There have been two major events in our new decade that rocked the world. First, the United States killed the leading terrorist in the world, Qassem Soleimani. The second is our national pastime was hit with a scandal as big as the Black Sox scandal a century ago. The Houston Astros – 2017 World Series Champions and perennial contenders — were revealed to have systematically and electronically stolen signs from the opposing catchers and provided that information to their hitters, thus giving them a tremendous advantage. The more lasting event is the sign stealing scandal.

To not color my take on this matter, I am first and foremost a baseball fan. Yes, I am a Dodger fan, but that is the only National League team I follow. In the American League I would cheer for every team in the World Series except for the evil empire – aka The Yankees. This is all about the integrity of the game I love and have played and followed my entire life. I was able to turn my wife into a baseball fan (actually Kirk Gibson did), saving my marriage from endless disputes. Now the Beautiful Wife has baseball credentials which would make serious baseball fans salivate. It is all about the… Read More

Phillip Rivers, the longtime starting quarterback for the Los Angeles Chargers, reportedly packed up his family and his belongings and moved to Florida. He announced it was a permanent move — he and his large family (nine kids and his starter wife) have left the building.

Why did he move? We’ll get to that shortly.

Rivers is now an NFL free agent. The move does not seem to be related to where (or IF) he will play quarterback next year. Personally I’m hoping that he retires from active play.

I’ve always liked Rivers from afar. Perhaps his top quality is his work ethic. It’s astonishing that he hasn’t missed an NFL game start since the took over from departing QB Drew Brees in 2006.He’s second in the NFL in consecutive quarterback starts behind Bret Favre, a QB that he’ll never pass.

Rivers’ time as a football star has past. Today’s… Read More

Senator Warren is the queen of plans — about sixty at current count. However, she is not the only Democrat running for President who has plans for how to improve our lives. Mayor Pete has his Dignity and Security in Retirement. It is time to delve into this plan and see what he intends to offer if he becomes President.

I applaud Mr. Buttigieg for addressing this issue. People are living longer lives and our government is doing little to address the issue. No society has ever faced this many older individuals; thus, there is no guidance on how to care for so many elderly people. In recent legislation they allowed people to contribute to their IRAs past the retirement age and raised the age for the time people must take distributions from those IRAs from 70.5 years to 72 years of age. This is just a drizzle of activity when what we need is a flood.

Mayor Pete’s plan addresses two principal issues. One is Long-Term Care Insurance and the other is the cost and quality of care for seniors with limited abilities to care for themselves. I am familiar with both issues. I have advised clients to buy Long-Term Care insurance for over 30 years and personally have a… Read More

I was on one of my statistical journeys through U.S. Census data when I unexpectedly stumbled upon this the following important fact:

According to the latest census figures, the population of San Diego County — a huge county larger than the state of Rhode Island that is home to over 3.3 million people — barely increased in population in the last reported year. From July 1 2017 to July 1, 2018, the county population grew by only 5,679 people. That’s an annual growth rate of 0.17%. If this trend continues, in the coming 10 years, the county will grow by less than 2%. That 2% is NOT “per year” — that’s per TEN years.

The most recent California STATE population growth has also been slowing. But slow as our state population growth is, it’s still growing two to three times faster than San Diego County. Moreover, while the nation’s overall population growth has also been slowing, the last two years the other 49 states’ population has been growing 50% faster than California.… Read More

Now that we are officially in the calendar year of the presidential election, it is time to discuss President Trump. There are a large group of people who literally detest him. To these people there is nothing, absolutely nothing, that Trump could do to redeem himself. Because they lack the curiosity to understand why we would possibly support the man, it is time to provide them a hint as to why we like him so.

These points were collected from a diverse group of people. The points are in no particular order except the best is saved for last:

1. He has a great family. His family loves him and his kids are real people who support what he is doing. Their spouses are fully on board in a big way. As Vice-President Pence said, you cannot fake kids. I have seen hundreds of surrogate speakers over the years and never seen a better one than Donald Jr.

2. He is funny. He is seriously funny. Entertaining. He is always making hilarious comments. When we saw him at a private event – no press, no teleprompter — he was as good as any stand-up we ever saw. He did 40 minutes and we were doubled over in laughter.

3. He is a proud American. He puts America… Read More

House Chamber, Washington, D.C. January 10, 2020

Mr. Speaker:

Throughout the debate yesterday on the so-called war powers resolution, some fundamental misunderstandings surfaced that I feel need to be addressed.

The first misunderstanding is that the justification for the attack that killed Soleimani was that he was an evil terrorist responsible for the deaths of hundreds of Americans. There are a lot of evil terrorists out there, but that doesn’t give the President authority to launch attacks on foreign countries to kill them.

What DID give the President that authority in this case was the fact that Soleimani was acting as an armed combatant against U.S. forces in a war zone in which Congress had authorized the President to take military action when it adopted the Authorization for the Use of Military Force in Iraq in 2002. I hate to shock my woke colleagues but killing active enemy combatants is what war is all about. And it is a war that Congress started with that act.

That act provides “The President is authorized to use the Armed Forces of the United States as he determines to be necessary and appropriate in order to… Read More

Californians don’t realize that since 2012, our state’s NET highest state income tax rate has more than DOUBLED.WAYmore.

First in 2012 the top THREE CA income tax rates went from 10.9% to as high as 13.3%. Retroactively, I might add. This “gouge the wealthy” tax was passed by California voters in November 2012, and was retroactive to the first of the year. I don’t know why that was legal, but it withstood a court challenge.

Then with the SALT 2017 tax reform clause, top earners cannot write off their state income taxes on their federal returns. This is a BIG deal for the wealthy.

The combination of this double-barreled tax blast raised theNETmarginal income tax rate for top California earners from about 5.6% to 13.3%. That’s a 138% increase in the CA net income tax!

If liberals… Read More

An observant Christian friend of mine asked me recently why there have been so many anti-Semitic acts recently. I could have asked him why there were so many anti-Christian acts though those are really occurring more in Middle East and African countries. Having been on the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council (USHMC), he likely supposed my thinking would come with a certain imprimatur.

I told him I had been reading everything around about the recent escalation to understand what others think is at the root of the current rash of attacks. I then spoke with my close friend, Fred Zeidman, formerly the Chair of the USHMC. We shared our thoughts and he told me he had a column coming out that he authored with Steve Israel, a former congressman. Fred encouraged me to write a column. I told him it had to abide by my number one rule about my columns – it could not just be a “Me Too” column that reiterates what others had already written. I don’t think you need to read anything from the amen chorus. Here is a different view of what is going on.

It is hard to say that anti-Semitic actions have a unique flavor to them since they have been going on just about as long as… Read More