Oracle in TN

Billionaires have been fleeing California. Co-founder of Oracle, Larry Ellison, moved his company headquarters to Austin TX in 2020 and Elon Musk did that with Tesla about the same time. 

Moving out is getting urgent for more of the state's billionaires now. A new state tax may be imposed on their assets (not their income, which is already taxed). That would include the collective worth of their businesses, art, stocks, collectibles, even intellectual property. Texas does not tax assets.

But Ellison (photo) is investing billions in yet another move for Oracle: to Nashville TN. (Tennessee doesn't tax assets either--of course it doesn't.) It's been coming for a while, and Tennessee is willing to invest millions into the move because they see it as a big economic benefit for the state.

The deal included Oracle providing over a billion dollars' worth of development alongside the river downtown, and 8,500 new jobs by 2031 with an average annual salary of $110,000. That's a lot of new money coming into the city.

Yet Oracle employees are not flocking to Nashville despite big incentives and a fancy new headquarters. They seem reluctant. I have to wonder if there's just a significant miss match between wealthy tech workers or executives . . and the culture & politics of the area. What, if anything, will happen politically to the state when all this change finally happens? 

from MSN

Burned up 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

Californians are used to the risk of fires, but the scope of this one was devastating, possibly caused by a century-old transmission line.

In less-affluent areas (where average properties were valued at one million instead of Pacific Palisades where the average was 3x that), some will never be able to afford to re-build. They may have to take the relatively low cash offers of vulture developers and even foreign billionaires who swooped in to scoop them up.

"This is about the end of a place. In the future, the fires will be a demarcation. There will be the times before and after the disaster, and the one will be remembered as this happy, gauzy surreality that never was" . . . When this is over, the politics of this place will be upended."

A local businessman got a call during these fires that his daughter's house was burning, and that the "firefighters' hoses ran dry because the fire hydrants didn't have any water." He says this is a "third world" sort of thing that should never happen in the America's second largest city.

He's expected to run against Los Angeles' current mayor for that office next June. I'll follow this story.

from The Free Press

Burned up

Today it's exactly one year since many Californians lost every material thing they had when their homes burned to the ground. That happened to a renter, Meghan (photo), and this is her account.

What she grabbed in her hasty evacuation by car was her: dog, laptop, change of clothes, dinner, handbag, shoes. She didn't really think the fires would reach her home. But on the 8th, ~nine hours later, her home was destroyed along with about 16,000 other homes in the Los Angeles area.

What she regrets not taking: family pictures, artwork, book manuscripts, etc.: "What haunts me is how much time I would have had to take more things, had I known what was about to happen."

from The Free Press

(cont'd tomorrow: LA fires)

Clarity re: LA

"Civil disobedience" has an honorable reputation as the expression of a sincere conscience.

It could describe the action of Rosa Parks, for instance, who defied a particular unjust local law . .  without violating other laws. Unfortunately, the term is often used today to describe a protest against certain laws while using lawless violence and looting. 

That's different. That's not civil disobedience. To violate the law against destroying your neighbor's property is not justified or legitimate. The Los Angeles rioting supposedly to protest immigration law was in no way civil, and in many cases not even the sincere expression of conscience.

CA in trouble 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

According to yesterday's video, most California wildfires are started by aging power lines (which also caused the 2023 Hawaii fire on Maui). 

Arsonists, too, may have had a hand in the current 2025 fire and there have been arrests. Combined with those power lines, plus the occasional backyard barbecue or fireworks, 95% of fires are attributed to human activity.

 

 

Strong winds spread the fires (photo), at least 29 people died, neighborhood after neighborhood was evacuated, and tens of thousands of homeowners lost their homes. In some cases where a home was damaged but not completely destroyed, looters arrived to take out of them whatever valuable property they could handle. About 40 have been arrested.

CA in trouble 1

Fires have been raging in Los Angeles, California, for weeks. It's not the first time. Here are some of the conditions that put this beautiful state in danger and have been doing so for a long time.

CA vs family 3

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

A citizen-led move to require parent notification before a school changes a child's gender identity (also banning puberty blockers and gender surgeries for minors) got over 400,000 signatures, but not quite enough to get the proposal on a ballot.

One upset mom sued her school district for pushing transition on her 11-year-old daughter, who today, at age 13, doesn't want to be a boy anymore. After being a lifelong leftist, the mom has changed her political party.

Frightened parents are looking for allies. Elon's public stand against these policies makes him a sort of hero. "Family Talk" commends him for taking a solid stand for children and families. He followed through on his vow to take his companies to Texas if the new law passed.

image

from The Free Press

CA vs family 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

"Break the parent-child relationship" -- yes, it has come to this. The Left claims the right to stand between parents and children when parents want to protect their child and have broken no law. 

Author Abigail Shrier recognizes a pattern in the California government's new law, a pattern she's seen before:

"Child predators follow a common playbook: target the victim, gain their trust, fill a need, and, crucially, isolate the child from her parents. For several years, this has also been standard California state protocol with regard to school children questioning their gender identities. On Monday [July 15], this scheme became law."

image

Just a few years ago, parents could organize at the local level to re-assert their own values and keep their school boards from deceiving them. They can't opt their kids out of gender identity training anymore, either, because it's in the required bullying curriculum, not in the sex ed classes. A lot of parents are alarmed and upset.

from The Free Press

(cont'd tomorrow)

CA vs family

Speaking of the political views of Elon Musk, a new one popped up a few days ago. A new California law triggered him to pull the headquarters of both X (former Twitter) and SpaceX out of the state, as he puts it in an X post:

"This is the final straw. Because of this law and the many others that preceded it, attacking both families and companies, SpaceX will now move its HQ from Hawthorne, California, to Starbase, Texas."

California governor photo

They call it the "Safety Act." But:  this law deprives parents of the right to protect their own children from secret transgender manipulation by blocking school districts and teachers from notifying them about changes in a student’s gender identity or sexual orientation unless the child voluntarily consents.

Why is Elon outraged by California's "Safety Act?" He says, "The goal of this diabolical law is to break the parent-child relationship and put the state in charge of your children."

(cont'd tomorrow) 

High speed 1

It looks like the idea for "hyperloop" transportation is dead or nearly dead in this country. Projects proposed in Colorado and West Virginia have not followed through and the most prominent start-up has folded.

Elon Musk promoted the idea and encouraged others to pursue it, touting it as a better option than California's plan for high speed rail (HSR). But the high speed rail project is going ahead. In fact, billions of dollars are promised to it by the federal government.

photo

Brightline, which already runs trains between Orlando and southern Florida, will build the HSR between Los Angeles and Las Vegas. Federal money in the amount of $3 billion for this project was announced in December. It's supposed to be done in time for the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles with an expected one-way ticket of ~$100.

There's another $3 billion for a route between San Francisco and Los Angeles, and $1 billion for a route between Virgina and North Carolina.

from TechCrunch

(cont'd tomorrow)

"Petty" crime 1

Is it wrong to steal what belongs to other people? For a lot of Americans - hopefully a minority - the answer is, "It depends."

It depends on who you are, why you steal, and who you steal from. Of course, it also depends on your identity group. Corrupted elites and officials will find a way to excuse you from consequences if you belong to a protected class.

Retail crime in the U.S. since 2018 is up by a stunning 90% in just five years, nearly double.

Whole Foods' big flagship store in San Francisco opened in March 2022 and closed "temporarily" in April this year because of rampant theft and fear for their safety. Basic protection from crime is required if people are going to work there and if customers are going  to feel safe enough to shop there.

Local news aired this report on widespread retail crime in San Francisco:

from City Journal

(cont'd tomorrow)

Move aside 5

Follow-up to this post

Another example of parents being blindsided: 

"Non-binary biological male counselors allowed to sleep in fifth-grade girls' cabins at science camp."

Weaver Elementary School in Los Alamitos, California, organized a science camp for students. Parents were surprised to find out that adult biologically male counselors were allowed to sleep in the same cabin with their 5th grade daughters, who would be about ten years old.

They objected. What parent would think that's a good idea? The response was that they are just complying with California state law. Staff sleeps in the cabin of the gender they identify with.

Time to wake up, parents. This situation is endorsed, mandated, and coerced by your state's law. The law was established by officials voted into office by you and your neighbors. 

U-Haul LA to TX

Prices in a mostly free market system like ours (U.S.) are determined, as you know, by "demand" and "supply." If high demand (lots of people want it) combines with low supply (there's not enough of it to go around), the price for the product or service goes up. 

Why? Because it's very valuable to the people who want it most, so they pay more to get it first.

U-Haul has a situation like that. Demand for truck rental going one way from California cities to Dallas TX is very high. 

Looking at the price of this one-way haul, the desire of people wanting to move their goods by U-Haul from California to Texas seems to be very, very high. Compare to the price of the rental one way from Dallas to California. Especially for San Francisco.

image (analysis published 11/29/2021)

Leaving Cali

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

Highly taxed and highly regulated, that's the California that some businesses are leaving behind. 

In May of 2020 Elon Musk defied the lockdown of his Tesla factory in Fremont, saying on twitter, "This is the last straw." While that factory will stay in Fremont, the headquarters is going to Texas and a new factory is also being built there.

image

He likens California to a team that used to win a lot, but is now complacent, entitled, and doesn't win championships anymore. 

“It’s worth noting that Tesla is the last car company still manufacturing cars in California,” Musk said. “There used to be over a dozen car plants in California, and California used to be the center of aerospace manufacturing. My companies are the last two left.”

from NYPost

Move to Texas

Big technology companies and thousands of technology start-ups are at home in California's "Silicon Valley," a region at the south end of San Francisco Bay. But California's reputation as the global center of technology innovation may be dimming a bit. Some executives are pulling out and heading to the state of Texas.

Last December Oracle announced the move of their headquarters to Austin, four decades after its 1977 founding in Santa Clara. That same month Hewlett Packard Enterprise announced their move to Houston. 

And just this week, headline-grabber Elon Musk announced that Tesla headquarters is also going to relocate to Austin. The Fremont (California) factory will remain in place, but big growth is the plan and Elon says there's a limit to how much they can scale up in the Bay area.

photo

Yang Tang, chief technology officer at Expedi, has made that move to Texas himself. He believes that he gets it: "I think Texas is positioned to outpace California . . . Houston presents endless opportunities and is a melting pot for new ideas and the spirit of ingenuity."

(cont'd tomorrow)

Less traffic

Over the weeks of shelter-in-place, I've been out driving only a few times but each time I enjoy the lack of traffic. It's one thing I'll miss when we get back to normal.

California has legendary traffic problems in normal time, but that's been reduced during the quarantine too. In fact, a study has been done on it by the "Road Ecology Center" at the University of California, Davis. 

photo

Less traffic resulted in about 50% fewer collisions, injuries and deaths. That's about 15,000 fewer collisions per month and 6,000 fewer injuries and fatalities per month. “The reduction in traffic accidents is unparalleled,”Uthe report states.

Surprising fact - this big reduction in accidents and injuries is saving California around . . $40 million per day.

from UCDavis

Mud

Californians are exposed to extremes. Lately, it's disasters of fire, flooding, and sliding mud.

Montecito, north of Los Angeles, was the site of at least 17 deaths. "The county coroner has listed the cause of death for each victim as “multiple traumatic injuries due to flash flood with mudslides due to recent wildfire.”

"On the stretch of the freeway by the Montecito Inn, several feet of mud and rubble collected in the road.

“It looks like a swamp — there’s so much stuff down there,” said Jose Gonzalez, a road crew worker stationed by a bridge over the 101. “Some of the locals think there’s probably bodies in there. I hope not.”

photo: reuters.com

Drought over

After five long years, California's drought is over. The mountains received 6-12 feet of snow so far this winter, in addition to flooding rains at lower altitudes. Reservoirs have filled to the level of normal or even better. 

photo: strangesounds.org

Ski resorts should be happy. Squaw Valley Alpine Meadows announced they won't close for the season until July 4. Since January 1, they've had 460 inches of snow.

Even if you're used to winter snow, it's hard to imagine that much. Go here to see some great pictures of it, including buried cars and homes.