My view of them is that they’re like locusts, or leeches. They find a prosperous area, like California. It is a natural environment in which they can thrive, because the economic conditions have been good for a while as a result of sensible economic policies, and the hosts have become vulnerable to takeover, because it’s been so long since the good policies were put in place that the natives themselves (and certainly the leftists) don’t understand why they’ve been doing so well. They run it into the ground with their insane voting patterns, and then, dissatisfied because they can’t plunder as much as they have in the past due to the suffering economy, move out, to other places like Washington, Nevada, etc., to wreck the next place.
But as Maggie Thatcher notably noted, at some point, you run out of other peoples’ money, either at a state, or national level. We’ll see if the Californians have finally caught on…
Gee, I could expand this into a PJM column.
[Update a few minutes later]
“If it wasn’t for California, I wouldn’t be where I am today,” said Arizona of Westside 3, the popular sunbelt trio who recently benefited from the late state’s generous gift of fleeing taxpayers and businesses. As a tribute to their mentor, Arizona vowed the group would start spending money “like crack-addled hip hop stars.”
“California’s financial and musical legacy will never die,” said band mates Nevada and Oregon.
At the official funeral service at the LA Coliseum, a grief stricken Washington, who teamed with California on several hit software and wine projects, had to be physically restrained from climbing into the deceased’s gold plated casket.
Similar emotional outpourings were the rule of the day. Stories – apocryphal or not – of the late state’s bizarre self-destructive behavior and fondness for molesting children did little to dampen the the flood of tributes from fans who preferred to remember California as America’s Sweetheart.
From a humble beginning as a water-poor remote Spanish mission outpost, California proved to be a precocious and talented child performer. It struck gold with ‘Sutter’s Mill’ in 1849, earning accolades and attracting millions of crusty bearded prospectors. Black gold soon followed with ‘La Brea Tar Pits.’ Unlike many child acts, California made a smooth transition to adolescence, scoring a major hit with ‘Agriculture’ in 1891.
Even a frightening bout with tremors did not stop the flow of hits. The 1915 megasmash ‘Hollywood’ broke all records, as did the wartime favorite ‘Aerospace.’ More recently, California topped the charts with ‘Tourism,’ ‘High Tech,’ and ‘Coastal Pretension.’
For a time it seemed as if the superstar could do no wrong, but behind the glittering facade of Disneyland Manor troubling signs of mental instability began to emerge. The state developed a well publicized drug problem during filming of 1967’s ‘Summer of Love,’ and briefly dabbled in strange religious cults. Under the influence of spiritual guru Jerry Brown, it began wholesale experimentation in exotic spending programs, eventual resulting in a traumatic 1979 stay at the Prop 13 Rehab Center.
I know I miss California. The California of my youth. I grew up as a little kid wanting to move there from Michigan, and spent a happy quarter of a century there as an adult, but I have to think twice about moving back.
[Update late evening]
Why California is going down the tubes:
THESILKY1
Do you know for a fact, what will happen if you lay-off 100,000 State employees?
Here is an answer to your statement. Half the businesses in the private sector will fold, and the other half that remain open, will not be open for long.
tejouzi
How is laying off thousands of state workers going to help the economy? You want to help the economy, TELL THE PRIVATE SECTOR TO STOPPPPPPP RIPPING OFF THE STATE!!!!! AND WASTING MY TAX DOLLARS BY CHARGING THE STATE TWICE AS MUCH FOR THE SAME SERVICE!!!!! Go take a math class.
Yeah, I’d feel better as a Californian, knowing that these people are on the public payroll.
Geez Rand, I thought Arnold was from the republican party.
So, he fooled you, too?
There was never any evidence of that, other than that he claimed that he was.
PS: I also find interesting blaming “the leftists” for the state of the US auto industry when the UK auto industry was wrecked in Thatcher’s time. The counterpoint by Thatcherists? That if the industry was folding, it was pure economics. Cars were cheaper elsewhere, so it was natural the industry was dying.
Anyway, I was talking about leftists. I said nothing about political parties (because I’m not a member of one).
PS: I also find interesting blaming “the leftists” for the state of the US auto industry when the UK auto industry was wrecked in Thatcher’s time.
The UK auto industry was dying long before Thatcher came along. She didn’t come along in time to save it.
The UK auot industry was trashed the same way the American auto industry was, Unions. Anyone who has the slightest knowledge of the UK in the 70’s knows that. And only the delusional Leftist Kool-Aid drinkers doesn’t know that. The joke, “GM is a healthcare provider that makes cars as a sideline” is really no joke.
Back in the mid 70’s my cousin, who is from the SF Bay area, came to visit me in NYC. I remember to this day her telling me CA is the land of fruits and nuts. Surprised CA took so long to succumb.
