I'm Thinking It Just Might Be The Salt Air...

If you live in California, there's no need for you to read this little posting.  Nope, don't read it.  It won't be good for you. Please, go back to your Jerry Springer reruns, or your whining and protesting, or your monster truck races, or something.  Reading this installment of my unassuming little blog will make your miserable little plebeian existences even more unenjoyable, and you will hang your head in disbelief at just how stupid and ignorant your State politicians, and probably more than half of its citizens, and millions of non-citizens, really and truly are.

Or, you will alternatively be amazed at just how far your once-Golden State has fallen into the depth of liberal stupidarianism.  I sure hope not, but it just might.

Of course, if you're from somewhere else, almost...anywhere else...thank your lucky stars.  You've hit the jackpot!  You don't have to be plagued by the incessant rules and regulations and penalties and fines and taxes and fees and continual micro-managing that we who call this place "home" (do the residents of San Quentin call their little slice of the world home?) must suffer through each and every day. 

Loyal readers of my little blog will note that I have often opined about just how screwed up this once piece of paradise has become.  And that's thanks to the greedy, thieving, conniving, lying, manipulating and self-serving politicians that are plaguing us like an STD.  And due to the left-over "Summer of Love" hippies who never grew up, never got a real job, never started a company, never invented anything, can't dance or throw a fastball, and never felt called upon to make a contribution to society. None.  Zero.  Zip. Nada...

From what was a reliable bastion of conservatism sprinkled with pockets of weird-ass liberalism, like San Francisco and Santa Monica, as recently as twenty or thirty years ago, California has now become what they pundits dismissively call "deep blue."  

Points to ponder:

1.   There is not a single state-wide elected Republican office holder in all of California. Not one!  The Lefties in charge up in that quaint little backwater town called Sacramento, our State capitol, for some unexplained reason (ahem!), rammed through a law a few years back permitting only the top-two vote getters during the primaries to run against each other in the General Election! Soooooo, that little voting thing that happened a couple of days ago had us choosing between Kamala Harris, our Bulllllack and female Attorney General, and Loretta Sanchez, our Lateeeeeno and female sitting member of the House of Representatives.  And they are both Democrats! So we of the more conservative persuasion could choose among a candidate we didn't like and don't trust, or one we didn't like and don't trust. Hmmmmm.

Does that make sense to anyone except dufus weenie lefty career liberal politicians?

I've briefed you in the past about our Civil Servant-for-Life and failed Jesuit priest Governor Jerry "Moonbeam" Brown. He's the guy who's never had a private-sector job, but has had nearly every single elected office you can think of, including Governor for two terms on two separate occasions, Secretary of State and Mayor of Oakland for two terms!  He's so in love with the environment that he just hates the idea of cars spewing their noxious fumes into the atmosphere he came up with the idea for a bullet train to take us from Los Angeles to San Francisco.  Being apparently unaware that cars are more than 1,000 times cleaner than just a couple of decades ago, he decided that this train was worth every penny of the $30 Billion of its projected cost.  But not to worry, he told us taxpayers, because the Feds, he said, would happily pay for it.

Now, some 6 years later, our little choo-choo train is slated to cost more than $100 Billion, the Feds say they don't have the spare cash to cover its cost, it will have to run on existing, sometimes more than 70 year-old tracks so it won't be a "bullet" train after all, lazily chugging along as it will, and it won't be taking us from LAX to SFO.  No, folks, it will take us, when finally built, if ever, which I doubt, from Bakersfield, a place where no one wants to be, to Modesto, a place where no one wants to go.  

Sooooo, my friends, and you are my friends, you'll have to take a train more than 100 miles from L.A.'s downtown train station to get to where the train leaves, and then take another one more than 100 miles from where the train winds up, to get to your destination, good ol' SFO.  

So let's review:  What was sold to us as a quick, 4-hour trip for only $200 or so, versus one hour for $100 if you flew (!), will someday - maybe never - take 15 - 18 hours and cost more than $500. Man, that's progress!  Progress, from true "Progressives!"

Do you think anyone will ever ride on this little Liberal wet dream?  Me neither...

3.  Did you know you can't buy a dog or a cat or a fish in San Francisco?  Nope, you most assuredly cannot.  Those lefty weenies think those little beasties shouldn't suffer the indignity of being bought and sold.  Or owned!  Perish the thought!  So those PetCo and PetSmart stores and all the mom-and-pops were all forced out of business and their more than 600 employees with good-paying jobs all lost them.  

Of course, if you want a little doggie or kitty or fishie, you can just drive across the Golden Gate Bridge to Marin County and buy all of them you want.  Oh, and they get to keep the sales tax money...

