California Nightmare: political ideology has pushed the once Golden State to the brink of a social and economic breakdown
California Nightmare: political ideology has pushed the once Golden State to the brink of a social and economic breakdown
"Deaths on the street have increased from 600 in 2015 to 1600 in 2021, complicated by the legacies of the flower-power era."
by Dr Graham Pinn | May 31, 2022
Some baby boomers like me still remember the heady days of the flower power era.
The spirit of peace and goodwill was supposedly mixed with sex, drugs and rock-n-roll.
The Mamas and the Papas sang “California dreaming”, Scott Mackenzie’s sang “If you’re going to San Francisco”, and the Beach Boys extolled the idyllic coastline lifestyle with “California Girls”.
Post-war England didn’t quite have the same vibe — but we dreamed of the California sun and surf as we shivered in the cold.
California was also the progenitor of contemporary activist movements. As these movements begin to burn out bright, the phrase Go Woke, Go Broke seems increasingly certain.
California has had its ups and downs. Sir Francis Drake was the first European to land there in 1579, but the Spanish were the first invaders followed by the Mexicans after their independence.
California became a republic in 1847, followed in 1849 by the world’s biggest gold rush. The Native Americans were displaced to reservations, the railroad came through from the East and the area boomed.
Unlike in the east, slavery played little part in its success, although there had been some slave-taking by the Native American Indians until the conclusion of the US civil war and new legislation. Sacramento became the focus of mining and ultimately the capital of the new state.
A significant geological fault line running down the West Coast and caused a major disaster when an Earthquake in 1906, and subsequent fires, destroyed San Francisco. It measured 7.8 on the Richter scale killing 3000 people and destroying 300,000 homes over 500 city blocks.
California’s otherwise healthy environment would attract significant investment in the years that followed. Agriculture blossomed in the Mediterranean-style climate and the small farming town of Hollywood subsequently became the centre of the booming film industry in the 1920s.
Farming moved on to more lucrative crops and the wine industry became a major employer. California now produces around 90% of all wine in the United States.
Another claim to fame was San Francisco’s role as host of a post-war conference in 1945 which led to the formation of the United Nations — a factor that would perhaps contribute led to its reputation as a ‘leader of free expression’. In the 1960s the Free Speech movement would demand a political voice for students at the University of California, Berkeley campus.
Civil rights movements followed, with the Black Panthers emerging in 1966. The Panthers were initially a Marxist-orientated social movement supporting the Black population; however, it became increasingly militant and violent. After numerous armed clashes with police, resulting in multiple deaths on both sides, it was disbanded in the 1970s. The Black Lives Matter movement, with a similar Marxist ideology, was subsequently formed in Los Angeles in 2011 and has gone on to become a political force with similar aims.
The anti-Vietnam war movement escalated from small beginnings in the 1960s. After 10 years of war the biggest protests were organised out of Berkeley University, San Francisco, with one event attracting 35,000 protesters in 1965. Protests continued until the end of the war in 1973.
Another Californian offspring of Black radical politics was the disastrous People’s Temple founded in 1962 by the infamous Jim Jones. The PT began as a civil rights movement with the view to end segregation. People and money flowed in from like-minded idealists.
With disillusion rising, the entire community decided to move to a “promised land” in Guyana, South America in 1972. Relatives back home pushed for the cult’s investigation, which led to a fatal confrontation with US authorities that year with people on both sides being killed.
The final act of The People’s Temple that year was the mass suicide its 900 members, including children, by drinking Kool-Aid laced with cyanide – the drink lives on in modern politics (sometimes without the cyanide)!
Another dark side to the history of the so-called progressive State is its history of forced sterilisation. Starting in the early 1900s the eugenics legislation was eventually repealed; however, not until 1979 after an estimated 20,000 were deemed unfit to have children and sterilised. The process continued in prisons, with 150 sterilised between 2006 and 2010; it was only in 2020 that it was finally banned.
Times have changed since former movie star Ronald Reagan was Republican Governor. The current fashionable Californian protest is about climate change. The Environmental Defence Fund (EDF) was established there to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and lead the world to a sustainable future.
Legislation was introduced in 2006 and was expanded in 2016, putting strict limits on fossil fuel energy production — currently at around 40% renewable. On occasions this percentage has momentarily risen as high as 95%, producing much self-congratulatory back-slapping. California continues, however, to rely on the state’s Diablo nuclear plant and inter-connector supplies of electricity from the fossil fuels of other states to keep the lights on.
A result of its renewable strategy is that electricity is now 70% more expensive in California than the US average — grid operators are also predicting power outages this 2022 summer.
Local support for the climate change debate is encouraged by deceptive reporting on “extreme” weather events; as in Australia, examples of increasing droughts and bushfires appear prominently, although the evidence of a deteriorating environment is open to dispute. The presence of Hollywood glitterati and social media tycoons add glamour to the enthusiasm to “save the planet”.
From climate to gender another current fashionable crusade is the #MeToo movement. Started in New York in 2006, it returned with a vengeance after the Harvey Weinstein case in 2017, with stories of predatory male behaviour.
