53percenter's Blog

While hardly conservative, California punk band the Dead Kennedys have proved oddly prescient over the years in ways slightly different than they might have expected.

No, Jerry Brown didn’t become “führer one day” as the band predicted in the song “California Über Alles.” He does still reign over the People’s Republic of California, however, and — much like their song “Moon Over Marin” — the state’s looking a bit dystopian.

Again, it wasn’t the way the DK’s planned. The 1982 song predicted California becoming an environmentalist disaster area (“Another tanker’s hit the rocks / Abandoned to spill out its guts / The sand is laced with sticky glops … I squish dead fish between my toes / Try not to step on any bones / I turn around and I go home”), a popular motif in the 1980s.

The environment seems to have done all right for itself in the interim, although not particularly with any help from Gov. Moonbeam or the Dead Kennedys. However, it is seeming pretty darn dystopian, as James Woods documented with a video right outside of Oprah Winfrey’s headquarters in Hollywood:

This is the sidewalk next to Oprah Winfrey’s studio in West Hollywood. She has done extensive, and truly beautiful renovations to The Lot. Brand new apartments were built across the street. The new resident families cannot walk their children on the sidewalk to the local school. pic.twitter.com/xEsdTiRpUB

— James Woods (@RealJamesWoods) May 26, 2018

As you may have heard, California has a bit of a homelessness problem. Even Politifact — a site which, in spite of its name, isn’t known for giving particularly accurate facts on politics if those facts skew conservative — backed up one of California’s GOP gubernatorial candidates when he said “(h)omelessness has skyrocketed across California. We have the nation’s highest homelessness rate and the nation’s highest homeless population.”

They tried to prove him wrong by focusing on the word “skyrocketed” — and failed.

“The report shows California’s homeless population jumped nearly 14 percent from 2016 to 2017 — to a total of more than 134,00 people. It rose nearly 9 percent over the previous seven years,” they noted.

“That’s much different than the national picture. While the national homeless population ticked up about 1 percent in 2017, it remained 13 percent lower than in 2010, according to an NPR analysis following the report’s release.

“Notably, the rise statewide and nationally in 2017 was attributed to a surge in the number of people living on the streets in Los Angeles and other West Coast cities, at least in part due to a shortage of affordable housing.”

Oh, and you know why California’s that way in the first place? State subsidies that have incentivized the wrong kind of building.

“According to a new study, the state will spend $929 per homeowner household in fiscal year 2018-19. As for renters? They’ll receive just $71 in expenditures from the state,” the San Francisco Chronicle reported in March.

“The inequities are the result of many different factors. Homeowners can take advantage of a variety of state subsidies including the state’s deductions for mortgage interest and property taxes. These deductions, which can be thousands of dollars for homeowners, leave California’s annual $60-$120 renter’s credit in the dust.”

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And while girls may run the world, according to Beyoncé, who run the Golden State? Uh, that’d be Democrats. Aside from Arnold Schwarzenegger’s eight-year RINO safari in Sacramento, Democrats have mostly controlled the governor’s mansion, the state legislature and pretty much every major city government outside of San Diego. Given the safety-net programs that are in place, it’s practically a semi-socialist paradise.

This is in marked contrast to the rest of the United States, where Republicans control the majority of the governorships and state legislatures.

And somehow, despite how we’re told Republicans are harbingers of poverty and homelessness and despair, we’ve somehow managed to avoid scenes like this in states run by the GOP:

This video is incredible. It’s shows a 10 min bike ride through Orange County, CA, and almost the entire path is lined with homeless tent cities. https://t.co/X6i5M85IZm

— Jim Dalrymple II (@Dalrymple) January 17, 2018

Woods is far from the only one documenting the genuine horror that is California’s homelessness problem. And, for all of that homelessness, they still have a crushing state debt and no solution in sight — even though Gov. Moonbeam is a relative fiscal conservative compared to the rest of his Democrat peeps.

Sadly, the state will likely fall into the hands of Gavin Newsom, the former mayor of San Francisco. Under his policies, you’re still going to see homelessness everywhere — including outside of Oprah’s studios.

No wonder people are leaving the state at a record clip. I’d leave, too, given that the state is going to continue its slide into a “Moon Over Marin”-esque nightmare.

It’s a good thing James Woods is staying, if just to chronicle what California is becoming.

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This one has Democrat deception written all over it — but the backlash is already brutal.

The largest and most popular supermarket chain in Florida is suspending its political contributions just as the Sunshine State’s governor’s race starts to heat up, thanks to some highly publicized anti-gun demonstrations by the poster boy for gun grabbers everywhere.

