The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

News From Zimbabwe, U.S.A.

Posted on | April 26, 2023 | 1 Comment

Nearly 15 years ago, I began comparing California to the kleptocratic regime of Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe. No matter how prosperous any place might ever have been, once its government is taken over by thievish, corrupt parasites, its future will become a tale of misery, chaos and despair. Such is the sadly predictable fate of California, where the Democratic Party’s stranglehold on power has produced a lawless nightmare wasteland from which honest people are fleeing. The state’s population has seen a net decline of more than 800,000 people in the past three years, an exodus that was accelerated by Gov. Gavin Newsom’s “maximum lockdown” response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

It is certainly no accident that California has become the “epicenter” of homelessness in the United States, with more than a third of the nation’s homeless population. Every major city in the state is blighted by shabby encampments full of drug addicts, psychotics and criminals.

Homeless living under an overpass in Los Angeles

The politicians in charge of California have no interest in actually solving the state’s problems. The worse it gets, the more law-abiding and productive people leave California, the greater grows the power of the state’s Democratic Party. Honest, sober people don’t elect Democrats, and by destroying the quality of life in California — turning the state into a place where no sane people would choose to live — Democrats chase away anyone who might be inclined to oppose them. It’s the same as Baltimore or Detroit, except on a statewide level.

Drugs, crime, budget shortfalls, failing schools — if politicians in California wanted to solve problems, there’s plenty of work to be done, but guess what they’re doing instead?

After 30-year-dispute, San Jose to remove
statue in victory for Native American
and Mexican communities
After more than 30 years of controversy, the Thomas Fallon statue in San Jose, California is being removed. The bronze sculpture, which was commissioned in 1988 and stored until its installation in 2002 without public input, depicts Captain Thomas Fallon raising an American flag during the 1846 Bear Flag Revolt — a symbol that to members of the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe represents a brutal time in Native American and Mexican history. While the removal comes at a hefty $450,000 price tag, it marks a big victory for Muwekma Ohlone and other affected communities. With no plans for a replacement statue, a traffic median will be installed following the removal, which is set to be completed by May 4.
“It’s like having a statue of a tyrant in the middle of San Jose. We’re trying to move forward from this, not move back,” a member of the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe told NBC Bay Area. …
“The Fallon statue represents a time in our history that was brutal for us Native Americans and the Mexican communities that were living here along with us. I think history needs to be told right, so I wouldn’t want this statue to be removed and forgotten. That statue needs to be placed somewhere where that history is shared, both histories are shared, right? A symbol that reflects all of the people in the Bay Area ought to be put in its place,” Charlene Nijmeh, Chairwoman of the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe, told ABC7.

Oh, a “victory for Native American and Mexican communities”? The taxpayers of San Jose are on the hook for more than $400,000 to pay for this “victory,” and it’s far from obvious how members of the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe (or anyone else) is benefited by the displacement of Captain Fallon’s statue. Well, who exactly are the Muwekma Ohlone and who is this Captain Fallon against whom they harbor such a grievance?

By the time of the California uprising in 1846, there were scarcely more than 1,000 Ohlone living in the coastal region around San Francisco Bay, most of whom were what was known as “Mission Indians,” having settled in the vicinity of the various Spanish Catholic mission in the area. The idea that life was wonderful for the Ohlone under the Spaniards and Mexicans — well, you can believe what you want to believe, but don’t expect me to believe that. Do the Ohlone seriously contend their conditions were worsened by the American takeover of California?

Well, being insufficiently familiar with California history to judge of such matters, I can’t flatly deny that things got worse for the Ohlone after California joined the Union, but I am doubtful, and suspect that this “victory” — the removal of the Fallon statue in San Jose — was mostly about placating a noisy handful of “activist” types, rather than addressing any legitimate grievance of the Ohlone tribe. And, of all people, why are they blaming Thomas Fallon?

Thomas Fallon (1825–1885) an Irish-born Californian politician, best known for serving as 10th Mayor of San Jose. . . .
At age 18, he was in St. Louis and joined the third expedition of John C. Frémont to California. Early in 1846, Fallon stayed in Santa Cruz after Frémont visited the area. In June 1846, he raised a group of 22 Santa Cruz-area volunteers to join Fremont, appointing himself captain. When the Mexican–American War began in California with Commodore John D. Sloat’s capture of Monterey on July 7, Fallon’s force crossed the Santa Cruz Mountains to capture El Pueblo de San José de Guadalupe (now the City of San José) without bloodshed, on July 11. On July 14, 1846 he received an American Flag from Sloat, which he raised over the juzgado of San Jose, the pueblo’s administrative building. Fallon’s volunteers then joined Fremont’s California Battalion for the remainder of the war.

And . . . ? Where’s the grievance here? Is there any claim that Fallon did any harm to the Ohlone, or to anyone else for that matter?

It is noted that Fallon served under Fremont, who perpetrated various massacres against the natives, but (a) the Ohlone are not named among Fremont’s victims and (b) there is no suggestion that Fallon took part in these massacres. I’ve never had a high estimation of Fremont, knowing him from Civil War history mainly as a politically connected bumbler who got beat by Jackson in the Valley. But as for why Fremont’s subordinate, Captain Fallon, should be considered so controversial, I confess myself mystified. When “activist” types began tearing down Confederate statues, I was among many who warned that this irrational iconoclasm wouldn’t stop there, and so now they’ve taken down Captain Fallon’s statue in San Jose for no reason at all, except that he was a white man and, in the 21st century, no statues of white men can be tolerated, especially in California. Just give the whole state back to the Ohlones, as far as I’m concerned. They can’t ruin it worse than Democrats.



 

 

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    April 27th, 2023 @ 6:25 am

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