Your Sikhs today: Mississippi edition

Walt is aware  that it's not only Canada that has a problem with ubiquitous and iniquitous Sikh truck drivers -- many of them illegal aliens -- smuggling drugs and endangering other motorists. (WWW passim.)  The US of A is also plagued with them, although problems in America tend to be not so much with smuggling as with motor mayhem.

Case in point: On August 20th, the driver of an 18-wheeler struck and killed a pedestrian in Hinds County MS. According to @BorderHawk, Dedric Garrett, 36, exited his vehicle on I-20 just after 1330 when he was hit by a Freightliner tractor-trailer. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

The Mississippi Highway Patrol (MHP) identified the driver of the big rig as Sube Singh (not exactly as pictured), a 26-year-old resident of Fresno CA. He was not injured in the crash, and it remains unclear [Wut? Ed.] if he will face charges. 

The Department of Homeland Security confirms that Mr Singh is a citizen of India who has been in the US of A illegally for over eight years. 

A DHS statement says, "Border Patrol encountered Singh on November 19, 2017. He was released from ICE custody on bond on May 10, 2018, and is enrolled in an alternative to detention with a GPS monitor, 

"It is incredibly dangerous for illegal aliens, who often don’t know our traffic laws or even English, to be operating vehicles on America’s roads. [Duh! Ed.] DHS is aggressively working with its interagency partners to get illegal alien commercial drivers off the road."

The Daily Wire, which separately confirmed Mr Singh's status with the department, reported that he was wearing the federal tracker while driving the rig. Turning Point USA executive producer Andrew Kolvet wrote that Mr Singh is at least the fifth Indian national with the surname "Singh" tied to a deadly American crash.

Harjinder Singh killed three people on the Florida Turnpike in August of 2025. He was making an illegal U-turn. Two months later, Jashanpreet Singh ran his rig into stopped traffic on I-10 in Ontario CA, killing three. In July he was sentenced to four years and eight months imprisonment, "a slap on the wrist" according to Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy.

In May, California prosecutors charged Manvir Singh with vehicular manslaughter and hit-and-run after a wreck that killed a 16-year-old boy and a 20-year-old man. DHS used the case to push Congress on Dalilah’s Law, which would stop states from handing commercial licenses to illegal aliens. 

Secretary Duffy recently finalized a rule shutting unqualified foreign drivers out of the commercial licensing system. In 2025 alone, federal officials blamed "non-domiciled drivers" for at least 17 fatal crashes and 30 deaths.

Walt sez: Diversity and wokeness are killing us. Remigration is the answer!

Babylon Bee's extended Gavin Newsom pandering joke + VIDEO

This morning we told you we were awaiting the first meme referencing Gavin Newsom's cringeworthy pandering to black Americans while speaking at the Rialto Center for the Arts as part of his book tour... not forgetting his early pitch for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2028.

We expected we might have something to show you tomorrow, but the Internet is already awash in jokes, memes and satire. The best one we've seen so far was this, from the great folks at the Babylon Bee.

Democratic Wows Black Audience By Putting Some Hot Sauce In His Purple Drank

ATLANTA, GA — While speaking at the Rialto Center for the Arts as part of promotion for his new memoir, Young Man in a Hurry: A Memoir of Discovery, California Governor Gavin Newsom wowed a black audience by putting some hot sauce into his purple drank. 

"See? I'm exactly like you," Newsom said. "It doesn't get more delicious than some hot sauce in your purple drank, am I right? This isn't pandering. Back home, we call this drink a 'Newsom.'" 

The audience was surprised by the governor's choice of drink and unsure whether or not he was being genuine. Newsom quickly moved to allay their fears. 

"I am not just trying to score points here," he insisted. "We're alike in so many ways. Just like you, I've fathered children I've never met. I've never once changed the batteries in my smoke alarms, no matter how many times they chirp at me. I yell at the screen when I'm at the movies. And, like you, I also perpetrate a disproportionate amount of the crime in my home state. I have a lot in common with you, which is why I'm the perfect political candidate to represent you people."

At the end of his on-stage interview with Atlanta Mayor Andrew Dickens, Newsom then sat down to a plate of fried chicken as he interacted with the crowd directly during a Q&A segment. "Boy, I wish I had some watermelon, am I right, my brothers?" he said. 

At publishing time, Newsom was still polling at 90% among black voters.

We trust the folks at BB will forgive us for reposting the entire article. It was just too delicious to be excerpted. If you want to read more excellent satire (with a Christian point of view), click on this link to go to the Babylon Bee home page. If you decide to subscribe, tell `em Walt sent ya!

But wait (as Vince Offer used to say), there's more! In this episode of "Ed Henry The Big Take", Ed takes a big gulp of vitriol and gives us his take on Governor Newsom's pandering, how his potential replacements for governor are filled with TDS, and more.

As Mr Henry says, Mr Newsom is already back-pedaling as fast as he can, claiming today that he was talking only about his lifelong struggle with dyslexia. We expect expressions of outrage from the lickspittle meeja tomorrow. Hilarity will doubtless ensue.

