California’s Democrats Have No Excuses Now
There is no excuse for California Democrats not to remake our governing system now. They no longer can blame a cautious, fiscally conservative governor. He’s retiring, and he’s being replaced by a man who ran on “Courage, for a Change.” That governor takes office with more power than any governor in the history of the […]
Cannabis in California’s Heartland: First they Voted Red, then they Approved a Cannabis Tax
On Tuesday, Republican voters in my Central California city did something that just a couple of years ago, would have been considered completely out of character for a conservative voting bloc – they marked their ballots to advance cannabis policy. A great number of them also proudly voted for incumbent Republican Congressman Devin Nunes – […]
How Not to Subsidize New Housing in California
It is heartwarming to hear that in Richmond, with its super-high housing costs, a teacher is starting the academic year as a first-time homebuyer – affordably living in the town where she teaches public high school. Less gratifying is that this teacher and her fiancé bought their home at the expense of, say, a cop […]
Final Initiative Editorial Scorecard
During the past eight weeks, Forward Observer and Klink Campaigns tracked editorial endorsements (pro and con) from the top 20 California newspapers by circulation. These newspapers issued a total of 193 editorials for or against the 11 initiatives on the November 2018 ballot. Overall, the recommendations of California’s leading newspapers generally aligned with the wishes […]
To Make the Internet Great Again, Trump Must Smash Facebook and Its Tech Oligarch Friends
Even as many Americans look with horror on the authoritarian blusterer in the White House, we are slowly succumbing to a more pernicious, less obvious and far more lasting tech oligarchy gaining ever more control over our economy, culture and politics. “We are certainly looking at” bringing antitrust cases against Amazon, Facebook and Google,” Trump […]