With elections on the horizon I’m often asked who I’m voting for, Trump or Biden? My answer is that I can’t stomach either candidate. I don’t think I’m unique. Biden may or may not be cognitively challenged, but what he definitely is, is a Progressive. You will recall that in his inaugural speech he said […]
Public trust in government is at a 50-year low. According to an ambitious Harvard Business School study, the problem in our contentious duopoly is the lack of competition and resulting lack of accountability. Santa Barbara is the poster child for what this study raged against — a system that no longer focuses on the public […]
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Bravery takes on many forms, some literal and some a bit more theoretical. But nuance aside, there is bravery in challenging the status quo, the “machine.” And believe you me, our local Democratic Central Committee (DCC) is a machine. Allow me to explain: Local party endorsements spring from the DCC, yet, because Santa Barbara is […]
The showdown for Santa Barbara City Council’s District 4 seat has been an unexpected, no-holds-barred battle between challenger Barrett Reed and incumbent Kristen Sneddon, who, in the face of Reed’s intense criticism, has chosen to focus on her own strong record as a councilmember, and turning up the heat on her current councilmates. Sneddon, a […]
There are several bills pending in the California legislature, including Senate Bill 556 and Assembly Bill 537, that will severely limit our right to determine where new wireless antennas for 5G service will be placed in Santa Barbara County. Corporate-funded American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and Verizon wrote these wireless broadband bills. ALEC rewrites state […]
“Go West, young man, and grow up with the country,” a newspaper editor proclaimed as the United States expanded westward in the 19th century. That advice could be amended now to “South and West,” according to the latest findings of the U.S. Census Bureau, which in April issued its pandemic-delayed count of the nation’s population […]
Yeah! Sounds like a great way to celebrate California achieving the status two weeks ago of the state with the lowest background infection rate of all 50 (still true as of this writing). How about a party to celebrate how much fun it is to meet friends and neighbors on Coast Village Road and State […]
There’s a lot that has me optimistic these days: the declining case rates of COVID, millions of people getting vaccinated, kids safely returning to the classroom and a return to competency from the White House. One of many positive developments that will have massive ramifications is the inclusion of the child benefit in the COVID […]
The election is over, and Joe Biden won. Now is the time for all 150 million voters to get behind our new president and reach out the hand of friendship and hope. Gwyn Lurie, CEO and Executive Editor of the Montecito Journal Media Group, has called for a bipartisan post-election response, asking us to do […]
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Winston Churchill famously said, “…democracy is the worst form of Government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time…” I write this as Joe Biden has been declared “president-elect” in the news and while Donald Trump still sends out repeated appeals for money. Record numbers voted for each side. […]
The 2020 political season is over. Mostly. But like California’s fire season, once reserved to only certain months of the year, election cycles now seem to be with us 24/7-52-365. I guess there’s no rest for the weary. So let me be the first to welcome you to the early days of the next important […]
My wife was born in France, came to the U.S. in the early 1960s with her family, and remained strictly a French citizen with a green card until the mid-1980s, when U.S. law requiring that U.S. citizens have only one loyalty was altered to allow for dual citizenship. She is now a proud nationalized U.S. […]
The year 1968 was an eventful one: On April 3 of that year, the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., was gunned down at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee; two months later (June 8), Bobby Kennedy was shot and killed at the Roosevelt Hotel in Los Angeles, just hours after having won the California Democratic […]
It’s no secret that Democrats nationwide (and particularly those congregating along both coasts) rail against the Constitution’s Electoral College, which mandates that each state be awarded an equivalent number of votes in a presidential election as the number of senators and representatives it has. For example, California has 55 electoral college votes in this election […]
