LEFTIST BUTTHURT: Special Snowflakes in California Want to Cry and Secede, But Mostly Cry

By William Teach

Remember when it was racist and evil and anti-democracy when Texas floated this type of thing? Good times, good times (via Twitchy):

Anti-Trump Californians file paperwork, launch campaign to secede from union https://t.co/7vQJaUSbst

— The Washington Times (@WashTimes) November 21, 2016

Anti-Trump secessionists filed formal paperwork Monday launching their petition drive aimed at separating California from the union by first putting the issue before voters on the 2018 ballot.

INTERESTING: A Carly Fiorina Story from the Harvard Business Review

Happened to be perusing an article in HBR on how companies engage employees (you can probably guess the punchline: there is no single formula for success) and I spotted this interesting tale regarding GOP establishment favorite Carly Fiorina:

It takes years to build a strong purpose- and values-driven high commitment, high performance culture. It cannot be done with a simple training program. Every policy and practice has to be evaluated in the context of espoused purpose and values. Culture is, however, very fragile. A few decisions and behaviors by top management or leaders of key businesses or operating units can undermine decades of culture building.

Consider what happened to HP...

HOW TO RETIRE FROM A LIFETIME IN CONGRESS WITH $100 MILLION OR MORE: Dianne Feinstein Teaches Us How

By Judicial Watch

California Senator Dianne Feinstein, vice chairman of the powerful Senate Intelligence Committee, is demonstrating how lowlypaid lawmakers leave office filthy rich, according to a newspaper columnist that writes about the senior Democrat’s most recent scandal.

Like many of Feinstein’s past scandals, this one involves her enormous influence as a veteran federal lawmaker translating into big bucks for her husband, real estate mogul and investment banker Richard Blum. The U.S. Postal Service is selling 56 buildings and Blum’s commercial real estate company, CBRE, stands to make about $1 billion in commissions, the news report says. A few years ago CBRE was selected as the sole real estate agent for the huge deal, most likely with the help of his powerful wife.

Here’s a line from the article, which appears in a New York paper this month: “This feat of federal spousal support was ignored by the media after Feinstein’s office said the senator, whose wealth is pegged at $70 million, had nothing to do with the USPS decisions.” It’s not surprising that the mainstream media swallowed the unbelievable denial since Feinstein is the prototype of the liberal politician that seldom receives any real scrutiny. We’ve seen evidence of this in the mainstream media’s ongoing love fest with President Obama.

Judicial Watch has helped pick up the slack and in fact has exposed many of Feinstein’s transgressions over the years, mostly involving abuse of power to enrich her family assets. The atrocities were so rampant that in 2007 the San Francisco lawmaker was forced to resign as chair of the Military Construction Appropriations subcommittee, where she annually supervised the appropriation of billions of dollars. As chair Feinstein supervised her own staff of military construction experts and she lobbied Pentagon officials to support her favorite projects. During her tenure her husband’s companies got billions of dollars in government contracts.

BEST OF 2014: "Dear beautiful America, please, stop moving Forward"

Guest post by Aleksey


Upon migrating to the United States many years ago, I embraced my new home and left the past behind. Never could I imagine that, at some point, that past would become relevant.

But now, I am compelled to talk about it again.

In the USSR, we had state-controlled media which shaped the narrative entirely.

Our founder, Vladimir Lenin, was portrayed as a noble, charismatic, and smart man -- the champion of the underdog (the working class), the seeker of equality, defeater of the rich. The humble man with common ideas who was destined for greatness.

Lenin peered at us intently from textbooks and walls. His was the face behind the good intentions that shaped our everyday life.
As a kid, I was largely shielded by my family -- they took the brunt of "adult tasks" in everyday life. They bribed officials to accomplish the most basic of things, they conserved every kopek and piece of bread, they got me the rare medicines I needed, all through means I didn't dare fathom.

Of course, there was nothing special about those medicines, those favors, or anything else that took such effort to obtain -- in America, you can just go out and get it in a corner store. In the Soviet Union, the word "deficit" was commonly used in everyday language.

"This and this product are in deficit." This meant that you couldn't buy them. Maybe for the next three months or maybe forever, unless someone was bribed or the product was obtained via the black market, friends, or contraband. Fruits and vegetables had their "seasons" when they made an appearance in local stores -- we didn't have advanced technology like hydroponic farms.

Instead, adults were herded into collective farms, which were the Soviet antithesis of family -- or individual-owned farms. Under cheerful banners of "accomplishing a five-year plan in four," they usually underperformed and the bureaucrats responsible faked the numbers, which moved up the chain of command.

