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Home Front: Politix

Another Failure: Gavin Newsom's Bankrupted Medi-Cal After Expanding Coverage to Illegal Aliens

2025-03-21

[RedState] California Gov. Gavin Newsom (Democrat, of course) bragged about a huge budget surplus during the COVID lockdowns and made big promises to his core constituencies about how they were going to use that money. For many reasons (pandemic unemployment fraud, gross mismanagement, huge tax base losses) that surplus isn't just gone; the state has such a large shortfall that some agencies were ordered to stop ordering office supplies.

Last year, despite loud warnings about the cost from (most) California Republicans and anyone else with a brain, Newsom and his band of virtue-signaling Democrats made Medi-Cal available to illegal aliens in the state - and now Medi-Cal is bankrupt and Newsom's asking the legislature for $6.2 billion just to keep it solvent through the end of the fiscal year.

Surprisingly, he admits that paying for healthcare coverage for illegal aliens is "partially" contributing to Medi-Cal's funding shortfall.

Where will that money Newsom's requesting come from? The state's general fund will probably be raided, and monies earmarked for other things (most likely from the $10 billion "climate change" bond voters approved last year, so not from anything important) will be diverted to pay for this boondoggle.

Senate Minority Leader Brian Jones (R-San Diego) wants to know why estimates were so far off (and so do the rest of us):

Just days after the Newsom Administration announced a $3.4 billion loan to cover Medi-Cal for illegal immigrants, they are now scrambling to secure an additional $2.8 billion just to keep the program solvent through June.

That’s a staggering $6.2 billion over budget...and the costs keep climbing with no end in sight. Californians should not be forced to shoulder the burden of radical Democrats' reckless financial mismanagement.

Even Jerry Brown refused to expand Medi-Cal to all illegal immigrants because he knew it was fiscally irresponsible and unsustainable. Now under Newsom, legal residents are paying the price both financially and in reduced access to healthcare.

The public deserves answers: Why are the costs so much higher than what Newsom promised? What is Newsom’s plan to fix the financial disaster he created?

Link

Government Corruption

Time to Bite the Bullet? Trump Administration Eyes Billions Going to California High-Speed Train

2025-02-13

[Turley.org] Kill it. Kill it now.
Despite a plethora of challenges, the Trump Administration is pushing ahead with its top-to-bottom review of government spending. It has already halted billions in what it views as wasteful spending. It now looks like one of the most wasteful, runaway public works projects in the country could be on the chopping block: California’s high-speed rail project. The project to build a bullet train from Los Angeles to Sacramento is an outrageous example of a public work that lacked any fiscal responsibility or oversight from the state government. Nevertheless, Democrats continue to push for billions more from the federal government as well as California taxpayers.

There is currently $4.3 billion in unspent federal funds for California’s high-speed rail project, and Trump should seek to claw back the money in light of the gross negligence shown by the California authorities.

The project was initially approved in 2008 with the support of Gov. Jerry Brown (D) as an environmental and technological advance for the state. It proved a costly bait-and-switch.

Voters approved a $9.95 billion bond issue in 2008 after absurdly low estimates of the projected cost. Influential figures and companies stood to make a fortune, and the key was to get a "buy-in" worth billions so that it would be more and more difficult to abandon the project as overruns and delays sent the costs soaring.

Now the official estimate of future ridership has dropped by 25% and it demands billions more to complete a project that would be delayed by decades to complete. Remember that this entire project was meant to create a rail line of only 171 miles. It is projected at over $128 billion and could ultimately come in a billion dollars a mile. There are still uncompleted environmental assessments and challenging rail lines through the mountains.

In his first term, Trump criticized the project and withheld a billion dollars in federal aid. However, when President Joe Biden came into office, he opened the federal coffers and approved billions more despite well-documented mismanagement and dubious spending.

Trump is now pledging an investigation, which is long overdue. There is ample reason to suspect fraud and other possible violations in this multi-billion dollar boondoggle.

Indeed, this week, the inspector general, Benjamin Belnap, issued a scathing report on the first phase of still uncompleted project. That is only the stretch from Merced to Bakersfield which was supposed to be completed by 2033. Belnap wrote:

"With a smaller remaining schedule envelope and the potential for significant uncertainty and risk during subsequent phases of the project, staying within the 2033 schedule envelope is unlikely. In fact, uncertainty about some parts of the project has increased as the authority has recently made decisions that deviated from the procurement and funding strategies that were part of its plans for staying on schedule."

