Don's Tuesday Column

THE WAY I SEE IT   by Don Polson   Red Bluff Daily News   3/26/2024

Wacky-fornia; count the ways

We are the state no other smart, sensible states emulate.

First, the holiest week in the Christian calendar behooves this writer and readers to consider one’s heart and soul, with some deference for Easter’s message. That America was founded as, and to an extent remains, a Christian nation will hopefully forever confound the atheists and skeptics among us. Ours are Judeo-Christian, not Buddhist or Muslim, values.

Evident turmoil, unrest, dissension, human deprivation and abuse turns thoughts to the possibility of a Higher Purpose, a personal and national Destiny shaped by the recognition of the God of Nature affirmed by America’s Founders in the Declaration of Independence.

Those promoting a “civic” or humanized message from Jesus, seen in the frequent “Jesus gets us” ads, have overlooked the actual message: “Jesus saves us.” If that message resonates, please seek a church, pastor or priest who can explain it to you.

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The news article, “State Farm to discontinue 72,000 home policies,” came weeks after we were informed of our policy’s cancellation. The article referenced “outdated,” and “decades-old” “insurance regulation,” and the “risk of catastrophes like wildfires.”

Like the thousands of moving vans carrying middle- and upper-class taxpayers to seek life in those “smart, sensible states,” the blaring-but-ignored messages are sent to Sacramento’s Democrat rulers: “Something’s happening here but you don’t know what it is, do you Mr. Jones?” (Bob Dylan, Highway 61 Revisited)

Insurance is an industry whose model has for centuries adjusted premiums to account for risk. It cannot overcome arbitrary regulatory hurdles disallowing pricing to make policyholders “whole.” That “something happening” is the SNAFU (Systems Normal All Fouled Up) of government/enviro/political greed.

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The problem of “squatters” illegally occupying vacant (but owned legally by others) homes has resulted from stupidly-tolerated, judicially-imposed, lawless “occupation” of public and private spaces by “homeless” hordes.

Our sympathy—for those who, through no fault of their own, are bereft of shelter and deserving of help—does not extend to the tens of thousands of drug-addled, welfare-and-charity sucking leeches befouling nearly every city’s sidewalks and parks. What is tolerated gets repeated and abused, as “zombie-like” scofflaws take advantage of the 9^th Circuit’s misguided rulings hamstringing municipal control and restrictions upon such destructive behaviors.

During 16 years in real estate, I’ll never forget some experiences. We were told in a local office that our habit of giving keys to prospective renters, to go check out a rental, was essentially giving them carte blanche to move in, forcing eviction by owner and office without collecting rent.

An out-of-country owner asked us to tell some occupants in her rental home to leave, as they were no longer legally entitled to stay. We men in the office showed up, thinking we’d present an intimidating presence to convey the order. The home was filthy, drugs openly left on a table, with paths through the garbage.

As we relayed the owner’s message to one guy, other began emerging from rooms, looking rather shabby and disheveled, if not uncooperative. One door opened to reveal a child, obviously uncared-for. We made our exit after one of the occupants said they were making agreed upon repairs, a facetious but legal issue.

Back at the office, I picked up the phone to hear a woman from a law firm demanding to know why we were harassing her clients. I asked a silly question: Did she have any idea what the conditions were in a house with a young child, living in filth? Responding police found the occupants had removed the kid by then.

Needs produce solutions—a company called Squatter Squad is serving SoCal owners by showing up, and (once legitimate lease papers are not produced) removing all doors and placing squatters’ belongings outside.

One local broker was friends with some gnarly-looking Christian bikers that she authorized to simply move into a home illegally “occupied” by renters overstaying their term. By the time the bikers started working on a Harley in the living room, the renters had left. Problem solved at the cost of pizzas all around.

More “Wacky-fornia”: Poor, poor suspects, arrestees and criminals; “woke” lawmakers mandated that faces be obscured. A Murrieta P.D. photoshopped Lego heads onto them. Last word is that Lego objects.

“California law allows conviction challenges on basis of racial disparities—Notably, the act states ‘the defendant need not show that purposeful discrimination occurred’ for a petition to succeed.” So, if one or another race is the primary culprit in criminal activities, the perps can claim “racism” without any proof.

After spending hundreds of millions of dollars trying to “solve,” or reduce, homelessness, Gov. Newsom and the Dems hit upon an ingenious idea: The $6.4 billion ballot measure just voted on, for mental treatment and housing for homeless people. Perhaps you heard it passed—by about 20,000 votes.

So, while Donald Trump is subjected to ludicrous legal charges over his attempt to find enough fraudulent votes in Georgia to reverse the result, “'Find the Votes': Newsom [was] Scrounging for (Only) Democrat Mail-In Ballots to Pass Signature Tax Increase.” The hypocritical double-standard oozes, and screams.