Social media governance. The California legislature has a gift for making laws that don’t work. Yes, they have a gift for making laws that are insane and extreme, but beyond that, they have a gift for making laws that are strangely written, full of practical dead ends and undefined assumptions, and highly likely to be dismantled or substantially reshaped in court. They don’t pass laws as laws; they pass laws as symbols and status gestures, as onanistic TikTok social display. I’ll give a few examples, but first let’s start with the ruler of the Congo.
What I find ironic is that I, an uneducated bumpkin (I only have a BA and that from a state school) from the backcountry (meaning the expansive Midwest where Starbucks only became popular about a decade ago) know that the "Democratic" Republic of the Congo has no monarchy, and never did. And yet my social and education betters get taken in. Yup, about right.
As for the rest, yes, it's all virtue signaling, but while it's laughable, it's not without its consequences. There are the basic, immediate ones, in that doctors will be put through hell along with parents in custody battles. There's the stress and the legal fees. And even if it turns out "okay" in the end, it is an unnecessary nightmare.
But this also distracts from real problems, like streets that need maintaining, children that don't learn, people that are left behind, and that's part of the charm, at least for the ones that do the signaling.
Finally, and this is the one that really will wake you up at night, you're dealing with a group for whom the ends justify the means. So, no, they can't get this done, but when they don't get it done, they will use that as an excuse to rewrite the system because the system is "undemocratic" or not "socially just" and based on "white supremacy," or some variation on that theme. Look what happened with Dobbs. The court overturned Roe, which even "ultra MAGA conservative" RBG suggested would happen because the ruling was faulty, but rather than take another tact and work with the states or figure out how to approach the issue in a way that might not violate the constitution, we immediately hear, "This is why you have to elect Democrats so we can pack the court and save democracy."
So, yes, this is laughable and annoying but it also bodes poorly for the future if it's not brought to a halt and people don't demand better of their "leaders."
Hey, you know what? I don't care what your bona fides are, YOU'RE PLENTY SMART. Never put yourself down, because lookit... You're not a fricken Covidiot! xo
My high school political science teacher once said “The only reason the [federal] government is good is that it’s set up to not work”. That was 32 years ago and I’ll never forget it.
Oct 20, 2022·edited Oct 20, 2022Liked by Chris Bray
I call them Merit Badges. If you're a lowly city official who aspires to greater things you need your "Equity (tm) Merit Badge", "Common-Sense Gun Control (tm) Merit Badge", "Green Energy (tm) Merit Badge"...
Doesn't matter if all your initiatives go down like a procession of Hindenburgs behind you - the IMPORTANT thing is you get enough badges to wave at the doorman and join the CA political ruling class/families.
Excellent! We live in an Instagram, Twitter world, not a kinetic world. There is a glimmer of hope people, are rejecting the Meta. People have acquired an attention span of 250 words or less.
You have convinced me more that this state is lost!
Thank you, Chris, for consistently providing LOL moments in your articles that remind me why— with all the craziness going on around us—maintaining a sense of humor is essential to not going mad!
But they're not compassionate or concerned with people that need help. They just say they are. Narcissists only care about their own feelings, but will pay lip service to others suffering, however they do not actually feel any of the things they say.
Right, it’s mostly cynical and performative. It’s Kabuki theater. Just like when a few illegal aliens ( what they are called in the federal code), who are theoretical darlings of the very compassionate and evolved Democrats, arrived in highly affluent, highly Left leaning Martha’s Vineyard, and were promptly escorted off island lest they deflate somebody’s soufflé. It’s all a facade of remote control compassion.
That's pretty much the definition of compassion and concern when it is not backed up by any other strengths or abilities: all dressed up and nowhere to go.
Yep. The best part is the people that don't have to live with them think they're the best thing on Earth since sliced white bread, making you just soooo lucky to live with them......As they rob you blind and spread lies about you.
Back in the twentieth century, only a few lib towns, like Berkeley or Madison, were delusional enough to have their own foreign policy. Now it seems kind of de rigeur for the wannabes at the local level to have grand aspirations of global influence. Good to learn about South Pasadena’s jazz outreach tho😏.
The only reason these people get away with their little fiefdoms is that the reality based humans don’t do anything to them. Up until recently they functioned in a civic vacuum and this gave them the opportunity to waste time and money on self serving crap. (Now that I think of it California really should just rebrand itself as the Republic of Leftist Self Serving Crap.) Now that is changing to some extent, as normal people are awakening to the mischief afoot, and hopefully this trend will continue.
This guy is so evil. He’s a scary little man. He’s a mass murderer hiding in plain sight, and he’s just one leader in a big, very bad machine. And people keep getting these f-g dangerous injections. Makes me wanna scream. But that’s a dead end. We have to stay positive. They want us depressed and helpless. Fuck’em. Have a glass of wine. Do stuff you enjoy. Hug your kids.
He exists in another reality that we ourselves prop up with apathy, ignorance, inaction, groveling, confusion, appeasement, submission and the near total abdication of our own responsibility to fight the good fight. I've dealt with these Beltway, coastal types and they don't even recognize that their reality is not our reality, but they do expect (without missing a beat ever) that the rest of us honor and support their self-satisfied, self-dealing version of 'the way things should be'. And for the most part, we do.
Well, over here in the UK we're about to get our 3rd prime minister in 12 months. Truss quit after 44 days of relentless misogyny from our beloved legacy media......and one of our local council officials has just been exposed trolling the council from an anonymous twitter account 🤣 😆
Truss wanted to be PM from the age of 5 yet when she achieved her lifelong goal she hadn't a clue what to do. When attempting to legislate, she was unable to take a stand and successfully enact reforms that fit with her philosophy. Her leadership skills were lacking and she failed to earn the respect of her party; reversing course when she encountered opposition instead of taking a stand. If criticism arising from abject failure is known as misogyny, then we have set a very low bar for female politicians and officially joined the world of wokedom.
I was talking about the relentless intense scrutiny and sneering from the media, which was evident from day one. A bloke would not have faced that. At all. No matter how incompetent he was.
I think the previous (and possibly next) incumbent Boris Johnson received his fair (and well deserved) share of 'intense scrutiny and sneering from the media'. It's the way of the world these days.
Calling out incompetence is now misogyny? Have I stumbled into the Rabbit Hole, do we now use gender as a defence? Give an example of any criticism made against Liz Truss that focused on gender rather than the inability to deal with a very difficult situation.
A man would not have been subjected to the same intense scrutiny and sneering from the media as she was. That is what I was talking about. There was a sustained campaign against her from day one.
Well... maybe. It does happen a lot, I'll certainly agree with you on that. As a woman (the real kind), I experience it and see it all the time. But THIS woman... she's deserving of the skepticism, in my opinion. AND I give the same intense scrutiny to everybody, man, woman, squirrel... Everybody.
Me too. Its easy to forget though, British media is owned by men (elderly at that), run by men, mainly edited by men....most of the news we're fed is through the prism of a male lens. Yes there are female news "anchors" but who tells them what to do? It's always been like this, in fact I'm not sure if it isn't worse than when I was a teenager in the 80s.
I sooooo hear you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The whole world is pretty much under the boot of Caustic Patriarchy. I don't blame ALL men, that's too easy to jump to that and then blame the victims... So much mind fuckery in this world, and women do it, too, but the difference in my mind is that men have most of the financial power, political power, social status, and they're bigger and stronger, too. Bill Gates, the ultimate Dork Psychopath Moron, owns 70% of the farmland in my country (US). THAT is fucked up! I get so irritated and frustrated sometimes, with the whole lot of those men critters, but I also know quite a few really and truly Good Guys. It's a male problem, and those Good Guys are the ones that will solve it. That's why I try to give kudos to the men who ARE good. Because I appreciate them. And I also try to support the GALS who need and deserve it!!! We're all human beans (except when I'm a dog), and we all need love and respect, and right now, we are in a time where the Rats must be separated from the rest. So that's my sermon for today, woof! xo
Yeah, I know some good men, I'm married to one, and I agree with you. It's not all men but jhfc some are just so blind.....nodding along with it all. Yeah Mr Gates is a doozy. Too much money and no discernible intelligence, but loads of yes men around him telling him how wonderful he and his crackpot ideas are. I have 2 sons and I'm determined to raise them to be good men, they're great kids I think we're OK so far. Xo
As a citizen of the Soviet socialist republic of Washington state....can relate. Our politicians at every level are dumb as rocks. Sorry for the insult, rocks!
