West Coast, Messed Coast™: Wait, We're Not in Charge? Edition

West Coast, Messed Coast™ readers will recognize this old joke: The flood's coming and everyone is told to flee. One man stays and holds steadfastly to his belief that God will come and save him. As the water starts seeping in, his neighbor comes by to offer him a ride out of the dangerous zone. He tells him confidently, "God will rescue me." As the water rises, another neighbor comes for him in a boat, and the man tells him confidently, "God will rescue me." Eventually, the man must go to his roof because the water's so high. A police helicopter hovers and lowers a rope. The man waves them off yelling, "God will rescue me."

So, the guy drowns, ends up in heaven and as he stands at the throne asks God why He didn't save him. And God says, "Whaddaya want, I sent a car, a boat, and a helicopter for you!"

Last night, on the first of a three-day run on the Lower 48, God sent the helicopter. We call it a geomagnetic solar storm.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) sent out a bulletin warning, in so many words, "Hey, y'all, we don't control this. We're not in charge. We might lose communications because of this activity."

Here's the actual quote:

CMEs are explosions of plasma and magnetic fields from the sun’s corona. They cause geomagnetic storms when they are directed at Earth. Geomagnetic storms can impact infrastructure in near-Earth orbit and on Earth’s surface, potentially disrupting communications, the electric power grid, navigation, radio and satellite operations. SWPC has notified the operators of these systems so they can take protective action. Geomagnetic storms can also trigger spectacular displays of aurora on Earth. A severe geomagnetic storm includes the potential for aurora to be seen as far south as Alabama and Northern California. [Emphasis added]

There was much hand-wringing at the Washington Post about it:

Nowadays, there’s much more to worry about. Nearly everything the modern world relies on could fail if disabled by a serious enough solar storm. Phenomena like large solar flares and CMEs are most common during periods of “solar maximum” that occur approximately every 11 years — next up around 2025.
...Radios might go offline entirely, rendering it impossible not only to listen to the local NPR station but also to communicate with planes and ships. GPS systems might become inaccurate — no small matter for military operations, or oil and natural gas rigs, that depend on location data being perfectly precise. Other industries that depend on similarly accurate timing data, from finance to media, may also run into trouble.
...That can lead to a collision in orbit, or to satellites crashing down to Earth. That’s what befell 38 of the 49 new satellites in Elon Musk’s Starlink fleet in 2022, and the storm responsible was considered fairly mild.

The message that we're not in charge was sent over the entire West Coast, Messed Coast™.

Seattle:

And here's a timelapse video of that epic #NorthernLights dancing above the city of #Seattle last night. What a show, I still can't believe this happened! #Auroraborealis #wawx pic.twitter.com/2KVr4M7a27
— Sigma Sreedharan (@sigmas) May 11, 2024

Mt Hood, Oregon:

TIME LAPSE: Incredible view of the Northern Lights from Mt. Hood, Oregon. Images taken from our @skibowl camera. #NorthernLights #Auroraborealis pic.twitter.com/AmLlo6Eyj9
— Jeff Forgeron (@WeatherJefe) May 11, 2024

Central California:

No edit. #Auroraborealis from central California pic.twitter.com/GWQpJSuDNk
— CacheGame.eth (@xkidkarlx) May 11, 2024

How many SUVs or wood-burning stoves do I have to give up to stop this? And man thinks he can change the weather and the climate. Bah.

Not in charge

Which brings us to the God Is Not Mocked portion of the West Coast, Messed Coast™ report.

A young man won a girls' high school race in Portland, Ore.

A male student who identifies as "transgender" took first place in the Girls Varsity 400m race at the Portland Interscholastic League Championship Semi-Finals yesterday.

Aayden Gallagher (seen in red) will now compete in the girls finals tomorrow.

MORE: https://t.co/jJqkKK9iz8 pic.twitter.com/Xzfo5QSPTn
— ThePublica (@ThePublicaNow) May 8, 2024

Shot, chaser

In Seattle, the public schools have taken a beating since teachers' unions and their fellow travelers shut down schools for a disease that hardly impacts children, and then told parents that books with man-on-boy sex were perfectly appropriate for the school library, and all whiteys are oppressors, and parents who don't like it can take their kids and leave.

Well, that was 2021. In 2024, so many parents took their kids and left that Seattle is considering closing 20 schools. The same board member who told parents they could leave was seen begging for state money to keep open those failing-to-thrive schools.

FAFO: Eight months ago, Seattle’s school board president told parents to get lost if they didn't share the district's progressive "values." Last night, SPS announced it might have to close 20 elementary schools because enrollment is plummeting. pic.twitter.com/WbB25dXDzB
— Brandi Kruse (@BrandiKruse) May 10, 2024

I openly mocked this broad while filling in on Seattle radio on Friday (which explains why this West Coast, Messed Coast™ report is a day late. My apologies.) Absolutely amazing story.

We didn't forget

The unfortunately-named governor of Oregon, Tina Kotek, is still on her heels (not that she wears them) because of her ethical contretemps. She has used public coffers for her and her wife's fun-filled life. She gave the First Partner her own office, a staff, and a made-up job.

Oregonians noticed and mocked her mercilessly.

Enjoy….all info taken from public records requests… so glad our politicians are having the time of their life on our dime..💰#orpol #resigntinakotek watch with the sound on 😉 pic.twitter.com/2oBboNFqfu
— Oregon Citizen (@oregoncitizen_) May 2, 2024

Gavin's fake job "cuts"

The Democrats' great savior at the convention this summer in Chicago is rumored to be Governor Gavin Newsom when Joe finally meanders off the stage in search of an exit to his post-public life as the bumbling rainmaker of Biden, Inc.

As we've reported, Governor Hair Gel has somehow managed to lose $30 BILLION in COVID unemployment funds to prisoners and Nigerian princes, LOST track of BILLIONS "fighting homelessness," and other overspending which has left the state in an unprecedented $27 BILLION deficit.

His big plan is to cut 10,000 ghost jobs. Those are jobs that are on the books, but that aren't filled. This is a familiar trick to those who watch government overreach and overspending. State programs fueling fund pie-in-the-sky numbers of jobs to arrogate more power to their departments and never fill them. Give Gavin credit for taking away the budget for the fake jobs, however.

"The more the plans fail, the more the planners plan" — Former California Governor, Ronald Reagan

Something's fishy at the San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG) which is another layer of government to be the Svengali-like master-planner of the county and cities.

Oversight and management of this $1.3 BILLION entity is so bad, so "staggering," that the Department of Justice is investigating the governmental entity.

The issue appears to be around a badly mismanaged new ~~freeway~~ toll road that the governmental agency has allegedly completely mismanaged.

San Diego was also one of the two counties studied to determine how homeless spending was being overseen. Badly, it turns out. An audit determined the state had no idea how the $24 BILLION homeless funds had been spent.

Hey Democrats, are you sure about the Gavin Newsom guy?

Bob, that you?

Finally, here's a hilarious troll of the Washington State leading Democrat candidate for governor, Bob Ferguson. As Attorney General he allowed shutdowns, went after restauranteurs and other businesses for failing to hew to his COVID demands, blessed the firing of law enforcement and other state workers for failing to get The Shot, let the worst criminals sex criminals out and put them in neighborhoods, and failed to put the worst criminals in prison. He's been horrible for Washington.

Now, oddly, it turns out that there are now three Bob Fergusons on the Washington ballot for governor.