Gavin Newsom Signs Glock Ban Bill Into Law

The People's Republic of Commiefornia took another anti-Second Amendment move.

Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill that will effectively ban some Glock pistols starting in 2026.

According to Concealed Nation:

SACRAMENTO, CA (3-minute read) — California has taken another firm step in reshaping its gun control landscape with Governor Gavin Newsom’s recent signing of Assembly Bill 1127. Starting July 1, 2026, this law will ban the sale of a wide range of semiautomatic pistols, particularly targeting those built with a “cruciform trigger bar” mechanism. While the bill doesn’t name specific manufacturers, the technical criteria clearly take aim at Glock pistols, including popular models like the G17 and G19.

To read more, go here.

UPDATE (10/12/25):

The National Rifle Association will be filing a lawsuit against this law. Stay tuned!

Interest-Free Home Loans For Illegal Aliens In California

The Looney Left Report

Thank God that I moved out of the People's Republic of California. The place has gotten loonier and loonier ever since I did six years ago. I knew this would happen once Gavin Newsom became governor.

Here's the latest, courtesy of the Gateway Pundit:

Meanwhile in the Democrat hellhole of California…

Illegal aliens will get interest-free home mortgage loans under a new California bill.

Democrat assemblymember Joaquin Arambula (Fresno) recently introduced Assembly Bill 1840 to extend a first-time homebuyer loan program to illegal aliens.

If the bill becomes law, illegal aliens will be eligible for a new program that offers a loan worth 20% of the purchase price of the residential property. There are no monthly payments and no interest accrues on the loan. Rather, the loan is paid back when the borrower refinances or sells the property. The borrower will have to pay back the original loan plus a 20% increase in the value of the property.

I guess the Democrats haven't learned any lessons from the mortgage meltdown of 2008.

To read more, go here. 

What Happened To California Republicans?

Townhall.com has an interesting article, "What happened to California Republicans?"

There's a number of things that led to the demise of the California GOP and the state is becoming more of a sh*thole daily. A wacky primary/general election system is one example. The flood of illegal aliens. The exodus of conservative voters. Incompetent state GOP leadership. Law & order is almost gone. These and other factors led to a one-party dictatorship of left-wing liberal Democrats.

Here's a snippet from the article:

As taxes climbed, schools eroded and funds for infrastructure were diverted elsewhere, millions of middle-class Californians fled. The total numbers of this continuing exodus are still in dispute. Many left in despair over climbing gas, sales and income taxes that seemed to worsen rather improve state infrastructure and services.

This tripartite demographic revolution proved disastrous for the Republican Party. The GOP lost much of its base to other states. Many conservative voters left for small-government, low-tax alternatives. Republican efforts to reduce taxes, limit some abortions and fund additional roads and dams had little appeal to the new gentry classes on the coast. 

Will there ever again be a viable California Republican Party? 

After three decades of radical progressivism, California residents are tiring of one-party straitjacket rule. The hard-liberal order normalized massive power blackouts, the nation's highest array of taxes, the forest mismanagement that fuels deadly fires, an epidemic of homelessness in major cities, eroding schools, ossified infrastructure and soaring energy costs.

That's why I left. California has become Commiefornia.

To read more, go here (if you dare). 

California Democrats Going Tax Crazy

The Looney Left Report

With each passing day, I am more and more glad that I moved out of the People's Republic of Commiefornia.

The one-party state government (all leftist Democrats) are chafing at the bit to enact more taxes on the citizens. Frankly, anyone who decides to remain in the "socialist utopia" is a fool!

According to Fox News:

With the tax-filing deadline just days away, California residents are worried that a slew of proposed levies on everything from soft drinks to water to tires and car batteries could soon see even more money going out of their pockets in the state that already has the nation's highest income tax. 

As Californians grapple with that 13.3 percent income tax – and some leaner-than-usual refunds this year due to the recent federal tax overhaul – lawmakers in Sacramento are looking at a range of other revenue sources. Members of the legislature's Democratic supermajority argue that these new taxes are vital to shore up the state coffers and to provide crucial services such as repairing crumbling infrastructure, cleaning up toxic wells and fighting obesity.

