It has been several years since Flash Report’s Jon Fleischman interviewed Arnold Steinberg, a long-time friend and an admirer of FR who wrote for us in our earlier years. We interview him on the publication of his new book: Whiplash! From JFK to Donald Trump A Political Odyssey (Jameson Books, 640 pages, $39.95). You can purchase it for that amount, plus sales tax, and possible shipping, about $49 total. Or, FR readers can do much better by going directly to the publisher.

Purdue University president and former Indiana governor Mitch Daniels has said, “Arnie Steinberg is one of America’s most valuable intellectual assets.”

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Dear CA GOP:

To paraphrase President Reagan’s phrase from 1962, it seems like I’m not leaving the Republican Party, but the Republican party appears to be trying to leave me. Since my political “awakening” during the ‘70’s there have been times that I’ve had to question where my principles place me on the political spectrum.

Throughout the turbulence of the Nixon Era, I’ve stood by the Party, as I reasoned that what a dishonest man did in Washington shouldn’t be the measure of my values and the people I support.

After President Ford bested Ronald Reagan for the Party nomination in 1976, I stood behind him since I was certain he’d promote better policies than Jimmy Carter. The Carter Presidency proved me right and I was rewarded for my devotion with 8 years of President Reagan.

When President George H.W. Bush told me to “read his lips” on the issue of new taxes, the promise of continued prosperity kept me holding firm to my Party and working to continue the Reagan Revolution. Of course, once the lip reading was finished so was Bush 41, but I persisted in the hope that my local candidates would learn a valuable lesson in… Read More

There is a rumor going around the California State Capitol that the Legislature is about to vote on a ban of humor in the state, because every time someone laughs at something funny, it is apparently at the expense of someone else’s feelings.

If this sounds silly, the Senate hearing held Tuesday, ostensibly on “hate speech,” was even more nonsensical.

“If there is any principle of the Constitution that more imperatively calls for attachment than any other it is the principle of free thought, not free thought for those who agree with us but… Read More

Quick update on California (and Texas) unemployment. I include Texas simply because it’s the state most hated and denigrated by smug progressives. A state that is deep in a petroleum recession (54% price drop inside three years), Texas was widely predicted by MSM pundits to be sliding back into the ooze. Then when the deluge hit in August, much of the Lone Star State supposedly washed out to sea. Well, liberals HOPED that such was the case.

So, how did the Texas unemployment rate fare? Let’s check on both states.

The CA unemployment rate (August, 2017) has stopped improving and slipped a bit. We are now the 7thworst state – 5.1% (up a full 3/10th of a percent in one month) – largely due to a declining percentage of people seeking work in CA.

The national unemployment rate is steady at 4.4%. The CA unemployment rate is 18.5% higher than the average of the other 49 states. Texas? 4.2%.

http://www.bls.gov/web/laus/laumstrk.htm

and… Read More

Gerald Meral’s Back…With a New Ballot Initiative…and a New Associate.

In Part l, it was revealed thatGerald (Jerry) Meral, and Joseph Caves (Tom Steyer’s Proposition 65 money man) both submitted proposition language for water bond ballot initiatives a couple of weeks apart, in July 2017. The two initiatives are remarkably similar — even have the same wording in numerous places — and suggest coordination to ensure passage of one or the other. Meral’s ballot initiative would raise $8.4 billion, while Cave’s is for $8 billion, according to the state’s Office of the Legislative Analyst.The LAO offers modest fiscal analysis but did acknowledge it will take $17.3 billion to pay off principal ($8.9 billion) and interest ($8.4 billion) on bonds over a 40-year… Read More

In 1996, at the end of the legislative session that year, I received a briefing on the electricity deregulation bill. I was being told that the bill would lead the state to a free market based power system. As I listened, I couldn’t see that outcome, but I knew so little about electricity distribution, and even less about free market principles. I knew I preferred free markets over government, taxation, and regulation, but I couldn’t articulate the principles, or how they should apply in that situation. I decided to study up.

One of the books I read was Socialism by Ludwig Von Mises. Late in the book, Mises wrote, in 1932, that it was unreasonable to expect an association of entrepreneurs, or an organization that relies on entrepreneurs as its principal basis of support, to take a principled stand against socialism. Since I had known every business organization in the state capitol to sell out the long term principles of small government and free markets for their personal short term interests, I had a moment of clarity. I thought to myself, from that point forward, I would never described myself as pro-business. I am pro-freedom,… Read More

I know that, from time to time, we all see these amazing examples of widespread public ignorance of fundamental facts about America. But this one jumped off the U-T editorial page at me: Only about one in four American adults can name all three branches of government.

Stated differently, three-fourths (actually 74%) of Americans — and presumably American voters — don’t know the three branches of our federal government. Of course, this means that most Americans don’t understand America’s “separation of powers” principle, or what “checks and balances” are about.

Naturally as a geezer I am now compelled to point out that “back in my day,” we learned all this in a JUNIOR HIGH “government” class. Sex-obsessed squirrel that I was in 8th grade, I still was inculcated with these all-important facts at that time. Today it appears that most college grads can’t name these three branches.

The decline in citizen familiarity with this fundamental tenet of American government has been ongoing, and even accelerating.T… Read More

In a stunning court rebuke of the state Attorney General’s Office, a Sacramento Superior Court Judge announced Friday that Xavier Becerra’s title and summary for the Repeal of the Gas Tax initiative is “misleading and is likely to create prejudice against the measure”— and that he’d “do a rewrite himself” to make it clear the measure would repeal Jerry Brown‘s increases gas taxes and vehicle fees.… Read More