Funny....Laurie and I just bought our dream house in Prescott, AZ and will be moving out of California soon. We are tired of high, high taxes, unbridled Progressive Liberalism, virtually complete disenfranchisement, sanctuary cities, recently raised gasoline taxes that care about bicycles more than road repair which is the highest construction cost/mile. I will always love California but prefer to remember Reagan's California rather than the lunatics who have seized control enabled by a low education, misguided voting populace who want to embrace and be overrun by unskilled illegal aliens whose only skill will be to receive welfare and education benefits that taxpayers are shut off from.
Plagiarism? . . . close. . . sounds like the precise words my son uttered when he left his 7 figure home in California to move half way across the country.
He now lives where his kids can ride their bikes in the street . . . where the schools are in the top 10 nationwide . . .where personal responsibility is admired and expected . . . he lives with grown ups.
He also took his company . . . which is about $1B worth of tax revenue . . but Santa Monica gets too keep the 200,000 SF of empty office space.
A friend of mine was a Regional Rep for BMW of N. America in LA. That's a good paying position yet he couldn't afford his own home. An opening came up in Alpharetta Georgia and he was able to get it. Now he has a nice home with great schools and he can afford a life!
Welcome. Great area. Clean high desert air. Real old fashioned down town with shops, good restaurants, four micro breweries, a meadery and a distillery. Some awesome riding roads. Four mild weather seasons (we did have 2 feet or so of snow about 10 days ago). Daily jet flights to LA and Denver with reasonable fares. Only complaint I have is the 10%+ sales tax. We are having some influx of California values but so for it's not too bad.
Careful where you choose to live in AZ. Parts of Phoenix metro can be as bad as the bad parts of LA and the traffic mostly sucks. If you choose to buy rural property make sure there is water. I've seen people buy what looks like a great property, drill three or four dry wells, then have to have water hauled in every few weeks. Also dirt roads and driveways can be a nightmare when you get lots of rain or snow, and that often happens.
We arrived in Prescott two hours before the snowstorm dumped 28" on us ten days ago. Everything shut down so several locals became refugees at our hotel's bar with me. We managed to drink the entire IPA supply and Laurie and I made new friends. We had a blast and found a great house with a view. Inspection is this Tuesday.
Folks from Phoenix are called Phoenicians around Prescott. At 5300' elevation, Prescott doesn't have the heat extremes.
Reindog, me 'n D reconned Prescott in 2017 during our three-month round-the-country road trip. Lovely place, but we couldn't afford the price of admission. Grrrr.
The Dells in Prescott
We base-camped for a week in Williams during our recon, and liked it immensely (I'm a sucker for trains...):
We also explored Flagstaff during our stay. The ride up to the Arizona Snow Bowl (elev 9500 ft.), through breathtaking stands of Aspen trees, is not to be missed...
...nor is the ski lift ride to the top of 12,633-foot Humphreys Peak:
So, with all that said: Do you and Mrs. Reindog need, say, someone to keep your motorcycles exercised there in Prescott?
Everyone feels that one side is right, and one side is wrong. That "their" side is right. But the end result will be division, and likely bloodshed, before a solution is reached.
Not blaming anyone, not blaming our President, but we do need to hold our elected representatives accountable for our local rules and laws. This should not have been allowed to go this far.
But I think we're starting to see the shift occur. "People" are starting to realize the lunacy, and see how batshit-crazy the Left is actually getting...and starting to stand ground.
I'm just nervous about what happens when both sides dig in. That's when the ugliness will start.
Wasn't that supposed to be part of the American experiment? Limited Federal government. States can pass laws that they feel will work for them. The people are free to move to/from states at will. Now too much is played out at the Federal level and there is no fleeing the places the crazies decide to congregate.
Correct, but the power of the Federal government was intended to be predicated upon a limited set of enumerated powers with ALL other powers reserved for the states (See 9th and 10th Amendments).
