Thanks, Brent. I find it so offensively looney that our government under Newsom claims it's doing good for humanity and helping poor people have a better life by enforcing this Prop. This is not how you help poor people. I grew up in Santa Barbara. My step dad was head of the Boys and Girls Clubs here for 38 years. He actually did help poor kids have better lives. In fact, after he retired, we'd often be out in Santa Barbara and some man would come up to him and thank him for showing him how to realize his dreams in honest, hard working ways. This happened so many times. Once I took him to the ER and the male nurse attending to him said “You probably don't recognize me now that I'm a middle aged guy, but when I was a teen you saved me from becoming a gang member. I stole a skate board and you put me straight. And now I have a great life rather than a life in jail because of you. Thank you.” Of course, Newsom's made it so that guy wouldn't have to go to jail today, he could keep stealing skateboards. But will these current thieves thank Newsom with tears in their eyes years from now? No. Because Newsom is not only ruining the lives of business owners and people who pay for their shopping - he's ruining the lives of all the poor people who live in California, too.
I agree with J. Livingston's comment below. Also, Newsom is himself everything he accuses Trump of: any teenager can look at him and say, yeah, Newsom's a crook, no different than the head of a gang. And he gets away with it. It's hilarious that Newsom holds Trump up as a criminal, when our governor parades his sleazy gang (that would be the Pelosi gang) leader-like life. Gangs perpetuate little boy behavior. And let's face it, Newsom will never be a grown man who takes responsibility. That's why it's so heartening to see the reaction of young people to J D Vance. We are going to see a major Gen Z awakening - and not a “woke” one.
I really doubt we are going to see a Gen Z awakening for JD Vance. In fact, Vance's positions are at odds with many of the values and concerns typically associated with Generation Z including LGBTQ Rights, Abortion,Climate Change and Gun Control
We are living with the consequences of misguided “ compassion.” It is not love to fail to disciple your children or criminals.
Failure to seriously punish someone for theft gives theft a pass. These crazy ideas start in our homes. Raising children is the most important and difficult job a person will ever have. If children get away with disobedience, lying, theft, disrespect, all the sins we are all prone to, these behaviors become the accepted family norm. How often do you see a child having a public tantrum, and wonder at the incompetence of the adult with them in handling the situation? Fast forward to when these feral children grow up, and their inept parents become progressive city council members, school board members, judges and district attorneys. Raising children who are obedient and respectful should be a pre requisite for consideration for a leadership position. In fact, this is Biblical wisdom. Witness the obvious dichotomy of Hunter Biden and the grown children of Trump. Voting for people, incompetent as parents, many of who never ran their own business, has consequences. The disaster we see in California and other blue areas is a clear demonstration of this.
It would be unfathomable 40 years ago, but now we have the majority of Californians who are ok with rewarding criminals and punishing hard working folks. It reminds me that to look at the Heritage Foundation's project 2025, the same adherents of the Culture of Death make the inverted claim that project intends a dystopian nightmare, so report the proponents of a dystopian nightmare.
I do think Target is a public nuisance for their foul ideologies, but not because they called on 375 robberies, that is absurd. Can you imagine targeting the victims of the crime? Thanks to Gavin Newsome and all the masses of brainwashed who follow his lead.
I read this article by Attorney Zepke titled "License to Steal" and I qoute
"What is the “rule?” “Felonies are a deterrence because violators get prosecuted:
misdemeanors are only a nuisance because violators do not get prosecuted."
The real title to this article should be "SB Leaders License to Steal" so what
happens when the "Local Justice System" ends up being the criminals?
Who investigates them may I ask? Let me be very direct as fomer FBI
Executive Thomas Parker was in his article to us all "Preception of Public Corruption
To Often Harbingers of Stark Realty" and I quote>>>
"Perceptions are too often the harbingers of stark reality. This is especially true when it comes to questioning the ethics or illicit acts of local government officials. While spending nearly 25 years in the FBI and convicting a number of local, state, and federal officials on corruption charges, it did not take long for my colleagues and I to learn how to spot those who had crossed the bright line into unethical, and sometimes corrupt, behavior"
Yes I am a broken record but Santa Barbara County is broken like that good ole looney tunes record.
Reading this confirms why I left the Republican Party. It used to be the party of ideas, and men. All I read here is a lot of whinning, finger pointing and few ideas or actual solutions. What happened to the America full of innovation, ideas and solutions? All I read these days are a bunch of hate filled complaineres. It’s not the worthless democrats fault, it’s Americans who prefer to be victims instead of innovators.
