Increasing California’s In-State Crude Oil Production is Critical

California has created a local oil and fuel supply crisis that is causing negative socio-economic impacts throughout the western United States and serious national security implications for the entire country. In this column, we present a suggested Executive Order for the President and Secretary of Energy, Chris Wright, designed to address this crisis by substantially increasing California in-state crude oil production and preserving essential infrastructure, thereby stabilizing consumer prices and ensuring U.S. force readiness and national security.

California’s Oil Paradox

This state has been a leading producer of crude oil and refined fuels for over 150 years and is ranked sixth in terms of proven reserves of oil. If offshore areas are included, California has more potentially recoverable oil than any other state, including Texas and Alaska. California was the top crude oil producer in the world during the 1920s, supplying over 29% of the world’s oil needs and nearly 40% of U.S. production. Over the past 50 years, California’s political pressures and regulatory costs have mounted, and crude oil production in the Golden State began a long, torturous decline that has accelerated dramatically in the last seven years.

Since January 2019, new drilling permits in California have dropped by over 90%, in-state crude oil production has plummeted by 44%, and crude oil imports from petro-nations such as Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Brazil, and Ecuador now make up over 60% of California refinery oil sources. Even though, as we will show, California is awash in oil underground, it is now more dependent on foreign oil than any other state.

The decline in in-state production and replacement by imports has been by design. Obstructionist laws and procedures have recently been implemented by both state and some local governments, making it nearly impossible to produce oil in California today. This “War on Oil” has all but destroyed small, independent California oil producers, has hurt thousands of workers who make their living in the California oil industry, and dramatically reduced state tax and royalty revenue.

The precipitous drop in domestic production has also caused a halt to crude oil flows in the San Pablo Bay crude oil pipeline system, which historically transported over 200,000 BOPD of Central and Southern California production to San Francisco Bay Area refineries. Today, the remaining Bay Area refineries are completely dependent upon maritime tanker imports, and all in-state production goes south to Bakersfield and Los Angeles refineries.

Foreign Crude Suppliers versus In-State Producers

The shutdown of 20% of California refining capacity in 2025-2026 has increased California’s overall gasoline, jet fuel, and other refined product imports from a historical 3-7% to nearly 25%. The recent Iran conflict added fuel to the fire by exposing the issues associated with California’s overreliance on imports. Gasoline and jet fuel prices in California have risen far more than in the rest of the nation. California “exports” over $80 million a day to foreign suppliers of crude and refined products.

These foreign crude suppliers have it easy compared to in-state producers. They are not required to comply with or maintain operations consistent with California’s “environmental leadership” standards for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, pollution, health and safety, and labor employment practices. For example, Iraq – California’s largest supplier of crude – is one of the world’s worst gas flaring offenders.

Many of Iraq’s flares are substandard and have released massive amounts of benzene, a known human carcinogen, into the air of nearby villages in a region known as “The Cemetery.” This has caused widespread, terminal cases of leukemia, especially in children. Iraq’s wetlands have also been severely damaged as companies use massive quantities of freshwater to boost reservoir pressure.

Ecuador, which exports the majority of its Amazon crude oil to California, has clear cut, polluted, and critically damaged, millions of acres of the biodiverse Amazon Rainforest, and has violently and forcibly displaced native tribes from their ancestral lands to make way for largely unregulated oil production.

These operations are increasingly dominated by Chinese state-owned oil companies including CNPC and Sinopec. Ecuador’s Armed Forces violently evicted the A’i Cofán people from their territory to make way for drilling and production which ultimately supplies California. Shortly thereafter, Eduardo Mendúa, the indigenous leader who organized the resistance, was shot 12 times and killed outside his home.

Moreover, pollution and emissions associated with shipping the crude oil 6,000 to 8,000 miles, and gasoline (sometimes more than 12,000 miles) is not incorporated in California pollution and emissions accounting.

Finally, stringent environmental rules implemented in the 2010s have dramatically decreased emissions from producing wells and associated facilities in California. Today, natural seep emissions dwarf production operations emissions by a factor of 100.

Ironically, oil production is the solution to reduce these seep emissions by reducing reservoir pressure and leakage.

National Security Concerns

California is essential to the national and economic security of the United States and the defense of the Indo-Pacific region. Major military installations located in California include the Pacific Fleet based in San Diego, United States Marines stationed at Camp Pendleton, Naval Base Ventura County, Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake, United States Coast Guard stations located inland and along the state’s 840-mile coastline, and United States Air Force bases, including Beale, Edwards and Travis as well as the Vandenberg Space Force Base.

California’s military installations sit as the vanguard of U.S. forces directly facing potential nuclear adversaries such as North Korea, Russia, and the People’s Republic of China (PRC), and transnational terrorist organizations in the Philippines, Malaysia, Iran, and the Middle East.

Military installations in California need stable sources of fuel, which means it must be domestically produced and refined, not imported. Forward U.S. bases cannot rely on fuel shipments or crude oil from the Middle East or on refineries in Asia to prosecute and sustain military operations. However, California has communicated its desire to rely on imports and phase out its domestic production, soon creating a direct and unequivocal national security threat to the U.S.

