California
May 8, 2023 — Elizabeth Stauffer
On Saturday, a California reparations task force approved a package that, if passed by the legislature, would cost $800 billion, or nearly three times the state’s annual budget. Although the new proposal did not state the size of the payments, an earlier version called for eligible blacks in the state to receive cash (or its equivalent) reparation payments of a minimum of $360,000 each to make up for “health harms,
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May 4, 2023 — Steven Hayward
Just when you think San Francisco can’t get any more insane, you come across this 50 seconds of public comment before the SF Board of Supervisors earlier this week: This is one of the most eloquent and powerful speeches I’ve ever heard. 🥲pic.twitter.com/ANIefLbTui — Titania McGrath (@TitaniaMcGrath) May 4, 2023 To be sure, at first it is hard to tell if this is a crazy whacked out lefty, or a
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April 21, 2023 — John Hinderaker
One of the many problems with “green” energy is that it is ridiculously expensive. Millions of Americans, if they have to pay the cost of wind or solar energy to power their homes, will not be able to afford it, and will have to sell out. Liberals know this, despite their absurd propaganda about wind energy being “cheap.” So what can they do? Follow the usual liberal playbook: make upper-income
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April 4, 2023 — John Hinderaker
My introduction to San Francisco came in the late 1970s, when I spent a lot of time there as a young lawyer. For a Midwestern guy, the San Francisco of that era was a revelation: great restaurants, famous hotels on Nob Hill, fog drifting in off the Bay. But today’s San Francisco is, sadly, something else. The San Francisco Chronicle has a long, long article about the city’s demise: “Downtown
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April 1, 2023 — Steven Hayward
So I taunted John this morning about his snowbound existence, and threatened to fly my drone over the wildflowers starting to bloom not far from where I reside. I now I make good on my threat! (One of the grudging lessons here is how it is California can get away with bad government or a high “cover charge” for living here.) By the way, the water levels seen in the
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March 29, 2023 — Steven Hayward
As everyone knows, California is leading the bandwagon to have an all-electric car and truck fleet as soon as 2035. The assumption is that people will charge up their batteries overnight when electricity demand drops. The defect in this plan is that while electricity demand starts to fall later in the evening (except during heat waves), California’s supply of electricity also falls because it is lopsided toward wind and especially
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March 13, 2023 — Steven Hayward
California is receiving record rainfall, and our reservoirs are nearly full and overflowing in some cases, with another four inches of rain possible tomorrow, and a huge spring snowmelt on the way starting six weeks from now, which is usually the main source of water for the central valley. The amount of water we’ll see run into the ocean is probably measured in the trillions of gallons. And yet California
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January 9, 2023 — Steven Hayward
Mass transit—the holy grail of urban progressivism (Quest for the Holy Rail, as I sometimes put it, or, A Desire Named Streetcar)—is struggling right now. The Wall Street Journal reports today: Several of the nation’s largest urban mass-transit systems are at a crossroads, with ridership still depressed three years into the pandemic and federal aid running out. . . The ridership shortfall is forcing transit authorities to question their decades-old
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December 31, 2022 — John Hinderaker
The ever-crazier California legislature has passed a law that, as the Wall Street Journal’s editors describe it: …creates a state council to dictate wages, working conditions and benefits, among other things, for fast-food workers who aren’t unionized. The law is intended to coerce fast-food franchises to surrender to the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). Can that possibly be constitutional? I don’t know, but it any event it is a terrible
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December 16, 2022 — John Hinderaker
In an era in which bad ideas abound, reparations must be among the worst. The state of California has nevertheless appointed a “Task Force to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African Americans.” The study having been undertaken, reparations, in some form, must inevitably follow. It is inconceivable that the task force would study the matter for a year or two and conclude that the state should forget the whole
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December 13, 2022 — Steven Hayward
It was only four years ago that Los Angeles City Councilman Kevin de Leon was the new shiny object for California progressives. He finished second in California’s jungle primary for the U.S. Senate seat held by Dianne Feinstein, and even if he couldn’t beat the fellow Democrat in the general election, he appeared set up to succeed her when she finally retired or resigned from office. Just today Feinstein, who
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November 27, 2022 — Steven Hayward
As I commented previously, the political figure secretly most disappointed that the GOP red wave didn’t occur in the mid-term is Gavin Newsom. If a red wave had taken out Michigan’s Wretched Witmer, Minnesota’s Tim Walz, Colorado’s Jared Polis, or New York’s Kathy Hochul, Newsom could point to his landslide re-election in California as evidence that he’s the strongest person to run for president in 2024 in place of the
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October 10, 2022 — Steven Hayward
Updating John’s item last night about the recording of blatantly racist remarks by Los Angeles City Council President Nury Martinez and others, the latest news is that Martinez has resigned as council president—but has not resigned as a member of the council. I wonder if her $207,000 salary—the highest city council salary in the nation—has something to do with it. Like most political hacks, it is doubtful Martinez could ever command
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October 9, 2022 — John Hinderaker
If you think your town or city is badly governed, remember that it could be worse: you could live in Los Angeles. Appalling ignorance, racism, corruption and political greed came to light when someone recorded a conversation among three members of the Los Angeles City Council and the city’s most powerful labor leader. The Los Angeles Times covers a story that must be painful for the paper, since everyone involved
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October 9, 2022 — Steven Hayward
Well, well, look at what we have here: the New York Times has finally caught up with what every sensible person knew at least ten years ago—California’s high-speed rail project is a joke. “America’s first experiment with high-speed rail has become a multi-billion-dollar nightmare,” the Times says in a long feature today. Fun bits: The dogleg [route] through the desert was only one of several times over the years when
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September 30, 2022 — Steven Hayward
California apparently didn’t get the Biden Administration memo about the good news of falling gasoline prices. Here’s the price chart for my local gas station on Monday: And here’s the same station today: (Fortunately, I drive two diesel cars, which both get better mileage than equivalent gasoline cars.) I asked the station manager about it, and he told me their wholesale supplier has hiked prices *four times* this week. I
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August 26, 2022 — Steven Hayward
The New York Times reports: If you read the fine print, however, the picture looks a bit different: California would fine automakers up to $20,000 for every car that falls short of production targets. The state also could propose new amendments revising the sales targets if the market doesn’t react as state leaders hope. In other words, California reserves the right for future Gov. Emily Litella to say “never mind,”
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