Title: “Civilised” California versus the “barbaric” Trump regime… Post by: Kiwithrottlejockey on November 15, 2016, 01:49:47 pm from The Washington Post.... While the country shifts to the right, California keeps moving left The state and others on the West Coast backed Clinton and passed a flurry of liberal measures. By KATLE ZEZIMA | 6:00AM PST - Friday, November 11, 2016 (http://i378.photobucket.com/albums/oo227/Kiwithrottlejockey/Washington%20Post%20pix/20161111cfp_CaliforniaFreewayProtestors_zpsaf4y12ea.jpg~original) (https://img.washingtonpost.com/rf/image_2500w/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2016/11/10/National-Politics/Images/622127792.jpg) Police advance on protesters who shut down the 101 freeway Wednesday in opposition to the upset election of Republican Donald Trump over Democrat Hillary Clinton in the race for president. — Photograph: David Mcnew/Getty Images. SANTA ANA, CALIFORNIA — Manuel Guerrero is terrified by the impending presidency of Donald Trump and how it will affect Latinos like him. But huddled over the trunk of a Toyota Camry as he put the final touches on a posterboard sign, he vowed that he and his fellow Californians would fight. “California is not gonna take this,” he said as he held the sign, which read “F--- Trump.” Then Guerrero, a 30-year-old artist, walked toward the sidewalk in front of a gas station parking lot, where he and a few dozen others protested, chanted, and waved Mexican flags amid a haze of exhaust and marijuana smoke. They crossed a six-lane highway as passersby honked their horns and pumped their fists out open windows. California has long been in the vanguard of American politics, routinely enacting liberal legislation and policies long before the rest of the nation and a hotbed of support for Democrats such as Hillary Clinton. But in the aftermath of an election in which the country as a whole shifted to the right, the Golden State is now out of step with the rest of the nation by moving even farther to the left. “In California, we are decisively going in a different direction than the rest of the country,” said Kevin de Leon, the Democratic president pro tempore of the state Senate. The electoral map illustrates the United States' geographical and political divides in bright red and blue relief. But nowhere on Tuesday was the gulf between liberals and the conservative tack that won the electoral college more stark than here in California and other parts of the far West. Nevada chose Clinton over Trump, an outcome driven in large part by the state's growing Latino population. It was one of the few states to send a new Democrat to the Senate, Catherine Cortez Masto, who will become the country's first Latina senator. Nevada also legalized the recreational use of marijuana, and voted to require background checks for most gun purchases and transfers. Oregon elected the nation's first openly LGBT governor. Washington raised its minimum wage to $13.25 an hour by 2020. Here in California, voters legalized marijuana, enacted the nation's first background checks for ammunition purchases, banned large-capacity gun magazines, increased the tax on cigarettes and vaping devices, reinstated bilingual education, boosted income taxes on the wealthy, and banned the sale of single-use plastic bags. The state also elected Kamala Harris, a Democrat, to the Senate. Harris will become the first Indian American and the second black female senator. The state overwhelmingly voted for Clinton in the presidential contest, with 61.5 percent of the electorate — one of the highest in the country — casting ballots for the former secretary of state, compared with 33.3 percent for Trump. Months ago, Governor Jerry Brown (Democrat) joked about building a wall around California to “protect it from the rest of the country” if Trump is elected, a quip that is now recirculating. Some are even calling on California to secede from the rest of the country. A group that had previously dedicated itself to that cause rallied on the statehouse steps in Sacramento on Wednesday, stating a goal of getting a secession referendum on the 2018 ballot. Its leader tweeted on Thursday that he has received 18,000 emails in recent days. Online, people are using the term “Calexit,” a take on Britain’s “Brexit” vote to sever ties with the European Union. Shervin Pishevar, the co-founder and co-chief executive of San Francisco venture capital firm Sherpa Ventures, tweeted on Tuesday that he would begin and fund a “legitimate campaign” to help the world’s sixth-largest economy become its own nation, “New California.” “It’s the most patriotic thing I can do,” he told CNBC (http://www.cnbc.com/2016/11/09/shervin-pishevar-wants-to-help-california-secede-from-the-us.html). “The country is at a serious crossroads.” De Leon and Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon said on Wednesday in a statement issued in English and Spanish that they felt like “strangers in a strange land” after the election. The men ordered attorneys to look at how a Trump presidency would affect federal funding of state programs, investments that rely on foreign trade and federal enforcement of various laws, including those relating to immigration. They vowed to “lead the resistance” to any efforts to “shred our social fabric” or Constitution. “California is America before America is itself,” de Leon said in an interview. “That means the good, the bad and the ugly, not just the good things that happen in California.” (http://i378.photobucket.com/albums/oo227/Kiwithrottlejockey/Washington%20Post%20pix/20161111gjb_GovernorJerryBrown_zpsopf9jnkc.jpg~original) (https://img.washingtonpost.com/rf/image_2500w/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2016/11/10/National-Politics/Images/California_Budget-959a4.jpg) California Governor Jerry Brown (Democrat) joked before Election Day that the state might have to build a wall around itself if Donald Trump was elected. — Photograph: Rich Pedroncelli/Associated Press. In 1994, California voters passed an initiative designed to set up a state-run immigration system and deny most benefits, including education, to undocumented immigrants. Backlash to the proposition, which was strongly backed by then-Governor Pete Wilson, is widely considered a watershed moment that eventually led to the decimation of the Republican Party in the state. Today, California allows undocumented immigrants to obtain driver's licenses and access in-state tuition at public universities. The state is also one of the most diverse in the nation. According to the census, 38.8 percent of Californians identify as Latino, 14.7 percent as Asian and 6.5 percent as black. Those demographic changes are spurring political ones here in Orange County, once a mostly white bastion of Republicanism that has become increasingly Latino and Asian. While blue-collar Democrats who switched parties to vote for Trump in the Rust Belt helped propel him to the presidency, voters in Orange County chose a Democratic presidential candidate for the first time since the 1930s. “I've always referred to Orange County as the ‘Orange Curtain’ because it’s so conservative,” said Adriana Garcia, a 40-year-old Democrat who lives in Newport Beach. She cried as she talked about a Trump presidency, concerned that it might subject her, the daughter of Mexican immigrants, to racist and sexist hatred she has never experienced. “I thought it was wild” that Orange County tilted for Clinton, she said. “I'm sad more places didn't.” Neighboring Riverside County also flipped to Democrat from Republican in 2012, as did Nevada County in the state's north. Protests flared across the state on Wednesday after Trump's victory, with dozens arrested. A group of high schoolers in Berkeley walked out of class. In Oakland, more than 7,000 people took to the streets. In Los Angeles, hundreds of people blocked freeways. In front of City Hall, some protesters burned a giant papier-mâché Trump. Fewer protesters came out in L.A. on Thursday night, but those who did marched through the streets, halted traffic, threw bottles and set off fireworks. At least 185 people were arrested, a number that will likely rise, said Norma Eisenman, a Los Angeles Police spokeswoman. Here in Santa Ana on Wednesday night, protesters spent more than an hour continually crossing the four-way intersection, walking in a square from the gas station to an auto-parts store to a food stand where some picked up Mexican corn, to a 7-11 and back to the gas station. They held signs reading, “Not our president” and “Dump Trump,” and yelled profanities about the president-elect. A 2-year-old held a sign reading, “Stop white supremacy.” Some wore bandannas around their faces, prepared for the police to deploy tear gas. The group marched along the main street and the protest ballooned in size, with 650 people ultimately standing in an intersection until 2 a.m. Participants got into a standoff with police, who fired beanbags and used other non-lethal crowd-control methods; police said the crowd members threw bricks, bottles and other objects. Ten people were arrested, including three juveniles, on charges including disorderly conduct and assault with a deadly weapon on a police officer, said Corporal Anthony Bertagna of the Santa Ana Police Department. He said that a brick was thrown at a police car and that three others were seriously damaged. Two businesses also were damaged and 167 police officers from the county responded. Many here expressed anger at white Americans, saying they helped propel Trump to the presidency and endorsed racism and xenophobia. “Can I give you a hug on behalf of white people?” Jennifer Hellman, 36, asked Guerrero as the two stood in the parking lot of a strip mall of mostly Latino stores. “We're not all like this.” The two embraced as a woman on a bicycle rode by, screaming an expletive about Trump. Oliver Lopez, 33, and his wife, Lucy Dominguez, 37, stood in front of a neon gas station sign, arms around each other and each holding a sign that read, “Peace.” Dominguez said she chose the sign because the nation needs peace in this moment. She was born in Mexico, became a citizen and voted for Clinton. She was angry about and hurt by Trump's assertion in his campaign kickoff speech that some Mexicans are drug dealers and rapists. “I'm not a rapist. My family are not rapists,” she said. Lopez said he is glad he lives in California. “It gives me a sense of safety,” he said. “We're leaning more to the left.” • Katie Zezima is a national political correspondent covering the 2016 presidential election. She previously served as a White House correspondent for The Washington Post. __________________________________________________________________________ Read more on this topic: • PHOTOGRAPH GALLERY: Protests swell across U.S. in wake of Trump victory (https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/protests-swell-across-us-in-wake-of-trump-victory/2016/11/09/bac44658-a6ee-11e6-ba59-a7d93165c6d4_gallery.html) • ‘Not my president.’ Thousands protest Trump in rallies across the U.S. (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2016/11/10/not-my-president-thousand-protest-trump-in-rallies-across-the-u-s) • Trump meets with Obama at the White House as whirlwind transition starts (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2016/11/10/obama-to-welcome-trump-to-white-house-for-first-meeting-since-election) • What the future of marijuana legalization could look like under President Trump (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/11/09/what-the-future-of-marijuana-legalization-could-look-like-under-president-trump) • Nebraska and California voters decide to keep the death penalty (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2016/11/09/nebraska-and-california-voters-decide-to-keep-the-death-penalty) https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/while-the-country-shifts-to-the-right-california-continues-to-move-left/2016/11/10/1c6cc602-a6d9-11e6-ba59-a7d93165c6d4_story.html (https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/while-the-country-shifts-to-the-right-california-continues-to-move-left/2016/11/10/1c6cc602-a6d9-11e6-ba59-a7d93165c6d4_story.html) Title: Re: “Civilised” California versus the “barbaric” Trump regime… Post by: Kiwithrottlejockey on November 15, 2016, 01:50:30 pm from the Los Angeles Times.... LAPD will not help deport immigrants under Trump, chief says By KATE MATHER | 3:40PM PST - Monday, November 14, 2016 (http://i378.photobucket.com/albums/oo227/Kiwithrottlejockey/Tribune%20Images/latimes_20161114_479156803_LosAngelesPoliceChiefCharlieBeck_zpsok5xge00.jpg~original) (http://www.trbimg.com/img-582a242c/turbine/la-kmather-1479156803-snap-photo) Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck said Monday that he did not intend to change the LAPD's approach to immigration enforcement, despite pledges by President-elect Donald Trump to toughen federal immigration laws and increase deportations. — Photograph: Mark Boster/Los Angeles Times. LOS ANGELES Police Chief Charlie Beck said on Monday that he has no plans to change the LAPD's stance on immigration enforcement, despite President-elect Donald Trump's pledge to toughen federal immigration laws and deport millions of people upon taking office. For decades, the LAPD has distanced itself from federal immigration policies. The LAPD prohibits officers from initiating contact with someone solely to determine whether he or she is in the country legally, mandated by a special order (http://assets.lapdonline.org/assets/pdf/SO_40.pdf) signed by then-chief Daryl Gates in 1979. During Beck's tenure as chief, the department stopped turning over people arrested for low-level crimes to federal agents for deportation (http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2012/10/lapds-stance-on-illegal-immigration-puts-beck-in-hot-seat.html) and moved away from honoring federal requests to detain inmates who might be deportable (http://www.latimes.com/local/cityhall/la-me-immigration-holds-20140708-story.html) past their jail terms. On Monday, Beck said he planned to maintain the long-standing separation. “I don't intend on doing anything different,” he said. “We are not going to engage in law enforcement activities solely based on somebody's immigration status. We are not going to work in conjunction with Homeland Security on deportation efforts. That is not our job, nor will I make it our job.” Fear among immigrants and their families has rippled across the country in the days following Trump's election to the presidency. Trump made illegal immigration a central issue of his campaign, vowing to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, deport people who are in the country illegally and unwind immigration relief created under President Obama. In Los Angeles, officials have tried to alleviate some of those concerns (http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-garcetti-immigrants-20161111-story.html) by signaling their support for the city's immigrant residents. At a meeting Friday at the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles, Mayor Eric Garcetti said the city would question Trump's decisions on immigration. More than 1 million of the estimated 11 million immigrants in the country without legal status live in Los Angeles County, according to the Migration Policy Institute. “If the first day, as president, we see something that is hostile to our people, hostile to our city, bad for our economy, bad for our security, we will speak up, speak out, act up and act out,” Garcetti said. The mayor also said that the LAPD would continue to enforce Special Order 40, the Gates-signed directive that bars officers from contacting someone solely to determine their immigration status. “Our law enforcement officers and LAPD don't go around asking people for their papers, nor should they,” he said. “That's not the role of local law enforcement.” Captain Jeff Scroggin, a spokesman for the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, said it is too soon to say how sheriff's officials would react to any changes required by the Trump administration. Those changes could be tied to federal funding, he noted. In the meantime, he said, sheriff's deputies who patrol the county will continue their longstanding practice of treating all residents the same, regardless of background. “We just want people to come forward so we have a better community. It doesn’t matter whether they're an immigrant or going through the process of citizenship,” Scroggin said. “Whatever it is, we want to hear from them. We don't want them to not cooperate. It's important to keep the community safe. We never ask about immigration status.” In the county jails, the Sheriff's Department recently scaled back its cooperation with federal immigration agents. Previously, under a program called 287(g), federal agents were stationed in the jails, and jail deputies helped them to identify potentially deportable inmates. Since September 2015, deputies have still been referring some inmates to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, but only those convicted of serious crimes, such as burglary, assault, sexual abuse or felony drunk driving. Beck said his command staff has also been meeting with community leaders to hear their concerns about immigration enforcement. “This is the same LAPD you had on Monday, a week ago. We have not changed because of the election on Tuesday. We have the same principles. We have the same values,” he said. “This is not going to change the way that the Los Angeles Police Department enforces the law.” • Los Angeles Times staff writer Dakota Smith contributed to this report. http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-los-angeles-police-immigration-20161114-story.html (http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-los-angeles-police-immigration-20161114-story.html) Title: Re: “Civilised” California versus the “barbaric” Trump regime… Post by: Kiwithrottlejockey on December 08, 2016, 12:18:45 am from the Los Angeles Times.... Should California secede? How the state is politically out of step with the rest of the country By MICHAEL HILTZIK | 9:10AM PST - Tuesday, November 29, 2016 (http://i378.photobucket.com/albums/oo227/Kiwithrottlejockey/Tribune%20Images/latimes_20161129yca_zpsthbl0vsp.jpg~original) (http://www.trbimg.com/img-5845f804/turbine/la-mhiltzik-1480980518-snap-photo) Not exactly a clamor for secession: Yes California launches its campaign. — Photograph: Los Angeles Times. NOT SINCE 2010 (https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/3224519/2010-Secession.pdf) has California felt itself politically so out of step with the times. That year the state resisted the nationwide wave of anti-incumbent, anti-regulation and anti-big government voting to elect Jerry Brown (http://www.latimes.com/topic/politics-government/jerry-brown-PEPLT007547-topic.html) as governor, ease the passage of big-money state budgets and turn away a challenge to its pioneering greenhouse gas regulations. This election day, California voters tightened gun control (http://vote.sos.ca.gov/returns/ballot-measures), extended taxes on the rich, hiked cigarette taxes, legalized marijuana, boosted multilingual education — and of course provided Hillary Clinton (http://www.latimes.com/projects/la-na-all-things-clinton) with all of her winning margin of 2 million popular votes (http://vote.sos.ca.gov/returns/president), and then some, in her losing campaign for president. No wonder the election has inspired talk of California’s seceding from the United States. The nascent campaign, organized under the banner of the Yes California Independence Campaign (http://www.yescalifornia.org/how_california_can_legally_secede_from_the_union) and heralded by the Twitter hashtag #Calexit (https://twitter.com/search?q=%23Calexit&src=tyah), has been energized by remarks by Brown, and others, that a Trump (http://www.latimes.com/projects/la-na-all-things-trump) election would necessitate “building a wall around California” to preserve its forward-looking policies against a reactionary federal regime. And why not, the argument goes. After all, with a gross domestic product of $2.5 trillion, the state's economy ranks sixth in the world (http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/election/presidential-election/article66085062.html), sandwiched between Britain and France. Secession talk is more valuable as a pointer to all the ways that California and federal policies are likely to come into conflict during the next few years than as a formula for practical politics. “It's impossible to look at the Trump campaign and not see a direct threat to the civil liberties and dignity of California citizens,” says Tom Steyer, the progressive billionaire who in recent years has focused his energy on combating climate change via his organization NextGen Climate (https://nextgenclimate.org). To dispense with the prospect of California's seceding from the union: On the gonna-happen scale, it’s a Not. “We'd either have to win the ensuing civil war or have Congress kiss us goodbye,” says Joel D. Aberbach, director of the Center for American Politics and Public Policy at UCLA. “There isn't a procedure for seceding” in the Constitution. The very notion of the U.S. as a divisible entity was settled by the Civil War. A constitutional amendment is the longest of long shots. It must be approved by a two-thirds majority in each house of Congress and ratified by three-fourths of the states (38 of the 50). But the conflicts between state and federal policy will be serious. Here's a look at what may be some of the most important. Climate change: California has been among the national leaders in reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and as recently as September strengthened its policies with a law mandating the reduction of climatologically harmful emissions to 40% below 1990 levels by 2030 (https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201520160SB32). Its auto emission rules traditionally have set a benchmark for the auto industry and federal regulators. During his campaign, Trump dismissed climate change as a Chinese hoax and pledged to withdraw the U.S. from the Paris agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, which already has been ratified by 113 of the 197 signatory countries (http://unfccc.int/paris_agreement/items/9444.php). The U.S. ratified the agreement by presidential order on September 3rd. “The single biggest achievement of the Obama administration in energy and climate was to get those countries to agree,” Steyer said. “It was an example of the best kind of American leadership — moral, technical, financial.” Since the election, Trump has backed off his assertions about climate change and his promise to withdraw from the Paris pact. If he makes good on his threat, however, American leadership on climate change will pass to the states. Brown has pledged to keep California in the forefront of that movement, and earlier this month sent a state delegation to a U.N. climate change conference (http://www.climatechangenews.com/2016/11/14/california-governor-pledges-us-climate-change-leadership) in Marrakech, Morocco. That just continues the sort of state-level leadership that has emerged in recent years. “Over the past decade, Congress has not passed a single bill that takes direct aim at climate change,” former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg observed in a recent speech (https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2016-11-22/washington-won-t-have-last-word-on-climate-change). “Yet at the same time, the U.S. has led the world in reducing emissions.” Trump could stifle federal funding for crucial research on climate change. One of his science advisors says he plans to eliminate NASA spending on earth science (https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/nov/22/nasa-earth-donald-trump-eliminate-climate-change-research), calling it “politically correct environmental monitoring” and refocusing the agency exclusively on space research. That mirrors congressional Republicans' approach to NASA (http://www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-mh-gop-attack-on-climate-change-science-20150501-column.html), whose role in climate monitoring they disdain even though it has made crucial contributions to understanding of global warming. Immigration: Trump campaigned on a pledge to cut off federal funding to “sanctuary cities” as part of his crackdown on illegal immigration. His chief of staff-designate, Reince Priebus, reiterated the policy in an interview after the election. These are cities whose police departments aren't required to check the immigration status of people they stop or arrest or to notify U.S. immigration officials of the status of undocumented persons they release from custody. The roster of sanctuary cities includes Los Angeles, San Francisco, Sacramento and Oakland; an estimated 1 million of the nation's 11 million immigrants without legal status, many of whom Trump has threatened to deport, live in L.A. County. Leaders of those cities have pledged to keep protecting immigrants and fight Trump's proposed cuts in federal funding cuts, which would require congressional action. The stakes are high: Los Angeles receives about $500 million a year in