California Doing California Things

[TSwizzle]

California doing California shit

A California Democrat collecting a $200,000-plus taxpayer-funded salary apparently had better things to do with his workday than work, like crashing journalist Nick Shirley’s sidewalk interview with a crude sign about his penis. Terry Schanz, chief of staff to Democratic Assemblywoman Tina McKinnor, barged into Shirley’s interview outside the California State Capitol in Sacramento carrying a piece of paper that read: “Allegedly Nick Shirley Has a Small Penis. Prove Me Wrong.”

News

There is video of the interaction. Schanz is creepy af.

 

[Elixir]

Schanz is creepy af

So trrrible! He should be raping women, trafficking children, and burying the Epstein files like Swiz’ preferred leader. Because HE is not “creepy af”.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

California doing California shit

A California Democrat collecting a $200,000-plus taxpayer-funded salary apparently had better things to do with his workday than work, like crashing journalist Nick Shirley’s sidewalk interview with a crude sign about his penis. Terry Schanz, chief of staff to Democratic Assemblywoman Tina McKinnor, barged into Shirley’s interview outside the California State Capitol in Sacramento carrying a piece of paper that read: “Allegedly Nick Shirley Has a Small Penis. Prove Me Wrong.”

News

There is video of the interaction. Schanz is creepy af.

Definitely crass. Is this "news" though?

 

[Elixir]

Is this "news" though?

It’s $200k diverting attention from the >$2,000,000,000.00 grifted by his chosen “leader”.

 

[Politesse]

By all accounts, monarchists are fleeing California in droves following our popular "No Kings" rallies and a general rise in anti-aristocratic sentiment. Also their show got canceled.

Harry and Meghan See Their California Dreams, and Riches, Fade Away

“There has always been this aura here, this magical thinking,” said Leo Braudy, a Los Angeles cultural historian and the author of “The Frenzy of Renown: Fame and Its History.” “Everybody thinks, ‘I’m beautiful,’ or ‘I’m handsome.’ Everybody thinks, ‘If those people can make it in Hollywood, so can I.’”

But most people don’t make it, he said, and throughout history, even otherwise wealthy and powerful people have mistakenly imagined that success in other fields would automatically translate to show business glory.

 

[Colonel Sanders]

Is this "news" though?

It’s $200k diverting attention from the >$2,000,000,000.00 grifted by his chosen “leader”.

I think that's a low number. Trumpco has taken in ~3.4 billion.

Also, $2 billion+ in federal funding and defense loans have been awarded to industrial and tech startups connected to Trump family business associates, alongside separate financial disclosures showing the family's businesses generated over $2 billion in outside income.

I owe the IRS about 13K and it's making me nervous as hell.

 

[TSwizzle]

Berkeley has a huge "homeless' encampment.

A sprawling homeless encampment in West Berkeley has drawn widespread attention after video of the site went viral on social media, prompting questions about why the city has been unable to remove it despite recent court decisions that have allowed other cities to crack down on encampments. Residents live in tents, vehicles and makeshift structures amid piles of belongings and trash that spill onto surrounding streets. In July, Berkeley posted notices ordering residents to vacate the encampment, but those efforts were halted after the Berkeley Homeless Union filed a lawsuit. "Unfortunately, in this current situation with the courts, it's been very hard for us to get things done," Mayor Adena Ishii said. U.S. District Judge Edward Chen issued a temporary restraining order preventing the city from removing residents' belongings. The Berkeley Homeless Union argued that the city should identify alternative locations where members with disabilities could legally camp. Berkeley officials maintain that shelter and housing opportunities have been offered to people living at the encampment. "Initially, people in the encampment were offered housing and declined," Buddenhagen said. Some residents acknowledged turning down available shelter options. Blau told ABC7 Eyewitness News it was rules keeping her from going into a shelter and others said accessing services can be difficult.

ABC News

The Homeless Union actually prefer people to live in this filth.

 

[scombrid]

Says in the article that the union feels that the city should work on alternatives for legal places where they can encamp.

But I guess maybe just take all their stuff and shuffle them outside city limits is your preferred solution? Put them on a bus to somewhere? Or do you prefer the Kilmeade Fox News solution?

What should be done?

 

[Elixir]

What should be done?

I think Swiz is setting the example.
COMPLAIN

Maybe, though, those fortunate enough to be “homed” could force whatever their will might be, if only they could form a Homed People’s Union to compete with the Homeless Union.
Something must be stopping them from doing that … I suspect it is the same thing of which they ritually complain regarding the homeless: laziness.

 

[Elixir]

I hear a lot of conservative dipshits are moving to Idaho and Texas these days.... the weather is lovely... there are potatoes...

Isn't God smiting Texas with the second "1000 year" flood in two years?
Tom

Well, that happens, you know.
Every million years like clockwork, you get back to back years with thousand year floods. Probab’ly happened a thousand times in the last billion years alone!

 

[Elixir]

.

I hear a lot of conservative dipshits are moving to Idaho and Texas these days.... the weather is lovely... there are potatoes...

There are potatoes in Texas??

Oh yes. Texas sweet potatoes in particular are very popular, and ...

No, I am going to stop you right there to point out that a sweet potato is NOT the same thing as a potato. AT ALL.

Don't you live in that place where up is down and winter is hot?
Like I'd believe you about sweet potato.
Tom

Australian sweet potatoes are poisonous.

They also get huge - over 50 kilos - and grow up far up in trees. They kill a lot of unwary people when they get ripe and fall.

