Progressives Strike Back Against the Empire of Rendon

California speaker recall effort reflects Democratic tension

By JONATHAN J. COOPER, Associated Press

SACRAMENTO >> Democrats control every lever of power in California state government, and free from worrying about major losses to Republicans, they’re training fire instead on each other.

The latest example is a recall effort against Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon, a strong progressive now targeted by party activists upset that he derailed a bill seeking government-funded health care for all.

Rendon is not strong enough as a progressive. Apparently, he is too establishment for most of the Bernie-crats who have taken over the California Democratic Party. Former Chairman John Burton could not shout "F--- You" loud enough to get rid of them.

The Rendon recall comes as the California Democratic Party contends with a protracted leadership battle that is as much about donors and messaging as it is about ideals. It follows a contentious battle among environmentalists over the state’s cap-and-trade law to fight climate change, which some thought was too deferential to oil companies.

The Cap and Trade bill was cronyism at its worst, so much so that leftists were calling me urging me to work with them to defeat this terrible piece of legislation. What made it worse, of course, was that 8 Republicans in Sacramento voted for this abortive, perverse piece of legislation.

While Democrats in liberal California feud with Washington and proudly cast themselves as a foil to Republican President Donald Trump, they’re far from united at home.

For Rendon, the backlash began after he sidelined the bill, SB562, which looked to eliminate insurance companies in California and make state government the “single-payer” for health care services.

He had a few reasons for pushing aside SB 562:

1. The state cannot afford  it, even if they taxed everyone at 100%

2. Big Pharma and the other major medical firms don't want it.

3. His assembly Democratic caucus signalled to him that they did not want to vote for it.

Too many compelling reasons to sit on that bill. Rendon threw himself on a grenade, supposedly. Now we all know even more why the California Democrats rushed through

An image quickly made the rounds on social media showing an altered version of California’s flag: Instead of a grizzly bear walking on all fours, it showed the beast standing on its hind legs, a knife in its back, with “Rendon” printed on the blade.

A few days later, hundreds of activists filled the Capitol rotunda outside Rendon’s office, their chants echoing throughout the building.

They also threatened his life as well as the lives of other Assembly and State Senate Democrats who did not vote for this bill--or who did not want to vote for it.

Rendon said he supports single-payer health care in concept, but that SB562 was “woefully incomplete.” The measure lacked key details about how a single-payer system would function, including a plan to raise the estimated $400 billion it would cost.

It was woefully complete. Once again, the Democratic Party is taking their grassroots supporters for a ride. Senators Ricardo Lara and Tony Atkins never intended for anything to become real. They just passed the legislation to rally more political power and support to their own individual causes.

Here's what's happening for next year:

1. Ricardo Lara is running for Insurance Commissioner. He needs the Nurses' Unions and all the other Big Labor supporters and their money to back him  up.

2. Toni Atkins wants to be the next State Senate Pro Tem since Kevin de Leon is termed out and is running for Lieutenant Governor. She is lining up all the major donors to ensure her victory, just as she pushed out former State Senator Marty Block last year, when it looked as though a Democratic battle royale

“We’re going to continue to hold him and all other politicians accountable for their actions,” said Don Nielsen, government relations director for the California Nurses Association. “This is too important an issue.”

Goveronment relations director for a government union: what could go wrong? Perhaps, just perhaps some of the Democrats in Sacramento will join with Republicans like me who want to end the chokehold of Big Labor on our wallets and the levers of government. Just maybe ...

The nursing union, which made the altered flag image, was the driving force behind the single-payer bill and its ascendance as a rallying cry for progressive activists, but Nielsen said the group is not working on the Rendon recall effort. The union’s focus is now on meeting with Democratic lawmakers and urging them to pressure Rendon to move the bill forward, he said.

Yeah, sure, whatever you say ...

Rendon declined to comment for this story. His spokesman, Kevin Liao, pointed to a variety of legislation that’s passed on the speaker’s watch, including a $15 minimum wage, an expansion of the state’s Medi-Cal program to provide health insurance coverage for children in the country illegally, gun control legislation and tobacco restrictions.

Kevin Liao is a shill who worked for Covered California. Check it out here on his LinkedIn profile.

“Those are real progressive accomplishments that have improved Californians’ lives and grown the economy,” Liao said.