federal funding (http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-garcetti-priebus-funds-20161121-story.html) for such municipal services as port security and homeless shelters. But there are practical as well as moral reasons for cities to steer clear of immigration enforcement. Complicity with immigration agents shatters trust in police in immigrant-rich communities, complicating street-level patrolling. And with undocumented immigrants part of the fabric of diverse communities, rigorous enforcement can have bad economic consequences. Trump's anti-immigrant stance has spurred calls to action to protect potential deportees. The Los Angeles Unified School District says it will rebuff any federal request for students' immigration status. Cal State University Chancellor Timothy P. White, whose system includes as many as 10,000 students without legal documentation, has said that campus police won't honor federal requests for deportation holds (http://www.scpr.org/news/2016/11/21/66285/is-california-headed-for-a-showdown-with-president). Last week University of California President Janet Napolitano stated (http://documents.latimes.com/uc-undoc-student-protections) that UC campus police departments would not involve themselves in investigations of the immigration status of individuals on campus and ruled out “joint efforts” on immigration with federal, state, or local law enforcement agencies. She said the university aimed to “vigorously protect the privacy and civil rights of the undocumented members of the UC community.” An estimated one in three of the 742,000 “Dreamers” (http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-ma-daca-recipients-face-uncertain-future-20161110-story.html) — young people who were brought to this country by their parents without documentation and granted protection from deportation under the Obama administration's Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA — lives in California. Trump has pledged to shut down the program. Healthcare: Few states gave the Affordable Care Act (http://www.latimes.com/topic/health/healthcare/healthcare-policies-laws/affordable-care-act-EVGAP00039-topic.html), which Trump and congressional Republicans pledge to repeal, support as full-throated as California. The state has enrolled about 1.4 million people in Obamacare health plans via its statewide individual insurance exchange, Covered California, and added about 3 million low-income residents to Medicaid (http://www.latimes.com/topic/health/healthcare/medicaid-HEPRG00001-topic.html) rolls via the law's Medicaid expansion, the cost of which has been 100% paid by the federal government. It's doubtful that this record could be maintained if Trump and congressional Republicans repeal the ACA. Repeal would eliminate the federal tax credits that reduce premiums on Covered California plans and other costs for about 90% of enrollees. That would drive many of them off coverage. The state would surely be unable to make up those subsidies. California would also suffer from the loss of the ACA's consumer protection elements, including a ban on exclusions for pre-existing conditions and on annual or lifetime benefit limits. A study published last June (http://www.rwjf.org/content/dam/farm/reports/issue_briefs/2016/rwjf429806) by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation forecast that without the ACA, the ranks of the uninsured in California would soar by 2021 to 7.5 million, compared with only 3.4 million if the ACA remains in place. Among the dangers in the GOP plans is uncertainty. The party has promised to “replace” the ACA with something that works better, yet has never coalesced around an alternative in more than six years of trying. But doubts that Covered California and other ACA marketplaces will eventually stabilize could drive more big insurers out of the market and force prices higher. The prospects of disastrous tampering with healthcare were heightened on Monday with Trump's nomination of Representative Tom Price (http://www.latimes.com/topic/politics-government/government/tom-price-PEPLT005328-topic.html) (Republican-Georgia) as secretary of Health and Human Services. Price, an orthopedic surgeon, is a sworn enemy of the Affordable Care Act. He's the author of an alternative law that could throw older and sicker patients out of the insurance pool and make insurance all but unaffordable for women of child-bearing age. The Price plan would repeal Obamacare and replace it with something resembling the pre-2010 individual insurance market, when overpriced, low-benefit plans were the norm for anyone except young, healthy males. Republican proposals to convert Medicaid to a block-granted program—almost certainly a prelude to cutting the federal share of its budget—could pose a particular problem for House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, (Republican-Bakersfield). In his district, which largely spans Kern and Tulare counties, roughly half of all residents (http://calbudgetcenter.org/resources/medi-cal-reaches-millions-people-across-california-faces-uncertain-future) are enrolled in Medi-Cal, the state's Medicaid program. Efforts to trim the program would have a direct effect on them. Gun control and Marijuana: Voters on election day flouted federal policy in both areas. Proposition 63 mandates background checks for ammunition sales and outlaws high-capacity ammo magazines. Proposition 64 legalizes marijuana. Trump established himself as an ally of the National Rifle Association (http://www.politico.com/story/2016/08/donald-trump-nra-guns-226852) during the campaign, but White House policy may not be the biggest problem for the state's firearms policy: the courts would be (http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/11/proposition-gun-ammunition-newsom-california-nra). In rulings in 2008 and 2010, the Supreme Court extended the reach of the 2nd Amendment's protection of the right to bear arms. Within a day of the election, the NRA was talking about challenging Proposition 63 and related state laws before the courts. Trump hasn't expressed strong objections to the legalization of marijuana, but as the biggest state to legalize pot, California could find itself in the crosshairs of revived anti-marijuana enforcement by his administration. Obama's Justice Department (http://www.latimes.com/topic/crime-law-justice/u.s.-department-of-justice-ORGOV0000160-topic.html) took an indulgent approach to the wave of state legalizations of the drug, declaring in 2013 (https://www.justice.gov/iso/opa/resources/3052013829132756857467.pdf) that although it was still illegal under federal law, its prosecutors would focus chiefly on preventing sales to minors and to keeping profits out of the hands of criminal gangs. But Trump's attorney general-designate, Senator Jeff Sessions (Republican-Alabama), stated in April that “marijuana is not the kind of thing that ought to be legalized, it ought not to be minimized, that it's in fact a very real danger.” One anti-pot activist described him to The Washington Post as “by far the single most outspoken opponent of marijuana legalization in the U.S. Senate.” How he plans to enforce federal law in a legalization state as big as California is still a mystery. __________________________________________________________________________ Related content: • The U.S. appears not to value California, so why not secede? (http://www.latimes.com/opinion/readersreact/la-ol-le-california-secession-20161206-story.html) • Secessionists formally launch quest for California's independence (http://www.latimes.com/politics/essential/la-pol-ca-essential-politics-california-secession-calexit-htmlstory.html) http://www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-hiltzik-cal-secession-20161127-story.html (http://www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-hiltzik-cal-secession-20161127-story.html) Title: Re: “Civilised” California versus the “barbaric” Trump regime… Post by: Kiwithrottlejockey on December 08, 2016, 09:46:06 am from the Los Angeles Times.... California has good reasons to secede, but a noble reason to stay By DAVID HORSEY | 5:00AM PST - Wednesday, December 07, 2016 (http://i378.photobucket.com/albums/oo227/Kiwithrottlejockey/David%20Horsey/latimes_20161207dha_zpssj2upgvq.jpg~original) (http://www.trbimg.com/img-5847b9fd/turbine/la-dhorsey-1481095710-snap-photo) AS EARLY AS 1803, Federalists in the New England states were talking seriously about breaking off from the fledgling United States. They were alarmed by what they characterized as the “oppression and barbarity” of the federal government under the leadership of President Thomas Jefferson. On December 20th, 1860, shortly after the election of Abraham Lincoln, South Carolina became the first state to go beyond talk and actually secede from the Union. Within months, 10 other slave-holding Southern states followed South Carolina’s example. Secession did not turn out so well for the South and no one has made a serious effort to disunite the states since. That does not mean people in certain states do not still mull over the idea of secession when the powers-that-be in Washington are not to their liking. Early on in Barack Obama's presidency, Texas Governor Rick Perry half-jokingly talked about taking the independence road, while other Obama-hating Texans much more seriously pushed for secession. Now, with the prospect of Donald Trump's reign at hand, the secessionist talk has moved to the Left Coast. A group of activists has begun gathering voter signatures to put a measure on the 2018 state ballot that would ask, “Should California become a free, sovereign, and independent country?” One of the groups backing the proposal is the newly formed California National Party (https://www.californianational.party/en). In a letter to the editor of the Los Angeles Times, Kerry Cox, a party member, said his organization “is dedicated to liberating California from a union that is no longer reflective of our values, and from two political parties that either treat us with scorn and ridicule, or use us as a cash cow to finance elections.” Cox said California's share of U.S. defense expenditures is greater than the entire defense budget of Russia. “We're already a country,” he said. “It's time to make it official.” Not many people think California's secessionists have the slightest chance of success. Still, there are plenty of folks in the Golden State who dearly wish they could be liberated from the coming Trump regime. In the November 8th election, Californians voted heavily in favor of Hillary Clinton, while also passing measures to legalize the recreational use of marijuana, bolster already tough gun laws and extend taxes on the wealthy. Each of those choices put the state at odds with Trump and with members of the Cabinet he is assembling. California's leadership on climate change, support of environmental regulations and opposition to new offshore oil drilling schemes is very likely to run afoul of the policies of the new administration and the Republican-controlled Congress. And California cities and universities are already going on record to say they will fight any Trump-led scheme to round up and deport undocumented immigrants, especially the thousands who are students in the state's colleges. Like the revolutionaries of 1776, Californians could base their case for independence on a complaint of “taxation without representation.” The state sends far more tax money to Washington than it gets back. At the same time, the votes of its 39 million people are dramatically under-represented in the Senate and the electoral college due to the Constitution's built-in bias that favors sparsely populated Trump-loving states such as Wyoming, Alaska and the Dakotas. As the sixth-largest economy in the world, a place where 2 million new jobs have been created in the last five years, California could do just fine on its own and might find people in the like-minded blue states further up the coast — Oregon and Washington — clamoring to join a progressive California confederacy. However, that truly is an ecotopian pipe dream (despite the fact that the stuff to induce pipe dreams is now legal in these parts). What is much more likely to happen is that the West Coast will provide a counterweight to any Trump administration over-reach and extremism. The best-case scenario: California will not split the country, it will save the country. http://www.latimes.com/opinion/topoftheticket/la-na-tt-california-secede-20161206-story.html (http://www.latimes.com/opinion/topoftheticket/la-na-tt-california-secede-20161206-story.html) Title: Re: “Civilised” California versus the “barbaric” Trump regime… Post by: Im2Sexy4MyPants on December 08, 2016, 12:57:18 pm yes they should leave
give them to the lefty swine make it a communist state and see how they get on hahaha trump time mags man of the year should wall off California and make america great again lol Civilised California Street Gangs ? Eastside Bolen Parque (ESBP) Cherrieville Pomona (CVP) Westside Pomona (WSP) Sur Olive Ghost Town Crips (GTC) 456 Island Piru Lomas 13 Sangra Eastside Rialto (ESR) Westside Rialto (WSR) Onterio Varrio Sur Black Angels (OVS) Northside Onterio Calaveras Street (NSO) Eastside Onterio (ESO) Eastside Coltone (ESC) Verdugo Flats (VF) Southside Coltone (SSC) Westside Verdugo Sur Crazy Ones (WSV SCO) Westside Verdugo Royal Counts Delmann Heights Bloods Westside IE Project Gang Magnolia States Bloods California Gardens Crips 18th Street Maze Gang Eastside 9th Street Eastside Verdugo Waterman Gardens (ESV WG) Eastside Verdugo Dwight Way (ESV DWG) Westside Verdugo Manor Boys Five Times Crips Varrio Norwalk Carmelas Pico Nuevo Pico Viejo Jardin 13 El Monte Hayes El Monte Hicks Northside Montes Happy Town Pomona (HTP) Northside Pomona (NSP) Eastside Pomona (ESP) 357 Sin Town Crips Westside Mafia Angelo Mafia Crips West Covina 13 Duarte Eastside (DESR) Colton City Crips Oriental Lazy Boyz Eastside Verdugo Valles Alley Boyz Squad G's Sepulveda Boys Bloods Northside Fontana Eastside Riva 1200 Blocc East Coast Crips PNG 2700 Blocc Crips Darkside Riva Leafside Family Northside Riva Hale Street Casa Blanca Riva Evans Street Casa Blanca Riva Fern Avenue Casa Blanca Street 13 IE Ryders 2800 Blocc Casa Blanca Gangster Crips Arlanza 13 Hillside Riva Southside Riva Pequenos Eastside Riva Highgrove Westside Riva Anaheim Underhill Street Anaheim Kroeger Street Anaheim Barrio Small Town (ABST) Anaheim Penguin City (APC) Southside Krooks (SSK) Anaheim Vatos Locos (AVL) Anaheim Folks Gang Philmor/Jackson Anaheim Folks Gang Ariel/Olinda Anaheim Jeffrey Street (AJST) Anaheim Varrio Boys In The Hood Walnut Street Brook Street Central Myrtle Highland Street Third Street Sixth Street Santa Nita Kings Have Arrived Alley Boys Memorial Park Nutty Blocc Compton Crips Farm Dog Compton Crips Acacia Blocc Compton Crips Spook Town Compton Crips Park Village Compton Crips Neighborhood Compton Crips Kelly Park Compton Crips Atlantic Drive Compton Crips Lueders Park Piru Ward Lane Compton Crips Holly Hood Piru Duccy Hood Compton Crips Lime Hood Piru Elm Street Piru Eastside 18th Street Six Pacc Crips Eastside 48 Gangster Crips Eastside 52 Blood Stone Villains Eastside Mad Swan Bloods Westside 52 Hoover Gangster Crips Westside Rollin 40s Neighborhood Crips Delhi Aces Logan Du Roc Crips High End Raskals Maravilla (RMV) Lopez Maravilla (LMV) Arizona Maravilla (AMV) The Lott 13 Geraghty Loma 13 State Street Hazard Grande East LA 13 Tiny Dukes El Hoyo Maravilla (HMV) Evergreen Breed Street Devious Hoodlums La Colonia 13 Valinda Flats Alwood Street Locos Townsmen Pasadena Latin Kings (PLK) East Coast Crips 200 Pomona Sur 13 Cyclones Southside The Fontana Kings Westside Fontana Neighborhood Locos (NHL) Darkside Tre Roc Mafia Crips Carverdales Lil Zion Bloods Dorjil Gangster Bloods The Landz 2200 Block Dogstown Riva Old Town National City (OTNC) Westside National City Locos Acre Boys Eastside National City Locos Varrio Chula Vista Southside Village Crips Highland Park Avenues Highland Park Rose Hill Cypress Park Boys Frogtown Glassell Park Avenues Cucamonga Kings Cucamonga Dog Patch Upland 9th Street Upland Los Olivos/Upland Ghost Town Osage Legend Crips Los Compadres 13 Queen Street Blood Neighborhood Piru 18th Street Tepa 13 Lennox 13 Crenshaw Mafia Gangster Inglewood Family Gang Lil Watts Lawndale 13 Westside 74 Hoover Criminal Gang Westside 83 Hoover Criminal Gang Eastside 84 Main Street Crips Westside 68 Playboy Hustler Crips Westside 65 Menlo Neighborhood Crips Lil Eastside Northside 18th Street Placentia Vatos Locos La Jolla Atwood West 13 Chicos Midway City Middle Side 5th Street Varrio Shelltown Logan Heights Market Street Naranja Street Lomita Village Encanto Varrio Posole Varrio San Ysidro Iris Avenue Varrio Del Sol Varrio Palm City Nestor 19 Street Carson 13 Catskill Street Locos Realty Street Locos Carson Westside Piru Samoan Warrior Bounty Hunters Cabbage Patch Piru Victoria Park Crips/Victoria Park Locos Dominguez Varrio 13 Northside Wilmas Westside Wilmas Eastside Wilmas Ghost Town Locos Varrio Keystone Rifa Nutty Side Paramount Paramount Sans Paramount Varrio 13 Eastside Paramount Brown Nation Paramount Lynwood Varrio Young Crowd/Pope Avenue Crips Lynwood Varrio Segundo Inglewood 13 Playboys 13 55 Bunch Florencia 13 SC Indo 13 Barrio Mojados 13 Hoodlums 13 Hangout Boyz 13 Varrio 39th St Varrio 36th St Ghetto Boyz 13 Clanton 14 Varrio 33rd Street Street Saints 13 Varrio 22nd Street Primera Flats 23rd Street Varrio 28th Street Varrio 43rd Street Varrio 41st Street Orchentas 80s DNA 13 Carnales 13 Barrio Mojados 13 Morton Town Stoners Street Saints 99th Street Crazy X.Surenos Street Criminals 13 Weigand Colonia Watts 13 Watts Varrio Nut Hood 13 Watts Varrio Grape 13 Watts 13 K-Mobb Watts Varrio Hickory Street 13 Watts Varrio Ivy Street 13 Elm Street Watts 13 Harpys 13 Drifters 13 Alley Tiny Criminals 13 Street Villains 13 Ninos Surenos 13 Varrio 46th Street Locos 18th Street 18th Street Easy Rider Surenos 13 Easy Rider Surenos Drifters 13 Playboyz Diamond Street 13 Mara Salvatrucha 18th Street Mara Salvatrucha Centinela Park Family Inglewood 13 Shot Gun Crips Pay Bacc Crips Altadena Denver Lanes Altadena Blocc Crips 190 East Coast Crips Azusa 13 Echo Park 13 Teardrop Locos Capone Family Crips Eastside Clover Lincoln Heights El Sereno Rifa Eastlake Happy Valley Raymond Avenue Crips West Covina Mob West Covina Mob Corona Varrio Locos Home Gardens Corona Varrio Locos Corona Varrio Locos El Cerrito Center Street Locos Colonia Chiques Loma Flats Sur Town Chiques Lemonwood Chiques Southside Calle Siete Colonia Chiques El Rio Troublestreet Kingside Covina West Covina Project Boys NLB Al Capone 13 West Covina 13 Kays Northside Indio Southside Indio Tre-9 Crips Mecca Vinas Southside Indio Jackson Terrace Locos Rifa Penn West Locos Campo Flats Deep Valley Bloods Deep Valley Crips Mesa Locos Anaheim Folks Gang Neighbors Avenue Anaheim Down Familia Wicked Soldiers Southside Brown Demons Anaheim Benmore Lane Anaheim Travelers City (ATC) Southside Chiques Duarte Eastside Varrio Pasa Rifa (VPR) Villa Boys Pasa (VBP) Eastside Webb Blocc Eastside Webb Blocc Dorner Blocc Crip Edgemont Criminal Gang Edgemont Locos 13 Southside Maniacs 13 Northside Pasa Eastside Backus Street Pomona Sur Lokotes Monteclara Rifa Happy Homes 13 Varrio Trece Anaheim Homer Street Moreno Varrio Locos Moreno 13 La Gran Familia Perres Maravilla Southside Perris Loc Crips Perou Street Perres 7th Street Perres Vatos Locos Eastside Banning Sapo East Park Gangster Crips Eastside Ruthless Mobb 6th Street Night Owls 3100 Block P Mob Westside Banning Reservation Locos Cochela Tiny Locos Varrio Nuevo Cochela Avenue 52 Varrio Cochelita Avenue 53 Varrio Campo Avenue 48 Barrio Gateway Westside Palmas Old City Locos Northside Beaumonte Southside Beaumonte Barrio Dream Homes Barrio Dream Homes Varrio Vista Rifa 4th Street Hustlers Monteclara Cyclones Southside Fontana (SSF, SSF THL, SSF CGS) MCP 13 Center Park Bloods Hustla Squad Clicc Haskell Street Locos Vanowen Street Locos Valerio Street Langdon Street Blythe Street Columbus Street Mexican 13 Vincent Town Young Boys Rifa Canoga Park Alabama Rollin 20s Crips Insane Crips Mona Park Compton Crips Original Front Hood Compton Crips Eastside Nuthood Watts Crips Eastside PJ Watts Crips Eastside Watts Playground Crips Eastside Ten Line Gangster Crips Eastside Neighborhood Watts Crips Grape Street Watts Watts Bounty Hunters Circle City Piru Hacienda Village Bloods Northside Villain Squad Eastside Perris Neighborhood Crips Eastside Crown Blocc Crips Mead Valley Gangster Crips Barrio Cathedral Eastside Palmas Barrio San Rafas Street Barrio Golden Sands Varrio Mil Palmas Chicanos With Pride 13 Northside Fontana Young Riders Fontana Locos Westside La Habra Campo 13 Eastside La Habra Monos Grace Street Eastside La Habra Monos Burwood Street Metro 13 Seville Park Hustlers Orange Varrio Cypress Orange Varrio Lemon Pearl Street Varrio Modena Locos Darkside Tre Roc Mafia Crips No Cutz Black Rags Northside Rialto High Life Darkside Noe Luv Crips Browns Town Locos West Drive Locos True Crime Boys Loco Mexican Style Garden Grove Evil Ways Eastside Garden Grove Eastside Dukes 48th Street Mafia County Line Marijuanos Covina 400 Blocc Crips Eastside 43 Gangster Crips Eastside 42 Gangster Crips Eastside Rollin 20s Outlaw Bloods Lynwood Varrio Mob Cross Atlantic Piru Mob Piru Lynwood Varrio Osgood Block Lynwood Varrio Traviesos Lynwood Varrio Santa Fe Locos Gage Maravilla Maravilla Project Boys/High Times Maravilla Garden Grove Down Crowd Eastside Garden Grove Laguna Street Garden Grove Criminal Minds Garden Grove Wicked Minds Garden Grove Hard Times Northside Coltone (NSC) Gilbert Street Bloods Hard Times Fontana 13 (HTF 13) Pimp Playa Hustla Gangsta Crips Pimp Playa Hustla Gangsta Crips Lynwood Neighborhood Crips Lynwood Varrio Tiny Locos Lynwood Varrio Faded Locos Westside Ramona Blocc Hustlers Eastside Cornell Block Marianna Maravilla (MMV) Westside Hoover 59 Criminal Gang Lote Maravilla Maravilla Rifa (MVR) The Lott 13 2nd Hood Westside Verdugo G Street Locos Lynwood Varrio Rude Boys Lynwood Varrio Paragons Lynwood Varrio Banning Street Westside Rollin 60s Neighborhood Crips Westside 83 Gangsters Westside 67 Neighborhood Crips Pocos Peros Locos 13 Rowland Heights The Mob Crew 13 Cuatro Flats Lincoln Park Bloods Neighborhood 40s Crips Lil Africa Piru Emerald Hills Gangster Bloods 30s West Coast Crips 401 8th Street Hustlers Outlaws 13 Eastside Deuces Nine Mafia Eastside Verdugo Meadowbrook Dukes (ESV MBR) Westside 52 Broadway Gangster Crips Eastside 53 Avalon Gangster Crips Cedar Block Piru Compton Varrio Tortilla Flats Fruit Town Piru Anzac Grape Compton Crips Poccet Hood Compton Crips Compton Varrio Largo 36 Tree Top Piru 151 Original Block Piru Twilight Zone Compton Crips Campanella Park Piru Compton Varrio Segundo White Fence Varrio Nuevo Estrada Chino Sinners Rifa (CSR) Westside Diablos (WS DBS) Westside 2900 Blocc Project Crips Eastside 98 Main Street Crips Westside 112 Broadway Gangster Crips Eastside 110 Twilight Gangster Crips Eastside 110,111 Neighborhood Crips Eastside Bacc Street Watts Crips Eastside Front Street Watts Crips Eastside Fudgetown Mafia Crips Eastside Q102 East Coast Crips Eastside 108 Hustler Crips Westside 94 Hoover Criminal Gang Orange Street Locos Eastside 115 Hustler Crips/Eastside 118 Hustler Crips Eastside 116 Avalon Gangster Crips Eastside 116 Kitchen Crips Oak Blocc Crips Colonia Flores 706 Hustlers Varrio Hawaiian Gardens Southside 18th Street Chanslor Street King Cobras Chopper 12 Ford Maravilla (FMV) Fraser Maravilla (FRMV) Winter Gardens (WG) C-9000 Crips Clika Los Primos Laguna Park Vikings Lil Valley Rifa (LVR) Sunrise Whittier Village Jim Town Dead End Locos Quiet Village Canta Ranas Danby Street Brown Brotherhood Vicky's Town Westside Escondido Escondido Diablos Vista Homeboys Varrio San Marcos Varrio San Marcos Otay Skyline Piru Krook City Bloods Westside Crips Insane Crips Brock Avenue Locos CAL 13 Artesia 13 Harborside Westside Locos Dogtown Bolas Clanton 14 Varrio Sombras Locotes Dogtown KAM 13 Pomeroy Maravilla Juarez Maravilla (JMV) City Terrace Clanton 14 Black Diamonds Mara Salvatrucha La Mirada Locos Westside White Fence Virginia Street Locos Sur 13 Hollywood Stoners Westminster Orphans Southside 18th Street The Lott 3rd Hood Flora Street Bear Street Crazies Florencia 13 Huntington Park Kansas Street Willow Street Orchard Street Locos Garden View Locos Southside Playboys Barrio Ardmore Youngsters Death Crowd Locos Southside Players South Gate Tokers South Gate Locos Horseshoe 13 Rascals Burbank Trece Elmwood Street Toonerville Westside Locos Lil Hill Puente 13 (P13, PX3) Pomona 12th Street Sharkies (P12, P12ST) Lynwood Varrio Sad Boys Lynwood Varrio Krazy Cats Primera Flats Highlands Mid-City Stoners 13 Southside 43 Gangster Crips Eastside Rollin 30s Blood Stone Piru Lowell Street Westside Harvard Park Brims Pueblo Bishop Bloods 47 Gangster Crips KAM 13 Fontana Latin Kings Eastside Neccland Crips Tip Top Lokos Rockwood Street Union Boyz Diablos 18th Street Barrio Saint Andrews Crazy Riders BSE 13 Mara Salvatrucha 18th Street Barrio Loas Mid-City Stoners DFS 13 Rebels 13 18th Street Westside Rollin 20s Bloods 18th Street 18th Street Gardena 13 18th Street Witmer Street 13 Rockwood Street Locos Burlington Street Locos Orphans 13 Crazy Riders Schoolyard Crips Venice Shoreline Crips Mansfield Gangster Crips Playboy Gangster Crips Marvin Gangster Crips By Yourself Hustler Crips Black P Stones City Rollin 30s Harlem Crips Fruit Town Brims Black P Stones Jungles Westside Verdugo Topo City Varrio La Quinta Elsinore Young Classics Yarbrough Park Gangster Crips Elsinore Vatos Locos Four Corner Hustler Crips Hemet 13 Blocc Boys Crips Romoland 13 Varrio San Ja 1st Street Eastside 88 Avalon Garden Crips Eastside Neighborhood Family Swan Bloods 76 East Coast Crips Eastside 87 Kitchen Crips 89 East Coast Crips Eastside 92 Bishop Bloods Westside 92 Hoover Criminal Gang Westside 94 Hoover Criminal Gang Westside 99 Mafia Crips Westside 95 Play Style Crips Westside 107 Hoover Criminal Gang 103 Hardtime Hustla Crips Westside Denver Lane Gangster Bloods Westside 112 Hoover Criminal Gang Southside Pasa 97 East Coast Crips Los Serranos 13 Cyclones 13 Royal Majestics 13 West Covina Neighborhood Crips Malo Street EWF Old Town Kriminals 13 West Covina Neighborhood Crips Varrio 213 Southside Montebello Vail Street Locos San Dimas Rifa 200 Blocc Crips La Verne 13 Calle Primera Claramonte Rifa Northside Longos Boulevard Mafia Crips Original Hood Crips Four Corner Blocc Crips Barrio Pobre Westside Longos Sons Of Samoa Crips Rollin 80s West Coast Crips 357 Down Low Pimps Rancho San Pedro Leland Park South Los City Heights 13 Eastside San Diego Linda Vista 13 Mission Bay 13 Old Town San Diego Varrio Clairemont El Cajon Dukes El Cajon Locos El Cajon Orphans El Cajon Hoodlums El Cajon Varrio Unido Locos Lemon Grove Locos Carlsbad Locos Encinitas Tortilla Flats Eden Gardens Southside Encinitas Old Town Temecula Savage Life Dana Lane Bloods Southside Mafia 25000 Blocc Boys Travers Court Pimps Moreno Valley Rascals Death Wish Gangster Crips Southside Riva My Gangster Familia Garfield Street Varrio Overland Street Southside Riva My Gangster Familia Tyler Street Outlaws La Sierra Riva Varrio Linton Indiana Street Sur Riva Locotes Tiny Winos Mass Destruction Locos Varrio 5150 Varrio 5150 Night Owl Locos Cranford Street Crips Mira Loma Young Crowd Mira Loma Rifa Dodd Street Hawthorne Piru Acacia Blocc Hustler Crips 118 Gangster Crips Rollin 130s Crips Hawthorne Thug Family 118 Eucalyptus Gangster Crips Evil Klan 13 Centerview Piru Stevenson Park Carson Crips Front Street Valley Crips Pacoima Piru Bloods Pacoima Piru Bloods Pacoima Piru Bloods Ballin On Point Hillside Gangster Bloods Whitset Avenue Gangster Crips Original Valley Gangster Crips 120 Raymond Crips 127 Harvard Gangster Crips Harbor City Crips Carver Park Compton Crips Tragview Park Compton Crips Venice Shoreline Crips Southside Reseda Westside Reseda Corona Varrio Locos Coronita Scottsdale Piru Eastside Torrance TXFlats 204th Street Compton Varrio 70 Compton Varrio Locos Bryant Street Temple Street Playboy Gangster Crips CFL 13 Westside Locos Sotel 13 West Boulevard Crips Fontana Rude Boys CMK 13 Locos Park 13 Eastside 13 Evil 13 38th Street Ventura Avenue Gang Santa Paula 12th Street Santa Paula Mill Street Crimies Moorpark 13 Barry Street Imperial Beach 13 Varrio Lomas 26th Street Barrio Sherman Highland Park Avenues (Garvanza) Criminals 13 Dorothy Street Locos Irwa 13 Varrio Viejo Varrio Viejo Varrio Chico Varrio Chico Varrio Simi Valley Westside Locos Little Town Shalimar Street Southside Huntington Beach Eastside Fillmore Westside Fillmore Northside Fillmore Varrio Harbor City Rifa Whittier Varrio Locos Brown Brotherhood Southside Whittier Hustlers 13 Whittier 13 Canta Ranas Angelino Heights 13 4th Street Hustlers NAW Los Coyotes Anaheim Pauline Street (APST) La Fabrica 13 Anaheim Balsam Avenue Latin Boys KPC (Krazy Proud Criminals) Page Street Westside Anaheim Ruthless Black Playas Anaheim Brown Pride Baker Street Boyz Pacific Street Santana Blocc Compton Crips Southside Compton Crips Palmer Blocc Compton Crips Eastside Buena Park Fullerton Tokers Town Wicked Minds Optional Boyz Barrio Uno Edna Park Boys Lowell Street McClay Street 21st Street Los Wickeds Anaheim Kodiak Street Barrio Pobre Westside 18th Street Tears Of A Clown Gang Del Monte Blocc Crips Parkview Locos Eastside Santa Ana Lyon Street Garden Grove Playboys Los Addicts Varrio Nueve Tres San Juan Street Rifa F-Troop Palma Vista Street 2FS D1S Bastard Family Westside Garden Grove Wicked Ones Townsend Street Golden West West Myrtle KIR Sullivan Street Calle Flores Brownside Southside Santa Ana Darkside 13 Peaceful Varrio Norwalk Barrio Cypress Crooks Colonia Juarez 17th Street Varrio La Mirada Spry Street Locos Neighborhood Norwalk Avenue Piru Santa Fe Mafia Crips Block Boys Paradise Hills Varrio Los Alamitos Graveyard Crips Barrio Viejo Latin Time Playboyz Barrio Small Town Eastside Longos Los Nietos 13 Northside Redondo 13 Southside Mob Fifth Block United By Crime Sycamore Street Varrio San Fer Newhall 13 Val Verde Park Locos Vineland Boys Mission Hills Boys North Hollywood Locos Radford Street Colonia Trece Loma Linda Killas Westside Santa Ana Onterio Varrio Sur Nocta Boys Northside Redlands Eastside IE Top Gang Crips Murder D Block Street Villains Drive Crips Barstow Gents Barrio Lenwood Latana Blocc Compton Crips Scott Park Piru Walnut Creek 13 Cedarbrook Crips Old Town Kriminals 13 West Covina Mob Northside Rialto High Life Bohnert Street Orchard Street Locos Loma Vista Place Locos Rivera 13 Dogpatch Margaret Street Brown Crowd Vineland Boys Southside 18th Street Southside 18th Street Eastside Pasadena Denver Lanes Bartlett Street Headhunters 13 Fontana Latin Kings Kansas Street North Hollywood Boyz Barrio Van Nuys Valley Glen Assassin Kriminals Mara Salvatrucha Alley Locos Northside Victoria Southside Victoria Westside Victoria Adelanto Brown Pride Eastside Victoria Oro Grande Varrio 13 Westside Bloomas Eastside Lancas Westside Lancas Eastside Palmas Westside Palmas Varrio Bakers Eastside Crips Colonia Bakers Loma Bakers Hillside Loma Bakers Westside Crips Okie Bakers Southside Bakers Country Boy Crips Varrio Rexland Park Fresno Bulldogs West Fresno Norte 14 Fink White Deuce Modoc Boys Strother Boys Fresno Villain Bloods Young Black Soldiers Lee Street Weller Boys Lotus Avenue Boys Garrett Street Posse Muhammad Family Dog Pound Samson Street Gangsters Parkside Bulldogs Fresno Bulldogs Bond Street Bulldogs Pinedale Bulldogs Southside Stocktone Eastside Stocktone Varrio Latino Locos 14 Central Stocktone Locos Clay Street 14 Pilgrim Street 14 6th Street Gangsters 14 4th Street Gangsters 14 Westside Nortenos 14 Westside Bloods Eastside Gangsters 14 Conway Crips Westside Santa Barbara Eastside Santa Barbara 805 Carpas Varrio Goleta Projects Varrio Goleta Lokotes Varrio Guadalupe Northwest Santa Maria Southside Lompoc Varrio Lampitas Primera Vagos 13 Salinas Acosta Plaza 14 Sieber Street 13 Cortez Street 13 Mexican Pride Locos 13 Paseo Grande 14 Las Casistas Drive 14 Eastside Market Street 14 Fremont Street 14 Hebron Street 14 Brown Pride Surenos 13 Boronda 14 Westside Boyz 14/SPV 13 Madison Street 13 Wicked West Ryders Comstock Street 14 Deep Southside Nortenos Vernon Block Gangsters 209 Westside Modesto OG Locos Parklawn Boys Empire Boyz 14/Empire Vatos Locos 13 Monteclara Rifa West Covina Mob Merced Gangster Crips Westside Merced 14 Dead End Locos 14 Northside Piru/Loughborough Locos 14 12th Street 14 M Street Mob Southside Locos 13 Oak Park Norte/Oak Park Bloods Varrio Diamond Power Inn Crips Fruitridge Vista Nortenos Franklin Boys 14 Woodbine Nortenos Hogan Block Bloods Garden Blocc Crips Meadowview Bloods Detroit Boulevard Bloods Lemon Hill Posse Broderick Boys 14 Varrio Del Paso Heights 14 Sons Of Samoa Crips Strawberry Manor Bloods Flats Belden Street Bloods Nogales Street Gangster Crips Barrio Palmero Street Lane Drive Homies El Camino Crips Varrio Gardenland 14 Varrio Northgate Natomas 14 Del Paso Heights Bloods Elm Street Bloods Palmetto Boyz Valley High Nortenos Eastside Piru North Highlands Gangster Crips Polk Street Boys Dubb Blocc Hillsdale 14 Westgate Crips Zapata Park 14 Southside Park 14 Encina Street Ryders Northside Visa 14 Westside Tulas Eastside Tulas Eastside Poros Varrio Centro Poros Westside Poros Court Street Locos 14 Southside Kings 13 DSW Monrovia Nuevo Varrio Compton Varrio Segundo Compton Varrio Segundo Paramount Locos Gundry Blocc Crips Nutty Side Paramount KBS Sex Money Murder Crips Mac Mafia Crips Barrio South Gate Marijuanos Locos San Miguel Street White Fence Jubeniles Rooks Town Bell Gardens Locos The Bratz 13 King Kobras Southside Playboys Fostoria Boys Junior Mafia Witmer Street KAM 13 2 N's WSK 13 Maywood Locos Duarte Eastside Northside Bolen Parque (NSBP) Kings Have Arrived Arleta Boys 13 Los Nietos 13 Culver City Boys 13 Westside Hustlas Lynwood Neighborhood Crips Compton Barrio Los Padrinos/Compton Varrio 3 Lynwood Varrio Compitas Walnut Blocc Crips Lynwood Varrio Southside Varrio Sur 13 Pachucos CAL 13 Brown Neighborhood 13 Palm And Oak Gangster Crips Compton Varrio Tortilla Flats Lynwood Varrio Dukes Lynwood Varrio Paragons/Lynwood Varrio Banning Street Compton Varrio 70 Westside Verdugo Calle Siete Locos Eastside Anaheim Anaheim Vatos Locos Mid-Town Sacramento Street 14 500 Block Nairobi Village VPS 13 East O'Keefe Block 13 East Menlo Park Cypress Street 14 G-Town Millersville Varrio Central Vallejo 14 Brown Brotherhood 13 Brown Crowd Locos Hillcrest Southside Chiques Varrio San Pablo 14 Pablo Scrap Killas 14 Parchester Village Mob Beam Team 2900 Montalvin Nortenos 14 Solano Side Concord 14 North Side Concord 14 South Side Locos 13 East Side Concord 14 Lopers PPHG Maine line boys Money Gang Mob 15 st Easter Hill 2600 Easter Hills Surenos 13 Central Side Locos 13 16th/Chanslor Stooge Mob 40's Goons Shoot First 30's Mexican Locos 13 Varrio Frontera Locos 13 Gertrude Mob Silver block Trojan Projects 300 m block 5th Street Harbor Way Mob P7 600 block 5th/barrett A Street Locos 14 Varrio South Gardens 13 A Street Yolo Boys 14 A Street Sunset 14 Irvington Norte 14 SPL Central ave 13 Newark Young Locs 14 B Street 13 Kelly Hill Mob Varrio Warzone Varrio Centro Fairlas Meadowlark Mob Dover Villa Mob Calle San Marcos 13 Brown Pride Surenos 13 The Swamps park lane mob East Side Flats West Covina Mob Du Roc Crips Low End Anaheim Citron Street Anaheim Vatos Locos Anaheim Brown Familia CKA Anaheim Brown Familia CKA Azusa 13 El Monte Flores Bassett Grande Bassett Grande Pasadena Denver Lanes Project Gangster Bloods Squiggly Lane Gangsters Payasos Town Southside Rialto Sage Street Eastside Fontana Chicanos With Pride Southside Riva My Gangster Familia Jackson Street Duarte Eastside Eastside Montalvo Northside Colonia Chiques Tocas 13 Houston Hoods Newbury Park 13 Nipomo 13 Oceano 13 Somis 13 Saticoy 13 La Familia Loca Central IE Familia 13 Varrio Paisa 62 Night Owl Locos Varrio Redlands Anaheim Jungle City Organized Crime Suicidals Silver Acres Crow Village Big Stanton 18th Street Dead End Mafia Eastside Rascals Orange County Kriminals Headhunters 13 Orange Krazy Malditos Southside Riders 13 Brown Familia 13 Mexican Malditos Surenos 13 Canones 13 Valley Street Anaheim Vermonte Street Rutgers Street Grove Street Anaheim Drifters Kurupted Phamilia Title: Re: “Civilised” California versus the “barbaric” Trump regime… Post by: Kiwithrottlejockey on December 08, 2016, 07:44:19 pm I agree Trump should wall off California and cast it adrift. Californians provide considerably more in federal taxes than what they get back in federal funds. Therefore, if California was a separate country, they wouldn't have all those stupid Trump retards spounging off them. Californians would be considerably better off financially and those dumbarses in the middle and south of the USA would be considerably worse off. Title: Re: “Civilised” California versus the “barbaric” Trump regime… Post by: Kiwithrottlejockey on December 16, 2016, 10:21:01 pm from the Los Angeles Times.... California is itching to take on Trump. Here are the prominent figures leading the charge. On the front lines are Governor Brown, who differs with Trump on climate, and Secretary of State Alex Padilla, who says if the president-elect's positions harm California, “we’ll challenge him every step of the way.” By MELANIE MASON - Reporting from Sacramento | 12:05AM PST - Friday, December 16, 2016 (http://i378.photobucket.com/albums/oo227/Kiwithrottlejockey/Tribune%20Images/latimes_20161216_1481763931_zpsqcblzblh.jpg~original) (http://www.trbimg.com/img-5851ec35/turbine/la-memason-1481763931-snap-photo) President-elect Donald Trump speaks to supporters during a rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan, on Friday, December 9th, 2016. — Photograph: Paul Sancya/Associated Press. CALIFORNIA's leaders have reacted to Donald Trump's win with a clamor of opposition, an adversarial stance that echoes Texas' combative posture (http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-pol-ca-texas-california-trump-20161117-story.html) under President Obama. But within the overarching hostile tone, the dissent from the nation's most populous state, which sided decisively with Hillary Clinton in the November 8th presidential election, has come in several forms: carefully calibrated messages of tepid co-operation (https://www.gov.ca.gov/news.php?id=19598), outright declarations of defiance (http://asmdc.org/speaker/news-room/press-releases/speaker-rendon-strikes-defiant-tone-for-california-as-assembly-reconvenes) and Twitter brawls (https://twitter.com/GavinNewsom/status/808425943131832320). Beyond the state's representatives in Washington — including Democratic Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and U.S. Senators Dianne Feinstein and Kamala Harris — the roster of Trump antagonists in California is a lengthy one. Here's a field guide to the Californians on the front lines in the state's brewing battle with the incoming president. The state officials The state's highest-profile defender is Governor Jerry Brown, whose initial comments on Trump (http://www.latimes.com/politics/essential/la-pol-ca-essential-politics-updates-neither-gov-jerry-brown-nor-his-pick-1480978595-htmlstory.html) emphasized national unity and a wait-and-see attitude about the incoming administration. But the governor has since ratcheted up the rhetoric (http://www.latimes.com/politics/essential/la-pol-ca-essential-politics-updates-we-re-ready-to-fight-says-gov-jerry-1481739836-htmlstory.html) on climate change, Brown's signature issue and one where he and Trump share little common ground. “We've got the scientists, we've got the universities, we have the national labs and we have the political clout and sophistication for the battle — and we will persevere. Have no doubt about that,” Brown said on Wednesday in an address to climate scientists. Los Angeles Representative Xavier Becerra, Brown's pick to be the new state attorney general (http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-pol-ca-xavier-becerra-attorney-general-20161201-story.html), who would replace Harris as she moves to the Senate, would be the state's point person to challenge the Trump administration in court, pending an all-but-certain confirmation by the Legislature. So far, however, Becerra's talk about Trump has notably lacked bombast. (http://i378.photobucket.com/albums/oo227/Kiwithrottlejockey/Tribune%20Images/latimes_20161216_1481761967_zpsjrgrhipu.jpg~original) (http://www.trbimg.com/img-5851e48e/turbine/la-memason-1481761967-snap-photo) Governor Jerry Brown, left, and Rep. Xavier Becerra, Democrat-Los Angeles, Brown's nominee for California Attorney General, during a news conference in Sacramento. — Photograph: Rich Pedroncelli/Associated Press. “We won't shy away from representing and defending what we stand for as Californians,” Becerra told reporters last week. “But we're not out there to pick fights.” More aggressive has been Secretary of State Alex Padilla, who oversees California's elections. Padilla was quick to issue a series of public statements condemning Trump's advisors and cabinet picks, as well as the president-elect's unfounded allegation of widespread voter fraud in California (http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-pol-ca-trump-tweet-california-voter-fraud-20161127-story.html). If Trump's positions are “contrary to the policies we’re pursuing in California or are harmful to the state or the nation, we'll challenge him every step of the way,” Padilla said in an interview. Meanwhile, leaders of California's higher education system (http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-daca-uc-csu-ccc-20161128-story.html) have urged Trump to allow students who were brought to the country illegally as children to continue their studies without fear of deportation. California has more than 200,000 people who have applied for deportation protections under an Obama administration program called Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, more than any other state. UC System President Janet Napolitano, who signed the directive when she served as Homeland Security secretary under Obama, has become a vocal proponent of maintaining DACA, penning a New York Times op-ed (http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/30/opinion/the-truth-about-young-immigrants-and-daca.html) in which she called the reasoning behind the policy “careful, rational and lawful.” The lawmakers Starting with a fiery joint statement just hours after Trump won the presidency, California's top Democrats in the Legislature — Senate President pro Tem Kevin de León and Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon — have struck a decisively defiant anti-Trump tone (http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-pol-ca-california-legislature-battles-trump-snap-20161206-story.html). “Californians do not need healing. We need to fight,” Rendon said in a combative speech at last week's ceremony swearing in new legislators, injecting a bellicose note into a typically cheery affair. Legislative leaders have staked out immigration as the first battleground. De León has introduced a measure that would bar state and local resources (http://www.latimes.com/politics/essential/la-pol-ca-essential-politics-updates-senate-leader-proposes-safe-zones-at-1481144070-htmlstory.html) from being used to aid federal immigration officials in deportations. In announcing the bill, SB 54, De León vowed that California would be “the wall of justice” for people in the country illegally if the federal government ramps up deportations. (http://i378.photobucket.com/albums/oo227/Kiwithrottlejockey/Tribune%20Images/latimes_20161216_1481854579_zpskqqdyg2q.jpg~original) (http://www.trbimg.com/img-58534e4e/turbine/la-memason-1481854579-snap-photo) California Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon, Democrat-Paramount, third from left, flanked by Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de Len, Democrat-Los Angeles, right, and other Democratic lawmakers, discusses a pair of proposed measures to protect immigrants, during a news conference in Sacramento. — Photograph: Rich Pedroncelli/Associated Press. Senator Ricardo Lara (Democrat-Bell Gardens) has also proposed several early measures (http://www.latimes.com/politics/essential/la-pol-ca-essential-politics-updates-california-legislation-challenges-1480956380-htmlstory.html) in a pre-emptive rebuke to Trump, including SB 30, which would stymie construction of a wall along the California-Mexico border and SB 31, which would prohibit the state from sharing information to a federally compiled registry of Muslims in the United States, a proposal Trump and his advisers have floated. Other proposals would commit state dollars to defend people without legal immigration status against removal from the U.S. One bill, SB 6 by Senator Ben Hueso (Democrat-San Diego), who chairs the Legislative Latino Caucus, would provide funding for legal services for those in deportation proceedings. Another proposal, AB 3 by Assemblyman Rob Bonta (Democrat-Oakland), would fund immigration law training for public defenders. The contenders The shades of anti-Trump stances are also coloring the next marquee political showdown in California: the 2018 governor's race. Gavin Newsom, the state's lieutenant governor and earliest entrant to the field, has been an unabashed Trump detractor, needling the president-elect on social media, a fitting venue for the Twitter-friendly Trump. (http://i378.photobucket.com/albums/oo227/Kiwithrottlejockey/Tribune%20Images/latimes_20161216twgn_TwitterGavinNewsom_zpsnatlip4l.jpg~original) (https://twitter.com/GavinNewsom/status/799654735032696832) “I don't think it's time to be timid — at all,” Newsom told reporters on Wednesday. “I take him quite literally in terms of what he wants to accomplish and how he wants to go about doing it. And if you do take him literally, then there is only one response, and that is to prepare for an assault on environmental protections, on immigrant rights, on people’s health and welfare, and not wait to respond to it.” Fellow Democrat and former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa officially jumped into the race just two days after Trump won the presidency, framing his gubernatorial bid as a contrast to the incoming Republican president. In an op-ed in the Sacramento Bee (http://www.sacbee.com/opinion/california-forum/article119510813.html) last week, Villaraigosa called on Western governors and California mayors to unite to form “a breakwater against the tide of Trumpism.” A third Democratic contender, state Treasurer John Chiang, has been relatively muted in his response to the election, a contrast to last summer when he called California Democrats Trump's “worst nightmare.” But the low-profile Chiang was cited in the New Yorker (http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/11/21/resisting-trump-from-inside-the-government) as a possible example of how to push back against Trump from inside the government. In 2008, Chiang, who was then state controller, refused to implement an order by then-Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to slash state worker pay. He said his takeaway from the standoff was that those inside government should follow their conscience. Liberal hedge fund billionaire Tom Steyer has toyed with a gubernatorial run, although he said Trump's unexpected win had made him reconsider his plans (http://elections.kqed.org/article/politics-and-government/11168326/tom-steyer-after-trump-win-i-may-not-run-for-governor). In an interview with The Times, he said his initial aversion to Trump has only hardened with the president-elect's actions. “What we've seen so far in terms of both behavior and nominations has fulfilled every one of our expectations and fears,” Steyer said. Regardless of his future ambitions, Steyer said he plans to continue opposing Trump through a “citizens' coalition,” marrying grassroots work, voter registration and other political organizing. The locals Preparing for battle against the Trump administration extends far beyond Sacramento. In California's major cities, local officials have struck their own anti-Trump positions. In Los Angeles, City Council members have explored hiring an immigrant advocate (http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-wesson-immigration-advocate-20161117-story.html) to shield residents from deportations. Police Chief Charlie Beck said he had no plans to change his department's stance (http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-los-angeles-police-immigration-20161114-story.html) on immigration enforcement, in which officers do not turn over to federal authorities those arrested for low-level crimes. Los Angeles County Supervisors Hilda Solis and Janice Hahn have proposed a $1-million legal aid fund to help immigrants in the country illegally, according to LA Weekly. In Northern California, San Francisco public defender Jeff Adachi has proposed a $5-million unit in his department to defend immigrants in the country illegally (http://www.sfexaminer.com/sf-may-create-legal-team-fight-upcoming-trump-deportations) from deportation. And earlier this month, the city of Santa Ana voted to become a sanctuary city (http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-santa-ana-sanctuary-city-20161206-story.html) to protect those without legal immigration status — a largely symbolic measure that nevertheless underscored the dramatic demographic changes (http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-me-oc-clinton-20161109-story.html) underway in what used to be a stronghold for California Republicans. (http://i378.photobucket.com/albums/oo227/Kiwithrottlejockey/Tribune%20Images/latimes_20161216_1481854761_zpsken7oava.jpg~original) (http://www.trbimg.com/img-58534f03/turbine/la-memason-1481854761-snap-photo) San Diego Mayor Kevin L. Faulconer. — Photograph: Kirk McKoy/Los Angeles Times. Speaking of the GOP, the most compelling figure on the local level to watch could be San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer, a Republican who did not support Trump's campaign. Post-election, Faulconer has urged unity, saying of Trump at a Los Angeles Times event (http://www.latimes.com/politics/essential/la-pol-ca-essential-politics-updates-when-it-comes-to-trump-l-a-s-democrat-1479939346-htmlstory.html), “he's our president — we have to come together now.” But Faulconer also did not shy away from touting his city's close economic relationship with Mexico. If Trump follows through on his promise to impose tariffs on goods imported from Mexico, a move that could have significant repercussions for San Diego's economy, Faulconer's role as a pro-trade GOP mayor of a major border city may end up giving Trump some significant heartburn. The techies California's politicians have so far been the most enthusiastic in seizing the anti-Trump megaphone. But Silicon Valley may also find itself in conflict with the new administration. In his highly anticipated summit with tech leaders on Wednesday — organized by billionaire investor and Trump ally Peter Thiel — the president-elect lavished praise on the executives as a “truly amazing group of people,” even though the industry was largely opposed to his campaign. But there are early signs of ruptures in Trump's relationship with Silicon Valley. Twitter (https://theintercept.com/2016/12/02/of-8-tech-companies-only-twitter-says-it-would-refuse-to-help-build-muslim-registry-for-trump) and Facebook (https://theintercept.com/2016/12/14/facebook-finally-says-it-will-not-help-build-muslim-registry) have publicly stated they would not assist in building a registry of Muslims in the United States. And while executives have been relatively mum on Trump since his win — a silence that tech journalist Kara Swisher excoriated in a recent column (http://www.recode.net/2016/12/12/13917982/trump-hair-tech-summit-shame-silicon-valley) — prominent investors such as Chris Sacca and LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman have continued to voice their full-throated criticisms on social media and, in Hoffman's case, an anti-Trump card game (https://medium.com/@reidhoffman/defending-the-united-states-constitution-2a879d614865#.huetqghh0). __________________________________________________________________________ Related stories: • Texas was Obama's chief antagonist. In Trump's America, California is eager for the part. (http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-pol-ca-texas-california-trump-20161117-story.html) • California's new legislative session begins with a message: We're ready to fight Trump. (http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-pol-ca-texas-california-trump-20161117-story.html) • From panic to possibility: A reeling entertainment industry regroups after Trump's win. (http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-ca-trump-hollywood-20161126-story.html) http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-pol-ca-californians-trump-critics-20161216-htmlstory.html (http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-pol-ca-californians-trump-critics-20161216-htmlstory.html) Title: Re: “Civilised” California versus the “barbaric” Trump regime… Post by: Im2Sexy4MyPants on December 16, 2016, 10:38:50 pm trump needs to act like the clintons anyone annoys them they die send a black op team kill these fools trump is a quick learner accident,suicide them i would Title: Re: “Civilised” California versus the “barbaric” Trump regime… Post by: Kiwithrottlejockey on February 02, 2017, 01:34:57 pm from the Los Angeles Times.... Trump's EPA pick casts doubt on California's longtime power to set its own clean-air standards By EVAN HALPER | 3:45PM PST - Wednesday, January 18, 2017 (http://i378.photobucket.com/albums/oo227/Kiwithrottlejockey/Tribune%20Images/latimes_20170118sp_1484761840_ScottPruitt_zps8yvndohj.jpg~original) (http://www.trbimg.com/img-587faab9/turbine/la-afiscus-1484761840-snap-photo) Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt, President-elect Donald Trump's choice to run the Environmental Protection Agency, testifies on Wednesday at his Senate confirmation hearing. — Photograph: Michael Reynolds/European Pressphoto Agency. DONALD TRUMP's pick to head the Environmental Protection Agency cast doubt on whether California should continue to have power to impose its own emission rules for cars and trucks, an authority the state has enjoyed for decades that is also the cornerstone of its efforts to fight global warming. Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt said at a contentious confirmation hearing on Wednesday that he cannot commit to keeping in place the current version of a decades-old federal waiver that allows California to set emissions standards stricter than elsewhere in the United States. In recent years, California regulators have used the waiver to force automakers to build more efficient vehicles, which has helped the state cut its greenhouse gas emissions from cars and trucks by nearly a third since 2009. More than a dozen other states have adopted the California standard as part of their own efforts both to clean their air and fight global warming. Pruitt held out the possibility that he might take that power away during a hearing in which he also battled Democrats over his skepticism about aspects of climate science, his financial relationship with oil and gas companies, and his plans to substantially curb the EPA's role in fighting pollution. Although Pruitt said he accepts that human activity is affecting the climate, he expressed doubt over the mainstream scientific consensus that the warming is happening at a catastrophic pace that must be confronted with aggressive actions. “The ability to measure with precision the extent of [human] impact and what to do about it are subject to continued debate and dialogue,” Pruitt said. Pressed by Senator Kamala D. Harris (Democrat-California) about whether he intends to leave California's authority in place, Pruitt would only say, “I don't know without going through the process to determine that. One would not want to presume the outcome.” His comments were met with strong protests by Democratic lawmakers in Washington and Sacramento. They charged that Pruitt, a self-styled crusader for states' rights, is less committed to the principle when states pursue policies that reduce the profits of big corporations. If the Trump administration did succeed in eliminating California's waiver authority, the loss would be a major setback for the state's environmental policies. The waiver was initially granted decades ago as the state grappled with an air quality crisis triggered by the traffic-induced smog that settled over Los Angeles and other cities. The state expanded its use of that power in 2009, when, after years of fighting with federal regulators and car manufacturers, California officials and the then-new Obama administration agreed to expand the waiver to incorporate California's landmark effort to fight climate change. Reduction of greenhouse gas emissions has been a key function of the waiver since that agreement was struck. Pruitt's hedging on the issue comes as California regulators have expressed confidence that the new administration would not interfere with homegrown efforts to shift the state economy away from fossil fuels. But their confidence has been based on the assumption that certain federal environmental policies, like the waiver and tax credits for wind and solar energy, would endure. “When you say ‘review’, I hear ‘undo’ the rights of the states,” Senator Ed Markey of Massachusetts, which has adopted many of California's standards, told Pruitt. “It's troublesome because obviously what we've heard all day is how much you support states' rights when it comes to these issues. But, now when it comes to the right of California or Massachusetts or other states' right to be able to reduce carbon pollution, you say you are going to review that.” “We are fearful what review would actually result in,” Markey said. “I think it is going to lead to you undoing that right of states to be able to provide that protection.” Pruitt would say only that he could make no promise that California and other states will keep their waiver. As Pruitt sparred with committee Democrats, California's chief regulator of air quality and greenhouse gas emissions, Mary Nichols, was testifying in Sacramento about the importance of the waiver to her agency, the California Air Resources Board. Any failure to renew the waiver, state Senate Leader Kevin de Leon said in an email, “will be met with full resistance up and down the state.” Pruitt is among the more controversial of Trump's Cabinet picks, a longtime ally of the oil and gas industry who has built his career around fighting the agency he now seeks to run. He has sued the EPA 14 times since becoming his state's attorney general — often alongside oil and gas companies. He argues the agency has acted inappropriately in its robust enforcement of clean air and clean water rules that he says should be left to state discretion. As head of the EPA, he would be empowered to undermine the signature Obama administration effort to combat global warming — a policy he has crusaded against. “Regulators are supposed to make things regular,” Pruitt said at his hearing, “to fairly and equitably enforce the rules and not pick winners and losers.” He charged that the issue of climate change had been overtaken by emotion and incivility. “We should not succumb to personalizing matters,” he said. The hearing follows a weeks-long assault by environmental groups against Pruitt that began the day Trump named him to lead the agency. One of the groups, the Environmental Defense Fund, said it had never lobbied against an EPA selection until now. Democrats on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee took up the fight on Wednesday, accusing Pruitt of ignorance of climate science, a disregard for millions of Americans whose health is being harmed by air pollution and an inappropriately cozy relationship with big energy companies. Pruitt's close ties with energy companies were repeatedly brought up by Democrats as the hearing got underway. Senator Jeff Merkley of Oregon presented a letter Pruitt sent to the EPA protesting its enforcement of methane rules. The letter was written almost entirely by Devon Energy. Pruitt had changed just a few words. “A public office is about serving the public,” Merkley said. “You used your office as a direct extension of an oil company rather than a direct extension of the public health of the people of Oklahoma.” Pruitt said sending the letter written almost entirely by an oil firm was appropriate. “The letter sent to the EPA was not sent on behalf of any one company; it was particular to an industry,” he said. “There was concern expressed by many in the industry about the overestimating that occurred in relation to that methane rule.” • Los Angeles Times staff writer Chris Megerian in Sacramento contributed to this report. • Evan Halper writes about a broad range of policy issues out of Washington D.C., with particular emphasis on how Washington regulates, agitates and very often miscalculates in its dealings with California. Before heading east, he was the Los Angeles Times bureau chief in Sacramento, where he spent a decade untangling California's epic budget mess and political dysfunction. http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-pol-epa-confirmation-20170118-story.html (http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-pol-epa-confirmation-20170118-story.html) Title: Re: “Civilised” California versus the “barbaric” Trump regime… Post by: Kiwithrottlejockey on February 02, 2017, 01:35:26 pm from the Los Angeles Times.... How California can fight the extreme provocations of Donald Trump The state must protect immigrant rights and environmental standards. By HAROLD MEYERSON | 4:00AM PST - Wednesday, February 01, 2017 (http://i378.photobucket.com/albums/oo227/Kiwithrottlejockey/Tribune%20Images/latimes_20170201_1485908465_CharlieBeck_zps7z4z2ypj.jpg~original) (http://www.trbimg.com/img-589129b2/turbine/la-nismedley-1485908465-snap-photo) LAPD Police Chief Charlie Beck addresses the media in October of 2016. Beck has repeatedly stated that the Los Angeles Police Department has distanced itself from federal immigration policies. — Photograph: Los Angeles Times. WE'VE SEEN states fight the federal government before. In 1860 and 1861, it was the states that set off the conflict, taking up arms to oppose the new president. Today, it's the new president who has initiated the break, vowing to punish states and cities that treat immigrants with respect and the environment with care, and against California and Los Angeles most of all. In his first weeks in office, Donald Trump (http://www.latimes.com/projects/la-na-all-things-trump) took dead aim at the policies that state and local governments have put in place to enhance public health and safety. He threatened them with withdrawal of federal funds if they remain sanctuary cities — and no major city has claimed that status longer than Los Angeles, which has barred its police from co-operating in deportation operations since 1979. Trump also has pledged to abolish regulations that he claims hamper business, and he is almost certain to go after California's ability to impose emission standards on cars and trucks that are stricter than federal requirements. Since the day after the election, when Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon and State Senate leader Kevin de León announced they would resist Trump's attempts to impose nativist and racist policies on California, state leaders have almost welcomed the confrontation. Certainly they haven't dodged it. Governor Jerry Brown, in his State of the State address, said he would oppose the president's oppressive initiatives. Mayors up and down the coast have promised to preserve their cities' sanctuary status, even in the face of Trump's threats to reduce their federal funding. Any such reductions will encounter a multitude of court challenges, many of them focusing on the question of which federal funds the administration can withhold. Cutting funds that bolster police work will likely pass muster with the courts, though the amount the feds currently devote to such work isn't all that large. Eliminating the more considerable funds that go to cities for other purposes — say, community development grants — may not be legal. In South Dakota versus Dole (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Dakota_v._Dole), the Supreme Court ruled that conditions on federal spending “might be illegitimate if they are unrelated” to the purpose for which the funds are designated. That could pose a problem for Trump, since deportation efforts seem distinctly unrelated to, for instance, road building or research at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Cañada Flintridge. The logic behind sanctuary cities couldn't be more clear. Contrary to Trump's alternative facts, the great wave of immigration over the last 30 years coincides with an epochal decline in crime. The numbers of murders in Los Angeles County fell from 1,944 in 1993 to 681 last year. As a study (http://www.nap.edu/read/21746/chapter/9) from the National Academy of Sciences concluded, “Immigrants are in fact much less likely to commit crime than natives, and the presence of large numbers of immigrants seems to lower crime rates.” One way to ensure that crime rates rise in a city like Los Angeles is to make many of its residents afraid to report dangerous behavior to the police, which, as LAPD Chief Charlie Beck has stated, is exactly what compelling the police to engage in deportation activities would do. Trump's efforts to weaken the state's fuel emission standards could be more difficult to forestall than his assault on sanctuary cities. Should the state fail to blunt that attack in the courts, the legislature could devise a way around it by, say, enacting a higher sales tax on any new cars that exceed what the state standards would have been. Calling it the “Trump Tax” wouldn't be a bad idea. Ultimately California's defenses against the president's policies will have to be just as extraordinary as Trump's attacks. Let's say the courts grant the administration the authority to withhold all manner of federal funds from sanctuary states and cities. The most devastating move Trump could make would be to hold back California's share of Medicaid and Children's Health Insurance funding, which in 2015 came to roughly $55 billion, and today helps cover the health costs of more than 12 million state residents. California could then redirect tax payments from Washington to Sacramento — that is, by increasing state taxes to cover the federal shortfall. Simultaneously, millions of Californians could decline to pay a commensurate amount on their federal income taxes (on the admittedly untested theory that massive coordinated tax evasion provides a level of safety-in-numbers that individual tax evasion does not). An extreme response, to be sure, to an extreme provocation. But when it comes to dividing the nation in two, Trump's only peer as an American president — note I didn't say a president of the United States — is Jefferson Davis. • Harold Meyerson is executive editor of the American Prospect. He is a contributing writer to Opinion. __________________________________________________________________________ Related story: • San Francisco sues Trump over executive order targeting sanctuary cities (http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-san-francisco-trump-20170131-story.html) http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-meyerson-trump-state-conflict-20170201-story.html (http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-meyerson-trump-state-conflict-20170201-story.html) Title: Re: “Civilised” California versus the “barbaric” Trump regime… Post by: Im2Sexy4MyPants on February 03, 2017, 06:52:20 pm you invite everyone in the world to live at your house and wonder why you have no job and your fridge is empty all the time
milo is an alt right homophobic nazi Title: Re: “Civilised” California versus the “barbaric” Trump regime… Post by: Kiwithrottlejockey on February 05, 2017, 01:07:50 pm from the Los Angeles Times.... Trump's EPA pick poised to survive Senate fight, but his brewing battle with California will be harder to win By EVAN HALPER and CHRIS MEGERIAN | 10:30AM PST - Thursday, February 02, 2017 (http://i378.photobucket.com/albums/oo227/Kiwithrottlejockey/Tribune%20Images/latimes_20170202sp_1486164169_ScottPruitt_zpskarc4yjo.jpg~original) (http://www.trbimg.com/img-58951089/turbine/la-nismedley-1486164169-snap-photo) Environmental Protection Agency Administrator-designate — Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt — testifies on Capitol Hill on January 18th. — Photograph: J. Scott Applewhite/Associated Press. PRESIDENT TRUMP's nominee to run the Environmental Protection Agency survived a rancorous committee vote on Thursday, putting him on the path to full Senate confirmation and a confrontation with California. Scott Pruitt, who oil and gas companies are betting will help them reassert dominance over the energy economy, has cast doubt on California's power to force automakers to build more efficient, cleaner-burning cars. But he soon may learn that battles like the one he appears poised to launch can be full of unpleasant surprises. The landmark environmental policy that the EPA nominee called into question — giving California unique authority to set tough rules for car and truck emissions — has proved resilient. So has California. Many such provocations by past administrations eager to flex their executive muscle have gone sideways. They have bogged previous White Houses down in years-long, politically bruising regulatory and legal disputes, during which the president who set out to teach an early lesson to assertive states ends up getting schooled by them. “Announcing that you are going to give your supporters what they want by picking off a few high-profile policies and rescinding them is really easy,” said Jody Freeman, a professor at Harvard Law who served as White House counselor for energy and climate change under the previous administration. “Doing it is much harder.” California is particularly well-prepared, after honing its skills fighting Washington during the presidency of George W. Bush. The target Pruitt is eyeing may be alluring for conservatives and climate skeptics, but it is well-fortified. The federal authority California was granted to set its own, tough standards for vehicle emissions dates back 50 years, to when it was written into the Clean Air Act. It since has become a foundation of California's fight to curb climate change. The Bush administration's resistance to letting California use the waiver to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles touched off a fierce court fight that ultimately strengthened California's position and could make the policy impossible to water down, short of an unlikely congressional rewrite of the iconic Clean Air Act. The California standard the Bush White House resisted ultimately got adopted for the entire nation when Barack Obama took office. The danger for California now is that the Trump administration looks inclined to move in a different direction, opting for federal rules weaker than those California wants. If it does, California almost certainly would invoke its waiver to keep the tougher standard in place, as would a dozen other states that traditionally have exercised their right under federal law to embrace California's rules. Roughly 40% of American cars are sold in California or in a state following its lead. So the new administration's power to ease the regulatory burden on automakers is severely limited unless it can force California to go along. Pruitt suggested he might just try. If he does, the clash will be monumental. Pressed multiple times during his confirmation hearing about whether he would challenge California's authority to keep its own rules, Pruitt demurred, saying that would be decided through an administrative process. “One would not want to presume the outcome,” Pruitt said. The performance moved former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to pillory the incoming EPA administrator. “My Republican colleague here is all about states' rights — except the right to clean our air & save lives from pollution,” Schwarzenegger posted on Facebook soon after writing, “CA has won this battle before and we will win again if necessary.” That is the prevailing view in Sacramento, where the seasoned environmental litigators at the state Justice Department already are mapping out strategy and former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder has been hired to confront the Trump administration on exactly this type of threat. Unwinding environmental policy is particularly tough. The long slog of hearings, scientific determinations and public review periods that went into creating the policy get reopened anew, leaving ample openings for environmentalists to dig in and slow everything down. Defenders of the California policy point to how the Bush administration ultimately was humbled by its effort to undermine it. And over the years, a string of aggressively anti-regulation Cabinet officials like Pruitt got tangled in their own efforts to dismantle similar high-profile environmental restrictions. A determined effort by the Bush administration to jettison the “Roadless Rule” that put 58 million acres of forestland off-limits to roads and logging failed after a protracted legal battle. That administration also abandoned its push to rollback new standards for arsenic in drinking water in the face of a public backlash. Some of Ronald Reagan's biggest political headaches early in his time in Washington stemmed from protracted environmental fights. “Under President Reagan, under George W. Bush, when Newt Gingrich was House speaker, there were similar efforts,” said David Goldston, director of government affairs at the Natural Resources Defense Council. “All those efforts foundered, and the basic laws were left unscathed. We think that will happen again.” Even so, California is in for a rough stretch. It will be investing considerable effort in fighting with Washington instead of working with it to advance mutual interests. State officials may need to adjust their path to fulfilling ambitious goals on climate change as the state’s longtime partnership with the EPA gives way to hostility. “It could certainly impede California's efforts,” said Richard Frank, an environmental law professor at UC Davis. At stake is the state's vision for building on the landmark climate action Schwarzenegger championed, which is expected to successfully bring California's emissions down to the levels they were at in 1990 within the next three years. A new state law aims for an additional 40% cut on top of that by 2030. Stringent fuel-efficiency standards are essential to reaching that goal. Putting more zero-emission vehicles on the roads is also a key part of the plan, and California may need EPA cooperation to do it. Environmentalists are concerned that the state's current incentive program isn't strong enough to reach its target of 4.2 million electric, hydrogen-powered and plug-in hybrid cars in the state by 2030. Right now, there are 265,000. But changing the program likely would require the federal government's blessing, and that now looks unlikely. “Because of the hostility of the Trump administration, none of us think it's a good time to submit a waiver request,” said Bill Magavern, policy director for the Los Angeles-based Coalition for Clean Air. But while California may be losing a potent ally in Washington, it is gaining others around the world. Auto industry analysts say increasing appetite for zero-emissions vehicles in other countries will keep pressure on automakers to build and improve them, even if Washington doesn't. And manufacturers are not likely to retreat from their plans to aggressively market the vehicles over the next few years, the analysts say, after having invested so heavily in them at the behest of state and federal regulators. The open question is whether they keep it up over the long run. “If there is no longer the policy pressure to make these vehicles, what will happen in five years when it is time to enter a new cycle of models?” said Alejandro Zamorano, an analyst at Bloomberg New Energy Finance. “Will there be less available in California? Even if there is demand, will you be able to buy them?” That ultimately may depend on how successful the state is at standing its ground with Trump’s EPA. • Evan Halper writes about a broad range of policy issues out of Washington D.C., with particular emphasis on how Washington regulates, agitates and very often miscalculates in its dealings with California. Before heading east, he was the Los Angeles Times bureau chief in Sacramento, where he spent a decade untangling California's epic budget mess and political dysfunction. • Chris Megerian has been covering the presidential race for the Los Angeles Times. He is based in Sacramento, where he has written about Governor Jerry Brown, the state budget and climate change policies. Before joining the newspaper in January 2012, he worked for the Star-Ledger in New Jersey for three years, covering politics and law enforcement. He is a graduate of Emory University in Atlanta. __________________________________________________________________________ • EDITORIAL: Putting Scott Pruitt in charge of the EPA risks irreversible damage to the planet (http://www.latimes.com/opinion/editorials/la-ed-trump-pruitt-epa-senate-20170204-story.html) • GOP senators bypass Democrats to move Trump EPA pick ahead (http://www.latimes.com/politics/washington/la-na-essential-washington-updates-gop-senators-move-trump-epa-pick-ahead-1486051913-htmlstory.html) http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-trump-california-environment-20170202-story.html (http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-trump-california-environment-20170202-story.html) Title: Re: “Civilised” California versus the “barbaric” Trump regime… Post by: Im2Sexy4MyPants on February 05, 2017, 08:33:06 pm like obama trump has a pen
California's fight to curb climate change is a racket all he needs to do is withhold their federal funding it will stop the freeloaders bludging off the us taxpayers Title: Re: “Civilised” California versus the “barbaric” Trump regime… Post by: Kiwithrottlejockey on February 05, 2017, 08:39:56 pm Shit-for-brains white-trash Trump supporters are free to CHOOSE to stay the fuck out of California if they don't like Californian laws. Title: Re: “Civilised” California versus the “barbaric” Trump regime… Post by: Im2Sexy4MyPants on February 05, 2017, 08:51:07 pm so you're keeping away from california good job Title: Re: “Civilised” California versus the “barbaric” Trump regime… Post by: Kiwithrottlejockey on February 09, 2017, 01:27:50 pm from the Los Angeles Times.... California is, like, totally out of control — just the way we like it By ROBIN ABCARIAN | 3:00AM - Wednesday, February 08, 2017 (http://i378.photobucket.com/albums/oo227/Kiwithrottlejockey/Tribune%20Images/latimes_20170208lach_1486554316_LosAngelesCityHall_zpsjjqd3nun.jpg~original) (http://www.trbimg.com/img-589b048c/turbine/la-brdelossantos-1486554316-snap-photo) Women's March participants in front of Los Angeles City Hall on January 21st. — Photograph: Irfan Khan/Los Angeles Times. ON SATURDAY, using his favorite 140-character medium, President Trump insulted the federal jurist who blocked his immigration order aimed at Muslim travelers, dismissing Judge James L. Robart as a “so-called judge.” Democratic U.S. Representative. Adam B. Schiff of Burbank, also on Twitter, responded tartly: “This ‘so-called’ judge was nominated by a ‘so-called’ President & was confirmed by the ‘so-called’ Senate. Read the ‘so-called’ Constitution.” He was retweeted 43,000 times, a Trump-like rate, even more remarkable when you realize that Schiff has only 55,000 followers to Trump's 24 million. On Sunday, in an interview that aired before the Super Bowl, Trump told Bill O'Reilly of Fox News that a proposed California law (http://www.latimes.com/local/abcarian/la-me-abcarian-milo-20170115-story.html) that would prohibit state and local police agencies from helping federal authorities deport immigrants who are here illegally is “ridiculous.” “California is, in many ways, out of control, as you know,” Trump said. “If we have to, we'll defund. We give tremendous amounts of money to California.” (My colleague George Skelton writes (http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-pol-sac-donald-trump-federal-dollars-california-20170206-story.html) that California stands to lose very little money if Trump decides to play hardball.) Again, Schiff responded on Twitter: “We believe in dreamers, climate change and healthcare for all. We build futures, not walls. We are Californians. We are #ProudlyOutOfControl (https://twitter.com/hashtag/Proudlyoutofcontrol).” “I think what he doesn't realize is that for California, being called out by Trump is a badge of honor,” Schiff told me on Monday. “With every attack, we are likely to steel our resistance to what he wants to do.” Schiff is a mild-mannered former federal prosecutor who was elected to Congress in 2000 by voters in what had been a traditionally Republican district. He is a calm, erudite Harvard Law School grad who is the ranking member on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, which oversees the departments of Defense, Homeland Security, State and Energy. At this strange moment when Russia's election meddling may have changed the course of American history, Schiff is a sought-after guest on cable news shows. As low-key as he seems on TV, the Twitterfication of American politics, wrought almost entirely by Trump, has changed him. He has become a master of snark. “I certainly have taken off the gloves more than my usual persona,” Schiff said. “The extremity of this president's views, and his disregard for separation of powers, and the way he is willing to bully people infuriates and alarms me and causes me to want to push back hard.” Indeed, after Trump announced during Monday on Twitter that, henceforth, “Any negative polls are fake news,” Schiff responded: “Trump attacks NYT, SNL, negative polls, allies & federal judges. But lets Putin get away with murder. Literally. In Ukraine. Aleppo. Moscow.” Unprecedented times call for unprecedented tweets. THE #ProudlyOutOfControl (https://twitter.com/hashtag/Proudlyoutofcontrol) movement is in full swing, all over the state — in Sacramento, Silicon Valley, Hollywood and even in unexpected places like Roseville, where a town hall meeting called Saturday by Republican U.S. Representative Tom McClintock grew heated after hundreds of protesters vocally, but nonviolently, denounced McClintock's support for Trump's policies. In Sacramento, Governor Jerry Brown began pushing back well before Trump was even inaugurated. In December, he addressed scientists fearful that Trump would end NASA's climate research. “If Trump turns off the satellites,” Brown thundered (http://www.mercurynews.com/2017/01/24/jerry-brown-to-deliver-californias-state-of-the-state-address-tuesday), “California will launch its own damn satellites.” The day after the election, Democrats Kevin de Leon, president pro tempore of the state Senate, and Anthony Rendon, speaker of the Assembly, put out an anguished but defiant statement (http://www.latimes.com/nation/politics/trailguide/la-na-election-aftermath-updates-trail-california-s-legislative-leaders-feel-1478722845-htmlstory.html), in English and Spanish. “Today,” it began, “we woke up feeling like strangers in a foreign land.” Then they hired former U.S. Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. and his law firm to help the state do battle against the Trump administration. On Monday, California joined with 15 states to file a brief supporting a Washington state lawsuit that argues Trump's immigration order is unconstitutional. Silicon Valley, whose leaders had that awkward photo op with Trump in New York before the inauguration, has joined the resistance. Twitter, Google, Apple and Uber are among the nearly 100 big technology companies who also filed a friend-of-the-court brief (http://apps.washingtonpost.com/g/documents/business/amicus-brief-by-tech-companies/2322) in support of the Washington lawsuit against the travel ban. The brief said the travel ban inflicted “significant harm on American business, innovation and growth.” In the Golden State, which had an ally in the White House for eight years, pushing back is the new normal. “California will be a hotbed of activism against this president's policies,” Schiff said. “He will find real limits to what he can do to punish a state that doesn't agree with him. And yes, I am concerned. He is a vindictive personality.” On Tuesday, as if to prove the point, Trump offered to damage a Texas lawmaker who thinks police should not be able to seize the money and property of people merely suspected, but not convicted, of committing crimes. “Do you want to give his name?” Trump asked a group of sheriffs at the White House. “We'll destroy his career.” The sheriffs thought that was just hilarious. SHORTLY BEFORE I spoke with Schiff, Trump had announced at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Florida — headquarters of both the U.S. Central Command and U.S. Special Operations Command — that “the very, very dishonest press” doesn't report terrorist attacks. “He needs to be constantly called out on it,” said Schiff in response. “We can't get to a place where we accept the president has no regard for the truth.” I wondered whether, at some point, Trump's disregard for the truth may simply wear down the opposition. “He is totally exhausting,” Schiff said. “But I think rather than wear us down, his shtick is going to grow old, and maybe there are signs that it already is. He already has the lowest approval rating of a new president in modern history, in record time.” What about Schiff's Republican colleagues? Are there any cracks in their facade of support for Trump? “Initially, the House Republicans were quite giddy,” Schiff said. “They had a Republican president when they didn't expect one and saw the chance to get all these things dangling in front of them.” But he thinks they are now sinking into a kind of gloom. It's clear there are going to be big fights about what could replace the Affordable Care Act. In four of the most conservative California counties — Fresno, Tulare, Kings and Kern — about 330,000 people are newly insured, which puts pressure (http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-hernandez-trump-obamacare-california-20170126-story.html) on high-profile ACA opponents like House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy of Bakersfield. “I think they are still hoping to get what they can before the president starts fighting with them about things like how soon they can reasonably repeal the ACA,” Schiff said. “They know a fight is coming, and they want to get as much as they can before he starts tweeting hate tweets at them.” You know it's coming. #BraceYourselves (https://twitter.com/hashtag/braceyourselves). • Robin Abcarian is a columnist at the Los Angeles Times. Focusing mostly on California culture, news and politics, she roams the Golden State, reporting stories that help readers understand what makes this place unique. Over the past year, she has devoted many columns to helping readers understand the complex issues they would have to consider as they made up their minds about whether to legalize cannabis for adult recreational use. Abcarian has held many positions at the L.A. Times. She covered the 2004, 2008 and 2012 presidential campaigns full time, and wrote occasionally about the 2016 campaign. As a culture writer for the paper's Calendar (http://www.latimes.com/entertainment) section, she has covered the Oscars, the Emmys and the Sundance Film Festival. For most of the 1990s, she was a columnist for the L.A. Times' feature section, before becoming its editor in 2003. __________________________________________________________________________ Related stories: • South of the border, Mexicans are puzzled by Trump's antagonism (http://www.latimes.com/local/abcarian/la-me-abcarian-baja-trump-20170205-story.html) • Those pink hats, that vulgar word: Now a rallying cry against Trump (http://www.latimes.com/local/abcarian/la-me-abcarian-pussy-hats-20170125-story.html) • Breitbart provocateur Milo shouted down at UC Davis, but gets last word (http://www.latimes.com/local/abcarian/la-me-abcarian-milo-20170115-story.html) http://www.latimes.com/local/abcarian/la-me-abcarian-trump-california-20170208-story.html (http://www.latimes.com/local/abcarian/la-me-abcarian-trump-california-20170208-story.html) Title: Re: “Civilised” California versus the “barbaric” Trump regime… Post by: Kiwithrottlejockey on February 10, 2017, 08:43:20 am from the Los Angeles Times.... West Coast states form a wall against Trump's reactionary agenda By DAVID HORSEY | 5:00AM PST - Thursday, February 09, 2017 (http://i378.photobucket.com/albums/oo227/Kiwithrottlejockey/David%20Horsey/latimes_20170209dh_1486619014_zpseatijwo4.jpg~original) (http://www.trbimg.com/img-589c0144/turbine/la-dhorsey-1486619014-snap-photo) I WENT TO an inaugural ball a few weeks ago — the one in Washington state, not the one in Washington, D.C. — and got a good sense of the official resistance that is rising on the West Coast against the policies of the new Trump administration. Jay Inslee celebrated the advent of his second term as governor of the Evergreen State on the evening of January 11th, and I was there for personal reasons. Inslee and I were in the same high school graduating class in Seattle, as were both our wives. In fact, I've known the state's first lady, Trudi Inslee, since sixth grade, so this was a friends and family event. Somewhere near midnight, after the big party was over, I was hanging out with Inslee in the kitchen at the governor's mansion. I asked him what he thought of the decision by California's legislative leaders to hire President Obama's former attorney general, Eric Holder, to advise them on ways to fight the Trump administration in court. Inslee indicated he was all for resistance. He said he was already conferring with “the two Browns” — Oregon Governor Kate Brown and California Governor Jerry Brown — to co-ordinate efforts. Now, that resistance has come to fruition in the lawsuit brought by Washington state to block Trump's travel ban aimed at immigrants and refugees from seven predominantly Muslim countries. Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson has been all over cable news talking about what, so far, has been a successful effort. On Tuesday, a three-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals heard arguments on the dispute. However the court rules, the case is expected to go on to the U.S. Supreme Court. “This demonstrates the importance of governors and states in the four-year battle to preserve the fundamental values of this country,” Inslee told The Washington Post (https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2017/02/06/governor-who-blocked-muslim-ban-tells-trump-this-is-what-the-resistance-looks-like). “The nation needs checks against a president who's prone to rogue behavior, and governors will assume a more important place in the democratic system.” West Coast governors have made it clear they intend to oppose President Trump on a full range of issues — climate change, energy, healthcare, same-sex marriage, immigration and more. Oregon is officially a “sanctuary state” and Kate Brown, speaking about the immigration ban, said, “I will uphold the civil and human rights of all who call Oregon home.” She has been joined in that opposition by all but one of the members of Oregon's congressional delegation. California's Governor Brown has said his state will resist what he called the “miasma of nonsense” emanating from the Trump White House. Dealing seriously with the challenge of climate change has been a central focus throughout Brown's years as governor and, in a December speech before the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco, he declared his intention to push back against the climate change deniers who are ascendant with Trump's election. "We've got the scientists, we've got the lawyers, and we're ready to fight,” Brown said of his state. If the Trump administration shuts down NASA's climate research satellites, Brown said, “California will launch its own damn satellite.” Government officials in the three states are getting backing from many of the major companies that fuel the West Coast economy. Forbes magazine identifies 126 tech companies that have signed on to Washington state's brief against the travel ban, and most on the list are based in cities stretching from Los Angeles to Seattle, including SpaceX, Tesla, Apple, Google, Airbnb, Uber and Microsoft. Seattle-based Amazon filed a separate declaration of support. Adidas, the German company whose U.S. headquarters is in Portland, announced opposition to the ban, as did the chief executives of Oregon-based Nike and one of Oregon's largest employers, Intel. One out of every eight Americans lives in California, now an estimated 39 million people. Add in the 7 million-plus in Washington and Oregon's 4 million, and you are talking about a lot of voters. Californians pay more federal taxes to the federal government than any other state and, per capita, get far less back in federal support than many other states. Trump has threatened to “defund” California if the state gets too ornery. One wonders if California could defund the federal government in return. Whether such a thing is possible, it is clear that Trump, the man who wants to build a big wall on the border, is running into a massive wall himself. It is called the West Coast. http://www.latimes.com/opinion/topoftheticket/la-na-tt-west-coast-wall-20170208-story.html (http://www.latimes.com/opinion/topoftheticket/la-na-tt-west-coast-wall-20170208-story.html) Title: Re: “Civilised” California versus the “barbaric” Trump regime… Post by: Im2Sexy4MyPants on February 14, 2017, 09:07:57 am (https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C4fi4v4UcAA8DCP.jpg)
Title: Re: “Civilised” California versus the “barbaric” Trump regime… Post by: Kiwithrottlejockey on February 19, 2017, 10:46:25 pm from The Washington Post.... ‘California is a nation, not a state’: A fringe movement wants a break from the U.S. Bolstered by the election of President Trump, the group Yes California is seeking the 585,407 signatures necessary to place a secessionist question on the 2018 ballot. Its goal is to have California become its own country, separate and apart from the United States. By KATIE ZEZIMA | 5:58PM EST - Saturday, February 18, 2017 (http://i378.photobucket.com/albums/oo227/Kiwithrottlejockey/Washington%20Post%20pix/20170218cn_CaliforniaNation1_zpsqiqmhbkc.jpg~original) (https://img.washingtonpost.com/rf/image_2500w/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2017/02/17/National-Enterprise/Images/CASucessionists_011.jpg) Karen Sherman holds group meetings for Yes California at the gay dive bar she owns in San Diego. — Photograph: Sandy Huffaker/The Washington Post. SAN FRANCISCO — About 15 people huddled in a luxury apartment building, munching on danishes as they plotted out their plan to have California secede from the United States. “I pledge allegiance, to the flag, of an independent California,” Geoff Lewis said as he stood in a glass-walled conference room adorned with California's grizzly-bear flag and a sign reading “California is a nation, not a state.” Sweaty onlookers from the gym across the hall peered in curiously. Bolstered by the election of President Trump, the group, Yes California, is collecting the 585,407 signatures necessary to place a secessionist question on the 2018 ballot. Its goal is to have California become its own country, separate and apart from the United States. The group is advertising at protests and hosting meet-ups throughout California. Its leaders say the organization has ballooned to 53 chapters, each of which has meetings like the one here to plot out strategy and recruit volunteers. “Basically, what we're witnessing is the birth of a nation,” said Tim Vollmer, 57, an academic consultant from San Francisco. “We can lead what's left of the free world.” Their recruiting pitch goes something like this: California — the most populous state, with nearly 40 million residents — subsidizes other states at a loss, is burdened by a national trade system, doesn't get a fair say in presidential elections, is diverse and disagrees with much of the rest of the country on immigration, is far ahead of other states on environmental policy and, for the most part, is diametrically opposed to Trump's positions. Therefore, the argument goes, conditions are perfect for the Golden State to secede. (http://i378.photobucket.com/albums/oo227/Kiwithrottlejockey/Washington%20Post%20pix/20170218cn_CaliforniaNation2_zpsl6ovl9jo.jpg~original) (https://img.washingtonpost.com/rf/image_2500w/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2017/02/17/National-Enterprise/Images/CASucessionists_010.jpg) T-shirts in support of Yes California at a meeting on the secessionist movement at the Hole in the Wall bar in San Diego. — Photograph: Sandy Huffaker/The Washington Post. Yes California primarily advertises through its Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/yes.california), which has about 39,000 likes and about the same number of followers; a graphic reads “divorce due to irreconcilable differences,” with a split, jagged heart depicting California on one side and the rest of the country on the other. “California is different from America,” said Marcus Ruiz Evans, one of the movement's co-founders, as he sat on the patio of a Starbucks in Fresno. “California is hated. It's not liked. It's seen as weird.” Evans published a 540-page tome in 2012 on why California should secede and is using his indefatigable ability to talk about it to spread that message as far as possible, mostly through Facebook and media appearances. He has crusaded for California independence for years — he also protested the Obama administration — and said he thinks of himself “as Galileo, Copernicus,” a man whose theories were so revolutionary that they were dismissed until proved true. Evans is the main point of contact for the chapter leaders, and he handed out purple Yes California T-shirts to attendees of the meeting here. He would occasionally interject with a long, impassioned speech about the importance of California independence or to let the group know it was partnering with an environmentally friendly printer in Culver City. Clare Hedin, a musician and sound healer, ticked through a set of slides to help people set up their own chapters. Yes California T-shirts should be plentiful and handed out to all attendees (wearing them in meetings is encouraged). A sense of community should be fostered, and people should be asked why they came to the meeting and how they can contribute so they feel personally invested. Each chapter leader should take a different tack; San Franciscans tend to be more touchy-feely than San Diegans, for example. They debated how California should handle the military. Maybe their new nation should be neutral, such as Switzerland, they mulled. Where should it get its water? Most of it, they reasoned, comes from the Sierra Nevada and the Colorado River, which are in the state. California, Evans said, is the world's sixth-largest economy and already has money, so that will be fine. The secessionists likened their cause to the legalization of marijuana (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/11/08/medical-marijuana-sails-to-victory-in-florida) and same-sex marriage (https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/gay-marriage-and-other-major-rulings-at-the-supreme-court/2015/06/25/ef75a120-1b6d-11e5-bd7f-4611a60dd8e5_story.html): things that seemed implausible a decade ago but are now the law here. (http://i378.photobucket.com/albums/oo227/Kiwithrottlejockey/Washington%20Post%20pix/20170218cn_CaliforniaNation3_zps0qeygy2u.jpg~original) (https://img.washingtonpost.com/rf/image_2500w/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2017/02/17/National-Enterprise/Images/Marcus_Ruiz_Evans_46.jpg) “California is different from America,” says Marcus Ruiz Evans of the Yes California campaign. “California is hated. It's not liked. It's seen as weird.” Evans has been fighting for secession for years, and finally feels validated by the anti-Trump movement that has reignited the move to secede. — Photograph: Derek Lapsley/The Washington Post. Yes California doesn't have any policy positions. Its members don't know how the new nation's government would be set up. The group's goal is to first have the state secede and then figure out how it should run. “People are asking about the new nation's vaccine policy, and I'm asking, ‘Are you high?’” said Karen Sherman, who holds group meetings at the gay dive bar she owns in San Diego. “We want to explore independence, not create a new country around vaccines.” The group's biggest effort is focused on collecting signatures for the initiative. It will ask voters if they want to repeal a section of the state constitution declaring that California is an “inseparable part of the United States of America” and hold a referendum on independence on March 5th, 2019. The group started collecting signatures in late January and has six months to complete the task. For supporters, Trump's election, the desire of some Californians to lead the resistance to his presidency and the group's growing volunteer base has given the group a semblance of credibility it has long desired. The group points to Silicon Valley billionaires — including Peter Thiel, who backs Trump and recently said he supports secession, and Shervin Pishevar, who tweeted after the election that he would fund a campaign for California to become its own nation. The state legislature hired former Obama attorney general Eric H. Holder Jr. to battle the Trump administration (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2017/01/04/california-lawmakers-bring-eric-holder-in-as-they-prepare-to-battle-trump-administration) on issues such as immigration. Governor Jerry Brown (Democrat) vowed that California will continue to push measures to combat climate change and ensure Californians have health insurance coverage (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2017/01/24/in-a-fiery-speech-california-gov-jerry-brown-defends-climate-action-and-attacks-alternative-facts) regardless of national policy decisions. San Francisco sued the Trump administration over sanctuary cities. But these and other elected officials have not endorsed secession. Some, including Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, said they oppose it. “Ballot measures are very tough to pass when they're understandable and you have a relative idea what the consequences are,” said Bill Carrick, Garcetti's political consultant. “Something like this is a rabbit pulled out of a hat; there's not a chance in the world it will pass.” (http://i378.photobucket.com/albums/oo227/Kiwithrottlejockey/Washington%20Post%20pix/20170218cn_CaliforniaNation4_zpskgdlcxoa.jpg~original) (https://img.washingtonpost.com/rf/image_2500w/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2017/02/17/National-Enterprise/Images/CASucessionists_008.jpg) Michael Boightwood speaks during a California secession meeting in San Diego. — Photograph: Sandy Huffaker/The Washington Post. Sue Hirsch, 46, said she is “ashamed to be an American” in the wake of the presidential election. “I wanted to be here [at the meeting] to be no longer American, but Californian,” said Hirsch, who voted for Hillary Clinton and said she has at least seven professions, including psychic, Uber driver and hypno-transformative masseuse. “I hate what the rest of America has become.” Evans and his co-founder, Louis Marinelli, are unlikely saviors of the left. Both men have been registered Republicans. Evans is a former conservative radio host and Marinelli once staunchly opposed same-sex marriage. (He had a change of heart in 2011, embarking on a nationwide tour to persuade conservatives (http://www.villagevoice.com/news/louis-marinelli-national-organization-for-marriage-defector-on-leaving-the-dark-side-6683566) to support same-sex unions.) Marinelli — a Buffalo native who said he so prefers California that he doesn't like visiting his mother in New York — now lives in Yekaterinburg, Russia. He said he voted for Trump because he thought it would be good for the California secessionist cause. He said in an interview that he wants to return to San Diego but is working there while his Russian-born wife sorts out visa issues in the United States. His wife's hurdles with the U.S. immigration system and frustration with gridlock in Washington led him to embrace secession. He says he also was inspired by the Scottish secessionist movement. But Yes California has had to fend off a torrent of questions about Russian influence. In September, Marinelli represented the group at a Moscow conference hosted by the Anti-Globalization Movement of Russia; 30 percent of conference funding came from the Russian government, but none went to Yes California, according to its organizer. Yes California opened a “cultural center” (http://www.yescalifornia.org/statement_opening_culture_center_in_moscow) at the movement's Moscow headquarters in December. Marinelli has compared California independence to the annexation of Crimea, and Yes California has received a flurry of news coverage from the government-funded RT. (http://i378.photobucket.com/albums/oo227/Kiwithrottlejockey/Washington%20Post%20pix/20170218cn_CaliforniaNation5_zpsfpnvm8oy.jpg~original) (https://img.washingtonpost.com/rf/image_2500w/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2017/02/17/National-Enterprise/Images/CASucessionists_012.jpg) Literature given out during a meeting for the Yes California and the California Sucessionist movement. — Photograph: Sandy Huffaker/The Washington Post. Marinelli said Yes California is not affiliated in any way with the Russian government. “We don't have any communication with or contact with or receive any support of any kind from the Russian government or any Russian government officials,” he said, noting that people have a right to be concerned about allegations of Russian ties. But he also said that false conspiracy theories swirl around the group, including that it allegedly wants California to join Mexico or that it is funded by billionaire liberal donor George Soros. On the other hand, he said, “if people think that our movement is supported by the Russian government, then maybe they'll think that this is more realistically going to happen.” Evans is no fan of Trump, believing he is racist, anti-immigrant and sexist. He said Yes California is committed to diversity, inclusion and a peaceful, legal secession. He spends most of his days on the phone, calling, emailing and texting people about the group, whose address is a Postal Annex store in a Fresno strip mall. Yes California has registered with the California Secretary of State's office but has not yet reported contributions. Marinelli wants to hire a professional fundraiser and paid staff. At the San Francisco meet-up, some were more optimistic than others about the idea of the referendum actually passing. Most acknowledged the chances were slim. But they're willing to try, as many times as it takes. “Our whole point is not to get this initiative passed,” Evans said. “It's to get it in the minds of 40 million people.” • Julie Tate and Adam Taylor contributed to this report. • Katie Zezima is a national political correspondent who covered the 2016 presidential election for The Washington Post. She previously served as a White House correspondent for The Post. __________________________________________________________________________ Related stories: • San Francisco sues Trump over order on sanctuary cities (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2017/01/31/san-francisco-sues-trump-over-order-on-sanctuary-cities) • While the country shifts to the right, California keeps moving left (https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/while-the-country-shifts-to-the-right-california-continues-to-move-left/2016/11/10/1c6cc602-a6d9-11e6-ba59-a7d93165c6d4_story.html) https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/california-is-a-nation-not-a-state-a-fringe-movement-wants-a-break-from-the-us/2017/02/18/ed85671c-f567-11e6-8d72-263470bf0401_story.html (https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/california-is-a-nation-not-a-state-a-fringe-movement-wants-a-break-from-the-us/2017/02/18/ed85671c-f567-11e6-8d72-263470bf0401_story.html) Title: Re: “Civilised” California versus the “barbaric” Trump regime… Post by: Kiwithrottlejockey on March 12, 2017, 06:10:08 pm from the Los Angeles Times.... Representatives Issa and Hunter confronted by protesters at separate town halls By TERI FIGUEROA and JOSHUA STEWART | 2:45PM PST - Saturday, March 11, 2017 (http://i378.photobucket.com/albums/oo227/Kiwithrottlejockey/Tribune%20Images/latimes_20170311di_1489268963_DarrellIssa_zpsiq9hq7ec.jpg~original) (http://www.trbimg.com/img-58c47092/turbine/la-1489268963-h96glo00to-snap-photo) Representative Darrell Issa (Republican-Vista) speaks at a town hall meeting to discuss healthcare reform in Oceanside on Saturday. — Photograph: Hayne Palmour IV/The San Diego Union-Tribune/Associated Press. CONGRESSMEN Darrell Issa (http://www.latimes.com/topic/politics-government/government/darrell-issa-PEPLT003178-topic.html) and Duncan Hunter (http://www.latimes.com/topic/politics-government/government/duncan-hunter-PEPLT003112-topic.html) were confronted by rowdy protesters Saturday at separate back-to-back town hall meetings. It was the first time the North County Republicans held forums with their constituents since Donald Trump (http://www.latimes.com/topic/politics-government/donald-trump-PEBSL000163-topic.html) became president, and in San Diego, like many parts of the country, the congressmen were met by opponents of the new administration’s agenda. Healthcare was a major topic of concern at both town halls. In Oceanside, before taking the stage in front of a crowd of 500 constituents, Issa spoke with a few people, including a 10-year-old Orange County boy who asked whether Issa would guarantee that he would have affordable healthcare. Issa told the boy he'd asked the question “exactly” the right way, noting that the child used the word “affordable”. He promised healthcare would be a topic of discussion at future town halls. Outside the auditorium where Issa spoke, 100-plus people waved signs and chanted, “This is what democracy looks like.” Most were concerned about a proposal to replace the Affordable Care Act (http://www.latimes.com/topic/health/healthcare/healthcare-policies-laws/affordable-care-act-EVGAP00039-topic.html) and other Trump administration policies. Inside the sometimes raucous meeting, when Issa referred to the healthcare act as “Obamacare”, the crowd jeered and some yelled its official name. “It's not affordable,” Issa responded. At one point, when Issa referenced the situation with Russia, in which the country interfered in last year's elections, some in the audience chanted, “Do your job!” The first town hall ran about an hour. The second, with Hunter, was longer and noisier. Healthcare was still the common thread during the 90-minute discussion in Ramona, in which attendees sometimes shouted at each other and exchanged insults. Crowd estimates ranged from 300 to 400 at the Ramona Mainstage, and hundreds more lined up outside, most of whom were protesting Hunter as well as Trump. The Sheriff's Department estimated about 1,000 people total at the event. Hunter said he isn't completely satisfied with the new American Health Care Act, which was introduced earlier in the week. But he said generally supports the replacement plan because he thinks it will make insurance cheaper, and therefore, more accessible, than the Affordable Care Act. “We know it is going to disrupt the market,” Hunter said. “I don't believe in guaranteed healthcare. I believe in guaranteed access to healthcare that people can afford.” But he sometimes antagonized the crowd. When people booed one of Trump's policies, Hunter sang a line from Queen's hit “We are the Champions” in response. Answering a question from the galley, he said he would not support an independent investigation into Russian interference in last year's elections, but he said he does back various investigations by Congress. The intelligence community, Hunter said, is filled with “seditious Obama folks” who “hate Donald Trump as much as you do” and are trying to undermine the administration. “I would think you would be for freedom and liberty, not for an Orwellian government, which is what we have right now,” he said. He said he believes that Trump's emails and communications were intercepted when Obama was in office, but when questioned by a reporter, he later said he has no proof of that claim. In a tweet earlier this month, Trump said Obama had wiretapped his phone. The White House has not provided any explanation or support for the claim, which Obama and his intelligence officials have denied. Sheriff's Deputy Jerry Hartman said an extra 14 deputies were brought in to help manage the crowd and traffic, but there were no arrests, despite some heated tempers. The congressman's father, former Rep. Duncan Hunter, spoke with people waiting outside. He said the protesters were upset about the outcome of the democratic process and weren't being fair to the new administration. “You're seeing folks who were on the losing side who have decided to protest rather than give the president a chance,” he said. “To some degree, they are disrespecting democracy.” A push for the town halls has been brewing. Every Tuesday for the last few months, a couple of hundred people have gathered outside Issa's Vista office, demanding the congressman meet with them. Less intense crowds have appeared outside Hunter's offices in Temecula and El Cajon. About two weeks ago, Issa surprised the protesters by making an appearance outside his office. For about 90 minutes, he took questions from the crowd, which included about six dozen Trump supporters. The unexpected event came hours before a town hall organized by activists who wanted Issa to address their concerns about promised changes to the Affordable Care Act. Issa was invited but did not attend that event, citing a scheduling conflict. __________________________________________________________________________ Related story: • Loud and angry, protesters turn congressional town halls into must-see political TV (http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-townhalls-voter-mood-20170222-story.html) http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-ca-pol-issa-hunter-townhalls-20170311-story.html (http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-ca-pol-issa-hunter-townhalls-20170311-story.html) Title: Re: “Civilised” California versus the “barbaric” Trump regime… Post by: Kiwithrottlejockey on March 26, 2017, 12:10:44 am from the Los Angeles Times.... California's vow to reduce auto pollution may be setting up a full-out war with Trump From smog to greenhouse gases, state regulators refuse to yield as legal battles loom. By CHRIS MEGERIAN - reporting from Riverside | Friday, March 24, 2017 (http://i378.photobucket.com/albums/oo227/Kiwithrottlejockey/Tribune%20Images/latimes_20170324a_VehicleEmissions001_zps6pk6920j.jpg~original) (http://www.trbimg.com/img-58d4689b/turbine/la-pol-sac-vehicle-emissions-photos-2017-001) August 30th, 1990: An aerial view of the downtown Los Angeles skyline. — Photograph: Robert Durell/Los Angeles Times. WIELDING the same authority created decades ago to fight smog, California regulators on Friday moved forward with tough new pollution-reduction requirements for automakers selling cars in the state. The rules set escalating targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions from 2022 through 2025, and officials are planning tougher steps after that. There's also a requirement for automakers to sell more zero-emission vehicles and plug-in hybrids in the state, with a goal of more than 1 million on the road by 2025. The decision to push ahead with cuts to greenhouse gas emissions came even as President Trump has begun rolling back federal rules intended to battle global warming over the next several years. California has a long history of pushing the envelope to reduce tailpipe pollution, and the latest move signals the state is prepared to do battle with Trump's White House. “We're going to press on,” Mary Nichols, California's top emissions regulator, said during a meeting of the Air Resources Board in Riverside. (http://i378.photobucket.com/albums/oo227/Kiwithrottlejockey/Tribune%20Images/latimes_20170324mn_1490302419_MaryNichols_zpseeoenqar.jpg~original) (http://www.trbimg.com/img-58d4357d/turbine/la-1490302419-99348hed13-snap-photo) Mary Nichols chairs the Air Resources Board meeting held in Riverside. — Photograph: Irfan Khan/Los Angeles Times. The state's rules on greenhouse gases were written in partnership with former President Obama (http://www.latimes.com/topic/politics-government/government/barack-obama-PEPLT007408-topic.html)'s administration, creating a single national standard for new vehicles. But with Trump in the White House and conservatives in charge of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (http://www.latimes.com/topic/environmental-issues/u.s.-environmental-protection-agency-ORGOV000048-topic.html), state and federal regulators have started drifting in separate directions. The divergence could reignite historic conflicts that once raged in Sacramento, Washington and Detroit. Automakers have chafed at the rules imposed by the Obama administration. However, they fear returning to an era where they needed to build two versions of their vehicles — a cleaner, more expensive one for sale in California and a standard model available everywhere else. “We should all be getting back to work on this,” John Bozzella, who advocates for international car companies at the Assn. of Global Automakers, said at Friday's hearing. Trump's Environmental Protection Agency has until next year to decide whether to loosen federal regulations (http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-trump-autos-20170315-story.html), which would require passenger cars to average about 54 miles per gallon by 2025, up from 36 miles per gallon today. (http://i378.photobucket.com/albums/oo227/Kiwithrottlejockey/Tribune%20Images/latimes_20170324a_VehicleEmissions013_zpsp9e0ddxj.jpg~original) (http://www.trbimg.com/img-58d468a2/turbine/la-pol-sac-vehicle-emissions-photos-2017-013) February 1953: City Hall, merely across the street, is dim as Marion E. Lent gropes her way to work. — Photograph: R.L. Oliver/Los Angeles Times. But California has the unique ability to set tougher rules than federal standards under a waiver program that recognizes the state's long struggle with pollution. In addition, a dozen other states have adopted California rules as their own, giving regulators here an outsize influence on the national marketplace. Over the years they've shown little hesitance about setting higher benchmarks for emissions, steps that often eventually become federal requirements. The rules approved Friday could force automakers to build more efficient engines, use increasingly lightweight materials and develop more electric vehicles. Ann Carlson, an environmental law professor at UCLA, said negotiations still could resolve disagreements and preserve a single national standard. And if they don't? “The other possibility is it's full-out war,” Carlson said. WAR over vehicle rules would not be new for California, where thick smog decades ago made tougher regulations a necessity. In Los Angeles, motorcycle riders wore gas masks and children were kept inside during school recess. “My eyes would sting. Sometimes you couldn't see a block,” said Tom Quinn, who was appointed to lead the Air Resources Board (http://documents.latimes.com/march-22-1976-quinn-uses-publicists-flair-transform-air-resources-board) when Governor Jerry Brown (http://www.latimes.com/topic/politics-government/jerry-brown-PEPLT007547-topic.html) took office for his first term in 1975. One of his fellow board members was Nichols, who returned to the agency in 2007 and remains in charge today (http://www.latimes.com/local/politics/la-me-pol-adv-mary-nichols-20141228-story.html). The board quickly ran into opposition from automakers, who said higher standards would be impossible to meet. Quinn remembers turning to Bob Sawyer, another board member and a mechanical engineering professor, during a break in a meeting. “I said, ‘Bob, what’s going to happen? They insist they can't sell cars’,” Quinn recalled. “Bob said, ‘They're lying’.” The board passed the rules, Quinn said, and “of course they sold cars.” (http://i378.photobucket.com/albums/oo227/Kiwithrottlejockey/Tribune%20Images/latimes_20170324c_VehicleEmissions015_zpsouvwq7po.jpg~original) (http://www.trbimg.com/img-58d58ef2/turbine/la-pol-sac-vehicle-emissions-photos-2017-015) September 13th, 1955: Buildings in Los Angeles Civic Center are barely visible in a picture looking east at 1st and Olive streets. — Photograph: John Malmin/Los Angeles Times. (http://i378.photobucket.com/albums/oo227/Kiwithrottlejockey/Tribune%20Images/latimes_20170324d_VehicleEmissions014_zpshkiiwmrg.jpg~original) (http://www.trbimg.com/img-58d46899/turbine/la-pol-sac-vehicle-emissions-photos-2017-014) September 14th, 1955: Motorcycle messenger Frank Stone uses a gas mask while making deliveries. This photo was published on Page One of the Los Angeles Times on September 15th, 1955. — Photograph: Los Angeles Times Archive/UCLA. (http://i378.photobucket.com/albums/oo227/Kiwithrottlejockey/Tribune%20Images/latimes_20170324e_VehicleEmissions003_zpshjn0jtkg.jpg~original) (http://www.trbimg.com/img-58d468a1/turbine/la-pol-sac-vehicle-emissions-photos-2017-003) December 19th, 1958: Downtown Los Angeles, seen from the top of the Angels Flight funicular in 1958, is shrouded in smog. — Photograph: Don Cormier/Los Angeles Times. (http://i378.photobucket.com/albums/oo227/Kiwithrottlejockey/Tribune%20Images/latimes_20170324f_VehicleEmissions004_zpskw6tisak.jpg~original) (http://www.trbimg.com/img-58d468a0/turbine/la-pol-sac-vehicle-emissions-photos-2017-004) November 12th, 1959: Visibility is limited on Broadway, looking south from First Street, during a smog attack in 1959. — Photograph: Edward Gamer/Los Angeles Times. Sometimes regulators clamped down on individual manufacturers, barring sales of certain cars or instituting financial penalties. Regulators issued a $328,400 fine, the largest at the time (http://documents.latimes.com/sept-2-1975-chrysler-pays-328400-fine-pollution-case), against Chrysler for violating smog rules. A company representative dropped off a check at Quinn's house on a weekend. The state's clout has only grown since then. An update to federal law in 1990 allowed other states to adopt California's higher standards; New York and Massachusetts are among the dozen that have taken that step. “California has set itself as an example, and other states are following behind,” said Michael Harley, an Irvine-based automotive analyst at Kelley Blue Book. “We don't have a ‘rogue state’ syndrome.” THE latest round of battles began in 2002, when California enacted the country's first rules (http://articles.latimes.com/2002/jul/23/local/me-global23) for greenhouse gases from tailpipes to fight global warming. Fran Pavley, the former lawmaker who wrote the legislation, recalled bitter opposition. “One person threatened to come over with a baseball bat,” she said of a threat to her office. “This got really, really heated.” Automakers sued the state, and President George W. Bush's administration rejected California's request for a waiver to move forward with the regulations, the only time such a request has been turned down. A potential legal battle dissipated, however, once Obama took office. His administration granted California's waiver and worked toward a single national policy (http://articles.latimes.com/2009/may/19/nation/na-emissions19) for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. High gas prices and political pressure to reduce the country's reliance on foreign oil — not to mention Obama's desire to address climate change — led to additional fuel efficiency regulations finalized in 2012 (http://articles.latimes.com/2012/aug/28/nation/la-na-nn-obama-fuel-economy-mileage-20120828). It was a period of relative harmony, but the circumstances that fostered co-operation and ambitious national regulations no longer exist. With gas prices lower, consumers have proved more interested (http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-california-auto-sales-20161128-story.html) in pickup trucks and sport utility vehicles than hybrids and electric cars. (http://i378.photobucket.com/albums/oo227/Kiwithrottlejockey/Tribune%20Images/latimes_20170324g_VehicleEmissions005_zpszg51s8vj.jpg~original) (http://www.trbimg.com/img-58d4689f/turbine/la-pol-sac-vehicle-emissions-photos-2017-005) Downtown Los Angeles' tallest buildings rise above a blanket of smog in October 1973. — Photograph: Fitzgerald Whitney/Los Angeles Times. (http://i378.photobucket.com/albums/oo227/Kiwithrottlejockey/Tribune%20Images/latimes_20170324h_VehicleEmissions002_zpspfu79nu9.jpg~original) (http://www.trbimg.com/img-58d468a2/turbine/la-pol-sac-vehicle-emissions-photos-2017-002) June 15th, 1993: The Los Angeles skyline as seen from the First Street bridge. — Photograph: Tammy Lechner/Los Angeles Times. Automakers argue that Obama improperly rushed to finalize the rules before he left office, and Trump does not share California's commitment to fighting climate change. The unraveling consensus on vehicle regulations has concerned advocates. “There's no reason for environmentalists, automakers