RETARD ALERT! - Boehner Blames California Drought On Obama

Folsom Lake near Sacramento (Before & after drought)

Boehner: "Liberals caused the drought"

• Help!  As a Conservative John Muir Conservationist I have to wonder, is there anyone left in the GOP with a brain?  
• To bottom line this, the GOP is financed by water thirsty corporate agribusiness.  They are looking for any excuse to rape the Sacramento Delta and turn it into a dust bowl.
• I suspect that given half a chance the modern GOP would vote to sell Yosemite to developers using the excuse that it will "create jobs".

(Think Progress)  -  House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) took to Facebook on Tuesday to recast California’s worst drought in 1200 years as a “man-made water shortage” — not worsened by climate change, but by President Obama himself.

He also asserted that, in the midst of the historic Dust Bowl conditions, Americans still have a God-given right to green lawns.

Boehner, of course, famously said in May that he is “not qualified to debate the science over climate change.” That just affirmed what was clear from his bizarre 2009 assertion: “The idea that carbon dioxide is a carcinogen that is harmful to our environment is almost comical.”

But admitted scientific ignorance doesn’t slow the Speaker down. What has sparked his blinkered outrage this time is this photo he posted on Facebook:

Boehner brags here about what “Congress is doing to end President Obama’s man-made water shortage in the West.” Indeed, the House just passed a bill that essentially blames environmental polices for causing the drought, specifically policies that reduce water use to protect endangered fish species.

But actual scientists aren’t saying environmental uses caused California’s worst drought in 1200 years. Actual scientists explained earlier this year that the primary extent to which the drought has a man-made component is that man-made global warming is making it a lot worse. Man-made warming, they said, has led to record high temperatures. And according to the National Science Foundation, climate change has tripled the chances of the current weather pattern that has blocked California from getting precipitation (the Ridiculously Resilient Ridge).

Meanwhile, Boehner is outraged that people are being urged not to maintain their water-intensive green lawns in a semi-arid region during this epic drought. From his Facebook post:

If ever there was a phrase that perfectly encapsulates liberal environmentalists’ backwards priorities and regressive ideology of restriction and scarcity, it is the one now displayed on a government sign in Arcadia, California: “It’s ‘green’ to go brown.”

For the record, the soil moisture deficit in the state is truly unprecedented as measured by the Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI). Again, according to actual scientists, “the current event is the most severe drought in the last 1200 years, with single year (2014) and accumulated moisture deficits worse than any previous continuous span of dry years. … In terms of cumulative severity, it is the worst drought on record (-14.55 cumulative PDSI), more extreme than longer (4- to 9-year) droughts.”

Read More . . . .

Drought at Bidwell Marina at Lake Oroville

California bill ends grand jury hearings for police killings

Maybe it is time

• With calls of racism as the backdrop, the Democrat State Assembly put limits on Grand Juries.  In general I do not trust these un-elected secret panels that are manipulated by District Attorneys looking to make a name for themselves.

(The Tribune)  -  The California Assembly has narrowly advanced legislation to end the use of secret grand jury proceedings to investigate police shootings.

SB227 passed Thursday on a 41-to-33 vote, the minimum needed. It now heads to Gov. Jerry Brown for consideration.

The legislation by Democratic Sen. Holly Mitchell of Los Angeles is among several bills introduced in response to nationwide protests over police slayings of unarmed black men.

Grand juries did not bring criminal charges against officers who killed men in Ferguson, Missouri and Staten Island.

Mitchell says the secret proceedings are unfair and not transparent.

The California District Attorneys Association says grand juries are more transparent and fair in California than in other states.

There was no debate on the bill, but Republicans were opposed and several Democrats withheld votes.     Read More . . . .

Read more here: http://www.sanluisobispo.com/2015/07/16/3723990/california-bill-ends-grand-jury.html#storylink=cpyRead More . . . . 

31% of Californians are in poverty

Look Around You

• Everywhere you look in California there is an explosion of new 99 cent stores and thrift shops selling used clothes.
• While Californians struggle we see the open borders Democrats and Republicans importing millions and millions of new legal and illegal workers.

