8/3/20 UPDATE: BARTLETT IS LOOKING FOR A BACK ROOM DEAL

Orange County Supervisor Lisa Bartlett knows beyond a doubt that she must stay in office beyond eight years. It must be some sort of divine calling. As those who have been following this issue the last few weeks — early in July Supervisor Bartlett brought forward a proposal to the Board of Supervisors to place on the ballot a cynical measure that would allow her to serve extra time in office if it passed. Billed as closing a “loophole” that allows termed out supervisors to leave, and then come back (said loophole has been used once in the history of term limits in OC) by allowing every supervisor to serve twelve instead of eight years in office. Perhaps, most significantly, Bartlett had made a commitment to me personally (so presumably to others) that if she was to bring forward a proposal it would be vetted, and brought around to different groups in the county for their input. In fact she said that ideally signatures would be gathered demonstrating it was “from the people” not from the Board.

Um, those commitments and sentiments turned out to be untrue, as she threw this… Read More

Small government conservatives and libertarian-leaning constitutionalists comforted ourselves with the Trump Administration by rationalizing that we will get a good Supreme Court. Cleaning the swamp would be nice. But at least we will get a better Supreme Court than from a President Hillary Clinton or Joe Biden, a Supreme Court that enforces the laws as written, leaves to the elected representatives the right to make the laws democratically, and fairly enforces those laws once written.

So much for that idea.

The need for respect for the written laws — and for the people’s’ representatives who write them — has been manifest over the last few decades. Too often, the federal courts have ignored the law as written by the people’s’ representatives, or by the people themselves through direct democracy.

This abject failure of the judiciary to follow the law is dressed in appealing language as the “Living Constitution” theory. According to the theory’s most outspoken champion, late Supreme Court Justice William Brennan, the words written into the statutory law — or enshrined in the Constitution — must change their meaning depending upon the… Read More

President Trump has been called an authoritarian a lot lately. He has also been called a fascist, dictator, totalitarian and autocrat. I do not think I have seen him called imperious or a despot perhaps because the name callers are unfamiliar with a thesaurus. Whether he is any of these is the question to analyze.

We can look at many cases in history, but we have two prime examples during recent times that define what these people call him. And when I say “these people” it goes all the way up to the Speaker of the House. The two cases are Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez and his successor, Nicolas Maduro. These are prime examples of authoritarians.

The rule of these people has been relatively short — Chavez took over in February of 1999 and Erdogan became Prime Minister in March 2003. Though they came to office through open elections, during these respective periods of time they have coalesced power in their own hands through lessening the powers of the citizens and suppressing their freedoms, particularly the freedom of the press and simultaneously freedom of speech. Both countries are no longer free democracies.… Read More

Periodically we Californians hear friends and allies complaining that investors and “foreign speculators” are driving up the price of California homes. But consider this question:Why aren’t all these supposedly-evil investors buying in Houston? Or in most other areas of the country?

Houston has much stronger demand for houses than CA. In the last decade, in several years the CITY of Houston issued more home building permits than the entire STATE of California. Yet the Houston houses sell for far less than CA, and the prices rise much slower. Oddly enough, the median price of a home in 27 states is lower than the low Texas home prices!

Here’s my answer to the above question (speaking as a long time real estate investor and stockbroker):Never invest your R.E. money in a free market, where competitors (in this case, builders) find it easy to construct new homes and apartments. In the 70’s I foolishly bought interest in some Houston properties. The demand for homes boomed, but so did the supply of houses and apartments. I SHOULD have invested in CA properties where the state and local governments self-righteously collude… Read More

The country is playing volleyball with the responsibility for returning businesses to normal during the pandemic. The federal government continues to allow municipal authorities within the confines of the Governors’ auspices to make these decisions. The Democrats and the national press blame Trump for not dictating rules that are clearly the purview of state and local authorities because they like to blame Trump for everything. Yet none of them is really controlling decisions because business operators are largely deferring to lawyers.

It is no secret that every business in America structures its operations with a view toward potential litigation. Businesses can feel confident they are in complete compliance with various laws for employment or safety and still be attacked by vultures.

Toward that end, both the states and federal government issued guidelines for reopening businesses in light of the lockdowns mandated by the closures from March 15th through the end of April. The government had to somehow justify why their employees were not laid off. They had to find something to do so they issued detailed guidelines on reopening. When I received these respective… Read More

I support federalism. Whenever possible, state and local governments should be largely autonomous in how they deal with their problems. The federal government should seek to limit its function to national defense, and a few other narrowly federal issues. Including defending the Bill of Rights — specifically the 2nd Amendment.

As I see it, President Trump erred in sending in troops (“law enforcement units”) to Portland. It MIGHT be justified SPECIFICALLY to defend federal properties, but these forces expanded their role to countering local violence and unrest.

On balance — looking at the Portland example — I think that it’s better to let the federal buildings in such cities be destroyed. If they need to be rebuilt, build them in safer cities and states. Woke cities don’t need or want no stinkin’ jobs. Just ask their progressive goddess — AOC.

Trump is a man who (like our CA Governor Newsom) likes to rule by edict. It results in him too often unwisely dealing with issues the federal government should stay out of. Of course, to varying… Read More

In dealing with the coronavirus, my wife and I (age 75) wereverygood for the first two months. We really isolated. But now it’s July, and we’ve made some adjustments that increase our risks. PRUDENTLY, we hope — but an increase in risk, nevertheless.

And in the process, I think we’ve found one innovation that improves our odds — an innovation that no one is talking about. More on that shortly.

BACKGROUND: Twice this month we’ve had our older son and his two young kids (ages 9 and 6) visit us for several days at a time. Our grandchildren still enjoy being with us, and we’ve decided not to let this precious period slip by.

Remember, we are not a risk to our grandkids — they are a risk to us. As of 7/20/20, in California (40,000,000 people), not a SINGLE kid under age 18 has died from COVID-19.Not one! The coronavirus is 90+% a geezer disease. https://tinyurl.com/y5jrvqv5

While those three visited, we all didn’t wear masks inside the house. Social distancing was spotty at best. Wedidwash our hands fairly often,… Read More

The COVID pandemic is new for most of us. I certainly was not around for the last one, the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918, and I’m not likely to be around for the next.

When people are faced with something completely alien to our experience, we naturally look for ways to make it fit within our existing view of the world. We revert to the familiar, equating what is new with something we already know, using the familiar as a guide to understand and respond to what now confronts us.

To some on the right, the government response is the problem, while to some on the left, President Trump is the problem. But the virus doesn’t care.

SARS-Cov-2, the virus which causes COVID 19, is the fire. And we are the fuel.

Just as fire cannot exist without a fuel source, the virus cannot long live outside of a human host.

The challenge before us is to separate the fire from its fuel, allowing the fire to burn itself out.

The evidence from Europe is clear: social distancing, minimizing interactions, better hygiene in the form of handwashing, and masks, when taken together, separate the fire from the fuel.

Our social media circles are… Read More