Tag Archives: California

About Term Limits

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On the surface, term limits seems like a good idea to break up the bureaucracy the inhabits the Washington swamp. However, when you look more closely at term limits, they are not really a viable solution.

On Wednesday, American Greatness posted an article about term limits.

The article reports:

Attempts to restructure government at the federal level are mostly on the Democrat agenda. Pack the US Supreme Court. Elect presidents via popular vote. Turn Puerto Rico and Washington, DC, into states with two senators each. Implement national mail-in voting, automatic voter registration, legalize ballot harvesting, lower the voting age to 16, let felons vote, let noncitizens vote. And, of course, end the Senate filibuster. If they could, Democrats would do all of this.

Meanwhile, however, there is a growing bipartisan movement to implement term limits for members of the House and Senate. A bill has been introduced in the 119th Congress, and President Trump has supported term limits consistently since he first ran for president in 2016. But federal term limits would do more harm than good. Explaining why offers insights into how an entrenched bureaucracy gains power in democracies, and California is a prime example.

Term limits came to California back in 1990 via a ballot initiative, because it was the only way the state’s Republicans, still relatively influential, could get rid of Willie Brown. For decades, Assembly Speaker Brown controlled everything that happened in the state legislature. If Brown didn’t support your bill, your bill was dead. As a 25-year veteran member of the Assembly, Brown virtually ruled Sacramento by 1990. Every piece of legislation required his imprimatur. And every aspiring Democrat, including Brown’s protégé Kamala Harris, went through Brown on their way to prominence in state politics.

The consequences have been enormous. Brown may not have been a Republican favorite, but he got things done. By virtue of his many years in the Capitol, Brown knew how every lever of power worked, and he knew every bureaucrat, every union official, and every lobbyist. He was a perennial player; he knew the game backwards and forwards, and when something had to happen in California, Brown was there to make it happen. Say what you will about his politics or his party; back then, California had a government that worked.

The article concludes:

Imagine what Washington, DC, already gripped by a deep-state bureaucracy, would be like if elected politicians were termed out of office right about the point where they’d acquired enough experience to navigate this swamp. Whatever oversight is still possible, whatever reforms and restructurings that might be in the interests of the American people would no longer have advocates who had mastered the details and could exercise long-term leadership. Of course, many members of Congress become swamp rats, entrenched, bought, manipulated, and indifferent to their constituents. But our obligation as citizens is to expose them and ensure that they lose the next election. If they’re such a problem, we must find a candidate to oppose them who can earn a majority of the votes in their district. That’s how you term-limit a bad politician. You beat them in an election.

When you eliminate the bad politicians, you also eliminate the good ones. You turn the machinery of government over to people who have spent decades learning how to control elected politicians, many of whom come into Congress without any previous experience in government. It is easy to disparage all politicians and, therefore, wish to control them by sticking a revolving door into the system and pushing everyone in and out after 12 years. But be careful what you wish for.

If you term limit the elected officials and leave the bureaucrats, you will have a swamp run by bureaucrats. The real solution is for more Americans to get involved in primary elections and give us better candidates to vote for.

Winning At Track Is Easy When You Are A Guy Competing Against Girls

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On Saturday, Fox News reported the following:

 A California postseason track meet on Saturday opened with a “Save Girls’ Sports” rally outside the gates and ended in familiar fashion, as one athlete again separated from the field in the jumping events, highlighting growing concerns over competitive fairness in girls’ sports.

Saturday’s CIF Southern Section Division 3 preliminaries in Yorba Linda drew attention before competition began, with demonstrators protesting California’s policy allowing transgender athletes to compete in girls’ sports.

Inside, the focus turned to the jumping events, where biological male AB Hernandez, a senior from Jurupa Valley, competed against women and finished first across all three competitions with dominant performances.

First, let’s get our terms right–he is NOT a biological male–he is a male. His gender was NOT assigned at birth–when he arrived in this world, his parts determined his gender. Without major surgery, there is no way to change those parts.

The article concludes:

Hernandez competed under rules California has allowed for more than a decade. Those rules remain at the center of a growing conflict between state officials and federal leaders over Title IX and women’s sports. That battle has now moved into the courts, with the Department of Justice suing California over its transgender athlete policies.

In response, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office distanced the governor from the lawsuit, emphasizing he was not personally named while defending the state’s existing law.

Saturday’s prelims in Yorba Linda added more data to the growing push to keep biological males out of girls’ events.

The protest set the tone early, and by day’s end the argument had moved off the sidewalk and onto the results board, where the outcome carried real consequences.

In the long jump, Hernandez was able to jump a foot more than his female competitors. I wonder how he would have done against male competition. Female sports is not the place for mediocre male athletes.

How Do You Put A Hospice In A Taco Stand?

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How do you put a hospice in a taco stand or a tire store? That is the question being asked in a post by The Daily Signal on Sunday. Evidently the authorities in California were so lax in checking Medicare money handed out to supposed hospice facilities that some of them were located in very strange places.

The article reports:

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has halted payments to more than 400 hospices in Los Angeles and across California, with the estimated fraud being greater than $600 million, according to the anti-fraud task forceopens in a new tab led by Vice President JD Vance. 

Sheila Clark, CEO of the California Hospice and Palliative Care Association, is questioning how these alleged instances of fraud have slipped through the cracks.

“How do you put a hospice in a burrito stand in California? How do you put a hospice in a tire store? That all had to be vetted through licensure, certification, and accreditation,” Clark said during a House of Representatives hearing on April 21.

The article concludes:

In an interview with Fox Newsopens in a new tab, First Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California Bill Essayli called California “the kingdom of fraud.”

“Nobody is minding the shop. The money just goes out the door—no checking, no vetting. California has a responsibility to make sure the money is going to the intended recipients.”

On Tuesday, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. reported that $6,000 was being paid out by the government for hospice patients that allegedly did not exist.

We have not gotten one call from a congressperson or a patient. Why? Because those hospices did not exist. They were signing up patients … and charging us $6,000 a month for that patient.” 

