Nirvana in Sacramento, where the Bill Mill lives, the veritable Belly of the Beast, what I term the Locus of Evil on the entire west coast and perhaps the entire nation (I’ll let you be the judge of that) is when you have such control in the capitol building that you’ve got a lock on Demorat politicians in perpetuity. Republicans don’t even factor.
With one extra little tidbit. I’ll get to that at the end.
Demorats are close. Damned close. So close they can sense the scent of nirvana itself. It’s already wafting around the corridors during the day (at night, however, the demonic evil truly emerges and one can only smell brimstone and sulphur).
Demorats have already obtained what is termed a “supermajority” in the capitol building since November 8th. From SFChronicle.com:
California Democrats regain supermajority in Legislature
by John Wildermuth
Nearly a week after the midterm elections, the news keeps getting worse for California Republicans.
Republican leads also continued to slip in a pair of hotly contested Orange County congressional races.
The victories give Democrats 28 seats in the 40-member Senate, one more than they needed for a supermajority. They already hold a two-thirds advantage in the Assembly, enabling them to pass virtually any legislation without Republican help.
But wait; there’s more. Why stop at some piddling little “supermajority”? Why not make it a full-blown “megamajority” with a three-quarter packing of Demorats? From Breitbart.com:
California Democrats Near Three-Fourths ‘Mega-Majority’ in State Legislature
by Joel B Pollak
California lawmakers will begin their new legislative session Monday with Democrats holding a three-fourths majority in the State Assembly, and one vote less than three-fourths in the State Senate — the biggest Democratic majority since 1883, the Associated Press notes.
The AP adds: “[Democrats will] have 29 of the 40 state Senate seats, two more than the two-thirds supermajority they need to raise taxes, suspend legislative rules and override vetoes without Republican votes. And they will hold a three-quarters majority in the Assembly — 60 of the 80 seats.”
Undaunted by political scandals, an epidemic of sexual misconduct, and habitual tax hikes, Democrats have what some pundits are calling a “mega-majority” — more powerful than an ordinary, veto-proof supermajority.
How possibly did this occur?
The AP cites “changing demographics and attitudes toward President Donald Trump,” but another key factor was a change in the state’s voting laws in 2016, which allowed “ballot harvesting” — the mass delivery of mail-in ballots by third parties, often Democratic Party operatives.
Whoa, stop right there. New term. What is “ballot harvesting”?
‘Ballot Harvesting,’ California Dems’ Latest Election Stealing Tool
by Scott Morefield
In 2016, California took yet another significant step in its decades-long quest to become the world’s largest banana republic when then-Governor Jerry Brown signed AB 1921, a then-barely-noticed revision to the state’s vote-by-mail procedures.
The change was a small but significant one. California, in its infinite wisdom, decided to make the practice of “ballot harvesting” legal. Thus, instead of only relatives or those living in the same household being allowed to legally collect and turn in absentee ballots for voters – as was previously the law – any “third party” can do it, including activist groups, Democratic operatives, or street-corner panhandlers.
Only the most trustworthy, you see?
Figuring out new and creative ways to steal elections being their specialty and all, Democrats knew what they were doing, and even a few conservatives saw this bill’s consequences coming from a mile away.
It gets better.
“AB 1921 would allow anybody to walk into an elections office and hand over truckloads of vote by mail envelopes with ballots inside, no questions asked, no verified records kept,” a group opposed to the bill wrote before its passage. “It amounts to an open invitation to large-scale vote buying, voter coercion, ‘granny farming,’ and automated forgery. AB 1921 solves no problem that a simple stamp can’t solve.”
Did “ballot harvesting” work in California?
Why worry about cheating when you can write cheating directly into a state bill and approve it with your — wait for it — megamajority?
And so, as the polls closed on election day, no less than six California Republican House candidates – including Representatives Dana Rohrabacher, Steve Knight, and Mimi Walters – were ahead in their respective races, some comfortably enough to declare victory and move on with plans for the next Congressional term. However, as absentee and provisional ballot results rolled in over the next few days and weeks, the vast majority of which predictably favored Democrats, their Democratic opponents managed to ‘find’ enough votes to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.
In Orange County alone, 250,000 such ballots were collected, resulting in a total Democratic sweep, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
The next quote is classic. Even RINO Ryan seemed to “get it” for at least a moment.
