Excellent column. But I'm staying. Every time I think about leaving I remind myself that if you run away from problems, they will come after you. I don't see any point in leaving this state for one of the states that have all these fleeing ex-Californians - many of them the very people who voted in our problems. So let's say I move to sone lousy weather hellhole state and for ten years I have lower taxes, lower gas prices and lower blood pressure from not dealing with the elected idiot Commies here. Then one day I'll wake up and read about how California is the place to be happy and free again. And where I am is now run by a bunch of elected idiot Commies. Eve didn't just give Adam an apple to seduce him for sex. Eve saw real estate potential in Paradise. I'm going to have a great Sunday. You all should, too.
Pol, it's not Commies - it's the Commie-DEMS - Democrats who think they have all the answers and come up with their smug Directives, Mandates and Policies to micromanage your existance.
Right on Polly, as a born and raised California, I’m not going anywhere either. It’s the greatest state in the nation. Just awfully inept and corrupt since being run into the ground for 30+ years. BUT, I don’t think it’ll be too long before we are happy and free again.
coming up on 8 years, started in Oct ‘17…think the conspiracy theorists are about 45-47 to 0…
it’s a public education process & a hostile takeover
what has POTUS Trump shown US over his stay…wide spread control by the DS in politics, trade, justice systems, rules & regulations, big Pharma, education system, immigration, wars for profit, and on & on…bear in mind, all countries have been captured…The Silent War is worldwide, But if America falls, the World falls…
The more you know, you know…it’s a HOSTILE TAKEOVER from an evil corrupt network of players (not just Democrats).
The 'TRILOGY'.
MOVIE 1 [Full]: The 'START' PLOT: How the intelligence apparatus, State Dept, and Dept of "JUSTICE" of the United States, in joint effort w/ our (x) primary foreign allies + other covert assets, as directed by OBAMA WH in coordination w/ HRC, colluded and conspired to RIG THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OF 2016 in an effort to install HRC, frame POTUS (PROJECTION!), create emergency contingencies re: installation of SAFEGUARDS and FIREWALLS to PREVENT EXPOSURE OR CONTINUATION OF PRESIDENCY SHOULD COUNTER FAIL TO ENSURE OPERATORS, ACTORS, AGENTS OF POWER, PAST & PRESENT, REMAIN IN CONTROL, AND USE SOURCES/COVERT ASSETS OF THE FAKE NEWS MEDIA TO CARRY OUT X-FRAME BARRAGE OF STRATEGIC COORDINATED [GUIDED] ATTACKS DESIGNED TO DIVIDE, COVER/SHELTER, JUSTIFY IMPEACHMENT/REMOVAL IN EFFORT TO REGAIN CONTROL AND PREVENT PUBLIC AWARENESS OF ILLEGAL, CRIMINAL, TREASONOUS ACTS
Just an idea, but as long as we are fighting *them* on their addled terms, we are still losing. And wasting our time. I intend to take my own advice, as I get hooked into their morass too often myself.
Humanity is good, but, when we let our guard down we allow darkness to infiltrate and destroy.
Like past battles fought, we now face our greatest battle at present, a battle to save our Republic, our way of life, and what we decide (EACH OF US) now will decide our future.
Will we be a free nation under God?
Or will we cede our freedom, rights and liberty to the enemy?
We all have a choice to make. .
Evil [darkness] has never been so exposed to light.
They can no longer hide in the shadows.
Our system of government has been infiltrated by corrupt and sinister elements.
Democracy was almost lost forever.
When the news is no longer trustworthy it is up to EACH OF US to use discernment.
Have faith and trust in yourself….Love your fighting spirit…
As our nation’s Independence Day approaches, California is anything but independent. It should be obvious that we have lost our way and the wheels are coming off. July 1st will usher in substantial tax increases on gas that consumers and businesses are struggling to pay. The rest of the country is enjoying a bounty of cheap fuel, but no, not California. Yet another self imposed wound to the middle class, perpetuated by the never ending nanny/regulatory state. All while California is sitting on a Bonanza of energy, but due to the war on fossil fuels levied by unelected bureaucrats like the California Coastal Commission, and their environmental handlers, it can never be realized.
What is it about our leaders, or more importantly, what is it about the voters who enable them? Clearly, special interests rule the administrative state, while the rest of us are at their mercy.
People are leaving California in droves, so much so that U-Hauls are in short supply and at a premium heading east, while hardly few are moving to our state. Businesses, job creators all leaving. Who’s left, Senior citizens and illegal immigrants?
It is a travesty that our state has become the punchline of jokes and an absolute basket case. Who’s to blame? The liberal Democratic machine and their corrupt minions.
MAJOR KUDOS TO YOU SIR!!! Your research and exposure goes beyond excellence! I especially love your quote:
“When you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing; when you see that money is flowing to those who deal not in goods, but in favors; when you see that men get rich more easily by graft than by work, and your laws no longer protect you against them, but protect them against you… you may know that your society is doomed.” Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged.
I don’t know if our society is completely doomed as of now, yet we are surely headed in that direction. The above quote hits the nail on the head when referring to career politicians who exert their ideals onto their alleged constituency while enjoying the fruits of their labor via insider trading and dark money donators! To believe even for a moment that their salaries, averaging $174k, could generate enough capital to put to use for the enormous returns in their stock portfolios is absurd at best. THE TIME FOR TERM LIMITS IS NOW!!!