"Deficit." I heard this term a lot, as I stood in long lines for bread and milk in stores with cheerfully generic names like "Progress" or "Sunrise."

The lines resembled those formed by hipsters in America lining up for the sale of the next iPhone model -- except we stood in them every day.

As much as my family shielded me from their troubles, they couldn't protect me from factors beyond their control. They couldn't raise my level of living above theirs. And they certainly couldn't get me anesthetics for dental visits. Sitting in the gray, sterile corridor for two hours, hearing the sobbing of the kids already in the dental chair as their teeth were drilled without anesthetics, water, or suction, and knowing that your turn was coming -- some handled it better than others.

In the local clinic, needles were resterilized and reused. Ambulances took three hours to arrive, if they came at all.
That was our "free" healthcare.

We also lived in a "free" apartment, which was suffocatingly small by American standards, and it took years, if not decades, for an average couple to obtain such a place. Usually, several generations of a family lived under one roof until the government bestowed upon its citizens another gray five- to sixteen-story building that looked just like its gray neighbor and had the same exact green-painted swings in the yard.

Since almost nobody had cars, people could rarely afford to move to another city or republic.

Public transportation, which we all had to use, consisted of cranky people squeezed tightly like sardines inside a rusty box on wheels. Despite that, when I was eight, I wanted to be a trolley bus driver. Partially because of all the buttons he flipped to open and close doors, but mostly because there was a wall between him and the sardine can.

The walls in Soviet apartments were poorly insulated from noise and cold. Therefore, wall carpets were dominant in Soviet culture. They all looked similar, usually colored red with abstract, curving patterns.

Soviet factories were state-controlled. Variety was not a concept. The color red was all over the place -- it garnished the banners hanging off the sides of gray five-story buildings, with profiles of Lenin, Marx, and Engels fluttering lightly in the wind, proclaiming that "Marxism-Leninism is the symbol of our times." Others stated, "Forward toward Communism!"

Red was splattered on our classroom walls and our school uniforms.

In grade school, you became an "Octyabronok" (named after the October 1917 revolution) and wore a Lenin-faced star on your lapel. You got a free newspaper, the "Young Leninist." Later, you became a "Pioneer" and swapped the star for a red tie. After that, you moved on to "Komsomol" (All-Union Leninist Young Communist League). Those who did not follow the groupthink enough to make it to "Komsomol" lost access to crucial resources and careers later in life.

I grew up with no concept of "brands." If I wanted to get that shoddy water pistol that suddenly appeared in a store, and my parents let me, then that was the water pistol. It broke in two weeks, of course.

Bread in the stores was the bread. Milk was the milk. Kolbasa was the kolbasa. Everything was manufactured by the state to provide the minimum required survivability, and minimum expected functionality. Improvements in design and the manufacturing process did not exist.

When I came to America and laid down on an American bed, it struck me that it was more comfortable than any bed I'd ever experienced. It was the result of evolving design oriented toward customer satisfaction -- a concept alien to my former homeland.
The two famous brands of Soviet cars, Zaporozhets and Moskvich (both named after their places of origin), just... existed. We didn't really have Zaporozhets 1980 followed by a new and improved Zaporozhets 1981 -- now with power steering! No such thing. It was a car, and it required no further improvement. There was no customer demand, because people were poor, the state-controlled prices were very high, and product evolution crawled at snail's pace.

The very concept of "customer convenience" did not exist. We didn't have bottles sculpted to fit the shape of your hand, nor did we have polite cashiers, for they were under no obligation to please anyone -- they worked for the state. The abacus was still in common use in our stores while American stores had electric change machines, credit card readers, and sliding doors.

Like most things, clothes were in "deficit" and thus traveled from older to younger siblings in every family over time. Broken things weren't thrown away but repaired.

Our giant lamp television was carried in the family since about the time I was born. It received three channels -- all State-controlled. On our evening news program, the Chernobyl disaster announcement was calm and lasted fifteen seconds. Our state papers, such as Pravda and Izvestia, were not read but used as invaluable sources of free toilet paper. This is not a joke.

Our propaganda put the big focus on the noble working class and how there was no such thing as a "lower" profession. Much emphasis was made on the nobility of simple working man, and certainly there is something to that.

But when the janitor receives roughly the same salary as a teacher who is paid roughly the same as a surgeon who is paid roughly the same as a programmer, all of them surrounded by peers who get paid the same no matter how well or poorly they perform, some people start carrying the team, and then they just give up. Everyone performs poorly in the end.

