getty)
Justin Sullivan / Getty
12

California Governor Jerry Brown has a pattern of appointing cronies — sometimes unqualified ones — to state boards, according to columnist Dan Walters of Calmatters.org.

Walters cites several examples — including a case in 2011 where Brown rescinded the appointment of a Latina woman, Isabel Barreras, by his predecessor, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, to make room for “Natalie Berg, the wife of one of Brown’s oldest and closest friends, the late San Francisco lobbyist and political activist, Peter Finnegan.”
That “was not the last example of Brown’s penchant for appointing close aides and personal friends to state positions, some prestigious and powerful, and others carrying hefty salaries,” Walters writes.
One particularly egregious example was the appointment of choir director Juan Pedro Gaffney to the state Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board, which is usually made up of attorneys and experts who understand workplace disability law. Gaffney had been a classmate of Brown’s 60 years ago at St. Ignatius High School.
He adds: “Brown has always portrayed himself as a transformative political figure, but in his second gubernatorial incarnation he’s adopted the traditional trappings of politics, including giving jobs to those closest to him.”
As Breitbart News noted in 2014, Brown also had a pattern of appointing graduates of Yale Law School — his alma mater — to high judicial posts, even when they did not seem to have the experience to qualify.
He will soon appoint a fourth appointee to the California Supreme Court, meaning that he will have appointed a majority of the court’s seven judges, setting the direction of California law and policy for many years to come.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. He is also the co-author of How Trump Won: The Inside Story of a Revolution, which is available from Regnery. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.



JERRY BROWN WILL RETIRE TO A JESUIT MONASTERY AND PRAY OVER THE MUCKED-UP MESS HE CALLS MEXIFORNIA!



“Liberal governing has transformed beautiful California into the poverty capital of America with the worst quality of life.  Crazy taxes, crazy high cost of living, and crazy overreaching regulations have crushed the middle class, forcing the middle class to exit the Sunshine State.  All that is left in California are illegals feeding at the breast of the state, rapidly growing massive homeless tent cities, and the mega-rich.” LLOYD MARCUS

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra and Former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa….. Members of the racist, violent, fascist M.E.Ch.A. separatist movement. http://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2017/11/california-attorney-general-xavier.html
“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.”



CALIFORNIA DMV GIVES ILLEGAL VOTERS A SURGE



 “New” and “underrepresented” voters could spell victory for leftist Democrats in November.

September 12, 2018 



 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.

Under a 2015 voter registration law, the DMV automatically registered to vote those who obtain or renew a California driver’s license. As Padilla told the Los Angeles Times, “We’ve built the protocols and the firewalls to not register people that aren’t eligible. We’re going to keep those firewalls in place.” The Democrats’ Secretary of State did not explain how the firewalls worked and if any ineligibles had managed to vote.  

After the 2016 election in which Donald Trump defeated Hillary Clinton, Padilla refused to release any voter information to a federal probe that he claimed “has already inaccurately passed judgment that millions of Californians voted illegally.” California’s participation, Padilla said in a statement, “would only serve to legitimize the false and already debunked claims of massive voter fraud made by the president.”

Back in 2015, Padilla told the Los Angeles Times, “At the latest, for the 2018 election cycle, I expect millions of new voters on the rolls in the state of California.” True to form, by March, 2018, more than one million “undocumented” immigrants received licenses.

The DMV has been under fire for incompetence, with wait times up to six hours and retention of state employees who sleep on the job. Legislators resisted calls for an audit and gave DMV boss Jean Shiomoto another $16 million to hire new employees. Thus equipped, the massive state agency is cranking out “new voters” for November. The DMV claim that “none” of them is ineligible fits the pattern of leading Democrats who believe everybody in the state is a legal resident.

Governor Jerry Brown, who three times ran for president, calls Californians “the citizens of the fifth largest economy in the world,” and the sanctuary state law protects even violent criminal illegals. The ruling Democrats protect illegals while promising them “free” health care and other benefits. In return, the illegals vote for Democrats.

“Palestinian-Mexican American” candidate Ammar Campa-Najjar, is the grandson of Black September terrorist Muhammad Yusuf al-Najjar, who masterminded the murder and mutilation of 11 Israelis at the Munich Olympics in 1972. The Democrat, 29, is depending on “underrepresented voters,” to unseat Rep. Duncan Hunter in San Diego.

Legitimate voters have good reason to consider “underrepresented” as code for “ineligible” or “illegal.” For their part, legal citizens and immigrants might wonder how the Munichian candidate’s father managed to enter the United States and what the family was doing in Gaza for several years. Ammar isn’t telling and establishment journalists look the other way.