Why did POTUS Trump push for TERM LIMITS… How do politicians access campaign contributions for personal use?
Imagine what would happen, if, by law, every US Congressman/woman, US Senator, President etc. was by US law audited every 1-2 years by an independent agency.
Imagine what would happen if those audits extended to all FAMILY MEMBERS of such 'elected' official?
We already have term limits in California for many offices. Term limits in fact created and cemented in the current sclerotic mess we are now in. Willie Brown looks like Thomas Jefferson today, compared to the SEIU and teacher union tyranny we got in his place thanks to “term limits”.
If you have any further questions about the total failure of term limits in this state, be sure to ask. institutionalizing lazy voters is no answer.
ONLY Donations from citizens that reside in that local office election; that county office election; that state office election. No outside donations; no sharing campaign monies with other candidates or causes.
No, you do not need term limits until you know what happens when term limits creates a power vacuum and the good get kicked out with the bad. Drill down more into what you are trying to accomplish, and how term limits very badly and quickly became a victim of the laws of unintended consequences.
Term limits is a cheap solution for a problem you have not adequately described in depth, with a serious grip on bilateral consequences. If it worked so badly on the state level here, why do you think it will magically work better on a federal level. The best we can offer from our own disastrous experience is to at least warn others of the dangers, proving the cure as applied in California has been far worse than the disease.
Unless you can make a good case why a takeover of this state by the teacher unions and SEIU creating a one-party supermajority hammerlock made up of revolving door know-nothings has been a good thing.
After term limits, I recall going to bed with the “education” candidates who were now filling the term limit leadership vacuum. I and every else ended up in bed with the teachers unions instead. They quickly consolidated this new union-approved power base, locked in further election “reform” measures to create a Democrat super-majority Democrat, teacher union and SEIU approved replacement candidates.
Our “new” term limit faces sure act, walk and talk a lot like the old candidates: Das Williams, Hannah—Beth Jackson, Monique Limon, Gregg Hart, and now even a benighted hereditary legacy keeping the Walter Capps seat warm for Lois, and now for Crown Princess Laura. What in fact did we gain with term limits?
Voter turnout out remains dismal, population-based voting districts are a scam, and anyone who has dared to oppose this Democrat insider mean machine is left too bloodied and bruised on the pavement to ever try again.
Just to clarify Mr. Caldwell's gross misstatement "we have Prop 65, which regulates the storage, use, and disposal of most chemicals in our state because of their potential to be hazardous."
Prop 65 has about 900 chemicals that require businesses to provide warnings to Californians about significant exposures to chemicals that are known to cause cancer, birth defects, or other reproductive harm. This 900 is out of about 160,000 chemicals used in commerce today.
The fact that the Prop 65 warning is everywhere now is due to two problems. 1) lawyers and 2) that most supply chains are so nebulus, even to the company, that no one is exactly sure of what crap their stuff is made from, so they slap a warning on it.
Yes, regulations need to be downsized and streamlined. But that's not very sensational. I had hoped that after Mr. Caldwell showed the size and depth of the regulatory burden that he might have some suggestions on what a better system would look like. Throw them all out?
Andy, you put meat on the 2024 election choice. Vote Democrat. The party of Big Government. Big Unions. Big debt. Big Lies. And …..Big Brother. Do voters want more micromanagement or less micromanagement?
2024 voter did reject the Democrat agenda across 90% of US counties. Keep telling us how Democrat politics and policies look like from the ground up in the vast agricultural setting. As we also try to escape the long reach of Democrat extreme anti-private property confiscations in the urban setting too. We are bonded together on this issue.
Thanks Andy for your summary of how California has made land owners become de facto "managers" for the political party that appoints the heads of the "over 200," according to Google, California state agencies, boards and commissions.
Have you seen the the Counties new APCD building on West McCoy? It is way overdone.
Question for the County Representatives:
1. How much did this building cost?
2. Why was this SO OVER BUILT?
3. Was a study done to justify building this Taj Mahal?
4. Why such an elaborate building?
5. Did you even look into any available properties that could house employees?
6. What “By GOD” are you planning on doing in this building?
7. How much oversight and presence do we need in Santa Maria? We’ve already have a wide fast moving line of businesses leaving this State of Kalifornia!
I can surmise that this building cost 5 million dollars, entrusted to you. Do we see, approve expenditures of this magnitude? We should voted on this.
The Democrat-inflicted Doom Loop is quickly reaching new voter majority numbers as more younger voters resent what Democrat one-party politics did to this state and their future over the past 20 years.
Looking forward to finally reaching the 50% plus one vote tipping point. Democrats are losing registration numbers. Independent registrations are growing. This is the upside.
It is a travesty that landowners cannot control their own land above and below. I read somewhere that CA is the 5th largest economy in the world? If that's true, no wonder the govt wants so much control over the land, farms and other resources. However, we the people, can take steps by voting out those making the laws that continue to restrict our freedom, rights to land and water and other resources. It's a monumental task, but we can't expect different results by doing the same thing and electing the same people. Is anyone running for office in SB County who will address these issues? Along with education for our kids, parents rights and related issues, these other issues are hallmark as well.
Andy, I appreciate that you're clearly intelligent and passionate about these issues, but I have to ask: why does everything you write come across as so fundamentally self-centered?
Your entire perspective seems to boil down to "I should be able to do whatever I want on my property, and any restriction is tyranny." That strikes me as the worldview of someone who never moved beyond their teenage years - you know, that phase where every parental rule felt like an assault on personal freedom, regardless of the underlying reasoning or broader consequences.
Here's what you're missing: Rules and regulations don't materialize out of thin air because bureaucrats are bored. They exist because something happened. Someone dumped chemicals that poisoned groundwater. Someone's industrial operations made the air unbreathable for their neighbors. Someone's land use practices caused floods or mudslides that destroyed other people's homes. Someone overpumped groundwater and caused neighboring wells to run dry.
You romanticize the "rugged individualist" who just wants to work his land without interference, but conveniently ignore that one person's "freedom" often becomes everyone else's problem. The rancher who clears riparian habitat might reduce flood control for downstream communities. The farmer who depletes groundwater affects every other water user in the basin. The business owner who cuts corners on safety creates risks for employees and neighbors.
Government doesn't give a damn about you personally - you're right about that. But government is supposed to give a damn about us collectively. Well, sometimes it does, anyway. The whole point of regulation is to prevent individuals from externalizing their costs onto the broader community. It's the classic "your right to swing your fist ends where my nose begins" principle, applied to environmental and public health issues.
Your Ayn Rand quote is particularly telling. Atlas Shrugged presents a fantasy world where productive individuals are held back by parasitic bureaucrats, but reality is more complicated. Many of those "men who produce nothing" are actually scientists, public health experts, and environmental engineers trying to prevent the kind of disasters that happen when short-term profit motives override long-term consequences. The bureaucrat monitoring your water well isn't trying to destroy you - they're trying to prevent another situation like California's Central Valley, where decades of unregulated groundwater pumping caused massive land subsidence and left entire communities without water.
You invoke the founders and their complaints against King George, but you've got it backwards. The colonists weren't complaining about environmental protection or public health measures - they were complaining about taxation without representation and arbitrary rule. Today's environmental regulations go through extensive public comment periods, scientific review, and democratic processes. You can vote for different representatives, challenge regulations in court, and participate in the rulemaking process. That's not tyranny - that's democracy in action.
The real question is: what's your alternative? Go back to the days when companies could dump whatever they wanted into rivers? When there were no controls on air pollution? When anyone could pump groundwater until their neighbors' wells ran dry? We tried that approach - it's called the early Industrial Revolution, and it gave us things like the Cuyahoga River catching fire and London's deadly smog events.
I get that regulation can be frustrating, especially when you're trying to run a business or manage property. But the solution isn't to eliminate all rules - it's to make sure the rules are science-based, fair, and efficiently administered. Your blanket opposition to any limitation on individual property rights isn't principled libertarianism - it's just sophisticated selfishness dressed up in constitutional rhetoric.
Maybe instead of railing against all regulation as tyranny, you could channel that energy into advocating for better, smarter regulation that balances individual property rights with legitimate public interests. That would be a much more constructive use of your obvious intelligence and passion.
I'm sure the very eloquent Steve enjoys drinking safe water all the time. And that there are regulations to keep a battery recycling facility from opening next door to his apartment.
DB. When the Democrat environmental swells all take their private jets to the Bezos wedding in Venice, Italy, you can drop the pretense you people protect the environment. Drop using your made up exceptions, to justify your wholesale tyranny.
That is called extortion. Give us full power and control or your neighbor will open a nuclear waste dump site next door. Instead you come across as a mafia protection racket and our daily lives are in peril if you ever stop micromanaging our entire lives.
Drop the hysteria. Drop the threats. You people are so done. Start partnering in adulting. Your big brother micromanaging is over.
David, I'm not sure Andy is self-centered. He is writing as lobbyist for the industries that fund his non-profit COLAB. Just like the environmentalist he rallies against write op-eds for the issues that fund their groups.
Colab earned 100k from General Meetings, 125k from the radio show, and 151k from a raffle/auction, 51k from fundraising.
ROFL - he stuffed insurance in there at 43k. What the heck is he insuring for 43k? Wanna bet that he is putting his personal and residential insurance in there?
He sucked out 150k in savings. Hmm, wonder why.
He is carrying 15k in CC debt.
In the end, congrats to him. He found a way to earn a living. It is proving my point that what he is arguing against, he does not believe. He is part of the system that he admonishes. Hmm. :)
Oh, the dramatic flair for the plight of our ranchers and their ability to pump and utilize groundwater. Never mind the fact that our entire Central Valley is “sinking” due to the over extraction over ground water, and subsequent subsidence because of. Where communities have municipal wells that are dry because of over extraction.
Limits on oil well drilling? You mean like not within a specified distance from a school or hospital. That type of limit?
Controlling agricultural run-off to protect surface and groundwater sources… oh, the humanity.
We’re the fourth largest economy in the world, something’s working…
No kings, and God bless the USA and ALL of its citizens
Democrats are beating a new buzz word to death: “we are the fourth largest economy in the world” as the universal excuse for their own debt-riddle destruction of this state.
This is new twist on thier former tax the rich, and billionaires must pay their fair share con artist games to take even more tax dollars for themselves. Be ready to stop this latest Democrat power grab in its tracks.
Democrats are mean, vile, greedy and continually try to own the language and every dollar you produce. Stop this latest word game in its tracks. Ask them to explain why the fourth largest economy in the world has among the worst public schools in America, the highest taxes, the worst elected officials and crushing public pension debt.
Democrats don’t want you looking at them for those failings. Instead they want to take 100% credit for the fourth largest economy in the world and all problems they created would be solved if they could get their own greedy hands on all that other people’s money.
Have you seen the the Counties new APCD building on West McCoy? It is way overdone.
Question for the County Representatives:
1. How much did this building cost?
2. Why was this SO OVER BUILT?
3. Was a study done to justify building this Taj Mahal?
4. Why such an elaborate building?
5. Did you even look into any available properties that could house employees?
6. What “By GOD” are you planning on doing in this building?
7. How much oversight and presence do we need in Santa Maria? We’ve already have a wide fast moving line of businesses leaving this State of Kalifornia!
I can surmise that this building cost 5 million dollars, entrusted to you. Do we see, approve expenditures of this magnitude? We should voted on this.
The new controlling trifecta in this state: (1) unelected government bureaucrats, (2) government employee unions and (3) the construction unions feeding off government funded projects.
Impossible standards and demands, indeed. Conservatives who desire a vibrant, business friendly economy want a clean, safe environment too. Unfortunately the left has successfully institutionalized the “Army” of unelected bureaucrats and grossly overstaffed government entities to the point it’s easy to for many to rationally conclude that the time has come to give up and leave our beautiful state California. I don’t always agree with Andy Caldwell on everything he writes but this article is quite telling. I would love to see a serious study on the “Army’s”cost to conducting business along with the cost to all taxpayers for paying the salaries, benefits and retirements for that Army. For example, the experience tells me the actual cost of a home includes several hundred thousand dollars to support the Army. The public is mostly unaware of this. Meanwhile, middle income adults can’t afford to purchase a house while the taxpayers built low income housing that is nicer than what the lower middle class can afford.
Andy, I have been haunted by your succinct comment early in your article because it finally set off the Aha! button, that moment of deep clarity exactly why so much has gone wrong in such a short period of time. Nothing that we have not been already arguing here it bits and pieces for years, but it finally crystallized for me in your one sentence.
We the people own the land, but somehow some unelected bureaucrats now claim they own the resources. Except, they do not. We the people from time to time granted unelected bureaucrats limited ability to regulate these resources, within express limits, but we never granted unelected bureaucrats ownership of our Land. Yet without embarrassment or qualification, this unelected bureaucrat claimed she did. (Give a mouse a cookie……..)
Early real property classes in law school declared traditionally within the Anglo heritage of land ownership a property owner owned, relying on recorded and expressly defined metes and bounds measurements, the skies above and down to the core of the earth itself.
The unelected bureaucrats own nothing. It was sheer arrogance for her to claim otherwise. But unchecked, she did come to represent the upside down world we know live in where we now bow blindly to “the state” as both elected and non-elected run the minutiae of of daily lives, including demanding we buy useless, non-functional home appliances.
This really the core of the MAGA movement and the earlier Tea Party movement, the rejection of the deep state, big government, the slimy power exercised by government employee unions, the elemental profundity of recent SCOTUS fourth branch of government case decisions, etc, etc, all finally coming together as represented by that one unelected bureaucrat years ago telling Andy unchecked, she owns us. No she does not. And we now have a new voices to tell her exactly why.
Excellent column. But I'm staying. Every time I think about leaving I remind myself that if you run away from problems, they will come after you. I don't see any point in leaving this state for one of the states that have all these fleeing ex-Californians - many of them the very people who voted in our problems. So let's say I move to sone lousy weather hellhole state and for ten years I have lower taxes, lower gas prices and lower blood pressure from not dealing with the elected idiot Commies here. Then one day I'll wake up and read about how California is the place to be happy and free again. And where I am is now run by a bunch of elected idiot Commies. Eve didn't just give Adam an apple to seduce him for sex. Eve saw real estate potential in Paradise. I'm going to have a great Sunday. You all should, too.
Pol, it's not Commies - it's the Commie-DEMS - Democrats who think they have all the answers and come up with their smug Directives, Mandates and Policies to micromanage your existance.
Thank you, Mr. Brown. I should never insult Commies like that!
Right on Polly, as a born and raised California, I’m not going anywhere either. It’s the greatest state in the nation. Just awfully inept and corrupt since being run into the ground for 30+ years. BUT, I don’t think it’ll be too long before we are happy and free again.
https://mobile.twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1097488256848007173
The President of the United States, the Commander in Chief, AGREED that an illegal coup was attempted against him.
Stop and understand the GRAVITY of acknowledgement.
Do you believe NOTHING WILL HAPPEN?
Do you believe no one will be prosecuted?
POTUS making statements for no reason?
How do you introduce the TRUTH to those still asleep?