The Merced-Bakersfield line alone would now cost $35.3 billion, more than the 2008 projection for a complete system.

California Democrats have continued to throw money at the project without making meaningful changes on the overruns and delays. There is currently only $28.7 billion in state bonds left.

The inefficiency of the project has been raised for years. Even if completed, the system would reduce auto travel by 10 million miles a day in a state where citizens drive a billion miles a day. As noted by Cal Matters, "A 10 million-mile reduction would ostensibly cut emissions by scarcely 1%." It added:

Logically, spending emission auction money on more direct carbon reduction programs, such as reducing emission-spewing wildfires, would make more sense.

The current estimate for linking San Francisco with Southern California is $107 billion. Officials don’t even know how to fully finance Merced-Bakersfield, much less raise the other $72.4 billion they would need.

Both a federal investigation and a cessation of funding are long overdue. It is time to bite the bullet. California has every right to spend over $100 billion during budget deficits, but the rest of the country should not subsidize it

Link

Home Front: Politix

Biden Admin Concedes No Evidence Behind Recommendation for 6 Annual COVID Booster Shots

2023-08-10

[ZH] President Joe Biden's administration concedes that there is no scientific evidence to support an apparent recommendation to receive as many as six COVID-19 booster shots in a year.
After Health Secretary Xavier Becerra, a Biden appointee, wrote in a social media post on Nov. 29, 2022, that people should get vaccinated "if it’s been over 2 months since your last dose," the Functional Government Initiative (FGI) filed a Freedom of Information Act request for documents supporting the statements.

The watchdog organization then sued after the administration didn't comply with timelines laid out in the law.

FGI asked for, among other documents: "Any scientific support relied on by Secretary Becerra when approving or issuing the tweet recommending that all Americans receive a booster shot every two months" and "any study, synopsis, or similar statement or document of scientific, academic, or government research on whether a bi-monthly booster shot will effectively prevent the transmission or susceptibility to COVID-19 and known active variants as of November 2022."

It also asked for internal communications regarding Mr. Becerra's statements.

In a new response, the government said it had no evidence to support Mr. Becerra's recommendation.

"The department reviewed 1,263 pages of potentially responsive records captured in the agency’s search for this FOIA request. After a careful review of these records, I determined the 1,263 pages were not relevant to your request," Alesia Williams, an official in the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), told FGI.

"The lack of a single of a single record supporting Secretary Becerra’s bold public health recommendation for six COVID boosters a year is a startling development," Pete McGinnis, a spokesman for FGI, said in a statement.

"It is tremendously irresponsible for the government’s chief health official to fire off tweets recommending frequent injections of a new vaccine booster apparently based on no academic or scientific support," Mr. McGinnis added.

"How can the public be assured that the agency is ’following the science’ on other important public health matters when it demonstrates such clear disregard for basic scientific integrity standards on an issue as important as COVID vaccine shots?"

The group noted that Mr. Becerra, a lawyer by training, lacks a background in health. Doctors typically lead that department.

BOOSTER RECOMMENDATIONS
As newer COVID-19 variants have emerged, the vaccines have performed increasingly worse. Federal officials inside HHS first cleared booster shots in 2021 due to the flagging effectiveness, and have since authorized and recommended additional shots.

In the spring of 2023, regulators had authorized, without clinical trial data, newly formulated versions of the vaccines aimed at Omicron subvariants. Federal officials had said that people should get a booster if more than two months had elapsed since their most recent shot. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said most people should only receive one additional shot, but that certain groups could receive more.

In another statement promoting vaccination, Vice President Kamala Harris claimed that a single shot would protect people from COVID-19 for an entire year. There's no evidence supporting that claim.

Link

Olde Tyme Religion

California lawmakers to honor anti-Catholic Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence member, despite Dodgers backlash

2023-06-01

[FoxNews] The California State Legislature's LGBTQ Caucus is poised to honor a member of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, the controversial group at the center of a backlash engulfing the Los Angeles Dodgers.

The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, who identify as a group of "queer and trans nuns," are known for mocking Christian beliefs, including holding an annual "Foxy Mary" and "Hunky Jesus" contest, pole dancing on crosses, and using the saying, "Go forth and sin some more!"

