The Incendiary War between Donald Trump and California

There is nothing subtle about the antagonism between the Trump administration and California. Just about every piece of Donald Trump’s core policies represents a direct and immediate threat to the lives and incomes of average Californians.

As Trump attempts to lift pollution and automotive mileage requirements, he stomps all over California’s efforts, particularly in the Los Angeles basin, to reduce what was the worst air pollution in the entire country. “Smog” is a combination of the words “smoke” and “fog” and has been synonymous with Los Angeles for many decades. Californians are being officially chastised for trying to achieve less toxic, breathable air! Of course, our governor is pushing to adhere to Paris accord air quality standards! For us, it remains a matter of life and death.

That we are a “sanctuary state” with deep connective tissue with points south of our shared border with Mexico riles right wingers, particularly The Donald, like no other issue. But the very definition of who we are as Californians, our food, the names of cities and towns, and a massive part of our work force, is wrapped up in Latino realities. Most other states are not configured with this level of Latino heritage. To implement the cruel and unusual “zero tolerance” immigration policy – something no other president has ever contemplated – is an attempt to negate that definition of who we are.

We do not want to break up families, and our tech companies desperately need STEM experts to fuel our accelerated, job-creating, history of invention… even if they come from other nations (well beyond Latin America). Besides, our heritage is intimately linked to Mexico; we were once a single territory under Spanish rule.

Culturally, California state remains heavily Hispanic. The largest ethnic group in the state, beating out the white segment as of 2014, is Latino. The economy is heavily dependent on this Latino market; 35% of the economy state’s largest city (Los Angeles) is derived from this demographic constituency.

Yes, we have Latino gangs, but we have ghetto gangs who are Chinese, African-American, Vietnamese, and lots of white bangers on our list. Statistically, our Hispanic residents have much lower average criminal rates than those of the state as a whole. That guns, routinely purchased at US gun shows and smuggled south, fuel cartel violence seems to have slid out of the right-wing consciousness of who the bad guys really are.

While there are pockets of Trumpers in rural areas and a few very rich enclaves where business values trump individual rights, for California as a whole, there is very little incentive for us to “give Trump a chance.” Without the slightest doubt, his priorities absolutely prevent his functioning as a president to all the people, a reality which applies to the vast majority of Californians. Even in little ways, his geriatric Attorney Jeff Sessions’ continuing opposition to legalized marijuana (which it is here in California) for example, Trump is on the wrong side of what we on this left coast really want.

Given the large number of real cities here – Los Angeles, San Francisco, Oakland, San Jose, Sacramento, San Diego, etc., etc. – the state must deal with problems… including infrastructure, police and fire requirements, building codes and social services… that simply do not exist in sparsely-populated red-voting farm states. All large US cities face these extra cost issues. That we have a higher-than-average income taxes, that we have the higher real estate values (hence higher property taxes) inherent in big city living is just a 21^st century reality.

So when the GOP fashioned that massive idiotic tax cut for rich corporations, something that California’s Silicon Valley did appreciate, aside from having incurred a massive federal deficit from tax reform that was supposed to pay for itself, the cap on the deductibility of individuals’ state and local taxes in that federal tax giveaway-to-the-rich effectively raised federal income taxes for 60% of California’s individual taxpayers. Trump’s reform efforts uniquely slammed heavily urbanized states, like New York and California, that fiercely opposed his election. It gets worse.

Trump is notorious for treating people and states and territories with Democratic leanings or heavily minority (read: non-white traditional voters) as second-class citizens. Puerto Ricans are not remotely on a track for a full recovery from Hurricane Maria, even as federal resources poured into Texas after Harvey and now Florida and several other Trump-voting states after Michael. Trump won’t even acknowledge the thousands of hurricane-related fatalities in Puerto Rico, a fact that is not much in dispute with neutral observers.

Not supporting states and territories facing inevitable natural disasters, debacles almost all completely linked to unchecked global climate change that Trump won’t lift a finger to mitigate, seems to be an “all-too-easy” button for Donald Trump to punish states that will not kowtow to his autocratic desires. California hasn’t had a big earthquake of late where Trump could under-fund and under-support that relief effort, but it has suffered from the worst wildfires in its recorded history.

