California

California

Capital	Sacramento
Nickname	The Golden State
Official Language	English
Governor	Gavin Newsom, D
Senator	Adam Schiff, D []
Senator	Alex Padilla, D Unknown Contact
Population	40,000,000 (2020)
Ratification of Constitution/or statehood	September 9, 1850 (31st)
	Motto: Eureka (I have found it)

See also: California values

California, known as the "Golden State," is the 31st of the United States, admitted to the union on September 9, 1850. It is located on the west coast of the United States, by the Pacific Ocean and bordered by Oregon, Nevada and Arizona. California has the biggest debt in the U.S.: its estimated state and local government debt totals $1 to $1.6 trillion, and its annual state deficit is roughly $25 billion as of 2026.

There has been a net domestic migration away from liberal California for many years, such that conservative Texas is expected to surpass it as the most populous state by 2045. Through 2026, California's governor is Pelosi protégé Gavin Newsom, when he is term-limited. California has served as a poster child for liberalism since the 1960s, as in Hollywood values and San Francisco values, especially Los Angeles and San Francisco. California is an illustration of the failure of liberal policies, featuring one of the worst educational systems in the world and losing many high-achievers to other states, especially Texas. The gap between rich and poor in California is more severe than anywhere, and homelessness is endemic. The top five most polluted areas in the entire country are in California (by year-round particle pollution), while increasing wildfire smoke from liberal mismanagement of forests further harms air quality. "Close to 98% of Californians live in a county impacted with poor air quality," and overall California is ranked as the worst state in the nation on this issue.

The California drought is worsened by its water-wasteful cannibis crop, which consumes double the water of ordinary crops.

Despite its relative wealth including more than 200 billionaires as residents, California is one of the ten least charitable states in the country. California and New York's Leftism loots the Midwest in Congress with repeated legislation that transfers money to wasteful programs concentrated in those liberal states, as the fraudulently named Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 did. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Vice President Kamala Harris, as backup to the demented Joe Biden are both from northern California.

California courts also loot the Midwest with court decisions that nearly bankrupt productive companies, such as Monsanto over the unscientific hype of harm regarding Roundup.

However, the California economy has surpassed the atheist ic United Kingdom, which illustrates that an atheistic ideology (which prevails in the UK) is even less productive than a liberal one. Still, liberals have run California into the economic ground. In 2012, its leftist politicians proposed making its citizens pay an extra $9 billion in new taxes, with half of that going into government pensions. In 2015, California faced a worsening water shortage after years of failed liberal policies toward the problem. Attempts at voluntary self-restraint in the use of water have been unsuccessful in its far-Left culture. Additionally, the state has seen a large number of people leave the state (dubbed the California exodus), disappointed with the state's liberal governance. However, they then vote for the same failed policies in their new states: Colorado and Nevada are now solidly liberal, Arizona is trending such, and Texas is in danger of losing its conservative edge that has made it attractive for business. Critics refer to California as "Commiefornia", and a California exodus consists of many of its top companies and visionary business leaders leaving the state.

California takes by far the largest amount of federal subsidies ($43.61 billion), although its net taking of federal funds per resident is ranked at 41. The regulatory burdens imposed by California and its politicians on the rest of the country are substantial. The state Constitution of California, like all of the other 50 states, acknowledges God or our Creator or the Sovereign Ruler of the Universe. It says:

We, the People of the State of California, grateful to Almighty God for our freedom, in order to secure and perpetuate its blessings, do establish this Constitution.

History

See also: History of California

Ronald Reagan and Nancy Reagan at the Victory celebration for California Governor at the Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles, California 11/8/66.

California Attorney General Kamala Harris refused to defend Proposition 8 in court. The decision was significant. In 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that proponents of the measure did not have the legal standing to defend Proposition 8 on appeal after Harris and Gov. Jerry Brown had refused to do so. The case was dismissed on technical grounds, removing the ban on same-sex marriage in California and eroding the respect for marriage further there.

For more than a hundred years there has been a popular saying, 'As goes California, so goes the nation.' By 2021 that future became clear: It is a high-taxation society with a huge, impoverished, unemployed and unemployable destitute class where the middle class is annihilated, organized gangs and general chaotic street crime including muggings, rapes and murders metastasize in all major urban areas and gangs more numerous and heavily armed than the police operate openly with impunity.

Politics

The Chaldean Catholic Cathedral in El Cajon, California was defaced with swastikas, Biden 2020, upside down crosses and BLM imagery.

From 2003 to 2011, California's governor was the liberal Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger. This is the same position that was once held by conservative icon Ronald Reagan in 1966–74. California is considered to be one of the "blue-est" states, consistently voting for Democratic legislative and presidential candidates since 1992, mixed in with numerous Republican governors. Los Angeles and San Francisco are the centers of liberalism, while San Diego and other cities outside these localities are much more conservative. Prior to 1992, California was consistently a red state. A prominent conservative Republican U.S. senator from the state was William F. Knowland, who served from 1945 to 1959.

Richard Nixon is the only president to have been born in California, but he lived in New York when elected in 1968. Ronald Reagan was a resident of California when elected president in 1980.

