From The Babylon Bee:
Nobody is either going to save the Democrats or save us from the Democrats. From Joel Kotkin at unherd.com:
Burdened with a decomposing President and a clearly overmatched Vice President, the Democrats are on the hunt for a saviour. For many in the party, Gavin Newsom, the 54-year-old perfectly coiffed Governor of California, seems like the perfect solution. No doubt, given his recent trolling of Florida’s Republican frontrunner Ron DeSantis, he feels the same.
But Newsom’s ascendency faces some severe challenges. First, to get nominated, he must not only depose Biden, but also see off Vice President Kamala Harris. And she has three things Newsom lacks: she’s a woman, she’s black, and she has Asian Indian ancestry. Newsom, on the other hand, is white, was born into a well-connected San Francisco family, and is married to a film-maker and scion of a very wealthy Bay Area family.
Perhaps more importantly, things have not been particularly good for the minority Californians he was voted in to look after. In the Golden State, African-Americans and Hispanics do far worse economically than their counterparts elsewhere in the country. Black residents, on a cost-of-living basis, make about as much as they do in Mississippi, and far less than in states such as Texas, Florida, or Arizona.
From The Babylon Bee:
“Listen, folks, it’s simple really — in Florida, we believe in clean sidewalks, and shrinking the homeless problem — NOT growing it!” said Governor Ron DeSantis in his California statewide ad. “So to all the woke libs out there let me be clear: do not come to Florida. Stay in California and indoctrinate your own kids — that is if you actually have kids you haven’t aborted.” Viewers are then treated to a shot of DeSantis wrestling an alligator.
Upon watching these ads, millions of Californians fainted on the spot. According to sources, they were so triggered by the alarming levels of patriotism that their California brains couldn’t handle it.
At publishing time, many of the libs who saw the ads are now trying to sue Ron DeSantis for emotional damage and trauma. Ron DeSantis has responded with plans to run the same ads on CNN and MSNBC.
Now California is trying to turn independent contractors into employees and raise business costs, particularly those of the trucking companies. Many will join he exodus of companies leaving the state. From John Kingston at Freight Waves via zerohedge.com:
It is going to be a radically new world in California’s trucking sector with the imposition of AB5, and it isn’t clear what parts of the industry — if any — are ready for it.
“Most immediately, motor carriers must evaluate and adopt alternative operating models to mitigate risk if they intend to continue to do business in California” was the admonition from the Benesch law firm in the wake of the Supreme Court decision in the case of California Trucking Association vs. (state Attorney General) Bonta. The decision opens the door for the imposition of AB5, the law on independent contractors that leans heavily toward classifying workers as employees rather than ICs.
“Motor carriers should immediately evaluate their California operations to determine what steps, if any, should be taken to respond to the changed backdrop for trucking” was the call to action from the trucking-focused Scopelitis law firm.
On the other side of the divide, there was celebration, including a victory lap by Lorena Gonzalez, the former and future labor leader who successfully pushed for AB5’s passage in the California legislature in 2019.
Posted in Business, Economics, Economy, Government, Law, Trade
Tagged California, Independent contractors, Trucking
California looks like it is reaching its long-term objective: make it impossible to do business within the state. From Tyler Durden at zerohedge.com:
Meat-packing giant Smithfield Foods announced a 1,800-person pork processing plant in California would shutter operations next year, citing the rising cost of doing business in the liberal-run state.
Smithfield, owned by Hong Kong-based pork conglomerate WH Group Ltd., “will cease all harvest and processing operations in Vernon, California in early 2023,” the company said in a Friday press release.
“Smithfield is taking these steps due to the escalating cost of doing business in California,” the company continued.
WSJ explains the company’s reasoning behind winding down operations at the Vernon plant is due to a multitude of factors, including the cost of energy to power plants is 3.5x higher per head to produce pork than any of its 45 other US plants.
“It’s increasingly challenging to operate efficiently there,” company spokesman Jim Monroe told WSJ. “We’re striving to keep costs down and keep food affordable.”
Posted in Business, Collapse, Economy, Government, Law, Politics
Tagged California, regulations, Smithfield Foods
Is California trying to cut people off from food, water, and gasoline? That trifecta would be a big feather in the cap of Newsome and his cohorts in the California legislature. From Tyler Durden at zerohedge.com:
In places like California, water is a hot commodity these days. With a drought in play everyone is looking for someone else to blame, various cities are ordering cuts to daily use for families and individuals, and the primary target for now is California farmers and their legally protected water rights. It is these same rights that legislators now want to “buy” in order to shut down or greatly decrease agricultural production.
California, like most of the world, has a long history of intermittent droughts. Such droughts are simply a fact of life and there is nothing abnormal or extreme about today’s conditions when taking past weather events into account. If you ask the mainstream media, though, they will tell you this is the “worst drought in 1200 years” and climate change is the cause.