Senate boss Kevin de León, whose name on his birth certificate voter rolls is Kevin Alexander Leon, claims his father is a Chinese cook born in Guatemala. The author of the state’s sanctuary law spent time on both sides of the border and “identifies strongly with Mexican culture.” The story defies belief but as with Najjar the establishment media mounted no investigation.

Kevin Alexander Leon seeks to replace Dianne Feinstein in the U.S. Senate. He has narrowed Feinstein’s lead to single digits and that stream of “new” voters from the DMV could push him over the line.

POTUS 44 has endorsed Campa-Najjar, who worked on his reelection campaign in 2012. The president formerly known as Barry Soetoro has been campaigning openly for Democrat Gil Cedillo, who is running for Congress in California’s 39th district. Cedillo has been accused of sexual harassment by fellow Democrat and documentary filmmaker Melissa Fazli. That does not trouble the former president, and Cedillo could also benefit from those “new” voters.

As a State Department investigation discovered, false-documented illegals have been voting in local, state and federal elections for decades. That may explain how a state that twice voted for Ronald Reagan and booted out three of Jerry Brown’s state supreme court picks, including chief justice Rose Bird, became a Democrat stronghold.

Back in 1996 in Orange County, 442 illegals voted for Loretta Sanchez, the Democrat who narrowly defeated Republican Robert Dornan. He was the target of Hermandad Mexicana Nacional founder Bert Corona, a violent Stalinist who opposed Dornan’s strong anti-Communist stance.

Despite Democrat denials, voter fraud was going strong in California long before the DMV registered more than one million false-documented illegals. It’s a safe bet that most if not all those ineligibles will be showing up at the polls in November.

The Once 'Golden State' Is Badly Tarnished






With crime soaring, rampant homelessness, sanctuary state status attracting the highest illegal immigrant population in the country and its “worst state in the U.S. to do business” ranking for more than a decade, California and its expansive, debt-ridden, progressive government is devolving into a third-world country. In cities such as San Francisco, public defecation is legal, drug use is flagrant, and tent cities are designated biohazards. In once pristine San Diego, contractors have been spraying down homeless encampments with household bleach to stave off a hepatitis A epidemic. The so-called “Golden State,” which now has the highest poverty rate in the nation, is tarnished beyond recognition with such serious problems that the sublime climate and striking coastline may no longer be enough to sustain its reputation and cachet. With laws that benefit criminals and illegals, big government that endeavors to control every aspect of residents’ lives from plastic bags to straws; sanctioned street, tent, and vehicle dwelling; and an unaffordable overhyped bullet train boondoggle that will cost taxpayers almost $100 billion, California is headed for economic disaster.

Rising Crime

In the past few years, California has instituted criminal justice reform legislation and initiatives, ostensibly to reduce budget expenditures and prison overcrowding, which has led invariably to the release of more criminals into the state’s population.

  • Proposition 47, a referendum passed in 2014, reclassified certain drug possession felonies to misdemeanors and required misdemeanor sentencing for theft when the amount involved is $950 or less. Drug possession for personal use is now considered a misdemeanor.
  • Proposition 57, a statewide ballot proposition passed in 2016, changed parole policies for those convicted of nonviolent felonies. But the proposition failed to define “nonviolent crimes”. The result was that those committing “nonviolent” crimes such as rape of an unconscious or intoxicated person, assault of a police office, domestic violence, hostage taking, drive-by shootings, and human trafficking of a child became eligible for early parole based on a paper review in lieu of a parole hearing.
  • Assembly Bill 1448 and Assembly Bill 1308 allow for the early release of prisoners who are 60 years or older who have served at least 25 years of their sentence and prisoners who committed crimes at least 25 years or younger who have served at least 15 years, respectively. Both were signed into law by Governor Jerry Brown in 2017.
  • In June this year, Gov. Brown signed into law AB 1810, that gives defendants a chance to have their charges dismissed and evidence of their arrest erased from the record if they can convince a judge that they suffer from a treatable mental disorder. Such defendants could be offered a pretrial diversion of two years to undergo mental health treatment.

As may have been expected with lenient policies, violent crime and property crime rates in the state increased and will mostly likely soar in the aftermath of some of the newly implemented measures.  An FBI study of crime rates from 2014 to 2015 found that 48 California cities saw overall increases with 24 experiencing increases in the double digits for property crime, an increase directly attributable to Prop. 47, according to Marc Debbaudt, past president of the Association of Los Angeles Deputy District Attorneys.