I am hoping that as we clear out the fraudulent spending by the government we can continue to decrease the tax burden on Americans.

The Laffer Curve At Work

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This is the Laffer Curve:

The Laffer Curve is being illustrated in America as blue states increase their taxes, their population leaves, and red states who are reducing their taxes are gaining population.

On Wednesday, Red State reported:

Blue states are pushing new taxes on high earners as billions in income and thousands of taxpayers move to red states.

In California, New York, Washington, and Michigan, lawmakers are advancing proposals and ballot efforts aimed at top earners. Washington is advancing a tax on income over $1 million, while California is pushing a tax on billionaire net worth. Other states are weighing similar plans, including taxes on residents who leave and widening the scope of income taxation.

IRS migration data from 2022-2023 shows California lost nearly $12 billion in taxable income in a single year, while New York lost $9.9 billion. Florida gained $20.5 billion, and Texas gained $5.5 billion as taxpayers moved and took their income with them.

California lost roughly 230,000 residents over the same period, while lower-tax states gained both population and income at the same time.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) acknowledged the shift, as RedState previously reported:

“Maybe the first step should be go down to Palm Beach and see who you can bring back home because our tax base has been eroded.”

These proposals assume high earners will stay and absorb higher rates. The migration data shows otherwise.

JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon has warned about New York’s tax structure:

“New York City has much going for it… but it also has the highest city and state corporate taxes and the highest individual income taxes.” 

Business leaders have been warning about this shift for years, pointing to rising costs, regulatory pressure, and tax burdens that make long-term investment harder to justify in high-tax states compared to lower-cost alternatives, especially as relocation becomes easier for both individuals and corporations.

The article concludes:

Those taxpayers contribute more than income tax revenue. They invest, build companies, hire workers, and drive the economic activity that state budgets depend on. When they leave, the loss does not stay at the top. It spreads across the tax base.

That creates another problem. Budgets built around a shrinking group become harder to sustain, yet the response has often been to raise rates further or expand who gets taxed as the base narrows.

Higher rates aren’t capturing that revenue. They’re driving it out.

A smart businessman will operate his business in the place with the lowest overhead. Taxes are part of that overhead. Businessmen do not become successful by being stupid.

Good News For Taxpayers And Pro-Life Americans

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On Friday, Townhall posted an article about the legal challenges by Planned Parenthood to the ban on taxpayer money being used to fund abortion.

The article reports:

When President Trump signed the “Big Beautiful Bill” on July 4, 2025, cutting off federal Medicaid reimbursements to large abortion providers under Section 71113, the abortion industry immediately launched a coordinated, multi-front legal assault to force the money to keep flowing. The ACLJ jumped into the fight on Day One – and never looked back.

…Planned Parenthood filed suit in the Massachusetts federal district court within days of the bill’s passage. When the district judge granted two sweeping preliminary injunctions – claiming the defunding violated Planned Parenthood’s First Amendment rights – we filed four amicus briefs fighting back, including urging the First Circuit to issue an emergency stay. The First Circuit granted the stay on September 11, cutting off Planned Parenthood’s funding while the case proceeded – and later issued a unanimous landmark ruling upholding Section 71113 in its entirety and vacating both injunctions. Win.

Maine Family Planning opened a second legal front in Maine federal district court. We filed amicus briefs there at both the district and appellate levels arguing that no court can force Congress to spend money it specifically voted not to spend. The district court denied their injunction entirely, and after the First Circuit’s decisive ruling in the Planned Parenthood case, Maine Family Planning abandoned its appeal altogether and stipulated to dismissal. Win.

Even as those cases were resolved, California organized a coalition of 22 states to file their own lawsuit – California et al. v. HHS – seeking to reimpose Planned Parenthood funding across their jurisdictions. We filed our seventh amicus brief there, and the First Circuit handed California a decisive defeat, granting a stay that allowed Section 71113 to take effect even in the plaintiff states. With no viable legal theory remaining, the coalition has now dismissed its own case, seeing the writing on the wall. Win.

The article concludes:

As monumental as today’s victory is, Section 71113 of the “Big Beautiful Bill” cuts off Planned Parenthood’s Medicaid funding for one year. The abortion lobby will regroup. The only way to make this permanent is through Congress. The ACLJ will be at the forefront of that fight, just as we have been at every stage of this one.

I don’t know if we will ever be able to end legal abortion, but at least we can stop the taxpayers being forced to pay for it.

When Charity Funds Go Missing

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Dolly Parton is known for starting a literacy program for children. She began her Imagination Library, a book gifting program that mails high-quality, free books to more than 3 million children around the world each month, in 1995. 

On Saturday, Breitbart reported: 

California’s top librarian is accused of failing to produce $650,000 in missing funds linked to a literacy program started by country music star Dolly Parton in east Tennessee in 1995.

State legislators recently pelted Greg Lucas, the leader of the California State Library, with questions about the funds during a budget hearing on education, the New York Post reported on Friday.

…During the hearing, state Sen. Shannon Grove (R) told Lucas he did not have documentation to show where the money went.

She then asked point blank, “Where’s the money?”

Lucas was appointed to lead the state library in 2014 by former Gov. Jerry Brown, ABC 10 reported.

The article concludes:

Legislation for a statewide version of the program through the state library was signed into law in 2022 with the approval of over $68 million in state funding for the books. The Post noted that “Lawmakers allowed up to 10% — about $6.8 million — for administrative costs and set a goal of enrolling roughly 65% of eligible California children within five years.”

However, when the program stalled for a couple of years the state library entered a $19.2 million contract in late 2024 with Strong Reader Partnership, a nonprofit group that was closed down in September. It received over $4.8 million from the state with $4 million shifted to a money market account.

The nonprofit said it spent about $1.2 million but bank statements reportedly showed over $500,000 in expenses. Now, lawmakers claim nearly $650,000 is missing and Lucas has said he will get answers for officials.

In regard to the lack of documentation, Grove told Lucas in a budget meeting, “You don’t have receipts requested six times. You don’t have bank statements requested six times from this committee. … That makes no sense, and that reeks of horrific no transparency and potential fraud.”

This could simply be a case of missing receipts, but unfortunately, California does not have a great record in preventing fraud in government programs.

Voting With Your Feet

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On Saturday, The New York Post posted an article about Uber co-founder Travis Kalanick. He has announced that he is leaving California for Texas.

Our Founding Fathers envisioned a nation where each state would be an individual laboratory to find the best ways to do things–provide services, create budgets, levy taxes, etc. The idea was that the unsuccessful states would learn from the successful states. Unfortunately, some of our less successful states seem to have a very slow learning curve and rather than learn from what is successful are doubling down on what doesn’t work. California, a beautiful state with beautiful beaches, and beautiful weather is one example of that slow learning curve. The state’s tax plans are driving successful people out of the state.

The article reports:

Uber co-founder Travis Kalanick says he has traded California for Texas, joining a growing list of billionaires abandoning the state as lefty lawmakers push for a one-off tax on their wealth.

Appearing on TPBN to discuss his robotics startup Atoms, Kalanick told hosts John Coogan and Jordi Hays he relocated to Austin at the end of 2025.

“Just to be clear, on December 18, I moved to Texas. I don’t know what’s so specific about December 18, but let’s just say it’s prior to January,” said Kalanick, pointedly.

That means the 49-year-old’s estimated $3.6 billion fortune will not be subjected to the tax should it be introduced.

Kalanick joked he felt a twinge of FOMO when he hears about other wealthy Americans relocating to Florida.

“Why so much Florida action?! Like, come on homies,” he said.

Those ”homies” would be billionaire tech figures to leave California for Florida., including Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, PayPal and Palantir investor Peter Thiel, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg.

The article notes:

While California still boasts the largest billionaire population in the United States, an increasing number have relocated to places such as Reno, Austin and Miami.

As long as people are free to move around the country, they will gravitate to the states with lower taxes and a lower cost of living. Businesses and corporations will also move to states with a better business climate. Note that Cape Cod Potato Chips are being moved out of Massachusetts.

Policies Have Consequences

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On Monday, The Western Journal posted an article about gasoline prices in California.

The article reports:

California is having to rely on gasoline shipped in from the Bahamas as more refineries close in the state due to its strict environmental policies.

And the restricted in-state refining capacity is causing gas prices to surge.

The current average for regular gasoline is $4.59, up from $4.21 last month, according to the American Automobile Association.

The New York Post reported, “Valero’s Benicia refinery — a key Northern California supplier — is in the process of sunsetting operations. The move follows other major pullbacks, including the closure of Phillips 66’s Los Angeles refinery, steadily reducing California’s ability to produce its own gasoline, and driving up costs at the pump.”

“California sucked in more gasoline imports last November than at any point in its history — and a staggering 40%-plus of it came from the Bahamas — all that means more cost at the pump for drivers,” the news outlet added.

Cal Matters reported in September that in 1982, California, which has rich oil reserves, imported about 6 percent of its needs from foreign sources. As of last fall, the percentage had climbed to 64 percent.

The article concludes:

Michael Mische, an associate professor at the University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business, wrote in the Cal Matters piece that “the Legislature should consider the repeal of regulations limiting production and pipeline use in more counties, assess the powers of agency bureaucrats who force higher prices on the backs of Californians, and a new regulatory strategy that will provide a more hospitable business environment for refiners and producers.”

Businesses are already leaving California. If the state continues in its current direction, more businesses and more people will leave. Our Founding Fathers envisioned a country where each state would act as a laboratory for policy. The states that created successful policies would have those policies copied by other states so that every state would be successful. Unfortunately, politics has become so toxic that successful policies from red states are not being copied in blue states simply because they are from red states. I believe we will see California go bankrupt in the near future.

Who Votes In America’s Elections?

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On Monday, Red State posted an article about some voting irregularities in California.

The article reports:

Over the weekend a video clip posted by RNC Research of the Sheriff of San Joaquin County saying, “You’re able to register and cast a vote if you don’t live in the country,” and stating that a Pakistani citizen voted in a California election went viral.

Many social media users were wondering if this actually happened and if what he said about the “honor system” of registering to vote online in California is correct; yes, it did, and yes, he’s correct. Shakir Khan, a Pakistani immigrant and now-former city councilman from Lodi, California, was arrested in February, 2023 and charged with 14 felonies related to election fraud. RedState covered the news at that time; the original story can be viewed here. Khan pleaded no contest to those charges in January 2024, but recently made a motion to have that plea set aside and is petitioning the court for mental health diversion.

The article details the story:

  • During a raid of Khan’s home in October 2020 on unrelated charges, officials observed a stash of 41 sealed and completed mail ballots for the 2020 presidential election. Due to CA’s ballot harvesting laws the ballots were not seized, but investigators photographed the ballots and documented their findings.
  • In the fall of 2021, officials noticed 70 people were registered to vote at one address in Lodi, which they recognized as Khan’s.
  • Sheriff’s investigators determined that Khan had used the state’s online voter registration system to re-register existing California voters from other districts to his address, and at least a few non-citizens living in foreign countries (including his brother in Pakistan) to vote using his address, email address, or phone number.
  • Investigators reviewed the ballot return envelopes from ballots cast in the 2020 general election, which had been maintained by the Registrar, and found that many of those tied to Khan’s address all had the same handwriting on the outside.
  • In October 2022, officials found more than a dozen unopened ballots for the mid-term election, none of them addressed to Khan and many not sent to his address, at his home.
  • Officials also found Khan’s nomination form for his city council candidacy, and determined that numerous signatures on it were forged.
  • Khan forced voters whose information he’d hijacked to vote for him and for Joe Biden, either by filling them out himself or threatening the voter.
  • When Khan heard that investigators were speaking to people he’d fraudulently registered to vote, he posted a video to TikTok to threaten and intimidate them.