Local CA office seekers should run on a simple platform: I’m going to do my job. I will make sure that the city will provide services and account for your tax dollars. I will not use my position to take taxpayer funded vacations or to stroke my ego.
At the very least, these people were somehow elected. Like people had to cast a freaking ballot to say, sure, let’s let this circus clown drive the wagon. Ah, power to the people. Except they likely vote out of performance theater, too.
So would "gender affirming" apply to a minor that does NOT want to change gender. Little Billy, I know your mom wants you to be a girl but you want to stay in your natural state as a boy, therefore we will protect you from being bullied or harassed or forced to change. Wouldn't that be "gender affirming" as also?
Oct 20, 2022·edited Oct 20, 2022Liked by Chris Bray
Even the revised description in the link of Queen Diambi as “leader of the Bantu ethnic group in the Democratic Republic of The Congo” is beyond suspicious.
“Bantu” is a European-coined ethno-linguistic term covering peoples throughout central and southern Africa, including most if not all of the groups native to the DRC. There is no self-described “Bantu ethnic group” for her to be leader of.
Are you sure that wasn’t just Cheryl from Kansas City getting more out of her act than she could ever reasonably have hoped for?
What I find ironic is that I, an uneducated bumpkin (I only have a BA and that from a state school) from the backcountry (meaning the expansive Midwest where Starbucks only became popular about a decade ago) know that the "Democratic" Republic of the Congo has no monarchy, and never did. And yet my social and education betters get taken in. Yup, about right.
As for the rest, yes, it's all virtue signaling, but while it's laughable, it's not without its consequences. There are the basic, immediate ones, in that doctors will be put through hell along with parents in custody battles. There's the stress and the legal fees. And even if it turns out "okay" in the end, it is an unnecessary nightmare.
But this also distracts from real problems, like streets that need maintaining, children that don't learn, people that are left behind, and that's part of the charm, at least for the ones that do the signaling.
Finally, and this is the one that really will wake you up at night, you're dealing with a group for whom the ends justify the means. So, no, they can't get this done, but when they don't get it done, they will use that as an excuse to rewrite the system because the system is "undemocratic" or not "socially just" and based on "white supremacy," or some variation on that theme. Look what happened with Dobbs. The court overturned Roe, which even "ultra MAGA conservative" RBG suggested would happen because the ruling was faulty, but rather than take another tact and work with the states or figure out how to approach the issue in a way that might not violate the constitution, we immediately hear, "This is why you have to elect Democrats so we can pack the court and save democracy."
So, yes, this is laughable and annoying but it also bodes poorly for the future if it's not brought to a halt and people don't demand better of their "leaders."
Hey, you know what? I don't care what your bona fides are, YOU'RE PLENTY SMART. Never put yourself down, because lookit... You're not a fricken Covidiot! xo
My high school political science teacher once said “The only reason the [federal] government is good is that it’s set up to not work”. That was 32 years ago and I’ll never forget it.
I call them Merit Badges. If you're a lowly city official who aspires to greater things you need your "Equity (tm) Merit Badge", "Common-Sense Gun Control (tm) Merit Badge", "Green Energy (tm) Merit Badge"...
Doesn't matter if all your initiatives go down like a procession of Hindenburgs behind you - the IMPORTANT thing is you get enough badges to wave at the doorman and join the CA political ruling class/families.
California is a bad joke. Unfortunately a lot of bad ideas start in California and spread east. God help us if they come to Florida and ruin it here.
Will the last sane person out of California turn off the lights on your way out?
The lights in California will go out on their own, soon enough.
😆 Exactly what I was thinking!
The lights in California tend to turn off on their own!
Don't be ridickerous. The lights have been out for a while now.
Excellent! We live in an Instagram, Twitter world, not a kinetic world. There is a glimmer of hope people, are rejecting the Meta. People have acquired an attention span of 250 words or less.
You have convinced me more that this state is lost!
Thank you, Chris, for consistently providing LOL moments in your articles that remind me why— with all the craziness going on around us—maintaining a sense of humor is essential to not going mad!
Just a sickening state and times we live in....pure evil
What you are talking about in this one isn't at all random -- it's a concrete, predictable, direct reflection of the personality traits of a large number (majority?) of the people inhabiting California. See https://www.colby.edu/psych/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2021/09/Xu_et_al_2021.pdf -- or if you are pressed for time and need a summary translation (e.g., "...the American left needs to learn and then remember that intense feelings of compassion and concern are not perfect substitutes for wisdom, competence, and skill"), see https://larryturner.substack.com/p/american-politics-well-past-the-time.