In the past, conservative areas of California included Orange and Ventura Counties, but Ventura County (Simi Valley) is heavily Democrat now like most of California. The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library is located in Ventura County. Orange County has also become significantly more left-wing because of immigration. The California GOP has become significantly weaker since the 1980s, mainly because of weak, liberal leadership that ostracized conservatives and tried to turn the party into a "Democrat-lite" party.

Since 2014, California has become more politically segregated, with conservatives mostly choosing to live in rural or suburban areas. Multiple polls, surveys, and news sources have consistently indicated that among the largest populated places in California with conservative registered voters are Newport Beach and Yorba Linda, both in Orange County of Southern California.

Marxism

See also: Revolutionary Vanguard

The Committees of Correspondence (CoC), also known as the Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism (CCDS) were formed in 1992 after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Several prominent party Communist Party USA supporters, rudderless without the Soviet Union to offer funding and instructions, and disillusioned with the dictatorial rule of CPUSA General Secretary Gus Hall, split off to form their own group.

Democrat riots in Compton, California, during the 2020 presidential election.

The group's first organizational conference was held in Berkeley, California, July 17–19, 1992. Charlene Mitchell, who had been a leader of the California Communist Party, spoke at the conference. Mitchell said "the collapse of socialism in Eastern Europe left the United States in a near unchallenged position of world leadership." She continued,

“

What began as a moment to take stock and ponder where to go from there has now become a very different entity. People from the Communist Party, from CrossRoads, from the Democratic Socialists of America, from NCIPA [National Committee for Independent Political Action], from Solidarity, from the Socialist Organizing Network and many others, including independent leftists and independent socialists, have come together here in Berkeley.

”

Criticizing U.S. actions in the First Gulf War, Mitchell stated,

“

progressive forces were nearly powerless in the face of an onslaught of demagogic, patriotic jingoism and yellow ribbons. This war, fought for no legitimate reason, was the crowning height of President [George H.W.] Bush's New World Order. Previously, the Soviet Union helped to provide a certain balance to rein in the crazies in this country. Now, that balance is no longer there. It is now up to us, the American people, to rein in our own crazies. The left must take a major responsibility in organizing this task.

”

Former congressional investigator Herbert Romerstein said the CCDS has "a close working relationship with the Stalinist remnants in the former East Germany, now called the Party of Democratic Socialism..." Romerstein points out these were the people who ran the concentration camps and the Communist Party apparatus in East Germany.

Black Liberation Army

In 1970, Marin County Judge Harold Haley's head was blown off by a sawed-off shotgun in a hostage incident in which members of the Black Panthers attempted to free Davis' lover, Black Panther member George Jackson. Jackson's younger brother took the judge, the prosecutor, and three female jurors as hostages and armed the defendants. Davis had purchased several of the firearms used in the attack, including the shotgun used to kill the judge. Davis was also found to have corresponded with Jackson. California considers "all persons concerned in the commission of a crime, whether they directly commit the act constituting the offense... principals in any crime so committed", and a warrant for her arrest was issued. J. Edgar Hoover listed Davis on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted List; the third woman to ever be listed behind Ma Barker and Bernardine Dohrn. She was apprehended and John Abt, general counsel of the Communist Party USA, represented her. Davis was eventually acquitted of any role in the plotting and execution of the crime.

Progressivism

Left to Right: The Rev. Jim Jones, Mayor George Moscone (murdered along with City Councilman Harvey Milk), Speaker Nancy Pelosi a white privileged refugee from Baltimore, Speaker Willie Brown ex-lover and political patron of Kamala Harris, and Sen. Dianne Feinstein whose rise came on the heels of the Moscone/Milk murders. The Moscone/Milk murders and the tragedy at Jonestown are intimately connected in San Francisco's Progressive Democratic party, a fact kept hidden by the mainstream media for decades.

Jim Jones was the original founder of the "Rainbow Family" in the late 1950s and early 1960s, a term Jones used to refer to his family. Jones moved to San Francisco in 1970 and was deeply involved in the city's progressive politics. Jones's Peoples Temple was instrumental in the election of Mayor George Moscone, serving as campaign workers and busing in unregistered people to vote. Jones was rewarded with the post of housing commissioner.

It was Kamala Harris's mentor, Willie Brown, who brought Jones in contact with the California Democratic party. From there, Jones became involved with the DNC. Willie Brown supported same-sex marriage as early as 1977. Jones publicly met with vice president candidate Walter Mondale, and spoke at events with other leading Democrats at the San Francisco headquarters after the election in 1976, among them First Lady Rosalynn Carter and California governor Jerry Brown.

Harvey Milk, the first openly gay politician elected in California with Jones's help, would say: "My name is etched in stone with you." Milk wrote letters in support of Jones to President Jimmy Carter. Both Milk and Jones were homosexual activists.

In February 2021, Martin Sieff of the Strategic Culture Foundation observed, "what we are now seeing in America’s most populous state is the complete internal collapse of the entire liberal progressive civilization and the society that has most frantically tried to fulfill it."

LGBT grooming

See also: Grooming

In 2021, a pair of public school teachers at Buena Vista Middle School in Salinas, California were exposed for encouraging their fellow teachers to identify alleged LGBT schoolchildren, recruit them into LGBT clubs under false pretenses and then hide their in-club activities from the parents. The two were seen in video footage from a teleconference held by the California Teachers Association union. Both are members of the union. According to reports, both had already created their own LGBT club, “You Be You,” at Buena Vista. After their exposure, the school district suspended the club and issued a ban prohibiting teachers “from monitoring students’ online activity for any non-academic purposes.”

One mother said that the teachers had coached her suicidal 12-year-old daughter into a transgender identity behind her and her husband’s backs. She said that the teachers had also changed the girl’s name and pronouns and also removed information about her medical history. According to the The Epoch Times,

“[The mother] claims that one of the teachers coaxed her daughter to join a lunch-hour ‘Equality Club’ and began affirming her daughter as transgender. … Near the end of sixth grade, Konen’s daughter told her she might be bisexual, and by the middle of the seventh grade, Konen was called to the school for a meeting with her daughter, a teacher, and the school principal.”

The teacher reportedly told her that her daughter was “trans fluid. I sat across the table, and I was crying. I was trying to absorb everything. They kept looking at me angrily because I kept saying ‘she,’ and that it was going to take me time to time to process everything. I was very confused. ... I was very upset. I was blindsided—completely blindsided,” she told the Times.

The teacher accused the mother, Jessica Konen, of not being ’emotionally supportive’ of her daughter, who was to be called by a new name and male pronouns and would be using the unisex restroom at school, according to the Epoch Times. “I felt she completely coached my child,” the mother said, referring to the teacher. "It made me feel very, very small as a parent. I was unaware of anything. Not one time had she mentioned to me ‘Oh, I think that I want to change my name,’ or ‘I’m transgender’ or anything. Nothing. I only heard bisexual one time, and that was it,” she added.

A couple days later, the police showed up at the couple’s home because of a complaint to California Child Protective Services (CPS) that had been filed by the school. After the family met with CPS, the complaint was dropped. At the local school board meeting, the mother attested,

“How can you let these teachers come in and act like they’ve done nothing wrong. A mistake? How many mistakes are we going to make before my child almost lost her life? They didn’t tell me that my child was suicidal. You allowed these teachers to open their classrooms teaching predatorial information to a young child, a mindful child who doesn’t even know how to comprehend it all. How do you not know what’s going on in your own campuses? Did you think no parent would ever come forward? You will not quiet me today. I will stand here today and protect my child, along with every other child who has not come forward yet. Do they have psychiatry degrees that I wasn’t aware of? Because I didn’t hire them. I didn’t hire them to sit there and nitpick my child’s brain. You took away my ability to parent my child, even before I had any knowledge. I didn’t even get to show support. Your job was to educate my child in math, science, English, etc. Do your job, and let me do mine!”

Also in attendance was the child’s father. He revealed that they’d been told by the teachers that their daughter is a supposed "transgender", they’d had the cops sicced on them for refusing to use the pronouns the teachers had assigned to the child. Jessica Konen's father, Gunter Konen, also spoke at the meeting and expressed his outrage over the school's handling of his granddaughter, explaining that she had been a straight-A student before she was indoctrinated by her teachers with their leftist gender theory.

The teachers were caught on an audiotape discussing several new strategies to hide their woke agenda in order to avoid any pushback from parents by pulling “mind-tricks” on 6th graders because too many kids had been talking to their parents about the indoctrination. The Spreckels Union School District has since suspended the teachers – with pay – pending the outcome of an independent investigation.

Bay Area

People Organized to Win Employment Rights or POWER (Garza) evolved from the now defunct communist group STORM (Standing Together to Organize a Revolutionary Movement). Obama’s former “green jobs czar” and CNN contributor, the self-described “communist” and “rowdy black nationalist” Van Jones, served on STORM's board. In January 2015, POWER merged with another Liberation Road group, Causa Justa, and Garza left. Garza wrote at about the same time,

"When I use Assata [Shakur]'s powerful demand in my organizing work, I always begin by sharing where it comes from, sharing about Assata’s significance to the Black Liberation Movement, what its political purpose and message is, and why it’s important in our context."

Assata Shakur is the former "queen" of the Black Liberation Army (BLA) terrorist group, who was convicted of the first-degree murder of a New Jersey State Trooper in 1973. She was convicted of murder and seven other felonies. While serving a life sentence, she escaped from the Clinton Correctional Facility for Women in 1979. She was granted political asylum in Cuba in 1984, where she has lived ever since, despite US government efforts to have her extradited. She is on the FBI Most Wanted Terrorists list, under her maiden name Joanne Deborah Chesimard. BLM founders openly admit to being "trained Marxists". Garza is a black separatist and more recently was affiliated with the Marxist Freedom Road Socialist Organization that wants to carve out an independent nation-state in the Bay Area.

Black Lives Matter murder a Black federal officer

Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination

Federal Security Police officer Patrick Underwood was murdered by Antifa terrorists.

Bay Area Democrats rioted in Oakland, California. Nearly 10,000 people took to the streets of the California community, looting stores like Target and Walgreens, and setting fire to a Chase bank. A Black officer from the Department of Homeland Security was murdered and another officer shot.

Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf ordered a hate crime investigation after Oakland Police identified five ropes they described as “nooses” hanging from trees at Lake Merritt, with the city government apparently believing that the ropes were akin to racial intimidation tactics and allusions to lynchings carried out by groups such as the Ku Klux Klan. The FBI was called in support of the investigation. A black man stepped forward stating that he and some of his friends installed the rope and small nooses merely for use as swings and exercise equipment. The nooses were used to attach a makeshift swing. “It’s unfortunate that a genuine gesture of just wanting to create a good time got misinterpreted," stating that he couldn't see how anyone would view the small ropes as a hangman's noose. The Democrat mayor however, refused to accept the word of a Black man and continued to claim the findings are indicative of a hate crime and continued the witchhunt for white supremacists invading Oakland.

San Francisco

The City of San Francisco official "poop map" of reports of human feces on the street covers Nancy Pelosi's entire 12th Congressional district.

See also: San Francisco values

San Francisco (colloquially known as Scat Francisco), California faces Environmental Protection Agency fines over the environmental damage done by the city in collaboration with its homeless partners.

The last Republican mayor was elected in 1964.

Since 2011, the city's Poop Patrol office has received 118,352 reports of turds in the street, or roughly am average of one every 90 seconds, around the clock, for eight solid years. With a growing population, the numbers can only be expected to increase. The San Francisco Chronicle reported in 2018 on the plight of residents unable to get a response from the city. A frustrated citizen finally called the newspaper after finding a suitcase full of human excrement on the corner of his block. The resident purchased a $750,000 condo for his wife and 2-1/2-year-old child. The paper described the neighborhood as "progressive." With the city already covered in feces, the newly elected Democrat district attorney vowed to not prosecute public urination.

In a city with an estimated homeless population of 8,000, the taxpayers liberally hand out 4.5 million free syringes annually, or roughly one every 16 hours, assuming (a) the needles are used exclusively by the homeless and (b) all 8,000 homeless are intravenous drug users. While homeowners and renters may take advantage of this taxpayer subsidy, there is no means testing. And the city leaders give little thought to the health and safety of children in public parks and elsewhere exposed to the careless disposal of dirty needles which are thrown away at a rate of some 12,000 daily. While the city has banned the use of plastic straws because they are a "threat to the environment." the city continues the distribution of disposal plastic syringes which are a threat to everybody's health and the environment.

Chesa Boudin was elected San Francisco district attorney in 2019. Chesa was elected with money from George Soros, is the child of two cop-killing communists, and is named after a cop killing communist. Chesa, a Democrat, was elected on a platform of not prosecuting criminals and opening the prisons as an important step in furthering the Marxist revolution. Chesa is named after Joanne Chesimard, also known as Assata Shakur of the FBI's 10 Most Wanted list currently living in Cuba. Chesimard was convicted of the murder of a New Jersey State Trooper in 1977 and escaped prison in 1979. Chesimard is the inspiration of Patrisse Cullors, founder of Black Lives Matter (BLM).

Chesa's mother is Kathy Boudin, who served 22 years in prison for the murder of two policemen and a Brink's guard. His father, David Gilbert, remains in prison. Chesa was adopted and raised by Weather Underground (WUO) self-admitted terrorists Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn.

Chesa's namesake, Joanne Chesimard aka Assata Shakur, is the former "queen" of the Black Liberation Army (BLA) terrorist group, who was convicted of the first-degree murder of a New Jersey State Trooper in 1973. She was convicted of the murder in 1977 and seven other felonies. While serving a life sentence, she escaped from the Clinton Correctional Facility for Women in 1979. She was granted political asylum in Cuba in 1984 where she has lived ever since, despite US government efforts to have her extradited. She is on the FBI Most Wanted Terrorists list, under her maiden name Joanne Deborah Chesimard. BLM founders openly admit to being "trained Marxists." BLM co-founder Alicia Garza is a black separatist and more recently was affiliated with the Marxist Freedom Road Socialist Organization that wants to carve out an independent nation-state in the Bay Area. Garza wrote, "When I use Assata [Shakur]'s powerful demand in my organizing work, I always begin by sharing where it comes from, sharing about Assata’s significance to the Black Liberation Movement, what its political purpose and message is, and why it’s important in our context."

Los Angeles

Progressives looted expensive stores on Liberalism Hollywood's fashionable Rodeo Drive.

Los Angeles has had one Republican mayor since 1961.

Los Angeles currently is undergoing a typhus epidemic. Typhus is the name given to a group of bacterial infections transmitted to people living in crowded and unsanitary conditions by lice and fleas, coming from infected rats. The rats are attracted to the human environment by unsanitary conditions created by humans.

Los Angeles Democrats sold off all its emergency medical stockpiles and ventilators for a respiratory pandemic in 2011.

During the 2020 leftist uprising, rioters beat up a cop and burnt a police vehicle. The city's Democrat mayor Eric Garcetti cut funding for the police department by $250 million. LAPD reported that during the week of May 31 to Jun 6 homicides went up 250% and victims shot went up 56% compared to the previous week.

Two police sheriff deputies in Los Angeles were shot in an ambush and sustained critical injuries; BLM terrorists attempted to block them from being transported to the emergency room and cursed death wishes at them. Several malicious bystanders laughed at the deputies when they had been initially injured, refusing to help them. The Gravel Institute, founded in 2019 to carry on the life work of former senator and 2020 Democrat primary presidential candidate Mike Gravel, reacted to the gunning down of two LA County Sheriffs officers by tweeting that “blue lives don’t matter” because they are not a “thing”. Anti-cop protesters there had previously chanted "Blue Lives don't matter here!" An NPR hack who interfered with police officers paid the price of being arrested.

Elected officials

Federal

• Sen. Kamala D. Harris [D, CA]
• Sen. Dianne Feinstein [D, CA]
• Rep. Doug LaMalfa [R, CA–1]
• Rep. Jared Huffman [D, CA–2]
• Rep. John Garamendi [D, CA–3]
• Rep. Tom McClintock [R, CA–4]
• Rep. Mike Thompson [D, CA–5]
• Rep. Doris O. Matsui [D, CA–6]
• Rep. Ami Bera [D, CA–7]
• Rep. Jay Obernolte [R, CA–8]
• Rep. Jerry McNerney [D, CA–9]
• Rep. Josh Harder [D, CA–10]
• Rep. Mark DeSaulnier [D, CA–11]
• Rep. Nancy Pelosi [D, CA–12]
• Rep. Barbara Lee [D, CA–13]
• Rep. Jackie Speier [D, CA–14]
• Rep. Eric Swalwell [D, CA–15]
• Rep. Jim Costa [D, CA–16]
• Rep. Ro Khanna [D, CA–17]
• Rep. Anna G. Eshoo [D, CA–18]
• Rep. Zoe Lofgren [D, CA–19]
• Rep. Jimmy Panetta [D, CA–20]
• Rep. David Valadao [R, CA–21]*Rep. Devin Nunes [R, CA–22]
• Rep. Kevin McCarthy [R, CA–23]
• Rep. Salud Carbajal [D, CA–24]
• Rep. Katie Hill [D, CA–25]
• Rep. Julia Brownley [D, CA–26]
• Rep. Judy Chu [D, CA–27]
• Rep. Adam Schiff [D, CA–28]
• Rep. Tony Cárdenas [D, CA–29]
• Rep. Brad Sherman [D, CA–30]
• Rep. Pete Aguilar [D, CA–31]
• Rep. Grace Napolitano [D, CA–32]
• Rep. Ted Lieu [D, CA–33]
• Rep. Jimmy Gomez [D, CA–34]
• Rep. Norma Torres [D, CA–35]
• Rep. Raul Ruiz [D, CA–36]
• Rep. Karen Bass [D, CA–37]
• Rep. Linda Sánchez [D, CA–38]
• Rep. Young Kim [R, CA–39]
• Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard [D, CA–40]
• Rep. Mark Takano [D, CA–41]
• Rep. Ken Calvert [R, CA–42]
• Rep. Maxine Waters [D, CA–43]
• Rep. Nanette Barragán [D, CA–44]
• Rep. Katie Porter [D, CA–45]
• Rep. J. Luis Correa [D, CA–46]
• Rep. Alan Lowenthal [D, CA–47]
• Rep. Michelle Steel [R, CA–48]
• Rep. Mike Levin [D, CA–49]
• Rep. Darrell Issa [R, CA–50]
• Rep. Juan Vargas [D, CA–51]
• Rep. Scott Peters [D, CA–52]
• Rep. Susan Davis [D, CA–53]

Statewide

• Governor Gavin Newsom (D)
• Lieutenant Governor Eleni Kounalakis (D)
• Secretary of State Alex Padilla (D)
• Attorney General Xavier Beccara (D)
• State Treasurer Fiona Ma (D)
• State Controller Betty Yee (D)

Election fraud

See also: Democrat election fraud and Biden Putsch

According to CBS LA, Ellen Swensen with the Election Integrity Project California says they found that more than 277,000 questionable ballots had been mailed in the 2020 presidential election in Los Angeles County before election day. That's 63% of all the questionable ballots mailed statewide. It includes more than 4,800 duplicate ballots mailed to the same person, and 728 ballots mailed to people who were likely dead. In 2016 their investigation found many dead voters still registered. Four years later, there were more.

Economy

The economy has been badly battered by the Recession of 2008, especially by the collapse of the state's housing bubble. Unemployment in August 2009 reached 12.2%, the highest since 1940. Homebuilding this year is less than a quarter of what it was in 2005, and 500,000 of the state's job losses have been in construction, finance, real estate and industries related to construction. The state budget is in crisis, because it relied heavily on personal income taxes. The financial collapse greatly reduced personal wealth of rich Californians, and job losses related to the housing bust combined to sharply reduce that source of revenue. After bitter debate in the legislature, a budget was passed in July 2009. It closed a roughly $24 billion two-year gap with extensive cuts to social services, parks and education, which in turn reduced consumer spending among laid-off and furloughed government workers. Also greatly damaging the economy is its very socialist nature, being a state in which welfare is easy to come by, increasing mass numbers of homeless who live to drink and get high.

