‘Alex Jones Was Right’ Fills The Los Angeles Sky

Pro-abortion march interrupted with sky-written reminder that Alex Jones was right -- about COVID, about Democrat obsession with abortion, and much more!

Skywriters sent a message to the city of Los Angeles during pro-abortion protests over the weekend. Thanks to whomever filmed this video, which was sent to us by Eddie Bravo.

On behalf of Alex Jones and the crew at Infowars, we salute the great patriot who commissioned this sky-written message. This is the kind of political activism that will win the information war. We encourage the person behind this action to reach out to us, and for more people to go out and conduct similar nonviolent red-pilling operations to wake people up.

Infowars.com

DON'T LAUGH! (Okay, you can laugh a little)

CALIFORNIA PROTESTS: Open Up California! Open Up America!

Fuck Our Communist Dictators

• Cowardly "Conservative" GOP Assemblymen and Senators hid in their closets rather than come out and stand up with the American people.

"USA! USA! OPEN UP! OPEN UP!" Thousands of patriots came out to Sacramento, California to protest the extended shutdown, fight for their Constitutional rights and demand the reopening of the state. Protests are happening across California and the United States where Governors are overstepping people's rights and freedoms, playing politics with this crisis and keeping states shut beyond scientific justification to do so. OPEN UP AMERICA AGAIN!





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John Cox launches bus tour in California governor's race, telling voters 'help is on the way'

Republican gubernatorial candidate John Cox, left, greets David Tran, owner of Huy Fong Foods in Irwindale, and employees Wednesday as he kicks off his campaign bus tour. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

Do California Voters Care That They Have A Real Choice?

• Will voters mindlessly default to the insane open borders Leftist Democrats who tax everything?  I tend to think so, but Cox may make a race of it.

(Los Angeles Times)  -  Republican John Cox, kicking off the final weeks of his campaign for governor, huddled on Wednesday with workers who produce Sriracha hot sauce and prodded them to air their grievances about California’s housing costs and the price they pay at the pump.

The low-key event kicked off Cox’s “Help Is On The Way” statewide bus tour, which will provide the GOP candidate ample opportunities to attack rival Gavin Newsom and other Democrats for the day-to-day struggles of working Californians.

Cox listened intently as mixing-room worker Sal Salas talked of needing two incomes in the family just to pay the rent. Felipe Martinez added that his four children sleep in the lone bedroom in his San Dimas apartment while he crashes every night in the living room.

“The primary reason I’m running for governor is because of the affordability of the state, and livability — and the quality of life in California,” Cox told the small gathering of workers circled around a table inside Huy Fong Foods in Irwindale, where he was joined by company owner David Tran. “I’ve watched what’s happened to the state, and most working people have been priced out.”

Cox walks past his bus at Huy Fong Foods, which makes the popular Sriracha Hot Chili Sauce. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

Cox’s campaign stop lacked the crowds and pep-rally atmosphere that surrounded Newsom’s campaign bus tour earlier this month when he stopped in contested congressional and legislative districts to energize support for down-ballot Democrats. Cox never asked the workers for their votes, saying instead that he wanted to hear about the problems they face.

Donna Lam, the company’s executive operations manager, said Huy Fong Foods welcomed the Cox campaign to the plant but added that no one should consider it an endorsement by the company or the owner. Huy Fong Foods welcomes candidates from all parties, as well as Boy Scout and Girl Scout troops and church groups, she said.

“David [Tran] is not really political. He’s all about America. Made in America,” Lam said of the owner.

After taking a tour of the plant, Cox told reporters that his 30-stop bus tour will focus on the grave problems facing California, including the rise in poverty, homelessness and cost of living. He blamed those ills on the Democratic politicians who have controlled Sacramento for years.

He also accused Newsom, California’s two-term lieutenant governor and a former San Francisco mayor, of being more focused on criticizing President Trump than tending to the needs of the nearly 40 million people who live in the state.

“My opponent has been part of the problems for the last 16 years. He presided over San Francisco, which is now a cesspool,” Cox said. “He’s been lieutenant governor for eight years and we haven’t heard a peep out of him in relation to the major problems this state has.”

Cox also was quick to say that he’s been rising in the polls, a claim borne out by an opinion survey released Wednesday night. A new poll by the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California found that, since July, Cox has cut Newsom’s lead in the governor’s race by half — he now trails the Democrat by 12 percentage points.

Read More . . . .

