For the past several years, progressive politicians here in the Golden State and around the nation have made it their personal missions to demonize the pharmaceutical industry and the costs of prescription drugs. The politicians do this while betraying absolutely no understanding of the basic economics driving the industry, an industry not devoid of its share of challenges and imperfections, but also one with stunning, life-extending and life-enhancing successes. Unfortunately, the demonizing comes at the expense of jeopardizing continued successes.

This is not to say that the pharmaceutical industry does not need sensible regulatory oversight. It does, and, as with any industry, we shouldn’t hesitate to shine a bright light on and hold the “bad actors” accountable if they take advantage of the people they are to serve.

But sometimes, that “bad actor” is the government itself.

Twenty-five years ago, Congress created the so-called 340B drug discount program. It was a good idea at the time, requiring pharmaceutical companies to provide discounted outpatient drugs to clinics and hospitals in areas that serve the uninsured, underinsured, and… Read More

“THE MARXIANS LOVE OF DEMOCRATIC INSTITUTIONS WAS A STRATAGEM ONLY, A PIOUS FRAUD FOR THE DECEPTION OF THE MASSES. WITHIN A SOCIALIST COMMUNITYTHERE IS NO ROOM LEFT FOR FREEDOM.”

― LUDWIG VON MISES

California Gov. Jerry Brown and the Democrat-supermajority State Legislature hold the state Supreme Court’s purse strings. Evidence of this can be found in the MondayCalifornia Supreme Court 7-0 decisionin the Gerawan Farming case.

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Many years ago it was accepted practice for our elite colleges to severely limit the number of Jews admitted. After all, Jews were overachievers, driven by their religion and culture to excel. Admitting “too many” Jews meant that more NON-Jews were being excluded from their “rightful” admission. Eventually this incredibly racist policy was done away with. Well, sorta done away with.

I suspect that you can see where I’m going with this. So can the U.S. Department of Justice. Who are the new “Jews” in America? Asians.

At “ground zero” (and now the bulls-eye) of this obvious but denied discrimination is Harvard University, the proud flagship of our elite Ivy League colleges. After too many years of passive acceptance by Asians, in 2014 a group of these rejected students filed a lawsuit against Harvard and its blatantly racist policies. Here we are towards the end of 2017, and Harvard still refuses to give up the court-required data that will easily verify that this policy exists.

Finally the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has stepped in, demanding in a lawsuit that the University comply… Read More

With the casting couch being front page headlines in Hollywood, New York, Washington D.C. and in California’s State Capitol,“unwanted sexual advances” has become the latest unfortunate phrase in today’s news pages. Common to most stories is how perpetrators have protected themselves, with the help of high placed accomplices.

My previous article, “Capitol Cesspool: Dem. Sen. Nancy Skinner Involved in Cover-Up of Sexual Harassment?” identified just how deep the California Capitol swamp is, with then-Assemblywoman Nancy Skinner, head of the Assembly Rules Committee, covering up sexual harassment in the Assembly in 2009.

Her cover up allowed accused then-Capitol staffer harasser Raul Bocanegra to run for Assembly, without his voters knowing of the allegations, or of the Rules Committee investigation which found “that more likely than not,” Bocanegra engaged in harassing behavior.

And now, Assemblyman Bocanegra has been accused by six new women of sexual harassment,… Read More

The California Legislature has declared and legislated sex “a contractual event,” and redefined consensual sexual relations as “rape” if it occurs on a college campus – but not in their own offices. Perhaps lawmakers should have turned their attention inward to their own Capitol offices where lawmakers have been accused of a great deal of non-contractual sexual events.

Headlines Monday by KTLA screamed, “San Fernando Valley Assemblyman Raul Bocanegra to Resign Next Year Amid Sexual Harassment Allegations.” But the devil is in the details. The article then states, “Bocanegra announced he will not seek reelection Monday, citing ‘persistent rumors and speculation’ regarding sexual harassment claims.”

‘Not seeking reelection’ is not a resignation.

Assemblyman Bocanegra has been accused by six new women of sexual harassment, according to the Los… Read More

Across the nation, local politicians have felt compelled to spend billions on commuter rail. It’s “feel good” spending pushed by special interests — results be damned. Commuter rail has been pretty much a disaster. It’s failed up to now, and is rapidly being made completely outdated by rider sharing (Uber) and driverless cars. But the madness continues.

Los Angeles is a stark example of the folly of light rail. According to the LA TIMES, the LA region spent over $9 billion on mass transit (primarily rail) since 1985, and they have fewer RIDERS in 2015 than they did in 1985.

http://riderrants.blogspot.com/2016/02/billions-spent-but-fewer-people-are.html

Here’s an article highlighting some examples of U.S. city commuter rail spending boondoggles. Impressive, sad to say.… Read More

Oh my! I just ran MY cost of California electricity stats using the latest federal data compilation:

CA residential electricity costs an average of 44.2­% more per kWh than the average for the other 49 states. CA commercial rates (think office buildings and shopping centers) are 60.6% higher.For industrial use, CA electricity is an astonishing 98.5% higher than the other states’ average. (August, 2017). https://www.eia.gov/electricity/monthly/epm_table_grapher.cfm?t=epmt_5_6_a

The Texas advantage compared to California is even higher. CA residential electricity costs 71.2% more per kWh than Texas residential electricity. CA commercial electricity costs 115.7% more than TX. But the astounding figure is the INDUSTRIAL rate difference — CA rates are 175.7% higher than TX.

I was prompted to run this update by a fine article (below) comparing how CA and TX deal with the cost of electricity. TX is well served by having more of a free market system with competition. Meanwhile CA is… Read More

Many California Republicans are excited about the federal GOP tax reform bill and anxious for tax relief, but others are warning about the negative impacts on individual taxpayers in high tax states like California and New York.

I spoke with California’s Congressman Tom McClintock this week to drill down into the corporate and personal aspects of the tax reform bill, to understand the nitty-gritty.

The bottom… Read More