Gavin Newsom
(AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

In recent weeks, California’s Governor Gavin Newsom has turned 180 degrees on things like limiting police power and dealing with homeless encampments. This might seem like either a move to common sense or election-year desperation as he tries to appeal to voters outside of his state. Perhaps he got passed up for the VP slot due to the disorder in his state, and he’s hoping for a 2028 run for the big chair. But, my take on this is that it’s just a natural consequence of California’s anti-gun policies and culture and the total mindset of people who think that way.

Before anyone points out the absurdity of this simple argument, I’m not saying that all countries without guns in the hands of citizens end up like California with rampant crime, homelessness and people being one of the top exports. There are plenty of very stable countries that have strict gun control laws and also have law and order.

But, places that anti-gun people point to as great examples of gun control working out aren’t California. None of those places have the problems California has. They don’t have the housing shortages pushing people into the street. They don’t have the economic desperation at the bottom that drives people to turn to crime and go back to it after getting out of prison. They don’t have social decohesion that leads to disconnectedness, desperation and rampant drug addiction.

None of those problems are easy to solve, and most of them can’t be solved by government. If anything, government did dumb things to create crippling housing shortages, lost economic opportunity and create an environment for kids who weren’t raised to be good people. The only way a population in that bad of shape can keep itself safe is through personal freedom, which includes being able to defend yourself from the dregs of society.

When California decided to go after good people while taking it easy on the criminals and addicts they felt bad for without any real problem solving for that crowd, the result was inevitable. Unlike say Norway, California didn’t address poverty and other social problems while taking away people’s guns, turning good citizens into criminals and holding true criminals unaccountable. Then, they were shocked to see that they didn’t get the same result that those kinds of countries got.

If anything, the appearance of homemade gun designs like the FGC-9 in those countries, minus the mass shootings, shows us that a stable society is what keeps the violence down, not gun control. So, California and other such states copied the wrong things from those countries and are now left wondering why it doesn’t work out.

The Misguided Return To “Law & Order”

With intractable social problems and gun control failing to fix everything, California is left with just one other solution: clamping down harder.

Image via Wikipedia, CC-BY-SA 3.0 License.

Political scientist Ian Bremmer explains the conundrum as a “J Curve”. When a society is open (as in free), it can flourish. But, really restricted societies can also have a lot of stability, even if they can’t be as stable or prosperous as open societies that respect their citizens and serve them instead of treating them like subjects. But, at the bottom of this curve are societies that aren’t open enough to be prosperous and are closed enough to be artificially stable. These countries tend to suffer continuous political violence until they either open up or close down (or self-destruct entirely).

With California heading toward the bottom of that curve while having leaders who don’t value a really open society, the only other option left to them is to clamp down hard to try to restore order.

But, they aren’t at the bottom yet and might not survive the trip across and up the other side of the curve into such a police state, as there are very valid reasons that police have had their hands tied in California. For example police chases have mostly become a thing of the past in all 50 states because people realized that police chases are more dangerous than the bad guy getting away in many cases. So, chases have been restricted to only those situations that are more dangerous to the public than the chase itself (a wise policy that keeps the police and reckless criminals from harming more innocent people).

Instead of fixing underlying problems and trying to address crime with openness, he’s trying to take California law enforcement back to the days when Los Angeles police chases were the highlight of any cable news day. He’s also looking to do the same thing with homelessness:

Instead of solving the housing crisis with open systems and letting the free market provide the housing supply people need, Newsom is instead trying to clamp down on the homeless population in his state and force them into something akin to Star Trek’s “Sanctuary Districts” (something Deep Space 9 writers set in 2024 California, interestingly enough). Instead, California’s endless supply of HOA Karens and draconian zoning leads to a closed system that can only close down further.

None of this is going to work, though. Like when California copied half of what European countries did, California’s only copying half of the red state law and order playbook. Without property rights, open government and people free to defend themselves, that’s going to fail spectacularly and lead to further crackdowns on personal freedoms or at the very least, the utter collapse of California.

