Tag: california

Proposed City Program Guarantees Income for Transgender Residents

ASouthern California city is moving forward with plans for monthly payments as high as $900 to transgender and nonbinary residents to help them overcome discrimination.

The Palm Springs City Council on Thursday unanimously voted to allocate $200,000 from two local nonprofits for the initial legwork to provide the payments to members of the marginalized demographic living in the city. The city’s move comes as California is implementing a guaranteed income plan, and as Republican-led states have sought to restrict the rights of transgender people.

The money will go to Palm Springs-based Queer Works and DAP Health to work out details of the first-of-its-kind pilot guaranteed income program.

Jacob Rostovsky, Queer Works executive director, told Newsweek he expects the program to be similar to other guaranteed income pilot programs launched in other U.S. cities. He said other cities that have experimented with guaranteed income on average have given 150 people monthly payments of $600 to $900.

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Reparations Panel in California, a Free State, Votes 5-4 to Limit Benefits to Descendants of Slaves

A state panel considering reparations for slavery in California, which entered the Union in 1850 as a free state, voted 5-4 on Tuesday to limit benefits to those who could actually show they were descended from slaves, not all who happen to be black.

As Breitbart News began reporting in 2020, Democrats in California passed legislation at the height of the Black Lives Matter riots to create a commission to consider the issue of reparations, even though the state was a free state at its birth:

Despite California’s free history, the reparations task force is assigned the mission of evaluating the history and impact of slavery on the United States as a whole.

The goal, as with many California policies, is to be a model for liberal policies elsewhere — or, as Newsom said, according to The Hill, to be “a paradigm that we hope will be resonant all across the United States.”

The nine-member panel, which did not appear to have any white or Hispanic members, launched last year, amid statements about the importance of slavery to the U.S. as a whole, and the anniversary of deadly race riots in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 1921.

However, the panel could not agree for months on whether the proposed reparations for slavery should only include those who descended from black slaves, or those who could be construed broadly as victims of so-called “systemic racism.”

Finally, the panel decided to focus on descendants of slaves, for pragmatic reasons, the San Francisco Chronicle reported:

While the panel has have much work left to do, it is sharply divided after an emotional fight over the eligibility rules. The task force was split between two factions that are miles apart in their interpretation of whether reparations should be distributed using a lineage or race-based test.

…

[Chair Kamilah] Moore said while it might be hard for some to document their ancestry, a race-based standard would be far more challenging because it would require the state to define Blackness when a person’s racial identify can be subjective and could enable a host of false claims based on physical attributes like skin color.

…

Moore also evoked the stance of Secretary of State Shirley Weber, a former legislator who wrote the bill to create the task force. Weber previously implored members to keep their initial focus on reparations for people descended from slavery, so the effort doesn’t become so broad that nothing gets done. She has said people whose families came later did so willingly and without the economic burden of generations of unpaid labor.

The reparations would apply to all descendants of slaves in the U.S., not merely those who made their way to California.

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Where Is the Bio-Fascist State Headed?

Consider ten bills that were introduced in the California State legislature in January 2022:

  1. SB 871: adds covid vaccine to required immunization schedule for all private and public schools, regardless of whether these vaccines receive full FDA approval.
  2. AB 2098: classifies any medical opinion that runs contrary to the establishment’s covid narrative as “misinformation” and subjects physicians expressing such views to charge of “unprofessional conduct” which is subject to discipline by the medical licensing board.
  3. SB 866: lowers the age of covid vaccine consent to 12 years without parental notification or consent.
  4. SB 920: authorizes medical board to inspect a doctor’s office and medical records without patients’ consent.
  5. SB 1464: requires law enforcement to enforce all public health guidelines or lose their funding.
  6. SB 1479: requires schools to create long term testing plans, test children without parental consent, and report test results to the CA Department of Public Health.
  7. SB 1390: prohibits any person/entity from making statements the government deems “misleading” by any means including internet or ads.
  8. SB 1184: authorizes school health personnel to disclose children’s health information to a third party without parental consent.
  9. AB 1797: creates an immunization tracking system giving all government agencies complete access to vaccination records for all citizens.
  10. AB 1993: requires proof of covid vaccination for all employees and independent contractors working in CA.