And speaking of San Francisco, did you know you can't buy a gun in San Fran, City or County?  Nope, you can't.  They ran the last gun store out of town last year.  And by the way, it was owned by a minority military veteran!  Seems they believe that if you can't buy a gun there, then there won't be any guns there. That same sort of liberal myopia works pretty well in Chicago, doesn't it? Yep.  In Chi-town they've had more than 3,000 shootings and 600 murders so far this year, and it's by far the toughest town in America for gun control. Think of it this way: there are no guns in Chicago because there are no gun stores in Chicago.  It's that way because they want it to be so. Enough said.  

Of course, there are plenty of mainly Black folks bleeding to death each and every day from bullet wounds in the City of Broad Shoulders. But the Lap Dog Media won't report it, because it's news that doesn't benefit liberal viewpoints.  To them, it's just not news!   

These are just a few of the absurdities that have been visited upon us poor residents of Taxifornia.  But hey, there was another election just a couple of days ago.  We Californians faced a whole raft of new and odious laws that those who pay no taxes passed so that those of us who actually do pay taxes will have to suffer.    

But to make things even stranger, it that's possible, we can write up our own prospective laws here in Taxifornia and get them put on the ballot.  All we need to do is get thousands of our fellow citizens to sign petitions and the Secretary of State will certify the ballot initiative.  Then, we buy up a whole bunch of TV time so the low-information voter will feel all warm and fuzzy about voting for it and, "poof," the State Constitution is amended and it becomes law!   Of course, this "ordinary citizen" legislation process favors the billionaires and labor unions among us who are the only ones who can afford to pay for it. But you knew that already, right?

So I figured you'd get a kick out of reading about some of the 23 initiatives we were being asked to consider for General Election 2016 and how California's citizens, and very likely non-citizens, and lots of them, voted. Here's a few of them for your reading pleasure...

-  Proposition 55:  Believing that our citizens are undertaxed (we're already the highest taxed State in the nation, with a 13 and 1/2% tax on high-earners!), this Prop would raise taxes on the those earning over $250,000 by another 1%.  Where would the money go?  To aid some obtuse children's charity or other. Or not.  How did it fare?  It passed. What's that sound we hear?  It's the cabin door closing on a private jet just ready to take its owners off to Belize, or Panama, or Costa Rica, or some other no-tax locale, to bring its owners to fiscal safety. But as "Moonbeam" Brown said when he heard that Toyota had bailed and moved from Torrance, California to Plano, Texas, and took with it more than 4,000 high-paying white collar jobs, "Good riddance."  Nice, Jer, nice.

-  Proposition 56:  Always on the lookout for ways to keep the citizenry from smoking, and being always on the lookout for ways to further screw the citizens out of their hard-earned dollars, this little jewel offered to raise taxes on a pack of smokes by $2.00!  Taxes on a pack of cigarettes were $.87 cents.  That's obviously not enough, thought the powers-that-be.  Remember what happened when New York State bumped taxes on cigarettes way up?  Trailer loads of illicit cigarettes began arriving from Virginia for sale on the black market.  N.Y. lost hundreds of millions of much-needed tax revenue. But hey, the one thing we know about politicians is they are incapable of learning. Incapable!  How'd this Proposition fare? It passed... 

-   Proposition 60:  Politicians just luuuuuuv to insert themselves (pun intended) into all sorts of things in which they have no business.  Or, maybe in somebody's business (pun intended). This is one such thing.  Prop 60 would require all male porn stars to wear condoms.  I wondered exactly who would be policing this enterprise to insure compliance? How'd it do at the ballot box?  It went down for the count (pun intended).  

-  Proposition 62:  The very safest place here in Taxifornia is on Death Row.  Nobody who is sentenced to Death Row here actually gets put to death.  They all live out long, comfortable lives with no chance of any sort of intentional or accidental death from any cause.  That's because there's a wealth of anti-death penalty groups who will picket interminably to prevent its use.  Just the smallest whiff of a scheduled execution will cause these screaming bozos to materialize and picket and protest and stamp their little liberal feet!  So we might as well end it, the thinking went, since it's essentially ended anyway.  Didn't pass, however.  So you still won't die if you're on Death Row. 

Maybe those with a terminal illness should consider committing some capital crime.  If they got the death penalty, they'd surely live forever.

-  Proposition 63:  Believing that the best way to end "gun violence" is to end access to guns and ammunition, despite what the 2nd Amendment has to say about that, Gov. Brown was presented 13 new gun control laws for his review and signature this past summer.  He decided to sign 7 of the most ridiculous of them, but legislators still weren't happy. So they put this gem on the ballot for direct citizen "democratic," meaning 50% + one, action. It would outlaw so-called "assault weapons," or Modern Sporting Rifles.  With more than 20 million of them in use, do you think that would do any good?; it would outlaw ammunition magazines which hold more than 10 rounds, whether or not they were originally purchased legally, and require that they be turned in to your local sheriff's office or you'd be guilty of a felony (can't you just see that happening?); it would require one to report the theft of a gun with 48 hours or the owner would be guilty of a felony (what if you didn't know it was stolen?); and finally it would require anyone desirous of purchasing ammunition to undergo the same Federal background check you need to buy a gun. Huh?

