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

The murder of Ukranian refugee Iryna Zarutska and President Donald Trump’s federal takeover of security in Washington DC are highlighting why today’s urban, cosmopolitan Democratic Party is failing to connect with the voters it once relied on for victory.

The Democratic Party of Bill Clinton understood that winning the support of middle class and blue collar voters was essential to the party’s success. This is why Clinton ultimately signed the 1994 crime bill, and welfare reform in 1996.

Yet the party’s reaction to the brutal slaying of a Ukranian refugee on a Charlotte metro train highlights just how far the party has lost touch with its former self.

Rather than hold the criminal to account, Democrat Charlotte Mayor Vi Lyles issued a lengthy statement blaming anyone and everyone other than the man who stands accused of plunging the knife into Ms. Zarutska’s neck.

While Clinton signed a tough crime bill into law and famously gave his “sister Souljah” speech calling out the rapper for giving a green light to violence, Ms. Lyles rambled on about the “unhoused,” “access to mental health care,” and failures… Read More

The left’s response to the unprovoked stabbing and murder of Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska on a Charlotte Metro train is a case study in how the activist left reframes issues to increase state control and diminish individual responsibility.

Their success in recasting the discussion of crime, homelessness and mental illness has created the unsafe and rapidly deteriorating conditions throughout America’s cities.

Today’s left-wing activists and politicians seek to control the outcome of public policy debates through two primary methods: defining what is considered the acceptable vocabulary for the discussion, and constraining the argument.

Their defining the vocabulary gives us words like “unhoused” instead of homeless, “system-impacted person” in the place of criminal, “substance use disorder patient” instead of drug addict, and so on.

These terms are not used as part of an effort to be more precise, but rather to shift responsibility. “Unhoused” shifts focus toward a lack of housing, rather than the decisions which can lead to homelessness. “Justice-impacted person” recasts the criminal as victim… Read More

The Democrats are beside themselves over the fact that President Trump has started to take over their municipal domains due to excessive crime and wants to spread the federal government’s municipal policing to other locations. There is a way for the Dems to win this battle. It would take a “mea culpa” and some manipulation, but it could be done. We need to start with an understanding. There are many things residents of these big cities look to their local governments for, but there is one primary thing they want government to do: provide physical security for them and their family and protect their hard-earned assets like their homes and vehicles. This is where the Dems have gone off the deep end. They have enacted what have been perceived as “dangerous policies” like cashless bail, ridiculously high minimums for what used to be grand larceny and is now a petty crime, and then not even enforce those laws. The leadership of these communities have called off the cops and elected prosecutors many of whom are the definition of a “misnomer.” Not only has this caused petty crime to soar to the point that residents walk into a drug store to find… Read More