A reader reports from the front lines - a troubled California city. The awfulness of local Democratic governance has become something of a UT theme of late, but that's only because it has to be.
Here’s what the “electorate and the voters” look like to me.The combination of welfare, the “marginalized”(you pick your favorite), the guilty, elite, white virtue signalers are the electorate. Add to this the voter fraud, the dead who vote, the illegals who vote, ballot harvesting, city/county corrupt election officials and voila, you have Madison, Portland, Seattle, Milwaukee etc etc. The welfare recipients plus the free loaders on welfare have no choice, the “marginalized” are parts racist, politically biased with a large % with severe TDS, this group is like the frog in the pot of water as it heats up, they will get mugged, raped, murdered, robbed, car jacked because they have no choice or actually choose to live in the urban war zone. Lastly college educated, elite, white, suburban liberals mostly women with serious mental illness due to hatred of Trump are immune from the consequences of the wokesters they elect that are serially destroying the city they live in because they live in the leafy green suburbs adjacent to the ninth ring of hell.
When you really think about it, and you have a legitimate definition of evil which I do, the Left is the absolute despicable example of it:
Relentless lying and shameless hypocrisy; narratives and ideologies of decay, destruction, and death; having absolutely no remorse for consequences caused by behaviors and actions of such narratives and ideologies; the cruel inhumane mocking and disdain for healthy accepted boundaries set by society for generations; and finally one I’ve added recently, having the symbiosis of cowardice and avoidance from the apathetic indifferent uninvested populace to fuel such evil further along.
Folks, you need to figure out what’s evil, because if you continue to ignore it or dismiss it, it will truly consume you.
My God, watching how the Democrats and lame scream, propaganda machine shitbags are covering the Sheridan Gorman death in Chicago, if you folks can’t finally realize that the Democrat party is beyond a diseased despicable, demonic, disgusting bunch of selfish shameless soulless sadistic, sociopathic scum, you folks need to realize that if you don’t marginalize and ostracize this filth so profoundly relentlessly, they’re going to brutally and cruelly kill your own next,
Write a column about this leftist rally around immigrant murdering evil , Alex!
Carlin always nails it. There is no getting around the fact that scumbags run for office but the public elects them. Furthermore, those who elect the cretins seem to think they are just oh so wonderful, and they mostly believe this without knowing the slightest thing about what their elected reps think, do or say, how they vote, or the disgusting legislation they push.
To your point and Alex's "more like a death spiral" comment, the problem is that with a huge DC bureaucracy they are liable to suck the rest of the country into the death spiral by subsidizing these insane policies from the rest of the country. How long until Chicago, NYC, LA, SF, etc are bailed out? (Eg unions bailed out).
As a case in point... the mayor of Philadelphia put forth a proposal to tax Uber rides a dollar per ride. Of course she said it will be on the company, but we know the real effect... it's on the user of the service. Cherelle Parker, mayor of Philadelphia, is copying a measure from Abigail Cryptkeeper, governor of the once lovely state of Virginia. Democrats just keep doing the same shit over and over again. They've also never met a bad idea they didn't love.
Dems in California now want to implement a mileage tax on drivers. Never mind how many people have to commute because they can't afford housing near where they work so it's not like a big city where you can take a subway or bus if need be. Hopefully this idea will bite the dust, but in California, you never know. They want to tax virtually everything.
The city of Pittsburgh is JUST NOW running out of $335 million in Federal COVID largess which it received over 6 years ago - and the leadership is absolutely panicked that there will be no further bailouts. Their total annual budget is $660 million. They were able to gaslight the city's population into believing all was well for half a decade, ENTIRELY because of the Fed's printing press! How many other major US cities are in this EXACT same position? END THE FED!
And the people in Pittsburgh will keep voting Democrat - as they always do. We now have a SOCIALIST County Executive here in Allegheny County as well as a SOCIALIST Congresswoman in my district. So, the illness has spread...
Just how can a person WRAP their head around that reality you mention. On paper these are NO BRAINER common sense issues, and yet half the country vote opposite of common sense or worse yet KNOW is common sense yet enable anyway
We thankfully just moved to a very well run red state from a blue state. We lived in the northeast our entire lives, but had no idea how poorly run our states were until we moved. In our new home, there are constant road expansions, new bridges, and beautiful landscaping being added/maintained along the roads. In the blue state, the roads are barely maintained let alone expanded, there is graffiti, garbage, and no planned landscaping. The blue state caters to the citizens and NON-citizens who have their hands out. Taxes continue to skyrocket, and now they are using a new trick of adding astronomical taxes under the cover of "public service charges" to the utility bills. The only tie we have left there are the family members that sadly are paying through the nose to support those who don't work or contribute to society.
I've come to realize that the biggest issue is fraud, waste, and abuse. I'm in insane CA and we've spent 25 billion in 5 years (about that) on homeless . . . and we have MORE THAN EVER. Or the bridge to nowhere. Or the Sites reservoir - approved 30 years ago - not built - but bonds issued. Where's the money going?
I live in eastern MA, a region that has been buoyed for a long time by a confluence of fortunate circumstances. Those circumstances are starting to erode, and our feckless progressive politicians are resorting to the same dumb ploys as all the other feckless progressives the country over.
But I console myself with the knowledge that Boston isn't as much of a sh*thole as San Francisco . . . yet. Imagine the cognitive dissonance you must carry to live in SF and to be proud of that place!
My mom and I used to go to SF once a year (live in Sacramento County) in the 1970s. Visited Japanese Tea Garden and Natural Museum, drove down curvy Lombard Street, walked the boardwalk, ate at the Franciscan, etc. It was incredible. No homeless, no poop on the streets, no camping everywhere. Beautiful place. My job (retired fed civ) required me to go to SF around 2004-2010. Awful deterioration. Homeless everywhere.
I hope those from NY who come to Florida leave their voting ways in NY. Florida is a red state, governed wisely and we don’t have state income tax. We do have hurricanes and high homeowners premiums, very hot in the summer. I can honestly say I’m grateful our entire family lives in the free state of Florida.
I fled kommie NJ and brought my RED voting ways to Florida with me in 2020. Missed the election that year but was so excited to vote in my first FL election the following year. I now feel like my vote actually counts for something. I never felt that way in NJ.
How I wish we could move to a red state. Our votes don’t count in blue WA state…where the Dems cheat & no one cares. Wish the east (red) side could secede!
Are you truly afraid to tell us what shit hole state you left? Anything north of North Carolina, and even that state I have doubts about…they’re all shit holes, Virginia is turning into a total disaster because the northeast part of the state is a despicable self destructive bunch of morons, Maryland is lost as they want to be California East, God knows what is worth in Delaware, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Maine, that whole East Coast is lost.
I spare Pennsylvania just because it doesn’t touch the ocean, but, that’s becoming a loss cause because Filthy-delphia and Shits-Burgh are controlling interest on either end.
To answer your questions below, we have roots in CT, MA and NY. CT may be the worst. And the acceleration of the decline was the 2018 governor's election. When we went to sleep that election night, the R (Stefanowski) was ahead well after the polls closed. But late vote counting, mostly in the slimiest city in the state, Bridgeport, found enough votes to put the D and current commie governor into power. I have wondered if that corrupt election was the federal model for 2020.