This power balance remained until the Civil War and the Great Depression. Following the New Deal, the states ceded power to the Federal government in greater and greater measures.
Today there is very little distinction between state and Federal governments with the states largely acting as agents of the Federal government.
With nothing to stem the tide of Federal involvement at the local level, we are now seeing the Federal government, unimpeded by the limits of state granted enumerated powers, attacking the very foundational protections of the Constitution itself.
There are only TWO governing principles under which the Federal government now operates:
The Interstate Commerce Clause - the Federal government has the power to not only regulate but to force commerce across all state lines
General Welfare Clause - the Federal government has the power to enact any law which it solely deems in the best interest of creating "general welfare" for the nation.
As such, the Federal government now can regulate all activities within the states and can trample any right for the benefit of the nation's general welfare.
We are in a very dangerous, post-Constitutional place.
Yes. And, a Republic as opposed to a Democracy (simple rule by numbers) or monarchy (rule by one, based on birthright).
Admittedly, we've lost sight. In many ways. How this will turn out...I have no idea. And I don't know what scares me more - the potential process? Or the potential result?
History's catalog of declining superpowers isn't filled with comeback tales.
Once the fire goes out, the embers grow very cold indeed.
That's what angers me about those who want to go down this path. It's a one way trip, with many warnings to not travel this road. They insist anyway, and we are stuck, going along for the ride.
The question is how far you are willing to apply that force.
The LEO or military member who shows up at your door is the pointy end of the stick and easy to identify.
What about your neighbor who votes for the government who sends people to your door, who creates and enacts the laws?
What about that Facebook acquaintance you tangle with on political matters who takes that "see something, say something" idea to heart and turns you in?
Are you really willing to become a criminal by disobeying laws? You willing to jeopardize your livelihood or ability to purchase goods and services?
Are you willing to put a bullet in the face of that Leftist friend from High School? Willing to kill the family next door? Willing to shoot the guy from church who is just "doing his job" when he shows up at your door to confiscate your weapons?
What will we be if we are willing? What will we be after?
If only 5% or 10% of the population engages in forceful rebellion, how will you be treated by those who sat it out?
A long article, and the author is openly biased against the Game Show Host, but well worth the time, if only to understand the players.
I'm a bit of a fan of John Bolton. "Kissinger without the sentiment" may be the best back handed compliment ever. If you didn't live through the Kissinger Era, it's because you're too young. The rest of us lived because Kissinger changed the world.
not always for the better, but there also wasn't thermonuclear fire consuming our cities. Pulling China out of it's shell, defying the Soviets to their faces, and endlessly negotiating a way out of LBJ's perpetual Vietnam insanity, Kissinger was a Power. I really didn't like him, and to this day am not fond of his shtick, but to deny his accomplishments is to be dishonest.
Bolton save us from Trump? He might save some Trump haters from themselves, but only by winning the arguments that prevent bad ideas from becoming policy. Those same haters don't want to have Bolton stomp them, and he's very good at it.
The place Bolton & I agree is a basic one. If you must fight, fight to win, or don't fight. Conquer the enemy, then roll on. Leave the message, "you've been freed, don't mess it up, and don't make us come back except to give out candy bars to your happy children." He was against the " nation building" neocon idiocy in Iraq, as was I.
There's very little self deception in the man at how the world works. He's effective. He might be wrong, but he got there by logic & example, not believing in fairy tales.
Minor stuff found, no frayed nerves between buyer and seller, so the countdown continues. Prescott is a really nice city of 42,700. FB, sent you Google invite for our Prescott Snowbowl pix complete with stately Reindog Manor. The place is huge and has a separate garage for motorcycles. Two miles from Whiskey Row for a perfect Uber slog back home from the bars.
PS: can't figure how to post pix on Badweb like the great ones of the Dells. Please advise.
PPS: Sorry for the threadjack but President Abraham Trump has an open invite.