It was painfully obvious to everyone just how low the desire of the average person is to produce goods for other people. Without competition or opportunity to get ahead, with the state controlling production and paying equal salaries to workers regardless of their contributions, we had no concept of abundance.

With our "free" services, we regularly experienced water and electrical outages and sometimes went to a nearby forest to get water. Once you fill that bathtub with water, you can't use it for anything else.

The first time I entered an American food market at the age of seventeen, I froze.

Older Soviets who visited American stores for the first time, got hit harder -- all the lies they were taught from childhood through the decades of their lives -- until that last moment, they expected them to be at least partially true.

Sure, they heard stories from overseas, but come on, those were just the Potemkin villages, mirages created to make the Soviets jealous. How can one imagine the unimaginable?

"They told us in Odessa, that in San Francisco it's hard to find milk."

This is the typical Soviet mentality, and they were used to it, and they bought into it, and then they entered that American supermarket and saw the rows upon rows of milk of different brands and kinds and fat percentages.

This is where some have been known to cry. It is the realization that their lives were stolen from them by the regime. A realization of what could've been, if they had been lucky enough to be born in this place which, from everything they knew, could not possibly exist.

I now live in Northern California, in the heart of the Bay Area, thousands of miles away from my homeland.

And yet the poison of Soviet propaganda seeps through college dorms just as it did in Soviet classrooms.

Stop a random youth on the street and you'll find out what he thinks about capitalism (bad!) and communism/socialism (good!). Their favorite news programs are the "Daily Show" and the "Colbert Report," where comedians reinforce their brainwashing via short, catchy clips.

Walk through Berkeley and you will see wall graffiti of the same hammer and sickle that adorned the big red flags of the Soviet era.

This doesn't extend to just youths. People of all ages, even acquaintances that I otherwise respect and admire, are like this. They support the "progressive" leader Barack Obama, worship the nanny state, and believe in equality of outcome rather than equality of opportunity.

They badmouth capitalism and complain that only one percent of the American population has the "American dream." They buy into the class warfare rhetoric hook, line, and sinker. They want artificially raised minimum wage, government handouts, and believe that Obamacare is the greatest thing since the invention of pockets.

I look at them and the red ties materialize, familiarly, around their necks.

There are "academic" speakers now who advocate that having too many choices is "bad for you." Too stressful to choose, you see.
Living in the Soviet Union, being bombarded with similar nonsense, we had nothing to contradict it. When we walked outside the school, the everyday reality had no traces of the wealth afforded by capitalism. We lived in the grayness and that grayness was all there was.

Americans leave school to go home and they drop by a mall to buy something from an incredible selection of wealth and choice afforded by capitalism. They drop by a small corner store, which could probably feed a savvy Soviet village for a month (dog food is food, too, you know), and they pick up some "entertainment food" that did not exist in the USSR, in quantities that weren't affordable for an average Soviet family.

Then they go home and write essays on their expensive iPads about how they don't have the American Dream.

Now, most American news sources are no different than Pravda and Izvestia. Now, the government used the IRS to stifle political opposition. Now, ObamaCare is a wealth redistribution platform disguised as a common good. Now, Obama is being portrayed in academia and the media alike as a charismatic, messianic, "progressive" figure, fighting for the "underdog." He would feel right at home as the General Secretary of the Communist Party. Now, Obama Youths are me, from decades ago. Leninist academia has had its way with them. Now, just like Soviet leaders, American leaders give lip-service to "social justice" while stocking up on personal wealth for their families.

There's nothing new under the sun. I'm hardly the only ex-Soviet to point out the parallels. But some things matter enough to bear repeating.

Dear beautiful America, please, stop moving Forward.


Hat tip: BadBlue News

CALIFORNIA ACTION ALERT: Stop SB53, the Ammo Registration and Eventual Gun Confiscation Bill

By NRA-ILA

Your calls, e-mails and faxes are working! Senate Bill 53 has been stalled on the Assembly floor for days awaiting a vote. State legislators have admitted receiving tens of thousands of e-mails OPPOSING SB 53.

The war over SB 53 is heating up in Sacramento and now anti-gun advocates are attempting to split gun owners by trying to buy the support of hunters. The newest amended version of SB 53 will continue to BAN the mail and internet sales of ammunition to firearms owners in California, unless you have a hunting license. Supporters of SB 53 think that they can pretend to be "pro- hunting" while they are still violating the rights of firearms owners statewide.

