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. 

If Hellery wins, check out the Redoubt!

Last spring, as Donald Trump's nomination looked more and more probable, and his election victory a distinct possibility, American "progressives" were falling all over themselves to find a "Plan B". What they came up with was: Let's all move to Canada! Being typical Americans,k thus ignorant of life outside of the Continental 48, they did not realize that you can't just cross the border, buy some cheap land and settle in the Great Not-So-White North. Gavin McInnes of TheRebel.media tells it like it really is in "Advice on moving to Canada (in case Trump wins)", a great video posted on WWW 27/4/16.

Sadly, it appears now that it's not the gliberals but the real conservatives (as opposed to "cuckservatives") and libertarians who need a bolthole -- a place to hide when the Clinton shitstorm rains down on the USA come November 9th. The lamestream press are already burying The Donald with often fanciful reports of polls predicting a landslide for Hellery -- not the Big House but the White House. Where can a freedom-loving American go when the politically correct nanny statists gain control of every action, word and thought?

Don't even think about Canada! Not only are the Canucks kind of, errr, anti-American, but they're under the heel of pinkish federal and provincial governments (in Ontario and Alberta) that make the Obama administration seem like neo-Nazis! You can't even bring your gun across the border with you. As for immigrating permanently, you'll have to get in line behind 1000s of "refugees" and 10,000s of aging aunties and uncles from South Asia and the Middle East. Fugedaboudit!

But never fear! Walt has a viable alternative for you. Let me throw out some place names: Trout Creek MT, Priest River ID, Coeur d'Alene ID, Kalispell MT, Sand Point ID. Walt first visited those out-of-the-way places in 1974, at the height of the communist (= communal living), back-to-the-land movement. At that time, there was no-one there! Well, practically no-one apart from some aging hippies and a few hundred local residents who pretty much kept to themselves. Really to themselves, as in "Trespassers will be shot!"

Today, the hippies have gone back to California, and a large chunk of the Northwest -- western Montana, northern Idaho, and the far eastern fringes of Washington and maybe Oregon -- is pretty thinly populated. This picture gives some idea of why that may be.

The good news is that a lot of the people who are out there, amidst all that abundance, are the right kind of people, and I mean that in at least two ways! Some of them have come from the Rust Belt, the sinkhole that is Florida, and cuckooland California to settle in what James Wesley, Rawles -- yes, with the comma -- calls "the American Redoubt".

Mr Rawles is a former US Army Intelligence officer, technical writer and survivalist author. He's also the founder of SurvivalBlog.com. In "The Precepts of Rawlesian Survivalist Philosophy" (not as pretentious as it sounds), Mr Rawles explains the whys and hows of moving to America's last big frontier, the better to defend yourself from the hordes of thirsty, hungry, panicked sheeple who stream out of the ungovernable cities when the balloon goes up. "Because of SurvivalBlog," he writes, "we are part of something bigger: a virtual community of some of the most brilliant people that you could ever meet. Despite our differences, we all have an interest in preparedness."

Of course the election isn't over until the fat lady shrieks. But when it's dangerous in certain areas to identify yourself as a Trump supporter, you have to start pondering the "what ifs". If you don't want to "Be Prepared" like the gay Boy Scouts, then adopt the motto of the US Coast Guard: Semper Paratus!

Footnote: You don't have to live in or even renovate an old cabin like that, you know. It's possible to buy a plot of land in northern Idaho for $50,000 or less, tear down the old buildings (save the lumber for firewood), put down some gravel and plop down a prefabricated "skid house" which can be trucked right to your lot. No permit required! What are you waiting for?

Attention Walmart shoppers! Please check your guns at the door!

This just in from beautiful downtown Hayden ID -- a town of about 9000 souls up in the Idaho panhandle, about 40 miles north of Coeur d’Alene.

Errr, better make that 8999 souls. A spokesthingy for the Kootenai County Sheriff's Department has confirmed that an unidentified woman was shot dead by a 2-year-old boy at the local Walmart yesterday.

It was an accident, you understand. The kid was one of several children with whom the woman was shopping. He reached into her purse in search of who-knows-what and put his little hand on a pistol she had concealed there. It discharged, as the cops say, killing her instantly.

There's a lesson there somewhere, something to do with parenting skills, the American gun culture and possibly karma. Walt invites his reader to explain the lesson in 25 words or less. The prize and the name of the winner will be announced next year.