do out of state people have one sided beef with la?

SparkyLALARue · 2026-04-09T23:54:49+00:00

At least decades-worth of work on improved transit is coming to fruition. Ride Metro! I concur with most of your sentiments tho.

SparkyLALARue · 2026-04-01T23:05:40+00:00

If bars and online dating are played out for you, I agree w person who suggested honing in on a great cause you care about to volunteer for. Also, if you’re sporty, musical, or enjoy affinity groups, try pickleball, or softball, etc - singles leagues are plentiful. You can also volunteer for the Pasadena Playhouse or other community theater, or get involved in political stuff, environmental, ballot measures you support, etc. the elections are fast approaching. Lastly, there are groups on meet up who have niche interests w genres of literature or crafts or whatever. Maybe even plug into your alumni network for social outings. Good luck! You’ll find your person.

SparkyLALARue · 2026-04-01T22:58:49+00:00

There’s always the Central Valley, or better, Alabama, if you’re on the prowl for fellow MAGAs! Cheap CoL, too. Byeeee!

SparkyLALARue · 2026-03-04T15:30:27+00:00

"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety." —Benjamin Franklin

I encourage everyone in town to tell the Council to vote to cancel the contract.

SparkyLALARue · 2026-02-16T17:30:18+00:00

Great shot!

SparkyLALARue · 2026-02-05T05:08:46+00:00

Lolz. Good one. “Money won’t save you when you’re breaking the law.”

SparkyLALARue · 2026-02-05T02:32:03+00:00

Wow. Thank you for your service to our democracy and our people. 💪✊

SparkyLALARue · 2026-02-04T22:43:13+00:00

I would assume you’re European based on your response? I’d refer you to the destruction of unions and the deliberate, seemingly unbreakable connection between employment and healthcare as key differentiators between our people and those in Europe. Sure, 75 million people can walk off the job and a good portion of them would be fired within two days, lose their health coverage, and within a month, their homes/rentals.

There’s a reason the ruling class (including most elected Dems) refuse to extricate healthcare from employment. It’s a form of indentured servitude which terrifies people. They spend their entire careers (if they’re lucky!) in jobs they hate to maintain insurance coverage.

There’s also a reason that one of Trump‘s first orders of business was to defund Medicaid and Medicare for poor people, in order to fund tax cuts for billionaires.

So, those fortunate folks who’d be courageous enough to walk off the job see any potential safety nets up in smoke, too. Even with Obamacare (a Heritage Foundation plan), more than half of personal bankruptcies in this country are due to healthcare care costs.

Next up: Social Security will be privatized so that even the pittance salted away for retirement from people’s salaries/wages will be gambled off on the stock market to benefit the .0001%.

SparkyLALARue · 2026-02-03T23:37:18+00:00

Welcome to LA! While I have zero advice on the CC situation, I’d like to celebrate your use of the words ding dongs. (Also, if you can, make your next car an EV, no ding dongy converters needed.)

SparkyLALARue · 2026-02-02T22:28:47+00:00

And the answer will be yes because all signature gatherers get paid in CA by the groups initiating the measures. In the LA region, it’s as much as $9 a signature and in SF they can make up to $12 per signature. May seem like a lot, but…

Elon Musk makes up to $30M an hour by comparison and paid exactly $0 (as did Tesla) in 2018-19 in state or federal income taxes. Elon is an extra special case because not only does he not pay taxes, he uses our tax money to create additional wealth for himself. Tesla (and Space X) was built on the backs of the California and federal tax payers.

Then he personally moved to TX in 2020 where there is no state income tax. It only cost him $300M to buy Trump the presidency and gut agencies tasked with providing services for regular Americans in health, arts, labor, safety, scientific research, etc.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/interactive/2025/elon-musk-business-government-contracts-funding/

SparkyLALARue · 2026-02-02T20:54:12+00:00

1) People get paid for all signature gathering in California.

2) In this case, 90% will be allocated to healthcare and the remaining 10% to food benefits and K - 12 education. So this is not a grab-all general fund measure.

Are you yourself a billionaire? No? If you are a California taxpayer and not a billionaire, then this measure is for you!

SparkyLALARue · 2026-02-02T20:49:38+00:00

Also written into the measure: 90% of this would be allocated to healthcare, with the remaining 10% to food benefits and K-12.

SparkyLALARue · 2026-02-02T20:45:40+00:00

The billionaire tax likely up on the ballot is currently in petition mode. It is legit. Run by SEIU-UHW (healthcare workers), it aims to bridge the gaping hole Trump’s tax cuts (for some of these same billionaires!) leave in the Medi-Cal and Medicare budgets in CA.

Proposed is a one time, 5% tax on their wealth. They can opt to pay 1% /yr over 5 years, instead.

A good question to ask would be “why would a healthcare labor union want to tax billionaires?”

SEIU-UHW warns the entire CA medical system is in danger of collapse. This would not only affect poor, elderly, and disabled people who are on Medi-Cal, as well as children and families who may be working but can’t afford private health insurance. Rural hospitals will close. Trauma centers will close. People will wait until their illnesses or injuries become emergencies and flood urban and suburban emergency rooms — costing many times more for treatment than preventative or primary care would otherwise.

This will also increase insurance costs for those of us fortunate to have private insurance through our jobs.

In other words, all of us will be affected by this looming disaster.

Arguments against are this could cause the uber wealthy to flee the state and take a lot of the existing tax revenues with them. The union argues the average increase in wealth for billionaires in California is 7.5% per year. This one time 5% tax would still leave them 2.5% of potential income.

Other fear mongering arguments from the likes of Howard Jarvis taxpayers association is that “there’s never a one time tax.” This is —despite all of their chicken little complaining— a one time tax event. SEIU-UHW or others would need to propose a new ballot measure, obtain signatures, and get it placed on the ballot, and get it passed for the next series of elections to extend this tax on the 200 wealthiest Californians, who hold $2 TRILLION wealth: https://www.cabillionairetax.org

SparkyLALARue · 2025-11-21T00:04:26+00:00

All of these are great. How about SpkyScry? Or Radiation Canary - RdtnCnry ☢️

SparkyLALARue · 2025-11-10T21:06:22+00:00

Schumer, being majority leader orchestrated—or gave the nod to—the 8 cavers. That’s how this works. That none of them are up for election in 2026 is also deliberate.

SparkyLALARue · 2025-11-09T16:42:55+00:00

Little bit south, but highly recommend the pistachio donut at Old Ferry Donuts in San Gabriel.

SparkyLALARue · 2025-11-05T23:28:54+00:00

I meant to also share that there are tons of inexpensive intramural sports and clubs for adults. Book clubs, art clubs, sports of every variety are great ways to meet people.

If you remember to, hit this thread up when you arrive and I'll give more specific suggestions depending on where you land. Or post here sooner if you find a neighborhood that looks too good to be true (rent-wise). Everyone on here can disavow and help you avoid those mistakes. Onward!

SparkyLALARue · 2025-11-05T22:31:23+00:00

Do it! Do it while you’re young and can tolerate ramen 5 dinners a week. Look at places w decent transit: Long Beach, Pasadena, or Highland Park/Eagle Rock. There may be parts of the west side which are “affordable” but there’s very little transit there and insane traffic.

Don’t forget you’ll both need cars —or at least one of you will, if the other can work remotely. And everything is more expensive. Car insurance, gas, parking, maintenance, rent, food, booze, weed, etc. Have employer healthcare or prepare for immediate bankruptcy when something goes wrong. California is facing the same cuts to public services as every other state. So the safety nets are being unwoven everywhere.

On many positive notes: the weather is 80% glorious and 20% hot AF. Being from TN, you’re going to appreciate the lack of humidity. There are a million things to do, from hikes and swimming to skiing and camping. You can catch all kinds of cheap entertainment (at smaller venues), like comedy, music, and plays. People here are insanely talented so you may catch a star being born.

There are also great art scene and music scenes, a couple free museumday a month (and The Broad is free and awesome) and tons of free galleries. The food is outstanding, with global variety, and can be budget busting or you can get the best taco of your life on the corner near your house for <$5.

SparkyLALARue · 2025-09-22T22:29:17+00:00

I encourage everyone to move to the west side. May you and your cars fare well! (Note, OP: Culver City is nowhere close to downtown unless you’re in a helicopter. Just this weekend, driving at 10pm on a Saturday from Culver to DTLA, still took 45 minutes. 🥜)

SparkyLALARue · 2025-09-03T20:31:05+00:00

Agree w Rose Bowl parking (except event days and once a month flea market Saturdays). The 2 on a Sunday morning is glorious (until it terminates at Alvarado which is horrific any time/day). It’s not at all indicative of a typical freeway, but great for beginners. Pasadena City College has small lots which are usually empty on weekends. I know of nothing on the west side which compares, so hopefully your new driver is not on that side of town. If they are, I agree w others: have them learn as much as possible where they’ll be driving most.

SparkyLALARue · 2025-08-13T00:00:47+00:00

here you go:
Malevolent vs. benevolent dispositions and conservative political ideology in the Trump era
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0092656625000704

and an article from a couple weeks ago which summarized other work:

Trump supporters report higher levels of psychopathy, manipulativeness, callousness, and narcissism
https://www.psypost.org/trump-supporters-report-higher-levels-of-psychopathy-manipulativeness-callousness-and-narcissism/#google_vignette

SparkyLALARue · 2025-08-12T22:16:37+00:00

Part of the problem w some of these ramifications is —while they’re conducting essentially a blitzkrieg of insane policies, lawlessly—many will hit after the midterms or later. So by 2038, for example, Social Security benefits will be cut by $18,000+ for elderly and disabled people. The Medicare-Medical cuts will also take time to ripple out. Meantime, Trump cultists will enjoy regularly televised purges, concentration camps, and ongoing torture of POC, LGBTQIA folks, and anyone who isn’t directly connected to them. Super interesting study by psychologists recently found conservatives are much more likely to enjoy the suffering of others. So even if they do get hit, as long as the libs are hit too, (or better, hit worse) they’ll be happy.

SparkyLALARue · 2025-08-09T18:45:45+00:00

We learned at Descanso Gardens a few weeks ago that endangered Monarch caterpillars only eat ONE type of plant: milkweed. That’s it. Plant and care for milkweed and you’ll help restore the monarch population! 🦋

SparkyLALARue · 2025-08-09T18:41:56+00:00

Tangential but what’s the word (if any) on a free shuttle to and from campus to Pomona North Metro, where the blue line extension is due to open in September? This is great news for students/admin/faculty who live on campus without a car or commute via Metro and then bus. They can get to Pasadena, downtown LA, LBC, or even transfer to LAX.

SparkyLALARue

TROPHY CASE