And I will admit, we also brought our red votes to beautiful FL. It isn't perfect, but it far exceeds the way any state in the NE is run. Just compare the state spending and populations and that is all you need to know!
I am counting down the days until we can move out of MN. It was an amazing state to grow up in. Beautiful bluffs, rivers, lakes and excellent school system and great highways, roads. That was all in the 80s, all of that is now gone. I cannot believe the deterioration of the state. (But when you find out what Walz and the Democraps have been doing with the money it all makes sense.) MN is turning into a 3rd world country. Never thought I would leave, but I don't see it getting any better. Would love to know what red state you moved to. It sounds like paradise!
I am a 5th generation Californian and raised my family in Sacramento (not far from Davis!) We moved in 2019 (before COVID, thank God.) It makes me sad because I love my home state.
There are hundreds of individual horror stories about government and liberal failure. But it's not any one thing that actually chases people away or busts the budget. It's a plethora of "small" things that keep coming to make living in California unsafe and unaffordable.
There were lots of little reasons (and one big reason -- state income taxes) for why we decided to leave before our youngest were out of school. If I had to point to the straw, it would be water.
For DECADES California has failed to build and repair dams and create more water storage. An initiative was passed before I left that required more water storage -- but that hasn't happened. In 2014 California voted for more water storage and infrastructure. $2.7 billion. Nothing has been done. Well, not NOTHING, they actually funded a bunch of projects and spent a ton of money, but ... we have nothing to see for it. No additional water storage. And definitely no more dams. The money went mostly to ground water "management." This is so much like all the government programs in California. (The bullet train, the wildlife bridge, etc.) Money is spent on studies, planning, salaries, environmental studies, impact reports ... and there is nothing left to actually DO anything.
During this same time period, up until we left (and continuing now), the state began restricting urban water use. We already had major issues with cost and access to water to farming in the Central Valley. Now they were restricting homeowners.
In 2018 or 2019, we heard that "they" (i.e. water agencies) were going to start metering wells. That was kind of our final straw. We were on well water in rural Sacramento County. We have to maintain the well, pay for the electricity to pump the water, etc. Now ... this hasn't happened statewide YET, but it's happened in some areas and because of the law it COULD happen.
But it's not just us having to pay more for our water -- remember, the state restricted water for farming to protect a microscopic fish. And our experience has been that once the state enacts bad policy, it never goes away.
So water was definitely an issue, along with the taxes.
Now take what the Left in California did to water, and extrapolate that to forest management, farm policy, fire policy, prisons, the homeless, education, etc ... and you realize that the problems are overwhelming and with most of the conservatives leaving, I don't see how they fix anything.
Oh yeah... The water wars in California have been going on for decades. As I commented in another post, if the farmland falls victim to urban sprawl, they'll no longer be producing food for all of us! What will they do then?
Another thing... I heard rumors years ago of some people wanting to restore Hetch Hetchy to it's original pristine state. In other words, drain San Francisco's water supply to re-create that valley as forest land. (Which would take a century or more...) I haven't heard any serious talk about that, but I wonder if people are still trying to push that idea.
I'm originally from the SF Bay Area, and that HetchHetchy debate has been going on as long as I can remember ...
The bullet train fiasco has destroyed so much irreplaceable farmland but the environmental nuts don't care. They have no concept that their utopian ideas have real-world consequences. The LA Times, hardly a conservative newspaper, quoted a conversation where one of the liberals planning the train path suggested that they move the 100+ year old almond trees. SMH. .... And then solar power! They put up solar farms that destroy the environment, kill birds and wildlife, to save the environment??? I would have to look it up, but I believe they moved desert tortoises for a solar farm and all the tortoises died.
Initially, the plans for that bullet train were slated to go through my uncle's farm near Chowchilla. Don't know if that's still the plan. My cousin owns the place now, but I've never asked him about it. That's almond farm country. The trees are generally taken out when they get old, and new young trees will be planted. 100 years is pretty old for an almond tree!
It's crazy, isn't it? All those solar farms are meant to save the environment, but they're destroying it! I did read that the Ivanpah solar farm is supposed to be shut down, or at least partially shut down, this year. They said it kills about 6000 birds a year, and is disrupting the desert tortoise habitat. And, it doesn't generate as much power as they anticipated. How come the "environmentalists" aren't screaming about that?
Do you remember when they were pushing the initiative? (I voted no.) They said it was a bullet train to connect SF to LA. $100 billion. Now they are way over budget, not one mile of track has been laid, and they are planning the first phase to go from Madera to Bakersfield. Because that route is in such huge demand.
I think the moving the trees was used to illustrate that the environmentalists don't know anything about the earth.
Ivanpah ... ugh. What an eye sore. And now a complete waste. And the money! Why does no one talk about the vast amounts of money that have been wasted on these kind of projects. Some people have gotten very, very rich off of this.
Because it is YOUR money. They already grifted/grafted it from you...why should they bother to talk about it. To the government and the NGOs you are just a free money supply. To talk about taxes being a combination of extortion and theft is far too kind.
I had read that they did not have an estimate or engineering study on how to get from the valley to LA or SF with that train. After I left the Bay area in 1981, I went to work for a water utility in Florida, and I used to think about the hundreds of miles of open ditches moving water from Northern California to LA and wonder how much was lost to evaporation. I'm sure the engineers told them that with the snow melt in the mountains that loss would never be a problem.
"Maybe it’s because tax season has reminded me how deeply New York state is reaching into my bank account, but I find the crisis in blue-city and blue-state governance increasingly hard to tolerate."
Alex, remind me why it is that you (now that you are no longer tied to a brick-and-mortar employer--i.e., the NYT) continue to live in the Sultanate of Papa-Oom-Mau-Mau (formerly known as NYC) when you could just as easily ply your trade in much better digs (tax and cost-wise)?
That runs perilously close to doing the same thing over and over, but expecting a different result--- which as everybody know is the definition of insanity...🤪
The problem is that many people don't realize what is being taken from them. Monetarily and in terms of liberty.Alex does because he no longer is hiding behind a large corporate structure like the New York Times so he actually sees what is being paid in taxes. As long as there are withholding taxes, the true size of the federal government is masked because you only have a little bit taken out every week. When you have to write quarterly checks or you are running your own payroll and you see the entire bill every month it opens your eyes. If Trump really wants to change the country, he could stop withholding taxes under the same emergency powers used in 2020 under one of the emergencies that Biden announced. It is completely revenue neutral. The only people opposed to it, have a vested interest in maintaining their power over everyone else.
Kittynana, that is the only thing any of my friends that are still left have to claim as a reason. But is it a good one? The ones who just said "we are moving to Florida", with only one exception, have had their children follow them...complete with grandchildren. And now they all say "We are so glad you moved Grandma. We would have stayed in that horrible place because we just did not know". Most of the grandparents left feeling horrible because their children swore they could not leave...but somehow there they are. So there is hope.