MUSIC VIDEO for all Beach Boys fans

Thanks and a tip o' the toque to Agent 3 for sending this along.

Your Singhs today (Ontario, California edition)

May we be frank. [You can be "Frank"; I'll remain "Ed." Ed.] It doesn't matter where in North America you live. Whether it's in Ontario, the Canadian province, or Ontario, the city of California, if you hear a report of a horrific highway accident involving a tractor-trailer, the chances areway higher than 50-50 that the driver is going to be a Sikh whose immigration status is, shall we say, questionable.

Like this guy, 21-year-old Jashanpreet Singh, from Yuba City CA. Mr Singh is accused of causing a horrific eight-car pile-up on 10 Freeway in Ontario CA that killed three people. Dashcam footage captured the moment his big rig [owned by Diversity Transport Inc.? Ed.] rammed into the back of a traffic queue after failing to reduce speed shortly before 1315 last Tuesday. 

Terrifying video captured by a witness shows the semi-truck smashing into the back of a white SUV, before causing a red sedan to erupt into a fireball as it was pushed into another truck. Eight vehicles, including four semis, were impacted.

Witness Jason Calmelat saw the whole crash from a parking lot facing the freeway. He told KTLA-TV, "The red truck was traveling at a high rate of speed when everyone else was stopped. He didn’t hit his brakes, he didn’t try to slow down, he just went full force into the back of another truck, crushing two other cars."

Two victims were pronounced dead on the scene. A third died after being taken to the hospital. The remaining fatalities were severely burned in the flames and have not been identified. Four others were taken to local hospitals to be treated for their injuries. The condition of the survivors has not been released

According to KTLA, Mr Singh was arrested at the scene for being under the influence of drugs and vehicular manslaughter. Turns out this is not his first brush with the law. He is an undocumented immigrant (read: illegal alien) from India who was caught and released at the California border in 2022.

Fox News correspondent Bill Melugin reported on X that ICE placed a detainer request on Mr Singh, which would allow the San Bernardino County Sheriff's office to hold him past the normal release time. A CHiP officer told the meeja, "He was eventually transported to the hospital, and he was checked out by the medical staff, and our officers determined he was driving under the influence of drugs."

Until a liberal judge releases him on bail, he is residing at West Valley Detention Center in Rancho Cucamonga. I won't say "stay tuned" because stories like this are becoming so routine (see first paragraph above) that the lickspittle media don't even bother doing follow-ups.

Your Singhs today - Part of the Wedding party nabbed at the border

In a story straight out of Border Security, two graduates of the notorious Singh School of Truck Driving -- Ranjit Singh Rowal and Iqbal Singh Virk -- both "Toronto men", have agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy to distribute cocaine and other federal charges in California, in connection with a transnational drug-smuggling conspiracy, allegedly led by former Team Canada Olympian Ryan Wedding.

The Sikh gentlemen are the first Canadians to sign plea deals with US prosecutors following the FBI's "Operation Giant Slalom", a massive investigation revealed last fall. The probe -- named after Mr Wedding's previous career as an elite snowboarder [snowboarder, geddit? Ed.] -- sought to dismantle his alleged drug trafficking network, which uses commercial transport trucks to move tons of cocaine and fentanyl across North America.

The group has also been linked to at least four murders in Ontario. Mr Wedding, who competed for Canada at the 2002 Olympic Games in Utah, is listed as one of the FBI's most-wanted fugitives, with a $10-million reward offered for information leading to his capture. Readers may send their tips to Walt at the usual address, and I will definitely pass them on the relevant authorities.

According to documents recently filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, .Messrs Virk and Rowal have each committed to plead guilty to charges including conspiracy to distribute cocaine. The charges carry a maximum sentence of life in prison.

They were arrested in August of last year as they tried to cross the Blue Water Bridge from Michigan to Sarnia ON, while carrying 95 kg of cocaine bricks and 20 kg of heroin in a secret compartment in the trailer. 

They attempted to conceal the drugs by carrying legal goods and documentation to show the products were meant to be hauled from the US. to Canada. However, CBP agents pulled their truck over for a secondary inspection, where an X-ray scanner and a sniffer dog revealed the "non-factory" compartment.

CBC News discovered that the trailer was registered to a company based in Brampton ON linked to Mr Rowal. A grand jury indictment unsealed last October named him and Mr Virk -- Indian citizens who hold permanent resident status in Canada -- as well as 14 others as members of Mr Wedding's drug ring. 

The indictment said the pair worked on behalf of a transportation network that handled the gang's shipments to Canada. However, the transnational criminal operation didn't always go smoothly. Court documents reveal an internal dispute in May 2024 led to one big drug shipment being called off. 

According to the plea, Messrs Virk and Rowal pulled over at a rest stop in southern California, expecting to receive a 347-kg load of cocaine. Their truck, however, only had room for 250 kg. Through an intermediary, Mr Wedding purportedly offered to pay C$150,000 (about $108,000 in real money) to move the reduced shipment, instead of the agreed rate of $220,000. 

But Gurpreet Singh, a Sikh and allegedly a leader of the transportation network, wouldn't agree to the cut rate.The shipment was called off. Mr Singh and his uncle, Hardeep Singh Ratte, who are accused of co-ordinating cocaine shipments to Canada for Mr Wedding, both remain in custody in Ontario while facing extradition to the US of A. How difficult it must be at the jail when the guards call for "Singh" and everybody stands up!

CBC News recently reported that a historic drug bust in Peel Region, west of Toronto, mirrored the smuggling route used by the Sikh truckers. Peel police (known locally as "boobies") said it's highly likely the Wedding network remains active in the so-called Greater Toronto Area.

Mr Wedding -- alias "Public Enemy", "Giant", "El Jefe", and "The Boss" -- is said to still trafficking drugs while on the run, and to have access to a network of hitmen. The FBI thinks he may be hiding in... wait for it... Mexico, under the protection of the murderous Sinaloa cartel.

Note from Ed.: This is an edited version of a report by Thomas Daigle, of CBC News. Since the Canadian Broadcorping Castration is funded by Canada's very Liberal government, we assume they don't need any money they might get by suing us.

VIDEO: Your Singhs today (California edition)

An assiduous reader has emailed to ask why our posts on "Your Singhs today" always focuses on Canada, notably the Toronto and Vancouver areas. "We're plagued with them too!", writes our acidulous correspondent, "and I'm pretty sure there's a Singh School of Truck Driving somewhere in California." 

As proof of this, our reader sent us the link to this video which just appeared on "X".

The story is confirmed by Breitbart News. under the headline "FL Officials: Illegal Alien Trucker from India Received CDL from California Before Killing 3 Americans"

BN reports that the driver of a semi-truck involved in the deaths of three Americans has been identified as Harjinder Singh, a migrant from India who illegally entered the United States in 2018 across the U.S. border with Mexico. He's one of the 1000s that ICE hadn't caught until this happened.

The accident -- now being designated as a homicide -- occurred near Fort Pierce FL on August 12th, when a northbound semi-truck allegedly crossed over all lanes as the driver tried to use an "official use only" turn opening on the Florida Turnpike so he could head south. Well, that's the way they do it in India. Rules? What rules?

The abrupt crossing of all lanes gave other drivers little time to slow down, resulting in a Chrysler Town & Country slamming head-on into the trailer. All three of the car’s occupants died as a result of the collision, two at the scene and a third at a hospital, according to WPTV-TV. 

Officials initially noted that the men in the cab of the semi were from California, and video of the drivers' dashcam was released. That's what you see above. 

A statement from the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles (FHSMV) said Mr Singh obtained a commercial driver's license (CDL) in California. The Democratically-run state allows migrants — including tourists and illegal aliens like Mr Singh — to quickly get licenses to operate 18-wheel trucks.

A spokesthing for the Florida Department of Highway Safety [Ha!] and Motor Vehicles told the meeja, "Three people lost their lives as a result of his recklessness, and countless friends and family members will experience the pain of their loss forever. Harjinder Singh is in custody on state vehicular homicide charges and immigration violations. He will no longer be able to damage and destroy the lives of Floridians and visitors."

Mr Singh has been arrested, and officials say they are investigating the incident as a homicide. The illegal migrant is also on an ICE detainer, and Florida officials say he will be deported after he serves his prison sentence, whatever that sentence may be. 

BN comments: "As more migrants hit our roads — many of whom cannot read or speak English — the death toll on our highways has skyrocketed. The Trump administration has taken notice of this horrible statistic, and recently, Trump’s transportation secretary, Sean Duffy, directed federal highway safety offices to enforce a law requiring foreign drivers to be able to read English."

Walt comments: This is just one very small tip of one very large iceberg. There are literally millions of Singhs in the USA and Canada. Not all of them are bad people, but since they all share the same middle- or surname, and all wear turbans (and the little daggers and holy underpants) separating the sheep fro the goats is a major problem.

Victor Davis Hanson: California's collapsing Blue-State Democrat model

Towards the end of last week, in "California pols: Ronald Reagan, Clint Eastwood, and now... Mel Gibson?" Walt marvelled that Hock Ptui is the leading contender to move into the California state house. It's just another sign, IMHO, that the Golden State is beyond redemption -- truly an exemplar of the "failed state".

Today, our old friend Victor Davis Hanson takes up that theme in "California and Its Collapsing Blue-State Democratic Model", on the American Greatness site. Secondary headline: California’s high taxes, crime, and regulations are driving an exodus, shifting political power to red states as the once-prosperous blue-state model collapses under economic and social strain. I've selected a handful of key excerpts but suggest you click on the link to read the entire article for yourself.

While the media and the new Democrat Party grow hysterical over the Trump counter-revolution, they are missing some of the most revolutionary and insidious changes in American society of the last century. Much has been written about the collapse of the old orthodox Democratic Party, along with the growing irrelevance and dysfunction of the legacy media, elite universities, and state and federal agencies. But their growing unattractiveness is all related and was not just the result of top-down development. 

