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do it there. Thank you. I want to welcome everyone
back to the Pekingana Show. Thomas is here to do
part two of our series on California. How are you
doing Thomas.
Speaker 2: I'm going well, re part to I'm gonna continue discussing
the sociological factors they created California and some of the
historical imperatives that shape its political culture. You know, they're
in the final part. I'll get into some of the
data I coded about, you know, post war electioneering and things,
and why the claim that's alleged about it being you know,
a permanent blue state is calf that's kind of what
people are waiting for. But this is important and for
for not just for context, but you know, if you'
you really got to understand that California is an outside significance,
not just because of the electoral votes that it holds.
You know, John F. Kennedy. Kennedy's election was a really
really big deal and it was far more significant than
Leg Obama's election. I mean, Obama was like the equivalent
of an industry plant. Anyway, it was a kind of
a fake camp like gon't gonna be wrong, Like Obama
actually did have a ground organization. And Obama is like
a very cunning campaigner, unlike unlike Missus Harris and unlike
unlike President Shithead. You know, he like he wasn't like
a totally fake candidate in that regard, but him being
just this kind of like random immigrant guy who was
you know, being promoted within the kind of broader narrative
of wokeism. Like it's really not that remarkable, like Kennedy,
like this this Irish Catholic guy being president in ninety sixty.
That was that was a really big deal. But it's
also what's notable about that is that was like the
last hurrah of like the East Coast establishment unless you
count the Bushes, and I really don't, because the Bush
family really made their fortune in Texas, you know, and
they they they've got like East Coast roots, but they're
they're not part of like the East Coast establishment, and
that really was the center of the political universe and
America until the seventies. Man. And then after that, you know,
there was Johnson and I you know, Johnson went down
in flames, and in arguably in sixty four he was
uh running against like a lame duck in gold Water.
But the fact that he was on the ticket at
all was significant because he was this Southern guy, you know,
and uh, post reconstruction, like the South, I mean, the
South was never not significant in elect Purple College terms,
but they've very much been but like marginalized. But then
so subsequently, you get Nixon from California, you get Carter
from the South, you get Reagan from California, you get
Clinton from the South. You get Bush, who's you know,
like a text like a Southwest guy for all practical purposes,
you know, it's the governor of Texas. You know, you
get Clinton to the southern guy. Like this, like the
south Northwest became like the new like the center of
the political universe. Okay, in California like started shooting ahead
of New York, is not just the most populous state,
you know, but also kind of like the center of
high tech, like the terrestrial economy during World War Two,
Like people don't understand that agree to which there was
this like like savage hostility to capitalism. And that's onely
the catipal that Roosevelt and in power. And it wasn't
just it wasn't as New Dealer as you thought that way,
like arguably other than the social engineering stuff, like Roosevelt
basically appropriated Huey Long's platform, you know, and and and
Long in the in the American context. Long, so we'd
consider it like a radical right wing populist. I mean,
like yeah, like he he was a socialist in terms
of his like redistribute redistribution schemes and it's like a
state tics sing. But but that's the way everybody thought
in the nineteen thirties. So I go to getting it
is like across the entire spectrum. Like basically, like would
characterize everybody's politics was like a hatred of big business
and a hatred of Wall Street. Like World War Two
gonna change that, accidentally, because Roosevelt obviously he had to
go all in with like making nice not just with
Wall Street, but also with these guys who you know,
were at the helm of these of these terrestrial like
valuated manufacturing firms, you know, particularly these nascent like aircraft firms,
you know, and people who are on the forest model
to make you know, like war materials and these industries
that could be converted you know to you know, to
to wartech manufacturers and things. And this was this was
centered in California, Okay, and subsequently, like California became kind
of like the hyper capitalist like hub, you know. And
I emphasize this not just because it's the key to
understanding like California is important and why it's powerful and
also why they kind of like after the Cold War
and you know, and and and the subsequent like information
revolution and the financialization of the economy, like the reason
why California inherited that like high tech mantle like for
the reasons I said, So that's a gain. Another reason
why this idea that California is like this like rabidly socialist,
uh political culture, Like that's cap like that that doesn't
make any sense, you know, Like don't get me wrong.
They're like the they're not just kidding about the you know,
the taxation scheme, and and then they're killing your capital
base like like outright you know, but that that always
to like what I'm getting at is that that's not organic, Okay,
Like it's not it's not something that came from the bottom.
