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The Sovietization of California
Townhall.com ^ | December 22, 2020 | Dennis Prager

Posted on 12/22/2020 5:30:11 AM PST by Kaslin

I am writing this column upon returning home to California after five days in Florida. For the first time since my first trip to Los Angeles in 1974 and moving there two years later, I dreaded going to California.

That first trip, as a 25-year-old New Yorker, I experienced the palpable excitement looking at the American Airlines flight board at JFK airport and seeing "Los Angeles." For most Americans, the very name "California" elicited excitement, wonder, even envy of Californians, and most of all ... freedom. While America always represented freedom, within America, California exemplified freedom most of all.

Yet, here I am, sitting in a state where corruption reigns (one of the leading Democrats of the last half-century told me years ago that politicians in California are window dressing; the real power in California is wielded by unions) and where, for nine months, normal life has been shut down, schools have been closed and small businesses have been destroyed in unprecedented numbers.

During these last five days in Florida, a state governed by the pro-freedom party, I went anywhere I wanted. First and foremost, I could eat both inside and outside restaurants. At one of them, when I stood up to take photos of people dining, a patron who recognized me walked over and said, "I assume you're just taking pictures of people eating in a restaurant." That's exactly what I was doing. I even took my two grandchildren to a bowling alley, which was filled with people enjoying themselves playing myriad arcade games as well as bowling.

None of that is allowed almost anywhere in California. It is becoming a police state, rooted in deception and irrationality.

Restaurants have been shut down (except for takeout orders), even for outdoor dining, for no scientific reason. After ordering Los Angeles county restaurants closed, the health authorities of Los Angeles county acknowledged in court that they had no evidence that outdoor dining was dangerous; they ordered restaurants closed, even to outdoor dining, solely in order to keep people home.

The left's claim to "follow the science" is a lie. The left does not follow science; it follows scientists it agrees with and dismisses all other scientists as "anti-science."

Science does not say that eating inside a restaurant at least six feet from other diners, let alone outside a restaurant, is potentially fatal, but eating inside an airplane inches from strangers is safe.

Science does not say mass protests during a pandemic (when people are constantly told to social distance) are a health benefit, but left-wing scientists say they are -- when directed against racism. In June, Jennifer Nuzzo, a Johns Hopkins epidemiologist, tweeted: "In this moment the public health risks of not protesting to demand an end to systemic racism greatly exceed the harms of the virus." She cited the former head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Tom Frieden: "The threat to Covid control from protesting outside is tiny compared to the threat to Covid control created when governments act in ways that lose community trust. People can protest peacefully AND work together to stop Covid. Violence harms public health."

Even The New York Times, in July, acknowledged the double standard: "Public health experts decried the anti-lockdown protests as dangerous gatherings in a pandemic. Health experts seem less comfortable doing so now that the marches are against racism."

Science does not say, "Men give birth" or, "Men menstruate." But the left routinely argues that "science says" such things and that "science says" there are more than two sexes, many more.

The last time I felt I was leaving a free society and entering an unfree one was when I visited the communist countries of Eastern Europe. As a graduate student majoring in communism, during the Cold War, I would travel through the countries known as Soviet satellites: Poland, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria. In the middle of my trips, I would stop in Austria to breathe free air.

Never did I imagine I would ever experience anything analogous in America, the Land of the Free, the land of the Statue of Liberty and of the Liberty Bell. But I did yesterday, when leaving Florida and returning to California.

There is no question that America is becoming, if it hasn't already become, two countries: one that values liberty, from small businesses being allowed to operate to people being allowed to say what they believe, and one that has contempt for liberty, from eating in restaurants to free speech.

I am asked almost daily by friends around the country and by callers to my national radio show whether I intend to stay in California. Were it not for all the close friends who live here and the synagogue I and a few friends founded, the answer would be no. But at a given point, I am sure that I will leave this Soviet satellite for a free state. The bigger and far more important question is: How long will the Soviet states of America and the free states of America remain the United States of America?


