Will the voters waste this opportunity to replace Das Williams? He epitomizes what is messed up locally and nationally. He has all the money and political machine of the Democrat party behind him. Pray that voters wake up! Spread the word
Roy Lee is an honorable man whose election would be a huge step to reverse the rot described in this article .
Santa Barbara resident voters need to check their ballots carefully to see if they were moved into the First District for this upcoming 2024 Board of Supervisors race - Incumbent Das Williams vs. Carpinteria council person Roy Lee.
BTW: Roy Lee's family restaurant in Carpinteria Uncle Chen makes an excellent walnut shrimp. You can also pick up campaign information about this District One challenger candidate.
Too often, “safe Communities” don’t heed the warning signs until impacted! Such is the case with the flurry of burglaries in the heart of Montecito. Soft on crime means only one thing, “hard on society”. Laws on crime have been in place for good reason. Playing softball with criminals leads to suicide. We need changes throughout California replacing elected officials with rational civic minded individuals, not politicians.
As always, thank you Andy for your diligence to get out the truth. I hope our county does not have voter fraud. Many voices in Santa Barbara are in opposition to the local leadership's push to see Santa Barbara decline. Which has nothing to do with affordable housing and everything to do with destroying America one town and metropolis at a time. THEY REMOVED our good sheriff. I fear soon we will be another town run over with crime, as you have already identified in your article. I sure hope the good people of Santa Barbara won't be surprised when buildings are tagged, like L.A. With each incident THEY can pat themselves on the back seeing the successes of their agenda. Please, please, please people of Santa Barbara, helping the poor does not mean destroying the sanctity for life for all the rest of the entire county's populations. I do not laud the leadership of this county.
As an eighty year old grandmother, I recently went to the Lompoc Police station to report the many thefts that were occurring on the street side of my property in Lompoc. I found the doors to the station locked to citizens, and a phone on an outside wall that did not work (supposedly to use to call the station). So after knocking on the doors outside, and waiting for more than ten minutes, I went back to the safety of my car, and called the station. Someone answered, and I told them I wanted to make a theft report. Eventually an officer stepped outside, shut the station door, and I made the report. He suggested I take pictures of the theft area and take care of it myself. I once had many pistols and rifles, and am thinking about that. When asked why the station is locked to us who need protection, they said it was because of the homeless and vandalism. Our Lompoc police cannot even protect their own station, much less we citizens, who pay their salaries! What about us? Our thefts? Carol in Lompoc
This is the Democratic intent. To keep criminals on the street to create chaos.
They purposefully do not do anything to help the humanitarian homeless crisis, again to create chaos and degrade our city.
The UN & US have spent over &350,000,000 to help economic refugees travel thousands of miles to get to the US first the promise of jobs. When they arrive the US has spent over $20,0000,0000,0000 to provide illegals with housing, money to live on, health care, education, etc…
Don’t you think $20 Billion could have helped our American Citizens who are homeless ?
The Democrats want to enlist the illegals in the military, they want to give them badges and make them police officers, they want to give illegals guns.
Have you asked why the a democrats choose to fund, support and arm illegals, who are mostly young single men?
Have you asked why in every “protest” concerning illegals there is never an American flag present?
Have you asked why an illegal does not need to show ID to travel on a plane, but you do?
Democrats, “party of the people” don’t care about you the voter, the tax payer, they only care about your vote in an election year.
Bring back law and order. there needs to be consequences for bad actions. crime is up everywhere. Make it hard to be a criminal and people will stop breaking the law as often.
Of course, we blame the politicians in power for the degrading of society, but everyone of them are repeatedly voted into office by a majority of registered voters. We all receive the results they voted for.
If we want change, we have to change the opinions and actions of those voters.
Is the republican party in California capable of doing that?
If not, we have to radically change the republican party.
No one is allowed to complain if they keep voting for the existing career politicians who have degraded our city, state & country.
No one is allowed to complain if they don’t vote.
But if the majority of Santa Barbarians enjoy the state of this town with increasing crime rates, increasing homelessness, businesses leaving, unfriendly government towards business and property owners, poor school academics, increasing violence in school, etc... Then keep voting for the career Democratic donkeys that have created the situation you love.
Look at our City Council, some have been there for almost twelve years. Has SB improved or declined in twelve years?
City council is subject to term limits, and now also district elections. This has substantially changed the nature of local governance. Divide and conquer has been one consequence.