LOS ANGELES – (INT) - Almost 1 in 3 California households struggle each month to meet their basic needs, according to a report released Tuesday by United Ways of California. 

The report finds that 3.2 million California households do not earn enough income to account for the types of expenses-food, rent, health care-that are essential to maintain even an adequate level of economic security. 

Not only do these households not have enough money to save for the future or afford "luxuries" like eating out, but they are forced to confront tradeoffs each month about whether to forgo necessities like child care or doctor's appointments in order to make ends meet.

Some of the key findings from the ‘Struggling to Get B’ report: 

One in three California households (31%) do not have sufficient income to meet their basic costs of living. This is three times the proportion officially considered poor in California, according to the Federal Poverty Level. 

See our other articles:
‘You're Fired – Now Train Your Much Cheaper Foreign Replacement’
and
Only 39% of U.S. youth have jobs - A future of poverty

Households led by people of color disproportionately are likely to have inadequate incomes. 51% of Latino households and 40% of African American households have incomes below the Real Cost Measure. This is followed by Asian American households (28%) and white households (20%). 

60 percent of households led by a non-citizen struggle to get by. By contrast, 1 in 4 native-born Americans and 36% of naturalized American citizens are below the Real Cost Measure. 

Just over one-half of households with children under six years of age (51%) fall below the Real Cost Measure. 

Nearly 2 in 3 (64%) households maintained by single mothers have incomes below the Real Cost Measure. In contrast, just one-fourth of married couples with children (25%) are below the Real Cost Measure. 

Two-thirds (68%) of householders with less than a high school education have incomes below the Real Cost Measure. That number falls to 13% for those with at least a Bachelor's degree. 

Struggling households spend over 50% of their income on housing, and families living below the Federal Poverty Level can spend as much as 80% of their income on housing. 

Two full-time, minimum wage jobs are not enough to sustain a family of four. Yet, two-person, two-child households with two full-time, minimum wage earners earn $33,280 in gross income still fall below the Real Cost Measure by $10,000 to $30,000, depending on where they live. 

Struggling to Get By also uses the Elder Index refined by researchers at the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research and the Insight Center for Community Economic Development to take an in-depth look at senior-led households. Despite seniors' different needs and work-force participation than younger adults, Struggling to Get By finds that a similar share-almost 1 in 3 (31%) are struggling. 

(Inland News Today)

Democrats in California: "Work permits for farmworkers here illegally"

Importing Cheap Labor For Farmers

• The politicians pay American citizens not to work, and then import cheap foreign labor to help the profit margins of the agribusiness corporations that give mountains of campaign money to the politicians.  This is corporate welfare.
• My Mom grew up on a farm and helped harvest crops.  It was not that long ago that Americans, not imported foreigners, worked on our farms.

(Los Angeles Times)  -  Frustrated by Washington's inaction on immigration issues, California lawmakers are considering a measure to allow work permits for farmworkers living in the country illegally.

A similar effort died three years ago, opposed by immigrant rights groups and the state's powerful labor unions.

The legislation, which is backed by California farmers, sailed through the Assembly in June and is pending in the state Senate, where its prospects are uncertain.

The bill, which sponsor Assemblyman Luis Alejo (D-Watsonville) is quick to differentiate from existing guest worker programs, would create a group to seek authority for the proposed program from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Department of Justice.

Rather than grant temporary work visas to foreign laborers, as some other programs do, Alejo's proposed program would give permits to individuals already residing in the state without authorization and working in agriculture.

The laborers and immediate family members — spouses and children under 18 or enrolled at an accredited institution — could remain in California without threat of deportation. The workers would have be at least 18, have performed a minimum amount of agricultural labor in the state and pay a fee to help cover administrative costs.

Read More . . . .

A
Shock!  -  Scots work on farms.
For thousands of years the Scots have somehow managed to plant and harvest their own crops without importing Mexican labor. . . . But to racist U.S. politicians working on a farm and getting your hands dirty is beneath the dignity of an American.  Instead we pay American citizens of all races not to work and import Hispanics.

