My days in CA are numbered, too.

 

So where you gonna go Miami, Florida? It's a nice state with good laws, but the humidity would kill me. I like the fact that no one can take your house from you for any reason at all. Look at O.J. no one could touch his property. I think I have heard their taxes aren't too bad either. A lot of wealthy people have homes in Florida.

 

I was born and raised in Miami, left when I was 20. My family is still in Florida and I have strong ties there as I spend about a month of every year there. I would hate to leave CA, the weather and the mountains, but this just isn't the paradise it was when I came here in '79. The cost to live here has gotten out of control and I foresee a lot of bad in the years ahead with the way the state is being run and the poor economy. The other consideration is my parents. My dad has Alzheimer's and they're both getting up there. It would be nice to be closer to them for their last years.

 

I completely understand and agree with you man. Gotta be close to the family in times like that. In 79 things were already getting a little crazy here, and went down hill from there. The early 70's when I was a kid was a v1rtual paradise here (I dunno why it picked that word as being bad). Everybody kinda knew everybody, no traffic, no congestion, taxes were ok I guess. Property taxes were a little crazy. I remember when prop 13 was passed. You couldn't avoid all the commercials on tv predicting doom & gloom. Kinda the same games they play now. There were military bases here, there were car makers here, there was actually a booming economy (before and after the gas crisis of the 70's). Kids actually used to get summer jobs at McDonalds and had paper routes, and stuff like that. I used to get a summer job every summer, now kids cant even do that cause all the summer jobs are taken by our uninvited guests. The neighbors to the South just don't know when the party is over and it's time to go home. As a kid I actually felt safe walking alone to school. Now I can't even let my daughter go anywhere by herself. If I don't have at least one eyeball on her I get crazy. It's changed and way too much for the worse. You could actually buy a gun, and defend your home.

I ramble, I know. It wasn't all peaches & cream, but it wasn't as bad as it is now. I don't know what your political orientations are (but you probably already know mine) but if you want a straight scoop on what the state is doing with our money listen to KFI am640. John & Ken (3:00pm to 7:00pm) they have a tax revolt hour every day at 5:00pm and they give an update as to what is going on with our crazy legislature and the games they play. They don't take sides, they just don't like our money being wasted. BTW I'm thinking of Nevada, it's nice and hot and dry. I don't mind a dry heat, but no humidity please. But I'm still open to any better place.

 

At the risk of opening up a political can of worms, it's those "uninvited guests" you referred to that get to me. Understand, I am a Cuban. My parents came here in 1958 just 6 weeks before me and my brother were born (yep, I'm a twin). They were both US citizens (my dad was naturalized many years earlier) having moved to Cuba to help run the family business. Castro took everything away and my dad saw the writing on the wall. He did not want to have 2 sons born on Cuban soil and risk never being able to get them out.

I respect immigration as far as those who get in line and follow the process. I grew up in a predominantly Cuban neighborhood, I speak Spanish and I relate to coming here for a better life. I do not relate to jumping a fence or swimming a river to come here illegally simply to take advantage. I do not respect giving benefits and status to people who violate the law to come here. I do not respect watching services designed for legal residents and citizens being diminished because of the abuses of illegals. In my 30 years here I have seen the quality of life dwindle and much of the problems this state is having relate to money and the enormous burden illegals are putting on the systems. Whether its the health care system that is clogged with illegals who get services and never pay or the school system that is so crowded with the kids of illegals that no one can get a quality education anymore. And I have zero respect for the politicians that pander to these illegals preferring to see them as a potential voting bloc rather than the criminals they are.

This country needs to wake up and see that we can not take care of the world's problems, and certainly not at the expense of our own quality of life. Liberals are ruining this country and the current administration is throwing more fuel on the fire that is consuming us.

I could go on, but I think you now know what my political orientation is. Like Winston Churchill said, "If you aren't a liberal when you're young, you have no heart. If you aren't a conservative when you get older, you have no brain."