Business climate

California scores poorly in state ratings of business climate. In a CNBC survey, it ranked 32nd overall but last in "cost of business" and 49th in "business friendliness." IT (Intel, Google, Hewlett Packard, Cisco, Apple, Yahoo!) and biotechnology remain strengths, but some traditional industries are struggling. High costs, as well as tax breaks from other states, have caused movie studios to shift production from California. In 1996, feature films involved 14,500 production days in Los Angeles County; in 2008, the total had fallen in half. Businessmen both in California and those who have moved out of the state have said that California has declared war on its own economy, with Los Angeles and San Francisco taking particular delight in job-killing legislation.

Budget Crises

The state had two severe budget crises in 2009, caused by high spending, a plunge in tax revenue (caused by the decline in income of the wealthy who pay most of the taxes), and a refusal of enough Republicans to provide the two-thirds majority in the legislature needed to raise taxes. Long-term borrowing is not allowed—the state has to balance its budget annually, but many gimmicks are used.

With a $26 billion deficit in its $92 billion budget, the state ran out of money and issued IOUs (warrants) before the solution was reached: massive spending cuts. In February 2009, the Legislature raised the state sales tax, bringing the total—including local sales taxes—to about 9 cents or more. Top income tax rates, already among the highest in the country, were raised. So were motor vehicle registration fees. Spending cuts approved in February and July are deep. Together, the cuts equal almost 30% of the general revenue fund and will affect schools, prisons, colleges and welfare. Some welfare benefits will be cut by half. California's student-teacher ratio, now about a third above the national average, will probably go even higher. The high-prestige University of California system lost 20% of its state payments. It is raising tuition and student fees by 9.3%, imposing salary reductions of 4% to 10% on more than 100,000 workers, and postponing faculty hires until improvements occur.

Republicans claimed victory in the end, as they achieved large budget cuts and no new taxes.

Another budget crisis

An ugly budget crisis in 2009 was resolved after months of squabbling, with budget cuts, accounting gimmicks, and new taxes. The legislature in 2009 cut billions from education, healthcare and social services while temporarily hiking income, sales and vehicle taxes. The 2010 budget deficit is projected at $21 billion which must be closed somehow.

Suggested solutions include raising tobacco taxes; cutting pensions for retired public workers; repealing corporate tax breaks passed in 2008 and 2009; revising the tax rules for commercial and residential property; reducing the 2/3 legislative vote needed to pass a budget; and strengthening the firewall that protects local government and transportation money from being raided by the state. "There's a lot of people putting chess pieces on the board right now," said Jon Coupal, president of the anti-tax Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Assn. "The question is which of those chess pieces will be moving."

Green jobs

Green environmental policies scrapped the centuries-old practice of creating firebreaks in forests between clumps of trees that would limit fire outbreaks in hot weather. By 2020, far from “protecting the trees” and wildlife, the ending of windbreak spaces instead allowed forest fires to blaze on an unprecedented scale and at record speed. At the same time, millions of people sweated even in luxury suburbs through the rolling heat waves without any air-conditioning relief because the state electric grid repeatedly collapsed, unable to generate the necessary power levels at vital times. Liberal suburbanites who have relentlessly voted for and imposed these policies over the past decades began fleeing California as property values crashed and taxes became too crushing.

Energy

California is rich in conventional and renewable energy resources. It has large crude oil and substantial natural gas deposits in six geological basins, located in the Central Valley and along the Pacific coast. Most of those reserves are concentrated in the southern San Joaquin Basin. More than a dozen of the Nation's 100 largest oil fields are located in California, including the Belridge South oil field, the second-largest oil field in the contiguous United States. In addition, Federal assessments indicate that large undiscovered deposits of recoverable oil and gas lie offshore in the federally administered Outer Continental Shelf (OCS), although Federal law currently prohibits oil and gas leasing in that area. California's renewable energy potential is extensive. The State's hydroelectric power potential ranks second in the Nation (behind Washington State), and substantial geothermal and wind power resources are found along the coastal mountain ranges and the eastern border with Nevada. High solar energy potential is found in southeastern California's sunny deserts.

California is the most populous state in the nation and its total energy demand is second only to Texas. Although California is a leader in the energy-intensive chemical, forest products, glass, and petroleum industries, the State has one of the lowest per capita energy consumption rates in the country. The California government's energy-efficiency programs have contributed to low per capita energy consumption. Driven by high demand from California's many motorists, major airports, and military bases, the transportation sector is the State's largest energy consumer. More motor vehicles are registered in California than any other State, and worker commute times are among the longest in the country.

Petroleum

California is one of the top producers of crude oil in the United States, with output accounting for more than one-tenth of total U.S. production. Drilling operations are concentrated primarily in Kern County and the Los Angeles basin, although substantial production also takes place offshore in both State and Federal waters. Concerns regarding the cumulative impacts of offshore oil and gas development, combined with a number of major marine oil spills throughout the world in recent years, have led to a permanent moratorium on offshore oil and gas leasing in California waters and a deferral of leasing in Federal waters. However, development on existing State and Federal leases is not affected and may still occur within offshore areas leased prior to the effective date of the moratorium.