Michael Williams, a member of the group known as "Sister Roma" who runs a podcast covering pornographic movies and LGBTQ issues, is on the honoree list for the California Senate's upcoming Pride recognition night.

"For more than three decades, Sister Roma has been one of the most outspoken and globally recognized members of San Francisco's Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence," the LGBTQ Caucus' announcement said.

"Honoring the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, a group whose sole mission is to sexualize nuns and mock Jesus, reveals the true depth of hatred California’s elected officials have for the millions of Catholics residing in the state," Mark Trammell, the executive director of the Center for American Liberty, told Fox News Digital.

Link

-Great Cultural Revolution

Judge strikes down California's quota for women on corporate boards

2022-05-17

[JustTheNews] A California law requiring publicly-held corporations to include women on their boards has been declared unconstitutional by a Los Angeles judge.

Superior Court Judge Maureen Duffy-Lewis said the law, which requires corporations with principal executive offices in California to include women on their boards, violates the Equal Protection Clause of the state’s Constitution.

The law was challenged by Judicial Watch, who argued that the law created an unconstitutional gender-based quota system. Judicial Watch represented three California taxpayers who brought forth the case. The judge issued the ruling on Friday.

“Thankfully, California courts have upheld the core American value of equal protection under the law,” Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said in a statement Monday.

The 2018 law at the center of the case, Senate Bill 826, required that publicly held foreign or domestic corporations with principal executive offices in California add at least one female director to its board by the end of 2019. By January 2022, the law required corporations to have at least three female directors on boards of six or more members and at least two female directors on boards of five members.

Corporations that failed to file board member information to the Secretary of State regarding these regulations would face a fine of $100,000 for the first violation and $300,000 for subsequent violations and for failing to have the required number of female board members.

During the trial, however, the state admitted that the Secretary of State “had no plans to and has not taken any steps to issue the regulations necessary to impose fines.” According to the latest report, fewer than half of the almost 650 corporations failed to file a required corporate disclosure statement last year.

When the law passed, supporters of the bill hailed the law as a step to increase gender representation on corporate boards. But opponents of the bill, including the California Chamber of Commerce, were concerned that the mandate’s exclusive focus on gender “potentially elevates it as a priority over other aspects of diversity” when companies were looking at “all classifications” of diversity, according to a bill analysis.

A legislative analysis of the bill had previously said the law had a “significant risk for legal challenges,” saying that if the law was enacted, it would “likely be challenged on equal protection grounds.” When signing the bill, former Gov. Jerry Brown said he was aware of the “serious legal concerns” that were raised surrounding the legislation, according to Judicial Watch's complaint.

The state defended the constitutionality of the law during trial by arguing that the law as necessary to “remedy discrimination” and increase gender diversity in the selection process for directors on publicly held corporate boards. The court, however, said that SB 826’s text does not “reference discrimination nor remedying discrimination.”

Several states have followed California’s model by introducing similar proposals in their states. Washington, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Hawaii have introduced or enacted similar bills, according to the Associated Press.

Link

-Lurid Crime Tales-

Sirhan Sirhan Will Likely Leave Prison in 2021

2021-08-28

But Bobby Kennedy will still be dead.
[TheGuardian] The man who killed Robert F Kennedy was granted parole on Friday after two of the former attorney general, senator and presidential hopeful's sons spoke in favor of release and prosecutors declined to argue he should be kept behind bars.

The decision was a major victory for Sirhan Sirhan,

...the Jerusalem-born, Christian Palestinian of Jordanian citizenship who showed his gratitude for growing up in the safety of the U.S. by killing a presidential candidate for supporting Israel...

77, though it did not assure his release.

The ruling by the two-person panel at Sirhan'16th parole hearing will be reviewed over 90 days by the California parole board. Then it will be sent to the governor, who will have 30 days to decide whether to grant it, reverse it or modify it.
Sirhan has learned to show remorse (as he was not able to do as late as 2016) and has the entire leftist establishment on his side.

Bobby Junior decided that the confessed murderer of his father is innocent, so that’s that.

Link

Home Front: Culture Wars

Triumph of the Woke Oligarchs

2020-04-27

h/t Instapundit
[Real Clear Energy] - Like the rest of the country, although far less than New York, California is suffering through the Covid-19 crisis. But in California, the pandemic seems likely to give the state’s political and corporate elites a new license to increase their dominion while continuing to keep the middle and working classes down.

