Statist Saturday: California “Power” Grab Edition

Citing untenable situations such as the wildfires aggravated by government policy and inaction, preemptive power shutoffs by a bankrupt power company, squatters living and crapping in city streets, high priced gasoline, emergency rooms straight out of Dante’s inferno, grossly underperforming public schools, an antiquated highway system and unfettered swarming looters, Victor Davis Hanson asks “Has California Becoming  Premodern?”

Lights from San Francisco are seen in the distance from an Oakland neighborhood where the power was shut off by PG&E earlier this week

I think Professor Hanson intended it as a rhetorical question but the answer of course is yes: California is morphing into one of those “third-world s***holes” President Trump tried to warn us about.

Insatiable state tax collectors and agencies are viewed by the public as if they were corrupt officials of Third World countries seeking bribes. Californians flip their switches unsure of whether the lights will go on. Many are careful about what they say, terrified of progressive thought police who seem more worried about critics than criminals.

Still, despite the fact that nearly one-third of the nation’s welfare recipients live in California, no one dares connect the dots.  

No one would dare to connect the crumbling infrastructure, poor schools, and failing public health care with the non-enforcement of immigration laws, which has led to a massive influx of undocumented immigrants from the poorest regions of the world, who often arrive without fluency in English or a high-school education.

But rest assured Californians, your Governor has a solution – state takeover!

“PG&E as we know it may or may not be able to figure this out. If they cannot, we are not going to sit around and be passive,” he said at a news conference at the Capitol. “The state will prepare itself as backup for a scenario where we do that job for them.” – SFC

A state controlled power company; that should seal the deal.

The state’s elite took revolving-door entries and exits for granted. They assumed that California was so naturally rich, beautiful, and well-endowed that there would always be thousands of newcomers who would queue up for the weather, the shore, the mountains, and the hip culture.

Our resolute ancestors took a century to turn a wilderness into California. Our irresolute generation in just a decade or two has been turning California into a wilderness.

The deeper the government sinks its claws the faster the fundamental transformation will go.

Soulless Undead Mosquitos

Today is All Saint’s Day, which I believe is still a holy day of obligation in the Roman Catholic Church. Like All Soul’s Day which is tomorrow it is mostly ignored in the U.S. even though it is the religious basis for yesterday’s celebration of Halloween. All-Hallow’s-Eve intermingled with the Celtic pagan festival of Samhain (summer’s end) centuries ago and evolved into today’s hyper-secularized holiday that Americans spend billions on each year. The holiday has morphed into something far more hollow than hallow, consumed as it is now with images of horror and terror intended to strike fear in our hearts.

Rather than casting death as something fearful and macabre our neighbor south of the border celebrates death - or at least the memory of the dead – during Mexico's November 1st and 2nd Day of the Dead. Día de los Muertos, a colorful holiday dedicated to the dearly departed is a distinctly Mexican holiday combining Christian tradition with the Aztec month-long summer celebration driven by the goddess Mictecacihuatl, the Lady of the Dead.

Although traditions are somewhat different from region to region…

they all include colorful adornments and very lively reunions at family burial plots which include food and quite possibly fireworks.

Akin in sentiment, albeit far more subdued, are Eastern European traditions, exemplified by Poland’s celebration of All Saint’s and All Soul’s Days.

Known nationally as All Saints’ Day (Dzień Wszystkich Świętych) and All Souls’ Day (Dzień Zaduszny, or Dzień Wszystkich Zmarłych) respectively, these two days of the calendar year are dedicated to prayer and paying tribute to the deceased by visiting their graves. In accordance with tradition, Catholic families all over Poland will make pilgrimages to the resting places of their relatives, tending the graves with a care that is truly touching, before laying wreaths, flowers and candles that will be kept lit throughout the length of the holiday. As night descends, the country’s graveyards are aglow with the warm light of literally thousands of flickering candles, creating an eerie, incredibly evocative atmosphere that should not be missed by anyone with a heart that still beats. – Krakow

Images of such wonderful traditions honoring the souls of the departed is quite uplifting. It saddens me to compare them to our own rather soulless Halloween celebrations. In fact the proliferation of soulless monsters who walk amongst us, presuming to dictate how we live, saddens me even more.

Zombies, Vampires – the soulless undead in our midst. Their sole purpose is to torment the living, like mosquitos.

Now that’s scary.

Halloween 2019: And We’re Still Spooked By Men in Robes

The Avenue of Black Hats in the Town of Covens in the Season of the Witch

Here it is, October 31st again and a lot of people (and their pets) will be dressing up as something. I suspect many professional Democrats, by which I mean pols and journalists, will show up as Dr. Demento again this year - which is odd given how little they seem to know or appreciate either of his two favorite genres: comedy and parody. Case in point: TDS requires journalists to fact check a fun tweet from the President as if it were a post from the Babylon Bee.

Similar tweets poured in from all the usual suspects.

They are losing it, and while I sort of hate myself for feeling this way I have to admit it is not unfun to watch. All that pent up rage reduces them to feigned indignation over a silly tweet. Let’s play the “What if it was Barack the Magic Negro instead of Trump” game, shall we? In that scenario they would all be tripping over their tongues, marveling over Obama’s adroit sense of humor and whimsical allusion. But since it’s Trump they’ll do their usual in-depth reporting and conclude that Trump is taunting Muslims.

The Dems that don’t show up as Dr. Demento today will not come in costume at all, although they will show up to collect their Halloween swag.

But as the day descends into darkness they’ll lighten up a bit.

Me, I’ve decided to stay home and let the neighborhood kids shake me down for full sized candy bars. I’m not sure if I’m going to make my traditional creepy Halloween toads in the hole

or my Halloween shepherd’s pie topped with ghoulish potatoes.

