Political intrigues shiver down the coastline of the West Coast, Messed Coast™ this week, with a new beta male installed in a position where he needs to be an alpha and a county leader in San Diego being scared out of her job. Oregon says goodbye to Blobby the beta. Plus, I took a look at some of the sotto voce grants the West Coast, Messed Coast™ states hoovered up, and, well, you won't believe this, but they're wasting your money.
Let's go!
Shot
Here is hero California Rep. Kevin Kiley. The man who is — and this is juicy — Gov. Gavin Newsom's congressman has gone through the checklist of all the dumb things California has spent money on and laid it out for all to hear. He does so in light of the California fires, where we discovered there just wasn't enough political will to put water in reservoirs or build new ones, but there's plenty of will to waste your tax money.
In this installment on the floor of the House of Representatives, Kiley, explains California's high-speed train, of which not one foot has been built, though billions have been spent. He claims it's a waste of money and proves it. It's time to cry "¡No mas!" and junk the program.
California’s high-speed rail project is one of the greatest examples of Government incompetence and waste.
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) January 7, 2025
The details are absolute insane 👇🏻 pic.twitter.com/fFiLDWwvcJ
Chaser
As we peruse the database on who's getting what national grants — thanks USAID crisis! — Oregon and Washington are now planning to build their own "high-speed rail" that would run between Vancouver, B.C., and the "entire Megaregion of Cascadia." Cascadia is the name environmentalists have given most of the Pacific Northwest because state names are racist and impose false borders on the land, ya bigot!
Related: Trump Gloriously Lays Waste to L.A. Politicians Standing in the Way of Rebuilding
The U.S. Department of Transportation gave the project a nearly $50,000,000.00 spiff to "accelerate climate and equity goals" in phase two of the project.
This pie-in-the-sky train has better easements than California's disastrous billion-dollar blackhole of a project, but considering that there are already trains (not high-speed ones), dedicated buses, and a freeway and that Northwest residents are sick and tired of being told how they can move around, this isn't the shoo-in outsiders may think it is.
Did we mention that this high-speed train will go 250 miles an hour? Yeah, it's just like California's.
Hitting the bottle
Here's how the bottle bill works in the state of Oregon. Watch this lady very carefully.
One of the things I love about Oregon progressive hypocrisy is when they pretend to care about the environment, and also that rampant Bottle Drop fraud isn’t happening despite the rest of us having eyeballs. pic.twitter.com/ZiUHRcOV6y
— pnw working mom (@PNW_working_mom) February 3, 2025
Mom buys the water with food stamps, or is given the water, pops open all the bottles, and empties the water. This takes place at the redemption center where she receives ten cents for each bottle.
Nightcap
Newsom's handling of the catastrophic California fires and the overregulation preventing a quick rebuild were the subject of hearings this week on Capitol Hill.
You won't find any hearing with Newsom on C-SPAN, but Rep. Kiley reports that they discussed a staggering 2021 report from NPR of all places.
Related: A Catastrophic Breakdown of L.A. Fire Alert System Left People in Harm's Way Until it Was Too Late
All Things Considered reported:
[A]n investigation from CapRadio and the California Newsroom collaboration found Newsom has overstated the success of forest management projects, and last year, the governor cut funding for fire prevention. Scott Rodd broke this story for CapRadio and joins us now from Sacramento.
RODD: So early on, Newsom identified some key wildfire prevention projects, and that includes things like forest thinning and prescribed burns, and they were meant to protect some of the most vulnerable communities in California. And he claimed 90,000 acres were treated, but we found that's not true. The state's own data shows that, in reality, it was less than 12,000 acres, so just a fraction of what Newsom claimed. And looking at the bigger picture, not just those specific projects, we also found that the state's fire prevention work overall dropped by half last year, which was the worst wildfire season on record for California. And during that time, Newsom also slashed about $150 million from the state's wildfire prevention budget.
No pictures, please
Newsom visited with Donald Trump at the White House. There were no reporters invited and no photos were released. Newsom admitted that there weren't many details discussed and that it was a "top line" discussion about fire help. This was after the California legislature decided after all to spend the $50,000,000.00 to spend on litigation to "Trump proof" the state. I mentioned this plan in last week's edition of the West Coast, Messed Coast™—And Suddenly 'Trump-Proofing' California Seems Like a Really Dumb Idea.
On the same day, Trump's White House announced he would remove federal funding from sanctuary cities and states.
Surf City, USA, hangs ten with Trump
The reliably normal Huntington Beach has offered its full support to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in their pursuit to deport the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens. The city has declared itself a "Non-Sanctuary City."
