We’re funny. Eight years ago Republicans had a bare majority in the House of Representatives, a threadbare majority in the Senate, and they barely won the White House. You could argue they possessed a five-out-of-nine majority in the Supreme Court.

What did we hear from the mountains, to the valley, all across the fruited plane?

ONE PARTY RULE!!! ZOMG WTF!!! BAD BAD BAD BAD BAD!!!

And now the democrats run everything, everywhere. Federal, state, municipal. Where are all the screeds against one-party rule?

Wouldn’t they be more appropriate right about now? Wouldn’t they be more in service of the public interest? Can someone show me where — anywhere — the democrat party has a lock on power, and the result isn’t chaos, disaster, bedlam…hopelessness?

I’m typing this from California. So if you have something to offer, you’ll understand why I have to come asking for it. Things aren’t so good here. We’ve yet to see that democrat-run hopey changey wonderfulness sink in…after…what are they up to, eleven years now? Or twenty? Depending on how important the Governor’s office is, and how effective you think the Republicans have been in there.

I’m just seeing on the teevee my lady likes to leave on when she gets ready for work, that Karen Bass, the CEO of the lower chamber of our wonderful state legislature, is pulling shenanigans. Our state-level counterpart to Nancy Pelosi is trying to do an end-run around Prop 13, which requires a 2/3 majority in our legislature for any tax increase. It’s a two-prong approach: Use the “In Times Like These” argument, that says because the situation is oh so dire we can’t follow rules anymore; and, call the taxes “fees.” She’s been trying this for awhile now, and with June coming to a close, it’s time for a showdown.

The beginning of July is the constitutionally-required deadline for passing the state budget. It is almost never met. It’s an annual summertime circus. If you think things are under control, here, you don’t want to be watching this.

Looks like Arnie will veto it. But there’s a problem with the Governator: He’s kind of a Republican Obama. He’s “really trying hard” and he “inherited this mess.” You can’t really depend on him to stop talking to you, go off into a room with someone else, and do what he told you he was going to do. Not when it comes to stopping the democrats from doing something. A terrible emergency will be declared, and then…off he goes to achieve some compromise.

He compromises a little too quickly. I guess that looks good to you if you’re worried about the budget being late by a week…or a month…or two months.

It’s a little irritating if you possess the brainpower to understand the BOHICA Cycle, and can comprehend what’s taking place here. The folks who have a monopoly on power here, are dedicated to making goods and services needlessly expensive for those who depend on themselves to earn the goods and services, and don’t depend on government. They’re using “market forces” to force all commerce to go through the government…and it’s working out just great.

So the independent-minded folks leave.

We have a shrinking tax base to pay for a growing sumptuous buffet of “social” services…and more and more and more union jobs, with more and more and more union-contracted locked-in benefits. We’re the General Motors of states.

You realize, by saying what I just said in the paragraphs above, I have just committed a terrorist act? Oh dear, I’m afraid this time it’s really true…I’ve really stepped in it now. At least, in the mind of Speaker Bass. She had this to say about opportunities to present the conservative Let’s Not Tax The Bejeezus Out Of People viewpoint on the talk radio medium. Notice the adorable euphemism she uses as a substitute for “tax increase.”

How do you think conservative talk radio has affected the Legislature’s work?

The Republicans were essentially threatened and terrorized against voting for revenue. Now [some] are facing recalls. They operate under a terrorist threat: “You vote for revenue and your career is over.” I don’t know why we allow that kind of terrorism to exist. I guess it’s about free speech, but it’s extremely unfair.

Hat tip to Boortz for that.

I suppose you could look at this like — it’s so nice for Assembly Speaker Bass to continue to allow us to listen to talk radio, when it gives her such a case of indigestion. But I think it should be clear to anyone that she has yet to make her peace with it. And I think when you have an elected official referring to something as “terrorism,” especially in the context of wondering why we allow it to exist, it’s a safe bet it’s in her things-to-do list to get rid of it somehow. Maybe circumventing Prop 13 has a higher priority at the moment. But something tells me she’ll get around to the other stuff.

One party rule, folks. It was supposed to freak us out, once upon a time. Where’s the outrage? We have one state deep into the BOHICA spiral showing no signs whatsoever of pulling out of it…probably well past the event horizon. A whole bunch of other democrat-run states close behind in the process.