“California just defies logic to me,” Ryan told attendees at a Washington Post live event. “We were only down 26 seats the night of the election, and three weeks later, we lost basically every California contested race. This election system they have — I can’t begin to understand what ‘ballot harvesting’ is.”
Oops, sorry. Too much credit. He doesn’t get it. The SFChronicle wrote:
“We beat Republicans on the ground, fair and square,” said Katie Merrill, a Democratic consultant deeply involved in November campaigns. “Many of the field plans included (ballot harvesting) as an option to deliver voters or their ballots” to the polls.
Those efforts involved identifying voters who might support Democratic candidates and ignoring those who wouldn’t.
In one Orange County household, for example, both the husband and wife were longtime Republicans, said Dale Neugebauer, a veteran Republican consultant. Democratic volunteers came by the house four times, each time asking to speak only with their 18-year-old daughter, a no-party-preference voter, and asking if she wanted them to pick up her signed and completed ballot.
That’s a perfect example of the “thorough and disciplined” ground game the Democrats used, said Merrill.
“We were not wasting time talking to people who weren’t going to vote for Democrats,” she said.
Legislative Democrats have rewritten election rules in their favor to expand voter eligibility, automatically register every voter, eliminate voting integrity laws and encourage questionable campaign tactics, such as ballot harvesting.
California has entered an era of near universal suffrage with illegal immigrants, felons, inmates and minors registering to vote. San Francisco now allows “people in the country illegally and other non-citizens the right to vote in a local election,” according to the Associated Press. The city has spent at least $310,000 in tax dollars to register 49 non-citizens to vote.
“Harvesting” in California, anyone?
I referenced total California nirvana earlier. Total nirvana would involve keeping the Bill Mill megamajority and harvesting illegals for votes. That’s a work in progress. Ask yourself: just why did the “caravans” choose to come to the border of California instead of other states?
I know this is getting into the weeds a little bit, perhaps too much “inside baseball,” but I take the risk because, as we all know, whatever little seed of disrepute or corruption stems from California has the tendency to wend its way into other Leftist states who think “gosh, that California, what a great model. Let’s start doing what they’re doing!”
As my mother-in-law said just before she passed away from pancreatic cancer: “Sometimes people and entities exist only as examples of what not to do in life.”
Let there be no mistake. BZ has had a house in the Sierra Nevada Mountains since 1993. I’m at about the 4,000-foot level just below Blue Canyon. It’s a gorgeous and scenic area with great local people. I moved there because, as a law enforcement officer, I wanted to get away from the insanity and chaos of my job. I’ll work in an urban rat cage because I’m paid; I just didn’t want to live in an urban rat cage any more.
I’m also a PG&E customer — Pacific Gas & Electric.
Of course, this being California, I have loads of choices for my utility companies, right? Uh, no. I have one. PG&E. I get my power from PG&E or I rely solely on solar or a generator. Solar is out because my house is obscured by trees. And, for example, a Generac generator is out because they’re very expensive. So I have neither.
Let’s just say that PG&E has a monopoly on my power and leave it at that. However, I’m not alone. A great deal of PG&E customers don’t have a choice of power companies either. PG&E is, well, pretty much “it” in certain areas of California. I’m suspecting that’s by design. But what do I know?
That’s why what happened is important and why more people need to listen up and wake up. Things in California aren’t going to get any better. They’re only going to get worse, if for no other reason than those who “lead” California are unmitigated Leftists who have no concept of so-called unforeseen consequences (which in California are always foreseeable if one’s eyes are actually open) and who live in their own bubbly, insular and purple-skied environments.
So what did happen to PG&E customers? From USAToday.com:
PG&E keeps nearly 60,000 Northern California customers in the dark to reduce wildfire risk
Pacific Gas and Electric planned to restore power to 70 percent of affected customers in the North Bay and Sierra Foothills late Monday night. As crews inspect lines for safety by helicopter, vehicles and on foot, the remainder will have power sometime Tuesday.
While it was the first time the company shut off power for public safety, PG&E announced its criteria and procedures for such an event in June, said spokesperson Paul Doherty. After wildfires devastated Northern California’s wine country last October, he added, PG&E developed its community wildfire safety program division to make power grids and communities more resilient.
