CaliFAILia

California was voted “Worst Run State” for the second year in a row last week, by 24/7 Wall St.. Due to high levels of debt with no relief in sight, the our S&P credit rating is the worst in the nation, our Moody’s credit rating is the second-worst. Much of California’s fiscal woes involve the economic downturn along with completely incompetent leadership ( see Pelosi, Feinstein, Boxer, Villaragosa, etc.). Home prices plunged by 33.6%!!! between 2006 and 2011, of course that was spurred by Bill Clinton's housing bubble bursting after forcing banks to give out bad loans (called ninja loans- No Income, No Job or Assets). The state’s foreclosure rate and unemployment rate were the third and second-highest in the country, respectively. The space case Gov. "Moonbeam" Jerry Brown is claiming to be making efforts to get finances on track. Stuck on stupid state voters passed a ballot initiative to raise sales taxes as well as income taxes for people who make at least $250,000 a year but like Obama, Brown will not reduce spending and is still pushing the asinine "High Speed" rail project which is looking to waste $100,000,000,000 that's one hundred billion dollars if you get lost counting all the zeros. While median income is the 10th-highest in the country, we also have one of the highest tax burdens on income. According to the Tax Foundation, the state also has the third-worst business tax climate in the country, businesses are fleeing the state like rats off a sinking ship. Add to that illegals sucking $9 billion out of the pot every year and we have what will soon be a bankrupt state. 

Now I love California, there are moments when you are driving near the coast or looking up at the beautiful mountains, that you forget about the potholes, the traffic, the razor wire around the freeway signs, the weeds, the bums, the hippies, the filth, the bars on the windows and miles and miles of graffiti, where you remember what God put here and get that warm feeling. But then the mess comes flying back in your face and I realize, it's time to go. It's time to leave California like many of my friends have and look for cleaner (not greener) pastures. The problem is California is a vacuum, a trap that sucks you in and holds you. I don't have the money to make a move so I am forced to continue slogging through the sludge looking for the moments of sunlight, be that with friends or seeing it in nature. 

So my advice is RUN, run away from this beautiful nightmare. Pull a John Galt and let it fall into the 9th level of hell and when the filth has burned itself away and the cloud of smug has cleared maybe then we can go back and reclaim the beautiful freedom that was once a cornucopia to the world.

I first saw this poster when I was taking a tour of Ellis Island, it's from the early 1920's

High Speed Really?

When Obama passed his trillion dollar (total & utter failure) stimulus plan two years ago a chunk of it was designated for high speed rail, though I haven't noticed any bullet trains whizzing by and traffic is worse than ever. That chunk amounted to $8 billion that was invested as "seed money" and now Veep Biden has told us the White House is investing another $53 billion of our money in getting this so call high speed rail going. But the more I read up the more clearly I see high speed rail is really just high-jacking our wallets. The Obama Express is moving all right, bringing us straight to bankruptcy hell, let me explain a few things that will help us pull the emergency stop line on this runaway nightmare.


Here in California the big talk has been a high speed line between LA and San Franfreako. The original projected cost of this masterpiece was around $28 billion dollars, but things change and budgets swell, so now the price tag is more like $43 billion. But as time passes the budgets keep changing and swelling, the final cost is looking to be oh $100 billion. Take the number form the above paragraph and add them up... So with all the stimulus money and the newly allocated cash plus the $9 billion in Calif bonds the rail project between LA and SF is $30 billion dollars in the red. That doesn't leave much for the rest of the country.


But high speed rails will reduce traffic and that will help everybody! Or will it? Let's stick with California, the line from LA to SF will alleviate little to no traffic. Not many of you currently stuck on the 101 fwy reading this on your smartphone because traffic hasn't budged in 3 hours are going all the way up to Frisco are ya? Same story country wide, high speed lines are mainly for city to city use and most of the backed up freeways are within city  limits. Even light rail lines in LA and NY do little to nothing to ease off the massive number of cars.


The biggest hurdle to making high speed rail a reality is  the track. We can't use the existing tracks because freight trains dominate existing tracks and if you've ever had to wait while a mile long freight chugs past, you know they don't move that quick. So new tracks are needed, country wide. Now granted it won't take as long as the original lines that crossed this great Nation, but I bet you it will cost a whole lot more. Not to mention the cost of Air Force One jetting back and forth so the Anointed One can drive a gold spike into every finished product.


If we really want to "Win The Future" we have to stop spending money or as The One puts it "Investing" and start saving. The American people have become the People of NO. No more pouring our hard earned money into a bottomless pit. No more taxing us into oblivion. No more bail outs, no business is too big to fail, even the states. No more socializing of American industries and institutions. We have to rise up, not in revolution, off our couches and into the voting booths. Make all these big spending politicians Democrat or Republican do what we've been trying to do for the last few years, find a real job.