The $15 forced wage hike is pushing entry-level workers into unemployment.The expansion of Medic-Cal for illegal aliens is not helping our economy. In fact, it's another leg of the redistributionist scheme draining the public coffers. Gun control legislation is not progressive at all--but is regressive.

It’s unclear if the recall organizers will be able to mount a serious challenge to Rendon, who has more than $1 million in his campaign accounts and in three elections has never gotten less than 69 percent of the vote. Steve Elzie, one of the organizers, said it’s a grassroots effort without big funders. The organizers must collect more than 20,000 signatures from Rendon’s district to hold a recall election.

20,000 should not be that hard to collect, considering that single-payer adherents have almost a cult-life faith in government-run health care.

“There’s a lot of economic issues that go into it. The fact that Democrats are not fighting on these issues, I think people have taken notice,” Elzie said.

Rendon represents a mostly working-class district south of Los Angeles. Quiet and reserved, he stands out in the state capital of Sacramento in large part for his absence from public spectacles.

"Working-class" might become "unemployed-class", since Rendon's "progressive" policies are pushing businesses into bankruptcy and workers out of work. Rendon represents some of the worst-run, most run-down cities in California and the United States, and he has nothing to stay for his abject disregard for these communities, either.

In contrast to the Senate leader, Kevin de Leon, Rendon does not hold frequent news conferences or comment on the news of the day. He rose to power largely by promising to delegate it to committee chairs and others in his party.

LOL! This is the same guy who threw Rudy Salas out of a chairmanship because Salas kept his promise to his Bakersfield-area constituents not to raise taxes. Sure, Tony, sure, whatever you say ...

The pressure on Rendon reflects a broader rift among California Democrats that escalated with last year’s primary between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders. It has further intensified this summer as activists aligned with Sanders push the party to abandon deep-pocketed donors and take a more aggressive stance against the establishment.

"Weekend at Bernie" Sanders influence on the Democratic Party has gotten worse, not better. Can you imagine someone who preached the Gospel of Poverty living like a One-Percenter Himself? Bernie does. The Gospel of Redistribution is not good news at all, but bad news along every line. It's time to wake up young and old and tell them to reject this socialized-medicine cabal. It does not work, it never will work, and it's power of the state taken from the individual authority of individual consumers.

Kimberly Ellis, who narrowly lost her insurgent bid for Democratic chair to longtime party insider Eric Bauman, has showed no signs of abandoning her quest to shake up the party leadership.

Good for her. She and her supporters demanded a review of the ballots. They actually agitated for voter ID! How about that?!

The Democratic tension is “almost to be expected” for those who have been around to see the cycles in politics, said Sherry Bebitch Jeffe, a longtime political observer and a public policy professor at University of Southern California.

This is the same lady that got into a verbal tussle with me. She denied that voter fraud had anything do with Darrel Issa's close election or Hillary Clinton's enormous voter edge.

“That’s what’s going on with the Republican Party in Washington and the Democratic Party in Sacramento,” Jeffe said.

A few differences ... Donald Trump has overrun the crony-Big Business-Big Labor phalanx which has attacked working Americans and stacked the legislative deck in their own favor.

Protracted internal conflict could fatigue party activists and depress fundraising, both of which could make it harder for Democrats running in close legislative or congressional races, Jeffe said. But it won’t give Republicans an opening to win statewide.

I wonder about that. Perhaps Republicans should not strive for any openings at this time. After all, haven't we been through enough? It might be more worth our while to sit back and watch "The Democracy" fall apart than try to fight the imploding, regressive self-destruction.

Final Reflection

At this time, I am not sure what we can do about the Democrat v. Democrat rivalry. Bebitch Jeffe is clearly liberal, but I don't know how to confront the argument that Republicans can't make much out of the growing divide eating away at the Democratic Party.

It's getting worse for Republicans, too. All of us took over the district office of an Assemblyman who voted for the abortive Cap and Trade legislation. California Republican leaders are not taking any kind of lead or leadership to denounce Cheating Chad Mayes and the other Republicans who stabbed all of us in the back.

Let's hope that grassroots Republicans, all 25% of us, will decide to do something--anything!

Desperate California Democrats: Suing College Republicans?!

The California Democratic Party is falling apart, fast.

