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•  California's Death Spiral, The Descent into Darkness - A Profound Warning:  You've probably heard that major businesses including Elon Musk's pioneering SpaceX and automaker Tesla have left California. Larry Ellison's Oracle Corporation has moved, Apple moved its headquarters to Texas, electronics giants Hewlett Packard and Samsung have moved, and Toyota Motors North America, the huge Kubota Tractor Corporation, engineering giant AECOM, telecom firm DZS, the real estate investment firm CBRE Group, Nestle USA, and Jamba Juice, among many other major employers. Charles Schwab has also left San Francisco for Texas, and dozens of others are preparing to move out-of-state as well. "Over 300 major corporations have moved their headquarters out of California since the beginning of 2020," according to Stanford University.
     UPDATES:  A report from the Hoover Institution, released 25 October 2023, highlights the ongoing exodus of companies pulling their headquarters out of California to escape the state's high taxes, dangerously high-crime environment, and failed public school system. According to the report, California businesses in 2023 left the state at twice their rate in both 2021 and 2022 and at three times their rate in 2020. Businesses are choosing to move their headquarters to states with more favorable business climates, far safer living conditions, functional school systems, and lower living costs. The exodus is happening across many industries, including manufacturing, aerospace, banking, other financial services, real estate, chemicals, health care, and high-technology businesses.
     A report from U-Haul, released 6 January 2024, shows California topping U-Haul’s list for the largest net number of outbound residential movers for the fourth consecutive year. U-Haul’s data aligns with U.S. Census records, showing California having the highest net outbound migration of any state.
     On Friday, August 2, 2024, Chevron announced that it's relocating from California to Texas. America's second-largest oil and gas company is moving its global headquarters from Silicon Valley in California—its home state for more than 140 years—to Houston. Chevron said that the high tax rates and authoritarian regulations have made it increasingly difficult to do business in California, and that the high-crime environment, high housing costs, and low quality schools have made it undesirable and unsafe for its employees to live and work there.
     The flood of former Californians who have left includes major tech investors—Peter Thiel, David Sacks—cryptocurrency founders—Anthony Pompliano, Ari Paul—new-media tycoons—Bryan Goldberg, Dave Portnoy—and the start-up founders Alexandra Wilkis Wilson and Steven Galanis, plus many more who aren’t yet billionaires but think getting out of "The Golden State" will give them a far better opportunity, plus keep their families, employees, and themselves safe from harm, and enable their children to attend healthy school systems.
•    This next insight may be surprising as the mainstream media avoids reporting on celebrities who have left California. However, along with millions of other former Californians, here's a partial list of some of the celebrities who moved their primary residence out-of-state: Harrison Ford, Matt Damon, Tom Hanks, Johnny Depp, George Clooney, John Travolta, Jeff Bridges, Sylvester Stallone, Harry Styles, Ryan Reynolds, Zac Efron, Chris Hemsworth, Dennis Quaid, Mark Wahlberg, Julia Roberts, Katy Perry, Mia Wasikowska, Jessica Simpson, Drew Barrymore, Natalie Portman, Joni Mitchell, Alicia Keys, Stevie Nicks, Neve Campbell, Hilary Swank, Candace Cameron Bure, Jillian Michaels, Keith Urban and Nicole Kidman, Ryan Gosling and Eva Mendes, Justin Bieber and Hailey Baldwin, Mark Ruffalo, Rob Lowe, Dean Cain, Scott Baio, Lou Ferrigno, Michael Phelps, Joe Rogan, Hugh Jackman, Elijah Wood, and Jake Gyllenhaal.
•    Those are just the well-known names. The USPS reports that they're receiving over 25,000 change-of-address requests every month from individuals and families leaving California. The state has lost close to two million residents, and an estimated 15,000 small and mid-sized businesses have moved out of California over the last few years as well. People are continuing to bail out like sailors in a mutiny against a captain and his first officers all gone insane.
     So why this massive exodus? What's driving it? Why is it happening on such an enormous scale? If you live in California, you know why. If not, I ask that you read carefully, as this is something you need to really think about, because it involves the most fundamental and essential elements of each person's existence—Liberty, Personal Safety, and Quality of Life.
     It wasn't long ago that California was considered to have the best quality of life amongst all 50 states. Not any more. A stunning 2019 U.S. News & World Report feature story revealed that we now have the worst quality of life in the entire nation, and it's gotten much, much worse since that story was written. How did such a radical change take place? I'll get to that in a moment. First some facts:

It is likely you've seen the news stories about parts of our cities that look like a third-world country, with thousands of homeless, filthy streets, rat infestations, rampant drug abuse, uncontrolled crime, and so forth. That's all true. But those are just the obvious "tips-of-the-iceberg." Here are some other realities, per the U.S. News & World Report study and DOJ statistics:
   ●  California harbors an estimated 3.27 million illegal aliens (please take a moment to really think about that number...).
   ●  California is the #1 state for poverty in the entire United States. Slightly more than 38 percent of California’s residents are
        at or near the poverty level, more than one third of its remaining population.
   ●  California is the #1 state for income inequality in the entire United States.
   ●  California is the #1 state for racial inequality in the entire United States.
   ●  California is the #1 state for human trafficking in the entire United States.
   ●  California is the #1 state for child sex trafficking in the entire United States.
   ●  California's sanctuary city and state policies have made it the #1 state for the amount of illegal drugs smuggled into and
        sold in any state in the United States.
   ●  California has, at minimum, 180,000 homeless and that number is rising by over 20% a year.
   ●  California has 4,000,000 people on food stamps, over 10% of the entire state's population.
   ●  California's public schools have fallen from the best to the worst in the United States.
   ●  California has the worst air quality of any state in the United States.
   ●  California is rated as the worst state in the nation in which to do business.
   ●  California has the highest unemployment rate in the United States and its job growth is dead last.
   ●  California's taxes are among the highest in the United States.
   ●  Californians bear an enormous fiscal burden as a result of the massive illegal alien population, with an annual expenditure
        of over $25.3 billion in tax dollars, amounting to a yearly cost of about $2,370 for each legal California household.
   ●  California's state debt stands at about $777 billion, the highest in the country, dwarfing any other state, and it faces
        another $650 billion in unfunded liabilities for public employee pensions. Fiscal responsibility is nonexistent.
   ●  As of the end of 2023, California is facing a record $68 billion budget deficit, and the Legislative Analyst Office says their
       projections through 2027 show a cumulative deficit of $155 billion. Again, fiscal responsibility is utterly nonexistent.
   ●  Cities including LA, San Francisco, Oakland, Vallejo, Modesto, Richland, and Santa Cruz have terribly high crime rates.
        When you step outside in San Francisco, you have a 1 in 16.1 chance of being robbed, a 1 in 32.6 chance of being
        a victim of violent crime like assault, rape or murder, and an average of 151 cars are broken into every day.
   ●  Inland cities including Stockton, Redding, Madera and others have large populations of criminal illegal aliens, including
        thousands of members of the brutal Mara Salvatrucha gang, the infamous "MS-13." The gangs commonly utilize extortion,
        sex trafficking and child prostitution rings to sustain themselves and to send money back to their leadership in Central
        America. Due to California's "sanctuary" state policy, there is no effort at deportations.

There's actually a lot more, but I'm sure you get the picture. So how did this happen? How did California go from being a prosperous, safe, happy and wonderful place to live to suffering all these horrific conditions?
     Some years ago, politicians with a self-proclaimed "progressive" ideology and policy agenda came to power promising greater "equality" and a near "utopian" society. Their policies actually delivered the exact opposite, as you can see.
     What you just read above is the truth, the real world results of identity-politics, "progressive" politicians, their "woke" policies, and what that has done to California. And it keeps getting worse as each day the lives of more and more residents of our state are ravaged by the sanctuary city and state policies, sky-high crime, poverty, homelessness, rolling black-outs, and grossly incompetent management. California is currently struggling with conditions that are unsustainable. Check for yourself if you don't believe it. Here's what even liberal journalists are forced to admit:

"California’s embrace of socialist policies is a classic example of what not to do," writes Chris Talgo in The Hill. "California’s adoption of far-left ideology, and the devastating toll it has wrought on the Golden State, should serve as a canary in the coal mine for any politician wishing to follow California’s example. If California’s embrace of socialism has taught the rest of the country one thing, it is that these policies do not work, are utterly disastrous, and should not be implemented anywhere."

"By now, this is a familiar story," writes the California Democratic Policy Center. "California is a failed state. Thanks to years of progressive mismanagement and neglect, the cities are lawless. Residents pay the highest prices in America for unreliable electricity. Water is rationed. Homes are unaffordable. The public schools are a joke. Freeways are congested and crumbling. And if they weren't already destroyed by the lockdowns, business owners contend with the most hostile regulatory climate in American history."

Even the leftist Politico writes: "Soaring poverty and homelessness offer grim counterpoints to the California portrayed by [Governor] Newsom as America’s shining star. Images of desperate Californians living in the streets, at times under conditions reminiscent of refugee camps, underscore the intractable crisis. California is a lawless land of discarded heroin needles in parks, riots in the streets, looting in the stores, and blackouts in homes." 

"California is a failed state," writes John Gabriel in USA Today. "How do we know? They're moving to Arizona in droves. You can't blame Californians for moving to Arizona. But let's hope they leave behind the progressive policies that ruined their state. As a result of one-party rule, the once-Golden State is tarnished, possibly beyond repair. Listing all the problems facing California would require several books."

The hard-left rag The Guardian writes, "Things are looking less than golden in California these days. The economy is so weak out West that economists have recently declared that California is the first failed state in America. Areas of Los Angeles and San Francisco look like post-Katrina New Orleans."

What has happened to California should serve as a profound wake-up call for everyone in this country.

Although many factors have contributed to the ruination of California, from the bankruptcy of progressive ideology to the dangers of a one-party state government, the wider scope of its disintegration is often overlooked. The collapse of California, like the disintegration of past socialist regimes, is a process—it is unfolding today, it accelerates with each passing month, and this process will not end when Governor Newsom is finally out-of-office, nor will its victims be limited to the tens of thousands of casualties of sanctuary policies, scientifically baseless dictatorial decrees, and the failure to enforce fundamental laws essential to protect a society and its citizens. To restore California to a land of opportunity, freedom, safety and quality of life will take many years—perhaps decades—of persistent effort.
     The real tragedy is that if Californians hadn't tolerated a despotic oligarchy and growing totalitarianism we wouldn't be where we are today. It's exhausting and dangerous and we wonder how much longer people will have to endure the seditious agenda and policies of a morally corrupt and totally failed "woke" political ideology.
     What has happened to California can happen anywhere, as demonstrated by the currently deteriorating conditions in Oregon and Washington state. If you live in a safe and prosperous community and you're thinking, "That's terrible, but nothing like that could ever happen here," that's what we thought too, before "progressives" took power in this state, and it did not take long to suffer the result.