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46 COMMENTS

  1. Can’t we just remove a star off the flag and hand that state over to Mexico and be done with it?

    • Ralph, that’s the best idea I’ve heard lately! Let me make a suggestion. Let’s keep the star and everything north of San Francisco. Let’s go a step further. We’ll keep the stars, but the Pacific NW east of the Cascades are on their own.

    • How about we keep the territory of California but deport about half the residents back to Mexico and Africa?

      • If you deport the blue haired white people, and leave the Mexicans and Africans, and the Asians, you’ll be much better off. It’s not the dark skinned people who created the 3rd world shitehole in Cali, it’s white people like Newsome who did that.

    • And tell Mexico “no returns” as they might find the state more trouble than it is worth.

  2. It’s election season and once again a liberal/progressive democrat resorts to ALAR. What is ALAR you ask… Act Like a Republican. By suddenly supporting all the things they have fought against for the last 4 years only to return to their old ideology and agendas once they get the results they were looking for.

    • The Biden Administration suddenly decided to pretend like they want border enforcement. They’re lying about it though. Kamala’s stump speech includes pretending like she wants to limit illegal immigration. She says she needs to pass that “bipartisan border bill” that Trump opposed. That border bill made illegal immigration legal! It guaranteed a certain level of walk-in legal immigration. The money was to help usher more people in. She has zero respect for her constituents to lie like that. Democrat voters are stupid for supporting Kamala & Co. The media has broken their brains. TDS is real.

  3. Government cannot solve poverty. President Johnson tried that, and all it accomplished was a vast expansion of the welfare rolls. When the government hands you what you need to survive, and private industry does not pay as well for minimum wage jobs, there is no incentive to get off the rolls, leading to generational welfare recipients. Generational welfare leads to fatherless families, drug abuse, and of course, an increase in crime. It doesn’t help that California’s public school system has gone down the crapper even after billions of dollars were thrown at it; unfortunately, most of that money went to pay for administrative jobs as the State imposed greater and greater reporting requirements and less money for class rooms and teachers. And so on. This was just a sample of the innumerable problems brought on by state control.

  4. “There are plenty of very stable countries that have strict gun control laws and also have law and order.”

    Hmmm not really. What they have is control over what gets reported or is considered ‘crime’.

    For example: In most places in Europe rape of female foreigner ‘tourists’ is rampant (especially in the UK, ‘un-offically’ dubbed with the title of ‘rape capital of Europe’). But its not reported in crime stats and media because ‘they are not citizens’ and they don’t want to ‘upset’ the tourist industry too much because its worth million of $$$ annually. And, for example, there are 40% of the U.K.’s ‘sex workers’ murdered annually and less than 5% of them appear in the U.K. annual crime and murder stats.

    • and also…

      “There are plenty of very stable countries that have strict gun control laws and also have law and order.”

      That’s also not true for a variety of other reasons, one being human nature free will. Criminally minded people can decide to commit a crime or not.

      And, for example, in the U.K. they have strict gun control laws but violent knife crime is rampant and the mentally ill and criminal response to ‘strict gun control laws’. But unless it something ‘sensational’ or involves ‘well known’ people it doesn’t get reported in the media and then police don’t seriously investigate unless there is a known perpetrator which leads to thousands of ‘cold cases’ annually that do not make it into stats because they are cases without a known perpetrator thus do not fulfill the requirements for being included in crime category stats.

      And oddly, overall we do that same thing here in the U.S. with assaults and rapes and murders where if there is no perpetrator known or can be discovered the crime is not reported in crime stats. This leads to, for example, literally thousands of knife attacks annually not making it into crime stats (over ~1,600 daily across the United States, making ‘knife violence’ rates outnumber the so called ‘gun violence’ rates ~1,000 : 0.5).

