In case you still object to the idea of cooking these people & eating them…

1982 – George Deukmejian is elected Governor of California, beginning 16 years of Republican Rule in California.

1986 – Three justices appointed by previous Governor Jerry Brown are voted off the California Supreme Court after business intersts mount an aggressive campaign against them, ostensibly for their opposition to the death penalty, allowing Republican Governor George Deukmejian to stack the court with pro-business conservatives.

1990 – Republican Pete Wilson is elected Governor, and begins an aggressive campain to deregulate energy in the state of California.

From Wikipedia:

In the mid-90's, under Republican Governor Pete Wilson, California began deregulating the electricity industry…

The deregulation called for the Investor Owned Utilities, or IOUs, (primarily Pacific Gas and Electric, Southern California Edison, and San Diego Gas and Electric) to sell off a significant part of their power generation to wholly private, unregulated companies such as AES, Reliant, and Enron. The buyers of those power plants then became the wholesalers from which the IOUs needed to buy the electricity that they used to own themselves. While the selling of power plants to private companies was labeled "deregulation", in fact… the California legislature expected that there would be regulation by the FERC which would prevent manipulation. The FERC's job, in theory, is to regulate and enforce Federal law, preventing market manipulation and price manipulation of energy markets. When called upon to regulate the out-of-state privateers which were clearly manipulating the California energy market, the FERC hardly reacted at all and did not take serious action against Enron, Reliant, or any other privateers. FERC's resources are in fact quite sparse in comparison to their entrusted task of policing the energy market. Lobbying by private companies may also have slowed down regulation and enforcement.

…

2000 – Rolling blackouts hit California as a result of market manipulation schemes by private energy firms, led by Texas-based Bush/Cheney cronies Enron.

Wikipedia:

In the summer of 2000 a drought in the northwest states reduced the amount of hydroelectric power available to California. Though at no point during the crisis was California's sum of [actual electric-generating capacity]+[out of state supply] less than demand, California's energy reserves were low enough that during peak hours the private industry which owned power-generating plants could effectively hold the State hostage by shutting down their plants for "maintenance" in order to manipulate supply and demand. These critical shutdowns often occurred for no other reason than to force California's electricity grid managers into a position where they would be forced to purchase electricity on the "spot market", where private generators could charge astronomical rates. Even though these rates were semi-regulated and tied to the price of natural gas, the companies (which included Enron and Reliant Energy) controlled the supply of natural gas as well. Manipulation by the industry of natural gas prices resulted in higher electricity rates that could be charged under the semi-regulations.

As a FERC report [later] concluded, market manipulation was only possible as a result of the complex market design produced by the process of partial deregulation. Manipulation strategies were known to energy traders under names such as "Fat Boy", "Death Star", "Forney Perpetual Loop", "Ricochet", "Ping Pong", "Black Widow", "Big Foot", "Red Congo", "Cong Catcher" and "Get Shorty".[9] Some of these have been extensively investigated and described in reports.

Megawatt laundering is the term, analogous to money laundering, coined to describe the process of obscuring the true origins of specific quantities of electricity being sold on the energy market. The California energy market allowed for energy companies to charge higher prices for electricity produced out-of-state. It was therefore advantageous to make it appear that electricity was being generated somewhere other than California.

Overscheduling is a term used in describing the manipulation of capacity available for the transportation of electricity along power lines. Power lines have a defined maximum load. Lines must be booked (or scheduled) in advance for transporting bought-and-sold quantities of electricity. "Overscheduling" means a deliberate reservation of more line usage than is actually required and can create the appearance that the power lines are congested. Overscheduling was one of the building blocks of a number of scams. For example, the Death Star group of scams played on the market rules which required the state to pay "congestion fees" to alleviate congestion on major power lines. "Congestion fees" were a variety of financial incentives aimed at ensuring power providers solved the congestion problem. But in the Death Star scenario, the congestion was entirely illusory and the congestion fees would therefore simply increase profits.

In a letter sent from David Fabian to Senator Boxer in 2002, it was alleged that:

'There is a single connection between northern and southern California's power grids. I heard that Enron traders purposely overbooked that line, then caused others to need it. Next, by California's free-market rules, Enron was allowed to price-gouge at will.'

In January 17, 2001, the electricity crisis caused Governor Gray Davis to declare a state of emergency. Speculators, led by Enron Corporation, were collectively making large profits while the state teetered on the edge for weeks, and finally suffered rolling blackouts January 17-18. Davis was forced to step in to buy power at highly unfavorable terms on the open market, since the California power companies were technically bankrupt and had no buying power. The resulting massive long term debt obligations added to the state budget crisis and led to widespread grumbling about Davis' administration.

2003 – Democratic Governor Gray Davis is removed from office in a special election. Former weightlifter and B-movie actor (as well as Pete Wilson protégé) Arnold Schwarzenegger is elected the new Republican governor of California. The campaign to put the recall election on the ballot is financed by many of the same forces that passed Proposition 13 and financed anti-regulatory candidates beginning in the late 1970s, and played upon voters anger at the Governor's insufficient handling of the energy crisis of 2000, and the budget deficit resulting from this, as well as revenue shortages caused by Proposition 13 and the dot.com bust. Schwarzenegger's first act as governor is to further deregulate energy markets in California.

Fast forward to 2009 – Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoes the budget passed by the Califonia legislature which attempts to close a 42 billion dollar deficit, because it involves tax increases (most notably, an increase in the gas tax– gasp!). The State runs out of money, is forced to lay off state workers (turns out, he really IS The Terminator), and disburse IOUs in lieu of salaries and benefits.

And the pièce de résistance…

Jobless hit with bank fees on benefits

For hundreds of thousands of workers losing their jobs during the recession, there's a new twist to their financial pain: Even when they're collecting unemployment benefits, they're paying the bank just to get the money — or even to call customer service to complain about it.

Thirty states have struck such deals with banks that include Citigroup Inc., Bank of America Corp., JP Morgan Chase and US Bancorp, an Associated Press review of the agreements found. All the programs carry fees, and in several states the unemployed have no choice but to use the debit cards. Some banks even charge overdraft fees of up to $20 — even though they could decline charges for more than what's on the card.

Remember: these are the same people who are taking taxpayer dollars (that means US!) to cover losses resulting from their own greed and mis-management.

The rest of the whole gory story here…

Play it again, Lemmy!