Loss of institutional wisdom and accountability has also been an unintended, but material consequence everywhere term limits have been put in place. Since 1962, government employees were allowed to unionize. This created over time an unelected "fourth branch of government", that now controls much of the public agenda. They do have skin in the game.
"Regulatory capture" of those who are elected is an issue, even at our local levels. A topic for more exploration.
The lop-sided funding of political campaigns, by those who have immediate skin in the game puts these special interests on both sides of the bargaining table, as well as unique pressure on those who did promise to serve the entire district interests; not just those now under their immediate employ and supervision.
This is not a pure Democrat vs GOP issue. This is far more the power and clout of special interests and maintaining their access to the public funding stream. Astro-turf elections vs grass roots elections. I think we have lost the ability to know the difference.
And yet the Republican candidate running in the Third District raised only $1,500. What a joke! Complain all you want but when a hapless Republican Party can't seem to find credible candidates to run for theses offices, the complaints ring hollow.
What's particularly aggravating is all the effort to redistrict the district to exclude Isla Vista/UCSB and then we put up a lousy candidate run for supervisor.
Lou, thank you for your courageous attempts to crack the single party political lock on this town. You do know how it works from the inside. Would you run again?
After seeing what the Democrat party politics did to GOP Chris Mitchum when he ran against Lois Capps for Congress a few years back, I am surprised anyone wants to have their life and reputation ruined once the local party machine goes against any opposition. Not for the faint of heart. It is too bad good conservative candidates end up one and done, when they go up against this very well-oiled and formidable politics of personal destruction we see here too frequently.
This is a company town, and few if any can fight it. It is not so much GOP recruitment fails, as much as the current nature of the local political blood sport - too much money is a stake for the status quo to step aside and not fight like crazy to hold on.
It used to be many later successful local candidates made three attempts - one to get name recognition, one to almost make it, and then finally a victory - I believe even Jack O'Connell had to come back a few times. But that is no longer the case. Once unfortunately is enough damage for any viable alternate candidate to endure, after they face off against the tightly controlled local political machine.
Term limits has also been corrosive to political engagement; just the opposite of what was intended.
Welcome to the color revolution Mr. Caldwell…you aptly described one element of their playbook, reduce funding for law and order as well as reduce penalties for those that commit crimes…there are many other key aspects that have been employed by the CCP/WEF take down of our Great Nation, including release of the Wuhan flu and the crippling mRNA shots; queerification of our language, schools, and general elements of society; mass migration to destabilize the social order; psyops control of our collective consciousness via narratives and the state run mainstream media; poisoning our food, water and air, etc.
What a bunch of right wing drivel and fear mongering. I live in the North County and it is NOT as this article would have you believe. In the last three years I have experienced far less crime around me than I did in my 45 plus years in the city of Santa Barbara! Crime is the result of poverty, which is the result of the rich getting richer, which is the result of GOP policies. Homelessness is always blamed on Democrats, when the reality is that STRs and big companies like Black Rock are buying up housing and the wealthy own two or three houses that sit empty while the middle class struggles to survive, working two or more jobs to pay rent. Add population increase to this mess and this is why there is poverty and crime, NOT Democrat policies. Also, I'd love for the author to show us exactly where and how the Defund Police movement is doing anything at all to current police protocol, because I haven't seen it. With the current GOP focusing on taking women back to the days of servitude and forced pregnancies I will NEVER vote Republican ever again. What a craptastic and biased article.
What Republicans did you support in the past? It has been a long time since we were a bi-partisan state, county or city - at least for over two decades. So yes, everything in this state and county are the result of "Democrat" politics, even though most local offices are intended to be and should remain non-partisan.
When I was much younger, I voted for Reagan, thinking he would be a good choice. I thought of myself as a moderate back then. I regretted my choice, however, as in 1981 Reagan closed all the mental hospitals and left the mentally ill to fend for themselves thus causing a measurable boom in homeless mentally ill people. It is my strong belief that a country should take care of their own citizens, and so since then I have voted Democrat and have become even more liberal over the years as the GOP has slid into greed and corruption on a scale I could never have imagined.
