I’m a native Californian as were my parents, and at 73 I left the state 2 years ago. I’m amazed at how my CA friends are all Democrat and think the current governor is just great. They do not want to hear any truth about the destruction happening there. That is the
problem to solve before there is ever any change to happen. My kids left CA for college and never came back, but they’re living in Seattle and think that Seattle’s problems are caused by not taxing the rich enough. How can we reach that generation with the truth?
Exactly. After high school, what do most kids in the US of a major demographic do? College. Which has been ideologically captured since the early 80's (the foundational teachings of figures like Edward Said, Fanon, etc.) -- then bring in the smart phone: isolation + groupthink. Add a perfect 'villain' to rail against (Trump), with BLM, Me Too, DEI, Anti-racism, Palestine -- supercharge it all with Covid, and you've programmed an entire generation.
True! I guess I was referring to the "Baked-in" quality that the 80's+ demonstrated --- and I should qualify that we're talking about MULTIPLE generations of programming...
Kind of like my situation. No kids but all my liberal friends think everything is fine and can't see the forest for the trees. They are leaning more and more towards Socialism.
The only way to persuade them out of it is to bring up ideas from people like Thomas Sowell, because he’s A)black, and B) he grew up poor and was a Marxist himself. Otherwise there’s a lot of deflection and white guilt over America that makes them think this country shouldn’t actually exist anymore.
A big part of the problem is there is no persuading them. Once you start to question aspects of their world vision, however tactfully, they shut down and espouse leftist slogans.
Disinherit them. This is what I did with my Harvard high honors son. he is 50. Now he won't be going for a year in France on my dime. My daughter and 4 Grandkids will get everything I have. How do I feel about? Great!
I was, as a conservative wouldn't you know, in the "academia cesspool" for 23 years and just retired at 64. I remember taking a walk through campus with a colleague in the spring of 2013. I remember this so well because of what she said: "We need Communism to fix the mess America is in - income inequality is killing us." A hot wave washed over my face as I realized the ostensible power she held as a high-ranking academic. I saw it then, and I see it now. The Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) are gaining ground on the old-school Dems from the days of yore. Pretty soon, these radicals will run the ENTIRE show if we don't get off our collective complacent a$$es and vote against them in the Midterms, and of course against Newsom in '28. Anyhow, I really saw the writing on the wall in 2020 & 2021 when Covid became totally politicized. The Left orchestrated probably the most egregious, draconian tactics we have ever seen. Forced vaccinations, isolation, lockdowns, and employment risks - not one of these factors would have come to play in ANY state had the Left not held so much power. Now we have Soros and his henchmen paying upwards of 120K per protestor to fill the streets with raised fists, purple hair, and hateful rhetoric to "resist" the latest "oppression." Marxism at its finest.
Very well said. I was very upset about the leftists tactics as well during Covid. Restricted freedom of movement, vaccine mandates, etc. However, my complaints were falling on deaf ears.
Agreed. The US is already more socialist than China (see government share of GDP, comparing the two countries). Any more Socialist, and the US will be Communist.
Sounds like your kids bought the same narrative that all these progressive run states give. “The problem is the rich” and “capitalism”. Maybe you can share more. Have you had conversations with them, why they believe this and (other ideas), and are they willing to debate the merit of these claims?
02/03/26: The only way is to let them crash and burn.
Meanwhile, the California Post (News Corp.) hasn't a hope in hell of becoming what its creators think it should become. Aaron Rodgers had a better chance of bringing the NY Jets into the Super Bowl than the fay Murdoch nepo-franchise has of making a go of this thing.
You're dealing with hard-lining Stalinist-Communists in California. They will stop at NOTHING to prevent the creation of a critical newspaper:
The only regret is that there isn't a betting prop available to book a bet on the above coming true. But bookies aren't fools, so the odds offered probably wouldn't be worth the investment because NO bet is foolproof (and besides, there's always the chance that Dominion --- see rigged U.S. presidential election 2020 --- might be the outfit doing the computing).
About newspapers, all media for that matter. A lesson from history.
The press has long been behind every hype, every sensationalism, every mass marketing of fear and hope that inspires the masses to abandon their sensibilities and throw caution to the wind. California has the example of the Gold Rush as its founding legacy. The lure of easy lucre brought prospectors from the four corners of the earth, filled with dreams of striking gold, the mother lode. But where the biggest profiteers were those who sold the pickaxes and shovels to the dreamers. An interesting and informative presentation about what we know as "Yellow Journalism." Which is pretty much all journalism today. The type of journalism taught and esteemed in the best J-schools in the world, like Columbia and U Penn. Where straight-up propaganda is taught as journalism. How it began in California. How Hearst became the mega-media empire it became. Same/similar story behind all of them:
"On May 12, 1848, Samuel Brannan, a Mormon elder from Sutter's Fort, stepped off a boat from Sacramento and paraded down Montgomery Street waving a quinine bottle full of gold dust in one hand and flapping his hat in the other, proclaiming "Gold! Gold! Gold from the American River!"
The gold rush was born that day—not on Jan. 24, 1848, when James Marshall supposedly first discovered gold near Coloma when he was working for John Sutter.
Brannan quickly made a fortune peddling the gold rush--unlike Marshall and Sutter, who died sick and bankrupt years later, as did many other unfortunate '49ers.
Brannan chose to announce his discovery immediately after he had laid plans to set up a new store and warehouse in the gold fields. Within three days some two-thirds of the 600-person population of the sleepy Mexican hamlet of Yerba Buena, now San Francisco, rushed up to Coloma to make him a fortune.
The gold "discovery" was also a perfect excuse for President James Polk to urge the settlement of the new west in December 1848. The government he said, was "deeply interested in the speedy development of the country's wealth and resources." The gold rush had begun.
But the federal government had known about the mineral deposits for at least five years, according to historian Gray Brechin in Imperial San Francisco.