The same folks who want to ratchet up taxes, are the ones who want to make things needlessly expensive before you pay those taxes on what you bought…from labor, to energy used to manufacture, package, transport and sell goods. That is their one aspect of consistency, on all the issues, from minimum wage, to global warming, to grab-bag giveaways to tort lawyers and union goons, to taxes: Things should cost more. Except for the things they want to make “free,” by forcing taxpayers to pay for them, and those “free” things end up costing more too.

Dozens of states and hundreds of municipalities have been trying this…some of them for generations. The outcome is pretty consistent. Crime, costs, budgets, unemployment — all out of control. And those wonderful freedoms that are supposed to be recognized in the Bill of Rights…they end up being attacked fairly regularly by the freedom-loving democrats. It turns out when you and your friends are in power, and start worrying about staying in power tomorrow, you tend to lose that “love” of freedom kinda toot-sweet. Maybe that’s why the Bill of Rights was jotted down in the first place.

But back to this hideous experiment we’ve been repeating on so many levels so many thousands of times. Where is the Utopia that has resulted from it? If no one can point one out to me, then how many more times do we have to keep trying it?

And the Golden State has done everything in the world to deserve it. Go, Victor.

I watched the UC and CSU systems create untold numbers of new administration jobs, staff them with incompetents that had no market value in private enterprise, and lavish $100,000 salaries with generous benefits as they contributed nothing to the teaching of students.

I would see four or five in the parking lot get into their state cars (I remember the local scandal of the mammoth administrator SUVs replete with boat hitches and tow packages) and wonder-how can a state afford a million dollars for that bunch who bring us nothing in return? (California Rule One: Most California executives would gladly work for two-thirds of what they receive, given the absence of commensurate offers from the private sector).

Worse, when the inevitable budget cuts came, these same four would send us memos, advise us to warn the public, and terrify the electorate with stories of social collapse if taxes were not raised to “save the kids.” In response, they would lay off the Russian professor, cut the part-time history teachers (all gifted, teaching for us for ten cents on the dollar), and then decry a “greedy voter”. (California Rule Two: To save the superfluous, the essential will always be cut.)

If you’re not ready for Rule Four, it will hit you like a punch in the gut. And California Rule Four is the reason we are here. It is the reason why it is so well-assured that, if you don’t think things can get any worse, you are about to be proven wrong. Just watch my state. It’ll show ya.

Hat tip to Gerard.

…at work, in California. Yay!!

While it has the sixth highest tax burden in the nation, according to the nonpartisan Tax Foundation, California is facing a breathtaking $40 billion budget deficit this year. This comes on the heels of a decade-long spending spree. Last year the state budget was $131 billion, up from $56 billion in 1998.

Citizens are burdened by all manner of state regulations. To mention just one example, this year a new law enacted by ballot initiative bans cages chicken farmers use on the grounds that it is inhuman to put birds in cages that prevent them from spreading their wings. Complying with the new law will cost farmers hundreds of millions of dollars, which will force many to leave the state. And that will force us to buy our eggs from other states and, possibly, others nations, such as Mexico.

And just as a fallen tree can divert the flow of water in a creek, bad economic policies divert the flow of investment. Entrepreneurs and investors, seeking the path of least resistance, leave when it becomes easier to make a living in more business-friendly states. In 2000, according to the state’s Department of Finance, about 150,000 people moved into California. But in the years that followed the in-migration slowed, and in 2005 it reversed, when a net 52,000 people moved out. In 2008, the outflow topped 135,000 people.

Consequently, Idaho, Utah and Wyoming all have unemployment rates around 5% at a time when California is suffering an unemployment rate of 9%. Californians are moving east and creating jobs in their new home states.

And…the wheels on the bus go ’round and ’round, ’round and ’round, ’round and ’round. Our treasury is awash in red ink, and there aren’t too many folks left who can be taxed. Better raise those rates.

Over the weekend I had made some observations — actually, I had observed what someone else observed — regarding Atlas Shrugged coming true.

Politicians invariably respond to crises — that in most cases they themselves created — by spawning new government programs, laws and regulations. These, in turn, generate more havoc and poverty, which inspires the politicians to create more programs…and the downward spiral repeats itself…

You know, it’s often said that as California goes, so goes the rest of the nation, and it’s true here. We’re several loops ahead in this silly downward cycle. Same stupid things being said: “In times like these…” “The money’s gotta come from somewhere, and it can’t come from anywhere else…” “They’re millionaires, they can afford it.”

BOHICA, the acronym? Just go Google it.