Tag: California

The oppressive and ignorant blacklisting culture that now dominates politics

12:50 pm

Most of all beware this boy.’
As noted by the Spirit of Christmas Present in Dickens’
The Christmas Carol, ‘This boy is ignorance, this girl is want.
Beware them both, but most of all beware this boy.’

While today’s blacklisting essay is mostly about one specific story, what it really does is illustrate starkly the overall ugliness and ignorance that fuels the blackballing, and how that ugliness and ignorance has seeped into every aspect of our political and cultural lives.

In a story that is hardly unique or surprising, the Los Angeles City Council last week passed a new regulation that bans the use of any gas appliances in new construction, both residential and commercial.

The council’s reasons for imposing this ban — as is usual for such bans — was based not on any actual documented problem that presently exists but on a fear that one might someday occur. From the opening paragraph of the actual motion:

As the gravity and urgency of the climate emergency become more apparent with each passing year of rising temperatures, dangerous wildfires, and more severe droughts—all of which disproportionately impact communities of color and the most vulnerable Angelenos—the City of Los Angeles must do all in its power to reduce its carbon emissions and move toward a sustainable, zero-carbon economy. [emphasis mine]

Note the highlighted words. » Read more

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Today’s blacklisted American: Long Beach to discriminate against any employee who refuses COVID jab

1:07 pm

Genocide is coming to America
If they could, the Democrats would do this to anyone who opposes them.

Blacklists are back and the Democrats have got ’em: The local government of Long Beach, California will on June 6, 2022 begin harsh discrimination and punishment against any city employee who refuses to get the COVID jab.

Anyone granted the personal exemption option must pay for weekly COVID-19 testing (rapid antigen/PCR), which can be done during city work hours, with the cost of the testing deducted from the employee’s paycheck, according to Ambrosini’s memo. Those receiving medical or religious exemptions will still be subject to weekly COVID-19 testing, but at city expense, according to the memo.

All unvaccinated city employees must continue to wear a mask of at least medical or surgical grade while at work under this new policy, according to memo. Employees not doing so are subject to disciplinary measures, up to and including termination, according to the policy.

Employees found not in compliance with the vaccination mandate will be subject to a wide range of disciplinary measures, including up to six months of suspension and then possible separation or even termination should non-compliance continue, according to the city.

The absurdity and injustice of this is even more pronounced considering the vast evidence now available to show the COVID shots don’t provide any real protection while carrying a potential health risk to those that take it. The link above, from May 11, 2022, provides links to a lot of this research. Here are just a few more examples, published in only the past few weeks:
» Read more

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Pushback: Parents & teachers sue to prevent California schools from teaching anti-Semitism

3:14 pm

What really needs to happen
The time has come to clean house, without mercy.

Bring a gun to a knife fight: A group of concerned parents and teachers in California filed a lawsuit on May 12, 2022 to prevent a bigoted and anti-Semitic ethnic studies program from being adopted “under the radar” in Los Angeles schools.

You can read the full complaint here [pdf]. From the link above:

Advocates, including teachers union officials, public-school teachers and other ideologues, have formed the Liberated Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum Consortium, through which they hope to influence the teaching of ethnic studies in the state. The consortium, which disseminates teaching materials lifted directly from radical anti-Israel websites, rejects the idea that all cultures should be studied. It asserts that ethnic studies is about only four groups: Native Americans, black Americans, Chicanos/Latinos, and Asian-Americans/Pacific Islanders. That last group includes Arabs from the Middle East, but not Jews, who’ve lived in that same region for millennia.

The consortium’s materials, many of which have been taken offline in recent months, are filled with attacks on Jews and the Jewish state. They deny that Jews are indigenous to the Middle East and teach that Israel is a “colonialist” and “settler state” founded through “genocide,” “ethnic cleansing” and “apartheid.” They falsely define Judaism, teaching that “Zionism is distinct from Judaism” and that Zionism isn’t a Jewish religious belief but an invention of the “late 19th century.”