And the target just happens to be one of the GOP’s top contenders for the state’s top job.

According to the Orlando Sentinel, Publix announced the suspension Friday, shortly before “die-in” protests took place at two of its Florida locations organized by David Hogg, the teenager who is riding February’s mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, to a mountain of undeserved personal publicity.

Hogg’s beef with the grocery chain — the state’s shoppers’ favorite, according to the Palm Beach Post — stems from its financial support for Adam Putnam, Florida’s current agriculture commissioner and a candidate for the Republican nomination for governor.

Putnam is no backer of the Trump administration, and President Donald Trump and some of the party’s biggest names have officially endorsed U.S. Rep. Ron DeSantis for the GOP nomination. But Putnam is still a Republican, which puts a target on his back for every Democrat and Democrat shell operation out there.

Putnam is a native of Polk County, where Publix is headquartered, so the company’s support for a native son who also happens to have a job in state government directly overseeing Publix’s operations is understandable. (In fact, any company in Publix’ line of work that didn’t support a politician like Putnam probably wouldn’t have the brains to be in business for very long.)

Putnam also makes no bones about his support for gun rights. In a July 2017 Twitter post, he laughingly called himself an “NRA sellout” in response to criticisms in the media that he is too strong on the Second Amendment.

For Hogg and his benighted backers, Putnam’s support for the American rights guaranteed by the Second Amendment to the Constitution is enough to justify a protest against the Publix supermarket chain – or at least justify it enough to get the news cameras out for demonstrations to smear the company’s image.

In  his Twitter posts announcing the protest, Hogg made a point of referring to Putnam’s “sellout” joke.

Well, Publix apparently felt spooked enough to fall for Hogg’s hogwash, but the chain’s customers might make the company regret it.

Here are some Twitter responses that have to have Publix worried about its bottom line:

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That last one has to sting — the truth really does hurt.

Here’s the thing, though.

Publix’ support for Putnam is nothing new. The company wrote its first campaign check to the hometown boy in 1996, when the then-22-year-old Putnam was running for the state House, according to the Tampa Bay Times. The company’s top names, including current and former leaders, have given him $670,000 in the past three years, the newspaper reported.

Of course, a young man running for a seat in the state House of Representatives isn’t a major deal. And while agriculture commissioner in an agriculture state like Florida is a very big deal, it’s still not the top job in the state.

What Democrats are seeing a chance to do here is smear one of the GOP’s biggest names in Florida politics – and smear the Republican Party as a whole – to boost their chances of winning the governor’s seat for the first time in decades.

It’s unfortunate Publix doesn’t have the courage of its convictions – apparently selling groceries doesn’t translate into having guts.

It’s unfortunate that it chose to cave to Hogg’s latest bullying tactic of “die-ins.”

But the worst part is that national media like The Associated Press, The Washington Post and ABC News are treating this as some sort of spontaneous flare-up of protests against a Florida politician.

The reality is, Democrats in Florida haven’t held the governor’s office since Jeb Bush won the seat for the GOP in the 1998 race. If Democrats are going to win this year, they need all the help smearing Republican candidates they can get — and a loud-mouthed ignoramus like Hogg and his foolish followers fit the bill perfectly.

They can smear one of the top contenders for the state’s top job and the media can pretend it’s all about innocent young teenagers trying to save their own lives.

It’s got Democrat deception written all over it — and for Publix, the backlash is going to hurt.

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There were plenty of epic moments Friday as President Donald Trump gave the commencement speech at the graduation ceremony for the United States Naval Academy.

For instance, he shook the hands of every one of the over 1,100 graduates. That was pretty epic.

Or there was Trump confirming “that we are committing even more to our defenses, and we are committing even more to our veterans. Because we know that the best way to prevent war is to be fully prepared for war. And hopefully, we never have to use all of this beautiful, new, powerful equipment. But you know, you are less likely to have to use it if you have it and know how to work it.”

But it wasn’t the most epic line of the commencement speech. Oh, no. In fact, there was a line that got plenty of us here at office thinking it may just be the best line of his presidency.

It came as the president was giving a paean to the class of 2018, telling them that they “are still not tired of winning.”

“You chase discovery, and you never flinch in the eye of a raging storm. America is in your heart. The ocean is in your soul,” Trump said. “The saltwater runs through your veins. You live your life according to the final law of the Navy. The word impossible does not exist, because Navy never quits.

“You don’t give up. You don’t give in. You don’t back down. And you never surrender. Wherever you go, wherever you serve, wherever your mission takes you, you only have one word in mind, and that’s victory.

