The Democrat-controlled California State Assembly cut off the microphone of state assembly member James Gallagher during debate over a bill threatening the custody of parents who don’t “affirm” their kids.
The California legislature passed Friday AB 957, a bill requiring a judge to consider whether or not a parent “affirms” their child’s “gender identity” in a custody dispute. Democratic Sen. Scott Wiener and Democratic Assembly Member Lori Wilson introduced the bill in February.
“I wanna get this out there. It’s important that we know what the science and the information is saying. Even a recent follow up study in 2021 found that out of 139 participants, only 17 persisted in their gender identity, they were looking at young boys. One-hundred-twenty-two, 87%, went back to their biological sex. You can’t have a —”
Unbelievable! The California Democrat controlled legislature cut off a Republican lawmaker’s microphone when he presented real data about teens desisting.
He was speaking in opposition to #AB957, a bill which would force parents affirm their child’s perceived gender identity or… pic.twitter.com/G8c451De9e
Gallagher was told his microphone was cut off due to a “time limit on speeches.”
“This bill, for purposes of this provision, would include a parent’s affirmation of the child’s gender identity or gender expression as part of the health, safety, and welfare of the child,” AB 957 reads.
Assembly member Joe Patterson pointed out during debate that the legislation unnecessarily complicated family situations.
“In California judges are already using their discretion. They already can use it, I have seen it. They already can do this right now. And so I am concerned that this is the state telling the courts to give special emphasis on this because they can already do ti. So when I look at that and I look at what I went through growing up — a very complicated family situation — I believe this is going to add more complication.”
http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png00The Daily Callerhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngThe Daily Caller2023-09-10 07:08:252023-09-10 07:08:25Democrats Cut GOP Lawmaker’s Mic As He Cites Evidence Child Sex Changes Don’t Improve Mental Health
Activists in California from both political parties are banding together to put measures on the state ballot that would ban child sex change surgeries and ensure fairness in women’s spaces, they told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
Protect Kids California filed three statewide ballot initiatives Monday, and the group leaders believe they have bipartisan support on the issues.
“The media and the California legislators make it seem that it’s a Democrat versus Republican issue, but it’s not. I would say the majority of Democrats agree with us on this,” Sophia Lorey, a female rights activist who spoke at the announcement of the initiatives, told the DCNF.
California activists from both political parties are teaming up to put measures on the state ballot that would ban child sex change surgeries and ensure fairness in women’s spaces, they told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
Protect Kids California, a group formed by Jonathan Zachreson, a Republican, and Erin Friday, a Democrat, filed three statewide ballot initiatives on Monday to ban child sex changes and puberty blockers, keep men out of women’s sports and require school officials to inform parents if a child wants to transition his or her gender. The pair has support from both sides of the political aisle in their effort to push the initiatives through, they told the DCNF.
“The media and the California legislators make it seem that it’s a Democrat versus Republican issue, but it’s not. I would say the majority of Democrats agree with us on this,” Sophia Lorey, a female rights activist who spoke at the announcement of the initiatives, told the DCNF.
BREAKING: On behalf of @ProtectKidsCA, we just filed three statewide initiatives with the Attorney General of California. They are:
✅ School Transparency and Partnership Act ✅ Protect Girls’ Sports and Spaces Act ✅ Protect Children from Reproductive Harm Act.
The Protect Children From Reproductive Harm Act would ban child sex change surgeries and puberty blockers in the state, according to the ballot initiative. The School Transparency And Partnership Act would require that school officials inform parents if a student decides they want to be referred to as a gender different than his or her biological sex, and the Protect Girls’ Sports And Spaces Act would establish sex-segregated bathrooms and locker rooms while banning males from competing in female sports.
The initiatives would require 550,000 signatures to make it on the ballot, which would then be voted on to determine if the initiatives would be enacted as law in California, according to the state’s ballot initiative guide.
Friday’s motivation for helping file the initiatives stems from her own personal experiences with gender ideology, as her daughter was socially transitioned at school without her knowledge, she told the DCNF.
“All of these groups, including what I would say are far-left groups, the same sex attracted groups, Gays Against Groomers, the lesbian groups, the feminist groups, we are all holding hands on this issue,” Friday told the DCNF. “The Democrats should be reading the tea leaves.”
A May Gallup poll revealed that Americans’ support for transgender athletes competing as the gender they identify with has fallen in the past two years. Approximately 34% of participants said they’d support a transgender athlete playing on a team that matches their gender identity in 2021 compared to 26% in 2023.
Support among Democrats for transgender athletes playing on teams that match their gender identity decreased from 55% to 47%, according to the poll.
Lorey told the DCNF that “there is not really any tension that arises” when she is working with Democrat activists in the state to counter gender ideology policies, such as allowing men in women’s sports or child sex changes.
“It’s okay that we don’t agree on things,” Lorey said. “We need to find ways to work together on the things we agree with.”
“I have friends who have been hardcore lifelong Democrats, and they are fighting right alongside me on this,” Sonja Shaw, president of the Chino Valley Unified School District (CVUSD), told the DCNF.
The CVUSD recently passed a parental notification policy in July that would require teachers to inform parents if their child asked to identify as a different gender at school. Democratic California Attorney General Rob Bonta sued the district in August, arguing the rule is unconstitutional.
Parents in the district are begging the school board “not to back down,” Shaw said.
“The real question comes down to are you okay with removing healthy body parts of a child, and if your answer is no, then you’re a part of this coalition,” Friday told the DCNF.
Bonta did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.
http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png00The Daily Callerhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngThe Daily Caller2023-09-04 06:11:502023-09-04 11:30:25‘Democrats Agree’: Activists Are Teaming Up To Fight Sex Change Surgeries For Minors In This Blue State
INFECTIOUS BACTERIAL, VIRAL AGENTS Found MALARIA, RUBELLA, HIV, Chlamydia, E. Coli, Streptococcus Pneumonia, Hepatitis B and C, Herpes.
“I’ve been in government for 25 years. I’ve never seen anything like this,” said Nicole Sieba, Reedley City Manager, to Your Central Valley.
Bodes most ill…..most disturbing story on my transom. A biological lab in Reedley that has been covertly operating for year has been shut down by the Fresno County Department of Public Health. From October 2022 until spring 2023 this warehouse at 850 I Street in Reedley was operating a biological lab.
The CDC found infectious material and myriad diseases including malaria, Rubella, HIV, chlamydia, E. Coli, streptococcus pneumonia, hepatitis B and C, and herpes 1 and 5 at the site which was listed as an empty building. Apart from vast array of diseases found, the lab also had 900 genetically engineered mice designed to catch and carry various COVID strains living in vile conditions with another 175 found dead.
“Public Health staff also observed blood, tissue and other bodily fluid samples and serums; and THOUSANDS of vials of unlabeled fluids and suspected biological material.” – Superior Court of the State of California.
The warehouse was also home to medical devices developed onsite, like covid-19 and pregnancy tests, and hundreds of lab mice—some of which were found dead.
After several months of investigation, local and federal authorities—including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention—announced this week that they have detected infectious agents like coronavirus, HIV, and hepatitis in a Fresno warehouse.
The warehouse was reportedly home to lab mice, medical waste, and hazardous materials, according to NBC News, and the warehouse was referred to as an “unlicensed laboratory” in a statement by Fresno County Public Health Department assistant director Joe Prado. The warehouse was also home to medical devices developed onsite, like covid-19 and pregnancy tests, and hundreds of mice. The outlet reports that Fresno officials euthanized 773 mice, while 175 were already found dead.
chlamydia, E. Coli, streptococcus pneumonia, hepatitis B and C, and herpes 1 and 5. The lab also had 900 genetically engineered mice designed to catch and carry various COVID strains living in ‘inhumane’ conditions with another 175 found dead.2/11 pic.twitter.com/qCStB6a0B3
“Certain rooms of the warehouse were found to contain several vessels of liquid and various apparatus,” the court documents said, as quoted by NBC News. “Fresno County Public Health staff also observed blood, tissue and other bodily fluid samples and serums; and thousands of vials of unlabeled fluids and suspected biological material.”
An inspection order from the health department dated April 21 lists the warehouse as being leased by Universal MediTech and Prestige Biotech, with the department trying to contact the business owners since December 2022. Court documents obtained by NBC News revealed that Fresno authorities began investigating the warehouse, located at 850 I Street in Reedley, California, on March 3 while all of the biological agents were destroyed by July 7.