We’re huge state, in physical size and population. We have massive forests, most of which are begging for some “clean-up” to clear dead trees and accumulations of natural debris that are natural breeding grounds for fires in our overheated new weather patterns. And no, Donald, cutting down forests for lumber does not solve the problem; its just creates massive erosion and mudslide risks when heavy rains pour down, as the inevitably do. Money for such clean-up efforts is hard to come by, as most politicians are aware. You certainly aren’t helping.

But Trump’s mumbling about California’s “incompetence” and failure to follow his lifting of environmental restrictions (we actually care about our land, Donald!) as the cause of the wildfires is beyond infuriating. That the very criticisms of California launched by the President mirror his own federal policies on forests under federal and not state control make his political agenda that much clearer. The October 18^th Los Angeles Times explains:

“Escalating his criticism of California’s fire management strategy, President Trump threatened Wednesday [10/17] to withhold unspecified funding from the state… The comments at a Cabinet meeting were vague on details, but they nonetheless sent federal forest managers across the state scrambling to figure out what the implications may be for their programs.

“‘I say to the governor, or whoever is going to be the governor of California, you better get your act together,’ Trump said at the meeting. ‘We’re just not going to continue to pay the kind of money we’re paying because of fires that should never be to the extent.’

“It is unclear what funding the president is suggesting he would withhold — whether for forest management or firefighting on federal land, aid and reimbursements to state agencies after fires, or something else entirely… Trump’s remarks came two months after he inaccurately suggested in a tweet that California’s environmental laws were preventing firefighters from accessing water they needed to douse wildfires — a proposition rebutted by firefighters and forest managers alike.

“This time, he blamed ‘incompetence’ for causing the federal government to pay out ‘hundreds of billions of dollars… It’s a disgraceful thing. Old trees are sitting there, rotting and dry. And instead of cleaning it up, they don’t touch them.’ Trump said of the state’s land management programs… ‘I think California ought to get their act together and clean up their forests and manage their forests,’ he said… It is not clear whether the president was outlining changes in federal policy or campaigning against a state he has cast as an adversary ahead of the midterm election.

“His comments left federal and state forest managers uncertain — both about the specific funding Trump is addressing and, were money to actually be withheld, what it would mean for forests and the people who live near or in them… Paul Wade, spokesman for the U.S. Forest Service in California, said Trump’s comments Wednesday [10/17] triggered ‘a brief discussion between us and Washington.’

“He declined to elaborate, except to say: ‘This is of national importance, and it affects the entire Forest Service. Our team is looking into this and trying to figure out how to respond.’

“‘It’s hard to say exactly what he’s talking about,’ said Scott McLean, California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection deputy chief, referring to the president’s comments… McLean said if the federal government pulled funding, state and private lands would largely be immune. The real problem, he said, would be in the national forests, which are not under Cal Fire’s jurisdiction.

“Last year, 1.4 million acres in California burned, about 745,000 of them on federal land. So far this year, 1.366 million acres have burned, with about 742,000 on federal land, ‘and we’re not finished yet,’ McLean said.

“The state funds several programs that allow Cal Fire to remove dead trees and brush, as well as perform controlled burns, McLean said. And it allocated $443 million for emergency fire funds, which have already been used. The agency has asked the state for $243 million more.

“Federal wildfire funding generally comes after a major fire, McLean said, and is used for aid and rebuilding, not fire suppression. These funds, which are accessed as federal grants via the Federal Emergency Management Agency, pay for 75% of the recovery costs incurred during a major fire.

“The funds do not come from the U.S. Forest Service, which has its own firefighting force and in some cases suppresses fires on federal land. The agency has seen its budget slashed by more than $1.5 billion over the last two years, according to federal documents.”

There is almost nothing in “cooperating with Donald Trump” for most Californians, but there is a whole lot that a solid resistance to his policies can accomplish. As hard as the Donald might push California, Californians will push back harder. Remember, if California were a separate country, it would be the fifth largest economy on earth! California Strong!

I’m Peter Dekom, and if you have friends in states where resentment of California is high, folks who love consuming our produce without knowing where they came from, you might send them a link to this blog to understand why resistance to Trump is a necessity here not merely a political choice.