Gov. Gavin Newsom announces $30 insulin program on March 18, 2023 (Photo: gov.ca.gov)
Gov. Newsom’s Whistlestop Tour of California on High Speed Rail Boondoggle
Another ballot initiative with the accountability of High Speed Rail is just another slush fund for California’s Homeless Industrial Complex
By Katy Grimes, March 27, 2023 8:55 am
Following his recent Tour around California rather than giving a dismal State of the State address, Gov. Newsom announced three words as the crux for 2023: Return, restore, and rebuild.
He should have taken High Speed Rail around the state – except it isn’t built yet, under “construction” since 2008 when voters were convinced to approve Proposition 1A, a $9 billion bond to build a high speed rail system. However, high-speed rail has become nothing more than a pipeline project for grabbing big (taxpayer) money and is a big deceit on voters and taxpayers. I’ve been covering this for many years. State lawmakers and CHRSA officials have treated the largest public works project in the state’s history as if it’s a design-as-you-go bathroom remodel.
And really, why would voters invest in technology that’s been around for over a 100 years?
Prop. 1A states, “The high-speed train system shall be planned and constructed in a manner that minimizes urban sprawl and impacts on the natural environment.” It also stated “The California High-Speed Rail Authority must have all of the the funding ahead of time, before any construction starts on a new segment.”
Oops.
Outlining what he plans to do in California in the next year, Gov. Newsom first stopped in Sacramento to announce the delivery of 1,200 small homes to Los Angeles, San Diego County, San Jose, and Sacramento — “free of charge and ready for occupancy.”
As the Globe pointed out last week, California has more than 170,000 homeless transients living on the streets, and the governor and Mayors are all excited about 1,200 tiny homes. Sacramento has more than 11,000 homeless, and the Capitol City will be getting 350 tiny homes “for free.” Woot! Woot!
Free of charge? Really? Aren’t taxpayers the permanent cash register for Newsom’s give-away programs?
The Governor next traveled to San Quentin State Prison – where he announced it would be converted soon to become “San Quentin Rehabilitation Center,” rather than the maximum-security prison which has been home to the largest “death row” in the United States. This is because Newsom is emptying out California’s prisons so he can close them.
In May 2021 during the Covid pandemic, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced he would let another 76,000 prisoners out of state prisons – on his own authority through Executive Order – as violent crime was spiking in California’s cities.
As then-Senator Jim Nielsen said, “Violent felons are receiving good time credit for simply breathing, in lieu of demonstrated good behavior and rehabilitation.”
Thanks to Gov. Newsom’s executive order, the CDCR has been expanding “good time credits” without criteria to justify early release of dangerous inmates.
Gov. Newsom then traveled to Downey, CA where he announced California will make $30 insulin available. However, critics noted many drug makers have already been capping max prices per month for insulin. As the Globe reported, according to Sage Thompson, a prescription drug supplier liaison, “The California CIVICA deal isn’t groundbreaking like Newsom is trying to claim. It’s just the latest company severely reducing costs. You know, costs were super high for many, people spoke out, federal agencies stepped in, and costs went way down while also not screwing over the companies. In a nutshell, that’s what has happened. California isn’t really special here, although Newsom is making it sound like he is the white knight in all of this.”
“The Governor concluded his tour at a hospital in San Diego, where he proposed a 2024 ballot initiative to improve how California treats mental illness, substance abuse, and homelessness,” Newsom’s press statement announced.
Announced on Thursday, Senator Rosilicie Ochoa Bogh (R-Yucaipa) and California Legislative Republicans, pushed for and just got approved by the Joint Legislative Audit Committee, an audit on the $20+ billions of dollars the Newsom administration (and Gov. Jerry Brown before him) has spent on the homeless crisis.
Another ballot initiative with the accountability of High Speed Rail is just another slush fund for California’s Homeless Industrial Complex. And Gov. Newsom knows this.
Whether it’s the $30 billion in voter-approved water bonds which have not led to two approved reservoirs being built, or even more water storage, or it’s the several hundred billion dollar High Speed Rail slush fund, which 15 years later, still has no train running on tracks with passengers, or Newsom’s mental health ballot initiative “will lead to $1 billion every year for housing, treating substance abuse disorders, behavioral health housing and other community-based residential solutions to provide an ongoing source of funding for new settings,” the goal of “providing an ongoing source of funding for new settings” is open ended language for a never-ending stream of funding paid for by California taxpayers.
As Dan Walters said in his Sunday column, “Newsom displays penchant for shiny new things on California tour,” rather than tackling head-on, the actual serious problems in California.
California is running an historically large budget deficit, yet Newsom proposed more programs, more billions in spending, more flash and glam and “shiny new things,” while showing voters he is incapable of doing the hard work once he rolls up his sleeves for camera ops.
- ‘Jobs are Down and Workers are Suffering’ While Gov. Newsom Touts Job Increases - December 11, 2024
- Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg’s Career: A Fractured Fairytale - December 11, 2024
- California Exodus: Golden State Tops US Moving Migration Report - December 10, 2024
Of course Newsom is going to focus his attention on shiny new things rather that tackle the problems in California. For starters, he created the problems. He is not going to fix what he created. Fixing said problems would require taking responsibility and that’s never going to happen. You’re dealing with ideologues, the Marxist ideology prevents him from taking responsibility so they blame others. Depending on the situation that could be police officers for crime, oil companies for gasoline prices, or the citizens of California.