Rather, current Democrat Party radicalism, street theater, and violence were merely reflections of its own preexisting cultural antipathy toward the middle class. The party is now a pyramidal coalition of the very wealthy and professional classes comprising the capstone, resting atop a vast, expanding bottom of the subsidized and working poor, strapped pensioners and retirees, angry indebted students, 30s-something urban wannabees, impoverished immigrants—including perhaps 30 million here illegally—and, increasingly, trapped residents of a dystopian big-city America.

That, in Mr Hanson's words, is what Thomas Franks was saying in Listen, Liberal!, reviewed here earlier this month. Mr Franks predicted the downfall of the new woke Dimocratic Party, which (with a slight pause) played out in just the way Mr Hanson is now analyzing.

We are witnessing the greatest internal migration in U.S. history since the post-Civil War era. Millions are leaving California, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Illinois, and other northern blue states. And they usually head to Florida, Texas, Tennessee, South Carolina, and other red, low- or no-tax states. So large have become the dislocations that conservative red states will in the next decade grab some 10-12 congressional seats away from liberal blue states along with some 10 or so votes in the electoral college.

We also may be witnessing soon the de facto implosion of a once affluent California—its growing poverty already visible in its decaying roads and infrastructure, dangerous and substandard public schools, soaring property crime, overcrowded, dysfunctional, and dangerous health care system, ethnic fragmentation, and the general bankruptcy and medievalism of San Francisco and Los Angeles.

In the current conundrum, we have forgotten completely the old themes of a blue-state Democrat Party. The 1996 Democratic National Convention manifesto that spearheaded Bill Clinton’s successful reelection emphasized secure borders, legal-only immigration, tough crime enforcement and punishment, balanced budgets, fiscal responsibility, and “personal accountability.” 

That agenda today in California would condemn any adherent as a racist, xenophobe, or MAGA fanatic. In its place, the party became more intolerant, narrower in its cultural emphases, and uninterested in existential crises such as housing, secure borders, power generation, infrastructure, and crime. 

Without answers or correctives to the damage it inflicted, it instead focused on what was largely seen as irrelevant to the state’s struggling minority populations—LGBT advocacies, transgendered men competing in women’s sports, racial reparations, DEI-mandated programs, and boutique environmentalism.

In addition, the growing dysfunction and irrelevance of the mainstream media—from network news to the old print conglomerates—of elite universities and of the federal government itself are, in part, due to their location in and symbiosis with the dead-end, blue-state model of culture, economics, and politics. In sum, America is entering a historic reversal. [The emphasis is Walt's.] 

California pols: Ronald Reagan, Clint Eastwood, and now... Mel Gibson?

Think about American politics in the Age of Woke (now ending, we hope), and the California politicians who have risen to great heights... or sunk to great depths, take your pick. 

Walt tried, but can't help but remember Kamala Harris, who rose from her knees to prominence as the landslide loser in the recent unpleasantness. Hock Ptui is now leading the pack of would-be successors to Gavin Newsom, who rose from being a leader of the Johnny Carson band to the governorship of the Golden State. 

Mr Newsom isn't the first Hollywood showbiz type to go into politics to parlay his popularity into a nice job in a mayoral mansion or statehouse or even the Oval Office. Clint Eastwood became mayor of Carmel. In the same decade, a great American named Ronald Reagan went from being "best friend" in B-movies to the greatest Republican President until... well, you know the story.

Given that the Golden State has, under successive Democratic administrations, been turned into the Shithole State, many voters are thinking that maybe it's time to elect a Republican governor. Someone in the mold of Ronald Reagan, say. A new poll, reported last week in the California Globe, reveals that the most popular Republican candidate for California's highest office is... wait for it... none other than Mel Gibson!

A new Lost Coast Outpost poll places Mr Gibson, well known for his conservative (and traditional Catholic!) views, in third place in as responders' pick for the governorship, with 12% of the vote, and the top Republican candidate.

The leading candidate, according to the poll (a straight straw poll with no demographic data) is former Congresswoman Katie Porter (D-CA), swept aside in the Trump tsunami, chosen by 25% of responders.

The nation's pre-eminent Indo-Jamaican politician, who has led the last several polls with significant margins, fell to 20% in the new poll. She says now that she will decide in the summer whether or not to set herself up for another failure.

Mr Gibson has become a speculative candidate in recent weeks thanks to his opposition to both Governor Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass over their mismanagement of the Los Angeles fires in January. TMZ News reported on Tuseday that he is "flattered" to be considered and to have done so well in the poll, but (the outlet continued), "We're told Mel has never had any political ambitions -- and that isn’t changing now even if voters are digging his criticisms of current Democratic leadership on the state and local level."

So it's probably nothing, then? Walt thinks otherwise. Mr Gibson is known to have a large ego -- very large indeed -- which may be coupled with a Messianic complex. He has not been heard to say, "My kingdom is not of this world." Stay tuned.