Reagan did not "close the state hospitals". ACLU used the courts to force Reagan's hand. Time for that myth to die. But this was over 50 year ago? What has anyone done since then. And what happened to the billions of tax dollars ("tax the rich") raised for the "Mental Health Services Act" (MHSA) voters were told would be directed to this population group. Agree, it is time to re-open state care institutions. And also reform the Lantermann-Petris-Short Act to allow more than 72 hour involuntary holds for people demonstrably unable to care for themselves or presenting a danger to others.
Odd you chose to only vote Democrat based upon this false information about Reagan, when Democrats now have the longest and strongest track record doing absolutely nothing besides growing the problem. Yet dedicated money has flowed into their hands for decades, ever since voters passed the the MHSA. Might want to get up to speed on these issues. At least ask Democrats what did they do with all the MHSA money.
That is only one tiny reason I chose to vote Democrat. Watching the Republicans over the years spend massive amounts on military and cut programs for our kids, our schools, our environment, the arts, watching them give massive tax breaks to the wealthy and big oil and then continue to devalue women and push an anti-abortion agenda are reasons that I chose to vote blue. They scream about limited government and freedom, yet they take freedom away from half the country (women) it's hypocrisy! A laissez-faire approach to social issues does NOT work. A country needs to take care of its citizens. The Republican party promotes a climate change denial that is dangerous and wrong. Reagan DID empty the hospitals. One can argue that a deinstitutionalization was already under way, but he signed into law the things that ultimately emptied and closed the mental hospitals. The Reagan Administration made already bad things worse through the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act, which repealed President Carter's Mental Health Systems Act, depriving the community based health organizations of the funding they needed to support the deinstitutionalized.
What did you find the Democrats did with the billions of dollars raised by the Mental Health Services Act billions in this state alone, over the past 20 years? I hope you continue to read more widely. Most "military spending" (besides personnel) goes to Democrat-voting friendly US defense industry union contracts to purchase more weaponry, often during election years when pay to play partisan, tax dollar funded vote-buying reaches a fever pitch. Schools are fundamentally state supported, and Prop 98 in California guarantees 50% of all state general fund revenues go directly to public education. How much more do you want? Who will be forced to give up their share of the public dollar to give schools in California more than the current guaranteed 50% share to public education? How did two decades of Democrat super-majority state mismanagement turn California into one of the most business unfriendly states in America, leading now to declining state tax revenues, and hence a smaller amount of guaranteed Prop 98 revenues for schools? How has the strong teacher union K-12 bias against the "rich" and against business and corporations ,and pro-welfare, government micromanaged state contributed to this decline in state tax revenues? How did the GOP, out of power in this state for over two decades, cut education funding when in fact education funding is directly tied to the Democrat anti-business environment in this state ? States rightfully today choose to kill babies or not. It is now in the state's purview, not the GOP. Infanticide was never intended to be a federal issue under the US Constitution. No such thing as a "tax break". The government does not own everyone's money. Taxpayers pay only according to express IRS language. You err if you assume the government has the right to everyone's money, and hand out "tax breaks" to some and not to others. There is the only IRS tax code on one side, and there is our money on the other. The IRS code is written by our elected representatives; not just the GOP. No such thing as a "laissez-fair" social welfare system in this country. There is a huge social welfare state costing us trillions of dollars, with unfortunately only multi-generational "poverty"as its one proven harvest. Why do you still insist on lying about Reagan and the ACLU case that forced the closure of state care institutions? Why do continue to deny Calif voters approved the state MHSA to remedy the impacts of the ACLU lawsuit? And finally yes, Climate Change™ is a hoax, and little more than a partisan slush fund today. Equally ruinous to our economic future and well-being.
From CAL.GOV Mental Health Services Act - passed by voters 20 years ago.
The MHSA was passed by California voters in 2004 and is funded by a one percent income tax on personal income in excess of $1 million per year. It is designed to expand and transform California's behavioral health system to better serve individuals with, and at risk of, serious mental health issues, and their families.
MHSA addresses a broad continuum of prevention, early intervention, and service needs and the necessary infrastructure, technology, and training elements that effectively support the public behavioral health system.
You are correct in identifying there is corruption. That does not always equate to right wingers. We, as a country, have to stop putting "all in" to identify a problem. Abortion is a key example. To be pro life doesn't mean all those supporting the position believe a woman or young girl can never chose the procedure. Unfortunately too often a knee-jerk reaction compels people to rise up in fury. Which in turn leads to illogical arguments on both sides.