and conservatives to risk a nuclear war over these rules, which will result in zero progress for all sides,” said Robbie Diamond, who leads Securing America's Future Energy, a group of business and former military leaders that wants less dependence on foreign oil. Now that California has recommitted itself to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, the next steps are up to Trump. If the administration's review leads to only slight changes, automakers might be able to balance California and federal regulations without much trouble. “They could just shuffle cars around,” Harley said, ensuring the mix of vehicles available for sale meet California's benchmarks. Consumers here already buy more electric cars and fewer pickup trucks than national averages. But there’s still the potential for a dramatic change, or even an unprecedented legal assault on California's cherished ability to set higher standards. Although automakers insisted they weren't calling that into question, Nichols expressed skepticism about their commitment because they asked Trump to review federal rules. “What were you thinking when you threw yourself upon the mercy of the Trump administration?” she said. At this point, state leaders seem unwilling to yield to any pressure on regulating emissions. “I don't like to say anything is nonnegotiable,” said Brown on Monday during a visit to Washington. But to fight climate change, he said, “we have to intensify, not fall back.” • L.A. Times staff writer Evan Halper contributed to this report. • Chris Megerian covered the 2016 presidential race for the Los Angeles Times. He is based in Sacramento, where he has written about Governor Jerry Brown, the state budget and climate change policies. Before joining the newspaper in January 2012, he worked for The Star-Ledger in New Jersey for three years, covering politics and law enforcement. He is a graduate of Emory University in Atlanta. __________________________________________________________________________ • PHOTOGRAPH GALLERY: Historical photos of pollution in California (http://www.latimes.com/local/la-pol-sac-vehicle-emissions-photos-2017-photogallery.html) • Trump wants to shelve fuel mileage rules, inviting a fight with California (http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-trump-autos-20170315-story.html) • Trump's EPA pick poised to survive Senate fight, but his brewing battle with California will be harder to win (http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-trump-california-environment-20170202-story.html) http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-pol-sac-california-vehicle-emissions-20170324-htmlstory.html (http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-pol-sac-california-vehicle-emissions-20170324-htmlstory.html) Title: Re: “Civilised” California versus the “barbaric” Trump regime… Post by: Kiwithrottlejockey on July 17, 2017, 10:11:52 pm from the Los Angeles Times.... As cap-and-trade evangelist, Governor Brown shows he's the most effective politician Sacramento has seen in a long time By GEORGE SKELTON | 12:05AM PDT - Monday, July 17, 2017 (http://www.trbimg.com/img-5967fef2/turbine/la-1499987694-45uxalt7n7-snap-image/900) (http://www.trbimg.com/img-5967fef2/turbine/la-1499987694-45uxalt7n7-snap-image) California Governor Jerry Brown testifies on Thursday before the Senate Environmental Quality Committee, arguing for his embattled cap-and-trade climate control legislation. — Photograph: Rich Pedroncelli/Associated Press. “HE'S single-minded like a bull,” said a close friend of Governor Jerry Brown (http://www.latimes.com/topic/politics-government/jerry-brown-PEPLT007547-topic.html). That was more than 42 years ago. Another Los Angeles Times reporter and I had tracked down friends and relatives of Brown, looking for some insight into the young man about to be inaugurated California governor for the first time. The single-minded bull description came from Frank Damrell, a former college roommate of Brown and a fellow Jesuit seminarian. He's now a retired U.S. district judge. The late Peter Finnegan, another longtime friend and fellow seminarian, said of Brown: “I don't think he's a mystic. But I sure as hell think he's got a spiritual dimension that you don't find in politicians.” Ironically, I had to cancel a luncheon with Damrell and some other old-timers last week because Brown simultaneously was doing his bull-spiritualist bit at a legislative committee hearing. It was too compelling to miss. Those old descriptions of Brown are as accurate today as they were in 1975. In fact, I've never seen Brown as animated, emotional and tenacious as he was before the state Senate Environmental Quality Committee, arguing for his embattled cap-and-trade climate control legislation (http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-pol-ca-governor-pushes-climate-change-deal-20170713-story.html). He resembled a cross between the Clint Eastwood character Walt Kowalski in “Gran Torino” — “Get off my lawn!” — and some street-corner preacher warning that the end is near. He's also the most effective politician Sacramento has seen in a very long time. “I do get a little excited because, you know, as we get older we have less patience,” the governor told the committee. “And I want to see this thing get done…. Whatever I've got to do, I'm going to do it.” “This is the most important vote of your life,” he continued, sounding a tad hyperbolic. “Unless you think I'm lying. And I was in the seminary for three years, studying to be a good searcher of the truth. And I'm telling you, this is the truth…. And the only way I can be wrong is … if I'm stupid and ignorant, and I'm not. I've been around this business a long time.” Brown's hands were flying, arms flailing. Critics might say he was ranting. I'll just call it shouting. Very rarely does a governor testify before a legislative committee. Never do I recall one sitting at the witness table for four hours — sermonizing, listening intently, writing notes and — presumably — taking names. “Climate change is real,” he warned. “It is a threat to organized human existence. Maybe not in my life. I'll be dead. What am I, 79? Do I have five years more? Do I have 10 years more, 15? I don't know, 20? I don't even know if I want that long.” Then he dramatically turned around and faced the packed audience, something legislative witnesses never do. “When I look out here,” he said, “a lot of you people are going to be alive. And you're going to be alive in a horrible situation. You're going to see mass migrations, vector diseases, forest fires, Southern California burning up. That's real, guys…. “So I'm not here about some cockamamie legacy that people talk about. This isn't for me. I’m going to be dead. It's for you. And it's damn real.” Brown fights global warming with religious zeal. But it doesn't seem plausible that he's not concerned about his legacy, his place in history. That's perfectly human and acceptable. The governor relishes his role as arguably America's leading voice against climate change. He was ceded the mantle by President Donald Trump (http://www.latimes.com/topic/politics-government/donald-trump-PEBSL000163-topic.html) when Trump pulled the U.S. out of the Paris climate accord. Trump “doesn't speak for the rest of America,” Brown declared to foreign allies. The governor will hold his own international climate summit in San Francisco next summer. Brown wants California to show the world how to reduce greenhouse gas emissions without ruining its economy. This state produces only 1% of the planet's emissions. So our cutbacks won't amount to a hill of beans. But we can create a successful model that could be copied everywhere and have a worldwide impact, the governor believes. That would be through the cap-and-trade program. But if Brown can't get his legislation passed, it would be an embarrassing step backward. Here's another huge motivation for Brown: The cap-and-trade program has been keeping his bullet train project on life support. It receives 25% of cap-and-trade revenue. So far, it has totaled $800 million. Cap and trade works this way: A cap is imposed on an industry's greenhouse gas emissions. But companies can trade for — buy — extra permits to pollute, either from the state or private investors. Caps are gradually lowered and emissions reduced. This will be a crucial week for the legislation. It cleared the Senate committee on a party-line vote. The governor will attempt to push it through both houses before lawmakers adjourn for summer vacation on Friday. There are two bills. AB-398 would extend cap and trade until 2030. It's slated to expire in 2020. AB-617 would tighten controls on air pollution. It's a close vote because Brown wants a two-thirds majority to guard against legal challenges. He's dealing, trying to entice Republicans. He has offered tax breaks for manufacturers and power companies, regulatory limits for oil refineries and repeal of a fire prevention fee hated by rural landowners. Environmentalists don't like it. Big business does. Republicans don't like Democrats. It's a vote-seller's market. The single-minded bull will need to use all his political skills. • George Skelton reported from Sacramento. • Political columnist George Skelton has covered government and politics for more than 50 years and for the Los Angeles Times since 1974. He has been a L.A. Times political writer and editor in Los Angeles, Sacramento bureau chief and White House correspondent. He has written a column on California politics, “Capitol Journal”, since 1993. Skelton is a Santa Barbara native, grew up in Ojai and received a journalism degree at San Jose State. http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-pol-sac-skelton-cap-trade-jerry-brown-20170717-story.html (http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-pol-sac-skelton-cap-trade-jerry-brown-20170717-story.html) Title: Re: “Civilised” California versus the “barbaric” Trump regime… Post by: Kiwithrottlejockey on July 19, 2017, 12:36:27 pm from the Los Angeles Times.... California Legislature extends state's cap-and-trade program in rare bipartisan effort to address climate change By MELANIE MASON and CHRIS MEGERIAN | 9:15PM PDT - Monday, July 17, 2017 (http://www.trbimg.com/img-596d8c91/turbine/la-pol-cristina-garcia-lorena-gonzalez-fletcher-20170717/900) (http://www.trbimg.com/img-596d8c91/turbine/la-pol-cristina-garcia-lorena-gonzalez-fletcher-20170717) Democratic Assemblywomen Cristina Garcia, of Bell Gardens, left, and Lorena Gonzalez-Fletcher, of San Diego, watch as the votes are posted for Garcia's climate change bill on Monday in Sacramento. — Photograph: Rich Pedroncelli/Associated Press. CALIFORNIA lawmakers voted on Monday evening to extend the state's premiere program on climate change, a victory for Governor Jerry Brown that included unprecedented Republican support for fighting global warming. In a break with party leaders and activists in California and Washington, eight Republicans joined with Democrats to continue the cap-and-trade program, which requires companies to buy permits to release greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. The legislation would keep the 5-year-old program operating until 2030, providing a key tool for meeting the state's ambitious goal for slashing emissions. Cap and trade also generates important revenue for building the bullet train (http://www.latimes.com/topic/transportation/railway-transportation/california-high-speed-rail-ORGOVV000384-topic.html) from Los Angeles to San Francisco, another priority for the governor. California's program is the only one of its kind in the U.S. and has been considered an international model for using financial pressure to prod industry to reduce emissions. Bipartisan support for the system comes as Republicans in Washington, including President Trump, have blocked, resisted or undermined national efforts to fight global warming. “California Republicans are different than national Republicans,” said Assembly Republican leader Chad Mayes (Republican-Yucca Valley), who pushed members of his caucus to work with Democrats on the issue. “Many of us believe that climate change is real, and that it's a responsibility we have to work to address it.” The legislation to extend cap and trade, Assembly Bill 398, passed 55 to 21 in the Assembly and 28 to 12 in the Senate. (http://www.trbimg.com/img-596d8c09/turbine/la-pol-sac-cap-and-trade-vote-20170717/818) (http://www.trbimg.com/img-596d8c09/turbine/la-pol-sac-cap-and-trade-vote-20170717) Lawmakers also approved a companion measure, AB-617, aimed at reducing pollution that cause local public health problems like asthma. It passed 50 to 24 in the Assembly and 27 to 13 in the Senate. "Republicans and Democrats set aside their differences, came together and took courageous action,” Brown said in a statement before holding a celebratory bipartisan press conference in the Capitol. “That's what good government looks like." The willingness to support cap and trade was hardly unanimous among GOP lawmakers. Only one Republican in the Senate, Tom Berryhill of Modesto, voted for the proposal. A majority of Assembly Republicans, who were involved in negotiations for weeks, did not support the plan. But Republican backing was much stronger than in the past, when major California climate policies never gained more than one or two votes from the minority party. Some grew emotional as they spoke on the floor. “We have to make decisions as legislators — do we do what is right or do we do what is politically right?" said Assemblyman Devon Mathis (Republican-Visalia), choking up during his speech. Support for cap and trade is a bid for political relevance for Republicans who have been shut out of all positions of power in state government and have paltry prospects to regain influence. (http://www.trbimg.com/img-596d0431/turbine/la-1500316718-gy23zd538p-snap-image/700) (http://www.trbimg.com/img-596d0431/turbine/la-1500316718-gy23zd538p-snap-image) There is a “broad consensus” among California voters that global warming merits a response from Sacramento, said Mark Baldassare, who handles polling as president of Public Policy Institute of California. “While Democrats are more supportive of climate change policy than Republican voters overall, there’s a substantial number of Republican voters [who say] climate change is real and the state should be acting,” he said. Some advocates hope California could become a political trendsetter when it comes to broader political support for fighting climate change. “There's an important signal coming from California Republicans' willingness to engage in the conversation,” said Bob Inglis, a former South Carolina congressman who leads RepublicEn, an advocacy organization dedicated to persuading conservatives to back climate policies. Former Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who signed the 2006 legislation that provided the foundation for cap and trade, said the bipartisan vote “fills me with tremendous pride.” “We can fight for free market policies to clean up our environment for our children at the same time we fight for a booming economy,” Schwarzenegger said in a statement. Others doubt there will be ripple effects. “Is this California leading the way with a new Republican philosophy? No,” said Mike Madrid, a Republican strategist. “That's not going to happen any more than Ohio Democrats advocating for backing off of gun control measures will spread to California.” Monday's vote involved an unusual coalition for a climate change measure because Brown wanted a two-thirds vote for the legislation to insulate cap and trade from legal challenges. The bill to extend cap and trade, AB-398, received the supermajority vote Brown hoped for. National advocacy organizations, such as the Environmental Defense Fund and the Natural Resources Defense Council, backed the legislation despite initial concerns that it wouldn't be tough enough on greenhouse gas emissions. Also supporting the deal were powerful business groups, including the California Chamber of Commerce and associations representing manufacturers and agriculture interests. Oil companies, while not staking a public position, backed the deal behind the scenes. Although businesses have fought the program in the past, they viewed it as less costly for their bottom line than other direct regulations that have been considered to reach the 2030 goal. Senate leader Kevin de León (Democrat-Los Angeles) called the measure a “legislative unicorn” because of its broad support from organizations usually at cross purposes. Meanwhile, activists at the California Environmental Justice Alliance and the Sierra Club continued to criticize the measures as too favorable to industry. Particularly troublesome to them was a provision to limit some separate regulations on refineries. Also opposing the legislation were conservative activists disappointed to see Republicans sign on to legislation that could increase costs for Californians. Earlier this year, Republicans almost universally opposed funding road repairs with an increase in the gasoline tax. However, cap and trade could boost prices at the pump 24 to 73 cents a gallon by 2031, according to the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst's Office. By voting to extend the program, Republicans are weakening a potential political cudgel they could have used against Democrats during next year's campaigns, said Jon Coupal, president of Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association. “They lose the moral high ground of representing themselves as representing the middle class,” Coupal said. Cap-and-trade legislation was opposed by U.S. House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (Republican-Bakersfield), who had Mayes' position in the state Legislature a little more than a decade ago. In a letter (http://www.latimes.com/politics/essential/la-pol-ca-essential-politics-updates-house-gop-leader-kevin-mccarthy-comes-1499986657-htmlstory.html) signed by some of his California House colleagues, McCarthy said the measure would end up “raising more taxes on California drivers and families so that Sacramento has more money to spend wastefully” on building the bullet train. Some establishment Republicans tried to provide political cover. George Shultz, a former secretary of state who has supported climate policies, wrote in a letter (https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwQxgBH-jL4gYmExdzdqdVhTZzQ/view) that the late President Reagan “would be proud” to see cap and trade receive bipartisan support. Former California Governor Pete Wilson also signaled his support. Securing Republican support involved a number of concessions, including rolling back a fire prevention tax levied on landowners largely in rural areas of the state, which has long been a target for repeal by the GOP. Republicans also secured the extension of a tax credit for manufacturers, which was broadened to include some power companies. More negotiations focused on a proposed ballot measure, Assembly Constitutional Amendment 1, that Republicans hope will give them more say over how cap-and-trade revenue is spent. The proposal was passed by lawmakers, and if approved by voters next year it would require a one-time two-thirds vote to continue spending the money in 2024. The higher threshold could provide Republicans with an opportunity to undermine funding for the bullet train project, which counts on cap-and-trade revenue. • L.A. Times staff writer Liam Dillon contributed to this report. • Melanie Mason covers state government and politics in Sacramento. She first began working for the Los Angeles Times in 2011 in Washington, D.C., where she covered money and politics during the 2012 presidential campaign. She is originally from Los Angeles and is a graduate of Georgetown University and the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. • Chris Megerian writes about climate change and California for the Los Angeles Times. He previously covered the 2016 presidential campaign from the Iowa caucuses to election night in New York and the 2015 United Nations summit on global warming in Paris. Based in Sacramento, he has also written about Governor Jerry Brown, California politics and state finances. Before joining the L.A. Times in January 2012, he spent three years covering politics and law enforcement at the Star-Ledger in New Jersey. He grew up in Massachusetts and graduated from Emory University in Atlanta. __________________________________________________________________________ Related to this topic: • Heres the latest report card on Californias battle against climate change (http://www.latimes.com/projects/la-pol-sac-california-climate-change) http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-lucy-jones-why-earthquakes-scare-us-20170524-htmlstory.html (http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-lucy-jones-why-earthquakes-scare-us-20170524-htmlstory.html) Title: Re: “Civilised” California versus the “barbaric” Trump regime… Post by: Kiwithrottlejockey on July 19, 2017, 12:41:38 pm Hahaha....California just shoved one right up Donald Trump's clacker. Three cheers for California …… hip hip …… hip hip …… hip hip …… Title: Re: “Civilised” California versus the “barbaric” Trump regime… Post by: Kiwithrottlejockey on July 21, 2017, 12:36:39 pm from the Los Angeles Times.... Capitol Journal: Governor Brown's climate change deal was a lesson in compromise that should be studied in the White House By GEORGE SKELTON | 12:05AM PDT - Thursday, July 20, 2017 (http://www.trbimg.com/img-596cf52e/turbine/la-1500312874-ezrlun4r2o-snap-image/900) (http://www.trbimg.com/img-596cf52e/turbine/la-1500312874-ezrlun4r2o-snap-image) Governor Jerry Brown, flanked by Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de León, urges members of the Environmental Quality Committee to approve a pair of bills to extend cap and trade. — Photograph: Rich Pedroncelli/Associated Press. ONE particular message to the agriculture industry was simple: You want Governor Jerry Brown (http://www.latimes.com/topic/politics-government/jerry-brown-PEPLT007547-topic.html) to be a friend or an enemy the rest of his term? Friends will support his climate change legislation, it was made clear. To business leaders: This legislation provides tax and regulatory breaks that you've long sought. Grab them now or forget it. To agriculture and business: You don't like this cap-and-trade program? Wait until you see what replaces it if it's not extended. Brown's hardball messages, his willingness to compromise and personal dealings with lawmakers were persuasive enough for him to win arguably his biggest legislative victory as governor. It was a model of how to finesse controversial bills through a Legislature. And it stood in stark contrast to the bumbling we've been watching in the White House and Congress, most notably the failed, humiliating efforts on healthcare. Negotiating disputed legislation when a supermajority vote is needed takes persistence, a willingness to give and the knowledge of when to draw the line. Cajoling and coercion. Neither the left nor the right can get everything they want. Preachers can demand purity, but it's a losing cause for politicians. Purity isn't possible in a legislative brawl. One example: Pope Francis is a climate change purist. Cap and trade is bad, in his mind. “In no way does it allow for the radical change which circumstances require” to slow global warming, he wrote in 2015. “Rather, it may simply become a ploy which permits maintaining the excessive consumption of some countries and sectors.” But Francis doesn't have a vote in the Legislature. And neither do enough environmental purists to have their way. The merits of Brown's cap-and-trade legislation are not the point here. Many Republican conservatives complain that it's just another tax hike on consumers. Democratic liberals grouse about a giveaway to big oil. Supporters — the vast majority of legislators — proudly proclaim that California is showing the world how to save the planet. All that is irrelevant to the point. The point is that we just witnessed how complex, contentious legislation is passed — how politicians can avoid gridlock, do something and not just whine. Perhaps part of the credit should go to two political reforms that California voters approved several years ago and are starting to have a moderating affect on legislators. One reform was the elimination of partisan gerrymandering of legislative districts. The other was the open primary that allows voters to choose any candidate, regardless of party. Unfortunately, partisan redistricting and closed primaries still dominate most of the nation’s congressional districts. The cap-and-trade legislation extends California's climate change program until 2030. It was slated to expire in 2020. A cap is imposed on an industry’s greenhouse gas emissions. But companies can buy extra permits to pollute from the state or private parties. The caps are gradually lowered and emissions, theoretically, are reduced. The dilemma for polluters is that Brown and the Legislature last year set a new target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 40% under 1990 levels. The target is supposed to be reached by 2030. The old target was the 1990 level by 2020, and it has already been