How China’s Debt, Slowing Economy and One-Child Policy Will Increase California Emissions

April 9, 2019 By Todd Royal 4 Comments

Nothing will move the world and California emissions negatively or positively more than China. Though China’s economy is 12 percent smaller than previously believed according to the Brookings Institution their research backed up longstanding suspicion that Beijing hasn’t been keeping accurate, publicly reported economic statistics. The study also found “real growth has been overstated by 2 percentage points annually for years.” What likely occurs is China builds the cheapest and most abundant, scalable, efficient and flexible energy they have: COAL. China and the United States (US) “emit more than 40 percent of the world’s carbon.” With continued friction over the trade war this doesn’t bode well for California meeting ambitious emission, environmental and climate goals.

The biggest troubles ahead for China, world economies and energy are that China has mounting debt problems. Trillions of dollars in debt has run up for years to gain a debt-fueled prosperity of buildings, infrastructure and exports, which has caused environmental degradation. China’s historically slowing economy has Chinese President Xi clamping down, and these economic problems will further Chinese use of cheaper coal, nuclear and natural gas as their main sources of energy moving forward. This massive scale of borrowing and debt is a looming reason China will increase global emissions: they need cheap energy and electricity to service debt and grow their economy. California will catch rising Chinese emissions in the global jet stream no matter the measures we take for cleaner air and lower emissions.

Other additional woes for China that will directly or indirectly counter the China narrative of being the leader in solar and wind power along with electric vehicles (EV) are: “Wage growth has cooled, surveys show the Chinese manufacturing sector have begun shedding jobs, imports are down, hurting other major exporting economies,” but other issues are more troubling for energy and China’s future. China’s true energy nature is revealed in its “rapidly aging population and a falling birth rate.”

Since China enacted their one-child policy and terminated over 300 million Chinese pregnancies this has decimated their productivity, child replacement rate, and will be a leading reason why they will continue using the dirtiest, cheapest forms of energy. The US has also devastated many parts of their economy – particularly, African-Americans – over using abortion as population and birth control measures. This has deep implications for how energy is extracted, imported, exported, used and the overall wellness for a nation lacking children. Nations that heavily abort their children like the US, Russia and China are usually more combative with neighboring countries and either invade them (think US in Iraq or Russia in Crimea) or take over entire regions (China in the South China Sea) in a quest for resources and workers for their unproductive economies. These could be major reasons why global emissions have begun rising again. Dirtier air is a source of unproductive societies caused by global abortion rates remaining steady; over 42 million abortions took place in 2018.

Beijing has also been globally combative since the Obama administration attempted diplomacy and an open-hand of friendship to China, but was rejected. What you have now is President’ Trump’s US-led trade war and the Europeans confronting China over destructive trade, military, technical and illegal intelligence surveillance coupled with corporate theft that benefits Chinese state-run firms. European diplomats are openly excoriating China’s unsavory advances in the South China Sea and its economic gains that seek to do away with liberal, economic openness and cooperation at Europe’s expense. The Europeans said about the Belt and Road Infrastructure Project Initiative:

“Europe’s Belt and Road sceptics charge that it is opaque, strategically aggressive and can impose crippling debts on recipient states – all allegations that China denies.”

The Europeans though are their own worse enemy with “Eurosceptic remainers,” before, after and during the Brexit debacle. China will exploit this geopolitical weakness to their advantage and their energy usage will become a dirtier commodity under Beijing’s leadership. China is currently building hundreds of new coal-fired power plants throughout their provinces and cities.

Literally, China cannot afford to lose one bit of economic and social productivity and their aging population is what is causing their economy to begin grinding to a halt. The same problems of an aging population over rampant abortion-use are happening in the US, Russia, the entire European Union (EU) and Japan. This isn’t a Chinese phenomenon. What then occurs are other nations reliant on Chinese imports, their economies also slow, and renewable energy, transitioning to a carbon-free or low-carbon society and widespread adoption of electric vehicles all pause going into affect? The Chinese clean energy transition – even in the form of expansive use of natural gas – will fade in importance to debt and economy woes. China’s one-child policy that advanced their aging process decades ahead of time will take energy into a direction none of us can even quantify or imagine.

President Xi’s model for China, moreover doesn’t augur well for efficient Chinese energy usage since Xi made himself dictator-for-life leading to oppression within China, and environmental degradation will continue under his rule. Even US policymakers who hate President Trump are now tired of China’s overbearing style on the world stage. A possible takeover of Taiwan, a global trade war and Chinese pride on full display means more fossil fuels and higher emissions since militaries run on oil, natural gas, refined petroleum, aviation fuel and nuclear power – renewable energy in the form of wind turbines and solar panels – will always take a back seat when a country’s national security and foreign policy are on the line. Each of these geopolitical phenomenon means dirtier air and rising emissions for California – no matter the laws we pass – supposedly combating global warming/climate change (GWCC).

Add the takeover of the South China Sea, expanded influence in Asia, and it is not surprising China has increased their use of coal to fuel militarized activities. With China’s debt position wracking nerves globally it is not a far off to postulate the world will become dirtier through increased coal use over its “debt woes,” instead of using cleaner natural gas. Finding technological breakthroughs that are needed for renewable energy and energy battery storage systems to become scalable, reliable, affordable and flexible will not be at the forefront of Chinese forward-thinking. This system Xi ruminates over and contemplates has been tried before with disastrous results because it:

“Has a record of suboptimal performance that features despotic governance, long stagnation of economy, suffocation of science and technology, retardation of spiritual pursuits, irrational allocation of resources (oil, natural gas, coal, nuclear and renewable energy), great depreciation of human dignity and life, low and declining living standards for the masses, and mass death and destruction periodically and frequently.”

Is this the new normal for China or a return to Mao’s destructive big-red-time-machine? No one actually knows, but it likely results in overwhelming use of fossil fuels and higher emissions in Asia, California, and globally.

Countries will always choose their own self-interest rightly understood over energy policies and outcomes that don’t produce abundant, reliable, affordable, scalable and flexible energy results. California should pay attention to the societal, geopolitical rumblings coming from the second largest economy in the world.

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How the California Republican Party Can Win Elections Again

June 27, 2018 By Todd Royal 5 Comments

CA GOPThe California Republican Party (CRP) has been a disaster since Gov. Pete Wilson’s re-election campaign and Gov. Schwarzenegger accelerated its demise when in 2006 to save his failed governorship he passed Assembly Bill 32 – the California Global Warming Solutions Act, which has done nothing to lessen emissions in California. The fault lies with the leadership of the CRP and the big-money donors who pushed for the top two primary now called “the jungle primary.” Republicans are also losing in the state because stalwart conservatives (#NeverTrumpers, Evangelicals and older-white voters) long for the day of Ronald Reagan or some pure conservative candidate that doesn’t exist. Democrats though only care about winning and will do anything possible to achieve power.

As a former candidate for the 43rd California State Assembly district in 2014 where I made the top two against the Democratic incumbent there were valuable lessons that I took away from my election. Subsequently, my election into the top two allowed me CRP voting rights at the county and state level, and I was also elected to the CRP presidential nominating committee that assisted drafting the party platform. That platform is now being followed by Trump to incredible economic success. In other words, Republicans can win, but here’s what needs to happen.

FIGHT

The days of the congenial white male of George W. Bush, Mitt Romney, John McCain, and most of all, Ronald Reagan are over. Fight or don’t run. California isn’t working and Joel Kotkin, Michael Shellenberger, Ed Ring, and Heather MacDonald give detailed reason on issues ranging from unsustainable environmental laws to racism emanating from the Democratic party. Ed Ring also gives policy recommendations for any candidate struggling to find his or her voice on the campaign trail in California.