Today’s party wouldn’t know a conservative value if it hit the
Mister head. Fiscal responsibility was a conservative value. No longer. Bush spent like crazy. Conservative does not mean stripping women of their right to bodily autonomy… that’s religious dogma, not political conservatism. Today’s political parties prefer to spread hate and devissiveness over solutions. The border bill is a classic example. People from BOTH parties hammered out a decent compromise and then the children showed up and killed it. Was it a perfect bill? No! Would it have helped reduce border problems? He’ll yes. That’s why I say the party is no longer the party of problem solvers, it is the party of whiners.
A bill is not necessary to close the border. It seems that the biggest whiner here is you. Why is a bill needed to close the border? It is the law, enforce it. Trump will close the border in one day. No bill, no spending. How thick is your skull?
That piece of legislation was not needed. All of the laws needed are already on the books. All that bill strove to do was to water down the already existing (and not enforced) laws. It's not the lack of laws! It's the lack of ENFORECEMENT.
Wrong again!! … but never ruin a conservative crying game with facts.
Proposition 47: • Keeps Dangerous Criminals Locked Up. Authorizes felonies for sex offenders and anyone with a prior conviction for rape, murder or child molestation. Prioritizes Serious and Violent Crime. Stops wasting prison space on petty crimes and focuses resources on violent and serious crime.
Of which the savings are placed into safety measures like drug and mental health treatment, homelessness prevention, and victim services centers.
Shoplifting is, and always has been, a national problem. Not just California. But I can understand conservatives wanting to spend more tax dollars on building more prisons to house all the petty theft criminals out there. No need to try to “educate” parents to take more responsibility and accountability for the crap this kids pull.
Good luck with Garvey winning anything, and good luck trying to fix anything he does win anything. Just more conservative griping, whining and dreaming of better conservative days in California.
I don't know what crack you've been smoking stringbean, but I'd seek rehab if I were you. Yet again, maybe it's best you stick with your crystal meth, or crack or glue or whatever you've been ingesting. That way you may be able to handle Trump's loss once again come November. Sorry!! Not really.
Still wrong!! But predictable. Let’s put Trump or Bush back in the White House. See how well that went. Care to examine the facts regarding both dysfunctional administrations? Oh! that’s right, you’re the guy who complains without facts. I remember you now. Love to compare facts with you any day.
Never fails with you people, You can't handle coherent arguments because you're so warped and gullible and believe your warped ideas. Not once have I read an UNBIASED argument on this site. The only way to get through to you is with what you take as insults. You not only can't accept facts but can't take them either, so what's the point?!!.
So here you go. Try to read it. The election of Donald Trump as president represented a failure of American politics. Trump is a serial liar, a sexual predator, deeply conflicted financially, hostile to bedrock democratic institutions such as free press, and ignorant of even the broad brushstrokes of important policy matters. The best evidence suggests that he is a white nationalist, a plutocrat, and a professional con artist, dangerously attracted to corrupt and incompetent sycophants, self-obsessed and aggressive to the point of psychopathy, and otherwise temperamentally unfit to be in charge of the world’s largest military and nuclear arsenal. There is some evidence that Trump or members of his campaign conspired with a hostile foreign power to help secure his election. His electoral opponent (whom he promised to prosecute criminally if elected) re-ceived nearly three million more votes than he did, and he assumed office as the least popular elected president in recorded history. No credible account of a healthy electoral process can abide Trump’s election as an acceptable outcome of that process.
But you want to know what I really think. Less clear than the status of the Trump presidency as a political failure is whether Trump’s election also represented a failure of the U.S. Constitution. Do our constitutional arrangements predict just the kind of political failure that materialized in November 2016? If so, does that mean that the long-term remedy for that failure lies in constitutional reform? Does our constitutional fate, in other words, determine our political fate?
The life in our large cities have become uninhabitable. LA, SF, SD, Oakland are disgraceful, crime ridden hell holes. Prop 47 has become a regressive tax that law abiding citizens must pay here in California.
Making goods and services more expensive. Companies such as Target, Walgreens or Rite Aid have closed many stores, mostly in Black neighborhoods. Poor people that live near are held captive for lawlessness perpetrated by liberal policies. The Democratic Party is the party of crime, homelessness and financial ruin.
MANY more serious crimes begin with shoplifting and progress to armed robbery or worse.