The President began to address this potential problem when, on January 20, 2025, he issued Executive Order 14156 (Declaring a National Energy Emergency), under the National Emergencies Act, and pursuant to the powers endowed upon the President by the Defense Production Act (DPA) of 1950. Subsequently, on March 13, 2026, the President issued directives under the DPA to Department of Energy Secretary Christopher Wright, instructing Sable Offshore Corporation to begin production of crude oil located in federal waters off the California shoreline in Santa Barbara County.

Recent Federal Actions

Presidential authority to address matters of national security is created through the interaction of legislation and presidential directives, including Executive Orders. Specifically:

Defense Production Act

Codified as P.L. 81-774, 50 U.S.C. §§4501, as amended, the Defense Production Act (DPA) of 1950 provides the President of the United States with broad authorities and powers in matters related to domestic industry and national security. The DPA provides the President with three important powers: 1) the power to direct and expand production and supplies, 2) the power to prioritize and allocate resources to ensure and enhance national defense, and 3) the power to direct, create, and enter into contracts and agreements with private industry.

Executive Order 14156

This order found that America’s inadequate energy production, transportation, refining, and generation capacity constitute an unusual and extraordinary threat to the nation’s economy, national security, and foreign policy. It emphasized that our nation’s current inadequate and intermittent energy supply leaves us vulnerable to hostile foreign actors and poses an imminent and growing threat to the United States’ prosperity and national security. The President declared in the Order that purchases, purchase commitments, financial support for the development of production capabilities, or other action pursuant to Section 303 of the Act are the most cost-effective, expedient, and practical alternative methods for meeting this need to increase domestic petroleum production, refining, and logistics capacity, including exploration and production, gathering and transmission pipelines, storage, and marine terminals, are industrial resources, materials, or critical technology items essential to the national defense.

Executive Order 14260

Titled Protecting American Energy from State Overreach, this executive order instructs the U.S. Attorney General to identify and legally challenge state and local environmental laws that burden domestic energy production. The order asserts that regional restrictions on fossil fuel development conflict with federal authority and violate the Commerce Clause of the Constitution. By targeting restrictive local permitting frameworks and state emissions caps, this action establishes the federal policy framework required to pre-empt state interference in national energy supply chains.

Expanded Actions

Subsequent to Executive Orders 14156 and 14260, the federal government, at the direction of the President, has taken a series of essential steps to expand domestic and California petroleum production under the DPA. These actions were necessary for national security and collectively signal a significant shift toward energy independence and federal intervention in oil and gas operations, particularly in states with restrictive permitting regimes such as California. Key developments include:

March 3, 2026, Department of Justice Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) opinion confirming that the President, and by delegation, the Secretary of Energy, may lawfully order domestic oil and gas companies to produce products under the DPA.

March 13, 2026, Presidential Executive Order 14391 delegating DPA authority to the Secretary of Energy; a Department of Energy (DOE) Executive Order directing Sable Offshore, Inc. to commence production at the Santa Ynez Unit despite the absence of state approvals and an active state court injunction.

April 20, 2026, Presidential Memorandum to Executive Order 14156 establishing federal policy support for expanded domestic petroleum production, refining, and logistics capacity.

•••

Tomorrow’s (Saturday) follow-up column will focus on total energy production in places such as Beverly Hills, Ventura, offshore Santa Barbara, downtown Los Angeles, elsewhere in the state and why it’s so important to Drill, Baby, Drill once again in order to save the Golden State.

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Elections Matter and This Was No Exception

The votes have been counted. At least some of the votes have been counted. Enough so that there appears to be two front-runners for governor: Republican Steve Hilton and Democrat Xavier Becerra. I won’t use vote tabulation because we’re at least three weeks from the final tally, this being the Democrat-run state of California, and counting votes is not something they’re very good at.

One would have thought that a month would be enough time for everyone and anyone who wanted to vote to do so. But no, there is apparently a large group of stupid people who have a tough time figuring out exactly how to vote and what to do with their many ballots when they get them.

But, as things stand right now, former FOX Cable TV host Hilton is atop.

And that’s a very good – and surprising – thing.

Equally exciting is Spencer Pratt’s position as the likely second-place candidate for the Los Angeles mayoralty. Pratt is the former Reality TV star of “The Hills,” in which he played – for want of a better term – “the bad guy” on the show. After his and his parents’ house burned down in the Pacific Palisades fire, he took on the real dimensions of his Reality TV “troublemaker” persona and launched a campaign to run for mayor of Los Angeles, challenging the hopelessly incompetent (DEI pick?) mayor, Karen Bass.

Pratt’s campaign utilized the work of several independent AI content creators to great effect, and he’s put himself in position to possibly get himself elected mayor come November 3rd.

We wish him the best and certainly hope he wins.

A Man With a Plan

Back to Mr. Hilton, who also has a chance to become governor of California, and what a prize that would be.

On that note, I had a brief telephone conversation with candidate Hilton before the election.

Here’s what I garnered from our exchange:

Steve Hilton has been committed to the goal of becoming governor of California for at least the past two years and has thought about it for much longer.

He is serious.

He has a plan.

You should know that:

1) He grew up in England (his family fled Hungary in 1956; Steve was born in London)

2) He served as Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron’s Director of Strategy (2010-2012) and had been immersed in British political affairs.

