Santa Barbara requires jail time for giving out plastic straws
Fascist California: The city of Santa Barbara has now passed a law that will impose jail time to any restaurant employee who hands out plastic straws.
The city of Santa Barbara has passed an ordinance that will allow restaurant employees to be punished with up to six months of jail time or a $1,000 fine for giving plastic straws to their customers.
The bill was passed unanimously last Tuesday, and covers bars, restaurants, and other food-service businesses. Establishments will still be allowed to hand out plastic stirrers, but only if customers request them.
This is always how fascist states begin, by passing what seems to be very innocuous laws that have golden and pure good intentions. They they pass more laws, and more laws, and impose stricter rules, and demand more and more from everyone, until the only individuals who are free are those in charge, since none of these rules are ever applied to them.
California has been traveling this road already for many years. They are right now about a decade behind Venezuela. I would not move there, at this time, if I were you. You will regret it.
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Fascist California: The city of Santa Barbara has now passed a law that will impose jail time to any restaurant employee who hands out plastic straws.
The city of Santa Barbara has passed an ordinance that will allow restaurant employees to be punished with up to six months of jail time or a $1,000 fine for giving plastic straws to their customers.
The bill was passed unanimously last Tuesday, and covers bars, restaurants, and other food-service businesses. Establishments will still be allowed to hand out plastic stirrers, but only if customers request them.
This is always how fascist states begin, by passing what seems to be very innocuous laws that have golden and pure good intentions. They they pass more laws, and more laws, and impose stricter rules, and demand more and more from everyone, until the only individuals who are free are those in charge, since none of these rules are ever applied to them.
California has been traveling this road already for many years. They are right now about a decade behind Venezuela. I would not move there, at this time, if I were you. You will regret it.
Readers!
Every February I run a fund-raising drive during my birthday month. This year I celebrate my 72nd birthday, and hope and plan to continue writing and posting on Behind the Black for as long as I am able.
I hope my readers will support this effort. As I did in my November fund-raising drive, I am offering autographed copies of my books for large donations. Donate $250 and you can have a choice of the hardback of either Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8 or Conscious Choice: The origins of slavery in America and why it matters today and for our future in outer space. Donate $200 and you can get an autographed paperback copy of either. IMPORTANT! If you donate enough to get a book, please email me separately to tell me which book you want and the address to mail it to.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. My analysis of space, politics, and culture, taken from the perspective of an historian, is almost always on the money and ahead of the game. For example, in 2020 I correctly predicted that the COVID panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Every one of those 2020 conclusions has turned out right.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
Should make for some interesting jailhouse conversations.
Convict 1: What are you in for?
Convict 2: Possession of straws with intent to sell.
This is why busybodies who push for laws for innocuous offenses are such trouble.
Every time someone grumbles “there outta be a law….” they should be reminded gently of the ultimate outcome of legislation for petty issues.
I guess technically it’s possession with intent to distribute.
Continuing the dialog:
Convict 2: The cops told me they were watching me give them away and getting more and more angry that I was getting away with it. Just as I ran out of them, the cops got totally fed up, moved in, and arrested me.
Convict 1: You mean…
Convict 2: Yes, it was the last straw!
People keep telling me that Republicans are authoritarians and when I point out that Democrats are the ones that try and run your life from the smallest detail up to the largest I just get blank stares as the wheels turn trying to rationalize whatever law or regulation is in question until the conclusion is reached that this really is a needed regulation and that Republicans are the real authoritarians.
I never thought that I would live in a country where a merchant cannot give me a plastic bag , I can’t have a straw to sip my drink comfortably, or buy the kind of light bulb I want. When I first heard this plastic straw story, I felt uneasy but still thought it would never happen. Foolish me! It’s spreading so fast in CA, it’s frightening. As soon as they conquer you in one area, they smoothly move on to the next. It’s coming.
What fascinates me is the rationale for such “laws”.
Major selling point is to stop that great plastic patch in the Pacific.
But first, it’s greatly exaggerated – and second – analysis clearly indicates 95%
of the source material is from Asia! The remaining 5% appears mostly Central American. Unless of course very liberal California, Washington and Oregon have been secretly engaged in massive illegal dumping for decades, and no one noticed.
Just chalk it up to the ultimate joy of extreme control freaks.
You go to jail for giving someone a straw, while Starbucks continues to give out plastic coffee stirrers.
I think I’ll buy a case of straws and give them out in front of city hall.
After all, the left LIKES civil disobedience.