Apparently, this “liberated” ethnic studies program — which is merely another example of leftist critical race theory — is an attempt to bypass state law, which rejected it and demanded by law that all schools teach students at least one ethnic studies class by 2030, but provide a wide balanced look at all issues. Because this “liberated” program violates this standard, instead considering the only valid ethnic groups who have been oppressed (by whites and Jews) to be Native Americans, black Americans, Chicanos/Latinos, and Asian-Americans/Pacific Islanders, it advises teachers to hide from parents the teaching of this material. From the complaint’s description of this program’s teaching materials:
» Read more

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Today’s blacklisted American: Christian preschool shuttered by California for not keeping masks on two-year-olds at all times

11:38 am

What the California government wants
What California’s petty dictators really want to do with those teachers
and children who don’t do what they order.

Now they’re coming for the children: California health officials, outraged that teachers at Foothills Christian Church Preschool could not keep masks on two- and three-year-olds continuously for nine hours a day, have shut the school down and banned its director, Tiffany McHugh, from ever working with children again.

This bears repeating: These insane health officials demanded that school officials keep the masks on little toddlers at all times, a demand that any normal human knows is impossible. Furthermore, even the slightest amount of research will tell you that there is no reason for the kids to wear masks in the first place, as young kids generally don’t get COVID — just like they don’t get the flu — and if they do it has been shown to be harmless in healthy children.

A closer look at the actions of the health officials reveals what was really going on:
» Read more

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Oh no! 132 SpaceX employees in California come down with colds!

11:16 am

Chicken Little update: The California press today is in a panic of doom because 132 SpaceX employees in its Hawthorne facility have been diagnosed with some form of COVID.

From the KABC news division, a typical example:

In the largest recent Los Angeles County workplace outbreak, at least 132 workers at SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne have been infected with COVID-19, according to new county data. The county’s latest compilation of outbreaks at workplaces that don’t include residential facilities puts the rocket company at the top of the list, far ahead of the 85 cases at the FedEx facility near Los Angeles International Airport. The list includes 37 workplaces with a total of 452 cases.

…The outbreak comes as COVID-19 cases are once again rising in California and throughout the country, amid increased holiday travel and gatherings, and the spread of the omicron variant. Los Angeles County recently reported its highest number of daily cases since August.

California this week is marking 75,000 deaths from COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic.

And health officials are concerned as omicron has now become the dominant strain of the coronavirus. Hospitals are reporting once again being strained to the limit of their resources as the holiday season gets underway, with increased transmission linked to family gatherings and air travel.

O no! We’re all gonna die!

NOT! As is usual for the mainstream press, working as operatives of the Democratic Party, they fail to mention that this new “outbreak” of COVID-19 appears to be mostly from the new omicron strain, which to this date has killed only about fourteen people worldwide, most of whom were in the UK and sick with other illnesses.

All the evidence shows that more than 99.9% of everyone else experiences very mild symptoms from Omicron, comparable to an ordinary cold, and is better in a few days. Since most of SpaceX’s employees are young and healthy, I predict they will all be back at work with the coming of the new year.

None of these facts matter however to the fear-driven and ignorant press and the political leadership in states controlled by the power-hungry Democratic Party. Instilling fear is their goal, and instill it they will.

Meanwhile, most ordinary people nationwide are increasingly realizing that COVID-19 was never the plague it has been touted as, and are going back to normal life. More important, they are finally realizing that the politicians, health officials, and the mainstream press are simply idiots crying wolf endlessly, and should be ignored.

SpaceX for example during this entire fake “pandemic” has not slowed its operations down in the slightest. It has not required vaccines, it hasn’t even asked its employees what their status is. The result is the company has experienced no harm at all, while it forged ahead of all of its competition.

The same will happen now. In two weeks these employees will be back at work, and SpaceX will continue operations as normal. And if the various state and local California governments try to force restrictions on it, Elon Musk will tell them to go to hell, and move even more of his company’s operations out of California.

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California environment overregulation sole cause of shipping backup

3:32 pm

California environment regulations that ban the use of any truck more than three years old, essentially banning half of all fleet trucks and practically all small private truck companies, is the real cause of the shipping backlog that is piling up outside the ports of Los Angles and Long Beach.

