Fiddling While Torrance Burns

So a bill passed the California Senate recently which would make it illegal to sell Confederate flags on state property.

Yes, my friends, and you are my friends, Isadore Hall, Democrat, of course, from Compton, of course, and Black, of course (this is the "Black Community" to which they refer), who has yet to be convicted of any crime, like almost all of his fellow Comptonites, but likely will, soon, presented this bill - presumably with a straight face - to his buddies for their consideration.  They passed it, 72 to 1, with one intelligent Republican dissenting.  And since there are very few Republicans left in Sacramento, we need to applaud those who remain and choose to show up and vote, knowing their vote will be completely meaningless.

They don't like the Confederate flag, and don't want you to be able to buy or be offended by it, or a picture of it, or a cupcake with the icing made to look like it (!), in the Capitol gift shop.  That would not be nice, Mr. Hall believes, and expending valuable State legislative time figuring out ways to eliminate it apparently is the single most important thing the Senate needed to consider.  

It now heads off to the Assembly for their consideration and vote, which, due to the supermajority Democrat makeup of the Assembly, is not in doubt, and thereon to Gov. Brown's desk for signature.  And he's sure to sign it, because, hey, what else does he have to do?  And what is more pressing than this? Apparently all the other pressing business has been solved by California, so it's high time we should turn our attention to the Confederate flag and keeping it off of cupcakes everywhere.

Did you hear that Toyota, headquartered in California for more than fifty years, has decided to put our state in its rear view mirror?  Yes, folks, good ol' Toyota decided that our regulatory environment, our highest-in-the-nation corporate and personal taxation, our monumentally stupid environmental rules and regs, and our left-wing, meddling, in-your-face and in-your-pocket redistributionist political tilt, had become just too much for the largest car company on the planet to endure.  So they're moving their last 3,000 jobs to Plano, Texas, a Dallas suburb.

That sound you're hearing is the roll-up doors on U-Haul trucks rolling down and slamming shut.

The fact that Texas has no corporate income tax and no personal income tax, and low property and sales taxes, and fast-track approvals for virtually anything that will create jobs and wealth and employment, and laws that favor personal freedom, will mean that Toyota and its employees will enjoy an enormous boost in profitability and after-tax earnings by simply moving 1,600 miles east.  And they'll also finally be treated like the superstar employers they are, and always have been.  Picture this:  Moving to Texas means an average 25% increase in income to Toyota and its employees. Wouldn't you move?

And picture this:  Fully one-third of all the jobs created in America in the past ten years were created in Texas.  One third!  Wouldn't you think that one or two of those overpaid and under worked commie drones in Sacramento would have noticed that its pocket is being picked by a state that knows how to do it, and do it right?  

I'm thinking that leaving behind the mantle of evil corporateurs that California had bestowed upon them and every other greedy, profit-making business in the State will prove to be an even greater blessing.

Torrance, Toyota's soon-to-be ex-home town, is not at all happy about this move.  It will leave their town a dying collection of Starbucks, unused dry cleaners and struggling car dealerships, thanks to California's stupidity.  Torrance's mayor is not at all shy about placing the blame right where it belongs:  It's California's Governor Brown, he says.  

Jerry Brown was less sanguine about the situation.  He said, "This is not a burp.  It's barely even a fart."  

Quite card, that Brown.  Seems like he's got the whole thing figured out.  Did I mention that Brown is one of the few public servants to likely live out his entire life without ever having had a private-sector job?*  Yep, when your daddy was governor, and you sup at the public trough since birth, it's likely that you'll see events such as this through a different filter.  So how, I ask rhetorically, would he have any idea what proper, effective governance even looks like?

So California spends its time figuring out ways to prevent the sale of Confederate flags, while one of America's largest employers is heading on down the I-10 to their new home, taillights growing smaller in the distance. More than 250 corporations, in fact, have chosen to pack up and head for greener pastures during the past few years, taking with them their best and their brightest, their jobs, their highly-educated, born-and-raised in California professionals, their upscale families, their tax base and their revenues.  

But hey, we'll still have plenty of Starbucks baristas and illegal aliens and sign twirlers, and no Confederate flags will be offending our prissy, wussie, weenie, perpetually-offended, politically-correct selves.  Gives you a warm and fuzzy feeling, doesn't it?

*  There's another one living at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue...