Prelude: When I wrote this column I did not expect to have gun stores fighting to stay open especially in areas where public officials like to restrict gun owner rights. Who would have thought that pot shops would be deemed essential and gun shops not? At a time when public officials are releasing criminals so they can unload any concern for COVID-19 surrounding them, they restrict the rights of law abiding citizens who want to protect themselves and their families by acquiring a gun while the authorities pretend the police will protect all of us.

No one wants a crazy person to have a gun except for maybe the crazy person. People of all political persuasions agree on that point. Red flag laws have begun to spread throughout the states to keep guns out of the hands of unstable people. The question is whether they go too far and overshoot (no pun intended) their goal.

I have previously described the fact that anyone walking into a building, arena, mall or any other space for large group gatherings and starts shooting at strangers is the definition of a person that is severely mentally ill. With the increased frequency… Read More

Here’s a wonky study comparing the education results of states — a different study that merits a serious look. It uses REAL criteria, not typical left wing assumptions that dominate most such “surveys.”

The results will disturb most progressives. And the MSM. Which is why you’ve likely heard nothing about this study.

For instance, the common assumption made by most such surveys is that the primary factor in the quality of education is the amount of money SPENT on education. As this study details, there is in reality no significant correlation between spending and education RESULTS.

For results, the study concentrated on“thestudents’ performance on the National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP), a battery of standardized tests sometimes called ‘The Nation’s Report Card.’ These tests are given to fourth and eighth graders as well as some high school… Read More

The anguish in people’s voices as they call our office every day is heart-breaking. Many are wondering how they can pay their bills, whether their job will still exist in a week, whether their retirement savings have been decimated or whether they’ll lose the shop they’ve spent their lifetimes and life savings to build.

Immediate financial relief is of paramount importance to staunch the damage done to the millions of American workers and businesses pushed to insolvency by forced closures and a panic that has emptied grocery shelves across the country. How that relief is extended will determine whether we save or destroy what just one month ago was one of the most promising economic expansions in our nation’s history.

Businesses must have immediate access to capital to keep their assets intact and their employees’ jobs preserved. The answer that has worked for centuries is to make capital easily available through low-cost emergency loans so businesses can stay intact. The Federal Reserve is doing that by throwing open the discount window and Congress needs to guarantee emergency loans to all businesses to stay afloat until the crisis passes.

For… Read More

You might already be sick of reading and hearing about the coronavirus (CV). Since this column rarely writes on matters about which others have flooded us with their thoughts, there must be a good reason to write about this subject. Here goes.

While reading a piece from the WSJ’s James Freeman, my head was knocked back. He stated that in the prior four days 2,700 people had died of CV worldwide, while 600,000 total had died. I checked his math. He was wrong.

Bear with me here as I run through some calculations. Let’s say there are 7.7 billion people alive today which is a low side estimate. Let’s say that they all live to age 75, which is a generous estimate. That means 281,279 people die every “typical” day. That means over those four days, 1,125,114 people died of which 2,700 were from CV. Just a little perspective.

Saturday’s New York Times headline cited 14 people had died from the CV in the last day. New York has 9,000,000 people. Statistically speaking 329 people there in a “typical” day. Yet everyone in New York is alarmed.

One can point to 1918 when an estimated 50,000,000 people died (675,000 in the U.S.) of an H1N1 virus… Read More

The single biggest issue facing Californians is the homeless that has exploded in major cities. There are plenty of reasons for this, but most of it comes from a lack of focus on the underlying causes. That was particularly brought to light when I was exposed to two recent studies done in San Francisco and Los Angeles. It never fails to amaze how government officials can get so misdirected.

The first is a study by Applied Survey Research named San Francisco Homeless Count and Survey 2019. The study has been embraced by participating city and county departments along with 600 volunteer participants.

The count states there were 8,011 homeless people in San Francisco which is just short of a 1,200 person increase from the previous count two years ago. That in itself seems quite a revelation. Most people would think that there are that many homeless on Market Street or in Union Square. The count includes sheltered and unsheltered. There are 5,000 unsheltered. If the number is relatively so small, why can’t they seem to get the population under control? Maybe that is partly to do with the findings.

Only 18% were reported as having a drug or alcohol… Read More

Here’s my guest commentary printed 3/13/20 in the SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE. The U-T invited me to submit this article to present the taxpayer viewpoint — a viewpoint which had been omitted in their recent rah-rah news story hyping the idea of a new CSU campus in Chula Vista.

I’ve included below my full submitted copy which includes URL’s that aren’t included in either the printed or online version the U-T published. My published submission was slightly (and judiciously) edited down by the U-T, which is fine.

BTW, below my commentary is a wonderful, related story about how National University with online courses is kicking the butts of the traditional bricks and mortar colleges. The EXCERPT is well worth reading — not so much the full article.

Perhaps MORE important, here’s more evidence I’ve since discovered that the national college student population has been SHRINKING since 2011. Even in the graph’s 2028 projection, that national student population will still be significantly less than the 2011… Read More

There are a group of Conservatives that just cannot accept President Trump. They are constantly chastising him, only occasionally begrudgingly praising him for something before reverting to their total disdain. The question to them is are they more interested in their impression of proper presidential conduct or do they want to accomplish their policy goals?

Discounting Bill Kristol (who has seemingly gone off the edge) or people who are not really conservatives (David Frum or Jennifer Rubin), there are three principal ringleaders. The three have recently formed their own publication – The Dispatch. They are Steve Hayes, Jonah Goldberg and David French. Since forming the new publication (Hayes and Goldberg co-founded the publication then French came over from National Review), it seems from what the three write and their appearances on TV they have significant disgust for Trump and they regularly make that clear.

The fascinating part of this is these three are conservatives, a term I don’t call myself (I am a Republican). I can understand their initial trepidation about Trump. Many Republicans were hesitant or cautious until they saw how he has governed for… Read More

With the March election over, the next big vote comes in November. In California, the Presidential race is unimportant — the Democrat’s nominee will win in CA in a landslide, and all the Electoral College votes will be awarded to the winner.

But the fall California election will be HUGELY important, as there will literally be HUNDREDS of new tax increases on ballots across the Golden State. One statewide levy will stand out — a multi-billion dollar annual property tax increase on our beleaguered California businesses. It will be the first phase in the progressives’ attempt to gut the REAL Prop 13 that limits the taxation ofallof our real estate.

There’s much to be debated about this tax, but I’d like to start the discussion by questioning the fundamental tenet of the Democratic Party — businesses don’t pay enough taxes in our state. Of course, it’s NEVER “enough.”

Our CA property tax BILLS are actually quite high — for both businesses and homes. That’s because of the high cost of California real estate — the culmination of decades of bad state and local… Read More