When Charlie Kirk was assassinated, I was contacted by a lot of people asking whether I personally knew him. I did not. When he got started, he was 18 years old, and I did not think what he was doing was particularly applicable to me. Many of my friends knew him well; arguably better than well. But I had an understanding of Charlie that few people had and let me tell you why. During the 2000 presidential campaign, I interacted with many people supporting George W. Bush. I spoke to some about the Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC), an organization I first encountered in 1992. One gentleman discussed with me forming a local chapter of the operation in Los Angeles. Meaning, it was up to me to form the chapter. I contacted a variety of people, and we decided to have a meeting at my home. I conveyed this to the group’s Chief Executive Officer and asked him to come out from D.C. for the meeting. When he arrived at our home he expected to see a group of 8-10 people. Remember, this was before email was widely used. When he walked into was our living room/dining room, it was packed with 60-70 people. He was both stunned and exhilarated. People were hanging… Read More

I have been involved in the political arena forever and a day. I have read about political parties since the inception of our country. Parties have evolved and some have disappeared like the Federalists and the Whigs. I have never seen a political party allow people who don’t even call themselves members of the party to consume a party. That is what is happening today with the Democrats. The Democrats have decided to allow people who are not even really party members to run for office under their name and not be forced to abandon the party they truly are in and commit to being Democrats. Bernie Sanders is the Godfather of this movement. He has always identified as a Socialist, but that was long before the current variation of organized Socialists in America was formed in 1982. Sanders has always been listed as an independent but has caucused with the Democrats in the U.S. Senate. The Democrats give him full rights without ever asking him to be an actual Democrat and adopt the principles of the party. The organization that has spawned the current movement is the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA). Since members of this group advocate for the… Read More

While our country is going through a time when people are evangelizing regarding free speech, I love that they are doing such. Then I ask some about what their thoughts are about the Twitter Files, and they say, “What’s that?” I wonder whether they heard of the recent announcement Google was suppressing free speech at behest of Biden. You cannot be for free speech when it is only for your political side. One must be for free speech always. Hear that England. This is a column I wrote a couple years back and is particularly relevant today. You, like I, certainly are stunned that there would be a day in the United States where people are talking about banning certain forms of speech and branding it as “hate speech.” As someone who is a free speech absolutist, I find the entire matter repulsive. I applaud that the opportunity to offend me by speech exists. It is an essential American freedom. First, let’s define a “free speech absolutist.” One can’t encourage violence against a group or a person. One can’t yell “fire” in a crowded place when there is no emergency. Other than that, Americans… Read More

As we head into the time of the year when many Americans reflect beyond the material benefits that are provided by our capitalist society, I encountered a communication from the self-appointed philosopher, David Brooks of the New York Times. The title of the column caught my eye: Opinion | Why More People in the World Are Feeling Hopeful (Except Us) – The New York Times. Of course, since Brooks moved to the NYT, he hangs with the crowd that cannot find happiness. They despise America’s material wealth while sipping their lattes and quoting from their brand-new iPhone. After Brooks tells us the rest of the world is going along swimmingly while Americans are not, he slips in the definition of why his cohorts are so disgruntled. Mr. Brooks tells us about what he obviously sees as an exciting new book coming out which he must have had a chance to read in pre-publication. Brooks states, “Coming from Brink Lindsey, whose book ‘The Permanent Problem’ will be coming out soon, is that affluence changes expectations. Affluent people want government and… Read More

I wrote this column about five years back and it still clearly defines Antifa and their related group of thugs, the Black Bloc. Our government is very right to finally be going after them. They are anarchists. When I decided to join Antifa, I never thought I would see what is happening ever occur. I met like-minded people who likewise did not like their lives and did not like our government or any government. We were rebellious and perceived as far outside the mainstream. We were often called radicals and anarchists. Who would have ever dreamt that in such a short time we would be accepted by others including elected officials who are part of the establishment we want to tear down. I connected on line with the group and began to understand what they were all about. I heard a lot of voices similar to mine — frustrated with the government we have and wanting to turn it on its head and embrace a new government where the people are in charge and not all those rich people. My new friends let me know they were going to have a protest and I decided to show up. It was in Berkeley on September 14, 2017. There… Read More

Those are the words spoken by a simple man, Rodney King, who became a philosopher king when violence broke out on May 1, 1992, after the acquittal of the police officers involved in his 1991 arrest. Could we ever use Mr. King and his wisdom in America 30 years later. I was grappling with the events of last week and the assassination of another political figure in America. After a day of devastation for Charlie, his family, and our country, I focused on a little-spoken aspect of the event. There are an estimated 3,000 young Americans who now for the rest of their lives must deal with the scarring effect of witnessing Charlie Kirk – someone they voluntarily came to see – violently shot, gushing blood, and carried off. That is a memory they will never outlive. What has our country become? What has caused us to become not a divided country, but a divisive country? After a legion of interactions with others, I turned to my dear friend Dan Schnur. Dan is a well-known face in the California political world. He is the former Chair of the Fair Political Practices Commission and teaches at three major universities across the state. We usually… Read More

When there is a Congressional act named “Honest Act,” it must be disingenuous. It was formerly called the “PELOSI Act” after the person who was largely responsible for not advancing Congressional restrictions on making investments while in office. Despite her lies, she (and her husband) profited immensely from financial abuse of her position. The “Honest Act” sets out to cure that but fails. I have been all over this issue for a long time as members of Congress have appeared to abuse their positions, thus enriching themselves. Of course, when questioned, each stated they did not use their power or special knowledge gleaned from their positions to be enriched. On my very first day working for a mega-international CPA firm 49 years ago, I was taught an essential concept. That concept is that the appearance of a conflict of interest is the same as a conflict of interest. Many of our elected representatives in Washington clearly do not understand that concept. I previously proposed a simple solution. That is to have managed investment accounts. The Beautiful Wife and I have had one for 25 years. Despite spending immense time… Read More

Thirty-five years in politics has taught me something: the binary choice which dominates the headlines at a given moment is often not the real issue at all.

Often the real danger comes less from which side of the argument we choose — but that we accept the argument as someone else has framed it in the first place.

America and its democratic allies cannot be conquered by external armies, as the Soviets learned the hard way during the Cold War. They concluded that our greatest vulnerability was not military but internal — our capacity to turn on one another. Their answer was to inflame division from within.

Today, Russia, China, and Iran have taken that strategy to a new level. Social media has given them a powerful new weapon: direct access to the American people. Propaganda now bypasses traditional media entirely, landing in our feeds in real time. And too often, it’s working. Algorithms are carefully designed to amplify outrage and extremism, foreign troll farms stoke our worst divisions, and too many of our fellow citizens retreat deeper into polarized camps.

The central question is whether we will wake up to this in time — or… Read More