L.A. Welcomes Apollo 11 Astronauts

Here's an "oldie but goodie" photo. It is from the L.A. Public Library.

It was posted at Facebook with this caption:

 

[1969] "Yorty greets Astros at the bottom of the stairs of the Pres. jet upon their arrival at L.A." Mayor Sam Yorty is pictured greeting Michael Collins, Neil Armstrong, and Buzz Aldrin as they descend the stairs of Airforce One. The three astronauts traveled to Los Angeles in order to attend a state dinner at the Century Plaza in their honor, following the successful Apollo 11 mission to the Moon. (Joe Messinger - Herald Examiner Collection)

President Nixon flew the three Apollo 11 astronauts aboard Air Force One to Los Angeles for a state dinner at the Century Plaza Hotel. From the photo, we see the three astronauts, L.A. Mayor Sam Yorty, Governor Jerry Brown and on the steps is former President Lyndon Johnson. I think the lady at right is Mrs. Yorty.  

California Has The Most Comprehensive US Gun Confiscation Rules

Californians lost a great opportunity to be rid of radical leftist Gov. Gavin Newsom during the recent recall election.

Newsom signed 15-gun related laws, including one that expands the state's restraining order "red flag" law. It is so bad that even the ACLU opposes it and ex-Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed it twice.

Well, that's what happens when a state becomes a one-party state comprised of radical leftists. I'm glad I left.

The Shepherd of the Hills Gazette reported:

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) – California Governor Gavin Newsom signed law Friday that will allow the state to be the first to allow employers, employees and teachers to seek injunctions against gun violence against other people.

The bill has been twice opposed by former Democratic Governor Jerry Brown, and goes beyond a measure he signed that only allows law enforcement officers and immediate family members to order judges to temporarily take away people’s guns if they pose a threat to themselves be viewed, or others.

Newsom is also a Democrat and has signed an accompanying law allowing gun violence to be extended for one to five years, although gun owners could request to end those restrictions sooner.

The new laws are among the 15 gun-related laws Newsom approved as the state strengthens the nation’s toughest restrictions named the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence.  

The measure was opposed by gun owners’ rights groups and the American Civil Liberties Union. The ACLU said the bill “poses a significant threat to civil liberties” as orders can be requested before gun owners have a chance to appeal.

 To read the full article, go here.

Last Night's 2021 Gallup Inter-Tribal Indian Ceremonial

Above, the wild horse race could best be described as "organized chaos". Photo by Armand Vaquer.

For the first time in two years, the Gallup Inter-Tribal Indian Ceremonial is taking place at Red Rock Park.

Last year's Ceremonial was canceled due to the pandemic and this year's has been scaled down due to political factors as the state's tourism board usurped much of it from the local committee. 

Still, it was nice to attend the Ceremonial which comprised of an art show/contest, vendors, rodeo and tribal dancing. It was well attended last night. Maybe a third of the normal number of vendors were there from what I saw in 2019 and an equal number of artworks were on display.

The rodeo started with a  pre-show "wild horse race" which could be best described as organized chaos. The rodeo then officially began with bareback riding and then bull riding. 

One of the first bareback riders barely escaped serious injury when his horse threw him but his hand and wrist was tied too well to the horse reins and it dragged him around the arena, at one point it seemed to knock his head against barrier bars. Finally, rodeo staff were able to get the horse under control and get the rider detached from the reins. I would not be surprised if his hand, wrist and arm sustained injury. He had to be carried out of the arena.

After taking in the bareback riding and bull riding events at the rodeo, I decided to head on home as the weather was threatening and I anticipated a traffic jamb on Interstate 40 and Route 66,

Sure enough, both were clogged with traffic and I decided to head home through Six Mile Canyon Road from McGaffey. It was an interesting drive as it was dusk with cloudy skies along with rain and lightning, but I made it. It was the second time I drove through Six Mile Canyon in the Cibola National Forest in the Mustang. Good thing I left when I did, when I got home, the storm got more intense.

It was an enjoyable Friday evening and the Ceremonial continues through the weekend.

Here's some photos:

Above, the exhibit hall. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

Above, exhibitors with goods for sale. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

Above, art show displays. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

Above, Navajo rug contest entries. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

Above, Gallup area artist Jerry Brown with works in progress. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

Above, Zuni Pueblo dancers. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

Above, some of the rodeo's wild horses. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

Above, Red Rock Park Rodeo Arena. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

Above, the bareback riding event. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

Above, the bareback rider who barely escaped serious injury dragged around the arena. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

Above, another bareback rider. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

Above and the next three photos, the bull riding event. Photos by Armand Vaquer.

Above, a bull that got loose from his pen. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

Above, driving home in Six Mile Canyon. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

Larry Elder Needs A New Campaign Manager

Above, Larry Elder. 

It is a good thing that I left the mess that is called California.

The Democrats have a lock on the powers of government and made a mess out of the state. There is a recall election against Democrat Governor Gavin Newsom. But even if he is recalled, unless the state legislature flips Republican next year, nothing will change even with a Republican governor. 

Talk show host Larry Elder has thrown his hat into the gubernatorial ring. He is a good and capable man. But I now have my doubts that he will prevail after reading the following in the Los Angeles Times:

Elder is well-known among conservatives because his nationally syndicated, three-hour talk show is broadcast daily in L.A., San Francisco, San Diego, Sacramento and several smaller California cities. He’s heard in all 50 states in 200 markets, with a national audience of 1.5 million.

He also has 2.5 million followers on social media.

This is why having radio audiences in Utah, Texas and Florida — and being followed by millions on social media across the country — is important politically in California.

“These are potential donors,” says Lou Barnett, his campaign manager. “He has a national fundraising base.”

Good lord! Lou Barnett is Larry Elder's campaign manager?!

Old-timers of California politics, particularly those who were in the Young Republicans in the 1970s, are very familiar with Barnett. He engineered a split between the moderate and conservative factions of the YRs and sabotaged a Reagan endorsement for president of the California Young Republicans in 1976. This was widely reported just before the 1976 New Hampshire Primary.

Above, Lou Barnett.

In 1978, he was involved in some below-the-belt shenanigans in the Evelle Younger gubernatorial campaign by hiring some private detectives against Jerry Brown. When this was exposed, this led Mrs. Mildred Younger to state publicly about Barnett, "If I were that young man, I'd be worried about my political future."

Barnett tried to get a job with the Reagan administration in 1981, but when his past came to light, Reagan advisor Ed Rollins nixed it.

Barnett pulled some shenanigans against Donald Trump's California campaign chief in 2016.

Right On Daily posted:

Lou Barnett, the husband of Late LAGOP Chair Jane Barnett is a long time “friend” of Tim Clark. He is the individual that sent a list of recommendations in LA County over to the Donald Trump camp. (Namely Tim Clark)

These lists included the White Nationalist William Johnson.

They knew that Tim Clark would wait until the last minute to vet his candidates and there was a good chance that this guy would fly through the vetting.

It was told to me that the minute the list came out with Johnson’s name on it that Mr. Barnett leaked the news to the Guardian.

Was another campaign responsible for this dirty trick or did Mr. Barnett do on his own?

Apparently, age hadn't mellowed Lou Barnett.

I like Larry Elder, but his choice of campaign manager leads me to doubt his chances. Larry Elder needs a new campaign manager.

California To Roll Out Mandatory Motorhome Emissions Testing

Above, The Beast at North Pines Campground in Yosemite Valley. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

When I see stories like the following, they make me thank my "lucky stars" that I moved out of California.

Thanks to Gov. Jerry "Moonbeam" Brown and the Democrat-controlled legislature, Commiefornia will be rolling out mandatory motorhome emissions testing. Thanks to the Democrats in the state, California is not only unfriendly to business, it will soon be unfriendly to motorhome RVers. 

Emissions testing for cars is $70 and up. Imagine what it may cost for motorhome testing! And that doesn't even count the sky-high vehicle registration fees!

And, as if it couldn't be any worse, the 2016 law also affects out-of-state visitors to California.

