Did you know the Legislature actually passed a budget? If you weren’t paying attention, you would never know. It got very little media coverage.

It was, by and large, a meaningless act, since there is no deal on the budget with the Governor, but hey, the politicans will still get their paychecks. Back in the 2000-2010 decade, the Ds passed, and the voters approved, a budget constitutional amendment that had two major impacts: (1) it reduced the number of votes needed to pass the budget from a two-thirds vote of both houses of the Legislature to a majority vote of both houses. The rationale for the change was that almost every other bill only requires a majority vote (only emergency type bills require two-thirds), so why should it be different for the budget?

The real rationale for the Democrat controlled Legislature was that they were tired of buying off Republican Legislators to get the votes necessary to pass the budget. Not that there were enough Rs to stop out of control spending, there were always two, three or four R legislators in the Senate and six to eight R legislators in the Assembly willing to sell their vote for some local pork. I recall… Read More

As we approached the start of our annual trip to foreign lands, we were excited that the mask mandate for airplane flights was ending the day before our departure. We did not believe the Biden Administration would be foolish enough to extend it; then they did. We were thoroughly dejected. Then we met Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle. And we were exultant.

There were two reasons we were so happy. People being required to wear masks on airplanes is the ultimate act of bureaucratic overreach. Airplanes are the safest place you can be with the best and cleanest recirculated air you can experience. Victory for common sense and science. The second reason we were happy is that it set the Left into a tizzy of gargantuan proportions. They attacked Judge Mizelle, but in the multiple commentaries I read on the issue never once did they comment on the legality of her ruling. Only ad hominin attacks.

“If CDC can’t impose an unintrusive requirement to wear a mask to prevent a virus from going state to state, then it literally has no power to do anything,” said public health law expert Lawrence Gostin, faculty director of the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health… Read More

After HR1, the Democrats bill to nationalize the election process, was defeated in two consecutive Congresses, one might think the supporters would get the hint and move on. That is clearly not the case as they are chastising Republicans for reestablishing voting rules at the state level, so there is not another free-for-all as we experienced in 2020. There is a new proposal that attempts to cheapen voting and place central control at the federal level for all election rules. Do not discount this can happen because ideas begin this way and then metastasize. You need to be aware.

Long-time Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne Jr. authored this new proposal together with former Connecticut Secretary of State Miles Rapoport who currently is a fellow at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. They co-authored 100% Democracy: The Case for Universal Voting. I have not read the book but did read their column on the subject in the WaPo.

The authors make the argument that Americans have many obligations. They are obligated to pay taxes, show up for jury duty, get their kids vaccinated, etc. They should be obligated to vote. Here is the problem with that argument. Almost… Read More

You are going through your day trying to work or take care of life’s responsibilities. Then the news hits. You stare at the TV or computer feed in crippling shock. How can such a horrible thing be happening? Why would a “human being” do such a thing? It is all too much. It is sad, so very sad.

We have confronted this before and the aftermath. We just lost ten people of a different creed and age. We are always lurching for answers and too often we are provided false ones by the voices. The voices who say it is because of false gods like hatred of a certain group or some imagined philosophy. The voices tell us it is how they killed not the person who did the killing. The voices search through hundreds of pages of ramblings of a sick mind to seize on a few words that enhance their political or philosophical positions when they are simply ramblings of a sick mind. Nothing more.

This incident should give us clarity – it is sick minds, not hatred. What kind of sick mind shoots their grandmother? A grandmother. The same sick mind that can walk into a school and kill nineteen young children and two adults. Children that have barely experienced life and should have… Read More

All too often there is a proposal for a government plan that just makes one stare in disbelief at the proposing legislator’s gross ignorance. When you then see that the business community is complicit with said ridiculously stupid plan, it becomes obvious why many people no longer trust big organizations. Following is such a situation.

We have a housing crisis in California. It is not unlike what is going on across America. It is estimated there is a shortage of approximately 1.5 million units. Development has slowed down since the housing crisis that occurred of 2007-08. In California, the housing crisis has driven up prices and caused an exodus of many businesses along with the middle-class. The only reason the population has not gone into free fall is the growth of two groups – illegal immigrants and homeless. The government is taking tax dollars and developing homeless units for $500,000 and up – per unit.

Instead of resolving the underlying problems costs burdened by the government and restricting development of new units created by the government, as usual there is a new proposal. It does not address those problems but manages to create a solution so… Read More

The Department of Finance, in a press release, just projected a record surplus, which was widely reported without question by press around the country. Last year, I said there were warning signs of a problem. Interestingly enough, if you get past the press releases, the Rosy Scenario reported in the press releases are false, and the problems “unreported” or “hidden” by the “record surplus” language may spell disaster in November. WARNING: the following contains a lot of boring numbers, but it is worth understanding.

First, let’s look at the numbers. The Department of Finance (DOF) says we are looking at a $97.5 billion surplus on a $301 billion budget. But there is a problem. If you review the May Revise (the report on which the budget is usually based, which includes all of the April tax revenues), general fund revenues are projected to be $30 billion less in the budget year (2022-23) than in the current year (2021-22). How do you get a $97.5 billion surplus on a $30 billion revenue drop?

DOF, again in its press releases, says the surplus comes from high income earners paying a lot of taxes.… Read More

Milton Friedman was right when he said he would support any tax cut, at any time, for any reason. Government is simply too big, and too expensive – money is more productive when it’s spent by people instead of by government.

As Republicans in the legislature champion a suspension of California’s sky high gas taxes, I support it.

Yet – this cannot be the extent of our thinking.

The German philosopher Goethe once advised, “Dream no small dreams, for they have no power to move the hearts of men.” This is also sound political advice. Translation: when it comes to ideas, don’t play small ball. To get people excited, to “move the hearts of men” (and women), one must go big.

A temporary lifting of California’s onerous and punishing gas tax, which everyone knows will not happen and would be fleeting even if it did, is not sufficient to get Californians fired up and engaged. Especially when there is so much more reform begging to be… Read More

I quit Twitter at the same time I abandoned Parler — right after Big Tech ganged up on that site to kill it off because it was presenting a different voice. I found Twitter to be an angry wasteland of malcontents. Then came the eruption with the acquisition of Twitter by the new Darth Vader (Elon Musk).

We don’t need to analyze that entire saga as the matter has been thrashed over ad nauseum. We do know that one of Twitter’s problems is the angry, low-quality communication. The Twitter people determined anything you (conservatives) might say is “hateful” while allowing anyone to spew any ugly words formerly banned in public communications with impunity.

I subscribe to the Washington Post because I am into self-flagellation. I have always believed in reading people of varying viewpoints to understand what they are thinking and saying instead of going on others’ analyses. As you know, a remarkably successful entrepreneur owns WAPO. The paper does not seem to ever be questioned as to how it addresses issues. WAPO’s “quality” has reached the level Twitter’s nastiness.

Below, I have copied a recent week’s worth of WAPO’S various… Read More