"The Mexican-American War could well be a textbook example of the mining engineer's adage that commerce follows the flag, but the flag follows the pick, for Marshall merely rediscovered gold," Brechin writes. Brechin points out that interest in California's gold was first stirred up in 1843, when nearly 2,000 ounces were sent from mines near the San Fernando Mission in southern California to Washington, D.C.
On May 2, 1846, Thomas Larkin, the United States consul in the colonial capital of Monterey, wrote to Secretary of State James Buchanan, and to Captain John Montgomery aboard the Portsmouth, a U.S. Navy ship off the California coast: "There is no doubt in my mind but that gold, silver, copper, quicksilver, lead, sulphur, and coal mines are to be found all over California."
Eleven days later the United States used a border dispute in Texas as an excuse to declare war on Mexico. The war, and the gold rush that followed, came at great cost to native peoples and the environment—and to the settlers themselves.
Like Brannan and the federal government, many people saw the gold rush as a quick route to riches—but they didn't pack their belongings and head for the Sierra Nevada foothills. Instead, they realized the feverish settlers and the new rich could easily be parted from their money.
Living high on the hog from the gold rush dollars then—and even now—were the few who really made a fortune out of the destruction of California; families like the Hearst's and companies like the Bank of California and Wells Fargo.
Wells Fargo, sponsor of next year's Oakland Museum exhibit, took pride in insuring cargo and delivering mail to gold rush towns. The bank established a reputation for tracking down and shooting highway robbers, then erecting headstones for them reading "Wells Fargo Never Forgets."
George Hearst, father of William Randolph Hearst who made the San Francisco Examiner the newspaper it is today, was a lead miner in Missouri who traveled West despite his mother's misgivings. The Hearst family built the lavish San Simeon estate, while other San Francisco magnates decorated their palaces with similar ostentation."
FF - Hearst Communications remains one of the largest media corporations. With a textbook history of Yellow Journalism. And being a scribe for the "Deep State" of US political governance getting the nation into wars and enriching preferred business enterprises with powerful lobbyists in DC and state capitols across the nation for 150 years. And they are not alone, the other media corporations just as guilty and complicit. It's all truly #FakeNews.
The rest of the piece gets into the toxic environmental legacy of the Gold Rush, was actually the story's agenda, Yellow Journalism was the side story.
No country in the history of humanity has ever taxed itself into prosperity. Get rid of the power for government to print money, and both excessive riches and inflation will be reined in. There will still be rich people, but they will no longer be able to create money to amass resources beyond their productivity.
Correction: The lib coercion began before 1980. The only "C" I got in college was from a lib English teacher who disliked my conservative outlook - he asked us to write essays that overlapped politics and then marked down conservative thought. Typical smug liberal. That was in 1977. In an Engineering school 🤷♂️
There is a big difference, though. The Soviet Union was a brutal dictatorship, and the leadership did not reflect the population. When it comes to US states, however, the leadership does reflect the population; the people in those states vote for politicians like Brandon Johnson, Gavin Newsom, Alex Padilla, Adam Schiff, Tim Walz and Jacob Frey. It's the demographics that is the problem.
I would suggest that we don't really know who is "voting" for these people, at least in CA. But we can be reasonably sure that a significant percentage of these votes and voters are unlawful or otherwise rigged. That is the first thing that has to change.
I’m waiting to see how this unfolds. There’s a lot of eyes of the voting process in this state and others. I’ve always agreed with the notion there is voting fraud… but significant voting fraud? Enough to shift elections? I would not be surprised. So your point is valid for sure.. one can only hope there will be undeniable evidence, and not cries of “faux news” and more denial coming from the blue side. Sadly the media is complicit in the grift.
Ben, my point is that when ballots are sent to every "registered" voter, based on voting rolls that are not properly updated, when voting begins a month before the election and continues for weeks afterward, when the final vote isn't announced until weeks after the election, and when one party (the Dems) control virtually the entire electoral apparatus without oversight, then you have, prima facie, a fraudulent voting system.
For the Dems, when it comes to voting fraud, there is no such thing as "undeniable evidence." Reflexive denials of fraud, whatever the evidence of it, are one more part of a corrupt, fraudulent system.
I dumped my CA resident status years ago to become a registered Floridian & they still - to this day - send me ballots in the mail which is perplexing since I was a member of the “wrong” party.
Dutchmn, I urge you to keep those ballots as evidence in some possible future litigation on this. Everybody else who has experienced what Dutchmn has, please do the same.
Yep I hear what you are saying. However, I still want to see more proof of how this fraud unfolds.. if only to be able to point to it for those (people I know personally) who may dismiss me when I bring it up. There is at least value for me being able to communicate the proof to those closest to me. Otherwise the denial continues, as you pointed out.
One more thing, Ben: Ballot harvesting. You know, when Dem activists go around to large apartment complexes and collect random ballots from disengaged/uninformed voters, possibly in exchange for cash, and then submit them for tallying. Hundreds of thousands of ballots (maybe more), just sitting in piles of junk mail waiting to be "harvested."
You may bring all of this up, and more, and your Dem friends, likely, will still deny there is any problem. Probably best not to waste your time trying.
There are always ways to cheat - assumed identity, late voting, voting multiple ballots under assumed ID, illegal migrant-immigrant voting, machine rigging....I'm convinced that Dems have already worked the calculus on the 2030 Census and realize they lose a large portion of existing Congressional membership. They will lie, cheat, steal, manipulate at EVERY step to avoid the reckoning of loss of power. Harry Reid? Hillary Clinton? B.O., calculated strategists all and funded by Soros et al. And then, all the useful idiots in Congress - including Biden, Kamala, Hakeem, Squad, even Nancy, making even larger useful idiots from their voting constituents.
Whom in their right mind would argue as to a suitable ID to cast a vote????? Are you kidding? you can't drive a car or ride an airplane for Gods sake without ID!!!! And Ive read anecdotally that the Grammy attendees had to have ID matching their invite!
Dems are, simply, evil. Tomorrow, or in a decade, it could be GOP, I'm not naive but at this moment, they are the devil, hellbent on destroying the very fabric of America.
