Don's Tuesday Column

THE WAY I SEE IT by Don Polson         Red Bluff Daily News 7/01/2025

        News you might have missed

As we head off for another summer in our “cabin on wheels,” for a “gypsy” lifestyle, today’s column, written weeks ago, offers news items overlooked earlier. Internet hotspot willing, I may continue to be astounded by California-related, logic-defying stories; as the Dale Gribble character would say on “King of the Hill,” “That makes a lot of sense—a lot of non-sense.”

In no particular order: Back in May, some California politicians were seriously considering an anti-Stand-Your-Ground law. Only leftist, anti-gun, despot-favoring Democrats would actually think that the oldest principle of self-defense—the “castle doctrine” of defending your home—could be canceled.

When citizens are reduced to living in fear of lawless intruders—as has happened in the United Kingdom or anywhere you must “retreat” before defending yourself—they cry out for the government to protect them. That may or may not actually happen but the goal is achieved: Previously free citizens are deprived of a right to self-defense.

You probably, rightly suspect a hidden racial angle. It seems most homeowners are white and most home invaders are...not. Anti-gunners assumed that the Commission on Civil Rights would find in favor of an anti-Black effect of Stand-Your-Ground laws. It turns out that the Florida law didn’t produce the desired narrative, so the research was thrown out. Typically, they push a narrative until the facts contradict it, then just throw out the facts.

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Gavin Newsom’s 10-year plan to end San Francisco homelessness passed the 20-year anniversary without, unsurprisingly, any success. Instead, the former SF Mayor’s delusional goals unleashed state-wide homeless encampments—and billions of dollars of wasted efforts. He only recently used a court decision to demand cities and towns (like Red Bluff) clear out the same encampments he basically encouraged in the first place.

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Another decades-in-the-making policy debacle, California’s housing (affordability) crisis, will apparently be solved by SB 750, the California Residential Mortgage Insurance Act, authored by Democratic State Senator Dave Cortese. It would create a state-backed loan insurance program for multifamily housing.

The stated goal is to remove risk and uncertainty for lenders and builders of high-density housing. Most folks prefer a detached, single-family home on a lot they own. However, they can neither find nor afford such housing in a state where—due to restrictions on land use, lengthy permitting processes, and an environmentalist lock on government—home prices are double what they are in other states.

So, the state will take on the financial risk of guaranteeing loans, and thus incentivizing building of housing that people may not prefer—leaving taxpayers to bail out said builders when projects go under. It does nothing to reduce the cost of the type of housing people want; it just forces them into the “stacked and packed” housing preferred by big-government types seeking to control the masses.

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It may have escaped readers attention, and hopefully it was not a priority for local libraries, but Kelly Jensen posted “How To Prepare For Pride Month in Libraries in 2025.” “For libraries, ‘Pride’ has traditionally been a month for joyful displays of queer books, with periodic and predictable complaints.” The thinly-veiled agenda: normalize the indoctrination of children to choose alternate (i.e. perverted, “gender fluid”) sexual orientations, aka “grooming” them to reject traditional, especially Christian, beliefs on sexuality.

Related: Jeff Younger wrote that a “California judge allowed my ex-wife to chemically castrate my son...[Younger] vowed to shut down the LA Children’s Hospital gender clinic; the judge laughed.” June 12 ABC headline: “CHLA closing center for transgender youth.” Jeff Younger: “Who’s laughing now?”

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“California College Disciplinary Officer Sued Over Censorship; Golden West College threatened student with discipline for statements calling illegal immigration a ‘cancer’ and Hamas ‘a terrorist organization’” (ifs.org, 5/27). Instead of defending free speech, G.W. College sought to silence the student (from Iran, wanting to enjoy free speech in America) with disciplinary retaliation. The student, with the Institute for Free Speech, is suing the college; let’s hope they succeed.

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“Low Gas Prices Are Defying Expectations As They Continue to Come Down Under [T-word’s] Second Term” by Rebecca Downs (Townhall.com, June 11). Prices rise in Oregon and CA while GasBuddy shows an average of $3.18/gallon nationwide.

Meanwhile, USC expert Michael Mische projected that CA gas prices could climb to $8 per gallon; Gov. Newsom mocked the prediction on social media. And yet, Energy Commission Vice Chair Siva Gunda confirmed that Oil refinery closures—Philips 66 (LA) and Valero (Benicia)—will cut 20 percent of in-state gasoline production.

Blame mounting pressure from environmental regulations, aggressive public policies, and costly compliance mandates; Valero was fined $82 million for “air violations.” No new refineries have been built since 1969, in a state with large fossil fuel deposits. Your pump price reflects nearly $1.50 in taxes and Low Carbon Fuel Standard fees (and rising $0.65 today).