California’s Centrally Planned Neighborhoods

Federalism, Founding Fathers, Private Property, Regulation

Think Americans still live in the decentralized republic the Founding Fathers bequeathed? Think  Americans benefit from a federal form of government, where control is local and residents get to decide about the character of the place they inhabit? Think again.

Consider California’s housing-supply law. If residents of a community don’t want to “develop” their corner of the world—if they wish to preserve the character of the place they call home—Big Brother Central Planner will make them.

Gavin Newsom, California’s new governor, is  suing “Huntington Beach, a coastal city in Orange County, for failing to comply with the state’s housing-supply law.”

California has a severe shortage of affordable housing, and he wants to bring a sense of urgency to the problem. The state has the highest poverty rate in America when adjusted for the cost of living. One-third of renters pay more than half of their income towards rent, and homeownership rates in the state are at their lowest level since the 1940s.

The lawsuit against Huntington Beach is meant to be a warning shot to cities that they cannot stonewall development. Fifty years ago the state passed a “housing element” law requiring communities to plan for new housing for all income groups, based on forecasts for population growth. In 2017 the state legislature passed several bills to speed up housing development and approvals. Until recently many cities have not met their housing numbers but faced little consequence …

MORE: “Why California’s governor is suing Huntington Beach: Can a lawsuit compel upscale cities to build more housing?“

UPDATED (7/2/019): About Those ‘Brilliant’ Imported Workers: Americans Are SIGNIFICANTLY Better. Proven.

Business, Donald Trump, Family, Human Accomplishment, IMMIGRATION, Labor, Outsourcing

Doff of the hat to reader JM, who sent this, after reading “Visas for ‘The Brilliant’ Is Kushner Code For Replacing You“:

Here is a recent study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences:

Abstract

“We assess and compare computer science skills among final-year computer science undergraduates (seniors) in four major economic and political powers that produce approximately half of the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics graduates in the world. We find that seniors in the United States substantially outperform seniors in China, India, and Russia by 0.76–0.88 SDs and score comparably with seniors in elite institutions in these countries. Seniors in elite institutions in the United States further outperform seniors in elite institutions in China, India, and Russia by 0.85 SDs. The skills advantage of the United States is not because it has a large proportion of high-scoring international students. Finally, males score consistently but only moderately higher (0.16–0.41 SDs) than females within all four countries.”

As JM distills it,

This study found that American computer science student greatly outperform those from India and China (the biggest source of H-1B). It also found that the average American student outperforms students in elite school in those countries. The talent is in the United States; in in India or China.
The very purpose of the H-1B program is to replace American workers with cheap, foreign labor. No other description of the program fits what Congress has enacted.
The line that H-1B is for high-skilled workers to fill jobs that Americans cannot fill is entirely spin that has no basis in the H-1B statutes. In 1998, Congress explicitly made it legal to replace Americans with H-1B workers.

UPDATED (7/2/019):

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UPDATED (6/5): NEW: Jared Packs Unicorns and Rainbows For Mideast Trip

America, Donald Trump, Gender, Israel, Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, Middle East, Populism

NEW COLUMN IS “Jared Packs Unicorns and Rainbows For Mideast Trip.” It’s now on WND.COM and the Unz Review.

An abridged version, “Bibi’s Cautious Conservatism May Clash With Jared’s New Peace Plan,” is on Townhall.com.

An excerpt:

JARED KUSHNER couldn’t stare down an uncompromising foe if his wife, Ivanka Trump, held his soft, lily-white hand throughout the ordeal.

Yet ridiculously, a May 22, McClatchy article claimed Mr. Kushner was fixing to “stare down uncompromising foes in fights over immigration and Middle East peace.”

Let us begin with our debutant’s Middle East peace plan, the thing his father-in-law calls “the deal of the century.”

The notion of Jared solving the Israeli-Palestinian vexation is laughable, perhaps the dumbest thing ever. You just know this is a vain Ivanka move to brand the region and add it to her CV. (Ivanka, to those who don’t know, is intent on riding to the presidency herself on her father’s coattails.)

The Arabs slated to partake in the Kushner summit, Bahraini, Saudi and Emirati participants, are likely laughing the hardest.

For one, the Arabs know that Ivanka is calling the shots—and that the president’s fashion-focused daughter is behind the branding of the sexually androgynous, intellectually inchoate production that is Jared Kushner. If you think that’s something Arabs respect, you don’t know Shiite from Shinola.

Wily Arabs are hip to White House dynamics. They know who’s running the West Wing and who to flatter. Some in the region have even given Donald Trump a dubious honorific, Abu Ivanka al-Amriki. Being known as “father of Ivanka the American” is, of course, no honor in the muscular, manly Middle East.

The timing of the Kushner peace plan is especially asinine. For all the upheaval in the region, the Palestinian Problem has nevertheless dropped off the geopolitical radar as an urgent matter to resolve. …

… READ THE REST. NEW COLUMN, “Jared Packs Unicorns and Rainbows For Mideast Trip,” is now on WND.COM and the Unz Review.

READ an abridged version, “Bibi’s Cautious Conservatism May Clash With Jared’s New Peace Plan,” on Townhall.com.

UPDATE (6/5): Jared definitely has those girl-like broad hips. His is not a man’s shape. The contrast is stark when he’s seen striding alongside these two military figures who have narrow hips and broad shoulders.

So You Know: Democrat Jerry Nadler Cares DEEPLY About The LAW

Democrats, Donald Trump, Ethics, IMMIGRATION, Law

“No one, not even the President of the United States, is above the law,” roared House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-NY).

Wrong. Just one example: In the U.S., illegal immigrates are sainted outlaws.

“Although Department of Justice policy prevented the Special Counsel from bringing criminal charges against the President, the Special Counsel has clearly demonstrated that President Trump is lying about the Special Counsel’s findings, lying about the testimony of key witnesses in the Special Counsel’s report, and is lying in saying that the Special Counsel found no obstruction and no collusion. Given that Special Counsel Mueller was unable to pursue criminal charges against the President, it falls to Congress to respond to the crimes, lies and other wrongdoing of President Trump – and we will do so. No one, not even the President of the United States, is above the law.”

* Image courtesy “Kisspng.”