The world is the product of some fantasy, perhaps I am Alice, passing through the looking glass into this world of fantasy, but I feel more like Winston Smith, part of a world of oppression.
What is violence is tolerated in the name of free speech. What is free speech is suppressed in the name of violence. What is free press is criminalized in the name of justice, what is justice is criminalized in the name of advancing freedom. What is democracy is suppressed in the name of democracy, what is democracy is undermined in the name of government power. Those who have actively participated in the advance of socialism in this state gather to cry when the monster they created eats them, and those who made housing so expensive that no one can afford to live through the use of government power now claim they can solve the problem they created by the exercise of more government power. The fantasy that is Sacramento is spinning out of control.
The Stories:
(1) The Mayor of Berkeley asks UC Berkeley, the birth of the free speech movement, to suppress the free speech of people with whom he disagrees under the guise of maintaining the public peace. His police force refuses to do their job, people are injured and property damaged by roving gangs of thugs who wish to shut people up, and he does nothing. He helps shut people up.
(2) Roving bands of thugs, who call themselves Antifa, but who dress like fascist brown shirts, attack and threaten people, assault others, destroy property, all in the name of free speech, and they are allowed to walk free, unrestrained by the police or any other authority, on the grounds that to stop them would suppress their free speech. Criminals allowed to commit crimes with the power structure actively aiding and abetting their criminal behavior.
(3) David Daleiden, whose only “crime” is being an investigative reporter is indicted, has his indictment thrown out, is re-indicted, and his attorneys are charged with criminal contempt charges under the guise of protecting a “woman’s right to choose,” when their only crime was exposing the illegal activity of Planned Parenthood. Freedom of the press is attacked using the pretense that it is necessary to protect a freedom to kill babies. The mainstream press, more committed to their political positions than their freedom, agrees with the suppression of freedom of the press.
(4) Direct democracy, as it has been enacted in this state through initiative, referendum and recall, is undermined by those who obtained their power through representative democracy (and who call themselves Democrats), as they change the law to protect a legislator who has been brought back to a vote through the recall process. The courts have said they were wrong, and in response, those who have been elected to uphold the law threaten to violate court orders intended to enforce it. On the same day, the Supreme Court completely undermines a law to require a two-thirds vote for a tax increase by saying the voters didn’t really mean that. The Court said that two-thirds vote can mean majority vote…sometimes, undermining the initiative by judicial fiat.
(5) A group of business owners gathered and complained that the government they have helped elect has turned on them. For years, these same business owners have told those of us who believe in free enterprise to go along to get along, and they have actively helped the left to stay in power to “preserve their place at the table.” Now they realize their place at that table is that of a dog relegated to the crumbs of liberal power. No sympathy from me on that front. You business owners deserve what you get, because you have betrayed your friends for to curry favor with the left. You are now paying the price for that.
(6) Finally, when Jerry Brown became Governor in 1974, 75% of Californians could afford a median price home, by the time he left in 1982, only 17% of Californians could afford a median price home. Now, the cost of housing consumes, in many cases, 50% of a middle class family’s income. All of these price increase came because of government regulation of the construction of homes and rental housing. Now the same people who created our current housing crisis with big government and government power now say they are going to solve our housing crisis with, you guessed it, big government and more government power.
Truth is a lie, and lie is a truth. Freedom is government control, and government control is freedom. Criminals are freedom fighters and freedom fighters are criminals. Verdict first, trial later. We believe in democracy as long as you elect the powerful, and you serve the powerful. Power to the people, as long as the people with power are the ones the powerful choose.
All of these stories came from those featured by the Flash Report on August 29, 2017 (except Daleiden, which came in my email on that date). One day in our long march to oppression. I have passed through the looking glass, and into 1984.