UPDATED: Movie Review: "District 9"

This Sunday afternoon's TV schedule offered a choice between foorball and Hallmark Christmas movies. The former doesn't interest me and the latter sicken me, so I just about broke my wrist looking for something, anything else.

Imagine my surprise to find (on the Aboriginal People's Television Network!) an excellent but little-known sci-fi movie, District 9. Released in 2009, the film was directed by Neill Blomkamp, written by him and Terri Tatchell, and produced by Peter Jackson and Carolynne Cunningham. 

Set in Johannesburg, South Africa, in 2002, it tells what happens when alien refugees -- in this case real aliens from outer space -- colonize an earthly city over which their spacecraft has been stranded. Multinational United (MNU) is the agency of the world government charged with giving them humanitarian aid. 

Wikus van der Merwe, played by novice actor Sharlto Copley, is a minion of MNU tasked with getting the loathesome "prawns", as the earthlings call the aliens, ready for resettlement in a new encampment to be known as District 10. District 9 is the story of how Wikus becomes infected with an alien fluid, slowly turning him into one of the reviled prawns.

District 9 was the first documentary-style film to be nominated for Best Picture Oscar, as well as three other Academy Awards. It didn't win any of them, not even the Oscar for Best Achievement in Visual Effects, even though the CGI "prawns" and all the other SFX were beyond top-notch. 

The movie is just too politically incorrect. It was banned in Nigeria, for instance, because that country's government felt that it unfairly portrayed Nigerians -- the only humans who could coexist with the aliens -- as cannibals and savages. Imagine that.

Stateside, the many admirers of the "New South Africa" were upset that all the shacks in District 9 were actual shacks that existed in the slums of Johannesburg, which were to be evacuated and the residents moved to better government housing, paralleling the events in the film. Only one shack was created specifically for the movie.

Similarly, the mutilated animal carcasses in the background of many scenes were all too real and, with only a few exceptions, were already in the real slums and shacks used for the filming.

The MNU headquarters buildings shown in numerous scenes throughout the film are, in reality, the Carlton Centre complex belonging to South African state transport company Transnet. The shorter of the two buildings is actually the former Carlton Hotel which was mothballed in 1997 "due to low occupancy." When Walt stayed there near the end of the apartheid regime, he was warned not to leave the building except to catch an approved taxi in the daytime, and never at night.

15 years after the release of District 9, the question of what to do when a horde of alien invaders takes over your country is more germane than ever. Residents of Los Angeles, San Francisco and Oakland, where "encampments" of aliens and other undesirables were largely unknown in  2009, will feel uncomfortable watching this movie now. 

At the end of the film we are told that District 9 was dismantled, and its unwelcome residents moved to District 10, which is growing bigger and more foul every year. Let that sink in....

UPDATE ADDED at 1800 FMT: Our attention has been drawn to "Visit California: It's America's Future", a gem of a video just dropped by the Babylon Bee (natch!). Watch it and understand why the gliberals hated District 9.

VIDEO: MAHA takes a hard look at the Cackler's record as a prosecutor

The mission statement of MAHA (Make America Healthy Again) says: We are dedicated to inspiring the supporters of Robert Kennedy Jr. to vote for Donald J. Trump. The alliance between these two dynamic leaders has created an unprecedented opportunity for Kennedy to fulfill his lifelong mission to Make America Healthy Again. Together, they will eliminate the corporate influence over our health agencies (HHS, CDC, FDA, NIH, EPA) and prioritize public health over profits. 

The MAHA Alliance PAC is the only SuperPAC that represents the values and interests of Kennedy supporters and the Independent movement. Ensuring the health and well-being of our children will become a national priority by uniting behind President Trump in 2024. 

Here is their hard-hitting and totally factual ad, released today, focusing on Kamala Harris' record as chief prosecutor for the state of California. For someone running on her record, the Cackler is remarkably reluctant to give details of what she accomplished. Here's just part of her "achievement".

One reason why Ms Harris tries to make a meal of her California record is that her record as Vice-President ties her inextricably to the record of the Biden administration. As she herself says in the famous clip from her appearance on "The View", she can't think of anything that she would have done differently. Let that sink in.

Please send the link to anyone you know who is still undecided or undecided. Americans made a huge mistake trusting Joe Biden in 2020. Why anyone would trust his successor -- the one who doesn't want Senile Joe on the same platform with her -- in 2024 is beyond me.

VIDEO [Illegal in California]

California Governor Gavin Newsom (D) just signed a bill making memes and parody illegal in his state because of this video. Strange, considering that the lickspittle media will be more inclined to support the Cackler once they know her better. As a public service, WWW presents her self-introduction.

 

Gavin will be very mad if this video goes viral again! Do your part and send the link to everyone you know, especially those still suffering from the Joy of Harris.

Do your part to prevent Californication!

UPDATED: VIDEO: Victor David Hanson on the demise of California

Two news stories related to the decline of America, particularly the Left Coast, and more particularly California, keep bubbling to the top of the tank from time to time.