A
Shock! -  Kenyans work on farms.
For thousands of years the Kenyans have somehow managed to plant and harvest their own crops without importing Mexican labor. . . . But to racist U.S. politicians working on a farm and getting your hands dirty is beneath the dignity of an American.  Instead we pay American citizens of all races not to work and import Hispanics.

,

Shock!  -  Chinese work on farms.
For thousands of years the Chinese have somehow managed to plant and harvest their own crops without importing Mexican labor. . . . But to racist U.S. politicians working on a farm and getting your hands dirty is beneath the dignity of an American.  Instead we pay American citizens of all races not to work and import Hispanics.

A
America the Lazy.
In a Marxist re-distribution of the wealth, Americans of all races are paid by the government to do nothing while foreign labor is imported.  The Socialist plan is to crush the work ethic and make Americans the helpless, childlike and unarmed wards of the state.

Chicana "Action Center" executives charged in $8.5-million fraud case

Leftists used $35,000 in taxpayer funds to charter a yacht in Seattle.

It Beats Working For a Living

• If a Democrat lacks job skills for real world jobs they can always be hired to run phony committees or "charities" that claim to help the poor and homeless.
• So many millions of tax dollars just rolling around.  So few eyes watching how the money is spent.

(Los Angeles Times)  -  For decades, the Chicana Service Action Center received millions of dollars in taxpayer money to help some of the county's most disadvantaged residents: the homeless, the unemployed, victims of domestic violence, foster youth looking for work.

The nonprofit organization also played a pivotal role in launching the political career of former County Supervisor Gloria Molina, who described herself as one of the group's earliest supporters. In the last few years, its influence had gone far beyond its Eastside origins, extending its reach from downtown to the eastern edge of the San Gabriel Valley.

Now, prosecutors have charged three of the group's executives with embezzlement and conspiracy, accusing them of participating in a "billing scam" that defrauded the county of more than $8.5 million, according to the district attorney's office.

Dist. Atty. Jackie Lacey's office alleges that Sophia Esparza, the Chicana center's chief executive officer, used public funds to pay for expensive cars, homes, meals and even a political campaign fundraiser. Roughly $1.8 million went toward Esparza's "lavish" lifestyle, prosecutors say, including season tickets to the Dodgers and Clippers and rent on a home in affluent San Marino.

The district attorney's complaint says Esparza improperly used $35,000 in taxpayer funds to charter a yacht in Seattle; $81,873 to purchase a 2010 Jaguar in Pasadena; and $145,653 to cover five years' of rent at the Visconti, an apartment complex in downtown Los Angeles. None of those purchases were authorized by the group's board of directors, the complaint states.

Prosecutors also allege the three defendants created "fraudulent records and/or client files" to support the monthly invoices that were sent to the county's Department of Public Social Services.

The nonprofit received more than $16 million in county funds between 2007 and 2014, operating job training, domestic violence counseling and other programs in locations such as Pomona, San Gabriel and East L.A., according to county officials.

Read More . . . .

Sucking on the Government Teat
Why work for a living if your insider friends can get you a job spending other people's money.

Jerry Brown urged to return $331 million taken from homeowners

Thou Shalt Not Steal

(Associated Press) — Several California lawmakers and community assistance groups are calling on Gov. Jerry Brown to repay more than $331 million in funds intended to help homeowners struggling with foreclosures that the state siphoned off to help deal with its budget crisis.

A Sacramento County judge found that the governor and state Legislature unlawfully diverted most of a fund that was part of a $25 billion settlement between five major banks and nearly every state in 2012.

Brown's attorneys argued the state had the discretion to use that money in the state budget. But the judge sided with the community assistance groups in ruling the money should be used to help California homeowners affected by the mortgage crisis. The ruling by Sacramento County Superior Court Judge Timothy Frawley was issued last month, but it has not been finalized.

The Democratic governor hasn't decided if he will appeal, his finance department spokesman, H.D. Palmer, said Monday. Brown's administration did not to respond to questions about whether he would agree to return the money.

"Governor Brown, do the right thing," said Faith Bautista, chief executive and president of the National Asian American Coalition, a nonprofit housing counseling group based in Daly City, California, that was the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit. "This is long overdue because we should have helped the homeowners since 2012. And now it's 2015."