But they're not compassionate or concerned with people that need help. They just say they are. Narcissists only care about their own feelings, but will pay lip service to others suffering, however they do not actually feel any of the things they say.
Right, it’s mostly cynical and performative. It’s Kabuki theater. Just like when a few illegal aliens ( what they are called in the federal code), who are theoretical darlings of the very compassionate and evolved Democrats, arrived in highly affluent, highly Left leaning Martha’s Vineyard, and were promptly escorted off island lest they deflate somebody’s soufflé. It’s all a facade of remote control compassion.
🎯
That's pretty much the definition of compassion and concern when it is not backed up by any other strengths or abilities: all dressed up and nowhere to go.
Yep. The best part is the people that don't have to live with them think they're the best thing on Earth since sliced white bread, making you just soooo lucky to live with them......As they rob you blind and spread lies about you.
Back in the twentieth century, only a few lib towns, like Berkeley or Madison, were delusional enough to have their own foreign policy. Now it seems kind of de rigeur for the wannabes at the local level to have grand aspirations of global influence. Good to learn about South Pasadena’s jazz outreach tho😏.
The only reason these people get away with their little fiefdoms is that the reality based humans don’t do anything to them. Up until recently they functioned in a civic vacuum and this gave them the opportunity to waste time and money on self serving crap. (Now that I think of it California really should just rebrand itself as the Republic of Leftist Self Serving Crap.) Now that is changing to some extent, as normal people are awakening to the mischief afoot, and hopefully this trend will continue.
Side note:
https://rumble.com/v1oky12-the-real-anthony-fauci.html
The movie, which is a well done documentary, is free for the next few days. Thus turns out to be part one. Worth a watch. It will tick you off.
And Lord knows I need to be ticked off, more.
This guy is so evil. He’s a scary little man. He’s a mass murderer hiding in plain sight, and he’s just one leader in a big, very bad machine. And people keep getting these f-g dangerous injections. Makes me wanna scream. But that’s a dead end. We have to stay positive. They want us depressed and helpless. Fuck’em. Have a glass of wine. Do stuff you enjoy. Hug your kids.
He exists in another reality that we ourselves prop up with apathy, ignorance, inaction, groveling, confusion, appeasement, submission and the near total abdication of our own responsibility to fight the good fight. I've dealt with these Beltway, coastal types and they don't even recognize that their reality is not our reality, but they do expect (without missing a beat ever) that the rest of us honor and support their self-satisfied, self-dealing version of 'the way things should be'. And for the most part, we do.
They’re just snobs. That’s all. They aren’t any better than anybody else. I know these people.
Do you know if part 2 is available? I watched part 1 last night.
I don’t know, but I haven’t seen anything about it being available.
Surely the California politicians who act and think like this are aware of how many people are leaving the state. Do they understand why?
Gavin Newsom said last month that the population of California is declining because of Donald Trump.
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/editorials/california-is-losing-residents-and-gavin-newsom-has-excuses
LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL
That fucker is almost as much of a fuckhead as a couple of my relatives...
Are your relatives available to govern California? We're always hiring.
Probably. But they're busy pounding the hell out of me, spiritually and psychologically, right now.
Familiar with that one.
Sorry to hear that. I'm tougher than they are, tho. Sending some Good Vibes for your paw... and maybe your heart, too, eh? xo
Why has he sent mean e-mails to them? Or did he get overly spray tanned again and go to LA?
🤣🤣
Well, over here in the UK we're about to get our 3rd prime minister in 12 months. Truss quit after 44 days of relentless misogyny from our beloved legacy media......and one of our local council officials has just been exposed trolling the council from an anonymous twitter account 🤣 😆
Truss wanted to be PM from the age of 5 yet when she achieved her lifelong goal she hadn't a clue what to do. When attempting to legislate, she was unable to take a stand and successfully enact reforms that fit with her philosophy. Her leadership skills were lacking and she failed to earn the respect of her party; reversing course when she encountered opposition instead of taking a stand. If criticism arising from abject failure is known as misogyny, then we have set a very low bar for female politicians and officially joined the world of wokedom.