They are desperate to hold onto power, but they are fraying from within and flailing from without.

The California Nurses Association has declared war on Speaker Anthony Rendon. One of the state senators Josh Newman, is the target of a successful and growing recall effort.

President Trump's policies are forcing the illegal aliens to flee the state of California.

More good news: Assemblyman and gubernatorial candidate Travis Allen's gas tax repeal has made it onto the ballot for the November 2018 Election.

The California Democratic Party is facing the populist revolt in-house which had propelled President Trump into the White House last year!

Check out what the creepy, evil Democrats in Sacramento are trying to pull now!

From the desk of Carl De Maio:

Friend– In the past three weeks we have seen the most outrageous abuse of power by Sacramento politicians to try to stop our effort to repeal the car and gas tax hikes - and these desperate antics only tell me that we are winning.  Here's the latest stunt they pulled:

Sacramento politicians are actually suing three college students who signed the initial paperwork to trigger the Recall effort with the hope of pressuring them to rescind their sponsorship of the effort.  They are college students after all - with no financial resources to afford a legal defense.  This is pure harassment and bullying and that's why our campaign coalition is mounting a vigorous legal defense for these college students. 

Unreal yet true. Of course, they filed the legal challenge in Sacramento County, since that means that they students will have to exhaust further resources by driving, commuting, etc at least six hours to go to court.

Or they have to pay lawyers to do it, I guess. How pathetic can one get?! Now "The Democracy" harasses young people. They just can't it through their heads that California citizens are fed up with being treated like second class serfs who have to pay for the hoity-toity elite to party on our dime.

Not any more.

Will you stand with these three colleges students against these bullying tactics?  Please contribute whatever you can to our campaign today at this secure link.

Fortunately, every time the Sacramento politicians have attacked us, we have prevailed - but only with YOUR help.

First the politicians hired "blockers" to intimidate and harass our volunteers collecting signatures - but with YOUR help we hired college students to collect almost 100,000 signatures to qualify the initiative!  Then the politicians passed a law that in-effect strips citizens of the right to Recall politicians in a timely manner, but with YOUR help we got our signatures in before the law went into effect.

I was there at one event to push off the hateful anti-recall bigots. One of them refused to explain to me why it's OK to tax poor and working Californians who barely make ends meet as it is:

Sacramento politicians are desperate with these abusive tactics.  They know two things: 1) Our campaign will strip them of the two-thirds majority they need to raise taxes without a public vote.  2) Our car/gas tax repeal measure will be on the ballot in November 2018 and it will become the focus of California's political debate and will negatively impact their re-election efforts.

The winning never stops!

Thank God for this movement. This is the kind of fight we need to see more from grassroots activists and elected officials. Too many Republicans refuse to right. Too many of them have played nice with the Democrats, and what has it given us?

More debt, more corruption, more waste and fraud, and more destruction within our once beautiful state. Democrats have to go, but so do the RINOs who go along with the corrupt program.

Our campaign strategy is working - and is the only viable effort we have to take back California!  Please stand with us today by making a contribution so we can continue our record of success in overcoming the abusive tactics of Sacramento politicians.  Contribute here.

Thank you so so much!

Best,

Carl DeMaio

Chairman - Reform California

Berniecrat Single-Payer Advocates at California Speaker's Office (Repeal Obamacare!)

Last week (June 27), I found out that all the raving, maddened Berniecrats were going to show up in large numbers to raise hell and burn California State Speaker Anthony Rendon in effigy.

Why?

He shelved SB 562, the single-payer proposal scotch-taped together by State Senators Ricardo Lara and Toni Atkins.

The whole proposal was dead on arrival, especially since three Democratic state senators abstained on the vote, citing the immense, untenable cost of the whole proposal.

Did they really need to scream and shout about the cost on their own?

After all, deep-blue Vermont walked away from a single-payer proposal three years ago, citing the massive tax hikes which would have been needed to get teh program off the ground.

Thank God for federalism.

I scoped out the office and the streets up and down Garfield Ave.

I noticed that I would not face the hardships of parking around this office, as I have faced in the past.

As the California Democratic Party goes further and further to the Left, the leaders and elected officials in the party are fighting to stave off the fiscal utopian insanity of the grassroots progressives.

