With Trump, Some Hysteria Is In Order
Tony Quinn bemoans in this space that the possibility of Donald Trump winning the presidency “has set off high decibels of hysteria among the political establishment, and no more so than in blue California.” He takes newspapers to task for publishing opinion pieces defending Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s criticism of Trump, and the […]
California’s Coming Election Has More in Common With Brexit Than You Think
Do you think Brexit was a singularly British form of folly, having little to do with California? Think again. California is the global capital of Brexit-style votes, and this November’s state ballot is littered with mini-Brexits. Don’t think of “a Brexit” as a vote to leave a larger political or economic union. (California isn’t about […]
The Only Convention That Makes Any Sense
Politics has gone mad here in mid-summer. The political conventions make no sense. The Republicans, the folks who used to defend the flag, are running down the country. Their nominee could taint the party for a generation or more. The Democrats are suddenly the conservative party, defending the status quo. Both parties have turned against […]
Get Back, Loretta
Let me start with an admission of error. I recently chastised Rep. Loretta Sanchez in this space for going to Spain earlier in the summer, instead of campaigning for the U.S. Senate. I argued that she needed to make a real full-time campaign, for her own good. I was wrong to say that. Sanchez on […]
Does Blink-182 Know Something California Governor Jerry Brown Doesn’t?
How is California doing these days? The answer may depend on whom you believe: Governor Brown or Blink-182? This summer has exposed a divide in perception of California, between the political triumphalism of our elected officials and the decidedly more anxious state of affairs depicted in the broader culture. Our state’s political and media elites […]
The New Budget Formula People Are Talking About on the Streets
I spent much of my work time over the past six months running around South Los Angeles, for a Zocalo series on the region. To my surprise, I heard quite a bit from people in South L.A. about a new budget formula in California. It relates to the savings of Prop 47. Awareness of the details […]
The Coming Conflict Over a Free CSU
“I think we should be working toward free tuition. That may sound pretty radical, but that was in the original intention of the CSU system, so lower-income students could afford education without having to break the bank with their family, or not even being able to go because they can’t afford it.” ” Cal Poly […]
Why It’s So Hard to Speak Silicon Valley
You can’t talk to people in Silicon Valley anymore. They don’t even speak our language. By that, I’m not referencing Mark Zuckerberg’s mediocre Mandarin or the software code underlying so many Valley’s endeavors. I’m talking, literally, about the words Valley denizens use when they speak, in sentences like: “Yeah, that startup has some cool gamification, […]
More Voter Discouragement for California’s Top Two Scheme
The new Field Poll shows another price of the California’s top two scheme: voter discouragement. Field reports that 15 percent of likely voters in their survey intend to sit out this November’s U.S. Senate contest between two Democrats, Attorney General Kamala Harris and Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez. This number includes 31 percent of state republicans and 35 […]
Voters Should Focus on 3 Ballot Measures and Ignore the Rest
There are people who will tell you it’s your civic duty to educate yourself on all 17 measures on the November ballot, plus any other measures the legislature might add to the ballot, plus local measures, local races, state races, the U.S. Senate race and the presidential race. Those people are nuts. You have a […]