Translated: we got our arses sued off. So we’re compensating for our shareholders.
Didn’t hear about the suits, did you? Here are a few insights.
Cal Fire: PG&E equipment caused 12 Northern California fires during October firestorm
by Julie Johnson, Robert Digitale and JD Morris
Cal Fire investigators said Friday that equipment owned and operated by PG&E ignited 12 wildfires that raged in hot, dry weather and high winds across Northern California in October, charring hundreds of square miles in Sonoma County and beyond, destroying thousands of structures and killing 18 people.
The utility was in violation of state code on eight of those fires, failing to clear brush around its lines and properly maintain its power equipment, according to state fire investigators.
Cal Fire found violations in the Norrbom, Partrick, Pythian, Adobe and Pocket fires that burned in Sonoma and Napa counties; the Atlas fire in Napa County; the Sulphur fire in Lake County; and the Blue fire in Humboldt County. The agency forwarded its reports to district attorneys in those jurisdictions for review.
PG&E Power Lines Blamed For Northern California Wildfires
by Richard Gonzales
Downed power lines owned by utility giant Pacific Gas and Electric are being blamed for a dozen Northern California wildfires last fall. The findings by state officials could have a significant financial impact on PG&E.
The report by the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection links electric power and distribution lines with 12 fires that killed 18 people. The trouble started when trees and branches came into contact with power lines and wind gusts of up to 70 mph pushed wildfires faster than firefighters could respond.
Here is the report’s summary of two of the deadliest fires that claimed 15 lives:
“The Redwood Fire, in Mendocino County, started the evening of Oct. 8 and burned a total of 36,523 acres, destroying 543 structures. There were nine civilian fatalities and no injuries to firefighters. CAL FIRE has determined the fire started in two locations and was caused by tree or parts of trees falling onto PG&E power lines. …
“The Atlas Fire, in Napa County, started the evening of Oct. 8 and burned a total of 51,624 acres, destroying 783 structures. There were six civilian fatalities. CAL FIRE investigators determined the fire started in two locations. At one location, it was determined a large limb broke from a tree and came into contact with a PG&E power line. At the second location, investigators determined a tree fell into the same line.”
State law says utility companies can be held liable for the costs of firefighting, even when they haven’t violated safety rules.
PG&E is facing more than 50 lawsuits filed by fire victims arguing that the utility is responsible for fires that scorched the wine country counties of Napa and Sonoma last year.
An earlier investigation found that PG&E’s failure to clear or trim trees near power lines caused three wildfires in Butte and Nevada counties in the fall.
PG&E, of course, wasn’t taking that liability crap laying down. They pressed for changes in the law. From Reuters.com:
California lawmakers pass bill on PG&E wildfire liability
by Jim Christie
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – California’s legislature passed a bill late on Friday that could help the utility Pacific Gas and Electric Corporation (PG&E) avoid potentially crippling liabilities for wildfires that ravaged northern parts of the San Francisco Bay Area last year.
The bill, passed 29 to 4 in the Senate and 45 to 10 in the Assembly, requires approval by Democrat Governor Jerry Brown.
Some fires in the north of the Bay area were caused by trees toppling into or making contact with PG&E power lines, a report released by state officials in June said. Analysts estimate PG&E, the state’s biggest utility, could face several billions of dollars in liability as a result.
Democrat State Senator Bill Dodd said the bill was needed to spare customers from big increases in energy costs. “Without it, ratepayers will be left holding the bag and communities will needlessly suffer,” he said.
You see what’s going on here, yes? PG&E is saying that you must let them off the hook or “your rates will rise.” Threats, anyone, table for 16 million ratepayers?
But here’s the scalding truth that PG&E doesn’t want you to know, from CapRadio.org:
California’s Wildfire Liability Law Won’t Change This Year, Dealing Setback To Utilities Like PG&E
by Ben Adler
Pacific Gas and Electric has spent millions of dollars in hopes of saving billions as it battles to change California’s wildfire liability law.
But PG&E and other investor-owned utilities in California appear to have lost the battle, at least for this year. The Legislature adjourns on August 31.
