These tricks are performed by professionals.
DO NOT try these at home (and if your home IS California, well, you know how to remedy that).
Trick #1
Democratic and Republican lawmakers in Sacramento just might be bailed out of their budget standoff by a new initiative that would slap a one-time wealth tax of 55% on Californians rude enough to have $20 million or more in property. The ballot measure wouldn’t come to voters until June 2010 at the earliest, but that might not be a problem, seeing as how the current year’s budget will probably still be stalled.
Secretary of State Debra Bowen announced today that the initiative is entering circulation.
The approach is, on the surface, the same as the Democrats’ plan for closing California’s gaping budget hole — get it from the rich with new tax brackets. But the numbers differ and, when you get to the details you realize that this measure is creative. And by creative, I mean weird.
Most of the revenue would be used to buy Exxon-Mobil. And Chevron. And GM, Ford, Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan Chase, and Citigroup. Why? To assure California of an adequate supply of energy, at stable prices, without offshore drilling. And to repatriate off-shore manufacturers.
Oh, and to restore the Hetch-Hetchy Valley, which currently is a reservoir supplying water to the Bay Area, to the way it was at the beginning of the last century.
So, rich folk, you say you’d just take your money and Chevron stock and move to Telluride? Or the Bahamas? These guys are way ahead of you. The wealthy would have to pay to leave the state, whether their mode of exodus is a limousine or a pine box.
And THAT is why we call them The Peoples Republic.
Companies that open large home-improvement stores in Los Angeles would have to set aside space for day laborers under an ordinance unanimously approved today by a City Council committee.The proposed ordinance was passed by the Planning and Land Use Management Committee, but must still be approved by the full council.
If passed, the ordinance would require new home improvement stores that are 100,000 square feet or larger, or any building or structure where 250,000 square feet or more of warehouse floor area is added, to set aside space for day laborers seeking employment from customers.
The shelters would have to be easily accessible and equipped with drinking water, bathrooms, tables with seating and trash facilities.
Home-improvement stores would also be required to develop a security plan in consultation with the Los Angeles Police Department.
Bethany Leal with the Multi-Ethnic Immigrant Worker Organizing Network, which supports the ordinance, called it an example of “immigration integration.”
I’m really hoping for a big crash and a big burn on this one. It is almost as though they want to attract illegals until there are enough in the state to drive out the citizens. Which, oddly enough, is a part of the reason they have the huge deficit that they are trying to fill with trick #1.
Apparently, stupid goes in circles.
I’m hoping that in November, Washington voters heed my warning to not try these tricks. Seeing as how the various governments here have now, officially, breached the One-In-Five rule.
…as for dealing with trick #2, I suggest new box-store builders make their building just slightly smaller than the regs. Say your store has 99,999 sq.ft. Similar to Ronnie Barrett’s method of thumbing his nose at CA’s .50cal ban by creating the .416.
And also bring ICE into your security plan.
Should clear that problem right up.
It’s amazing how many stupid voters can be concentrated in one state…
Home-improvement stores would also be required to develop a security plan in consultation with the Los Angeles Police Department.
Subcontract it out to the INS.
Trick #1 reminds me of Gray Davis’ attempt to achieve (politically motivated, economically non-viable) Sainthood by regulating the cost of electricity. He put limits on the amount that power companies can charge, and in doing so undermined his state’s economy to the point where it is STILL in Deep Doo-Doo. Yes, he did other stupid things but this one had the exact opposite effect; Californians could ‘afford’ all of the electricity they wanted but they couldn’t GE it because PP&L (for example) couldn’t afford to keep their facilities running … let alone built new facilities to meet increased draws.
It didn’t help that the Environmentalist whiners were accommodated in their every demand, which (among other things) rang the death-knell for Nuclear Power Plants.