“This is an unusual situation. I’ve been in government for 25 years. I’ve never seen anything like this,” said Nicole Sieba, Reedley City Manager, to Your Central Valley.
Why would a COVID lab run by a shady Chinese company be operating in Reedley, CA in the central San Joaquin Valley? The lab, which was supposed to be an empty building, was discovered by Reedley city code enforcement officers when they saw a garden hose attached to the building and investigated.
Darren Fraser at the MidValley Times reported earlier this week that the building has been illegally operated since October 2022 by Wang Zhaolin of Prestige Biotech, and the lab was used to produce COVID-19 tests and pregnancy tests.
City of Reedley officials called in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the FBI, the State Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC), the State Department of Health, the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) and the Fresno County Department of Public Health (FCDPH).
“Reedley officials and personnel from CDPH and FCDPH executed a warrant on March 16 to inspect the warehouse at 850 I Street,” MidValley Times reported. “According to a declaration from Humero Prado, Assistant Director of Fresno County Public Health, which was filed in superior court, investigators discovered that one room of the warehouse was used to produce COVID-19 and pregnancy tests. In other rooms, investigators found blood, tissue and other bodily fluid samples. They also found thousands of vials that contained unlabeled fluids.”
And they found 900 genetically engineered mice, engineered to catch and carry COVID-19, living in “inhumane” conditions. 773 of the mice had to be euthanized, and officials found another 178 mice already dead.
We have a few questions:
Why was a Chinese company making COVID-19 tests in California?
Where were these tests to be used? California public health agencies? Medical groups and hospitals?
Is the California Department of Public Health involved?
Who authorized this lab?
What does the Newsom administration know about this?
“From May 2 through May 4, the CDC’s Division of Select Agents and Toxins inspected 850 I Street. Court documents confirm the CDC found potentially infectious agents at the location. These included both bacterial and viral agents, including: chlamydia, E. Coli, streptococcus pneumonia, hepatitis B and C, herpes 1 and 5 and rubella. The CDC also found samples of malaria.”
“Court documents identify Xiuquin Yao as the alleged president of Prestige. Neither Reedley nor FCDPH was able to obtain from Yao any substantive information regarding Prestige or why infectious agents and mice were being stored at 850 I Street other than to say that the company was developing diagnostic testing kits.”
“Court documents include copies of an email exchange Prado conducted with David He, who identified himself as a representative of Prestige, beginning May 31 and continuing through June 13. Over the course of numerous emails, Prado repeatedly asks He to provide documentation regarding licensed medical waste disposal, Prestige’s reasons for storing infectious agents and how the company will respond to the biological abatement orders handed down by FCDPH.”
“They (Prestige) completely avoided the questions,” Prado said. “This individual (He) was either unaware or was intentionally trying to mislead us.”
As a start, the Globe made Public records requests to the City of Reedly and the Fresno County Department of Public Health for information and communications between the all of the agencies, as well as any documents and materials found at the illegal lab location.
Speaking on a World Economic Forum panel, Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel, admits to having prior knowledge in 2019 that there would be a "pandemic" in 2020.
"Moderna had made 100,000 doses in 2019, for the whole year. And I remember walking, after Davos, into the office of my head… pic.twitter.com/ZDmwrZOf0Q
A second victim has been identified in additional sexual misconduct charges against former 2022 San Diego “Teacher of the Year,” Jacqueline Ma, according to a recently amended complaint.
Police initially arrested and charged the 34-year-old teacher from Lincoln Acres Elementary School in March after engaging in sexual misconduct with a 12-year-old student, according to the Times of San Diego. Now, Ma is accused of performing and attempting a lewd act upon yet another minor under the age of 14, identified as John Doe 2, in early 2020, the outlet noted.
#BREAKING: Amended complaint filed by San Diego County DA adds a second victim, under the age of 14, and new charges against Jacqueline Ma. https://t.co/PRB5DdOvfc
At the moment, it is unclear whether John Doe 2 was a former student of Ma’s or not, but it is confirmed that one of the charged offenses allegedly occurred in a classroom, per the Times.
Ma was initially accused of grooming a student, identified as John Doe 1, through sexual acts and the exchange of illicit photographs, the outlet reported. Prosecutors described Ma’s behavior toward the teen as “obsessive, possessive, controlling and dangerous,” per the Times.
Leading to her arrest, a concerned parent suspected that her son was “possibly having an inappropriate relationship with a former teacher,” the National City Police Department stated.
When she was apprehended in March, authorities also discovered a photograph of the victim in her wallet, along with jewelry bearing his initials and love letters addressed to him in her classroom, Deputy District Attorney Drew Hart reported.
Ma is now held in custody without bail on a total of 19 felony counts. If found guilty, the former teacher could face over 150 years to life in state prison, the Times reported.
Just like a bad cop has all cases reviewed, this poor excuse for a human and his owners should have every single story he (and they) ever wrote reviewed for accuracy. Most likely, he was known inside and was their go to “reporter” to deflect.
People are already fleeing California in record numbers. Nevertheless, Los Angeles hasn’t implemented full Leftism yet, so the City of Angels isn’t quite as paradisal as it could be or should be. Leftists are fixing that, however, by stopping detaining people for crimes such as theft and vandalism. Leftists can watch for L.A. to flower like never before now, but rapper 50 Cent won’t be among them. Suddenly red-pilled, he has declared: “LA is finished.” Yeah.
Despite the massive exodus, apparently, there are still too many people in the state for Gov. Gavin Newsom, who has an eye on the Democratic presidential nomination if Old Joe shuffles off the scene and who apparently doesn’t think his gubernatorial record is ghastly enough to appeal to the party’s hardcore Marxists. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass is likewise apparently feeling crowded, but her new measure is sure to make the Entertainment Capital of the World become the City of Wide Open Spaces or, more precisely, The Waste Land.
The Daily Wire reported Monday that “50 Cent (real name Curtis Jackson) took to Instagram to post a video clip of a news report about a federal judge’s decision that holding inmates until they can pay cash bail is a violation of their constitutional rights.” Deputy District Attorney John McKinney appears in this report, saying, “Starting at midnight tonight, the sheriff’s department will no longer detain people for crimes such as theft, shoplifting, drug use, vandalism, battery, and a whole host of other non-serious, non-violent crimes that affect the quality of life of people here in Los Angeles County.”
One would think that after seeing America’s once-great cities become crime-ridden hellholes because of similar policies, L.A. would not follow the same suicidal path, but we are talking about Leftists here. Learning from experience is not their strong suit, or they would have given up Leftism around the time of, oh, Stalin’s purges.
The news report 50 Cent was reacting to continues with the newscaster saying, “L.A. Deputy DA John McKinney explains that due to Judge Lawrence Riff’s ruling, many people arrested will be released immediately without having to pay bail before their arraignment.” Then it cut back to McKinney, who added, “Judge Riff made the point of saying that he implored California officials like the sheriff, the chief of police, the district attorney, the city attorney, he implored them to testify to explain why he shouldn’t issue this order, and he was surprised when no one stood up to challenge it. No one challenged it, not LAPD Chief Michael Moore, LA County Sheriff Robert Luna, or District Attorney George Gascon.”
Of course, no one challenged it. Doing so would have cut against core Leftist principles, and no one in Los Angeles was going to dare to do that. 50 Cent, however, was not willing to play along with the charade that these were sane and reasonable policies. He wrote on Instagram, “LA is finished watch how bad it gets out there. SMH.” It’s going to get very, very bad.
How bad? The Daily Wire noted that “during the height of the COVID pandemic, Los Angeles County did away with cash bail to ease overcrowding in jails. Since then, the crime rate has soared. In the downtown area in 2022, there was a 25% rise in violent crime, such as rape, compared to 2019.” In just one neighborhood, Rancho Park, violent crime “rose 114% between 2019 and 2022.” The Wire adds that “LA police say mental illness, rampant drug use, and homelessness are to blame.”