Time for a change. Don’t be distracted by white liberals who live in upscale neighborhoods and have NO clue as to what they are talking about. When is the last time ANYONE on this site, visited South Central?
Thanks for a to-the-point article. As a small business owner not involved with retail, we have non-the-less had to board up our windows more than once incurring thousands of dollars in labor and materials. We have had to increase our alarms on the offices, too, as break-ins are so common. We're looking to locate to Tennessee. It's been 44 years since we returned to Ca. I have 0 faith on Ca. voters getting these issues right. Sorry, we just won't take this any longer. We gave Ca. 44 years. Failing grade, fellow voters. Ya'll are some sick folks.
You can bet the politicians who gave a nod to this ridiculous 'law' never owned a business of their own, they certainly don't understand what these losses mean. I can't understand how any business, large or small, can survive in this cesspool of lunacy. Sure glad I live in Florida where our state motto is 'f*ck around and find out'!
Wrong again! A Conspiracy Theory DEFINES a belief that some secret but influential organization is responsible for an event or phenomenon. No more, no less ... unless you're into conspiracy theories, then it means Santa Claus is real, Bigfoot exists and Trump was sent down from your greater power.
Yes, the lack of good moral reasoning has led to the destruction of the nuclear family and society has deteriorated. Our only hope for salvation is to adhere to our religious principles and pray for those who would do us harm.
The Ten Commandments should be our moral compass and should be our foundation as a society. State sponsored religion? Not at all, rules ANY society can thrive by.
Thanks, Brent. I find it so offensively looney that our government under Newsom claims it's doing good for humanity and helping poor people have a better life by enforcing this Prop. This is not how you help poor people. I grew up in Santa Barbara. My step dad was head of the Boys and Girls Clubs here for 38 years. He actually did help poor kids have better lives. In fact, after he retired, we'd often be out in Santa Barbara and some man would come up to him and thank him for showing him how to realize his dreams in honest, hard working ways. This happened so many times. Once I took him to the ER and the male nurse attending to him said “You probably don't recognize me now that I'm a middle aged guy, but when I was a teen you saved me from becoming a gang member. I stole a skate board and you put me straight. And now I have a great life rather than a life in jail because of you. Thank you.” Of course, Newsom's made it so that guy wouldn't have to go to jail today, he could keep stealing skateboards. But will these current thieves thank Newsom with tears in their eyes years from now? No. Because Newsom is not only ruining the lives of business owners and people who pay for their shopping - he's ruining the lives of all the poor people who live in California, too.
Here is a tribute to my step dad, George Chelini.
https://www.independent.com/2020/07/01/george-chelini-1931-2020/
I agree with J. Livingston's comment below. Also, Newsom is himself everything he accuses Trump of: any teenager can look at him and say, yeah, Newsom's a crook, no different than the head of a gang. And he gets away with it. It's hilarious that Newsom holds Trump up as a criminal, when our governor parades his sleazy gang (that would be the Pelosi gang) leader-like life. Gangs perpetuate little boy behavior. And let's face it, Newsom will never be a grown man who takes responsibility. That's why it's so heartening to see the reaction of young people to J D Vance. We are going to see a major Gen Z awakening - and not a “woke” one.
I really doubt we are going to see a Gen Z awakening for JD Vance. In fact, Vance's positions are at odds with many of the values and concerns typically associated with Generation Z including LGBTQ Rights, Abortion,Climate Change and Gun Control
You're too smart to know that Biden has never been behind universal health care, child care or senior care. Why do you make these mis-statements?
We are living with the consequences of misguided “ compassion.” It is not love to fail to disciple your children or criminals.
Failure to seriously punish someone for theft gives theft a pass. These crazy ideas start in our homes. Raising children is the most important and difficult job a person will ever have. If children get away with disobedience, lying, theft, disrespect, all the sins we are all prone to, these behaviors become the accepted family norm. How often do you see a child having a public tantrum, and wonder at the incompetence of the adult with them in handling the situation? Fast forward to when these feral children grow up, and their inept parents become progressive city council members, school board members, judges and district attorneys. Raising children who are obedient and respectful should be a pre requisite for consideration for a leadership position. In fact, this is Biblical wisdom. Witness the obvious dichotomy of Hunter Biden and the grown children of Trump. Voting for people, incompetent as parents, many of who never ran their own business, has consequences. The disaster we see in California and other blue areas is a clear demonstration of this.
Trumps kids raised by a team: their mom, Nannie’s, boarding school staff.