3) His distinct clipped public school upper-class accent sets him apart from most other would-be politicians.

4) His neatly trimmed beard (goatee) and bald dome force you to seriously consider what he has to say.

In other words, candidate Steve Hilton is not your typical American glad-handing politico.

But California has his full attention. When asked how he felt about Nigel Farage’s recent success in British sub-elections, for example, he asked “Why? What happened?” It was all over the news, but Hilton had only one thing on his mind: California.

I suggested that Farage would likely be named Prime Minister

“within the next two or three years,” which I thought he’d be interested in contemplating.

“How’s that gonna happen?” he asked.

“I don’t know,” but it seems like pretty exciting news,” I said.

“I’m not following it,” Hilton replied.

He also had nothing to say about New York City Mayor Mamdani’s pied-a-terre tax in New York City.

“I’m focused on California,” he says, noting that “We’ve reached a breaking point in California. You see that in L.A., you see it across the state. We can’t go on like this. Sixteen years of one-party rule, total disaster, complete failure on every front.

“America was built on checks and balances, and we don’t have that anymore in California because Democrats control everything and have for so long… This totally failed blue state governance model,” he stresses, “needs to be rejected. Comprehensively.”

Just Some of Steve Hilton’s Proposed Policies

Hilton’s tax plan features no state income tax on one’s first $100,000. After that, a flat 7 ½% tax. He also would do away with the small business tax of $800 annual registration.

Here’s more:

He’d add California to the states that honor the “No tax on tips” policy the federal government has put in place.

Would implement a flat $71 vehicle registration charge.

There’s be no income or property tax on retirement income for veterans.

“The main thing we have to battle in California,” he says, “is a sense of apathy and hopelessness, that there’s nothing that can be done, that we just have to either put up with this or leave.

“And I think that’s simply not true,” he concludes. “There’s a majority of Californians who want change and we’re going to lead that majority to victory.”

He was very much behind Spencer Pratt’s campaign for mayor in Los Angeles. He was also much appreciative for President Trump’s full endorsement.

I brought up the idea of challenging the legality of the collusion of public sector unions with the Democrat Party a la former Governor Scott Walker’s success (now president of Young America’s Foundation) in Wisconsin. He agreed, “there is a strong argument that has been made that government unions themselves are unconstitutional, but” he says, “that’s a federal argument that needs to be taken to the Supreme Court.”

Hilton is under no illusion that things will go easily, should he become California’s governor.

“Obviously, everything that we do is going to be challenged by the interests that we’re taking on,” he says.

I don’t know if Steve Hilton will break through and win the election. We’ll know that after November 3, but I do know that he is more than capable and prepared to govern should such an event occur.

•••

In his book, “Califailure, Reversing the Ruin of America’s Worst Run State,” Hilton details many of his proposals. “If you look at the policies section on my campaign website,” he says, “there are all sorts of sources of information where you can see the planning that I’m already doing.” To learn more – much more – you should visit that website: stevehiltonforgovernor.com

•••

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I had written in a previous column when, at eighteen, I had driven across the country in a VW bug with no heater in the middle of winter.

My wife and I recently completed a near full cross-country journey from Solvang to Paducah, Kentucky. This time in a full-size pickup with heater and AC. Camping in our RV trailer. You may ask why? I did too. My wife is an avid and excellent quilter and Paducah holds an annual massive quilt event.

I swore I would never drive a long trip like that again, but she wanted to give it a go. Nearly three weeks of road-tripping for a two-day visit seemed a lot. Am I complaining? Well kind of. It’s one thing when you’re 18, quite another when in your 70s.

And rather than fight the cold of winter this time, we had to dodge tornadoes. I’ll take my chances with an earthquake any day.

Always looking for the positive, I put together a montage of our encounters along the way. I call it “tidbits” because for the most part they were brief, but it opened windows to people across this great and vast land. And I’m only touching on a few of them.

KOA Comfort

When we pulled into our KOA campground in Albuquerque, we were exhausted. There was no place to eat within walking distance. I didn’t want to unhook the truck for our one-night stay. The campground suggested an Italian restaurant would deliver to our site. I called and the young man that answered was super kind and helpful. He said our meal would be delivered in sixty minutes. He arrived on the dot. He was very pleasant and cheerful. We talked for a bit, and I tipped him $25. You would have thought it was a thousand dollars. He kept thanking us and said it made his day.

Their food made our day, it was fantastic.

The 4-½ Pound Burger

Our next stop was in Amarillo, Texas. The campground shuttled us to their restaurant down the street. The Big Texan Steak House. Holy cow, and I mean cow. This place was the Disneyland of restaurants. The décor was right out of an old Western saloon but massive. And the steaks were enormous. If you could eat their 72-ounce steak in under one hour it was free. I took a photo of that thing.

It wasn’t normal.

Our waitress was a bit aloof, but I never let something like that go. I engaged her every time and asked where she was from. Before long she softened. She was from Las Vegas. Her parents moved to Texas, and she loved where she ended up.

I made a commitment to myself a few years ago to engage everyone I met. To leave a good impression, even if it was just a smile.