almost achieved. The “trade” feature provides polluters with options and flexibility they wouldn't have if the state just set a “cap”. Cap and trade, said Assembly Republican Leader Chad Mayes of Yucca Valley, is “better than Soviet-style command and control. Markets are better than the government coercing people into doing things they don't want to do.” Mayes and six other Assembly Republicans supported the legislation, but 18 opposed it. So it could cost Mayes his minority leadership position, which isn't worth much anyway. The GOP is relevant in Sacramento only when a supermajority vote is needed, such as with cap and trade. The state Chamber of Commerce and other business interests strongly supported Brown’s legislation for the same reasons Mayes did. Much of agriculture also backed it. Brown and his negotiators reminded ag interests that they produce a lot of dirty air in the San Joaquin Valley — methane from dairy cows, pollution from food processing — and are going to need to clean it up in the future. They'll be looking for state help, principally money, maybe cap-and-trade bucks. “You can make a friend of the governor or an enemy of the governor,” they were told, according to one insider. “Don't shoot yourselves in the foot. You're going to want the governor to look favorably on you in the next year or two.” Republican Assemblyman Devon Mathis of Visalia, whose district is dominated by agriculture, said he didn't like cap and trade but the alternative was worse. “All of agriculture is saying we need this,” he told me. Brown sweetened the deal for many rural legislators by scuttling a hated fire prevention fee that hits 800,000 landowners. For business, he extended a manufacturers sales tax break until 2030, eliminated a sales tax on renewable energy equipment purchased by power companies and limited regulation of oil refineries. The wheeling-dealing governor also backed a separate bill to help poor communities clean up their air. And he supported a proposed constitutional amendment that would require a supermajority legislative vote in 2024 to re-establish spending of cap-and-trade revenue. That could jeopardize funding for his bullet train, if it's still chugging along. Given political realities, it seems a pretty good compromise — and a guideline for success that should be studied in the White House. • George Skelton reported from Sacramento. • Political columnist George Skelton has covered government and politics for more than 50 years and for the Los Angeles Times since 1974. He has been a L.A. Times political writer and editor in Los Angeles, Sacramento bureau chief and White House correspondent. He has written a column on California politics, “Capitol Journal”, since 1993. Skelton is a Santa Barbara native, grew up in Ojai and received a journalism degree at San Jose State. __________________________________________________________________________ Related to this topic: • What California's big vote on climate change policies means for you (http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-pol-ca-cap-trade-california-climate-change-program-explained-20170719-htmlstory.html) • Eight Republicans backed Jerry Brown's climate change bill — here's what that means for their political futures (http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-pol-sac-cap-trade-climate-change-california-legislature-political-landscape-20170719-htmlstory.html) • As cap-and-trade evangelist, Governor Brown shows he's the most effective politician Sacramento has seen in a long time (http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-pol-sac-skelton-cap-trade-jerry-brown-20170717-story.html) http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-pol-sac-skelton-cap-and-trade-climate-change-california-bipartisan-vote-20170720-story.html (http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-pol-sac-skelton-cap-and-trade-climate-change-california-bipartisan-vote-20170720-story.html) Title: Re: “Civilised” California versus the “barbaric” Trump regime… Post by: Kiwithrottlejockey on October 07, 2017, 03:25:15 pm from The Washington Post.... In message of defiance to Trump, lawmakers vote to make California a sanctuary state The legislation would prohibit local law enforcement agencies from co-operating with federal immigration officials. It also forbids law enforcement from inquiring about a person's immigration status. The bill now goes to California Governor Jerry Brown, who is expected to sign it into law. By KRISTINE PHILLIPS | 6:25PM EDT - Saturday, September 16, 2017 (https://img.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=https://img.washingtonpost.com/rf/image_960w/2010-2019/Wires/Images/2017-09-09/AP/California_Legislature_Final_Week_60125-25f59.jpg&w=985) (https://img.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=https://img.washingtonpost.com/rf/image_960w/2010-2019/Wires/Images/2017-09-09/AP/California_Legislature_Final_Week_60125-25f59.jpg&w=1484) Protesters hold signs as they listen to speakers at a rally outside City Hall in San Francisco in January. — Photograph: Jeff Chiu/Associated Press. IN what appeared to be an act of defiance against President Trump and to the dismay of many in law enforcement, California lawmakers took a significant step toward making the state a so-called “sanctuary state”. The California Senate on Saturday passed Senate Bill 54, controversial legislation that would protect undocumented immigrants from possible deportation by prohibiting local law enforcement agencies, including school police and security departments, from co-operating with federal immigration officials. It also forbids law enforcement from inquiring about a person's immigration status. The California Values Act provides an expansive protection to the state's undocumented population, estimated to be about 2.7 million, at a time when the Trump administration continues to aggressively crackdown on those who are in the country illegally and on so-called sanctuary cities — communities that limit local law enforcement's co-operation with immigration agents. The strictly party-line vote sends the bill to California Governor Jerry Brown (Democrat), who is expected to sign it in to law. Kevin de León (Democrat-Los Angeles), president pro tempore of the state Senate and California's most powerful Latino politician, introduced the bill in December. It sailed through the state Senate and Assembly without Republican support. “Once signed into law and enacted, SB-54 will prevent state and local law enforcement officers and resources from being commandeered by President Trump to enforce federal laws,” de León said in a statement Saturday, adding later: “Our undocumented neighbors will be able to interact with local law enforcement to report crimes and help in prosecutions without fear of deportation — and that will make our communities safer.” Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher (Democrat-San Diego) said California’s “families, schools, workplaces and communities” will be safer. Those in law enforcement, however, disagreed. The California State Sheriff's Association, which has vocally opposed the bill, said that limiting public safety agencies' ability to cooperate with immigration agents places communities at risk. “We are disappointed that the Legislature chose political symbolism over public safety in approving SB-54,” the association said in a statement. Brown and de León reached a compromise this week that allows law enforcement to have some flexibility. For example, the bill gives officers discretion to cooperate with immigration agents if a person has been convicted of a serious or violent felony and any felony punishable by imprisonment in a state facility. Officials can report a person who has been convicted in the past 15 years of crimes such as unlawful possession or use of a weapon, driving under the influence, or drug- and gang-related offenses, as long as those offenses were felonies. The revision also requires the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to give inmates credits toward reducing their sentences, regardless of their immigration status, if they complete educational and rehabilitative programs. The compromise was accepted by immigration advocates but did not persuade law enforcement organizations to support the bill. In a statement after the deal was reached on Monday, the California State Sheriff's Association said that despite the changes, “the bill still goes too far in cutting off communications with the federal government.” “Our overarching concern remains that limiting local law enforcement's ability to communicate and cooperate with federal law enforcement officers endangers public safety,” the association said. Senate Republican Leader Pat Bates (Laguna Niguel) said in a statement that the latest amendments “may have removed some obstacles.” But the bill, she added, “would still impose unnecessary restrictions. These restrictions will make it more difficult to stop dangerous criminals from being released into our communities.” California is not the first state to pass a sanctuary law. The Oregon legislature passed a similar bill (http://www.oregonir.org/book/export/html/2433) in 1987. The vote came just a day after a legal blow to the Trump administration's crackdown on sanctuary cities. A federal judge on Friday blocked the Justice Department from withholding grant funds from Chicago and other cities that refuse to co-operate with immigration authorities. Last August, a federal judge in Texas temporarily blocked (https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/immigration/federal-judge-blocks-texass-harsh-anti-sanctuary-law/2017/08/30/05dd770a-8cd0-11e7-8df5-c2e5cf46c1e2_story.html) parts of a state law that was supposed to outlaw sanctuary cities and penalize local officials for not cooperating with federal deportation efforts. Brewing in the White House and on Capitol Hill is a debate on what to do with the hundreds of thousands of young undocumented immigrants who were brought to the country as children, after Trump announced that his administration is ending an Obama-era program granting legal status to “dreamers”. Departing from a campaign promise to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, Trump said that he favors some protections for dreamers, whom he called “good, educated and accomplished young people.” • Matt Zapotosky and Maria Sacchetti contributed to this report. • Kristine Phillips is a general assignment reporter for The Washington Post. __________________________________________________________________________ Related to this topic: • VIDEO: How santurary cities are responding to Trump's threat to defund them (https://www.washingtonpost.com/video/a8647b78-eef0-11e6-a100-fdaaf400369a_video.html) • VIDEO: Federal judge sides with sanctuary cities in dispute with Trump administration (https://www.washingtonpost.com/video/019894b8-9a68-11e7-af6a-6555caaeb8dc_video.html) • Judge rules Justice Department can't keep grant money from unco-operative sanctuary cities (https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/judge-rules-justice-dept-cant-keep-grant-money-from-uncooperative-sanctuary-cities/2017/09/15/40f0ec66-9a52-11e7-82e4-f1076f6d6152_story.html) • Trump's die-hard supporters are fuming after an apparent about-face on ‘dreamers’ (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2017/09/14/according-to-democrats-trump-has-done-an-about-face-on-dreamers-his-diehard-supporters-are-fuming) • Trump and Democrats strike DACA deal. Yes? No? Sort of? Trump's world can be confusing. (https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-and-democrats-strike-daca-deal-yes-no-sort-of-trumps-world-can-be-confusing/2017/09/14/ab6a40d4-9970-11e7-82e4-f1076f6d6152_story.html) • Federal judge blocks Texas' harsh anti-sanctuary law (https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/immigration/federal-judge-blocks-texass-harsh-anti-sanctuary-law/2017/08/30/05dd770a-8cd0-11e7-8df5-c2e5cf46c1e2_story.html) • Chicago sues Justice Department over new police grant rules targeting sanctuary cities (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2017/08/07/chicago-to-sue-justice-department-over-new-police-grant-rules-targeting-sanctuary-cities) https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2017/09/16/in-message-of-defiance-to-trump-lawmakers-vote-to-make-california-a-sanctuary-state (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2017/09/16/in-message-of-defiance-to-trump-lawmakers-vote-to-make-california-a-sanctuary-state) Title: Re: “Civilised” California versus the “barbaric” Trump regime… Post by: Kiwithrottlejockey on October 07, 2017, 03:30:41 pm from the Los Angeles Times.... California becomes ‘sanctuary state’ in rebuke of Trump immigration policy By JAZMINE ULLOA | 1:45PM PDT - Thursday, October 05, 2017 (http://www.trbimg.com/img-59d42150/turbine/la-1507074379-soh2dk5ia8-snap-image/950) (http://www.trbimg.com/img-59d42150/turbine/la-1507074379-soh2dk5ia8-snap-image) Governor Jerry Brown signed landmark “sanctuary state” legislation on Thursday. — Photograph: Eric Risberg/Associated Press. UNDER THREAT of possible retaliation by the Trump administration, Governor Jerry Brown signed landmark “sanctuary state” legislation (http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-pol-ca-california-sanctuary-state-bill-20170916-story.html) on Thursday, vastly limiting who state and local law enforcement agencies can hold, question and transfer at the request of federal immigration authorities. Senate Bill 54 (https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201720180SB54), which takes effect in January, has been blasted as “unconscionable” by U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions (http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-sessions-sanctuary-20170919-story.html), becoming the focus of a national debate over how far states and cities can go to prevent their officers from enforcing federal immigration laws. Supporters have hailed it as part of a broader effort by majority Democrats in the California Legislature to shield more than 2.3 million immigrants living illegally in the state. Brown took the unusual step of writing a signing message in support of SB54. He called the legislation a balanced measure that would allow police and sheriff's agencies to continue targeting dangerous criminals, while protecting hardworking families without legal residency in the country. “In enshrining these new protections, it is important to note what the bill does not do,” Brown wrote. “This bill does not prevent or prohibit Immigration and Customs Enforcement (http://www.latimes.com/topic/social-issues/u.s.-immigration-customs-enforcement-ORGOV0000136156-topic.html) or the Department of Homeland Security from doing their own work in any way.” Legal experts have said federal officials may try to block the law in court to keep it from being implemented. Some doubt such challenges would be successful, pointing to the 10th Amendment and previous rulings in which courts have found the federal government can't compel local authorities to enforce federal laws. On Thursday, Department of Justice spokesman Devin O'Malley declined to comment on the agency's next move. Asked whether the administration would attempt to block the state law, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said that federal officials “are spending every day we can trying to find the best way forward.” “The president will be laying out his responsible immigration plan over the next week,” she said. “And I hope that California will push back on their governor's, I think, irresponsible decision moving forward.” Trump's immigration chief blasted the sanctuary state law on Friday (http://www.latimes.com/politics/essential/la-pol-ca-essential-politics-updates-trump-s-immigration-chief-blasts-1507318946-htmlstory.html), saying it would keep federal officers from performing their jobs and result in more arrests. In a statement, Thomas Homan, acting director of U.S. Immigration and Enforcement, said his agency “would have no choice but to conduct at-large arrests in local neighborhoods and at worksites.” Brown's decision comes as local and state governments are locked in legal battles with Sessions over his move to slash federal grant funding from “sanctuary jurisdictions,” where city and county agencies are limited when working with federal immigration officials. A Chicago federal judge largely blocked Sessions' effort just hours before SB54 cleared the Legislature on September 16th. Other federal officials also have sounded off against SB54, suggesting illegal immigration is tied to increases in violent crime. Throughout his campaign and in his tenure as president, Trump has tried to make the same connection, showcasing the relatives of people killed by immigrants in the country illegally. One of his earliest executive orders put cities and counties on alert that they would lose federal funding (http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-sanctuary-legal-battle-20170127-story.html) if law enforcement did not co-operate with immigration agents. The move has struck a bitter chord in California, home to at least 35 cities that have embraced the “sanctuary” label, and where Brown and Democratic lawmakers have passed legislation to extend financial aid, healthcare and driver's licenses to thousands of immigrants here illegally. Other bills signed by Brown on Thursday would prevent some cities and counties from adding beds (http://www.latimes.com/politics/essential/la-pol-ca-essential-politics-updates-california-could-soon-bar-the-expansion-1505410033-htmlstory.html) to immigrant detention centers, and would extend protections for immigrant workers (http://www.latimes.com/politics/essential/la-pol-ca-essential-politics-updates-california-expands-workplace-1507236616-htmlstory.html) and tenants (http://www.latimes.com/politics/essential/la-pol-ca-essential-politics-updates-landlords-who-threaten-immigrant-1507236300-htmlstory.html). In some places, the “sanctuary city” name is largely a symbolic message of political support for immigrants without legal residency. But other cities, most notably San Francisco and most recently Los Angeles (http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-la-sanctuary-city-20170909-story.html), have cut ties with federal immigration officials and sought to build up social services for families, including city-funded legal aid. The bill's author, Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de León (Democrat-Los Angeles), has countered that the state law is defensible in court and will send a strong message against new federal policies that he argues have pushed some families further into the shadows. Research has shown sanctuary cities have lower crime rates (http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-pol-sac-california-sessions-response-20170327-story.html) and that immigrants generally commit fewer crimes (http://www.politifact.com/california/statements/2017/aug/03/antonio-villaraigosa/mostly-true-undocumented-immigrants-less-likely-co) than U.S. citizens. De León joined Assemblyman Miguel Santiago (Democrat-Los Angeles) and immigrant rights advocates at a news conference in Los Angeles on Thursday, saying the new law would put a kink in Trump's “perverse and inhumane deportation machine.” “California is building a wall of justice against President Trump's xenophobic, racist and ignorant immigration policies,” he said to chants of “Sí se pudo,” or “Yes, we could” from the crowd. (http://www.trbimg.com/img-59c97fdc/turbine/la-1506377687-8sx2ebn1n3-snap-image/950) (http://www.trbimg.com/img-59c97fdc/turbine/la-1506377687-8sx2ebn1n3-snap-image) Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon (Democrat-Paramount), center, and Democratic lawmakers discuss proposed measures to protect immigrants during a December 2016 news conference in Sacramento. — Photograph: Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press. The final language of the new law was the result of months of tough negotiations between Brown, De León and law enforcement officials. It was the centerpiece of this year's legislative proposals in Sacramento that sought to challenge Trump's stance on illegal immigration and provide protections for families amid his threats of mass deportations. The new law will largely prohibit state and local law enforcement agencies (http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-pol-ca-sanctuary-state-passed-what-happens-next-20170925-htmlstory.html) from using either personnel or funds to hold, question or share information about people with federal immigration agents unless those individuals have been convicted of one or more offenses from a list of 800 crimes outlined in a 2013 state law (http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-pol-ca-trust-act-sanctuary-state-immigration-20170910-htmlstory.html). Federal immigration authorities will still be able to work with state corrections officials — a key concession Brown had demanded — and will be able to enter county jails to question immigrants. But the state attorney general's office will be required to publish guidelines and training recommendations to limit immigration agents' access to personal information. And all law enforcement agencies will have to produce annual reports on their participation in task forces that involve federal agencies, as well as on the people they transfer to immigration authorities. The new law doesn't specify what happens if local law enforcement agencies don't comply with the new rules. But the attorney general has broad authority under the state Constitution to prosecute police and sheriff's agencies that don't comply. In a statement released on Thursday, Becerra applauded the enactment of the SB54, saying he stood “ready to fully defend the law.” For many officers across the state, the expanded restrictions won't change much. Some police and sheriff's agencies already have developed similar boundaries against working with immigration agents, either through their own policies or under local “sanctuary city” rules. For other officers, though, the legislation would set new guidelines and has long divided police chiefs and sheriffs. The California Police Chiefs Association moved its official position from opposed to neutral after final changes to the bill last month, but the California Sheriffs Association remained opposed. Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck supported the bill, joining others who said entangling police and federal immigration forces can have a negative effect on public safety, because crime victims and witnesses without legal status may refuse to come forward to authorities out of fear of deportation. L.A. County Sheriff Jim McDonnell was a vocal opponent. Even so, he said the final version of the bill, though not perfect, “reflects much of what the LASD implemented years ago and the work is well underway.” Immigrant rights advocates said its passage would help keep thousands of families together. Angela Chan, policy director at the Advancing Justice-Asian Law Caucus, said it will “improve protections for immigrants in most counties in California.” “This victory is the result of community organizing and directly impacted immigrants sharing their stories about being turned over to ICE at the hands of local law enforcement,” she said. “And we look forward to working to pass stronger protections for immigrants throughout California in the years to come.” • Los Angeles Times staff writers Christine Mai-Duc and Noah Bierman contributed to this report. • Jazmine Ulloa covers California state politics and policy for the Los Angeles Times and is based in Sacramento. A native of El Paso, she covered state and federal courts for the Austin American-Statesman in the Texas capital. Her work has appeared in Texas Monthly, the Texas Observer and The Boston Globe. She is a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin. __________________________________________________________________________ Related to this topic: • Read Governor Brown's statement on signing the California ‘sanctuary state’ bill (http://documents.latimes.com/la-brown-signing-sanctuary-state) • California becomes ‘sanctuary state’ from Trump immigration policy (http://www.latimes.com/politics/essential/la-pol-ca-essential-politics-updates-california-becomes-sanctuary-state-1507227629-htmlstory.html) • California lawmakers passed the ‘sanctuary state’ bill. What happens if Governor Jerry Brown signs it? (http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-pol-ca-sanctuary-state-passed-what-happens-next-20170925-htmlstory.html) • California lawmakers approve landmark ‘sanctuary state’ bill to expand protections for immigrants (http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-pol-ca-california-sanctuary-state-bill-20170916-story.html) • How California's Trust Act shaped the debate on the new ‘sanctuary state’ proposal (http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-pol-ca-trust-act-sanctuary-state-immigration-20170910-htmlstory.html) http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-pol-ca-brown-california-sanctuary-state-bill-20171005-story.html (http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-pol-ca-brown-california-sanctuary-state-bill-20171005-story.html) |