Item: A number of counties in eastern Oregon and Washington states are thinking seriously about separating from the western parts of those states and joining Idaho. See "'Greater Idaho' movement to absorb rural counties from Oregon gains momentum" and "The Greatear Idaho Movement". (The second article includes insstructions on how to join!)   

Why do you suppose that is? [Suppose, hell! They know this. Ed.] That's right. They're tired of living in states where scabrous "homeless encampments" such as this Bidenville* are spreading across the landscape like great pus-filled cancer lesions, while the state governments -- misruled by Democrats -- stand [sit, shurely. Ed.] idly by.  

Item: Forbes Home reports in "10 States People Are Leaving" that, according to USPS change-of-address data, more people are fleeing than any other state. Not to be racist but let's call them "white flees". 

The Golden State [more like fool's gold. Ed.] saw a net loss of over 101,000 households despite a mostly pleasant climate and robust tech industry. Rising housing costs, rising taxes and politics seem to be driving many people to look for opportunities elsewhere. 

Other factors that emigrants have cited are the rising threat of wildfires and the constantly increasing cost of living. Forbes, being politically correct, passes over the fact that California's cities have become not just livable, but downright dangerous, thanks to the proliferation of Bidenvilles, like this one on Oakland's Wood Street. 

In this video, Victor Davis Hanson, an American classicist, historian, farmer, and political commentator, details the deliberate process by which the standard of living for Californians has deteriorated over the past decades, and points the bony finger of indignation toward those responsible.

 

* In America, in the Dirty Thirties, collections of shacks and shanties like today's "homeless encampments" were known as "Hoovervilles", after then President Hoover. Nowadays, in France and North Africa, they are called "bidonvilles". 

Wikipedia: Un bidonville est la partie défavorisée d'une ville caractérisée par des logements très insalubres et construits par les habitants avec des matériaux de récupération, une grande pauvreté et sans aucun droit ou sécurité foncière. 

In short (and in English) a shanty town built of oil drums or other metal containers, especially on the outskirts of a city, with great poverty and without right or basic security. In Europe and Africa, bidonville. The Electric Company's Letterman changes just one letter to get Bidenvilles, which is what they're called in Brandon's America.

Further reading (added 21/8/23): "Actually, Joe, all your 'objectives' were failures", by Victor Davis Hanson, on the American Greatness site. 

Victor Davis Hanson on the sad state of America's cities... and society

 Victor Davis Hanson is an American classicist, military historian, and political commentator. He has been a commentator on modern and ancient warfare and contemporary politics for the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, National Review, The Washington Times and other media outlets. His clear thinking has been reposted on WWW; plug his name into the search window to find earlier posts. 

Yesterday, Mr Hanson's latest thoughts on the decline and fall of the Disunited States of America were published on the American Greatness website under the headline "America’s Decline?". Subhead: The remedies are agreed upon, but the needed medicine is feared more than the disease. Because today, the government is the cause of our many crises. Here's the first part of his commentary.

Now with the election of Joe Biden, what had been a fast-tracked decline has accelerated at such an astonishing rate we can scarcely recognize our country.

Our largest cities are becoming uninhabitable—dilapidated, dangerous, and dysfunctional. The challenge is not just rampant crime, but the realization that if you, the citizen, are stabbed, shot, or beaten up on the street, the perpetrators may well be exempt from most punishments. And the victim either will be forgotten in his misery or, indeed, blamed for bringing such violence upon himself.

Urban schools are not places of instruction anymore. That fact is accepted by teachers’ unions, whose operative principle seems to be that the more hopeless the idea of educating urban youth is understood to be, the less burdensome the workload, and the greater their hazardous duty pay.

Urban chain stores are closing down on the principle that if police cannot or will not stop consumer violence and theft, then consumers there should not have any store to buy anything, anyway. If there is no store, how can it be looted or shop-lifted? [That's called "reparations shopping"! Ed.]

The only mystery remaining is how long these Democrat-controlled, racially charged, and corrupt municipalities can sustain their budgets and pension commitments with increasingly declining revenue. One can tax the well off, and perhaps even gouge them as California does. But one cannot insult and ridicule them in the process. Being highly taxed is one thing, being highly taxed while hated is quite another.

How eerie that medievalism—defecting, urinating, fornicating, injecting in the street—is relabeled “homelessness—as if the problem is merely a shortage of apartments or tent cities. Somehow cities developed the notion that it was crueler to be told not to pull down one’s pants and defecate in the street than it was for a pedestrian to step into infectious human excrement.

In the next five years, either cities will seek new governance to reduce taxes, break up municipal unions, mandate charter schools, restore police funding and manpower, recalibrate pensions, and prosecute criminals and corrupt officials—or Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Portland, Minneapolis, and a score of others will become Detroit. [And let's not forget Chicago! Ed.]

One of the strangest phenomena amid our current debility are the millions of affluent leftists and liberals who have fled their unworkable, now unlivable blue-run, but naturally beautiful cities like San Francisco or Portland. They seem to lack an abstract recognition why they are leaving, or why and how their new chosen destinations are so different and therefore so inviting to them. Is their motto, “I am fleeing what I created, but I still hate those who created what I want”?