Silicone Valley Purges Conservatives 3 Months from Election Day

Google Goes Full Nazi

Silicone Valley banishes Thought Criminals from the Internet

You can't make this shit up
Google censors a video about Google censorship

Never Trumper Meg Whitman is backing Democrat Antonio Villaraigosa for Governor

Thank God I Voted Libertarian

• I smelled Meg's bullshit from 100 miles away and voted for the Libertarian Party for Governor in 2010. 
• Shortly after the GOP and Dems joined forces to ban all small political parties and independent candidates from all future general election ballots. My only choice these days is to leave the ballot blank. 

(Breitbart California)  -  Billionaire Meg Whitman, who was the Republican nominee for California governor in 2010 and lost to Jerry Brown, is backing Democrat Antonio Villaraigosa for governor in 2018.

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, “Whitman, the billionaire former eBay CEO who spent $144 million of her own money on her failed run in 2010, is co-hosting a fundraiser Thursday night for Villaraigosa in Silicon Valley.”

A source close to Whitman told the Chronicle, “Meg has endorsed Antonio because, although she is a Republican, she believes he’s the best candidate for the job. Meg believes that Antonio is stronger than (Lt. Gov.) Gavin (Newsom) on both the economy and education, which are both important issues.”

Whitman is endorsing Villaraigosa likely knowing full well that if he places second in the June 5 primary, he and Newsom — a fellow Democrat — will advance to the general election, with no Republican on the ballot.

That, in turn, analysts say, would put the Republican Party at greater risk of losing control of Congress, because fewer Republicans would turn out to vote, and Democrats would benefit in congressional races throughout the state.

In 2016, Whitman emerged as one of the strongest voices against President Donald Trump during his successful bid for the nation’s highest office, contributing financially the “Never Trump” movement against him.

She reportedly compared Trump to the fascist dictators Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini.

Read More . . . .

Breaking the Democrat Super-Majority in Sacramento

Republican Councilman Justin Mendes is the son of Portuguese dairy farmers. His family started dairying in the 1930s and his father was a 3rd generation dairyman. 

Can the pathetic GOP get its act together?

• The Central Valley is ground zero to blocking the Leftist Democrats from having total control.
• If the GOP rolls over and plays dead again the sky will be the limit for Leftist tax increases.

(Bakersfield Californian)  -  The race between 32nd District Assemblyman Rudy Salas, D-Bakersfield, and Republican Justin Mendes will be decided in November.

But their round-one face off in June will provide a critical clue about whether the Hanford Councilman and political staffer has a chance to unseat the three-term Salas.

A little political education will help here.

In the heavily Democratic 32nd District, which includes all of Kings County and the rural, Latino communities in western Kern County, Republican voters historically head to the polls at a much higher rate then Democrats.

That effect is much more dramatic in gubernatorial election years — like this one — that are scheduled halfway between Presidential elections.

32nd Assembly District
48% Democrat, 26% GOP, 26% independent and small political parties.

The Republican voting advantage is even more pronounced in primary elections like the one coming up in a little more than one month.

In other words, the June 5 primary is the absolute best time for Mendes, a staffer for Republican Congressman David Valadao, to out-poll Salas in a district where Democrats have a 22.5 percent registration advantage over the GOP.

If Mendes can’t do that, then things look bleak for him in November when more Latino and Democratic voters are expected to turn out to the polls.

But Cal State Bakersfield Political Science Professor Mark Martinez said Kings County, Mendes’ home turf, is still the key to the race.

“The battlefield there is going to be Kings County,” he said. “If Rudy can maintain 35 to 40 percent in Kings he should win this thing. He’ll probably have to pull 40 percent.”

That isn’t an easy task for most Kern County Democrats.

Kings County is heavily Republican and its voters are exceptionally active.

Martinez points to a list of Democrats who’ve been “clobbered” in Kings County — and subsequently have lost races in Democratic stronghold districts that mirror nearly all of the 32nd District.

Kern County Supervisor Leticia Perez lost a State Senate election to Republican Andy Vidak in 2013.

Amanda Renteria, running for Congress against Valadao in 2014, got only 23 percent in Kings County

Emilio Huerta lost against Valadao there in 2016 with 29 percent of the vote.

Salas has topped 40 percent in Kings County in every election.

And he’s won each time.

But he hasn’t run against an opponent with roots in King’s County’s ag-powered political family.

Mendes, who worked campaigns for Valadao and, like his boss, is the son of Portugese Dairy farmers, has obviously seen the template for winning.

And he’s developed a classic middle-of-the-road campaign narrative for the Central Valley, giving his support to immigration reform and calling for DACA to be left in place and Dreamers to have a place in the U.S.

“We’re talking about hard-working individuals who work long hours and send money back to their families and pay taxes,” Mendes said. “What gets in the way of immigration reform are the extremes grabbing the microphone. We need the labor here. Unfortunately the sanctuary state law is forcing ICE to look for the bad guys among the good guys.”

He bashed Salas for voting in support of the sanctuary state bill.

And Menedes is calling for red meat Republican changes like reform of the California Environmental Quality Act, cuts to anti-business regulation and construction of more water storage projects.

He’s even issued a critique of the California High Speed Rail project.

“The budget overruns, the lack of oversight. My children (age 1 and 4) will probably never ride it,” Mendes said.

Still, he said, he will be able to operate effectively in the deep blue halls of Democrat-dominated Sacramento by reaching across the aisle.

“They will most likely lose the supermajority (in the Legislature) and they will need somebody to talk to,” Mendes said of Democracts. “I’m not going up there to be hyper-partisan.”

But Salas knows his district and opposes high speed rail, co-authored the 2014 water bond and took a political hit for voting against his party on California’s new road improvement tax.

The tax hits the poor people in the 32nd Assembly harder than it does other people because it snaps up more of their paycheck.

“They’re not always happy with me because I’m a strong, independent voice,” Salas said of his party leadership and Governor Jerry Brown.

There was tremendous pressure to vote for the bill, he said, but he stood his ground.

It cost him a chairmanship seat on a top committee.

“I was punished,” he said. “But I have no regrets.”

Salas acknowledged the challenge from Mendes, but said he’s not focused on his opponent. His focus is on serving the district.

What he’s done, he said, has given him inroads with Republicans in the 32nd District.

“I’ll walk up to a Republican house and they’ll say, “Rudy, you’re the only Democrat we’ll vote for.”

The only stance he’s taken that could cost him with Republicans is his vote for California’s Sanctuary State bill, a decision he said he stands by.

The bill restricts the type of criminals that state law enforcement agencies can transfer to Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials.

But it doesn’t, as Republicans like to claim, stop local law enforcement from transferring people with serious, dangerous convictions to ICE, Salas said.

But the impact of ICE raids to the communities he represents has been significant.

“ICE coming into our communities has stirred up a lot of emotions,” he said.

People are avoiding going out in public and businesses are suffering from the loss of revenue.

But Salas said it is critical to protect the workers who play a major part in California’s robust economy.

Salas said he hopes the voters of the 32nd District will look at his record and return him to office.

“I’ve been a proven, strong, independent voice for the Valley,” he said.

Mendes is hoping voters will look for a new voice to support.

Read More . . .

Poll puts Republican John Cox in 2nd place in governor's race

If not for Cox the GOP would simply hand the Governorship to the Democrats

• A new poll puts Republican John Cox of Rancho Santa Fe in second place in the governor’s race.
• If that position holds, he could emerge from the June “top two” primary to face off with a Democrat in the general election.
• A Republican on the ballot could help GOP candidates down-ballot in November.

(San Diego Union Tribune)  -  Republican businessman John Cox has moved into second place in the race for California governor, taking a slight lead over former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, a Democrat, according to a poll released Wednesday evening.

The new standings suggests the likelihood of two Democrats facing each other in November under California’s “top two” runoff system is diminishing.

Cox, from Rancho Santa Fe, has support from 14 percent of likely voters, according to research from the Public Policy Institute of California. That puts him well behind Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, who had 28 percent. Cox is just ahead of Villaraigosa, who polled at 12 percent, down 9 percentage points over the past three months. The top two candidates in the June primary will advance to the general election, regardless of party.

“It corrects the erroneous presumption that many people have seen in the media that it will somehow be two Democrats” in the general election, Cox said by phone on Thursday. “I don’t think that was ever in the cards. That happened in the 2016 Senate race because there was no major Republican who had any major funding whatsoever.”

With nearly seven weeks until vote-by-mail balloting begins, and even longer until the June 5 primary, the poll also found 24 percent of voters don’t know who they’ll support.

Cox has made significant headway in the governor’s race since January, when a PPIC poll showed him with 7 percent support and narrowly behind Assemblyman Travis Allen, R-Huntington Beach, who was polling at 8 percent.