From RV Travel:

Got a big diesel motorhome? What’s big? A motorhome that tips the gross vehicle weight scale of 14,000 pounds or more. The diesel pusher in our photo easily tips over the scale. If you do, you may be in for a rude awakening. California is readying a rollout of mandatory motorhome emissions testing requirements. They’ll go into effect in July 2023. 

Not a California resident? Don’t sigh in relief just yet. As it stands, even folks visiting the Golden State with a “heavy duty vehicle” are subject to some rigorous testing. All of it could slow your entry into the state.

Tailpipe intrusion courtesy of CARB

The genesis of this new tailpipe intrusion comes from a 2016 law. Created under Senate Bill 210 its purpose was to cut air pollution.  The aim is to reduce the amount of nitrous oxide and particulate emissions, “from non-gasoline heavy duty vehicles . . . that operate in California, including out-of-state vehicles.” 

We initially thought the application of the law was to commercial rigs. Sorry, privately owned recreational vehicles fall under the law and the new rules. The rules come straight from the state’s Air Resources Board (CARB). It’s the same agency that has caused more than one gas can owner to hurl naughty words when dealing with eco-conscious fuel containers.

So, once July 2023 arrives, people from states outside of California had better think twice before planning that trip to Yosemite National Park.

To read more, go here.

Gas Tax and Ammo Background Checks Start Today In California

The People's Republic of Commiefornia has a number of new laws going into effect today. As I see what the Democrats are doing to the state, the more glad I am that I left.

Two of the most heinous laws are:

California Gas Tax 

The California gas tax will increase 5.6 cents per gallon Monday. It is part of a Senate Bill passed by the Legislature and signed by then Gov. Jerry Brown in 2017. At the time, gas taxes went up 12 cents along with additional registration fees.  

California drivers were paying an average $3.75 per gallon as of late June, far above the national average of $2.71 calculated by AAA. The gas tax will increase to 47.3 cents a gallon July 1, according to the state Board of Equalization, and continue to increase indefinitely starting next year to keep up with the California Consumer Price Index.
The money from the increase is supposed to go to roads and bridges along with bicycle and pedestrian projects.   

Gun Ammunition Rules 

California will tighten its already strict firearms laws by requiring background checks for anyone buying ammunition and barring ammo sales except through licensed dealers. Gun owners already in the state's databases will have to pay a $1 fee each time they buy bullets or shotgun shells, while others can buy longer term licenses. Dealers have seen a spike in sales as the state prepares to implement the restrictions imposed by voters in 2016. Opponents are suing to block the restrictions, arguing that they will mainly harm law-abiding owners.

To read more (if you can stomach it), go here. 

California's Gas Tax To Be Highest In Nation

It would cost me around $242 to fill the RV gas tank if I remained in Commiefornia.

Yes, that's what I would be paying if I filled the gas tank of The Beast in California. That is based on a photo I saw of a gas station's price sign of $4.39.

California is set to hike their gasoline tax on July 1. This is only because stupid people went to the polls to vote down an initiative that would have cut the tax and the hike in vehicle registration fees the Democrats passed in 2017.

According to ABC 7 News:

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- When the new gas tax kicks in July 1, California will have the highest gas tax in the country. 

The new gas tax will add an additional 5.6 cents per gallon of gas.

The San Diego Union-Tribune reported:

The 5.6-cent increase represents the second iteration of Senate Bill 1, commonly called the gas tax, that was passed by the Legislature in Sacramento in the spring of 2017 and signed into law by then-Gov. Jerry Brown. 

Under the terms of SB1, the tax increase comes in stages. 

Drivers first experienced a 12-cent per gallon rise at the pump in November 2017. An additional 5.6 cents per gallon will be tacked on at the beginning of next month, which will boost the state’s total excise tax to 41.7 cents a gallon. 

Add in other state taxes and fees plus the federal government’s own 18.4 cents a gallon excise tax and Golden State motorists will pay 79.18 cents a gallon in taxes and fees whenever they fuel up. 