As an example here’s how John Cox can defeat Gavin Newsom on global warming by asking this questions backed by facts. Gavin, if global warming is really happening and your party has the answers by overtaxing energy and relying on green energy that doesn’t work then answer me this from Dr. Walter Williams:

“Today’s CO2 concentration levels worldwide average about 380 parts per million. This level is trivial compared to earlier geological periods. For example, 460 million years ago, during the Ordovician Period, CO2 concentrations were 4,400 ppm, and temperatures were about the same as they are today.”

And other periods of history like the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM) are warmer than today with average global temperatures as high as 73 F.

Then explain to me Gavin how exactly are humans causing global warming when the earth was significantly hotter when humans or dinosaurs hadn’t evolved on the global scene yet and more significantly the industrial revolution or fossil fuels weren’t yet in existence? Ask this simple question and watch him and the entire Democratic Party stumble at the polls.

This can also be done with abortion. Make it a geopolitical issue instead of a social one by asking: It’s been proven here that countries that allow abortion are more hegemonic in nature (the United States, Russia and China); therefore Mr. or Ms. Democrat do you believe in war more than you believe in peace by allowing abortion?

Democrats have been trapping Republicans for decades with false canard-like statements; reverse the narrative on them and fight back otherwise California will continue cratering into the abysmal dustbin of failed leftist states. These are just two examples of how this can be done but if you aren’t ready to know your facts, have the ability to build a narrative that improves people’s lives and answer your critics then don’t run in California.

THE ECONOMY, STUPID!

Highlight how Republican policies are always better economically than Democratic ones. From single-payer health care that would cost over $400 billion a year in California to the highest taxes in the nation the CRP has dropped the ball for decades on economic issues. Here are the facts candidates can use on the trail to help Republicans in California keep control of Congress and possibly win the governorship.

The Republican-killer – President Bill Clinton – used Republican polices to Democratic gains and left office with unusually high approval ratings understood Americans and I’d add Californians by advocating, “it’s the economy, stupid.” President Donald Trump seems to have figured that axiom out with May’s U.S. jobs growth forecast that blows past expectation according to the Wall Street Journal. Over 223,000 jobs were added in May and the unemployment rate went down to 3.8% and is the lowest level since 1969. Black unemployment is at record lows and the number of Americans employed set its ninth record under Trump.

Somehow the CPR hasn’t figured out what Trump, Clinton and other Americans have always known: in America people vote with their wallets, first and foremost. The CPR and California Republican candidates can win in California by also hammering home this fact from the Los Angeles Times, “There now are more job openings in the U.S. than unemployed workers to fill them.” Use Clinton tactics and call it the Republican economy and go into minority neighborhoods and ask if Gavin Newsom and the Democrats provided this type of economic progress under President Obama? The answer is no and you will pull percentages of votes away from Democrats you never thought possible.

WALK PRECINCTS

The biggest mistake candidates make is not walking precincts. What voters want is to know you care enough to speak to them and can explain complex issues in an understandable fashion that doesn’t have them spending hours reading The Economist or need a master’s in public policy to understand what you are saying. By walking precincts it allows you to connect and I know from experience that every precinct I walked or in particular this one volunteer named Marv walked, I won. I was a no-name candidate who only raised $26,000 but beat the former Democratic incumbent Chairman of the Assembly Appropriations Committee everywhere I walked the precinct.

President Obama said this in a recent interview for BBC’s Today program about meeting hostile, biased people and voters:

“When you meet people face to face, it turns out they’re complicated, there may be somebody who you think is diametrically opposed to you when it comes to their political views, but you root for the same sports team. You find areas of common ground. It’s hard to be obnoxious and cruel in person.”

And that’s exactly what I encountered on the campaign trail – people who told me they were openly hostile to Republicans listened to me – and ultimately they voted for me as well. Party insiders told me I would receive roughly 8-14% of the vote and I got over 35% by walking the district. Republicans can win the 43rd district again and can also win a majority of California; there is no reason to split the state into three different parts.

Democrats have been going into Red states and Christian churches – supposedly hostile places for decades – it’s time for Republicans to use these three tactics and start winning in California again. It will take multiple election cycles but California can once again be a Republican stronghold that includes every race, color and creed in the state. America needs for California to once again be an incubator of dreams and upward mobility if the CRP will stop longing for Reagan and candidates begin following the three simple steps that I know are a proven template to electoral success.

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Recent Prop. 47 Study and Article Fail to Give Full Analysis on Crime in California

April 13, 2018 By Todd Royal 6 Comments

Police tapeMore people are leaving California than entering; so the question is why? Could it be higher than national average home prices, unfriendly family policies or could it be the possible uptick in crime? Underlying social pressures highlight the difficulty of staying in California and the continuance of progressive, Democratic voters to not look at the reality of what’s plaguing our state. But the patterns of who’s moving in, and who’s moving out, underline some of the social and economic pressure that have made California, and other coastal areas, so prohibitively expensive; but also progressively unsafe.

If you believe a recent article by Sal Rodriguez in the OC Register who quotes a study by University of California Irvine (UCI) professor of criminology, law & society, Charis Kubrin that concludes, “Prop. 47, didn’t have any significant uptick on crime,” then why are so many Californians complaining about increased crime while others are fleeing the state?

Before raising troubling aspects about this study, what does one part of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s office, have to say about the Prop. 47 numbers? According to the Los Angeles County Sheriff Department’s Crescenta Valley Station (www.CrescentaValley.LASD.org) here are the facts about Prop. 47:

“Following the implementation of AB 109 & Prop. 47, communities across California have experienced increases in property related crimes. An 8.1% increases across the State and a 10% increase in LA County.”

So whom do you believe – Professor Kubrin and Sal Rodriguez – or the men and women who do actual law enforcement? What Professor Kubrin doesn’t point out is how Prop. 47 downgraded serious crimes such as “drug possession, repeated shoplifting, forging checks, gun theft and possession of date-rape drugs,” which were all felonies before Prop. 47’s passage. The Sheriff’s Department also states:

“A criminal can engage in recurring theft activity as long as the value of what is stolen during each theft is less than $950. Illegal drugs – including cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine – have been reclassified as a misdemeanor.”

Professor Kubrin and Mr. Rodriguez – neither one – asked, studied or considered why homelessness is on the rise in Los Angeles and Los Angeles County in general though voters and Democratic elected officials have attempted to address this growing issue. Drive through downtown Los Angeles, Santa Monica or San Francisco and witness the amount of strung-out homeless to belie the fact that higher dollar amounts for felonies means what once landed an addict into drug rehabilitation programs now puts them back onto the streets to the detriment of the individual, businesses, neighborhood safety and communities-at-large.

Furthermore, what the UCI study doesn’t take into affect is how Prop. 57 (the ‘Public Safety and Rehabilitation Act’) and Assembly Bill 109 (released 45,000 felons from California prisons) were passed simultaneously in 2016. To study one without factoring in the other is biased, negligent and misleading. Mr. Rodriguez and Professor Kubrin, who authored the study, should have known better, also this was nothing more than an agenda-driven piece to appeal to a lowest common denominator that will assist more Democrats being elected in 2018.

Take Prop. 57, according to the non-partisan Legislative Analyst’s Office, Prop. 57:

“Allows the State to release 30,000 criminals convicted of ‘non-violent,’ felonies and classifies these crimes as non-violent: rape by intoxication, rape of unconscious person, human trafficking involving sex act with minors, drive-by shooting, assault with a deadly weapon, hate crimes causing physical injury, and corporal injury to a child.”

Mr. Rodriguez didn’t report this and Professor Kubrin didn’t add Prop. 57 or AB 109 into her study. Shoddy research is what can be taken away from her study by not including these official reclassifying of crimes that were once felonies. Now add AB 109, which requires local jails –that don’t have the money, resources or ability – to house violent felons and what takes place is tens of thousands of supposedly low-level convicted felons back on the street; but this wasn’t added into her study or Mr. Rodriguez’s article as well. AB 109 has now taken criminals with serious felony violations and placed them in local jails instead of state prisons.

Disgust though lies at the feet of Professor Kubrin’s misleading and faulty research methods. First when you click on the actual study on the UCI website you are only given a Fact Sheet whose graphs are barely readable without being defined, definitions not put into context with Prop. 47, and most importantly on this “Fact Sheet,” how independent and dependent variables are calculated. As someone who has done studies, regressions and econometrics there is nothing of the sort in Professor Kubrin’s study.

She then states and Mr. Rodriguez blithely reports on a variable defined as “synthetic California,” that is part of the “Synthetic Control Group Study Design,” which reminds me of graduate and undergraduate studies and degree in economics where microeconomics is defined as having, “perfect competition.” Anyone who has ever held a job or attempted a business in the marketplace knows there is no such thing as “perfect competition,” just as there isn’t such a concept as “synthetic California.” And when you read the Fact Sheet the reader will find the study isn’t completed so that makes Mr. Rodriguez’s reporting misleading at best and a fire able offense at worst for so grossly understating the problems as public record.

Understanding regressions is very important, because Professor Kubrin states there was no causation or even correlation when she either doesn’t know what she’s doing running regressions or isn’t telling the truth on purpose. Regressions are used in econometrics and statistical analysis and goes back to high school geometry using the formula Y=mx+b where Y is the dependent variable and mx+b are the independent variables that either move the Y variable (causation) or merely cause them to move together along a regression line (correlation). If Professor Kubrin, Mr. Rodriguez and the entire UCI department of criminology, law & society doesn’t include AB 109 and Prop. 57 into their regressions or econometric studies then it doesn’t pass confidence interval levels. A fancy, boring regression term for how something has to be at least true 90% of the time to even warrant mentioning; and then it scales up to 95% and 99%.

To say Prop. 47 doesn’t show causation is irresponsible and she should be demoted or be made to take a graduate level econometrics and statistics for public policy analysis course. I took both and Professor Kubrin is doing the level of work that would get her kicked out of class, graduate school or possibly brought up on charges of plagiarism for gross academic violations.

Run the regressions, report on the economic analysis; and more importantly factor into the study and regressions the affects of felonious crimes going from $250 up to $950 as a variable and watch the causation affects of Prop. 47 coupled with AB 109 and Prop. 57 move upwards on the regression line into the 99% confidence interval level is what I’d predict. This is why people don’t trust universities and academics such as Drs. Victor Davis Hanson and Walter Williams believe most colleges outside of the hard sciences (accounting, engineering and medicine) have lost their way. Professor Kubrin proves that’s the case and Mr. Rodriguez shows bush league reporting without checking his sources. Next time, before reporting something, make sure the study has actually been published and more recent data was used for the study and article. Laughingly, the data used by UCI, Professor Kubrin and Mr. Rodriguez came from 2015. California should trust the L.A. County Sheriff Department over this worthless study.

Todd Royal is a geopolitical risk and energy consultant based in Los Angeles.

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California Moves Hard Left

February 23, 2018 By Todd Royal 7 Comments

Gavin NewsomOur next election season is underway and unless something changes, Gavin Newsom will be our next governor. Even Gov. Jerry Brown is concerned about the “self labeled state of resistance” against Trump, Republicans and people of faith that is pushing California’s policies and political debate further left. Republicans, church pulpits that founded America or leading conservatives aren’t giving counterarguments or providing checks on unhinged spending and social policies that degrade families, single-family homes and middle class incomes. U.S. Senate races, statewide offices and Legislature races will be filled exclusively with Democrats – setting up races between the left and even harder left – foreshadowing the direction of the party in California and nationally. This younger generation of Godless, leftist Democrats who mock the values that built California will destroy our state the way Chavez ruined Venezuela.

Additionally, unhinged immigration that rewards chain migration, encourages a diversity visa lottery system and doesn’t deport every illegal alien in prison will turn this country deep blue the way California, New York, Illinois and increasingly former red state Virginia are now. Liberal magazine The Atlantic was prescient when it stated in early 2016 that America is moving left and unchecked immigration will destroy this country by importing people who bring leftist and communist values from China, Latin America and Islamic African nations.

To overly pious Christians, leading conservatives, #NeverTrumpers and the Republican establishment that hates Trump, his voters and what he stands for, let Joel Kotkin, a self-described Truman Democrat, be your guide on how he illustrates what the Democratic Party has become. Mr. Kotkin breaks down these “post-industrial information age Democrats” into three groups:

“Corporate oligarchs exemplified by Google, Facebook, Silicon Valley, Causists obsessed with hot button issues (abortion on demand, gay marriage, global warming) the most critical to long-term Democratic ascendency, and Populists who bear much of the party’s ‘social democratic message and legacy’ (they are the least of the Democratic Party that gave America FDR, JFK, Pat Brown, Scoop Jackson).”

Each group exemplifies faux compassion while using the media, entertainment, education, government and the courts to intimidate and control any who oppose their policies to bow in serf-like fashion to their whims and desires. Foolish Republicans in California who believe that Democrats can be understood and worked with, instead of being fought against, don’t comprehend how systematically corrupt; evil and plain wrong are today’s Democratic Party.

Two examples illustrate this truth when leading Democrats attended a private dinner with the president of Iran and Louis Farrakhan in 2013 while former President Obama had a smiling picture taken in 2005 with the vile, anti-Semite Farrakhan when he was a Senator. The press, Congressional Black Caucus and Democratic leaders buried these secrets to further the cause of electing Democrats and warring against American values. Meanwhile, Trump has a better approval rating than Obama, despite the relentless attacks, at the same point in his presidency, which is simply amazing.

And what have decades of “phantasmagorical imbecility,” from feckless Republicans and leftist Democrats wrought California for my generation to clean up? The poorest business climate, some of the highest tax rates, and largest number of people living in poverty. Moreover, Los Angeles now ranks as having the worst traffic congestion in the world, California is possibly in another drought without any water capture infrastructure built in recent memory; and The Stanford Pension Institute says, “that CalPERS has a $1.4 trillion unfunded liability.” These could be some of the reasons why more people are migrating out of California. California could use economic growth since our GDP growth rate has slipped to 35th in the nation.

The irony is Trump’s economy has rescued California’s Unemployment Insurance Fund, which has been insolvent since 2009. It was bailed out by the federal government under the Obama administration but the “Trump bump” means California can pay back the $10.2 billion borrowed from the Treasury between 2008-2012. But California’s Democratic legislators never miss an opportunity to “trash President Trump.” Environmental policy and “settled science,” though, is where the Democratic Party isn’t willing to have a serious, reasoned debate to answer what if anything can be done; or if there even is man-made global warming since climates obviously change.

However, is that due to carbon emissions or the earth’s weather patterns that have taken place for millions of years? Two recent studies question the earth warming and the worst case scenarios touted by Al Gore and former President Obama being void of scientific validity. Billions keep flowing for Democratic politicians, interest groups and those vested financially to keep the science settled and the environmental shibboleth of global warming moving forward into the next election cycle while California will ban any crude oil coming from Trump’s offshore drilling plan that could provide billions in economic benefits.

So what can be done against this type of incompetent rule? Fight back. For starters here’s how to approach environmentalists with this statement and then question by Dr. Walter Williams:

“Sixty-Five million (65) years ago the Earth experienced one of the most rapid and extreme global climate changes recorded in geological history named the ‘Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum,’ when oceans were 18 to 27 degrees hotter than today and Antarctica was home to temperate forests, beech trees and ferns. The earth also had no permanent polar ice caps. In the past 65 million years, the Earth’s temperature has increased and decreased with no help from mankind. Therefore, can mankind really stop climate change and what is the correct earth temperature?”

Make no mistake we are in a fight the way the Marines were in an inch-by-inch fight for territory in the Pacific during World War II. Walk precincts, support candidates with your money and realize it will take numerous election cycles, but voters are realizing Trump’s economic strategies are working. It really is the economy stupid. Most importantly, WALK PRECINCTS and get the message to voters about Trump’s economy that is helping Republicans, why single-family homes aren’t being built causing prices to skyrocket (appointed agencies like the Southern California Association of Governments that has counterparts in San Diego and Northern California are the reasons) and why we are terribly vulnerable to the next recession due to some of the above-mentioned reasons.

Inform voters about unfunded pension obligations in the trillions, horrible inequality, sensible ways to protect children in our schools and Democratic leaders that don’t reflect their communities; but most of all, fight back. Run for office locally, regionally, statewide and federal offices but have your facts down, platform legitimized and reasons for running, because Democrats are on the hegemonic march to crush your lives, kill off families and destroy anything that gets in their path by any means possible.

Todd Royal is a geopolitical risk and energy consultant based in Los Angeles.

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California is Missing Out on Transforming the State

February 18, 2018 By Todd Royal 4 Comments

fracking oil gasHardline energy policies against fossil fuel exploration and production (E&P) originating from Sacramento are causing California citizens and taxpayers to miss the boom coming from United States (US) shale production taking place in Texas, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, Oklahoma and Colorado that has forced OPEC to raise crude supply forecasts for 2018. California could use this economic growth from shale E&P since our GDP growth rate has slipped to 35th in the nation.

Moreover, Los Angeles now ranks as having the worst traffic congestion in the world, California is possibly in another drought according to the New York Times, and The Stanford Pension Institute says, “that CalPERS has a $1.4 trillion unfunded liability.” These could be some of the reasons why more people are migrating out of California – even beautiful San Francisco isn’t immune to net migration – and regulations are also making it tougher to grow the economy, hire workers and bring tax relief to the middle class.

But there is hope for California that energy E&P could pave the way to relieve many of these problems along with upgrading our outdated infrastructure, older schools, and overreliance on wealthy taxpayers to fund a majority of the state budget.

According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), the United States (US) will surpass Saudi Arabia and Russia with record oil production topping over 10 million barrels a day (mbp) while approaching 11mbp faster than analysts expected. This type of energy production hasn’t been seen since the Nixon administration. Daniel Yergin, economic historian and author of The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money and Power, states:

“This is a 180-degree turn for the United States and the impacts are being felt around the world. This not only contributes to U.S. energy security but also contributes to world energy security by bringing new supplies to the world.”

Shockingly, the US Census Bureau in early February reported that the US exported roughly 700,000 barrels of light domestic crude in December 2017 to the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The EIA iterated the significance by pointing out the UAE is the fourth-largest OPEC producer and first time importer of US oil. The US net oil imports now hover near 3 mbp, whereas in 2006 the US imported over 12 mbp.

The EIA reports that by 2022 the US “will become a net petroleum exporter from rising crude exports and overseas sales of refined petroleum products such as gasoline. This new reality has the Energy Information Administration (EIA) Annual Energy Outlook 2018 confident that America will be the world’s leader in oil and natural gas E&P by the end of this year.

For California, the untapped, unexplored Monterrey Shale and Pacific Ocean could hold trillions in new revenues and economic activity. The question is will voters and elected officials understand the significance of wise, regulated energy exploration in one of the largest shale plays and ocean reserves in the world? If Texas, North Dakota and Pennsylvania can figure out reasonable E&P then California’s technological giants based in Silicon Valley and universities like Cal-Tech can certainly come up with best practices to ensure environmental safety while growing California’s economy.

Many critics like the Post Carbon Institute’s new report, “Shale Reality Check,” question the sustainability, long-term production prospects and viability of US shale. But are critics like the Post Carbon Institute missing an opportunity to diminish the force of the modern petro-state led by OPEC that in the past has crippled California’s economy and caused our Marines based in Camp Pendleton to be deployed overseas to fight in their never-ending, expensive wars?

For decades American, western and Asian diplomats have tiptoed around Middle Easter nations – particularly, Saudi Arabia – since they needed vital oil and natural gas for continued economic growth. But the US no longer needs as much Middle Eastern oil. This will make it tougher for OPEC to agree on production guidelines that raise prices at the pump while limiting Russia’s foreign policy that relies on the weaponization of state-run oil giants to fund their geopolitical adventures.

In late 2014 it seemed America’s oil independence was a pipedream and the Saudi’s would force America into renewable energy when they targeted shale drillers for elimination by flooding world markets with new supply. Throughout this Saudi-led war on US shale, bankruptcies overtook the Texas Permian Basin and Bakken Formation in North Dakota; production also fell in the US from 9.6 mbp to 8.5 mbp. Shale companies though never declared defeat; instead, they slashed costs, employed automation and adopted cutting edge technology (robotics, sensors, smart phones) to keep drilling. There is no reason why California can’t be the leader in these technologies, E&P and oilfield services.

West Texas intermediate crude is now in the 60s and the US is supplying China and India while causing the Saudis to now try and invest in US shale properties. Taking aim at Russia – a California priority after the 2016 elections – is taking place since the US is now a major exporter of natural gas and can “undercut Russian energy dominance over Eastern Europe.” The US is now able to withstand political turmoil in Venezuela, Libya and Nigeria – all major OPEC suppliers – when historically supply disruptions would have risked global growth. California now doesn’t have to concern itself as much with unstable countries and regions as we have for decades.

Jason Bordoff, founding director of the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University and former Obama administration energy official speaks about this new geopolitical reality:

“For the last 40 years, since the Arab oil embargo, we’ve had a mindset of energy scarcity, but as a result of the shale revolution, the U.S. has emerged as an energy superpower.”

This new reality also means China, Japan and Southeast Asia have become more dependent on the US and potentially California than on the Middle East. The US and California can now argue the global order they have ensured should become a shared burden financially and militarily.

These are good problems for California to have, and when energy independence was only a dream in the 70s over the Arab oil embargo now fossil fuel superiority can bring California benefits for everyone in our state and the US. Energy accomplishments that bring economic freedom should be celebrated; and the geopolitical advantages that America and now California enjoy from shale drillers reshaping global energy markets could bring us decades of prosperity if only we will take advantage of them.

 is an independent public policy consultant focusing on the geopolitical implications of energy based in Los Angeles, California.

This article was originally published by Fox and Hounds Daily

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Steve Bannon Is Worse Than the #NeverTrump Republicans

January 16, 2018 By Todd Royal 5 Comments

Steve BannonDespite having over 91% of all mainstream news stories negative against President Trump, he still has accomplished cutting corporate and individual taxes, repealing the Obamacare individual mandate, appointed Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court, added a record number of conservative judges to the circuit courts, rid the booming economy and stock market of unnecessary regulations, destroyed ISIS and approved energy exploration and transformative pipeline projects in states like North Dakota; according to Byron York of the Washington Examiner. Additionally, eleven Obama legacy items have been repealed.

Enter Steve Bannon and his “dubiously sourced,” gossip-laden new book that trashes Trump, but now he’s “apologizing” for what he said. Unfortunately he’s doing that awful Republican trait of eating our own. He broke Reagan’s 11th commandment: “Thou shalt not speak ill of any Republican.” And for that Bannon is now worse than the #NeverTrump Republicans while becoming “his own worst enemy.”

Seemingly, liberal icon George Clooney was prescient when he trashed Bannon, and certainly Bannon’s usefulness came to a conclusion when he lost Alabama by endorsing Judge Roy Moore. What he should be doing now is showing penance for his stupidity.

Certainly the California Republican Party (CRP) doesn’t need this type of press or derisive confusion that now emanates from the Bannon brand of Breitbart-Republicanism. The maddening part is Andrew Breitbart would more than likely applaud Trump who actually fights back and doesn’t roll over the way the Bush’s, Romney and McCain Republican-types have for decades.

For all Bannon’s bluster he seems to have forgotten what happens when Democrats have absolute control of a state (California). More about California’s woes in ensuing paragraphs, because there are different choices when it comes to both imperfect parties. The adage, “the enemy of the good is the perfect,” is true. However, Bannon took it to mean let’s blow up the Republican Party without consideration of what that means. The national Republican Party and CRP have their problems, but anyone who thinks Democrats or independents are the solution doesn’t understand what it means to have a viable society.

The days of my father’s Democratic Party that included FDR, Truman, JFK, and Pat Brown is over, replaced by a no-growth, regulation-heavy, environmentally beholden anything goes “cultural leviathan,” that did nothing to deter Iran, Russia, China and North Korea while shunning traditional allies.

The contrast between Trump and the Obama-inspired Democrats couldn’t be more different and this is where Bannon tragically fails. The numerous policy and philosophical differences between Trump and Obama, including the horrible divide between Trump and Democratic California is only growing. Exemplified by California legalizing marijuana, which has been a disaster for Colorado.

View the differences – big and small – Trump is more press accessible than Obama ever was and allows his Cabinet officers to do their job that wasn’t previously the case. His Russian policies are tougher and more effective than the #NeverTrumpers or Bannon ever realized. Trump would never vote for Bernie Sanders – but that’s exactly what took place in the last election when President George H.W. Bush bragged about voting for Hillary Clinton over Trump.

Trump’s economy is booming compared to Obama’s with labor growth and consumer confidence both at seventeen-year highs. African-American unemployment rate is at record lows and something Republicans and the CRP should pounce on in this next election cycle. What does Bannon and the #NeverTrumpers have to say about those figures that affect all Americans? Moreover, Obama governed based on division of race, gender, ethnicity, sexuality and curtailing religious freedom, growing the administrative state and stretching the limits of the constitution. Whereas, Trump believes in America exceptionalism and a regime based on the actual constitution – not a living constitution.

I’d posit that Obama governed all facets of America the way James Burnham in Suicide of the West wrote about modern liberalism:

“Liberalism permits Western Civilization to be reconciled to dissolution. The Principle function of modern liberalism is to facilitate the suicide of Western Civilization.”

When Bannon ran Breitbart he understood this truth about Democrats and Obama, but Bannon along with the #NeverTrumpers, have lost the existential battle Republicans and decent Californians are engaged in against the Democratic Party. It’s a struggle where the very lives of our babies depend on us beating the hegemonic totalitarianism that are today’s viciously vapid Democrats.

The biggest difference that affects the entire world is the differences in foreign policy. Syria is a disaster for a generation, China is on the march in the South China Sea, North Korea is a nuclear menace, Russia annexed Crimea, the Arab Spring has left the Middle East in shambles; and now Iran is a bigger threat than all the above problems combined based on their capabilities and the awful, Hezbollah-enabled, falsified, Iran nuclear deal. Protests – though well intentioned – aren’t changing the totalitarian, theocratic Iranian regime. Only an armed-to-the-teeth American military will deter the Ayatollah, IRGC, and Quds Force.

All of this happened under Obama and embraced by California Democrats. What does Bannon have to say about this? Nothing, because it’s easier to criticize Trump and make a bigger name for yourself than assist the President in dealing with problems that we haven’t seen since World War II.

Does Bannon realize that either Trump or his deregulatory experts (Scott Gottlieb, Scott Pruitt, Ajit Pai, Ryan Zinke, Betsey DeVos, Elain Chao, Neomi Rao) succeed over the #NeverTrump chattering class of (Max Boot, Michael Gerson, Jennifer Rubin, Bret Stephens, The Weekly Standard and National Review, etc.) because if Trump fails then the United States and California will fail. The rosy delusion printed recently by the Los Angeles Times doesn’t exist and won’t exist in the future unless men like Bannon and the #NeverTrumpers support Trump’s policy views.

If Bannon wants a place to fight then choose California and assist the CRP restore the home of Reagan. Just one of our pensions (CalPERS) has a $153 billion unfunded liability while our economy has slowed because of state worker pensions. According to the Social Science Research Council, California suffers the worst income inequality in the nation, the third worst economic environment for middle class families and over one-third of California’s population is at or near poverty. Tech-driven growth is nearing completion since the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) revealed California’s GDP was 35th in the U.S. And The San Jose Mercury News reported the Bay Area lost 4,700 jobs – and 1,000 from the tech sector – because of a lack of affordable housing.

Our schools are in disarray, the Black Lives Matter movement isn’t addressing the issues killing black men and women, infrastructure needs over $800 billion in improvements and we still haven’t built any dams, reservoirs or canals to capture rainwater from the previous drought. Joel Kotkin calls it, “the what, me worry?” state of California. The CRP, Republican candidates and citizens being crushed by the California Democratic environmental-jihadists and tech oligarchy could use Steve Bannon’s help. But that is real work and change of this sort is a slow-motion effort to undo the “social opprobrium” that Trump and Republicans have with California voters.

Bannon has given fresh ammunition to the ilk trying to remove the duly elected president since the night he won. Proclaiming virtue is for CNN; Bannon should be learning how to bring manufacturing, single-family homes and blue-collar jobs back to California. Faulting Trump and putting the CRP on the defensive is inexcusable and time for Bannon to leave the political stage into the dustbin of history.

Todd Royal is a geopolitical risk and energy consultant based in Los Angeles.

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It’s Time for the California Republican Party to Fight

December 12, 2017 By Todd Royal 18 Comments

Photo courtesy of DonkeyHotey, flickr

Photo courtesy of DonkeyHotey, flickr

The Democratic Party and the city of San Francisco are officially dead. The acquittal of illegal alien, Jose Garcia Zarate, who shot Kate Steinle on the San Francisco pier in cold blood, has now officially killed the party of the common man and woman. A jury of her peers found him not guilty and this was a crystallizing moment to understand there is a clear choice – of life and death – between a Republican and a Democrat. Whereas Democratic San Francisco protected Mr. Zarate, the Republican Justice Department issued an arrest warrant. This isn’t about “sanctuary cities,” or stricter immigration reform, this is about protecting American citizens versus Democrats – the party of the left – who seemingly only lust for power and control reminiscent of Marx, Trotsky, Lenin and Stalin. The days of Scoop Jackson, FDR, Truman and Kennedy died in that San Francisco courtroom when the drug dealing, six-time-deported, zero-skilled, Mr. Zarate was acquitted.

It’s time for the Republican Party to stop wasting their majority in Congress and the CRP to stand up and fight, because you’ll never hear illegal immigrant advocates shed a tear for Ms. Steinle who collapsed and died in her father’s arms. Those are the Democrats who run California that decided it wasn’t a problem for her to die this way.

However, men like Republican consultant, Mike Madrid, who is now helping Antonio Villaragoisa’s gubernatorial campaign are also the problem. If he wants to cash a liberal Democrat’s checks then go become one, because he’s in the same class as McCain, Romney, et al who still believe that Democrats are just like us; but don’t have the ability or temerity to understand what ordinary people are up against anymore. We don’t have the option to opt out of the very laws that are supposedly passed on our behalf. And the Democratic supermajority in the legislature isn’t doing anything to protect staffers and female lawmakers from sexual harassment; Minority Leader Pelosi has now been accused of protecting sexual predators for decades.

Here is what Democratic policies that have run California and most major cities across America into the ground wrought on the citizenry’s backs for generations. San Francisco and other Democratic progressive cities have the “worst housing inequality in the nation,” according to Wendell Cox. Meaning, there are less homes to purchase at higher prices, which obliterates individual and family incomes while stagnating the economy of those cities. San Francisco Unified School District is becoming a real-estate investor to alleviate housing shortages by spending $44 million to develop the Francis Scott Key annex for teachers who can’t afford San Francisco homes or rental units.

Joel Fox has debunked Los Angeles Times columnist Steve Lopez’s solution for the growing California homeless problem: taxing homeowners’ equity. Fox has detailed how taxing homes won’t solve the problem, possibly make it worse, and that Los Angeles now has the worst homeless problem in the U.S. The problem is so severe the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors approved in August a program to pay L.A. County homeowners up to $75,000 to house homeless people on their properties.

Natural gas is the most effective, clean, scalable, abundant and job-creating energy available. However, California is moving from this form of energy into unstable, unreliable and intermittent renewable energy, causing California to have the highest energy costs in the U.S. And California’s energy policies are killing fossil fuel investments and driving jobs out of the state according to the Frasier Institute. Moreover, AB 32, the global warming law isn’t causing emissions to dip, instead it’s the weather, but the environmental leaders in the Democratic Party, led by Tom Steyer, would never acknowledge this fact.

Our public schools – not all of them – but the majority are “unaccountable” and failing while the legislature wants higher taxes for “better schools.” No public official or school board has ever definitively defined what constitutes a “better school.” Unfortunately, the California School Dashboard revealed:

“Fifty percent of California schoolchildren can’t read at grade level, and for African American (AA) children, almost seventy percent failed to read at grade level.”

The CRP should make this the number one issue aggressively going after AA families and voters by showing the Democratic and teacher union-led California schools are failing you, your families and your children. If Democrats lose a sizable bloc of AA voters, they lose California, and eventually they lose the country.

As President Clinton’s first presidential campaign famously stated, “It’s the economy, stupid,” which propelled Clinton to the presidency. This issue still resonate, particularly when California’s economy is ranked 35th in the nation. Chris Reed writes, “California job creating incentives fall short – again,” and Dan Walters in CalMatters exposes disturbing budgetary facts facts that Mac Taylor, the Legislatures’ top advisor disclosed in November:

“Governor Brown, lawmakers and voters have made the state’s longer-term situation potentially even worse since off-budget debts, especially for pensions and health care for retired state workers have increased.”

To Brown’s credit he is now attempting to rectify the pension issue while defying his Democratic base in the process. Brown realizes cities like Los Angeles have underfunded pension liabilities totaling over $9 billion, and other California cities hold hundreds of billions in pension debt that will cut government services and raise taxes – otherwise bankruptcy is a strong possibility. Even once-thriving Ventura County is now losing jobs while government employment rises. The pension and job loss issues are where the CRP can gain crucial votes in deep blue California.

There are a myriad of other issues that Democrats are pushing that will hurt most Californians from the economic devastation the high-speed rail in the Central Valley will bring to having the highest taxes, worst roads, and over a trillion dollars needed for infrastructure improvements and construction. Additionally, California is ranked at the bottom or near bottom in business-friendly policies and the Democrats answers is to make suing President Trump, “a team sport.”

At one time Pat Brown, who built water systems, world-class highways and the best universities in the world, exemplified the Democratic Party. That isn’t the case anymore; instead a gentrified class of technology billionaires, climate enthusiasts and entertainment executives litter the Democratic Party; while Democratic-supporting unions ask for more tax payer dollars with less to show for their gains. California has real problems and if the CRP doesn’t stand up and support candidates who understand these issues and fight for them in the upcoming mid-term elections than they are doomed to irrelevancy that will spread across the U.S.

Todd Royal is a geopolitical risk and energy consultant based in Los Angeles.

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The Trump Dossier’s Implications for California

November 15, 2017 By Todd Royal 7 Comments

donald-trump-2Lost in the most important foreign policy trip of Trump’s Presidency and escalating Saudi-Iran war cries are the revelations about President Obama, Hillary Clinton and the dark deeds both partook in to discredit and deceive the American people and Donald Trump. Meanwhile, California focuses on the sexuality of the Palm Springs City Council, instead of electing officials who can deal with CalPERS’ $1.4 trillion in unfunded liabilities and CalSTRS’ $200 billion of obligations in the red.

California’s Trump-hatred has made our Democratic supermajority state obsessed with a dossier and Russian collusion. We should be fixated on what Trump is getting from President Xi of China over Kim Jong-un’s nuclear arsenal that is now able to annihilate California. It will be difficult for Trump to receive any concessions on North Korea on the Asian trip while the American media led by California and its electorate bent on Trump’s destruction by focusing on the Russian red herring.

Here’s what we know about Clinton and Obama’s actions undermining Trump’s ability to take on real threats to California. With Obama, he used intelligence agencies (CIA, NSA, DNI) and the FBI as a political handgun to neutralize opponents throughout his Presidency. Intelligence agencies were weaponized against Democrats and Republicans in Congress and then candidate-Trump. This is chilling for California, because Obama’s actions are worse than anything Nixon did during Watergate. According to The Weekly Standard’s Stephen F. Hayes who wrote an in-depth article titled, “The Big Reveal: The Story of How 470,000 Documents from Osama Bin Laden’s Compound Finally Got Into the Open,” reveals a number of treasonous actions taken by Obama.

Less than 24 hours before Trump was sworn in the Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper released 49 documents that he said, “Closed the Book on bin Laden: Intelligence Community Releases Final Abbottabad Documents.” These 49 documents were only 571 out of 470,000; but why when more should’ve been released? A military intelligence briefing to reporters on May 7, 2011 at the Pentagon disclosed, “As a result of the raid, we’ve acquired the single largest collection of terrorist materials ever.” Tom Donilon, Obama’s national security advisor said, “we could fill a small college library,” with the amount of terror documents and sources from Bin Laden. Hand picked documents (one showed deep tied between al Qaeda and the Taliban) though were given to the Combatting Terrorism Center at West Point to confirm that al-Qaida was defeated and Obama’s path to reelection in 2012 was secure. This means Obama misled the country, Congress and the P5+1 partners negotiating nuclear stoppage with Iran to ensure his administration’s narrative about defeating al-Qaida and the Taliban when it wasn’t true.

The worse part is the Iran / al-Qaida deep affinity and connections to each other. Now that these documents are being examined it’s come to light that Bin Laden considered Iran as “the main artery” for al-Qaida, which led the Treasury Department to designate Iran a terror-sponsoring-entity while causing U.S. intelligence analysts to undo the assumption that Shiite radicals in Iran would never back their Sunni counterparts. Obama and his leading national security officials either lied, covered up or looked the other way so their President could have his signature foreign policy achievement – negotiated peace with Iran – used for posterity to validate Obama’s legacy.

In a 2011 interview, David S. Cohen, a senior Treasury Department official who became deputy director of the CIA said:

“There is an agreement between the Iranian government and al-Qaida to allow this network to operate. There is no dispute in the intelligence community on this. Iran was providing a core pipeline of support that included safe haven for al-Qaida members and the facilitation of travel and the flow of money and weapons.”

What this means for California is we are on our own politically and possibly for our national security if a devastating nuclear attack takes places in the near future. If California voter overwhelmingly supported Obama throughout his first election, re-election and Presidency then Trump’s tax plans will go after our high deductible state, local and property taxes as political revenge. Obama can lie, cheat and steal and he’s loved by California, but the ever-evil Trump should be vilified for locker room talk and deep affinity for Christians, conservatives and his America-first agenda.

In the world of realpolitik, international geopolitics and nuclear jockeying Iran, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Russia, China, the U.S., et al., false nuclear deals and backing the Iranians over the Israelis and Sunni allies showed the Russians, Chinese and North Koreans that America was shirking her post-World War II responsibilities under Obama’s leadership. California doesn’t realize that we have a target on our back from being the world’s fifth-largest economy because of Obama’s actions written in Robert G. Kaufman’s book “Dangerous Doctrine: How Obama’s Grand Strategy Weakened America.” Our beautiful coasts, stunning weather and world class technology and educational firms won’t save us from the Iranians, Chinese and Russians who would love to crush us according to Angelo Codevilla’s book, “The Character of Nations.” Argue your hatred for Trump all you want, but first acknowledge Obama’s sin and shortcomings that have put California in a vulnerable, precarious position.

Clinton’s actions revealed by the Washington Post are directly undermining the U.S. presidency. Hillary Clinton’s campaign and the Democratic National Committee funded a dossier on then candidate-Trump that wasn’t true, taken actions that could be construed as treason, tangled former FBI Director Mueller in a web-of-deceit causing questions to be raised on investigating the investigator. Clinton also used intelligence agencies and the FBI to her campaign’s false-benefit.

Clinton has a history of obfuscations but her undignified, feigned outrage about the dossier put together by the malignant firm, Fusion GPS and losing to Trump reads like a bad Tom Clancy novel. To make matters worse Buzzfeed published a batch of lies back in January that Clinton never disassociated from. What the Washington Post correctly reported was that the dossier had unproven claims about Trump; and the DNC and Clinton’s campaign paid for a Democratic law firm, Perkins, Coie to finance “salacious and unverified,” (James Comey’s words) evidence taken from a former British intelligence officer, Christopher Steele to write these falsehoods.

The worse part is Clinton’s still upset the media didn’t print lies to swing the election her way despite shaky allegations. Congressman Adam Schiff goes along with this nonsense while never considering the geopolitical realities described above. Discredit the president; national security and California’s safety if it means Democrats win the governorships in Virginia and New Jersey. That seems to be California’s unenlightened mantra.

What Clinton, Obama and #NeverTrumpers would ever acknowledge are these facts about the dossier, Trump and the entire hacking narrative. In a barely reported story, a group of former intelligence veterans called VIPs sent President Trump on July 24th a memo on the subject of the Russian hack and how insiders leaked it with access to DNC computers and databases. William Binney who designed the National Security Agency’s signal intelligence center debunked the entire Russian-collusion-hacking affair. Their (the VIPs led by Binney) executive summary to Trump concluded:

“On July 5, 2016 forensic studies revealed the data was leaked (not hacked) by a person with physical access to DNC computer, and then doctored to incriminate Russia. An insider copied DNC data onto an external storage device and that ‘telltale signs’ implicating Russia were then inserted. The speed of copied data after the independent forensic investigations shows the speed exceeded an internet capability for a remote hack.”

Mueller or congressional Republicans are investigating none of this. If the #NeverTrumpers have reached this level of vitriol towards Trump and it seems they have witnessed in a recent article by Anne Applebaum for the Washington Post that implies Trump’s America First movement mirrors the 100-year Bolshevik revolution and 100 million-plus people murdered by communist regimes since their Bolshevik beginnings. If Applebaum and others believe this then why not pin Russia on Trump instead of investigating Clinton and Obama.

Many establishment Republicans – Bush 41 confirmed this – voted for Clinton over Trump. If former presidents, defeated politicians, intelligence lackeys from Obama’s administration and media pundits who only vote Democrat keep this up then Trump will allow California to flounder. We are the leader in the highest taxes, worse infrastructure, poorest schools, highest inequality and abysmal business environment over the other 49 states.

This type of California Republican – from the Hoover Institute to Orange County enclaves blame Trump and won’t heavily investigate Obama or Clinton – when in actuality they should look themselves in the mirror and ask why they allowed California to go from solid Republican to solid socialist via the Democratic Party. If real investigations don’t happen to Obama, Clinton and I’d add #NeverTrumpers undermining Trump then don’t be surprised when our nation and beloved state is attacked. Our enemies are watching and grinning at our self-inflicted, nihilistic turn taking place and California should be chilled. But we aren’t and whether its our inept churches, hipster millennials or entitled baby boomers there is a reckoning that is coming our way unless we change direction and begin to support Trump whether we like it or not.

Todd Royal is a geopolitical risk and energy consultant based in Los Angeles.

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Will Iceland’s Shameful Abortion Laws Rise in California?

August 30, 2017 By Todd Royal 1 Comment

 

A sign is pictured at the entrance to a Planned Parenthood building in New York August 31, 2015. Picture taken August 31, 2015. To match Insight USA-PLANNEDPARENTHOOD/ REUTERS/Lucas Jackson - RTX1RKFVIceland is killing babies in the womb who have Down syndrome for no other reason than they are considered an inconvenience to their parents and socialist government.

Abortion, except when the woman’s life is in danger, is murder plain and simple, and there are many doctors and clinics complicit in this butchering in the same manner the Nazi’s burned Jews across Europe over seventy years ago. This isn’t a religious screed as I’ve written about the implications of abortion and the causes of declining birth rates since abortion’s enactment, here and here. This is about defending unborn children in Iceland and ultimately California.

Furthermore, vulnerable women in the United States are dying in these supposed women’s clinics as well for no reason at all other than they had an abortion. Atrociously vile Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood, has quotes that the defend abortion actions that Iceland is taking and she advocated for eugenics, killing babies through abortion, advocating for the KKK and racial purification by eliminating all black men, women, children and unborn babies.

California communities, churches, synagogues and parishes that continue voting for Democrats and Republicans who defend abortion have to answer for their complicit quiet on this issue; meanwhile they are supposedly upset over white nationalists and leftist Antifa thugs fighting a pretend racial skirmish in nowhere Virginia, USA.

60 million babies have been killed in the U.S. since abortion was legalized so spare me your faux outrage over some idiot giving a Nazi salute to another violent, Antifa idiot who was paid to be there by George Soros linked groups.

Anecdotally drive through a predominant minority community (African-American in particular) and notice how many Planned Parenthood abortion clinics they have; it’s for a reason – to kill innocent, beautiful black and brown babies and fetuses for profit. And California Democrats overwhelmingly defend these actions; Senator Kamala Harris specifically has chosen political power over defending her ancestors, family and constituents.

Iceland is committing genocide by claiming they are “eradicating Down Syndrome babies,” when in actuality they are using prenatal screening to then abort the affected fetuses; and CBS is duplicitous in how they reported the case of Iceland supposedly “solving Down’s syndrome,” when the report said:

“The number of babies born with Down syndrome has significantly decreased but few countries have come as close to eradicating Down syndrome births as Iceland.”

Any person who touched the Iceland report at CBS (they have locations in Studio City and Los Angeles, CA) should at the very least be fired and next be prosecuted for aiding and abetting the killing of defenseless, unarmed human beings. It’s depraved evil what Iceland and CBS are doing and have done. The world hunted those beasts down in World War II who slaughtered innocents for their own personal gain. Children in the womb are the most vulnerable people on the planet – they literally have zero defenses against the knives, hoses and vacuums at the abortion worker’s arsenal to kill.

The people and leaders of Ireland and anyone who advocates for slaughtering innocent babies, because they have Down syndrome, should be treated as depraved criminals. Puppies are treated better than abortion-targeted children. PETA would never stand for animals being killed this way if they had a deformity that inconvenienced their owner. That is exactly what Iceland is doing, but more importantly, people with Down syndrome have a voice, conscious and dignity.

Moreover, CBS television in California attempts to backpedal or at least cover their tracks when they stated in the report: “Many people born with Down syndrome can live full, healthy lives, with an average lifespan of around 60 years.”

Actually in 2011 the American Journal of Medical Genetics found in its research and studies:

“That 99% of individuals with Down syndrome report being happy, 94% of their siblings express pride in their brother or sister with Down syndrome, and just 4% of parents.”

Larger countries are also practicing abortion-eugenics on Down syndrome screened unborn children in high percentages like Denmark (98%), France (77%) and disgustedly the United States at 67%. But its really a simple reason this is happening: The diagnosed child in utero with Down syndrome is being killed – and not over a medical condition.

California elected officials including abortion in their official party platform have also voted for children being labeled an undue burden to their parents, society and in Iceland medical professionals have said, “It will be better for them (the Down syndrome fetus).” But when that human being is being sucked out by a vacuum while screaming and fighting for their life and then discarded like a piece of trash, how is that good for them?

Why not stretch that argument to an older person who no longer pays taxes or any of the millions not in the U.S. workforce at this time? Let’s discard them as well. They can’t pay taxes so what use are they or others if a person is simply an economic unit for my happiness.

In a horrifying moment of candor, Icelandic geneticist, Kari Stefansson admitted, “it wasn’t for medical reasons to kill fetuses, but rather it’s due to heavy-handed genetic counseling, or pressure by authority figures to abort.”

Another pregnancy counselor in Iceland also stated:

“We don’t look at abortion as murder. We ended a possible life that may have had a huge complication, preventing suffering for the child and for the family.”

So what California elected officials, the voters who put them in office and Republicans who support abortion are saying is trust us we know what’s best for the slaughtered child. If we crush their heads, break their limbs and suck out their brains using vacuums (and all this happens during abortions) then it’s for their own good and yours as well.

This behavior was how the Nazis justified killing Jews, homosexuals, gypsies, Christians, Catholics, intellectuals, and any other group that didn’t conform to their Darwinian-Nietzschian worldview at the barrel of a gun. The first people the Nazis killed were those with disabilities.

This is using medical technology available through prenatal screening to enact eugenics at a state and worldwide level not seen since World War II. These children are being exterminated and these societies will fail. Historically fallen regimes from the Aztecs to the Romans and Greeks up to Imperial Japan all disintegrated because they didn’t value defenseless life.

If California, the U.S. and Europe don’t wake up to this remorseless holocaust then we have no hope. Forget bashing Donald Trump and bring fire and brimstone to marches, rallies and occupy movements to children unlucky enough to have parents who can afford a prenatal screening. It’s time to act and time for hard questions to be asked about what kind of society we want for California, the U.S. and the world.

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The Republican Party Legislative Incompetence

August 2, 2017 By Todd Royal 19 Comments

Let me preface this piece by stating no party better encapsulate the values and policies – unfortunately not today’s actions – that have made America the greatest nation in the history of mankind than today’s Republican Party. It was my great honor to be elected to the recent California Republican Party Presidential Platform Committee in 2014 and I was stunned by what came out of the committee – a document that was about economic growth, limited government, families, protecting the unborn, religious freedom and overall prosperity in all facets of life for all Americans and immigrants – legal or otherwise.

Chad MayesThe party of Lincoln and Reagan, the party that fought against slavery, the KKK, and overwhelmingly voted for the Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act is at a crossroads … and it has nothing to do with President Donald Trump. The party has lost its way – the national party and more importantly the California Republican Party – epitomized by Republican Assembly Leader Chad Mayes who just supported huge tax increases while never thinking about the awful fiscal outlook for California. Moreover, Minority Leader Hayes has a complete lack of understanding for how California and the United States thrive in our dangerous, geopolitical world.

The best way to describe the disarray of the national Republican Party that bleeds down to the CPR is a recent comment by Pennsylvania Republican Senator Pat Toomey. He had a candid response at a Town Hall when local ABC27 News Anchor Dennis Owens asked about the Republican struggles with the failed repeal of Obamacare and overall health care reform. Senator Toomey said:

“Look, I didn’t expect Donald Trump to win, I think most of my colleagues didn’t, so we didn’t expect to be in this situation.”

After seven years of railing against President Obama and the Democratic Party, the Republican Party had nothing to show for the over 60 times they voted in Congress to repeal or replace Obamacare led by the ineptitude of Senator John McCain. People voted for a repeal of Obama’s health care law, tax and regulation cuts to bolster the economy, American trade interests being at the forefront of economic treaties, defunding Planned Parenthood, enforcement of our borders and laws along with a more robust deterrent in our foreign policy. Instead the American voter received John McCain’s cowardly health care vote and the other Republicans who voted with him. They voted to be thought of favorably at D.C. cocktail parties and on Morning Joe than what’s best for their constituents and America.

The American public and California voter was also told that Secretary of Health and Human Services, and leading Obamacare critic when he was in Congress, Tom Price had a plan of action ready to repeal and replace President Obama’s signature legislative achievement. Thus far Secretary Price has been silent on Capital Hill, and neither Secretary Price, nor the Republican leadership (led by Californian Kevin McCarthy), or critics of the current Republican health care overhaul have any answers on how to make health care more affordable and accessible for all Americans.

What should concern any Republican or independent is California Senator Kamala Harris becoming President Harris, because of Republican malfeasance on health care reform. Republicans bemoan they aren’t being given a fair chance and fake news is difficult to overcome while searching for health care solutions. Those sentiments are why we will lose, and lose big if we don’t get our act together immediately. Either stand up and fight for Republican values or else.

If Congressional Republicans, particularly California Congressional Republicans need assistance (and they do!) then listen to shows like Mark Levin, Hugh Hewitt or Dennis Prager who consistently interview health experts of all political stripes with answers and solutions to these problems; or contact the American Enterprise Institute, Heritage Foundation or RAND for detailed legislation that can be immediately voted upon.

However, if those are to far right then click on the Brookings Institute website for various plans and solutions to Obamacare – even the ultra-left leaning publication The Atlantic has answers.

Additionally it has been over seven years, and now a Republican majority of not anticipating for someone like Donald Trump to win doesn’t have an idea of what legislatively comes next. It’s mind-numbingly incompetent, and why Democrats will take back the House and Senate if something substantial isn’t put in place on how to govern before the year is over. Where are Darrel Issa, Kevin McCarthy and the dwindling California Congressional delegation? If Secretary Clinton were President Clinton does anyone believe she wouldn’t be pushing her Godless, radical agenda down America and California’s throats at this time? Not hardly.

The Democratic Party is no longer the party of the workingman or women or middle class, but is only about the top 1% in technology, entertainment, media and universities. Democrats are now about appeasing all sorts of anarchists and radical Islamists along with economic and energy policies that will deeply hurt America. The Party of Governor Pat Brown, and Presidents FDR, Truman and Kennedy is finished – the Scoop Jackson wing of the party is also dead. In finality, the Democratic Party’s policy ideas will kill America and a world in desperate need of California and American leadership.

According to the new, controversial, best-selling book The Strange Death of Europe: Immigration, Identity, Islam by Douglas Murray, Europe is committing national suicide implementing the same polices as U.S. Democrats want ad nauseum to occur immediately in America. Yet Republicans like John McCain and the editors and contributors at The National Review and The Weekly Standard should learn that Donald Trump is not the enemy. It’s the social, economic, education, energy, and national security policies of the Democratic Party led by Chuck Schumer, Jerry Brown, Kamala Harris, Elizabeth Warren, Nancy Pelosi, Barack Obama and Bernie Sanders that should be fought against with World War II-like vigor.

Outside of confirming Neil Gorsuch – using a Democratic legislative trick – Republicans also haven’t rid the world of the disastrous Iranian Nuclear Deal that hasn’t worked, housing is now depressed because of Democrat polices from the previous administration, and China is a continued menace; but somehow Republican leaders believe passing higher taxes on Democratic-controlled states is tax reform. Moreover, North Korea has missiles that can obliterate this state.

But Kevin McCarthy, Paul Ryan, Mitch McConnel, Darrel Issa and the rest of the Republican-controlled Congress seemingly can’t put together a plateful of legislative pancakes without choking them all over California and the American public. Democrats seem to never have that problem.

What Trump proved and Republicans aren’t grasping are Democrat-controlled states and California can be won with a pro-growth, pro-jobs, and pro-American message. Trump won states that haven’t been won in a generation with that message. The solution is to find real candidates for state and federal positions who can articulately convey the message of growth, putting American interests first, and watch the bluest state of all – California turn back to its pro-growth, pro-prosperity roots – that made it a beacon of light for the post World War II generation.

Todd Royal is a geopolitical risk and energy consultant based in Los Angeles.

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