The campaign for second place is now a “coin-toss race.” Of the two Republicans, Cox has money that makes him GOP’s best shot at finishing in the top-two in the primary, said former San Diego Councilman Carl DeMaio, now a conservative talk radio host.

“Nobody knows who Travis Allen is either, but he’s broke,” DeMaio said.

DeMaio and Cox are working together on an effort to repeal a recent increase in the state gas tax to fund transportation projects.

Cox, who made a fortune through a law firm he started and in real estate, put $3 million of his own money into his campaign last year and also raised $518,446 from donors. He said in January he’ll put in at least $1 million more.

Read More . . . .

Good. Cox is gaining ground, but there is still no GOP candidate for U.S. Senate.

Will taxpayers trust the GOP again?

GOP - A Party of Idiots

• The fools running the GOP refused to even put a proposition on the ballot to repeal the insane money-pit bullet train. 
• If you don't actually believe in anything then how can you oppose Marxism?

By Jon Coupal;

The California GOP is rapidly approaching the edge of a black hole from which there is no escape. But rather than reverse course by appealing to the needs and aspirations of average Californians, the response by some Republicans in the Legislature is to rush forward to throw themselves into the abyss by supporting policies that punish the middle-class.

Only a quarter of California voters are registered Republicans, barely more than those declaring no party preference. In the Legislature, Republicans number less than a third of lawmakers in each house.

There was a time when even some Democrats in the Legislature supported a healthy economy, taxpayers’ rights and Proposition 13. If any still exist, they are hiding under their desks. Over the last two decades, that party has lurched to the left and those now in Sacramento are devoted to serving the interests of government (aka public sector unions), the ever-expanding entitlement class and the wealthy denizens of coastal enclaves.

For taxpayers, criticizing Democrats is almost too easy given how thoroughly they have abandoned the middle class. But Republicans have traditionally been held to a much higher standard when it comes to taxation and fiscal responsibility. The question now is the extent to which taxpayers can trust Republicans at all.

With Republican support, the California legislature passed several bills slamming California’s ever-shrinking middle class. First, there was perhaps one of the most unpopular bills in California history, Senate Bill 1, imposing $52 billion in permanent new gas taxes and user fees on California drivers. Next was the infamous “cap-and-trade” legislation, Assembly Bill 398. In a few short years, drivers could be paying a buck and a half a gallon just in taxes and climate fees when added to the already sky-high levies imposed by the state. 

Last, but certainly not least, is Senate Bill 2, part of the California’s ineffective and counterproductive response to the housing shortage. The bill would impose a $75 to $225 “recording fee” on all real estate transactions and generate as much as $258 million annually. Only in California and Monty Python movies would a tax on real estate be considered a rational response to a housing shortage.

Let’s be clear. Those legislators who best defend taxpayers are still Republican. But unfortunately, those faithful few are being smeared by association with those who bend with the wind, succumb to the next big campaign contribution or promise of some “juice committee” appointment or lobbying gig. Note that the reverse is true as well: Some Republican legislators who stood firm for taxpayers were punished by having their committee assignments revoked or banished to the smallest office in the Capitol.

Average taxpayers understand how painful these tax hikes are. But they probably don’t understand how politically incompetent the Republican leadership was in getting them passed. Republican support for tax hikes allowed targeted Democrats in marginal districts (those where a Republican has a chance of winning) to vote against the tax hikes. These Democrats can now seize the mantle of fiscal responsibility even though everyone knows that, had their vote for the hikes been necessary for passage, they would have voted yes. Time and time again, Republican support of tax hikes allowed the “lifeboating” of Democrats in swing districts. To use a phrase by one party leader, this was “felony stupid.”

Taxpayer advocates take no joy in the slow immolation of the Republican Party.

The loss of any effective opposition from a minority party is a loss to all Californians. A strong democratic process relies on the competition of ideas. Moreover, one party rule has led to an extraordinary abuse of power in several areas including campaign rules, shutting down debate and jerry-rigging agencies and commissions in ways to crush political opposition. The loss of a vibrant Republican Party in California will accelerate the state’s metamorphosis into a Venezuela-like banana republic.

In order to have a chance against the power and money of the Democrats, Republicans need to distinguish themselves on critical matters of policy. Unlike social issues — as important as they may be — the fiscal issues of economical government, reasonable taxation and protection of Proposition 13 have been the rock to which Republicans have wisely clung as California’s political skies have turned from purple to blue. A return to these principles is a necessary first step for the GOP to repair its damaged reputation.

Jon Coupal is president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association.

Read More . . . .

