Don's Tuesday Column

     THE WAY I SEE IT   by Don Polson  Red Bluff Daily News   4/02/2024

                ‘Twas once a fine park

Not having visited River Park in a long time, it was a surprise, a shock even, to read about law enforcement and other agencies cleaning up “encampments,” removing tons of trash left by “campers,” aka homeless squatters on public property. The location shown in the photo in Friday’s paper was not obvious but, in my 35+ years living and working in Red Bluff, I’ve not seen such filth and neglect in River park.

It was a refreshing spot to park and walk for many years when I needed stress relief close to the office where I held down a desk and fielded calls and clients. Locals enjoyed sitting at picnic tables or chasing thrown disks or balls. Apparently, the “blobs” of homeless scofflaws and lay-abouts spread like the namesake scary movie “The Blob.”

Just to review, we can thank, or curse, the 9th Appellate Court for telling all under its jurisdiction that, as a result of a big bucks Washington, DC law firm telling the authorities in Boise, ID, they had no right to force “campers” off public property—homeless people can’t always be told to move. 

Even worse, a more recent lawsuit has, I believe, found sympathetic, even addle-brained, judges to tell officials and their agencies that they are culpable if they fail to store and save the belongings of said homeless campers. Differing judicial opinions have these issues headed to the Supreme Court, if I’m correct, where we can only hope common sense and deference to self-rule prevails.

The issue of “squatters” illegally possessing a house, or overstaying their rental term, hit close to home for many, ourselves included, when the “beneficent” overlords of COVID autocracy proclaimed that evictions be postponed. Many readers may have been unaffected over the issue, but we had the misfortune of being unable to remove renters from a double-wide on acreage, who simply failed to pay rent for most of a year.

The only solution, as there was no legal way to evict under pandemic mandates, was to sell the property. Even then, after securing a judge’s finding in our favor, they didn’t vacate until informed that a sheriff’s deputy would be serving them with orders. Sha-zam, the place got empty in time for the new owners.

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In “California proposal: how power bills are calculated,” readers were, if they read far enough into the AP article, treated to a slightly inaccurate statement of electricity rates. Not to mention the unintentional eye-glazing, number-crunching rate and charge amounts proposed by state regulators who, mind you, have no desire to see you pay less for lighting, heating and cooling your home.

The article stated that the “average price per kilowatt hour of electricity for California’s big three utilities…is about 36 cents, compared to the national average of 17 cents.” I checked and, sure enough, my PG&E bill is $0.42101 per kwh, not $0.36. That means that the two non-PG&E utilities are quite a bit below the 36-cent price per kwh. Also, you can say “You’re welcome” to neighbors with solar and EVs because part of what you pay subsidizes their chosen “green, low/no carbon” environmentally virtuous panels and cars.

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It needs stating that the reason local readers, and most Americans, are not cheering and crediting the current administration for inflation ebbing a bit, is that it is objectively much higher than we’re told. In the 70s and 80s, when the “misery index,” or combined inflation and unemployment, helped make Jimmy Carter a one-term President, the cost, or interest, on credit cards, auto loans and mortgages was factored into the official inflation figure.

“Indeed, if we measured inflation as we did in the 1970s, the inflation that started in 2021 would have peaked at 18%—double its reported peak. That's higher than the worst of the 1970s and '80s. Inflation's current annual rate would be about 8%.” (National Bureau of Economic Research, economists Bolhuis, Cramer, Schulz and Summers) See: “Americans Can Tell the Difference Between Rosy Economic Data and Reality.”

Unemployment figures omit those no longer working or looking for work—amounting to millions of people that should rightfully be considered “unemployed”—which would add several percentage points to both national and California’s stated rates. We’re actually at around 7 to 8 percent unemployment nationally; 9 to 10 percent statewide and higher in Tehama County.

The “misery index” that Americans are really feeling, not the feel-good, pablum-fed EGBOK (Everything’s Going to Be OK) message put out from Democrats, is probably above 15 percent. That explains why Americans tell pollsters they are quite sour on the economy and give Biden no approval for it. Just thought you’d like to know.

For next week, see “The Hertz Meltdown Reveals the Scale of the EV Debacle” (Theepochtimes.com); “Say goodbye to choice in car buying” (Tom Knighton); “EV Market Imploding, So Biden Is About to Mandate Them (Fox News, Kristen Walker); and “Biden is still trying to take your gas-powered car” (David Strom).

It was 40 years ago, April 1, that this “fool for love” met his future bride in the Longhorn Saloon, Canoga Park, LA. Happy 40th anniversary, Barbara.