We departed as friends.

Thunderstorm Central

One of our first experiences with spring weather in the Midwest was at a campground outside Tulsa, Oklahoma. Upon checking in I was told to keep my ears open for security in case we had to get to the shelter. Shelter! She said they were expecting “some” weather. I sat outside before it got dark and things looked okay to me. Holy poop stain! It wasn’t an hour later the sky unleased rain like I’ve never seen. The wind blew so hard trees were laying sideways, and the trailer was rocking back and forth. Then the thunder and lightning arrived with a vengeance. I couldn’t sleep. I kept looking out the window waiting for security to make the call. There was enough rain that night alone to take care of California for five years. If California had a place to store it. Next morning, blue skies. Like nothing ever happened.

On Stage in Branson

Our next stop was Branson, Missouri where we slowed down for a couple days. I equate Branson to kind of like a mellow Midwest Las Vegas without the casinos. We attended a couple shows. One was a country comedy variety show. During intermission the actors made themselves available at the front of the stage. I engaged in conversation, as I always do. You can be in Montana, Florida or Missouri, the country is bursting with amazing people. During the second act I was called on stage to be roasted. The lead man told the audience we had driven out from California, and I must have lost a bet or something. When asked where I came from the second comedian looked at me and said he knew the place. As we were leaving the theater the comedian called out my name. He was from southern California and knew Solvang well. He and his wife used to always visit. We had an enjoyable conversation and departed as new friends.

Pulling Into Paducah

At our destination, Paducah, Kentucky, there was a BBQ guy set up next to our camp site. First night I went over and sat on the bench with him. For the next three days we grew to know each other. He was a well-known local BBQ chef and was good! I ate three nights in a row; pulled pork, ribs, brisket. His wife would join him and along with my wife, as well as other campers, would sit with them for hours.

I’m going to miss Mark and Nora.

A Hundred Miles From Nowhere

The most fearful and yet most wonderful experience occurred on one of the most desolate roads I’ve ever driven in America; highway 57 from Dodge City, Kansas to Santa Fe, New Mexico. I’ll admit I was stressed out every day filled with “What ifs?” Well, the What if happened. Somewhere on Mars, the trailer had a blowout. As far as you could see there was absolutely nothing. No buildings, no trees, no shrubs. Just dry dirt. The tire iron from my truck didn’t fit the trailer lugs. I was stranded. The few cars that drove by just kept on going. Then a pickup truck swung back around. Two gruff looking men, dressed in well-worn dirty overalls approached us. I went on high alert.

“Do you need any help?” They asked.

“All I can get.”

After assessing my predicament, they said they’ll be right back. And true to their word, some twenty minutes later they returned with a hydraulic jack and impact wrench. Five minutes later the spare was on. I pulled out cash; they said no. Pass it along.

If I never believed in angels before, Ben and Charles, father and son cattle ranchers, were truly angels. If it had not been for them, we could still be there. I’ve never felt more blessed and that lucky in my life.

Ben and Charles affirmed my belief that America is a great land with great people.

Moral of the Story

Love your country. It’s wonderful place to be a part of and is filled with wonderful people. I have sympathy for the marchers and America haters who need to remind themselves of just how good they have it. How good we all have it.

There’s so much to be thankful for and a lot of good people to be thankful with.

•••

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SB County Primary Election Results:

(click here)

What does it mean for the prospect of common-sense governance? Jim Buckley’s Purely Political Results coming soon…

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Debates among candidates for political office, like the ones among the top eight of 61 candidates on the ballot for the governorship of California, provide an opportunity for candidates to orally express why we should vote for them.

There is an old lawyer joke that “oral promises are not worth the paper they are printed on.”

While oral promises are a necessary part of every campaign, have you ever wondered how much better our lives would be if those previously elected had actually delivered on their oral campaign promises?

In order to be a conscience voter, I have developed a simple method for categorizing campaign messages:

Those not yet in office must include some indication from their past as to why they may be able to deliver on the promises.

Incumbents – besides promises for future performances – must include how they have performed on their previous campaign promises.

Candidates running for an office that they have never held, such as Xavier Becerra running for governor, should include their experiences in other public positions.

However, Xavier Becerra’s campaign debate theme of “Stop Trump” is meaningless except as a method of detracting voters from considering his record, which includes:

U.S. House of Representatives: Elected to Congress in 1992, where he served for 12 terms where he helped craft and pass the Affordable Care Act that, if it was really “affordable,” there would not still be all the efforts to fix its failures to provide “care.”

California Attorney General: Becerra was appointed by then-Governor Jerry Brown in 2017, he was known for frequently challenging the Trump administration’s efforts to control immigration and its associated costs, manage the costs of environmental regulations, and manage the cost of healthcare.

Hmm, do those issues still dominating California campaigns much more than they are in other states indicate a failure of his efforts as California AG?

Biden Administration: Becerra served in President Joe Biden‘s cabinet as the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

Becerra’s Core Responsibilities & Services as Secretary of HHS:

Healthcare Coverage: Manages public health insurance programs, including Medicare for seniors and Medicaid for low-income individuals.

