Welcome to your weekly West Coast, Messed Coast™ update, where today we'll cover yet another reason why Harry and Meghan are leaving California and booking it back to the British Empire. California Gov. Gavin Newsom appears to be shorting out before our very eyes — especially in response to a reporter's question about the collapse of California schools.
In Sacramento, Calif., independent journalist Nick Shirley is keeping watch over the progress of his namesake bill that would allow the state to hide fraudsters. And in Washington, Brandi Kruse is fighting a similar battle against state Jacobins.
In Oregon, the explosion of a faithful old landmark in Portland is now the emblem of the end of a once lovely city — before the coven of crazies arrived, that is.
Here comes your West Coast, Messed Coast™ report: "Tight, Bright, and Right." Let's go!
Harry and Meghan Part II
As I opined in my story on Harry and Meghan going back to the United Kingdom, Get the Barf Bag Ready: Harry and Meghan Are Moving Back to UK — and Wait, Trump's to Blame?, there are various reasons why they may wish to go back to Harry's hometown. King Charles's mysterious cancer diagnosis, money, free security, and their aimless uselessness were but a few reasons.
People Magazine, which had the exclusive story, included a couple of digs at President Donald Trump to add a little virtue-signaled pretense for why they were leaving their Montecito manse. That sounds better than leaving over abject "aimless uselessness," no?
To the extent that he was a variable in their political calculus at all, thank you, President Trump. You allegedly have helped prompt two self-entitled brats to self-deportation-ville. Bravo. That's better than ten Rosies. In fact, I think we should begin an Enhanced Rosie-Moto Scale to measure the impact on those who pretend Trump is so evil that they left the country over his election.
Related: Government Targets Seattle Group for Cleaning Up Drug Gear the Government Handed Out
Something else flew under the radar that I didn't include in my story, however.
People reported:
Looking back, Harry may have hinted at the family’s plans more than a year ago. At the WellChild Awards in September 2025, singer Joss Stone — who had recently moved her family back to Britain after spending years living in Nashville, Tennessee — recalled that Harry was especially interested in her decision.
...Stone said Harry was particularly curious about what the move meant for her children.
“He was saying how wonderful the schools are here and how important community is for children,” she recalled. “It was nice to share that with him because it’s exactly why we felt drawn to come back — for the kids to grow up surrounded by family, friends and a strong sense of belonging and, most importantly, in a safe environment.”
And, indeed, the couple has already enrolled Prince Archie, who's seven, and Princess Lilibet, 5, in school in the U.K. They're starting in September.
That's always the way it is, isn't it? Parents move for the kids' schools. It's called voting with their feet. And it's an especially easy decision for parents who are considering California public schools for their kids. Make no mistake, private schools, which is where their children would go if they weren't there already, are impacted by how bad the California public schools suck.
Archie and Lilibet's parents would have had to cough up the $40-50 G's per kid to send them to private schools in Santa Barbara. And there would be no super security for them without mom and dad paying mucho efectivo for that as well.
My guess, and it is only that, is that the Sussexes, or as VIP commenter GenFrankSavage crowned them, "Suckexcesses"—I'm stealing that — will get spiffed the gargantuan cost of the private school tab in London, which isn't something they would have been accorded in Montecito.
They have abandoned California schools because —
California's schools suck
Without sounding like the proverbial broken record, California schools used to be the standard by which all other states' schools were measured.
Now, after decades of one-party rule, what are California schools?
California schools are union halls with classrooms attached.
Nothing is done in these schools without the powerful teachers' union giving a green light.
Watch for It: The Left Is Coming for Your County Sheriff
If California schools want to survive as, you know, places of learning, the unions must go. Unions are destroying them. For a backgrounder, please see my interview with Ryan Walters of the Freedom Foundation's Teachers Freedom Alliance, who explains how the dismantling of teachers' unions could be done.
2026 Theses on the 'Castle Capital's' door
California and other West Coast, Messed Coast™ states that mimic them are in educational free fall.
STEM professors, including "5 Nobel Laureates, 7 of the 9 Chairs of UC Mathematics Departments, Plus an additional 73 STEM department chairs," wrote an open letter begging for the public schools to do their jobs and teach kids again, including preparing them for the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT).
During and after COVID shutdowns, teachers' unions argued to lower standards and stop the use of SATs because, well, why do you think?
They wrote that the lack of math preparation is a "crisis."
Basic mathematical fluency is analogous to literacy; without it, success in university-level STEM becomes structurally unattainable for students. We now observe preparation gaps so severe that instructors must reteach middle-school mathematics while simultaneously teaching the material students need for sciences, engineering, economics, and other quantitatively demanding fields.
...The SAT/ACT mathematics requirement is not an obstacle to equity; rather, it is a prerequisite for it. Failing to measure preparation gaps does not remove barriers; it moves them into the classroom, where they become harder to overcome.
And what does the governor who wants to be president say about this crisis that happened on his watch?
This response is unreal. Not that you could avoid it, but watch Gavin Newsom's non-verbal cues.
Gavin Newsom dodges SAT question as 1000+ UC professors warn college students can’t do basic math https://t.co/7IDGTkOQ6n pic.twitter.com/YvO9DmvcfT
— California Post (@californiapost) August 20, 2026
I'll simplify his answer:
"Wah, wah, wah, wah, wah (head crook), wah, wah, wah, (use lady as human shield), wah, wah, wah, there may be contra evidence, wah, wah, wah (looks skeptical), wah, wah, wah."
Newsom just signed Assembly Bill 181 on July 10, 2026, as part of the state budget to allow the governor to replace the election of the State School Superintendent by voters with a newly created, governor-appointed Education Commissioner.
It's one-stop shopping for the teachers' union gang. In fact, what do you want to bet that the new Education Commissioner will be a teachers' union boss?
🥁This is what democracy looks like!🎶
We're in charge of journalism now
For a while now, California and Washington have made moves to decide what real journalists are, and there's a nefarious reason behind it. They are intentionally blocking people who may ask impertinent questions of the people who make outrageous laws.
They've done this with, not a velvet hammer, but a chrome baseball bat.
Journalism is a craft, not a profession. There are no professional tests or licenses required to tell a story. So since they can't yank state licenses of journalists they don't like, both California and Washington have begun using other ways within their vast powers to undermine the way indy journalists do their jobs.
Keep Up: West Coast, Messed Coast™—Spokane Arsonist Was Wearing the Same Shirt He Wore to Set Fires Last Year
In California, Nick Shirley of "Learing Center" fame has been tracking fraud. California supermajority legislators are moving a bill that would make it harder for indy journalists to get information on certain NGOs protecting illegal aliens.
Here's how it's going. As the legislature took its first vote on the bill that would hide information from reporters, Democrats sent a paid staffer to make signs and confront Shirley outside the Capitol.
Meet the California State Assembly Chief of Staff… in Sacramento he printed and handed out, “Allegedly Nick Shirley has a small penis, prove me wrong” @TerrySchanz used tax-funded public resources to try to slander a journalist.
— Nick shirley (@nickshirleyy) August 19, 2026
A perfect example of California politics. https://t.co/MBlt7imLxM pic.twitter.com/ugxaCcuWEU
In Washington, podcaster and journalist Brandi Kruse is under investigation by state apparatchiks and ordered to produce information for making "in kind" donations to causes she podcasts about. The state calls her show "political advertising." This is a naked attempt to make people literally pay for their own opinions.
She talks a lot about boys pretending to be girls and girls needing bathrooms and clubhouses for themselves.
Washington, this is clearly viewpoint discrimination, you trolls.
Kruse, Jonathan Choe, and others who are indy journalists were denied access to the State Capitol spaces that journalists have always had access to. Well, state-picked journalists still have access.
🥁This is what democracy looks like!🎶
Thar she blows
Much has been made of the "need" to destroy the Centennial Mills waterfront property in Portland, Ore., because no one wants to rehabilitate it.
What appear to be Antifa vandals, who have also been seen outside the Portland ICE facility, allegedly set it on fire.
The Portland ICE facility reportedly is on land owned by the same owner as the Centennial Mills.
There are no accidents in Portland.
Here's the planned demolition of the building, which many believe is a more than apt metaphor for what the left has done to the city.
At approximately 2:30 p.m. today, the water tower at Centennial Mills came down in a controlled demolition.
— PDX Real (@PDXReal1) August 17, 2026
Portland purchased the property for $7.7 million in 2000. Over the next two decades, Prosper Portland spent at least $27 million on the site.
The property was sold in… pic.twitter.com/VzIBsbA9Yr
My Prediction
Harry and Meghan will hang on to the Montecito property for at least a year.
They'll come back next summer to get packed up.
They'll claim at that point that their children have already made lifelong friends at school and they've enjoyed their time doing charity work and the occasional royal gig and plan to stay a while in the UK.
Architectural Digest will have already done a spread on the Montecito residence and arranged professionals to stage, style, and make improvements on the property for a banger of a spread for which the Suckexcesses will be lavishly enriched.
Then they'll put the house on the market.
When they come back, they'll borrow their acquaintances' homes as before.
I think entirely too much about these people; I know.
They haven't ruined everything — yet
Enjoy this incredible paradise off the coast of Southern California before Democrats build "affordable housing" on it. Yes, their plan is to build affordable housing on Catalina. How about just leaving it alone?
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