“I think it’s safe to say that ‘inverse condemnation’ is off the table,” Sen. Bill Dodd (D-Napa) told CapRadio Friday evening, referring to the state’s current liability law that the utilities have been fighting so hard to change. Dodd co-chairs the joint Senate-Assembly conference committee tasked with crafting wildfire preparedness and liability legislation.
Read this:
Inverse condemnation is based on the tenet that, because utilities are allowed to build and place equipment wherever they see fit — even if they need to seize property from a private landowner for public use through eminent domain — they must also take responsibility for damages.
If a utility is found to have been negligent, its shareholders must foot the bill. Otherwise, it can pass the costs on to its ratepayers.
Gov. Jerry Brown released a proposal last month that sided with the utilities. He wants to require a court to weigh in as to whether a utility’s actions were reasonable and to “to balance the public benefit of the electrical infrastructure with the harm caused to private property.”
It would also require the court to take into account a utility’s “proportionate fault” in causing a fire. Currently, because utilities must pay even if not at fault, they bear the entire liability burden whenever its equipment was involved in a fire’s cause.
PG&E said even that proposal — labeled by opponents as a “utility bailout” — did not go far enough.
Now you know why PG&E has reacted thusly. It is not yet protected, so it must make its customers suffer in the uncovered interim. Literally suffer.
This is a new and novel approach, utilized by PG&E, in order to make customers “pay” for their lawsuits — literally and figuratively. Their tactic appeals to Leftists because they’re convinced to their very souls that (once called Global Warming) “climate change” is killing the planet.
Note to Leftists: the climate always changes. And weather always cycles.
Score one for PG&E. Their tactic benefits them because, well, if PG&E had to feel some pain, the customers who instigated those lawsuits should have to feel their own pain as well.
After all, let’s realize the obvious: the bulk of PG&E customers constitute a captive audience. It’s not like they can unplug from PG&E. They can’t. Not if they like electricity.
It’s a win/win for PG&E. They shut down your power during “questionable times.” By doing this they may avoid some lawsuits. So in the name of “climate change” and “doing the right thing for the planet” PG&E gets to potentially avoid lawsuits — which is primary — and customer cash still gets sent to them. In the meantime your medical devices crash, you can’t cook meals, you lose all the food in your refrigerators or freezers, you lose your water supply, your communications, your electric way of life and — oh yeah — your means of transportation if you have an electric car. Everything these days depends upon a constant flow of electricity. Everything.
And trust me. This is going to be the new “normal” from now on in California. Once various utilities see this working — those utilities who may be in a like wildfire situation, no matter where they may be — the plan will be implemented. Southern California Edison already thinks it’s a stellar idea whose time has come.
This is how stupid California has become. It wants all electric vehicles by 2040. Gas vehicles would be banned by then.
Cal ISO in Folsom, California — the Independent Systems Operator having control of electricity in all of California — already can’t handle the load on certain hot days now. What makes anyone think the load will lessen? The electrical load will only increase at a rapid rate because of the illegals flooding into California in order to partake of its largesse. Infrastructure is taxed. That includes electricity. That includes PG&E.
Of course, in order to reach the lofty goal of all electric cars by 2040, California has now committed to building at least one new electric generation station per five years until then. Correct?
Hardly. California has already decreed that’s its last nuclear plant will close in 2025.
Pacific Gas and Electric’s (PG&E) decision to shutter its 2,200 MW Diablo Canyon nuclear facility by 2024 or 2025 leaves a gaping hole in capacity that needs to be filled. The utility proposed a $1.3 billion energy efficiency investment as part of a 2016 agreement with renewable energy advocates over shuttering the plant.
Of course, California has a massive host of alternative power plant construction plans lined up and shovel-ready. Right?
As an aside: Democrat Socialist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez wants the US to abandon fossil fuels entirely. Apparently she’s never heard of this thing called plastic. Amongst others.
Make no mistake. This is most definitely a proverbial “cautionary tale,” ladies and gentlemen. Let California be a continuing example of what not to do in this and many other situations. Learn from the stupidity, excess and vast-Leftist influence of those who control California.
In the meantime, the stupidity and the fleecing marches on.
Fig. 1: Soon, you could go to jail in California for serving this iced tea to a child. And for two separate and distinct violations.
No. I’m not kidding.