My friend, activist/journalist/documentarian Lauren Southern, investigated the crushing homelessness problem in Vancouver, another "blue-run" city that limits the construction of housing. Unlike in the US, where most homeless are addicts or mentally ill, in Vancouver, the homeless include a substantial fraction of people just down on their luck after being laid off. It turns out that both the city of Vancouver and the province of British Columbia spend millions of dollars a year "fighting homelessness." What Lauren found is that almost all of this money is directed to boards and consultants and advisory bodies, all consisting of upper-middle-class Canadian activists making >$100K for their "advice". So the millions are spent, but not on homes or food or shelter, but for "jobs for the boys." I expect many wealthy cities suffer from this same graft.
That's usually the case with the homelessness industrial complex. It would probably work out better for many if the homeless just got a direct stipend with far fewer middle people. A saying I coined years ago is that a bureaucrat's prime imperative is to protect, preserve and increase the bureaucracy.
I’m a Colorado native and I’ve seen my beautiful state turned from Red to Purple to now deep Blue, the reason; all the Blue state voters who destroyed their own states, fled to mine and vote for the same radicals that destroyed their own states. Worst of all these morons can’t put two and two together and are slowly turning places like Arizona and numerous other Red states into the same cesspools.
Its interesting how that happens in CO, but not happening in Florida or say TN or SC. Just the opposite. In Florida we are more and more RED even with massive influx from NY, NJ etc. I've had hundreds of conversations out and about and on the beach with former BLUE voters of the upper northeast and cities like Chicago and they rave about esacaping the BLUE destructions zones and will never support or vote again for such policies. DeSantis is a rock star of Governors too! Always leading. Just wish ALL red states would model him
Wish I knew why they don’t have that same mentality in moving here. We have siblings in Arizona and they are beginning to see the same thing happen there, they’re worried about what the future holds as well.
Does seem MORE like a western USA thing with the states you mention and the ones I am more familiar with in the SE. The SEC colleges have waiting lists now too with students fleeing BLUE heavy indoctrination institutions in upper east coast and pacific NW as a well as CA schools
Yeah, the Nevada natives have a couple of sayings: "Don't California my Nevada!" is one. The other is "We're from Nevada. We don't care how they do it someplace else." Sadly, this state has become dominated by all the "blue" voters in Las Vegas and Reno.
If I’m following you correctly, all we have to do is wait a few more years until the children of Marx & Lenin have all moved to other southwest states and then we mass exodus it out of there to take over California. Then we build a wall
Instead of red state gloom, how about red state success. I live in Indianapolis and take great glee during he state legislative session when they mention that Republicans had a super-majority in both houses thus making Democrats irrelevant. The state has a budget surplus, no gun restrictions to speak of and low taxes and home prices. Sure it's Indiana and does not have the natural beauty of the Pacific Coast Highway (when not on fire or dealing with floods and erosion), but has beautiful reservoirs/boating, golf courses, sports etc. Yes it has winter and some snow but I'll take this over blue states including our neighbor just west of us any day. And I can always go on vacation. Enjoy your rotten blue states and those idiots you elect to represent you.
I follow my sister who reports to me often what she experiences in Madison Wisc which is ground ZERO BLUE major university city in a DEM governor led state. Madison is a great place to visit, but do not move there unless you want to see lots of people still wearing PLANdemic masks, want high property taxes including wheel taxes on your auto, high rent, continued DEI policies, soft on crime policies and she just informed me a few days ago the UW athletic director some how was able to slip in language to a 2026 bill to receive over 15 million of TAXPAYER money to pay athletes to come to WISC thru NIL. Imagine that...the taxpayer had no say!
Continued Mask-wearing (even in the face of evidence it offers little protection) seems to be a good indicator of degree of blue paranoia and its associate martyrdom. Controls are viewed as positive and “for their own good. (Yes, a few folks may be fighting cancer, but devotees are seemingly unaware of testing that shows that masks are if little use against tiny viruses —but that’s another matter). A special red flag is the masked person who is driving alone or walking alone outside. They walk around with an accompanying multitude of paralyzing fears, including climate change, any virus, the police, the Jews, the white Christian Nazis, etc, white people in general, and of course overwhelming TDS.) Fear makes them willing to accept (deserve) any “punishment” the government doles out including constant increases in property, income, sales utility taxes, permit & other user fees. Many retain a bizarre, childlike faith that their (blue) govt is good, or at least benign, even in the face of clear evidence of corruption, or bankrupting spending, or inexcusable elitist behavior where rules & constraints apply only to the common people. And criminals are always victims. And they think voter ID is racist because well those people just aren’t capable…Oh yes, gas is up to about $6 a gallon in Washington and the legislature just passed a income tax which most citizens believe is unconstitutional in this state.
Wheel taxes, not heard of that one but sounds like the looney left government we have in the UK, they were giving grants to buyers of electric cars but as they’ve been losing revenue on road tax, they’re now going to charge pay per mile for EV and hybrid cars. All they do is take, take take and we spend more welfare than on education and defence. We’ve got another 3 weeks until we hopefully kick them out ;(
Yeah not uncommon from what Ive heard others say in BLUE cities like Madison. Milwaukee WI which is the other county ground zero BLUE has the worst public school system in the nation last I heard in basic student proficiencies in grade level math, reading and writing, yet they spend over $18,000 per pupil each year. Not as high as Chicago (BLUE), but close. Each and every year they WANT more taxpayer money to throw at it too as if its a $$$ problem which is is not. The per pupil spending just 12 years ago was like $7 or $8,000 and the proficiencies have only become worse. These BLUE cities keep electing the exact same city destroying person every election cycle
30,000 kids stayed home from school the day ICE came to Charlotte, NC - over 300 in my kids public middle school (a bit less than a third). Meanwhile, my daughter has 10 non English speakers recently arrived from Guatemala in her science and social studies classes, and no one seems to care (“those subjects don’t matter-anyway”). Tax dollars galore are being spent trying to get kids who won’t pass a test to pass a test. Meanwhile, my daughter is on episode 13 of Percy Jackson - allowed to watch in school on her school laptop while the other kids drill and kill to no where.
Oh, and jury duty last year alerted me to the fact that cases are still being tried from 2017 because the courts shut down for a year and a half over COVID.
We have 9 democratic city council members who vote in tandem.
Really, I have had to settle on our garbage being li is up on the day, and recycling if we are lucky (which - is another local farce I could go off on).
People continue to vote “against Trump” in local council and judge elections, not realizing that they are voting for a socialist.
For the life of me, I do not understand. Something has gone terribly wrong with their thinking/reasoning. I’m convinced that it will not get better either.😞
There’s one common factor to all this blue state lunacy: federal money. The “leadership” in places like Davis and Chicago restricts development and spends like crazy - all the while biding their time till the next friendly administration arrives.Then the printing presses are cranked up once again and all problems are kicked down the road for another day. Rinse, repeat. Nothing will change until the Fed is ended and this magic “escape hatch” is closed for good.
Alex, I agree with one of your previous posters. You need to move where all the productive people are moving to; states like Tennessee, Texas, or Florida. Relatively sane governance with sane tax structures! GET OUT OF NYC!