And it's not because the California voters like slip like
slew the perial Golden goose because they just like rose
up one day and they're like, yeah, we're not going
to tolerate this anymore. Like we you know, we want
we want this absurd tax rate and and we we
we hate McDonald douglas and we hate Silicon Valley like
like none of it, you know, like it. I mean
that that's we'll get into more of this in part
three because some of that it was two to like
the the fibrication of the of you know, the managerial elite,
like from the high tech and manufacturing sector, and that
that was a huge thing. And like some of the
people like Burnham didn't really foresee like Seawright Mills, he's
probably a little he's probably a little like left wing
for some people's taste. I think he was an important
sociologist and in some ways I think can inside Burnham
didn't but you know Burnham and Burnham wasn't incorrect in
his that. But really from really until the end of
the Cold War, although by the close of the eighties,
like this was changing there there wasn't there was an
integral aspect to the manager serial state. You know, the
guys who in policy planning were else the guys who
you know worked for big companies in advisory roles or
CEO roles, you know, like Robert Manton Era was like
the case in point. Okay, So there's this there's this
kind of like rotation of eleads from like the public
to the private sector, and like applied technology was king
in terms of what had clout as well as what
you know, could could kind of compete for subsidies and things,
you know, and it was it wasn't just it wasn't
just defense contractors either. I mean it was a general
technolo we used to be called like general technology firms,
you know, telecom obviously, but slowly with surely, you know,
like political managers and private sector managers that came like
started coming from different places, you know, and and increasingly
like there was less of this kind of like incestuous
like cross pollination, you know, and then by the nine
it was kind of complete, you know, and that's not
accidental either. Then suddenly like oh, California is no longer
you know what it's been for one hundred and forty years,
Like now it's you know, now now it's this like
radically progressive you know, kind of kind of like socialist
experiment that can never ever go republican again. Like that's
like like of emphatizing this stuff to demonstrate why in
kind of totality of circumstances terms like what's the alleged
about it is not possible, but we're going to continue
first a bet on, you know, in the same vein
as in the first episode, and that people seem to
respond well to that. So I don't think it's gonna
bore them. But I mean it's important. I'm not just
you know, this isn't just like a hobby of mine
or something to drop, you know, factoid heavy narratives or something.
It's it's essential to understanding kind of like my thesis.
And we'll get into that part three. But anyway, I
think we left up last time with talking about these
guys like Winfield Scott and Zachary Taylor and Jefferson Davis
and the Mexican War and how the Mexican War and
President Polk who's an underrated president. You know that this
was kind of like the day one experience of California,
you know, and and and there were there was a
profoundly like economic imperative behind California's capture. You know that
that that wasn't the whole story, you know, like there
was like like we talked about, I I've got nothing
about love for the Confederacy. I've got anything about love
for the South. And I mean they're they're like my people,
you know, like ethnic and sectarian terms, but there was
there was a very thirsty element among them who who
believed in manifest destiny. Okay, like California was kind of
the gateway to that, like literally, you know, because a
lot of these guys they wanted to essentially replace the
Spaniards and and it's suates themselves kind of as as
this as this boss element over this formerly Spanish American
slave empire. Like quite literally, that's not some sort of
dystopian Mother Joanes kind of narrative or something like. That's true.
Not passing real judgment on that that would have went
a dysfunctional outcomes, but you know, not not for not
for reasons of purely ethical nature or anything like that.
But you know, even before the wars, when the states
kicked off, it kind of became clear that that that
wasn't going to be abided. And then you know, the
California gold Rush, I think we got in. I think
thats about where we left off. The California Golden Rush,
you know, change everything and for all time. It meant that,
you know, the federal government was going to be deeply
insinuated into into California's fortunes and in terms of it's
infrastructural development in terms of its political assimilation, you know,
like it at it's so when to the gold rus
California was like fast track for a lot of like
nass and infrastructure. Okay, from like the eighteen fifties until
like really until like the nineteen fifties and sixties. Okay,
the uh there was this there's this giant logistics firm
and this guy named John Butterfield. He got a federal
contract to carry mail overland from Memphis and Saint Louis,
you know, which was kind of the that's kind of
like the westernmost frontier of truly developed America, you know,
like the South and the like the Near South and
the Midwest, like near near in Proxi terms where I am,
and so like twice a week, these uh these stage
coaches that run through Preston passed so Ayuma to the
Pacific coast, and like he had paid so it would
take twenty twenty five days, which was like rapid in
those days. The Russell Major and Woodell Company, they were
another like big logistics firm. Right before the Civil War.
They they carried something they had a fleet of something
like six thousand wagons and oxen like all told, they
were they were all they were like a big rival
to Pony Express also, but eventually, like they they kind
of developed their own like niche and and they were
moving more like freight rather like what we considered to
be like freight, you know, rather than like like letters
and telegrams and stuff like that. But you know this
was this was like an her of you know, not
just because you know, there wasn't like the kind of
concentrated necessity you know, to serve like a discrete market
like bit. But you know this this was being like
rapidly subsidized. You know, like the like like Washington like
had its sites in California as like a literal gold ninth,
you know, after the at the discovery of these like
massive gold reserves. Samuel Morse, yes, that Morris, you know
they get the architect of Morse code. You know, he
was like an early telecom uh like pioneer obviously you
know the uh like wiring up uh like like why
why are he got thirty thousand dollars appropriated for the
Washington Baltimore like uh like telegraph line, which was like
an incredible like fortune in those days, you know, and
like the it was that line was first used. It
transmitted cable like by it transmitted by cable between the
wig and the and the Democratic Republican conventions and in
the eighteen forties, which is kind of wild, that was
like the first uh that that was like the first
like news wire between and you know conventions. You know,
so like people had both situated at both locales could
could like be advised of what was happening. You know.