Overall, the California Tax Foundation has added up more than $6.2 billion worth of tax increase proposals pending in the state legislature, with that number expected to rise as bills are amended.

Some blame the state's Republican Party for failing to retain legislative seats. Perhaps some blame can go to the GOP (especially the lack of leadership within the state party for the past 12 or so years), but the big problem is the wacko primary system and vote harvesting the Democrats made into law.

Hang on to your wallets, folks!

To read more, go here. 

California Reaching The Point of "Taxuration"?

California, a.k.a. Commiefornia, is a one-party state (Democrats) thanks to the stupidity of the state's voters and other factors (such as its screwed-up primary election system and ballot harvesting, among other things). One could easily say that they got what they deserve.

But some would also say that the voters who didn't vote for the socialist Democrats don't deserve what's happening to their state and to themselves. But they could also vote with their feet (and moving vans) and get the hell out (as I did last year). If they are willing to remain in California, then they only have themselves to blame. No excuses.

Now, it looks as though the tax burden the Democrats have imposed on Californians have possibly reached the point of "taxuration".

According to an opinion piece in the Orange County Register by Jon Coupal, president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association:

The phenomenon of “taxuration” occurs when taxpayers are so saturated with new tax-hike proposals that they start to rebel.  According to a new poll, taxuration may have finally arrived in California, if hasn’t been here already. 

Last week, the Public Policy Institute of California released the findings of a survey showing that a majority of likely voters in the state aren’t very happy with the tax burdens they are forced to pay. Most Californians say the state’s tax system is unfair, which is a reversal from the same question asked in March 2017. More importantly, a solid majority of likely voters in California think they pay more taxes to state and local governments than they should. 

While perception is often not correlated with reality, it appears that Californians have a fairly realistic understanding of the tax burden in the state relative to other states.  According to the report, “The public’s perceptions are somewhat in line with fiscal facts: California’s state and local tax collections per capita in 2015 were 10th-highest in the nation,” citing the left leaning Tax Policy Center.  Note that another think tank, the Tax Foundation, ranks California even higher in tax burden.

It shouldn’t be surprising to anyone paying attention that citizens are reaching the breaking point on tax hikes. Every day seems to bring a new big tax-hike proposal emanating from the state Capitol.  Just one example that popped up this week was a proposal to bring back California’s estate tax, which was repealed by voters in 1982. Other tax-hike proposals in the mix include higher income tax rates, a water tax, a soda tax, sales tax on services and a so-called “carbon intensity” tax.  (Don’t ask.)

There is no end in sight in California as long as the socialists (who call themselves Democrats) remain in power. They're trying to skew the national elections like they did in California by trying to modify (in their favor) or eliminate the Electoral College.

Unless Californians actually do revolt, the only recourse they have is to move out.

To read more, go here.

California Wants To Tax Text Messages

The Looney Left Report

Commiefornia, oops, excuse me, California is increasingly making it more expensive to live in the state with their high taxes, cost of living (rents, vehicle registration, licenses, etc.), fuel and other things. And now there's a new scheme to gouge people out of their money.

The state's regulators now want to impose a surcharge on text messages!

According to The Mercury News:

Texting your sweetheart that you’re on your way home? California may soon charge you for that. 

This is no LOL matter, critics say. 

State regulators have been ginning up a scheme to charge a fee for text messaging on mobile phones to help support programs that make phone service accessible to the poor. The wireless industry and business groups have been working to defeat the proposal, now scheduled for a vote next month by the California Public Utilities Commission. 

“It’s a dumb idea,” said Jim Wunderman, president of the Bay Area Council business-sponsored advocacy group. “This is how conversations take place in this day and age, and it’s almost like saying there should be a tax on the conversations we have.” 

It’s unclear how much individual consumers would be asked to pay their wireless carrier for texting services under the proposal. But it likely would be billed as a flat surcharge per customer — one of those irksome fees at the bottom of your wireless bill — not a fee per text. 

Business groups, including the Bay Area Council, California Chamber of Commerce and Silicon Valley Leadership Group and others opposing the idea, calculated the new charges for wireless consumers could total about $44.5 million a year.

Actor James Woods had this to say about the scheme:

California wants to tax text messages now, to fund free phones for illegals- uh, sorry - “low income” users...