      All this type of stuff, first post and this add on… makes – “There are plenty of very stable countries that have strict gun control laws and also have law and order.” – actually a false statement. A country can not have stability with restrictions of anything AND still actually have “law and order” simply because you can not ‘legislate’ human nature free will. Law and order only works if the people will follow that law and order concept, if they choose not to do so it simply does not work and that leads to a government imposing ‘other means’. And one means is to keep up the charade that government is in control of it to keep the people believing in their government control. And one of those charade means for “countries that have strict gun control laws” is to simply control what is or is not reported so they can continue to claim ‘less crime’ or “law and order” because they have “strict gun control laws” and its a false impression because that combination doesn’t really exist.

      • Many of the countries with strict gun control also:
        1. Are island nations (Japan, UK, Australia, New Zealand, ….) – borders much easier to secure
        2. Are generally homogenous cultures, versus a “melting pot”
        3. Do not have a large, effectively open border that drugs and other criminal enterprises expose (heck – the US has *2* such borders).

        Finally, remove the top 5 cities in the US for violence, and you’re left with a pretty safe country overall.

        • Island borders “should” be easier to control, however they are importing third-worlders by the boatload. It is almost as bad as our Southern border. THAT is causing the massive crime waves combined with police not doing their supposed job.

          • Oz is going “catch up mode” on immigrants because of the shortfall from the “virus of unknown origin” era.

            Right in the middle of a housing affordability crisis (both buying and rental), inflation running at 4% per quarter, cost of living crisis with food and energy rising above inflation. And rising unemployment too.

            Where are these migrants going to live? Are they supplied with boxes and tarps and given a map of bridges to camp under?

            • A sudden surge in immigration will increase inflation. Brace for impact.

              The people still supporting Leftists hellbent on destroying the West have been broken by the propaganda. The magical words of racist/xenophobe still have power.

      • .40 cal Booger. Interesting knife statistics. And the situation in UK with not reporting crime. Can you provide us a source for this data?

        • I’ve provided them before here. I’ll need to look them up again when I get the time. If the search function here worked properly I would post the link to where I posted them, but alas the search function here doesn’t work properly enough to where I can dig them out. So when I get the time i’ll find them again. But in the mean time, if you set up search terms to filter for knife crime in the U.K. eventually you will get the environment for this and buried deep in those searches are clues to several reports by the U.K. government outlining the issue.

          I get my stuff from my wife’s systems. She is a contract free lance journalist … and certified researcher that does research for various entities from corporations to ‘think tanks’ to our states and federal ‘governments’ and has access to state and federal databases and research assets into which various things flow including comparative ‘behind the scenes’ stats from other ‘US friendly’ countries.

  5. It’s always total anarchy or police state shenanigans with these people.
    Conveniently the pain caused by either the anarchy or the police state is always the fault of their political enemies. Always win-win for the elite leftists.

  6. Politicians like Newsom and Harris have no core beliefs or principles. They abandon stated principles whenever they need to climb the next step on the ladder.

  7. Newsom is every bit the same corrupted tyrannical dictator he’s been form the start. He’s the front man for the destruction of his state. He should be locked-up for treason and live the rest of his life in shame.

  8. California as a state is a disgrace. I had a brother in law who was really screwed up in the head. He was a paranoid schizophrenic who was gay and had contracted HIV through his actions. Now, I don’t care if someone is gay. That’s their problem is the way I see it. But in his schizophrenia he ran away from his responsibilities here on the east coast (His dog, his apartment, his job etc) and went to CA after embezzling a ton of money from his and his father’s business. He of course blew it all and became homeless. The state only enabled his stupidity that ultimate led to his death last year. Instead of institutionalizing a schizo they instead gave him a room in a rundown former motel that was converted into a kinda like halfway house. They openly used drugs via syringe and it was cringeworthy. As long as the state sponsors such activity, they are complicit in the actions of those people. And until the gov’t of that state is completely revamped, it will never change.

