I was hovering my fingers over the keyboard, ready to start writing this piece, when my phone rang. It was an old friend – someone I have known since high school. He’s also liberal and pretty well-off. He lives in a beach community, and he wanted some advice. It seems his city is about to green-light a high-density development in his neighborhood, and he’s not happy about it, as in “not in my neighborhood” kind of mad.

California has passed a bunch of laws lately that require cities to approve builds only if they take into account and allow for high-density and low-income housing. California no longer considers silly things like infrastructure. Water, sewage, power, and the overall strain on resources are secondary to placing people in housing they cannot afford and will eventually trash. Who cares, as long as we can house the unhoused or build apartments next to three-million-dollar beach property? Equity. The irony and timing of my friend’s call seemed rich to me.

My friend is not alone. In Gavin Newsom’s California, most Californians would admit (if only privately) that our state has seen better days. Sacramento is run by fools with agendas, and no one has a bigger agenda than Governor HairGel. You may have noticed that Newsom is in the middle of his “I’m Not Running, but I am Running for President Tour,” where he touts California as “like no other state.” He’s right about that. For all its natural splendor, it has become a cesspool. A giant Andy Gump.

More people are leaving than moving to the Golden State. Businesses are moving voluntarily or are moving because conducting business has become untenable.

Insurance companies are packing their U-Hauls and getting out of the home insurance market. Allstate and State Farm will no longer write new businesses for California homes. However, Farmers and CSAA aren’t following suit. The San Francisco Examiner characterizes that move as a win, I guess: “Two major home insurance providers won’t leave California.”

In my neighborhood, insurance policies are being canceled. The cost to insure is going up, with coverage going down. At least we don’t have people pitching tents in the street in front of our home. At least our city cracks down on that — at least for now. In Los Angeles, it is quite different. There are broken-down campers, tents, and crazies occupying the streets and sidewalks. And they are everywhere. Well, not everywhere. Apparently, they aren’t in Rosarito, Mexico.

San Francisco is the epicenter of bad policy decisions. The city that Gavin Newsom used to run is now run by vagrants who poop on the sidewalk. How bad is it to live and work in San Francisco? Watch this:

This is fascinating.

Imagine watching the world collapse around you, and still voting for it.

Everyone has a religion.

Especially those without a Faith. pic.twitter.com/uUUy6jf6vu

— Dr Manhattva (@Manhattva) July 10, 2023

California’s geniuses in the state capitol just passed a law that makes it illegal for store employees to confront shoplifters. In other words, if you confront a thief, you are the criminal, not the criminal.

Businesses are waiting for leases to expire, and then they are leaving the city. Old Navy stores in San Fransico were robbed on average not once a month, but 12 to 14 times, a day. Old Navy has, as the saying goes, “left the building.”

What does San Francisco have in abundance? Poop. There is human excrement everywhere. There is a map to help you navigate the city while you are passing through the minefield of poop. The Tenderloin looks like it was cluster bombed with human poop. Right after the city released a tourism campaign, two of the larger hotels in the city closed up – citing “street conditions.” Apparently, tourists didn’t like stepping over naked crazy men and their poop.

The conditions on California streets are bad. Sure, but the state is also broke. The state is in the hole to the tune of $32 billion after it was awash in COVID cash. How can that be? California requires a balanced budget. Ask Govenor HairGel. He has all the answers.

In California, our progressive tax rate places the burden on one percent of the population. That tiny slice of humanity funds about half of the budget. If those people move from the state, the state might as well sink into the ocean. With a third of the state’s population on public assistance, any ripples in the economy cause massive budget shortfalls. HairGel has a plan. Stock away money when the state doesn’t have it. The bills will be paid with taxes. OK, HairGel. Smoke and Mirrors.

And then there is CalPERS. The public employee pension fund. Yeah. That. The public employees’ pension plan has an unfunded liability of $1.5 trillion. That fund was, at one time, run by a guy who declared personal bankruptcy — twice. As the fund made one bad investment after another, the liabilities grew. Like a gambling addict who keeps yelling “hit me” at the blackjack table, the CalPERS business model is akin to a Ponzi scheme or an addict with no plan. When it made bad investments, it turned to local governments to fund the over-burdened pension obligation. It’s eating California alive. One state Democrat official said:

They are desperate to keep truths hidden.

And Newsom, the guy with Gordon Gekko hair and who sounds like a Bond villain, seems to leave all of that bothersome reality on the cutting room floor as he pitches his run for president (that isn’t really a run president). HairGel is everything wrong with politics. A slick tone-deft operator who smiles and lies to your face as he sticks a knife in your ribcage while pointing at conservatives and saying: “They did it!”