Ben Shapiro on X - "You want to know why nobody cares about the Left-wing media's latest oppo dump? The answer is obvious: people care about the quality of their lives. And life is getting worse under Democratic governance. Here's just a quick story. We're in LA this week. So we decided to go out with some friends, a husband and wife. Nice area of the city, well lit, not too late at night. We finish dinner at around 10:30 and head back to our car. Since my wife and I have 24/7 security, we're safe. Not so for our friends. They get to their car... And as soon as they do, a Hyundai without plates speeds up and stops. Three young black guys jump out of the car (suspect description relevant because they're still at large!) and rush up to my friend, yank him out of his car, and grab his watch, phone and wallet. They then sprint around the car and grab his wife, start trying to pull off her jewelry. She screams and kicks, and presumably losing time, they take off in top gear down the street. As stated, they're still at large. It took about 15 minutes for the cops to arrive. Not their fault -- LA is wildly understaffed, and the LAPD has been treated horribly by the city government, such that officers have been targeted for simply doing their jobs. I know and am friends with many of them. My friend and his wife weren't armed up, either, because it's nearly impossible to carry a gun in LA legally, and also because if you shoot a criminal in LA, there's a solid shot YOU end up in jail. Now, here's the thing. My friend and his wife have lived in LA for decades. In the last several years, they've been assaulted more than once on the street. Zero arrests. Zero prosecutions. This is just one of the reasons we left LA, where I had lived my entire life. And it's getting worse, not better. This is why people increasingly don't give a shit about the media's latest horror story about Trump Saying Bad Things™. The same people who maintain that street crime is no big deal, or a reflection of institutional racism, or that inflation is hunky dory, or that biggest issue in American life is whether or not Billy has the right to be called Susan...these are not serious people. But people's lives are serious business. And bad governance means worse lives for people."
Elon Musk on X - "A common story. So many people I know have been assaulted on the street or had their homes or cars robbed. Out of dozens of stories, there was not one where the criminals were sent to prison. Not one. Zero. Enough is enough."
Shelley G on X - "As a resident of Los Angeles, I can confirm that this is the experience with me and my friends. The crime is OUT of control. I see looting/stealing, openly, nearly every time I go out. Some stores have barren shelves because they're looted so often and not restocked in time."
Lee Fang on X - "Mayor London Breed redirected tens of millions of dollars from the SF police dept to a program called the "Dream Keeper Initiative" for Black city residents. The program splurged on politically connected nonprofits, luxury vacations, legally dubious zero interest loans"
Kurt Nimphius' Hair on X - "Alternative post: "Millions of dollars from SF police department was stolen by the mayor and non-profits""
Nick Oliver on X - "There’s likely similar stuff happening all over the federal bureaucracy. The current admin spent $42B not connecting a single home to the internet and $5B to build 7 EV chargers."
Celeste GENERALSTRIKE Holms on X - "There's now an entire ecosystem of money laundering operations using govt money to a laundry list of dubious entities whose only reason to exist is to not solve problems that would end their existence."
SkunkBear Consulting on X - "DEI programs are Democratic payoff schemes. Graft /patronage/ corruption at every school/ city/ state/ county / federal gov’t, then add in all the DEI budgets that corporations pay as a extortion tax. It’s been cut back some in corporate america but still present at substantial costs. CEO’s would love to fire all of these productivity killing race baiters but risk managers put on the breaks on. They are mortified at thought of bad press and the racism lawsuits given 75 percent of DEI admin are black women. Look at ehat they’ve been able to do with X ad revenue from their threats to IBM/ Apple etc … If the federal government eliminated all theseDEI jobs, they could pay a decent part of the interest on the national debt. Not just with the elimination of salaries and benefits, but with the enhanced productivity of all government staff. They don’t have to sit through these crazy meetings."
Shaun Maguire on X - "Chevron is moving its HQ from California to Texas Over the last 5 years there are 80+ businesses that have moved from CA to TX, including:
- Tesla
- SpaceX
- Charles Schwab
- Chevron
- HPE
- Oracle
CA’s progressive policies are a cancer for progress"
BAY AREA STATE OF MIND on X - "Thieves just looted Walgreens in San Francisco 😳"
Rafael A. Mangual on X - "Here’s what few people want to acknowledge: These perps clearly aren’t broke. They’re not stealing food to eat, or bare essentials. They’re also not “non-violent,” because it’s very clear they would absolutely use force to carry out this crime if someone intervened."
