Just when you thought things couldn’t get any crazier in California, one of their leading politicians steps up to the plate. Ian Calderon, the Democratic majority leader in California’s lower house has decided that the big problem his state needs to address is straws. Yes, straws. Not taxes, not immigration, not crime, not the abysmal California budget. Straws.
Calderon has introduced a bill to stop restaurants from offering their customers a straw unless they ask for one. The penalty set forth in the bill for giving an unrequested straw is up to six months in jail and a fine of up to $1,000. I suppose they think the thousand dollars isn’t much since Nancy Pelosi said a thousand dollars is just “crumbs.”
Calderon said in a press release that his bill is designed to “create awareness around the issue of one-time-use plastic straws and its detrimental effects on our landfills, waterways, and oceans.”
Six months in jail and $1,000. For giving a customer a straw.
Last week I read that researchers at the University of Manchester in Great Britain have completed a study on the carbon footprint of sandwiches.
The Guardian – They considered the entire life cycle of sandwiches, including the production of ingredients, packaging, refrigeration and food waste.
The team scrutinised 40 different sandwich types, recipes and combinations and found the highest carbon footprints for the sandwiches containing pork meat (bacon, ham or sausages) and also those filled with cheese or prawns.
The researchers estimate that a ready-made (and highly calorific) all-day breakfast sandwich generates 1441g of carbon dioxide equivalent – equal to the emissions created by driving a car for 12 miles (19km).
The study found a home-made ham and cheese sandwich could have the lowest carbon footprint, depending on the recipe. The study also found that making your own sandwiches could reduce carbon emissions by half compared to shop-bought versions.
As soon as one of the loony lefties in California sees this I’m sure a bill will be proposed adding a ‘carbon tax’ on all sandwiches sold in restaurants and delis.
Regulating straws isn’t the first loony legislation that California has produced. In late 2016 a bill was passed and signed by Governor Jerry Brown to regulate cow flatulence. That’s right, California is regulating cow farts.
Per the bill, California dairy farmers have until 2030 to reduce methane emissions from their cows to 40 percent below 2013 levels. I was not able to locate anything saying how anyone knew what the 2013 levels were or how one goes about measuring methane emissions from a herd of cows. But, whatever methods are attempted by dairy farmers, you can be sure that those costs will be passed along to the consumers.
Los Angeles Times – Dairy farmers say the new regulations will drive up costs when they’re already struggling with five years of drought, low milk prices and rising labor costs. They’re also concerned about a newly signed law that will boost overtime pay for farm workers.
“It just makes it more challenging. We’re continuing to lose dairies. Dairies are moving out-of-state to places where these costs don’t exist,” said Paul Sousa, director of environmental services for Western United Dairymen.
The dairy industry could be forced to move production to states and countries with fewer regulations, leading to higher emissions globally, Sousa said.
Also in late 2016, California decriminalized prostitution by minors. I’m sure there were shouts of joy from many people in Hollywood.
Washington Examiner – SB 1322 bars law enforcement from arresting sex workers who are under the age of 18 for soliciting or engaging in prostitution, or loitering with the intent to do so. So teenage girls (and boys) in California will soon be free to have sex in exchange for money without fear of arrest or prosecution.
This terribly destructive legislation was written and passed by the progressive Democrats who control California’s state government with a two-thirds “supermajority.” To their credit, they are sincere in their belief that decriminalizing underage prostitution is good public policy that will help victims of sex trafficking. Unfortunately, the reality is that the legalization of underage prostitution suffers from the fatal defect endemic to progressive-left policymaking: it ignores experience, common sense and most of all human nature — especially its darker side.
The unintended but predictable consequence of how the real villains — pimps and other traffickers in human misery — will respond to this new law isn’t difficult to foresee. Pimping and pandering will still be against the law whether it involves running adult women or young girls. But legalizing child prostitution will only incentivize the increased exploitation of underage girls. Immunity from arrest means law enforcement can’t interfere with minors engaging in prostitution — which translates into bigger and better cash flow for the pimps. Simply put, more time on the street and less time in jail means more money for pimps, and more victims for them to exploit.
As Alameda County District Attorney Nancy O’Malley, a national leader on human trafficking issues, told the media, “It just opens up the door for traffickers to use these kids to commit crimes and exploit them even worse.” Another prosecutor insightfully observed that if traffickers wrote legislation to protect themselves, it would read like SB 1322.
Last week two California Assemblymen proposed a bill that would require California businesses to turn over half
their tax-cut savings from the Trump tax cut to the state.
Daily Signal – State Assemblymen Kevin McCarty, D-Sacramento, and Phil Ting, D-San Francisco, propose a tax surcharge on companies in California “making more than $1 million,” SF Gate reported. This would force the companies to give half of their federal income tax cut to state government programs for middle-class and low-income families.
Is it any wonder that businesses have been leaving California in drives?
Fox and Hounds Daily – From 2007 through 2015, as many as 9,000 companies have left California, according to Joe Vranich, president of Spectrum Location Solutions in Irvine. And no one should wonder why. Just by simply putting California behind them, these companies are saving 20 percent to 35 percent a year in operating costs, Vranich says.
The list of businesses abandoning California for more hospitable business environments reads like a roll call of top companies. Toyota is in the process of leaving Torrance and will complete the move of its U.S. headquarters to Dallas by the end of 2017. Also having left for Dallas is Jacobs Engineering Group, $6.3 billion firm formerly based in Pasadena that has more than 230 offices across the world, employs 60,000 and generates $12 billion in annual revenue.
Other companies that have left, or are pricing moving van rates, are Nestle (leaving Glendale to reboot its U.S. headquarters in Rosslyn, Va.), Nissan North America (left for Nashville a decade before Carl’s Jr. did), Jamba Juice (traded San Francisco for Frisco, Texas), Occidental Petroleum (prefers Houston over Westwood for its headquarters), Numira Biosciences (Irvine, no – Salt Lake City, yes) and Omnitracs, a software firm (goodbye San Diego, hello Dallas).
California is also doing everything it can to help illegal aliens and prevent American citizens from taking action to get them deported.
Daily Signal – A sweeping immigration law took effect Monday in California, officially making it the country’s largest sanctuary state.
The controversial law, SB 54, passed the state Legislature in September and was signed into law by Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown the following month. It prevents police in California, which has by far the nation’s largest illegal immigrant population, from asking people about their immigration status or participating in most federal immigration enforcement actions.
Under Brown’s leadership, California has become the leading opponent of President Donald Trump’s immigration agenda over the past year. In addition to SB 54, the state has enacted a slate of laws aimed at protecting illegal immigrants and their children from the administration’s tougher enforcement of immigration laws.
Other immigration bills passed in 2017 include a measure that prohibits landlords from reporting their illegal immigrant renters and another that prevents employers from allowing immigration raids at their work sites without a court order.
California legislators seem to be doing all they can to drive businesses and liberty-loving Americans out of their state At the rate they are going, the only residents left in California will be the illegals and the Hollywood types. Their version of a socialist utopia must be one where criminals have more rights than actual American citizens. Their state finances are already a complete disaster, but never let it be said that they can’t make it worse.
California is a cesspool of illegals and psychotic liberalism. Take a good look at it because that’s exactly how the Democrats want the rest of our country to be. Is that what you want for your state?
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