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Editorial; US: California
KEYWORDS: kalifornia; lockdown
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1 posted on 12/22/2020 5:30:12 AM PST by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin

Suburb of CHYna.


2 posted on 12/22/2020 5:34:01 AM PST by PGalt (Past Peak Civilization?)
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To: PGalt

Ban all flights in and out of CHYna. Chinese citizens coming from anywhere. US and international allies of CHYna from USA to CHYna. Problemo solved. Give it 5 years. Slow boats too.


3 posted on 12/22/2020 5:38:10 AM PST by PGalt (Past Peak Civilization?)
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To: Kaslin

California is going to learn what the Soviets learned. You can only do it if you build a wall to keep people in.

And all that Ocean front will make it a leaky wall indeed.


4 posted on 12/22/2020 5:38:27 AM PST by cuban leaf (We killed our economy and damaged our culture. In 2021 we will pine for the salad days of 2020.)
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To: Kaslin
Yet people fleeing NY and CA will move to more conservative places like Texas/Florida and vote for candidates and policy as they did in their former socialist bastions, thus over time turning their new home...more blue.

Same goes with people from South of the border...same damn thing! Escape tyranny, socialism, communism and vote for people like Pelosi, Schumer, Swalwell, Nadler, Schiff, Waters, Feinstien, AOC, Omar...on and on.

I guess ya just can't fix stupid as the saying goes.

5 posted on 12/22/2020 5:41:52 AM PST by servantboy777
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To: PGalt

SoS = Save our Ship. SOS where are U?


6 posted on 12/22/2020 5:42:55 AM PST by PGalt (Past Peak Civilization?)
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To: PGalt

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5MkCAwupe0


7 posted on 12/22/2020 5:43:58 AM PST by PGalt (Past Peak Civilization?)
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To: Kaslin

Bkmk


8 posted on 12/22/2020 5:45:24 AM PST by sauropod (Cui bono? I will not comply.)
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To: Kaslin

My biggest worry is not that this is true.It is. My biggest worry is that how easy it will be for a President Biden to transition from a COVID National Emergency to a Climate National Emergency. It will take but a few minutes during an address to the nation, fully supported by lap dog media endorsements.

Except, then it won’t only be California, New York, and Seattle. It will be all of the US, enforced by national threats and enticements.


9 posted on 12/22/2020 5:48:17 AM PST by norwaypinesavage (Calm down and enjoy the ride, great things are happening for our country)
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To: PGalt

ZERO foreign aide. 5 years. Why destroy our own house?

https://usdebtclock.org

TRAITOR co-conspirators to jail.

TRAITOR justice IS NOT cruel and unusual.

USA USA USA

MAGAKAG


10 posted on 12/22/2020 5:54:28 AM PST by PGalt (Past Peak Civilization?)
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To: Kaslin

How long will the Soviet states of America and the free states of America remain the United States of America?


Until the ascension of the HarrisXiden on Jan 20 2021


11 posted on 12/22/2020 5:56:06 AM PST by PIF (They came for me and mine ... now its your turn)
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To: norwaypinesavage
Except, then it won’t only be California, New York, and Seattle. It will be all of the US, enforced by national threats and enticements.

That will be the straw that began Revolution II.

“The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants”.

That time is nearing, and will not be avoided, neither by Patriots nor tyrants.

I fear for my Country.

12 posted on 12/22/2020 6:01:14 AM PST by USS Alaska (NUKE ALL MOOSELIMB TERRORISTS, NOW.)
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To: Kaslin

Either we return their violence with 10x or we should just bend over and play like we’re the governor of Colorado.

My bet is the coming Biden attempted gun grab will be the match. Hopefully, we’ll say come and get ‘em.

Time to dox ALL these slime - the media, the politicians, etc. Make them fear going outside. Make them require their own armed guards (oh forgot, they already have those, don’t they?)