The Medicaid fraud that occurred during his tenure is just beginning to be uncovered in Minnesota, Maine, and in Los Angeles where 800 hospices were being unjustly compensated for not performing any services or, for that matter, even having a facility.

Where were the audits under Becerra’s term?

Public Health & Safety: Becerra was responsible for overseeing the Federal Drug administration (FDA) to ensure the safety of food, drugs, and medical devices, and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) to prevent and control infectious diseases.

Was the reason that neither the FDA nor the CDC approved the use of medications like Ivermectin and Hydroxychloroquine for COVID – despite their being successfully used by various physicians in Florida – because they were championed by the Republican Governor Ron DeSantis?

Medical Research: Funds groundbreaking biomedical and public health research primarily through the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Becerra did not investigate the involvement of the Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), Dr. Anthony Fauci, trying to hide his role in funding the Wuhan Lab that created COVID and his receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars from companies he was responsible for regulating..

Mental Health & Substance Use: The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. (SAMHSA) is a federal agency within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). SAMHSA leads public health efforts to advance the nation’s behavioral health, reducing the impact of substance abuse, and mental disorders, by providing multi-million dollar block grants to state/local governments, nonprofits and tribes.

Unfortunately the DOGE group uncovered the lack of controlling how the grants were spent.

Conclusion

Whenever a candidate, such as Becerra, fails to campaign on his record in public office the reason is never that it was a successful record.

Why vote for a proven non-performer?

Give another candidate the opportunity to deliver.

The same advice could be given, of course, to voters deciding whether to vote for challenger Spencer Pratt or incumbent Karen Bass in the Los Angeles Mayor’s race.

•••

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TODAY! TUESDAY, JUNE 2, 2026

SBCurrent’s Primary Endorsements Here.

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Public employees are hired with a fundamental promise to the taxpayer: to execute specific, defined, duties that serve a broader community mission. Santa Barbara County Superintendent of Schools Susan Salcido has publicly stated that she welcomes input as an opportunity to improve.

The reality, operating behind closed doors under her administration, however, tells a starkly different story.

Public employees must be able to do the job they were hired and described to do; if they are systematically prevented from executing those responsibilities, the mission of the organization fundamentally fails. At the Santa Barbara County Education Office (SBCEO), a broken operational model has emerged under Superintendent Salcido’s leadership that perfectly illustrates this failure, one where taxpayers are effectively being double-billed because the administration refuses to manage its own workforce.

This crisis begins at the top. When executive leadership lacks the capability, technical literacy, or willingness to effectively empower their own teams, they frequently turn to outsourcing as a crutch. Under Salcido’s administration, Associate Superintendent Steve Torres and IT Manager Sheryl Pognant have built a system that actively sidelines highly qualified internal specialists.

Rather than cultivating internal expertise, this leadership team quietly hands over critical infrastructure functions to a private contractor. Internal staff were explicitly hired with job descriptions that require them to manage and secure the organization’s network, yet they are often locked out of the very systems they were employed to protect.

The financial waste of this practice is staggering. The agency pays its internal salaried staff to perform specialized work, but simultaneously pays an external vendor up to $225 per hour to actually do it. That external vendor is paid a massive premium to execute the exact same responsibilities explicitly written into the internal staff’s job descriptions, such as basic firewall administration and network configuration. Taxpayers are footing the bill twice: once for the sidelined public employee who is left severely underutilized, and again for the high-priced private consultant.

This reflects a deeper, systemic stagnation that plagues the broader government sector: the widening gap between what an agency needs to function and what its leadership is capable of understanding. Under Salcido’s administration, job descriptions for top administrative roles remain woefully out of date, referencing obsolete programming languages rather than modern operational necessities. When an organization’s listed duties no longer align with modern realities, and when leadership’s capabilities no longer meet their duty requirements, the entire agency stagnates.

Outsourcing Staff Duties is Breach of Public Trust

And instead of aligning the job to the description or updating the organization’s capabilities, this administration has chosen to protect a broken system. When inquiries are made and public records requests are filed to follow the money, the agency hides the receipts. Under the administration’s direction, Ms. Pognant, Mr. Torres, and their legal counsel use heavy redactions to obscure basic spending details, equipment models, and vendor involvement. They rely on vague excuses to justify their secrecy, using public records laws as a shield to sweep mismanagement under the rug rather than opening their books to the community.

We must look at this from a broader perspective. This level of opaqueness and inefficiency under Superintendent Salcido is not just an IT problem; it is a profound breach of public trust. When the public assumes their tax dollars are funding capable public servants carrying out their defined roles, only to discover those duties are being outsourced at premium rates due to internal leadership failures, skepticism about government takes root.

Today, technology is too critically important to be mismanaged in the dark. Public service is a responsibility. When an administration prioritizes protecting a broken status quo over capable, transparent governance, it fails the community it was built to serve.

Core Concern: Efficiency and Effectiveness

As I reviewed CompuVision’s billing patterns over the years, I noticed a recurring theme: purchases that approached, but rarely exceeded, competitive bid thresholds. While staying under bid limits is legally compliant, it raises questions about whether we’re achieving the best value for taxpayer dollars.