This is, of course, simply not true. The California droughts in 1976-1977 and 1987-1992 were just as bad if not worse overall than the conditions of today. That’s not to say that the current situation is stable, far from it, but the Chicken Little panic on display in the media is driven far more by agenda than by reality. It has become a standard tactic these days to connect every single inconvenient weather scenario to “global warming” despite the fact that there is no evidence to support the claim. There has been an endless array of droughts in CA long before man-made carbon existed.
Posted in Business, Collapse, Economy, Government
Tagged Agriculture, California, Water
Perhaps take this article with a grain of salt, because its author is running against Newsome for governor. Still, the gist of it appears to be right. From Michael Shellenberger at michaelshellenberger.substack.com:
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 heW 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.
Posted in Collapse, Energy, Environment, Government, Politics
Tagged California, Gavin Newsom, Incompetence, Water shortages
What happens when the operating costs for electric cars are higher than those for internal combustion cars? You know what the answer will be. More subsidies for electric cars. From Tyler Durden at zerohedge.com:
California electricity rates are increasing far faster than the rest of the country. Last year, electricity prices rose 1.7 times faster than the rest of the county, and residential prices jumped 2.7 faster.
These increases are terrible news for residents who want to swap their combustion engine vehicles for electric ones.
Pacific Gas & Electric Co. (PG&E), Southern California Edison Co. (SCE), and San Diego Gas & Electric’s (SDG&E) exceptionally high power rates make charging an electric vehicle very costly and could soon be as expensive as filling up a combustion engine vehicle at the gas station, according to Environment & Energy Publishing.
“It’s a huge problem,” said Severin Borenstein, director of the Energy Institute at the University of California, Berkeley’s graduate business school. He said if people who embraced EVs begin to “tell their neighbors about their catastrophic electric bills” after charging up at home, “that’s gonna be a huge problem.”
Posted in Business, Economics, Economy, Energy, Environment, Politics, Propaganda, Technology
Tagged California, electric cars, Energy prices
I’m happy I got out in 2012. From Jamie Joseph at The Epoch Times via zerohedge.com:
When former Bay Area resident Terry Gilliam, 62, started the Facebook group “Leaving California” in 2018, the group attracted 200 members within six months. Four years later, the group has over 50,000 members, and the number continues to climb every week.
“In the last 30 days, we’ve added 11,000 members, which is darn close to a record,” Gilliam told The Epoch Times.
“And it all started on January 1st … I think there is an absolute mad rush of people who are going to get out of California this year.”
Although he formed the group a few years ago, Gilliam didn’t take the plunge and move out of state to Florida until last year. Issues like homelessness, crime, politics, cost of housing, traffic, and exorbitant taxes pushed Gilliam away—and he’s not the only one.
When the group first began, Gilliam said Idaho and Texas were the most popular destinations for California residents. Now, he’s seeing more people moving to Tennessee and Florida as well.
Earlier this month, U-Haul reported that the top states for people moving within the United States in 2021 were Texas, Florida, Tennessee, South Carolina, and Arizona, while California was at the very bottom of the list.
Matt Merrill, U-Haul area district vice president of the Dallas Fort-Worth Metroplex and West Texas, said in a statement that many people are moving to Texas from California, New York, and other states “due to the job growth—a lot of opportunity here. The cost of living here is much lower than those areas. Texas is open for business.”
Demand was so high, U-Haul even ran out of trucks leaving California last year, according to the company.
Posted in Business, Civil Liberties, Collapse, Crime, Economy, Government, Politics, Taxes, Tyranny
Tagged California, emigration, State government
Can’t have visitors to LA for the Super Bowl thinking the city is a mecca for homeless people who live in horrific conditions on the streets. In other words, can’t have visitors seeing the truth with their own eyes. From MN Gordon at economicprism.com:
“What the hell is going on?” California Governor, Gavin Newsom
The sun always shines bright over the Golden State. Even in January. But, beneath the sunshine, darkness rages in the land of fruits and nuts.
For example, State Senator Scott Wiener – a monster – recently introduced a bill that would permit children 12 and older to be vaccinated against COVID-19 without their parent’s knowledge or consent. According to Wiener, this bill is consistent with current state law that allows teens to have abortions and obtain birth control without telling their parents.
Yet Wiener’s bill may be finished. Because his cohort, State Senator Dick Pan, has introduced a bill that would require all children to be vaccinated against COVID-19 to attend K-12 schools regardless of personal beliefs. Not vaccination? Then no school.
Perhaps, this is for the best. Getting kicked out of school at this late stage in the decline and fall of western civilization is a major blessing. What kid deserves an institutional education from freaks and rejects?
Before we pulled our son out of the local Long Beach public high school, he was learning history from someone that went by Mx. Apparently, the teacher – a dude with a green beard – was uncertain if he was male or female. So he used Mx. instead of Mr. or Ms.
Posted in Collapse, Economy, Government, Politics, Sports
Tagged California, Homelessness, Los Angeles
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