California has by far the costliest system of incarceration in the nation. It’s now $102,796 per state prisoner per year. It’s projected to be about $112,691 in fiscal 2022 – quadruple the average cost of the 18 states with the least-costly rates. Thank the CA prison guards’ labor union for this “gift” that keeps on giving.

We’ve dramatically cut the number of state prisoners, but NOT the number of guards. The “savings” evaporated under union pressures.

One reason our costs are far higher than the other states is that most states have some less expensive PRIVATE state prisons. The CA guards’ union got laws passed that essentially make it illegal to have private state prisons here. Thus, unlike other states, the CA labor union doesn’t have to worry about the guards’ compensation pricing them out of the market. There IS no such market in CA.

BTW, the $112,000 cost… Read More

When growing up, “Polack” jokes were all the rage for a while. People would ask me if I were of Polish descent given my last name. I would answer no — that is for names ending in “ski” and not “sky.” I am Lithuanian. That was a made-up fable. Flash forward 40 years when a cousin located me after listening to the Dennis Prager radio show where I was a guest. We met up and he provided me with a complete family history showing my ancestors had come to America from a small town in Lithuania. My heritage was indeed validated after all. I currently could not be prouder to be from the great country of Lithuania.

That is because little Lithuania (with its three million residents) told China to take a long walk off a short pier. China has decided to try to crush Lithuania economically because it allowed Taiwan a representative office in their capital, Vilnius.

Because of their refusal to kowtow to China, the fascists who run China have blocked all imports from Lithuania. It gets worse. China is trying to crush Lithuania. Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mantas Adomenas, stated, “China has been sending messages to multinationals that if they use parts… Read More

Every ten years, the Constitution of the United States dictates that the population of the states be counted by the federal government. After the count in done, the federal government determines the number of Congressional Representatives each state will receive. In the early 1900s, Congress set the maximum number of representatives at 435, and since the time, the process of determining the number of representatives assigned to each state has been called “reapportionment.” That is, Congress does it best to make sure that each seat has the same number of residents, so Congress takes the total population of each state, and divides that by 435 to reach the number of people that should be in each district. It then “apportions” a number of districts to each state according to its percentage of the total population. If a state loses population, or doesn’t grow as fast as other states, it loses Congressional seats, and those seats are “reapportioned” to the faster growing states. In that way, Congress makes sure it carries out its Constitutional mandate to be sure the seats in the House of Representatives properly reflect the population… Read More

“In the criminal justice system, the people are represented by two separate yet equally important groups: The police, who investigate crime, and the district attorneys, who prosecute the offenders.” That cold open to Law and Order became ubiquitous in our society. But, somehow, we have lost our way. This simple concept no longer exists in many parts of our country.

Most people do not pay attention to who their District Attorney is or the position at all. I learned that vividly in 2000. Steve Cooley had just gotten elected to the position for Los Angeles County. I was a principal party in hosting a fundraiser for him to clean up his campaign debt. I was stunned to find that I was the only (yes, only) non-attorney who worked on the event or wrote a check. At the time no one cared about this position except for the attorneys who wanted to work in the office or might have cases against the ADA’s (Assistant District Attorneys).

How times have changed. As you probably know, the Left (funded by George Soros and his gang) have found these positions a hot place to focus. They figured there was little focus on this position so if they threw an outsized sum at the… Read More

Regular readers of my column know this is the time of year I break from addressing public policy issues and focus on positive aspects of life in accordance with the season. I am going to tell you a story about something I was involved in a few months back that will hopefully give you a warm feeling and some positive thoughts about how to guide your own actions.

I drive home most of the time on the same route. I turn off a main street onto a winding street that comes to a stop sign. At the stop sign, I turn left, but always look right to a street that is heading up a hill. For the first time I can remember there was a car parked there which seemed quite out of place as there are no homes on that part of the street.

I thought the car was for someone visiting the houses to the left and I moved on. The next day the car was there and then the next day. I thought I might get involved, but nobody likes a buttinski, so I left it at that. Then on a Saturday afternoon I decided to look because something appeared clearly wrong.

I drove around the car noting the make and model and the current condition. I wrote down the license plate and saw that the license… Read More

There is so much wrong with California at this point, from mob “smash and grabs” to “out of control” housing prices, to stratospheric gas prices, collapsing transportation infrastructure, as best demonstrated by the hundreds of ships setting outside the Port of Los Angeles, to the inner city rot caused by the failure to properly deal with the homeless, to the failure of the responses to the pandemic and a Governor who thinks it is his right to act like a tinpot dictator, and his unquestioning sycophants in the Legislature, all supported by the media lapdogs and ill-informed voters seemingly unconcerned with the collapse of the social structure their political leadership is creating in the once-great state of California, that it is hard to find good news about anything California government does. That is why last month, when the Department of Finance and Legislative Analyst Office announced California’s government was looking at a $31 billion surplus, a lot of politicians breathed a collective sigh of relief. How could they face the voters next year without offering some glimmer of hope? People can only take so much. A big surplus can be used to… Read More

Since Joe Biden was declared the 2020 winner, I have only written once about Trump. I have not changed my mind in that his policies were wonderful (particularly as contrasted with the disastrous Biden), but I think we should move on – there are better choices than Trump to move those policies forward without all the noise. Then Andrew Sullivan wrote his Weekly Dish defending a David Frum column but coming to a different conclusion, entitled It Wasn’t a Hoax, It was Media Overkill.

This comes at a time when John Durham has begun to charge people for providing manipulated information to the FBI regarding the Steele Dossier. It has become clearer that the Clinton campaign was behind the Russia, Russia, Russia allegations.

Sullivan starts his piece by lauding Frum as a man of clarity and truth by pointing out many aspects upon which the two agree. Sullivan writes that Trump had many conflicts of interest when it came to Russia. One could believe that to be true if he had initiated his business dealings in Russia with the idea it would catapult him toward a run for the U.S. presidency. There is little if any evidence… Read More

Most Californians think that — unlike 40+ other states — CA state law all but forbids its citizens from legally packing heat in public. That’s not true, but the local issuing authorities (generally the county sheriffs) have wide discretion.

The CA state law says that for a CA citizen to receive a CCW (concealed carry) permit, the applicant must show that“Good cause exists for you to be authorized to carry a concealed weapon.” The definition of “good cause” is entirely up to the local sheriffs.

The results are pretty much what you’d expect in woke California. The RURAL CA sheriffs often issue CCW’s for “self defense,” with little or no additional reason required. It’s often relatively easy to legally carry a concealed firearm in these counties.

But in the urban and suburban areas of the state where the overwhelming majority of the people live, our progressive politicians and sheriffs have severely restricted the ability to get a CCW. Here’s a map that pretty much sums of the CCW… Read More