That will move California into the top spot in the country, edging past the 77.1 cents a gallon drivers in Pennsylvania pay in combined taxes and fees, according to state-by-state data compiled by the American Petroleum Institute.

California is increasingly becoming more and more inhospitable to residents, especially retirees. I am glad to have moved out of California a year and a half ago. The gas price at the local Flying J (New Mexico) is $2.59/gallon, but with my Good Sam Club discount, that is lowered to $2.54/gallon. Far better than Commiefornia's price!

This is the price one pays when a state is a one-party state (Democrats).

To read more, go here.

Commiefornia: Taxing Water; Is Air Next?

The Looney Left Report

Many of us longtime California residents were made aware of the extremist leftist Gavin Newsom when he was mayor of San Francisco.

We knew darn well that once he was elected Lt. Governor, he will be the next governor after Jerry Brown.

Sure enough, that has happened and now the chickens have come home to roost. He is already making Brown seem like a moderate. Newsom now wants to tax drinking water!

According to the San Francisco Chronicle:

In order to help disadvantaged communities obtain safe and affordable drinking water, California Governor Gavin Newsom is proposing a new statewide water tax. 

In the newly-released 2019-20 budget, Newsom calls for the creation of a "safe and affordable drinking water fund" that would "enable the State Water Resources Control Board to assist communities, particularly disadvantaged communities, in paying for the short-term and long-term costs of obtaining access to safe and affordable drinking water."

The lunacy of the Commiefornia Democrats have no limits. What's next? Taxing air?

Every day the Democrats in California come up with new wacko policies, the more glad I am that I moved to New Mexico. The stupid voters of California got the government they deserve.

To read more, go here.

Trump Surveys Fire Devastation In Northern California

Above, President Trump at an operations center in Northern California.

President Donald Trump is now in E Clampus Vitus country meeting with first responders of the Camp Fire in Paradise, California.

According to Fox News:

President Donald J. Trump visits an operations center in Northern California to see the devastation caused by the Camp Fire. 

Trump will be meeting with Governor Jerry Brown and Governor-Elect Gavin Newsom (I sure would like to be the fly on the wall listening in on their conversations) later today.

For more, go here. 

California Bans Gun Sales To People Under Age 21

The latest in California liberal/leftist Democrat actions took place Friday when Gov. Jerry Brown signed a bill prohibiting adults under 21 from purchasing any guns.

Every time the Democrat-controlled government dictatorship infringes on our constitutional rights, the more glad I moved out of Commiefornia.

American Military News reported:

On Friday, California Governor Jerry Brown signed a law that will prohibit anyone under the age of 21 from purchasing a gun in the state, with a few exceptions. 

The new law, which goes into effect in 2019, does not apply to military members, law enforcement, or licensed hunters, NBC News reported. People under the age of 21 were previously prohibited from purchasing handguns, but the new law bans the purchase of all guns. 

The bill was brought forth by Sen. Anthony Portantino, who cited the Parkland school shootings as the primary reason for the ban on gun sales.

Persons under age 21 can serve in the military, but they aren't worthy enough to be able to buy a firearm. Crazy!

To read more, go here.

California Democrats Threatened By $4.00/Gallon Gas Prices

The Looney Left Report

Democrats in California should be panicking. With the November elections just a month away, now is not a good time for gasoline prices to skyrocket to near $4.00/gallon.

The reason is that they passed a gasoline gas tax hike as well as hiking vehicle registration fees (supposedly for road repair, but we all know they will dip into it for other things) despite the fact that road maintenance was supposed to be paid for by gas taxes and registration fees that have been around for decades.

This is the result of the one-party dictatorship in the former Golden State. The Republican Party in Commiefornia is almost non-existent, so the Democrats can do anything they want.

Thank goodness I moved out of California this year. It is not a friendly state for free enterprise or for retirees. Small wonder that middle class people are moving out.

The Daily Caller posted:

Gas prices in Southern California are hovering around $4 per gallon as Golden State Democrats attempt to defend an unpopular gas tax outgoing Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown signed in 2017. 