Yes, Democrats have turned California into a hellscape in part by Prop. 47. Time for a change in leadership…Steve Garvey for US Senate!
Good piece. Welcome to life under anarcho tyranny, where we punish the good guys and empower the bad ones.
Unbelievably !
Important article Esquire Zepke!
It would be unfathomable 40 years ago, but now we have the majority of Californians who are ok with rewarding criminals and punishing hard working folks. It reminds me that to look at the Heritage Foundation's project 2025, the same adherents of the Culture of Death make the inverted claim that project intends a dystopian nightmare, so report the proponents of a dystopian nightmare.
I do think Target is a public nuisance for their foul ideologies, but not because they called on 375 robberies, that is absurd. Can you imagine targeting the victims of the crime? Thanks to Gavin Newsome and all the masses of brainwashed who follow his lead.
Excellent! Thank you for the researched facts.
What do you say when someone says they are disappointed that Trump was NOT killed?
Ask them what they think would happen if someone succeeded in assassinating crooked Joe or loopy Kamala…
The country would be in flames with people leaving Target with more than $900 worth of merchandise 🙄
Dr. Aijian,
Yes, Proposition 47 is no more than a sick, twisted, diabolical scheme to extort money from taxpayers. Reparations disguised as Legislation!
I read this article by Attorney Zepke titled "License to Steal" and I qoute
"What is the “rule?” “Felonies are a deterrence because violators get prosecuted:
misdemeanors are only a nuisance because violators do not get prosecuted."
The real title to this article should be "SB Leaders License to Steal" so what
happens when the "Local Justice System" ends up being the criminals?
Who investigates them may I ask? Let me be very direct as fomer FBI
Executive Thomas Parker was in his article to us all "Preception of Public Corruption
To Often Harbingers of Stark Realty" and I quote>>>
"Perceptions are too often the harbingers of stark reality. This is especially true when it comes to questioning the ethics or illicit acts of local government officials. While spending nearly 25 years in the FBI and convicting a number of local, state, and federal officials on corruption charges, it did not take long for my colleagues and I to learn how to spot those who had crossed the bright line into unethical, and sometimes corrupt, behavior"
Yes I am a broken record but Santa Barbara County is broken like that good ole looney tunes record.
It just keeps on playing that Corrupt song.
Howard Walther, member of a Military Family
Reading this confirms why I left the Republican Party. It used to be the party of ideas, and men. All I read here is a lot of whinning, finger pointing and few ideas or actual solutions. What happened to the America full of innovation, ideas and solutions? All I read these days are a bunch of hate filled complaineres. It’s not the worthless democrats fault, it’s Americans who prefer to be victims instead of innovators.
Gene, the author presented a solution. Vote to revoke Prop 47.
Today’s party wouldn’t know a conservative value if it hit the
Mister head. Fiscal responsibility was a conservative value. No longer. Bush spent like crazy. Conservative does not mean stripping women of their right to bodily autonomy… that’s religious dogma, not political conservatism. Today’s political parties prefer to spread hate and devissiveness over solutions. The border bill is a classic example. People from BOTH parties hammered out a decent compromise and then the children showed up and killed it. Was it a perfect bill? No! Would it have helped reduce border problems? He’ll yes. That’s why I say the party is no longer the party of problem solvers, it is the party of whiners.
A bill is not necessary to close the border. It seems that the biggest whiner here is you. Why is a bill needed to close the border? It is the law, enforce it. Trump will close the border in one day. No bill, no spending. How thick is your skull?
That piece of legislation was not needed. All of the laws needed are already on the books. All that bill strove to do was to water down the already existing (and not enforced) laws. It's not the lack of laws! It's the lack of ENFORECEMENT.
Wrong again!! … but never ruin a conservative crying game with facts.
Proposition 47: • Keeps Dangerous Criminals Locked Up. Authorizes felonies for sex offenders and anyone with a prior conviction for rape, murder or child molestation. Prioritizes Serious and Violent Crime. Stops wasting prison space on petty crimes and focuses resources on violent and serious crime.
Of which the savings are placed into safety measures like drug and mental health treatment, homelessness prevention, and victim services centers.
Shoplifting is, and always has been, a national problem. Not just California. But I can understand conservatives wanting to spend more tax dollars on building more prisons to house all the petty theft criminals out there. No need to try to “educate” parents to take more responsibility and accountability for the crap this kids pull.
Good luck with Garvey winning anything, and good luck trying to fix anything he does win anything. Just more conservative griping, whining and dreaming of better conservative days in California.
