After Joseph Stalin took the reins of power in the Soviet Union in the mid 1920’s, his image suddenly appeared in paintings of important meetings of the Bolshevik revolutionaries – which was odd because he had attended virtually none of them. Later, after each successive Stalinist purge, group photos that included previously prominent, but now ostracized, imprisoned or executed communists, would be scrubbed, so as to appear that they had never existed.

Of course attempts by politicians to rewrite their history go far beyond just doctoring paintings and photographs.

In Washington, D.C. we have the curious case of Jonathan Gruber. During the run up to Obamacare, both then Speaker Nancy Pelosi and President Barrack Obama sang the praises of the roll that MIT professor of economics Jonathan Gruber had played in crafting the legislation. Gruber has been described as the architect of Obamacare and, before that, the similar Romneycare in Massachusetts.

Recently, videos surfaced online showing economist Gruber telling groups that the healthcare law had been written specifically in a way to deceive the “stupid” American public so that it would not be clear… Read More

Earlier this week I found myself having to travel to the city of Rosemead, in the San Gabriel Valley, east of Los Angeles. Unfortunately for one member of the Rosemead City Council, my trip to her working class city of roughly 54,000 people (according to the 2010 census) coincided with a decision that I made to start highlighting politicians who’s time in office has stretched on for decades, and who have become walking, talking arguments for term limits. As the President of California Term Limits, I am proud to announce that our first (of many) California Zombie Awards is being given to Republican councilwoman Margaret Clark.

Margaret Clark was first elected to the City Council in 1991 — nearly a quarter century ago. How long ago was this?… Read More

Public employee pension apologists proclaim that 401(k)-type plans (defined contribution plans) are horribly expensive, with “Wall St” gobbling up much of the profits with fees, etc. Sadly for them, there’s a major government 401(k) plan that, in effect, totally debunks this nonsense.

The WALL ST JOURNAL did a story on the federal Thrift Savings Plan (TSP) — essentially a 401(k) plan for federal employees. The theme of the article was why it was unwise for retirees to roll their plans over into “retail” IRA plans, because of the considerably higher fees. True enough, but what’s most important is to note the annual cost to employees of TSP. Damn near zero. http://blogs.wsj.com/totalreturn/2014/12/04/ditch-a-super-cheap-401k-for-an-ira-sure-ira-sellers-say/

*** EXCERPT: Due to its large size—with 4.6 million participants and $431.6 billion in assets, the TSP is the nation’s largest 401(k)-type plan—and the fact that the federal government subsidizes some of the plan’s administrative costs, the TSP has an average cost of 0.029% a year. That translates into a fee of 29 cents for every $1,000 invested—or… Read More

Journalism’s most basic tenets of truth and accuracy, independence from special interests or conflict-of-interests, fairness and impartiality, and accountability, mean that writers must be fair, stick to the data and facts, question both sides, question the authorities, and listen to the explanations. But that’s not what we are getting with the recent Rolling Stone story of campus rape at the University of Virginia.

In fact, the mainstream media keeps telling and retelling a big fat lie about the phony campus rape epidemic.

The story that “Jackie” told to Rolling Stone about being brutally gang-raped in a UVA fraternity house over the course of three hours, never made sense. Perhaps because the Rolling Stone reporter never talked to the young men accused of the alleged gang rape. Yet Rolling Stone published the story anyway. And UVA suspended the entire Greek system on campus.

If this brings back memories of the Duke University Lacrosse phony rape case, it should. It’s a bad journalism… Read More

Want to predict the winner of the NBA finals with better than a 91% accuracy? Here’s your cheat sheet. Bet on teams that are either:

1. Domiciled in one of the three major markets — NYC, Chicago, or L.A. — which provides the team a bigger war chest — and offers more lucrative endorsement deals.

2. Located in an income tax free state.

Actually the article is outdated. Since being written in the spring of this year, another NBA finals has come and gone. The two teams in the finals were from tax-free states — again. Hence the historical probability now exceeds 92%.

http://jimmcilvaine.sportsblog.com/post/657780/how_to_predict_every_nba.html

April 19, 2014

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[Publisher’s Note: We are pleased to present this thoughtful piece by Adrian Moore of the Reason Foundation. – Flash] If you are new to the FlashReport, please check out the main site and the acclaimed FlashReport Weblog on California politics.

Thanks to state and local gas taxes and strict regulations, California usually has some of the highest gas prices in the country, so drivers are really enjoying the current drop in oil prices, which has pushed gas prices across the state down.

The state’s high gas taxes always raise questions. The most recent highway performance and cost-effectiveness rankings by Reason Foundation show that in 2012 California’s spent more on maintenance disbursements per mile than all but one state, and yet California still ranks next to last, 49th, in… Read More

The first thing we have to understand is that without the law, we have nothing. It turns into a situation of savage against barbarian, of the powerful against the powerless. It turns into a situation of dog eat dog, unrestricted, without restraints or consideration of anybody’s humanity. – Dr. Harry Edwards,POPSspot Sports Radio Interview, August 22, 2014

Police union spokespersons often suggest that media coverage of police actions is invariably negative. Where are the reporters when a cop performs a good deed? Whether or not the media is truly biased against members of law enforcement is debatable, of course, but as noted sociologist Harry Edwards points out, “without the law, we have nothing.” Given the penchant for many professional social commentators and activists to jump onto the latest anti-police brutality bandwagon with unequivocal pronouncements, Dr. Edwards’ measured response is… Read More

Staring at a gigantic German Shepherd poop on my bedroom rug last weekend, I reached for one of those single-use grocery bags outlawed by California, for the clean up.

Thankfully, I have a small stash of extra “single-use” plastic bags… but not for long.

After eight years of failed legislative attempts to ban plastic grocery bags, Gov. Jerry Brown signed a bill in September to ban and tax plastic and paper grocery bags,despite the fact that all types of plastic shopping bags can be reused and recycled into new bags. The new statewide plastic bag ban is scheduled to go into effect July 15, 2015.

Immediately after the bill signing, the American Progressive Bag… Read More