Fox and Hounds Daily Says Goodbye
With this article, we end publication of Fox and Hounds Daily. It has been a satisfying 12½ year run. When we opened in May 2008, our site was designed to offer an opportunity to those who wished to engage in public debate on many issues, especially in politics and business, but found it difficult to get placed in newspaper op-ed pages.
Co-publishers Tom Ross, Bryan Merica and I have kept F&H going over this time investing our own time, funding, and staff help. Last year at this time we considered closing the site, however with an election on the horizon we decided to keep F&H going through the election year. With the election come and gone, and with no sense of additional resources, we have decided to close the site down.
Fox and Hounds will live on, at least, with my articles collected in the California State Library.
On a personal note, I have spent over 40 years in California policy and politics. There have been some incredible high moments and some difficult low points. It pains me that politics too often is a blood sport, frequently demonizing the motives of opponents and using the legal system as a weapon in public discourse. At Fox & Hounds, we tried to adhere to the practice of giving all a voice in the debate, yet keep the commentaries civil and avoided personal attacks.
F&H offered the opportunity to publish different perspectives (even ones that criticized my writings!). We had success as indicated by the Washington Post twice citing Fox and Hounds Daily one of the best California political websites and many other positive affirmations and comments received over the years.
Tom, Bryan and I want to thank our many readers and writers for being part of our journey. The publishers of Fox and Hounds Daily believe that we added value to California and its people. We hope you agree.
How Trump’s Win Might Spark CA Republican Revival
My title is, “How Trump’s Win Might Spark CA Republican Revival.” The key word is “might.” This statement is counterintuitive, given the hostility to him among many GOP ranks here. But bear with me.
There are two conditions: Taking immigration off the table and a Reaganesque economic boom.
First, immigration. But isn’t he nasty toward Mexicans and other immigrants? Hasn’t he offended Latinos so much they’ll never become Republicans?
The problem might – again, might – be that neither party has come up with a sensible policy on immigration, the failed attempts going back 30 years. A lot of people point out how President Reagan signed the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, which amnestied 3 million illegal aliens. Except the “Control” part of the Act never was implemented. So the amnesty part brought in millions more, increasing the number today to something like 11 million illegals. (more…)
Improving California’s Legal Climate: Proposals for Legal Reform Legislation
California’s civil justice system has always been a major deterrent against increased job growth and economic development. This state’s liberal tort liability laws have contributed to the anti-business climate in California and the inability of businesses to reach their full potential.
To make matters worse, the plaintiff’s bar in California continues to push a legislative agenda that will benefit plaintiffs’ lawyers to the detriment of the rest of the state’s citizens. Their proposals will ensure that costs of insurance for everyone, as well as the costs of doing business in this state, will increase substantially.
There are tremendous costs associated with our state’s civil justice system. Minor reforms have to be made in order to trim the costs of the tort system and encourage economic development. The following proposals would serve to bring balance and common sense to the civil justice system in California: (more…)
Housing by the Numbers
If you’re following the debate over new housing in California you were probably encouraged to see a recent report of McKinsey and Company which seeks to actually, specifically suggest what can be done to ease the state’s shelter crisis. I’m here to say it’s for real, too.
The report, entitled A Tool Kit to Close California’s Housing Gap: 3.5 Million Homes by 2025 (“the Study”) – like so many before it – borrows from the list of horribles to tell the story about the state’s dismal housing situation: 50% of Californians can’t afford the cost of housing; California ranks second-to-last among all states in housing units per-capita; California housing costs have risen 3 times faster than incomes over the past decade; California has a housing shortage of 2.5 million units. (more…)
Missing The Story
No one looks like bigger fools the day after President-elect Trump’s triumph than American’s political reporters, and especially those working for the major California newspapers who completely misread this election. Cocooned in their little world of liberal elitism they completely missed the real anger that was out in the country and that led to Tuesday’s astounding results.
Most of California’s daily newspapers seemed to be vying to the Isvestia of the Hillary Clinton Administration with one fawning story and opinion editorial after another. The Los Angeles Times even went so far as to publish its own state by state “analysis” of the Electoral Votes showing Clinton with 352 votes, just about 120 more than she actually got. The accompanying story said their analysis was “based on public polling, state vote histories and the reporting done by our campaign staff.” (more…)
Voters OK with Long Ballot. More Initiatives Coming
California voters once again proved they cherish their role in direct democracy, running through the entire statewide list of 17 measures with no apparent drop off in voting. With 100% of the precincts ‘partially’ reporting according to the Secretary of State’s site, 8.6 million votes were cast for Proposition 51, the school bond, at the head of the ballot; and 8.6 million votes were cast for the plastic bag referendum, Proposition 67, at the tail end of the ballot.
The fear that voters would give up as they worked down the long list of state propositions did not come to pass. There were variations in the proposition vote totals as usual with a low count for the fairly meaningless advisory measure to overturn the Citizen’s United decision (Proposition 59) tallying 8.2 million votes to a top total of 8.84 million votes cast for the marijuana legalization measure, Proposition 64. Also attracting attention from voters were the tobacco tax, Proposition 56 totaling 8.82 million votes and the anti-gun Proposition 63 that received 8.7 million votes. (more…)
Improbable Demographics Behind Donald Trump’s Shocking Presidential Victory
In an election so ugly and so close, one is reluctant to proclaim winners. But it’s clear that there’s a loser — the very notion of the United States of America.
Instead we have populations and geographies that barely seem to belong in the same country, if not on the same planet. The electorate is so divided that many states went for either Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton by lopsided margins. The Northeast was solidly Democratic, with Clinton winning New York, Massachusetts and Vermont with three-fifths of the vote or more. Washington, D.C., heavily black and the seat of the bureaucracy and pundit class, delivered an almost Soviet-style 93% to 4% margin.
On the other side were a series of states where Trump won just as easily, including Tennessee and Kentucky, with three-fifths of the vote, and West Virginia, by a margin of two-to-one – higher than those attained by 2012 GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney. (more…)