No, that is not it at all. Mental illness, rampant drug use, and homelessness are not to blame. The coddling of mental illness, rampant drug use, and homelessness are to blame. The fact that the violently mentally ill cannot be incarcerated, that open drug use is tolerated on the streets of L.A. and every other major city in the United States, and that the homeless can set up tents on sidewalks and pursue drug addiction on America’s streets with no consequences — that’s what’s to blame. In other words, Leftist policies are to blame, but instead of engaging in some much-needed self-reflection, Los Angeles officials are doubling down and planning to inflict even more pain upon their people.
That pain could be considerable. Yolo County District Attorney Jeff Reisig explained the real effects of zero bail policies: “I mean, we have more people being shot at, stabbed, assaulted, robbed, beaten. These are real victims — and the numbers are staggering under zero bail.” 50 Cent is right: it’s long past time for the remaining sane people to leave Los Angeles and California as a whole. Their very lives could depend upon it.
Massive solar development projects in Southern California have strained local water availability, threatening desert ecosystems and angering residents who have been impacted by the strain on the water supply, according to an Inside Climate News report.
The small communities around Desert Center, California, depend on naturally-occurring underground water reserves, known as groundwater aquifers, but the water-intensive development process for large solar projects has caused groundwater levels to fall, according to Inside Climate News. Crucial local water wells have dried up and land beneath homes has sagged as a result of development activity, while desert ecosystems have been damaged as well, according to Inside Climate News.
Locals complain that the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the corporations driving the developments in California’s Colorado Desert have not allowed them to provide sufficient input in the decision-making process for the developments, according to Inside Climate News. Despite the BLM’s assurances that “renewable energy development on BLM-managed public lands will continue to help communities across the country be part of the climate solution, while creating jobs and boosting local economies,” residents say that they have not reaped much benefit from the solar projects while the strain on their groundwater supply has intensified, according to Inside Climate News.
“No one took into consideration a community lived out here,” said Teresa Pierce, a resident of a nearby community who has helped to organize other locals to respond to the resource scarcity and solar developments, according to Inside Climate News.
Developers rely on the groundwater aquifer because there is no other feasible water supply in the area, rendering transport of water from other locations to the development sites prohibitively expensive, according to Inside Climate News. The development has depleted the water reserves for local communities like one trailer park which a property manager said would be “dead without water” if the local scarcity continues to worsen, according to Inside Climate News.
Joe Biden: "We're gonna be shutting these plants down all across America, and having wind and solar." pic.twitter.com/dkIu80sqZa
Another local who has two palm trees and no house on his property saw his electricity bill go from $15 to $1,800 in just one month, as his electric irrigation pump that keeps the trees alive worked much harder to reach underground water reserves that have fallen due to the development’s extensive use of the groundwater supply, according to Inside Climate News. Drilling new, deeper water wells can cost up to $100,000, according to Inside Climate News.
The BLM was aware that its approved solar projects on public lands may have been using too much water from the area’s underground water reserves by its own standards, but the agency has advanced the projects nonetheless, according to former BLM employees cited by Inside Climate News.
Beyond the problems posed by the strain on the groundwater aquifer for humans, solar developments have overtaken many small bodies of water across the desert which formerly provided critical habitat space to the animals inhabiting the desert region, according to Inside Climate News.
The BLM has approved seven utility-scale developments in the region spanning about 19,000 acres already, with more projects under consideration, according to Inside Climate News. Another 120,000 acres are available for development in the region surrounding Desert Center, according to Inside Climate News.
The Biden administration has publicly touted its spending and regulatory efforts designed to protect 30% of America’s lands and waters from development by 2030. The administration also heavily promotes solar panels as part of its larger “green” energy agenda.
All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.
http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png00The Daily Callerhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngThe Daily Caller2023-06-28 06:21:182023-06-28 06:26:06‘Dead Without Water’: Massive Desert Solar Projects Are Sucking Up Groundwater, Angering Locals
Sarah Idan is a former Miss Iraq who, at the Miss Universe pageant in 2017, met and became close friends with Miss Israel, Adar Gandelsman. She took a selfie of them together, and posted it on social media, with the caption “Peace and Love from Miss Iraq and Miss Israel.” To make matters worse, in the swimsuit competition, she appeared in a bikini. Both these transgressions — the selfie with Miss Israel, and the bikini she wore — caused a terrific backlash from angry Muslims; Idan was stripped of her Iraqi citizenship, and was deluged with death threats. Her widowed mother and siblings were forced to flee Iraq. The two beauty queens continued to meet and post joint messages, with photos, on Instagram. The accounts of both girls were, of course, hacked.
In June 2018, Sarah Idan accepted Adar Gandelsman’s invitation to visit Israel. After all, once she had received thousands of death threats, a few thousand more weren’t going to stop her from traveling to Israel. In for a penny, in for a pound. She fell in love, she says, with Israel, and with its people, who greeted her in the market of Mahane Yehuda like a movie star. In Israel, she said later, she felt right at home in an environment that was strangely familiar: the sights and sounds of a Middle East open market, so much like what she had experienced in Baghdad and Damascus.
While in Israel, she spoke with many Jews from Arab countries, and learned about the 850,000 Jews who had had to flee Arab lands during and after the 1948 war. She posted photos of herself visiting Israeli sites, and eating Iraqi food in Jerusalem restaurants. Later she reminisced about her trip: “It actually felt weird—the people look like my people. And the city looks like Damascus, like Syria, and I’ve been there, so everything seems familiar to me.”
In August 2019, she testified on behalf of Israel at a meeting in Geneva of the UN Human Rights Council, in what must have been a most uncomfortable appearance for the Arab and Muslim delegates.
In December 2019, at the invitation of Israel’s UN ambassador, Sarah Idan attended an event held at Israel’s UN Mission to mark the expulsion of Jews from North Africa and the Middle East following the establishment of the State of Israel. She spoke feelingly about what she had learned about this issue when she visited Israel, according to a report in Algemeiner: “I was very surprised and especially touched by the experience of visiting the Babylonian Heritage Museum in Or Yehuda — which serves as a center to honor the heritage and history of Iraqi Jews.”
She said she felt a strong bond with Iraqi-born Jews in Israel: “I was born in Baghdad and felt very connected to the Iraqi Jews I met in Jerusalem, who welcomed me with open arms and with so much love, even though my country treated them unfairly. I was overwhelmed when I saw pictures of Iraqi government stamps on their passport saying ‘one-way exit — not allowed to return.’ I told them I was utterly ashamed.
“Sadly, the 3,000-year chapter of Jewish life in Iraq, along with the larger Middle East and North Africa, came to an abrupt and traumatic end – and much of this is the result of antisemitism,” she said.
She has become a kind of unofficial ambassador for Israel, speaking up passionately for the Jewish state from her unusual perspective as a Muslim Iraqi. She believes the conflict is perpetuated by “the belief systems taught in Muslim countries, which are antisemitic” and is reinforced by biased media.
Idan had worked as an interpreter for the American army in Iraq, and as a result she was given a green card. She moved to America, and in 2015 became an American citizen. She is now living in California.
In March, she announced she would be running for Congress in 2024, as a Democrat, from the 30th Congressional District. She should win in a walk. She’s made all the right enemies. She’s already had a few exchanges on Twitter with the unbearable Ilhan Omar, responding to one of Omar’s tweets with this:
“I don’t stand for your anti-American, antisemitic, Muslim Brotherhood agenda, using this democracy to further your…Islamic socialism goals of dividing and weakening our country.”
And in announcing her candidacy for Congress, she said: “I would just be the opposite of Ilhan Omar. I’m a Democrat and liberal, but I don’t think like her – I don’t hate this country.” Idan has said she wants to make war on “wokeism.”
And once in the House, her intelligence, her knowledge of Iraqi Muslims and Israeli Jews, her clear-eyed fury at antisemites, and – let’s face it — her good looks, will be a nightmare for Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar, and the sour-faced crew at CAIR. Ordinarily I wouldn’t have any interest in a liberal Democrat from California. But for Sarah Idan, I’ll happily make an exception.
http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png00Jihad Watchhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngJihad Watch2023-06-11 07:31:542023-06-11 07:34:32Sarah Idan, Miss Iraq and Ardent Zionist, Now Running For Congress
Hundreds of people blocking streets, looting stores, and destroying property should not be normal occurrences. They are not normal in a peaceful, prosperous society. Alas, they are increasingly normal in America’s large cities. Unusually violent street incidents in Chicago and Los Angeles over the weekend illustrate the nation’s civilizational decline and point to at least one of the (many) causes.