NO men, EVER, should have an opinion on what women can or can't do when it comes to unwanted pregnancies. I am positive that if men were regulated and told they could not get medical procedures that would help them immensely and change their lives, men would riot. If men could get pregnant, there would be abortion clinics on every corner, like Starbucks. The double standards are insane.
I read this article and I quote "Elimination of Jail Cells ......Whereas, our County Sheriff Bill Brown and our district attorney John Savrnoch are more than amenable to alternative sentencing protocols, the one thing that is paramount for these elected officials is to keep the public safe from criminals"
So WHO are exactly the criminals? For each criminal in jail the County gets matching funds and from where and who???? And WHO is in the Jail on Calle Real. As Tom Parker stated on his "Perceptions of Public Corruption" Article on the Inndependent "......and for purposes of this article, let me give you a quick homegrown lesson in what that malfeasance smells like."
1. The SB Jail has mentally incompement inmates there sometimes for 2 years
2. Drunks come into the Jail some with serious medical problems & the Jail does not treat
3. Others inmates need their medical prescriptions and do not get them or at best get them 3 weeks
4. Worse women get "Shaken Down" by untrained deputies who litterally pad the women down in ever part of thier body
5. Worse there are flat out innocent people there clearly wrongfully charged and held there for weeks until it is found a huge mistake has been made and they are released with no consequences
6. Those inmates that have alleged committed a crime have litterally NO REPRESENTATION because incoming inmates are given one Public Defender ..... named inside as the "Public Pretender"
7. The inmates call and call and call thier Public Defender who never ever answers the phone and
never ever calls them back.
8. The Charging Police Reports are at best poorly written and poorly investigated and a first year law student could get that alleged Criminal off on the charges.
9. Inmates sometimes are lucky to have a Private Criminal Defense Attorney. When that inmate has his first consultation with his Private Attorney and after the inmates discussion the deputy guards keep the inmate locked in the Interview Room to make certain that you are punished for getting a Private Attorney. How long three hours or more so the inmate has to urinate on themselves.
10. If an inmate gets sick in that SB Jail Good Luck because there is really no medical help for that inmate. Nurse there will soon leave because they do not want to be legally responsible
11. God help you if you have a serious problem like a serious heart medical problem because by the time the SB deputies notice your Medical Problem it is to late
12. The inmates group to together as a collective voice for thier Civil Rights Violations ignored even when outside groups have sued the SB County and the Jail repeatedly
13. If your case is a Big One get ready to get to be uttlery targeted inside with retailation against those inmates.
14. And the worse .... when poeple coming into the jail, sometimes on petty crimes never come out alive because somehow they have "An Incident" Inside and of course there are no Videos.
15. When inmates are let out and have no where to go they can and will be picked up for liotering near the jail.
16. The Homeless that come into the Jail have mental, drug and drinking problems and it becomes a revolving door for them............... and more money for the SB Jail
17. Worse whatever possession the Homeless have are taken and never given back.
To be very clear go into the SB Jail you are playing Russian Roulette and stand the likehood of
never coming out alive but if you do come out you are most likely going to be mentally and physically damaged. It just depends on how bad.
Ask Sol if he knows about the "Russian's" in town or better yet if he was actually involved. Next ask Sol if he has talked to Mr. Walther. Lets then have a sit down and open discussion on better ways to reform our entire Legal System here in Santa Barbara which as you know is being addressed.
There are very serious problems here and the SB Community deperately needs leaders.
Sorry Mr. Walther, I've know Sol for about 30 years. If you want to change the legal system, put something on the ballot and let everyone make the decision, not just a select few.
Such good points. Woe to the American citizen. But for the illegal migrant you won't go to jail for any crime, will get your immediate needs met, and aided in every apect for your housing and monetary needs. This was the issue of concern on the DOD stepping in. Yes, our entire system in every agency is seriously harming all those who should be in jail and those who have wrongfully been detained. Not to mention child protective services. So many scams, so many victims!! Now government overreach! Yes, we need conscientious new leaders who won't waste funds and just DO THEIR JOB!!
Will the voters waste this opportunity to replace Das Williams? He epitomizes what is messed up locally and nationally. He has all the money and political machine of the Democrat party behind him. Pray that voters wake up! Spread the word
Roy Lee is an honorable man whose election would be a huge step to reverse the rot described in this article .
Thank you! This is where change can be made. Appreciate your wisdom.