BAY AREA STATE OF MIND on X - "Bay Area Rap Legend Mistah Fab just dropped a song exposing the corrupt politicians destroying Oakland California"
Lee Fang on X - "Oakland is so dysfunctional rappers are now focusing on the blight of tent cities and slow police response times. The only people who defend the status quo are the NGO activists and far left reporters"
Palm Springs OKs $5.9 Million in Reparations for Black, Latino Families Whose Homes the City Burned - "In a historic move, the Palm Springs City Council voted unanimously Thursday night to approve a settlement offer for the surviving former residents and descendants of a Black and Latino neighborhood that the city burned to the ground 60 years ago to make way for commercial development. The settlement includes $5.9 million in direct cash payments to an estimated 1,200 people. It also includes a commitment from the city to explore naming a community park and to establish a cultural healing center and a public monument to honor the legacy of the former residents. The City Council also added resolution to the settlement create a day of remembrance to honor the Section 14 survivors and descendants, a call that was made by several public commenters... The City Council also approved $21 million in housing and economic development programs to address the city’s past discrimination against its Black and Latino residents. That includes $10 million for a first-time homebuyer assistance program and $10 million to establish a community land trust. Both programs will prioritize doing outreach to families that formerly lived in the Section 14 community."
As usual, the term "survivor" has been debased into meaninglessness
cold 🥑 on X - "i thought "sf is dangerous" was fake before i went, paranoid techbros being weird about homelessness. but there's streets where >50% of people in public are homeless and actively on drugs. hard to write about without seeming cruel but i've never seen anything like it in america"
After A $100 Billion Surplus, California Now Faces A $73 Billion Budget Deficit - "Both estimates stand in sharp contrast to the state’s $100 billion surplus from two years earlier. The deficit is the consequence of the state’s unwise and unsustainable choice of enormously expanding spending while its tax base declined. In the four years since February 2020, which was just before COVID restrictions were adopted across the country, California has lost more than 410,000 jobs. In that same four-year period, the rest of the country has added more than 7.3 million jobs. California’s job loss largely reflects the state’s population loss of 472,000 since 2020. But there are also fewer opportunities for those who are still here, as the state’s 5.3 percent unemployment rate is the nation’s highest... To put this increase in perspective, Florida’s per capita spending increased 22 percent over this same period. After adjusting for inflation, Florida increased state spending by only 2.5 percent. Florida is an interesting comparison, because it is one of the country’s fastest-growing states, having added more than 1 million people since 2018. A growing population puts more pressure on state budgets because of the additional capital spending on infrastructure that is required to support a rapidly increasing population. Thirty one percent versus 2.5 percent higher spending per capita speaks volumes about which state is fiscally responsible and efficient and which one isn’t. California received more bad fiscal news last week when its auditors completed their review of California’s 2021–22 finances. And yes, if you are wondering, the audit is nearly a year late. The federal government requires state audits to be published no later than March 31 after the previous fiscal year, but California hasn’t respected this deadline for several years. California state controller Malia Cohen is hoping for improved reporting by 2025, though others in Sacramento say California may not be compliant until 2032, due to a delayed implementation of new financial reporting software. The software was supposed to have been installed and debugged by now, but we seem to live in a state that has absolutely no expectations to respect a deadline. Unless of course it is a deadline that a taxpayer faces."
Gavin Newsom's 10-year plan to end San Francisco homelessness hits 20-year mark - "California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, commands a Golden State that has turned into a deep blue "Sapphire State." As Newsom took over following the 2003 San Francisco mayoral election, the then-mayor-elect said that December he intended to "aggressively" make ending homelessness in his city his administration's top priority. The plan involved a 10-year strategy to end chronic homelessness with "tens of millions" of federal dollars in funding to create 550 "supportive housing" units for the troubled homeless, SFGate reported at the time... the growing homeless population has become a central issue in California's political debate... "Instead of focusing on bashing red states or hitting the late-night talk show circuit while foolishly eyeing a promotion to the White House, Gov. Newsom should pay attention to the actual job he was elected to do and work with Republicans to find real solutions for the Golden State"... During Newsom's successful 2017 run for governor, the California Democrat pledged that he would "lead the effort to develop the 3.5 million new housing units we need by 2025 because our solutions must be as bold as the problem is big.""