This banning was established by a deal the EPA made with California in October 2020, when Trump was still president.

In effect, what this 2020 determination and settlement created was an inability of half the nation’s truckers from picking up anything from the Port of LA or Port of Long Beach. Virtually all private owner operator trucks and half of the fleet trucks that are used for moving containers across the nation were shut out.

In an effort to offset the problem, transportation companies started using compliant trucks (low emission) to take the products to the California state line, where they could be transferred to non-compliant trucks who cannot enter California. However, the scale of the problem creates an immediate bottleneck that builds over time. It doesn’t matter if the ports start working 24/7, they are only going to end up with even more containers waiting on a limited amount of available trucks.

Essentially, California is now holding the entire nation hostage. The backlog is only going to get worse. Moreover, the deal as designed favored big operations, such as Amazon, Walmart, UPS, FedEx, Samsung, The Home Depot and Target, because they can afford the extra costs of shipping to alternative ports. The small companies are essentially shut out.

So much for protecting the little guy, Mr. Trump. This highlights again Trump’s primary failure. He did not clean house when in office, and thus allowed the bureaucracy — clearly operating as agents of the Democratic Party — to double cross and stymie him at every opportunity.

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Today’s blacklisted American: Catholic hospitals threatened with cancellation by University of California

12:13 pm

Religious beliefs banned by University of California
Religious beliefs: Banned by University of California.

The modern dark age: The Board of Regents of the University of California (UC) on June 23, 2021 voted to end its affiliation with all Catholic hospitals if they do not agree to perform “abortions, euthanasia, assisted suicide and the direct sterilization of patients,” in direct violation of their Christian religious beliefs.

The policy states that UC physicians practicing at a sectarian hospital must be permitted to provide any treatment at that location to a patient who can’t be safely transferred to another facility — even if the treatment would violate religious restrictions. Affiliated hospitals will have until Dec. 31, 2023, to comply with the policy, or the affiliation agreement must be canceled.

“We know that transfers are not always in the patient’s interest”, board Chair John A. Pérez, who crafted the key language approved by the board, said after the board’s meeting, conducted remotely Wednesday afternoon. [emphasis mine]

Do you see the lie in the highlighted words? All of these treatments are optional, and can be scheduled. I can see almost no medical issue preventing the safe transfer of a patient from of a Catholic hospital in order to get one of these procedures. In fact, I can’t even see a reason for any patient who wants an “abortion, euthanasia, assisted suicide, or direct sterilization” to even be in a Catholic hospital.

The only reason the university’s Board of Regents has for imposing such a rule is to either force Catholics to violate their religious beliefs, or to get such religious hospitals blackballed from serving any patients,. and thus in the long run destroy them as institutions.

As noted by the Alliance of Catholic Healthcare,
» Read more

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Today’s blacklisted Americans: California’s ethnic studies uses Nazi language to demonize Jews

11:32 am

They’re coming for you next: The new California ethnic studies program that is expected to be imposed on all the state’s classrooms is in fact based entirely on critical race theory (CRT) that makes whites the devil and all other minorities its victims, except Jews, who are targeted for special condemnation using language reminiscent of Nazi Germany.

Because of outrage over the bigoted nature of the earlier versions, two revisions have been offered, both of which really changed nothing of substance. The last version however added the following:

Two lessons have been offered about Jews. One, following crude CRT dogma, teaches that Mizrahi Jews coming to the United States from Arab lands were mistreated by “white” Ashkenazim. The other suggests that Jews of European descent have white privilege.

The Jewish Journal points out that Jews are the only group in the curriculum for whom the term “privilege” is used. And this privilege is not earned by way of talent, or educational and professional attainment, but rather trickery. The ESMC, echoing Nazi propaganda about Jews as impostors and appropriators hiding in plain sight, points out that American Jews often change their names (“this practice of name-changing continues to the present day”) to change their rank in the social hierarchy.