Santa Barbara resident voters need to check their ballots carefully to see if they were moved into the First District for this upcoming 2024 Board of Supervisors race - Incumbent Das Williams vs. Carpinteria council person Roy Lee.
BTW: Roy Lee's family restaurant in Carpinteria Uncle Chen makes an excellent walnut shrimp. You can also pick up campaign information about this District One challenger candidate.
Too often, “safe Communities” don’t heed the warning signs until impacted! Such is the case with the flurry of burglaries in the heart of Montecito. Soft on crime means only one thing, “hard on society”. Laws on crime have been in place for good reason. Playing softball with criminals leads to suicide. We need changes throughout California replacing elected officials with rational civic minded individuals, not politicians.
Well said, " hard on communities"
As always, thank you Andy for your diligence to get out the truth. I hope our county does not have voter fraud. Many voices in Santa Barbara are in opposition to the local leadership's push to see Santa Barbara decline. Which has nothing to do with affordable housing and everything to do with destroying America one town and metropolis at a time. THEY REMOVED our good sheriff. I fear soon we will be another town run over with crime, as you have already identified in your article. I sure hope the good people of Santa Barbara won't be surprised when buildings are tagged, like L.A. With each incident THEY can pat themselves on the back seeing the successes of their agenda. Please, please, please people of Santa Barbara, helping the poor does not mean destroying the sanctity for life for all the rest of the entire county's populations. I do not laud the leadership of this county.
As an eighty year old grandmother, I recently went to the Lompoc Police station to report the many thefts that were occurring on the street side of my property in Lompoc. I found the doors to the station locked to citizens, and a phone on an outside wall that did not work (supposedly to use to call the station). So after knocking on the doors outside, and waiting for more than ten minutes, I went back to the safety of my car, and called the station. Someone answered, and I told them I wanted to make a theft report. Eventually an officer stepped outside, shut the station door, and I made the report. He suggested I take pictures of the theft area and take care of it myself. I once had many pistols and rifles, and am thinking about that. When asked why the station is locked to us who need protection, they said it was because of the homeless and vandalism. Our Lompoc police cannot even protect their own station, much less we citizens, who pay their salaries! What about us? Our thefts? Carol in Lompoc
This is the Democratic intent. To keep criminals on the street to create chaos.
They purposefully do not do anything to help the humanitarian homeless crisis, again to create chaos and degrade our city.
The UN & US have spent over &350,000,000 to help economic refugees travel thousands of miles to get to the US first the promise of jobs. When they arrive the US has spent over $20,0000,0000,0000 to provide illegals with housing, money to live on, health care, education, etc…
Don’t you think $20 Billion could have helped our American Citizens who are homeless ?
The Democrats want to enlist the illegals in the military, they want to give them badges and make them police officers, they want to give illegals guns.
Have you asked why the a democrats choose to fund, support and arm illegals, who are mostly young single men?
Have you asked why in every “protest” concerning illegals there is never an American flag present?
Have you asked why an illegal does not need to show ID to travel on a plane, but you do?
Democrats, “party of the people” don’t care about you the voter, the tax payer, they only care about your vote in an election year.
Amen
We need to get rid of Hartmann, Williams and Capps. They are not representing our community.
Bring back law and order. there needs to be consequences for bad actions. crime is up everywhere. Make it hard to be a criminal and people will stop breaking the law as often.
Of course, we blame the politicians in power for the degrading of society, but everyone of them are repeatedly voted into office by a majority of registered voters. We all receive the results they voted for.
If we want change, we have to change the opinions and actions of those voters.
Is the republican party in California capable of doing that?
If not, we have to radically change the republican party.
No one is allowed to complain if they keep voting for the existing career politicians who have degraded our city, state & country.
No one is allowed to complain if they don’t vote.
But if the majority of Santa Barbarians enjoy the state of this town with increasing crime rates, increasing homelessness, businesses leaving, unfriendly government towards business and property owners, poor school academics, increasing violence in school, etc... Then keep voting for the career Democratic donkeys that have created the situation you love.
Look at our City Council, some have been there for almost twelve years. Has SB improved or declined in twelve years?
City council is subject to term limits, and now also district elections. This has substantially changed the nature of local governance. Divide and conquer has been one consequence.
Loss of institutional wisdom and accountability has also been an unintended, but material consequence everywhere term limits have been put in place. Since 1962, government employees were allowed to unionize. This created over time an unelected "fourth branch of government", that now controls much of the public agenda. They do have skin in the game.