Videos captured early Sunday morning show that a mob approximately 100 strong smashed through a glass door at an Arco gas station in Compton, California and ransacked the place while the overnight clerk hid in the bathroom. The “mob of looters … left a trail of destruction” at multiple stores, according to one local news report, while another said sheriff’s deputies received reports of gunshots in the area. Police arrived too late to stop the mayhem — not to mention being wildly outnumbered — but are reviewing video for possible charges.
The incident was apparently related to illegal street takeovers — at least three occurred Sunday night — connected to illegal street racing. Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Sergeant Clarence Williams said the street takeovers occur “just about every weekend.” Local resident Kevin Evans said of the perpetrators, “I don’t think they are Compton residents. We don’t tear up our own city like this.” (That hasn’t always been true.)
Meanwhile in Chicago, hundreds of teens swarmed the city’s downtown area on Saturday night, climbing on buses, smashing car windows, attacking bystanders, and generally creating chaos. Two teens were taken to the hospital with gunshot wounds, while a woman said her husband was hospitalized after a crowd smashed their windshield and beat him severely. The under-age crowd attempted to enter Millennium Park, where people under 21 are not allowed without an adult. Assisted by SWAT teams, hundreds of Chicago police attempted to restore order and escort tourists to safety. Police arrested nine adults and six juveniles, a slim fraction of the lawbreakers that night.
Saturday’s violence wasn’t the first time. On Friday, “a similar gathering” of hundreds of teens at 31st Street Beach turned violent when a 14-year-old was shot, and other cars were damaged, including one set on fire. One eyewitness described “kids fighting, chasing each other, some of them got guns.” The incidents also echo last year’s “Teen Takeover,” when, Chicago’s downtown was plunged into “absolute chaos” as mayoral candidate Paul Vallas tweeted. “Juveniles jumping on top of buses, cars, terrorizing residents, tourists & businesses. These mass groups fought CPD [Chicago Police Department] & only minimal arrests were made.” Sadly, Chicago’s routine violence only receives widespread attention when it spills out into affluent neighborhoods.
Multiple eyewitnesses laid at least part of the blame for the Chicago chaos at the feet of parents. “What’s it going to take?” asked one witness. “The community has to step up, parents have to step up, we can’t keep blaming politicians and waiting on them.” Outgoing Mayor Lori Lightfoot made the same point. “Parents and guardians must know where their children are and be responsible for their actions. Instilling the important values of respect for people and property must begin at home.”
Another anonymous Chicago native perhaps said it best, “Where are their parents at? That’s my question.”
That’s a great question. First, it rightly intuits that parents bear a responsibility for their children’s moral formation.
Second, it points toward at least a piece of the solution: parents are absent because they have been shut out of a position of influence in their children’s lives — by design. Education experts believe they know better than parents and therefore can supersede a parent’s authority. “I have a master’s degree,” testified Arizona teacher Alicia Messing. “What do the parents have?” She added, “the purpose of public education is not to teach only what parents want their children to be taught, it is to teach them what society needs them to be taught.”
Left-wing politicians are 110% behind the arrogant absolutism of the Educrats. As former Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe accidentally said out loud in the 2021 campaign, “I don’t think parents should be telling schools what they should teach.” Of course, that predictably unpopular narrative — McAuliffe lost his bid to retake the governor’s mansion — has leftists such as White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre or Education Secretary Miguel Cardona searching around for a more sympathetic framing. They much prefer a “parents versus Republican politicians” narrative to the “parents versus teachers” reality.
As a result, more than 5,000 schools now allow — or require! — teachers to hide a child’s gender identity from parents, according to a report by Parents Defending Education. Schools have stocked closets with clothing so that students can cross-dress at school to keep their gender identity secret from their parents. They have continued to stonewall parents, even after parents have sued them, or their children attempted suicide. One Wisconsin teacher posted in her classroom, “If your parents aren’t accepting of your identity, I’m your mom now.”
If parents lack the moral authority to even know when their children attempt suicide, how can they be expected to effectively steer their teens away from street crime?
Both Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) and Chicago Public Schools (CPS) — which are also home to some of the nation’s most powerful teachers unions — endorse this radical, new agenda of hiding essential information about a students’ identity from their parents.
It gets worse. After undermining parental influence, many schools are training children up to be left-wing activists. New curricula, some of which has been promoted in mainstream media, not only claims that activism makes children better students and better citizens, but teaches them how to do it. It’s no accident that high school students — or even younger — routinely walk out of class to participate in left-wing protests; their teachers are training and encouraging them to do so. Sure enough, there is evidence — although they try to downplay it — that LAUSD and CPS are encouraging their students in activism. Why, then, are we surprised when youth in Los Angeles and Chicago take over the streets?
Illinois state Senator Robert Peters (D), the senate black caucus chair, explicitly identified the Chicago violence with political activism, “I would look at the behavior of young people as a political act and statement. It’s a mass protest against poverty and segregation.” There’s only one problem: the word for non-governmental actors employing violence in pursuit of a political objective is not “protest”; it’s “terrorism.” For that reason, let’s hope Mr. Peters is incorrect.
“One of God’s great gifts to humanity is restraint. And when those restraints are taken off of a society, horrible things happen,” Dr. Al Mohler said last week on “Washington Watch.” “Frankly, you look at America’s major cities, [and] you don’t see much restraint about anything.” This past weekend made his point.
The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.
http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png00Family Research Councilhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngFamily Research Council2023-04-20 06:55:132023-04-20 07:00:03Two Street Riots, One Weekend: The Violent Legacy of Anti-Parent Policies
After decades of forced sterilizations followed by feeble apologies, California is shifting to the endgame of its century-long sterilization program: taxing innocent citizens to pay off its victims.
It is a commonsense view that government spending is generally inefficient compared to spending by private people and businesses. As the Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman famously argued, “Nobody spends somebody else’s money as carefully as he spends his own. Nobody uses somebody else’s resources as carefully as he uses his own. So if you want efficiency and effectiveness, if you want knowledge to be properly utilized, you have to do it through the means of private property.”
This point about economic efficiency may be true, but it often lets government officials off the hook far too easy. A chilling example of this is how California is currently dealing with its long history of forcing sterilization on unwilling victims and then legislatively immunizing themselves from responsibility.
If you were a taxpayer in the Golden State as recently as 2010, your earnings probably helped fund the forced sterilizations of hundreds of inmates such as the Native American woman Moonlight Pulido.
“While in prison in 2005, Pulido said a doctor told her he needed to remove two ‘growths’ that could be cancer,” the Associated Pressreported earlier this month. “She signed a form and had surgery. Later, something didn’t feel right. She was constantly sweating and not feeling like herself. She asked a nurse, who told her she had had a full hysterectomy, a procedure that removes the uterus and the cervix, and sometimes other parts of the reproductive system.”
“I felt like less than a woman,” Pulido told reporter Adam Beam. “We’re the only life-givers, we’re the only ones that can give life and he stole that blessing from me.”
Pulido was not alone. Other victims of this ghoulish policy shared stories with media, including Kimberly Jeffrey, who recalled resisting a tubal ligation procedure while she was sedated and strapped to an operating table.
“Being treated like I was less than human produced in me a despair,” Jeffrey told NPR.
Kelli Dillon, a former inmate at Central California women’s facility, explained how she found out that her ovaries had been removed in 2001 without her knowledge or consent after she was told surgeons were going to take a biopsy and remove a cyst.
“It was like my life wasn’t worth anything. Somebody felt I had nothing to contribute to the point where they had to find this sneaky and diabolical way to take my ability to have children,” Dillon told the Guardian in 2021.
It was not until years later, while still a member of the California State prison system, that Dillon began to realize other inmates were receiving hysterectomies and sterilization procedures without their knowledge, often after being told the procedures “were necessary to look for cancers or correcting gynecological issues.”
If the perpetrators of these violations were held accountable for their actions, such atrocities would be less likely to happen. But instead of being brought to justice for their malfeasance, the California State government is forcing innocent people to pay the price and getting off virtually scott free themselves. It is this sort of application for the expropriation of funds from private and productive citizens that has allowed governments to terrorize their citizens since time immemorial—a pattern that will have no reason to end until measures have been taken to eliminate the power of governments to enact such cruel legislation.