The article notes:

While both the San Joaquin County Sheriff and the Registrar stated that there were potential federal election laws broken by Mr. Khan, the Biden Department of Justice was completely uninterested in pursuing any charges. And California’s Department of Justice, led by scandal-ridden Attorney General Rob Bonta, has been more focused on preventing Huntington Beach from enacting a voter ID requirement than ensuring that this immigrant population receive justice after being threatened by this thug.

This is the reason we need the SAVE Act!

Migration Within America

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As I stated in another article posted today, one of the reasons for the Democrat party’s wanting to keep illegal aliens here is that they see them as future voters. As Americans are becoming disillusioned with the radical shift of the Democrat party, the party needs a new voting base.

On Tuesday, a website called ResiClub posted an article detailing some of the recent shifts in population within America.

The article reports:

The article includes the following map:

The article concludes:

Looking ahead, Texas and Florida will continue to be among the top destinations for domestic movers. They’re simply moving through a softer window right now, in part because of the migration pull-forward that occurred in 2021–2022 (many of those households likely would have moved in 2023–2025 anyway), and because switching costs remain exceptionally high in the current housing cycle. For example, some homeowners in states like Illinois who might have otherwise sold in 2023-2026 and relocated to Florida are staying put, as taking on a materially higher mortgage rate/monthly payment is simply too difficult to justify right now. That churn will slowly unlock overtime.

People are looking for warmth, but they are also looking for lower taxes and a lower cost of living. Businesses are looking for lower taxes and less regulation. Elections have consequences, and if the blue states continue in the direction they are currently going, they are going to lose significant population.

Not Even Remotely Surprising

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California has increased taxes many times to try to balance its budget. If the people who live there are willing to put up with that, that’s fine. However, trying to collect taxes from people who no longer live there is questionable at best.

On Monday, Just The News reported:

According to documents posted online by a family who formerly lived in California, the Golden State is trying to collect income taxes years after the family moved to Florida.

The documents, sent on Jan. 6, 2026, asked for receipts, invoices, canceled checks and other documentation showing that the family moved from California to Florida nearly four years ago. The California Franchise Tax Board, which sent the letter, also asked the family for a “narrative of the circumstances” surrounding the family’s move out of state.

Hari Raghavan, who with his wife, Mitali Gala, was the subject of the investigation by the California Franchise Tax Board, said he and Gala moved from California to Florida in 2021. They tried to sell the home they owned in California when they moved, but weren’t able to do so immediately, Raghavan told The Center Square.

“That spilled into 2022, but it was by no definition a primary residence anymore,” Raghavan said about the California home. “We moved to Florida to establish residency in 2021.”

New Jersey actually does have an Exit Tax. For example, if you sell a house in New Jersey for $800,000 (that you bought years ago for $200,000), you could owe as much as $15,000 in Exit Tax. I think this is taxation without representation, but as far as I know, it  has not been challenged in court.

The article at Just The News notes:

In an emailed statement to The Center Square, the Franchise Tax Board said individual tax records are confidential and information about one individual or family’s tax records can’t be shared. Investigations that determine if someone owes taxes can be lengthy, officials said.

“FTB’s audit program serves as the compliance mechanism for administering California’s tax code,” Andrew LePage, an official with the Franchise Tax Board, wrote to The Center Square via email. “A residency audit determines if an individual is a resident, non-resident, or part-year resident for tax purposes. Residency audits take about 18 – 24 months to complete, depending on a wide range of variables.”

Those who live in and receive income in California for at least nine months out of the year owe personal income taxes to the state, LePage told The Center Square via email. Officials also told The Center Square that the board doesn’t share its criteria for when to conduct a residency audit.

Officials with the Franchise Tax Board would not make anyone from the agency available for an interview with The Center Square.

Moving forward, Raghavan and Gala are assembling a response with their accountant, Raghavan said.

While he believes in everyone paying their fair share of taxes, he’s found much of the experience with the agency off-putting, Raghavan told The Center Square.

“My issue is with how they go about it,” Raghavan said. “I can’t truly say they have been unreasonable with us, with one exception. I can’t believe they would ask someone for their moving inventory list. Who maintains that?”

It is easy to understand why people are leaving some of our blue states.

Voting With Your Feet

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On January 12, Issues & Insights posted an article about the reaction to a proposed California tax on billionaires. It should not be a surprise that billionaires do not want to pay this tax.

The article reports:

The Billionaire Tax Act isn’t even officially on the California ballot yet, but that hasn’t stopped businessmen, entrepreneurs, and investors from fleeing the state, taking $1 trillion in wealth – along with jobs and opportunity – with them.

Tech entrepreneur Chamath Palihapitiya has been keeping track of who’s decided to leave the state in advance of this “temporary” tax.

“We had $2T of billionaire wealth just a few weeks ago. Now, 50% of that wealth has left – taking their income tax revenue, sales tax revenue, real estate tax revenue, and all their staffs (and their salaries and income taxes) with them,” he posted on X this weekend.

“In other words, by starting this ill-conceived attempt at an asset tax, the California budget deficit will explode. And we still don’t know if the tax will even make the ballot.”

Among those who’ve given up on California are Google co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page. The New York Times reports that 10 days before Christmas, Brin “terminated or moved 15 California limited liability companies that oversee some of his business interests and investments out of the state” and “more than 45 California limited liability companies associated with Mr. Page filed documents last month to either become inactive or move out of the state.”

The Laffer Curve is an illustration of what is happening  in California:

Millionaires and billionaires have tax accountants, lawyers, and other people who help them legally avoid many of the taxes the rest of us pay. Voting with your feet is one of the easiest ways to avoid excessive taxes. Voting with your feet is one of the reasons Texas and Florida are the fastest growing states in the nation. Their tax policies make them very attractive to businessmen.

The article concludes:

This is a state, after all, that has managed in the past few years to kill its other golden goose, the film industry – the Wall Street Journal last fall said  “L.A.’s Entertainment Economy Is Looking Like a Disaster Movie.”

It’s a state that sits at the top of the list for highest tax rates, but the bottom of the list for just about everything else. (See “Do Californians Realize How Badly They’re Getting Ripped Off?”)

