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.
More Californians Should Retire Like Vin Scully
If only more Californians could retire like Vin.
Vin Scully, that is. The Hall of Fame announcer for the Los Angeles Dodgers will call his last game this Sunday, October 2, a month shy of his 89th birthday. That retirement has touched off a national celebration of Scully’s announcing mastery, his storytelling methods, and his many contributions to baseball through 67 years with the Dodgers.
But what deserves even more attention—including from Californians who couldn’t care less about sports—is the smart, progressive way he planned his retirement. (more…)
Is there a future for the GOP?
Whether he loses or, more unlikely, wins, Donald Trump creates an existential crisis for the Republican Party. The New York poseur has effectively undermined the party orthodoxy on defense, trade and economics, policies which have been dominant for the last half century within the party but now are falling rapidly out of fashion among the rank and file.
In this sense, Trump’s nomination could be seen as both an albatross and something of a life preserver. His rallying of a large working-class base, particularly in the Heartland, provides a potential new direction for the party that has lost irretrievably the business elite, the coastal states, minorities and the educated young. Clearly, the party needs to revise its electoral strategy. (more…)
There’s No Debate: Legislative Analyst’s Fact-Checker Debunks Claims Made by Split-Roll Proponents
It is well known that June 6, 1978 – the day that California voters overwhelmingly approved Proposition 13 – is a key date in the history of tax policy in California.
Now we can add another important date to our tax history calendar: September 19, 2016, the day that the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office debunked two myths that have long served as the top talking points of those who want to repeal Proposition 13.
In a report titled, “Common Claims About Proposition 13,” the legislative analyst addressed a claim that has been a staple of the “split roll” activists who want to increase property taxes by billions of dollars per year: the claim that Proposition 13 has shifted the property tax burden from business owners to homeowners. (more…)
A Hollywood Action Movie—2016 CA Ballot Propositions
Let me pitch you a movie based on that 224-page official state voter guide that’s coming your way. Like many big Hollywood action-thrillers it’s a tale that contains sex, drugs, guns, big money and death. The title: Bad Day in the Ballot Booth–the California Ballot Propositions.
Our protagonist, Politico Joe, is after a big score.
He figures to get it in the drug market either with the legalization of marijuana if PROP 64 passes or dealing in the black market. There are a couple of opportunities in the black market, Joe figures. If PROP 61 fails, the measure that would require the state to pay no more than the Veteran’s Administration for drugs it acquires for state supplied patients, then he’ll try to hoodwink consumers that he can get their drugs cheaper, kind of what the yes campaign is promising. Or if PROP 56 passes, a $2 tax increase on a pack of cigarettes, there is an opportunity selling cheaper cigarettes on the black market. (more…)
Consumers and Grocers Would Benefit Most By Preserving Bag Tradition
Grocery shopping in California isn’t what it used to be. Traditionally, customers carried their items away in paper bags provided by the store through an unspoken, but well-established and always understood, contract between seller and buyer.
But then government got involved and turned a simple transaction into an irksome task. Now some shoppers have to make an instant decision at the checkout register with impatient eyes glaring at them from behind.
Do they buy a bag, one that had always been part of the exchange before? (more…)
Go Ahead, Russia. Hack Away at California’s Elections.
There’s justifiable worry about whether Russian hackers might disrupt American elections, particularly in crucial swing states, and create questions of legitimacy, or even crisis, around the presidency.
But in California, there’s no reason to worry.
Russia can go ahead and hack our elections. It won’t make any difference.
California has made our elections hack-proof—not because of any technology fix but through decades of making sure our elections don’t matter much. (more…)