THE PROGRESSIVE COMMUNIST PLOT TO CRIPPLE CALIFORNIA
It is an inalienable right of a free people to move about their lands and associate freely with people of their choice unless you live in California, the bellwether test for imposing communism on United States citizens.
One need merely to look around to see the ravages of unrestricted immigration, hidden taxes, and the heavy hand of a one-party state governed, more accurately described as being ruled, by wealthy elites concentrated in and around the progressive communist democrat dominion of San Francisco and other scattered wealthy enclaves of privileged people.
Privileged people who are immune, by their birth, education, wealth, position, and connections, from the rules, regulations, and restrictions imposed on those less fortunate – whom they deem to be deplorables, clinging to their God and guns. Irredeemables, who the enlightened elite must manage for their own good – and the interests of a society pursuing utopian ideals of equity, self-licking lollipops, and, of course, mythical unicorns and rainbow farts.
California, the Golden State of fair weather, abundant natural resources, and a population of creative, dynamic, and industrious people.
All being placed at risk from a force more dangerous than the earthquakes, wildfires, and mudslides that are the price Californians are willing to pay for living in this promised land. The evil influence of communism!
It seems that today’s progressive communist democrats want to create cities of densely populated, easily controlled ghettoized centers where everything necessary for existence, including employment, is concentrated in a hive-like fashion. Where mobility is limited to local trips under 400 miles and tightly regulated by an imposed need to use some form of public-private mass transit. Freedom would be redefined in terms akin to the Communist Chinese system of social scoring, where your criticism of the government can be easily monitored and used to control your mobility and access to other goods and services. A system that builds an un-American level of government dependency and loss of personal freedom.
And all governed by the management of natural or artificial scarcity. Ask yourself why the government has not built out its water, electric, and gas utilities for decades in the face of a rising population? Why the government has failed to build road capacity or maintain existing roads with the exponential increase in motor vehicles? Why new refineries have not been built in decades even though California requires its own season gasoline blends. Why is our infrastructure in great need of repair, replacement, or build-out when that is the stated reason behind California’s multi-billion bond issuance?
A wise man once observed that political power begins with the word “no” and the necessity of paying for a “yes” decision.
The experiment in San Diego…
Against the background of rising transportation costs, outrageous gas prices in a land of abundant petroleum, and a steadily increasing surveillance state-managed on behalf of the government by technological oligopolies where a small number of players dominates a market, we have …
The San Diego Association of Governments proposes a four-cent-per-mile tax proposal that could impact every driver in San Diego County by 2030. The proposed tax — and two half-cent regional sales taxes scheduled for 2022 and 2028 — would help pay for SANDAG’s long-term regional plan, an ambitious 30-year, $160 billion proposal which could include no-cost public transit and a 200-mile, $43 billion regional rail network. These taxes are in addition to the Federal gas tax, the State gas tax, and the local sales tax on gasoline -- a significant source of revenue for cities. However, usage will remain under 25%.
While claiming that this initiative will help reduce vehicle emissions, there are many undesirable side-effects.
- Including an increase in the power of the surveillance state, which would allow the government, by extension a tech firm acting as an agent of the government, to monitor, in real-time, the location and use of your vehicle.
- In addition to taxing your driving, it can be used to access your credit card or checking account, impose various fines and penalties for speeding, congestion pricing in highly-trafficked areas, collecting tolls in an increasing number of public roads that are being converted into public-private/lease-lessee partnerships, and serve as probable cause for a criminal investigation using GPS data to place you in the proximity of illegal activity.
- Add access to two-way communication (like OnStar cartapping), and you have surreptitious monitoring of your activities. Bearing in mind that all of this information would become available to any investigative agency under a warrant – and private parties as part of discovery in a civil lawsuit.
- Not to mention the possibility for the government to incentivize your behavior and mobility by offering government tax credits, subsidies and providing priority treatment to selected individuals who obey government dictates.
The organization should change its logo to a more appropriate description of the organization…
Bottom line…
Mass transit has never paid for itself -- it’s a unionized debt spiral to bankruptcy. And it is no surprise that the plan is promoted by the unions who grab all of the construction and operation jobs.
Ever since the days of Governor Jerry “Moonbeam” Brown, the plan was to tax you out of your privately owned and operated vehicle to encourage the use of mass transit. Worthless in an emergency or during a union transit strike where unions hold the city hostage to their extortionate demands.
And it doesn’t stop at restricting the existing freeway footprint to promote mass transit, as they are attempting to change our freeways to include congestion-charged toll lanes. Plus surcharges for Uber and Lyft-type car services.
It is time “We the People” DEMAND that our local and state governments use our tax money wisely. Prioritizing public safety (police, fire, rescue, sanitation, utilities) and eliminating spending on illegal alien benefits, overly generous welfare payments that attract a disproportionate number of welfare recipients from other states, eliminate boards and commissions which offer six-figure salaries to termed-out politicians, their families, and special interest friends. No more supporting artwork – with or without a political message. No more changing names on stationery and non-critical signage -- or naming buildings. Open bidding to non-union contractors. Outlaw employee unions that are bankrupting our cities and states with corrupt and over-generous pensions.
It is time to get tough before we are screwed once more.
-- steve
“Nullius in verba”-- take nobody's word for it!
"Acta non verba" -- actions not words
“Beware of false knowledge; it is more dangerous than ignorance.”-- George Bernard Shaw
“Progressive, liberal, Socialist, Marxist, Democratic Socialist -- they are all COMMUNISTS.”
“The key to fighting the craziness of the progressives is to hold them responsible for their actions, not their intentions.” – OCS "The object in life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane." -- Marcus Aurelius “A people that elect corrupt politicians, imposters, thieves, and traitors are not victims... but accomplices” -- George Orwell “Fere libenter homines id quod volunt credunt." (The people gladly believe what they wish to.) ~Julius Caesar “Describing the problem is quite different from knowing the solution. Except in politics." ~ OCS