I’m pretty angry at their disregard for the voting process, the rebuttals to implementing voting ID are obvious in intent. But If you bring that up, they think Trump is still the ultimate “threat to democracy” and they framed him as the one who was adamant about destroying the fabric of America, ever since the claims of the 2020 election being stolen. It’s frustrating we can’t at least keep the voting process intact and that it turns into what it has.
Folks are way too hung up on Trumps style - he's probably correct about 2020 election! That said, voters expect idealism - DJT isn't ideal. he's gruff, can't speak, doesn't read, write or know history....but, is the perfect wrecking ball at this point in time. As loudly as you hear leftist/dem/progressives shrieking about democracy, KNOW that they're really looking in their own mirror, or they'd be far more rational.
The Dems choices are not casual or different, they avoid the sovereignty of our nation, basic human rights of representation of Americans by catering to ANY piece of social dilemma, be it boys in girls sports, voting rights for illegals, the very act of tolerance for any immigration OTHER than legal, equity over equality, decriminalization up and down the social strata, removal of policing....not sure where to stop, but this is NOT about DJT style points but about the survival of America.
Years ago, I worked for Congressman Dana Rohrabacher and ran several state assembly campaigns. After the 96 election, there was 1 race still close: Loretta Sanchez vs "B-1" Bob Dornan. Old Bob was convinced illegals had cost him the election, and we (the staffers from nearby campaigns) were tasked with proving it. Unfortunately, proving that a vote was from an illegal immigrant is REALLY hard, so we only found a few (single digits as I remember?) We did find lots of dead people that voted, but that didn't it Bob's narrative so he wasn't interested.
One thing I learned from that time period tough: stealing an American election (at least at the Congressional level or up) is really pretty hard. There's fraud, but it's not widespread. It's likely worse today, but systemic fraud is very hard to pull off, especially with touch-screen voting and electronic tallies these days.
Sorry, Brian, when ballots are sent out willy nilly based on out of date voter rolls, when neighborhood polls are replaced by "voting centers," when illegals can register to vote when they get a driver's license (it's on the honor system, no kidding), when elections go on for weeks, etc., I would submit that it is actually pretty easy to steal an election. The problem is, to use a favorite Leftist term, "systemic."
Your point about how hard it is to steal used to be true, but no more. And yes, proving that an illegal immigrant voted is "very hard." That's a feature, not a flaw, in our current system.
Modern voting machine technology is ripe for manipulation & fraud. Being in IT & understanding the technology and its capabilities helps one understand how easily votes can be manipulated.
While I am not in IT, I have been opposed to computer-based voting from the start, knowing as I do that any computer can be hacked. I mean, it's the first principle of computer science, right?
How does machine voting work in your state? Here in CA, a touchscreen prints a ballot which goes into the ballot box. So there's an electronic and a paper trail at every polling place. Does your state work differently?
The process & the tech are different animals. When a voting machine can be linked to a network & has data ports, it's not 100% secure. Factor in the coded instructions which can also be manipulated for those with access or skills. Electronic voting machines are not secure. We now see that humans, such as in GA, failed to follow proper process or procedure with respect to ballots & vote counting, even those processes are not fool proof. Election integrity is required for fair & honest elections and is sorely needed now when both humans & machines can easily be corrupted.
agreed P, especially so when many important races - including POTUS - are decided on a few thousand votes. DEMs will stop at nothing to win in this day and age.
In 2016, Trump won by about 80,000 votes spread among 3 states. In 2020, Trump lost by about 50,000 votes spread among 3 states.
I saw all kinds of shenanigans in the 2020 election so I get why people are suspicious. But it wasn't stolen. 2016 was a squeaker, so was 2020. They just happen to squeak in different directions. For that matter, 2024 was too. Flip about 100K votes in 4 states and Harris wins.
You would likely see that as evidence that stealing elections is easy, but it's an illusion. Identifying which states have to flip which votes is easy after the fact and almost impossible beforehand. Even if you figure that out, actually doing it requires you to co-opt dozens of local elections officials in at least a half-dozen states (since you don't know which ones exactly will end up being decisive.)
If you actually did that, arranged a conspiracy among all those people and kept is quiet, it wouldn't be a squeaker. It would be a landslide because you would need to overshoot by so much due to the uncertainty of which states and counties were critical.
Stealing a centralized election (ala Venezuela) is easy. Stealing a distributed one like ours is not.
So how do you explain the fact that Biden received the most votes in history? I don't disagree with your analysis...I just don't understand, with all of the anomalies present in the election (mail-in ballots, Covid, discrepancies in counting votes, number of votes for a clearly, mentally compromised human, etc.) how this election wasn't rigged?
In Minnesota an ID is not required to vote and one person can vouch for up to 8 others at the polls. There have been serious issues with mail in ballots, vote harvesting, and drop boxes but there is not enough energy, or honesty, to do anything about it.
But, I would argue that they vote based on brand loyalty. What happens when their brand loyalty is pierced by the reality of fraud and bad policies? Will they do a mea culpa?
I am a native Californian. I think the fact that 28 percent of the population is foreign born is part of the problem. In LA and San Francisco that rises to 34 percent. These people mostly come from Mexico, the Philippines, China, and India, all countries that preach and teach some version of socialism to their populations. Their countries couldn't deliver because socialism never works and there wasn't much to redistribute. But they don't know that. They have come here with different expectations. They vote for the free stuff. They elect charlatans, both immigrant and native. So of course they have voted in a dysfunctional state government, aided and abetted by an unscrupulous Democratic Party. I wish the Post the best of luck in reversing this horror story that has taken over my beautiful state.
I disagree. It is the Californian hippies that are most left-leaning. They infiltrated the teaching profession, took control of the teacher's unions and raised the generations of young socialist fanatics. A lot of immigrants especially from Asia, are leaning red.
THG, I think both you and Lydia are correct. CA most definitely developed a "whatever" attitude post 60s. That said, those ethnic blocks she's referring to are more recent in state history and seem to be shaping the poli class today. Look at the local vote appt'd leadership in San Diego, LA, San Fran and Sacramento. They rule the streets, police, local jurisdictions.....and that's before you get to State/Fed matters, already shaped at the loci.