Because of your efforts to OPPOSE SB 53, the supporters of SB 53 are desperately trying to SAVE AND PASS SB 53 by watering it down to benefit of select group of gun owners. You can be sure that if SB 53 is enacted this year, they will be back in 2015 to pass the full agenda of restricting ammunition sales to the rest of the law-abiding firearms owners in California.

Call AND e-mail the state Assembly NOW and tell them that hunters ARE firearms owners AND we stand UNITED in OPPOSING SB 53. Contact information for the state Assembly can be found here.

Hat tip: BadBlue Gun News.

NINTH CIRCUIT: Yes, We Approve of the Violent Balkanization of the United States Like Yugoslavia

In case you haven't heard about the bizarre Ninth Circuit decision regarding students punished for wearing American flag T-shirts to school, please consider:

Yesterday, the 9th US Circuit ruled that the display of the American flag could be banned in a school if enough hoodlums threatened violence and the school lacked the will to do anything about it.

Apparently Live Oaks High School in Morgan Hill, CA allows a celebration of Cinco de Mayo. Cinco de Mayo, as we know is a Mexican holiday that was popularized in the US by chain restaurants wanting to sell super-sized margaritas and Dos Equis beer. Why that day? When it is safe to say 99% of the people celebrating it and a higher percentage of the students at Live Oak High School, regardless of heritage have never heard of the Battle of Puebla and couldn’t find it on a map. I don’t know.

Some American students, and I use that term deliberately without regards to ethnicity, objected to the giving over of the school to Mexico for the day and protested it by wearing American flags or American flag apparel...

...Rather than take action against those threatening violence, the principal, showing the moral and physical courage the educational establishment is so famous for, sent home the kids wearing American flags, in an American school, in freakin United States of America.

Would you be surprised to find out that California is ranked 47th in 8th grade science scores?

Or that 40 percent of California's children aren't fluent in English?

Or that 44 percent of incoming freshmen into the California state university system need help with remedial English and math?

And, most importantly, "it is forbidden to notice that there is a cause-and-effect relationship between illegal immigration and these woes"?

Multilingualism rips countries apart. The term Balkanization -- represented by countries like Yugoslavia -- is "the process of fragmentation or division of a region or state into smaller regions or states that are often hostile" to one another.

Multilingualism promotes division.

Ultimately, multilingualism promotes civil war.

The Ukraine is but another example, its history rife with division and conflict even today.

Fast forward to the collapse of the Soviet Union, and we find that that fundamental division made hundreds of years ago, between East and West, Ukrainian and Russian speakers, is now a central issue. Once again, our bad neighbor to the East is trying to sweep Ukraine into its stifling embrace, exploiting the ancient divisions it helped cause.

The undeniable fact is this: Democrats embrace multiculturalism, which asserts that all cultures -- no matter how primitive or backward -- are equal. Democrats embrace multilingualism, which prevents assimilation. Democrats embrace division, not a harmonious civil society.

And the Ninth Circuit's ludicrous decision affirms that we are indeed on the path to a dissolution of the Republic.


Hat tip: BadBlue News

15 Reasons Your Food Bill is Set to Soar

Guest post by Michael Snyder

Did you know that the U.S. state that produces the most vegetables is going through the worst drought it has ever experienced and that the size of the total U.S. cattle herd is now the smallest that it has been since 1951? Just the other day, a CBS News article boldly declared that "food prices soar as incomes stand still", but the truth is that this is only just the beginning. If the drought that has been devastating farmers and ranchers out west continues, we are going to see prices for meat, fruits and vegetables soar into the stratosphere. Already, the federal government has declared portions of 11 states to be "disaster areas", and California farmers are going to leave half a million acres sitting idle this year because of the extremely dry conditions. Sadly, experts are telling us that things are probably going to get worse before they get better (if they ever do). As you will read about below, one expert recently told National Geographic that throughout history it has been quite common for that region of North America to experience severe droughts that last for decades. In fact, one drought actually lasted for about 200 years. So there is the possibility that the drought that has begun in the state of California may not end during your entire lifetime.

This drought has gotten so bad that it is starting to get national attention. Barack Obama visited the Fresno region on Friday, and he declared that "this is going to be a very challenging situation this year, and frankly, the trend lines are such where it's going to be a challenging situation for some time to come."

According to NBC News, businesses across the region are shutting down, large numbers of workers are leaving to search for other work, and things are already so bad that it "calls to mind the Dust Bowl of the 1930s"...

In the state's Central Valley — where nearly 40 percent of all jobs are tied to agriculture production and related processing — the pain has already trickled down. Businesses across a wide swath of the region have shuttered, casting countless workers adrift in a downturn that calls to mind the Dust Bowl of the 1930s.