The average pump price for regular gas in the Los Angeles area is hovering around $3.736 a gallon Thursday, up nearly 19 percent from a year earlier, according to the American Automobile Association. It’s an unwelcome development for Democrats who are fighting for their political lives. 

The average price in California stood at $3.683 a gallon, up 18 percent from $3.11 in 2017, the AAA said. A portion of the increase stems from the unpopular 12-cent increase in California’s fuel excise tax that went into effect in November. The state tax now sits at 41.7 cents per gallon and is one of the highest in the country. 

Nearly 58 percent of voters oppose the tax increase, including 39 percent who say they strongly reject the legislation, according to a survey the University of California, Berkeley’s Institute of Governmental Studies conducted shortly after the measure was passed in April 2017. Only 35 percent of voters surveyed at the time favored the law, which also hikes vehicle registration fees to fix roads.

If you thought Jerry Brown is bad, just wait and see what happens if Gavin Newsom becomes governor. He's 1,000 times worse than Brown.

To read more, go here.

Millionaires Fleeing California After Tax Hike

The Looney Left Report

Big-spending/high taxing liberals in California are driving high income people out of California, according to a new study

Forbes.com reported:

According to new research released by Charles Varner, associate director of the Stanford Center on Poverty and Inequality, California lost an estimated 138 high-income individuals following passage of the Proposition 30 income tax increase championed by Gov. Jerry Brown (D) and approved by Golden State voters in 2012.  

This new research by Varner updates a previous paper released six years ago that looked at domestic migration to and from California following a 2004 income tax hike.  

“One reason we wanted to update our previous paper is that this tax change in 2012 is the largest state tax change that we have seen in the U.S. for the last three decades,” Varner said. 

Prop. 30 raised the state’s top income tax rate by 8%, increasing it one percentage point from 12.3% to 13.3%, which is now the highest state income tax rate in the nation. Prop. 30 also hiked the tax rate on income between $300,000 and $500,000 by two percentage points, and raised the rate on income in excess of $500,000 by three percentage points.

In 2016, California voters extended the Prop. 30 income tax increases, which were originally scheduled to expire in 2019, until 2030. There will be an effort to extend those income tax hikes yet again prior to their expiration in 2030; book it now.  

Varner’s new research examined taxpayers who were and were not hit by the Prop. 30 rate hikes. He found that in the two years before the Prop. 30 tax hike was imposed (2011 and 2012), net in-migration for both groups “was positive and roughly constant.” Yet following 2012 and the passage of Prop. 30, net in-migration dropped for households that were facing an effective tax increase of 0.5 percent or more. The reduction was greatest for households facing the highest effective tax hike, according to Varner and his coauthors, who include Allen Prohofsky of the California Franchise Tax Board. 

This isn’t surprising for those who are familiar with other attempts to soak the rich with punitive state income tax hikes on high earners. 

Who will be left holding the bag? Lower income earners. Further down in the article, the state of Maryland did the same thing as California and drove out high-income earners.

To read more, go here. 

Why California Needs To Vote Out The Democrats

Fox News: Fabio: Why California Is Falling Apart

California was once "The Golden State". Thanks to the one-party rule of Governor Jerry Brown and the Democrats, California is fast becoming "The Shithole State".

Model Fabio discusses this with Fox News commentator Tucker Carlson:

Mar. 29, 2018 - 4:07 - The Golden State is losing its glitter, rapidly. California has the nation's highest poverty rate. homelessness is rampant. State officials are focused on protecting illegal immigrants from deportation rather than reversing the flight of the state's middle class. Actor and model Fabio, an immigrant, weighs in on California's decline.

For more, go here.

California Sanctuary State Resistance Growing

The People's Republic of Commiefornia has a major problem.

Several governmental entities are resisting the state's "Sanctuary State" laws by voting to opt out or notifying ICE about impending releases of criminal illegal aliens. This will likely put the Democrats who run the state into a bind.

According to the San Diego Union-Tribune:

The clash between California and President Donald Trump over the state’s so-called sanctuary laws and immigration in general has been portrayed as a conflict pitting the entire state against the president, but now pockets of California are making it clear that their leaders do not agree with laws that shield unauthorized immigrants. 

