In his 1946 essay Politics and the English Language, Orwell critiques the “ugly and inaccurate” state of contemporary English, linking it directly to political and social decay. Orwell rightly observed that vague, pretentious, and euphemistic language is often used to obscure truth, justify morally questionable actions, and manipulate public perception. Political language, according to Orwell, is designed to make lies sound truthful and violence respectable, using euphemisms and cloudy vagueness to conceal reality.
To wit, the goal of item #8 on the Santa Barbara County Supervisor’s agenda on July 8, 2026: “Identify tools to prohibit or regulate immigration enforcement facilities and detention centers.”
To do this, the board must legally “find” that these facilities pose an immediate threat to public safety, health, and welfare. That means, the supes, under the leadership of Laura Capps, are representing the lie that the authority of our federal government to enforce our laws is a threat to public safety as the supes seek to make the violence of illegal alien felons somehow “respectable.” George Orwell would have loved to use this illustration in his writings, including his novel “1984,” as an example of “doublethink,” in which citizens are forced to accept opposing truths simultaneously. That is because most of the people ICE are arresting are themselves a threat to public safety, health, and welfare.
Of course, this is just the last of many salvos from the Laura Capps-led Board of Supervisors. Capps and her pal Assemblyman Gregg Hart, a former county supervisor himself, are conspiring, by way of state legislation (AB 2257), to take away the management and oversight of the county jail from Sheriff Bill Brown. Besides accounting for the fact that Laura Capps thinks she is the smartest person on the planet, the two excuses given for this action include the charge that too many ICE arrests are occurring outside of the county jail and the millions of dollars in costs for excessive overtime incurred by deputies.
With respect to the sheriff’s alleged cooperation with ICE, this too is a lie. Every year, the sheriff is required to present to the supes, via the Truth Act, how many times ICE has requested an illegal alien detainee be handed over to them at the jail versus how many handoffs occurred. The joker in the deck, that Capps doesn’t like, is that if a federal warrant has been issued by a court, the handoff must occur regardless of her preferences. Hence, Capps would just as soon blow off the authority of the judicial branch as she would the administrative branch represented by Donald Trump.
Any sane person, that is, not somebody suffering from a maniacal attachment to illegal alien felons, would prefer a handoff at the jail for all illegal aliens sought by ICE rather than forcing ICE to hunt for these people on the streets and in their homes. But Capps and company can’t see the logic in that.
With respect to the apparent abuse of overtime by deputies, well guess what, the loophole that allowed some of that excess overtime to be realized was signed by the board of supes via an MOU with the deputy’s association. The supes therefore only have themselves to blame. As for the rest of the overtime, the supes cut the sheriff’s budget years ago and they have never regained the staffing they need to avoid the bulk of the remaining overtime being charged.
I, for one, wish the supes would stay in their lane and completely forego their constant political grandstanding and their maniacal obsession stemming from a bad case of TDS (Trump Derangement Syndrome). After all, Obama and Clinton, and every other president in the modern era, deported criminal illegal aliens without a whimper from the Democrat Party. And, the fact remains, most of the criminals being sought by ICE have received final orders to deport meaning they have no opportunity for a further hearing or additional appeals. Either that, or they have already been convicted of serious crimes here or abroad which is just cause for their immediate eviction. No sane person would want to retain a murderer, rapist, or child molester, that doesn’t belong here in the first place.
The supes should save us the pain of watching their kabuki theater and instead focus on three things. Catch up on their $500 million maintenance deficit, i.e., go out and fix some potholes. Second, lessen the regulations hampering businesses from prospering and developers from building more housing. Third, recognize that the Constitution gives the feds supremacy over state and local governments, and likewise, defer to the fact that the voters have re-elected Sheriff Bill Brown multiple times because he is one of the most respected sheriffs in America, having served as President of the National Association of Sheriffs.
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