Mask requirements are returning to health care settings across parts of the Bay Area, as local health officials brace for the annual surge in respiratory illnesses – including COVID-19, influenza and RSV – that typically arrives with colder weather.
Starting Nov. 1, several counties – including Contra Costa, Santa Clara, Sonoma, Napa, San Mateo and Santa Cruz – will again require health care workers, and in some cases patients and visitors, to wear masks in patient care areas through the winter and early spring.
What about the county that will be hosting a COVID-19 superspreader event soon (the Super Bowl)?
Santa Clara County’s rule goes further, requiring everyone – workers, patients and visitors – to wear masks in “patient care areas” of hospitals, clinics and nursing homes.
Gavin Newsom loves to brag about how rich California is. Here’s a typical post in which he says that “California is the fourth largest economy in the world” and is getting richer every day (“#1 in new business startups”).
California is the fourth largest economy in the world.
#1 in new business startups #1 in manufacturing #1 in farming #1 in public higher education #1 in Fortune 500 companies
Six of the top ten U.S. cities for quality of life in 2025 are located in California.
Here’s a recent post from Gavin Newsom in which he says that “40 million people [will] lose access to food.” (Note that there are actually more than 40 million people on SNAP, which in no way should be considered “welfare”, but let’s accept 40 million as an approximation.) He doesn’t say that “Except for the 5.5 million Californians on SNAP/EBT (“CalFresh”), who will be fully funded with state tax dollars because California is so rich, SNAP/EBT beneficiaries nationwide will lose access to food.”
Donald Trump is literally dancing in Asia while 40 million people lose access to food.
the political party that runs the state says that inequality is bad
the political party that runs the state says that taxpayer-funded food is a human right
there is no political opposition to the ruling party
the state won’t provide food for its residents unless it can feed at the federal trough
How is it possible for all of the above to be true?
Loosely related because Kentucky isn’t a rich state…
My faith teaches me that food is lifegiving and meant to be shared. From the miracle of fishes and loaves to the Last Supper, we are called to feed and care for each other. The Trump administration prohibiting SNAP benefits is wrong. We should be fighting hunger, not causing it.
Governor Beshear has a huge charitable heart so long as other people are working longer hours to pay for his charity (kind of like if I borrow my neighbor’s car, donate it to a non-profit org, and then call myself virtuous/charitable). But why won’t he fund free food for all needy Kentuckians with Kentucky state tax dollars?
Californians love to destroy things that taxpayers fund, e.g., the Santa Monica Airport. Thirty nine years ago, this love of destruction reached the Los Angeles Central Library, torched by a still-unknown arsonist (see state-sponsored NPR). Nearly 400,000 books were destroyed. Here are some photos from the restored building.
Note the mural showing happy children with guns and also one of Elizabeth Warren’s ancestors:
We need humanoid robots so that every house can have one of these candeliers:
A plaque reminds us that Californians torched their own library twice in one year:
More than five years since the start of Coronapanic, the locals are still trying to avoid SARS-CoV-2 by voluntarily entering a crowded public space while wearing a cloth mask of some sort (note accessory Whole Foods bag):
From my earlier A Greta Thunberg yacht trip to California?, a poster in the Teen section reminding young Californians that humans are in charge of viruses and can end a pandemic via their own actions:
Also worth a repeat, the library reminds teens to cooperate in thwarting ICE:
It’s the 72nd anniversary of the Korean War Armistice.
Our virtual loosely related journey starts in downtown Los Angeles:
A 15-minute Uber ride with photos taken out the window, Garry Winogrand-style:
Once you get to “Koreatown” you discover that it isn’t a town at all, but rather some strip malls that happen to contain a lot of Korean restaurants and shops. (Little Tokyo, by contrast, has a few attempts at recreating the experience of being in Japan.) Example:
Is it possible that San Francisco has an abundant natural resource that can be turned into housing? A sign outside the restrooms at the Boise Zoo:
Separately, it looks as though the San Francisco influence on Boise has been powerful (photos: July 2025):
The “Community is Resistance” sign is an interesting window into the progressive mindset. Human communities previously existed to ensure survival of the maximum number of humans. Perhaps due to overpopulation human communities today exist primarily to “resist” other human communities.
NVIDIA is now worth $4 trillion. Is it reasonable to assume that $1.5 trillion of that is unrealized capital gains for people who live in California (investors, employees, etc.; Jensen Huang alone owns 3.5 percent of the company)? If so, that’s 1.5e12*13.3% = $200 billion in potential capital gains tax to be collected by California. California’s entire annual state budget is only about $322 billion. So, if the above assumptions are correct, collecting taxes from California residents who own NVIDIA could pay for at least 6 months of whatever government programs Gavin Newsom and friends can dream up and, therefore, NVIDIA will do more to make progressive Democrats look good than any company in history.
(Of course, a handful of people might move away from California before selling their appreciated shares, but that shouldn’t have a huge effect on the aggregate potential for taxation.)