Timeline: California’s Forced Sterilization
1909: The state government of California created a sterilization program that became the largest eugenics movement in the United States, sterilizing more than 20,000 unwilling victims and also inspiring eugenics practices in Nazi Germany. The practices were carried out in public hospitals and other tax-funded institutions for the disabled and mentally ill, because people with disabilities or mental illnesses were deemed unfit for reproduction.
1927: By now the eugenics movement had become mainstream in the United States. It was widely thought among elite American policymakers that the human population could be improved by coercively preventing the reproduction of disliked demographics such as the disabled, the poor, the “feebleminded,” and even people deemed “sexual deviants” such as rapists, prostitutes, or even women who had sex out of wedlock. California’s constitutional right to continue its eugenics practices was enshrined by the United States Supreme Court in the Buck v. Bell case, in which the right of the state of Virginia to sterilize Carrie Buck (who the state falsely declared “feebleminded”) against her will was upheld—and with it the rights of other state governments to make similar decisions for their inhabitants.
Writing for the majority, Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. (considered an idol of “progressivism” in his time and still by some today) stated, “It is better for all the world, if instead of waiting to execute degenerate offspring for crime, or to let them starve for their imbecility, society can prevent those who are manifestly unfit from continuing their kind. The principle that sustains compulsory vaccination is broad enough to cover cutting the Fallopian tubes.”
And thus, he concluded in a famous line that, “Three generations of imbeciles are enough.”
1968-1974: Although the eugenics movement had peaked in the 1930s, California government officials oversaw continued tax-funded sterilizations into the later half of the 20th century. For example, according to an official document released by Los Angeles County five years ago apologizing for a series of sterilizations county officials had overseen between 1968 and 1974, “Over 200 women who delivered babies at the Los Angeles County+USC Medical Center, the majority of whom were low income and born in Mexico, were possibly coerced into getting postpartum tubal ligations. At least some of the women were not aware they had been sterilized, and only learned that they had lost their reproductive rights during subsequent doctors’ visits. It is significant and necessary to acknowledge the irreparable harm inflicted onto the women who were subjected to these coerced sterilizations at Los Angeles County+USC Medical Center, and to their families.“
1979: California’s eugenics laws were repealed, supposedly ending the practice of state-funded eugenics in CA.
1999 – 2010: California’s eugenics movement was mysteriously revived, but this time under the guise of prison healthcare. According to the Associated Press less than two years ago, “Sterilizations in California prisons appear to date to 1999, when the state changed its policy for unknown reasons to include a sterilization procedure known as “tubal ligation” as part of inmates’ medical care. Over the next decade, women reported they were coerced into this procedure, with some not fully understanding the ramifications.”
2003: While the California government was still funding involuntary sterilizations in their state prisons, California Governor Gray Davis apologized on behalf of “the people of California” for the government’s “past” eugenicist actions. “To the victims and their families of this past injustice, the people of California are deeply sorry for the suffering you endured over the years,” the apology read. “Our hearts are heavy for the pain caused by eugenics. It was a sad and regrettable chapter in the state’s history, and it is one that must never be repeated again.”
2013: The Center for Investigative Reporting (CIR, now Reveal) discovered that between 1997 and 2010 California state officials spent at least $147,460 of taxpayer funds to sterilize 148 female inmates. The above-quoted Moonlight Pulido, Kimberly Jeffrey, and Kelli Dillon were just three among them. Many of the records of these sterilizations were “lost or destroyed,” the Associated Press reports. NPR notes that the true number of illicit sterilizations during that period may have been significantly higher than reported, and that the operations appeared to disproportionately target repeat offenders.
The CIR’s claims were denied by the few state officials who commented in this early phase of the scandal. Valley State Prison’s former OB-GYN Dr. James Heinrich claimed that all sterilized inmates had consented to the operations. He even justified this use of tax dollars in a way that seemed to echo Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.’s disregard for the value of human life back in 1927. “Over a 10-year period, [$147,460] isn’t a huge amount of money compared to what you save in welfare paying for these unwanted children — as they procreated more,” Heinrich said according to NPR.
2014: Prompted by the CIR’s findings, auditors conducted their own investigation to confirm or disconfirm the CIR’s claims. “A state audit found 144 women were sterilized between 2005 and 2013 with little or no evidence they were counseled or offered alternative treatments,” the audit found. The auditors’ report, published at www.auditor.ca.gov, found that the misconduct had occurred with the oversight of either the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation or California Correctional Health Care Services.
“This report concludes that during our eight-year audit period, 144 female inmates were sterilized by a procedure known as bilateral tubal ligation, a surgery generally performed for the sole purpose of sterilization,” the auditors wrote.
Later that year, in response to the revelations, California Governor Jerry Brown signed a bill supposedly written to prohibit future involuntary sterilizations in California prisons. However, as reporting from the Guardian noted, “While the bill passed unanimously, its carefully negotiated language allowed the state to escape further responsibility.”
2021: The California government approved legislation intended to compensate its sterilization victims through tax-funded reparations payments. The program will pay out at least $15,000 to any applicant who can prove to have been one of the victims.
2022-2023: California is searching for the victims that are still alive today, of which there are believed to be more than 600, according to reporting from the Associated Press in 2021 (although many of the victims never knew what was done to them, so it is unclear how they would know to apply for reparations). The government’s search strategy consists of sending posters, flyers, and fact sheets to libraries, prisons, and other establishments across the state, the AP reported this month.
After a year of searching, the government has approved only 51 out of 310 reparations applicants, denied 103 people’s applications, and closed three incomplete applications. According to the AP, “They say it’s difficult to verify the applications as many records have been lost or destroyed.” Therefore, according to Executive Officer of the California Victim Compensation Board Lynda Gledhill, “We try to find all the information we can and sometimes we just have to hope that somebody maybe can find more detailed information on their own. We’re just sometimes not able to verify what happened.”
Of the 51 victims who have been approved for reparations payments, three were sterilized under California’s eugenics laws that were repealed in 1979. The rest were sterilized more recently.
2024: The $4.5 million reparations program, for which an additional $2 million is being spent on advertising, will end.
Any victims still unpaid will have lost their chance to be compensated for the damages to their bodies, sexual identities, human dignity, and potential to pass their genes onto future generations.
Allowing the Unthinkable to Happen
The “public servants” governing California appropriated funds from innocent citizens against their will, used those funds to capture and sterilize involuntary victims, “lost or destroyed” the associated records, passed legislation to protect themselves from responsibility (after being caught), finally decided to pay reparations but passed the cost onto unwilling innocent citizens instead of facing any financial or legal repercussions themselves, and have only paid 51 out of at least 600 living victims now that about half the term of the reparations program has passed.
The above history of self-serving legislation and empty apologies confirms the suspicion common sense should lead us to anyway—namely that California government institutions cannot be trusted to legislatively protect the citizenry from continued atrocities given that the atrocities in question are often perpetrated by the government institutions themselves.
When unjustified coercion is consistently used by a group of people, the way to stop them is to impose costs on the guilty individuals that they themselves must suffer until their transgressions are atoned for. It is good that (albeit grossly inadequate) reparations are being paid, but until the perpetrators of the crimes are the ones to pay the price, the crucial lessons will not be learned and the crucial incentives not imposed.
There are several destructive institutions that allowed these eugenics operations to take place, but among them is the practice of government taxation itself. It allowed the perpetrators to conduct their operations without incurring personal expense, and through taxation the innocent many are now being scapegoated to protect the guilty few from what punishments they might otherwise be forced by the outrage of the public to endure.
If the perpetrators of these crimes against humanity aren’t going to be jailed for life or otherwise severely punished as any private citizen likely would for committing the same offenses, then at the very least the citizens who involuntarily pay their salaries and fund the programs of their twisted imaginations could be struggling to end the forced involvement of the citizenry that finances such programs with their tax payments.
If your tax dollars were spent solely to improve the health, education, and protection from violence of your fellow countrymen, instead of often funding the exact opposite of all these things as has been the case in California, then opposing the predation of tax collectors would not be quite so urgent. But in the real world, those malevolent enough (or those sufficiently under the sway of malevolent ideas) to think they should get to spend your money against your will often turn out to be malevolent in many other ways as well.
There are plenty of reasons one might struggle against government taxation. Perhaps you’re a poor or middle-class laborer at pains to afford your childrens’ education. Perhaps you’re a visionary entrepreneur trying to fund some world-changing new technological or medical research.
