"Blade Runner, here we come."

Editor's note: Spencer Pratt is gaining unexpected momentum in the Los Angeles mayoral race, with recent debate performances and viral campaign ads boosting his visibility ahead of the June primary. Despite being a registered Republican, Pratt has positioned himself as a nonpartisan outsider focused on homelessness, crime, and public safety, issues Pratt says are being "mishandled by current city leadership." The problem there is no leadership. Polls and online reactions following last week's debate showed strong support for Pratt. Democrats and fellow Marxist travelers are "nervous" as incumbent Mayor Karen Bass faces growing pressure in an increasingly unpredictable race.
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California Death Trip

"History records no pity for parties that choose purity over competence, vengeance over vision, pathology over pragmatism. The long night is not coming. It is here. . . . " —LHGrey on X

By James Howard Kunslter | May 8, 2026

The Pacific Palisades fire ignited on January 7, 2025, in the very last days of the "Joe Biden" fake presidency. 6,837 total buildings destroyed plus about 1,000 damaged. The Altadena fire across town in Eaton Canyon was arguably worse: 9,418 buildings destroyed. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass was in Ghana at the time to attend the inauguration of president John Dramani Mahama, part of a small U.S. presidential delegation sent by the "Biden" administration.

Deputy Mayor for Public Safety, Brian Williams, overseer of the Police and Fire Departments, was on administrative leave at the time due to an alleged bomb threat against City Hall that he reportedly made in September / October 2024. The FBI raided his house that December, and in 2025 he copped a plea deal (guilty) to making threats involving fire and explosives. So, he was out of action during the fires.

There you have the rectified essence of how the Democratic Party operates in America's biggest state. Is it not astonishing that Karen Bass is running for reelection? How could she possibly be forgiven? A large number of people employed in the movie business got burned out of their homes in the fires, and then city and state regulatory nonsense prevented them from rebuilding — on top of insurance company hocus-pocus that left families financially wrecked. Is it a surprise that the city’s flagship industry is dying now (film production down 32-percent on a five-year average)? What is LA without Hollywood?

And yet the show-biz celebs are still coming out to pimp for Democratic Party politicians. This is the kind of thing that forces you to conclude that an epic madness burns as hotly through the minds of Californians as the fires that ripped through the canyons in 2025. I know from personal experience as a college theater major that actors can be exceptionally stupid, but that can’t wholly account for what we’re seeing.

Wednesday’s primary debates had these villains on florid display. Because LA's ranked-choice mayoral primary race styles itself "non-partisan," candidate Spencer Pratt (a registered Republican) was on-hand for the debate. When the subject of LA's cataclysmic homelessness came up, drug addicts living (if you can call it that) in wretched, filthy encampments all over the public space of the city, Mayor Bass bragged that she'd significantly reduced the problem, which is obviously and mendaciously untrue. LA City Council member Nithya Raman, who labels herself "progressive," bragged on putting the homeless into shelters (i.e., motel rooms at $100-K per person per year.)

Spencer Pratt attempted to inject a little reality into the discussion about putting the homeless into homes:

"No matter how many beds you give these people, they are on super meth, they are on fentanyl. The DEA [Drug Enforcement Agency] statistic says 93-percent of this is a drug addiction problem. These people do not want a bed — they want fentanyl or super meth.”

Pratt is currently running third in the polls. In ranked-choice voting, the top two winners in the primary will face off in the November election. Currently Bass is polling in the lead and Nithya Raman is running second. If the numbers stay that way, the winner in November could finish Los Angeles off. Blade Runner, here we come.

But there’s still a chance that Spencer Pratt might place well in the June 2 primary just as Golden Tempo shot from dead last to win the Kentucky Derby last week. The seductions of the Marxist race hustle have worn a little thin, even for Angelenos. Karen Bass looks increasingly ridiculous grinning about her abject failures, which Mr. Pratt lays out relentlessly in plain talk. His reality-testing seems to be getting some minds right, gaining real traction. Nithya Raman has the charisma of a mung bean.

Please go to kunstler.com to continue reading.

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Blade Runner was inspired by Philip K. Dick's novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, transforming his themes of artificial humanity, memory, and corporate dystopia into one of the most influential science fiction films ever made:

'Blade Runner' Is Still the Truest Philip K. Dick Adaptation

Where's our free shit?

California hospitals will soon provide free diapers to newborns thanks to new state program

California Governor Gavin Newsom is facing backlash over his new state-funded diaper program, which plans to hand out 400 free diapers to new parents through participating hospitals. Critics argue the initiative is another costly government giveaway at a time when California is struggling with budget deficits, homelessness, and rising living costs. Opponents have also questioned the program's reported multimillion-dollar price tag and accused the administration of prioritizing political optics over more urgent statewide issues:

Gavin Newsom's $20M diaper deal torn apart with shocking figures: 'Peak stupidity'

At some point this thug will strike again:

 
Newsom's Parole Nightmare: Violent Home Invasion Rapist Freed After Just 11 Years

Read more about Newsom & Co.'s California circumstances in the archives:

California