This last item would set you back $50.00 for each purchase! So a $7.00 box of .22 bullets would now cost you $57.00! The Liberals have finally figured out that preventing citizens from buying ammunition renders guns nothing more than expensive paperweights.  

How'd it do?  It passed, of course.  So now, if you don't wish to participate in this unconstitutional little restriction, all you'll have to do is hop in your car, drive 275 miles straight East, buy a whole trunk full of ammo, without sales tax, of course, drive back home, and then sell it to all your friends, for a profit. 

Will it stop Bad Guys from buying ammo?  Noooooooo!  Will it stop anyone from buying ammo? Nooooooooooooo!  Will it stomp all over our 2nd Amendment Rights? Yessssssssssss! Will the NRA and the 2nd Amendment Foundation and the California Association for Gun Rights and the United States Concealed Carry Association and the California Sheriff's Association sue to overturn it?  Yesssssssssssssssss!  Will it be overturned in the courts, even the uber-liberal 9th Circuit? Yessssssssssssssssssss!

-  Proposition 64:  This Prop legalizes Mary Jowanna here in Taxifornia.  So we'll all be able to smoke dope all day every day without fear of "The Man."  Oh wait!  It will still be against Federal law to possess or use cannabis.  So how will this contradiction be addressed?  Good question, Grasshopper! Oh yeah, it passed.  Pass the Oreos and the Doritos...

-  Proposition 65:  And finally, this Prop would outlaw single-use plastic bags once and for all!  Yes, my friends, no more plastic bags! They're bad on the environment!  They foul the land fill!  They get caught in the flukes of giant whales!  Or something!  My guess is that they next step will be to outlaw paper bags because they're made out of trees, and trees have feelings! Or something.  It passed.

By the way, you'll now have to buy those previously-free plastic bags.  They'll now cost you at least $0.10 each, and maybe more, depending upon the store, and how hard up for cash it is.  What did all this prove? Ummm, nothing.  Except the commie pinko eco-weenies feel better.  Make something that was free now an extra cost item. Progressive-ism at its very best!

But wait, there's more!

Then a real earthquake hit!  Donald John Trump was elected President of the United States!  And how did the citizens of the once-Golden State respond to this news?  Get this.  They protested!  They marched!  They burned down buildings! They broke car windshields!  They shot each other with guns that don't exist!  They let us know how unhappy they are! Their teachers let them out of class to march!  They also got together and decided what they really needed to do was draft an initiative to place secession on the 2017 ballot and start gathering signatures. California finds itself once again on the wrong side of the Sierras and the wrong side of the rest of the Country, as it wants to now secede from the Union!  After all, my friends, Taxifornia is the Largest State in the Union and has the Sixth Largest Economy on Earth!  The dimbulbs here are absolutely certain that it could get along quite nicely without the rest of America. Or, at least they think so...

So, just in case there are any actual Californians reading this, I thought I'd give you the run-down on just how stupid and out of touch your state really is:

     -  34 state governorships are now controlled by Republicans.

     -  24 states have Republican governors and Republican-controlled legislatures.  Only 6 can boast Democrat governors and Dem-controlled legislatures.  Boast?  One of them is California, of course.  

     -  One-third of the entire U.S. House of Representative Democrat caucus comes from only three states:  Taxifornia, New Yawk and Masssachewsettts.  So one-third of the "loyal opposition" to the shiny new Republican-controlled House and Senate will come from only three states, and they will have virtually no power to legislate.  Boo hoo.

     -  3,084 out of 3,141 counties in America voted for Trump. Are we to believe that the other 57 counties should be permitted to dictate to us the fate and future of the U. S. of A.?  Me thinks not...

     -  And lastly, 20 of 25 coal-dependent states voted for Donald J. Trump.  Remember when Barry Obama shut down the coal mines due to his onerous EPA emissions regulations? And remember when Hillary Clinton promised coal miners - to their faces - that her Presidency would mean they would all lose their jobs?  I think the miners just gave them the Big Middle Finger! 

Well, there you have it.  Just another chapter in the unending story of how far Taxifornia has fallen from the once pinnacle of power.  Perhaps that "wall" Donald wants to build should be built between Taxifornia and the rest of the U.S.  Maybe that would help to keep this awful Progressive infection that plagues us poor citizens from migrating eastward.  

And by the way, all, or almost all of those 57 counties that are chock-full of commie pinko liberal weenies are on, or very near to one of the two coasts.  Close enough to smell the salt air.  Go ahead, take a look at the electoral map that last Tuesday produced.  See for yourselves that those who chose to buck the trend that overtook America stretch up and down both the Atlantic and Pacific coastlines.  And so it struck me that perhaps it's the salt air that's the culprit here!  Maybe it's the salt air that's clogging the brains of otherwise reasonable people.  And if so, we have to do something to keep that salt air contained.  Maybe that wall I mentioned above could go a long way toward keeping all that salt air from turning the rest of America into brain-dead slackers...