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Climate Change Policies Driving California’s Golden Road to Decline

The first of two reported essays on the issues facing California. Read the second installment here.

“From the Beginning, California promised much. While yet barely a name on the map, it entered American awareness as a symbol of renewal. It was a final frontier: of geography and of expectation.”

— Kevin Starr, “Americans and the California Dream, 1850-1915” 

California’s economic, academic, media, and political establishment still embraces the notion of the state’s inevitable supremacy. “The future depends on us,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said at his first inauguration, “and we will seize this moment.” Others see California as deserving and capable of nationhood, a topic that has resurfaced with Trump’s presidency as it reflects, as a New York Times column put it, “the shared values of our increasingly tolerant and pluralistic society.”

Critics say this vision is at odds with the facts on the ground. Rather than the exemplar of a new “progressive capitalism” and a model for social justice, California both accommodates the highest number of billionaires and the highest cost-adjusted poverty rate. It has the third highest gap, behind just Washington, D.C., and Louisiana, between middle- and upper-middle-income earners of any state. Nearly one in five Californians – many working – lives in poverty (using a cost-of-living adjusted poverty rate); the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) estimates another one-fifth live in near-poverty – roughly 15 million people in total.

“California” is a model that no longer delivers. To be sure, California has a huge GDP, paced largely by high real estate prices and the stock value of a handful of huge tech firms. It retains the inertia from its glory days, particularly in technology and entertainment, but that edge is evaporating as tech firms flee the state and Hollywood productions are shot around the world. For all its strengths, California has the nation’s second-highest rate of unemployment with lagging job growth, particularly in comparison to its neighbors and chief rivals, notably Texas, Arizona, and Nevada.

The signs of failure are evident on the streets. Roughly half the nation’s homeless population lives in the Golden State, many concentrated in disease- and crime-ridden tent cities in Los Angeles or San Francisco. Barely one in three state residents – and only one in four younger voters – now considers California a good place to achieve the American dream. Increasingly, California is where this dream goes to die.

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2025: The iPhone Moment For Humanoid Robots

The race is on to capture the multi-trillion market for humanoid robots. General-purpose robots can be instantly repurposed for any task by AI. Personal robots, for instance, will cook your meals, clean your house, do your laundry, tutor your kids, drive your car, cut your grass, take care of your elderly parents, repair your plumbing, etc. Whereas an iPhone has many apps accessed from a single device, robots will free you from a single screen to invade the physical world. Tesla will likely set the standard with its Optimus model starting at $20-30,000. ⁃ Patrick Wood, Editor.

“There’s an iPhone moment happening with humanoids,” said Brett Adcock, founder of Figure, a humanoid robotics company in California. “It’s going to happen right now,” added the serial entrepreneur, his robots already working on the production line in BMW’s Spartanburg factory. Another major corporate customer is trialing his robots for warehouse work. “To succeed at this, you have to do three things that have never been done before. And you have to get all three of them right within the next 5yrs or you’re going to fail for sure.”

“The first thing is you have to build hardware for humanoids that’s incredibly complex and can never fail, and it’s got to work at human speeds with human range of motion,” explained Adcock. “The second thing is a neural net problem, not a control systems problem. You can’t code your way out of this problem. You need to have a robot that can ingest human-like data through a neural net and it has to be able to imitate what humans do. Humanoid robots are not like arms bolted to a factory table. None of those robots have AI.”

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City in Colorado Will Seize Residents’ Pets If They Violate Strict Animal Ownership Limits

A Colorado municipality will soon authorize the seizure of cats and dogs from residents who exceed a new cap on animal ownership.

Denver7 reports that starting in August, the city of Northglenn, located roughly 40 minutes from Denver, will impose a strict rule prohibiting residents from keeping more than four animals in total.

This includes cats, dogs, or any combination thereof, with the total “not exceeding four.”