The groups say the money should have been distributed to an estimated 800,000 homeowners affected by the foreclosure crisis. They would have used the money for things such as helping get loan modifications, restore credit scores, buy new homes or pay for moving.

Instead, Brown and the state Legislature, as they struggled to balance California's budget, spent the lion's share of California's $410.6 million mortgage settlement fund to offset state expenses for housing bond debt service, as well as to support the Department of Justice overseen by California Attorney General Kamala Harris and the Department of Fair Employment and Housing, which investigates housing discrimination.

State budget documents called the money "discretionary funds."

The National Asian American Coalition was joined in a lawsuit by two other California-based community organizations that say they have helped thousands of homeowners, COR Community Development Corporation and the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference.

The lawsuit was filed by attorney Neil Barofsky, former inspector general for the federal bank bailout. The lawsuit said the state should now repay the money because it is projecting budget surpluses in coming years.

Harris, the state's attorney, recused herself in the case because she helped negotiate the national settlement with banks, securing extra funding for California. Her spokeswoman, Kristin Ford, said Monday that the attorney general continues to object to the money being used for other purposes that for which it was intended.

Read More . . . .

Families need $200,000 to live comfortably in San Francisco

Homeless in San Francisco

Insane-afornia

• With insane home prices and rents, how people live in many California cities is beyond me.
• Just a fast glance on Realtor.com and a person could buy a four bedroom home in Reno, Nevada for $142,000 and a monthly payment of $668 a month.
• Do you turn over every cent you make to the bank for a house payment in San Francisco or Silicone Valley? or do you move out of the area or out of state?

(San Francisco Chronicle)  -  Last week we told you about Kelly Dwyer, a city worker and mother of two, who received an out-of-the-blue $900 monthly rent hike on her single-family home in the Sunset District — and promptly packed up for Vacaville.

Single-family homes aren’t subject to rent control under state law, and Dwyer and her husband decided they couldn’t pay the new rent of $3,000 a month. They managed to scrape together enough money to buy a home in Vacaville with a monthly mortgage of $2,400.

Dwyer’s story really hit, um, home with readers. Some felt sorry for Dwyer and said their families are bracing for big rent hikes, too. Some fear for an exorbitantly priced city that can’t keep its families — San Francisco already has the smallest percentage (13.4) of residents younger than 18 of any city in the country.

Some said if you can’t swing it here, too bad. And some asked, “Why in the world can’t a family of four with two good salaries afford $3,000 a month?”

Kelly Dwyer helps her daughter, Saoirse, 5, with packing tape as Dwyer
prepares to move out of the family residence in San Francisco, Calif.

That, dear readers, is a legitimate question, one with some head-shaking answers. The short one is that it’s not easy to be a family of four in San Francisco these days, even with two good salaries, especially if you live in a home without rent control.

For starters, according to the Children’s Council of San Francisco, a family with an infant and 4-year-old will pay an average of more than $40,000 a year for full-time child care. And anybody can relate to the high cost of food here, even if you’re talking chicken nuggets and not Zuni’s famed roast chicken.

So how much do you need to make a year to raise two children in San Francisco? Assuming you don’t qualify for any kind of subsidized housing or other government assistance, but that you also don’t have a trust fund or massive stock options?

“To live a comfortable life where you’re not worrying month-to-month about paying the rent or mortgage, I would say $200,000 if you’re sending the kids to public school,” said Todd David, a dad in Noe Valley who is also a member of the San Francisco Parent Political Action Committee. He and his wife bought their house in 1997, and he said there’s no way they could afford to move to San Francisco now.

We know the $200,000 figure sounds outrageous, but we asked some other parents what they thought, and the answer was always in that ballpark.

Of course, many families in San Francisco are surviving on a lot less by staying in the same rent-controlled apartment forever, doubling up with other families, living in single-room-occupancy hotels, renting small in-law units or getting government assistance. And in a city where an estimated 2,200 public school students are homeless, nobody’s shedding tears for those whose families can afford to buy houses in Vacaville.

