jedrider wrote:Plantagenet, you probably only know of what's happening here from the news headlines.
Thats not true. I know California very very well. I lived in Berkeley for a while, and for years I've made an annual trip to the Bay Area to participate in the American Geophysical Union meeting. I've also done many other trips all over California....I was just in northern California last week, and I'll be in LA and San Diego early next year.
jedrider wrote:California is in a simultaneous ecological crisis and housing crisis, the latter because of unique economic reasons
There are no "unique economic reasons" in California. There are just uniquely bad policies adopted by the Ds who run California. For instance, in most other states it is illegal to poop on the street or to publicly use heroin or other drugs, or to set up your tent in a public park or on the sidewalk and take up residence there. The liberal Ds in California have decided not to enforce these kinds of laws, and the result is there are massive numbers of drug users passed out on the streets of San Francisco, many of them in the Soma area around the Moscone Center where the AGU convention occurs. The police just ignore them. There are hundreds and thousands of people camped in SF city parks and on side walks....rather then citing them and removing their tents the liberal Ds facilitate it. And then the liberal Ds ignore EPA regulations about polluting waterways and allow raw human escrement and needles to flood into city sewers and into SF Bay.
For heaven's sake....that isn't "unique." Its disgusting and dangerous and illegal and the liberal policies of the Ds that have created this situation need to be changed.
jedrider wrote: Right now, the wind is blowing like it never had before, and that is not due to a Democratic administration BTW.
Of course not....but the pathetic response of Gov. Newsome and other D politicians to the problems created by global change is consistent with the failure of the Ds to tackle many problems during the decades long domination of California politics by the D party. Right now Gov. Newsome keeps blasting PG&E like its their fault the climate is changing. There are things that the state should be doing immediately in response to climate change.....california faces a need to take steps to ameliorate the risk from forest fire and to start pulling back from the coasts which will be affected by climate change. Cutting extensive fire breaks in the forests to stop the spread of forest fires, for instance, should be done immediately. Here where I live in Alaska an huge fire break was cut just outside of town about 20 years ago....this last summer we had a major forest fire that threatened to destroy my little town....but the fire break was used to stop the fire and it held and saved our town.
California is a glorious state....its just been cursed with one party rule for the last several decades.
Cheers!