  9. I started reading this without taking note of the author. It is very much a well reasoned, articulate analysis of the problem with a libertarian philosophy. I could relate horror stories about how the local Karens cause homelessness by obstructing the construction of new housing. I was therefore mildly surprised then amused to see that it was written by Jennifer Sensiba. After reading her articles on other sites related to other issues (Solettas and Solar Power Satellites), I am utterly amazed.

    I can certainly relate with the point that HOA Karens contribute to homelessness by obstructing the construction of new housing. This in turn contributes to poverty and crime. Unrestrained illegal immigration only exasperates the problem. Government is the problem, not the solution.

    I had the misfortune of owning land in Oregon that I wished to sell for a housing development. The local Karens (aka “blue haired bitches”) and the Tualatin Hills Parks and Recreation District coveted my land for a park. THPRD and the Karens felt entitled to pay me only pennies on the dollar for my land. I was quite amendable to donating the unbuildable portion of my land for a park. Unfortunately; that didn’t satisfy the Karens or the THPRD.

    After fighting the Karens and the THPRD for over a decade and actually having to “move” my land from Multnomah County to Washington County, I was poised to sell. THPRD responded by sending one of their own security guards over to their “park” adjacent to my land to repeatedly commit arson of an abandoned house that THPRD had been attempting to get permits to demolish. The repeated arson fires enabled THPRD to obtain emergency waivers that enabled demolition. THPRD and the Blue Haired Bitches also exploited the arson fires by attempting to falsely implicate me. Half a year later, John Michael Townsend, a THPRD security guard, was arrested for these arson fires. Even after Townsend had signed a plea agreement and was scheduled for sentencing, a THPRD official threatened me with a civil forfeiture lawsuit to confiscate my land. I regret resisting the temptation to avulse his head.

      • Just to illustrate how insane the situation was. The arsonist and one of his THPRD colleagues tailed me with intent to pull me over and detain me. This was a day after the first fire and the night of the second fire. (The second fire erupted a few hours later.). It would have been hilarious if I had allowed the Tinkerbells to pull me over.

      • Or chained to a tree in a remote part of the park. Let the critters take care of the leftovers.

  10. “There are plenty of very stable countries that have strict gun control laws and also have law and order.”

    These countries are almost always racially and culturally homogeneous, and are more or less patriarchal. Japan and South Korea are excellent examples. Contrary to current political thinking and popular thought, “di.ve.rs.it.y” and “f.em.i!n.ism” always lead to societal breakdown, cr.im.in.ali.ty, and vi.ol.en.ce.

    The US is an excellent example, but so is Russia, Indonesia, Mexico, and every other country that attempts to live up to the “multicultural” standard.

    And what does Ms. Sensiba think about the A.r.ab t!r.an.n.y beating the cr.a.p out of the Italian female boxer at the Olympics? Please, do tell us your logic behind defending tr!a.ns women competing against biological women.

    We’re waiting with baited breath.

    • “the A.r.ab t!r.an.n.y beating the cr.a.p out of the Italian female boxer at the Olympics“

      I think you should have someone sit you down and explain to you about the birds and the bees, you obviously have never been with a real woman and can’t tell the difference which I’m sure makes for an interesting time when you’re horny. I imagine your neighbors are keeping an eye on you around their children.

      • Miner49er, so you have had sex with a ‘biological male gender declarative as female’ and believed that biological male to be a biological female.

        I suggest you find out what ‘context’ means.

  11. “There are plenty of very stable countries that have strict gun control laws and also have law and order.’

    ??? Bullshit! In the eyeblink since WW2 maybe, and in the noncommunist capitalist sectors, thanks largely to taxpayer funded American projection of overwhelming military force…

    The authoritarian world has been cycling through periods of chaos and anarchy, with huge genetic and economic turnover, for millenia. The Revolution of 1776 and The Bill of Rights has shown the way forward to the social stability mandated by nukes.

  12. Who the fuck cares about Californistan anymore? I tell my nieces and nephews to get the fuck out! Do it now before you make me have to go save your asses. Fuck you Newsom, Fuck you Bonta, Fuck you Sacramento.