California laws that went into effect on Jan. 1 restrain how federal agents go about detaining unauthorized immigrants for deportation in cities throughout the state. Trump’s justice department has since sued the state over its three laws — Senate Bill 54 or the “California Values Act,” Assembly Bill 450 or the “Workplace Raid” law and Assembly Bill 103 or the “Detention Review” law — arguing that they are unconstitutional. 

In recent weeks, some cities and at least one sheriff’s department in California are also pushing back against the laws. Here’s who is opposing them, and how.

If leftist California Attorney General Xavier Becerra decides to sue these cities, counties and sheriff departments, it just may backfire in his and Governor Brown's faces if the courts rule that the laws are unconstitutional. Grab some popcorn and sit back and watch!

To read more, go here. 

Looney Left Report: California Out of Control

The Looney Left Report

Seeing articles like the one I am about to present makes me even more glad that I moved out of California (i.e., Commiefornia).

I've long said that the state has been taken over by a party (the Democrat Party) filled with lunatics. There is no opposition party to speak of. The lunatics have been passing laws, raising taxes and coming up with policies unfettered.

Fox News posted an Opinion article, "Trump Is Right -- California Is Out of Control". It presents a number of things the Democrats have done in the state.

Just to name a few:

What is out of control is California’s ruling class. Much of its political agenda is hostile to basic human liberty and mocks the limits on what government should be allowed to do in an ostensibly free society.  

Likely the sharpest thorn in Trump’s side is California lawmakers’ contempt of our federal system. States enjoy wide latitude to pursue their own destinies. The 10th Amendment provides states with “powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States,” but it doesn’t allow them to conduct their own foreign policy, which is the province of the federal executive branch. 

Yet California has decided that it is a sanctuary state where federal immigration laws don’t apply. Since Jan. 1, state and local law enforcement officers have been barred by law from cooperating with federal immigration enforcement. 

Like the Legislature, Gov. Jerry Brown has also dabbled in foreign affairs. He’s invited “the whole world” to a climate summit in San Francisco this year and has signed climate deals with Chinese officials.  

While Brown played on the world stage, state lawmakers were hard at work at home banning plastic shopping bags from grocery stores, proposing to criminalize what they see is the irresponsible use of plastic straws, and continuing to raise taxes, which are already the most backbreaking in the nation. 

If all this isn’t enough to convince the rest of the country that California lawmakers are out of control, add to it legislation that regulates cattle flatulence in the name of the climate; a law that requires greenhouse gas emissions to be cut 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2030, even though the law’s language says it will “at least” cost “hundreds of millions of dollars” a year; and a $15 minimum wage by 2022 that Brown admitted “may not make sense” economically and will without question depress employment.

To read more about the "the Land of Kooks", go here.

California's Loony Left Reputation Getting Worse

Each day that passes since I left California (i.e., Commiefornia) leave me thanking God that I was given the wisdom in seeing that there's better places to live.

The state has been going downhill for years and is only getting worse since the Democrats have essentially have in place a one-party government.

The lunacy is only getting worse in California. National Review has an article on the latest outrages that clearly illustrates how its loony left behavior is only getting worse.

They begin with:

In Oakland, the mayor warns illegal immigrants of an ICE raid, and a coffee shop refuses service to the police. 

Move over, San Francisco. Oakland, the city of 420,000 people just ten miles away on the other side of the Bay Bridge, has shoved you aside for the title of Loony Left Capital of the country. 

Hasta Muerte, an Oakland coffee shop whose name means “Toward Death” in Spanish, is refusing to serve police in uniform in order to show concern for the “physical and emotional safety of our customers and ourselves.” All over the country, coffee shops love to serve up coffee and doughnuts to cops knowing that customers appreciate the security their presence represents. But at Hasta Muerte Coffee, an employee-owned co-op, the message to the men and women in blue is: Take a hike.

To read more, go here. 

Jerry Brown's Choo-Choo Cost Skyrockets

The Looney Left Report

California Governor Jerry "Moonbeam" Brown and his fellow Democrats in the legislature have one big boondoggle on their hands. And, it's getting even bigger!