But at least as good a reason as any to oppose your wealth being confiscated is to prevent institutions such as the California State government from spending another dime on their campaigns of terror and reproductive destruction.
Saul Zimet is a Website and Data Coordinator for HumanProgress.org at the Cato Institute and a graduate student in economics at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice at the City University of New York.
http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png00Foundation for Economic Education (FEE)http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngFoundation for Economic Education (FEE)2023-02-04 14:20:342023-02-04 14:20:34A Brief History of California’s Eugenics Program (1909-2013)
At times, frankly, it’s pretty slim pickings for every party, but this is ridiculous: Old Joe Biden is looking increasingly unlikely to repeat his president act after January 20, 2025, and California Governor Gavin Newsom is now the Democrats’ rising star.
Yes, that Gavin Newsom, the one who is relentlessly destroying California with ever more intrusive and expensive nanny state socialist measures that are leading Californians to flee in droves: the state is experiencing a population decline for the first time in recorded history.
But Newsom is popular among Leftists because he is a socialist, and even better (as far as they’re concerned), an authoritarian who eagerly tramples upon the First Amendment in his lust to crack down on dissent. As the Left grows ever more open about its opposition to our Constitutional rights, Newsom’s disdain for the freedom of speech makes him look increasingly like the Democrat of the future, if the future belongs to Mao. But now he has encountered a small obstacle, in the form of a federal judge.
Back in September 2022, Newsom signed Assembly Bill 2098, a law prohibiting the dissemination of “misinformation” on the COVID hysteria. Specifically, according to a Thursday report in the San Francisco Gate, it established penalties for physicians who departed from “the contemporary scientific consensus” regarding COVID. Now that this “consensus” is being shown to have been based more on groupthink and political objectives rather than dispassionate and objective scientific analysis, Newsom’s bill appears to be particularly insidious. And it is: “misinformation” and “disinformation” are labels that today’s enemies of freedom use in order to suppress speech that gets in the way of their agenda while fooling Leftist rubes into thinking they’re performing a valuable public service. Newsom, not surprisingly, is an enthusiastic proponent of such deceptions.
According to the governor himself, of course, this fascist little bill was perfect, as it was “narrowly tailored to apply only to those egregious instances in which a licensee is acting with malicious intent or clearly deviating from the required standard of care while interacting directly with a patient under their care.” However, the Gate notes that “in an SFGATE op-ed last year, California physician Dr. Tracy Beth Høeg argued that AB 2098’s definition of ‘misinformation’ was too broad and that ‘the contemporary scientific consensus’ is always changing.” Indeed. If anything is obvious about COVID at this point, it’s that. And so “Høeg and other doctors sued the state, alleging that the law violates the First Amendment’s free speech protections and 14th Amendment’s due process protections.” Obviously it does.
Now a federal judge has recognized that fact. On Wednesday, Judge William B. Shubb shot down Newsom’s free-speech-destroying measure, and had strong words for it in his opinion: “Defendants argue that while the scientific consensus may sometimes be difficult to define, there is a clear scientific consensus on certain issues — for example, that apples contain sugar, that measles is caused by a virus, or that Down’s syndrome is caused by a chromosomal abnormality. However, AB 2098 does not apply the term ‘scientific consensus’ to such basic facts, but rather to COVID-19 — a disease that scientists have only been studying for a few years, and about which scientific conclusions have been hotly contested. COVID-19 is a quickly evolving area of science that in many aspects eludes consensus.”
Imagine if Gavin Newsom had had the marvelous opportunity to be walking on this planet in the year 1632. There is no doubt whatsoever about it: he would have been one of those insisting that Galileo obey the clear scientific consensus that the sun revolved around the earth, and would happily have burned him at the stake if he continued to insist otherwise. The contents of the orthodoxy and the heresy have changed, but otherwise the situation is the same: Gavin Newsom would have been a zealous Inquisitor. And Judge Shubb further embarrassed California’s Grand Inquisitor by pointing out that the definition of “misinformation” included in AB 2098 was “grammatically incoherent” and consequently thus “unconstitutionally vague.” The Gate adds that Shubb “had signaled he would grant the doctors’ request at a Monday hearing, in which he told California’s lawyers that their definition of ‘misinformation’ was ‘nonsense.’”
Totalitarians don’t give up when they encounter obstacles, and so Newsom will persist. The Gate notes that Shubb’s ruling was “not a final judgment on the constitutionality of the law but rather a temporary halt against enforcement while litigation continues. California can appeal to have the injunction lifted,” and you can be sure that it will. Although little noted among patriots, the war against the freedom of speech is the Left’s primary focus at this point. If Leftists can destroy it, under the guise of protecting the public against such trumped-up bogeymen as “hate speech” and “misinformation,” they will have a free hand to implement the rest of their sinister agenda. That’s why this small victory against AB 2098 should be celebrated, and imitated.
http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png00Jihad Watchhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngJihad Watch2023-02-01 09:13:282023-02-01 09:17:29Federal Judge Blocks Gavin Newsom’s War Against the Freedom of Speech
For all its faults, many people still think of California as “the place you oughta be,” as one long-ago sitcom theme song has it. Besides swimmin’ pools and movie stars, it has temperate weather year-round, beautiful beaches, breathtaking scenery, and amazing things to see and do.
Unfortunately, the political progressives who run the state are dragging it down. The taxes, regulations, and bizarre social policies they’ve put in place are driving people away. The latest proposal to hit the drawing board is a new wealth tax that would go after the billionaires whose tax payments are keeping the state going.
It’s as though they’re intent on killing the goose, as the fairy tale puts it, that lays the golden eggs.
The latest proposal, if it gains any kind of steam, is sure to drive away the remaining investors, job creators, and the people who actually pay taxes who have not yet fled the state because of the high taxes, declining public school performance, rising crime and the failure to prosecute those who commit them (if they’re caught) and other outrageous ideas like $5 million payments to individuals as reparations for slavery plus the establishment of an annual guaranteed income worth $97,000 in today’s dollars.
California was never a “slave state” – at least not in the traditional sense of the term. The wealth tax proposal introduced in the legislature on January 23, 2023, may make it seem like one if it passes.
Unlike an income tax, which is determined based on what you bring in each year, wealth taxes are assessed based on everything you own. It’s a tax on the whole Magilla, as my great uncle used to say, with all that implies.
The bill, A.B. 259, calls for the imposition of a yearly tax of 1.5% of any California resident’s total, global net worth “in excess of $1,000,000,000, or in excess of $500,000,000 in the case of a married taxpayer filing separately.”
That may not seem like a lot. The rate is low, and it only applies to billionaires. Then again, that’s what people thought about the income tax when it was first introduced, at a low rate, applying only to millionaires and multi-millionaires.
As the bill is currently written, it’s an easy tax to escape. All one must do is give up one’s California residence which, given that the top income tax rate is already 13%, doesn’t seem like much of a hardship. Except it doesn’t take into account what would happen to the people left who are left behind.
Demographer Wendell Cox, who runs the Demographia.com website and who studies the economic impact of interstate migration, says a global wealth tax would “likely accelerate the already substantial migration out of California, which has been driving out middle-income households with its unconscionably high cost of living and taxation.”
He’s not wrong. The effect of out-migration is already being felt in substantial ways. After the 2020 census, and for the first time since statehood in 1850, California lost a congressional seat. That’s a big deal.
Looking at who pays taxes in California, Cox believes a wealth tax would have a disastrous effect on the state’s economy. “Those with the highest incomes, only 0.5% of the population, pay 40% of the state income tax revenue, meaning the new tax could drive out more revenue than it raises, as wealthy taxpayers leave for more friendly states,” he says.
California has an expansive social safety net and is forced to absorb an unknown number of undocumented workers into its economy every year thanks to the illegal crossings that occur every day over the border with Mexico. All that comes at a great cost. If the cash cows in Silicon Valley and other parts of Northern California and the hedge fund managers and investors around Los Angeles take the introduction of a wealth tax as an indication of what’s coming, the numbers of dollars taken out of the state as the people who generate them relocate to no-tax Texas or Tennessee could be catastrophic.