They are already angry at the DNC for cheating Bernie Sanders.

They are even angrier about Keith Ellison's untimely loss for the DNC Chairmanship.

Now they are even more angry because their progressive star Kimberly Ellis lost the California Democratic Party chairmanship to corrupt crony for Big Pharma Eric Bauman.

"Why does everyone hate me?!"

As for me. I just had to see the growing dissolution of "The Democracy" while hoping that I could change some minds.

First, I visited Rendon's office:

We need to make health care great again.

We need to repeal Obamacare, and that includes not allowing illegal aliens to steal from taxpayers to fund their unhealthy existence in the state of California.

Of course, who was lined up in front of Rendon's office?

None other than then California Nurses Association!

They are angry, and they want blood. They want Rendon's head on a lance.

They want to recall him--and I am more than happy to help, but I want someone else to be Speaker of the State Assembly.

How about Melissa Melendez?

Check out the unions! They are so good at getting lots of people together to make noise, aren't they?!

They love collecting on corners and making people scared, too!

Check out my full video of my exploits among the single-payer advocates here:

Check out the scene on the corner of Rendon's office:

Please repeal Obamacare! And then repeal more of the stupid government rules and regulations hurting our health care system. jacking up prices, and pushing more qualified professionals out.

Some of them were willing to talk to me,

But then this one guy kept following me around, telling other people not to talk to me at all.

Whatever happened to "Love Trumps Hate"?

When they say "Medicare for all", do they bother to ask who will pay for it?

Anyone?

They usually talk about soak-the-rich schemes, which have been very effective ... for shooing businesses to low-tax, limited government climes like Texas, South Carolina, and even Utah.

Brave, Bernieacs!

The already eroding tax base in California is already getting smaller, and the best you can offer is tax the makers more. Brilliant. 

I would say ""No" to Medicare.

I want health care with clear price guidelines, choice, competition, and quality controls based on free market forceds.

The guy in the dark green shirt tried to harrass me, to scare me off.

FAIL!

This guy also showed up at the January 29th, 2017 LAX protest after Trump issued his first travel ban. It wasn't clear what he was trying to do, whether to support us or to stop us from speaking.

Whatever happened, it is clear that day that he was interested in stirring up trouble and shutting me down.

Major Fail!

Some people were willing to talk to me, even though I had my Trump hat and shirt on:

A lot of left-wing agitators and freuent progressive activists lined up

"Gimme free health care! Gimme gimme!"

I wonder what they think of single-payer health care now that the British Government has determined that they will do nothing to help this 10 month old baby Charlie Gard.

No single payer health care! No socialized medicine!

Repeal Obamacare, and then I say repeal more stupid rules!

I had to tell this woman to hold her sign right side up:

Here's the second video I took at the single-payer rally:

Now here are the remarks I would like to leave for everyone.

First of all, the single-payer zealots were determined to silence me every way they could. Well, at least this one guy whom I called "buddy", who was on scene to follow me around.

"Whatever happened to "Love Trumps Hate?"" I asked.

They still hate TRump and they still hate anyone who thinks that the government should not have a core function in our health care systems.

I was open and honest with everyone I spoke to, good or bad.

One constant throughout my engagement with the single-payer advocates came down to this:

"There should be no profit in medicine."

Why? Don't doctors and nurses deserve to make money? How do insurance companies make money to ensure that they can insure clients?

Does anyone want to revert to a system where everyone has to pay for everything out of pocket, including long-term care as well as pre-existing conditions? Insurance companies do not do what they do for nothing. No service should be held to such a draconian standard.

This statement will offend people, but I do not care: health care is not a right.

We have a right to seek health care for ourselves as needed, but the argument that doctors, nurses, hospitals medical practitioners of all backgrounds must provide health insurance at the drop of the hat because it is right--that is wrong.

Just calling something a right does not make it more readily available. The laws of supply and demand remain constant regardless.

Other people complained about the middle man in the health insurance industry. Fair enough, but their argument was that the government should phase out insurance companies altogether. Then they would deal with an even worse middle man: the government bureaucracy!

They are worse, much worse. Rationing, incompetence, disease, long lines, corruption, waste, criminal behavior all are the hallmarks of socialized medicine. The costs do not go away, the demands actually get worse.