Clearly, the problem is they didn't spend enough.
The cope will be that it was so successful that tons of homeless people from all over the US move to California, and this proves that it's a good program.
America on X - "California is spending $2.6 billion per year on healthcare for illegal aliens."
Elon Musk on X - "This will scale to enormous numbers, as California passed a bill providing free healthcare for illegals that just took effect last year. Essentially, anyone on Earth can come to California for free healthcare. Earth has 8 billion people, but California has 40 million people. There are not enough doctors to take care of everyone, even with infinite funding."
Shaun Maguire on X - "I have a friend that offered to build a major infra project for LA County at a breakeven cost. They were told by a local mayor they'd need to hire a specific environmental consultant. That consultant said they'd need to pay them $20M for an EIA. The project never happened"
Clearly, we need even more "protection" for "the environment"
Libs of TikTok on X - "BREAKING: California is spending $9.5 BILLION on healthcare for illegal immigrants—while facing a $30 BILLION deficit."
Ana Kasparian on X - "Gavin Newsom has overseen endless drug overdose deaths on our streets, completely mishandled devastating wildfires in CA, provided cover for his scum donors from utility company PG&E after their faulty/aging equipment sparked fires and robbed Californians of their homes. Yet all these “progressives” didn’t get remotely as riled up as they are now that he agrees with 80% of the country on banning trans women in sports."
Charlie Kirk on X - "Politico has not one, not two, but FIVE reporters covering the fallout of Gavin Newsom’s comments about men in women’s sports during my interview with him. Lori Lightfoot says he’s “disgusting.” Sacramento is in an uproar. Democrats all over the country say that this issue is a litmus test for the party going forward. Democrats simply cannot handle taking an L in the culture war."
Meme - Libs of TikTok @libsoftiktok: "Gavin Newsom claimed "not one person ever in my office has ever used the word Latinx." Problem is he literally did himself. All Democrats do is lie."
"Children in Poverty: 31% Latinx"
"#COVID19 disproportionately impacts the Latinx community."
Charlie Kirk on X - "After telling me that no one in his office ever used the term Latinx, CNN put together a brutal compilation of Gov. Gavin Newsom personally and repeatedly using the phrase. If he'll lie like this, directly to my face, on camera..."
Wall Street Apes on X - "American is getting a ticket in Los Angeles, California for walking his dog to close to the water on the beach. He shows there are literally people doing drugs within eyesight and the cops dont care. They ticket him for walking his dog instead of them This is Democrat leadership"
Paul A. Szypula 🇺🇸 on X - "Oakland, CA, Mayor Sheng Thao cries and says, “I’m not going down like that,” as she faces almost 100 years in jail for alleged corruption, fraud and money laundering. She blames the “radical right wing forces” for her turmoil. Crime has skyrocketed in Oakland under Sheng Thao."
Alec Stapp on X - "This is one of those stories that could only happen in California:
1. Mayor of Los Angeles issues an executive directive making it fast & easy to build 100% affordable housing.
2. She doesn’t include any new public money in the order, so it’s supposed to just be a fake messaging thing.
3. But there normal process to build housing in CA is so terrible, new policies that make it easy to build can be profitable (even for affordable housing).
4. So private developers start building a ton of new housing using this streamlined process.
5. Faced with a surprising pro-housing supply policy success, the mayor immediately started amending the directive to be more burdensome and revert to the status quo.
The end"
Damn greedy developers and landlords keeping housing expensive!
“Historic Laundromat” In SF’s Mission District Razed For Housing
Unwanted Housing: Localism and Politics of Housing Development - "We examine pervasive opposition to building market-rate housing and relate it to localism: a perspective that grants moral authority to incumbent residents. We argue that localism has become prevalent in housing planning in the United States and that its seeming equality—allowing all communities the right to define themselves—conceals profound imbalances that favor the affluent. We use survey data from California to measure localism, using opposition to state land use preemption as a proxy. We find that localism is concentrated among white, affluent homeowners. This suggests that localist beliefs are less prevalent in the population than they are in planning practice...
