Tag Archives: California is insane

Lucky Kalifornians!

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It’s July 1st and Kalifornians are celebrating with all their might!

Two very important laws and taxes went into effect July 1st and, as polled, Kalifornians can’t wait to take yet another white-hot piece of ribbed, twisted rebar directly into their collective asses. I can smell the glorious, sizzling, special-sauce-seasoned sphincter-flesh from here.

First, Kalifornians are rejoicing over yet another loss involving their Second Amendment rights. Just short of advocating a full-on firearms confiscation as the low-key and Constitution-abiding Nuclear Eric Swalwell —

— (but he doesn’t really mean it) is wont to advocate (I’m sure he’ll get there; just give him enough time), Kalifornia never fails to disappoint in its rampant and ongoing goal of removing as many of those pesky freedoms and liberties allegedly “guaranteed” in that ridiculous festering document called the US Constitution and its concomitant doddering “Bill of Rights.”

Yeah — for “people,” not the government. What an ancient and outdated concept is that?

Everyone knows — or should know — that government exists for the benefit of government itself and its members.

Certainly not for the proles, the serfs, the rabble, the commoners, the unwashed, the groundlings, the subjects, the peasants. If you don’t think that’s you — yeah, that’s you.

You know: the real Americans who aren’t illegal who live under the threat of prison time for not actually consistently paying taxes: you and me. We can go straight to hell.

Do not think for a microsecond that Swalwell couldn’t have a massively armed personal security contingent (PSC) at a phone call — or doesn’t already.

That said, jubilation rings out across the land due to this, from Breitbart.com:

California Ammunition Background Checks Take Effect July 1

by AWR Hawkins

New gun controls taking effect July 1, 2019, will require citizens of California to pass a background check every time they buy a box of ammunition.

Wait. Like the same background check to purchase an actual firearms itself?

Well, yeah. Get real. It’s Kalifornia.

Hallelujah!

Moreover, the new controls will require the ammunition purchaser to pay a $1 fee when he or she undergoes a background check.

From USAToday.com

A win for public safety or a government ploy? California set to require background check for ammo sales

The bustle inside LAX Ammunition on the Friday before Father’s Day betrayed the gloom of the outside sky.

Employees inside the Los Angeles-area gun shop had their hands full chatting with customers who were looking to replenish their ammo supply before July 1, with some customers spending hundreds of dollars in the process. 

Why the hurry? That’s the day a new state law will require almost all buyers to go through background checks before being able to buy bullets, potentially increasing the amount of time and money it takes to make purchases. 

“We’re probably up by 400% from where we were last year for this past month, and this month, in total sales,” says Daniel Kash, the store’s president. 

Dude. Make money before Kalifornia outlaws gun stores. You think that’s not coming? Think again.

As it is, California has some of the toughest gun laws in the nation — the state bans most assault weapons and restricts the sale and possession of large capacity magazines. There’s also a 10-day waiting period prior to the sale or transfer of a firearm, among other restrictions.

How would it work? Like this:

  • Customers will have to receive a background check every time they make an ammunition purchase, paying $1 each time. 

  • Those who don’t already have their information in the Department of Justice’s system for these point-of-sale screenings will have to pay up to $20 for an initial screening.

  • Vendors will have to make sure customers aren’t on a DOJ list that names people who are prohibited from buying guns for various reasons — for example, committing a felony — before selling to them. 

All ammo sales will have to take place in person — even online orders will have to be shipped to a licensed vendor’s store before customers can pick them up.

Gun owners and enthusiasts aren’t happy, arguing that the new law will cost extra time and money.

You also can’t purchase ammunition and give it to someone else. You cannot lend or sell ammunition. A sale of ammunition is being treated just like the sale of a firearm.