A network of crude oil pipelines connects production areas to refining centers in the Los Angeles area, the San Francisco Bay area, and the Central Valley. California refiners also process large volumes of Alaskan and foreign crude oil received at ports in Los Angeles, Long Beach, and the Bay Area. Crude oil production in California and Alaska is in decline and California refineries have become increasingly dependent on foreign imports. Led by Saudi Arabia and Ecuador, foreign suppliers now provide more than two-fifths of the crude oil refined in California; however, California's dependence on foreign oil remains less than the national average.California ranks third in the United States in petroleum refining capacity and accounts for more than one-tenth of total U.S. capacity. California's largest refineries are highly sophisticated; they are capable of processing a wide variety of crude oil types and are designed to yield a high percentage of light products like motor gasoline. To meet strict Federal and State environmental regulations, California refineries are configured to produce cleaner fuels, including reformulated motor gasoline and low-sulfur diesel.

Most California motorists are required to use a special motor gasoline blend called California Clean Burning Gasoline (CA CBG). In the ozone non-attainment areas of Imperial County and the Los Angeles metropolitan area, motorists are required to use California Oxygenated Clean Burning Gasoline, and the Los Angeles area is also required to use oxygenated motor gasoline during the winter months. By 2004, California completed a transition from methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE) to ethanol as a gasoline oxygenate additive, making California the largest ethanol fuel market in the United States. There are four ethanol production plants in central and southern California, but most of California's ethanol supply is transported by rail from corn-based producers in the Midwest. Some supply is also imported from abroad.

Due to the relative isolation and specific requirements of the California fuel market, California motorists are particularly vulnerable to short-term spikes in the price of motor gasoline. No pipelines connect California to other major U.S. refining centers, and California refineries often operate at near maximum capacity due to high demand for petroleum products. When an unplanned refinery outage occurs, replacement supplies must be brought in via marine tanker. Locating and transporting this replacement gasoline (which must conform to the State's strict fuel requirements) can take from two to six weeks.

Natural Gas

California natural gas production typically accounts for less than 2 percent of total annual U.S. production and satisfies less than one-fifth of State demand. Production takes place in basins located in northern and southern California, as well as offshore in the Pacific Ocean. California receives most of its natural gas by pipeline from production regions in the Rocky Mountains, the Southwest, and western Canada. As with crude oil production, California natural gas production is in decline. However, State supply has remained relatively stable due to increasing amounts of natural gas shipped from the Rocky Mountains. California markets are served by two key natural gas trading centers—the Golden Gate Center in northern California and the California Energy Hub in southern California—and the State has nearly a dozen natural gas storage facilities that help stabilize supply. In part to help meet California's demand for natural gas, several companies have proposed building liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminals in southern California.

Coal, Electricity, and Renewables

Natural gas-fired power plants typically account for more than one-half of State electricity generation. California is one of the largest hydroelectric power producers in the United States, and with adequate rainfall, hydroelectric power typically accounts for close to one-fifth of State electricity generation. California's two nuclear power plants account for almost one-fifth of total generation. Due to strict emission laws, only a few small coal-fired power plants operate in California.

California leads the nation in electricity generation from nonhydroelectric renewable energy sources. California generates electricity using wind, geothermal, solar, fuel wood, and municipal solid waste/landfill gas resources. A facility known as “The Geysers,” located in the Mayacamas Mountains north of San Francisco is the largest complex of geothermal power plants in the world, with more than 750 megawatts of installed capacity. California has numerous wind farms in five major wind resource areas, and several new projects are currently under construction. The world's largest solar power facility operates in California's Mojave Desert. Two southern California utilities are planning to build new solar farms, a 500-megawatt facility in the Mojave Desert and a 300-megawatt plant in the Imperial Valley. These proposed plants would dwarf existing U.S. solar generation capacity. To further boost renewable energy use, California's Energy Action Plan includes incentives that encourage Californians to install solar power systems on their rooftops.

Imports

Due to high electricity demand, California imports more electricity than any other State. States in the Pacific Northwest deliver power to California markets primarily from hydroelectric sources, while States in the Desert Southwest deliver power primarily from coal- and natural gas-fired sources. Hydroelectric power comes to California primarily through the Western USA interconnection, which runs from northern Oregon to southern California. The system, also known as the Pacific Intertie, is the largest single electricity transmission program in the United States. Although the Pacific Intertie was originally designed to transmit electricity south during California's peak summer demand season, flow is sometimes reversed overnight and has occasionally been reversed during periods of reduced hydroelectric generation in the Northwest. California restricts the use of coal-fired generation within its boundaries; however, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) operates the coal-fired Intermountain power plant in Utah, which delivers three-fourths of its output to LADWP and other California municipal utilities. A recent California law forbids utilities from entering into long-term contracts with conventional coal-fired power producers. Intermountain's existing contracts with southern California cities are set to expire in 2027.