 

[Elixir]

You have a cult like loyalty to Newsom.

You have a pathological antipathy for democrats who make fun of the Republican buffoon for whom you voted. If they look like possible high office contenders, they automatically ascend to the exalted Insufferable Prick category, where they can do no right.

 

[TSwizzle]

While Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration talks tax hikes and “budget gaps,” new state payroll records show California spends like Jordan Belfort with a CalPERS badge. About 250 state employees collected more than $600,000 in total compensation in 2025, according to California State Controller data compiled by the San Francisco Chronicle. The highest-paid civil servant, CalPERS Chief Investment Officer Stephen Gilmore, took home more than $2.3 million, including a performance incentive of more than $1.5 million, despite CalPERS holding $563 billion in assets against $716 billion in liabilities. Economist Stephen Moore put the numbers in blunt terms Friday. “If you are wondering where California’s tax dollars go and why the state is drowning in debt, here is a hint: 250 state employees were paid more than $600,000 last year,” Moore wrote. “California does not have a revenue problem. It has a spending problem.” Gilmore’s paycheck is roughly nine times the governor’s $245,929 statutory salary and more than five times the $400,000 paid to the president of the United States. The 2025 controller files, released in late July, cover state department employees. University of California coaches and hospital physicians sit on a separate UC payroll and are not in this ranking. Even without them, the civil-service list is staggering.

CA Globe

Something is very wrong with this picture.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

(URL='https://www.cbsnews.com/news/california-diapergate-non-competitive-exemptions-buried-in-budget/']CBS News[/URL]

'Diapergate" lol.

What are you LOL-ing about? It's your dumbass party trying to manufacture an outrageous scandal over nothing.

Useless air-suckers, as per usual. The Republican faux outrage machine has have NO plan to help young California families, but they're trying to rip up the state's plan because they think it is somehow the personal handiwork of a governor they hate. Morons, the lot of them. I'm glad they are so rarely in power here.

Yeah. Multiple recent mailers screaming fraud. Got one here, almost 2" high writing saying "notice of fraud". The "fraud"? The attorney general didn't prosecute every case of medicaid fraud referred to him. You know, did his job, figured out what cases were suitable to prosecute.

Never a concrete proposal to do anything.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

I have told you numerous times, I am not a republican, stooge or otherwise. I have no party affiliation. Are you saying there is nothing fishy going on with Newsom and his wife and the award of this contract? CBS seems to think there is? Are they Republican stooges?

CBS already sold out to The Felon.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

Brussels sprouts done right are a favorite of mine. Halved and roasted, with Parmesan melted over them … I have a sweet tooth, but slso a bitter tooth!

I do not like any form of cooked leaf.

 

[Tigers!]

Australian sweet potatoes are poisonous.

They also get huge - over 50 kilos - and grow up far up in trees. They kill a lot of unwary people when they get ripe and fall.

The vegan equivalent of a drop bear.

 

[ZiprHead]

Brussels sprouts done right are a favorite of mine. Halved and roasted, with Parmesan melted over them … I have a sweet tooth, but slso a bitter tooth!

I do not like any form of cooked leaf.

Minestra di Pane, Olive Garden calls it Zuppa Toscana, is an Italian soup made with kale leaves. It's quite good.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

A significant portion of the homeless have serious mental health issues and physical problems and/pr substance abuse problems.

Sure; But how much of the mental health and substance abuse problem is a cause of homelessness, and how much a consequence of it?

Being homeless certainly would not help mental health.

It’s a difficult situation. Not every mental health condition for every person is amenable to the treatments we have now.
Not everyone can or is willing to tolerate side effects from medications. It is not uncommon for someone who improves taking meds to decide they don’t need them any more and then have a relapse. Or not to be able to afford the meds on an ongoing basis. Or meds stop being effective.

There are also some people who prefer to live with their illness rather than have it suppressed .

And there have always been those among us who cannot or do not wish to conform to society’s expectations of social order or behavior.

So balancing that with the fact that sanitation is a necessity and no one should have to put up with random people taking a dump in their front step. Or driving away business or frightening the cat.

I don’t mean to make light of the situation. It’s really difficult to prescribe a one size fits all rule except that we need to do our best.

I think the way to address whether the mentally ill are confined is whether they engage in too much antisocial behavior.

Forcing treatment is wrong and doesn't work anyway. And prison isn't the right approach, the intent is not to punish. I'm not sure exactly what a solution should look like, but it's some sort of controlled living conditions a lot less restrictive than prison.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

A significant portion of the homeless have serious mental health issues and physical problems and/pr substance abuse problems.

Sure; But how much of the mental health and substance abuse problem is a cause of homelessness, and how much a consequence of it?

Further, if an individual actually prefers homelessness, are they necessarily suffering mental illness? Are they living in isolation in the woods, or are they under the overpass? Are they subsisting on meats and plants they obtain themselves, or are they getting them from others? Some hotshot young climbers I met in the nineties had gone full itinerant- got sponsorships, sold their residences and traveled around the world seeking uncomfortable conditions or working as guides, trainers or equipment manufacturers reps.

I’d love to be homeless and be rich enough to live anywhere I want whenever I want, and not have to own it. Being forced to subsist on whatever bare handed skills I could bring to bear on the food problem? That would probably really suck. I’d have to go beg a few pennies and buy ramen, unless there was good fishing … I can do that.

Hunter-gatherer is not viable in most modern ecosystems.