As of July 1st, Kalifornia now officially pays the highest fuel tax in the nation, courtesy of Governor Gavin Newsom who wants you to hurt at the pump. From CNBC.com:

After tax hike, gas in California is now a dollar higher than the national average

by Marc Rod

  • California’s average gas price per gallon bumped up to a nation high of $3.755 per gallon when a new 5.6 cent gas tax increase went into effect July 1.
  • With the new tax in place, it will cost approximately 78 cents more to fill an average 14-gallon gas tank, according to a spokeswoman for the Auto Club of Southern California.
  • Although it comes just before the July 4 holiday, the tax increase is unlikely to suppress Independence Day travel.

California’s already-high gas prices jumped up again on July 1, with a new 5.6 cents per gallon gasoline tax hike.

The increase brings the average price per gallon in California for regular gasoline to a national high of $3.755 per gallon, according to the American Automobile Association, more than a dollar a gallon more than the national average of $2.717 per gallon.

The hike takes California’s total statewide gas tax up to 47.3 cents per gallon, according to the state’s Department of Tax and Fee administration.

You have to realize that it’s an honor and a privilege to pay more fuel taxes in Kalifornia. And note this:

Under the 2017 law, the tax will automatically increase annually based on a Consumer Price Index adjustment, beginning July 1, 2020.

But officials say these tax increases may not be sufficient to fill the state’s infrastructure needs, the Times reported.

Governor Gavin Newsom is the besotted moron who said we need an investigation into Kalifornia’s high gas prices back in April:

Newsom seeks an explanation for California’s high gas prices

by the AP

Gov. Gavin Newsom wants to know why California’s gasoline prices are higher than in the rest of the country, blaming potential “inappropriate industry practices” Tuesday rather than the state’s higher taxes and tougher environmental regulations.

Newsom asked the California Energy Commission for an analysis of the state’s gas prices by May 15. California drivers were paying an average of $4.03 a gallon Tuesday, or $1.18 more than the national average, according to AAA.

Higher taxes, along with a combination of tougher gas standards and environmental regulations, normally account for about 70 cents of that difference, said Gordon Schremp, a senior fuels specialist with the California Energy Commission. But the rest is a mystery.

“The rest is a mystery.” AYFKM?

Let us not forget, this is the state that demands all the various boutique blends, summer and winter, for all of the California Air Resources Board (CARB) districts. Here is another explanation with actual facts, from Forbes.com:

California Is Approaching $4 Gasoline, But It Has Only Itself To Blame

by Ellen R Wald

Gasoline prices in Los Angeles are nearing the psychologically significant $4 per gallon mark. The media are reporting that the increase is due to rising oil prices, which they blame on OPEC’s policies and President Trump’s new sanctions on the Iranian oil industry. It is true that global oil prices are higher. The international oil benchmark, Brent, is now over $80 per barrel, but this is not the reason why gasoline prices in Los Angeles and around California are the highest in the nation.

California consistently has some of the highest gasoline prices in the the United States, and a newly instituted 12 cent per gallon gasoline tax isn’t helping. California also has some of the most stringent regulations for its gasoline in the nation. In practice, this means very few refineries are willing to produce gasoline for that state.

For many years, California also required that summer-blend gasoline — which is more expensive to produce and contains extra additives designed to reduce air pollution in the summer — be used all year round. So, while gasoline prices typically fall in September across the United States as stations switch to the cheaper winter blend, Californians were left paying higher prices. In 2012, around the time gasoline prices were breaking records, Governor Jerry Brown changed the regulations to permit winter-blend gasoline to be sold in California in an attempt to bring down rising gasoline prices. Still, both the summer and winter blends of gasoline used in California are more expensive to produce than those used in any other state.

California’s stringent environmental regulations have isolated it from the larger gasoline market . This, in turn, has pushed up prices for consumers even more. For example, transportation costs for refineries and service stations are higher because California has no interstate pipelines. Any gasoline that is produced by refineries outside of California for use in California must be transported by truck or ship – both of which are more expensive. (Coincidentally, trucking and shipping gasoline also have larger carbon footprints).