We moved from California to Iowa. Great red state - Governor, Legislature, Senators, Congressional Representatives. We have Democrats, but luckily in the minority. 🙏
I have had the sense that a lot of "nice" blue states are not far behind. Not that long ago (about 25 yrs ago?) Minnesota was functional though with liberal overtones. The relentless ratcheting of the Overton window and tyranny of the minority (Somalis, queers, etc), along with union and NGO alignments (e.g. teachers) has resulted in a Democrat + "nice Republican managed opposition" lock on power and governance that can now only move one direction.
Colorado is another example though I do not know the regional politics as well.
Washington is probably a good state to watch as it has less cultural solidity to buffer it.
The recent obscene crime stories from western WA (one of which you reported) are a good illustration, but increasing government cost and decreasing function (plus a deficit) are all potential stories.
@John- my father and stepmother lived in St. Cloud. It was a beautiful city. HUsband and I drove through it a few years ago on our way home to NY from Indiana. What a craphole it has become.
We all know that many red states are taking residents from blue states. Many of those red states may wind up facing problems in the future, though, because there is no real plan for what happens when there are no more real blue state people to poach. I grew up in a mid-sized city in New York state, and now I live in the south. Eventually people will vote with their feet. I still head up to visit my parents (who still live in the same town), and the place is a dump now. There are no young professionals there, and it seems the population is smaller and older. Virtually nothing remains from the time I grew up there. For many X'er's in my cohort, we're pretty much in the same boat. And yet, their answer is always to elect more progresssive people. Sooner or later, there will be nothing left, and the trouble with "sooner or later" is that later arrives sooner than you think...
You write these stories and people like me read this and just continue to be enraged that not only are there horrific sociopaths among us, but there’s an equal if not greater number of cowards and avoidants who do nothing to reject, much less even remotely try to contain this level of evil.
You know what, I defy anybody who writes here who has people that are dependent on you to tell me that you’re trying to make a difference in getting the left thrown out of this country, because if you really care about those people who depend on you, what do you say to them when you’ve done nothing to make a difference?! I walk around and I see what people do or really don’t do, and all I can say is, the hollowness of the words is so despicable, I truly want to read about people who do nothing to reject this hate, lust for power, and distain for life get totally trashed by it.
Until and unless there is a groundswell of support, it will be very difficult. And the use of withholding taxes (as a "temporary" world war 2 measure) masks it. See my comment above, but if Trump ended withholding, the outrage of people seeing their total tax bill would be astounding.
So I live in Florida now. I am 71 and have lived in Michigan, Illinois and Minnesota. So I know blue states although when I lived in each they were purple and would occasionally have a republican governor or one legislative branch would be republican so not as crazy as today. I was talking the other day to a wealthy guy while we were on the treadmill and he was talking about his property tax bill when he lived in MA. I was stunned by the amount. He said you just get use to it you don’t think about it.Everyone else is paying it.
I watched the Governor of New York being interviewed by Politico recently and she was begging wealthy people to move back to New York from Florida. Two years ago she was telling them to not let the door hit them in the ass on their way out. It was recently revealed the proposed budget for New York City is twice the budget of the entire state of Florida despite having a third of the population.
Unfortunately, most people just won’t take a stand because they simply won’t take a risk. People are too worried about standing up to assholes and scumbags who have some strong social standing or financial benefit, or worst, just plain clique camaraderie that overwhelms people in the neighborhood or job. I truly believe that if you make the scum of the left so irrelevant and inconsequential, they truly will react in one of two ways: they will either flee to find someone else to prey on, or, they will attack without provocation and then you legitimately can put them down like the rabid dogs they are.
Yes, I’ve been writing this here for a year and writing it elsewhere for years, but I know it’s true.
If 1 million people showed up unannounced in Washington DC this weekend to tell the president and the politicians that “we’re mad as fucking hell and we’re not gonna take you scumbags anymore“, I bet you some of these politicians would run and never come back.
But, we are surrounded by cowards, whores, and avoidants. And I know a lot of people here subconsciously identify with that.
Well, organize it, make sure it's peaceful and get on with it. Lots of people showed up for Jan. 6th and got thrown in jail. It was for all the reasons everyone is writing about here. That was not very organized, more organic, so it's never impossible. They need a specific impetus though. And there could be one. Another problem is that most of the local people there are part of the problem so logistically it isn't easy.
Your point is true. But, what is that hill to risk dying on?
As I’ve said here over and over, how do you look people in the eye who are dependent upon you, who truly have no ability to fight for themselves, how do you let this go on and watch them wither with you?…
Living in Oregon which is a perpetual blue state with dominant blue cities, we experience the same things. The people in charge have taken a fun, interesting, quirky city and turned it into a dumpy city that no one cares to visit or come in from the suburbs.
The observation that I have is that we (they) elect people that have never run a large organization or dealt with the task of managing the revenue and expenses attached to one. And they are put in charge of a multi-billion dollar enterprise. Year after year it is the definition of insanity as we do the same thing over and over.
At some point heavy lifting has to be done on the expense side of the ledger, but that impacts the blue constituency, so it won't be done. Until cities (like NYC back in the day) and states have to declare bankruptcy, nothing will change - so I keep my head down, save my breath, pay my taxes and enjoy my grandchildren.
Hope springs eternal, so I hang in there for my kids and grandkids, but activism here seems to be pointless......
Moved from Oregon along with many others. Children and grandchildren eventually followed even while protesting that we "couldn't" go because they "needed" us when we left. When the free babysitting was gone, somehow they all found jobs in the SE. Not one of them would ever move back. Weird, that...
For us it would be a tough lift - both other set of grandparents are here, therefore the kids will stay in Oregon. Hopefully there can be some shift in the direction.....by talking with others, to reason, but not to have the violence I see in the Antifa/Left. I find that odd that the party of "tolerance" tends to be non-tolerant.
... and yet they are favored to win the mid-terms. What does that say about the electorate and election system?
Here’s what the “electorate and the voters” look like to me.The combination of welfare, the “marginalized”(you pick your favorite), the guilty, elite, white virtue signalers are the electorate. Add to this the voter fraud, the dead who vote, the illegals who vote, ballot harvesting, city/county corrupt election officials and voila, you have Madison, Portland, Seattle, Milwaukee etc etc. The welfare recipients plus the free loaders on welfare have no choice, the “marginalized” are parts racist, politically biased with a large % with severe TDS, this group is like the frog in the pot of water as it heats up, they will get mugged, raped, murdered, robbed, car jacked because they have no choice or actually choose to live in the urban war zone. Lastly college educated, elite, white, suburban liberals mostly women with serious mental illness due to hatred of Trump are immune from the consequences of the wokesters they elect that are serially destroying the city they live in because they live in the leafy green suburbs adjacent to the ninth ring of hell.
When you really think about it, and you have a legitimate definition of evil which I do, the Left is the absolute despicable example of it:
Relentless lying and shameless hypocrisy; narratives and ideologies of decay, destruction, and death; having absolutely no remorse for consequences caused by behaviors and actions of such narratives and ideologies; the cruel inhumane mocking and disdain for healthy accepted boundaries set by society for generations; and finally one I’ve added recently, having the symbiosis of cowardice and avoidance from the apathetic indifferent uninvested populace to fuel such evil further along.