The historical reality of repeated genocidal attacks on Jews because of their perceived or imagined privilege is not offered as counterpoint, because ethnic studies teachers assume the Holocaust is taught in world history class. But next year in San Mateo County, world history will be replaced by ethnic studies.[emphasis in original]

There is a lot more in the article at the link. Overall it outlines the racist, white- and Jew-hating nature of critical race theory, about to be imposed on all students in California’s public school system, even as that system removes any teaching about world history and the Nazi genocide of millions of Jews.

Rick, stating the truth in Casablanca
Click for video.

Note that while this program is being created by the bigoted idiots in the state’s various ethnic studies programs, it was mandated by the state’s Democratically-controlled legislature and signed into law by the previous Democratic governor, Jerry Brown, and later endorsed by the present Democratic governor, Gavin Newsom.

If you live in California, you voted for this, either from apathy, ignorance, or maybe even your own bigoted motives. And while one would expect Californians to be horrified and ashamed by this, I fully expect more apathy and ignorance, even as the bigots gain more power.

As I say, they’re coming for you next. And I fear that few decent people are doing anything to stop these thugs.

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Today’s blacklisted Americans: California Democrats to blacklist all conservative or religious policemen

3:08 pm

The cancelled Bill of Rights
A document Democrats clearly don’t like.

They’re coming for you next: California Democrats have introduced a bill in the state legislature that would essentially ban the hiring of any policemen who had religious or political beliefs that oppose the agenda of the leftist sexual rights community.

The bill, known as the California Law Enforcement Accountability Reform Act (CLEAR Act), claims to combat “the infiltration of extremists in our law enforcement agencies” and would mandate a background check for all officers who have “exchanged racist and homophobic messages.”

Kalra claims that AB 655 is necessary to prevent “the apparent cooperation, participation, and support of some law enforcement” in the Jan. 6 Capitol breach.

The bill defines hate speech as “as advocating or supporting the denial of constitutional rights of, the genocide of, or violence towards, any group of persons based upon race, ethnicity, nationality, religion, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, or disability.”

As several conservative and religious individuals note in the article, the bill’s vague language basically makes it illegal for cops to harbor conservative or religious beliefs, and will give the government the right to fire anyone who disagrees with the homosexual lobby or opposes abortion.

As of this moment the bill is not yet law. Knowing the strongly Democratic Party make-up of the legislature, however, expect it to pass with flying colors.

California has been a fascist state for at least a decade, with its voting system designed by the Democrats to prevent any opposition party from winning. This bill only accelerates that process. And if you live there don’t expect your voice to be heard if you protest the bill. The Democratic Party has a lock on all government positions, and doesn’t need to cater to the citizens of the state any longer. Their will shall be done.

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Today’s blacklisted Americans: Abraham Lincoln and George Washington

1:23 pm

They’re coming for you next: Even as Democrats nationwide embrace blacklists of ordinary Americans for daring to express dissent from that party’s leftist agenda, the extremely leftwing school board in San Francisco is moving to blacklist as many of America’s historical national figures as possible, including Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, and Paul Revere.

Cancel culture is going after our Founding Fathers and other American leaders. Just this week, the San Francisco Board of Education voted to rename 44 public schools in a vote of 6 to 1.

The names on the chopping block are familiar and belong to important American leaders. Lincoln, Washington, and Roosevelt will no longer have their names attached to schools in the Golden Gate City. Dianne Feinstein’s name will also be removed.

Francis Scott Key, who penned the national anthem, former presidents William McKinley, James Garfield, James Monroe, and Herbert Hoover, and even Paul Revere were viewed as being too controversial and incendiary to have the honor of having a school named after them.

The school board can’t argue that these were supporters of slavery, since Lincoln freed the slaves, and Roosevelt, Key, McKinley, Hoover, and Revere never owned them and lived either in places that did not permit slavery (colonial New England) or outlawed it (post-Civil War America).

No, what this school board is doing is banning history, so that the students it “educates” will be guaranteed to know nothing about the past noble Americans who made this country a great and free land, for all. Instead, San Fransisco students will be indoctrinated into the Marxist philosophy of hate and envy, hating anyone who doesn’t agree with that ideology and having envy for anyone who works hard to achieve success instead of relying on the central government to feed them.