We already have “High Speed Rail”. It’s called Southwest Airlines! By the way great article Katy.
❤️
Newsom has probably made his WEF globalist masters proud by destroying the state while claiming to help Californians? Hopefully he’ll be held accountable when the whole system comes crashing down?
Another razor-sharp article from Katy Grimes. And by the way, the 2012 Calwatchdog article she wrote on the High Speed Rail debacle (first link above) reads like it was written yesterday. But it wasn’t. Californians have been burdened by these slush-fund-ridden boondoggles for ELEVEN YEARS and nothing has changed except the increasing taxpayer-provided money supply. Chew on that for awhile.
Meanwhile, the badly aging Gov Newsom (narcissists hate getting older) can’t be doing well these days. How peaceful can his mid-afternoon naps be when he’s been repeatedly nailed from reporting-gone-viral for his connection (with the wife and on top of her own dirty scandals!) to the SVBank collapse alongside his nervy $$$ behests, never mind his earlier promises-then-abandonment of starving, then dying local mountain residents who were snowbound with no escape while he was AWOL vacationing at a sun-drenched luxury resort in Baja? After his return he oh-so-conveniently “caught Covid” and hid out at his estate to “quarantine” before the SVBank scandal hit the headlines. How pathetic. And this is just a tiny sampling of Newsom incidents so far in 2023. Meanwhile it’s only March!
On his whistle-stop state tour Newsom CAN’T have failed to notice what a rancid, stinking pit of hell California has turned into under his dictatorship. He pretends to be in denial but he’s not blind. Now he seems to be grasping at straws as his version of Mr. Positive. I’ll bet he actually thinks he gave us a big gift tied with a red ribbon when he deigned to remove us from (most) state mandatory water restrictions now that we’ve been deluged with endless rain and snow this winter into spring. (DUH!) And he probably actually thinks we’re buying into his fake compassion-for-prisoners act when he announces he’s turning San Quentin (!!!) into a combo spa facility and Kumbaya circle. This is all beyond-preposterous, of course. But it’s even more preposterous than usual. It seems to all add up to a desperate reaction to suffocating pressures that must really be getting to him now. Guess we’ll see…
*Correction: As noted in Katy’s article HSR was passed in 2008 so it has actually been a slush-fund-ridden boondoggle for 15 YEARS. (!!)
It’s ironic how Democrats are always bashing white males for privilege yet they give Newsom a pass who is the very definition of privilege.
Ironic for sure, CyndiC! But we’ll see how his privileged white male inability to check ANY boxes works out for him in the 2024 scenario we hear rumors about, of Biden dumping V.P. Kamala and replacing her with Newsom as one way to install Newsom as Prez the E-Z way. A scenario that seems highly unlikely anyway, now that I’ve actually written it out.
And then there’s the CA budget as an upcoming Newsom-crusher. According to Newsom the deficit is $21 billion? (As opposed to the previously-touted $100 billion surplus?) Newsom himself doesn’t sound so optimistic for even THAT, hinting that the May budget revise could reveal an even LARGER number. Another pressure to crush the Gov. (It unfortunately also crushes US.)
It’s nauseating to hear Newsom bloviate. Newsom needs to be held accountable and be brought before a tribunal and for his many crimes against humanity such as locking healthy Californians and small businesses down (while excluding himself and his cronies) during the scamdemic, for mandating experimental mRNA shots that have injured and killed thousands of innocent Californians, and for making California a mecca for killing babies and mutilating trans surgeries. He has a lot to answer for!
Wow, what a read… The Dem State really is imploding!! BOOM!!! Existing rail has become a mecca for homeless
and drugs that regular users are exiting for a safer option. Notice he didn’t mention progress on recouping EDD
billions; or that he requested 6-months rent from Biden to house homeless (on top of $8 billion owed for C19 EDD shortfall). Newsom took the time to visit Twitter to bemoan gun control, but failed to mention what the
former Chief of Psychiatry at John Hopkins stated: ‘Trans is a mental illness’ (they’ll blame Tennessee legislation
on trans, and the Nashville district Congressman who had the good sense to arm his family)…Dems are so predictable. This is all shaking out, truth prevails, Newsom fails!
Imagine for a second if all the money spent on the Crazy Train had been spent on rain water containment reservoirs, rerouting water to where it was needed, and bolstering the state’s water infrastructure. Maybe even some new hydro-electric capacity (green power). CA would be in a much better place right now. Union workers could have still been used. No harm, no fowl.
Newsome has learned his lessons well, you buy votes and voter support with Taxpayer’s Funds. Back in the 60s and 70s the State Population was divided up into Special Interest Groups and through EDUCATION, or lack there of, they have morphed into Grievance Groups OWED by the rest of the Population. They have increasingly bought them off with one thing or another. Our budgets are huge and our infrastructure is crumbling while we try to achieve some nirvana. The State is the DNC’s National Template, just look around.
Great article! The original bond “proposal” was nothing more than fraud in the inducement. No longer recognizable from what voters approved 15 years ago. Sadly, many are probably dead by now and the project is still soaking everyone.