Perhaps nothing spells the triumph of California’s progressive oligarchy more than Governor Gavin Newsom’s decision to off-load the state’s recovery strategy to a task force co-chaired by hedge-fund billionaire Tom Steyer. A recently failed presidential candidate, Steyer stands as a progressive funder. He is as zealous as he is rich. Steyer sometimes even found the policies adopted by climate-obsessed former governor Jerry Brown not extreme enough for his tastes.

Link

Home Front: Politix

Looks Like Senator ‘Cryin’ Chuck’ Schumer Just Inadvertently OUTED One of Schiff’s Whistleblowers!

2019-11-24

[THEGATEWAYPUNDIT] It looks like Senate Minority Leader and President Trump critic, Senator Chuck Schumer
...Senator-for-life from New York, renowned for his love of standing in front of cameras. Schumer has been a professional politician since 1975, when disco was in flower, which is 43.966552880257055 years. Senate minority leader as of 2017...
, just outed one of Schifty Schiff’s whistleblowers. In a tweet this morning the Senator may have outed Schiff’s witness "LTC Alexander Vindman" as one of the whistleblowers!

In a tweet Chuck Schumer just referred to "Alexander Vindman and whistleblowers like him". What a dummy.

Would Cryin’ Chuck refer to Vindman "and whistleblowers like him" if Vindman wasn’t a whistleblower?

How does Cryin’ Chuck know this? We were told by Adam Schiff

...Showboating U.S. Representative for California's 28th congressional district since 2013. A member of the Democratic Party, Schiff has served in Congress since 2001. He currently serves as the chairman of the United States House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. In a manner reminiscent of Joe McCarthy, on March 22, 2017, in a interview with Chuck Todd on MSNBC Schiff claimed there was “more than circumstantial evidence now” that Donald Trump
...the Nailer of NAFTA...
's campaign colluded with Russia." Todd followed up by asking if he had seen direct evidence of collusion and Schiff responded that there was "evidence that is not circumstantial and is very much worthy of investigation...
that the whistleblower’s identity was unknown?

Link

-Land of the Free

Trump Flips Another Circuit Court To Conservative Majority

2019-11-16

[DAILYWIRE] On Thursday, President Trump flipped another U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals into a conservative majority, as the Senate confirmed the nomination of White House attorney Steven Menashi to the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals now has seven judges appointed by Republican presidents and six by Democrats. Democrats flailed about in hysteria over the Menashi nomination, in which he was confirmed 51-41 in a party line vote only excepted by Susan Collins of Maine, who voted against Menashi.

Menashi, 40, was viciously attacked by Democrats; Senate Minority leader Chuck Schumer

...Senator-for-life from New York, renowned for his love of standing in front of cameras. Schumer has been a professional politician since 1975, when disco was in flower, which is 43.94454725489264 years. Senate minority leader as of 2017...
raged, "Mr. Menashi is one of the most contemptible nominees to come before the Senate in all my time in this body. He would be a disgrace, a disgrace to the seat once held by the great Thurgood Marshall."

Link

-Signs, Portents, and the Weather-

Teams make progress against latest major California blaze

2019-11-04

[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Firefighters in Caliphornia, an impregnable bastion of the Democratic Party, made progress Saturday containing a sizable new blaze in the southern part of the state as they continued to battle a much larger fire in the north.

The so-called Maria Fire broke out Thursday in bone-dry conditions in Ventura County, 65 miles (105 kilometers) northwest of Los Angeles, sending thousands of people fleeing and endangering more than 2,500 structures.

It had spread to 9,412 acres (3,808 hectares) by Saturday evening, California fire officials said, but was 30 percent contained.

The progress came despite the forced grounding overnight of firefighting helicopters after at least two hobby drones were seen operating in the area, posing a risk of collision, officials said.

The Ventura County Fire Department warned on Twitter that "even a tiny drone can cause a serious or fatal accident if it collides with firefighting aircraft."

In Sonoma County north of the Socialist paradise of San Francisco
...where God struck dead Anton LaVey, home of the Sydney Ducks, ruled by Vigilance Committee from 1859 through 1867, reliably and volubly Democrat since 1964...
, the Kincade Fire -- the largest in the state this season -- was continuing to burn over 77,758 acres on Saturday evening and was 74 percent contained, state officials said.

The fires prompted Governor Gavin Newsom to declare an emergency across the state, parts of which have not had rainfall for months.

