California is rapidly becoming a near-feudal society. On one side is an older, educated, landed, wealthy elite that lives on California's beautiful coasts. Then there is a much larger, younger, less-educated, indebted mass living inland, many of them working farm jobs at subsistence wages.
The good news is that both of these groups seem content supporting a Democratic Party whose policies (which I outlined in the series last week) reinforce these trends. And if any of the current Californians don't like what the new California has become, they are free to leave.
The bad news is that millions of middle-class families already have, and the trend is likely to continue.
#1
but the startling news is that Democrats in CA will soon begin constructing a castle, a drawbridge and a moat in Sacramento .... in order to keep out the unruly serfs living in the new feudal sociey. :-)
#3
Just recently a major golf pro talked about leaving and was browbeat into retracting his articulated intent. Tying freemen to the land is one of the first steps to a feudal society along with serfdom.
#12
JosephM, when my sister was a grad student in Santa Cruz, CA, the only thing she found to rent was a furnished camper in her landlady's backyard. She paid considerably less for a spacious apartment in the funky part of Buffalo, NY when she got a post-doc job at the research institute.
A civic unease runs through California these days. Premonitions abound of terrible things ahead. Not the space invaders or blade-runners of cinematic imagination, but padlocked -public services, interminable DMV lines, closed classrooms, off-limits recreational areas, public employee strikes, inadequate or nonexistent police, fire, and medical responses.
Just days before the Northridge slaughter, San Bernardino city attorney Jim Penman addressed a crowded city council meeting in the wake of an elderly woman's murder, telling residents of the bankrupt municipality to "lock their doors and load their guns." Penman was not alone among California city officials forced to slash law enforcement budgets. Nor did he back down amid the predictable media tut-tutting: "You should say what you mean and mean what you say."
California voters in November overwhelmingly pulled the lever for a one-party state. Democrats control the governorship, statewide offices, and veto-proof legislative majorities--all beholden to powerful state employee unions. If the recent standoffs with such unions in Wisconsin and Michigan seemed dramatic, just wait for the coming epic in California, a state known for manufacturing drama. No prospective Scott Walker or Rick Snyder, the governors of Wisconsin and Michigan, appears on the political horizon. But that doesn't mean peace with the unions--the money to buy it doesn't exist. So there will be a budget war of multiple battles and skirmishes. With Republicans already prostrate, some joke darkly--this, mind you, in the land of Reagan and "sunny optimism"--of adopting a Leninist approach: Let it all collapse . . . break the whole egg carton . . . build on the ruins . . . make lots of morning-after omelets. A dark scenario indeed, but name another more likely for Republicans.
Continued on Page 49
#1
California's glorious coastline, majestic mountains, and fair climate means that its lucky lucky residents should "pay any price, bear any burden" to continue to live there, and above all should not complain of what will befall them.
Those not willing to pay extravagantly for the glories of California should be moving out NOW.
#2
screw cali and it's 8% income tax rate; I moved and have not looked back...i can visit family but i take my taxed earnings back to my new state.
For the first time since the 90's i received a state tax return last year - only $25 but better than the $2000 i still owed each year after claiming 1 in california. I did not change my deductions in my new state and got something back.
Screw brown and the rest of the commies in california. How the idiot voters could bring this loon back after the destruction he did in the 70's is beyond me..but i guess there is a new generation of tool's that have no idea of history..
good riddance
Posted by: dan ||
03/03/2013 8:20 Comments ||
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#3
"but i guess there is a new generation of tool's that have no idea of history" - Dan
Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. George Santayana
Posted by: Barbara ||
03/03/2013 11:07 Comments ||
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[Dawn] RECENT events have been a reminder of what journalist Saleem Shahzad reported on May 27, 2011, even though he feared what was lurking round the corner for him.
Writing for 'Asia Times Online', a Hong Kong-based news website, five days after Islamic fascistiattacked PNS Mehran on Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... 's Sharea Faisal, he linked the assault to failed talks "between the navy and Al Qaeda over the release of naval officials jugged Drop the gat, Rocky, or you're a dead 'un! on suspicion of Al Qaeda links".