And most of all, they will be taught that America is, was, and always will be an evil land. They will be taught to hate it, so they can be enlisted in the war to destroy it.

So while today’s blacklisted Americans are dead and thus cannot be oppressed, the destruction of their names and good works is still possible, and the modern fascist Democratic Party is there to gladly oblige.

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California, home of masks and harsh lockdowns, has highest COVID-19 infection rate in nation

3:50 pm

Chicken Little report: New data reveals that California, the home of insane mask mandates and irrational and harsh lockdowns, also has the worst COVID-19 infection rate in nation, with the most daily new cases per capita.

In fact, the infection rate in California appears to be between two to three times the rate in Florida, where the restrictions have been few in the last six months.

Gee, I wonder if there might be a connection between these insane lockdown rules and mask mandates and the increase in cases. Could it be that because the lockdowns force people indoors, where the virus can thrive, rather than being out in the open air and sunlight, where such viruses easily die, they are increasing the disease’s spread? Could it be that forcing everyone to wear unsanitary masks indiscriminately might actually be exposing them more to infection?

Could it? If you have an open mind you ask such questions. If you don’t, you huddle in your basement with a mask on in terror and fear, even as the virus explodes around you.

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Musk confirms he has left California for Texas

11:43 pm

SpaceX founder Elon Musk today confirmed that he is selling his homes in California and is moving permanently to Texas.

Musk did not reveal whereabouts in the Lone Star State he has moved to. It’s also unclear whether he will purchase any property there, given that he stated earlier this year that he wants to rid himself of possessions and is only interesting in renting.

Over the summer, the Musk Foundation officially consolidated its headquarters in Austin – a city that also houses a Tesla assembly plant. However, Musk is also known to spend time in Boca Chica, on the southeast coast of the state, where there is a SpaceX facility.

For the time being, both Tesla and SpaceX remain headquartered in California. It is unclear whether Musk will officially move both businesses to Texas at a later date.

I expect that both Tesla and SpaceX in California will soon be leaving as well. Musk is shrewd however. He has been shifting both slowly from California in the past two years as he has found it increasingly impossible to deal with government officials there. Witness Starship for example. Two years ago it was to be built in the Port of Los Angeles. Now, with little fanfare all operations have moved to Texas.

Musk will leave slowly, so as to not stir a political hornet’s nest among the fascist legislators of California. They consider everything everyone owns as belonging really to them, and will not take kindly to any attempt of Musk to escape.

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Newsom’s new lockdown in California triggered by totally normal numbers

10:01 am

The new lockdown edicts by California’s governor and petty dictator, Gavin Newsom, were triggered by numbers that are routine and have been for decades.

When California Governor Gavin Newsom set his 85% ICU capacity “trigger” to automatically start a new round of totalitarian lockdowns, he had zero doubt the number would be reached in December. How? Because that number is reached EVERY December. Knowing this, why wouldn’t he prepare by assisting hospitals across his state to increase ICU capacity?

…In any given year, most parts of California reach 90% ICU capacity in December. This is usually due to the surge in flu cases, but the flu is allegedly non-existent this year, replaced on paper by the more lucrative COVID-19 diagnoses preferred by hospitals. They knew it was coming, which is why they made moves separate from the state to increase ICU capacity.

In other words, the total number of cases in California’s hospitals is actually at this moment below, or at least completely normal. The only difference is that there are no flu cases. Instead, hospitals are claiming they are all COVID-19.

The lockdowns are there for only one purpose: To strike fear into the hearts of ordinary people, and to expand the power of the government, in complete violation of the entire Bill of Rights.

Welcome to fascist America.

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“It’s a slap in my face!”

9:29 pm

The fascist Democratic Party mayor of Los Angeles, Eric Garcetti, issued an edict last month shutting down all restaurants, including all outdoor dining. Yet, he allowed a movie company to set up its outdoor catering services that offer the same service, in the parking lot in front of the shuttered restaurant, about-to-become bankrupt because of his edict.