The concern isn’t that CompuVision’s services are, in total, unnecessary, but rather that we’re not exploring whether the same outcomes could be achieved more cost-effectively. When invoices

consistently land just under procurement thresholds, it suggests a concerted effort to work projects based on the upper limit vs. based on the need.

More troubling is the overlap between expensive external labor and the job descriptions of internal staff. When we pay $175-$250 per hour for vendor technicians while our own certified staff, already on payroll at $40-$55 per hour, are prevented from performing the same work, we’re essentially paying twice for the same service. This isn’t just inefficient; it’s demoralizing to professional staff who watch vendors perform the duties they were hired and trained to do.

•••

Victor McConnell is a former SBCEO Computer/Network Technician who advocates for infrastructure modernization, strict taxpayer accountability, and equitable resources in public education.

•••

SBCurrent’s Primary Endorsements Here.

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1 DAY

NOTE FROM BOB SMITH

If you have not voted yet, we need you now.

* Avoid Mail Delays * Please do not use regular mail at this point.

Instead:

• Drop your ballot in an official white ballot box

• Take it directly to your county elections office

• Vote in person at an authorized voting location

Every ballot matters in a low-turnout primary, and we are close enough to beat Democrat turnout if Republicans finish strong over these final days.

Please also contact friends or family members you know who have not voted yet. We need all hands on deck. Thank you!

PROUDLY RUNNNING FOR

CALIFORNIA’S 24th CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT

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In my 35 years of serving as a county government watchdog, I have seen the Gaviota coast and prime ag lands throughout the county preserved at all cost by county supervisors, even when it didn’t make sense. The California Coastal Act and the Williamson Act (which serves to preserve the viability of prime ag lands) both technically permit development benefiting coastal dependent industry and agriculture. However, the county has denied common sense projects in both these areas because they consider the same sacrosanct due to their no growth agenda outside of existing urban areas.

However, we could surely see both the Gaviota coast and prime lands sacrificed to the gods of green energy by local high priests masquerading as County supervisors. I have teamed up with former county planning commissioner Roy Reed to share the details of the most current horrible example of a solution in search of a problem.

As Californians find themselves inundated in layer upon layer of green energy initiatives, the state finds itself awash in an embarrassment of riches – simply put, during daylight hours when untold acres of solar electricity generation hits peak production the state must pay its neighbors to absorb that excess power only to find itself caught short during evening hours when demand peaks. Without safe and accessible means of storing generated solar electricity there is no way to match peak output with peak demand.

Meeting peak evening electricity demand often requires supplementation by fossil-fuel-fired “peaker plants” to generate adequate power. In a more sensible state there would be adequate capacity for pumped hydroelectric power, such as in PG&E’s Big Creek or Los Angeles DWP’s Castaic Power Plant where water, pumps, and gravity are used to store energy without pollution.

Unfortunately California hasn’t built any new pumped hydro facilities in decades leaving the state with but one power storage option – battery farms, along with all their potential hazards and concerns. Add to that excess power storage puzzle, the distribution question: can solar facilities be built conveniently close to the power distribution grid, or do they require miles of expensive transmission lines? That is the perplexing situation much of the state now faces.

A Utility Grade Solar Ordinance

Santa Barbara County, undaunted by those facts and under the direction of its green-leaning Supervisors Laura Capps, Joan Hartmann, and their obedient minion, Roy Lee, has, nonetheless, leapt into the fray, and has directed Planning and Development to craft a Utility Grade Solar Ordinance for the County, which will expand a previous ordinance that limited utility grade solar to a 600-acre footprint in the Cuyama Valley. The new ordinance has just emerged from two Planning Commission hearings with a potential footprint of 16,000 acres doled out at 100 acres per project limited to one 100-acre plot per parcel of 1,000 acres or more, along with permission to build associated battery storage. If fully built out, those 160 projects could potentially produce double the County’s current electricity consumption.

On its face, the plan appears workable, but the questions regarding distribution on the power grid remain, compounded by the fact that Santa Barbara County sits at the nexus of the state’s two power providers: Southern California Edison in the south county, and PG&E in the north. Which brings us to the next question: how does the County get to its 16,000-acre goal when the southern half, linked to SCE, has little open land suitable for solar other than the Gaviota Coast?

So, is this turning out to be another south-county initiative for which the north county will bear the brunt? Will the disproportionate share of proposed solar be borne by the north county on prime ag lands, those with the best soil and water availability?

Despite assurances to the contrary, solar farms are rarely built on hillsides because of the limited sun exposure. Moreover, prime ag lands are closest to power substations, thereby reducing the cost of the projects, meaning the decision makers had better not overlook the very real fact that there are few power substations located near ag lands that are not immediately adjacent to urban areas.

Moreover, as we saw in Monterey County, battery energy storage system fires can create a toxic plume, endangering communities and contaminating ag lands. Furthermore, consider the required cost of $500,000 to potentially $5,000,000 per mile of transmission lines that would be required to move the power from a remote area to an existing substation. This would unquestionably tax the viability of any such project.

Virtue Signaling at its Finest

In the end, this initiative produces far more questions than answers. While the BOS seems hellbent on eliminating gas and oil production (nearly one acre of solar panels are required to produce the same energy as one barrel of oil), it has embarked on a path that will undoubtedly result in the loss of many thousands of acres of productive agricultural lands in pursuit of a goal which may never be realized. And for what? Completely, totally, and redundantly excessive solar capacity? When our state is drowning in the same?

