Big government and progressive policies continue to ruin the once-Golden State.
November 14, 2019
ITEM #1: When it comes to examples of big-government follies, California is the gift that keeps on giving.
Writing for the Pacific Research Institute, Kerry Jackson takes a look at the power outages now ailing the not-so-Golden State, and warns that “rather than being a rare exception, these autumn blackouts are more likely a preview of a coming long night.”
California’s blackouts are part a deep, systemic failure of progressive policies, all of which have combined, tragically, to turn a once-great state into a cautionary tale for the rest of the nation. Jackson includes this stinging indictment:
"California is, both literally and figuratively, entering its own Dark Age. Decades of Blue State policies have fundamentally altered the trajectory of the state. Businesses and residents have been fleeing the slow-motion wreck for years and will continue to do so. No longer is California the land of opportunity, it is a purgatory of high taxes, unaffordable housing, an outrageously steep cost of living, crumbling roads and bridges, soul-grinding traffic, and catastrophic homelessness.
"Each of these is a man-made disaster created by public policy that limits and directs rather than frees and stimulates."
Let’s hope policymakers elsewhere, including here in Nevada, are paying attention.
ITEM #2: No place embodies California lunacy quite like the City of San Francisco, which has a new District Attorney, Chesa Boudin. But don’t think that’s going to make life better for the citizens and taxpayers of this Liberal Capital of America.
Boudin, who the Daily Caller notes is the son of parents who “were members of the Weather Underground domestic terrorist group,” is a darling of socialist-Democrats such as Bernie Sanders. And we can see why.
During his campaign, Boudin declared that under his administration, “Crimes such as public camping, offering or soliciting sex, public urination, blocking a sidewalk, etc., should not and will not be prosecuted.”
What could go wrong?
ITEM #3: Reporter John Solomon published a great piece debunking many of the myths surrounding the Ukrainian Hoax. Here’s one of the biggies…
“Myth: The allegation that Joe Biden tried to fire the Ukrainian prosecutor investigating his son Hunter Biden’s Ukrainian gas firm employer has been debunked, and there is no evidence the ex-vice president did anything improper.
“The Facts: Joe Biden is captured on videotape bragging about his effort to strong-arm Ukraine’s president into firing Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin. Biden told a foreign policy group in early 2018 that he used the threat of withholding $1 billion in U.S. aid to Kiev to successfully force Shokin’s firing.”
ITEM #4: At a campaign rally in Louisiana last week, President Trump continued his highly effective outreach to the black community…
“The Democrats have let you down. They’ve dismissed you. They’ve hurt you. They’ve sabotaged you for far too long.”
The president’s remarks came on the same day his campaign launched “Black Voices for Trump” — and red “BLACK LIVES MAGA” hats were worn by many in the crowd.
ITEM #5: This week from the chronicles of Generation Snowflake, the student newspaper of Northwestern University has informed its readers it “will no longer fully report on campus events if the reporting runs the risk of making marginalized students feel unsafe or upset,” the Reason Foundation tells us:
“The incident that generated this sniveling, embarrassing apology was a recent visit to campus by former Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Sessions addressed the College Republicans while student activists protested the speech, objecting to the Trump administration's treatment of immigrants.
“Some of the activists were apparently dissatisfied with the way The Daily Northwestern covered the event. This is not such a surprise: Activists are often dissatisfied when student papers maintain any objectivity whatsoever, as they believe that good journalism must itself be aligned with activist goals. …
“To its great shame, The Daily Northwestern has apparently decided to cave to completely unreasonable demands.”
Parody is dead, friends. Read more here.
ITEM #6: Last week the government announced that the cost of Medicare’s Part B will be jacked up 7 percent next year due to “rising spending on medications.” Medicare also announced the deductible for Part B is going to be hiked by $13, plus a $44 increase for Part A.
Keep this in mind every time Elizabeth Warren tells you her “Medicare for All” proposal won’t cost the middle class.
ITEM #7: And speaking of costs, “So far Mayor Pete’s agenda totals $5.7 trillion, as his campaign told the Indianapolis Star last week,” the Wall Street Journal’s editors inform us in a piece titled “Mayor Pete’s Latest Trillions.”
The sub-headline is right on the money: “His ‘economic’ agenda is all spending and taxes and no growth.”
Yet another Democrat who thinks we can tax-and-spend our way to prosperity — all of human economic history to the contrary.
ITEM #8: The inestimable Victor Davis Hanson has an interesting observation on the changing focus of the Trump administration’s national security theme:
“A sort of Trump doctrine grew in part out of Trump’s campaign promises and in part from the strategic assessment in 2016-17 by then national-security adviser H.R. McMaster, outlining a new ‘principled realism.’
“The net result is not to nation-build, preempt, or worry much about changing fetid countries to look like us, but to disproportionately respond when attacked or threatened, and in a manner that causes real damage, without the insertion of U.S. ground troops.
“We could call the Trump administration’s idea of deterrence without preemptive intervention as either ‘Live and let live’ — or, more macabrely, ‘Live — and let die.’”
ITEM #9: Proving that nothing is too absurd for a lawsuit, ice cream maker Ben & Jerry’s is facing a lawsuit for advertising that its products come from “happy cows.”
The idea that the company’s “happy cows” advertisements amount to posing a “real and immediate threat of repeated injury” to consumers, “including purchasing deceptively labeled and packaged products,” is ridiculous.
Some people on the left simply have too much time on their hands. The ironic thing about this particular example of lawsuit abuse is that Ben & Jerry’s has been a “yuge” supporter of liberal candidates and causes for years.
Karma.
ITEM #10: Let’s end where we began, shall we?
Some people still don’t understand why so many Nevadans say they don’t want our state to “turn into California.” Here’s another example from a Breitbart News story this week…
“Thirteen cities and one county in California have put in place zoning codes encouraging or requiring all-electric new construction, virtually banning builders from running natural gas lines into homes and apartments to fuel appliances, including stoves and ovens.”
No more cooking over an open flame. All to fight “climate change.” Call it the Green Raw Deal.
NOTABLE QUOTE
“I know of no society where Liberty has flourished alongside of a government that controls economic rights and property.” — The late Justice Antonin Scalia