If this unholy decalogue is passed legislatively, Californians would live under a regime that allows: (1) the state to force on children medical interventions that are not FDA approved, (2) the state to muzzle the speech of physicians and decide which interpretations of scientific or medical evidence are correct, (4) the state to censor online information it does not like (4) the state to act as surrogate parents for 12-year-old children who are not yet cognitively and emotionally capable of giving free and informed consent to medical decisions that have potential lifelong ramifications, and (5) the state and its agents to access your personal medical records without your consent.

Furthermore, these measures would require (1) law enforcement to enforce arbitrary, capricious, and often unscientific public health measures mandated by unelected bureaucrats, such as indoor masking requirements, (2) schools to become medical centers that routinely administer medical tests to your children without consent and share that private information with third parties without your knowledge, (3) the state to track and share private health information across government agencies, (4) the state to force novel medical interventions on all competent adults as a condition of working.

In these proposed laws we see the features I’ve sketched in previous posts on the Biosecurity Surveillance Regime unfolding around us: the welding of public health, digital technologies, and the police powers of the state into an invasive model of surveillance and control.

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The New York Times Lauded The ‘Political Ascendancy’ Of a Democrat Mayor Now Facing Over 10 Felony Child Sex Assault Charges.

ADemocratic Mayor for the city of Sebastopol, California will stand trial following an indictment for nearly a dozen felony crimes in connection to a child sex assault investigation.

Robert Jacob, 44, was arrested in April 2021 on 11 felony and one misdemeanor sexual assault charges against a minor.

The charges against the Black Lives Matter (BLM) supporter and “defund the police” advocate included committing lewd acts with a child ages 14 to 15, participating in sexual penetration of a child under 16, making a child under 16 available to another person for lewd or lascivious acts, and distribution of child pornography.

At the conclusion of a three-hour preliminary hearing on March 7th, Judge Christopher Honigsberg found that the prosecution had presented enough evidence to establish that a crime had occurred.

“There is sufficient cause to believe the defendant is guilty,” he asserted.

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Genetically Modified Mosquitoes Set to Be Released in California and Florida

Millions of genetically modified mosquitoes are set to be released in California and Florida in an effort to reduce the number of real, disease-carrying invasive mosquitoes.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Monday approved use of the genetically engineered insects in pilot projects in specific districts across both states.

The mosquitoes were made by UK-based biotechnology firm Oxitec, which is funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, in an effort to combat insect-borne diseases such as dengue fever, yellow fever, and the Zika virus.

According to Oxitec, its “sustainable and targeted biological pest control technology does not harm beneficial insects like bees and butterflies and is proven to control the disease-transmitting Aedes aegypti mosquito, which has invaded communities in Florida, California, and other U.S. states.”

Since it was first detected in California in 2013, the Aedes aegypti mosquito has spread rapidly to more than 20 counties throughout the state, increasing the risk of mosquito-borne diseases being transmitted to humans.

Oxitec’s new technology consists of genetically-modified male mosquitoes, which do not bite, that will be released into the wild where they are expected to mate with females, which do bite.

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California authorities RAID three preschools to enforce mask mandates, separating children from adults

A state agency in California allegedly conducted mask raids on a pre-school and interviewed children alone without parental consent. According to parents, the three locations of the Aspen Leaf preschool in San Diego were simultaneously “raided” in January. This after the school was forthright and clear with parents and regulators about their decision to not mask the young students in their care.

The Voice of San Diego reported that officials separated the preschoolers, aged one- to four-years-old, from each other and the adults at the locations to question the children about the school’s masking policies.

In their decision to not mask the pre-schoolers, Aspen Leaf’s owners believed that since the pre-schoolers would not be masked while eating or sleeping, there was no point masking them for the rest of the time, either. The owners also felt that the masks would hinder the children’s development.

The California Department of Social Services is responsible for overseeing compliance in preschools. Though regulators legally have the authority to isolate and interview, children’s parents at Aspen Leaf stated in a complaint that they believed that should only be done in extreme cases, such as alleged child abuse.

According to The Voice, Kevin Gaines, deputy director of child care licensing, wrote to one Aspen Leaf parent, who lodged a complaint, that regulators “…determined that the interviews were conducted in an appropriate manner and were a necessary component of the required complaint investigation.”

He added that “Staff are trained to conduct interviews with children in a manner that avoids causing undue stress,” and that Aspen Leaf adult staff were in the “line of sight” of each child during interviews.

