169 Comments

Keely-keep fighting the good fight with facts. It is heartbreaking to see, hear & read of the destruction-much of which has come due to corruption-of the beautiful state of California. I fear that much of our country is quietly following the same path. Your voice has the ability to influence and create change!

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Thank you Jen. It truly is heartbreaking what has happened to this beautiful state and it can be frustrating to document. Your encouragement means a lot to me.

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MANY THANKS TO KEELY COVELLO, AND GOD BLESS YOU FOR YOUR GREAT COURAGE TO TAKE THIS ON. NEWSOME IS PART OF THE MAFIA PELOSI FAMILY. HE HAS LEARNED HOW TO RUIN YOU, TUNE YOU OUT, AND RUN OVER YOU. PRAYERS WILL BE SAID FOR YOU IN YOUR AMAZING INTELLIGENT EFFORTS TO END THIS TRAVESTY. STAY SAFE, YOU ARE DEALING WITH KILLERS.

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Thank you for writing and sharing this. Wow, many details to digest. Corruption is everywhere!

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Truly an unbelievable amount of corruption.

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IN 11 DAYS, PRESIDENT TRUMP WILL HELP YOU TO PERMANENTLY REMOVE THE DEMOCRAT AMERICA HATERS FROM YOUR LOCAL GOVERNMENT, ALL THROUGH CALIFORNIA. CONTACT HIM, HIS OFFICE, AND LET HIM KNOW YOU NEED AND WANT HIS HANDS ON HELP. HE IS THERE FOR YOU! HE IS CAPABLE OF HELPING YOU TO AVOID THIS HAPPENING OVER AND OVER. YOU MUST RID YOUR LIVES OF THE CORRUPT DEMOCRAT MARXIST GREEDY SCUM THAT NOW SIT IN POWER AND TUNE YOU OUT.

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If anyone is responsible for removing corrupt politicians and managers, it is the public - the voters of California if not the voters of LA.

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Sadly, it is also the public who continues to put those corrupt politicians and their lap-dog managers in office. Many people blame greed for the corruption of America, but they do not realize it is their own greed for subsidies and handouts in place of responsible management. We have similar problems in Omaha and Nebraska, though thankfully not to the extent of CA.

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CA has legal ballot harvesting (unheard of and appalling just a few decades ago, as it's know as an easy way to commit voter fraud), no I.D. needed to vote, all-mail in balloting and no proof of citizenship to register to vote. Those things have to end, before Dems are no longer "voted" into office.

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WTF?

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I lost my home in 2020 to the CZU lightning fires in the Santa Cruz mountains. Lost everything, including pets. In the aftermath of dealing with insurance and trying to rebuild, I have uncovered all that you mention here. I can't for the life of me understand why Californians would choose this government, because choose they did. They will continue to choose it even as they can no longer afford water or fire insurance. Why?

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I am so sorry for your losses Madeline. That is truly devastating. I don't understand it either unless it's just a lack of knowledge and empathy.

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CA has legal ballot harvesting (unheard of and appalling just a few decades ago, as it's know as an easy way to commit voter fraud), no I.D. needed to vote, all-mail in balloting and no proof of citizenship to register to vote. Those things have to end, before Dems are no longer "voted" into office.

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Antipathy and ignorance.

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CA has legal ballot harvesting (unheard of and appalling just a few decades ago, as it's know as an easy way to commit voter fraud), no I.D. needed to vote, all-mail in balloting and no proof of citizenship to register to vote. Those things have to end, before Dems are no longer "voted" into office.

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We are raising a fifth generation Californian daughter. She is best friends with our oaks, our rivers, our rough coast line. My hope, my prayer, is that by the time she is grown she won’t be trying to escape California or wondering if she should, as we are. We are still here because our love of this land and family but that’s about it. Our state has been devastated by terrible, terrible policy. Our town also went through the 2017 fires- there’s no way to understand the impact and horror of these fires until they come to your home. It’s insane.

So hope that in the next few years our state can turn it around- it is so magical here. We have such incredible, rich land. I weep for California’s nature.

Thank you for writing this piece ❤️

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I am not from California, but every time I'm there I romanticize the idea of relocating. There is a beauty and a stillness that is so desirable, and some of the most brilliant and kind people on this Earth.

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Great and tragic article. CA government really doesn’t seem capable of much. Vanity projects and nothing else.

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Vanity projects and enriching themselves are I believe their specialties

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Fantastic piece. Many people are waking up to the extraordinary damage done to human flourishing by misguided progressive zealotry. Ironically there are still very few who recognize that the entire "man-made catastrophic climate change" narrative is the granddaddy of all these pernicious myths. Cracks are forming in the climate change edifice, but it will take decades before it can finally be fully dismantled and the century of resulting damage to our species assessed. "Emissions" of carbon dioxide is a pseudo-religious scientific fraud on a scale never before seen in history. It has been perpetrated by precisely the same sort of people who created the policies that are causing California to immolate.

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Thanks for writing this very coherent summary of the issues. I lived in California for the first 30 years of my life, much spent in the Mojave Desert, the next 30 years in Oregon, and now live in Texas. I truly understand the issues you present. It pains me to see what CA has gone through these past many years. When emotion, not logic, and the thirst for power drive the decisions the bill eventually must be paid, and it's happening now. I received the link to your article via a newsletter from England. Your message is definitely spreading!

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Wow, I too, spent the first 27 years of my live in CA (born in Orange County), moved to Oregon and Washington for 40+ years, and now in Texas. Literally just moved to TX this year. It's heartbreaking. I do still have family living in OC.

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My heart just breaks for the Californian people.

That picture of the cattle rancher among his dead herd did me in. I was a rancher for 16 years, I can't even imagine. 😭

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Excellent article. I knew many of the things in here, but didn’t have all the facts/data you included. Thank you so much!!

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THIS IS A HEARTWRENCHING EVENT WHICH WAS PREDICTABLE AND ALLOWED BY THE DEMOCRAT MORONS IN SO MANY OFFICES IN CALIFORNIA GOVERNMENT, FROM THE TOP TO THE BOTTOM. DRAG NEWSOME OUT BY HIS HAIR, KEEP HIM IN PRISON UNTIL EVERY THING HE HAS DONE IS THOROUGHLY INVESTIGATED. SUCCESSFUL LIVING IS NOW UP TO THE CITIZENS. IF YOU THINK YOU ARE WEAK, THEN JUST STAY HOME AND WAIT FOR THE FIRE TO REACH YOU... NO WATER, MEANS NO HOPE. IT IS TIME. STAND UP, SPEAK UP, GET UP, DO SOMETHING ABOUT YOUR LIVES, IT IS NOW OR NEVER. GET ANGRY, GET LOUD, THE MORONS ARE WELL TRAINED TO NOT HEAR YOU.... THIS FIRE IS ALL THE EVIDENCE YOU NEED. good luck , stay in FAITH IN GOD'S LOVE AND ASSISTANCE, THIS IS A BATTLE THAT YOU MUST FIGHT. GOD BLESS ALL OF YOU, I AM PRAYING FOR YOUR SAFETY, GRANDMA

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Great review of the situation. Sad and frustrating. All this damage from hubris and ignorance.

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California was also dithering over paying REPARATIONS, which ought to be added to this vital list.

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One wonders: Does California now owe reparations to the people the state's mismanagement messed up? I say yes.

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THANK YOU for the important work you do and for bringing this to us. Broke my heart after the anger. The suffering is unimaginable and the arrogance of us city folk now being humbled in LA was clearly overdue. I could not help think if those hollywood types whose house burned and who constantly posture in their virtue signaling and funding of empty politicians and their vapid causes will now wake up and actually demand change. They have ridiculous power and maybe this will wake them up. I won't hold my breath but I applaud work and courage like yours, which can hopefully bring about lasting change...

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Wow! Amazing insight and thoroughly circumspect! Great job and do pathetic as one realized it is indeed incompetence and vice or greed that ultimately caused all this great job documenting it and calling it all out!

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Thank you for taking the time to write and share this Keely, I will be re-sharing with as many people as I can and following your Substack. I live in the UK, where the temperature is barely above freezing at the moment.

Having local knowledge and historical context about this is enlightening, especially as our own disastrous government, mainstream media and net-zero ideologues are blaming it all on global warming.

I remember when climate change was called Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter!

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Thank you friend! Love the UK though I agree our governments appear to share similar delusions. Hope we both have better days ahead.

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You're confusing climate and weather. You can still have cold days, but you'd expect less and less of them as the climate consistently warms. Climate describes weather over a longer time horizon of 5 years, 10 yrs, 50 yrs, 100, etc. I've noticed spring seems to start about 2 weeks earlier than it used to, while summer seems to last 2 weeks later than it used to. Locally near me, we used to have a lobster industry, but there was a die-off in the summer of 1999, caused largely by warming sea temperatures. The lobsters have never come back, because they're a cold water species, and the Sound gets up to 68 degrees twice as often as it did in the 80s and 90s.

https://whyy.org/segments/the-mysterious-case-of-long-island-sounds-disappearing-lobsters/

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But the opposite is happening in some places.....

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John, you are a Huffle Puff, which is the last sound anyone will hear from you now that you have inserted your head directly up your ass. Stay silent.

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There's nowhere on Earth where it's consistently colder today, than it was 40-50 yrs ago. If you burn oil, natural gas, or coal, you get heat, but the other byproducts are water vapor and carbon dioxide. The carbon dioxide acts like a blanket, and traps extra heat from the Sun in the Earth's atmosphere, instead of radiating out into space.

The lobsters have largely moved to the Gulf of Maine, which always had a lower sea temperature than the Sound, because it was at a higher latitude, but the Gulf of Maine has also warmed too.

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Fantastic article, Keely. Thank you for your honest coverage of the tinder box we live (lived) in and have tried so hard to manage despite our lack of leadership.

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