According to the city, the ordinance was passed by the council “at the request of residents and after extensive research and discussion.”

Officials say the decision follows complaints from community members about “excessive noise and waste caused by a high number of pets in some neighborhoods.”

Those who currently own more than the permitted number of animals have the option to apply for a “previously owned pet exception” prior to the law’s enforcement date.

If submitted in time, the exemption allows Northglenn residents to keep their “existing pets” and avoid having them confiscated by authorities.

The application requires pet owners to provide details, including the animal’s name, breed, sex, age, and the date it entered the household.

Failure to comply with the rule, including failure to report animals exceeding the new threshold, could result in “enforcement action,” which may involve “a potential court order requiring pet removal.”

“Our goal is to work with residents to ensure compliance through education and outreach before any enforcement action is taken,” the city stated.

‘Pets bring joy and companionship to our lives, but they also come with responsibilities.”

”By establishing reasonable pet limits, we aim to ensure that everyone living in Northglenn, both pet owners and non-pet owners, can enjoy their homes and neighborhoods.”

Granting the government the authority to seize pets raises serious concerns about property rights, due process, and overreach into private life.

While both New York and Los Angeles have limits on pet ownership, violators are typically punished through citations and eviction from rental properties.

The other place where animal confiscation is normalized is in communist China, where a controverisal one-dog policy once allowed authorities to confiscate dogs exceeding the size or number limits.

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Witnesses Tell House Task Force To Reinvestigate JFK Assassination

A panel of expert witnesses that included renowned filmmaker Oliver Stone told the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform’s Task Force on the Declassification of Federal Secrets on April 1 that more work is needed to uncover the truth about the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

“Let us see past the lies, and let us hear what happened,” Stone told the task force. “The truth is the greatest treasure a Socratic soul can attain in this lifetime.”

The three-time Academy Award-winning director released a movie titled “JFK” in 1991 and followed that with a documentary in 2021 called “JFK: Revisited.”

He questioned the role played by the CIA, saying it “operates arrogantly outside our laws.”

A litany of motives for removing Kennedy existed at the time, including those related to expanding the Vietnam War and securing power for the military-industrial complex, among others, according to the director.

“He was changing things, changing too many things too fast. It was a major problem for some, and he was going to win a second election,” Stone told The Epoch Times after the hearing. “And he had a brother, a younger brother, and there was fear of a dynasty. They were terrified of that possibility.”

Expressing doubt about the Warren Commission’s findings in 1964, which fingered Lee Harvey Oswald as a lone gunman responsible for Kennedy’s murder, he asked the committee to reopen an investigation into the incident.

Some lawmakers on the dais acknowledged a need to follow up on questions regarding the chain of custody of evidence and discrepancies in testimony and records related to the crime, saying the lack of transparency over nearly 62 years has eroded trust in government.

“For over six decades, questions have lingered, shrouded in secrecy and speculation,” task force chairwoman Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) said during opening remarks. “What has been alarming to me is the amount of stonewalling the federal government put forth to hide this information from the American people.”

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After Years in Court, Canadian “Freedom Convoy” Leaders Tamara Lich and Chris Barber Found Guilty of Mischief

On Thursday, Justice Heather Perkins-McVey, the federal judge overseeing the trial of Canadian “Freedom Covoy” leaders Tamara Lich and Chris Barber, delivered her verdict.

The two organizers were each charged with six counts, including mischief, obstruction, intimidation, and counseling others to commit mischief and intimidation.

Ottowa Citizen reported: 

Lich and Barber were also found not guilty of obstructing police and counselling someone to obstruct police. Both were arrested without incident ahead of a mass police enforcement operation that began on Feb. 18, 2022, to end the protest entirely.

Barber was found guilty of counselling others to disobey a court order for telling people to ignore an injunction issued by a judge directing convoy participants to stop honking their truck horns in downtown Ottawa. Lich was not charged with that offence.