The PNS Mehran incident was one of the most vicious attacks on any defence establishment and at least 10 people were killed and aerial surveillance and anti-submarine assets worth millions of dollars destroyed.
In his report, Shahzad suggested that three attacks on Pakistain Navy buses in Karachi just a month earlier which saw nine deaths were also shots across the bow of the naval leadership over the locked away I ain't sayin' nuttin' widdout me mout'piece! lower rank naval personnel who, he said, numbered 10.
He quoted an unnamed senior naval officer as having told him that after electronic intercepts and surveillance these people had been taken into custody. After being held in one place, they had to be moved to safer sites as threats deemed credible had been received from Al Qaeda.
Naval officers speaking anonymously told Saleem Shahzad that because of the location-specific threats, they had gathered that the terror group was in all probability receiving inside information on where the suspects were being held.
At this, the report said: "A senior-level naval conference was called at which an intelligence official insisted that the matter be handled with great care otherwise the consequences could be disastrous. Everybody present agreed, and it was decided to open a line of communication with Al Qaeda.
"Abdul Samad Mansoori, a former student union activist ... who originally hailed from Karachi but now lives in the North Wazoo tribal area was approached and talks begun. Al Qaeda demanded the immediate release of the officials without further interrogation. This was rejected.
"The detainees were allowed to speak to their families and were well treated, but officials were desperate to interrogate them fully to get an idea of the strength of Al Qaeda's penetration. The Islamic fascistiwere told that once interrogation was completed, the men would be discharged from the service and freed."
According to the report, Al Qaeda didn't find these terms acceptable and responded by launching lethal attacks on the navy buses in April of that year.
Two days after his report appeared, Shahzad was due to appear in a TV interview in Islamabad for which he left home but never arrived at his destination. His car, with him at the wheel, had mysteriously disappeared from a leafy Islamabad residential area.
The following day his body, bearing signs of a fatal beating, was fished out of a canal some 130 kilometres from the capital. His car was also found nearby. It wasn't clear if a "punishment beating" had gone horribly wrong or the kidnappers wanted to kill him. On the face of it, it appeared a case of the messenger being shot.
What should have been police investigative work, with painstaking collection of evidence and forensic analysis, was entrusted to a commission of inquiry headed by a Supreme Court judge, and its report remained predictably inconclusive about who killed the journalist.
Ironically, just a few weeks earlier some journalists, including Saleem Shahzad, and other experts had gathered at London's King's College Department of War Studies for a regional security conference.
After one session Saleem had taken me aside to share his concerns about his safety. He didn't specifically mention whom he feared but did say things were getting to a point where he would be forced to consider moving abroad. He returned to Islamabad a few days later.
Two recent incidents in Karachi have involved naval officers (who belonged to the Shia community) while in their cars. The first incident was described by the police initially as a bombing but the navy later said it was a CNG tank kaboom in the officer's car.
The second incident, where the officer received multiple gunshot wounds not far from where he used to park his car in a secure naval facility, suggested some information about the exact timing of his presence. Admittedly this is speculation and one can't be sure.
But even earlier attacks on defence establishments have indicated that the attackers possibly had detailed inside information. It may be true that all it takes is one bad apple to breach security when the vast majority is dedicated to its duty. But it is alarming nonetheless.
If the army itself flies Malik Ishaq, the Sipah-e-Sahaba bully boy leader, from prison in Lahore to the GHQ to help negotiate with the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain attackers in 2009, the nexus between these groups becomes very clear. They are ideological and perhaps even operational allies.
In the last month of the current parliament's life two main political parties in Pakhtunkhwa have each organised an all-parties conference to try and reach the ever-elusive consensus on how best to deal with the TTP now ensconced mostly in North Waziristan.
The army chief has predicated any operation against the terror machine on a national consensus which now seems more remote than ever since all political parties have an eye on the election. They don't want to take a tough stance for different reasons.
Some find ideological affinity with the religious fighters who are battling the US in their view (even when all they are doing in reality is attacking Pakistain) or perhaps they don't want to take the lead and be hamstrung in electioneering because of the enhanced threat of reprisals.