Straws are already “illegal” to serve in certain California jurisdictions. From SFGate.com:
Santa Barbara approves jail time for straw ban violators
by Filipa Ioannou
As bans on plastic straws are cropping up in municipalities up and down the West Coast, Santa Barbara has escalated things with a ban that includes the possibility of jail time for repeat plastic straw-distributing offenders.
The Santa Barbara ordinance makes it illegal for businesses to hand out plastic straws, and they’re also forbidden from handing out plastic cutlery without first confirming the customer wants it.
Each individual straw distributed reportedly counts as a separate violation, and a second violation can trigger fines from $100 up to $1,000, and six months in jail. Assistant City Attorney Scott Vincent told Reason that in practice, jail time would only be considered for repeat offenders under especially egregious circumstances.
Okay, so let the memes commence:
This is not a statewide ban yet. Yet. But hell. You know it’s coming.
Reason.com weighed in, the Libertarian journal.
But moreover, why is that solitary plastic tumbler of iced tea so offensive, and why would it possibly warrant two — count ’em, two — distinct and separate offenses in the eyes of Fornicalia lawmakers?
Here’s a law that is about to be passed. From SacBee.com:
KIDS’ MEALS WOULD HAVE TO BE MARKETED WITH WATER OR MILK UNDER CALIFORNIA BILL
by Alexei Koseff
Would you like water or milk with that?
In an effort to combat childhood obesity and other diseases linked to sugar consumption, California may soon require restaurants to serve water or unflavored milk as the default beverage for children’s meals that pair a food item with a drink.
Senate Bill 1192, which passed the Assembly on Thursday, would allow customers to specifically order alternatives, such as soda or juice. The bill is silent on whether the restaurant would have to change extra for the substitute.
“Kids’ meals shouldn’t come with a side order of diabetes, obesity or cardiovascular disease,” said Assemblyman Kevin McCarty, D-Sacramento, who carried a cup with nine packets of sugar draped over the side to demonstrate how much sugar is in a small soda.
AYFKM? Of course not. No one in California has a sense of humor.
Certainly none of the CARG, or what I term the CaliforniaReich Gestapo.
“Of course, BZ,” you exclaim, “that headline can’t be correct.”
Except that, well, yes, it is correct. California currently excuses some cases of rape and, via a grand new bill signed by the addled Governor Jerry Brown (whom the CHP allows out in public only on certain monitored days of lucidity), may end up excusing murder.
They’ve laid the groundwork themselves via AB 1810. More on that later. “But where,” you may ask, “would California get the idea to excuse murder, BZ?”
Would it shock you if I were to suggest Canada? Is this headline sufficiently startling for you? From the VanCourier.com:
Strangling off-duty cop gave killer PTSD, defence tells sentencing judge
by Aly Thompson
HALIFAX — A lawyer for a Halifax man who strangled an off-duty police officer argues that his mental illness — brought on by the murder — should be a mitigating factor in deciding his parole eligibility.
Christopher Garnier, 30, was convicted in December of second-degree murder and interfering with a dead body in the 2015 death of 36-year-old Catherine Campbell.
The jury found that Garnier strangled Campbell, a Truro police officer, and used a compost bin to dump her body near a harbour bridge on Sept. 11, 2015, after the pair met at a Halifax bar.
The murder conviction carries an automatic life sentence, but a hearing to determine when Garnier will be able to apply for parole is scheduled for Monday in Nova Scotia Supreme Court.
In submissions filed with the court, defence lawyer Joel Pink said his client was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder by a psychiatrist hired by the defence, Dr. Stephen Hucker, and by the psychologist who is currently treating him.
The event that brought on the PTSD: the murder itself.
“What a novel idea,” Leftists galloping under their purple-clouded skies say, clutching their safety pins, unicorns and Tide pods.
Novel indeed. Let’s examine some of California’s past bills and propositions that ably assisted the realm’s proud acquisition of #1 Shithole State. What an accomplishment! (We’ll get to AB 1810 in a bit.)
First came Proposition 47, approved by California’s idiot voters in 2014. Yes, I’m talking to anyone and everyone who voted to shoot common sense in the head. Otherwise known in the California criminal justice system (yes, there is justice for criminals in California; just not for victims) as “realignment,” it placed the onus for housing and caring for hundreds and hundreds of serious felons — many whom had done time, for example, in Pelican Bay’s SHU for multiple murders or the murders of prison staff and other inmates — from secure state facilities into absolutely unprepared county facilities.
