“There is nothing new under the sun” goes the old saying, and the “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE) is no exception. While I love the idea, and applaud the effort, a warning is in order. The bureaucracy will do everything they can to destroy the effort, and they are a formidable opponent.

Governor Schwarzenegger, in 2004, had the same idea. He called it the “California Performance Review” and his idea was to “streamline government,” and it generated a 2500 page document with suggested California government reforms. He promised to make full use of the report in overhauling California government. The California Performance Review died a quiet death less than a year after its drafting, and we never heard of it again.

I have one story to tell about how the project was co-opted by the bureaucrats and killed. I helped a friend who worked for state government get on one of the panels formed to study ways to reform government to make it more efficient. That person’s job was to cut down the costs of maintaining state buildings, and they were a big proponent of privatizing janitorial services.… Read More

First the Dodgers won the World Series. Then Trump wins big on election night bringing along a few Senate seats and the House while winning the popular vote. God did not intend us to have this much joy — and in just one week. First, let me be clear – the Trump win was obviously because the country is racist and sexist. How else could we have voted for the Orangeman over that wonderful woman? PolitiFact has checked and, no, Trump did not win the election. They will get back to you with the actual results. We keep being told that we are doomed because the Left controls the press and our schools and colleges. I keep saying despite their pervasive attempts to control our thoughts, the American people keep seeing through their malarkey and vote against their message carriers. I still have faith in what we now call “the average American.” What has been missing in all the analysis is Republicans have recently become the plurality party for the first time in 30 years. That accounts for a large part of growth in voters for Trump. There are two reasons I believe this has happened. The Democrats’ policies are out of touch with Americans… Read More

Like the Wizard of Oz iconic scene where the Wicked Witch of the West melts before our eyes, our free press is likewise melting before our eyes. The difference is that Margaret Hamilton yelled “I am melting,” while the current press states they are doing their job with a level of certitude. But their actions endanger our freedoms. Just when many thought the legacy media could not stoop to a level yet lower, they have openly achieved it in this current election. The most pronounced exhibit of this was MSNBC host Stephanie Ruhle who has a regular show on that bastion of “good” journalism. You know — that network that makes CNN look moderate. Ms. Ruhle appeared on Real Time with Bill Maher. Bill had another person on the show who happened to want to maintain our classic understanding of what our press is supposed to do in a presidential election. That is to extract the thoughts from both major candidates on the important public policy points they could be facing if elected. That person who adamantly stated he would never vote for Donald Trump is Bret Stephens of the New York Times. He expressed at the time… Read More

With election day less than a week away, here are some thoughts of importance not fully addressed nor previously discussed in my columns in deciding who gets your vote. Since the legacy media and its many organs will be chastising former President Trump for everything he has ever done, I will limit my comments to Ms. Harris. Harris like Biden and many others speak often of corporations and the rich not paying their “fair share.” We will probably never agree on the fact that corporations are just conduits for collecting taxes. We can discuss what is considered a “fair share” for individuals. This is where the advocates for higher taxes do not address what they believe is a “fair share.” They simply believe “the rich” should pay more so it can run through the hands of the higher-tax advocates to be directed to their preferred projects. Here are the facts and you can make your own decision. The IRS released their most current calculations which were for 2021 – four years after the Trump tax rate adjustments became law. The top 1% of earners paid 45.78% of the total taxes in 2021. That was up from 43.31% in 2020. Their share of total… Read More

I have to admit I have stopped watching political commercials. The commercial opposing Proposition 36 is only the latest reason why. It claims passing Proposition 36 will lead us back to “old failed” policy of the imprisonment of criminals and take spending away from “proven crime fighting strategies” like spending on mental health programs. These claims have been the stock in trade of the left in California, politicians like Kamala Harris, Gavin Newsom, Rob Bonta, and others in charge of our justice system since 2010. And our crime rate has skyrocketed.

Here’s what been proven to work over the years. From 1960 to 1982, as prison sentences decreased, crime rates increased 500%. In 1982, Governor Deukmejian started pushing for prison construction and increased sentences for criminal behavior, and the crime rate increases disappeared (although the crime rate itself didn’t decrease). In 1994, the state passed Three Strikes, and by 1996, the crime rate dropped by 50%, basically back to 1960 levels.

This drove the Democrats in charge of Sacramento nuts. From 1995 to 2014, the Democrats did everything in their power to… Read More

A guy made one caustic comment three years ago before he was even running for elected office. It became fodder for the politicos to distort rather than focusing on the essence of the public policy issue. More people are choosing not to have children and there are serious societal concerns. This is not a new “thing.” People have made this decision many times in the past. Or perhaps they were unable to because of a biological issue. There can certainly be issues for childless couples when being in a group of friends who do have children. That might make one feel ostracized. A friend who married in his fifties told me of how he felt uncomfortable surrounded by married couples. “Bob, why aren’t you married?” Fortunately, I steered clear of that lane as I do with friends who do not have children. Some people decide children are not for them and I often think “thank God.” They were never cut out to be parents. On the other hand, there are couples who have kids and candidly you might think, “maybe they should have skipped that part of life.” To paraphrase an oft cited saying, “the problem with kids is they don’t come with a… Read More

The surge in illegal border crossings is what the American people have determined is the single most critical issue in this election because of the often-devastating effects across our country. Here is a different view of this issue. Most Americans do not know that the number of naturalized citizens in 2022 was 969,380 and was 878,500 in 2023. That is a lot of people to embrace as new citizens each year. Some politicians talk in platitudes about how so many people want to come to America and how there are many refugees in their native countries due to poor circumstances. As someone who has been to nearly 90 countries worldwide, I can tell you from our discussions that America is a popular place, and a lot of people want to come here. The question is whether we should admit them. More importantly, are we prepared to do that? In my column on the Harris housing proposal, you learned we already have a shortage of 4.5 million homes for citizens. That is without considering the burgeoning homeless problem, particularly in Democrat-run cities like Los Angeles and Seattle. Think of this other aspect. If we want to greet more future Americans, we need… Read More

While different people have certain things in their minds they view as paramount, I have made my own decision as to the most important. It is clearly the biggest challenge we face because it goes to the underlying character of the people in our country. Those are our principles regarding stealing, and what we formerly thought of as right and wrong. Proposition 47, which California passed in 2014, was the first of many laws passed enabling this trend. The ballot issue (which garnered almost 60% of the public’s support) decreased the penalty to a misdemeanor for shoplifting, forgery, grand theft, fraud, and writing a bad check if the amount involved was less than $950. This gradually caused an explosion in low-level crime for which the police did not have the personnel to enforce. During a number of recent lunches with various people, I asked them a question about which they were kind of taken aback. I asked them if they had recently been to a CVS or Walgreen’s. Nearly everyone had. I then asked them if they had paid for their purchases before leaving. They looked at me quizzically and said various forms of YES. I then asked them why. No… Read More