Energy crisis

In 2000 and 2001, California suffered an energy crisis characterized by electricity price instability and four major blackouts, caused by a supply and demand imbalance. Multiple factors contributed to this imbalance, including: a heavy dependence on out-of-State electricity providers, drought conditions in the northwest that reduced hydroelectric power generation, a rupture on a major natural gas pipeline supplying California power plants, strong economic growth leading to increased electricity demand in western States, an increase in unplanned power plant outages, and unusually high temperatures that increased electricity demand for air-conditioning and other cooling uses. Following the energy crisis, the California State government created an Energy Action Plan designed to eliminate outages and excessive price spikes. To achieve these goals, the plan calls for optimizing energy conservation, building sufficient new generation facilities, upgrading and expanding the electricity transmission and distribution infrastructure, and ensuring that generation facilities can quickly come online when needed.

Education

The state of California has three tiers of public higher education: the California community colleges, the California State University (CSU) system, and the University of California (UC) system (which is home to University of California, Berkeley and University of California, Los Angeles, both of which are world-renowned). In addition, California is also home to several notable private universities, such as California Institute of Technology, Stanford University and University of Southern California.

Spectator Sports

California has more professional sports teams than any other state.

• NBA - Los Angeles Lakers, Los Angeles Clippers, Golden State Warriors, Sacramento Kings
• NHL - Anaheim Ducks, Los Angeles Kings, San Jose Sharks
• NFL - Los Angeles Rams, San Francisco 49ers, and Los Angeles Chargers
• Major League Baseball - Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, San Diego Padres, Oakland Athletics, San Francisco Giants, Los Angeles Dodgers
• Major League Soccer - Los Angeles Galaxy, Los Angeles FC, San Jose Earthquakes

In college sports, UCLA, USC, Stanford, University of California, Berkeley and Santa Clara University have recently had great success, in basketball and football respectively, except for Santa Clara University, which discontinued its football program in 1992.

Other professional sports teams

Sport	League	Team	City
Baseball	California League (Class A-Advanced MiLB)	Inland Empire 66ers	San Bernardino
		Lake Elsinore Storm	Lake Elsinore
		Lancaster JetHawks	Lancaster
		Modesto Nuts	Modesto
		Rancho Cucamonga Quakes	Rancho Cucamonga
		San Jose Giants	San Jose
		Stockton Ports	Stockton
		Visalia Rawhide	Visalia
	Pacific Association	Napa Silverados	Napa
		Pittsburg Diamonds	Pittsburg
		San Rafael Pacifics	San Rafael
		Sonoma Stompers	Sonoma
		Vallejo Admirals	Vallejo
	Pacific Coast League (Triple-A MiLB)	Fresno Grizzlies	Fresno
		Sacramento River Cats	West Sacramento, California
Basketball	American Basketball Association	California Golden Tigers	Oakland
		California Sea-Kings	Marina, California
		Modesto Super Kats	Modesto
		Orange County Novastars	Irvine
		San Diego Surf	San Diego
	NBA G League	Agua Caliente Clippers	Ontario
		Santa Cruz Warriors	Santa Cruz
		South Bay Lakers	El Segundo
		Stockton Kings	Stockton
	Women's National Basketball Association	Los Angeles Sparks	Los Angeles
Ice hockey	American Hockey League	Bakersfield Condors	Bakersfield
		Ontario Reign	Ontario
		Palm Springs	Palm Springs
		San Diego Gulls	San Diego
		San Jose Barracuda	San Jose
		Stockton Heat	Stockton
Soccer	USL Championship	Fresno FC	Fresno
		LA Galaxy II	Carson
		Orange County SC	Irvine
		Sacramento Republic FC	Sacramento
	Major Arena Soccer League	Ontario Fury	Ontario
		San Diego Sockers	San Diego
		Turlock Express	Turlock
Ultimate	American Ultimate Disc League	Los Angeles Aviators	Los Angeles
		San Diego Growlers	San Diego
		San Francisco FlameThrowers	Oakland
		San Jose Spiders	Los Altos Hills

Places of Interest

*Agua Tibia Wilderness

• Alcatraz Island (San Francisco)
• Beverly Hills
• Disneyland
• Golden Gate Bridge (San Francisco)
• Hollywood and elsewhere in Los Angeles
• Monterey Bay Aquarium
• Palomar Mountain
• Redwood Forest
• Yosemite

Major Cities

• Los Angeles
• Anaheim
• Berkeley
• Oakland
• San Diego
• San Francisco
• San Jose
• Sacramento

Miscellaneous facts

• California was the first state to remove school prayer from its public schools, legalize abortion in the later 1960s (1967 for "therapeutic" reasons, "on-demand" in 1969) before the U.S. Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade in 1973 and pass the U.S.' first no-fault divorce laws, signed by Governor Ronald Reagan in 1969.
• California surpassed France in 2000 to become the fifth-largest economy in the world.
• Los Angeles hosted the Summer Olympics in 1932 and 1984.
• The California Redwood was named the official state tree in 1937.
• The state flower is the Golden poppy.
• The state bird is the California quail.
• San Bernardino County is the largest county in the United States; Los Angeles is the largest by population.
• Since 2000, California has offered domestic partnerships, which are similar to same sex marriage. and same-sex marriage was briefly legal in 2008, but this ended when Proposition 8, a voter referendum to define marriage as only being between a man and a woman, passed.
• While the brown bear is extinct in California, it is California's state mammal.

See also

• Jefferson State
• Strategic relocation - vote with your feet Free States Movement
• Left Coast

External links

• Official Website
• [6]