Look at what DOGE found? Do people still believe nothing will happen?
https://theamericantribune.com/trump-administration-takes-huge-action-after-finding-massive-bribery-scandal-at-woke-agency-democrats-tried-to-shield-from-doge/
Methinks that The Storm is brewing…a Massive Storm
https://x.com/genflynn/status/1939418491637149944?s=61
That storm has been brewing for what, 12 years?
coming up on 8 years, started in Oct ‘17…think the conspiracy theorists are about 45-47 to 0…
it’s a public education process & a hostile takeover
what has POTUS Trump shown US over his stay…wide spread control by the DS in politics, trade, justice systems, rules & regulations, big Pharma, education system, immigration, wars for profit, and on & on…bear in mind, all countries have been captured…The Silent War is worldwide, But if America falls, the World falls…
The more you know, you know…it’s a HOSTILE TAKEOVER from an evil corrupt network of players (not just Democrats).
The 'TRILOGY'.
MOVIE 1 [Full]: The 'START' PLOT: How the intelligence apparatus, State Dept, and Dept of "JUSTICE" of the United States, in joint effort w/ our (x) primary foreign allies + other covert assets, as directed by OBAMA WH in coordination w/ HRC, colluded and conspired to RIG THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OF 2016 in an effort to install HRC, frame POTUS (PROJECTION!), create emergency contingencies re: installation of SAFEGUARDS and FIREWALLS to PREVENT EXPOSURE OR CONTINUATION OF PRESIDENCY SHOULD COUNTER FAIL TO ENSURE OPERATORS, ACTORS, AGENTS OF POWER, PAST & PRESENT, REMAIN IN CONTROL, AND USE SOURCES/COVERT ASSETS OF THE FAKE NEWS MEDIA TO CARRY OUT X-FRAME BARRAGE OF STRATEGIC COORDINATED [GUIDED] ATTACKS DESIGNED TO DIVIDE, COVER/SHELTER, JUSTIFY IMPEACHMENT/REMOVAL IN EFFORT TO REGAIN CONTROL AND PREVENT PUBLIC AWARENESS OF ILLEGAL, CRIMINAL, TREASONOUS ACTS
Coming SOON to a theater near you.
MOVIE 2 - Coming this FALL.
MOVIE 3 - TBA
Enjoy the show… https://x.com/realtt1776/status/1939357181037461796?s=61
Just an idea, but as long as we are fighting *them* on their addled terms, we are still losing. And wasting our time. I intend to take my own advice, as I get hooked into their morass too often myself.
Humanity is good, but, when we let our guard down we allow darkness to infiltrate and destroy.
Like past battles fought, we now face our greatest battle at present, a battle to save our Republic, our way of life, and what we decide (EACH OF US) now will decide our future.
Will we be a free nation under God?
Or will we cede our freedom, rights and liberty to the enemy?
We all have a choice to make. .
Evil [darkness] has never been so exposed to light.
They can no longer hide in the shadows.
Our system of government has been infiltrated by corrupt and sinister elements.
Democracy was almost lost forever.
When the news is no longer trustworthy it is up to EACH OF US to use discernment.
Have faith and trust in yourself….Love your fighting spirit…
PS…we already won, just need to keep on keeping on… https://x.com/fnowisthetime/status/1939487558557401455?s=61
As our nation’s Independence Day approaches, California is anything but independent. It should be obvious that we have lost our way and the wheels are coming off. July 1st will usher in substantial tax increases on gas that consumers and businesses are struggling to pay. The rest of the country is enjoying a bounty of cheap fuel, but no, not California. Yet another self imposed wound to the middle class, perpetuated by the never ending nanny/regulatory state. All while California is sitting on a Bonanza of energy, but due to the war on fossil fuels levied by unelected bureaucrats like the California Coastal Commission, and their environmental handlers, it can never be realized.
https://californiaglobe.com/articles/the-two-primary-causes-of-californias-july-1st-gas-tax-increase/
What is it about our leaders, or more importantly, what is it about the voters who enable them? Clearly, special interests rule the administrative state, while the rest of us are at their mercy.
People are leaving California in droves, so much so that U-Hauls are in short supply and at a premium heading east, while hardly few are moving to our state. Businesses, job creators all leaving. Who’s left, Senior citizens and illegal immigrants?
It is a travesty that our state has become the punchline of jokes and an absolute basket case. Who’s to blame? The liberal Democratic machine and their corrupt minions.
As Senator Kennedy says "It is a gravy train with biscuit wheels."
I think it was actually Bill Murray.
Dear Mr. Caldwell-
MAJOR KUDOS TO YOU SIR!!! Your research and exposure goes beyond excellence! I especially love your quote:
“When you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing; when you see that money is flowing to those who deal not in goods, but in favors; when you see that men get rich more easily by graft than by work, and your laws no longer protect you against them, but protect them against you… you may know that your society is doomed.” Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged.
I don’t know if our society is completely doomed as of now, yet we are surely headed in that direction. The above quote hits the nail on the head when referring to career politicians who exert their ideals onto their alleged constituency while enjoying the fruits of their labor via insider trading and dark money donators! To believe even for a moment that their salaries, averaging $174k, could generate enough capital to put to use for the enormous returns in their stock portfolios is absurd at best. THE TIME FOR TERM LIMITS IS NOW!!!
Why did POTUS Trump push for TERM LIMITS… How do politicians access campaign contributions for personal use?