Mr Hanson is not one to post a jeremiad without suggesting some solutions, and he does so in the latter part of this article. Click here to read the whole thing. But will Mr Hanson's sensible solutions be enacted? Walt says there are two chances... slim and none!

VIDEO: Elon Musk speaks his mind to Babylon Bee - FULL INTERVIEW

Yes, really! Not a joke. Elon Musk sat down with Babylon Bee CEO Seth Dillon, Editor-in-Chief Kyle Mann, and Creative Director Ethan Nicolle for an in-depth interview on wokeness, Elizabeth Warren, taxing the rich, the Metaverse, which superhero Elon would be, and how the left is killing comedy. 

This is the full interview with 45 additional minutes of content (total time 1:39:46). Turns out Elon Musk isn't one of the Wokesters. He can also be quite funny. 

   

Don't chide me for giving you the YouTube link. The good people at Babylon Bee (you'll see some of them during the video) will get some money from YT when you watch.

Footnote from Poor Len Canayen: Bet you didn't know Elon Musk is a Canadian citizen, and went to college in Canada! And now he's a rich American. Dat's all ye know and all  ye need to know!

UPDATED: Reaction to result of CA recall election

UPDATE ADDED 17/9/21: The original headline for this post was: "Californians! Just for once, cast your vote for a reasonable alternative". As the last sentence suggests, I didn't really expect that the drive to get Gavin Newsom recalled would succeed... and it didn't. 

I have been thinking about what to say by way of comment, but have been spared the necessity of further thought by the posting on the Babylon Bee of the following: "Californians Desperate To Escape Cling To Landing Gear Of Last Jet Leaving LAX". Thank you, BB. 

I don't write much about California, its leftist politicians and loony left policies because, frankly,I wish the whole state, or the lower coastal part of it at least, could be sawed off and left to drift forever in the Pacific. I do recognize that there are some sensible people in California -- the kind who read WWW! -- and I urge you to vote today (if you haven't already done so) in the election to recall Gavin Newsom.

The effort to get rid of the one of the wokest governors in the nation comes to a conclusion today. If you haven't voted by mail, you can still vote in person. Polls close at 2000 PDT.

The recall is opposed by all the Dumbocrat heavyweights, from President Biteme and Nancy Pelosi down to AOC and Mad Maxine Waters, and let's not forget Kamala Harris. [Who she? Ed.] The Hollywood elites also want to keep Mr Newsom in the state house, and are trying to discredit the main challenger, Larry Elder, as "the black face of white supremacy." You couldn't make this stuff up, but that's California!

Walt urges you to vote YES on the recall and for Larry Elder as Governor. 

Please, dear people of California, just this once, do the right thing and vote for sanity. Go ahead and make my day! 

Biden picks Black(ish) woman as running mate

It's official! Slow Joe Biden has done what was expected, nay demanded, and chosen a woman of colour [not "person" of colour? Ed.] as his running mate for the 2020 election.

She is Kamala Devi Harris, born on October 20, 1964, in Oakland CA. What follows is based on the Wikipedia article about her. Read on and learn why any comparison with Rachel Dolezal, a white woman who made false claims about being black, is odious and, errr, racist.

Ms Harris's mother, Shyamala Gopalan, emigrated from India in 1960 to pursue a doctorate in endocrinology at UC Berkeley. Her father, Donald Harris, is a Stanford University Emeritus Professor of Economics, who emigrated from Jamaica in 1961 for graduate study in economics at UC Berkeley. So much that is absolutely right... make that left... in the Excited States of America comes out of Berkeley.

Ms Harris self-identifies as African-American -- the lamestream media are already adding "and Asian-American too!" -- and "considers her experience to be American." She spent her early years Berkeley, where she grew up going to a black Baptist church and a Hindu temple. And her parents divorced when she was seven. How American is that!

She and her sister visited their mother's family in India. They also used to visit their father in Palo Alto CA on weekends, where neighbours' kids were not allowed to play with them because they were black.

When she was 12, Ms Harris and her sister moved with their mother to Montréal, Canada, where one presumes the family found more acceptance than in the other CA. Ms Harris was a popular student at the English-language high school in the toney Anglo enclave of Westmount, from which she graduated in 1981. She went on to Howard University, a private, federally chartered "historically black" university in Washington DC, from which she received a B.A. in political science and economics in 1986.

After interning with Senator Alan Cranston (D-CA), Ms Harris earned her J.D. from the Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco, and passed the bar of California in 1990. She was immediately hired as a deputy district attorney in Alameda County CA, where she was noted as being "an able prosecutor on the way up." Or perhaps she was going down.

By 1994, Ms Harris had entered into a relationship with Willie Lewis Brown Jr., a Democratic politician who became Speaker of the California Assembly, the first African-American to hold that office. It was he who appointed Ms Harris to the state Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board and later the California Medical Assistance Commission. Thus the origin of the scurrilous (but factual) meme at the left.