But according to Angela Marsden, owner of Pineapple Hill Saloon & Grill in Sherman Oaks, local officials permitted a TV production to skirt the rules. Shockingly, the Hollywood crew had set up outdoor eating areas just feet from Marsden’s restaurant.

In her blistering rant, Marsden blasted Garcetti and Newsom for prioritizing Hollywood over small businesses like hers. “So this is my place, the Pineapple Hill Grill & Saloon. If you go to my page you can see all the work I did for outdoor dining, for tables being seven feet apart,” Marsden said. “And I come in today because I’m organizing a protest and I came in to get stuff for that.”

“And I walk into my parking lot — and obviously Mayor Garcetti has approved … this,” she continued, pointing to the production setup, including tables for outdoor dining to be used by the production crew, “has approved this being set up for…this being set up for…for a movie company.”

You must watch her video here. As she says in tears, pointing at her patio, “This is dangerous!” She then points to the movie catering area, which looks exactly the same, if not larger, less than thirty feet away. “And that is safe?” As she notes, “It’s a slap in my face!”

Remember too that this is all part of a lockdown in March that was only supposed to last 15 days, in order “to flatten the curve.” A lie, of course, as have been almost everything coming out of the mouths of government health officials since day one of this epidemic. But then, lying has become standard practice from almost every establishment official in Washington, elected or not, for the last four years, on almost every subject. Trump was colluding with Russia! He colluded with Ukraine! No one in the Obama administration ever spied on him! Trump put kids in cages (built by Obama based on Obama’s policy)! And of course, endlessly: Trump is a racist!

I could go on. They lie, and they lie again, and then they top it off with more lies.

And we are supposed to believe them when they say the vote wasn’t rigged? By this time only fools and children should accept the words out of anyone in government.

If the petty dictators in state governments don’t reconsider and stop destroying so many people’s lives, they shall soon see a lot of blood, and it will be their blood, because those same people will have no choice but to shed it in desperation. Politicians be warned.

I don’t wish it. I only know, as a historian, that this is what will happen if things don’t change soon. And if you don’t believe me you need only read a little bit of history.

Let me add that Julie Kelly says much the same in this essay: Shut up and take it. And I think she says it more thoroughly.

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The idiocy, ignorance, and corruption of California’s Governor Newsom

12:44 pm

In the past week the Democratic governor of California, Gavin Newsom, has demonstrated that in his quest to cement the dictatorial powers he gave to himself with the arrival of the Wuhan virus, he really has no interest in any facts or real scientific data.

First, he announced with great fanfare on October 5th that the country and his state were entering a new terrible outbreak of COVID-19. “This is the second wave,” he declared grimly, adding,

“We continue to have a lot to do on COVID-19 transmission,” he said. “You’re starting to see an increase in COVID cases across the country,” the governor observed. “You’re seeing this not just across the country, you’re seeing this across the world.” Newsom then reported that 21 states across the U.S. are seeing increases.

Newsom then made reference to the Spanish flu pandemic that hit America in 1918, noting that “the second wave in 1918 was the most deadly.”

The problem for Newsom however are the facts, as shown in the graph below.
» Read more

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Government takes down pro-Trump sign on private property, without permission

10:46 am

They’re coming for you next: California state officials quickly moved to take down a pro-Trump billboard, even though it was on private property and they apparently did not have permission to do so.

This LA Times report on the massive Trump sign on a hill near the 405 says that state authorities went on private property to take it down because they claimed the political speech was a “visual distraction” to drivers.

So, in California your first, fourth, fifth, and sixth amendment rights are now null and void. If government officials don’t approve of your political signage, they now claim the right to enter your property, without permission and without a search warrant, and take down your signage.

The article at the first link notes that for some reason, these same California authorities did not consider it a “visual distraction” for Antifa and Black Lives Matter protests to stand on these same highways and block traffic.

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California to ban all gas-powered vehicles

8:55 pm

This is not the Babylon Bee: California Democratic governor Gavin Newsom today announced that as of 2035 the state will outlaw all gas-powered vehicles.

