California’s Politicians No Longer Work for the People

California’s politicians no longer work for the people – not the Governor, not state Senators and not State Assembly members. They work against the people, refusing to pass or enforce laws that make our lives better.

Look around you – you see drug addicted vagrants living in parks, on city streets, along rivers and bike trails. You see brazen retail theft when you shop at Target, Macy’s, your neighborhood pharmacy, and convenience stores. You see dangerous highways and daily car crashes. You see run-down, failing public schools.

Do you feel safe in your neighborhood park? Do you feel safe in the parking lot at your grocery store? Is it safe for your child to walk to school?

Can you afford the home or apartment you are renting? How about your PG&E, SCE or SDGE electric and gas bills? How about filling your car with gas – too expensive for a full tank? What about those grocery bills that have more than doubled? And if you have growing kids, you can’t scrimp on food.

What are California’s politicians doing about any of this?

They are passing legislation to restore news media access to California prisons to the level it was in the 1990s, before the state restricted access. (SB 254 by Sen. Nancy Skinner, D-Berkeley)

They are removing the sunset on the small employer family leave mediation program to make it permanent. (AB 2011 by Assemblywoman Rebecca Bauer Kahan, D-Orinda)

Protecting abortion clinics by increasing penalties for harassing patients seeking abortions as well as abortion doctors and nurses. (AB 2099 by Assemblywoman Rebecca Bauer Kahan, D-Orinda)

They banned Plastic Bags. (SB 1053 by Assemblywoman Rebecca Bauer Kahan, D-Orinda)

They passed a bill to authorize a three-year pilot program in the county of San Diego for preventative pelvic floor and core conditioning group exercises within the six to twelve-week postpartum window to help birthing people rebuild their pelvic floor after pregnancy. (AB 2756 by Assemblywoman Tasha Boerner, D-San Diego)

Bill to authorize pharmacists to continue furnishing COVID-19 oral therapeutics to patients who test positive for SARS-CoV-2, without a prior prescription, until January 1, 2025. (AB 1341 by Assemblyman Marc Berman, D-Palo Alto)

They passed a bill to expand what is covered on the firearm safety certificate test to ensure that potential firearm purchases are aware of the risks associated with owning and bringing a firearm into the home. (AB 1598 by Assemblyman Marc Berman, D-Palo Alto)

They passed a bill that removes the ability of California courts to require a juvenile criminal to pay victim restitution, to pay for any crime, or to pay $250 fine to be deposited in the county treasury, or to participate in uncompensated work programs. Instead the new law requires the minor to make amends by participating in a restorative justice program, performing community service, or participating in an educational, employment, youth development, or mental health program. (AB 1186, by Assemblywoman Mia Bonta, D – Oakland)

They passed the Menstrual Equity for All bill, which “Ensures menstrual products are readily available in California prisons.” (AB 1810 by Assemblyman Issac Bryan, D-Culver City)

California media isn’t reporting on these new laws because they are actually harmful or injurious to average Californians. And these bills do nothing to help the average California family feel safer, or help pay their exorbitant bills.

Career politicians

“Citizen representatives” turned into career politicians who won’t leave office, even when quite elderly… geriatric, in fact. Over half of the members of both the U.S. House and Senate are over age 65. Some are still quite relevant, but many are not. They have become useful idiots for their special interest funders.

In California we have term limits, which lessens the issue of lifetime geriatric office holders. But we have politicians who may leave the California Legislature, and then go back to their home counties and run for County Supervisor, or City Council, rather than getting or going back to an actual private sector job.

Republicans in California, an endangered species, can’t get any consequential legislation passed against the Democrat supermajority. So few in number, they can’t even block bad legislation – instead they have to rely on media pressure to raise public awareness to kill bad Democrat bills. Sometimes this works.

And what has California Governor Gavin Newsom been up to? Here are some headlines from the Globe’s reporting:

Gavin Newsom’s Gas Bill Pushing Venezuela-like Price and Inventory Controls on Oil Refineries

Gavin Newsom Chases Another Oil Company Out of California – Chevron and now Phillips 66.

Gov. Gavin Newsom’s $20 Per Hour Fast-Food Minimum Wage is Tanking the Industry

Gov. Gavin Newsom Signs Dangerous Parent Secrecy Bill AB 1955

Will Gov. Gavin Newsom Face a Reckoning with His $73B Deficit in the $330 Billion Budget?

Here is what Gavin Newsom has been up to since being elected governor in 2019:

Doubled the drug-addicted vagrant population living on California’s streets.

Created a housing shortage – doubling down on forcing cities and small towns to comply with his order to build “affordable housing.”

Cut water off to rural areas in the state; supported dam removal and hydroelectric plant removal.

Limited water deliveries to farmers and ranchers.

Raised the minimum wage so high, fast food owners and restaurant owners are forced to lay off employees.

Passed policies killing manufacturing.

Passed policies bolstering a service economy (rather than manufacturing).

Limited energy production to renewable energy only.

Limited gas and oil production creating a shortage, forcing people out of their cars and on to public transportation.

Ordered all internal combustion cars banned by 2035.

Mandated an all-electric state, including autos and trucks.

Signed bill to install thousands of floating offshore wind turbines at a cost of $150 billion.

Legalized drugs.

Legalized sex with minors.

Legalized abortion up to baby’s birth.

Destroyed the public education system by watering down actual disciplines of math and English, while sending his own children to private schools.

Promotes affirmative action, racial preferences over merit.

Creates fake crises – climate change, reparations.

Infringed on the people’s right to keep and bear arms by passing laws which nibble around the edges of the 2nd Amendment, creating defacto gun control.

Stopped prosecuting crime.

Decriminalized certain crimes, resulting in emptying out state prisons.

Raised corporate taxes to discourage businesses from expanding.

Raised taxes and fees on public services and energy.

Raised income taxes on all income brackets.

Made it easier for local governments to raise taxes.

Tried to impose a wealth tax.

Supported initiative to radically alter property taxes for inherited homes. 

Forced doctors to comply with state medical directive, and punish those who refuse to comply. (Court overturned this law)

Has allowed millions of illegal immigrants into the state.

Provides free health care and welfare payments to illegal immigrants.

Allows illegal immigrants to vote in local elections.

Expanded the size of government by hiring hundreds of thousands of state workers.

Created more labor unions jobs by expanding state government.

Encouraged public schools to convince kids they are another gender; provide secret counseling to those kids; shelter kids from parents.

Has limited media access in State Capitol; reward compliant media.

Remember, Gov. Gavin Newsom and the compliant Democrat Supermajority in the California Legislature closed your children’s schools, shut down your businesses, ordered your churches closed, cancelled holidays, masked your kids, mandated Covid shots to go back to work and school… while they exempted themselves from these mandates.