Since Commiefornia is a one-party state, you know darn well who has the power of appointing Public Utilities Commission members! The Democrat Party, of course!

To read more, go here. 

Guest Article: The Total Collapse of the California GOP

by Gary Julian

So Goes California

So Goes America

Immigration changes California

The Middle Class is telling the GOP to take a hike

• In district after district after district, well-off middle class California voters are rejecting the Republicans and sending Democrats to Congress. 
• The California Republican Party is sinking fast.  In time that will make GOP control of the House of Representatives almost impossible.

Thank open borders and a pathetic and ball-less California GOP that stands for and does next to nothings.

Statewide Races

The GOP could not even manage to run candidates for U.S. Senate or Lt. Governor.  The party lost all other statewide races by landslide numbers.

State Legislature

There are now 2/3s plus super majorities in both the State Senate and the State Assembly.

U.S. Congress

For Congressional seats the total collapse of the GOP can be seen.

Some 65% of California voters supported Leftists. Republicans are down to only 8 seats in the entire state.  In 7 districts the GOP did not even bother to run candidates.

GOP Weakness

The California GOP is so weak that in 3 districts it was Democrat vs Green Party with no Republican on the November ballot at all.

.

California's 13th congressional district election, 2018
Primary election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Democratic	Barbara Lee (incumbent)	159,751	99.3
	Green	Laura Wells (write-in)	832	0.5
	Republican	Jeanne Marie Solnordal (write-in)	178	0.1
	Libertarian	James M. Eyer (write-in)	39	0.0
	No party preference	Lanenna Joiner (write-in)	26	0.0
	American Independent	Vincent May (write-in)	3	0.0
Total votes			160,829	100.0
General election
	Democratic	Barbara Lee (incumbent)	246,592	88.4
	Green	Laura Wells	32,356	11.6
Total votes			278,948	100.0
	Democratic hold

D

California's 34th congressional district election, 2018
Primary election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Democratic	Jimmy Gomez (incumbent)	54,661	78.7
	Green	Kenneth Mejia	8,987	12.9
	Libertarian	Angela Elise McArdle	5,804	8.4
Total votes			69,452	100.0
General election
	Democratic	Jimmy Gomez (incumbent)	94,992	72.9
	Green	Kenneth Mejia	35,266	27.1
Total votes			130,258	100.0
	Democratic hold

E

California's 40th congressional district election, 2018
Primary election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Democratic	Lucille Roybal-Allard (incumbent)	35,636	80.3
	Green	Rodolfo Cortes Barragan	8,741	19.7
Total votes			44,377	100.0
General election
	Democratic	Lucille Roybal-Allard (incumbent)	78,312	77.4
	Green	Rodolfo Cortes Barragan	22,804	22.6
Total votes			101,116	100.0
	Democratic hold

E

Wikipedia.org

A One-Party State

45 Democrat Congressmen
Only 8 Republicans

GOP Congressional seats are colored pink to represent the cowardly pussy Republicans who are frightened to death to do anything about anything. The dark blue seats are the GOP seats that went Democrat.

Republican Palm Springs
is now Democrat

Not that long ago you could drive from Santa Barbara on the California coast to Los Angeles to Palm Springs and the Arizona border and virtually never leave a Republican Congressional District.  Now almost every single seat is held by Leftist Democrats.
.
Republicans are losing solid middle class seats.  The GOP not being able to win over the middle class means the party will become extinct.

Bill Introduced For Communist Holiday In Commiefornia

The Looney Left Report

"It's a MADHOUSE!" So cried Charlton Heston's character, Taylor, in the science-fiction classic, The Planet of the Apes (1968).

And so it is in the People's Republic of Commiefornia, which is what the radical left-wing Democrats have turned California's government into. Each time a wacko action is taken by the Democrats, the more glad I am for leaving Commiefornia.

Here's the latest in Democrat lunacy (from Breitbart):

A Democrat California assemblyman introduced a bill seeking to make “May Day,” or International Workers Day, a state holiday that would replace President George Washington’s or President Abraham Lincoln’s birthday. 