Low grade county facilities whose antiquated designs were better suited to house drunks, batterers, warrant violators and the like. Only some jails, like those in LA County for example, had the ability to house extremely violent offenders. Temporarily. And that space — as with space around all 58 California counties — was limited.
So limited that, operating under a consent decree, a number of County of Los Angeles buses (they’ve got a large fleet) were filled to capacity with inmates constantly driven around LA in order to avoid being accused, under that consent decree, of violating the maximum number of inmates housed within the jail during certain periods of time. I shite thee not. A 24/7 Inmate Bus Tour of LA environs.
Proposition 47 also reduced these crimes to misdemeanors:
Penal Code Section 484: Shoplifting, or Attempted Shoplifting, where the value of property stolen does not exceed $950
The law includes simple possession of heroin and cocaine. Prior to Proposition 47, only simple possession of marijuana for personal use was a misdemeanor.
So check this out as well:
Proposition 47 also added a new misdemeanor section to the Penal Code: Penal Code section §459.5: Shoplifting, entering commercial establishment during regular business hours, with intent to commit larceny, where the value does not exceed $950 (or intent to commit larceny does not exceed that amount). If you could, prior to Prop 47, prove intent to steal (entering the store with concealed bags, etc), you could charge a felony under 459 PC. No more.
If you are charged with one of the above crimes, and eligible for Proposition 47, then you will only be charged with a misdemeanor, which means:
The conviction does not carry state prison time, as a felony conviction does. Misdemeanor convictions carry 6 months-1 year, as the maximum amount of jail time. With probation, no jail time may be possible.
Translated: A thief can now steal something valued under $950 on a daily basis and it will never rise to felony status. You want real world? Here’s real world:
“Every bicycle in our building has been stolen,” says Karen Burns, president of a San Francisco condo association. “I’ve caught so many people stealing packages. They don’t care. They know nothing will happen to them. It’s crazy. It’s horrible. I feel like these people need to go to jail.”
Proposition 47 didn’t stop with theft. The personal use of illegal drugs was also reclassified to a misdemeanor. Although the intent may have been kind (it’s cruel to punish people for having an addiction) and practical (they’ll emerge from prison hardened, and a felony on their record makes it more difficult to reintegrate into society), the downstream impact on the community at large has been disastrous. In San Fransisco, for example, shooting up in public is commonplace, whether it’s on the steps of City Hall, in front of a supermarket, or at the entrance to a children’s playground.
I have this video as proof.
Don’t believe the studies in California. Believe reality.
Residents who are experiencing an uptick in so-called low-level crimes in their neighborhoods are baffled by studies indicating otherwise. For example, a December 2017 Center on Criminal and Juvenile Justice report shows property crimes down by an average of 18.1 percent across the state. Those numbers are false, says Michael Rushford, president of the Sacramento-based Criminal Justice Legal Foundation, a nonprofit public-interest law organization: “More, not fewer, of these crimes are being committed, but people aren’t reporting them. In most cases they have to do it online, and they end up not doing it. They don’t believe anything will happen, so don’t see the point. And they’re right.”
But wait; there’s more.
CertainlySan Franciscans aren’t debating whether or not crime is up. They know it is. In January, Police Chief William Scott acknowledged a 24 percent jump in property crimes from 2016 to 2017. Auto break-ins have soared in every district, and the arrest rate for them is an astonishing 1.6 percent. Citizens are right to feel disgusted and demoralized. In areas such as the Tenderloin, which is home for many of the city’s low-income immigrants, impoverished senior citizens, and families with young children, quality of life has deteriorated. Now more than ever, residents and merchants are living with a proliferation of addicts who roll up their sleeves, inject, and then nod off on the sidewalks or career down the street and into traffic. To fulfill customer demand, dealers sell packets of powder or pills in plain view of passers-by. There is no reason to hide. Why not shoot up wherever you want, leave bloody syringes in piles, steal, and deal when there are few if any consequences?