OK, make the armed guards fear going outside.

It’ll be either this or “Amerika”. Only dumbasses with Eddikashun, Studies, and Sociology degrees believe different.


13 posted on 12/22/2020 6:20:46 AM PST by Da Coyote
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To: Kaslin

“The bigger and far more important question is: How long will the Soviet states of America and the free states of America remain the United States of America?”

1) If we lose the Georgia Senate races, roughly 3 months.
2) If we win Georgia, then 2 years (since they can’t pack the courts until they have the Senate).
3) After 2 years, if we still have the Senate, we’re probably good through 2024 (next presidential election).
4) If we lose the Senate in 2022, then we’re through.
5) 2024 becomes a must-win in any case, since we’ll start losing the courts if the Dems get another 4 years.

So watch Georgia, and if we lose don’t waste time responding as available options will decrease and decrease over time. I was watching a video from South Africa, where some of the white farmers there were relocating to the Congo. Not because they loved the country, but that was the only option available to them (and it sucked, as one might guess). If they had gotten out several years earlier, they’d likely could have emigrated to the West, but by now, their farms are worthless, due to the violence there.


14 posted on 12/22/2020 6:31:48 AM PST by BobL (I shop at Walmart and eat at McDonald's, I just don't tell anyone, like most here.)
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To: servantboy777
Escape tyranny, socialism, communism and vote for people like Pelosi, Schumer, Swalwell, Nadler, Schiff, Waters, Feinstien, AOC, Omar...on and on.

Well, its hard to say how many actually "vote" for the leftist vermin, given all of the vote fraud in which they routinely engage.

15 posted on 12/22/2020 6:43:25 AM PST by Sicon ("All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others." - G. Orwell)
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To: Kaslin

I’m in CA—I withdrew my teen daughter from public school this fall, and she’s in private school now.

I withdrew my teen son from public school on Friday, and he’s homeschooling now.

I should have done this years ago.

I’m not leaving—I don’t want to cede this beautiful land to the leftists—but is this what the Jews who declined to leave Germany etc in the 1930s said?


16 posted on 12/22/2020 6:51:56 AM PST by olivia3boys
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To: servantboy777

That is my observation as well.

Liberal immigrants to Texas/Florida must sign an oath of allegiance to freedom, the Constitution and the Bill of rights. They MUST own at least one long rifle and a handgun. In this oath, signed under penalty of perjury, must swear to vote for ANY conservative and never pull the level for a liberal or democrat ever again.

Reasonable to me.


17 posted on 12/22/2020 7:20:08 AM PST by Hulka ( )
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To: Kaslin

I never understood the California utopianism.


18 posted on 12/22/2020 7:48:34 AM PST by AceMineral (One day men will beg for chains.)
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To: Hulka
I prefer a confederation of constitutional adhering states forcing states that are in violation of the U.S. Constitution to secede.

Texas being the 10th largest economy in the world..soon to be a tad bigger with corporate influx, we provide the nation with a 1/3 of it's petro-chemical, we are self sufficient energy producer with hundreds of millions of recoverable oil reserves and trillions of cubic ft of natural gas reserves.

We have 2 of the nations larger ports, one smaller port. We enjoy 600 miles of coastline for seafood product, millions of acres of farm land, livestock.

Texas has a very diversified economy and could stand on it's own or with a confederation of constitutional states and thrive. Liberal states such as CA, NY and such would be forced to make necessary changes to governance or die a slow death. It's funny, over the last few years we were seeing advertisements on t.v., NY touting how pro-business it is. A subtle plea for businesses to come back, for people NOT to leave. lol

Poor socialist schmucks just don't get it.

19 posted on 12/22/2020 7:49:16 AM PST by servantboy777
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To: servantboy777

As a born Texan and living outside the DFW Metroplex, I want to protect what we have from the evil that is California.


20 posted on 12/22/2020 10:52:15 AM PST by Hulka ( )
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