Imagine what would happen, if, by law, every US Congressman/woman, US Senator, President etc. was by US law audited every 1-2 years by an independent agency.
Imagine what would happen if those audits extended to all FAMILY MEMBERS of such 'elected' official?
Auditing US Congressman/woman, US Senator, President would be awesome. I'd continue those audits for 5 years after they are out of office.
That quote from Ayn Rand that resonates so aptly now was written in 1957. I read all her books as a teenager in 1972 and was forever impacted.
We already have term limits in California for many offices. Term limits in fact created and cemented in the current sclerotic mess we are now in. Willie Brown looks like Thomas Jefferson today, compared to the SEIU and teacher union tyranny we got in his place thanks to “term limits”.
If you have any further questions about the total failure of term limits in this state, be sure to ask. institutionalizing lazy voters is no answer.
We need term limits for Congress & Senate. And no campaign donations from corporations or PACs. Only private citizens with a dollar cap.
ONLY Donations from citizens that reside in that local office election; that county office election; that state office election. No outside donations; no sharing campaign monies with other candidates or causes.
No, you do not need term limits until you know what happens when term limits creates a power vacuum and the good get kicked out with the bad. Drill down more into what you are trying to accomplish, and how term limits very badly and quickly became a victim of the laws of unintended consequences.
Term limits is a cheap solution for a problem you have not adequately described in depth, with a serious grip on bilateral consequences. If it worked so badly on the state level here, why do you think it will magically work better on a federal level. The best we can offer from our own disastrous experience is to at least warn others of the dangers, proving the cure as applied in California has been far worse than the disease.
Unless you can make a good case why a takeover of this state by the teacher unions and SEIU creating a one-party supermajority hammerlock made up of revolving door know-nothings has been a good thing.
Would love to hear more about how and why term limits in California have worked out badly.
After term limits, I recall going to bed with the “education” candidates who were now filling the term limit leadership vacuum. I and every else ended up in bed with the teachers unions instead. They quickly consolidated this new union-approved power base, locked in further election “reform” measures to create a Democrat super-majority Democrat, teacher union and SEIU approved replacement candidates.
Our “new” term limit faces sure act, walk and talk a lot like the old candidates: Das Williams, Hannah—Beth Jackson, Monique Limon, Gregg Hart, and now even a benighted hereditary legacy keeping the Walter Capps seat warm for Lois, and now for Crown Princess Laura. What in fact did we gain with term limits?
Voter turnout out remains dismal, population-based voting districts are a scam, and anyone who has dared to oppose this Democrat insider mean machine is left too bloodied and bruised on the pavement to ever try again.
Just to clarify Mr. Caldwell's gross misstatement "we have Prop 65, which regulates the storage, use, and disposal of most chemicals in our state because of their potential to be hazardous."
Prop 65 has about 900 chemicals that require businesses to provide warnings to Californians about significant exposures to chemicals that are known to cause cancer, birth defects, or other reproductive harm. This 900 is out of about 160,000 chemicals used in commerce today.
The fact that the Prop 65 warning is everywhere now is due to two problems. 1) lawyers and 2) that most supply chains are so nebulus, even to the company, that no one is exactly sure of what crap their stuff is made from, so they slap a warning on it.
Yes, regulations need to be downsized and streamlined. But that's not very sensational. I had hoped that after Mr. Caldwell showed the size and depth of the regulatory burden that he might have some suggestions on what a better system would look like. Throw them all out?
Great article and thank you for pointing out who the “kings” are. Unelected bureaucrats
Look at our own local puppet government. They are pencil pushers, not decision makers & most definitely not leaders,
They are beholden to the master that feeds them.
But the avg joe thinks they are in control.
Biden was the prime example of a vegetable on stage. Many still believe he was in charge, meaning we are in serious trouble.
Andy, you put meat on the 2024 election choice. Vote Democrat. The party of Big Government. Big Unions. Big debt. Big Lies. And …..Big Brother. Do voters want more micromanagement or less micromanagement?
2024 voter did reject the Democrat agenda across 90% of US counties. Keep telling us how Democrat politics and policies look like from the ground up in the vast agricultural setting. As we also try to escape the long reach of Democrat extreme anti-private property confiscations in the urban setting too. We are bonded together on this issue.
Agree, JL.
Thanks Andy for your summary of how California has made land owners become de facto "managers" for the political party that appoints the heads of the "over 200," according to Google, California state agencies, boards and commissions.
Exactly
Have you seen the the Counties new APCD building on West McCoy? It is way overdone.
Question for the County Representatives:
1. How much did this building cost?
2. Why was this SO OVER BUILT?
3. Was a study done to justify building this Taj Mahal?
4. Why such an elaborate building?
5. Did you even look into any available properties that could house employees?
6. What “By GOD” are you planning on doing in this building?
7. How much oversight and presence do we need in Santa Maria? We’ve already have a wide fast moving line of businesses leaving this State of Kalifornia!
I can surmise that this building cost 5 million dollars, entrusted to you. Do we see, approve expenditures of this magnitude? We should voted on this.
The Democrat-inflicted Doom Loop is quickly reaching new voter majority numbers as more younger voters resent what Democrat one-party politics did to this state and their future over the past 20 years.