Silicon Valley became the focus of embarrassing attention after male executives at both Uber and Google were accused of similar behaviour, much tarnishing their woke credentials. Several years of ongoing complaints resulted in the state passing its own legislation on the matter this year.
It is again no surprise that California has enacted social engineering legislation to force gender and racial quotas on company boards. What is surprising is that the legislation has now been overturned after a state judge ruled it had failed to achieve any specific outcome and was unconstitutional.
California is now the fifth largest economy in the world. The ever-expanding high-tech Silicon Valley workforce has had other consequences — like an increase in demand for electricity, water shortages and shortages of accommodation.
Homelessness has become major problem, with numbers rising from 70,000 in 2010 to 110,000 in 2020 — around half of the US total. It also has an enviable achievement of 49th of the 50 states in its level of poverty.
Deaths on the street have increased from 600 in 2015 to 1600 in 2021, complicated by the legacies of the flower-power era. Drug and alcohol abuse resulting in 40% of those deaths.
In 2021 there were an estimated 10,000 deaths from overdose in California out of the US total of around 100,000. Poverty levels for Blacks and Hispanics in California are a third higher than the US average. Rather than addressing these important issues, the state has introduced legislation to prevent the sale of non-gender-neutral toys and has established an ethnically based maths education system.
These awful statistics sit uncomfortably alongside the wealth and image of Silicon Valley. The area of San Jose and Santa Barbara has the third highest GDP in the world (behind Zurich and Oslo). From its small beginnings developing electronics in the 1950’s, this area is now home to 4 million people; out of the 400,000 high tech jobs in the US, Silicon Valley is now home to 225,000.
This younger immigrant population has, for the last 20 years, tended to vote green and engage in activism, whilst increasing energy demands as big tech moves in. Forecasts are for a doubling of electricity demand by 2050.
As in Australia, the insatiable demand for a reliable power supply produces a conflict with ideology, a conflict which will only worsen as population numbers expand and electric cars are encouraged.
Current droughts have reduced water storage in California, with 17% of the state’s power coming from hydro. This has led to rolling blackouts, as well as affecting agricultural irrigation, and electricity cost are 75% higher than the US average.
The magic word “unprecedented” is increasingly used, although a look at history reveals this is not new and the problem has been created by over-reliance on renewables; history reveals two lengthy droughts of around 100 years each in the Medieval warming period a thousand years ago.
Even NOAA (The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) sees no evidence of decreasing rainfall, and relates these events to natural variability such as the El Nino- La Nina weather pattern; when it rains heavily in Australia, as currently in 2021/2, the La Nina weather pattern produces dry conditions on the US West Coast, El Nino reversing these effects. Major flooding events can also result from earthquake damage to the levees which protect low-lying areas.
The graph above demonstrates the unimpressive rise in temperature and change in annual rainfall over more than 60 years.
Of greater concern are the geological fault lines. It’s not a matter of “if” but when the next event is due; it is overdue. In the past, small earthquakes occurred every few years, there was an ominous pause of around 70 years ‘til 1979; there have been six small events since then, suggesting the strain along the fault line is building.
Predictions suggest there is a 25% chance of a Richter 7 earthquake in California by 2025, and a 50% chance by 2050. The epicentre of the 7.1 magnitude event in 1989 was 70 miles from San Francisco; it resulted in 66 dead and $6 billion in damages.
Risk assessment for Los Angeles suggests an even higher probability of a magnitude 7 earthquake closer to the city with resultant greater damage in the next 20 years.
The coastal land is also sinking with the fault-line compression. Increasing need for higher levees in combination with rising sea levels means that if it survives a quake a large part of San Francisco will go under water by 2100.
Meanwhile there is a different story on the other side of the country. Florida has a similar latitude but a different climatic challenge. There are no earthquakes, but regular cyclones can do damage.
There have been around 170 cyclones of varying intensity in the last 70 years, but few making landfall. There are also regular droughts and bushfires, with a severe fire event in 1998. As in Australia — a land of droughts, floods and fires — there is no evidence of increased frequency or severity of cyclones, droughts or fires, but the left-wing media continue to push this agenda.
The main differences between the two states are financial and ideological. Florida is a retirement area with around 20% over 65 and an older mean age of 42, compared with 13% over 65 and a mean age of 35 in California.
Florida has a predominantly right-wing, Republican ideology and regularly legislates against woke activity in education and public areas. Democrat dominated California is the second most expensive place to live in the US. Taxes, rents, power (more than double the Florida price), and eating out are all cheaper in Florida.
The result is a homeless rate, per capita, that’s a quarter of California’s. The ideological differences also played out in the management of the COVID pandemic. California enforced a lock-down and school closure agenda, similar to Victoria’s, resulting in a higher unemployment rate.
Florida had no school closures and non-enforcement of mask wearing, but greater protection for the higher proportion of elderly. The result, allowed for the different age profiles to achieve similar vaccination rates, with a similar mortality, but significantly lower economic cost to Florida.
California dreaming, with or without flowers in your hair, does not address the real threats to its existence. The 1960’s activist ideology lives on, with its resulting social and economic consequences; will the “go woke, go broke” projections lead to its decline, or will a big hole in the ground wake it up?
By Dr Graham Pinn