In 2018, a developer broke ground on a 249-unit apartment building in downtown Santa Monica, CA. The project would rise on a vacant piece of land across from a rail station, on the site of a former Fred Segal department store. A strong case could be made, at this time, that Santa Monica needed more housing... The developer had proposed the project in 2013. In the following years, the city held multiple hearings, and the developer had to complete a 750-page Environmental Impact Report (EIR). The city approved the project only after both sides signed a 167-page development agreement, which laid out the terms under which the housing could be built. Those terms included the following: in exchange for the right to build, the developers would pay $240,000 to the city’s bus system, $900,000 to its water infrastructure fund, $1.1 million to its early childhood development programs, $1.6 million into its transportation fund, and $1.7 million into its parks and recreation fund. They would make additional payments to the city’s historic preservation programs. The developers would limit the number of peak period vehicle trips from the building, and pay the city a fee for every trip exceeding those limits. The building would be LEED platinum. The developer would favor local residents in all hiring decisions during construction. The property would include a community meeting space open to all city residents, and provide more parking spaces than zoning would normally demand. Perhaps most dramatically, the developer would acquire and entitle an entirely separate parcel of land, at a cost of about $40 million, and donate that land to an affordable housing developer, who would use it to build sixty-four units of subsidized housing. Thus just one cost of developing a piece of land in downtown Santa Monica was buying, entitling, and giving away another piece of land. All the conditions above fell under the broad category known as “mitigation.” This example is admittedly extreme. But it is not unique. In 2015, a developer proposed a 300-unit apartment building near a rail station in downtown Berkeley, CA. The city’s conditions for approval included the following. The developer would pay $1 million into Berkeley’s arts programs, $10 million into its affordable housing programs, and an estimated $15 to $20 million to reconstruct and operate a financially troubled movie theater on the site (Raguso 2020). In 2020 the developers abandoned the project, saying they could not function as a “never ending piggy bank” for the city. By the time the project died, its administrative record ran to over 10,000 pages. Berkeley’s median home value was $862,000, its median rent was over $1,500, and—like Santa Monica— it had nearly twice as many jobs as housing units."...
These anecdotes highlight a phenomenon that often swims beneath planning’s surface: in many parts of the United States, new housing has become a locally unwanted land use, or LULU. The planning process treats housing, which at least in the abstract is a source of opportunity, as a source of trouble instead. New housing is not considered a benefit in itself, but a burden for which existing residents deserve compensation and developers must make amends. Neighbors often worry that new housing will exacerbate congestion, undermine affordability, erase community character, and erode open space. They push these concerns into the planning process, and planners and elected officials respond, either by restricting development or allowing it only after multiple mitigations."
Francesco™️ on X - "Look at me. I’m a Malibu Liberal. I believe in climate justice. Can you believe I actually said those words?! I’ve posted those words. I’ve whispered them into quartz. I ate kelp-based protein and offset my flights to Tulum through an app made by annoying Stanford kids. I composted at scale. I did all of the things. Our home was solar-powered, LEED-certified, AND tastefully non-invasive—except for the footprint, which was enormous. But it was *intentional*. And even though it cost a fortune, I STILL did all of the things. We marched. We meditated. I once cried over a Greta Thunberg speech in my Range Rover outside Nobu. But nature doesn’t care about ANY of that. It just burns—helped along, of course, by decades of political incompetence. And when it burned, the city sent not one, not two, but THREE lesbian fire chiefs with not a single hose between them. Look, DEI is important, I get that. But not when the hillside’s ON FIRE. The mayor showed up three days later from Africa, only to take a selfie and mispronounce “Malibu.” And I’m all for representation, but that [REDACTED]. We lost EVERYTHING! And when we tried to rebuild, we met the final boss: Democrat bureaucracy. Six months for a soil report. A year for coastal variances. Our rebuild “disrespected the ridgeline.” Whatever that means. I met with the Architectural Review Board while on mushrooms and I still don’t know if that meeting was real. Our contractor was approved, then unapproved, then deported. We got a violation for sandbagging our own driveway. We’ve spent $120,000 just to *not* live in our house. I asked a councilwoman for help. She sent me back a workbook titled ‘Rethinking Home’ and a notice from the county asking us not to disturb owl mating zones while our lives are literally ash.