For this reason, Im not optimistic about CA and deeply saddened. Had counted on sufficient wealth to have a home somewhere in old LA, in (my) golden years. From Dodger stadium to Santa Monica, you've defined American cultural greatness from post WW2 to about 2000. Even weathering the storms of the 60s wasn't too large a hurdle for the splendor of CA. But here I am at 70, still looking thru Zillow at homes I can now afford in Hancock Park, Palisades, Hollywood Hills, Brentwood, BH, Santa Monica, and you know what? Not on your life will give $$$ to those morons.
I appreciate your well written article and can only hope that the California Post does what you hope. Too may Californians are suffering under this one party rule. Unfortunately, my home state, Virginia, is following in California's' footsteps.
The analogy of California to the old Soviet Union is an interesting one. As you point out, there are aspects of one-party rule that are seemingly similar in both cases. Where it may break down, and this seems crucial, is that while the Cold War also provided two polarized sides, the US acted as a continuous and tremendous forcing function on the Soviet Union that ultimately broke them economically. (With a lot of spiritual help from St. John Paul II.) Perhaps, there is a similar externality that can "force" collapse of one party rule in California? But that function will not come from the national or state Republican party. The Republicans lack the required cohesion, and the will-to-power. They know what they don't like, but it is apparently hard to unite them around what they do like. That makes them somewhat impotent when they do come to power. Nonetheless, there could be something else that serves this purpose, and not just in California, but also in New York and other blue states. One can only hope.
It's hard to get traction when your voting constituency is moving to Texas and Tennessee. Apparently it's to the point that there are few enough Republican voters that they can be diced up and embedded in all 50-odd California House districts without endangering their safe Dem status. This will only get worse with time.
And if, by some miracle, Dem's inability to cover pension checks or repair collapsed bridges causes a genuine revolt, Republicans will win a slim majority in the Statehouse and be blamed for all that happens, then go down to defeat in a cycle or two.
Voters deserve what they ask for, to paraphrase H.L. Mencken.
Ditto what KatWarrior said… I lived in California from 1986-2016 (my home in Long Beach sold on 11/8/2016, a glorious day indeed). A Golden State during the MOSTLY Republican Governor years, going to s**t after last (R) Schwarzenegger left office. Friends and family call me a pit bull in politics, slicing apart liberals (Democrats) who are stunned into silence, both in public and private. My little essays and opinions over the years (especially since 6/15/2015) are epic. I’m here for you, the common man on the street who detests sanctimonious know it all liberals. Gay and Hispanic too!
I came to California in 1974 for graduate school and watched that beautiful state decay for 45 years. We finally left in 2019 to escape the heavy hand of the government. Tennessee is lovely.
We had a number of criteria for our new state: no state income tax, plenty of water ( we lived through two bouts of water rationing), good healthcare, low regulation, politics that were not blue, and — not least — an NHL hockey team. There were other things on the list, but those ranked high. Added bonuses for Nashville were a great music scene and a great restaurant scene — that last was really an upside surprise. Plus people are super friendly and the kids are still brought up right. One of the best decisions we ever made.
I was literally serving in Germany when the Wall was up and then came down and I agree: tell the truth which is exactly what Trump(et al.) are trying to do and it is working.
I live in MN(thankfully 40 miles from the Twin Shitties) and the truth is bubbling out here as well.
We really need what you propose. There are so many clearly corrupt policies but little exposure of the actors and outcomes. Some examples: the bond measure to build water storage that was used to destroy dams, the train to no where, the rebuilding of homes destroyed by the LA fires, homeless expenditures, union influence on law, the school unions and their failure to teach, the judges, Coastal Commission, Air Quality Management with absurd policies, touch this beast and you come out dirty.
Sanctuary policies are at the root of so much of this. I didn’t realize how severe of a situation it’s become in the U.S. overall until this past year. That’s why there’s such a public fight over ICE and illegal immigration. The guilty dog barks. Once voting ID and proof of citizenship is put in place at the federal level it will change some things, but at the state level? wow it’s a fight. Carl DeMaio here in San Diego county got voter ID to be on the ballot for 26. But, that’s going to be one heck of a fight to see it passed and actually implemented. This is going to take multi-prong shocks on this state continuously to shift the supermajority.
The differences are voters in California are too ideologically hypnotized to break the cycle for their own good and those with the means can leave along with their tax dollars. The far left legislator and their minions (teachers unions, minorities and anti economic do gooders) don’t care about the future. They just want power now in order to continue to gorge at the government trough.
I’m an 85 year old native Californian - Fresno - (as was my father and grandfather) but I left many years ago (first for the military and then graduate school) and never returned except for family and school reunions. I still have a brother living there but his wife won’t leave. It’s really sad to have watched a once great state (and still beautiful) decline like it has.
I’m a native Californian as were my parents, and at 73 I left the state 2 years ago. I’m amazed at how my CA friends are all Democrat and think the current governor is just great. They do not want to hear any truth about the destruction happening there. That is the
problem to solve before there is ever any change to happen. My kids left CA for college and never came back, but they’re living in Seattle and think that Seattle’s problems are caused by not taxing the rich enough. How can we reach that generation with the truth?
The problems start with our schools and the socialist indoctrination complex. SIC
Exactly. After high school, what do most kids in the US of a major demographic do? College. Which has been ideologically captured since the early 80's (the foundational teachings of figures like Edward Said, Fanon, etc.) -- then bring in the smart phone: isolation + groupthink. Add a perfect 'villain' to rail against (Trump), with BLM, Me Too, DEI, Anti-racism, Palestine -- supercharge it all with Covid, and you've programmed an entire generation.
Damn, now I’m really bummed…
Don't be! Read stuff like Coffee & Covid, and be hopeful!
https://www.coffeeandcovid.com
US education has been ideologically captured since the 1960s.
