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California (is) Dreaming

02/07/2023 3:10 PM | Anonymous

California (is) Dreaming  by Tom Reynolds

Just when you thought New York’s politicians were crazy, California steps up and says, ‘Hold my beer’.

Slavery was never legal in California, but it is considering paying “reparations” to Black Californians who are directly descended from enslaved people. To get around that slavery hurdle, they’re recommending reparations for discrimination and not for slavery. 

If California is offering reparations for racial discrimination, why not offer them to every group that suffered discrimination based on their race or ethnicity throughout California’s history?

How about descendants of Chinese workers who built much of California’s early infrastructure and also the Transcontinental Railroad which linked California with the rest of us and gave their economy a huge boost.

Or the descendants of Japanese Americans living in California who had their assets confiscated and were relocated to internment camps during World War II?

And what about Native Americans? (What we used to call Indians.) Of course, the Mexicans started the discrimination against them so perhaps they should ‘chip in’.

And, of course, we took California from Mexico through warfare so Mexican heritage descendants might qualify? (Although, if one compares California’s economy with Mexico, you would have to conclude that, as a whole, they are better off in California. But maybe not for much longer; not because Mexico is getting better but because California is sinking.)

So, what is California proposing for reparations?

  • It wants to make up for a “housing wealth gap” by granting $223,239 to every Black Californian who is descended from slaves. (Kamilah V. Moore, the chair of California’s reparations committee, disagreed. She said that reparations should be $1 million per person.)

  • $127,226 per year for unpaid prison labor and years of lost income while in prison or “disproportionate health outcomes,” including shorter life expectancies. (They committed a crime and were imprisoned and should now be paid for the time incarcerated! Who says crime doesn’t pay?

The reparations task force, which did the above calculations, is reported to be overwhelmingly black.  (Who would have guessed that any ethnic group would find that they should be paid big bucks for some past wrong?)

Not to be outdone by the state, San Francisco is considering their own reparations for discrimination:

  • pay each Black longtime resident a one-time lump sum of $5 million;

  • grant total debt forgiveness;

  • supplement lower-income recipients’ income to reflect the Area Median Income (about $97,000) annually for at least 250 years.

To be eligible for SF’s program, the applicant must be 18 years old. (But must be 21 to buy a gun. Of course, with $5 million they could afford to hire their own security.)

Another way to get the dough is to be "Personally, or the direct descendant of someone, incarcerated by the failed War on Drugs." (So, you don’t even have to be jailed to get paid, just be related to someone who was jailed.)

Talk about ‘feelings of guilt’!

Then there is the pesky question: how to pay for this?

The leading proposal to fund this is a “Wealth Tax” on wealthy Californians. (California and New York State lead the country in out-migration of their citizens. Any possibility this might drive even more wealthy Californians into becoming Texans?)

The panel got creative and recommended that ten prisons be shuttered. The savings made from closing the prisons will be used to fund the reparations. (Any recommendations on what to do with the prisoners released?)

The panel also recommended eliminating certain types of punishment and that current inmatesreceive fair wages and that they are eligible to vote.

Will ‘Fair Wages’ have a deduction for room & board as well as security while in prison?

Will there be a reduction in the payments for those that got special treatment in ‘Affirmative Action’ programs or got money through the failed ‘War on Poverty’.

About 360,000 Americans died in the Civil War which freed slaves. Does that count towards a down payment?

Hitler would have ‘final solutioned’ blacks if he had won. Shouldn’t 400,000 American deaths in WW2 count for something?

The War on Poverty taught us that if we take away the incentive for people to work, you foment chaos in families and communities.  There are many stories about lottery winners who blew it all. (One recent single mother of four won $88 million and spent a chunk of it on multiple bail payments for her boyfriend. There’s those pesky personal choices, again.)

___________________________

Where does California get these loopy ideas?

Right from the top!

Jennifer Siebel Newsom, the wife of Democratic California Governor Gavin Newsom, writes and directs "gender identity" films that are then licensed to public schools. Reportedly, these films have brought in almost $1.5 million in licensing fees, in addition to donations. Newsom's wife received $2.3 million in total salary between 2011 and 2018

About those films shown in schools, Adam Andrzejewski, founder of the watchdog group The Book, wrote this: "Newsom's films and curricula are saturated with images lifted directly from pornographic websites,…Minors are exposed to social commentaries about privilege and oppression, and one commentator says Americans need to 'express shame and sorrow about who we are and what we've done' as a society." 

Andrzejewski added "When paired with calls to organize and spread the films more widely, it's clear that Siebel Newsom seeks to activate students politically and in accordance with some radical ideologies about gender, identity, race and privilege." 

According to The Sacramento Bee, companies with a history of lobbying the state of Californiadonated hundreds of thousands of dollars to Governor Newsome’s wife's nonprofit over the past several years.

The nonprofit received $290,000 between 2016 and 2018 from Pacific Gas & Electric which is overseen by the California Public Utilities Commission, whose Commissioners are appointed by the governor.

Kaiser Permanente donated $20,000 in 2018 and 2019 before signing a $500 million no-bid contract with the state.

AT&T gave more than $185,000 and Comcast gave more than $15,000 between 2017 and 2020. The companies were able to shut down a plan to bring broadband to underserved parts of the state in 2020.

United Airlines donated between $25,000 and $49,000 and later lobbied Newsom's office for pandemic relief for airlines.

Kendra Arnold of the Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust said "Ethics rules routinely prohibit elected officials from soliciting donations for nonprofits that they are closely aligned with — because of course donations may be made in an attempt to seek favorable treatment by the government,"

It appears that Newsome and Hochul are in competition to be labeled the most corrupt governor in the United States. Or the flakiest.

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East Aurora, NY 14052

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