Homelessness

As of 2017, California had a homeless population of over 134,000, or one quarter of the nation’s homeless. UCLA researcherWilliam Yu notedthat 26% of California’s homeless are severely mentally ill, 18% are chronic drug abusers, 9% are veterans and 24% are victims of domestic abuse. Orange County Supervisor, Tod Spitzer attributes much of the problem to legislation signed by Governor Jerry Brown over the past few years that markedly decreased the penalties for drug use, possession, and petty crimes, thereby reducing arrests and eliminating mandatory treatment for drug abuse and mental health treatment.

Where other states have successfully instituted welfare-to-work programs, California’s liberal government has resisted pro-work reforms and retained a system of cash disbursements with no strings attached. This has led to a state bureaucracy that continues to grow and expand its budget, staffing, and client base. Inordinately high housing prices, somewhat driven by restrictive land use and environmental regulations, have exacerbated the problem.

Civil rights organizations such as the ACLU have made the homelessness issue a difficult one to tackle. In 2003, the ACLU filed a lawsuitJones v. City of Los Angeles, on behalf of homeless people who were ticketed and arrested for sleeping on public sidewalks at night. In 2006, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on the lawsuit by striking down the Los Angeles ordinance that made it a crime for homeless people to sleep on the streets when no shelter is available. Not only is it permissible to pitch a tent in many areas in the state but also vehicle dwelling is allowed in Los Angeles residential areas from 6:00 a.m. to 9 p.m. and in business and industrial areas from 9:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m.

Illegal Immigration

California, a sanctuary state, is home to at least 4 million illegal immigrants and their children. National Economics Editorial, a website that covers economic issues, has estimated that those in the state illegally contribute $3.5 billion in taxes while costing California approximately $30.3 billion annually, or 17.7% of the state budget. According to the Migration Policy Institute (MPI), more than half are unskilled, uneducated, and lack English proficiency.

Services to illegals include welfare, food stamps, meal programs, free immunizations, low-cost housing and in-state tuition rates. In addition, children of illegals make up 18% of the public-school population, straining the already burdened school system by increasing student-to-teacher ratios and by impeding the learning process with supplemental, English-language instruction.

Unchecked illegal immigration comes with a marked increase in crime rates. Those who have broken the law to come to the United States are overrepresented in murder charges, drug trafficking, and gang violence. Increased policing, court, and incarceration costs put additional strain on the justice syste. In 2014, the U.S. Department of Justice and U.S. Sentencing Commission reported that illegal immigrants committed over 13% of all U.S. crime, and a particularly high level of violent and drug-related crimes, according to criminologist and law enforcement expert Ron Martinelli. A substantial illegal immigrant population coupled with a policy signed by Governor Jerry Brown in 2014 that protects criminal illegal immigrants by reducing their sentences to fall below federal standards for deportation further aggravates the problem. This, at a time when59% of Californians want to increase deportations of illegals.

In a measure that would add to costs and incentivize illegal entry, California gubernatorial candidate, Gavin Newsom, plans to issue an Executive Order to grant universal healthcare, if elected. Former governor Pete Wilson warns that a system that removes all market-based competition could produce annual budget shortfalls of $40 billion, add six million illegals to the healthcare rolls, encourage medical tourism, and restrict the range of care and increase waiting times for California citizens. The resulting elimination of competitive private sector health care options would mean that more businesses and sources of tax revenue will leave the state.

Poor Business Climate

In 2014, Chief Executive magazine quoted CEO comments like  “California goes out of its way to be anti-business,” “California continues to lead in disincentives for growth businesses to stay,” and “The regulatory, tax and political environment are crushing.” California’s reputation as the worst state to do business has a lot to do with its high tax rates.  In addition to having the highest state income tax in the nation, it has the highest sales tax rate, the 9th highest corporate income tax rate, one of the highest property tax rates and the highest gasoline tax rate. Yet, with a shortfall of $612 billion when future pensions, bond repayments and other debts are added to the budget shortfall, the state is drowning in debt, more than twice as much debt as any other state. In addition, the cost of living is 36% higher than the national rate, and, at 23.4%, California has the highest poverty rate in the nation, according to former California Assemblyman Steve Baldwin. 

California, a world leader in technology, entertainment, agriculture, and a past global trendsetter in culture and innovation, has been dominated for decades by a government made up of far-left ideologues. These so-called "progressives" have supported an ever-growing and onerous regulatory climate that effectively redistributes wealth by adding to an already burdensome rate of taxation and expanding entitlement programs. Given the current business environment and policies on crime, homelessness, and illegal entry that are likely to continue, the once “Golden State” could become a failed state in short order if left unchecked.  In the words of Steve Baldwin, “A state cannot chase away the producers and attract the takers year after year without economic consequences.” 
 