However, there's no worse danger than telling a mother her baby is ugly... the authorities' lack of will to clamp down on rampaging groups in settled areas is shocking. Murderous attacks have largely targeted one Mohammedan sect in Quetta, Karachi, Lahore or Beautiful Downtown Peshawar ...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province), administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistan's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire.
We can blame the "foreign sponsors" and the "Great Game" all we want but this rampant cancer lies within. It needs to be excised now if we are to harbour any hope of survival.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/03/2013 00:00 ||
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#1
Oh, I thought this was going to be about how to remove the Californians and NE liberals who have metastasized their political cancer and are in the process of killing states like Colorado.
A crack in the WaPo veneer, perhaps?
Woodward, almost 70, is Washingtons Reporter Emeritus. His facts stand up to scrutiny. His motivations withstand the test of objectivity. Sperling obviously assumed that Woodward wouldnt take offense at the suggestion that he not only was wrong but was also endangering his valuable proximity to power.
Drip by drip, the Obama administration has demonstrated its intolerance for dissent and its contempt for any who stray from the White House script. Yes, all administrations are sensitive to criticism, and all push back when such criticism is deemed unfair or inaccurate. But no president since Richard Nixon has demonstrated such overt contempt for the messenger. And, thanks to technological advances in social media, Obama has been able to bypass traditional watchdogs as no other president has.
More to the point, the Obama White House is, to put it politely, fudging as it tries to place the onus of the sequester on Congress. And, as has become customary, officials are using the Woodward spat to distract attention. As Woodward put it: This is the old trick... of making the press... the issue, rather than what the White House has done here.
Killing the messenger is a time-honored method of controlling the message, but we have already spilled that blood. And the First Amendments protection of a free press, the purpose of which is to check power and constrain governments ability to dictate the lives of private citizens, was no accident. Is Ms. Parker suggesting the Free Press is not doing its' job?
Posted by: Bobby ||
03/03/2013 19:19 ||
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#1
...As another report of this story put it, "Did you ever think we'd be nostalgic for Richard Nixon?"
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
03/03/2013 21:38 Comments ||
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We often accuse the leftist media of being whores in service to their masters such as Media Matters and Think Progress.
With that in mind Rantburg proudly presents a group of conservative writers who contracted out their journalistic services for positive coverage of the Malaysian government and collected fat payments in return.
Did I mention that none of the listed writers disclosed their paydays when their work was published?
Whew!
Good thing I mentioned that because in fact they failed to make mention of that nexus in opinion articles which appeared in a number of US media.
I found out about this from a blog post at theothermaccain.com, when the proprietor, Stacy McCain waxed sarcastic about the revelations, at the same time failing to name some of the others involved in the racket. I know at least one of the writers is a friend of McCain's, thus the sarcasm.
Among the publications which included the bought and paid for positive coverage were the Huffington Post, the San Francisco Examiner, Redstate.com and National Review. Names included are some writers you may recognize such as Ben Domenech (USD $36,000), Rachel Ehrenfeld (USD $30,000), Seth Mandel (USD $5,000) and Brad Jackson who cleared USD $24,700.
Josh Trevino was the paymaster who collected USD $389,724.70, and who farmed out some of the work to other writers.
The PDF of the federal filing required of lobbyists is here. The document was filed in 2013, almost three years after Trevino's media company which contracted for the positive news articles was dissolved, five years after it was formed and two years after Trevino had apparently vehemently denied the nexus between his work and pay for play in a UK Guardian piece in 2011.
The most interesting thing about this story is Ben Domenech. He had been hired by the Washington Post to be their star conservative writer in 2006 when liberals from the news outlets as well as from Media matters complained about he was too conservative.
He went to Redstate.com, from which I know of him, and then to Human Events and the Washington Times. He was fired from the Washington Times when he apparently disclosed the new relationship and he lost his column with the UK Guardian. At the time he lied about his relationship in an article about him. I have no idea if Human Events has made a decision on his employment fate with them. The Washington Post incident was one of the incidents which brought me to Redstate.com.