It’s a state that – despite idyllic weather and natural beauty – has driven more than 1.6 million residents away. (See “The Great Divorce Continues.”)

As we noted in this space a couple of weeks ago (See “California’s ‘Get Out Now’ Tax”), “Businesses and people are fleeing because lawmakers and blue voters are stuck in a Bolshevik rut.”

The question is, what will it take to get California’s lawmakers and voters unstuck?

Arresting People Who Broke The Law

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America’s justice system has softened in many areas in recent years. That has resulted in people being released from jail who have no business being out on the streets. However, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) continues to do its job to keep Americans safe.

On Monday, Breitbart reported:

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has arrested 118 illegal aliens in San Luis Obispo County and Santa Barbara County in California, a sanctuary state. Several of the illegal aliens are registered sex offenders, drunk drivers, or pedophiles, among other crimes.

“ICE ended 2025 with a surge operation in California targeting the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens,” the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Tricia McLaughlin told Breitbart News. “One hundred and eighteen illegal aliens were arrested, including pedophiles, registered sex offenders, burglars, domestic abusers, and serial drunk drivers.”

The ICE operation took place from December 26 – 31, 2025, and saw the likes of Juan Perez Tello and Rogelio Sanchez Hidalgo arrested, among others.

Tello, a 42-year-old illegal alien from Mexico, has been convicted of lewd or lascivious acts with a child under 14 years old and is a registered sex offender.

Hidalgo, a 41-year-old illegal alien from Mexico, has been convicted of lewd or lascivious acts with a child under 14 years old, is a registered sex offender, and has been convicted of illegal re-entry.

The article concludes:

McLaughlin said illegal aliens “flock to California because they know Governor Newsom and his fellow sanctuary politicians will allow them to terrorize innocent American families.”

“In 2026, our law enforcement will continue to do what Gavin Newsom has refused to do: make California safe again,” McLaughlin said.

Our immigration procedures need to change. We need to make it easier and less expensive for people who want to come here and assimilate to immigrate. We also need to set up some sort of sponsorship program that involves individuals–not NGO’s. Americans are a generous people, and I think many of us would be willing to help resettle an immigrant into America if the immigrant planned to assimilate and be an asset to their community.

Policies Have Consequences

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Our Founding Fathers envisioned each state as a laboratory. If a program or policy worked in one state, it would soon be adopted in other states. If it didn’t work, the policy would be dropped. We seem to have forgotten that principle, but businesses are using that idea to decide where to do business.

On Wednesday, Breitbart reported:

Marcus Lemonis, the CEO of Bed, Bath & Beyond, announced on X on Wednesday that his company would no longer open stores in California because the state made it “nearly impossible” for business to succeed.

Remember, Gavin Newsom, the Governor of California, wants to be President so that he can inflict his policies on the entire country.

Marcus Lemonis posted the following on X:

The article concludes:

Lemonis’s statement is the latest pushback by industry against California, which Gov. Gavin Newsom boasts is the world’s fourth-largest economy, but which also currently has the nation’s highest unemployment rate.

The goal of a business is to provide a product or service and to make a profit. If making a profit is not possible in one place, the business will move to another. This might explain why California is losing population and Texas is gaining population. California is a beautiful state with a wonderful climate, but its tax and economic policies make it an undesirable place to live for many Americans.

Working Toward Election Integrity

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Anyone who remembers the 1960 presidential election between John Kennedy and Richard Nixon understands that Illinois (particularly Chicago) might have a problem with voter integrity. The question becomes what to do about it. Some other states have similar problems. Oddly enough, the answer may lie in the courts.

On Monday, PJ Media reported:

Federal courts have allowed two lawsuits to proceed against California and Illinois to force them to clean up their voter rolls.

Democrats have been engaging in election fraud for well over a century and a half, but I don’t think any of us understood the extent of the election integrity problem in our day until the last few election cycles. One aspect of potential fraud is the presence of ‘dirty names’ on voter rolls—individuals who are not legally allowed to be there, whether because they are illegal aliens, deceased, or disqualified for other reasons. Those are the names Judicial Watch and two other organizations are suing to remove in two deep blue states.

“The voter rolls in Illinois and California are a mess and these court decisions allow our Judicial Watch legal team to proceed in court to clean them up,” Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton stated in a press release. “The stakes are high—as there are potentially millions of ineligible names on the voter rolls in these two states.”

The article concludes:

Both lawsuits can now move forward thanks to the rulings from last week.

This is a good beginning.

About That Minimum Wage Increase…

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On Tuesday, Breitbart posted an article about the impact of California’s increasing the minimum wage to $20 an hour.

The article reports:

California’s new $20-per-hour minimum wage for fast food workers has resulted in a significant decline in employment in that sector, leading to 18,000 fewer jobs than would have been the case otherwise.

That’s according to a new paper released by the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) this month, which said:

We analyze the effect of California’s $20 fast food minimum wage, which was enacted in September 2023 and went into effect in April 2024, on employment in the fast food sector. In unadjusted data from the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages, we find that employment in California’s fast food sector declined by 2.7 percent relative to employment in the fast food sector elsewhere in the United States from September 2023 through September 2024. Adjusting for pre-AB 1228 trends increases this differential decline to 3.2 percent, while netting out the equivalent employment changes in non-minimum-wage-intensive industries further increases the decline. Our median estimate translates into a loss of 18,000 jobs in California’s fast food sector relative to the counterfactual.

The article concludes:

The Golden State currently has the highest unemployment rate in the U.S., though still relatively low at 5.4%.

Anyone with a basic understanding of business principles and economics would have seen this coming. Businesses are in business to make a profit. During the past four years, inflation has made it difficult for businesses to make a profit. The addition of a $20 per hour minimum wage created further  challenges. The minimum wage is for employees entering the workforce and learning the basics–showing up on time, respecting authority, dressing appropriately, etc. If you are trying to support a family on a minimum-wage job, you need to find a way to increase your skill level. Setting a minimum wage of $20 not only decreases the number of employees a business can hire, it also puts an obstacle in the way of young people who want to enter the workforce.

