Ballot Propositions - Nov 2024 - Part 4

I'm going through the ballot propositions on the ballot here in the 2024 general election. In this 4th blog in the series I'll finish with the last two statewide propositions. But then I'll have to write at least a Part 5 to address the local props on the ballot. Whew!

Here are my previous blogs on this year's ballot propositions:

• Part 1: Props 2 & 3 and a few links on how props work
• Part 2: Props 4, 5, and 6
• Part 3: Props 32, 33, and 34

Now onto Props 35 and 36.

Prop 35: Permanent Funding for Medi-Cal: YES.

Medi-Cal is a program that funds health care for millions of poor people and children in California. One of its sources of funding, a tax on health insurance plans, will lapse if nothing changes. And that lapse would be a double whammy as the funding is matched by federal dollars. A YES vote on 35 makes the temporary funding permanent, at least at the state level. The federal matching... well, that depends on who wins the presidency.

Prop 36: Stiffer Criminal Penalties for Minor Crimes: NO.

Ten years ago California voters approved Prop 47, which reduced penalties on certain minor crimes such as small-time theft and drug use, reducing them from felonies to misdemeanors. Curiously the original motivation behind it was to reduce California's prison population— as federal courts had found the terrible conditions in the prisons unconstitutionally harsh and were threatening to release prisoners ad hoc if the state didn't reduce the prison population itself. That notwithstanding, many of us voted in favor of Prop 47 as a matter of rationalizing criminal law and promoting fairer social justice. Now, 10 years later, the lock-'em-up faction of politics is looking to repeal Prop 47.

The lock-'em-up side of politics warns us breathlessly of a crime wave sweeping our cities. Murders, drug use, homelessness (which isn't really a crime), and theft. Our cities, especially our cities where Democrats lead, are cesspools, they cry. But here are the facts: Crime overall is near a 50 year low. Yes, it ticked up a bit from absolute lows during part of the Covid pandemic, but signs are that it's coming back down.

"But what about rampant retail theft?" social critics ask. It turns out it's been overreported. The head of a drugstore chain admitted that they played up "theft" as a reason for their poor financial results and the need to close stores in some locations. Really the primary causes were a) overexpansion coupled with b) failure to adapt an outdated business model to the changing market. And as for stores locking up more and more products behind plexiglass... well, consider that the stores are doing this because they're cheaping out on staff to run the stores. When I go to my local CVS to fill prescriptions I notice that while the pharmacy often has 3 or even 4 people filling bottles, the whole rest of the store generally has one employee.

But let's not get too lost in the details. The big picture here is that we've been down the lock-'em-up road before. It doesn't work. It fills our prisons with low-level offenders who could be better reformed with treatment than incarceration, stresses available prison space to the point that conditions are inhumane, provokes a spending crisis as we confront the costs of having to build more prisons to house everyone we convict, and ultimately doesn't reduce the crime rate. Vote NO on 36.

Breaking Bad: Slow Start to Season 3

On Saturday this weekend I watched four episodes of Breaking Bad. Normally I don't like bingeing TV that much. ...And it wasn't just the ~4 hours of Breaking Bad I watched; I also watched 2 episodes of Lucifer, planting myself in front of the TV for almost 6 hours total. Why? Well, three reasons. 1) I was tired and still partly recovering from side effects of the shots I got on Friday. 2) I was relaxing after a week of work, because I deserve it. And 3) season 3 of Breaking Bad is off to such a slow start that I wanted to see if something would actually happen.

Across the first 4 episodes most of the main characters are spinning out of control. Walt, Skyler, Jesse, even Hank are all feeling sorry for themselves for various reasons and doing stupid things. Walt makes a pass at the principal and gets himself fired from work. Skyler seduces her boss and tells Walt, point-blank, what she's done. Walt makes a scene at the office trying to attack him. Jesse is moping about Jane's death still. Even months later he's compulsively dialing her phone over and over just to hear her voice on the greeting. (You'd think the phone company would've shut it off for non-payment at this point.) And Hank is trying to prove something to himself about how tough he is and is attacking people with no probable cause and getting his compatriot, Steve, to lie about it.

Once again the only person in this whole story who's sympathetic, or at least isn't a criminal and isn't doing stupid self-sabotage stuff, is Walt Jr., a 15 year old boy. Oh, and Holly, the infant. She's not doing anything bad. She's not even a fussy baby. Go, kids!

Across these first 4 episodes of S3 it's like there's enough action here for 1 really good episode or maybe 2 perfectly decent ones. But since it's stretched out across 4 hours.... Well, it's a good thing I'm already invested in this show, because if this were the beginning, I'd skip the rest.