City officials in recent years have squabbled about what income level should be the cut-off for qualifying for the city’s affordable housing. Progressives usually want to limit it to 120 percent of the median — or $122,300 for a family of four — while moderates often say those making up to 150 percent ($152,850) should qualify.

Read More . . . .

California Lake Dries Out and Blows Away

A picture of Lake San Antonio at full capacity shows a stark contrast to what it looks like today. The last time it was full was in 2006. The lake closed on July 1.

And Yet Another Week Passes

• The People's Republic of California is blowing away in a dust bowl.  As the state dries out we see the political hacks in Sacramento ignore building a string of desalination plants up and down the coast.  
• Democrats love to spend money, but they just can't bring themselves to spend money on creating brand new water.

(NBC News)  -  Four years of drought have contributed to enough water loss in the lake to reduce the water level to only 5% of maximum capacity. "My family's sick about it," Johnston says, "It's in my back yard and for us it's a place we can get to in twenty minutes and have fun. It's a sad thing."

"When I first started here the lake was full and we'd have seven people working in here," said Linda Nursement, who works the entry gate to Harris Creek Campground at Lake San Antonio. Nursement and others are losing their jobs. "I'm in better shape than most people. This is just a part time job for me" she said.

The swimming beach of Lake San Antonio is miles away from water.

The Basham Point boat ramp no longer reaches the water of Lake San Antonio.

Water flows from below the Lake San Antonio Dam at the rate of 5 cubic feet per second which is considered "minimum fish flow release." The lake is almost at the point of dead pool, where it is physically no longer possible to release any water at all. At that point, the San Antonio River will no longer flow below the dam.

The lakebed of Lake San Antonio is dry as the California
drought enters its fourth year.

Read More . . . .

Central California lakes dry up and blow away.

From Better Days
Boat Rental at Lake Nacimiento & Lake San Antonio - Paso Robles, CA, 

RPTA student Chelsea Modlin wakesurfing on Lake Nacimiento

A California backlash rises over foreign IT worker replacements

Many of the nearly 1000 Southern California Edison IBEW 47 workers carry signs as they march along Walnut Grove Avenue in Rosemead in front of the SCE corporate office last February to denounce the decision to lay off hundreds of information technology workers so SCE can outsource the positions to India or replace them with foreign workers who have H-1B Visas.  Many workers are not speaking out because they signed confidentiality agreements and could lose their severance packages.  (Orange County Register.com)

Standing up for the American worker

• Interesting  -  Here we have the open borders Democrats in the State Assembly trying to defend the jobs of American citizens while at the same time making The People's Republic a Sanctuary State for every illegal alien in the world.

(Computerworld)  -  California lawmakers have taken steps to attack the use of foreign labor to replace U.S. workers. One effort seeks to use the state's regulatory powers to prohibit utilities from shifting jobs overseas. Another legislative attack calls on federal agencies to investigate the H-1B program.

Both measures were approved this month by the California State Assembly.

This legislative interest stems from the decision by Southern California Edison (SCE) to lay off IT staffers as it shifted work overseas.

One bill prohibits a state-regulated utility from outsourcing any work associated with the "design, engineering and operation" of nuclear, electrical and gas infrastructure, "unless it first obtains the approval" of the state utility regulator.

Dumb Ass Alert
This moronic Republican should be ashamed of himself for mindlessly
defending corrupt employers firing American workers and importing
citizens of India to replace them.  I have problems with the Democrats,
but the GOP is in the pockets of multi-national corporations looking
to drive down American wages.

Assembly Bill 853 calls the protection of energy systems, as well as ratepayer information, of "paramount state interest." It was approved by a 50-to-25 vote, with five members not voting, and now awaits state Senate action.

This bill may be one of the more significant legislative actions against offshore outsourcing in the U.S., and may inspire lawmakers in other states. Connecticut recently saw the layoff of utility workers, but lawmakers --despite complaining about it -- took no legislative action to stop it.

A related measure, approved Monday by the State Assembly, is a resolution asking the U.S. Department of Labor and Congress "to investigate the alleged misuse of the H-1B program." That measure (Assembly Joint Resolution 12) passed 49 to 20, with 11 not voting. It also awaits Senate action.