 

Undermining Property Rights Leads To Poverty

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In 2010, I wrote an article about the relationship between private property rights and the wealth of a country. The conclusion of the article was that enforcing property rights and the rule of law breeds prosperity. We need to remember that as a country.

On Monday, Hot Air posted an article about a recent series of events in California.

The article reports:

A pair of vacant properties in Hollywood, CA started making news 10 days ago after residents complained a large group of squatters had taken over the homes and were creating a nuisance in the neighborhood.

…The drugs, noise, nudity and criminal behavior were a nuisance but when the police were called out, nothing seemed to change. The squatters would just disappear and then come back when the police were gone. The source of all this activity was another house next door which was receiving money from the city to house the homeless. Some of the homeless would hang out all day on the porch of their free housing and then jump the fence into the abandoned properties at night. But beyond all the nuisance this created, the real danger was the fires.

…Finally, there was enough media attention that L.A. City Councilmember Hugo Soto Martinez issued a statement saying he was working to have the site declared a nuisance.

…So sometime later this month, the city would have held a vote and then eventually taken action to tear the building down. But as it turned out, the homeless squatters beat them to it. Last Thursday the building caught fire again and this time was heavily damaged.

…I can’t prove it but my guess is the city was happy to plod along at its usual pace when this was just a big nuisance for neighbors, but once the building was a danger to the homeless, who might have gone back in after the fire, they acted immediately to tear it down.

The councilman who had promised to have the site declared a nuisance got an earful when he showed up at the site after the fire.

…Meanwhile in Sacramento, just a day after the fire in Hollywood, Democrats voted down a bill which would have made it easier to evict squatters.

Please follow the link above to read the rest of the story. California is going bankrupt. Unfortunately, I suspect the rest of the nation may be forced to bail her out. The inability or unwillingness to protect the property of homeowners who live there is one of many reasons people are leaving the state. As the people who have the money to leave move to other places, there won’t be enough people who are fiscally stable to pay off the taxes and massive state government expenses. The State of California will collapse financially.

The Center Of Fraud

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On Saturday, Legal Insurrection posted an article about the location of a large part of the fraud found in unemployment claims.

The article reports:

On Thursday, the Department of Government Efficiency revealed that three deep-blue states—California, New York, and Massachusetts—were responsible for $305 million, or 80%, of the $382 million in fraudulent unemployment payments issued since 2020.

DOGE also reported that 68% of unemployment benefits paid to parolees flagged by Customs and Border Protection as being on the terrorist watchlist or having criminal records were issued in California.

The DOGE team found that $59 million in unemployment benefits was paid to 24,500 people listed as over 115 years old. Another $254 million went to 28,000 people between the ages of 1 and 5, while $69 million was distributed to 9,700 people with birthdates more than 15 years in the future.

It is interesting that California, New York, and Massachusetts were responsible for 80 percent of the fraud. Slightly less than one-third of Americans live in California, Texas, Florida or New York. Having a large population makes it more difficult to track every case and makes fraud easier.

The article also notes:

DOGE also reported this week that since 2023, the U.S. Border Patrol (under the Biden administration) has paroled over 6,300 individuals flagged on the FBI’s terrorist watchlist or with criminal records into the country with “minimal screening.” Though their paroles have now been revoked, all received Social Security numbers and could access federal benefits. Among them:

    • 905 received Medicaid, including 4 on the terrorist watchlist ($276K paid out)
    • 41 collected Unemployment Insurance ($42K total)
    • 22 received federal student loans ($280K)
    • 409 got tax refunds in 2024 ($751K)
    • An undisclosed number received SNAP (food stamps)

I believe in helping people, but I also believe that charity begins at home and ideally does not involve the government. If I want to help my neighbor, good for me. However, for the government to take what I have earned and give it to someone who didn’t earn it is not a viable business plan for a nation. As Margaret Thatcher once stated, “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people’s money.”

Common Sense Would Have Prevented This Tragedy

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On Wednesday, The New York Post posted an article about some of the policies that have resulted in the severity of the California fires. Frankly, I don’t know how they will rebuild from this. The losses are staggering. Many of the homes destroyed were multi-million-dollar homes. In California a one bedroom home can cost over $600,000, so the losses in every area affected are going to be monumental. However, there are common-sense precautions that could have been put in place that might not have prevented the fires, but would have made them less severe.

The article reports:

President-elect Trump, during his first administration, put Gov. Gavin Newsom on notice for his handling of repeated wildfires in the state, years ahead of the devastating Los Angeles wildfires currently raging.

“The Governor of California, @GavinNewsom, has done a terrible job of forest management. I told him from the first day we met that he must ‘clean’ his forest floors regardless of what his bosses, the environmentalists, DEMAND of him. Must also do burns and cut fire stoppers,” the former and upcoming president posted to X in 2019.

“Every year, as the fire’s rage & California burns, it is the same thing-and then he comes to the Federal Government for $$$ help. No more. Get your act together Governor. You don’t see close to the level of burn in other states,” the thread continued.

President Trump also stated:

“Governor Gavin Newscum refused to sign the water restoration declaration put before him that would have allowed millions of gallons of water, from excess rain and snow melt from the North, to flow daily into many parts of California, including the areas that are currently burning in a virtually apocalyptic way,”Trump posted to Truth Social on Wednesday. /pal

“He wanted to protect an essentially worthless fish called a smelt, by giving it less water (it didn’t work!), but didn’t care about the people of California. Now the ultimate price is being paid. I will demand that this incompetent governor allow beautiful, clean, fresh water to FLOW INTO CALIFORNIA! He is the blame for this. On top of it all, no water for fire hydrants, not firefighting planes. A true disaster!”

This is not playing politics–this is telling the truth. If the Governor had taken the proper action, the disaster could have been prevented.

All Americans will wind up paying for the neglect of California’s forests and California’s misplaced priorities regarding its water systems. That is the result of irresponsible leadership in the State of California.

Actions Have Consequences

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On Thursday, The National Review posted an article about the impact of the increase in wages for fast-food employees in California.