Pro-Trump GOP Governor Candidates at Tea Party

Candidates at Tea Party Conference

(Los Angeles Times)  -  Wading into a roomful of California tea party members over the weekend, the two most prominent Republicans running for California governor professed their reverence for President Trump.

It was a must-do if they want to win over the highly charged conservative activists who favor Trump. The tea party’s rising influence in the state Republican Party makes its members’ votes essential for any candidate hoping to coalesce enough GOP support to make it to the November 2018 general election. 

A USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times poll released in 2015 found that 48% of Republicans in California supported the tea party movement to some degree.

So Huntington Beach Assemblyman Travis Allen and Rancho Santa Fe businessman John Cox on Saturday worked feverishly to prove their pro-Trump credentials.

“I support Trump 100%. I’m happy he’s elected,” Cox assured about 120 members at the Tea Party California Caucus conference, dubbed “The Real Resistance,” at a hotel near the Fresno airport Saturday.

Allen one-upped Cox when the stood at the podium about 90 minutes later: “There’s only one candidate for governor who actually supported the Republican nominee for president, and his name is Travis Allen.”

Out of earshot of conference-goers, the Los Angeles Times also asked both Allen and Cox if they considered themselves tea party members. Both sidestepped the question.

“I just consider myself a common-sense Californian,” Allen said.

Republican gubernatorial candidate John Cox speaks
at the Tea Party California Caucus in Fresno
on Saturday. (Silvia Flores / For The Times)

Cox said he was campaigning across the spectrum of the Republican Party, including the gay group Log Cabin Republicans: “I’m out to unify all Republicans. I am at heart a fiscal conservative.”

From the outset of their young campaigns, Allen and Cox have faced a seemingly insurmountable challenge. Not only are they up against three well-known, well-funded Democratic heavyweights — Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and state Treasurer John Chiang — but they’re also running in a state where Democrats hold a 19-percentage-point advantage over Republicans in voter registration and where Hillary Clinton trounced Trump by 30 points last November.

Along with Cox and Allen, little-known GOP candidate for governor Stasyi Barth of Lake Elsinore was also on hand at the Fresno event. Barth, who had a table at the conference but did not have a speaking slot, pushed back on Allen’s pronouncement that he was the only Republican candidate for governor to vote for Trump. Not only did Barth vote for Trump, she’s a tea party member, she said.

Barth yelled above the din as members starting drifting out, telling everyone that she has been a proud, longtime tea party member and was a Trump supporter from the beginning.

Read More . . . .

How Assembly GOP Leader Chad Mayes became Benedict Arnold to many California conservatives

In this Monday, July 17 photo, Assembly Republican Leader Chad Mayes of Yucca Valley, left, leaves a Sacramento press conference with, from left, Gov. Jerry Brown, state Sen. Tom Berryhill, R-Modesto and Assemblyman Devon Mathis, R-Visalia. Mayes, Berryhill and Mathis voted with Democrats to extend the state’s cap-and-trade program to 2030.

GOP Jumps in Bed With Jerry Brown

(Press-Enterprise)  -  Pressure is mounting on Assemblyman Chad Mayes to step down as Assembly GOP leader after he helped Democrats extend an anti-pollution program loathed by conservatives who already feel marginalized in deep-blue California.

At a gathering at Riverside’s Mission Inn on Thursday, July 20, the Riverside County Republican Central Committee voted to ask Mayes, R-Yucca Valley, to explain his support for extending the state’s cap-and-trade program at the committee’s next meeting. Otherwise, the committee will ask Mayes to relinquish his leadership post.

“There’s a great deal of contention and anger right now with Republican voters,” said county GOP Chairman Jonathan Ingram.

To many thinking people there is little
difference between the parties.

Between cap-and-trade, which is estimated to raise gas prices by as much as 73 cents per gallon by 2031, and the legislature’s earlier passage of a 12-cent-per-gallon gas tax increase, “you’re looking at a substantial increase to working people,” said Ingram, a Murrieta councilman.

A high-ranking California Republican official also is calling for Mayes’ ouster. And Assemblywoman Melissa Melendez, R-Lake Elsinore, cited Mayes’ actions on cap-and-trade in announcing her resignation as assistant GOP leader Thursday.

The backlash erupted after Mayes and seven other GOP lawmakers, including Assemblyman Marc Steinorth of Rancho Cucamonga, voted for AB 398, which extends cap-and-trade to 2030. Cap-and-trade allows businesses to buy licenses to emit pollutants, with the number of licenses gradually declining in an effort to curb greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change.