No one was willing to listen to allowing for free market reforms, competition, transparency through price arrangements, etc.

This is pretty scary stuff, in my view. The single-payer zealots have turned into True Believers, unwilling to challenge the statist status quo of the regressive left. I am certain that the Democratic Party grassroots are even more burned, now that Eric Bauman has become the state party chairman. After all, he sent out a big email detailing his support for single-payer health care to assure the jittery grassroots and delegates.

But then one month later, what happens? The Speaker of the State Assembly shelves the bill because there are no outlines for how to pay for single-payer. While Rendon chooses to blame the Republicans in Washington and the California state senate, the truth is that the state of California simply cannot afford the $400 billion monstrosity.

There was good news on the single-payer, free market trail, too.

First, a good friend of mine--George Susca--came down to protect me in the midst of the South Gate protest. Some of the men and women there were angry and intent on causing harm, but no one dared lift a finger, and Gregory's help was a big part of that.

One man told me about his father, who had served in Canada before and after single-payer health care was adopted. He said that he liked it. Government employees tend to like their jobs, so they won't complain.

But what about the consumers? Canadians face an average waiting time of 20 weeks to see a specialist. Canadians say they like their health care because of the jingoist peace of mind they feel about it--and the fact that many of them do not go to the doctor at all.

Other individual patients have complained to me about government-run healthcare, which leads to massive cost increases and rationing. Some of the people in the single-payer swarm were willing to listen to me, even if they disagreed with me. Many others were hostile, and many of that group are the same liberal protesters who go all over raising hell and causing trouble, agitating against individual citizens who want to be left alone.

For a full discussion on what can be done to ensure better healthcare and access for all, check out this discussion I had with a group of protesters in Sacramento earlier this year:

But at this point, some of the people in the crowd were willing to listen:

Here's the last video, in which the protesters decided to walk away:

Racist Speaker Anthony Rendon Defies Federal Law, Undermines His Diminishing Credibility

California's Speaker of the State Assembly Anthony Rendon (D-Paramount) does not speak for me.

He does not speak for all Californians.

He doesn't really care about the Latinos in the state of California, either, even though he claims to care.

If he really cared about "the Latinos", he would not be obsessed with one group of people.

He would enact policies which care for all Californians.

Rendon's discrimination against law-abiding Californians is more than legendary.

It's Napoleonic!

This man has styled himself as the last bastion of safety and security against the incoming Trump Administration. Yet he lives in a fantasy world, as he asserts that the California economy has improved (it hasn't) and that more California residents are safe and secure (they aren't), and that he honors the contributions and concerns of immigrants (he doesn't).

The truth is that Rendon does not care about immigrants, because he refuses to distinguish between those individuals who entered this country legally versus the illegal aliens how broke the law to invade the state of California.

The lawless hypocrisy is inescapable.

Shame on Anthony Rendon. He is not professional, he is not principled, and he is not prepared to be a leader for a state which has steadily gotten worse with every election cycle.

His inaugural speech for the new legislative session was amazing for its standout arrogance, ignorance, and fraud.

Members, thank you for putting your faith in me.

This is an honor I am proud to accept, and will work diligently to earn.

For once, the Republicans did not join with the Democratic to grant unanimous support and consent to Speaker Rendon. Assembly Minority Leader Chad Mayes should have never seconded his appointment as Speaker of the State Assembly.

Honored guests, friends, and family—ordinarily, this is a day when Speakers offer pleasantries and plans for the year ahead.

But this is no ordinary time.

For the California Democratic Confederate Kleptocracy, they know that their easy gravy train of stealing from taxpayers and creating more freeloading Democratic voters is coming to a close. Instead of shirking their empty liberal policies, they are doubling down on the moral and financial suicide ruining the Golden State.

And Speaker Rendon is proud of it.

And I would be remiss in my responsibility to this house, to the people I represent, and to my conscience, if I did not acknowledge that.

You are remiss to everyone who you are supposed to represent, which is everyone in the state of California. Particularly, Mr. Rendon, you are remiss in your responsibilities to the 4 million Californians who voted for

Members, 75 years ago this week, the United States was drawn into the Second World War.

That war was an existential threat against this nation’s people and its principles.

We have faced other threats these last 75 years: the Cold War and nuclear proliferation, the turmoil of the 1960s, the betrayal of Watergate, and now climate change.