Looking forward to finally reaching the 50% plus one vote tipping point. Democrats are losing registration numbers. Independent registrations are growing. This is the upside.
It is a travesty that landowners cannot control their own land above and below. I read somewhere that CA is the 5th largest economy in the world? If that's true, no wonder the govt wants so much control over the land, farms and other resources. However, we the people, can take steps by voting out those making the laws that continue to restrict our freedom, rights to land and water and other resources. It's a monumental task, but we can't expect different results by doing the same thing and electing the same people. Is anyone running for office in SB County who will address these issues? Along with education for our kids, parents rights and related issues, these other issues are hallmark as well.
This reads like a bot "I read somewhere..." Really?
We are with you when it comes time to” throw them off”. No kings or queens!
Andy, I appreciate that you're clearly intelligent and passionate about these issues, but I have to ask: why does everything you write come across as so fundamentally self-centered?
Your entire perspective seems to boil down to "I should be able to do whatever I want on my property, and any restriction is tyranny." That strikes me as the worldview of someone who never moved beyond their teenage years - you know, that phase where every parental rule felt like an assault on personal freedom, regardless of the underlying reasoning or broader consequences.
Here's what you're missing: Rules and regulations don't materialize out of thin air because bureaucrats are bored. They exist because something happened. Someone dumped chemicals that poisoned groundwater. Someone's industrial operations made the air unbreathable for their neighbors. Someone's land use practices caused floods or mudslides that destroyed other people's homes. Someone overpumped groundwater and caused neighboring wells to run dry.
You romanticize the "rugged individualist" who just wants to work his land without interference, but conveniently ignore that one person's "freedom" often becomes everyone else's problem. The rancher who clears riparian habitat might reduce flood control for downstream communities. The farmer who depletes groundwater affects every other water user in the basin. The business owner who cuts corners on safety creates risks for employees and neighbors.
Government doesn't give a damn about you personally - you're right about that. But government is supposed to give a damn about us collectively. Well, sometimes it does, anyway. The whole point of regulation is to prevent individuals from externalizing their costs onto the broader community. It's the classic "your right to swing your fist ends where my nose begins" principle, applied to environmental and public health issues.
Your Ayn Rand quote is particularly telling. Atlas Shrugged presents a fantasy world where productive individuals are held back by parasitic bureaucrats, but reality is more complicated. Many of those "men who produce nothing" are actually scientists, public health experts, and environmental engineers trying to prevent the kind of disasters that happen when short-term profit motives override long-term consequences. The bureaucrat monitoring your water well isn't trying to destroy you - they're trying to prevent another situation like California's Central Valley, where decades of unregulated groundwater pumping caused massive land subsidence and left entire communities without water.
You invoke the founders and their complaints against King George, but you've got it backwards. The colonists weren't complaining about environmental protection or public health measures - they were complaining about taxation without representation and arbitrary rule. Today's environmental regulations go through extensive public comment periods, scientific review, and democratic processes. You can vote for different representatives, challenge regulations in court, and participate in the rulemaking process. That's not tyranny - that's democracy in action.
The real question is: what's your alternative? Go back to the days when companies could dump whatever they wanted into rivers? When there were no controls on air pollution? When anyone could pump groundwater until their neighbors' wells ran dry? We tried that approach - it's called the early Industrial Revolution, and it gave us things like the Cuyahoga River catching fire and London's deadly smog events.
I get that regulation can be frustrating, especially when you're trying to run a business or manage property. But the solution isn't to eliminate all rules - it's to make sure the rules are science-based, fair, and efficiently administered. Your blanket opposition to any limitation on individual property rights isn't principled libertarianism - it's just sophisticated selfishness dressed up in constitutional rhetoric.
Maybe instead of railing against all regulation as tyranny, you could channel that energy into advocating for better, smarter regulation that balances individual property rights with legitimate public interests. That would be a much more constructive use of your obvious intelligence and passion.
Oh boy
Now you’re talking down to Andy because he made you and the rest of the local communist feel uncomfortable?
Pathetic!
YOU PEOPLE ARE THE PROBLEM!
Please tell me you live next door to me so that I can dump all the toxic chemicals 1 inch away from your property line, you know, downhill from me.
The self-centered people who demand all the benefits of being in society, but do not act like they are in a society, are the problem.
I'm sure the very eloquent Steve enjoys drinking safe water all the time. And that there are regulations to keep a battery recycling facility from opening next door to his apartment.
DB. When the Democrat environmental swells all take their private jets to the Bezos wedding in Venice, Italy, you can drop the pretense you people protect the environment. Drop using your made up exceptions, to justify your wholesale tyranny.
That is called extortion. Give us full power and control or your neighbor will open a nuclear waste dump site next door. Instead you come across as a mafia protection racket and our daily lives are in peril if you ever stop micromanaging our entire lives.
Drop the hysteria. Drop the threats. You people are so done. Start partnering in adulting. Your big brother micromanaging is over.
When it comes to self-centeredness, Andy ain't got nothin' on me.
David, I'm not sure Andy is self-centered. He is writing as lobbyist for the industries that fund his non-profit COLAB. Just like the environmentalist he rallies against write op-eds for the issues that fund their groups.
https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/770293456
Naw. He is writing not his beliefs per se, but for his own economic reasons. He is getting such a tiny amount of donations compared to his own salary.