Another charge of counselling others to commit mischief was stayed at the request of the Crown because it was no longer necessary due to the mischief conviction. Justice Perkins-McVey had enough evidence to render a guilty verdict.

Maxime Bernier, the leader of The People’s Party of Canada decried the verdict.

Bernier wrote on X, “It is disheartening to learn that two of the heroes of the Freedom Convoy, @LichTamara and @ChrisBarber1975, have been found guilty of mischief in the longest and one of the costliest trials in Canadian history.”

“This clearly was a political witch hunt.”

“Meanwhile, Trudeau and his ministers who illegally invoked the Emergencies Act and violated basic rights will go unpunished.”

“Our justice system is corrupt to the bones.”

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1 In 10 Say They Have Been Harmed By The NHS, Survey Finds

One in 10 people say they have been harmed by the NHS, according to a study published in the BMJ Quality & Safety Journal.

Researchers surveyed over 10,000 people across England, Wales, and Scotland between 2021 and 2022 and found that 988 of them (9.7 percent) had reported experiencing physical or emotional harm caused by the health service in the previous three years.

According to researchers at the University of Oxford’s Population Health and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), 6.2 percent said they experienced harm owing to care they had received.

The remaining 3.5 percent blamed the harm on having a lack of access to treatment.

The study, published on Tuesday, found that just 17 percent of people chose to take formal action by making a complaint, with an even smaller proportion (2.1 percent) taking legal action.

Higher Rate

The reported harm rate exceeds that of previous surveys in 2001 (4.8 percent) and 2023 (2.5 percent). However, researchers suggest this increase may be down to a broader definition of “harm” that now includes mental distress and harm caused by lack of access to health care, alongside physical harm.

Researchers found that more women had reported harm than men, with there being higher rates among the unemployed and those with disabilities or long-term health conditions.

Men were also found to be less likely to share their experiences, along with older people and those from lower socioeconomic backgrounds. Older people were also less likely to make a formal complaint.

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CONFIRMED: Ursula von Der Leyen’s European Commission Paid Millions to ‘Environmental Associations’ for Targeted Campaigns To Smear Political Opponents and Dissenting Voices

By now, it surprises absolutely no one to learn that the European Union Globalists and her powerful Commissioner Ursula von der Leyen are guilty of weaponizing the continent’s powers against their political enemies and the patriotic forces that oppose their suicidal policies.

After years of heavy criticism and scrutiny, the EU Commission has officially admitted a huge scandal: Brussels paid millions to environmental associations – but not only, mind you, for the nonsense ‘climate work’. What the EU was actually financing were targeted campaigns against political opponents and dissenting voices.

Austrian News Site Exxpress reported (translated from the German):

“The suspicion has been around for years, but now it is official: The EU Commission under Ursula von der Leyen has supported environmental organizations with taxpayers’ money – not only for climate and environmental protection, but also for political smear campaigns. The aim of the funded NGOs was to specifically attack critics of Brussels’ climate policy.

The explosive admission: In an official statement, the Commission admits that there have been “inappropriate lobbying activities” in funded NGO programs. This apparently refers to targeted attacks on political opponents who opposed individual EU plans.”

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Catastrophe Looms Above: Space Junk Problem Grew ‘Significantly Worse’ In 2024

As if you didn’t have enough to worry about, the risk of space junk causing a catastrophic chain reaction that profoundly affects life on Earth rose significantly in 2024, according to the latest annual analysis from the European Space Energy (ESA).

The numbers are mind-boggling. ESA estimates there are now more than 1.2 million orbiting objects larger than 1cm and more than 50,000 larger than 10cm. Of the enormous number of orbiting missiles, only 40,000 are individually tracked by surveillance networks. The number in that category rose by 8% last year. Part of that increase is attributable to the August explosion of China’s Long March 6A rocket, one of the worst junk-generating incidents in decades. “If we extrapolate current trends into the future, as before, catastrophic collision numbers could rise significantly,” the ESA report said.