I don’t know what you’re smoking buddy, but save me a puff.
I don't know what crack you've been smoking stringbean, but I'd seek rehab if I were you. Yet again, maybe it's best you stick with your crystal meth, or crack or glue or whatever you've been ingesting. That way you may be able to handle Trump's loss once again come November. Sorry!! Not really.
Still wrong!! But predictable. Let’s put Trump or Bush back in the White House. See how well that went. Care to examine the facts regarding both dysfunctional administrations? Oh! that’s right, you’re the guy who complains without facts. I remember you now. Love to compare facts with you any day.
Never fails with you people, You can't handle coherent arguments because you're so warped and gullible and believe your warped ideas. Not once have I read an UNBIASED argument on this site. The only way to get through to you is with what you take as insults. You not only can't accept facts but can't take them either, so what's the point?!!.
So here you go. Try to read it. The election of Donald Trump as president represented a failure of American politics. Trump is a serial liar, a sexual predator, deeply conflicted financially, hostile to bedrock democratic institutions such as free press, and ignorant of even the broad brushstrokes of important policy matters. The best evidence suggests that he is a white nationalist, a plutocrat, and a professional con artist, dangerously attracted to corrupt and incompetent sycophants, self-obsessed and aggressive to the point of psychopathy, and otherwise temperamentally unfit to be in charge of the world’s largest military and nuclear arsenal. There is some evidence that Trump or members of his campaign conspired with a hostile foreign power to help secure his election. His electoral opponent (whom he promised to prosecute criminally if elected) re-ceived nearly three million more votes than he did, and he assumed office as the least popular elected president in recorded history. No credible account of a healthy electoral process can abide Trump’s election as an acceptable outcome of that process.
But you want to know what I really think. Less clear than the status of the Trump presidency as a political failure is whether Trump’s election also represented a failure of the U.S. Constitution. Do our constitutional arrangements predict just the kind of political failure that materialized in November 2016? If so, does that mean that the long-term remedy for that failure lies in constitutional reform? Does our constitutional fate, in other words, determine our political fate?
Time to take the trash to the curb and throw these scumbags out of office beginning today with Bob Menendez!
The life in our large cities have become uninhabitable. LA, SF, SD, Oakland are disgraceful, crime ridden hell holes. Prop 47 has become a regressive tax that law abiding citizens must pay here in California.
Making goods and services more expensive. Companies such as Target, Walgreens or Rite Aid have closed many stores, mostly in Black neighborhoods. Poor people that live near are held captive for lawlessness perpetrated by liberal policies. The Democratic Party is the party of crime, homelessness and financial ruin.
MANY more serious crimes begin with shoplifting and progress to armed robbery or worse.
Time for a change. Don’t be distracted by white liberals who live in upscale neighborhoods and have NO clue as to what they are talking about. When is the last time ANYONE on this site, visited South Central?
Thanks for a to-the-point article. As a small business owner not involved with retail, we have non-the-less had to board up our windows more than once incurring thousands of dollars in labor and materials. We have had to increase our alarms on the offices, too, as break-ins are so common. We're looking to locate to Tennessee. It's been 44 years since we returned to Ca. I have 0 faith on Ca. voters getting these issues right. Sorry, we just won't take this any longer. We gave Ca. 44 years. Failing grade, fellow voters. Ya'll are some sick folks.
You can bet the politicians who gave a nod to this ridiculous 'law' never owned a business of their own, they certainly don't understand what these losses mean. I can't understand how any business, large or small, can survive in this cesspool of lunacy. Sure glad I live in Florida where our state motto is 'f*ck around and find out'!
Wrong again! A Conspiracy Theory DEFINES a belief that some secret but influential organization is responsible for an event or phenomenon. No more, no less ... unless you're into conspiracy theories, then it means Santa Claus is real, Bigfoot exists and Trump was sent down from your greater power.
Let's twist it some more shall (you)?
Yes, the lack of good moral reasoning has led to the destruction of the nuclear family and society has deteriorated. Our only hope for salvation is to adhere to our religious principles and pray for those who would do us harm.
The Ten Commandments should be our moral compass and should be our foundation as a society. State sponsored religion? Not at all, rules ANY society can thrive by.
Looks like some do. About a third in U.S. see God’s hand in presidential elections. https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2020/03/12/about-a-third-in-u-s-see-gods-hand-in-presidential-elections-but-fewer-say-god-picks-winners-based-on-policies/