Many Republicans see cap-and-trade as an over-regulating excuse for raising taxes that will boost already high gas prices and give Gov. Jerry Brown more money for high-speed rail, a project opposed by conservatives.

Mayes’ critics are incensed that he would not only vote for the bill, but encourage other Republicans to support cap-and-trade as well. After the bill passed, Mayes shared the stage with Democratic lawmakers at a Sacramento press conference.

Mayes, who was not available for comment Friday, has defended his vote, saying Republicans managed to get concessions from Democrats in exchange for GOP support of cap-and-trade, including the rollback of a fire prevention fee paid by property owners in rural areas.

“Today, we proved that Sacramento can rise above the partisan fray of our country to do right for all Californians,” Mayes said in a news release.

“This plan cleans up the environment for future generations and cuts the cost of taxes, fees and regulations by $16 billion a year for ordinary Californians. Protecting the earth and protecting your paycheck is no longer an either-or decision.”

Mayes, a former Yucca Valley mayor who was first elected to the Assembly in 2014, represents the Pass, San Jacinto, most of Hemet and desert communities in Riverside and San Bernardino counties.

With Democrats holding a supermajority in Sacramento, Mayes has been willing to work with them to further the GOP’s agenda. But that olive branch is considered a knife in the back to many conservative Californians who feel ignored if not powerless in a state where GOP voter registration has been declining for years.

Blowback started almost immediately, with self-described nationalist Joseph Turner on Tuesday denouncing Mayes’ cap-and-trade vote and accusing him of having an extramarital love affair with his predecessor, former Assembly GOP leader Kristin Olsen.

“It is time for an actual Republican to lead the Republican Party,” Turner wrote in a news release.

Harmeet Dhillon, a San Francisco lawyer and member of the Republican National Committee, took to social media to call for Mayes to be replaced as leader of the 80-member Assembly’s 25 Republicans.

“Many conservatives are rightly outraged at the Assembly Leader’s actions in not only voting for a bad bill on cap and trade, but also pressuring several of his colleagues to vote for the massive carbon tax scheme, and then taking a victory lap with the Democratic leadership and later comparing himself/his actions to Ronald Reagan,” Dhillon wrote on Facebook. “Nope.”

John Berry, a cabinet member with the Redlands Tea Party Patriots, said his group is considering pulling support for Republicans who voted for cap-and-trade.

“We’re just absolutely livid how (Mayes) sold out,” Berry said. “The whole idea that they’re going to sell us this whole nonsense about global warming and tank the economy (and expand government control over peoples’ lives), it’s as un-conservative as you can get.”

Read More . . . .

GOP bought off to approve Brown's Cap and Trade

The Incredible Vanishing GOP

• The "Conservative" GOP refused to put an initiative on the ballot in 2016 to kill the corrupt bullet train. With no issue for Republicans to campaign on Democrats won a super-majority in the legislature.
• Now the "Conservative" GOP cuts a deal with Brown on Cap and Trade telling the public the deal might help kill the bullet train in way out in the year 2024.  Pure Bullshit.

(Sacramento Bee)  -  To get Republicans and business groups on board to extend the state’s cap-and-trade program, Gov. Jerry Brown and Democratic leaders in the Legislature agreed to several provisions:

▪ Suspending the state’s six-year-old fee paid by some 800,000 rural property owners for fire prevention. Republicans, who represent many of the areas where the fee is charged, have been trying to get rid of it for years through the courts and legislation. On average, property owners pay about $117 a year.

▪  Extending through 2030 an existing sales tax break for manufacturers and research and development companies.

Eliminating sales and use tax that energy companies pay on purchases for renewable energy projects, such as solar, biomass and wind energy.

▪  A constitutional amendment that would require a one-time, two-thirds vote in 2024 to re-set spending of the cap-a-trade revenues. Republicans see this as a future way to cut off funding for high-speed rail, a project most of their members detest.

Brown and leaders also agreed on a couple things to help assuage liberal Democrats:

▪  Assembly Bill 617, a companion bill by Assemblywoman Cristina Garcia, D-Bell Gardens, was added to the package to help poor communities that advocates say are disproportionately hurt by air pollution. Most environmental justice organizations, however, say it does not go far enough.

▪  Brown, who has been at odds with liberal lawmakers over ongoing funding and his demand for streamlined environmental review to build housing, has agreed to work toward a deal.

Read More . . . .