There are two stories in every government budget, first, the smoke and mirrors of budget change proposals and staff analysis, where, through a process of reports and allegedly nonpartisan analytical papers, the press and the people are told why a budget can never get smaller than the year before. The second story is the real numbers, and the beginning of the real numbers is Schedule 6 in the Governor’s Budget. Want to look at it? Great, in today’s world, with unbelievable amounts of information available to everyone with the click of a mouse, all you need is the URL. And…the URL for Schedule 6 is:

http://ebudget.ca.gov/2018-19/pdf/BudgetSummary/BS_SCH6.pdf

Why is this important? Because no one can hide from the real numbers. Like, for instance, in 1960, California had a total population of 15.8 million people, and total general and special fund spending of $2.5 billion; (a)$1.65 billion general fund and (b) $850 million special funds. Why is this important? Because 1960 was right in the middle of huge expenditures of real (as opposed to human) infrastructure. California was building freeways and water conveyance structures (dams and… Read More

A recent report from the Public Policy Institute of California claimed that crime in California has not increased, and recidivism rates decreased due to Proposition 47. “We find no evidence that violent crime increased as a result of Proposition 47,” the Executive Summary reports.

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Last weekend as my husband and I were enjoying vin rouge and fromage at one of our favorite Delta wineries in Clarksburg, CA, we discussed Gov. Jerry Brown’s proposed Delta Tunnels project, and how it would destroy the historical, rich agricultural region. Some of our favorite wineries, and all of the Delta agriculture could end up under water and/or the land rendered useless if Gov. Jerry Brown’s unnecessary Delta Tunnels project is actually built.

The tunnels project proponents claim it is needed to deliver significantly more, better quality water to Southern California cities and Central Valley farms, and deliver water more reliably – at an original cost estimate of more than $26 billion. When it became… Read More

Of all the stories NOT reported by most of the media in the wake of this primary election, the most significant is the recall of Senator Newman as a result of his vote on the Gas Tax. Lots of media sources were quick to report about how “foolish” Republicans were when they were pushing the repeal of the gas tax, rather than focusing on saving their members of Congress. A waste of money, it was called. “Just another example” of the bad political judgment of Republicans.

Oops.

Democrats promised the now former Senator Newman, as well as all their other members, that there would be no voter backlash from the gas tax vote. If there was, they said, they would do what it takes to save those politicians whose jobs were at stake. Proponents of the gas tax repeal wisely focused on one legislator, in one place, and showed the California and the rest of the nation, that people don’t take kindly to having their taxes raised, particularly when those who are proposing the tax increase are at once promising to waste tax money on free medical care for illegal aliens and failing to spend that same tax money on improving our transportation… Read More

Long the dream of the business community and left of center Republicans, the top two primary was the second choice of those who wanted to allow Democrats to improperly influence Republican general election candidates. I was an early target of the first “jungle primary” approach. That approach was to put all the candidates on one ballot, let everyone vote, and then only the top Republican and top Democrat would go to the general election. The hope was that Democrats would cross over in safe Republican districts, and vote for the more moderate Republican. Then Democrat Senate Leader Bill Lockyer came to my district, and worked to recruit a moderate Republican and to push the Democrats in my district to vote for that Republican. There was already a Democrat in the race, so I worked to recruit a second Democrat to run, and told the world that the second Democrat would be my spy on the Riverside County Democrat Central Committee. That set up a fight between the Sacramento Democrats, who wanted the moderate Republican to defeat me, and the local Democrats, who didn’t want my spy on their central committee. The plan worked, the Sacramento Democrat sponsored… Read More

Droughts are naturally occurring; water shortages are political and caused by corrupt and incompetent government officials.

Part l:Why Voters Need to Care About More Water Bonds on June/Nov CA Ballotsis HERE

With millions of dollars of unspent water bond money from 2006 and 2014 water bonds, why is there yet another a water bond on today’s June Primary ballot, and another on the November ballot?

The answers lie in the players behind nearly all of the water bonds.

Voters need to ask why Joseph Caves, Gerald Meral and Lester Snow have had their hands in virtually every bond measure dealing… Read More

Where are the Gerawan Farming Workers’ ballots from the 2013 UFW decertification election?

Gerawan Farming workers just won a huge victory over the United farm Workers labor union and California Agricultural Labor Relations Board. In a 3-0 decision, the Fifth District Court of Appeal ordered the California Agricultural Labor Relations Board to count the workers’ ballots from the November 2013 election to decertify the United Farm Workers labor union, and issue a tally.

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Responding quickly to learning that a blatant anti-Semite had filed for Congress under the party’s banner in the Bay Area, the California Republican Party’s Board of Directors yanked John Fitzgerald’s default endorsement in the race for California’s 11th Congressional District.

Employing the bizarre tactic of attacking Jews using the platform of his campaign’s website, the CRP Board reviewed the candidate’s statements and swiftly determined he was not someone with whom the party would affiliate itself.

It’s interesting to note that in trying to explain away his brazen anti-Semitism, Fitzgerald in later posts on his site claims that he’s simply questioning the policies of the Israeli government. This is a common diversionary tactic anti-Semites use, characterizing their disdain for people of the Jewish faith as mere disagreement over Israeli government policy, or challenging the “Jewish lobby.”

Yet, this poor explanation doesn’t cover the fact that Fitzgerald’s smears against Jews start with the long debunked claim that Jews were somehow disproportionally involved with or played some kind of leading role in the African slave… Read More