But there are repercussions, and they’ve felt by every person — young and old, rich and poor — who is robbed and lives among the growing cadre of drug users and dealers and what it’s all done to their neighborhoods.
Herman is sitting in his car using cocaine, and a police car pulls up behind him. The police see that Herman has 100 grams of cocaine open, in addition to the actual cocaine he is using. The officers arrest Herman. Herman is charged and convicted of a felony under Health and Safety Code section 11350 for simple possession of a controlled substance for personal use. With the felony, Herman serves time in jail, loses his right to vote, sit on a jury, and has to inform potential employers that he has a felony conviction, when applying for jobs.
After Proposition 47:
Same scenario. Herman can only be charged and convicted of a misdemeanor conviction. His diligent attorney is able to negotiate a plea that does not include jail time. At the conclusion of his probation, he will be eligible for an expungement, and will not have to inform potential employers that he has been convicted of any crime, when applying for jobs.
What This Means:
Simple Possession of a Controlled Substance for personal use, under Health and Safety Code section 11350 is now always charged as a misdemeanor4. Unless Herman was arrested with scales, baggies, or any other indication that he intended to sell the cocaine in his possession, regardless of the amount, Herman can only be charged with a misdemeanor offense under Health and Safety Code section 11350, possession of a controlled substance for personal use.
Read that again: regardless of the amount. Herman can have an entire kilo of cocaine and it’s only a misdemeanor. I mean, hell, Herman will eventually get around to all of it, right?
(Criminal, Semisi) Sina said he rejoiced when he first heard about Proposition 47. He said he didn’t start stealing bicycles until the proposition raised the threshold for a felony theft to $950.
“Proposition 47, it’s cool,” Sina said. “Like for me, I can go do a [commercial] burglary and know that if it’s not over $900, they’ll just give me a ticket and let me go.”
He was sentenced to rehab five times this year but did not show up for a single session.
Man, that’s a forehead-slapper. Never saw that coming.
In Sacramento County, for example, theft cases aren’t even prosecuted for items under $950 in value. That means, in essence, you can steal with impunity. Guess what? Property crimes skyrocketed. And dope? Hell, marijuana is legal in California. Yet, California can’t manage to acquire a sufficient amount of dope for buyers, and many of those considering official sales are having second thoughts due to the regulations, policies and massive fees associated with distributors. Licenses easily run up to $75,000 and beyond. California thinks dope is going to be a perennial cash cow. Translated: the State of California could fuck up selling ice in hell.
Yet Proposition 47’s crafting was superior to what Californians witnessed in Proposition 57, which voters approved in 2016. This law made it easier for “nonviolent” felons to win parole. But again, its authors failed to sweat the details, using an existing, over-broad list of nonviolent crimes that included rape of an unconscious person and violent child abuse. The worst fears about Proposition 57 were confirmed in February, when a state judge ruled that the state could not retroactively rewrite the measure in a way that denied possible early release to thousands of violent sex offenders.
I know you’re still wondering: “what the hell does this have to do with murders in California, BZ?” Roll with me, we’re getting there.
A number of California prison inmates who committed violent crimes, including stabbings and shootings, have been granted parole under Proposition 57’s Nonviolent Parole Program, according to records obtained by NBC 4.
Prop. 57, approved by voters in 2016, promised to reduce the state’s overcrowded prisons by expanding parole eligibility for nonviolent criminals, and by encouraging inmates to take part in rehabilitation, therapy, and vocational programs.
How did California do that? Wait for it. Wait for it.
By reducing some more reprehensible crimes from felonies to misdemeanors. The proposition purposely changed the definition of a “violent crime” in California. Read this:
Some violent felonies that are now reclassified as nonviolent include rape of an unconscious person or use of a date rape drug, domestic violence, exploding a destructive device with intent to cause injury and assault with a deadly weapon.
Among crimes not on that list — and therefore possibly viewed as nonviolent — are assault with force, rape of an unconscious person, battery with serious injury, some domestic violence, some child abuse and exploding a destructive device with intent to commit injury.
No. I’m not kidding. And yes, we’ve finally arrived at my headline reference. From the SanDiegoUnionTribune.com:
Now, in the worst example of rushed reform yet, Gov. Jerry Brown this week signed into law Assembly Bill 1810 — a budget “trailer bill” with no credited author that takes effect immediately. It includes a provision that appears to allow defendants charged with any crime to get the charges put on hold and perhaps eventually dismissed if they can persuade a judge that the offense resulted from a mental disorder that a mental health expert says is treatable.