Assemblyman Miguel Santiago’s (D-Los Angeles) legislation calls for consolidating the two presidents’ birthdays to be observed on the third Monday in February as a single “President’s Day” holiday, but it also calls for the state to observe May 1 as “International Workers Day.” 

International Workers Day, also known as “May Day,” had been observed in countries under Communism for decades and was designated as an official holiday of the Soviet Union. 

But not everyone in the California Assembly was on board with replacing a president’s birthday with a holiday steeped in communist roots. 

“Are we in competition to become the laughingstock of the United States?” Assemblyman Matthew Harper (R-Huntington Beach) asked in a floor speech Thursday. “This is ridiculous. This is insane.”

It is actually not too surprising that this bill was introduced by Assemblyman Miguel Santiago. He's a well-known leftist lunatic.

The lunacy is not just confined to Democrats in Commiefornia, the whole Democrat Party is radicalized.

As Rush Limbaugh put it the other day:

The problem is that the Democrat Party is being California-ized. The Democrat Party is becoming unabashedly, no attempt to disguise it whatsoever, full-throated socialist. 

There is no Democrat Party, or there soon will not be a Democrat Party of your youth, and certainly not the Democrat Party of your parents. It is trending full-throttle socialism, and it doesn’t stop at socialism. Communism never stops at socialism, or socialism doesn’t stop until it gets to communism, and that’s where they are headed. The Democrat Party is being taken over by pure, undiluted, raw socialists. 

They are winning primaries. They are determining the Democrat Party agenda. They have taken over California. California has already gone in that direction. California’s lost. There is no Democrat Party of old in California. It’s full-fledged radical and on the border of insane socialism.

It's a MADHOUSE!

To read more, go here. 

California Bill Would Allow Illegals To Serve On Government Boards

The Looney Left Report

It is stories like the following that makes me thank God that I was given enough wisdom to move out of the People's Republic of Commiefornia. Of course, we can thank the lunatic Democrat dictatorship for the latest in lunacy.

The Daily Caller reported:

As California expands services to illegals residing in the state, legislation introduced Monday in the state legislature would allow them to sit on government boards and potentially collect pay for doing so. 

According to the Sacramento Bee, Democratic state Sen. Ricardo Lara’s bill would change the current law surrounding appointments to state and local boards to include anyone over the age of 18 — without considering whether the nominee is an American citizen.

These illegals have no legal right or any business being in California or in any other state. But guess who the leftist wackos of the Democrat Party caters to? It certainly aren't the citizens of California or legal immigrants.

To read more, go here. 

The People's Republic of California Blog

For news and commentary on what the liberal/leftist lunatics are doing in the People's Republic of Commiefornia, check out The People's Republic of California blog.

The blog's mission statement (a nice to-the-point one):

THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CALIFORNIA - This site is dedicated to exposing the continuing Marxist Revolution in California and the all around massive stupidity of Socialists, Luddites, Communists, Fellow Travelers and of Liberalism in all of its ugly forms.

To view the blog, 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. 

Exodus Out of California

When a NBC-related channel reports on a problem with a state that's a bastion of liberalism, it tells you that there is a major problem.

People are fleeing the People's Republic of California (or, as I like to refer to it, Commiefornia) due to high taxes and the high cost of living.

CNBC reported:

Californians may still love the beautiful weather and beaches, but more and more they are fed up with the high housing costs and taxes and deciding to flee to lower-cost states such as Nevada, Arizona and Texas. 

"There's nowhere in the United States that you can find better weather than here," said Dave Senser, who lives on a fixed income near San Luis Obispo, California, and now plans to move to Las Vegas. "Rents here are crazy, if you can find a place, and they're going to tax us to death. That's what it feels like. At least in Nevada they don't have a state income tax. And every little bit helps." 

Senser, 65, who previously lived in the east San Francisco Bay region, said housing costs and gas prices are "significantly lower in Las Vegas. The government in the state of California isn't helping people like myself. That's why people are running out of this state now." 

Based on the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey data, "lower income Californians are the ones who are leaving, not higher income," said Christopher Thornberg, founding partner of research and consulting firm Beacon Economics in Los Angeles. 

He said housing is the chief reason people are leaving California, pointing out there are frequently bidding wars for what limited inventory of homes is available. 

A USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times Poll of Californians last fall found that the high cost of living, including housing, was the most important issue facing the state. It also found more than half of Californians wanted to repeal the state's new gas tax, which raised fees by 40 percent. 

"The rate at which California has been losing people to other states has accelerated in the past couple of years, in part because of rising housing costs," said Jed Kolko, chief economist with employment website Indeed.com.

This hardly sounds like a "workers' paradise", does it? We can thank the Democrat Party who runs California for all of this. This is what happens when you have a one-party state with no viable opposition party.

To read more, go here. 

California's Quality of Life Is The Worst

Well, this really doesn't come as a surprise to me, but it is really sad that the once "Golden State" has become the "Garbage State". 

California has come in dead last in a survey on the quality of life for its citizens.

Fox News reported:

Awards season is in full swing in California, and the Golden State just took home a booby prize of its own. 

California ranks dead last among U.S. states in quality of life, according to a study by U.S. News, ranking behind New Jersey (49th) and Indiana (48th). 

The ignominious honor reflects California’s low marks in the sub-categories of environmental quality and social engagement. The latter category measures voting participation and community bonds.

Californians scored poorly in part because they’re simply insufferable, U.S. News suggested. 

“In addition to a healthy environment, a person’s quality of life is largely a result of their interactions with those around them,” the magazine wrote in a blurb accompanying the results. 

One way to measure quality life is whether residents can even afford to have a roof over their heads, and by that standard, California is failing. 

In regard to the cost of rentals in California, my last rent was $1,034 per month. This is only because I lived at my apartment two months shy of 20 years. Most everyone else in the building are paying $1,300 to $1,500 per month for a one-bedroom apartment.

Although there's a housing shortage, California is still building homes just about everywhere. My question for all this building is, "Where are you going to get the water for these people?"

Of course, when you have a bunch of leftist lunatics running the state, infrastructure improvements and sound planning suffer. I am glad that I left that cesspool.

To read more, go here.

Why California Sucks

Once called "The Golden State", California, under a one-party (i.e., Leftist Socialist Democrats) rule, California has now become "The Garbage State". 

Here's a guest opinion piece from a friend and former co-worker (with some editing and additions by me).


Why California Sucks by Mary V Diana

Way to go asshole Brown..He being in office is clearly proof of voter fraud.
What to know what’s happening in good ole California these days?

Check this out-

Here are some of the highlights of this last CRAZY session in California:

1. SB-1: increases your gas taxes by approximately 20 Cents (Nov 1 - per gallon) and your vehicle license fees by an average of $100 (Jan 1st).

2. Passed Cap N Tax which will increase gas from 0.63 to 0.93 cents a gallon change and the taxes that go with it.

3. Proposed increase on a new tax every residence will pay for tap water in the State!

4. A $3.46B parks bond to pay for parks in "disadvantaged communities" meaning Los Angeles. We will get the crumbs. The debt service will be over $200 million a year. The good news is some money goes to help fix the Salton Sea which should have always been a State responsibility!

5. Law to release any lifer (murder, rape , child molestation, etc) who is: 60 years old and has already spent 25 years in prison!

Charles Manson qualifies today and the Melendez brothers that murdered their parents could be released in about 12 years? What about victims?

6. A new $10 charge on all residents living in a mobile home parks to address living condition enforcement in those parks? Why does the left embrace these regressive taxes on the poor?

7.. We picked an official dinosaur of the State of California. Really? Yes!

8. Blackmail Tesla to either unionize with the United Auto Workers Union or forfeit State incentives to buy their electric cars! Just another Union Grab!

9. Reduce from a felony to a misdemeanor the purposeful intent to transmit the AIDS virus to a unknowing partner.

10. Give preferential treatment to prisoners convicted of serious crimes that are less than 25 years old because their brains are not mature enough to understand right from wrong. Whaaat? If the brains of our kids don't mature until 25, why do we allow them to vote?

11. A bill to require our true sex be omitted from drivers licenses? Whaaat?

12.. Free legal services for illegal immigrants.

13. Establish safe "injection zones" run by government to oversee people injecting heroin! You have to be kidding me? Yep, it passed.