If you will recall, there have been warnings that Dust Bowl conditions were going to return to the western half of the country for quite some time.

Now the mainstream media is finally starting to catch up.

And of course these extremely dry conditions are going to severely affect food prices. The following are 15 reasons why your food bill is going to start soaring...

California's Diabolical Plans to Shred the Bill of Rights

Guest post by NRA-ILA

In 1976, the Brady Campaign, then known as the National Council to Control Handguns, said that the first part of its three-part plan to get handguns and handgun ammunition made "totally illegal" was to "slow down the increasing number of handguns being produced and sold in this country." This month, anti-gunners finally got that wish in California.

America's two largest handgun manufacturers--Smith & Wesson and Sturm, Ruger--have announced that they will stop selling new semi-automatic handguns in California, rather than comply with the state's "microstamping" law. The law applies not only to entirely new models of handguns, but also to any current-production handgun approved by the state's Roster Board, if such handgun is modified with any new feature or characteristic, however minor or superficial.

According to the Los Angeles Times, the law was "intended to help police investigators link shell casings found at crime scenes to a specific gun." That's pure spin, however. In reality, the law, signed in 2007 by then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, is intended to terminate semi-automatic handgun sales and, over time, semi-automatic handgun ownership in the state. "Microstamping" will solve few, if any crimes and it is only a matter of time before a proposal to expand the law to include other firearms will follow.

California once again demonstrates that registration equals confiscation

History is replete with instances of gun registration leading to confiscation. California is only the latest example.

We’re told we’re paranoid and delusional for our tome that registration’s only purpose is to tell the government where they all are so they can be rounded up when a pretext presents itself. Well, here’s what’s happening in California:

The 10-bill package constitutes the single largest gun control push in decades in the Golden State, which already boasts some of the nation’s strictest gun laws. It joins equally controversial proposals from Assembly Democrats that would regulate and tax ammunition sales and consider taking the state’s 166,000 registered assault weapons from their owners.

...next time some gun control advocate tells you no one is talking about taking your guns, take a copy of Time, roll it up, and smack them with it (assault magazine).

When government has a monopoly on force, it tends to abuse it. Who was it that said, "Absolute power corrupts absolutely"?

Exclusive, must credit Biff Spackle: Paula Jones, Kathleen Willey, Juanita Brodderick to hold RNC panel discussion on protecting women from predators

Just kidding. But wouldn't it be appropriate?

Not to get too hung up on The Senate Candidate Who Shall Not Be Named™, but the fact that a disbarred, impeached, admitted pervert -- who was accused of rape by one woman, sued for molestation by another, publicly accused of fondling another, and who, eh, gave a cigar to an intern in the Oval Office -- is the keynote speaker at the Democrat National Convention is highly relevant to this discussion?

I join Mark Levin in calling for President Obama, Claire McCaskill, Nancy Pelosi, Barbara Boxer and Dee Wasserman Snider to demand that Clinton withdraw from his speaking engagement.

Otherwise, it's apparent Democrats are waging a veritable war on women.

As an aside, does Clinton have to notify his new neighbors each time he moves?

Einstein's Definition of Insanity: California

Gee, it's so surprising that stealing more and more money from the private sector -- to fund a bloated, unaccountable, massively top-heavy and unionized public sector -- would fail to close budget shortfalls.

Well, it's surprising if you're a Democrat, because they appear to be immune to facts, logic, reason and arithmetic.

Tax-hike austerity failing in California, just like Europe

I am having problems comprehending this Bloomberg headline: “Brown Tax Increase Gains Urgency as Deficit Rises to $16 Billion.” The story is even more puzzling:

California Governor Jerry Brown bet that a nascent financial recovery would lift the world’s ninth-largest economy enough to whittle down a $9.2 billion deficit. Instead, the gap has widened to $16 billion.

Today the 74-year-old Democrat will unveil his revised budget and explain what additional spending must be cut. Tax collections have run $3.5 billion below what he calculated four months ago. Spending has grown $2 billion above projections... The new deficit estimate increases the urgency of the governor’s plans to increase income taxes on some earners to the highest in the nation, and boost sales levies that are now more than any other state.

The plan would temporarily raise the statewide sales tax, already the highest in the U.S., to 7.5 percent from 7.25 percent. It would also boost rates on income starting at $250,000. Those making $1 million or more, now taxed at 10.3 percent, would pay 13.3 percent, the most of any state.

Wait, taxes are rising and revenues are falling. So obviously the solution is even more taxes? Who’s running the show over there, the IMF? So the state with highest sales tax in America would also have the highest income tax in America?