True! I guess I was referring to the "Baked-in" quality that the 80's+ demonstrated --- and I should qualify that we're talking about MULTIPLE generations of programming...
A few thoughts on California
https://torrancestephensphd.substack.com/p/california-dumb
Kind of like my situation. No kids but all my liberal friends think everything is fine and can't see the forest for the trees. They are leaning more and more towards Socialism.
The only way to persuade them out of it is to bring up ideas from people like Thomas Sowell, because he’s A)black, and B) he grew up poor and was a Marxist himself. Otherwise there’s a lot of deflection and white guilt over America that makes them think this country shouldn’t actually exist anymore.
A big part of the problem is there is no persuading them. Once you start to question aspects of their world vision, however tactfully, they shut down and espouse leftist slogans.
And yet they reject what he says
Disinherit them. This is what I did with my Harvard high honors son. he is 50. Now he won't be going for a year in France on my dime. My daughter and 4 Grandkids will get everything I have. How do I feel about? Great!
I must say that we are moving beyond socialism here. Welcome communism,
I was, as a conservative wouldn't you know, in the "academia cesspool" for 23 years and just retired at 64. I remember taking a walk through campus with a colleague in the spring of 2013. I remember this so well because of what she said: "We need Communism to fix the mess America is in - income inequality is killing us." A hot wave washed over my face as I realized the ostensible power she held as a high-ranking academic. I saw it then, and I see it now. The Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) are gaining ground on the old-school Dems from the days of yore. Pretty soon, these radicals will run the ENTIRE show if we don't get off our collective complacent a$$es and vote against them in the Midterms, and of course against Newsom in '28. Anyhow, I really saw the writing on the wall in 2020 & 2021 when Covid became totally politicized. The Left orchestrated probably the most egregious, draconian tactics we have ever seen. Forced vaccinations, isolation, lockdowns, and employment risks - not one of these factors would have come to play in ANY state had the Left not held so much power. Now we have Soros and his henchmen paying upwards of 120K per protestor to fill the streets with raised fists, purple hair, and hateful rhetoric to "resist" the latest "oppression." Marxism at its finest.
Very well said. I was very upset about the leftists tactics as well during Covid. Restricted freedom of movement, vaccine mandates, etc. However, my complaints were falling on deaf ears.
Agreed. The US is already more socialist than China (see government share of GDP, comparing the two countries). Any more Socialist, and the US will be Communist.
Make new friends.
I have. I can't be friends with people who vote in a way that poses an existential threat to me.
Sounds like your kids bought the same narrative that all these progressive run states give. “The problem is the rich” and “capitalism”. Maybe you can share more. Have you had conversations with them, why they believe this and (other ideas), and are they willing to debate the merit of these claims?
02/03/26: The only way is to let them crash and burn.
Meanwhile, the California Post (News Corp.) hasn't a hope in hell of becoming what its creators think it should become. Aaron Rodgers had a better chance of bringing the NY Jets into the Super Bowl than the fay Murdoch nepo-franchise has of making a go of this thing.
You're dealing with hard-lining Stalinist-Communists in California. They will stop at NOTHING to prevent the creation of a critical newspaper:
https://www.emerald.tv/p/46-if-what-you-believed-was-not-true?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=263063&post_id=186733662&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=false&r=10j5hz&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email
The only regret is that there isn't a betting prop available to book a bet on the above coming true. But bookies aren't fools, so the odds offered probably wouldn't be worth the investment because NO bet is foolproof (and besides, there's always the chance that Dominion --- see rigged U.S. presidential election 2020 --- might be the outfit doing the computing).
About newspapers, all media for that matter. A lesson from history.
The press has long been behind every hype, every sensationalism, every mass marketing of fear and hope that inspires the masses to abandon their sensibilities and throw caution to the wind. California has the example of the Gold Rush as its founding legacy. The lure of easy lucre brought prospectors from the four corners of the earth, filled with dreams of striking gold, the mother lode. But where the biggest profiteers were those who sold the pickaxes and shovels to the dreamers. An interesting and informative presentation about what we know as "Yellow Journalism." Which is pretty much all journalism today. The type of journalism taught and esteemed in the best J-schools in the world, like Columbia and U Penn. Where straight-up propaganda is taught as journalism. How it began in California. How Hearst became the mega-media empire it became. Same/similar story behind all of them:
The Gold Rush: Behind the Hype
https://www.foundsf.org/index.php?title=The_Gold_Rush:_Behind_the_Hype
"On May 12, 1848, Samuel Brannan, a Mormon elder from Sutter's Fort, stepped off a boat from Sacramento and paraded down Montgomery Street waving a quinine bottle full of gold dust in one hand and flapping his hat in the other, proclaiming "Gold! Gold! Gold from the American River!"
The gold rush was born that day—not on Jan. 24, 1848, when James Marshall supposedly first discovered gold near Coloma when he was working for John Sutter.
Brannan quickly made a fortune peddling the gold rush--unlike Marshall and Sutter, who died sick and bankrupt years later, as did many other unfortunate '49ers.
Brannan chose to announce his discovery immediately after he had laid plans to set up a new store and warehouse in the gold fields. Within three days some two-thirds of the 600-person population of the sleepy Mexican hamlet of Yerba Buena, now San Francisco, rushed up to Coloma to make him a fortune.
The gold "discovery" was also a perfect excuse for President James Polk to urge the settlement of the new west in December 1848. The government he said, was "deeply interested in the speedy development of the country's wealth and resources." The gold rush had begun.
But the federal government had known about the mineral deposits for at least five years, according to historian Gray Brechin in Imperial San Francisco.
"The Mexican-American War could well be a textbook example of the mining engineer's adage that commerce follows the flag, but the flag follows the pick, for Marshall merely rediscovered gold," Brechin writes. Brechin points out that interest in California's gold was first stirred up in 1843, when nearly 2,000 ounces were sent from mines near the San Fernando Mission in southern California to Washington, D.C.