So right! And vote those Republicans out who do not stand with the people. We are all so tired of these faux do-gooders.
"Regulatory capture" of those who are elected is an issue, even at our local levels. A topic for more exploration.
The lop-sided funding of political campaigns, by those who have immediate skin in the game puts these special interests on both sides of the bargaining table, as well as unique pressure on those who did promise to serve the entire district interests; not just those now under their immediate employ and supervision.
This is not a pure Democrat vs GOP issue. This is far more the power and clout of special interests and maintaining their access to the public funding stream. Astro-turf elections vs grass roots elections. I think we have lost the ability to know the difference.
And yet the Republican candidate running in the Third District raised only $1,500. What a joke! Complain all you want but when a hapless Republican Party can't seem to find credible candidates to run for theses offices, the complaints ring hollow.
What's particularly aggravating is all the effort to redistrict the district to exclude Isla Vista/UCSB and then we put up a lousy candidate run for supervisor.
Lou, thank you for your courageous attempts to crack the single party political lock on this town. You do know how it works from the inside. Would you run again?
After seeing what the Democrat party politics did to GOP Chris Mitchum when he ran against Lois Capps for Congress a few years back, I am surprised anyone wants to have their life and reputation ruined once the local party machine goes against any opposition. Not for the faint of heart. It is too bad good conservative candidates end up one and done, when they go up against this very well-oiled and formidable politics of personal destruction we see here too frequently.
This is a company town, and few if any can fight it. It is not so much GOP recruitment fails, as much as the current nature of the local political blood sport - too much money is a stake for the status quo to step aside and not fight like crazy to hold on.
It used to be many later successful local candidates made three attempts - one to get name recognition, one to almost make it, and then finally a victory - I believe even Jack O'Connell had to come back a few times. But that is no longer the case. Once unfortunately is enough damage for any viable alternate candidate to endure, after they face off against the tightly controlled local political machine.
Term limits has also been corrosive to political engagement; just the opposite of what was intended.
Welcome to the color revolution Mr. Caldwell…you aptly described one element of their playbook, reduce funding for law and order as well as reduce penalties for those that commit crimes…there are many other key aspects that have been employed by the CCP/WEF take down of our Great Nation, including release of the Wuhan flu and the crippling mRNA shots; queerification of our language, schools, and general elements of society; mass migration to destabilize the social order; psyops control of our collective consciousness via narratives and the state run mainstream media; poisoning our food, water and air, etc.
Fight for Trump!
What a bunch of right wing drivel and fear mongering. I live in the North County and it is NOT as this article would have you believe. In the last three years I have experienced far less crime around me than I did in my 45 plus years in the city of Santa Barbara! Crime is the result of poverty, which is the result of the rich getting richer, which is the result of GOP policies. Homelessness is always blamed on Democrats, when the reality is that STRs and big companies like Black Rock are buying up housing and the wealthy own two or three houses that sit empty while the middle class struggles to survive, working two or more jobs to pay rent. Add population increase to this mess and this is why there is poverty and crime, NOT Democrat policies. Also, I'd love for the author to show us exactly where and how the Defund Police movement is doing anything at all to current police protocol, because I haven't seen it. With the current GOP focusing on taking women back to the days of servitude and forced pregnancies I will NEVER vote Republican ever again. What a craptastic and biased article.
What Republicans did you support in the past? It has been a long time since we were a bi-partisan state, county or city - at least for over two decades. So yes, everything in this state and county are the result of "Democrat" politics, even though most local offices are intended to be and should remain non-partisan.
When I was much younger, I voted for Reagan, thinking he would be a good choice. I thought of myself as a moderate back then. I regretted my choice, however, as in 1981 Reagan closed all the mental hospitals and left the mentally ill to fend for themselves thus causing a measurable boom in homeless mentally ill people. It is my strong belief that a country should take care of their own citizens, and so since then I have voted Democrat and have become even more liberal over the years as the GOP has slid into greed and corruption on a scale I could never have imagined.
Reagan did not "close the state hospitals". ACLU used the courts to force Reagan's hand. Time for that myth to die. But this was over 50 year ago? What has anyone done since then. And what happened to the billions of tax dollars ("tax the rich") raised for the "Mental Health Services Act" (MHSA) voters were told would be directed to this population group. Agree, it is time to re-open state care institutions. And also reform the Lantermann-Petris-Short Act to allow more than 72 hour involuntary holds for people demonstrably unable to care for themselves or presenting a danger to others.