Folks, you need to figure out what’s evil, because if you continue to ignore it or dismiss it, it will truly consume you.
Agreed
My God, watching how the Democrats and lame scream, propaganda machine shitbags are covering the Sheridan Gorman death in Chicago, if you folks can’t finally realize that the Democrat party is beyond a diseased despicable, demonic, disgusting bunch of selfish shameless soulless sadistic, sociopathic scum, you folks need to realize that if you don’t marginalize and ostracize this filth so profoundly relentlessly, they’re going to brutally and cruelly kill your own next,
Write a column about this leftist rally around immigrant murdering evil , Alex!
Good answer, better description.
Watch the last four minutes of George Carlin‘s 1996 HBO show, Back in Town, and in that section of the political discourse, he sums it up perfectly:
“it’s not the politicians who suck, but, the public! Here’s your campaign slogan, the public sucks, F Hope!“
Carlin always nails it. There is no getting around the fact that scumbags run for office but the public elects them. Furthermore, those who elect the cretins seem to think they are just oh so wonderful, and they mostly believe this without knowing the slightest thing about what their elected reps think, do or say, how they vote, or the disgusting legislation they push.
Amen brotha….
To your point and Alex's "more like a death spiral" comment, the problem is that with a huge DC bureaucracy they are liable to suck the rest of the country into the death spiral by subsidizing these insane policies from the rest of the country. How long until Chicago, NYC, LA, SF, etc are bailed out? (Eg unions bailed out).
As a case in point... the mayor of Philadelphia put forth a proposal to tax Uber rides a dollar per ride. Of course she said it will be on the company, but we know the real effect... it's on the user of the service. Cherelle Parker, mayor of Philadelphia, is copying a measure from Abigail Cryptkeeper, governor of the once lovely state of Virginia. Democrats just keep doing the same shit over and over again. They've also never met a bad idea they didn't love.
Yet they keep getting voted in. Look at Baltimore. It's awful. People complain, but they are on repeat when it comes to voting.
Dems in California now want to implement a mileage tax on drivers. Never mind how many people have to commute because they can't afford housing near where they work so it's not like a big city where you can take a subway or bus if need be. Hopefully this idea will bite the dust, but in California, you never know. They want to tax virtually everything.
Dems have never met a terrible policy that they weren't itching to implement.
The city of Pittsburgh is JUST NOW running out of $335 million in Federal COVID largess which it received over 6 years ago - and the leadership is absolutely panicked that there will be no further bailouts. Their total annual budget is $660 million. They were able to gaslight the city's population into believing all was well for half a decade, ENTIRELY because of the Fed's printing press! How many other major US cities are in this EXACT same position? END THE FED!
And the people in Pittsburgh will keep voting Democrat - as they always do. We now have a SOCIALIST County Executive here in Allegheny County as well as a SOCIALIST Congresswoman in my district. So, the illness has spread...
Just how can a person WRAP their head around that reality you mention. On paper these are NO BRAINER common sense issues, and yet half the country vote opposite of common sense or worse yet KNOW is common sense yet enable anyway
I wouldn't count on Dems winning unless the useless Republicans fail to pass the SAVE America Act.
We thankfully just moved to a very well run red state from a blue state. We lived in the northeast our entire lives, but had no idea how poorly run our states were until we moved. In our new home, there are constant road expansions, new bridges, and beautiful landscaping being added/maintained along the roads. In the blue state, the roads are barely maintained let alone expanded, there is graffiti, garbage, and no planned landscaping. The blue state caters to the citizens and NON-citizens who have their hands out. Taxes continue to skyrocket, and now they are using a new trick of adding astronomical taxes under the cover of "public service charges" to the utility bills. The only tie we have left there are the family members that sadly are paying through the nose to support those who don't work or contribute to society.
I've come to realize that the biggest issue is fraud, waste, and abuse. I'm in insane CA and we've spent 25 billion in 5 years (about that) on homeless . . . and we have MORE THAN EVER. Or the bridge to nowhere. Or the Sites reservoir - approved 30 years ago - not built - but bonds issued. Where's the money going?
I live in eastern MA, a region that has been buoyed for a long time by a confluence of fortunate circumstances. Those circumstances are starting to erode, and our feckless progressive politicians are resorting to the same dumb ploys as all the other feckless progressives the country over.
But I console myself with the knowledge that Boston isn't as much of a sh*thole as San Francisco . . . yet. Imagine the cognitive dissonance you must carry to live in SF and to be proud of that place!
My mom and I used to go to SF once a year (live in Sacramento County) in the 1970s. Visited Japanese Tea Garden and Natural Museum, drove down curvy Lombard Street, walked the boardwalk, ate at the Franciscan, etc. It was incredible. No homeless, no poop on the streets, no camping everywhere. Beautiful place. My job (retired fed civ) required me to go to SF around 2004-2010. Awful deterioration. Homeless everywhere.
I live in the Northern California mountains. You couldn't pay me to go to San Francisco now. Or for that matter, any of California's big cities.
Sounds like our lefty government we have here in the UK.
And ours here in Australia, particularly in the Peoples Republic of Victoria!
@Patrice- I have a Facebook friend who lives in Victoria (I'm in New York State) and he says the same thing you did.
Here in NJ there’s so much garbage on the highways that it’s starting to feel like a 3rd world country. I truly can’t believe how bad it is.
Sounds like you fled CT. I can't wait until I'm able to do so.
Can't wait to have you if you will bring your conservative votes here.
Sounds like the NY to Florida train. Have heard exactly these same words from many.
I hope those from NY who come to Florida leave their voting ways in NY. Florida is a red state, governed wisely and we don’t have state income tax. We do have hurricanes and high homeowners premiums, very hot in the summer. I can honestly say I’m grateful our entire family lives in the free state of Florida.
I fled kommie NJ and brought my RED voting ways to Florida with me in 2020. Missed the election that year but was so excited to vote in my first FL election the following year. I now feel like my vote actually counts for something. I never felt that way in NJ.
Right!! Our votes never counted in the northeast. I'm so happy they do now, as it's the only say we really have over anything.
How I wish we could move to a red state. Our votes don’t count in blue WA state…where the Dems cheat & no one cares. Wish the east (red) side could secede!
Are you truly afraid to tell us what shit hole state you left? Anything north of North Carolina, and even that state I have doubts about…they’re all shit holes, Virginia is turning into a total disaster because the northeast part of the state is a despicable self destructive bunch of morons, Maryland is lost as they want to be California East, God knows what is worth in Delaware, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Maine, that whole East Coast is lost.
I spare Pennsylvania just because it doesn’t touch the ocean, but, that’s becoming a loss cause because Filthy-delphia and Shits-Burgh are controlling interest on either end.
To answer your questions below, we have roots in CT, MA and NY. CT may be the worst. And the acceleration of the decline was the 2018 governor's election. When we went to sleep that election night, the R (Stefanowski) was ahead well after the polls closed. But late vote counting, mostly in the slimiest city in the state, Bridgeport, found enough votes to put the D and current commie governor into power. I have wondered if that corrupt election was the federal model for 2020.
And I will admit, we also brought our red votes to beautiful FL. It isn't perfect, but it far exceeds the way any state in the NE is run. Just compare the state spending and populations and that is all you need to know!
