Happy Presidents Day!

Today is Presidents Day.

This being a federal holiday, banks are closed and there's no mail deliveries today. So, we can relax a bit and save some money and not have to stress about receiving bills in the mail. 

Above, Ronald and Nancy Reagan at the Town & Country
Hotel in San Diego in September 1979. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

The Moribund California Republican Party

Above, Ronald Reagan addressing a rally at the 1979 California Republican Party
 convention at the Town & Country Hotel in San Diego. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

Back in the 1970s and 1980s, I regularly attended the annual conventions of the California Republican Party (also known as the Republican State Central Committee of California). 

These days, state party has become a moribund shell of its former self. During the days of Ronald Reagan, George Deukmejian and even Pete Wilson, the party had fairly decent leadership. I remember the days when the party mobilized its troops and won many special elections, even during the Watergate period.

Since Arnold Schwarzenegger's disastrous terms as governor, including his wacko Proposition 14, California has become essentially a one-party state. Small wonder it is called Commiefornia.

The party held its first 2024 convention in Burlingame last month. I just read one person's report on how the convention went and it is not too encouraging. 

The report, by William Del Pilar, begins with:

I am back from the California Republican Party (CAGOP) convention. My first in a few years, and many familiar faces are no longer around. While old leadership remains, I did see more younger faces than ever before. That gives me hope.

It was also great to see the San Diego Young Republicans out as a visible group. I met the future:

• A young female mayor with chutzpah, Indian farmers who’ve had enough.
• Latinos are fed up with Democrats hiding transitioning children from them.
• More blacks and Latinos are tired of CAGOP RINOs and are entering political races.

Sadly, none of that matters to an extent because leadership continues to be led by a token Latina who was elected not once, twice, but three times to serve her masters and not the people. For the bigots who want to call me racist, WRONG! I’m a conservative Latino, and I don’t need to be Latino to figure out why this person was selected to lead the CAGOP. She works for those above her who pay her, not the people!

To read the full report, go here. 

CA Reparations Committee Wants Apology For Reagan's "Welfare Queen" Term

Above, Ronald and Nancy Reagan at the Town & Country
Hotel in San Diego, September 1979. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

The Democrat Party, who has a stranglehold on California's state government, has sunk into a deeper abyss of stupidity with their "reparations task force".

Along with recommending paying millions to the state's blacks, they want a formal state apology for then-Gov. Ronald Reagan's coinage of  the term, "welfare queen". The term was used in relation to people who engaged in welfare fraud in the state.

From Fox News:

California's reparations task force is calling on the Golden State to issue a formal apology for former Gov. Ronald Reagan coining the term "welfare queen" and for a disproportionately low number of Black Californians working as doctors and lawyers as part of a broader effort to make amends for slavery and racism.

The task force, which was created by state legislation signed by incumbent Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2020, formally approved over the weekend its final recommendations to the California Legislature, which will then decide whether to implement the measures and send them to the governor's desk to be signed into law.

Among the recommendations is for California to issue a formal apology enacted by the legislature and signed by the governor for slavery and anti-Black racism.

"The legislature must apologize on behalf of the state of California and the people of California for the perpetration of gross human rights violations and genocide of Africans who were enslaved and their descendants through public apology, requests for forgiveness, censure of state perpetrators, and tributes to victims," the task force writes in its proposal.

California never allowed slavery in its history, but pro-reparations advocates argue the state still worked to uphold the institution and discriminated in other ways against Black Americans.

I'm glad I moved out of that crazy state!

To read more, go here. 

Ronald Reagan In San Diego

Above, Gov. Reagan addresses the rally. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

Now that I have my old photo albums easily accessible, I have been going through them.

This morning, I was going through an album from 1979. In it, are some photos from the Fall convention of the California Republican Party (those were the days when there really was a California Republican Party) in which former Governor Ronald Reagan and Nancy Reagan attended a rally at the Town & Country Hotel in San Diego on September 15, 1979.

Above, Paul (Mike) Evans, lower left, is approached by the Reagans. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

Reagan was getting ready for his 1980 campaign for president. He later won the nomination on the first ballot at the 1980 Republican National Convention in Detroit.

I scanned a couple of photos of that rally. They were slightly faded, but I did some tinkering and made them look marginally better.