California’s predicament is largely of its own making and its extra high gasoline prices should not be blamed on Iran, President Trump or even OPEC . Yes, gasoline prices are rising across the nation, but if California hits $4 per gallon, consumers have their own state taxes and regulations to blame.

This is Kalifornia hitting itself on the head with the largest hammer ever manufactured, then asking why that hurts so much.

BZ

 

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California has almost reached nirvana

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Close, very close. But not just yet.

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.

Democrats claimed victory Monday in two state Senate races, giving them back the two-thirds supermajority they lost in June when Orange County Democrat Josh Newman was recalled after he voted in favor of Gov. Jerry Brown’s gas tax increase.

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”?

From Townhall.com:

‘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.

Of course not. Why would they? Shawn Steel wrote:

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.”

BZ

 

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California, kids, milk, straws and water: be careful, you could go to jail

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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 California Reich Gestapo.

BZ

 

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BZ’s Berserk Bobcat Saloon Radio Show, Tuesday, 8-14-18 with special guest KURT SCHLICHTER

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Featuring Right thinking from a left brain, doing the job the American Media Maggots won’t, embracing ubiquitous, sagacious perspicacity and broadcasting behind enemy lines in Occupied Fornicalia from the veritable Belly of the Beast, the Bill Mill in Sacramento, Fornicalia, I continue to proffer my thanks to the SHR Media Network for allowing me to utilize their studio and hijack their air twice weekly, Tuesdays and Thursdays, thanks to my shameless contract — as well as appear on the Sack Heads: Against Tyranny Show every Wednesday night.

Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin with US Army Col Kurt Schlichter.

Hour 1: BZ spoke to KURT SCHLICHTER. It was a rollicking, roller-coaster of an interview!

Hour 2: BZ points out that California is insane and, now, wants to excuse murder!

If you care to listen to the show in Spreaker, click on the yellow button at the upper left.

Listen to “BZ’s Berserk Bobcat Saloon Radio Show, Tuesday, 8-14-18” on Spreaker.

If you care to watch the show on the SHR Media YouTube channel, click on the red start button below. Please SUBSCRIBE to the SHR Media channel. Please NOTE: For DISH subscribers: your Hopper has recently been wired to play YouTube videos. You can now toss ol’ BZ onto your massive flatscreen TV and watch him in all of his obese, biased and politically-execrable potty-mouthed goodness! For free!

Facebook is no longer playing well with Spreaker, so SHR is no longer playing well with Facebook live. Instead, SHR has chosen to associate itself with PERISCOPE and with USTREAM. The link to the show on PERISCOPE is here.

Please join me, the Bloviating Zeppelin (on Twitter @BZep, Facebook as Biff Zeppe and the Bloviating Zeppelin, and on Gab.ai @BZep), every Tuesday and Thursday night on the SHR Media Network from 11 PM to 1 AM Eastern and 8 PM to 10 PM Pacific, at the Berserk Bobcat Saloon — where the speech is free but the drinks are not.

As ever, thank you so kindly for listening, commenting, and interacting in the chat room or listening later via podcast.

Please remember that BZ can only monitor one chat room, the SHRMEDIA.COM chat — though there is chat available on both Facebook and YouTube. Come on over to the SHR chat room where you’ll meet great friends!

  • Want to listen to all the Berserk Bobcat Saloon archives in podcast? Go here.
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Thank you one and all for listening, watching and supporting the SHR Media Network: “Conservative Media Done Right.”

BZ

 

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California: excusing rape, drugs and burglary; soon to excuse murder?

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“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:

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.

Certainly San 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.

Here’s a pertinent example from a defense law firm in California:

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?

Here’s another bit of reality:

(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.

How about California’s Proposition 57, passed by walking dead California voters in 2016?

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.

From NBCLosAngeles.com:

Inmates with Violent Pasts Paroled Under Prop. 57

by Eric Leonard

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.

No. I’m not kidding.

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.

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