On May 2, 1846, Thomas Larkin, the United States consul in the colonial capital of Monterey, wrote to Secretary of State James Buchanan, and to Captain John Montgomery aboard the Portsmouth, a U.S. Navy ship off the California coast: "There is no doubt in my mind but that gold, silver, copper, quicksilver, lead, sulphur, and coal mines are to be found all over California."
Eleven days later the United States used a border dispute in Texas as an excuse to declare war on Mexico. The war, and the gold rush that followed, came at great cost to native peoples and the environment—and to the settlers themselves.
Like Brannan and the federal government, many people saw the gold rush as a quick route to riches—but they didn't pack their belongings and head for the Sierra Nevada foothills. Instead, they realized the feverish settlers and the new rich could easily be parted from their money.
Living high on the hog from the gold rush dollars then—and even now—were the few who really made a fortune out of the destruction of California; families like the Hearst's and companies like the Bank of California and Wells Fargo.
Wells Fargo, sponsor of next year's Oakland Museum exhibit, took pride in insuring cargo and delivering mail to gold rush towns. The bank established a reputation for tracking down and shooting highway robbers, then erecting headstones for them reading "Wells Fargo Never Forgets."
George Hearst, father of William Randolph Hearst who made the San Francisco Examiner the newspaper it is today, was a lead miner in Missouri who traveled West despite his mother's misgivings. The Hearst family built the lavish San Simeon estate, while other San Francisco magnates decorated their palaces with similar ostentation."
FF - Hearst Communications remains one of the largest media corporations. With a textbook history of Yellow Journalism. And being a scribe for the "Deep State" of US political governance getting the nation into wars and enriching preferred business enterprises with powerful lobbyists in DC and state capitols across the nation for 150 years. And they are not alone, the other media corporations just as guilty and complicit. It's all truly #FakeNews.
The rest of the piece gets into the toxic environmental legacy of the Gold Rush, was actually the story's agenda, Yellow Journalism was the side story.
You should have joined the Republican Party to talk and socialize with people who think like you do.
I agree, but there are very few republicans in the metropolitan areas. The people have been totally brainwashed here.
No country in the history of humanity has ever taxed itself into prosperity. Get rid of the power for government to print money, and both excessive riches and inflation will be reined in. There will still be rich people, but they will no longer be able to create money to amass resources beyond their productivity.
Correction: The lib coercion began before 1980. The only "C" I got in college was from a lib English teacher who disliked my conservative outlook - he asked us to write essays that overlapped politics and then marked down conservative thought. Typical smug liberal. That was in 1977. In an Engineering school 🤷♂️
There is a big difference, though. The Soviet Union was a brutal dictatorship, and the leadership did not reflect the population. When it comes to US states, however, the leadership does reflect the population; the people in those states vote for politicians like Brandon Johnson, Gavin Newsom, Alex Padilla, Adam Schiff, Tim Walz and Jacob Frey. It's the demographics that is the problem.
I would suggest that we don't really know who is "voting" for these people, at least in CA. But we can be reasonably sure that a significant percentage of these votes and voters are unlawful or otherwise rigged. That is the first thing that has to change.
I’m waiting to see how this unfolds. There’s a lot of eyes of the voting process in this state and others. I’ve always agreed with the notion there is voting fraud… but significant voting fraud? Enough to shift elections? I would not be surprised. So your point is valid for sure.. one can only hope there will be undeniable evidence, and not cries of “faux news” and more denial coming from the blue side. Sadly the media is complicit in the grift.
Ben, my point is that when ballots are sent to every "registered" voter, based on voting rolls that are not properly updated, when voting begins a month before the election and continues for weeks afterward, when the final vote isn't announced until weeks after the election, and when one party (the Dems) control virtually the entire electoral apparatus without oversight, then you have, prima facie, a fraudulent voting system.
For the Dems, when it comes to voting fraud, there is no such thing as "undeniable evidence." Reflexive denials of fraud, whatever the evidence of it, are one more part of a corrupt, fraudulent system.
I dumped my CA resident status years ago to become a registered Floridian & they still - to this day - send me ballots in the mail which is perplexing since I was a member of the “wrong” party.
Dutchmn, I urge you to keep those ballots as evidence in some possible future litigation on this. Everybody else who has experienced what Dutchmn has, please do the same.
Yep I hear what you are saying. However, I still want to see more proof of how this fraud unfolds.. if only to be able to point to it for those (people I know personally) who may dismiss me when I bring it up. There is at least value for me being able to communicate the proof to those closest to me. Otherwise the denial continues, as you pointed out.
One more thing, Ben: Ballot harvesting. You know, when Dem activists go around to large apartment complexes and collect random ballots from disengaged/uninformed voters, possibly in exchange for cash, and then submit them for tallying. Hundreds of thousands of ballots (maybe more), just sitting in piles of junk mail waiting to be "harvested."
You may bring all of this up, and more, and your Dem friends, likely, will still deny there is any problem. Probably best not to waste your time trying.
There are always ways to cheat - assumed identity, late voting, voting multiple ballots under assumed ID, illegal migrant-immigrant voting, machine rigging....I'm convinced that Dems have already worked the calculus on the 2030 Census and realize they lose a large portion of existing Congressional membership. They will lie, cheat, steal, manipulate at EVERY step to avoid the reckoning of loss of power. Harry Reid? Hillary Clinton? B.O., calculated strategists all and funded by Soros et al. And then, all the useful idiots in Congress - including Biden, Kamala, Hakeem, Squad, even Nancy, making even larger useful idiots from their voting constituents.
Whom in their right mind would argue as to a suitable ID to cast a vote????? Are you kidding? you can't drive a car or ride an airplane for Gods sake without ID!!!! And Ive read anecdotally that the Grammy attendees had to have ID matching their invite!
Dems are, simply, evil. Tomorrow, or in a decade, it could be GOP, I'm not naive but at this moment, they are the devil, hellbent on destroying the very fabric of America.
I’m pretty angry at their disregard for the voting process, the rebuttals to implementing voting ID are obvious in intent. But If you bring that up, they think Trump is still the ultimate “threat to democracy” and they framed him as the one who was adamant about destroying the fabric of America, ever since the claims of the 2020 election being stolen. It’s frustrating we can’t at least keep the voting process intact and that it turns into what it has.