How about for the Feds? Including the Obamacare NITT rake of 3.8 percent, there is a potential harvest of 23.8 percent for the federal government of however much isn’t owned by foreigners (18 percent of the overall market). If substantially all of the $4 trillion is unrealized capital gains that could be about $780 billion for the federal government, enough to pay off a princely 2% of U.S. debt (just need another 50 NVIDIAs and we can have the entire National Debt squared away).
Assuming that they can get their hands on $100 billion (or maybe $200 billion, or maybe $300 billion) in federal tax dollars, Californians will eventually have a high-speed rail line (the groundbreaking ceremony was 10.5 years ago). In light of recent drone attacks within Russia and Iran, the question for today is whether the fancy new train will be a sitting duck for jihadis. From the Wall Street Journal:
From the BBC:
Maybe anti-drone defense systems could be built around U.S. airports and an airplane should be safe from low-tech attack at 30,000′, but how would a 500-mile rail line conceivably be secured? California has already experienced jihad from Syed Rizwan Farook, born to immigrants from Pakistan, and Tashfeen Malik, a legal immigrant from Pakistan (they killed 14 of their neighbors/coworkers with guns and had hoped to kill more, but their pipe bombs failed to explode). By the time the high-speed rail is finally ready presumably the knowledge of how to build suicide drones will be far more widespread. A drone can fly from a few miles away, park itself on the ground between the rails a few minutes before the train is due, and detonate when its camera sees the train rolling over it, thus derailing the train. All of this can be fully automated with no need for radio communication back to an operator. The tracks don’t move so the lat/long of the landing spot can be preprogrammed. Nothing drives over these tracks except high-speed trains and, therefore, the “detect a train” logic need not be sophisticated.
(Of course, I continue to be mystified as to how Californians can simultaneously say (a) they hate inequality, and (b) they want all of this federal money rather than seeing it spent in poorer-than-average states. Why don’t they want federal money spent in ways that reduce inequality?)
Maybe the answer will be a grid of sensor-equipped poles arranged along the entire route? They can use radar and optical cameras to look for aerial drones and also drones that crawl over the ground. But given that a drone can pop up from a shipping crate just a minute before a train is due and land 30 seconds before a train is due to pass, how can surveillance alone be effective? Californians didn’t object to a year or two of lockdown and school closure in exchange for a perceived higher level of security from Covid so maybe they would also accept a security corridor for a few miles on either side of the track in which humans are forbidden to enter. On the other hand, a clever jihadi could perhaps make a drone that looks like an animal of some kind.
Note that the same question can be asked about a lot of U.S. infrastructure. We have open borders by design, including to people who say that they hate the United States (an application for asylum is based on a fear of being harmed in some other country, not on any kind of affection for or loyalty to the U.S.). What stops a foreign power from sending a few hundred soldiers over as asylum-seekers and having them quietly build attack drones? The foreign power could guarantee that their asylum application will be accepted by publishing a list of the soldiers’ names and saying “All of the people on this list are sentenced to death due to their political opinions.” Anyone under a definitive sentence of death for a political point of view meets U.S. asylum criteria, right? “Membership in a particular social group” is also a slam-dunk and “LGBTI” is considered a “group” so the foreign power could make sure that its army gets into the U.S. by publishing a list of soldiers’ names and saying “All of the men on this list were discovered at a gay bathhouse and, therefore, are sentenced to death if apprehended.” From a USCIS training document:
Californians say that housing is a human right. Here are some photos of what they deliver to their unhoused brothers, sisters, and binary-resisters. Note that the righteous will walk by these scenes on their way to any “Bring in More Low-Skill Immigrants” rally:
Californians found a way to upcycle the Cybertrucks whose creator they now hate:
Here’s how Tesla drivers in Los Angeles defend against vandalism:
I’m not sure why this excuses the inexcusable. “I voted for Hitler before I knew that he would attack Russia” would also work? Why doesn’t the Tesla owner have to sell the car to a Deplorable in Texas, for example, and buy a Chevy Tahoe (as Sen. Mark Kelly did) or a Toyota Prius or whatever?
Flash back to Memorial Day in the historic Olvera Street part of Los Angeles. This was prior to the outbreak of peace that resulted in the deployment of the U.S. military into the streets of the city.
The encampment and trash seen approaching the pedestrian street:
Some tips on hiding rom ICE, resisting Trump, and promoting immigration:
Information about the native-born residents of California who were all killed by immigrants:
One of the unhoused in a city and state where nearly everyone agrees that housing is a human right:
The street itself:
Any day is a good day to be an outdoor masker in California:
Nearby Union Station, ready for California’s High Speed Rail project, which the rich inequality-hating Californians say that they can complete only if working class taxpayers in less-wealthy states give them another $100+ billion in federal money. (Inequality haters in CA, MA, NJ, NY, and other rich states never say that they want federal money instead spent in poorer-than-average states such as Michigan.)