It’s all avoidable. Yet for some unfathomable reason, the people in power there now, from Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom on down seem intent on the state where people used to go to claim their share of the America Dream into a kind of neo-socialist nightmare. Newsom wants to be president in the worst way, but if the Californication of the United States is what he has in mind, we’ll pass, thank you.
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.
A former UPI political writer and U.S. News and World Report columnist, Peter Roff is a Trans-Atlantic Leadership Network media fellow. Contact him at RoffColumns AT mail.com or on Twitter @TheRoffDraft.
http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png00The Daily Callerhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngThe Daily Caller2023-01-23 13:44:372023-01-23 13:46:16California — The Place You Oughta Leave
You can do anything in California except open a business, walk down the street, or buy a home.
Gov. Gavin Newsom, the democratic choice of the enlightened ballot harvesters of California, desperately wants to be president. Despite pledging not to run against Biden, he’s continuing to posture by announcing an “anti-Jan 6” march (whatever the hell that is) for his inauguration. The one-party governor of one of the most corrupt states in America then spent his speech ranting about Republicans in other states.
California’s unelected governor wants to reframe freedom to mean mandatory masks and car bans. Not to mention state censorship of online speech.
Freedom is slavery, slavery is freedom.
Gavin Newsom triumphantly marched toward California’s statehouse to deliver an inaugural speech that celebrated California’s freedoms and the state’s resistance to forces that “want to take the nation backward.”
“More than any people, in any place, California has bridged the historical expanse between freedom for some, and freedom for all,” he said under cloudy but dry skies for the first time in days.
“Freedom is our essence, our brand name – the abiding idea that right here anyone from anywhere can accomplish anything.”
Except work freelance, drive a truck, buy a car, get disposable utensils, buy a fur coat, install a gas stove or any of the tens of thousands of things that the Democrat one-party system has banned in some or all of the state.
You can do anything in California except open a business, walk down the street, gas up your car or buy a home. It’s the land of dreams, the hotel you check into and then escape through the back window.
California is so incredibly free that, like North Korea, Cuba and Venezuela, everyone is running away.
Gov. Newsom has the unique honor of presiding over a population loss every year in office.
“California’s population continues to dwindle. The state’s population declined by 114,000 people from about 39,143,000 in 2021 to 39,029,000 in 2020, new estimates by the U.S. Census Bureau show. It marks the third straight year that California has reported a loss.”
While Texas and Florida, the states he’s attacking, are gaining people, the only folks California is gaining are coming illegally over the border.
Unlike other states, Newsom said, California safeguards freedoms like “the freedom for teachers to teach, freedom from litmus tests about their political party or the person they love.”
California safeguards the right of teachers to “love” the kids of their choice. Republican teachers however get fired.
“They make it harder to vote and easier to buy illegal guns. They silence speech, fire teachers, kidnap migrants, subjugate women, attack the Special Olympics, and even demonize Mickey Mouse,” he said about conservative leaders like DeSantis. “All camouflaged under a hijacking of the word ‘freedom.’”
Whereas in California, Mickey Mouse can expose himself to children. Freedom!
In California, public school teachers, whose insane salaries are subsidized by property taxes no new residents can afford to pay unless they’re millionaires, can groom 9-year-olds. Freedom!
In California, vagrants and junkies have a right to camp in front of your home, but you have to wait 3 years to get a permit to have any work done. Freedom!
In California, a race riot is a civil right while trying to defend yourself against them is a crime. Freedom!
In California, shoplifting is legal, but opening a business isn’t. Freedom!
Wait, why is everyone fleeing the land of the fee and the home of the slave? Wait for the reparations. Stay for the car ban. Or the mandatory ethnic studies. And the race riots. And the tax hikes.
Big population drops in L.A., San Francisco transform state – Los Angeles Times
Why are you leaving the home of freedom? Why?
Do you have something against systemic racism, child abuse, mentally ill vagrants smoking crack, high taxes, and no legal rights whatsoever, you reactionary bigot. You’re taking the nation “backward”.
And California is going backward. Instead of, Go West, Young Man, it’s now Go East.
http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png00Jihad Watchhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngJihad Watch2023-01-09 06:59:292023-01-12 06:16:43Gov. Newsom Claims State That Bans Cars and Speech Offers ‘Freedom For All’
Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s reelection campaign spent over $1.6 million to oppose a climate initiative that would raise taxes on millionaires to help low-income Californians buy electric cars. Despite this, Newsom, who is a multimillionaire, has previously touted his administration’s efforts to rapidly cut carbon emissions and get more electric vehicles (EVs) on the road.
Newsom, who boasts an estimated net worth of around $20 million, signed a bill in September to codify ambitious emissions reduction targets and praised the California Air Resources Board’s decision to ban all gasoline-powered car sales by 2035. However, Newsom’s campaign gave $1,617,216 to the “No on 30” committee, which opposes Proposition 30, a ballot measure that institutes an additional 1.75% tax on individuals that make over $2 million a year to help disadvantaged Californians buy EVs, according to campaign finance disclosures filed Tuesday.
Newsom aims to make his state’s auto industry “all-electric” by 2035 and will spend $10 billion of taxpayers’ money to “aggressively fight the climate crisis” by phasing out gas cars and building EV infrastructure. The Democrat called Proposition 30 an irresponsible “special interest carve-out” and argued that the proposed law was designed to “funnel” state income tax to Lyft, a large rideshare company, according to a statement Newsom’s campaign provided to the Daily Caller News Foundation.
Newsom aims to make his state’s auto industry “all-electric” by 2035 and will spend $10 billion of taxpayers’ money to “aggressively fight the climate crisis” by phasing out gas cars and building EV infrastructure. The Democrat called Proposition 30 an irresponsible “special interest carve-out” and argued that the proposed law was designed to “funnel” state income tax to Lyft, a large rideshare company, according to a statement Newsom’s campaign provided to the Daily Caller News Foundation.
“California’s tax revenues are famously volatile, and this measure would make our state’s finances more unstable − all so that special interests can benefit,” Newsom said in the statement. “Californians should know that just this year our state committed $10 billion for electric vehicles and their infrastructure, part of a $54 billion nation-leading package to fight climate change and build a zero-emission future.”
A small percentage of California taxpayers would fund Proposition 30’s EV initiatives as only 35,000 of the state’s residents reported adjusted gross incomes greater than $2 million, according to 2019 statistics published by the state’s Franchise Tax Board.
Although the measure could help Lyft by raising money to help the company’s drivers buy electric cars, environmentalists began drafting the measure before the company became involved, CEO of California Environmental Voters Mary Creasman told CBS News. A Lyft spokeswoman previously told the Daily Caller News Foundation that none of the $3.5 billion to $5 billion in tax revenue generated by the law was “earmarked” for the rideshare industry.
Californians will vote to implement or reject Proposition 30 on Nov. 8.
http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png00The Daily Callerhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngThe Daily Caller2022-11-03 15:04:202022-11-03 15:08:12Gavin Newsom Shells Out $1.6 Million To Stop Climate Measure That Would Raise Taxes On The Rich
The map above (click to view and enlarge) matches the economic output (Gross Domestic Product) for each US state (and the District of Columbia) in 2018 to a foreign country with a comparable nominal GDP last year, using data from the BEA for GDP by US state (average of Q2 and Q3 state GDP, since Q4 data aren’t yet available) and data for GDP by country from the International Monetary Fund. Like in past years, for each US state (and the District of Columbia), I’ve identified the country closest in economic size in 2018 (measured by nominal GDP) and those matching countries are displayed in the map above and in the table below. Obviously, in some cases, the closest match was a country that produced slightly more, or slightly less, economic output in 2018 than a given US state.
It’s pretty difficult to even comprehend how ridiculously large the US economy is, and the map above helps put America’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of $20.5 trillion ($20,500,000,000,000) in 2018 into perspective by comparing the economic size (GDP) of individual US states to other country’s entire national output. For example:
America’s largest state economy is California, which produced nearly $3 trillion of economic output in 2018, more than the United Kingdom’s GDP last year of $2.8 trillion. Consider this: California has a labor force of 19.6 million compared to the labor force in the UK of 34 million (World Bank data here). Amazingly, it required a labor force 75% larger (and 14.5 million more people) in the UK to produce the same economic output last year as California! That’s a testament to the superior, world-class productivity of the American worker. Further, California as a separate country would have been the 5th largest economy in the world last year, ahead of the UK ($2.81 trillion), France ($2.79 trillion) and India ($2.61 trillion).