Folks are way too hung up on Trumps style - he's probably correct about 2020 election! That said, voters expect idealism - DJT isn't ideal. he's gruff, can't speak, doesn't read, write or know history....but, is the perfect wrecking ball at this point in time. As loudly as you hear leftist/dem/progressives shrieking about democracy, KNOW that they're really looking in their own mirror, or they'd be far more rational.
The Dems choices are not casual or different, they avoid the sovereignty of our nation, basic human rights of representation of Americans by catering to ANY piece of social dilemma, be it boys in girls sports, voting rights for illegals, the very act of tolerance for any immigration OTHER than legal, equity over equality, decriminalization up and down the social strata, removal of policing....not sure where to stop, but this is NOT about DJT style points but about the survival of America.
I would suggest that one of the biggest problems is the redistricting.
So true. What, with all the other fraud and BS, I forgot to mention it. And my district is one of the districts being de-Republicanized.
Years ago, I worked for Congressman Dana Rohrabacher and ran several state assembly campaigns. After the 96 election, there was 1 race still close: Loretta Sanchez vs "B-1" Bob Dornan. Old Bob was convinced illegals had cost him the election, and we (the staffers from nearby campaigns) were tasked with proving it. Unfortunately, proving that a vote was from an illegal immigrant is REALLY hard, so we only found a few (single digits as I remember?) We did find lots of dead people that voted, but that didn't it Bob's narrative so he wasn't interested.
One thing I learned from that time period tough: stealing an American election (at least at the Congressional level or up) is really pretty hard. There's fraud, but it's not widespread. It's likely worse today, but systemic fraud is very hard to pull off, especially with touch-screen voting and electronic tallies these days.
Sorry, Brian, when ballots are sent out willy nilly based on out of date voter rolls, when neighborhood polls are replaced by "voting centers," when illegals can register to vote when they get a driver's license (it's on the honor system, no kidding), when elections go on for weeks, etc., I would submit that it is actually pretty easy to steal an election. The problem is, to use a favorite Leftist term, "systemic."
Your point about how hard it is to steal used to be true, but no more. And yes, proving that an illegal immigrant voted is "very hard." That's a feature, not a flaw, in our current system.
Modern voting machine technology is ripe for manipulation & fraud. Being in IT & understanding the technology and its capabilities helps one understand how easily votes can be manipulated.
While I am not in IT, I have been opposed to computer-based voting from the start, knowing as I do that any computer can be hacked. I mean, it's the first principle of computer science, right?
How does machine voting work in your state? Here in CA, a touchscreen prints a ballot which goes into the ballot box. So there's an electronic and a paper trail at every polling place. Does your state work differently?
The process & the tech are different animals. When a voting machine can be linked to a network & has data ports, it's not 100% secure. Factor in the coded instructions which can also be manipulated for those with access or skills. Electronic voting machines are not secure. We now see that humans, such as in GA, failed to follow proper process or procedure with respect to ballots & vote counting, even those processes are not fool proof. Election integrity is required for fair & honest elections and is sorely needed now when both humans & machines can easily be corrupted.
agreed P, especially so when many important races - including POTUS - are decided on a few thousand votes. DEMs will stop at nothing to win in this day and age.
So I guess Biden winning by 20 million votes while campaigning in his basement was not widespread fraud?
In 2016, Trump won by about 80,000 votes spread among 3 states. In 2020, Trump lost by about 50,000 votes spread among 3 states.
I saw all kinds of shenanigans in the 2020 election so I get why people are suspicious. But it wasn't stolen. 2016 was a squeaker, so was 2020. They just happen to squeak in different directions. For that matter, 2024 was too. Flip about 100K votes in 4 states and Harris wins.
https://chatgpt.com/share/6982c281-c350-8008-973e-115ee6389a79
You would likely see that as evidence that stealing elections is easy, but it's an illusion. Identifying which states have to flip which votes is easy after the fact and almost impossible beforehand. Even if you figure that out, actually doing it requires you to co-opt dozens of local elections officials in at least a half-dozen states (since you don't know which ones exactly will end up being decisive.)
If you actually did that, arranged a conspiracy among all those people and kept is quiet, it wouldn't be a squeaker. It would be a landslide because you would need to overshoot by so much due to the uncertainty of which states and counties were critical.
Stealing a centralized election (ala Venezuela) is easy. Stealing a distributed one like ours is not.
So how do you explain the fact that Biden received the most votes in history? I don't disagree with your analysis...I just don't understand, with all of the anomalies present in the election (mail-in ballots, Covid, discrepancies in counting votes, number of votes for a clearly, mentally compromised human, etc.) how this election wasn't rigged?
How true Pacificus.
In Minnesota an ID is not required to vote and one person can vouch for up to 8 others at the polls. There have been serious issues with mail in ballots, vote harvesting, and drop boxes but there is not enough energy, or honesty, to do anything about it.
But, I would argue that they vote based on brand loyalty. What happens when their brand loyalty is pierced by the reality of fraud and bad policies? Will they do a mea culpa?
I am a native Californian. I think the fact that 28 percent of the population is foreign born is part of the problem. In LA and San Francisco that rises to 34 percent. These people mostly come from Mexico, the Philippines, China, and India, all countries that preach and teach some version of socialism to their populations. Their countries couldn't deliver because socialism never works and there wasn't much to redistribute. But they don't know that. They have come here with different expectations. They vote for the free stuff. They elect charlatans, both immigrant and native. So of course they have voted in a dysfunctional state government, aided and abetted by an unscrupulous Democratic Party. I wish the Post the best of luck in reversing this horror story that has taken over my beautiful state.
I disagree. It is the Californian hippies that are most left-leaning. They infiltrated the teaching profession, took control of the teacher's unions and raised the generations of young socialist fanatics. A lot of immigrants especially from Asia, are leaning red.