As it is, California ranks 48th in the Tax Foundation’s State Business Tax Climate Index. The California Dream has become the Golden State Nightmare.

As I predicted in 2011, Governor Moonbeam will soon be a thrice-failed state executive.

For unless Jerry Brown discovers a flock of gold-nugget-crapping unicorns, his strategy of crushing society's most productive citizens will simply drive them out of the state.

Which is why I published the "California-to-Texas Translation Guide a while back.

L.A. residents stunned to find out that solvency and 11% wage hikes for public unions may be mutually exclusive

I just want a Democrat to point me to one state, one municipality, one anything where their infernal policies of high regulation, high taxation, oppressive government and mirage-like Utopianism actually work.

But I won't hold my breath.

Offering a dire warning about potential bankruptcy, Los Angeles City Administrative Officer Miguel Santana said Friday the city will need to raise taxes, clamp down on employee pay and consider layoffs in order to keep solvent...

...The report comes two weeks before Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa - who recently also warned of possible salary freezes and layoffs - releases his budget for the coming year...

..."The rise in the city's labor costs has not been as a result of increased employment levels, but rather increases in what the city spends on health care for employees, workers' compensation, employee compensation and retirement benefits," Santana said.

There is an agreement to provide cost-of-living adjustments of 11 percent for the next two years and 11.75 percent for deputy city attorneys.

"It is not sustainable without further reductions to the workforce and essential public services," Santana said. "In addition, these increases create substantial compensation inequity within the workforce. This will result in significant pressure from other unions."

But, whatever you do, don't outlaw public sector unions, or raise the retirement age, or require reasonable contributions to pension and health benefits, or actually pay workers market wages.

Heavens, no.

These are Democrats we're talking about. And Democrats are big government. They are public sector unions. And, together, they're dedicated to extracting every last cent from you, the taxpayer.

USA Today: Electricity Prices Necessarily Skyrocket

Remember how, in May of 2009, the president said that, "under my plan... electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket"?

Well, I'm sure the "middle class" -- whoever that is -- appreciates the one campaign promise that Barack Obama kept.

Electric bills have skyrocketed in the last five years, a sharp reversal from a quarter-century when Americans enjoyed stable power bills even as they used more electricity...

...Households paid a record $1,419 on average for electricity in 2010, the fifth consecutive yearly increase above the inflation rate, a USA TODAY analysis of government data found. The jump has added about $300 a year to what households pay for electricity. That's the largest sustained increase since a run-up in electricity prices during the 1970s...

...Electricty [sic] is consuming a greater share of Americans' after-tax income than at any time since 1996 — about $1.50 of every $100 in income at a time when income growth has stagnated, a USA TODAY analysis of Bureau of Economic Analysis data found...

...High taxes, limits on air-polluting fuels and the expense of maintaining an underground transmission system keep consumer costs high, says ConEd spokesman Chris Olert.

But then again, maybe USA Today is some kind of propaganda arm for the right wing Visigoths.

Or perhaps the EPA is just an out-of-control, unelected, unaccountable bureaucracy bent on de-industrializing America in pursuit of the United Nations' thrice-debunked climate scam.


Hat tip: Mark Levin.

Poster Child for Insanity: Los Angeles Times Advocates Even Higher Taxes So Californians Can "Pay It Forward"

Those sounds you just heard were California's beleaguered taxpayers smacking themselves on their foreheads:

California's budget is almost never adopted by the legal deadline, but it was this year — in part because of a new simple-majority-vote requirement that left quarrelsome Republicans out of the discussion, and in part because daydreaming Democrats relied on a vaporous wish that the economy was going to improve and that the state would recoup $3.7 billion more in tax revenues than now seems likely. The shortfall is expected to trigger $2 billion in spending cuts, and Californians who think that's a good thing — that the cuts will impose needed fiscal discipline, or will force the state to make more responsible decisions, or will punish lazy freeloaders or greedy state workers — should wake up and smell the future...

...California is a wealthy state, with enough money and brains to create a future of opportunity and achievement for the next generation. As we face these new triggered cuts and even deeper cuts in the coming year, Californians must now show whether we still have sufficient regard for each other and for our successors to invest a little more today for an abundant, and sustainable, future.

The Times ignores the costs of California's operation as a sanctuary state, which the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) estimates at $20 billion. Consider just one slice of that figure and the devastating effects that California's open borders policies have on taxpayers:

According to The Modesto Bee, the California correctional system spends $50,000 annually to house each prisoner. This translates to 10 percent of the entire state's budget -- more than double that of the immense California university system -- which is spent on prisoners.

