Hard Truths: December 2024

Hard Truths is a monthly newsletter about national, state, and local issues, with some sassy personal updates from the author – Heather Schmidt, M.PA – Public Policy Consultant, Political Analyst, and Mom of Three. Beginning in 2025, this newsletter will be available in audio, video, or digital print versions. Please subscribe for newsletters and other updates!

Hard Truths

December 2024

Welcome to Hard Truths: a newsletter about national, state, and local issues. It will of course include some sassy personal updates as well.

If you’ve known me over the years, you know I’ve lived many lives. I’ve been just a blogger, a professional writer, a candidate for public office, an artist, a political podcaster, and – my current roles – a public policy consultant, political analyst, and mom of three. It’s true – I’m not everyone’s cup of tea. I have a tendency to push back against the status quo. I vehemently reject partisan politics. And the core of my own personal ethos is that if I just keep putting justice out into the world, in any way that I can, justice will be returned in kind. Sometimes that means saying things when others would prefer everyone just looked the other way.

This year has been one of many hard truths, for a lot of people. Tough pills to swallow about what world we are living in, on the character of the people around us, and the future we all face in on an ever-changing planet. In this newsletter, we will discuss these difficult realities, and more. Thank you for being here.

National Nonsense

Virtually everything going on at the national level of politics and life in general can be reduced to one word: nonsense.

As the Harris campaign blew through a whopping $1.5B in just over 100 days, leaving the campaign trail some $20M in debt (many staffers and vendors still going unpaid), I, personally, thought the Democratic Party would have taken the opportunity to engage in self-reflection about the true meaning of the results. Now, around a month and a half later, this appears to have not been done. Democrats are still tone deaf about the very real struggles average Americans are facing. Diet Obama (that being Congressman Jeffries) continues to spew nonsensical rhetoric every time he comments on votes the Democratic caucus issues in the House of Representatives, reminding us each time that Democrats are millionaires and corporatists in the same way that Republicans are, with their own pet projects and bottom lines among the only people they truly serve. No one seems to know – or care – where the President is, and Harris now is reportedly trying to decide if she will run for California Governor in 2026, or president again in 2028. To be considering either of those options still deeply in debt to celebrities for their endorsements (as if that was an effective election strategy) is – well – insane.

The hard truth at the national level is that Americans are tired of these same, tired faces; yet somehow many of them managed to win re-election to Congress, the Senate, and beyond. I believe this is because of the incredible amount of money it takes to run a campaign of any level at this point, let alone a national campaign. Even something as simple as putting an entry in the publicly printed voter guide has become cost prohibitive for sometimes the best candidates, leaving the gate open for unqualified investors and lobbyists to buy their way to the top.

Other national nonsense this month: there are aliens in the ocean, unidentified drones in the sky, and apparently a retiring Congresswoman from Texas who hasn’t been seen in about six months was found collecting her public paycheck from a dementia care home.

From the Greatest State in the Nation

California again leads the nation in some of the worst ways, which is unfortunate because if it weren’t for all the problems, we really are the greatest state in the nation.

The homelessness money continues to go unaccounted for, the state has asked the federal government for that high speed rail to nowhere (seriously, are they ever going to show any progress for all the money we have spent?!), and EDD has yet to rectify the greater than $1B in fraudulent unemployment claims that were paid out since the early days of COVID.

How we truly lead in the worst way possible, though, is in climate change.

This last month, numerous wind events have resulted in massive fire outbreaks, including the wildfire that engulfed Pepperdine – students sheltering in place in the library as flames surrounded the campus; and the Mountain Fire, which destroyed over 100 houses here in Ventura County. We also have the greatest proportion of bird flu cases and cattle outbreaks across the state, prompting the governor to declare a state of emergency just last week. Make no mistake about it: bird flu and other pandemics are symptoms of a changing climate.

The way we are approaching the problem here in California, though, seems misguided and borders on eco-fascism. The fight over EV mandates, and regulatory changes by CARB (an unelected board that does not even have to consider public input) raises costs to working families, while failing to address major gaps in climate preparedness, EV battery waste and greater net pollution generation, and grid readiness. And it focuses the discussion on continuing the debate over a changing climate’s causes, instead of just preparing and creating a more sustainable lifestyle for the unexpected changes of our environment.

We need solutions that completely change the paradigm, not ones that just force us all in to another box, and at a greater financial harm in a time when financial hardship persists and the wealth gap is expanding at alarming rates.

Just Local Stuff

For those of you here from Ventura County, it should come as no surprise that experts are bracing for a potentially bad report next month when the county completes its annual “homelessness in time” count. Personally, as a researcher, I find the way this count is carried out to be insufficient and rushed, and tends to overlook the differing conditions that should be considered homelessness, though presently are not (e.g. couch sleeping). Nevertheless, the brace for impact comes after a national report just released last week outlined an alarming 18% national increase in homelessness since 2023, with a shocking 770,000 US citizens now falling to homelessness since 2021.

Election news across Ventura County was somewhat unsurprising this cycle. A lot of local races simply did not happen because challengers were absent. Here in Oxnard, we had a few shake ups, with two challengers beating incumbents on the Oxnard City Council. My own race for United Water Conservation District ended, for me, in second place, beating third by just a few hundred votes. Though where I find encouragement is not only in beating out a heavily endorsed Democrat to take second place, I also garnered more votes in my own race than any candidate for Oxnard City Council, in fact more votes than were cast in a few of the council districts in their entirety.

More on Me

Other than that, and starting this monthly newsletter, I’m excited to share two projects I’ll be working on into the new year. The first is an in depth analysis of climate change and its impacts on homelessness across Southern California; the second is I’m now offering free consultation services to any individual or business in Ventura County at weekly meet ups here in Oxnard. If you qualify for the free services, you can find me here next month:

In addition to free consultation services, I’m also there just to chit chat – local politics, local events, or all this crazy aliens in the oceans and drones in the air stuff that’s made the news lately.

And with that, I’ll leave you all with the best meme on the topic:

See you next year!