Watch out Oregon! As authoritarianism in California worsens, so it will in Oregon

 What do you call people who are in a pit with their heads down and they keep on digging?  Maybe even digging faster? It’s gone beyond silliness and is no longer a laughing matter.  Madness has overtaken Democrats in California and has descended into authoritarianism.  Oregon, always trying to one-up their Southern and Northern neighbors for progressive ideas is vulnerable to the acceleration of tyrannical regulation. If our history of copying and outdoing California is a indication of what we have to look forward to, read this and weep.  

Weep not just for lost ketchup or napkins, but for every aspect of our lives the leadership class wants to control.  I can do without paper napkins - I carry paper towels, wipes and a plastic garbage bag in my car at all times.  It’s been a longtime since I have had children to clean up after, but what works for little ones works for me too.  I’ve also given up gas lawn mowers because electric ones are easier to start and I have a small lawn.  But the landscapers at my apartments would be lost without their riding mowers and gas blowers.  

Parents and grandparents - it is up to you to tell your children of the times before the Democratic takeover of our state (and country) of the individual freedoms we enjoyed and trust we had in one another.  It is up to all of us to fight the forces that want to upend our Constitutional “negative rights” that everyone is born with and supplant them with “positive rights” that only government can grant to the worthy.  

The Unhappy Customers of California

Another day, another government-imposed hassle in La La Land.Wall Street Journal. By James Freeman, Nov. 18, 2021 

Now they’re coming for your condiments, Californians, as new regulations are squirting all over the Golden State. Nathan Solis reports this week for the Los Angeles Times:

Restaurants in Los Angeles are now restricted from freely distributing the disposable items and may offer them only to customers who ask for them.

Under the ordinance, which took effect Monday for restaurants with more than 26 employees, all single-use disposable food-ware dispensers will be removed. Businesses also will stop including plastic utensils and napkins with takeout orders or for dine-in meals unless a customer specifically asks for them. All food and drink businesses will be required to follow the new rules starting April 22.

Backers of such rules are sending a climate virtue signal given the use of fossil fuels in the manufacture of plastic products. They also oppose plastic on the dubious premise that advanced economies like the United States have not yet figured out how to responsibly dispose of trash. Press an environmental activist on why plastic needs to be driven out of the lives of U.S. consumers and you’re likely to hear not about problems in U.S. waste management but about countries overseas where people dump mountains of shopping bags into the ocean.

“Why was making local gov’t the ‘ketchup packet police’ a priority?,” tweetedCalifornia Senate Republican Leader Scott Wilk in September.

Don’t forget the toy police and the lawnmower police. Valerie Richardson wrotein October in the Washington Times that unleashing the ketchup cops was just one element of the state’s tough-on-non-crime agenda:

“As many of us predicted, Newsom’s defeat of the recall has only emboldened him to impose more freedom-killing measures,” said Los Angeles radio talk-show host Larry Elder, the leading Republican vote-getter in the Sept. 14 recall. Randy Economy, former senior adviser and spokesperson for the recall campaign, said the “only thing that has changed since the recall election is that Gavin Newsom has doubled down on lunacy.”

This column must admit wondering in 2019 whether California had hit peak liberalism and the answer is a resounding no. Mr. Newsom is still aggressively testing the consumer pain threshold.