Rendon is comparing the false and fomented hysteria about climate change with World War II?

This man is beyond delusional. He is pre-eminently corrupt and dangerous to the well-being of our state.

These past 75 years have also seen us make important progress in civil rights, environmental protection, public health and social justice.

At this moment, I believe our nation is facing another major existential threat – and a threat to the progress that we have attained.

"Social justice" is inherently unjust because he is qualifying it. That is outrageous. Justice is well-defined on its own, and cannot be tinkered or trifled with. What a shame that we have such a pre-eminently slight and biased leader in the state capital.

Is there any hope at this time for Californians, regardless of their background or their political affiliation?

Californians may accept the lawfulness of the November election, but millions of us do not accept the sentiment delivered by this election.

And it is up to us to pass policies that would firewall Californians—and what we believe—from the cynical, short sighted, and reactionary agenda that is rising in the wake of the election.

"Firewall Californians." He wants to intern all the Californians into a fantasy bubble of progressive utopianism. Not for me, thanks. Businesses, families, and retirees cannot get out of this state fast enough. If we want to see where liberty is flourishing, see how people vote with their feet.

And they do not want to plant their feet here.

White nationalists and anti-Semites have no business working in the White House.

And they don't now--so shut up!

And the Justice Department of the United States has no business working to dismantle the voting rights, civil rights, equal rights, and reproductive rights of the American people.

Who says they have been? Truly, Rendon is truly a pyromaniac in a field of strawmen.

In August of 1988, President Reagan apologized to Japanese-Americans for their internment by saying “here we admit a wrong; here we reaffirm our commitment to equal justice under the law.”

Yet rather than echoing that commitment to equal justice, the next administration has talked about those internment camps as a justification for offensive new policies.

Wait a minute ... didn't Rendon just say that he wanted to build a firewall around California? That sounds like internment to me! Janice Han of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors suggested a similar priority for the county.

In a speech she made in 1940, with an eye toward the looming war, Eleanor Roosevelt

said this:

“We cannot tell from day to day what may come. This is no ordinary time. No time for weighing anything except what we can do best for the country as a whole. And that responsibility rests on each and every one of us, as individuals.”

That is the responsibility we each accepted when we swore to support and defend the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of California against all enemies—foreign AND domestic.

For all Rendon's lofty talk about defending the Constitution, he is consistently determined to undermine the rule of law and ignore federal authority. This man has no respect for the supremacy clause

Californians should be wary of the national calls for unity and healing.

Unity must be separated from complicity.

And we must be defiant whenever justice, fairness, and righteousness require.

Californians do not need healing. We need to fight.

This state is a total mess. Drought, disease, debt, destruction are the norm in this once Golden State. In Rendon's own district, some of the worst-ranking cities in the COUNTRY are located, which include Bell as well as South Gate. What does he have to say about his poor representation? Shouldn't he focus more on making things better for his constituents?

We need to fight to protect our people and their rights.

We need to fight to protect our economy and its growth.

LOL!

The Assembly and Senate will work side by side to enshrine into law existing protections for all Californians.

His combative, defiant tone did not match with State Senate President Kevin De Leon's tone. De Leon is trying to play cool.

We will be saying loud and clear if you are a woman, your rights are in force here in California.

If you need health care coverage, we will do all we can so you can find it here in California.

If you are Muslim or LGBT, or anyone whose rights and safety are increasingly under fire, you are equal here in California.

And with HR 4, today we are saying if you are an immigrant you are welcome here in California.

He is lying. He is rolling out the red carpet to illegal aliens, not to immigrants. He does not really care about immigrants, since he does not honor the rule of law, nor does he recognize the supremacy of the federal government.

In short, California will be saying, in the defiant words of Winston Churchill:

“Today we may say aloud before an awestruck world, we are still masters of our fate, we are still captains of our souls.”

How interesting. Rendon references Churchill, the same world leader whose bust Obama removed from the White House. Funny.

Others speak of their identity.

But we too have an identity in California.

An identity of inclusion.

Lies. Inclusion is a bad word in California, one which justifies exclusion from reality.

And we will do whatever we can to protect that identity.

Of course, the potential threats from the new administration are not the only struggle we face as Californians.