And, this just in (added by Armand):

14. Gov. Jerry Brown has agreed to restore the voting rights of convicted felons serving time in county jails.

The bill that Brown announced signing Wednesday also reinstates the voting eligibility of felons on probation or under community supervision beginning next year. It does not affect those in state or federal prisons.

15. Brown has made California a "sanctuary state" for illegal aliens.

16. Sexual harassment of women, including Nancy Pelosi's daughter, in the California State Assembly.

17.  Governor Jerry Brown signed a bill that will make one year free for students at the state’s 114 community colleges, so long as they are residents and new students who are enrolled full-time. Wonder why Californians pay such high taxes?

18. Recreational use of marijuana has been approved by the voters in California.

Californians Had Special Way To View the Eclipse… Now Hospitals Are Filling Up

Above, the total eclipse as seen in Idaho. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

There have been many things I've heard about over the years that leave one with head shaking.

The latest comes from the Conservative Tribune. It seems that some Californians have no common sense (or any other kind) left.

They wrote:

This is what happens when your state thinks Jerry Brown deserves four terms as governor. 

As you no doubt heard last week, much of America was in the path of a rare solar eclipse, including the People’s Republic of California. As you also doubtlessly heard, you weren’t supposed to stare into the sun without a special pair of glasses.

Makes sense, right? But, someone didn't get the memo, apparently.

They go on to report:

According to one nurse practitioner in California who spoke to KRCR-TV, patients actually presented at urgent care complaining of eye pain because — and I can’t believe I’m going to write the words I’m about to type — they put sunscreen on their eyes because they didn’t have glasses.

To read more, go here. 

Article of Impeachment Introduced: Democrats Prove They're Nuts!

Above, Brad Sherman.

Rep. Brad Sherman went ahead, against all rationality, to introduce an article of impeachment against President Trump.

This caught the attention of El Rushbo himself, Rush Limbaugh, who posted on Facebook:

Can't believe the Left is actually dumb enough to do this...

Young Conservatives posted:

Somewhere in the People’s Republic of California, Maxine Waters is doing a little happy dance. 

Democratic Representative Brad Sherman officially introduced an article of impeachment against President Trump on Monday. 

The congressman did so under the belief that the President committed obstruction of justice in his conversations with former FBI Director James Comey.

It was clear liberals were hopeful that James Comey would deliver the evidence they needed for an impeachment case, but few have been willing to call for impeachment since Comey’s disappointing performance last Thursday.

With the exception of Sherman, apparently.

Nobody ever said that Sherman was the brightest bulb on the marquee. Actually, far from it, as this stunt shows he's totally nuts!

If anyone thinks that Trump or the GOP can work with these idiots, they should get their heads examined.

To read more, go here.

Brown and Democrats Plan To Raise Gasoline Taxes

It always happens when one political party controls a state or country with super-majorities with no real opposition to speak of. Such is the case with the People's Republic of California.

The California Socialist Party, who call themselves Democrats, are planning to drastically hike taxes allegedly for road maintenance.  As is the usual case, the state's Republicans were excluded from negotiations.

According to the Sacramento Bee:

Gov. Jerry Brown and Democratic legislative leaders announced a $5.2 billion road-funding package Wednesday that would raise gas taxes and user fees on motorists, setting off a major political struggle to pass it in the Legislature. 

Officials have set an April 6 deadline to approve the package, which would increase fuel taxes and contains a new sliding charge linked to a vehicle’s value. The agreement also includes a constitutional amendment meant to keep lawmakers from shifting transportation revenue to other uses, something that happened frequently in the past.

For the owner of a $30,000 vehicle, who drives 13,000 miles a year at 25 miles per gallon, Wednesday’s package would cost an additional $16.80 a month at full implementation, assuming tax levels in place today. 

The package would raise gas and diesel excise taxes. For the gas tax, the base excise tax of 18 cents – the amount it’s been since 1994 – would increase to 30 cents on Nov. 1. Administration officials said that amount reflects what the 1994 rate would be now if it had been adjusted for inflation. 