Don’t judge space junk’s potential for destruction using your Earthly instincts: Traveling at tens of thousands of miles per hour in space, even a small object has the potential to inflict major damage. In one incident that demonstrates that fact of physics, a 2mm piece of space once junk put a 5cm-wide dent in a climate satellite. A modest move up the scale brings much more power: “A one-centimeter piece of debris has the energy of a hand grenade,” ESA’s Tiago Soares told DW.  

In an ominous 2009 incident, a Russian Cosmos satellite collided with an Iridium satellite, creating a cloud of about 2,000 pieces of junk measuring 10cm or more. That’s brings us to the nightmare scenario that should fill you with dread: The Kessler Effect. Imagine an initial major impact that creates hundreds of shards, which then start colliding with more orbiting objects, setting off a chain reaction. Actually, you don’t need your imagination.

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Radical Pro-Abortion Extremist Who Savagely Attacked Brave Pro-Life Activist in Harlem Has Been Identified

We now know the name of the disgusting pro-abortion extremist who assaulted a courageous pro-life activist in Harlem on Friday.

The New York Post reported a short time ago that Brianna J. Rivers of the Bronx came forward and admitted she was the one who attacked Savannah Craven Anteo, fearless reporter for the pro-life advocacy group Live Action.

Rivers offered a non-apology for her cruel actions in a Facebook post today, blaming Craven for the attack and portraying herself as the victim.

“To Savannah, I sincerely apologize but cannot sit around and allow you to continue pushing this one-sided narrative. I understand hands being put on someone is never the answer, but throwing rocks and hiding hands is worse,” she wrote.

“She knows the truth and needs to release the footage in its entirety,” Rivers added. “Savannah is a professional antagonist, not a ‘reporter,’ and the truth will be told.”

Rivers, of course, provided NO evidence she was harmed in any way.

Rivers then accused Craven Anteo of defamation while proclaiming how respectful she usually is.

“I will not allow my image to be defamed by this woman’s actions. Anyone who knows me knows how respectful I am; I don’t even litter; there’s no way you believe I’m punching people for disagreeing with my POV,” Rivers claimed.

Police authorities told The Post that Craven Antao reported the incident to them and said that she admitted to “provoking” Rivers. As of Saturday afternoon, Rivers has not been arrested.

The Gateway Pundit previously reported pro-life activist Craven Antao was viciously attacked in broad daylight by an unhinged pro-abortion radical simply for speaking out in defense of the unborn.

Savannah was on the streets of Harlem conducting peaceful interviews with New Yorkers for a video project titled “What Does Planned Parenthood Do? Perception vs. Reality?” when the attack occurred.

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Belgium Is Latest To Declare It Won’t Arrest Netanyahu, In Reversal

Did Hungary’s Viktor Orban start a trend? He is hosting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on a four-day trip to Budapest through Sunday. PM Orban used the occasion to declare that Hungary, an ICC founding member, will pull out of The Hague-based International Criminal Court.

The ICC slammed the move, and said that member states have an obligation to enforce its arrest warrant against Netanyahu. Interestingly, Belgium too has declared in all likelihood it would never arrest the Israeli head of state.

Prime Minister Bart De Wever on Thursday said his country would ignore a warrant for the arrest of Netanyahu, in a reversal from the stated policies of the prior government. This could lead to more and more countries declaring the same, also amid ongoing US pressure to not confirm to ICC dictates.

“To be completely honest, I don’t think we would either,” De Wever told a journalist from the VRT broadcaster. He was specifically responding to Hungary’s announcement that it wouldn’t arrest the Israeli leader, who is accused by The Hague of overseeing war crimes in Gaza.

“There is such a thing as realpolitik, I don’t think any European country would arrest Netanyahu if he were on their territory. France wouldn’t do it, and I don’t think we would, either,” the Belgian prime minister added.

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