EXITING CALIFORNIA! -- Invasion Of The Fleeing Golden Staters!

ICONOCLAST ^ | by Lin Anderson

[Apolitical]

ICONOCLAST EXCLUSIVE!!

EXITING CALIFORNIA!
-- Invasion Of The Fleeing Golden Staters!



Bye, Bye, California; Nevada, Here They Come!

by Lin Anderson

The U.S. Census Bureau reports that the traditional American immigration pattern -- East to West, for those of you who slept through "U.S. Demographic History" that day -- seems no longer to be operative here in the 21st century.

For the record, also inoperative are common sense and the Detroit Tigers.

"Go West, young man, and grow up with the country," wrote Horace Greeley back there in 1865 in an editorial in the New York Tribune. Modern-day researchers have, however, found that the same exact words were penned 14 years earlier by a Mr. John Soule in a Terre Haute, Indiana, newspaper. It must be gratifying for former New York "journalist" Jayson Blair to serenely contemplate that in his tenure with the New York Times, he was in fact just carrying on a longstanding Empire State tradition established by Horace Greeley.

No matter its provenance -- as they say pretty much hourly around the New York Times these days -- the quote has long been a linchp in in the annals of the western United States, even though the odds are pretty good that Greeley was drunker than a convention of Dean Martin impersonators when he plagiarized it.

According to an article by Haya El Nasser, in a recent very colorful edition of USA Today, the Census Bureau has determined that today's immigration patterns are from West to East -- more specifically from California to anyplace distraught Californians can think of to flee to.

"Most of the people leaving California," the USA Today piece notes, "are going to other Western states such as Nevada, Arizona, Oregon, Washington and Colorado." And most of the most of them are going to Nevada. Or, as writer Haya El Nasser hilariously phrases it, "Nevada was the biggest beneficiary" of these refugees from Gray Davis's Worker's Paradise.

Lucky us.

The bureau estimates that some 200,000 Californians made tracks to Nevada in the late 1990s, hoping to escape such happy Golden State features as "earthquakes, race riots, economic downturns, a wave of foreign immigration and skyrocketing housing prices." While we haven't had the earthquakes or race riots yet, we seem of late to be quite well represented by the other items on the list, so I'm thinking it's just a matter of time before some unpopular court verdict or other causes the ground to start shaking and the good china to come hurtling off the shelves.

It's not exactly a stunning revelation that a sizeable chunk of the Golden State's population is scurrying over the border and into our hearts. We're handy, after all. Right next door, you might say. In the line of fire, certainly.

Nevada is also attractive by virtue of our having no state income tax; but, per capita, we have just as many nutball legislators as the Californians are used to. I'd say that would make the immigrants feel right at home, but their goal always seems to be something along the lines of making our home feel an awf ul lot like their former home.

It has been a recurring theme of mine -- for at least the past four years or so-- that, as Nevada has become more and more a Haven for the Disaffected Soul (particularly the Disaffected Soul from our neighbor to the West), we have found many of our own cherished Silver State traditions relentlessly assailed. As the folks from Fresno, the beings from Bakersfield and the peeps from Pomona have arrived, so, predictably, have the demands for smoke-free casinos, smog inspection stations, vegetarian menu alternatives and draconian zoning ordinances.

It's as if these refugees had risked their very lives fleeing the Nazis and then suddenly decided upon reflection that maybe they liked that whole crazy "we VILL rule da VORLD" concept after all.

I was a Californian long ago, and have many acquaintances who presently live -- if you call that living -- Over There. I also lived in Seattle back when the California license plates started showing up in unsuspecting neighborhoods with alarming frequency, so I know how this thing works -- or, more to the point -- doesn't work.

I had a conversation with a Seattle-based friend of mine awhile back during which we reminisced about the California invasion. He noted with some degree of cynicism that the hordes which had poured into the city during the 1980s and 1990s were, as the new century dawned, rapidly tiring of the area and were even now pointing their fuel-efficient vehicles south, toward Oregon.

If you've scanned the news out of Oregon lately, you know they arrived there safely.

I fear the upcoming recall election will find even more of our neighbors dropping next door to borrow a cup of sanity. With Gray Davis "alternatives" including Arnold Schwarzenegger ("The Governator"), Arianna Huffington, tiny Gary Coleman ("Whatchu talkin' 'bout, Davis?"), and big blob Larry Flynt already on the goofy ballot -- which may includ e the names of dozens of candidates by the time voters finally trudge wearily to the polls in October -- men, women and children from Redding to Riverside are likely even now nibbling low-calorie things like their fingernails and planning a daring escape to a more hospitable climate such as, for example, us...Nevada!

What's to be done? ...............

[Apolitical]

A frightening invasion! Time to call out the Nevada National Guard!

