It used to be “California, here we come,” and now it’s “California, I’m getting the hell out of you, you socialist cesspool of high taxes, crime, and weirdos.” With a huge deficit looming, the bloom seems to be coming off the Gavin Newsom rose. And just in time for 2024.
And we have your movie recommendations in response to mine last week.
Big Trouble for Governor Hairstyle
It’s tough times for the Golden States socialist poohbah. First, stupid Joe Biden imagines that his competence and popularity brought the Democrats a big win in November. Actually, it was not that big a win – and it was mostly due to the gross incompetence of the Republican leaders. But regardless, it looks like Grandpa Badfinger will be running again in 2024. There’s no way he’s going to ditch Kackling Kamala, so that means there’s really no room for Gavin unless he decides to launch a primary challenge and that seems unlikely.
Then the other shoe dropped – that big budget surplus Newsom had been bragging about has become a big budget deficit. Now that “red” no longer commonly refers to “communist,” California is red in only one big way – its ledger entries. That’s a real problem for him. He has tried to sell Cali as an economic powerhouse, but the sad fact is that his socialist regime is still living off the fat corpse of the California that Republicans like Ronald Reagan and Pete Wilson created. The bills for twenty years of misrule under Democrats and the maid-tapping Governator – but I repeat myself – are finally coming due.
And they are coming due just when a bunch of viable options have opened up for all the rich folks here who are getting sick of being taxed to the breaking point. Texas is a practical option. So are Idaho and especially Florida. You can live elsewhere cheaper and freer – and with similar amenities (Idaho wine country is a thing – I’ve been there). California sells lifestyle and weather, and that lifestyle is no longer only available in ‘Frisco or LA. Hobos dropping last night’s boloney sandwich on your lawn is not a “lifestyle.”
Plus, thanks to technology, many of the tech and other workers can work remotely. You do not have to live in California to do most non-sweat jobs anymore. The weather? The sunshine still can’t be beat, but you can tolerate a lot of humidity in exchange for houses at $500K and no state income tax.
The socialism of the California Democrats has led to the budget problem. Part of it is the spending – there’s not a bad commie idea that these idiots will not fund. There’s not even a good idea they will fund, like prosecuting criminals. Hell, they are talking about reparations now – quite a trick for a state that never had slaves to steal money from people who never owned slaves to give it to people who never were slaves.
But another problem is how they have set up the tax system. They want to soak the rich, but now the rich can move. Oops. A relatively few people end up paying the vast majority of the income taxes in California, and now those people have decided to stop being suckers and to get out. And they are taking their incomes with them.
So, more spending and fewer folks to pay for it. What will California do? Well, Gavin is a midwit and his party is composed of pinko idiots, so they will inevitably choose the worst possible combination of responses. They will not cut spending, because they have to buy their support from the union hacks and the welfare bums. And they will not reform the tax system because they can’t wrap their heads around the fact that the rich are no longer stuck here. They will raise taxes on the productive, spurring more emigration. Then they will try to claw back money from the escapees and the Supreme Court will not let that happen, so they will end up spending more and taking in less.
Doubtless they will look to the feds to bail out their financial failures, and that’s going to be hilarious. Nancy Pelosi is no longer there to steal money from responsible states for the homeland. Kevin McCarthy is from California, but he’s from Bakersfield, not LA or SF. What do you think the chances are of the GOP House looking at its base and saying “Hey, how about we all chip in so Gavin Newsom can spend money on deadbeats and union drones?”
That will be hilarious.
No, California is in for some bad times. Good. It deserves them. This is all its own fault, and we need to ensure that the price of stupidity is paid by the people who voted for it.
Now, many people ask while I stay here. Right now, I want to. I have some other reasons, but I also have no desire to be driven out. And this state is designed for lawyers, so ironically California is actually making this patriot welcome!
As for Gavin, the “Make America California” plan just is not going to fly.
Your Recommendations for Good Movies
Last time I recommended a number of 70s flicks that seemed to embody what were then counter-cultural themes about the corrupt establishment and the Deep State. Now, there seem based. Well, you folks had some thoughts on other options.
Dave in Kansas City recommends Freebie and the Bean (1974) (“A decidedly non-PC buddy-cop flick with James Caan and Alan Arkin protecting a local crime boss from out-of-town hitmen during Super Bowl weekend.”). Excellent! I remember watching this on the Friday Night Movie back when there were three channels. It’s funny as hell. And subversive.
He also recommends The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean (1972) (“John Huston directed John Milius script with a Paul Newman-led cast. True, it includes a sappy Andy Williams love song for the ladies but the scene where Judge Bean fines a corpse makes up for it.”) Another winner!
Matt recommends Marathon Man (1976) (“If only to see Dustin Hoffman's punk a** get tortured in a dentist's chair. I know it's fake but a guy can dream can't he?”). Now, by coincidence I just saw this one for the first time last week and I was kind of disappointed. I have heard about it forever but never saw it, and when I did…meh. Also, I could have gone my entire life never seeing Dustin Hoffman’s butt.
Follow Kurt on Twitter @KurtSchlichter. Get Inferno, the seventh book in the Kelly Turnbull People's Republic series of conservative action novels set in America after a notional national divorce, as well as his non-fiction book We’ll Be Back: The Fall and Rise of America.
My super-secret email address is kurt.schlichter@townhall.com