There are home-grown challenges, as well.

He's right: they are home grown because the Democrats who run the House have created these problems.

A transportation system that is over-crowded and crumbling.

So why spend money pandering to illegal aliens?

Housing costs so high families can’t make ends meet, employers can’t recruit, and cops and teachers can’t live where they work.

Regulatory burdens have created this perversity. How about freeing up the economy and getting the California state government out of the way completely?

We tried to address these issues in the last session.

Uh ... no you didn't!

We made some progress, but we did not succeed.

And that is a mark on what was otherwise a tremendous session.

Members, we have no choice but to solve the housing and transportation crises in the term ahead of us.

These crises affect each and every one of our districts.

If we don’t step up and solve them, our economy will decline. And the people we represent will suffer.

California is already in decline, and it has only gotten worse.

This house has solved tough challenges before.

That’s why California’s in the strong economic shape we are.

LOL!

Members, we just said goodbye to the Assembly Class of 2010.

When they were sworn-in they faced having to close a 26 billion dollar budget deficit.

A deficit that would have been much lower were it not for the first act taken by an inexperienced, celebrity Governor seven years before.

Thanks to smart decisions and tough choices by voters, the Legislature, and an experienced Governor, we have turned the state around.

We increased funding for public schools and community colleges by more than 50% over the past five years.

And higher education funding is greater than it’s ever been—though we must continue

to do more.

We have—as the Legislative Analyst projects—strong, multi-billion-dollar structural balances into the future.

We have a debt ratio on track to drop below 5%, and a robust Rainy Day Fund that takes us off the cycle of “boom and bust” budgeting.

And we have—as the LAO also notes—the ability to withstand a recession like the 2001 downturn—without the need for service cuts or middle class tax increases.

While the budget has mainly been driven by Democrats since voters restored that ability, there are areas where the Assembly has achieved bipartisan success as well.

Looking out at the faces before me, I am optimistic we can do the same again.

Especially on housing and transportation, which have historically been bipartisan issues.

Finally, I would like to note that today, we welcome new members, returning members, and newly returning members.

Farmers and Teachers. Veterans and first responders. Prosecutors and public defenders. Scientists and small business owners.

All of us sent here to represent our districts. To make laws. And—equally important—to perform the oversight that ensures laws are carried out in the best interests of the people of California.

It is increasingly apparent that those interests will not be a concern for the next President—for the bullies, bigots, and billionaires he has chosen for his cabinet—or for the majority in Congress that is already salivating at the prospect of ending Medicare.

"Bullies, bigots, and billionaires" so accurately describes the Democratic Party power brokers in Sacramento, from Rendon himself to Tom Steyer.

It is up to us to look after the interests of the people of California.

God help us.

Whether you actively worked to oppose the next President, or stayed silent hoping he would go away, it is now up to all of us to preserve California and protect its people.

Members, this is no ordinary time.

And it will require an extraordinary effort from each of us.

We are here to do the people’s business.

And we can’t allow it to just be business as usual.

Final Reflection

Expect business as usual in Sacramento. More spending and pet projects for special interests. More race-baiting and pandering. 

Hopefully, we can look forward to more Democratic lawmakers ending up in jail, which will erode their supermajority status very soon.

Anthony Rendon: MIA for Cudahy

California Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon wants to stop the homelesness, corruption, and lack of transparency in California governance.

And yet for the past five months, Rendon has done nothing, absolutely nothing to stop the corruption, suppression of speech, and closed-off malfeasance eating away at Cudahy, CA.

Councilman Jack Guerrero is the only elected official in the city--and in the entire 63rd Assembly District, who is fighting for Cudahy residents.

He is a Republican, by the way, in a predominantly Democratic district.

Guerrero is committed to the people.

What about Rendon? Where is he?

The city council is driving the city into unsustainable debt.

Maywood is facing bankruptcy, in spite of siphoning off major services to other cities and closing down its police department.

Incredible.

Heckuva a job there, Tony!

By the way, Speaker Rendon, my assemblyman David Hadley (R-Torrance) confronted the corrupt mayor and his dealings with an ambulance company earlier this year.

Here is the video.

If an assemblyman, a freshman in the minority party, could step up and out for his constituents, why not the Speaker of the state assembly?