Odd you chose to only vote Democrat based upon this false information about Reagan, when Democrats now have the longest and strongest track record doing absolutely nothing besides growing the problem. Yet dedicated money has flowed into their hands for decades, ever since voters passed the the MHSA. Might want to get up to speed on these issues. At least ask Democrats what did they do with all the MHSA money.
That is only one tiny reason I chose to vote Democrat. Watching the Republicans over the years spend massive amounts on military and cut programs for our kids, our schools, our environment, the arts, watching them give massive tax breaks to the wealthy and big oil and then continue to devalue women and push an anti-abortion agenda are reasons that I chose to vote blue. They scream about limited government and freedom, yet they take freedom away from half the country (women) it's hypocrisy! A laissez-faire approach to social issues does NOT work. A country needs to take care of its citizens. The Republican party promotes a climate change denial that is dangerous and wrong. Reagan DID empty the hospitals. One can argue that a deinstitutionalization was already under way, but he signed into law the things that ultimately emptied and closed the mental hospitals. The Reagan Administration made already bad things worse through the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act, which repealed President Carter's Mental Health Systems Act, depriving the community based health organizations of the funding they needed to support the deinstitutionalized.
What did you find the Democrats did with the billions of dollars raised by the Mental Health Services Act billions in this state alone, over the past 20 years? I hope you continue to read more widely. Most "military spending" (besides personnel) goes to Democrat-voting friendly US defense industry union contracts to purchase more weaponry, often during election years when pay to play partisan, tax dollar funded vote-buying reaches a fever pitch. Schools are fundamentally state supported, and Prop 98 in California guarantees 50% of all state general fund revenues go directly to public education. How much more do you want? Who will be forced to give up their share of the public dollar to give schools in California more than the current guaranteed 50% share to public education? How did two decades of Democrat super-majority state mismanagement turn California into one of the most business unfriendly states in America, leading now to declining state tax revenues, and hence a smaller amount of guaranteed Prop 98 revenues for schools? How has the strong teacher union K-12 bias against the "rich" and against business and corporations ,and pro-welfare, government micromanaged state contributed to this decline in state tax revenues? How did the GOP, out of power in this state for over two decades, cut education funding when in fact education funding is directly tied to the Democrat anti-business environment in this state ? States rightfully today choose to kill babies or not. It is now in the state's purview, not the GOP. Infanticide was never intended to be a federal issue under the US Constitution. No such thing as a "tax break". The government does not own everyone's money. Taxpayers pay only according to express IRS language. You err if you assume the government has the right to everyone's money, and hand out "tax breaks" to some and not to others. There is the only IRS tax code on one side, and there is our money on the other. The IRS code is written by our elected representatives; not just the GOP. No such thing as a "laissez-fair" social welfare system in this country. There is a huge social welfare state costing us trillions of dollars, with unfortunately only multi-generational "poverty"as its one proven harvest. Why do you still insist on lying about Reagan and the ACLU case that forced the closure of state care institutions? Why do continue to deny Calif voters approved the state MHSA to remedy the impacts of the ACLU lawsuit? And finally yes, Climate Change™ is a hoax, and little more than a partisan slush fund today. Equally ruinous to our economic future and well-being.
From CAL.GOV Mental Health Services Act - passed by voters 20 years ago.
The MHSA was passed by California voters in 2004 and is funded by a one percent income tax on personal income in excess of $1 million per year. It is designed to expand and transform California's behavioral health system to better serve individuals with, and at risk of, serious mental health issues, and their families.
MHSA addresses a broad continuum of prevention, early intervention, and service needs and the necessary infrastructure, technology, and training elements that effectively support the public behavioral health system.
You are correct in identifying there is corruption. That does not always equate to right wingers. We, as a country, have to stop putting "all in" to identify a problem. Abortion is a key example. To be pro life doesn't mean all those supporting the position believe a woman or young girl can never chose the procedure. Unfortunately too often a knee-jerk reaction compels people to rise up in fury. Which in turn leads to illogical arguments on both sides.
NO men, EVER, should have an opinion on what women can or can't do when it comes to unwanted pregnancies. I am positive that if men were regulated and told they could not get medical procedures that would help them immensely and change their lives, men would riot. If men could get pregnant, there would be abortion clinics on every corner, like Starbucks. The double standards are insane.