The article reports:

California’s fast food industry shed more than 6,000 jobs after Democratic lawmakers passed a bill mandating a $20 minimum wage for most fast food and counter service restaurants in the state, according to a new analysis of labor data.

The article includes the following chart:

The article explains:

The fast food minimum wage hike — a 25 percent jump over the $16 minimum wage in place for virtually every other sector of the California economy — was the result of a years-long campaign by Big Labor leaders and their Democratic allies to target an industry they’ve long struggled to organize.

In 2022, California Democrats passed the Fast Food Accountability and Standards Recovery Act, or FAST Act, which would have created an unelected fast food council that could have hiked the industry’s minimum wage to $22 an hour. The restaurant industry fought back, gathering enough signatures for a ballot initiative to challenge the act. But Democrats had a fallback plan of their own; last year, for the first time in two decades, they funded what is known as the Industrial Welfare Commission, which has the authority to regulate wages, hours, and working conditions for industries across the state.

The minimum wage was established to give new workers (generally young workers) a chance to enter the workforce. The idea was that these workers would learn the basic skills needed to keep a job and advance in their careers–showing up on time, paying attention to what they were doing, developing a solid work ethic, etc. The minimum wage was never intended as a permanent state of employment. In raising the minimum wage to a supposed ‘living wage,’ politicians are keeping new workers out of the workforce because companies cannot afford to hire them. Theoretically, a worker ads value to a company–a worker is expected to create more value than the salary he receives. Artificially raising the minimum wage negates that principle.

California Here We Come (or Not)

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Author: R. Alan Harrop, Ph.D.

One way to determine where a presidential candidate will take the country is to examine their past record. Uniquely, we have clear evidence of what we can expect from former President Trump and Kamala Harris. The evidence about President Trump could not be clearer: low inflation, cheaper energy, high employment, lower mortgage rates, secure borders, and few international conflicts. One way of determining where Kamala Harris will take us is to examine what has been happening in California, which clearly reflects her socialist principles and values, where she was the Attorney General.

Let’s take a look. As a comparison to California, I will use North Carolina, which has benefitted from conservative leadership consistent with what we can expect from President Trump.

There is an old and valid saying that people vote with their feet, meaning that when able, they will choose to live where conditions are most favorable to their standard of living. California has been steadily losing population in spite of a steady influx of illegal immigrants. Over 500,000 residents of California have left the state over the past couple of years. The percentage of immigrants is California (a sanctuary state) is 27%, as compared to 9.2% in North Carolina. It is well known that a country can only absorb a small number of immigrants and still maintain their essential cultural integrity. Another issue is the destruction of their cities, like San Francisco and Los Angeles, due to the out-of-control homeless population. California, due to its lack of enforcement of vagrancy laws, has the highest number of homeless persons, at 172,000, in the entire country. North Carolina reportedly has just over 9,000 homeless. The homeless in California are notorious for illegal drug use and dealing as well as property crimes and other crimes.

Besides these population factors, there are many economic factors causing people to exit California. For example, the median price of a home in California is an astounding $807,000, compared to $336,000 in North Carolina. Similarly, the state income tax in California is 13.3%,  compared to 4.75% in North Carolina. Sales tax in California is 7.25%, and 4.74% in North Carolina. In spite of these much higher taxes, California has managed to accumulate a debt of $73 billion, whereas North Carolina has a budget surplus and a rainy-day fund. The cost of energy shows a great disparity with gas in California at $ 4.64 as compared to North Carolina at $2.96. Cost of electricity is 29.5cents per kWH as compared to North Carolina at 13.0 cents. There are also many regulations in California that have caused a closing of many businesses and retail stores.

The reality is that the conditions in California are the result of socialist policies and actions that have effectively destroyed one of the most successful and prosperous states. The facts are clear. If you want to keep this country from becoming another California, you know what to do. It is essential that you get out and vote to keep this from happening to the entire country.

Another Accomplishment By The Private Sector

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On Thursday, The American Thinker posted an article about the latest accomplishment of SpaceX. The company captured a massive 20-story booster as it broke away to return to the launch pad for reuse. The government space program has never done that. A private company is more likely to want to save money by reusing the booster. Although the government bids out contracts, it is not genuinely concerned with cost cutting.

The article reports:

The consequences of such a brilliant endeavor is truly revolutionary. A reporter for a T.V. program from India called “The Breakfast Club,” saw that right away.

Sonal Mehrotra Kapoor of “The Breakfast Club” excitedly reported on Elon Musk’s scientific and engineering accomplishment in capturing a 20-story reusable booster rocket.

…The reporting on the event is truly thoughtful fact-based journalism that accurately describes the massive achievement of SpaceX ambitious plans.

What is noteworthy is the clip also shows the SpaceX team’s heartfelt pride in their accomplishment. In essence, a team led by a visionary consisting of a diverse crew of scientists, engineers and technicians, all a product of a meritocracy-based selection process, made history and were joyous in that moment.

Meanwhile, The Daily Breeze reports:

Elon Musk‘s SpaceX rocket company has sued the California Coastal Commission, alleging in federal court that the panel’s members are biased because of the billionaire owner’s conservative political views, according to papers obtained Wednesday.

The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in Los Angeles, alleges “unconstitutional overreach” by the commission after members criticized Musk’s political leanings during a meeting about whether to approve more frequent SpaceX launches off the California coastline.

“Rarely has a government agency made so clear that it was exceeding its authorized mandate to punish a company for the political views and statements of its largest shareholder and CEO,” SpaceX alleges in the 45-page lawsuit.

Driving Elon Musk out of California is not going to help California balance its budget.

The Often Overlooked Problem With Electric Vehicles

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On Wednesday, Hot Air posted an article about an often overlooked problem with electric vehicles. Lithium batteries are prone to catch fire when exposed to salt water. So if you live on the coast, you need to get very far away from any incoming hurricane. Unfortunately, the problem does not seem to be limited to exposure to salt water.

The article reports:

Lithium-ion batteries (LIB) going boom in the worst places and what to do when that happens.

