GWOT VI: Fortress California

GWOT VI - Fortress California


TS/SCI Project Liberty
NOFORN

National Technical Means has been asked to determine how the traitor state of California has amassed such enormous economic and military might in such a short period of time.

Several errors of fact implied by the question must be addressed.

California has always been one of the wealthiest and most economically prosperous states of the Union. Judged on her own merits, she has consistently ranked in the top ten nations if she had been ranked separately, since at least 1985.

In retrospect, it is clear that the Resistance campaign always had California as an independent nation as its middle-range goal, and laid the groundwork for essential aspects even before Homeland was ejected from the state. This included diplomatic overtures, the design of nuclear arms and of the infamous LIDES submarines, and plans for massively increasing the industrial productivity of the state -- all in secret before active military operations.

The existing mechanisms of the state of California bureaucracy were leveraged in parallel with wealthy multi-generational business interests. These included timber, general agriculture, aerospace and computer engineering, and railroad -- all neglected factors by the larger American economy. Note that a good 50% of California's exports had gone to China, mostly in foodstuffs, and that even with agricultural productivity damaged, the extra had to go somewhere.

Next is a change of governance style which resists conventional analysis. Previous attempts at socialism have been built on a state-control or a competing ministries model, with advantages in (putative) alignment of effort offset by grave disadvantages in waste, corruption, inefficiency and sloth. ("If they pretend to pay us, we will pretend to work!")

Traitor California's governance model has been called "humanocentric socialism" or "state sponsored consumerism" by analysts. Each person in California owns by birthright a 'voting share' in the California government, which carries with it certain rights (rations, austere medical care, housing opportunity) and certain obligations (registration, part-time employment, liability to voluntary military service or involuntary draft). Private corporations under the California model pay what would be seen in other contexts as excessive taxes (70% >10 million CAD in gross receipts) but benefit from substantial public subsidies, especially in the defense and aerospace sectors - as well as having California as a guaranteed customer for some percentage of their products.

Small businesses below a certain size (<10 employees, <1 million CAD in gross receipts) are treated much more favorably under the tax laws, yet are as subsidized.

The surprising result has been an unbridled and massive leap in productivity.

Two California state organizations have had a dramatic role in this. The California Department of Product Quality (DPQ) and the California Occupational Safety & Health (CAL-OSHA) are of particular interest.

DPQ contracts for (and audits internally) the quality of products. Durable goods are taxed at a lower rate than disposable goods, both at manufacture and at point of sale. There are three sales tax structures: 4% for durable goods, 7% for semi-disposable goods or those disposable items that serve a public interest (disposable diapers, medical supplies), 15% for disposable and/or luxury products (paper plates, sports cars, etc.) Not only does DPQ report publicly its findings, but actively assists all businesses in increasing the quality and durability of their products _as a public good_. California does not have a patent office nor does it secure the exclusive rights to an invention to its inventors. On the contrary, California avidly copies everything it possibly can and then gives it away to anyone - even America - with the exception of certain aerospace and weapons technology secrets.

CAL-OSHA prior to the War was a relatively modest occupational health regulatory agency. It is now a law enforcement agency with vast powers to not only regulate, but to prescribe and advocate for, improved working conditions. CAL-OSHA field investigators have warrantless right of entry to any commercial or industrial property at any time, and are armed. One reason for this is CAL-OSHA now regulates company police, workplace violence prevention standards and private guards. Another is that CAL-OSHA has the legal right to terminate the employment of any individual _over the desires of their own employer_ for the commission of workplace offenses under a weaker civil or "preponderance of the evidence" standard. This is seen as a civil matter, not a criminal one, so the rights of the accused do not apply. "Involuntary terminations" can include egregious safety violations such as drug use while operating equipment, credible complaints of workplace harassment or a pattern of unlawful discrimination, petty violent crime such as fistfights, and particularly embezzlement - which is treated as a public offense because of its impact on the taxed corporation's productivity.

In effect, worker competition in the California Republic is not for a better _paying_ job, or a job with basic benefits ... because everyone is paid about the same, and basic benefits are available to all ... but to work at a company with stellar working conditions, extraordinary benefits, or willingness to adapt to worker needs. Another reason CAL-OSHA regulates working conditions is that there are entire service industries in which persons are not compelled by poverty to work, and therefore 'pretend to work' in ways that challenge management to create meaning and motivation for these necessary tasks.

In some ways, the California economy is a regression to the post World War II boom. Quality housing is in short supply but general housing (some of it tar paper over boards) is widely available. There is little tourism and most hotels have been converted to apartments; travelers stay with friends or in campgrounds, of which there are now many tens of thousands. The price of gasoline (CAD $10-$15 / gallon) makes intrastate travel more difficult but an extensive system of public and private buses, taxis and rideshare services fills the gap for intracity travel.

Zoning laws are a dead letter. County and city governments are starting to slowly reassert their power, but the state government has no qualms about "correcting" zoning as applicable.

The pre-War California homeless population, in part to escape the paramilitary "Can we help you?" constant nagging from just about everyone in urban areas, has moved into the semi-rural campground culture. While drug use continues, the primary change is that alcohol is now freely available while the use of other hard drugs is both sanctioned and punished. In particular, California's volunteer and militarized police frown heavily on dealers in 'destructive drugs' such as methamphetamine and cocaine. Dealers do not always survive arrest and are invariably sentenced by juries to lifetime(s) at hard labor, typically in rural forestry crew chain-gangs. The net effect is that the homeless population is a drunk population, not a drugged one, with predictable behaviors and a shortened lifespan.

The government is the employer of last resort. This has resulted in an enormous number of make-work jobs, but many that fill genuine short term and long term needs. Educated people can always find jobs as lay mental health workers; uneducated people can always find jobs in picking crops (now a valued manual dexterity skill), and may work seasonally.

Remember that anyone with a pulse who is a lawful resident is a shareholder, and as such as entitled by right to a food ration (so-called "EBT" or "The Green") of groceries, basic medical care, and as needed campground space and a tent. There is technically a fine, and some social stigma, associated with failure to hold employment without just cause ("vagabondry" or "drifthood" are technically criminal charges), but a never-do-well that stays out of trouble with the law can in fact drift through life without much difficulty.

Those that do get in trouble with the law can find themselves sentenced to mandatory public service for minor offenses and correctional-work camps for serious ones, up to and including voluntary manslaughter. The prevailing judicial and popular theory is that work is good for people, and that people who are in difficulty should therefore be encouraged and helped to work. The correctional work-camps are self-run, with trusty prisoners as first line supervisors. (The adage "a prisoner shall never be given control over another prisoner' does not translate to California practice.)

Violent crime does not distinguish between offenses committed by criminals and those committed by the mentally ill. There is no 'not guilty by reason of insanity' plea in California law. Murder, forcible rape with physical evidence of the crime, armed robbery and mayhem are death penalty offenses in the Republic of California, and "Mad or sane, the guilty will hang!" With the permission of the Court, a criminal may stipulate to their guilt of a death penalty offense and have their sentence commuted to life at hard labor. The Court does not always grant this permission. The ferocity of this is tempered by what is called "the burden of extraordinary proof" and the "taint of past felonies." The former is extended only to those who are on first trial for a violent crime. The latter is automatic for those who have been tried once for a violent crime - even if found not guilty for that past offense! In combination the effect is as if to say to the hangman, "Let this one go, we'll get him on the next pass." Perennial violent offenders oblige, and dangle.

What California spent pre-War on prisons and correctional facilities is now split between 1) hospitals and 2) educational facilities. This essentially converts the government re-investment into the economy from a net static or even negative factor (prison guard salaries and concrete) to a positive factor (improved quality of life, productivity, life expectancy and educational achievement.)

Sociological factors such as nativist patriotism and public motivation, rage at the loss of loved ones in the Firecracker "War" - now widely known to have been an American attack - and the Homeland terror and mass murder campaigns are more difficult to quantify. Suffice it to say that "a patriotic Californian is a fanatic, and the average Californian a patriot."

All persons of military age who are nominally fit to serve are required to register for the draft, to participate in two weeks of military training, and to attend quasi-military 'training' with their 'unit," often organized around their employer or school. This is the "last reserve" or the "emergency reserve."

Leaders, managers, movers, shakers, "made men" and the independently wealthy are expected to either 1) hold the Governor's Commission as a reserve officer or 2) have a very good reason why not. Most of their service is in ad hoc units as above, but some are filtered into a general reserve in this way, and participate in military training - some online, some through interactive computer war games, and some with their 'units' or at military training sites.

The California military is also one of the largest employers, employing over 20% of the population. This is abnormally high, both in raw numbers and economically as a percentage of GNP. Many of these jobs are a dual role where the unit has a wartime function that supports total mobilization, and a peacetime role that functions to support the "People and the State of California." For example, the excellent scout-soldier units function as border guards and a training ground for elite force - a peacetime and a wartime role. Many Air National Guard units support general avaition, are based at airports, etc. Unusually, some units actually manufacture weapons systems or work directly with manufacturers and contractors, and as subject matter experts will take the systems they make or procure directly into battle in a major conflict. The "2nd Armored Factorium" is an example of a battalion sized armor unit that designs, manufactures and procures parts for, assembles and operates its own armored fighting vehicles - as well as providing depot level maintenance. This mix of roles is highly unusual and requires approximately eight times the manning of a conventional military unit of the same combat power. However, when it fields 65 tanks and AFVs, it actually has them in excellent working order all the time - and some of them may be 'experimental' or of unusual configurations.

Very little has been learned about the California Naval Militia. They have sailors, and bases, and dedicated manufacturing companies (who are consistently at the upper right corner of the 'highly productive - awesome to work for' chart intersection). However, it costs months of painstaking intelligence effort and lives to find out, for example, that a certain factory makes batteries and another factory makes torpedoes - only to learn, months later, that both factories in fact make both! A veil of counterintelligence secrecy surrounds the CNM and its operations.

California military aerospace is not quite as well protected, but what little we have uncovered is shocking. Anything that can be fitted with wings, a lifting body and/or buoyancy ("lighter than air") has been. From exotic materials to new techniques, from high school rocket clubs that launch military payloads into orbit to 'general aviators' who practice nap of the Earth and close combat air support techniques, some of the most creative and frankly dangerous minds in California are heavily invested in aerospace. The handheld AAA missile program, the surface to surface anti-shipping missile, the semi-guided torpedo program, the reload copy (so-called 'Block C' for California) of the SM-2 Standard anti-ballistic missile, the cruise missile programs (which may be hypersonic capable!) and the orbital / semi-ballistic missile programs are all inter-related in unexplained ways, make use of many of the same shops and manufacturing facilities, and only the warheads of the lesser missiles are actually under direct military controls.

A closing thought. Because of the tiered volunteer / reservist / private / public policing systems and the arms-length use of the California Republic military in special situations, California actually spends less now on so-called "guard labor" (security plus police plus prisons) than it did prior to the Firecracker, both in number of persons employed and in actual cost per head. Yet the effectiveness and number of persons actually performing these duties, cheerfully and with vigor, is far greater. A pre-war California factory might have been protected by a small guard force with police on call. The same factory now has employees armed and dedicated to security duties and both private and public police who actually _visit_ as well as responding to calls. Yet on paper, the number of 'guards' and 'police' is lower, and there are no 'prisons' and therefore no 'prison guards.'