It’s that time of year. In ADDITION to 15 April (hated by the prosperous, loved by many others who get free money from the IRS) and “Earth Day” in all its glory, it’s time for our annual “boo-hoo-hoo” bemoaning how the helpless weaker gender works for far less then men. Yes, 10 April is “Equal Pay Day,” the mythical day that women must continue working in 2018 to make as much as men made in 2017.

It’s one of the most persistent con jobs ever. It’s RIDDLED with incorrect facts, false assumptions, outdated data and — MOST IMPORTANT — omitted factors.

Equal Pay Day is a WONDERFUL example of the liberal bias of MSM. It is indeed fake news.

Mark my words. In the next few days the media will dutifully run headline stories — parroting the press releases from the gender pay pimps — while seldom if ever seeking a contrary analysis from knowledgeable economists.

Even with all the bogus assumptions, the “helpless women” school of economics use the wrong “catch up” date. It’s not 10 April. It’s sometime in March, but they… Read More

The American Left Are The New Traitors

Immediately following the November 2016 election, California Governor Jerry Brown appointed U.S. Rep. Xavier Becerra (D) to replace State Attorney General Kamala Harris, who won election to the U.S. Senate seat vacated by the retiring Sen. Barbara Boxer.

Many wonder why Becerra was Brown’s choice given that Becerra served in Congress since 1993, and resided in a million dollar home in Washington, D.C. (his primary residence) with his wife and three children, regardless of the requirement that a congressman from a certain district has to live there.

But all anyone has to do is pay attention to the radical California Legislature, and fanatical Gov. Jerry Brown, to see the decades-long trend of militant Marxist, Socialist, Jesuit, Liberation Theology, Latino activism.

Gov. Jerry Brown’s choice ofXavier Becerrato be California’s Attorney General was the first of many… Read More

Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg lost control of the Sacramento City Council meeting Tuesday Black Lives Matter activists turned the meeting into a riot. The council meeting was supposed to be an opportunity to address the recent police shooting of Stephon Clark, a 22-year old black male with a lengthy criminal record.

The brother of Stephon Clark interrupted the Sacramento council meeting, took ahold of the microphone to attack the Sacramento cops who shot his brother, and planted his butt on the Mayor’s desk to yell in his face. This happened as the Mayor looked stunned, and police looked on.

Simultaneously, hundreds of BLM protesters, frustrated at not being able to get inside the council meeting, blocked the entrance of nearby Golden 1 Center in downtown Sacramento for the second time in one week,… Read More

The deadly school shooting last month inParkland, Florida sparked national outrage and more action on gun control… because “guns kill,” or so the left would like everyone to believe.

Students across the country took to the streets with fists raised, in front of television cameras, egged on by leftist teachers and parents, to demand mass gun control. One month after the Parkland school shooting, on March 14, students and school teachers and administrators… Read More

Who really cares thatSen. Toni Atkins became the first woman and first LGBT person to lead the California Senate on Wednesday? Shouldn’t we be more interested in her character and ability to lead?

California newspaper headlines screamed Thursday “Sen. Toni Atkins became the first woman and first LGBT person to lead the California Senate.”

A rainbow flag representing gay pride hung next to the California and U.S. flags in the Capitol rotunda.

Wait? Where was the “I AM WOMAN” flag?

Who cares about any of this virtue signaling and identity politics other than the leftists running California’s State Capitol? Our “rulers” live in another country.

James Bartholomew identifiedand coined the phrase “virtue signaling” in a 2015 Spectator article: “Saying the right things violently on Twitter is much easier than real kindness.” But what is Virtue Signaling? It is when people take a conspicuous but… Read More

California politicians at all levels of government are helping fund a sort-of shadow government of dubious non-profit organizations, which are often tied to said politicians or family members.

An example of this isSen. Hannah Beth Jackson’s“Senate Bill 947. Rather than teaching California’s students critical thinking skills, California Senator Hannah Beth Jackson (D-Santa Barbara) wants California’s schools to teach kids how to spot “fake news.” What could go wrong?

On… Read More

I began this series with the story of the tour of California by Governors Arnold Schwarzenegger and John Kasich to “change” how the California Republican Party approaches voters. As I have said over and over again, the purpose of the political process is to persuade voters to entrust you with power. One thing I know, if the “choice” the voters have is a Kasich/Schwarzenegger Republican Party and a Brown/DeLeon/Newsom/Villaraigosa Democrat Party, voters will choose the Democrats, as they proved when given the choice between Brown and Meg Whitman, who ran as a Schwarzenegger clone. When Governor Brown pointed out that Whitman was saying the exact same things that Schwarzenegger had said in the recall, she lost her lead, and ultimately, the election to Brown. Voters want, in the words of Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan, a “choice” not an “echo.”

When I wrote my second installment of this piece, I set out what that choice should be. The Brown, etc. Democrat party is the party of welfare for illegals, out of control government unions, big pension and bonded indebtedness, taxes and hatred of the entrepreneurial and working… Read More

Most public employee labor union dues are used to elect politicians or to pass (or oppose) propositions. The actual percentage of these dues spent on politics is unknown, as the unions report whatever they want, and there’s no independent audit. There is no oversight of this reporting process by the IRS, FTB, or any other government agency.

The unions generally claim that about 25%-30% of union dues are spent on politics and politicians. In the rare instance where a court looks in detail at labor union political spending, the figure the court comes up with is usually a more realistic (but in my estimation still understated) 60% to 70%.

Up until the Trump tax reform, one ridiculous subsidy for the labor unions was to allow such dues to be deducted by individual union members on their federal and state income tax filings. It was allowed as a “miscellaneous deduction,” which combined with other miscellaneous write-offs had to exceed 2% of adjusted gross income (AGI). to be used as a deduction.

In essence, this allowed many union members to deduct certain insurance payments buried in the… Read More