That's why we talk about literally the news wire, you know,
like that that term like never thought of favor for
whatever reason, you know. And so the so the uh
Morris died in the early eighteen seventies and memory serves,
but you know, like they him and his firm got
like a huge amount of public money, so like wire
up California and like before I mean it's like a
twentieth century obviously, or the twenty firth century in terms
of a lobbying and like modern lobbying as we think
of it, that really didn't come into exist. And it's
so like grand administration, like this idea of like I'm
a I'm a businessman, or i am or I'm some
Wall Street type and I can I could just approach
Congress and like make my case and be like yeah,
I need you know, I need twenty thousand dollars, which
I adjusting for inflation. I mean that's that's like tens
of millions of dollars today. You know that. You know
this idea, you can just kind of like approach congressmen
or senators or approach the cabinet like the secretary the
Interior or something of a of an incoming president, and
it's like make your pitch for for subsidies, like I
was basically unheard of. Ian's that's just like something you
could do, you know. So but I mean if you
but if you had business in California relating to infrastructure,
like like basically like like watching it like shovel money
at you, you know, and then the hugely significance man
hugely significant, you know, and like a telegraph, it quickly
became like indispensable to government, you know. And this is
also the uh, this is uh. This is also the
origins of the Associated Press, you know, like AP, like
the AP news wire started in eighteen twenty seven, which
is insane, you know, and originally originally it was it
was it was local in New York, you know, but
then they like like ap started like utilizing the fact
that California is going wired up, you know, to to
literally be able to like dissemminate like coast to coast news.
Like how like how validated news was is is an
open ended question, you know, like fake news isn't like
a new thing. But you know, like all this like
what what President Polk's angle and all this was on
aside from like the obvious and this is hugely important too.
You know, Texas was always basically what the reason on
the reason the federal government had its site so much
in California, and it was like salivating that's what they'd
wanted Texas to be. You know, like like Texas is
as it's just like a bounty of of of natural
wealth in the new world. You know, like it's it's incredible.
You know, it's got it's got it's got the it's
got the commodities and and the and the convertible energy
resources of like ten countries you know, like to this day,
like it's it's insane. But you know, Texas is always problematic.
In Texas of course also like joined the Confederates. You know,
we weren't there yet, you know, during Pokes administration. But
I mean the Texans basically wouldn't play ball, and like
Texas political culture there, there was always these problems. I mean,
those those kind of endor to this day, although it's
different now. I mean, in obvious Texas is no longer
they they've lost their they've they've lost the storms as
it were, for any kind of like rebel political culture.
And they're they're so deeply insinuated into into the military
industrial apparatus that then be kind of like an thinkable today.
But you know, but Texas has always kind of found
on its own program, you know, and it's always they're
or and there was like discrete power bases there, you know,
particularly related to to what became like agri business and stuff.
You know, So people like Pope they were looking at
California and saying, like, you know, well this we can
we get basically like make California and whatever image we want,
you know, and we can allocate it to resources and
stuff where we want, you know, and we're not gonna
like brush up against this uh like established power there,
you know, and we're not gonna we're not gonna be
have to deal with like a house of political culture.
And you know, such that we can like convince people
to move there. You know, they're gonna credit us with
with kind of creating this utopia where like everything's wired up.
You know, you got you've got you know, you've got
like electricity. There's another huge thing and I'll get to
that in a minute. Was like literally wiring up California
electricity and like farmhouses and residences, which is like a
herd of its scale, you know, basically like making California
is like a tractive as possible. And then like when
people like when you when these when these day one
pioneer types arrived there, you know they'll they'll have like
you know, they'll look at Washington. It's like this benevolent agent,
you know that made this possible. And I'm sure that
people like listening or watching right now, they're making the
connection that like this is a lot like how Walt
Disney thought, and they're right, it is way to that
in a minute. But you know, the uh, the poke's
interesting too because he he was he was like this
genius polymath. He was an expert mathematician. He was born
in North Carolina, he migrated the Tennessee. Served in Congress.
He was Speaker of the House. He was governor for
two years. And but but he was all so he
was also like an old school Southerner, like you know
what a plantation. He was a slave owner, like he
was part of what you know, this the Confederacy's ops,
you know, the rice that we called the slave power.
But again, he was like this high speed mathematician and
this kind of like polymath and like he had a
deep understanding of technology, you know, but he's kind of
casts like this. He's kind of cast as like this stodgy,
like old guy who represented this kind of reactionary tendency,
you know. And yeah, I mean it's not totally false,
but that that's kind of like the wrong takeaway from
Polk and his administration, you know. And he uh he
was an acolyte of Andrew Jackson. I can't remember we
got into that or not so much that people called
him young Hickory. So he had credibility. It's like this
kind of like populist, uh like white Yaloman type, you know.
And that's one of the reasons why he was like
so effective, you know, because like he actually was those things.
It wasn't it wasn't just this kind of like fake
narrative around him. Remarkable guy. You know, I'm a big
fan of him, as people probably discerned, and I don't
think he's a president people read about her anymore. But
you know, at Uh, people like Paul Johnson playing that
Pope was the first president who was killed by the office,
you know, and he kept uh, he screwags, They kept
a diary and it was clearly like the stress and
the workload was killing him, you know, and at Uh
kind of the most like obvious inflavorant instance of that
is Wilson, but I mean Polke also, like the pressures
these guys were under are incredible, like even today, even
kind of an empty suit like Obama, like he made
a lot of the fact that you know, like in
a few years ago his heroin Gray and stuff, you know,
like it's it's like an exhausting role even now when
there's all kinds of advantages and you're basically a pr
man and not like a real executive. You know. That's
why when I mean obviously a lot of the stems
from a kind of debased hostility to the man. But
with the world media outlets and not not just American ones,
they talk about how like awful quote unquote awful Putin looks.
It's like, well, he's a guy in his seventies. I
think he probably beat cancer because all indications point to that,
and the Russians are notoriously close to the chest about
health problems with anybody, let alone their leadership. But you know,
he's a war executive, and the pressures that man is
under are unfathomable. I think ust A remarkably good considering
all of that. But that's something of a tangent forgive this.
But the the kind of key to all this that
I just suggested, I mean, obviously, like the gold Rush
happened immediately after the Mexican War, and a lot of
these ideas at scale kind of ossified in the aftermath
of of the of the Guadalupe Hidalgo Treaty. But Pope, Pope,
Pope wanted to go to war in mexicoaks he wanted California. Okay,
Like the men who actually fought the war, you know,
guys like Jackson, Guys like Zaggary Taylor, guys like Stowell
Jackson not Andrew, guys like Winfield Scott. I mean, they
had they had a sense of like white man Southern
honor about it, obviously, and you know they had they
had they had like a warrior's mentality about it, you know,
and a lot of you know, these manifest destiny types.
Also they viewed it in like nakedly theological terms, and
there's nothing wrong with that. It's one of the things
that made American strong. I mean, that's one of the
things that makes our people strong, like you know, white dissenters.
But uh, that was not Paul's and Ocean Pope wand
in California, Okay, because he was he was kind of
like Wilson and kind of like Eisenhower in this regard
like what everybody thinks like Wilson or I politically, that's
not what I'm getting at. Like, they they had serious
foresight in terms of infrastructural potentials and you know the
exploitability of nature's bounty and as well as you know,
how America's incredible wealth could translate into applied technology and
in industry and things. And that's also why you know,
I can't remember I mentioned this before. Pope Pope promised
only served one term, and he did. And I think
that's part of why, you know, back in those days,
like medical treatment wasn't what it is today. I mean,
Pope was not in particularly good health. I I when
when he he he was a war executive who won,
He was a conquering hero, America got Mexico. He was
able to lock in basically these kind of key infrastructural projects,
like I think it was basically like mission accomplished. And
younger people dont really understand this, I don't think, but
it was on the slight on them. There's no way
they would And I plan to be around for a minute.
I'm not like planning to die. But I do have
like more time behind me than in front. And I
do understand now why people, especially men, when they're like, okay,
mission accomplished, it's kind of like your body almost gives out,
you know, Like it's it's interesting. I'm not trying to
be morbid, but it's significant when we're discussing that the
kinds of personages and historical imperatives that we are. But
you know, the uh you know, And again, there's a
lot of cap around the Mexican War. There's a lot
of historians, that lot of trational historians kind of cast
the Mexicans with a bunch of fools and people who
aren't don't have a charitable view of of Polk or
or the Confederacy or the South or white people, if
you po just kind of like this greedy opportunist other
people like Howard Zinn types. They claim, well, obviously there
was fore knowledge of California's gold wealth and so that
this was this was like based like an economic heist,
like none, none of those things are true, Like that's
the demonstrably false, Like this was what it appears to be.
And that's we got into the whole issue with the
negotiations between between Larkin and and Slow and this kind
of informal contingent that was based in Monterey, that that
then managed to low ball the Mexicans and pay them
only half would have been allocated for you know, these
concessions which originally slate at thirty million dollars then have
the you know, fifteen million. But it's you know, but
when Mexico's actually treated pretty generously, you know, they were
they were compensated there. There a lot of their debts
were repudiated. And in Mexico then is now had a
terrible reputation for accruing massive public debts and then just
simply like welshing on them. And somehow that tracks like
with Mexicans. And I'm not trying to like trash like
like Spanish people or something, but it's just funny to
think about. But uh the uh and also too and
we'll move on from this in a minute, but this
is important. You know, the Mexican government was was violently
anti American. You know, it's that that wasn't just some
sort of rationale in the books as the causes Billy,
you know, that is true. And some people seem to
forget that because they do Mexico is albeit you know
of the in the era. I mean, they do it
you know, possibly as corrupt and stuff and the way
that unfortunately a lot of political cultures based on the
Iberian model are, but they viewed it as basically this
kind of like European colonial power that was uh that
that was fighting a race war against the Apache and
so they they they for some reason in their mind
it's like, well, no, you know, how how in America
and how especially the American South and Mexico not be friendly.
They were serious. There was serious enmity there, and the
Mexicans hated America like their government. I mean, I don't.
It's outside the scope. But one of the reasons why,
like Mexican people and whites, I mean, yeah, there's tensions there,
as there always are between peoples, but they do get
along better than than other populations like on the street,
in square life and ever. And that's an interesting topic.
But obviously it's OUTSI the scope. But I I don't
believe that Mexican people had some like a biting hatred
of America. You better believe that their government did, you know,
And and that kind of divide between I mean, there
really was like a chasmic distance between like the ruling
caste in Mexico and like the common manner woman like that.
Speaker 1: That's what really screwed it up when when it became
blatantly communist, oh yeah, became much more hostile.
Speaker 2: No, in Mexico is a screwy. We're getting ahead of ourselves.
But even like the Zimmermann Telegram, a lot of that
was cap Like, I don't it's not like the Mexicans
are imminently going to like assault the Southwest. But the
very fact that I mean, I mean Wilhelm was was
not a good ruler and just not a good guy
in all kinds of ways, but I and something of stupid.
I mean he he was always saying stupid things, you know,
where there was like firing off a cable to Paul
Krueger's antagonized the British for no reason, or you know,
setting off the Zimmerman Telegram. But but the fact that
the Mexicans were receptive to that, I mean that kind
of speaks for itself, you know, like the I mean,
the Mexican government today doesn't like America and vice versa.
I mean I realized they got like a fake government.
Now they got this like dumpy Yenta lady. I mean
it's it's it's like a combination like hertel shit then
and you know, big big money interests of a transnational
sort and like like security state interests. I mean, she's
not like the real control there. But with the reason
why she always like mouths these stupid platitudes about you know,
like evil Weighty and evil Yankee Tom. I mean that
that that's got deep roots there. You know, it's not
it's it's not some like new thing or whatever. But
the and the and it's all do too. We'll move
on minute. But for the military hounds, on deck or
are going to be watching. And this is important too.
You know, the the Mexican Wars and specifically the assault
on Mexico City, that was like the first real use
of combined arms in the sense we think of it. Yeah,
I know, field artillery it existed for a long time,
but that coordination between you know, artillery and the infantry
element and that kind of like advance of fire in
Closewitzian duc Trintal terms, that was the first time that
had been that that had been practiced in you know,
at scale, you know, and and especially it was it
was it was it was certainly into a first impression
in America. And that one of the reasons why the
Confederates were so tough. It's not just because of you know,
like the the kind of warrior culture of of of
the American South, which still exists today, is because these
guys are all cut their teeth fighting the Mexican War,
you know, with what was then cutting edge wartech man,
you know, like they and this was splendidly executed. And
that was it was guys like Zachary Taylor and guys
like Stonewall, you know, who were like leading company level elements,
but like Winfield Scott. It was Winfield Scott really planned
that operation, you know, and uh Robert E. Lee was
a captain on the ground. McClelland was there, Grant Jefferson Davis,
who was a it was a full colonel. It's literally
like a who's who of you know, the men who
commanded forces in the war between the States. It was
also uh Scott's Winfield Scott's army. It was the first
amphibious assault ever mounted by US forces on March March ninth,
eighteen forty seven, at Vera, Cruz. And it was carried,
it was it was it went off without loss, with
with like no no attrition on on the side of
American forces. So it's so that the Mexican War is
important a lot of reasons. And I think people way
you look at it, it's kind of like this this
nothing thing, or they look at it like the War
of eighteen twelve contra the Revolutionary War or something. I mean,
warriating twelve is important too, but they's it's it was
really important. It's own right for oh, all kinds of reasons.
But yeah, I I realized I gotta pick up the pace.
But but you know, just on uh on, it's in
it in in brass tacks terms, just in in value
neutral terms and in a political terms, California wasn't even
greater prize than Texas, you know, like not not accounting
for the things that were precluding the full kind of
realization of territorial potential or exploitation they were in depending
on we fall on judgments, I suppose, but California the name,
it's it's it's it's got a name that's like resident
in fantasy, like it's Providence. I mean it was named
after this imaginary island in this kind of like epic
romance by or donate his name on Talbo that was
published like right around fifteen one hundred and hernand Court
has uh like like new of knew of it and
would reference it and it uh, I guess he's not
much thought like at first. True, like permanent settlement by
the Spaniards didn't begin until the seventy sixties, like a
settlement a scale, I mean you know of of of
you know, of both sexes and of you know, like
at Yaloman r as we think of it, you know
what I mean. Before then it was it was Franciscan
missions and it was uh freebooters and and like pirates,
you know, like Partezum Sells, but it was like a
warrior like pirate, like freebooter, you know. And the Franciscan
missions between San Diego and San Diego were San Francisco
and San Diego were ubiquitous. You know. The uh, the
catlic Church owned a huge amount of California until the
Spanish crown and then later you know, these various uh
charter companies began, like the vesting Rome like of its holdings.
But uh, you know there California has got an incredibly
rare climate. Uh, the fertility of its soil was basically
like unheard of. People had never seen anything like it.
The range and aacial resources is literally boundless. You know.
Everybody wanted a piece of it. The Russians had formed
a plan, like the Tsaris to Russia at the beginning
of the nineteenth century. They formed a plan to establish
permanent settlements in California at the mouth of the Columbia
River and also in Hawaii. They want to do the
same thing. And like Hawaii is going to be like
their springboard. Basically, like nothing came of it for a
lot of reasons and you know, by the close of
the by the close of the of the nineteenth century,
I mean, Russia was was very much like uh, like
like the sick man of empires. But this wasn't just
fantasy like you know, this just to get an idea
like how much it was coveted, you know, and we're
gonna go ahead of ourselves who one of this two.
It wasn't totally insane, like it was to pretend that like, oh,
the Germans are coming to kill us. It wasn't totally
insane to postulate that the Japanese would want California to
I mean obviously, like there would have there were a
bunch of there's what half it us in like preconditions
that would have needed to kind of be splitidly realized
before Japan couldn't even contemplate that in operational terms. But
you better believe that was one of their kind of
like that that would have been like the jewel in
the crown of like ultimate objectives for the for like
a victorious like Japanese empire, you know, because it would
have had to have been you know the uh. One
of the things that rufed the Russian ambitions was that
when relations between the United States and the United Kingdom,
which didn't really mend until, you know, until the first
decade of the twentieth century. But in the eighteen twenties,
the US Navy and the Royal Navy basically collaborated to
cut to cut off the Russian Navy's like Pacific Fleet
from being able to access the sea lanes that needed
to in order to realize these ambitions it had in
the West coast of the New World, you know. And
that's I mean, what really took Russia out of the
game as a maritime power that was able to project
transcontinentally was the Russo Japanese War. The Japanese literally like
slaughtered and sank the Russian Navy and in nineteen oh five.
But that was such a big deal, and not just
because it was you know, the not just because it
indicated that Japan had arrived as a world power comparable
in the power projection capability into the European naval forces,
but also until then, the Russian the Imperial Russian Navy
was a serious threat. It had serious threat potential. You know,
whoever was likely to be situated as an opposing force
to it. And that's one of the things that in
bolden Polk because after the eighteen twenties he was basically
being told by many would know, look like the of
the Spanish slash Mexican hold on in California Oregon is
uh is feeble at best? Which it was, and what
really steal a deal? A guy evened Wilkes. He was
a young officer. He was a lieutenant or a yeah,
I think it was a lieutenant. I can never remember,
like what the what the naval equivalent is of an
army captain because like a naval captain is like a colonel.
But uh, Wilson some kind of junior officer the US
Navy and uh in eighteen forty one, you know, half
half a decade before the Mexican War, the Strategic Survey
was commissioned of the Eastern Pacific and what came to
be kind of the focus of it, like as got underway,
was you know, was sam for Cisco and then the
entire like San Francisco region, you know, and and how
it was literally like a gold mine, and how it
was you know, it was like an essential it had
it was an essential capture, you know, if America was
going to become if America is going to become like
a truly like self contained like continental power, like the
idea like superpowers obviously didn't exist in and it was
contemplation then, but like it's fancting to read like what
Wilkes like put the paper and you just like the
impressions of these guys. We're worldly people, you know, like
a lot of these guys had been around the world,
even those we had like they basically been like all
through like the Spanish Empire and stuff. Uh, you know it.
They talked about California like it's like freaking shangra lot
or something, which I guess it kind of is. But
okind the time we got okay, we're going on for
about forty two minutes or I'll pick up the pace
if I'm being boring or repetitive, like let me know,
but it's a it's all good, okay, good deal. This
huge boom. Like by by the eighteen eighties, California had
about a quarter million people. You know, it was uh,
it was rapidly becoming the financial and cultural hub you know,
of the West, which at that time was still like
wide open space. Obviously even is there really is Like
the eighteen eightiesnob Hill was a nob hill was a
was like Beverly Hills of the day, but even more
so there was like you had mansions that were worth
a million dollars, which is basically like a billion dollar
house like in today's money. Like I think it's point
of people a lot. They can't really contact the wealth.
If you were like a millionaire in like the eighteen
sixties or eighteen eighties, it's like unfathomable. It's not just
like being a rich guy or like these guys like
Andrew Carnegie, like the like the power they had, Like
these guys literally were uh like masses the universe, you know,
like they could like they like like like world leaders
that like gravel before them, you know, like they they
owned like double digit percentages of like the GDP. Like
that's like unfamomable. Now, Like even a guy like Elon Musk,
who I've got like tremendous respect for, and I just
think he knows a lot of like awesome stuff. Even
like a guy like him is like nothing in compared
to the the kinds of wealth accrued by these guys,
and in in percentage terms and stuff, and.
Speaker 1: Like nineteen eight, nineteen o nine, JP Morgan paid off
the American debt.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, there you go. And he was he was
probably he was definitely like one of like the five
like most important men on this planet, like Morgan. Uh,
I mean basically, like I mean, World War One basically
started because of uh, it was like Morgan's firm that
it's sent that like at Todder to Wall Street, and
it was it was JP Morgan that essentially called up
the White House and demanded Wilson like fixed this because
they had debt that wasn't gonna be serviced because they
got sold the Billy Goods by the British Crown. I mean,
I think we got into that our World War One series.
But yeah, it's like unfathomable. And and this this kind
this new money was concentrating in California. You know, it's
but something else that was happening. A lot of people
attribute the decadence of California to post war stuff and
Coulter Confiden and what they kind of improperly described as
cultural Marxism and like long precede that that's like a
that's like a whole different issue. What was called barbary
co euphemistically, it was basically like it was basically California
red light district for context, because for the geography contexts
I look this up. I mean, I know that Gagrea
California reasonably well, but I'm not like I was never
true lead local there. We mightta spend a lot of
time there. But the Barbary Coast like as a reddle
light district and like as a as a community area
as we call in Chicago. It was bounded by Broadway, Kearney,
Montgomery and Pacific Avenue, and its primary revenues came from
you know, bars and taverns, but like gambling joints and
like dance halls that were basically just like whorehouses. And
there's like a burgaining uh trade, not just for like
teenage girls and adult women, but like men as well
as like kids, like really awful stuff basically like a
smartest board of like dat and sea. It was William
Randolph Hurst who shut all that down, which is fascinating,
and this he plays an essential role in the kind
of rehabilitation of like the capitalists and the public mind,
and incidentally, filmed Citizen Kane is all about that, if
you read between the lines. But reading a little bit
ahead of ourselves, the first like actual like strip joint,
Like it's been like peep shows and stuff obviously going
back like as long as there were like people in America,
but like a dedicated like strip bar, you know, like
Nudi bar, Like the first one in America was at
the corner of Carring in California and it opened in
eighteen eighty five. You know when this became, this became
something California was known for, like especially in San Francisco.
It wasn't only a port city, but you know, it
kind of had like Alaska demographics early on. It's because
of like all the all the eighteen forty nine minors,
you know, so you had this like majority male population
and kind of rough hun guys, like a lot of
whom were fleeing trouble with the law honestly and stuff.
You know. The women who were there, like the you like,
the young and youngish women who were there were disproportionately prostitutes.
I call them prostitutes. And I know that these like
figgy like wiki editor types in all your house, Like no,
they're sex workers, Like now you're not, you're not working
at sex if you sell your puss a year of
prostitute just like if you like sling dope, you're not
like an unlicensed pharmacist, you're the dope man. You know
that this really really really bothers me. I've like I've
had like check people in real life when they use
that term and like, don't don't ever use that term.
But where was I oh, you know, in these days,
there wasn't a you know, there wasn't like real like
like as we think of like law enforcement that's a
night that's a mid nineteenth century innovation. It arrived in
the East Coast first obviously, but really until like the
turn of the century, it wasn't this ubiquitous thing, you know,
And like this idea that there's just like this police
force kind of going around looking for people committing crimes
and like shaking down the local whorehouse or the local
you know, uh or the local like poker den or
the local opium den like that that wasn't the thing,
you know. I find it fascinating because people think like
the police had this like permanent perennial thing. They think
the police or like the stars or something like they
do like the national state, like the West Falian state.
They think it like has always existed it can never
not exist, and it's like it's like time or matter
or the weather. And to try to explain to them
like no, you don't like like the police aren't like
one of the elements, like get your head out of
your ass. But but point being, there's this tychotomy in California,
you know, And honestly, I mean that's part of the
creative destruction of capitalism. You know. It was like vice,
you know, because I'm not I'm not falling back on
Marxist trophes or something about a capitalism like assaults the soul.
And but I mean when anytime you have people with
money to spend, especially when you have like a heavily
male population, like men aren't any more prone to sin
than women, but there's certain kinds of stuff that's bad
for you that men like I think we can all
agree on the next we're all adults here, and that
that tends to the demand for that kind of thing
as well as people willing to make it available. There's
there's like a minuet between those two tendencies. But so
I'm getting as well describing this isn't to say, like,
see things have always been this way on the West coast.
I'm not saying that at all. I mean that's true,
but there there's a tremendous backlash against it, and California
became known going in part to these guys like hers
to built entire careers out of out of kind of
like cleaning up vice and things. But this kind of
this kind of crusading like moralist culture that was very
much based in congregational Christianity, specifically Methodism from day one,
like took roote in California, and the only thing really
comparable was kind of like the church culture of the South.
You know, it's this idea that this idea of California
was always this kind of like massive uh like then
of ill repute that was always different from the rest
of the country. And it's always had this kind of
like tolerance for for debased passions, particularly a sexual nature
and the things that wasn't true at all, Like if anything,
people were I mean it's not only a culture of extremes,
but in some way like people were like way more
uptight in r which I'll get into an episode three.
We're in r like way more up tight all that
kind of stuff than in the Midwest. Like it plays
like shy town. It's very much below board. You don't
see it, but everybody knows about it, and there's not
people like crusading against it. That's that's like a California
thing and a Southern thing. I'm not putting shade on
their other culture, but you know, the the point is
that if California is like anywhere, it's like the South,
it's it's not this. You know, it's not what people
think it is. You know, it's not. It's not It's
not a bunch of people who think like Berkeley liberals
is what I'm getting it, you know, and even even
Tho where even where the but even where the institutionalized
vice comes from there, it doesn't come from the places
people think it does. But but yeah, it was. It
was basically William ryannol of Hers who became this like
anti kind of vice crusader during the progressive era and
like what immediately preceded it, you know, Hearst Also he
was the first real like newspaper like magnate. He he
he founded the San Francisco Examiner, which was like a
huge paper, which like I remember it was a huge
paper still like when I was a kid, and like
a teenager. You know, the uh Hearst has sak eight
million dollars into it to compete basically with like the
top like East Coast media brands, you know which again
that was beyond like a princely sum in those things.
He people claim he helped start the Spanish American War.
I mean, Hurst was obviously considered the father of yellow
journalism and Citizen Kane. Like you know, it's obviously spoken
about Hearst, and it paints him and some ways as
a monster, but also paints him his kind just like
it's just kind of like godlike figure almost like I
don't know, people are familiar if you yourself are if
you're familiar with the glass bes by Ernesty Junger like
like Hearst was like Zapperoni was kind of like Walt
Disney means like William Randolph Hurst. That's why like I
think of him. But you know Hurst, uh he uh
he ran this uh incredibly hostile and Bella COO's copy
against the uh the Spaniards. He uh endorsed political assassination
of America's and of quote America's enemies, and he backpedaled
when people criticized him for it, say like oh, this
was only this was only a mental exercise, but it
was like obvious he was talking about like assassinating like
like assassinating the Spanish leadership. It's just kind of like crazy,
reckless stuff. But he he hated McKinley, President McKinley, so
like some of his ops, I tried to blame him
for the the assassination of McKinley. That, uh, it's a
very very interesting guy and obviously too. Like when World
War One arrived that California got with another infusion of capitalization.
Well we have public subsidies, but sorry. That really that
really built it as an essential hub of military industrial power.
And it also made it even more sephlitic because you
had this mass of soldiers, sailors, marines and the camp
followers that attend that. You know, there was a whole
army of prostitutes and all kinds of other incidental goodies
like drugs and gambling and alcohol, which I've always been
with us even't used to be promoted over your smartphone.
But you know, sometimes people convince themselves that these are
new things because they want to idealize the past. It's
like what progressives do in reverse, like progressives are symboltons,
you think that like the thing that the future is
like the Jetsons, you know, like like they're they're kind
of bourgeois like nominal ops or people who who think
that like the past was the Flintstones. It's fucking returned.
But even though it doesn't seem like a natural stopping place,
and I keep going like I'm gonna it's it's gonna be,
I'm gonna have to like interrupt the kind of next
days of what I wanted to talk about. Yeah, I'm
sorry I didn't get to as much as I wanted today.
I promised episode three, like I'll I'll wrap this up
and I'll get to the meat of like data into
things about blue California.
Speaker 1: Okay, all right, no problem at all. Do some quick
plugs and we'll finish this up.
Speaker 2: Yeah, certainly. You can find me on social media at
capital R E A L underscore number seven h O
M A S seven seven seven. I. I recently started
using my own name, my like my my Christian name
on social media, my government name because X terrorizes me
when I have a post that like catches fire and
like the algorithm goes nuts and says I'm doing heat things,
and it got triggered somehow and or activated and saying
that my name was like a heat word or something.
So I put in my government name. So like if
they say that again, it's like, well, how can I?
How can I? How can my government name be a
hate word? But yeah, Soudy, what's the same. Uh, it's
the same alt it just displays different. But best place
to find my work product and to just kind of
get acquainted because we've got a pretty active chat. There
are two is on substack that's where my podcast is
and all kinds of other good stuff. That's also kind
of where I announced, like when I'm organizing meet meet
ups and fun things. It's real capital R E A L.
Thomas seven seven seven dot substack dot com. I'm on
t gram. I've got my own website. It's number seven
H O M A S seven seven seven dot com.
I mean my Instagram, I'm on Telegram. I'm all over
the place just seeking me. So fine, all.
Speaker 1: Right, thank you Thomas. I appreciate it. So until part three, Yeah,
man s