The City of El Cajon in San Diego County is also preparing to follow Huntington Beach's lead, but Mayor Bill Wells says the move puts them in a legal bind.
“We have the federal government saying we could be prosecuted if we don’t cooperate with them, and the state government saying our police could be prosecuted if they do cooperate," he told NewsNation. He said, “I’m worried about our police officers because the way the California law is written, they could be prosecuted, they could lose their pensions, they could lose their job. They could even be sued civilly if they cooperate with ICE agents,” Wells said.
Mystery
San Diego County Supervisors Chair, Nora Vargas, was just re-elected to her post when she quit before she took the oath of office.
She says she's leaving because of the pressure of threats against her. She, like all elected officials, suffers from threats and the San Diego County Sheriff's Office says there are no specific threats against her. However, they have been providing $38,000 in security costs. That cost was only for 2024.
Gun list
San Diego State Sen. Catherine Blakespear has offered a cribbed version of the anti-gun group run by Gabby Giffords to begin a gun owner list in California.
"This legislation would create a system to help detect guns smuggled into the state and gives law enforcement the information they need to ensure firearms aren’t being trafficked," the Giffords group told the Times of San Diego in one of the most laughable gun posts on a news site that I've ever seen.
Goodbye, Blobby
Oregon's gender-fluid mascot urging people to vote has been erased. We don't know if it represents a change of thinking, there's a DOGE in Oregon, or because it's stupid, but "Blobby" has been fired.
Lynette, an Oregon spy for the West Coast, Messed Coast™ report, informs us that the Oregon Round Up substack first reported Blobby has been disappeared from the dumb mascot department at the Oregon state government.
NEW:
— Jeff Eager (@Jeff_Eager) February 6, 2025
RIP Blobby. pic.twitter.com/hijpatUdh3
Jeff Eager reports:
Blobby, 1, of Salem, Oregon passed away February 5 following a brief career extolling the joys of voting in Oregon.
Described as “genderful and inclusive,” Blobby made an immediate mark on social media, insisting while hiking, canoeing or wielding a light saber, “Voting in Oregon Feels Good.”
[T]he Secretary of State paid design firm Happylucky $350,000 for work that included the conception of Blobby. ... Blobby was, courageously, the first genderful voting mascot in world history.
Rest in peace Goodbye, Blobby.
Beta badge
Seattle welcomes a new police chief who's totally on brand for the Emerald City, home of the Summer of Love.
The Seattle Times writes, "[Shon Barnes is] a former history teacher, holds a doctorate, and is considered a 'next generation' leader by his mentors and peers. In person, he brings something else: optimism."
Or, as this letter writer puts it:
Letters! We get letters!
Dear Victoria Taft,
I enjoy your writing and communiques (along with 1000s of others). Thought you might like this tidbit about a Seattle that continues to swirl the drain: Last night (1/3025), Channel 5, King TV evening news introduced Seattle's new chief of police, Shon Barnes, former police chief of Madison, WN.
We, waiting-to-be-informed viewers, were treated to 5 minutes of Mr. Barnes apologizing for himself and asserting his non-assertive qualities: tenderness compassion listening care and concern - and how much he has to learn and all that he can be taught by Seattle's and Washington State's [leftist hyper-woke] 'leadership'.
Craven and grovelling would be wildly understating his bizarre introspective, self-introduction.
[Woke 5 News never mentioned that] during 2019 -2020, Seattle's then mayor and city council promoted "Defund the Police". No mention that Seattle's current mayor, Bruce Harrell, was a city councilman during that time and supported some version of "Defund the Police". Presently, If you told me that Harrell goes to his office every day and watches videos of himself as a young University of Washington football star (1976-78) everything about the disintegration of Seattle would make sense. Otherwise, I can't make sense of responsible adults, elected to solve problems, doing absolutely nothing about anything.
As a parting shot, the King 5 TV interviewer said Mr. Barnes will be addressing Diversity and Inclusivity soon. Not a single word about the horrific crime/murder rate all over the city. Not even a short paragraph announcing Mr. Barns' big-picture thoughts about policing a major northern city of the USA. But why kid ourselves? We know that voters and the 'leadership' class of Seattle enjoy graffiti everywhere, homeless addicts everywhere, murder in all neighborhoods (not just the south end - my neighborhood - Pramila Jayapal's District), carjacking everywhere, house break-ins everywhere. Makes for exciting TV evening news; somebody is profiting from all this madness, right?
Sorry for going on at length but, the contrast of President Trump's 10-day directives compared to Seattle's ongoing drain swirl, is jarring.
Best, Dex, Seattle
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