CRIMINALS WIN BIG IN CALIFORNIA SANCTUARY RULING

Bush appointee upholds protections for false-documented illegals.


July 9, 2018



California beats Trump in sanctuary state battle’s first round,” read the page-one Sacramento Bee headline last Friday. As readers discovered, it was actually a split decision and Trump scored a big hit. 
U.S. District Court Judge John Mendez, an appointee of George W. Bush, ruled that the state could not prevent private employers from denying federal immigration authorities from worksites. Mendez found that AB 450 “which imposes monetary penalties on an employer solely because that employer voluntarily consents to federal immigration enforcement’s entry into nonpublic areas of their place of business or access to their employment records impermissibly discriminates against those who choose to deal with the federal government.” 
On the other hand, Mendez upheld the law’s requirement that companies inform workers within 72 hours of any federal request to examine employment records. So in the style of Oakland mayor Libby Schaaf, employers can still provide lookout services for false-documented illegals.
Mendez denied the federal request against SB 54, the state’s sanctuary law. As author Kevin de Leon told reporters, “today, a federal judge made clear what I’ve known all along, that SB 54, the California Values Act is constitutional and does not conflict with federal law. California is under no obligation to assist Trump tear apart families. We cannot stop his mean-spirited immigration policies, but we don’t have to help him, and we won’t.”
As Mendez ruled, “refusing to help is not the same as impeding.” The federal judge also upheld AB 103, allowing the state attorney general to inspect detention facilities. Current attorney general Xavier Becerra, once on Hillary Clinton’s short list as a running mate and a key player in the Democrats’ IT scandal, proclaimed, “The Constitution gives the people of California, not the Trump Administration, the power to decide how we will provide for our public safety and general welfare.” 
Californians had a right to wonder about the “safety” part. In this 2-1 split decision the biggest winners are criminal illegals. 
Senate Bill 54, the Bee report noted,  “has eliminated much of the discretionary power that local law enforcement previously had to privately share information with federal immigration agents about people who have been arrested and put in county jails.” So despite the protestations of hereditary, recurring governor Jerry Brown, California is protecting criminal illegals. With that in mind, legitimate citizens might look ahead to the November election. 
Brown, a three-time presidential loser, recently signed off on a budget that spends tens of millions of dollars to help illegals fight efforts to deport them. This includes some $45 million in legal services steered to state colleges, and $10 million to help younger illegals, including “undocumented migrants.” This outlandish spending is hardly the state’s only way to privilege false-document illegals.
A 2015 law, “streamlines” the process of voter registration and kicks in when someone gets a driver’s license at the DMV. As of March, 2018, more than one million illegals have received licenses. Secretary of state Alex Padilla touts “firewall” protections against ineligible voters.  This is the same official who refused to cooperate with a federal probe of voter fraud, so legal residents and taxpayers have good reason to wonder what he is hiding. 
Senate boss Kevin de Leon, author of SB 54, is on record that half his family would be eligible for deportation under Trump’s executive order because they used false Social Security cards and other bogus identification. In his own case, as Christopher Cadelago of the Sacramento Bee explains, “The name on his birth certificate isn’t Kevin de León.” 
On his birth certificate and voter rolls, “the 50-year-old politician is Kevin Alexander Leon,” born on December 10, 1966 at California Hospital on South Hope Street in Los Angeles. The birth certificate “describes his father, Andres Leon, as a 40-year-old cook whose race was Chinese and whose birthplace was Guatemala. De León’s mother, Carmen Osorio, was also born in Guatemala, the document states.” As a child, “de León spent time on both sides of the border,” but he “identifies strongly with Mexican culture.” 
Around Sacramento many found the story incredible but it now takes on new significance. Senate boss de Leon spearheaded the smackdown of Sen. Janet Nguyen’s free-speech rights and ordered the Republican, a refugee from Communist Vietnam, carted off the senate floor. The senate boss also appointed a false-documented Mexican national to a state position, a violation of Proposition 209, a voter-approved law that forbids racial and ethnic preferences in state employment, education and contracting. 
The public never voted on de Leon’s sanctuary bill, but the author is now on the November ballot contending with fellow Democrat Dianne Feinstein for a seat in the U.S. Senate. Republicans are again shut out of the senate race because in California primaries the top two vote-getters advance regardless of party. 
As a State Department investigation confirms, false-documented illegals have been voting in local, state and federal elections for decades. Legitimate citizens and legal immigrants now have a stronger case for ID checks on voters and candidates alike. Under the Mendez ruling many more illegals, including criminals, will be seeking protected, privileged status in California. 