Nah, not a female thing, she's just a fucktard.
I was talking about the relentless intense scrutiny and sneering from the media, which was evident from day one. A bloke would not have faced that. At all. No matter how incompetent he was.
I think the previous (and possibly next) incumbent Boris Johnson received his fair (and well deserved) share of 'intense scrutiny and sneering from the media'. It's the way of the world these days.
Possibly she wasn't the media's choice. They seem to be in a collective orgasm at the prospect of Rishi Sunak so who knows.
Calling out incompetence is now misogyny? Have I stumbled into the Rabbit Hole, do we now use gender as a defence? Give an example of any criticism made against Liz Truss that focused on gender rather than the inability to deal with a very difficult situation.
A man would not have been subjected to the same intense scrutiny and sneering from the media as she was. That is what I was talking about. There was a sustained campaign against her from day one.
Well... maybe. It does happen a lot, I'll certainly agree with you on that. As a woman (the real kind), I experience it and see it all the time. But THIS woman... she's deserving of the skepticism, in my opinion. AND I give the same intense scrutiny to everybody, man, woman, squirrel... Everybody.
Me too. Its easy to forget though, British media is owned by men (elderly at that), run by men, mainly edited by men....most of the news we're fed is through the prism of a male lens. Yes there are female news "anchors" but who tells them what to do? It's always been like this, in fact I'm not sure if it isn't worse than when I was a teenager in the 80s.
I sooooo hear you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The whole world is pretty much under the boot of Caustic Patriarchy. I don't blame ALL men, that's too easy to jump to that and then blame the victims... So much mind fuckery in this world, and women do it, too, but the difference in my mind is that men have most of the financial power, political power, social status, and they're bigger and stronger, too. Bill Gates, the ultimate Dork Psychopath Moron, owns 70% of the farmland in my country (US). THAT is fucked up! I get so irritated and frustrated sometimes, with the whole lot of those men critters, but I also know quite a few really and truly Good Guys. It's a male problem, and those Good Guys are the ones that will solve it. That's why I try to give kudos to the men who ARE good. Because I appreciate them. And I also try to support the GALS who need and deserve it!!! We're all human beans (except when I'm a dog), and we all need love and respect, and right now, we are in a time where the Rats must be separated from the rest. So that's my sermon for today, woof! xo
Yeah, I know some good men, I'm married to one, and I agree with you. It's not all men but jhfc some are just so blind.....nodding along with it all. Yeah Mr Gates is a doozy. Too much money and no discernible intelligence, but loads of yes men around him telling him how wonderful he and his crackpot ideas are. I have 2 sons and I'm determined to raise them to be good men, they're great kids I think we're OK so far. Xo
I'm pleased to agree with you, and I'm a big Pro Gals kinda gal...
Liz Truss is nightmare, I don't care what her gender is... A Barbie doll could do a better job.
We may as well use "gender" as a defense. Others do, or use other physical attributes as a reason they fuck up everything.
As a citizen of the Soviet socialist republic of Washington state....can relate. Our politicians at every level are dumb as rocks. Sorry for the insult, rocks!
Local CA office seekers should run on a simple platform: I’m going to do my job. I will make sure that the city will provide services and account for your tax dollars. I will not use my position to take taxpayer funded vacations or to stroke my ego.
At the very least, these people were somehow elected. Like people had to cast a freaking ballot to say, sure, let’s let this circus clown drive the wagon. Ah, power to the people. Except they likely vote out of performance theater, too.
Well, we don't really have PROOF they were actually "elected"... do we?
So would "gender affirming" apply to a minor that does NOT want to change gender. Little Billy, I know your mom wants you to be a girl but you want to stay in your natural state as a boy, therefore we will protect you from being bullied or harassed or forced to change. Wouldn't that be "gender affirming" as also?
Works for me.
Even the revised description in the link of Queen Diambi as “leader of the Bantu ethnic group in the Democratic Republic of The Congo” is beyond suspicious.
“Bantu” is a European-coined ethno-linguistic term covering peoples throughout central and southern Africa, including most if not all of the groups native to the DRC. There is no self-described “Bantu ethnic group” for her to be leader of.
Are you sure that wasn’t just Cheryl from Kansas City getting more out of her act than she could ever reasonably have hoped for?
She's from Boca Raton.
My bad for mixing up the KC and Boca Raton tribes