THG, I think both you and Lydia are correct. CA most definitely developed a "whatever" attitude post 60s. That said, those ethnic blocks she's referring to are more recent in state history and seem to be shaping the poli class today. Look at the local vote appt'd leadership in San Diego, LA, San Fran and Sacramento. They rule the streets, police, local jurisdictions.....and that's before you get to State/Fed matters, already shaped at the loci.
For this reason, Im not optimistic about CA and deeply saddened. Had counted on sufficient wealth to have a home somewhere in old LA, in (my) golden years. From Dodger stadium to Santa Monica, you've defined American cultural greatness from post WW2 to about 2000. Even weathering the storms of the 60s wasn't too large a hurdle for the splendor of CA. But here I am at 70, still looking thru Zillow at homes I can now afford in Hancock Park, Palisades, Hollywood Hills, Brentwood, BH, Santa Monica, and you know what? Not on your life will give $$$ to those morons.
Californians have screwed the Golden Goose.
JP
I appreciate your well written article and can only hope that the California Post does what you hope. Too may Californians are suffering under this one party rule. Unfortunately, my home state, Virginia, is following in California's' footsteps.
You try MN!
The analogy of California to the old Soviet Union is an interesting one. As you point out, there are aspects of one-party rule that are seemingly similar in both cases. Where it may break down, and this seems crucial, is that while the Cold War also provided two polarized sides, the US acted as a continuous and tremendous forcing function on the Soviet Union that ultimately broke them economically. (With a lot of spiritual help from St. John Paul II.) Perhaps, there is a similar externality that can "force" collapse of one party rule in California? But that function will not come from the national or state Republican party. The Republicans lack the required cohesion, and the will-to-power. They know what they don't like, but it is apparently hard to unite them around what they do like. That makes them somewhat impotent when they do come to power. Nonetheless, there could be something else that serves this purpose, and not just in California, but also in New York and other blue states. One can only hope.
It's hard to get traction when your voting constituency is moving to Texas and Tennessee. Apparently it's to the point that there are few enough Republican voters that they can be diced up and embedded in all 50-odd California House districts without endangering their safe Dem status. This will only get worse with time.
And if, by some miracle, Dem's inability to cover pension checks or repair collapsed bridges causes a genuine revolt, Republicans will win a slim majority in the Statehouse and be blamed for all that happens, then go down to defeat in a cycle or two.
Voters deserve what they ask for, to paraphrase H.L. Mencken.
It is interesting that 5 CA counties moved from blue to red in the presidential election.
Also interesting is that more votes were cast for Trump in California than were in Texas!
Good morning Mr. Rufo!
Ditto what KatWarrior said… I lived in California from 1986-2016 (my home in Long Beach sold on 11/8/2016, a glorious day indeed). A Golden State during the MOSTLY Republican Governor years, going to s**t after last (R) Schwarzenegger left office. Friends and family call me a pit bull in politics, slicing apart liberals (Democrats) who are stunned into silence, both in public and private. My little essays and opinions over the years (especially since 6/15/2015) are epic. I’m here for you, the common man on the street who detests sanctimonious know it all liberals. Gay and Hispanic too!
Gay, Hispanic, and Conservative: I like that!
❤️
Everything is possible, but I will believe it when I see it.
Thank you for taking this project on. It is sorely needed.
I came to California in 1974 for graduate school and watched that beautiful state decay for 45 years. We finally left in 2019 to escape the heavy hand of the government. Tennessee is lovely.
Almost a ditto. Arrived in 79, left in 22, Dems ran me out. Northern NV is fantastic.
I'm thinking about moving to Tn from NJ
We had a number of criteria for our new state: no state income tax, plenty of water ( we lived through two bouts of water rationing), good healthcare, low regulation, politics that were not blue, and — not least — an NHL hockey team. There were other things on the list, but those ranked high. Added bonuses for Nashville were a great music scene and a great restaurant scene — that last was really an upside surprise. Plus people are super friendly and the kids are still brought up right. One of the best decisions we ever made.
I am not qualified as journalist, Christopher. I am willing to do whatever you need to expose truth here in So Cal.
You can contact me if you think I can assist you. Please do so. Thank you, either way.
I was literally serving in Germany when the Wall was up and then came down and I agree: tell the truth which is exactly what Trump(et al.) are trying to do and it is working.
I live in MN(thankfully 40 miles from the Twin Shitties) and the truth is bubbling out here as well.
Born and raised in California… left in 1996 and moved to Washington state… sad to say, we may have passed you in madness.
My heart is still in California.
I think the farmers in the state need to fire up their manure spreaders and head to the government halls, like Europe was doing for awhile.
We really need what you propose. There are so many clearly corrupt policies but little exposure of the actors and outcomes. Some examples: the bond measure to build water storage that was used to destroy dams, the train to no where, the rebuilding of homes destroyed by the LA fires, homeless expenditures, union influence on law, the school unions and their failure to teach, the judges, Coastal Commission, Air Quality Management with absurd policies, touch this beast and you come out dirty.
Sanctuary policies are at the root of so much of this. I didn’t realize how severe of a situation it’s become in the U.S. overall until this past year. That’s why there’s such a public fight over ICE and illegal immigration. The guilty dog barks. Once voting ID and proof of citizenship is put in place at the federal level it will change some things, but at the state level? wow it’s a fight. Carl DeMaio here in San Diego county got voter ID to be on the ballot for 26. But, that’s going to be one heck of a fight to see it passed and actually implemented. This is going to take multi-prong shocks on this state continuously to shift the supermajority.
The differences are voters in California are too ideologically hypnotized to break the cycle for their own good and those with the means can leave along with their tax dollars. The far left legislator and their minions (teachers unions, minorities and anti economic do gooders) don’t care about the future. They just want power now in order to continue to gorge at the government trough.
I’m an 85 year old native Californian - Fresno - (as was my father and grandfather) but I left many years ago (first for the military and then graduate school) and never returned except for family and school reunions. I still have a brother living there but his wife won’t leave. It’s really sad to have watched a once great state (and still beautiful) decline like it has.