The Department of Finance, in a press release, just projected a record surplus, which was widely reported without question by press around the country. Last year, I said there were warning signs of a problem. Interestingly enough, if you get past the press releases, the Rosy Scenario reported in the press releases are false, and the problems “unreported” or “hidden” by the “record surplus” language may spell disaster in November. WARNING: the following contains a lot of boring numbers, but it is worth understanding.

First, let’s look at the numbers. The Department of Finance (DOF) says we are looking at a $97.5 billion surplus on a $301 billion budget. But there is a problem. If you review the May Revise (the report on which the budget is usually based, which includes all of the April tax revenues), general fund revenues are projected to be $30 billion less in the budget year (2022-23) than in the current year (2021-22). How do you get a $97.5 billion surplus on a $30 billion revenue drop?

DOF, again in its press releases, says the surplus comes from high income earners paying a lot of taxes.… Read More

Milton Friedman was right when he said he would support any tax cut, at any time, for any reason. Government is simply too big, and too expensive – money is more productive when it’s spent by people instead of by government.

As Republicans in the legislature champion a suspension of California’s sky high gas taxes, I support it.

Yet – this cannot be the extent of our thinking.

The German philosopher Goethe once advised, “Dream no small dreams, for they have no power to move the hearts of men.” This is also sound political advice. Translation: when it comes to ideas, don’t play small ball. To get people excited, to “move the hearts of men” (and women), one must go big.

A temporary lifting of California’s onerous and punishing gas tax, which everyone knows will not happen and would be fleeting even if it did, is not sufficient to get Californians fired up and engaged. Especially when there is so much more reform begging to be… Read More

I quit Twitter at the same time I abandoned Parler — right after Big Tech ganged up on that site to kill it off because it was presenting a different voice. I found Twitter to be an angry wasteland of malcontents. Then came the eruption with the acquisition of Twitter by the new Darth Vader (Elon Musk).

We don’t need to analyze that entire saga as the matter has been thrashed over ad nauseum. We do know that one of Twitter’s problems is the angry, low-quality communication. The Twitter people determined anything you (conservatives) might say is “hateful” while allowing anyone to spew any ugly words formerly banned in public communications with impunity.

I subscribe to the Washington Post because I am into self-flagellation. I have always believed in reading people of varying viewpoints to understand what they are thinking and saying instead of going on others’ analyses. As you know, a remarkably successful entrepreneur owns WAPO. The paper does not seem to ever be questioned as to how it addresses issues. WAPO’s “quality” has reached the level Twitter’s nastiness.

Below, I have copied a recent week’s worth of WAPO’S various… Read More

When I had the opportunity to engage one of the major candidates for Mayor of Los Angeles, I stated there are only two issues in the race. The first being proper funding and use of the police and the second being the Homeless. The candidate agreed with me and the issues for the June 7th election were defined.

Karen Bass announced her candidacy soon thereafter and took the lead in the polls. She released with great fanfare her own detailed policy on Homelessness. The policy is linked here. I contacted her campaign to query them on what they had proposed, but they were fearful of answering legitimate questions from journalists who were not from sycophantic press outlets.

Their proposed plan left open significant items, to which I asked the following questions:

1. The city, county and state have been spending extensively on this issue. How specifically does your plan differ from what has been done in the last few years?

2. Mayor Garcetti committed close to a billion dollars for the current fiscal year. Can you tell us how much has been spent by the city on the homeless issue during the last four… Read More

I was going to write my next article articulating why the Democrats hate the working middle class by pointing out how they systematically enact laws that attempt to replace the choice of California’s families for housing with the left’s definition of “good” housing.

Then, somewhere in the bowels of the bureaucracy of the United State Supreme Court, some drone released a draft opinion of the case where the Supreme Court Justices appear to have voted to reverse Roe v. Wade. Releasing the draft is an unprecedented breach of Supreme Court rules, norms and decorum, and it has caused the left to go completely bonkers.

Let’s leave aside the debate that, in 1972, the US Supreme Court decided that it was smarter than the governments of the 50 states, and decided to replace the decisions of the state legislators and Governors in those states with the decisions of nine people in black robes by creating a “constitutional” right that is not mentioned in the Constitution, and this current decision only sends that decision back to state decision makers. Let’s leave aside the moral debate on what rational constitutional discussion… Read More

To Saturn. I was there for six years. Boy, have things changed. I am not talking about Joe Biden being President which is shocking enough. I am referring to the fact that the hottest issue in America is not even climate change. It is people changing gender, what gender you are, how you refer to yourself and teaching children about their gender identity. Wow, things sure changed while I was gone.

When I left, the country was just adjusting to the Supreme Court ruling legalizing gay marriage. Many people were delighted and the issue of being gay was now a thing of the past. From 1969 to 2015, not even 50 years, Gays went from The Stonewall Riots to being fully accepted. People didn’t care anymore whether someone was gay except for the odd person behind the tree. I had not cared for a long time as certified by the fact my Best Man at my wedding in 1986 was and is gay.

When I left for Saturn, the entire issue was settled. I returned to a massive uproar. I knew the Sparks song All You Ever Think About is Sex, but I figured it was obscure, now it had taken over the nation.

The groups supporting gay rights and gay marriage did not want to say, “we won, we are… Read More

I gravely dislike our constant campaign mode democracy. As soon as we finish a presidential election talk begins about the opposition party’s candidate four years’ hence. As soon as a member of Congress gets installed, they start raising money for the next election cycle. Incumbent senators squirrel away millions significantly in advance of their six-year term ending. Often this leads to deceptions. This 2022 campaign is unique in that it will be filled with deceptions that have been made public and intentional.

Every campaign has its deceptions. The last presidential election was chock full of them. Opponents of Donald Trump believe nothing he says. On the other hand, the prime deception in 2020 centered around the Hunter Biden laptop. Fifty-one “intelligence community experts” were touted by Joe Biden to state that the evidence was “Russian disinformation.” Sixteen months later the New York Times fessed up that its fellow New York paper – The Post –was accurate in reporting the Hunter Biden story that likely would have turned the election.

This round of elections is distinct. After 15 months of the Biden presidency his poll numbers are in the… Read More

In my last article, I talked about how the Democrats “tax rebate” proposal for relief from high gas prices specifically harmed the working middle class. Those who drive to work every day need a tax holiday, not a tax rebate. Democrats in Sacramento don’t want to give that tax holiday, because they hate the working middle class.

For too long, Democrats have tried to dominate the “we care about the working class” agenda. Their evidence for that is that they “support unions,” which really only means they are in the pocket of the union bosses.

The union bosses are not the “working class.” They are the political class, they are part of the “ruling class.” They force the rank and file workers to send them money (as a part of the collective bargaining process) and then take that money and dump it back into the political process, paying for lobbyists and politicians, to get laws enacted that enhance the union bosses’ power. If you are a worker and you don’t want to pay the union money because you don’t think you get anything for it? Tough beans. You have to pay it anyways, and if… Read More