Perhaps we'd better stop there, before we get to the late John Lewis. De mortuis nil nisi bonum. My point is that when you see these snarky memes -- and you'll be seeing a lot of them -- you mustn't assume that they're all "fake news", created by anti-black racists and/or Republicans. Where there's smoke, etc.

That said, Ms Harris ticks all the right boxes on the Democrats' checklist. She's a woman, although evidently heterosexual. And she's Black, or brown, or at least non-white. She's from immigrant stock, but not the kind that came over on the Mayflower. She's from California, so that locks up both the la-la-liberals and the Hollywood liberals. She doesn't have the political baggage of Susan Rice.

And did I already say she's black(ish)? But... this is key... she doesn't look or sound as black as, say, Lori Lightfoot, Keisha Bottoms or Stacey Abrams. How could Sleepy Joe have done any better?!

Further reading: "Stacey Abrams Graciously Accepts VP Nomination", Babylon Bee, 11/8/20.

Reverse racism demanded by California State U faculty

I see that, following the death of George Floyd, the Faculty Association of California State University (CFA) has made some demands, reported [a bit belatedly? Ed.] by the Daily Caller. The faculty union has a lengthy shopping list of concessions, handouts and other assistance for "Black, Native and Indigenous" students who have been so terribly, terribly hurt by the systemic racism in the university and American society generally.

What, I wonder, is the difference between "native" and "indigenous" students? Do they mean the folks we used to call "Indians" or "Native Americans"? After four centuries, aren't black people indigenous to America? White people too? But let's get on with it. Ed. will highlight [in blue, of course. Ed.] the buzzwords and loaded phrases currently fashionable with the anti-everything left.

The CFA states that "it is not enough to condemn this public execution [of George Floyd] that calls lynching to mind," and that the university needs to fight racism by:

- Making tuition free for minority students, to reverse the decades-long trend of declining enrollments among these demographics. This means overturning Proposition 209, which was approved in 1996 and prohibited California's state institution from considering race, sex, or ethnicity in public employment, effectively banning affirmative action.

- Requiring at least one "ethnic studies" course as a graduation requirement, because the infrastructures of universities are grounded in a "white supremacist colonial discourse and culture" and "the current course content condones 'spirit murdering'."

- Mandating consistent campus-wide training on "unconscious bias" for all university personnel who interact with students and faculty.

- Recognize the "cultural taxation" placed on black students and faculty, who "are asked to speak for all Blackness on the campuses in committee meetings, as advisors for student groups, as well as in their classrooms", creating a "unique burden placed on ethnic minority faculty in carrying out their responsibility to service within the university."

- Heeding "the voices of Black students across the country as they call for universities to divest from police institutions, for the removal of this deeply racist institution from our sites of higher learning, and toward the full abolition of the police."

- And, last but certainly not least... Creating a black student centre [complete with basketball court? Ed.] to serve as "respite for black students".

That's enough demands for help [preferential treatment? Ed.] for "Black, Native and Indigenous" students. I am waiting for the faculty associations of Howard, Tuskegee, Fisk and other historically black universities to publish similar lists of demands for the equal treatment of minority white students at those institutions. But I'm not holding my breath.

An unsurprising picture from... guess where?

It has been said that every action, every deed, every regulation, every law, everything has it consequences, some of them intended, and some of them... not... Now that it is not only legal but mandatory for people (not just Muslim women) to cover their faces in public, a certain type of masked man (not the Lone Ranger) was bound to appear, sooner or later. And here he is.

To answer the headline question, this photo was taken in the deep south... the deep south of California, that is... San Diego County to be precise... the great city of Santee, to be even more precise. San Diego Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane is now looking into the matter. Meanwhile, the "Klantee" label, which the city has been trying to shed for years, has been revived on Twitter.

Where can I get one of these?!

Every day I ask Ed. "What snoo?", and Ed. replies "Knot much." But as the day wears on, he and I usually discover something of which we were previously unaware. Today it's the famous (somewhere else?) Pinzgauer 718K, sometimes described as a light utility vehicle, sometimes as a camper, sometimes as a military vehicle -- the military in question being the Swiss army, which uses them to transport knives.

They're not exactly new. A quick Google search reveals that they've been around, in various models (including one with canvas top and sides) since the 1970s. Some are available, slightly used, on online sales sites. So that answers my big question of the day: where can I get one of these?! I wannit, I wannit, I wannit!

After all, Arnold Schwarzenegger has one! According to the Daily Mail, Ahnold was seen yesterday driving his six-wheeled Pinzgauer 718-K high-mobility all-terrain vehicle, in Brentwood CA, just days after meeting with seriously disturbed teen activist Greta Thunberg.

Herr Schwarzenegger, who might have been president of the USA were it not for being a foreigner, has had his gas-guzzler shipped to Germany and back, to fit it with an S-TEC low-displacement engine, so as to make it more environmentally friendly. The original SUV (or whatever you call it) had a D24T 2.4-litre diesel engine, getting no more than 20-30 mpg. When I was a lad, that was considered pretty good gas mileage, but driving something that fuel-inefficient now makes you a climate change denier. And if it's made in Germany you're probably a racist too!