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California weighs punishing doctors for challenging ‘contemporary scientific consensus’ on COVID

Disagreement with the “contemporary scientific consensus” on COVID-19 issues could be deemed “unprofessional conduct” for California doctors.

Democratic Assemblyman Evan Low’s AB 2098 “may” be the subject of a March 17 hearing in the Assembly Committee on Business and Professions, where it was referred last week, according to the legislative history.

The bill, which was cowritten by five other California Assembly and Senate members, goes beyond regulating how California doctors can treat their own patients. It opens their statements about COVID — public or private — to review by the Medical Board of California and the Osteopathic Medical Board of California, with possible sanctions to follow.

“Existing law requires the applicable board to take action against any licensed physician and surgeon who is charged with unprofessional conduct,” according to the legislative counsel’s summary, and the bill would “designate the dissemination or promotion of misinformation or disinformation” about COVID as “unprofessional conduct,” without specifying what’s prohibited.

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Doctors Warn Against Illegal ‘Covid Censorship’ Bill In California That Would Shut Them Down For ‘COVID-19 Misinformation’

Some doctors in California have vowed to fight a possible new law that would threaten their medical licenses if they were caught spreading “COVID-19 misinformation”

The medical professionals are calling the effort “unconstitutional” and “illegal.”

California Assemblyman Evan Low introduced Assembly Bill (AB) 2098 on Feb. 15, which would prevent licensed physicians and surgeons from spreading so called “covid misinformation”

The Epcoh Times reports: if passed, the law would inject disciplinary actions by the Medical Board of California or the Osteopathic Medical Board of California to care providers promoting alleged misinformation.

“The idea that they’re going to come after physicians that spread misinformation, without defining what misinformation is, [is] frightening,” Physician Dr. Jeff Barke told The Epoch Times.

Amid the pandemic, Barke was among the minority of health care professionals unafraid of challenging the science behind masks and vaccinations pushed by the California Department of Public Health and Center for Disease Control and Prevention—urging for individual freedom of choice.

Barke, a private practice physician in Newport Beach, has continuously fought against COVID-19 mandates and has urged for California schools to reopen—saying children are statistically unlikely to die due to the virus.

While Barke is against the mandates—especially lingering COVID-19 vaccine mandates for kids—he reassures that he is not anti-vaccine.

As the threat of censorship lingers among some health professionals, Barke said he fears scientific studies are at risk—as those who have challenged vaccines and masks will be potentially forced into compliance.

“Science is not about consensus. It’s not about agreement. It’s about sharing and debating ideas,” Barke said. “That sharing and debating ideas has not been allowed during the COVID crisis.”

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Unconstitutional? CA bill would permit citizens to enforce weapons ban, sue gunmakers

In an attempt to skirt the U.S. Constitution and challenge the Supreme Court, a new bill in California would allow private citizens to go after gun makers in the same way Texas lets them target abortion providers.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) proposed Friday letting private citizens in his state sue gun makers to stop them from selling assault weapons, comparing the bill to one in Texas that lets its residents sue abortion providers to stop the procedures.

At a news conference in Del Mar, Newsom said he thought the Texas law was wrong and that the Supreme Court’s decision in December to let it stay in effect while it goes through appeal was “absurd” and “outrageous”:

“But they opened up the door. They set the tone, tenor, the rules. And either we can be on the defense complaining about it or we can play by those rules. We are going to play by those rules.

“We’ll see how principled the U.S. Supreme Court is.”

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District Identifies Person Responsible For Racist Graffiti Found At McClatchy High

The person responsible for the racist graffiti found at C.K. McClatchy High School last week has been identified, the Sacramento City Unified School District announced Thursday.

Last Friday, someone wrote the words “White” and “Colored” over water fountains at McClatchy High, a reference to the Jim Crow era. The district’s race and equity monitor, Mark T. Harris, told CBS13 a Black female student confessed to the vandalism and cameras caught her in action.

Harris stopped short of calling it a racially motivated act.

“I don’t believe those words that were on those water fountains were racist,” Harris said. “I do not believe they were hate crime or hate speech. Part of it quite honestly is because the admitted perpetrator is a young African American woman.”

During the interview, she said it was a prank. But community activists like Berry Accius from the Voice of the Youth say there should be zero-tolerance.

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