An extreme red-flag warning issued for the Los Angeles area this week was lifted Thursday but the National Weather Service warned that so-called Santa Ana winds could still wreak havoc through Saturday evening.

Link

Home Front: Politix

Jerry Brown Blames Trump, Republicans for California Fires: ‘The Blood Is on Your Soul’

2019-10-31

[BREITBART] Former Caliphornia, an impregnable bastion of the Democratic Party, Governor Jerry Governor Moonbeam Brown
...Caliphornia dynastic politician, son of former governor Pat If it's Brown flush it Brown, himself occupying the Seat of All Power in Sacramento for two undistinguished terms...
told Congress on Tuesday that President Donald Trump

...Oh, noze! Not him!...
and the Republican Party were responsible for the ongoing California fires because of their opposition to drastic climate change policies.

"California’s burning while the deniers make a joke out of the standards that protect us all," Brown told the House Oversight Committee on Tuesday, as quoted by the the Socialist paradise of San Francisco
...where God struck dead Anton LaVey, home of the Sydney Ducks, ruled by Vigilance Committee from 1859 through 1867, reliably and volubly Democrat since 1964...
Chronicle. "The blood is on your soul here and I hope you wake up. Because this is not politics, this is life, this is morality. ... This is real."

Brown was testifying against efforts by the Trump administration to rescind California’s waiver that previously allowed it to set its own emissions standards for vehicles ‐ effectively giving the state control of the entire auto industry. The administration argues that California’s policy is actually worse for the environment because higher standards make new cars ‐ which are more energy-efficient than old cars ‐ more difficult for consumers to buy.

The ongoing California wildfires have a variety of causes. The immediate cause of the Getty Fire in Los Angeles, for example, appears to be a tree branch that was blown by high winds into power lines, according to the Los Angeles Times. Critics fault California and its utility companies for spending money on complying with "green" initiatives rather than on burying power lines. Others also cite homeless camps, where past fires have started, and poor forestry management policies that have barred the clearing of brush that can provide fuel for wildfires.

But Brown and other Democrats have identified climate change as the cuplrit, even though there is no scientific evidence to support that claim. In 2015 and in 2017, Brown also blamed climate change for wildfires in California, though scientists disagreed, calling Brown’s arguments an example of "noble-cause corruption."

California Democrats are facing new criticism at home, as utility companies have begun cutting power to electricity customers in peak fire conditions ‐ a new practice for which the state government seems to have been unprepared.

Link

Home Front: Politix

California adds Iowa to 'travel ban' over refusal to fund gender transitions

2019-09-18

[FOXNEWS] California announced last week that it has added Iowa to the list of states on its ever-expanding "travel ban" list because of that state's new prohibition against funding gender-transition surgeries under Medicaid.

The announcement by state Attorney General Xavier Becerra means that as of Oct. 4, California will no longer offer taxpayer-funded trips to Iowa for any public employee or student at a state-run university.

Becerra's authority came from a 2016 California law signed by then-Gov. Jerry Brown that bars state-funded travel to other states that undercut LGBT rights. The blacklist already included Alabama, Kentucky, North Carolina, Texas, Oklahoma and Mississippi.

Conservatives have called the law ineffective, inconveniencing, possibly unconstitutional and hypocritical. The state's sports teams have turned to private funding to get around the restrictions, according to The Los Angeles Times.

“The Iowa Legislature has reversed course on what was settled law under the Iowa Civil Rights Act, repealing protections for those seeking gender-affirming health care,” Becerra said in a statement. “California has taken an unambiguous stand against discrimination and government actions that would enable it."

The brouhaha began after the Iowa Supreme Court ruled in March that taxpayers could be forced to pay for gender reassignment surgery. Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds signed a law effectively overriding that ruling two months later.

"This narrow provision simply clarifies that Iowa’s Civil Rights Act does not require taxpayer dollars to pay for sex reassignment and other similar surgeries," Reynolds spokesman Pat Garrett said in a statement at the time. "This returns us to what had been the state’s position for years."

At the federal level, the Trump administration has rolled back the Obama-era determination that sex-based discrimination prohibitions under existing law include protections for gender identity.

The Health and Human Services Department, in May, angered progressive advocates with rules that both allowed doctors not to perform certain operations and stated that "gender identity" was not protected under sex discrimination law in health care.

Link

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