As someone in the heart of the leftist Bay Area I can report that the state’s woes are so far having very, very little impact on the average citizen. The weather is still gorgeous, traffic (while a little lighter) is still heavy and the media is providing plenty of “bread and circuses” for the masses.
So much so that California’s problems are hardly discussed much in casual chit-chat between friends and neighbors. Michael Jackson, Farrah Fawcett, Sarah Palin and the usual rants about conservatives interfering with the Messiah are much more likely to dominate the topic of discussion. It’s kind of eerie actually as the topic seems to be almost taboo in polite company. Similar to Voldemort in the Harry Potter series — the failure of California is the issue we dare not speak of.
Make what you will of what I have to report, but I think the average Californians ego is to sensitive to discuss the failure of the state at the hands of the leftist voters, politicians and special interests. For the few conservatives left in this state the consensus seems to be “Burn Baby! Burn!”.
My message out to the rest of states and federal government is to please, please stay out of the California crisis. Let the cards fall where they may as those with any sanity here are willing to serve an example to the rest of the nation as to what happens when liberals and socialists are allowed to follow their Utopian dreams unfettered by responsibility and reality.
The number one rule of a good parasite is to never kill the host.
Liberals make lousy parasites.
I, too, live in San Francisco, and while I do see a fair amount of the wilful denial mentioned above by Mike Thompson, I also see some worry beginning to seep into the general liberal consciousness. Unfortunately, the worries aren’t (as most lefty shibboleths aren’t) very strongly connected to either reality or rationality. There is paranoia, of course, to the effect that the enitire “crisis” (their scare quotes) is ginned up by conservatives so they can rape poor children of their lunch money and kick oldsters out of their beds into the gutters. There is also the absolute conviction that if the evil conservatives would just get out of the way and let Prop 13 be overturned, everything would instantly be a-okay again.
These sheeps-in-the-woods have no idea that there is any negative connection between taxes and prosperity, and they easily swallow the contention of the state’s extremely liberal mainstream media venues that California’s problems stem entirely from “greed,” and “hatred.”
I do agree with Mike: I hope nobody like Obama rides to California’s rescue, although that is what the big spend-and-taxers in Sacramento are counting on. California needs to crash and burn in the biggest, most obvious, most unavoidable way. Nothing else will pierce the veils of fantasy that shroud most of what passes for thinking in the Fool’s Golden State.
Want a hoot? Look at this NTY photo of Schwarzenegger from last week. They might as well have his foot on the throat of the poor lady as he eviscerates her malnourished daughter and eats the entrails while smoking a stogie. The message being that once the evil Republican is done with her he’s coming for you.
It’s not their fault. It’s never their fault. It’s always the other guys fault. …and the band played on.
California deserves a Darwin award, but rescuing the endangered golden bear from extinction is affordable, disposing of the remains is not.
Recall the cost of relocating the victims of Katrina, then multiply by the ratio of affected populations.
Pay your infrastructure workers with IOUs for too long, and the results will be worse than any hurricane.
Well, one way or another, both my sons, one an extremely gifted software designer and formerly IT head of a major arbitrage outfit, the other a hydrodynamics engineer (math guy) have hit the road and ain’t coming back. So far, they have saved around an extra 30,000 bucks in taxes they would have paid in californicate already this year. Good for them. I’m looking for a place in Tucson myself right now. For me, it’s moral. I did not bust my tail for thirty years to be a slave to public union racketeers. Their silly idea that if you give them even more, thye will spend it and save the economy is a real howler. Clearly, they have convinced themselves that their services created the productive arm of the economy.
Anyway, like Arnold, a well meaning tool of the leftist thugs, I am taking his lead and not collecting any paycheck either…in California, Heh!
Yes, to you I Cal State workers I am a criminal for not turning over everything I have worked for your liousy goldbricking union performance. Ha,ha,ha… hey, last real taxpayer out, please turn off the lights.
I read an article today that mentioned IOUs issued by some states during the Great Depression became worthless and can still be found in some antique shops (sorry, didn’t save a link). Are there any historians who know if states did indeed default on their IOUs in the 1930’s?
Hmmm. Perhaps the banks know something as they will no longer accept IOUs after this Friday. However, the politicians are asking the Feds to put pressure on the banks saying they should continue to cash IOUs to avoid hardship (rolling my eyes).
Rand, I followed your “going down the tubes” update link and read all the comments from public employees. Sheesh! If the voters could only see how the tantrum CA state employees are throwing it would make them sick. I wish there was a way to more broadly publish that link for more people to see it with their own eyes.
Back in the early ’90s the California state government issues IOUs for several months. I remember the company I worked for in Sacramento, which had contracts with Fish & Game, getting paid with them. At first the banks accepted them at face value, and this went on for weeks. Then one day several large ones said, no more. (In effect they were giving the state an interest free loan during that time.) The so-called “crisis” ended within a week. It appears bankers have a better memory than the idiot politicians do.