[potlatch]

I hope it's only the conservatives deserting! Nobody wants an invasion of the freaky liberals from California. Just imagine California when only the liberals are left, it will be a zoo!!

[elbucko]

...refugees from Gray Davis's Worker's Paradise.

Let's hope Graham, "Gray", Davis becomes himself, a refugee of his own making and finds his way back to his hometown of Brooklyn, New, York and stays there.

[randog]

...but their goal always seems to be something along the lines of making our home feel an awful lot like their former home.

I've lived in Nevada all my life (40 years) and that line right there pretty much sums up the Californication going on around here.

[Joe Hadenuf]

Reno is a mess of dirty freezing snow in the winter and you if you want to live like a lizard, move to Vegas. It's like Phoenix, it's not a temperature, it's an oven setting.....

But personally, if 10 million move to Nevada tomorrow, it wont be too soon for me.

[Torie]

Oregon's economy is in the tank, with Washington close behind. The only problem with moving to Nevada, is that that means one must live there.

[Lancey Howard]

I would say it is already too late for Nevada.
Look at the scumbag governor (Kenny Guinn) they have there, and the corrupt and thoroughly politicized state Supreme Court. It looks to me like the scumbags have already taken over, the education mafia is firmly in place, and an income tax is not far behind.

[Riley]

I hope it's only the conservatives deserting! Nobody wants an invasion of the freaky liberals from California. Just imagine California when only the liberals are left, it will be a zoo!!

I just sold my house. I will be leaving California on August 24th, bound for the South. California has been ruined by the nuts, many of whom came from other states. It has become a nut Mecca.

Unfortunately, I know that I am inevitably going to be tarred with the nut label wherever else I end up. I am going to have to put a sticker on my truck that says, "Don't shoot, I'm a Freeper!"

[LoneRangerMassachusetts]

If it's the productive taxpayer who is now fleeing, it won't be long before the bloodsuckers follow. When will the productive get it? Fleeing only delays the inevitable. You have to start beating back the hordes to win. Beat them back. Mow your own lawns. Do your own dirty work. Otherwise, the slaves will eat you alive.

[potlatch]

Good for you!! Texas is still pretty conservative, especially outside the big citys. Good luck wherever you go.

[Age of Reason]

Nevada is also attractive by virtue of our having no state income tax

That won't last.

Now that Nevada's population density is increasing, they will soon have an income tax.

[Intolerant in NJ]

The bureau estimates that some 200,000 Californians made tracks to Nevada in the late 1990s...heard somewhere on TV yesterday that if it weren't for the illegal immigrants California would have shown negative population growth for like the last five years...no wonder Davis is so eager to make the illegals comfortable......

[Texas_Dawg]

Now that Nevada's population density is increasing, they will soon have an income tax.

Texas is over 22 million (85% of which live in metropolitan areas) and not even close to having a state income tax.

[Age of Reason]

California has been ruined by the nuts, many of whom came from other states. It has become a nut Mecca.

The last data I saw shows that more people left California for other states than came to California from other states.

Most of the California's population growth is from immigrants and newborns.

But no matter.

What you don't realize is that it doesn't matter where they come from--what matters is how crowded a place becomes and how diversified the population.

If you stuff a gazillion people into a house, especially if they all have different ideas about when to use the bathroom and when to have dinner and when to play loud music and when to sleep and which TV shows to watch and when to walk the dog and who gets to do it . . . you will have madness.

Then it becomes a matter of common sense survival to turn over individual freedom to a committee that will make and enforce laws governing when each of you are permitted to do something.

As with a house, so with a state or a country.

[Age of Reason]

Texas is over 22 million (85% of which live in metropolitan areas) and not even close to having a state income tax.

You will have it within ten-years (I'll guesstimate probably within six-years) if your population keeps growing like it has been.

. . . . unless the government has some other outrageously lucrative source of income.

But even then, you will have it--if for no other reason than to redistribute wealth.

[FastCoyote]

Don't despair quite yet, the stuff that happened recently in Nevada has energized our base, and the damage while real may be curable. Alas, California's problems are too deep.

I have my real estate license here in Las Vegas, any Californians need a house?

[Texas_Dawg]

You will have it within ten-years (I'll guesstimate probably within six-years) if your population keeps growing like it has been.

Yeah, you just let me know, OK? Your little theory is nice... it works in some places and not in others, so is basically just a silly theory that doesn't have much to do with anything. Texas has grown and grown and become more and more urban and is only getting more conservative. No one in Texas has ever even seriously mentioned having a state income tax that I know of. And Democrats are a dying breed in Texas so the trends seem to be against your theory there.

[MissAmericanPie]

Liberals are like a cancer, they spread their disease every where they land. It's time to ship them out along with illegal invaders.

[freekitty]

Beware of Bustamente. He is associated with La Raza and I repeat, they will stop at nothing to get what they want.