I am counting down the days until we can move out of MN. It was an amazing state to grow up in. Beautiful bluffs, rivers, lakes and excellent school system and great highways, roads. That was all in the 80s, all of that is now gone. I cannot believe the deterioration of the state. (But when you find out what Walz and the Democraps have been doing with the money it all makes sense.) MN is turning into a 3rd world country. Never thought I would leave, but I don't see it getting any better. Would love to know what red state you moved to. It sounds like paradise!
I am a 5th generation Californian and raised my family in Sacramento (not far from Davis!) We moved in 2019 (before COVID, thank God.) It makes me sad because I love my home state.
There are hundreds of individual horror stories about government and liberal failure. But it's not any one thing that actually chases people away or busts the budget. It's a plethora of "small" things that keep coming to make living in California unsafe and unaffordable.
There were lots of little reasons (and one big reason -- state income taxes) for why we decided to leave before our youngest were out of school. If I had to point to the straw, it would be water.
For DECADES California has failed to build and repair dams and create more water storage. An initiative was passed before I left that required more water storage -- but that hasn't happened. In 2014 California voted for more water storage and infrastructure. $2.7 billion. Nothing has been done. Well, not NOTHING, they actually funded a bunch of projects and spent a ton of money, but ... we have nothing to see for it. No additional water storage. And definitely no more dams. The money went mostly to ground water "management." This is so much like all the government programs in California. (The bullet train, the wildlife bridge, etc.) Money is spent on studies, planning, salaries, environmental studies, impact reports ... and there is nothing left to actually DO anything.
During this same time period, up until we left (and continuing now), the state began restricting urban water use. We already had major issues with cost and access to water to farming in the Central Valley. Now they were restricting homeowners.
In 2018 or 2019, we heard that "they" (i.e. water agencies) were going to start metering wells. That was kind of our final straw. We were on well water in rural Sacramento County. We have to maintain the well, pay for the electricity to pump the water, etc. Now ... this hasn't happened statewide YET, but it's happened in some areas and because of the law it COULD happen.
But it's not just us having to pay more for our water -- remember, the state restricted water for farming to protect a microscopic fish. And our experience has been that once the state enacts bad policy, it never goes away.
So water was definitely an issue, along with the taxes.
Now take what the Left in California did to water, and extrapolate that to forest management, farm policy, fire policy, prisons, the homeless, education, etc ... and you realize that the problems are overwhelming and with most of the conservatives leaving, I don't see how they fix anything.
Oh yeah... The water wars in California have been going on for decades. As I commented in another post, if the farmland falls victim to urban sprawl, they'll no longer be producing food for all of us! What will they do then?
Another thing... I heard rumors years ago of some people wanting to restore Hetch Hetchy to it's original pristine state. In other words, drain San Francisco's water supply to re-create that valley as forest land. (Which would take a century or more...) I haven't heard any serious talk about that, but I wonder if people are still trying to push that idea.
I'm originally from the SF Bay Area, and that HetchHetchy debate has been going on as long as I can remember ...
The bullet train fiasco has destroyed so much irreplaceable farmland but the environmental nuts don't care. They have no concept that their utopian ideas have real-world consequences. The LA Times, hardly a conservative newspaper, quoted a conversation where one of the liberals planning the train path suggested that they move the 100+ year old almond trees. SMH. .... And then solar power! They put up solar farms that destroy the environment, kill birds and wildlife, to save the environment??? I would have to look it up, but I believe they moved desert tortoises for a solar farm and all the tortoises died.
Initially, the plans for that bullet train were slated to go through my uncle's farm near Chowchilla. Don't know if that's still the plan. My cousin owns the place now, but I've never asked him about it. That's almond farm country. The trees are generally taken out when they get old, and new young trees will be planted. 100 years is pretty old for an almond tree!
It's crazy, isn't it? All those solar farms are meant to save the environment, but they're destroying it! I did read that the Ivanpah solar farm is supposed to be shut down, or at least partially shut down, this year. They said it kills about 6000 birds a year, and is disrupting the desert tortoise habitat. And, it doesn't generate as much power as they anticipated. How come the "environmentalists" aren't screaming about that?
https://knpr.org/environment/2025-01-23/ivanpah-solar-plant-along-i-15-to-partially-shut-down
Do you remember when they were pushing the initiative? (I voted no.) They said it was a bullet train to connect SF to LA. $100 billion. Now they are way over budget, not one mile of track has been laid, and they are planning the first phase to go from Madera to Bakersfield. Because that route is in such huge demand.
I think the moving the trees was used to illustrate that the environmentalists don't know anything about the earth.
Ivanpah ... ugh. What an eye sore. And now a complete waste. And the money! Why does no one talk about the vast amounts of money that have been wasted on these kind of projects. Some people have gotten very, very rich off of this.
Because it is YOUR money. They already grifted/grafted it from you...why should they bother to talk about it. To the government and the NGOs you are just a free money supply. To talk about taxes being a combination of extortion and theft is far too kind.
I had read that they did not have an estimate or engineering study on how to get from the valley to LA or SF with that train. After I left the Bay area in 1981, I went to work for a water utility in Florida, and I used to think about the hundreds of miles of open ditches moving water from Northern California to LA and wonder how much was lost to evaporation. I'm sure the engineers told them that with the snow melt in the mountains that loss would never be a problem.
They can't and won't fix anything because they are too busy stealing the money.
"Maybe it’s because tax season has reminded me how deeply New York state is reaching into my bank account, but I find the crisis in blue-city and blue-state governance increasingly hard to tolerate."
Alex, remind me why it is that you (now that you are no longer tied to a brick-and-mortar employer--i.e., the NYT) continue to live in the Sultanate of Papa-Oom-Mau-Mau (formerly known as NYC) when you could just as easily ply your trade in much better digs (tax and cost-wise)?
That runs perilously close to doing the same thing over and over, but expecting a different result--- which as everybody know is the definition of insanity...🤪
The problem is that many people don't realize what is being taken from them. Monetarily and in terms of liberty.Alex does because he no longer is hiding behind a large corporate structure like the New York Times so he actually sees what is being paid in taxes. As long as there are withholding taxes, the true size of the federal government is masked because you only have a little bit taken out every week. When you have to write quarterly checks or you are running your own payroll and you see the entire bill every month it opens your eyes. If Trump really wants to change the country, he could stop withholding taxes under the same emergency powers used in 2020 under one of the emergencies that Biden announced. It is completely revenue neutral. The only people opposed to it, have a vested interest in maintaining their power over everyone else.
Alex probably does not want to move because he has a lot of friends and family in that area.
@Harley- the only thing keeping us in NY right now is our 4 yr old grandson.
Kittynana, that is the only thing any of my friends that are still left have to claim as a reason. But is it a good one? The ones who just said "we are moving to Florida", with only one exception, have had their children follow them...complete with grandchildren. And now they all say "We are so glad you moved Grandma. We would have stayed in that horrible place because we just did not know". Most of the grandparents left feeling horrible because their children swore they could not leave...but somehow there they are. So there is hope.
