I learned a great journalistic method from Tom Wolfe and his 1979 book “The Right Stuff,” on the early space program. He went back and read the internal newsletters of NASA astronauts, engineers and others in the late 1950s and 1960s. I used to subscribe to government union and other newsletters, but nowadays all these […]
The Proposition 58 campaign wins this year’s coveted Most Mendacious Initiative Prize. The Title and Summary were written by Attorney General Kamala Harris. She’s backed by the California Teachers Association, whose CTA/Issues PAC has contributed $1.1 million to Prop. 58. Her words: “ENGLISH PROFICIENCY. MULTILINGUAL EDUCATION. Preserves requirement that public schools ensure students obtain English […]
Should Hillary Clinton be elected president on Nov. 8, how would that affect California? 1– National recession. As Ambrose Evans-Pritchard just reported in the Telegraph, “The risk of a US recession next year is rising fast. The Federal Reserve has no margin for error. Liquidity is suddenly drying up. Early warning indicators from US ‘flow […]
Once again, we’re confronted with the possibility of Democrats grabbing two-thirds control of both houses of the California Legislature. As with the U.S. Senate at the national level, because of higher voter turnout Democrats in California generally do better in presidential election years (2008, 2012) than in the non-presidential years (2010, Tea Party time, and […]
Taxes have consequences. One is black markets. Vice.com’s “Black Market: Dispatches” just ran an episode on Ukraine’s “people who rely on the underground cigarette trade for survival during a time of war and economic struggle.” They smuggle smokes West into the wealth European Union. Here’s a preview. Asks a journalist, “Do you see yourself as […]
One major annoyance is the annual whine by the Banned Books Week Coalition. That’s because the books aren’t banned, at least not in America. And included are “challenged” books in the list of supposedly “banned” books. The Week of Woe also is advanced by the California Libraries Association, although their last website update was two […]
It’s election time, so expect a lot of attacks on Proposition 13, the landmark 1978 tax-cut initiative. Slate just ran Henry Grabar’s “These Graphs Explain Why California’s Property-Tax Regime Is the Worst.” No they don’t. The graphs basically show declining home ownership among two groups, 25 to 35 year olds and 35 to 45 year […]
Not many politicians have risen as fast as Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez, D-San Diego. She just scored the 35th spot on Politco Magazine’s annual list of the Top 50 politicians in America, its “guide to the thinkers, doers and visionaries transforming American politics in 2016.” She’s listed as “The progressive ideas lab.” “If states are the […]
Parched riverbeds. Browning grass. Higher prices. Water bonds Everybody knows about the drought that has plagued Southern California in recent years. Which is why the race for U.S. Senate from California needs to focus on an important project that could bring water to us while helping the environment. Specifically, candidates Loretta Sanchez and Kamala Harris […]
This is part two of my review of the 17 propositions on the November ballot. Part 1, covering Propositions 51-58, is here. Proposition 59 would advise California’s members of Congress to overturn the 2010 Citizens United decision of the U.S. Supreme Court, which liberalized contributions to political campaigns by corporations, “to ensure that all citizens, […]