The number one rule of a good parasite is to never kill the host.
No way. If you can move on to new hosts, you don’t need to keep the old host alive. No, the real number one rule of a good parasite is never let an unrelated parasite share your food source. The number two rule is make it as painful as possible for the host to get rid of you.
If everybody had an notion
Across the USA
Then everybody’d be serfin’
Like Californi-a…
No, the real number one rule of a good parasite is never let an unrelated parasite share your food source.
So what you are saying is that the leftists will turn on the illegals soon? Should be interesting…
It’s not necessarily Democrats responsible, it’s so-called “progressives”. They can be in both parties though admittedly they are much more predominant in the Dems. In fact, these days you are virtually guaranteed to be voting for one if you vote for a Democrat.
So what you are saying is that the leftists will turn on the illegals soon? Should be interesting…
Doubt it. My impression is that a large portion of the illegals support leftists. That implies to me that they’re related.
Wouldn’t the aliens from the movie Independence Day be a better analogy?
As for Schwarzenegger, I think he’s a figurehead. The Democrats in the state legislature have all of the power in the state.
And when he tries to say something contrary, he gets smashed flatter than the Terminator in the first movie.
Dear Transterrians,
Two relevant quotes.
1.”Retrenching hell! There’s plenty of pickings left in California and Oregon and all those places! What I’ve been thinking is, we ought to think of expanding-the way things are, there’s nobody to stop us, it’s there for the taking-Mexico, and Canada maybe-it ought to be a cinch.” p.867, Atlas Shrugged, 1985 Signet Books edition (used bookstore) Well, they’re finished with California, think the RCMP can stop the lefties?
2. “We can’t theorize about the future,” cried Wesley Mouch, “when there’s and immediate national collapse to avoid! We’ve got to save the country’s economy! We’ve got to do something!” p.899
Michael G. Gallagher, Ph.D.
We’re Musers, MGG, PhD, except for Andrea and Jane, who are Femusers I think.
SoCal is definitely suffering, but I recall listening to a discussion on KPCC about the City of LAs “belt tightening” measures. Basically they’d cut a deal with their unions that meant (1) no layoffs of unpaid furloughs, (2) forgo pay raises the next two years (boo hoo), but really (3) push those raises off until Year 3, when the money tree will start to flower again and the harvesters ‘n’ gatherers in Sacramento can share its bounty out again.
They’d save a few hundred $mil (maybe 10% of their deficit) right now, but not because they actually reduced expenses — they’re just shoving the expenses off into the future out of the accountant’s window.
Sound familiar? Basically this is the New Left’s answer to the Reagan “starve the beast” philosophy (where we cut taxes so government has no money to spend on frivolity even it has the votes). In this case, we go right ahead and borrow all the money we want this year but can’t raise in taxes on our national credit card, and the beauty of it is we don’t care that this makes it way more expensive ultimately, because the really cool thing is that if you borrow the money from the future and spend it right now — it isn’t possible the spending. It’s already been spent! You’ve no choice but to crank up the taxes to pay the credit card bill, or inflate the currency into Confederate dollars. It’s like Democratic tax policy, always their Achilles heel, has mutated into some kind of AIDS virus that destroys the immunity that makes the Republic resistant to collectivism from the revenue side.
FWIW my view is that the UK auto industry died because the government wouldn’t support it and management is not that interested in the “auto business” as in any business in general. The much maligned unions exist everywhere, and I somehow doubt the ones in the US are more demanding than the French or German unions (IG Metall comes to mind). Both those countries have a vibrant auto industry. Well, as vibrant as can be expected anyway.
I see one parallel in auto companies everywhere: privately owned or controlled auto companies like BMW or Ford are usually more financially robust. Rotating revolving CEOs sucks.
This is the result of a 1 party state – look at NY, NJ, MA, RI – power corrupts and absolute power and all that.
They aren’t parasites, but parasitoids. Parasitoids kill their host. Aphid parasitoids leave nothing but an empty shell called a “mummy” when they are done. Sounds familiar.
Kalifornia is 26 billion dollars in debt. We are spending way more money than we are taking in. Our budget was due last week, the governator is preparing to issue IOUs for state spending because we have no money. So what is our legislature working on?
Three bills that:
1)create a commission to serve the marketing interests of the blueberry industry.
2)defines “honey” to mean the natural food product resulting from the harvest of nectar by honey bees,
3)adopts regulations establishing definitions and standards for 100-percent pomegranate juice.
It’s hard to get a firm hold of the bowl when you are floating around in a circle.
Brendanav,
Tucson has been totally Californicated. My best friend lives there and over the last 25 years I (and her) have watched Tucson go from a nice little city with decent people in it to a city that could pass for a suburb of San Francisco with all that entails.