My friend, activist/journalist/documentarian Lauren Southern, investigated the crushing homelessness problem in Vancouver, another "blue-run" city that limits the construction of housing. Unlike in the US, where most homeless are addicts or mentally ill, in Vancouver, the homeless include a substantial fraction of people just down on their luck after being laid off. It turns out that both the city of Vancouver and the province of British Columbia spend millions of dollars a year "fighting homelessness." What Lauren found is that almost all of this money is directed to boards and consultants and advisory bodies, all consisting of upper-middle-class Canadian activists making >$100K for their "advice". So the millions are spent, but not on homes or food or shelter, but for "jobs for the boys." I expect many wealthy cities suffer from this same graft.
That's usually the case with the homelessness industrial complex. It would probably work out better for many if the homeless just got a direct stipend with far fewer middle people. A saying I coined years ago is that a bureaucrat's prime imperative is to protect, preserve and increase the bureaucracy.
100%
Just one massive FLEECING racket!
I’m a Colorado native and I’ve seen my beautiful state turned from Red to Purple to now deep Blue, the reason; all the Blue state voters who destroyed their own states, fled to mine and vote for the same radicals that destroyed their own states. Worst of all these morons can’t put two and two together and are slowly turning places like Arizona and numerous other Red states into the same cesspools.
Its interesting how that happens in CO, but not happening in Florida or say TN or SC. Just the opposite. In Florida we are more and more RED even with massive influx from NY, NJ etc. I've had hundreds of conversations out and about and on the beach with former BLUE voters of the upper northeast and cities like Chicago and they rave about esacaping the BLUE destructions zones and will never support or vote again for such policies. DeSantis is a rock star of Governors too! Always leading. Just wish ALL red states would model him
Wish I knew why they don’t have that same mentality in moving here. We have siblings in Arizona and they are beginning to see the same thing happen there, they’re worried about what the future holds as well.
Does seem MORE like a western USA thing with the states you mention and the ones I am more familiar with in the SE. The SEC colleges have waiting lists now too with students fleeing BLUE heavy indoctrination institutions in upper east coast and pacific NW as a well as CA schools
Odd very odd indeed, 🤔 ?
Yeah, the Nevada natives have a couple of sayings: "Don't California my Nevada!" is one. The other is "We're from Nevada. We don't care how they do it someplace else." Sadly, this state has become dominated by all the "blue" voters in Las Vegas and Reno.
If I’m following you correctly, all we have to do is wait a few more years until the children of Marx & Lenin have all moved to other southwest states and then we mass exodus it out of there to take over California. Then we build a wall
EXACTLY! We’ll make California Great Again!
Instead of red state gloom, how about red state success. I live in Indianapolis and take great glee during he state legislative session when they mention that Republicans had a super-majority in both houses thus making Democrats irrelevant. The state has a budget surplus, no gun restrictions to speak of and low taxes and home prices. Sure it's Indiana and does not have the natural beauty of the Pacific Coast Highway (when not on fire or dealing with floods and erosion), but has beautiful reservoirs/boating, golf courses, sports etc. Yes it has winter and some snow but I'll take this over blue states including our neighbor just west of us any day. And I can always go on vacation. Enjoy your rotten blue states and those idiots you elect to represent you.
Hmmmm…the Hoosier state….we were there once, had liver & onions….nice liver & onions. I may give that a thought!
I follow my sister who reports to me often what she experiences in Madison Wisc which is ground ZERO BLUE major university city in a DEM governor led state. Madison is a great place to visit, but do not move there unless you want to see lots of people still wearing PLANdemic masks, want high property taxes including wheel taxes on your auto, high rent, continued DEI policies, soft on crime policies and she just informed me a few days ago the UW athletic director some how was able to slip in language to a 2026 bill to receive over 15 million of TAXPAYER money to pay athletes to come to WISC thru NIL. Imagine that...the taxpayer had no say!
Continued Mask-wearing (even in the face of evidence it offers little protection) seems to be a good indicator of degree of blue paranoia and its associate martyrdom. Controls are viewed as positive and “for their own good. (Yes, a few folks may be fighting cancer, but devotees are seemingly unaware of testing that shows that masks are if little use against tiny viruses —but that’s another matter). A special red flag is the masked person who is driving alone or walking alone outside. They walk around with an accompanying multitude of paralyzing fears, including climate change, any virus, the police, the Jews, the white Christian Nazis, etc, white people in general, and of course overwhelming TDS.) Fear makes them willing to accept (deserve) any “punishment” the government doles out including constant increases in property, income, sales utility taxes, permit & other user fees. Many retain a bizarre, childlike faith that their (blue) govt is good, or at least benign, even in the face of clear evidence of corruption, or bankrupting spending, or inexcusable elitist behavior where rules & constraints apply only to the common people. And criminals are always victims. And they think voter ID is racist because well those people just aren’t capable…Oh yes, gas is up to about $6 a gallon in Washington and the legislature just passed a income tax which most citizens believe is unconstitutional in this state.
Nailed it! :)
Wheel taxes, not heard of that one but sounds like the looney left government we have in the UK, they were giving grants to buyers of electric cars but as they’ve been losing revenue on road tax, they’re now going to charge pay per mile for EV and hybrid cars. All they do is take, take take and we spend more welfare than on education and defence. We’ve got another 3 weeks until we hopefully kick them out ;(
Yeah not uncommon from what Ive heard others say in BLUE cities like Madison. Milwaukee WI which is the other county ground zero BLUE has the worst public school system in the nation last I heard in basic student proficiencies in grade level math, reading and writing, yet they spend over $18,000 per pupil each year. Not as high as Chicago (BLUE), but close. Each and every year they WANT more taxpayer money to throw at it too as if its a $$$ problem which is is not. The per pupil spending just 12 years ago was like $7 or $8,000 and the proficiencies have only become worse. These BLUE cities keep electing the exact same city destroying person every election cycle
Sorry 3 years, if only it was 3 weeks
A "wheel tax"? I'm almost afraid to ask...
An annual surcharge yes to FUND road projects. THEY are always lookng to FUND things you know...
“fund things?” That’s old school Bro.
Now days cutting up the extorted tax loot and passing shares around to cronies is called “Investment in Communities”.
Stick with me Bro. I goin to eduKate you.
LMAO ok dude...meant not to mess with the BRICK!
30,000 kids stayed home from school the day ICE came to Charlotte, NC - over 300 in my kids public middle school (a bit less than a third). Meanwhile, my daughter has 10 non English speakers recently arrived from Guatemala in her science and social studies classes, and no one seems to care (“those subjects don’t matter-anyway”). Tax dollars galore are being spent trying to get kids who won’t pass a test to pass a test. Meanwhile, my daughter is on episode 13 of Percy Jackson - allowed to watch in school on her school laptop while the other kids drill and kill to no where.
Oh, and jury duty last year alerted me to the fact that cases are still being tried from 2017 because the courts shut down for a year and a half over COVID.
We have 9 democratic city council members who vote in tandem.
Really, I have had to settle on our garbage being li is up on the day, and recycling if we are lucky (which - is another local farce I could go off on).
People continue to vote “against Trump” in local council and judge elections, not realizing that they are voting for a socialist.
