Issues seem to explode onto our radar out of nowhere these days and then become very consuming. Yesterday thinking I had survived Mueller week, I received alerts that the Dems were considering multiple anti-Israel resolutions at their California convention this weekend. With all the sizzle of having a slew of presidential candidates at the convention, who would have thought that attacking the Jews would become a hot topic?

For those of you who have never attended a party’s state convention, they serve many purposes. One is to establish the political philosophy of the party through resolutions that address hot-button issues. With the rise of anti-Semitism in the world, it is not shocking that… Read More

Here’s a crucial survey concerning San Diego County transportation and spending. Not surprisingly, most people OPPOSE the very nut-ball mass transit plan that SANDAG bureaucrats are desperately trying to get their board of directors (all local politicians) to approve.

Summed up, SANDAG wants to spend about 50% of their HUGE funding (billions and billions of dollars) on mass transit to urban AND rural county areas — and bike lanes. Public transit and bike lanes serve 3% of commuters. SANDAG wants to limit future spending on roads for the other 97% — and congestion fee pricing for those who have the audacity to still use hated cars.

Indeed, as the survey reveals, the opposition to this insane mass transit boondoggle constitutes a SUPERmajority of San Diego city voters. The results not even close. See the press release below with the questions and response percentages.

One other point. The survey is of the CITY voters — who are more urban and Democrat than the county as a whole. As the news has reported, the opposition to the SANDAG proposals are most concentrated in north and east San Diego County — Poway, the north… Read More

During the Los Angeles teachers strike earlier this year,an articlein the ultra-left publicationThe Nationoffered an excellent glimpse into the mentality of strikers and their supporters. The article begins by describing a scene in front of an LAUSD middle school on day three of the strike. A truck driver has arrived to make a delivery to the school, and the picket line won’t budge. Police have been called.

What happens next? According toThe Nation, “The line holds. The police don’t make good on their threats to cite or arrest teachers, and the truck and police cars drive off. One of the officers even gets on his radio before he leaves and says, ‘Don’t let them come between us. We support you!’”

It would take an expert to determine whether this conduct falls within the boundaries of normal police discretion or constitutes a minor act of civil disobedience in solidarity with the strikers, but it doesn’t take an expert to determine whose side this officer was on. “We support you.”

Police, along with the… Read More

The subpoena issued by the Judiciary Committee puts the Attorney General in a legal Catch-22: To comply with the subpoena, he must break the law. If he obeys the law, he must disobey the subpoena.

Every person on the committee knows that the law forbids release of grand jury testimony. Congress is the law-making branch. If the committee feels it is so important to see the grand jury testimony, it can change the law. But it cannot order the highest-ranking law enforcement official in our country to break the law to please the whims of the majority…

Remarks by Congressman Tom McClintock Regarding the Resolution Holding William Barr in Contempt of Congress House Judiciary Committee May 8, 2019

Mr. Chairman:

The subpoena issued by this committee puts the Attorney General in a legal Catch-22: To comply with the subpoena, he must break the law. If he obeys the law, he must disobey the subpoena.

Every person on this committee knows that the law forbids release of grand jury testimony. Congress is the law-making branch. If the committee feels it is so important to see the grand jury testimony, it can change the law.… Read More

Oxnard has got a problem. The city’s contributions to CalPERS, which totaled $23 million in their fiscal year 2016-17, are going to increase to $45 million by 2024-25.

Where is this money going to come from? Asreported last week, the “skyrocketing pension costs” have already led Oxnard’s Mayor to call for “painful cuts.” But if pension payments are set to double in just the next six years, where will all these cuts come from?

Meanwhile, in Oxnard, a small group of local activists, led by Aaron Starr, a local executive with a financial background including a CPA, are working to qualify five reform initiatives. If they gather the signatures required for each initiative, residents of the City of Oxnard will vote on them in November 2020.

The process of filing a citizens initiative is relatively straightforward. One reference is Ballotpedia, which provides a good summary oflaws governing the local ballot measuresin… Read More

As reported by the Ventura County Star, the City of Oxnard faces budget headwinds.Quoted in the article, Mayor Tim Flynn had this to say:

“We’re making decisions that should have been made 10, 20 years ago to put the city on a sustainable path,” Flynn said. “These are very painful cuts, but we have to live within our means. The city historically has not lived within our means.”

City Manager Alex Nguyen was more specific:

“Skyrocketing pension costs and spikes in health care are some of the reasons for the budget shortfall. With projected expenditures approximately $10 million more than anticipated revenue, there is no choice but to recommend programmatic cuts to the City Council.”

Skyrocketing pension costs. You can say that again. Depicted on the chart below is a summary of what’s happening to Oxnard, thanks to “skyrocketing pension costs.” The biggest takeaway from this chart is the fact that Oxnard’s pensions have just begun to “skyrocket.” If you want to skip the details and cut to the… Read More

On June 27, 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the caseJanus vs AFSCME. An immediate consequence of this ruling was that public sector unions could no longer collect so-called “agency fees” from workers in their bargaining units who had opted out of full union membership.

The other main consequence of theJanusruling was that those workers who were full dues paying members of public sector unions would have the right to terminate their memberships. In anticipation of a result unfavorable to them, whichJanuscertainly was, public sector unions have used their influence with lawmakers topass numerous pieces of legislationdesigned to make it harder for union members to quit. As a result, the full impact of union members terminating their membership will not be felt immediately.

With nearly a year passed since theJanuscase was decided, however, it is possible to begin to quantify the impact so far on union membership and on union… Read More

On the SAN DIEGO U-T website, there is a treasure trove of invaluable articles (MY articles!) first published on the now defunct NORTH COUNTY TIMES. The U-T bought the NCT for a pittance, and put their database of stories on the U-T website.

I found it by accident recently — surprised that my timeless(?) op-eds could still be accessed. The only drawback is that in the platform switch from NCT to U-T, there are numerous formatting problems. Here I’ve taken the article and fixed the formatting mess, but the U-T link can be accessed to see the “original.”

In this article, the data is outdated, but the RELATIONSHIP of public and private salaries for comparable jobs likely remains the same. And remember, this comparison is JUST the salaries — not the benefits — government benefits that are FAR higher than private sector employees receive.