It's been another raucous week on the West Coast, Messed Coast™ where those best laid plans by our betters are turning out as predicted by people who actually know better. I've been keeping track of the shenanigans of the most disastrously woke part of the country under a mass of bandages on my face after what I was assured was minor surgery. I should have waited until October where these Frankenstein-like sutures would have been a hit with the trick or treaters. Obviously, air, exercise, and good nutrition is called for, so a dark room, black coffee and Cheez-its it is. Let the healing, and your trip on the West Coast, Messed Coast™, begin.
Milking the milkers
Several stories about this small Newberg dairy farmer have made it over the transom this week and since I've been writing a lot of about private property rights recently—looking at you squatters—and know Oregon to be only slightly less tyrannical than the USSR, I was immediately hooked.
Much the same way that Google and the Merriam Webster Dictionary re-define words in real time to accommodate one political party, Oregon apparatchiks, who read Orwell, not as cautionary tales but to get ideas, have been busy redefining existing law to accomplish their desired political ends. A small dairy farmer is caught up in the state's endless zeal for regulation and re-definition, but there's good news afoot. More on that in a minute.
A Newberg farmer in Oregon's vaunted Pinot Noir wine country is suing the state bullies for forcing her and other small farmers to treat her three milk cows as if they were a major dairy operation and all the regulation that implies.
Related: You Didn't Think This Squatter Situation Just Appeared Out of Nowhere, Did You?
Attorneys at the Institute for Justice said Big Dairy and state regulators redefined the current law to get rid of small operators like Sarah King's Godspeed Hollow Farms. "Oregon plans to tag any farm that uses a prepared surface for milking as a 'confined animal feeding operation' (CAFO)," they wrote. "The label would apply even to farms such as Sarah’s, where cows are only 'confined' for 15 minutes per day for milking and are otherwise free to roam," they said.
King, who moves her three happy cows to different pastures on her eleven acres to fertilize and regenerate the land, is one of the unfortunate small business owners who thought doing the right thing and being a good environmental steward would please the state's overlords. She was wrong. The "improvements" they required would cost her more than $100,000.
After the lawsuit was filed and the negative PR started, the state temporarily walked back the redefined regulations as she writes in her instagram post above. "This week the Oregon Department of Agriculture announced they will not be moving forward with their small dairy outreach program after all. At least for now," she wrote.
"Small dairy outreach program"? My God, they have been reading Orwell.
The unfortunately-named Oregon governor is in ethical trouble
I've been calling Tina Kotek, The Unforturnately-Named Tina Kotek, since the start of her career in Oregon progressive oppressive politics. Now she's governor and Tina and her partner/wife, the First Lady of Oregon, are in a bit of an ethical pickle. It happens a lot in a one-party state, but you don't often hear about it.
Voters in Oregon elected Tina Kotek Governor.
— Lars Ultra MAGA Larson (@LarsLarsonShow) March 25, 2024
They did NOT elect Kotek’s wife.https://t.co/1g8FQ8wqvG
Yet Aimee Kotek now has a formal role inside the Governor’s office.
She also has taxpayer paid staff who answer to her.
Nigel Jaquiss at Willamette week broke the story that…
It seems that the First Lady, Aimee Kotek-Wilson, has been given office space, staff, decision authority, and a monthly stipend to do—well, tell us what you think.
Willamette Week reports, "And, as of Monday, Shepard says, Kotek Wilson will have her own staff."
And what will this noble work be? Establishing an "Office of the First Spouse...and support the current first spouse in her official capacity in support of the administration.” That's not a grift or anything.
The unfortunately-named governor has raised so many hackles with this self-serving move that already three of her staffers have quit or gone on leave.
This kind of thing has been tried and failed before in Oregon. John Kitzhaber put his girlfriend on the staff and it was such an obvious grift that he was forced to resign.
Bye, Gavin?
The latest recall Gavin Newsom petitions have been approved for circulation.
Rescue California has gained enough support to begin circulating recall petitions because they not only want to rescue California but America, too, in case Newsom is tapped for a late add to replace disastrous president Joe Briben.
The group must gather a minimum of "1,311,963 (12% of the 10,933,018 votes cast in the last election for Governor)" by September to be included on a future ballot.
Among the complaints against Newsom is making the state a sanctuary and destination for drug tourists, homeless vagabonds, and illegal aliens.
Related: West Coast, Messed Coast™ — Woke Seattle Suspends Law of Supply and Demand, Ruins an Industry
The good news for California Democrats is that if Joe Biden keeps letting in millions of illegal aliens they won't lose those five congressional seats they were projected to lose in the 2030 census. The left isn't still itching to get rid of the Electoral College anymore. They're just overwhelming the system and rigging it, Cloward and Piven style. Between Joe Biden's outreach efforts to get felons signed up to vote and giving college students money for voter registration, they should have secured the vote for several election cycles.
Berkeley, land of free their speech
The Berkeley City Council was discussing a motion to establish a Holocaust Remembrance Day when it was disrupted by pro-Hamas chanters who shut down speech and took over the meeting.
This little old lady, a young survivor of the holocaust, was shouted down and cut off.
WATCH: Susanne DeWitt, an 89 year-old Holocaust survivor who was arrested and sent to Dachau Concentration Camp at age 4, was repeatedly heckled by demonstrators as she spoke in favor of the City of Berkeley's Holocaust Remembrance Day proclamation. pic.twitter.com/B3mx5mjjSo
— JCRC Bay Area (@SFJCRC) March 28, 2024
Color the West Coast, Messed Coast™ report shocked that California didn't end up in the top ten least religiously tolerant states of the union, but take heart nihilists, Oregon and Washington made the top ten. Both states rounded out the top five worst states for religious tolerance. Maine, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island finished were the top three. These five states are home to the most religious discrimination cases in the country.
Today years old
Before he leaves office Washington State Governor Jay Inslee signed more anti freedom bills, including one that jacks up energy prices—again—and anti-gun legislation that essentially puts small FFL gun dealers out of business due to onerous regulations.
His wingman all these years has been the equally radical Attorney General Bob Ferguson, who is running for governor. As my radio colleague Jason Rantz points out, Ferguson is basing his gubernatorial bid on getting more cops on the beat for public safety.
It was Ferguson who cheered COVID mandates and restrictions forcing law enforcement officers out of work. He encouraged defunding police and soft-on-criminals approach. He lambasted cops at every chance he got and presided over the disastrous and unethical treatment received by four Tacoma police officers who were forced to subdue a dangerous man, only to have him croak on them because he was so strung out on drugs. His office also personally went after the sheriff.
Ferguson must think voters are today years old and don't know who he is.
Until next time, I'll be filling in for KTTH's Bryan Suits morning program next week. Please tune in on your favorite radio app.
Stay frosty, and don't forget what these politicians have tried to do to your freedom.
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