On Thursday, the 26th of September, on the freeway outside of the Port of Los Angeles in San Pedro, California, one of “those accidents” happened.

A tractor-trailer carrying large lithium-ion batteries overturned and caught on fire on a highway near the Port of Los Angeles on Thursday, snarling traffic and leading to road closures and the shuttering of several terminals at the port.

The Los Angeles Fire Department said in a statement Thursday night that the fire was expected to burn for at least another 24 to 48 hours and that a roughly seven-mile stretch of California State Route 47, from the Vincent Thomas Bridge to Long Beach,would be closed in that period.

The Port of Los Angeles, the busiest port in the Western Hemisphere, said that several terminals would be closed on Friday.

The crash in the San Pedro neighborhood on Thursday morning did not result in any injuries, but fire crews were taking precautions to block hazardous materials from potentially spreading from the batteries, one of which exploded, the department said.

The article notes:

In the meanwhile, Hurricane Helene was making a beeline for the Florida Coast, and FL officials were out with warnings about EVs and saltwater not mixing. 

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis urged EV owners this week to get their vehicles to higher ground before Hurricane Helene arrived. Although the problem is rare, there have been a number of instances in recent years of electric vehicles igniting after hurricanes.

Keeping electric vehicles out of standing water is the best way to avoid the possibility of a fire.

Tesla offers similar advice about avoiding letting its vehicles become submerged if at all possible, but if that does happen the carmaker suggests towing the vehicle at least 50 feet away from structures or anything combustible until it can be inspected by a mechanic.

The article also notes that the vehicle may ignite well after you thought the danger was over. There is also the issue of what fumes may be released during the fire or the fact that a lithium fire is very difficult to put out. It really is time to re-evaluate the value of the current generation of electric vehicles.

This Was Inevitable

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On Tuesday, The U.K. Daily Mail posted an article explaining how Chipotle is dealing with the new minimum wage requirements for fast-food establishments in California. This is not surprising and should give legislators in all states a reason to pause before changing the minimum wage laws.

The article reports:

Chipotle has introduced two robots that can take over tasks normally done by its workers. 

The ‘autocado’ can peel, stone and cut an avocado for guacamole in 26 seconds. Meanwhile, a ‘digital makeline’ portions up salads and bowls based on orders on the app.

The machines are part of an automation drive that Chipotle bosses hope will cut down the number of workers needed – slashing rising labor costs. 

So, it is no surprise they are being put to use first in two of the Mexican chain’s restaurants in California, the company announced on Monday. 

Recent legislation raised the minimum wage for fast food workers to $20-an-hour in the state. 

The controversial wage hike – $4 more than the minimum wage in the state for any other job – was introduced by California Governor Gavin Newsom at chains with more than 60 locations in the US, and came into effect on April 1.

Chains including Burger King have already ramped up the roll out of digital ordering kiosks to cut the number of cashiers needed in Californian restaurants.  

It is not yet clear how the production costs of using Chipotle’s new machines compares to human labor when making Chipotle menu items. 

Also, robots don’t call in sick or require vacations or sick days.

The article concludes:

Chipotle’s sales this year beat Wall Street expectations – boosted by price hikes and a jump in loyal customers. 

But the company has come under fire for its reported varying portion sizes. 

It prompted Chipotle’s then CEO Brian Nicol – who has now moved to Starbucks – to deny that he had instructed staff to scrimp with servings as he revealed the company will be instituting changes to ensure satisfaction.

He revealed Chipotle will be retraining its staff to ensure ‘generous portions’ are consistent across its more than 3,500 stores.

Last month, Wells Fargo analyst Zachary Fadem and his team tested the theory that Chipotle has been skimping on its usually-large portions, after a series of videos posted to TikTok showed employees barely filling their burrito bowls.

The team ordered and weighed 75 bowls – all with the same ingredients –  from eight locations across New York City.

They discovered that the consistency of the burrito bowls varied widely from restaurant to restaurant. Some locations served bowls that weighed up to 33 percent more than others, the study found. 

Even without the minimum wage hikes, fast food is another victim of Bidenomics.

 

Where Does Protesting End And Law Breaking Begin?

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On Monday, Breitbart posted an article about Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) objecting to a new law proposed by the L.A. City Council to bar anti-Israel protesters from the entrances to synagogues. Why should churches or synagogues be forced to let protesters into their facilities? Just for the record, CAIR is the lawfare division of the Muslim Brotherhood.

The article reports:

The proposal is a response to a rise in antisemitism in the city associated with anti-Israel protests, especially several incidents in June in which pro-Palestinian activists targeted local synagogues, obstructing entrances in one case.

City Council members Katy Yaroslavsky and Bob Blumenfield demanded action in June, calling for more resources for safety. They are the authors of the new proposal, which would require an eight-foot “bubble zone” around synagogues and other religious institutions.

The Los Angeles Times described the proposal in August, reporting that it “would make it a misdemeanor for protesters to intentionally block the entrances of healthcare facilities, schools or religious institutions — or demonstrate within 8 feet of anyone trying to get inside. The protective 8-foot “bubble” would be required within 100 feet of a facility’s entrance.” It would apply to mosques as well as to synagogues.

CAIR has objected to the proposal, alleging that it intentionally targets pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel activists

If we have bubble zones around abortion clinics, why can’t we have them around religious institutions to protect the people going there?

The article concludes with some additional information on CAIR:

CAIR’s national executive director, Nihad Awad, said that he was happy at the terror attack of October 7, 2023.

In addition, as Breitbart News has noted in the past:

In 2007-8, CAIR was named an unindicted co-conspirator in the terror financing trial of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development. That case, in turn, led the FBI to discontinue its work with the organization. In 2009, a federal judge ruled that the government “produced ample evidence to establish” the ties of CAIR with Hamas, the Palestinian terror organization. The United Arab Emirates labeled CAIR a terrorist organization in 2014 (a decision that the Obama administration opposed).

CAIR’s Los Angeles chapter also offered to help the family of two Islamic terrorists in nearby San Bernardino in 2015.

These are not people who care about America or the American Constitution.