On the other hand, no mother should kill her unborn child without that child's express permission. But even that would be hard to justify.
Want more of the same? Keep voting for the Commie-Dems!
I read this article and I quote "Elimination of Jail Cells ......Whereas, our County Sheriff Bill Brown and our district attorney John Savrnoch are more than amenable to alternative sentencing protocols, the one thing that is paramount for these elected officials is to keep the public safe from criminals"
So WHO are exactly the criminals? For each criminal in jail the County gets matching funds and from where and who???? And WHO is in the Jail on Calle Real. As Tom Parker stated on his "Perceptions of Public Corruption" Article on the Inndependent "......and for purposes of this article, let me give you a quick homegrown lesson in what that malfeasance smells like."
1. The SB Jail has mentally incompement inmates there sometimes for 2 years
2. Drunks come into the Jail some with serious medical problems & the Jail does not treat
3. Others inmates need their medical prescriptions and do not get them or at best get them 3 weeks
4. Worse women get "Shaken Down" by untrained deputies who litterally pad the women down in ever part of thier body
5. Worse there are flat out innocent people there clearly wrongfully charged and held there for weeks until it is found a huge mistake has been made and they are released with no consequences
6. Those inmates that have alleged committed a crime have litterally NO REPRESENTATION because incoming inmates are given one Public Defender ..... named inside as the "Public Pretender"
7. The inmates call and call and call thier Public Defender who never ever answers the phone and
never ever calls them back.
8. The Charging Police Reports are at best poorly written and poorly investigated and a first year law student could get that alleged Criminal off on the charges.
9. Inmates sometimes are lucky to have a Private Criminal Defense Attorney. When that inmate has his first consultation with his Private Attorney and after the inmates discussion the deputy guards keep the inmate locked in the Interview Room to make certain that you are punished for getting a Private Attorney. How long three hours or more so the inmate has to urinate on themselves.
10. If an inmate gets sick in that SB Jail Good Luck because there is really no medical help for that inmate. Nurse there will soon leave because they do not want to be legally responsible
11. God help you if you have a serious problem like a serious heart medical problem because by the time the SB deputies notice your Medical Problem it is to late
12. The inmates group to together as a collective voice for thier Civil Rights Violations ignored even when outside groups have sued the SB County and the Jail repeatedly
13. If your case is a Big One get ready to get to be uttlery targeted inside with retailation against those inmates.
14. And the worse .... when poeple coming into the jail, sometimes on petty crimes never come out alive because somehow they have "An Incident" Inside and of course there are no Videos.
15. When inmates are let out and have no where to go they can and will be picked up for liotering near the jail.
16. The Homeless that come into the Jail have mental, drug and drinking problems and it becomes a revolving door for them............... and more money for the SB Jail
17. Worse whatever possession the Homeless have are taken and never given back.
To be very clear go into the SB Jail you are playing Russian Roulette and stand the likehood of
never coming out alive but if you do come out you are most likely going to be mentally and physically damaged. It just depends on how bad.
Welcome to the SB Jail
Howard Walther, a member of a Military Family
Tell me Mr. Walther, have you ever spent any personal time as an observer of the jail?
Hello Mr Thomas, in reply to your comment.
You know "Sol" head of Investigations for the SB Sheriff and then promoted in 2018.
https://www.independent.com/2018/09/12/sol-linver-named-new-county-undersheriff/
Ask Sol if he knows about the "Russian's" in town or better yet if he was actually involved. Next ask Sol if he has talked to Mr. Walther. Lets then have a sit down and open discussion on better ways to reform our entire Legal System here in Santa Barbara which as you know is being addressed.
There are very serious problems here and the SB Community deperately needs leaders.
Howard Walther, member of a Military Family
Sorry Mr. Walther, I've know Sol for about 30 years. If you want to change the legal system, put something on the ballot and let everyone make the decision, not just a select few.
Such good points. Woe to the American citizen. But for the illegal migrant you won't go to jail for any crime, will get your immediate needs met, and aided in every apect for your housing and monetary needs. This was the issue of concern on the DOD stepping in. Yes, our entire system in every agency is seriously harming all those who should be in jail and those who have wrongfully been detained. Not to mention child protective services. So many scams, so many victims!! Now government overreach! Yes, we need conscientious new leaders who won't waste funds and just DO THEIR JOB!!