The state prison system currently houses about 155,000 inmates, 21,000 of whom are illegal aliens. Thus, California is spending about $1,050,000,000 (one billion and fifty million dollars) on imprisonment of illegals alone.

There is only way out of this mess for California before cities and the state itself descend into bankruptcy and chaos: they must eradicate collective bargaining rights for public sector workers; they must terminate open borders policies that allow sanctuary cities to exist in California; and they must rein in the regulatory superstate that has sent businesses fleeing the state in record numbers.

The time is now, Californians. You don't have much time left to repair this mess. Reject the idiocy of the Los Angeles Times and the other leftists who have set the state on a course for economic collapse. Vote for freedom.

*** Sniff *** California Kids Face Days Without Class as Revenue Falls Short. Hey, Let's Subsidize Tuition for Illegal Aliens!

I've diagnosed this aspect of modern liberalism as disorganized schizophrenia.

Public schools in California, which already spend less per student than those in 28 states, are bracing for a $1.7 billion cut that may wipe out high-school sports and student busing, and trim the academic calendar by seven days next year.

Automatic cuts built into this year's budget, intended to protect bondholders if revenue falls short of projections, are drawing new attention after California fell $705 million behind estimates in the first quarter.

A shortfall of $1 billion will slash hundreds of millions of dollars from universities and care of the elderly and disabled. A deficit of $2 billion will trigger reductions to public schools, creating "a fiscal emergency" that could leave some districts insolvent, a group of superintendents told Governor Jerry Brown in a Sept. 15 letter...

What would you do if you were Governor Brown?

You guessed it, Kreskin: subsidize illegal aliens with California's own, delightful version of 'The Dream Act':

Undocumented students now receive access to public aid.

Gov. Jerry Brown signed Assembly Bill 131 — the second part of the DREAM Act — into law on Oct. 9, making undocumented students eligible to receive state financial aid to attend California community colleges and universities...

In other words, even though illegal aliens cost the state's taxpayers at least $10.4 billion a year, Governor Brown wants to subsidize illegal behavior and encourage more of it. All while kids are forced to go without an ever-increasing number of school days.

Which leads to my definitive conclusion that Democrats are disorganized schizophrenics.

And painfully stupid to boot.

California's Version of the 'Buffet Rule' Working Out Beautifully. Oh, Wait: It's Actually an Unmitigated Disaster.

'Progressive' left hardest hit.

The state's over-reliance on taxing the rich has been a disaster during bad times

If President Obama really wants to see the "Buffett Rule" in action, he should look at California's tax system. The state has been plagued by it for years.

The revenue stream is unstable and the state budget has been a deficit disaster... In California, we've got what you could call a Buffett Rule-Plus. There's an extra tax bracket — at 10.3% — for income exceeding $1 million.

...California relies heavily on rich investors for its income tax revenue, which fuels half of the general fund... Some examples of this over-dependence, based on the 2009 tax year:

• The top 1% earned 18% of California's income but paid 37% of the income tax.

Illustrating the volatility of the California income tax, however, the top 1% paid 48% of the total take in 2007 before the stock market collapsed. In the next two years, the state's income tax revenue fell 25%.

• The top 10% earned 45% of the income but paid 72% of the taxes.

• During the recession, the middle class paid a slightly larger share of the declining income tax take. Those earning between $45,000 and $84,000 kicked in 11% of the total revenue in 2009, compared to 9% two years earlier. But one could argue they still were under-taxed. They earned 19% of the income.

"The real people who don't get taxed enough in California are the middle-income folks," says Steve Levy, director of the left-leaning Center for Continuing Study of the California Economy...

...Meanwhile, if Buffett really wanted to live by his own rule, he could leave Nebraska, move to California and pay our state taxes.

The math is actually pretty simple, unless you're a Democrat:

• If you punish success, you drive successful people away.

• If you reward sloth, you get more sloth.

• If you promote illegal behavior (such as illegal immigration), you get more illegal behavior.

But you can be sure that none of the tautological facts describing human behavior will ever influence a single progressive. Because for drones, ideology always trumps facts, logic, history and reason.


Image: HillBuzz.

Good News: California Bans Styrofoam, Small Businesses Rejoice!*

*If you call rejoicing being really, really pissed off.

As if California hasn't done enough to alienate businesses -- withholding water from farmers, paying government bureaucrats outrageous salaries, enacting a thicket of regulations (said to cost half-a-trillion dollars in 2009), and levying punishing taxes -- its latest brilliant law ought to really help kick-start the economy.