    What was this article about? Nevermind…I’m fighting for Colorado. I don’t think that it is a lost cause yet, but then I’m a silly silly fool…

    I love this country and I know that many on this site do also.
    The Bible doesn’t mention the United States in the end days.
    Meaning you had better be right with our Lord.

    • “The Bible doesn’t mention the United States in the end days.”

      It does mention “the Lion, and all her cubs”. Seems that most researchers agree that “the Lion” is England, and her empire/commonwealth. Which certainly appears to diminish the US as an “also ran”.

      • “Seems that most researchers agree that “the Lion” is England, and her empire/commonwealth“

        Another biblical illiterate.

        For folks who think they are being true to their sky daddy they sure are ignorant of his writings.

        “Notably, the tribe of Judah, from which King David and ultimately Jesus Christ descend according to Matthew’s genealogy (Matthew 1:1-16), is associated with the lion—a symbol of strength and leadership.“

        It has often been noted that atheists are more familiar with the Bible than most Christians.

        As Mark Twain once said, “reading the Bible is the best cure for Christianity”.

        • “Another biblical illiterate.

          For folks who think they are being true to their sky daddy they sure are ignorant of his writings.”

          Once again Miner49er, learn what context means.

          he said … “Seems that most researchers agree that “the Lion” is England, and her empire/commonwealth“

          He was, as clearly indicated in his comments, talking about “most researchers”, not about what scripture actually said. He was neither ‘illiterate’ or ‘literate’ in his reference to “researchers” but instead merely stating fact that “…most researchers agree that ‘the Lion’ is England, and her empire/commonwealth“ – and that is a fact.

          Your ‘accusation’ is false and its false because you once again relied upon not knowing what context means and you’re confirmation biased.

          And you once again show your ignorance of scripture.

          ‘lion’ in the bible has many different ‘defining connotation’ applications. It is not confined to just your out of context ignorant presentation. In scripture the use of ‘lion’ (or ‘lions’) is used to represent people, and countries, and ‘tribes’, and situations or their actions. For example, lions are mentioned in several contexts throughout scripture, sometimes positively to describe God (Hosea 11:10) and sometimes negatively as symbolic of evil and destruction (Proverbs 28:15), Peter compares Satan to a “roaring lion” and warns us to beware of the enemy’s schemes that will destroy us (1 Peter 5:8).

          So its not confined to your out of context confirmation biased ignorant presentation of scripture. You demonstrate you are ‘biblical illiterate’ each and every time you post something concerning religion or the bible or scripture. I would suggest you stop adhering to your made up ‘atheist’ story line and learn what context means and strop being confirmation biased. Its amazing how ‘biblical illiterate’ you are but that’s to be expected from an ‘atheist’ because they interpret ‘confirmation biased’ and leave out the context in their understanding when they ‘research’.

  14. Why why why cant the people see through the flip flopping done by these politicians? Why??

    I mean cackles Harris was talking in a southern, black, tongue when she spoke in Atlanta the other day. Are you friggin kidding me

  15. Newsom’s timing on reversals is spot on. He beat the recall and he will be successful with homeless and law reversals because people have a 45 day memory on politics.

  16. Gavin the Nuisance legalized theft of up to $900. He brought in some of the worst anti-gun and anti-self defense restrictions anywhere on earth. Even hoplophobic nations like Singapore and India permit self defense when you are attacked. Commiefornia does not. WHen you do not allow law abiding citizens to defend themselves and you legalize thievery, you are running a government of dunderheads that is in bed with criminals, ordinary folk be damned. Let’s be frank here – Commiefornians turned out in large numbers to vote the Nuisance and his band of thief supporters into power. If the Nuisance wants to be less of his trademark self, perhaps we’ll see Commiefornia go back to being California again. If they continue to vote this clown show into office, Commiefornians will deserve what they get. And, whatever delusions the Nuisance might have about becoming President, he has even less chance than a Jeb Bush of becoming a temporary occupant of the White House.

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