Please do recall that solar only produces four hours per day and battery energy storage systems can only save what has been produced. We’re going to sacrifice 16,000 acres of land for four hours of energy? And what about the fact that our region is subject to catastrophic wildfires that would render the solar panels and the requisite battery energy storage system toxic waste?

Mark this down as just another dumb idea in green virtue signaling.

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2 DAYS

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A NOTE FROM BOB SMITH

Friends,

Republicans are essentially tied with Democrat turnout on the Central Coast right now. That means this primary can absolutely be won if Republicans who still have ballots at home turn them in immediately.

If you have not voted yet, we need you now.

* Avoid Mail Delays * Please do not use regular mail at this point.

Instead:

• Drop your ballot in an official white ballot box

• Take it directly to your county elections office

• Vote in person at an authorized voting location

Every ballot matters in a low-turnout primary, and we are close enough to beat Democrat turnout if Republicans finish strong over these final days.

Please also contact friends or family members you know who have not voted yet. We need all hands on deck. Thank you!

PROUDLY RUNNNING FOR
CALIFORNIA’S 24th CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT

Read more

The Masks Are Off

My name is Alex Jones, and yes, I’m the guy behind the “Clowns and Cake Eaters” political ads shaking up Santa Barbara County politics.

And before the usual crowd of consultants, insiders, and pearl-clutching political elites, begin another week-long meltdown, I want to take this opportunity to apologize.

To absolutely no one.

Because the truth is simple. Santa Barbara County politics has become a circus. The same connected insiders. The same activist politicians. The same people lecturing working families while living lives completely disconnected from them.

So, I made ads that reflected reality.

Apparently calling politicians clowns is now more offensive than politicians voting to give themselves raises during economic uncertainty. Apparently, satire is dangerous, but political arrogance is perfectly acceptable.

Interesting standard.

But before the establishment media rushes to paint me as some outsider or internet troll, let me introduce myself properly.

My family has deep roots in this county. My great-great-grandfather, William Walter Twist, was the first Sheriff of Santa Barbara County. Ruth Twist became the first female postmistress in Santa Barbara County. I grew up in Santa Ynez in the same home my great-grandfather C.M. Jones and grandmother Magdalena Jones lived in over a century ago, a home that has been in our family for more than 100 years. They owned the C.M. Jones Garage, now known as the Johnson Building.

This county is not just a place I moved to.

It is home.

It is family history.

It is identity.

I am not a political consultant crafted in a laboratory somewhere in Sacramento or Washington, D.C. I am a local guy who grew up around ranches, small businesses, community events, and hardworking people trying to build a good life in one of the most beautiful places in the world.

And yes, politics has always been around my family.

My mother has been a political firebrand in Santa Barbara County for years. She served on local boards and ran for county supervisor twice. Most people locally know exactly who she is.

Nationally, however, she became known for something else.

My mother became one of the most recognizable faces connected to January 6 after pleading guilty to a misdemeanor trespassing charge related to attending the Capitol protest. Whatever your politics, what I watched happen afterward changed me forever.

I watched much of the local media reduce a complicated human being into a caricature.

There was no nuance. No fairness. No humanity.

Just a narrative.

That bothered me deeply.

Because my mother is many things. She is outspoken. She is intense. She is hilarious. She is creative. She is generous. She is hardworking. She is deeply human.

That experience opened my eyes to how powerful media narratives can become when a small group of people controls the conversation. And frankly, I got tired of watching conservatives and political outsiders constantly play defense while the other side dominated culture, messaging, creativity, and media.

So, I decided to fight differently.

Not with stale press releases.

Not with consultant-written talking points. But with humor. Satire. Creativity. AI tools. Video storytelling. Internet culture. Memes. Political art.

The political class wants you to believe these ads are somehow beyond the pale because they mock power. But political cartoons, parody, and ridicule have always been part of American politics.

If a silly AI-generated circus video rattles the political machine this much, maybe the problem is not the video. Maybe the problem is that the public is finally laughing at people who are accustomed to never being questioned.

And that is exactly why I’m launching The Whipping Post.

The Whipping Post is built on a simple idea: that people should have better tools than the political consultants. Not just politicians. Not just campaigns. The people.

A place where citizens can create, share, fund, and amplify political content. A place where ideas compete in public. A place where satire, criticism, storytelling, and creativity belong to everyone instead of being controlled by a handful of insiders.

For too long, political communication has flowed in one direction: from the powerful to the public. The Whipping Post flips that around.

The people become the storytellers.

The people become the producers.

The people become the publishers.

The people become the media.

The political establishment is upset about a few AI-generated clown videos. They’re missing the bigger story. The bigger story is that the monopoly on political communication is ending. Because this county does not belong to the consultants. It does not belong to the insiders. It does not belong to the clowns. It does not belong to the cake eaters.

It belongs to the people. And the people are finally getting a microphone.

****

Alex Jones is a fourth-generation son of Santa Barbara County, technologist, producer, director, entrepreneur, political satirist, legendary local athlete, and, according to highly questionable sources, the best dancer you know.

