The phrase “Bread and Circuses” was coined by Juvenal, a Roman poet, as a means to describe the incompetence and self indulgence of the Roman Emperor, who used superficial “appeasement” of the people to generate public approval, rather than excellence in public service. The emperor would cover over his incompetence and authoritarian control of Rome by distracting people with “shows” and pay offs.
In California, these circuses are “shows” populated with cartoon characters and toys, like the minions from “Despicable Me” or Optimus Prime, the Transformers toy. In a press conference on Tuesday about the “reopening” of California, we were treated to this show, and the choice of characters was very “Freudian.” I am sure we lowly peasants are seen as minions, and the man running the press conference certainly sees himself as Optimus Prime. He gives us the circus, then he promises to give us tax rebates, the bread.
Our Arrogant Lazy Authoritarian in Charge (ALAIC), Gavin Newsom, claims to have “reopened” California. He refuses to lift the emergency he claimed required him to completely shut down California, but now, with the stroke of his pen, he lifts some of the orders resulting from his rash actions that caused the most visceral reactions from the public (like the mask order, others, like the banning of church services, were lifted by the courts), but the legal structure created by the emergency orders stays in place. ALAIC Newsom is still a danger to freedom loving Californians.
This whole show was to distract us from the real problems facing California. That real problem is the budget. LAO predicts a $38 billion surplus. However, according to a New York Times article from March, that “surplus” comes mostly from transfers from the federal government to the state. The evil of this is that the federal government is bailing the state out from the damage ALAIC Newsom caused from the unneeded shutdown. Feds can borrow money, the state cannot. The $50 billion the feds transferred to the state in the stimulus package basically allowed the state to claim it has “record revenues” and spend lots of money. Last year, the state was looking at a $15 billion deficit, a deficit which would have certainly resulted in the recall of ALAIC Newsom. His relative, Nancy Pelosi, bailed him out with money stolen from our children, allowed under federal law, and prevented the massive cuts that would have been necessary to meet the state constitutional requirements for a balanced budget, cuts that would have alienated his base, that is, the government union ticks who suck the blood from the taxpayers of California for their own benefit. The damage from the shutdown is put off to another day.
Of course, the tax rebates are meant to distract us from the continued self indulgence of the “ruling class,” the government unions and their allies in the Legislature, who get the lion’s share of the spending, while we get the bread crumbs from their table. They get $28 billion of the fake, federally financed surplus, we get $8 billion. We had to struggle for the last year to figure out how to make ends meet. They got paid with our tax dollars to stay home, watch Netflix, and say they were protecting us from a deadly disease.
Our state government will face massive deficits, if not next year, then the year after, when the federal government will no longer have the excuse to bail the state out. This year, the state’s out of control spending continues unabated, the pigs that have lived off the taxpayers for years will continue to have their snouts firmly lodged in the public trough, and the reckoning for the bad decisions made by ALAIC Newsom last year when he shut down the state is put off for a year, just past the recall.
And the minions remain distracted. The press laughed at the press conference put on by ALAIC Newsom. They continue to write the stories that say Newsom is “riding a wave of good news and popularity” as the recall approaches.
Next year or the year after, when the reckoning comes, we will be treated to more “bread and circuses” and then a demand for new taxes. We will be told it was not the fault of the incompetents who run Sacramento, and because the “pandemic” will be long over, no one will point to this moment as the beginning of the disaster that is coming. Once again, ALAIC Newsom will try to deflect and distract us peasants with “bread and circuses.”