Randy

SaveCalifornia.com Blog//

Archives for the ‘Good Government’ Category

Democrat politicians caused and won’t fix California’s housing problem

Wednesday, August 23, 2017, 4:33 pm | Randy Thomasson


Why has the median price of a house in California increased 64% in the past five years? In January 2012, the median price statewide was $306,000 and now it’s $503,000.

The answer is the most simple and important law of the free market — Supply and Demand. There aren’t enough houses and apartments for people to live in, so the Demand for housing has overtaken the Supply of housing. But liberal/progressive/Democrat politicians who don’t live in the real world “don’t get” this unchangeable law of money.

What’s been suppressing California’s supply of housing? Government thieves. First, the Democrat politicians in charge of California for decades now have burdened developers with an overwhelming amount of government fees, it’s more feasible to build houses in other states.

Add to this powerful friends of Democrat politicians, the environmental wackos. These groups devalue human beings and their God-given needs, and block housing development after development. For example, in Santa Clarita, California:

2011: “Environmentalists sue to block a new city in L.A. County”
2017: “L.A. County hit with lawsuit claiming Newhall Ranch project would be ‘menace’ to public”: Environmental groups are suing Los Angeles County and a development firm for moving ahead with plans to build 5,500 homes and apartments in the Santa Clarita Valley … For at least two decades, activists in the Santa Clarita Valley have tried to fight off the Newhall Ranch development.

Meanwhile, what’s been artificially increasing the demand for housing? Illegal immigration. Again, the Democrats in charge of California have been using all the magnets at their disposal to attract people to illegally cross over from Mexico. Invaders get virtually all the benefits of U.S. citizenship, including California driver’s licenses and government welfare, with zero legal need to learn English. Illegally crossing the border has been rewarded with money, so it’s no surprise that, in 2014, California had at least 2.35 million illegal immigrants.

So the Democrat politicians caused California’s severe housing problem. And now that it’s staring them in the face, will the Democrat politicians solve it? Nope. Of the raft of “housing” bills currently proposed by Democrats in Sacramento, all but one of their bills would grow government bigger and take even more money away from responsible, hard-working Californians.

This is what you get with the Democrats in charge. Higher prices, denial of reality, shrinking the supply of what people really need (think housing, water, jobs), and dumbing down the next generation with government schools that refuse to teach 7 of 10 children to read or compute proficiently.

“Those who corrupt the public mind are just as evil as those who steal from the public purse.”
Adlai Stevenson, Illinois Governor (1949-1953, Democrat nominee for U.S. President (1952, 1956)

When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice; But when a wicked man rules, the people groan.
Proverbs 29:2

What I learned on my first visit to Yosemite

Saturday, August 12, 2017, 6:41 pm | Randy Thomasson

Can you believe it? I’ve lived all my life in California and have never visited Yosemite National Park. Fortunately, some dear people invited me on a mini-vacation and I finally got to experience it. My half-burned-out mind and body needed the rest!

While enjoying the visual feast of God’s beautiful creation at Yosemite, I was also surprised to experience or learn that:

1. Yosemite is clogged with cars and the Yosemite Valley is a long drive from the park entrance. All the visitors made it feel overcrowded to me. At the main “view” area, there were lots of foreign tourists, all talking in their native languages.

2. The government is making money off visitors. A vehicle with one or more persons is charged $30. The cheapest price, $10, is if you’re 62 or older. But is this a fair pay-to-play arrangement, or does the National Park Service regard visitors as a revenue source? With official stats reporting 5,217,114 visitors in 2016, and a projected 2017 budget of $27 million, they should be collecting only $5.17 per person. Yet it seems We the People are paying more than that to visit Our property.

3. There’s a big grocery store in Yosemite that sells a lot of alcohol. I asked a store clerk whether the liquor buyers are folks who are “partying” or simply trying to drown their depression. He said probably both types bought the booze.

4. There’s a United States courthouse right in Yosemite Park. This federal court has somehow acquired California state court powers to judge all citations and misdemeanors in the 750,000-acre park. And the alcohol-related crimes are very high. I can’t help but think that the big liquor aisle at the Yosemite grocery store is part of the problem.

After a robust day hike, during which I enjoying dipping my feet in the cool waters of Lower Yosemite Falls, I was glad to have finally witnessed in person the famous “postcard images” of Yosemite. It’s a day I’ll never forget, full of memories with folks I love.

Yet, to me, modern-day Yosemite has too many cars and people, too-high prices and too much government. No offense intended to any Yosemite aficionados, but next time I hike, I think I’ll find a quiet hill or mountain that gives me more for less. Having gone on several High Sierra hiking trips in my youth, I’ve become quite a nature-lover because I’m simply fascinated with God’s creation!

Oh come, let us sing to the Lord!
Let us shout joyfully to the Rock of our salvation.
Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving;
Let us shout joyfully to Him with psalms.
For the Lord is the great God,
And the great King above all gods.
In His hand are the deep places of the earth;
The heights of the hills are His also.
The sea is His, for He made it;
And His hands formed the dry land.
Psalm 95:1-5

Get this through your head: Freedom is not free

Saturday, July 1, 2017, 5:56 pm | Randy Thomasson

Do you remember that when our U.S. founding fathers signed the Declaration of Independence in 1776, they pledged “our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor”?

Do you realize that John Adams said that the price of liberty was “a great expense of blood,” and that 25,000 Americans died to purchase the United States of America for you?

What are you willing to do (which will not require the shedding of blood) to recover the Constitution that they gave you, and to publicly represent the moral standards that Creator God bestowed upon you?

“Our Lives, Our Fortunes, Our Sacred Honor”
WATCH Paul Harvey | READ Rush Limbaugh, Jr.

“The object is great which we have in view, and we must expect a great expense of blood to obtain it. But we should always remember that a free constitution of civil government cannot be purchased at too dear a rate, as there is nothing on this side of Jerusalem of equal importance to mankind.” John Adams, 2nd U.S. President, on July 1, 1776, as quoted by David McCullough

July 3, 1776 letters from John Adams to his wife, Abigail Adams: “The furnace of affliction produces refinement, in states as well as individuals. And the new governments we are assuming, in every part, will require a purification from our vices and an augmentation of our virtues or they will be no blessings. The people will have unbounded power. And the people are extremely addicted to corruption and venality, as well as the great.” Source

“It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more. You will think me transported with Enthusiasm but I am not. I am well aware of the Toil and Blood and Treasure, that it will cost Us to maintain this Declaration, and support and defend these States. Yet through all the Gloom I can see the Rays of ravishing Light and Glory. I can see that the End is more than worth all the Means. And that Posterity will tryumph in that Days Transaction, even altho We should rue it, which I trust in God We shall not.” Source