“That is why you are here. Victory. A very important word. You are now leaders in the most powerful and righteous force on the face of the planet. The United States military. And we are respected again, I can tell you that. We are respected again.”

.@POTUS to @NavalAcademy graduates: “You are now leaders in the most powerful and righteous force on the face of the planet: The United States military. And we are respected again.” pic.twitter.com/xVbRXS7fAT

— FOX Business (@FoxBusiness) May 26, 2018

Now, let me ask you a question I’ve asked so many times during the Trump administration: Could you imagine those words ever escaping the lips of Barack Obama?

During his eight years in office, Obama almost seemed to apologize for our military power.

He did it through hasty withdrawals in Iraq and Afghanistan, where the Islamic State group and Taliban were allowed to grow and metastasize. When he did fight them, it was using limited engagement tactics that handcuffed our pilots.

He left our military in such disrepair that one of our most legendary units, the “Screaming Eagles” of the 101st Airborne, was more or less decimated by budget cuts.

He declined to put military pressure on North Korea, preferring “strategic patience.”

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Would he have ever said our military was “the most powerful and righteous force on the face of the planet?” Of course not.

Things have changed a lot over the past few years. This is one instance where we can say it’s definitely changed for the better — where we finally have a commander in chief willing to say those wonderful words. That alone could make it the best line of his presidency.

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NFL execs are still in the firing line.

A New York congressman with a reputation as a straight shooter took a bead on New York Jets chairman and acting owner Christopher Johnson on Saturday with a Twitter post that nailed Johnson’s attempt to play both sides in the ongoing dispute over players protesting during the national anthem.

And he hit the target dead center.

Republican Rep. Peter King was responding to Johnson’s comments after the league announced its new policy Wednesday requiring players who are on the field to stand respectfully for “The Star-Spangled Banner.”

Under the policy, teams would be fined if their players or other employees engage in protests during the song, according to ESPN.

On Wednesday, Johnson told Newsday he would not pass any team fines on to individual players.

“I never want to put restrictions on the speech of our players. Do I prefer that they stand? Of course. But I understand if they felt the need to protest,” he told the newspaper. “There will be no club fines or suspensions or any sort of repercussions. If the team gets fined, that’s just something I’ll have to bear.”

In a Twitter post, King called the remarks “disgraceful.”

“Disgraceful that @nyjets owner will pay fines for players who kneel for National Anthem,” King wrote. “Encouraging a movement premised on lies vs. police. Would he support all player protests? Would he pay fines of players giving Nazi salutes or spew racism? It’s time to say goodbye to Jets!”

King, who is no stranger to controversy, has a habit of telling liberals exactly what they don’t want to hear. That much was clear from the Twitter responses, which were overwhelmingly from the liberal side (and written with as much intelligence as you’d expect from that quarter.)

And on this one, he was exactly right.

The anthem controversy has been a disaster for the NFL since San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick decided to kick it off by sitting and pouting during the 49ers pre-season games in 2016.

The league’s ratings dropped throughout the 2016 and 2017 seasons, costing networks that carry the games billions of dollars.

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The American public was disgusted by the sight of mega-millionaires protesting the country that made them wealthy by kneeling on the field before games most Americans can’t afford to attend themselves.

Now, the owners are trying rectify the situation by ordering players on the field to stand respectfully for the anthem, and allowing those who can’t bring themselves to do even that to stay in the locker room for the duration of a song beloved by hundreds of millions of their compatriots.

Johnson told Newsday he only supported the league’s new policy because it fined the teams, not individual players for protests, which gave him the chance to pay for any misbehavior.

Maybe that’s true, but since no Jets took a knee during the controversy last season, according to Newsday, it’s a good chance that Johnson is getting a chance to make himself look like a liberal hero without facing the consequence of paying any real actual money for his national profile in courage.

Instead he gets to show off as a supporter of his players and play a hero to American liberals — and all he has to do is make a pretense of supporting what King rightfully called “a movement premised on lies vs. police.”

Does racism exist in the United States? Of course it does, in many ways — including the kind of racism that paints anyone with white skin as an “oppressor.”

But the “oppression” the NFL players are pretending to protest grew directly out of the whole “hands up, don’t shoot” movement — and even a Washington Post editorial board member admitted “hands up, don’t shoot” was a lie.

King was right. The anthem protests were bad. And the weaselly reactions of owners like Johnson are “disgraceful.”

They’re the kind of arrogantly empty actions that are keeping NFL execs in the firing line. Until they man up and get some courage, it’s where they belong.

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