I have zero problem with a person who goes into public relations. It can be good money, and all you have to do if you are beautifying an individual or organization who wants to look better in the public eye, is to place your personal feelings aside and write the damn article.
The way public relations is supposed to work is that a firm will go to an editor of a news outlet, someone he knows socially, may have had dinner with and pitch an idea for an article which sounds interesting enough to be pitched. If the editor thinks it's something his or her readers wants to see, a writer is tasked with the story. The firm or PR guy never figures into the work. They are ready to state their case in a "news" article.
But this is something different. The Malaysian government blew right past PR firms and editors and went straight to the writers and dumped a butt load of cash on them, and told them to get busy. And no one thought that maybe something might be a little askew enough that maybe they should disclose the source of their income to the news outlets that published them.
And we see all the time how easily news outlets such as the New York Times moves political people between the President Barak Obama administration and the newsroom. Other examples probably exist right now that have not been disclosed. Those moves are to bring writers into the newsroom who can get access to government officials and have the kind of access that other news outlets can't afford. It is the state of modern journalism.
But this is something completely different and it has a sinister air about it. I do not believe that the whole story has been disclosed, not even the seediest element. Just the parts they could disclose still feel not quite bad about it were anyone to find out about it.
And to think. Myself and others at BorderlandBeat.com who write constantly without compensation about the Mexican Drug War must be driving Mexican PR firms batty. A lot of those people on the ground in Mexico proper, what I call in the shooting gallery, get the additional bonus of being in nearly constant fear for their very lives from the drug cartels. I have never even had an offer of money to write something good about drug traffickers or even of anyone in the Mexican government.
Saturday morning a Pajamas Media writer, Steven Crowder wrote a piece complaining about men who complain about their wives; this as yet another political issue to beat other conservatives over the head with. The poster at theothermccain, someone named Smitty chimed in that maybe men who complain about their spouses should stop being so immature.
So, I can just hear this echo of similar disdain of former fans who hear that their once favorite author is now a media whore no better than the worst conservatives believe is happening in the current American leftist government.
"Grow up, sweetheart."
"This is how the world works."
"I'm no worse than anyone else."
But what I have heard since the election of 2012 is how the media has never held conservative's enemies to account for their crimes.
And now we know why.
The conservative media were too busy collecting fat paychecks from elsewhere.
Chris Covert writes Mexican Drug War and national political news for Rantburg.com and Borderland Beat.com
#2
I liked one of the points Stacy made: Malaysia. Malaysia? Malaysia?? Why on earth would they threw big money around to bloggers few had ever heard of to influence the American people about a country 99% of Americans couldn't find on a map?
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/03/2013 11:05 Comments ||
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#3
The point isn't that they took money from an obscure foreign government to tout some issue. The point is that this isn't just an ethical lapse. The point is that this is a smoking, gaping hole where ethics once were.
#4
I agree with that. I just wonder what in the world the Malaysian government bigs were thinking -- spread half a million around and get what, exactly?
One of the several lessons here is to demonstrate (once again) how cheaply people will sell out.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/03/2013 15:29 Comments ||
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#5
Well this just leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Malaysia is so far away maybe they thought it wouldn't matter? I can see how they might think that. In 2011 the elections were already in full swing. Hell with the Constant Campaign of the last 5 years who the hell would notice something like this eh? Makes me shudder in repulsion the same way I did when I read about those damnable "Consultants" for Romney.
Also, BorderlandsBeat.com added to Favorites.
Posted by: Charles ||
03/03/2013 18:35 Comments ||
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#6
Stay on it, Chris Covert. It's an important story that we're not getting anywhere else.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
03/03/2013 23:35 Comments ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[Dawn] RECENT events have been a reminder of what journalist Saleem Shahzad reported on May 27, 2011, even though he feared what was lurking round the corner for him.
Wazoo
But no president since Richard Nixon has demonstrated such overt contempt for the messenger. And, thanks to technological advances in social media, Obama has been able to bypass traditional watchdogs as no other president has.