Newsom said that his new executive order would “eliminate” the sales of “internal combustion engines” and move to electric vehicles — a move that he said would create jobs and allow California to “dominate” the market, and address climate change. Those who currently own gas-powered vehicles would still be allowed to operate them and to sell them on the used market.

2035 happens to be the same year that former Vice President Joe Biden has set as a deadline for the U.S. to eliminate fossil fuels from electricity production, five years later than originally proposed by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) in her “Green New Deal.” Ocasio-Cortez led the climate change panel on the “Biden-Sanders Unity Task Force” earlier this year.

The ignorance displayed by this policy decision is spectacular. These Democrats obviously believe that the power from electric cars comes from magic. They also seem to believe that new technology can magically be decreed, by government fiat.

What this degree will do is bankrupt California, and make living there a living hell, suitable only for the very very rich or the very very poor (whose survival will be wholly dependent on those very very rich).

Remember this when you go to vote in November. Newsom, Ocasio-Cortez, and Biden are very typical of the modern Democratic Party. Give it power and it will do the same for the entire nation.

25 comments

Mt Wilson Observatory survives wildfire

3:47 pm

Firefighters in the past few days managed to stop the wildfire that had come within 500 feet of the historic Wilson Observatory, saving it from destruction.

There were some tense moments on the afternoon of Tuesday, September 15th, as the Bobcat Fire approached within 500 feet of the observatory complex. The battle was on after a 500–1,000 acre spot fire jumped Highway 2 in the Angeles National Forest. Fire crews rallied, cutting fire lines while aircraft flew fire suppression sorties overhead to defend the observatory. By Tuesday night, the worst had passed, though officials stressed that the effort was far from over.

The article also notes the tragic destruction of an amateur telescope observatory in another California wildfire. It will take $30,000 to local club to rebuild.

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California wildfire threatens Wilson Observatory

10:03 am

One of the many wildfires raging across California has now come with 500 feet of the Mt. Wilson Observatory.

Officials at the observatory said all personnel had been evacuated as the fire was “knocking on our door.”

Firefighters battling the blaze had made slight headway in recent days in trying to control the flames that erupted September 6, but containment shrank from 6 percent to 3 percent Tuesday, according to the Angeles National Forest. “They are in a firefight right now, because it is so close,” LA County Fire Captain David Dantic told the Los Angeles Times, referring to crews positioned at Mt. Wilson.

He said the fire, located about 16 miles (25 kilometers) northeast of downtown Los Angeles, had grown to 40,000 acres (16,200 hectares). “It’s a bigger area now,” Dantic said. “Before, we had 6 percent containment when it was about 30,000 acres, but now the fire has gotten bigger. It’s a bigger footprint. That’s why the containment is down.”

KNX radio said the fire was also threatening broadcast towers in the area worth more than a billion dollars.

If destroyed I doubt seriously there would be money to rebuild Wilson, especially because its location near the bright lights of Los Angeles limits its astronomical value. Astronomers have shifted its use to other purposes that are not as badly affected by the light pollution, but once gone it will be hard to raise the cash to bring it back.

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California & Space Force to encourage private launches at Vandenberg

9:46 am

Capitalism in space: The state government of California has signed an agreement with the U.S. Space Force to expand private launches facilities at Vandenberg Space Force Base

It appears that the Space Force is aggressively trying to encourage new private launch operations to take flight out of Vandenberg. The article however is very unclear about exactly what this new agreement accomplishes. I could not find its actual text, and from the story all we get is typical government blather:

[Chris Dombrowski, acting director of the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development] said the organizations under the [agreement] will develop a “master plan that identifies the required infrastructure, human capital development, governance and financing necessary to support the United States Space Force mission and position California as a leader in the future of the commercial space industry.”

“This MOU serves as a critical investment in California’s innovative economy as we work to safely recover from the COVID-19 induced recession,” he said.

If anything, it appears that California’s Democratic and very power-hungry government is using this agreement to take control of any new private operations, so that it can dictate how they operate, according to its whims. If so, don’t expect much private enterprise to prosper at Vandenberg.

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