The trouble is being anti-Trump isn't a plan (regardless of what you think of Trump).
Agree!
It’s celebrated insanity. BUT, people will continue to vote for these imbecilic monsters!
Why is that?
For the life of me, I do not understand. Something has gone terribly wrong with their thinking/reasoning. I’m convinced that it will not get better either.😞
There’s one common factor to all this blue state lunacy: federal money. The “leadership” in places like Davis and Chicago restricts development and spends like crazy - all the while biding their time till the next friendly administration arrives.Then the printing presses are cranked up once again and all problems are kicked down the road for another day. Rinse, repeat. Nothing will change until the Fed is ended and this magic “escape hatch” is closed for good.
Alex, I agree with one of your previous posters. You need to move where all the productive people are moving to; states like Tennessee, Texas, or Florida. Relatively sane governance with sane tax structures! GET OUT OF NYC!
We moved from California to Iowa. Great red state - Governor, Legislature, Senators, Congressional Representatives. We have Democrats, but luckily in the minority. 🙏
I have had the sense that a lot of "nice" blue states are not far behind. Not that long ago (about 25 yrs ago?) Minnesota was functional though with liberal overtones. The relentless ratcheting of the Overton window and tyranny of the minority (Somalis, queers, etc), along with union and NGO alignments (e.g. teachers) has resulted in a Democrat + "nice Republican managed opposition" lock on power and governance that can now only move one direction.
Colorado is another example though I do not know the regional politics as well.
Washington is probably a good state to watch as it has less cultural solidity to buffer it.
The recent obscene crime stories from western WA (one of which you reported) are a good illustration, but increasing government cost and decreasing function (plus a deficit) are all potential stories.
Grew up in MN, you nailed it. My heart aches for a once celebrated state and culture which is accelerating toward 3rd world governance.
@John- my father and stepmother lived in St. Cloud. It was a beautiful city. HUsband and I drove through it a few years ago on our way home to NY from Indiana. What a craphole it has become.
Sorry to hear that... My sister went to school there.... Another town ruined...
Washington is a mess & getting messier.
We all know that many red states are taking residents from blue states. Many of those red states may wind up facing problems in the future, though, because there is no real plan for what happens when there are no more real blue state people to poach. I grew up in a mid-sized city in New York state, and now I live in the south. Eventually people will vote with their feet. I still head up to visit my parents (who still live in the same town), and the place is a dump now. There are no young professionals there, and it seems the population is smaller and older. Virtually nothing remains from the time I grew up there. For many X'er's in my cohort, we're pretty much in the same boat. And yet, their answer is always to elect more progresssive people. Sooner or later, there will be nothing left, and the trouble with "sooner or later" is that later arrives sooner than you think...
Mr. Berenson,
You write these stories and people like me read this and just continue to be enraged that not only are there horrific sociopaths among us, but there’s an equal if not greater number of cowards and avoidants who do nothing to reject, much less even remotely try to contain this level of evil.
You know what, I defy anybody who writes here who has people that are dependent on you to tell me that you’re trying to make a difference in getting the left thrown out of this country, because if you really care about those people who depend on you, what do you say to them when you’ve done nothing to make a difference?! I walk around and I see what people do or really don’t do, and all I can say is, the hollowness of the words is so despicable, I truly want to read about people who do nothing to reject this hate, lust for power, and distain for life get totally trashed by it.
Take it easy, Mr. B.
Most normal people have only so much rage. We just moved to Florida. Problem solved.
I'm plotting a similar escape...done trying to educate my fellow Californians
I did the same during the great wuh flu PLANdemic of 2020, and never looked BACK!
Until and unless there is a groundswell of support, it will be very difficult. And the use of withholding taxes (as a "temporary" world war 2 measure) masks it. See my comment above, but if Trump ended withholding, the outrage of people seeing their total tax bill would be astounding.
So I live in Florida now. I am 71 and have lived in Michigan, Illinois and Minnesota. So I know blue states although when I lived in each they were purple and would occasionally have a republican governor or one legislative branch would be republican so not as crazy as today. I was talking the other day to a wealthy guy while we were on the treadmill and he was talking about his property tax bill when he lived in MA. I was stunned by the amount. He said you just get use to it you don’t think about it.Everyone else is paying it.
I watched the Governor of New York being interviewed by Politico recently and she was begging wealthy people to move back to New York from Florida. Two years ago she was telling them to not let the door hit them in the ass on their way out. It was recently revealed the proposed budget for New York City is twice the budget of the entire state of Florida despite having a third of the population.
Unfortunately, most people just won’t take a stand because they simply won’t take a risk. People are too worried about standing up to assholes and scumbags who have some strong social standing or financial benefit, or worst, just plain clique camaraderie that overwhelms people in the neighborhood or job. I truly believe that if you make the scum of the left so irrelevant and inconsequential, they truly will react in one of two ways: they will either flee to find someone else to prey on, or, they will attack without provocation and then you legitimately can put them down like the rabid dogs they are.
Yes, I’ve been writing this here for a year and writing it elsewhere for years, but I know it’s true.
If 1 million people showed up unannounced in Washington DC this weekend to tell the president and the politicians that “we’re mad as fucking hell and we’re not gonna take you scumbags anymore“, I bet you some of these politicians would run and never come back.
But, we are surrounded by cowards, whores, and avoidants. And I know a lot of people here subconsciously identify with that.
Well, organize it, make sure it's peaceful and get on with it. Lots of people showed up for Jan. 6th and got thrown in jail. It was for all the reasons everyone is writing about here. That was not very organized, more organic, so it's never impossible. They need a specific impetus though. And there could be one. Another problem is that most of the local people there are part of the problem so logistically it isn't easy.
Your point is true. But, what is that hill to risk dying on?
As I’ve said here over and over, how do you look people in the eye who are dependent upon you, who truly have no ability to fight for themselves, how do you let this go on and watch them wither with you?…
Living in Oregon which is a perpetual blue state with dominant blue cities, we experience the same things. The people in charge have taken a fun, interesting, quirky city and turned it into a dumpy city that no one cares to visit or come in from the suburbs.
The observation that I have is that we (they) elect people that have never run a large organization or dealt with the task of managing the revenue and expenses attached to one. And they are put in charge of a multi-billion dollar enterprise. Year after year it is the definition of insanity as we do the same thing over and over.
At some point heavy lifting has to be done on the expense side of the ledger, but that impacts the blue constituency, so it won't be done. Until cities (like NYC back in the day) and states have to declare bankruptcy, nothing will change - so I keep my head down, save my breath, pay my taxes and enjoy my grandchildren.
Hope springs eternal, so I hang in there for my kids and grandkids, but activism here seems to be pointless......
Moved from Oregon along with many others. Children and grandchildren eventually followed even while protesting that we "couldn't" go because they "needed" us when we left. When the free babysitting was gone, somehow they all found jobs in the SE. Not one of them would ever move back. Weird, that...
For us it would be a tough lift - both other set of grandparents are here, therefore the kids will stay in Oregon. Hopefully there can be some shift in the direction.....by talking with others, to reason, but not to have the violence I see in the Antifa/Left. I find that odd that the party of "tolerance" tends to be non-tolerant.