But I do know what I’m serving for dessert, although I really shouldn’t tell you.

Whereas a lot of people around here are spooked by little men in white robes.

Although everyone knows that the people in black robes are far scarier.

Mini RBG

Happy Halloween!

Le Kangaroo J’accuse

Kangaroo Court wood print by Will Bullas

Some of history’s famous Kangaroo courts:

• Joan of Arc’s trials
• England's Star Chamber
• The 'People's Court' of Nazi Germany
• The 'Show Trials' of Stalin's Soviet Union
• All trials in Mao’s People's Republic of China

And of course there was the infamous Dreyfus Affair, in which an innocent man was convicted of treason primarily because the French didn’t much like Jews at the time. Which reminds me a bit too much of the goings-on with the Schiff-SCIF “hearings” in which Adam Schiff presumes to serve as  prosecutor, judge and jury. He’s free to make up rules as he sees fit and apply them asymmetrically as he deems appropriate.

House Minority Whip @SteveScalise rips into Democratic "soviet style" impeachment process:
  

— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) October 29, 2019

Schiff was instructing witnesses testifying behind the closed doors of the SCIF not to answer questions asked by Republican members.

One question that Schiff barred a witness from answering reportedly came from Ohio Republican Congressman Jim Jordan, who asked Vindman to disclose the individuals with whom he shared information about the July 25 phone call between President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelensky.

“Adam Schiff says, ‘no-no-no we’re not going to let him answer that question,’” Jordan said as reported by Fox News.

In retrospect the French seemed astounded that such a miscarriage of justice (Deryfus was eventually exonerated) could have taken place in their fin de siècle enlightened society. Yet there it was, lies, fabricated evidence and deep anti-Semitism on public display.

Dreyfus was found guilty of treason in a secret military court-martial, during which he was denied the right to examine the evidence against him.

Replace “anti-Semitism” with anti-Trumpism and we have our own modern American version playing out. As I’ve asked before, where is our Émile Zola? The man willing to stand up and point out judicial errors and lack of serious evidence. Of course Zola himself was subsequently prosecuted and found guilty of  libel and forced to flee his home country in order to avoid imprisonment.

That’s the problem with Deep State rot.   

AOC And the Greening of California

Wild fires in California: cue the the knee-jerk reaction from the Warmists. They and they alone know this to be the Apocalypse.

I no longer bother to argue with True Believers. Their faith in nonsense is unwavering.

They know for certain that climate change causes power lines to catch trees on fire.

Just like they know that this mess would have been fixed by now but for the Climate Change Deniers who voted for Trump. And it’s all Trump’s fault!

Impeach! Impeach! Impeach! We must pass AOC’s Green New Deal to SAVE THE WORLD!

I wonder if her plan includes wildfire mitigation plans?

Governor Newsom Speaks Newspeak

Tweet from Governor Newsom’s office:

You didn’t expect him to call them blackouts did you? Or brownouts?

Response was immediate. Even from normally like-minded allies.

Tweet from Seth Mandel of the Washington Examiner:

Power to the People!

Except of course in states that spend all of your money on electric trains to nowhere, subsidies for wind, solar and electric car (that run on, duh, electricity) companies instead of proper oversight of your Public Service Commission that is supposed to be providing oversight of the state’s public utility companies. In case I’m unclear: oversight would include verifying that the monopolistic companies are providing proper powerline maintenance/clearance to ensure their ability to provide customers with ongoing, uninterrupted power supply.

Part of the currently abandoned multi-multi-billion $ train-to-nowhere. Might have been better off spending all that money to build a wall and clearing utility powerlines.

“From ‘green energy revolution’ to "’de-energization’” (H/T Password is Taco) in just one administration! Remarkable! Governor Newsom speaks Newspeak, and he wants you to as well. Do. Not. Comply.

Such Men Are Dangerous

“He Thinks Too Much. Such Men Are Dangerous.”  –Julius Caesar: Act I, Scene 2

Trump Approves Special Ops Raid Targeting ISIS Leader Baghdadi, Military Says He's Dead.

Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, victim of U.S. military assisted suicide

It is rumored that Turkey may have provided intelligence/assistance with the special ops raid that resulted in the “assisted suicide” of al-Baghdadi at a compound in Syria. But President Trump is a dangerous man who doesn’t know what he’s doing, especially in foreign affairs.

Coincidentally, the President announced 4 days ago a permanent – whatever permanent means in the Middle East - ceasefire was in place between Turkey and the Kurds in Syria, and he lifted the sanctions placed on Ankara. But President Trump is a dangerous man who doesn’t know what he’s doing, especially in foreign affairs.

President Trump’s tweet last night following the raid on al-Baghdadi’s hidey-hole.

To paraphrase the bard: “He Tweets too much. Such men are dangerous.”

VSGPDJT: A Very Dangerous Man

Yes he is a dangerous man; and Deep State fears him, that’s why they seek to destroy him.

“Cry ‘Havoc!,’ and Let Slip the Dogs of War.”

Is the coup coming undone?

We will see.

Deep State began it with a drip, drip, drip… 

Spider Web With Water Drops digital artwork by Odon Czintos

They continue to dribble out the lies and fabrications intended to take out a duly elected President who they both hate and fear. The coup is ongoing. Many of the traitors are still in place.

Our patience and faith have been sorely tested these past 3 years, waiting for justice to be meted out. Despite our tenacity, some of us are still highly skeptical as the threads are woven so deep into the fabric. Still, even the strongest fabric can be unraveled once you locate the right thread.

“Unravel” Regardt Van der Muelen

And refuse to let go.

So I say “Cry ‘Havoc!,’ and let slip the dogs of war.”

Image Credit: Well Pet Coach

If there is any collateral damage we’ll deal with it later.