When will Rendon step up for the residents of Cudahy, Maywood, and Bell?

Rendon is an absentee slumlord, for a guy who claims that he wants to help Latinos. He is part of the corruption he intends to stop!

Speaker Rendon: MIA in AD-63

And speaking of the People's Seat ...

California State Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon ought to pay a visit to his own district.

Cudahy, South Gate, Lynwood.

These cities rank near the bottom on quality of life issues.

In Cudahy, residents are raising hell over the corruption, waste, and malfeasance.

Assemblyman David Hadley (R-Torrance, AD-63) took the time to admonish the Torrance City Council over the corruption eating away at the leadership there.

Perhaps Speaker Rendon would like to explain to the vast majority of young Hispanics in his district why he pushed a forced wage hike to drive more workers into unemployment and out of business.

He also ought to explain why he wants to play up the Big Green and the Big Labor agenda at the expense of the rest of the state of California.

How about real education reform, which will allow poor minority families a better chance at success later in life?

When will Speaker Rendon speak up for the needs of his constituents?

Do we really want a man who represents a district with the worst uality of life ... to represent the entire state as Speaker of the Assembly?

I think that Californians can do better--we certainly need better representing us in Sacramento!

Speaker Rendon: You Mess With Baker, You Mess With California

Speaker Anthony Rendon talks about making the state legislature more powerful in Sacramento.

This aim has nothing to do with restoring power back to individual residents, taxpayers, their families, and the small businesses in this state.

He is going to obey the beck and call of Big Labor.

Big Business is anti-free market, and they are eroding the individual liberties of Americans, particularly Californians.

Now Rendon is targeting two assembly seats, and has a sense of victory which defies morals and reality.

He is already targeting Catharine Baker (R-Dublin) in Alameda and Contra Costa counties.

His report in the Sacramento Bee:

I think we’ll pick up (former Assemblyman) Al Muratsuchi’s seat. … I think we have a good shot at (Republican Assemblywoman) Catharine Baker’s seat.

I will comment on "Muratsuchi's seat" later.

For now, let's talk about what the Assembly Speaker is doing in regards to AD-16.

Baker has her ear to the ground in her constituency more than most politicians in the state.

Baker in the South Bay

Refusing to follow Bay Area illiberals like Nancy Pelosi, Baker reads the bills before she votes on them, yea or nay.

If she casts a vote on bills which may alienate someone in the district, she goes out of her way to explain every vote cast. Respect is always key, even in the case of disagreement on issues.

She represents EVERYONE in her district, and that means that she does not try to placate special interests, which most of the time do not care about the public interest.

I worked in a grocery store here in Torrance, CA. When I encountered shoppers from Northern California, some of them would tell me they were visiting from the East Bay region.

When I mentioned Catharine Baker, invariably they would tell me: "Oh! Catharine! I voted for her!"

She is very popular because she respects the needs of her constituents.

She is working for them, rather than taking their votes only to follow the bidding of power brokers in the state capitol.

We need more representatives like Baker.

And yet ... Speaker Rendon wants to get rid of her?

When can we get rid of Speaker Rendon? When can we get rid of the anti-Democratic political machinery which escalates the crime, poverty, and desolation in our state?

Baker is the only member of the Assembly Education committee who told off the UC Administrators "Don't be tone deaf." The University of California system is not educating our kids. They are turning into "safe zones" for regressive thugs out to silence anyone who does not agree with them.

And what have Democrats done to the Bay Area over the last three decades?

The traffic jams, the crumbling infrastructure, the abusive bullying of Big Labor, the excessive taxes, spending, and regulatory burdens are crushing the honest and hardworking residents trying to get by.

African-Americans are getting priced out of their homes. The inner city kids in the Oakland region cannot get a good education, since the local school boards do what the teachers' union demands, rather than respecting the needs of the parents and the students.

Democratic policies are weighing down Northern Californians--and all Californians for that matter. The Democratic leaders have pushed more individual Democratic voters to support common-sense Republicans who fight for local control and individual liberty.

Speaker Rendon needs to wake up and realize: 

If he messes with Catharine Baker, he is messing with you and me, and all California residents who are simply fed with an elite, distant, uncaring political class out for themselves.

Back off Rendon! We want Catharine Baker to stay in the state assembly!