Act in haste, Repent at leisure.

Article XXI is the only provision of the California Constitution that addresses redistricting, and it clearly allows only one redistricting per decade. That has been in the California Constitution for over 100 years. It also has a number of substantive requirements that the recent Democrat initiative does not meet.

Yet despite this clear language, the Legislature and the Governor, when they enacted the redistricting scam this last month, did not suspend Art. XXI. ACA 8, the constitutional amendment that will be on the ballot, states “notwithstanding any other provision of this Constitution…” or state law, their maps take effect. They suspended every other provision of the Constitution by their amendment, but they did not suspend Art. XXI, the only provision of the Constitution that addresses redistricting. If I had been their lawyer, I would have written “notwithstanding any section of this article or provision of this Constitution to the contrary…” to make it clear that Art. XXI was suspended. They didn’t, and they left a hole in their amendment a court could drive a truck… Read More

by Ron Nehring

Democrats often highlight the Civil Rights Act of 1964 as the centerpiece of their party’s legacy on equality, pointing to its ban on discrimination in public accommodations, transportation, and employment. Yet nearly a century earlier, in 1875, it was Republicans who first wrote those protections into federal law. Passed in the face of unified Democratic opposition and signed by President Ulysses S. Grant, the Civil Rights Act of 1875 stood as one of the boldest assertions of equal rights in the nation’s history — until the Supreme Court struck it down eight years later.

The Republican Party was born in crisis, rising in direct response to the Kansas–Nebraska Act’s attempt to expand slavery and undo the Missouri Compromise. Within six years, this new party won the presidency, and Abraham Lincoln led the nation through the Civil War. Refusing to let the war’s sacrifice yield an ambiguous peace, Lincoln pushed hard for the Thirteenth Amendment, permanently abolishing slavery. He understood the Emancipation Proclamation needed constitutional bedrock, lest it be subject to being overturned by the… Read More

There was a firestorm in Washington when President Trump announced he sent Erica McEntarfer packing. Ms. McEntarfer was the Commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), a governmental entity about which Americans know little but happens to be critical to the U.S. economy. While the President muddled his reasons for the firing, it was done for two excellent reasons. This entity was created in 1884 and has evolved into its current home within the Department of Labor. It bills itself as “the principal fact-finding agency for the U.S. government in the broad field of labor economics and statistics and serves as a principal agency of the U.S. Federal Statistical System.” One might hope that it would provide solid economic information on which the government and our economic leaders can base their financial decisions. The BLS pours out many different reports. I know this as I receive them. The reports are about worker productivity, average weekly wages, regional hiring activity, national job openings, and many other topics. There is one report that is more important than the others combined. That is because the entire economy waits with bated… Read More

How quickly we forget. Between 1941 and 2001, Democrats controlled the redistricting process in the entire country (practically). And they gerrymandered (pronounced gary-mandered) everywhere. In 1991, Democrats controlled the Governorship and both houses of the Texas Legislature, but they were losing control of the state, as Republicans gained support, in fact, getting 47% of the statewide vote. The Democrat controlled state then enacted a congressional district plan that was called by the Supreme Court as the “shrewdest gerrymander of the 1990s.” It was so bad that in 2000, Republicans got 59% of the vote, but only 13 of the state’s Congressional seat. The Congressional seat fight in Texas continued in 2001, when the Democrats controlled the House, but the Republicans controlled the Governor and the Senate. Democrats still tried to protect their 1991 gerrymander by refusing to agree to a Congressional map in 2001.

Did we hear any Democrats cry about the gerrymandering process they perpetrated in Texas through 2001? No. In fact, between 1940 and 2000 the highly partisan maps drawn in the 25 to 30 states controlled by the Democrats were never… Read More

Redistricting is a purely political act. I know its boring, and very inside baseball, to talk about it, but jobs, power, influence and policy are all affected by how the political lines in any state are drawn. State legislatures were granted the power in Article 1, Section 4 of the US Constitution to draw Congressional lines, and, of course, most state Constitutions give them the right to draw state legislature lines. It is important to differentiate the power to draw state legislative districts and Congressional districts, because the Constitutional power to draw those lines are drawn from different sources.

With that introduction, let’s look at what California’s Arrogant Authoritarian in Charge (AAIC) Newsom is planning in the upcoming battle with regard to the redistricting of California Congressional lines.

First, we need to look at federal reapportionment laws. 2 USC Section 2a governs the “apportionment” process, that is, how the number of members of Congress are distributed between the states. Apportionment occurs once every ten years after the decennial census and that is when the states are allowed to draw the new… Read More

Mortgage fraud refers to an intentional misstatement, misrepresentation, and/or omission of information relied upon by an underwriter or lender to fund, purchase, and/or insure a loan secured by real property. A criminal referral has been issued by federal officials to the U.S. Department of Justice questioning whether U.S. Senator Adam Schiff committed mortgage fraud. It appears he has. Those of us who have either acquired a personal residence or have refinanced a property know how daunting the paperwork is when you buy that property and you place financing on it. There are forms and then there are more forms. One might believe that reviewing the endless stack might be a little easier if one happens to be a graduate of Harvard Law School. It would be ostensibly easier for someone who clerked for a federal judge and prosecuted cases as an Assistant United States Attorney. That same person has held other people to the highest standards, leading one to think he would hold himself to those same high standards. Washington DC is filled with stories of members of Congress sleeping on a coach in their office or sharing an apartment with one or more fellow members.… Read More

When a former “comrade in arms” in the policy/political arena has an abrupt change of mind/behavior, two things happen. One sits in bewilderment at how they are now expressing themselves, and those with positions on the other side of the aisle function as if you personally are responsible for every misguided act/statement of the subject person. With my personal desire to be an honest broker of opinions, I must call out Tucker Carlson for his multitude of errant comments and his blatant anti-Semitism. Many people evolve politically over the years. David Horowitz was a significant voice in the Republican arena who recently passed away. His story is about being a Communist in his youth and then evolving to being a bastion of conservative thinking and a founder of the Freedom Center that is carrying on his life’s work as part of his legacy. The difference is David, a friend of mine, did not devolve into hatred for anything other than a failed political philosophy. Yes, I was proponent of Tucker Carlson when he was on Fox News. Tucker was the only show I regularly watched on Fox News other than Special Report which is the network’s excellent hard… Read More

When I first read about Governor Newsom’s plan to “redistrict” California’s Congressional districts to counter the move in Texas to change its Congressional district lines, I thought his plan to be flawed. I don’t know anything about the rules in Texas regarding the redistricting process there, but California supposedly has a “bipartisan, independent” redistricting commission. Neither the Governor nor the Legislature is supposed to have the power to draw district lines.

Then, the Democrat Attorney General, Rob Bonta, rendered an opinion saying the Legislature could override the redistricting commission, and propose its own plan, submit that plan to the voters, and work to counter the Texas redistricting. Article XXI of the California Constitution directly contradicts the Attorney General’s legal opinion. Attorney General Bonta is not driven by the law, but rather the partisan politics that both he and Governor Newsom have pursued for years here in California. Article XXI says, rather clearly, the commission draws the districts once a decade, and that’s it. (section 1 of Article XXI)

Texas is… Read More