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California Tag

Just before Christmas, President Donald Trump signed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act that has set America's economy on a trajectory to prosperity and put wealth back in the hands of its citizens. The new rules also substantially reduced the country's corporate tax rate to 21 percent, down from a fairly hefty 35 percent. Now, a pair of California Grinches are offering a bill that would ultimately divert some of the federal savings back into Sacramento coffers.

It seems California's Attorney General Xavier Beccera is taking the "general" portion of his title more seriously than the "attorney" portion. While waging the Golden State's War on Trump, Beccera is now threatening the state's employers with prosecution and fines if they voluntarily assist United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents identify illegal immigrants:

The Trump Administration continues its #CounterResistance to California's illegal immigration promoting polices with a move targeting the state's "birth tourism" industry.
Federal Homeland Security agents raided 20 alleged “maternity hotels” in Southern California where pregnant Chinese women pay tens of thousands of dollars to live to ensure a “made in America” baby, reports said.

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) will not seek re-election this year, which means the Democrats could possibly pick up another seat. He wrote:
Throughout my service, I worked hard and never lost sight of the people our government is supposed to serve. Yet with the support of my family, I have decided that I will not seek re-election in California's 49th District.

When President Trump signed the tax bill into law, Democrats, particularly in blue states with high state income taxes, wailed.  The Nation declared the new tax law "a deliberate attack on blue states," and New York governor Andrew Cuomo called it an "attack only on blue states" and "economic civil war." Among the attacks they perceive is the new law's $10,000 maximum for all state and local deductions.  Oddly, the left is howling because this is, as Vox points out, "effectively raising taxes on wealthy people." Setting aside the fact that taxing the rich has been the leftist mantra for decades and became particularly shrill during the Obama administration, blue states are now actively looking for ways to get around this and other measures in the new tax law.

It appears that the elite media is figuring out what has been transparently clear to me: After a full year of California's politicians waging a #WarOnTrump, the White House is now countering with its own policy blasts.
It's Washington versus California on marijuana, climate change, offshore oil drilling and immigration this week as bubbling disagreements between President Donald Trump's administration and California all seemed to spill over at once.

Check off another campaign pledge fulfilled by President Donald Trump.
The Trump administration, teeing up a fight with California regulators, is trying to pump more water through the fragile Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to the southern half of the state despite fresh evidence of the estuary’s shrinking fish population.

January 1, 2018, marked the day that California officially became a “sanctuary state” after a bill Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown signed into law in this fall officially took effect.

Forget UFO's!  On Friday night, SpaceX launched a satellite that lit the evening sky over Southern California, dazzling and amazing spectators in California and Arizona.
SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket, launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base at 5:27 p.m., was carrying 10 satellites to low-Earth orbit. The satellites will be part of a constellation operated by Iridium Communications. All 10 satellites successfully deployed, with the last one deploying about 1 hour and 12 minutes after liftoff.

The FBI arrested 26-year-old Everitt Aaron Jameson and charged him with providing material support to a foreign terrorist organization.  Jameson's planned terror attack included setting off an explosive device on San Francisco's Pier 39 on Christmas Day. Jameson, a tow truck driver born in Modesto, California, was discharged from the Marine Corps for fraudulent enlistment when it was discovered that he failed to disclose his latent asthma.  Prior to being discharged, Jameson earned a sharpshooter rifle qualification.

This weekend, I reported on the spate of fires that have erupted though Southern California, which included the Skirball Fire that threatened the famous Getty Center Museum, destroyed several posh Bel Air homes, and shut the 405 freeway. In a move that surprised nobody, Governor Jerry Brown was quick to blame all the infernos on climate change, but a cooking fire by a homeless person started the fire.