I guess paying yourself $210K/yr is worth a few essays a week. His 990 says he puts out a monthly news letter too.
Where does the 200-300 grand go? Home office? Health insurance? Car? Making sense of tax documents isn't my strong suit.
https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/770293456/202422679349300732/full
Numbers don't lie :)
Colab earned 100k from General Meetings, 125k from the radio show, and 151k from a raffle/auction, 51k from fundraising.
ROFL - he stuffed insurance in there at 43k. What the heck is he insuring for 43k? Wanna bet that he is putting his personal and residential insurance in there?
He sucked out 150k in savings. Hmm, wonder why.
He is carrying 15k in CC debt.
In the end, congrats to him. He found a way to earn a living. It is proving my point that what he is arguing against, he does not believe. He is part of the system that he admonishes. Hmm. :)
Well, here-here for fewer IRS agents, I guess....
Oh, the dramatic flair for the plight of our ranchers and their ability to pump and utilize groundwater. Never mind the fact that our entire Central Valley is “sinking” due to the over extraction over ground water, and subsequent subsidence because of. Where communities have municipal wells that are dry because of over extraction.
Limits on oil well drilling? You mean like not within a specified distance from a school or hospital. That type of limit?
Controlling agricultural run-off to protect surface and groundwater sources… oh, the humanity.
We’re the fourth largest economy in the world, something’s working…
No kings, and God bless the USA and ALL of its citizens
Yeah, it's easy to complain. Hard to come up with solutions.
Error
Democrats are beating a new buzz word to death: “we are the fourth largest economy in the world” as the universal excuse for their own debt-riddle destruction of this state.
This is new twist on thier former tax the rich, and billionaires must pay their fair share con artist games to take even more tax dollars for themselves. Be ready to stop this latest Democrat power grab in its tracks.
Democrats are mean, vile, greedy and continually try to own the language and every dollar you produce. Stop this latest word game in its tracks. Ask them to explain why the fourth largest economy in the world has among the worst public schools in America, the highest taxes, the worst elected officials and crushing public pension debt.
Democrats don’t want you looking at them for those failings. Instead they want to take 100% credit for the fourth largest economy in the world and all problems they created would be solved if they could get their own greedy hands on all that other people’s money.
Exactly
Have you seen the the Counties new APCD building on West McCoy? It is way overdone.
Question for the County Representatives:
1. How much did this building cost?
2. Why was this SO OVER BUILT?
3. Was a study done to justify building this Taj Mahal?
4. Why such an elaborate building?
5. Did you even look into any available properties that could house employees?
6. What “By GOD” are you planning on doing in this building?
7. How much oversight and presence do we need in Santa Maria? We’ve already have a wide fast moving line of businesses leaving this State of Kalifornia!
I can surmise that this building cost 5 million dollars, entrusted to you. Do we see, approve expenditures of this magnitude? We should voted on this.
The new controlling trifecta in this state: (1) unelected government bureaucrats, (2) government employee unions and (3) the construction unions feeding off government funded projects.
Impossible standards and demands, indeed. Conservatives who desire a vibrant, business friendly economy want a clean, safe environment too. Unfortunately the left has successfully institutionalized the “Army” of unelected bureaucrats and grossly overstaffed government entities to the point it’s easy to for many to rationally conclude that the time has come to give up and leave our beautiful state California. I don’t always agree with Andy Caldwell on everything he writes but this article is quite telling. I would love to see a serious study on the “Army’s”cost to conducting business along with the cost to all taxpayers for paying the salaries, benefits and retirements for that Army. For example, the experience tells me the actual cost of a home includes several hundred thousand dollars to support the Army. The public is mostly unaware of this. Meanwhile, middle income adults can’t afford to purchase a house while the taxpayers built low income housing that is nicer than what the lower middle class can afford.
Andy, I have been haunted by your succinct comment early in your article because it finally set off the Aha! button, that moment of deep clarity exactly why so much has gone wrong in such a short period of time. Nothing that we have not been already arguing here it bits and pieces for years, but it finally crystallized for me in your one sentence.
We the people own the land, but somehow some unelected bureaucrats now claim they own the resources. Except, they do not. We the people from time to time granted unelected bureaucrats limited ability to regulate these resources, within express limits, but we never granted unelected bureaucrats ownership of our Land. Yet without embarrassment or qualification, this unelected bureaucrat claimed she did. (Give a mouse a cookie……..)
Early real property classes in law school declared traditionally within the Anglo heritage of land ownership a property owner owned, relying on recorded and expressly defined metes and bounds measurements, the skies above and down to the core of the earth itself.
The unelected bureaucrats own nothing. It was sheer arrogance for her to claim otherwise. But unchecked, she did come to represent the upside down world we know live in where we now bow blindly to “the state” as both elected and non-elected run the minutiae of of daily lives, including demanding we buy useless, non-functional home appliances.
This really the core of the MAGA movement and the earlier Tea Party movement, the rejection of the deep state, big government, the slimy power exercised by government employee unions, the elemental profundity of recent SCOTUS fourth branch of government case decisions, etc, etc, all finally coming together as represented by that one unelected bureaucrat years ago telling Andy unchecked, she owns us. No she does not. And we now have a new voices to tell her exactly why.