In addition, the plan would set the variable gas excise tax at 17.3 cents a gallon starting July 1, 2019, and adjust it for inflation. The current variable rate is 9.8 cents, a rate set to increase to 11.7 cents July 1. Without any change, state officials expect the July 1, 2018, rate to be about 16 cents a gallon. 

Also, the package would create several tiers of “transportation improvement” charges linked to vehicle values beginning on Jan. 1, 2018. Those with vehicles worth up to $4,999 would pay $25, for example, while those with a vehicle worth $60,000 and up would pay $175.

In addition to the above, the proposed package will impose a $38 flat registration fee increase.

Californians already pay some, if not all, of the highest gasoline prices in the country. Now they want to stick it to California drivers even further.

Remember, Gov. Gray Davis was recalled for hiking taxes on California drivers.

To read more, go here.

****************
UPDATE (4/7/17):

The Democrat-controlled legislature in California passed the tax bill (SB 1). It now goes to the governor for his signature.

Looney Left Report: All Guns Must Be Locked or Disabled In L.A.

The Looney Left Report

The left wing loons on the Los Angeles City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to force gun owners to either disable or lock their handguns in their own homes.

The People's Republic of California blog reported:

On October 27 the Democrat Los Angeles City Council voted unanimously to require all handguns to locked or disabled inside the owner’s home. 

The measure was pushed by Councilman Paul Krekorian–the same council member who recently pushed through an ordinance requiring all ammunition magazines with greater-than-10-round capacity to be surrendered to the police or otherwise disposed.

Gee, this sounds like an open invitation to rapists and home invasion robbers to do as they please without fear of getting blown away by their victims.

You can bet that this ordinance will wind up in court.

To read more, go here.

City of San Fernando Raises Hell Over Bullet Train Route

Above, a Japanese bullet train at Tokyo Station. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

California's "bullet train to nowhere" gained more opposition as leaders from the City of San Fernando strongly voiced their opposition to the state's boondoggle project.

The People's Republic of California blog posted an article from the Los Angeles Times which read (in part):

(Los Angeles Times)  -  Finding a route into the Los Angeles Basin for the California bullet train is proving far more difficult than it seemed a year ago, as opposition is surging in wealthy and working-class communities alike. 

The depth of opposition became more apparent Thursday evening when protesters in the city of San Fernando took over an open house meeting held by the California High-Speed Rail Authority. They demanded that state officials answer questions about the project's impact on their community. 

But unlike typical protests, this one was led by elected officials. Seventy people, headed by the city's mayor pro tem and other current and former city officials, marched into a city auditorium and set up their own public address system.

This reminds me of the long battle the City of Hawthorne waged against the Century Freeway (now called the Glenn Anderson Freeway) back in the 1960s and 1970s. Hawthorne objected to the original route of the freeway as it bisected the city into two. Eventually, the dispute was settled as the freeway planners came up with a bell-shaped route that took the freeway around Hawthorne.

To read more, go here.

California's Drought Continues: No Measurable Rain In Bay Area In January

Too Many People Making The Problem Worse

December in the San Francisco Bay Area and other parts of Northern California had one of the wettest Decembers on record.

Then, we moved into January and the rains all ended. For the month of January, the total amount of rainfall in the Bay Area and Sacramento was...zip, zero, nada.

This is the first time on record that no measurable rainfall dropped on the Bay Area for a month.

According to the San Jose Mercury News:

For the first time ever, San Francisco, Oakland and Sacramento have recorded no rainfall for the month of January -- nada drop. 

San Jose has received a record-low .02 inches, and no rain is forecast for at least a week. 

Adding more ominous news to California's historic drought, the Bay Area's rainy season has swung from boom to bust, with the month of January wrapping up as the driest on record. 

"Dismally meager," is how the state Department of Water Resources on Thursday described the precious Sierra snowpack, which has plummeted statewide to 25 percent of its average for this time of year.

February is generally the wettest month of the year. Hopefully, we will have a normal or above-normal month of rainfall.

California is having a tough time with this drought. We've had others before, but we've never had such an explosion in population growth. There's just too many people here and the state is trying to bring in more "water-sucking" people (according to the People's Republic of California blog).

It has gotten so bad in Southern California, that it seems that the weekend freeway traffic in L.A. is worse than during work days.

To read more, go here.