One of the most annoying aspects of our modern political discussions is how Democrats or their media mouthpieces are constantly pointing out that our Democracy is in danger. This came on the heels of The Washington Post’s immensely stupid new slogan “Democracy Dies in Darkness.” Once again Democrats in California are actively attempting to take voters’ rights away. This time they are asking voters to do it themselves.

California’s overwhelming Democrat Legislature in 2017 passed the The Taxpayer Transparency and Fairness Act. Jerry Brown, then Governor and the great protector people’s rights, signed it into law. This had as much to do with transparency and fairness as The Inflation Reduction Act has to do with inflation. The bill stole rights away from Californians.

The Board of Equalization (BOE) has five elected members. This bill emasculated their responsibilities and gave them to career bureaucrats. The BOE previously handled reviews of any sales tax and income tax appeals. The Office of Tax Appeals (OTA) now hears all those appeals. Of the twenty-four appointed judges, just five were not government employees prior to setting up this new structure.… Read More

As the tensions of civil war reached a boiling point, President Lincoln vainly reached out to Democrats with these words: “We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies.”

The contrast with Mr. Biden’s September 1st speech in Philadelphia is jarring. In it and many remarks since, Mr. Biden clearly addresses the 74 million Americans who voted for Donald Trump as enemies who – quote – “threaten the very foundation of our Republic.” He condemned us as “extremists” who “do not respect the constitution” who “do not believe in the rule of law,” and who “refuse to accept the results of a free election.” In other forums, he has called us “semi-fascists.”

Mr. President, we revere our Constitution and the structure of individual liberty it was designed to protect. We do not understand how a government established under that Constitution could use the FBI to pressure social media platforms to censor and suppress free speech, or to intimidate parents concerned about their school boards with threat tags, or to instruct its field offices to regard anyone who displays our founding American flags as a political extremist.

Mr.… Read More

Discussions about converting the American fleet of over 275 million vehicles to EVs keeps accelerating as more car companies begin to offer EV models. In California, the enlightened leadership has dictated that no internal combustion vehicles will be sold in the state after 2034. Let us look at the practicality of this conversion.

This investigation began in conversation with a friend who knows the vehicle market as well as anyone. Not only is he one of my go-to guys regarding his in-depth knowledge of cars, but he operates a leasing/car acquisition company and has detailed knowledge of the vehicle market. The discussion was during the highest gas pricing phase in California. He stated he regularly gets calls from people wanting EVs. He advised clients that the additional cost of an EV – even at that moment when gas prices had hit their highest point – did not make economic sense. Overall, you will still pay more for the EV in total cost than with a gas-fueled vehicle, and that includes rebates. This was before the price of EVs escalated significantly because of the soaring cost of lithium and cobalt — essential to the building of EV batteries.

Is that… Read More

This column often rails against government at all levels for their heartless failings, lack of responsiveness and lack of taking responsibility for ill-fated actions. Occasionally, big business deserves a slap across the face for errant behavior or worse.

When the customer has a bad experience, 95% of the time it is the fault of the business. Let me remind you of a Bialoskyism: There are three steps to resolving an issue. First, apologize. No matter how irate the customer is, saying “I’m sorry” almost always halts them. Second, take responsibility. Third, promise to fix it.

A second Bialoskyism is that people (businesses) make mistakes. It is not that you make a mistake; it is how you fix the mistake that is important. A quick response and remedy to the mistake is mandatory and gains customer respect (and continued loyalty).

We are life-long followers of UCLA basketball as BW’s (the Beautiful Wife) father was co-captain of the 1947 team when 6-foot-tall Jews could still play college basketball. The team frequently gets into the Final Four and most years we make plans to attend.

The BW made a reservation, which she made sure… Read More

In an announcement that shocked many, the Biden Administration has announced they will be paying off all car loans and leases for people who have internal combustion engine cars. This is their biggest move yet to migrate Americans from their gas guzzlers to EVs.

President Biden made the announcement saying “We had to take this bold move to achieve our goal of getting my fellow Americans to transition to electric vehicles. As long as these people are burdened by these financial obligations, they will be blocked from making the decision they want to make – a clean, energy efficient vehicle. We are unleashing the power of the American economy.”

An immediate response of overwhelming joy came from the environmental community. The President of the Union of Concerned Scientists, Ray Bradbury, applauded the move. He said, “With this stroke of bold leadership we will remove millions of those environment destroying vehicles from our highways.” Rachel Carson, the Sierra Club spokesperson stated, “We can’t imagine a better move by the current administration to eliminate destructive CO2 gases and save our forests.”

“This is going to change the lives of… Read More

There is an active revolt going on against District Attorneys who once elected decide to take the law into their own hands and apply laws at their personal whim. This has caused havoc and uproar across our nation highlighted recently by the charges against a bodega worker in New York City (later dropped) for killing a criminal who physically attacked him. These scofflaw DAs are not the only ones trying to make nonsensical wholesale changes to our justice system.

In 1994, the residents of California voted overwhelmingly (72%) to establish a three-strikes law. We had been in a period of increased crime (including violent crimes) and people were fed up with the light sentences handed out to repeat criminals. They created a statute stating if you are convicted of three nonconcurrent felonies you could be sentenced on the third violent or serious felony to a term of 25 years to life.

There is now a movement to restructure this law (originally enacted by initiative). I agree that laws should be reviewed regularly to see if they need adjustment. A perfect example was reviewing NAFTA and making updates for changes in the economies of the three countries in the deal and… Read More

While our gallivanting Governor Gavin has been vacationing in forbidden states and running ads in Texas and Florida touting the excellence of California, he and his party once again have given the short straw to our state’s employers. They completely ignore the mass migration of businesses to other states thinking no matter what they do businesses will just take what is handed to them.

You might have heard that supposedly the state has a massive surplus of roughly $90-100 billion. This is caused by high-earners and their stock gains. It happens regularly during good times. The receipts in 2023 from tax returns for 2022 will most likely plummet due to the stock market downturn.

While Gov. Gavin was out crowing about the surplus, my first thought was somewhat of a novel thought – use that money to pay down debt. That amount currently stands at about $144 billion when it should be near zero. Instead of doing any of that they will reserve about $37 billion for a “rainy day fund” and spend the rest mainly on every Leftist’s primary idea of budgeting — $54 billon for climate change.

Here is where the employers of the state get taken.… Read More

Our various governments allocate money. Then the money goes into a black hole. Readers of this column know I tried to find out where Los Angeles City spent $1 billion on homelessness in a recent year and hit a brick wall. As you know our federal government has allocated amounts in the trillions and we never find out where the money goes. Remember President Obama’s “shovel ready jobs?” Where did that money go? There is now a study on the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), so I decided to dig into it.

The study is available here.

The study was performed by a team at the National Bureau of Research (NBER) headquartered in Cambridge Mass. The study was headed by David Autor who is MIT’S Ford Professor of Economics. Professor Autor was initially responsive especially after I sent him a misrepresentation of the program from a Left-wing author. Unlike the errant Leftist, I have intimate knowledge of the program as I helped some clients make applications and answered hundreds of their questions.

I found fault with the study from the beginning since it did not adequately explain the genesis of the… Read More