SCE cut about 500 IT workers over the last year after hiring two India-based IT services firms. Some of the laid-off workers said that they had to train their temporary visa holding replacements as a condition of severance.

Since then, at least 11 U.S. Senators have asked for an investigation into H-1B visa's use in offshoring outsourcing.

The push for legislation in California is coming, in part, from SCE's union, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Local 47. The union doesn't represent IT workers, but believes its members are directly affected by the IT work.

Patrick Lavin, the business manager of the IBEW local, said that the state legislation is needed to get SCE to change its business practices. "The way Edison is, they don't do anything or pay attention to anything unless somebody has some authority over them," said Lavin, in an interview.

Assemblyman Donald Wagner, (R-Irvine), said the resolution cited SCE without offering proof about what occurred.

"I think it's a really bad form for us to start calling out some of our own employers when we aren't a court and don't take evidence," said Wagner, in an interview. He opposed the resolution.

Read More . . . . 

The Real Costs of Obama & Homeland Violating Immigration Laws

More American Workers Outsourcing
Own Jobs Overseas

Scalia trashes California in Gay marriage ruling

Justice Anthony Kennedy

Ripping Sacramento's Kennedy

• Kennedy was appointed to the Court by President Ronald Reagan and has come down on both the Conservative and Liberal side of issues.
• It has been argued that "libertarian principles play prominent roles in Justice Kennedy's judicial opinions in several areas of the law," especially "privacy rights, race, and free speech."  (Wikipedia)
• The Gay marriage ruling has set off Justice Antonin Scalia and social Conservatives into full melt down mode.

(Breitbart News)  -  U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia took a swipe at California in his dissent of Friday’s landmark 5-4 ruling that made gay marriage a constitutionally protected right under the Fourteenth Amendment and legal in all 50 states.

In his now-infamous opinion, Scalia wrote that “a system of government that makes the People subordinate to a committee of nine unelected lawyers does not deserve to be called a democracy,” adding:

Judges are selected precisely for their skills as lawyers; whether they reflect the policy views of a particular constituency is not (or should not be) relevant. Not surprisingly then, the Federal Judiciary is hardly a cross-section of America. Take, for example, this Court, which consists of only nine men and women, all of them successful lawyers who studied at Harvard or Yale Law School. Four of the nine are natives of New York City. Eight of them grew up in east-and west-coast states. Only one hails from the vast expanse in-between. Not a single Southwesterner, or even, to tell the truth, a genuine Westerner (California does not count).

Of course, California counted very much on Friday; the deciding vote in the Court’s decision on gay marriage came from Justice Anthony Kennedy, a California native.

Unhinged?
Justice Antonin Scalia

“The limitation of marriage to opposite-sex couples may long have seemed natural and just, but its inconsistency with the central meaning of the fundamental right to marry is now manifest,” Kennedy wrote in his opinion.

In many ways, Kennedy’s opinion reflects the longstanding public opinion shift toward the approval of gay marriage that got its start in the Golden State.

As The Sacramento Bee points out, then-San Francisco mayor, and now-Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, was the first in the country to order city officials to perform gay weddings in 2004. Proposition 8, which banned gay marriage, was passed in California in 2008, then overturned just a few years later.

“At long last, marriage equality in the United States,” San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee reportedly told a cheering crowd Friday, after the Court handed down its decision. “We started that movement. We started that movement right here in San Francisco.”

At a news conference on Friday, California Attorney General Kamala Harris called the day “an incredible day in history,” according to the Los Angeles Times.

“California is validated. We are validated,” Harris said. “Each day that one of those couples have to go without being able to have their marriage and their love legally recognized … is one day too long.”

Harris also reserved some sharp words for Scalia: “Don’t hate the playa, hate the game.”

“Justice Scalia has caused many people to question the dignity of the Court when he makes statements such as the statements he’s made in connection with this case,” Harris added. “And that’s unfortunate.”

Read More . . . .

Personally I could care less if Gays want to marry.
There are real issues to worry about.