This week Charles Schwab and Co. announced that it was buying (“merging” with) TD Ameritrade — a firm I do business with. But it’s also quietly moving the Schwab HQ from San Francisco to Texas.

The company seeks to remain competitive, as brokerage fees are disappearing. Texas offers at least 15%-20% lower business costs than San Francisco — or even Nebraska, which is the current HQ of TD Ameritrade.

Along with far lower rents, Schwab will no longer be paying the SF 0.38% payroll tax and the 0.6% tax on financial service companies. The SF Schwab employees who move with the company to Texas will no longer be paying the San Francisco CITY income tax of 1.5% (not to mention the sky-high CA state income tax). I doubt many will be missing those levies on their paychecks. Doubtless the San Francisco progressives are either unconcerned or delighted with Schwab’s departure. The clueless “woke” crowd wants nothing to do with filthy lucre. After all, it grows on trees. Along with cell phones.… Read More

. Experiencing how the government works firsthand offers insight into whether we should allow some of the presidential candidates’ plans to further expand the federal government’s responsibilities. My recent encounter with the Social Security system defines everything we need to know about how our government functions. Let’s just say that my wife by happenstance had an appointment with the DMV the same morning and remarkably hers was a far superior experience.

Under direction of some experts on Social Security (SS) I planned to file for spousal benefits from my wife and then at age seventy take my full benefits. This program expires for anyone born after January 1, 1954 (thanks Mom for sneaking me under the wire). As directed on my 66th birthday, I applied online for SS benefits. The SS website was very easy to work through except it was unclear as regarded the benefits being claimed were spousal benefits. I wrote a very detailed explanation in the comments area. The information regarding the Beautiful Wife (BW) was already part of the questionnaire so they knew everything about her.

A little over a month later I received correspondence about my… Read More

On a recent Sunday afternoon, I am sitting in my office cleaning up some matters. Since moving our offices to Studio City, it is easy to drop in after lunch and handle some work – especially since I am a Saturday football guy and not a Sunday one. The Beautiful Wife (BW) calls with an anxious voice. A stranger just entered our home. That is where our story begins.

We live in a very safe neighborhood that no one could find before smart phones, Google Maps and Waze. We have been here for 29 years with no personal incidents and only one real one for a neighbor on our cul-de-sac. On occasion, we have mistakenly left our garage door open overnight with no incident except for a couple raccoons taking up residence on a shelf.

Our garage door was malfunctioning, stuck in the open position and the new one on order had yet to be installed. It turns out that had little to do with this incident.

BW was on the other side of the house relaxing and watching something on TV. She heard our three dogs going crazy as they are a great alarm system. Anyone who gets near the house gets the barking treatment. They are a valuable part of our security along with our modern system… Read More

Here’s acrucialmisconception by the public. It’s a misunderstanding that leads to calls for government mandates such as a $15 minimum wage — with the cost supposedly paid out of “greedy business” profits.

A poll asked:“Just a rough guess, what percent profit on each dollar of sales do you think the average company makes after taxes?”

The average response –36%. That’s aboutFIVE TIMES the actual figure. Other polls give similar results.

The latest average profit margin of 212 industries was 7.5%. The median profit margin was 6.5%.

To state the obvious: Given that labor costs constitute 30% or more of the sales dollar for most industries, the cost of a $15 minimum wage will HAVE to be paid by the customers.

BTW, the latest (2018) profit margin for hated Walmart? 2.25% (LOWER than the 3.1% in the 2015 chart below). That’s BEFORE Walmart paid 37.4% of their profits in federal and state corporate income taxes, leaving Walmart with an after tax profit margin of 1.4%! See details at the bottom… Read More

You may be sick of the topic already, but it is not going away. I thought I would give you some random thoughts on what we have seen as of now to let you better understand the process.

I believe that the people testifying are earnest and committed to our country. It is also clear that for the most part these people are very supportive of a free Ukraine that is separate from Russia or Russian influence. We pretty much all support that.

On the other hand, some have an idea that they should be dictating our government’s foreign policy and they think our current President is a rube when it comes to these matters. You can believe that or not, but he is the President and he makes the policy and the witnesses work for him and should not work against him.

Then there are facts that are just swept under the rug by the Press and Democrats because they do not fill their narrative. They do it by simply avoiding topics. The Press never asks Democrats about their newfound support for Ukrainian military funding. No one is ever asked where were you five years ago when Ukraine was invaded, and Obama did little to support them.

Last week, someone was given a shot to… Read More

Once again the SAN DIEGO U-T newspaper reporters failed to look skeptically at false government projections. In this case, the city of San Diego grandly released their “Fiscal Year 2021-2025 Five Year Financial Outlook.” While the report admits that, as it stands, there are annual budget shortfalls, it foresees this shortfall declining each year until 2025, when the city bureaucrats project asurplus— with no tax increases. Absolute poppycock. https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/communities/san-diego/story/2019-11-12/san-diego-budget-facing-steep-deficits-as-expenses-continue-to-rise

ADDENDUM: At the bottom of this article is a U-T editor’s welcome if lame response to this critique. And my response to his response. Fun read.

Granted, the city report is full of… Read More

I have written a lot about the Jews lately. I promise after this column I will take a respite for a while on the subject. Recently I was on a panel at a major university, the subject of which was The Impact of Donald Trump’s Presidency on American Jewry. There are lessons here for us all.

Since the panel was about how President Trump has impacted American Jewry, I thought I would focus on two concepts that are universal to Jews — Israel and anti-Semitism. If you are focused on the preservation of the Jewish people, then certainly you want to mitigate anti-Semitism. You likewise want to maintain a strong Jewish homeland that was established just seventy years ago after an approximate 2000-year interval of being absent. I laid out the case that President Trump has been an excellent President on both fronts.

The response from the representative of the Left was to not acknowledge that, nor even provide a begrudging nod to that, but to declare in her opening statement that Trump is an “existential threat” to the Jewish people and to our country. How someone can be judged as an “existential threat” to the Jews when he is taking unprecedented steps to… Read More

The world now knows that the Democrat’s star-witness, Ambassador Bill Taylor, is going to testify before Congress publicly this Wed., Nov. 13th in an attempt to impeach the President of the United States.

What most people don’t know is the role that our own Riverside Congressman played in coordinating with Ambassador Taylor.

Less than 90 days ago according to public documents, Riverside County Democrat Mark Takano joined with the leader of the impeachment process Adam Schiff in sending staff to the Ukraine. On August 26, 2019 documents show the group met with Trump accuser Ambassador Bill Taylor. One week after the meeting, Taylor sends a text to the President’s EU Ambassador Gordon Sondland falsely claiming a quid-pro-quo.

The trip to the Ukraine for Adam Schiff’s Intelligence Committee staffer, Takano’s Deputy Chief of Staff and eight other Congressional staffers, was paid for by an organization called “The Atlantic Council” which has ties to the Clinton Foundation and Crowdstrike, the cyber security firm that the DNC hired to investigate the alleged hack of emails from the… Read More