By Karen Schoen
January 20, 2026
How many of you think that what goes on in California stays in California? NOPE! Boy are we naive if we think that what goes on in California does not affects every state in the Union. It seems as though Californians have taken the “We are stupid” pill and will now pay the price at the pump and pay more for all the goods at the grocery store. Every necessity is about to escalate into the ‘I can’t afford it’ category.
How did that happen? Well, Newsom is a socialist governor who seems to feel that the cost of the regulations he puts in place don’t have any consequences on Californians and certainly don’t affect him. The regulations in AB-5 are about to strangle the 70,000 truckers who just learned they can no longer be independent truckers. AB-5 is forcing them to become W-2 employees of their carriers or be fined. No small businesses for them.
The carrier companies they work for said “No, we cannot afford to W2 these independent truckers who own their own rigs. We’ll leave California.” The truckers said “No, we’ll leave California!” And a huge portion of the 70,000 independent truckers have left California or are in the process of leaving. The carriers, aka Freight Handlers, who are national corporations said “We’ll leave too. We will move to another state.” Landstar, a national company, issued one statement, “LEAVE.”
So what did Newsom do? He hired illegals to replace the American truckers. What does that mean? It means Americans are at risk from truckers who can’t read English and cause accidents. It means goods sitting at the docks can’t be distributed throughout America. That affects all of us. It also means that Californians lost government funding from the DOT for breaking federal law and hiring illegals. https://ijr.com/trump-admin-pulls-160-million-in-funding-from-california-over-illegal-trucker-licenses/
To add insult to injury, the heavy duty regulations placed on the refineries are causing refineries to leave California. California is about to lose 20% of its power … of its fuel. This is causing gas prices to rise unchecked in California, Arizona and Nevada. Newsom is blaming high profitability on refineries as the cause for escalating prices. His Public Service Commission told him it was due to his regulations. But Newsom is stubborn and does not pay attention and basically doesn’t care. After all he’s rich and can afford high gas prices.
Newsom’s solution, Pay the refineries subsidies to stay in CA. YES those same companies he put out of business will now be subsidized to stay. In addition CA will no be getting oil from ASIA at a much higher price. Newsom is either evil, doesn’t care or has zero common sense.
The question is whether California will be smart enough to choose a different route as they choose their new governor or will they sit back and let the insane regulations of environmentalists destroy everything they worked hard to achieve. Do they care where their taxes are going? That remains to be seen. But, what will that do to the rest of us as the goods pile up on the docks and the prices go higher and higher and higher. CA is filled with waste fraud and abuse. Is this what you want America to look like? If we thought Minnesota was bad just look at what this incompetent, selfish governor did to the once great state of CALIFORNIA. Then ask yourself, “Is this who I want as a president?”
Politics is local. With that in mind…As always it is imperative that you share and spread the truth. There is so much confusion. Vet your candidates! Check out their actions. Use opensecrets.org to find their donors. What have they done to earn your vote? And above all, VOTE in the Primaries. Is America worth saving?
© 2026 Karen Schoen – All Rights Reserved
E-Mail Karen Schoen: kbschoen@bellsouth.net
Website: http://www.karenschoen.com