California Gets ‘F’ Grade from ‘Truth in Accounting’




 19 Jun 2018Newport Beach, CA18




The non-partisan “Truth in Accounting” project, which analyzes government financial reports, has awarded California an “F” grade for claiming surpluses instead of a $269.9 billion deficit.

The Chicago-based organization has been providing in-depth accounting reviews of the audited financial statements for America’s fifty states, as well as most major counties and major cities, in the United States since 2002.
The group’s mission is to educate and empower citizens with understandable, reliable, and transparent government financial information.
California received the lowest score of “F” on Truth in Accounting’s grading scale because despite Gov. Jerry Brown touting several years of surpluses, California actually faces a $269.9 billion shortfall in terms of its overall obligations, which equates to $22,000 burden for each of the 12.3 million taxpayers in the state.
California’s financial burden is primarily associated with the rapidly deteriorating condition of the state’s current $461.3 billion in promised public employee retirement benefits –which are $102.5 billion under-funded by the pension plan — and $107 billion for unfunded retiree health care benefits.
The State of California faced a near financial death experience in Great Recession, when the average taxpayer burden jumped from $15,000 to $23,500. Newly elected Gov. Brown, facing a $25 billion deficit in 2011, passed an array of income and sales tax hikes, including a 29 percent increase for Californians with taxable income over $1 million.
Gov. Brown has touted the “California Comeback.” But the data demonstrate that despite the gusher of tax revenue the flooded into Sacramento from the economic recovery and the substantially higher tax rates Gov. Brown passed, the state’s taxpayer burden only fell modestly to $20,900 by 2015. The taxpayer burden rose to $21,600 in 2016 and hit $22,000 in 2017, the second-highest in the history of the state.
Truth in Accounting Founder Sheila Weinberg warns that California is a giant “Sinkhole Sate.” Ms. Weinberg is especially critical of Gov. Brown  claiming an $8.8 billion surplus this year, while avoiding the fact that California has only $100.1 billion in available assets to pay $369.9 billion worth of bills.
Weinberg emphasized to Breitbart News that California’s rising “taxpayer burden” is only for net state liabilities. Her organization intends to begin publishing consolidated reports this summer for all the states that will also capture the liabilities of counties and cities. Ms. Weinberg expects that the combined taxpayer burden for California to be a much higher number.



June 16, 2018

Skyrocketing crime rate in California called 'good progress' after jails emptied





Here's a thought experiment: what happens if you release criminals, a lot of them, from jail?
If you asked a liberal in California, he would tell you these criminals were unjustly jailed in the first place (think racism on the part of liberal inner-city judges, juries, and prosecutors) and that these unjustly imprisoned would return to become productive parts of society.
Imagine their surprise to learn, then, that after reducing or eliminating sentences for certain property crimes, the rate of property crimes has only increased!
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.
Larcenies increased about 9% by 2016, or about 135 more thefts per 100,000 residents than if tougher penalties had remained, according to results of a study by the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California released Tuesday.
Thefts from motor vehicles accounted for about three-quarters of the increase.  San Francisco alone recorded more than 30,000 auto burglaries last year, which authorities largely blamed on gangs.
Proposition 47 lowered criminal sentences for drug possession, theft, shoplifting, identity theft, receiving stolen property, writing bad checks and check forgery from felonies that can carry prison terms to misdemeanors that often bring minimal jail sentences.
Do you think liberals have learned anything from this?  Think again:
California still has historically low crime rates despite recent changes in the criminal justice system aimed at reducing mass incarceration and increasing rehabilitation and treatment programs, said Lenore Anderson, the executive director of Californians for Safety and Justice and a leader in the drive to pass Proposition 47.
"This report shows we are making progress," she said in a statement calling for less spending on prisons and more on programs to help reduce the cycle of crime.
The ballot measure led to the lowest arrest rate in state history in 2015 as experts said police frequently ignored crimes that brought minimal punishment.
They say a conservative is a liberal who has been mugged.  If that's true, then it must also be true in California that a liberal is a liberal who has had his car or home broken into.  Indeed, people in San Francisco have had their cars broken into so frequently that they think this is the "new normal," and people talk laughingly to each other about how often their cars have been broken into, as if it's a subject of conversation as common as the doings of the local sports team.
Reality will never intrude on a liberal's ideology.  An illegal alien could shoot a woman dead on Fisherman's Wharf, and liberals would still never see a problem with sanctuary cities.  Homeless people can roam the streets like swarms of giant rats, leaving fetid excrement and bloody hypodermic needles in their wake, and people would accept it, because it is part of their ideology.
That's how they can call this abomination "progress."
Ed Straker is the senior writer at Newsmachete.com.
Image via Flickr.

 

 





No comments: