Fabio

Are you old enough to remember when an Italian model named Fabio was on the cover of romance novels?  He has become a citizen and something rather startling for a celebrity: a conservative. 5/3/17 Popzette:

Fabio Lanzoni loves America. He’s had wild success since immigrating here as a model and adorning the covers of popular romance novels (as well as writing a few of his own). He’s also appeared in a handful of popular movies, television shows, and commercials.

“It was like a beautiful dream. It was like paradise,” Fabio told LifeZette about first arriving in America. “I fell in love with this country.”

He became a legal citizen last year — and now finds himself very worried indeed about what he sees happening in California, where he lives.

Are there illegal citizens?

The man whose house was burglarized in January of this year said the major issue is Proposition 57, something likely unfamiliar to many people who live outside the state. The goal of Prop 57 was to reduce the sentences of nonviolent criminals to help save money on prison expenditures — and to aid in the rehabilitation of some lawbreakers.
Yet this is not happening, said Fabio, as more and more people he knows become victims of crime on a daily basis. “These are serious criminals,” he said of what Prop 57 defines as “nonviolent” lawbreakers.

Listing some of the crimes for which the law helps reduce sentences, Fabio said, "Human trafficking involving sex with minors, assault with a deadly weapon, attempting to explode a bomb in a school or hospital, discharging a firearm on school guards, failing to register as a sex offender ... the list goes on and on and on." 

Sound crazy, but that describes California perfectly.

He continued, "Being from Europe, I already saw this movie. It's why people left."

Not only has the law "demoralized" the police with whom Fabio has spoken, but he said it's another example of California's strange spending priorities. While Gov. Brown is trying to save money on housing criminals, "in the meantime, he's trying to build the train to nowhere," said Fabio.

The "train to nowhere" is a famously poor decision on California's part, a $64 billion investment that has been delayed again and again and will likely never do much of anything. What was supposed to be high-speed rail service from San Francisco to San Diego is a prime example of why the government never met a dollar it couldn't waste. 

Now the surprise:

His second bit of advice is not something one often expects to hear from a celebrity. "Don't you ever give up your guns," he said. "If people lose that right, forget about it. Politicians — they will take everything away from you. And then what are you going to do, protest with a rock? Because that's what they do in Europe." 

Worth reading in full.