The dangerous, toxic substance known as styrofoam will finally be completely banned in California.

Democratic state Sen. Alan Lowenthal's bill to put a stop to Styrofoam use in grocery stores, restaurants, and food vendors is set to pass in the Senate. It would be the first state-wide ban of Styrofoam in the country...

Many have come to the aid of the ubiquitous containers: restaurant owners say the biodegradable alternatives are more expensive and less effective, while manufacturers like Dart claim they'll have to close two production plants that can't produce anything but Styrofoam.

...environmentalists are pleased to see a ban on the non-compost-able, non-biodegradable, chemical-laden receptacles... It would be interesting to see how this bill affects the rest of the nation, as California is commonly ahead of the curve on environmental law.

And it's working out so well for them, eh?

So, just to be clear: California's government-subsidized scientists have apparently determined that styrofoam is just as dangerous to humans as carbon dioxide.

We may want to count this as reason #18,306 that this bluest of blue states is bankrupt, hemorrhaging businesses and about to tell its pensioners (politely) that they're screwed. Yes, let's all emulate California, shall we?


Completely Unrelated Update: California Employment Level Sinks to Record Low

Graphic: gas taxes by state -- take a wild guess which states are the worst for gas taxes?

You don't have to be Kreskin to figure it out: the failed blue states of Illinois, New York and California take the prize.

The oppressive tax burdens of these destructive, Democrat-controlled states help explain why people and businesses are fleeing for greener pastures.

Good news from the failed blue state of California: number of retired teachers with $100K pensions jumped 650% in last six years

As if California didn't have enough problems -- from a massive budget deficit to runaway illegal immigration -- news that the powerful public sector unions are raping the system should certainly cheer taxpayers.

Thousands of newly retired school administrators will earn more during retirement than most Californians will make during their working careers.

The number of educators receiving $100,000-plus annual pensions jumped 650 percent from 2005 to 2011, going from 700 to 5,400, according to a Bee review of data from the California State Teachers' Retirement System... [these retirees] get millions more than they put into the system.

Booming administrator salaries are largely behind the trend. Public school superintendents, on average, earned $168,000 in base pay last year, roughly 56 percent more than they did 10 years ago... A series of benefit enhancements a decade ago also explain the rise... as a result, more than a third of the state's six-figure pensioners earn more each year in retirement than they ever did on the job.

...Like other public pension systems, CalSTRS has financial problems. The value of its assets isn't enough to cover what it has promised in benefits. System officials estimate CalSTRS will be unable to fund benefits in about 30 years unless the Legislature implements higher contribution rates for school districts, employees or the state.

California isn't alone. The Manhattan Institute estimates that teacher pension systems around the country are, in aggregate, $1 trillion underfunded.

But California and its ludicrous governor, a product of the public sector unions, are completely off the rails. Like the blue states of Illinois and New York, the inevitable result of Democrat governance -- bankruptcy -- is obvious for all to see.

Schmuck-tastic! Reporters Hear Chuck Schumer Scheming With Fellow Democrats To Mislead Reporters

It's "Open Line Tuesday"!

Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y. [joined] a conference call with reporters Tuesday morning without realizing the reporters were already listening in. Schumer thought he was on a private line with four Democratic senators who were to talk with reporters about the current budget stalemate.

Schumer instructed the group, made up of Sens. Barbara Boxer of California, Tom Carper of Delaware, Ben Cardin of Maryland and Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, to tell reporters that the GOP is refusing to negotiate... He told the group to make sure they label the GOP spending cuts as "extreme."

"I always use extreme, Schumer said. "That is what the caucus instructed me to use."

..."The main thrust is basically that we want to negotiate and we want to come up with a compromise but the Tea Party is pulling Boehner too far over to the right and so far over that there is no more fruitful negotiations," Schumer said on the call. "The only way we can avoid a shutdown is for Boehner to come up with a reasonable compromise and not just listen to what the Tea Party wants. "

...Someone must have finally told Schumer that the media were listening and he stopped talking midsentence.

As Ace observes, a government shutdown may be a fait accompli:

The key point is less about the message coordination and more about Schumer scheming to shut the government down, and preparing a rehearsed justification for it, claiming it's the other guys who won't negotiate.

Seems to me he's already well beyond negotiating and already digging bunkers.

Let 'em dig. Shut the damn government down already. If we can't marshal the will to enact massive cuts, the whole damn thing is going to collapse soon anyhow.


Hat tips: Ace o' Spades and D&S. Linked by: Michelle Malkin. Thanks!