That's the bullet train, of course. Now it has been revealed that the cost of the project has jumped.

The Los Angeles Times reported:

The price of the California bullet train project jumped sharply Friday when the state rail authority announced that the cost of connecting Los Angeles to San Francisco would be $77.3 billion and could rise as high as $98.1 billion — an uptick of at least $13 billion from estimates two years ago. 

The rail authority also said the earliest trains could operate on a partial system between San Francisco and Bakersfield would be 2029 — four years later than the previous projection. The full system would not begin operating until 2033.

To read more, go here. 

DOJ Sues California Over Immigration Interference

The Justice Department, led by Attorney General Jeff Sessions, has filed suit against the state of California for interfering with the federal immigration enforcement.

According to Fox News:

The Trump Justice Department filed a lawsuit Tuesday night against California, saying three recently-passed state laws were deliberately interfering with federal immigration policies. 

It marked the latest legal and political confrontation with the nation's most populous state, which the federal government says has repeatedly stood in the way of its plans to step up enforcement actions in the workplace and against criminal aliens. 

"The Department of Justice and the Trump Administration are going to fight these unjust, unfair, and unconstitutional policies," Attorney General Jeff Sessions was expected to tell California law enforcement officers on Wednesday. "We are fighting to make your jobs safer and to help you reduce crime in America." 

The state's Democratic governor, Jerry Brown, fired back: “At a time of unprecedented political turmoil, Jeff Sessions has come to California to further divide and polarize America. Jeff, these political stunts may be the norm in Washington, but they don’t work here. SAD!!!”

Well, California's radical left state government brought all this upon themselves.

To read more, go here. 

Leaving Commiefornia

Since I decided to move out of California (a.k.a. Commiefornia) and into New Mexico, I have been asked if I have any regrets. 

Sure, I do. I have family and friends in California. The weather cannot be beat. But the state government and the city government of Los Angeles has gone on the deep far-left end with their wacko policies (such as "sanctuary state" and "sanctuary city"). California is a one-party state since the passage of Proposition 14.

Proposition 14 is so bad, even the liberal Los Angeles Times wrote:

Since California's Proposition 14 passed in 2010, all partisan candidates — except those running for president — appear on the same primary ballot, regardless of party. Then the two leading contenders face off in the general election. Like so many other electoral reforms in the state, this top-two primary system isn't shaking out quite as intended. 

Reformers promised more moderate candidates and more competitive races. Instead we've got something that looks like one-party rule.

With one-party rule, liberal-leftist Democrats, with their legislature super-majorities and Governor Jerry Brown, have enacted higher taxes, higher vehicle registration fees, "sanctuary state" and other wacko policies.

That, plus finding California to be unfriendly to business and too expensive for retirees (like me), I decided I've had enough.

This is a trend throughout the country where people are fleeing Blue States. See this article by Townhall.com.

New Mexico is considered to be somewhat a Blue State, but it is not nearly as leftist as California. Fortunately, New Mexico currently has a Republican governor.

Here's how Quora described New Mexico:

New Mexico is actually a swing state. It goes back and forth on national elections, and is very closely divided internally (like most states, which are purple). 

We have a Republican governor after all (the first female Hispanic governor to boot!), and typically have back-and-forth majorities in our local and state elections. 

Even our Democratic governors are usually left-of-center (Bill Richardson), and not “progressives.” And one of our most popular governors (Gary Johnson) is really more of a Libertarian than a Republican (liberal on social issues, conservative on economic ones). 

Like most states, there are many competing factions. Northerners are more liberal than southerners, urban more liberal than rural.

To read more of Quora's description of New Mexico, go here.

I now live in a community called Jamestown, which is 17 miles east of Gallup, New Mexico. Everyone I've met in Jamestown have been conservatives. Gallup was named "America's Most Patriotic Small Town" by map and atlas publisher Rand McNally. There's a shooting range near the community and there's a Warrior Women's Gun Supply store up the street from me.

So far, I am enjoying New Mexico. We need to get more Republicans to move into New Mexico.