 

Hehe, preaching to the choir dude, I am completely with you on that. I guess we are on the same page politically. I didn't want to say anything too extreme since I didn't know how you felt about it and didn't want to start a war, but 30 years ago no one spoke Spanish here in SoCal. Now you can't go anywhere without hearing it, it's ridiculous. They have come to this country like you said to abuse it and to change it to suit their needs. The biggest problem is that they really don't care about this country and don't give a crap how it gets ruined because they are always planning to go back home. If home is so freaking great why don't they stay there? Cubans are different. Pretty much all the Cubans I have known were happy to be here, assimilated and became proud Americans, sometimes more American than others who were born here. Cubans learn English and want their kids to do better, the Mexxicans don't (the profanity filter makes the "M" word into a bad word, I guess it knows more than we do). They don't care if their kids learn English, they don't care if the kids get ahead, it's a totally different culture. That's why all the schools are now filled with English as a second language classes that never get ahead because they won't push them to learn at home. I know in Little Havana in Florida it's a little different than here, but then again so is every little pocket of culture, Little Korea is different too.

Cubans came here to escape a terrible life and a horrible dictator, Mexxicans come here for benefits, totally different. Cubans don't spend their lives on Welfare, many Mexxicans do. It really burns me up when I hear some legal Cubans and legal Mexxicans feeling sorry for them. Like you said they are criminals and should be treated as such. That is one big reason why crime has gotten so bad as it has. My philosophy is simple, if you have no problem breaking one law, you will have no problem breaking others. You start off by crossing a border illegally, hey that was easy. Now let's move on to getting a job and using someone else's SS# illegally, gee that was easy too. Drive a car with no license or insurance, have an accident, get pulled over, who cares, cops don't want to be bothered. From all these easy breaking of the laws you graduate to theft, robbery, rape, whatever. The more you do the easier it gets. If it gets to hot, just move back across the border since they have nothing here to hold them here. I feel like a foreigner in my own land and when you try to say anything about it, then you're labeled a racist. Every body likes to play the race card instead of seeing the problem for what it is. I have friends from all over the world, and all races, but they are legal, and law abiding people.

 

To make things even more interesting I heard that the state union workers are getting ready to declare strike because in this down economy they have to take a few days off without pay. It's not like they are being asked to work for less pay, just work less hours and get less pay, but noooooo that's just not good enough for them. I'll bet there are people out there that would be happy to keep their jobs and work more hours for less pay just to keep working. They have great pensions (they retire with 80% of their pay), guaranteed jobs (impossible to get fired), pay nothing for medical (neither monthly nor copay nor medications, all FREE) and just having to take 3 days off without pay per month and they want to strike. We just had a 26 Billion dollar tax hike and they want us to pay more. So how many people want to move to California? I didn't think so!

 

i gotta agree, this country's gov. is getting outta control...and im not afraid to say it, its due to the ****tards in congress, and the illegal ******** taking all our jobs, people say im lucky living on a farm, i have guarenteed work, but crop prices can and do take a ****, and inputs rise...thats beside the point though, there are people out of work, people who are legal citizens, yet we have the border hopping ******** who have jobs...does something seem outta place here...

 

I agree we have all these illegals in our country sucking the life blood out of us citizen taxpayers.I was so pissed when my kids came home and told me how they learned how to count in spanish.I went off the handle!
Then on the flip side of the ******** coming up here to do farm work.Heck you couldn't get an unemployed american to go out in the field and do the work.They think they are to good to do that.That burns my butt too.Hey I am not afraid to go out in the field and work.Nothing wrong with an honest dollar!I guess I don't feel that I'm too good for myself.lol!

 

They have been using that bull crap excuse for years and it doesn't wash. So who used to bring in the crops before the illegals came up here? Whites and blacks did. Look at MoroonMonster he still works on a farm. They forget this used to be an agricultural society. There is no shame in working the land, they just use that to pacify everyone. We need the Mexxicans to come up here and bring in the crops and wash dishes and clean toilets. The problem is that it didn't stop there. They are sucking up our money, taking up space in our schools so our schools dont have money for other services like P.E., Drivers ed, or band. They now aren't happy with working the fields, now they want to be your bosses. The Mayor of Los Angeles (Antonio Villar) an anchor baby, the previous speaker of the assemble (Fabian Nunez) an anchor baby. Anchor babies in case you don't know are those that are plopped out by illegal mothers that way they all become legal. So they have gained so much control they now tell the rest of us what needs to be done to make it better for more illegals to come up here. What started off as a minor nuisance has become a back breaking financial burden on the country and this society. Similar mistakes have been made by other societies in history and it has only led to their down fall. They don't see it or believe it but we are definitely going in the wrong direction.

When Bush was in charge a majority of people thought this country was going in the wrong direction. Nobama gave all these people a pacification cookie and made them all feel better for a while. The latest numbers show a majority again thinks we are going in the wrong direction. What happened to all the hope and change. The promise of a new beginning? It was just smoke and mirrors.