So fuck it. Fuck the permits. Fuck the endangered sand beetle. Fuck the Architectural Review Board. Fuck the Democrats. Where is my MAGA hat.
[True Story]"
Middle Eastern Children’s Alliance: Alleged PFLP Ties Uncovered | National Review - "The Middle Eastern Children’s Alliance (MECA), a California nonprofit that designs K–12 curriculum material, has fiscal and personnel ties to U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organizations, according to a new report by the Network Contagion Research Institute (NCRI). “Our investigation of MECA has yielded evidence suggesting it holds fiscal and personnel ties to US designated foreign terrorist organizations, chiefly the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), alongside a host of extremist anti-government actors based in the United States”... MECA states on its website that it has sent more than $31 million in aid to children in “Palestine,” Iraq, and Lebanon since 1988. The nonprofit further purports to provide financial and professional assistance to community organizations in the West Bank and Gaza, fund university scholarships for Palestinians, and develop educational programs about the Middle East. MECA states that its “founding advisors” include Noam Chomsky, Angela Davis, Edward Said, and Maxine Waters. The supposedly humanitarian organization has expressed its support for violence against Israel. The day after October 7, MECA declared its support on social media for the attack: “We are witnessing the people of Gaza rising up to respond to decades of Israeli settler colonial violence. The US [government] bears responsibility for its political, economic & military support of this brutal apartheid regime. Join us to stand in solidarity with Palestine.”... A media advisory released by MECA in 2011 listed Leena Al-Arian as its communications coordinator. Al-Arian is the daughter of Sami Al-Arian, a Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist who was sentenced to 57 months in prison for “conspiring to violate a federal law that prohibits making or receiving contributions of funds, goods or services to, or for the benefit of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ).”... In addition to personnel ties, MECA has awarded funds to Gaza-based charities Afaq Jadeeda and Never Stop Dreaming — organizations that the NCRI report says are “connected to the PFLP’s military and political wings.” Both Afaq Jadeeda and Never Stop Dreaming have collaborated with the Union of Palestinian Women Committees, which has staff and organizational links to the PFLP... In a social media post in 2023, Afaq Jadeeda eulogized PFLP General Central Committee member Mansour Thabet, whom it identified as a founder of the organization. That same year, Afaq Jadeeda similarly eulogized a slain PFLP militant and recognized him as the son of one of the organization’s board members. In 2016, Afaq Jadeeda shared footage from its “Intifada Camp,” during which young children wearing keffiyehs in a theatrical show broke through a paper Star of David and performed a dance that involved shooting motions. In 2017, Afaq Jadeeda shared images on social media of its programming that showed young children pointing toy guns at the Israeli flag and at other children; in some images, kids waved the Palestinian flag, wore keffiyehs, and held signs that said “Freedom for Palestinian prisoners.” The children also appear to mimic prisoners held in Israeli custody, wearing large white blindfolds and holding their arms above their heads... MECA’s 2022 Form 990 states that it awarded a grant to the Union of Agricultural Work Committee (UAWC). The Dutch government stopped €8 million in funding to the UAWC and initiated an external investigation into the organization’s PFLP ties; the minister of development stated that the government funds were used to pay the salaries of two senior UAWC employees who were arrested for the murder of a 17-year-old Israeli in August 2019, according to an announcement by NGO Monitor... The NCRI report is not the first to identify ties between MECA and terrorism. A special report titled “Marching Toward Violence: The Domestic Anti-Israeli Protest Movement” by the Capital Research Center, published in 2024, designated MECA a “pro-terrorism” group and cited its endorsement of the October 7 attack. MECA develops the “Teach Palestine Project” curriculum material for grades K–12. Although MECA does not disclose how many schools have adopted its materials, it has said that there has been a huge demand since the attack on Israel: “Since October 7, the Teach Palestine Project (TPP) has been flooded with requests from educators asking for support teaching about what’s happening in Gaza and throughout Palestine,” a MECA website states, adding that “on January 20, almost 100 teachers and teacher leaders from throughout California and beyond attended TPP’s in-person conference in Oakland, California.”"