A case can be made that a defendant’s mental illness should be considered by prosecutors and judges — it’s certainly relevant. Senate Bill 215, now before the Legislature, would have allowed this in defined, limited circumstances. But instead of vetoing AB 1810 and letting this debate proceed, Brown short-circuited it. He did so despite being warned by San Diego County District Attorney Summer Stephan that this is “the most irresponsible legislation our state has ever seen” and that it would “wreak havoc in our criminal justice system.”
You see where I’m going now. Any sort of a “mental issue” can now, in California, possibly yield some kind of a demented “get out of jail free” card.
If a defendant in California makes a claim that they committed a specified crime due to some sort of mental health problem — and the judge agrees — they may find themselves eligible for “diversion” instead of prosecution for said crime. But wait. It gets better. The defendant receives whatever “counseling” is decided to be appropriate. And once they’re declared to be “better” they don’t go back to court to stand trial for the offense; oh no. Their record gets sealed. And they walk out of the facility and out of court. A California criminal version of ServPro: “like it never happened.”
Let’s go down the list:
No restitution? Check!
No responsibility? Check!
No input from prosecutors at all? Check!
No protection of any victim or victims? Check!
No chance to question anyone? Check!
No chance to even question the psychiatrists involved at all? Check!
No justice whatsoever? Double check!
Under the law, defendants who fall within the category of “mental disorder” include those who have the following illnesses: male hypoactive sexual disorder; sexual sadism; voyeurism; pyromania; oppositional defiant disorder and kleptomania.
The language in the bill only stipulates that the defendant “substantially comply” with diversion to earn a dismissal. What is the standard for “substantial”?
You will never know, as his or her record was expunged by a judge who gave this person an incredible break by allowing this two-year diversion program.
Diversion where? In a custodial facility? In an open-style halfway house in the community? At home?
Let’s examine the “disorders.”
You could rape or kill (or both) a female because you have “male hypoactive sexual disorder.
You could beat women unconscious, incapacitate them, penetrate them, commit mayhem, because you have “sexual sadism.”
Women could beat men in the same fashion. We’re equal, after all.
You could peep into windows or expose yourself to children, because you have “voyeurism.” Why stop there? You could climb inside the house and kill everyone.
You could set fires or wildfires resulting in billions of dollars in damage, thousands of acres scorched, vegetation and trees eliminated, the air fouled for weeks and weeks with countless burning deaths, because you have “pyromania.”
You could kill cops or anyone in any kind of an authority position — perhaps politicians or judges as well — because you have “oppositional defiant disorder.”
You could steal anything and everything from now into perpetuity, because you have “kleptomania.”
Now re-read that article at the top of my post. Certainly we have a ready excuse for that. Hell, there may even be an app for that.
This is dangerous beyond dangerous, in a state that is already manic-depressive — and refusing to take its meds.
If anyone thought California politicians actually possessed brains, I must disabuse you of that execrable notion. They instead contain sweetbreads, giblets and loose marbles.
Boy, am I being kind.
And wow, shit is about to get real in California. Pass the popcorn.
BZ
P.S.
Avoid California. Do not come here, do not visit, do not drop by to see your Aunt Sharise, do not come here for a vacation, stay the hell away from San Francisco (unless you’re interesting in carting away some wild and festering communicable disease that won’t ever respond to antibiotics), don’t purchase food grown here, don’t buy plants or animals raised here but — more importantly — do your level best to ensure California keep its contagious and poisoned thoughts and policies within its own pus-ridden borders and, most importantly, import them not. Sometimes states exist as putrid examples of what not to do with a once-beautiful landscape.
Close, very close. But not just yet.
This is not a statewide ban yet. Yet. But hell. You know it’s coming.
“Of course, BZ,” you exclaim, “that headline can’t be correct.”
Novel indeed. Let’s examine some of California’s past bills and propositions that ably assisted the realm’s proud acquisition of #1 Shithole State. What an accomplishment! (We’ll get to AB 1810 in a bit.)
Unless you have the balls and the temerity and the will to stop it.