America’s second largest state economy—Texas—produced nearly $1.8 trillion of economic output in 2018, which would have ranked the Lone Star State as the world’s 10th largest economy last year. GDP in Texas was slightly higher than Canada’s GDP last year of $1.73 trillion. However, to produce about the same amount of economic output as Texas required a labor force in Canada (20.1 million) that was nearly 50% larger than the labor force in the state of Texas (13.9 million). That is, it required a labor force of 6.2 million more workers in Canada to produce roughly the same output as Texas last year. Another example of the world-class productivity of the American workforce.
America’s third largest state economy—New York with a GDP in 2018 of $1.68 trillion—produced slightly more economic output last year than South Korea ($1.65 trillion). As a separate country, New York would have ranked as the world’s 11th largest economy last year, ahead of No. 12 South Korea, No. 13 Russia ($1.57 trillion) and No. 14 Spain ($1.43 trillion). Amazingly, it required a labor force in South Korea of 28 million that was nearly three times larger than New York’s (9.7 million) to produce roughly the same amount of economic output last year! More evidence of the world-class productivity of American workers.
Other comparisons: Florida (about $1 trillion) produced almost the same amount of GDP in 2018 as Mexico ($1.19 trillion), even though Florida’s labor force of 10.2 million less than 20% of the size of Mexico’s workforce of 59 million.
Even with all of its oil wealth, Saudi Arabia’s GDP in 2018 at $683 billion was below the GDP of US states like Pennsylvania ($793 billion) and Illinois ($863 billion).
Overall, the US produced 24.3% of world GDP in 2017, with only about 4.3% of the world’s population. Four of America’s states (California, Texas, New York and Florida) produced more than $1 trillion in output and as separate countries would have ranked in the world’s top 16 largest economies last year. Together, those four US states produced nearly $7.5 trillion in economic output last year, and as a separate country would have ranked as the world’s third-largest economy.
Adjusted for the size of the workforce, there might not be any country in the world that produces as much output per worker as the US, thanks to the world-class productivity of the American workforce. The map above and the statistics summarized here help remind us of the enormity of the economic powerhouse we live and work in.
So let’s not lose sight of how ridiculously large and powerful the US economy is, and how much wealth, output, and prosperity is being created every day in the largest economic engine there has ever been in human history. This comparison is also a reminder that it was largely free markets, free trade, and capitalism that propelled the US from a minor British colony in the 1700s into a global economic superpower and the world’s largest economy, with individual US states producing the equivalent economic output of entire countries.
http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png00Foundation for Economic Education (FEE)http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngFoundation for Economic Education (FEE)2022-10-07 15:43:492022-10-11 06:33:28U.S. State GDPs Compared to Entire Countries
Economics may offer a clue as to why not one state is mandating vaccination to attend school in the 2022-2023 school year, even though many government officials support coercive vaccination policies.
September has arrived and many children are back in public schools (though fewer than previous years).
At a recent event, one parent joked to me we’re now officially in “vaccine season.” The comment made me laugh, but there’s at least a kernel of truth to it. It’s not unusual for states to require that children receive an array of vaccinations—from polio, diphtheria, and chickenpox to measles, mumps, and meningitis—to be enrolled in a public school system.
One vaccine that parents will not find on any state’s required list in 2022 are the Covid-19 shots, which have been a source of great debate in the US and other countries.
“[Only] two states—California and Louisiana—have added COVID-19 vaccines to the list of immunizations mandated for schoolchildren,” Michael Ollove pointed out in January. “Both requirements would be enforced next school year, and then only if the vaccines receive full authorization by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.”
Things have changed since then.
In May, Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards announced the Louisiana Department of Health would not require children attending the state’s daycares or K-12 schools to provide proof of vaccination. California, which in October 2021 became the first state to announce Covid vaccine requirements for school, announced in April that it would not require vaccination, noting the vaccines had not at that time been approved by the FDA for all school-age children. (They are now.)
The fact that not a single US state is requiring students to be vaccinated against Covid to attend K-12 school is probably a bit surprising to readers. (It was to this author.)
I’d like to think that policymakers and politicians finally woke up to the fact that vaccine mandates are immoral, inhumane, and a clear violation of bodily integrity. But that seems unlikely considering that many vaccine mandates remain in place, particularly at the federal and municipal levels.
It’s also possible that lawmakers have realized vaccinated individuals can still get sick and spread the virus, and therefore concluded vaccinations are a matter of personal health, not public health. Yet once again this theory is undermined by the presence of other vaccine mandates that remain in place. Some may contend that we’ve simply beaten the virus and mandates are no longer necessary, but official statistics show Covid deaths and cases remain stubbornly high.
So what’s the answer?
What’s most likely is that political considerations are at play. Yet this thesis too, at first blush, appears to be undermined by the reality that polls show Americans support Covid vaccine mandates in schools.
Some basic economics, however, can help us see that the politics are more complicated than that.
‘Politics Without Romance’
Public Choice Theory is a field of economics pioneered by the Nobel Prize-winning economist James M. Buchanan and economist Gordon Tullock. It rests on a simple assumption: politicians and bureaucrats make decisions primarily based on self-interest and incentives just like everyone else, not out of an altruistic goal of serving “the public good.” (This is why public choice economists have dubbed it “politics without romance.”)
I’ve previously pointed out that politicians were incentivized during the pandemic to embrace Covid restrictions even if they didn’t work because of the political climate in 2020. The absence of government regulations was viewed as actual violence by some public health experts, and those who didn’t embrace strict interventions were accused of genocide.
Moreover, the costs of these regulations tended to be dispersed, delayed, and hidden from view. Depression, drug overdoses, lost learning, and speech impediments were among the consequences of NPIs (Non-Pharmaceutical Interventions) imposed by governments. But the results of these policies were relatively “unseen” (to use a term from the 19th century economist Frederic Bastiat), at least compared to Covid deaths, which public health officials, the media, and even ordinary citizens tracked obsessively.
The costs of NPIs were quite serious, but they were quite low politically for the reasons stated above. The political costs of keeping a state open were much higher. No politician wants to explain why Mrs. Jackson, the 60-year-old math teacher, died from Covid while schools in your state remained open. (It would be just as tragic if Mrs. Jackson had died at home when schools were closed, but at least no politician would be blamed for her death in this case.)
In other words, the incentive structure early in the pandemic encouraged interventions, even if those interventions were ineffective and ultimately ended up doing more harm than good.
A Different Incentive?
The incentive structure for vaccines is very different, particularly for young people.
Children can and do die from Covid, of course, but their risk is extremely low compared to other age groups. Even more important, perhaps, is that the costs of mandatory vaccination are not delayed, dispersed, or hidden from view. They are immediate, concentrated, and highly visible.
The sad reality is that vaccine injuries, though rare, do occur, as the CDC notes. And when they occur, they are the opposite of “unseen,” which means the political repercussions have the potential to be swift—and severe.
After all, when a young person dies after taking a vaccine designed to protect him, it’s a tragedy. When a young person dies of myocarditis after taking a vaccine he was forced to take to attend school, it’s a tragic event and a political disaster with a wide radius, even if some studies show the risk of myocarditis is greater after Covid infection than after Covid vaccination.
The Imperative of Choice
All of this analysis is dark and a bit troubling, of course. Now you see why they call public choice theory “politics without romance.”
Whether mandatory vaccination would have done more harm than good is a question we’ll never know, though it’s a debate that will likely continue for years to come. But because vaccines have the power to both save lives and claim lives, the decision to accept or refuse them can only morally be made by one person: the individual (or parents, if the decision concerns a child).
So at least state leaders are getting it right this time, even if they are doing so for the wrong reasons.
Jonathan Miltimore is the Managing Editor of FEE.org. His writing/reporting has been the subject of articles in TIME magazine, The Wall Street Journal, CNN, Forbes, Fox News, and the Star Tribune. Bylines: Newsweek, The Washington Times, MSN.com, The Washington Examiner, The Daily Caller, The Federalist, the Epoch Times.
http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png00Foundation for Economic Education (FEE)http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngFoundation for Economic Education (FEE)2022-09-19 18:24:352022-09-19 18:27:05Not a Single U.S. State Is Requiring Kids to Get Vaccinated to Attend Public School. Why?