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3 DAYS

A NOTE FROM BOB SMITH

Friends,

Republicans are essentially tied with Democrat turnout on the Central Coast right now. That means this primary can absolutely be won if Republicans who still have ballots at home turn them in immediately.

If you have not voted yet, we need you now.

* Avoid Mail Delays * Please do not use regular mail at this point.

Instead:

• Drop your ballot in an official white ballot box

• Take it directly to your county elections office

• Vote in person at an authorized voting location

Every ballot matters in a low-turnout primary, and we are close enough to beat Democrat turnout if Republicans finish strong over these final days.

Please also contact friends or family members you know who have not voted yet. We need all hands on deck. Thank you!

PROUDLY RUNNNING FOR
CALIFORNIA’S 24th CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT

Read more

For most of American history, the strength of the republic rested not on party machinery but on the character of the citizens who guided it. Parties were tools — not engines — and they functioned only when responsible men and women stepped forward to shape them. Today, many assume that platforms, strategy, and funding are handled somewhere “out there,” by distant institutions. But historically, these responsibilities belonged to the prominent citizens of each community.

This is not a partisan point. It is a civic one. A selfgoverning people cannot outsource the duties that make selfgovernment possible.

The Older Expectation: Noblesse Oblige

The principle behind this older structure is noblesse oblige — the expectation that those with education, resources, or public trust, owe a higher standard of conduct and service. The phrase entered modern usage in 1808, but the ethic is far older. It appears in Homeric leadership, in Roman civic life, and in the early American republic.

For generations, this expectation shaped American civic life. Prominent citizens wrote platforms, coordinated strategy, and provided the financial support that allowed parties to function. Ordinary voters participated by choosing among the visions presented to them — but the work of defining those visions belonged to those with the standing to do so.

This was not politics. It was civic duty.

How This Duty Was Forgotten

If noblesse oblige was once so central, why has it faded from public memory?

The answer is not moral decline.

It is structural change.

First, the institutions that once gathered prominent citizens — civic clubs, veterans’ groups, local newspapers — weakened. These institutions once reinforced shared standards of duty. As they faded, the sense of collective responsibility faded with them.

Second, the public gradually lost sight of its own expectations. Earlier generations understood that platform, strategy, and funding, were not abstract “party functions.” They were the work of real people in their own communities. As national organizations grew, many assumed that responsibility had shifted upward. They forgot that the system is people.

Third, the pace of modern life crowded out older civic habits. Nationalized communication replaced local deliberation. Entertainment replaced stewardship. The quiet virtues of responsibility and service were overshadowed.

Noblesse oblige did not fail.

It was crowded out.

Why Only the Prominent Can Carry These Duties

Certain responsibilities in civic life simply cannot be performed by the general public. They require:

• Experience to understand long-term needs

• Judgment to distinguish between what is popular and what is necessary

• Resources to sustain civic work

• Credibility to speak for the community

These qualities cannot be assigned by law. They arise from standing — the kind that comes from service, accomplishment, or long-term investment in the community.

This is why, historically, the prominent carried these duties. Not because they were entitled to them, but because they were responsible for them.

Why the Public Must Understand This

A healthy republic requires two things: prominent citizens who remember their obligations, and voters who remember to expect those obligations.

When either side forgets, civic life weakens. When both forget, the republic drifts.

Restoring noblesse oblige does not require new laws. It requires memory — shared memory.

A Closing Reflection

Santa Barbara has always depended on citizens who step forward not for attention, but for responsibility. That tradition is part of our heritage. It is worth remembering, and worth restoring.

This message is not for one side or the other. It is for all of us.

A republic endures when its prominent remember their obligations, and its public remembers its expectations. That is how civic life is steadied. That is how a nation — and a county — holds together.

•••

Joseph Graetch lives in Santa Ynez and submitted this short essay on civic responsibility, he says, “to remind readers of a civic duty that once guided communities like ours. It is not political and does not address any candidates or issues. It’s a piece about the older American expectation that influence carries responsibility, and how that expectation has faded across our culture.

“If you find it suitable for publication, I would be grateful.”

We do find it suitable for publication, and we thank Mr. Graetch for his contribution, and for the contributions of all the generous people who’ve come before and have left us the beautiful legacy that surrounds us.

•••

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Community Calendar:

4 DAYS

A NOTE FROM BOB SMITH

Friends,

Republicans are essentially tied with Democrat turnout on the Central Coast right now. That means this primary can absolutely be won if Republicans who still have ballots at home turn them in immediately.

If you have not voted yet, we need you now.

* Avoid Mail Delays * Please do not use regular mail at this point.

Instead:

• Drop your ballot in an official white ballot box

• Take it directly to your county elections office

• Vote in person at an authorized voting location

Every ballot matters in a low-turnout primary, and we are close enough to beat Democrat turnout if Republicans finish strong over these final days.

Please also contact friends or family members you know who have not voted yet. We need all hands on deck. Thank you!

PROUDLY RUNNNING FOR
CALIFORNIA’S 24th CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT

Read more

Energy Production Is Not a Side Issue

California politicians have spent years treating energy policy as a political branding exercise rather than an engineering problem. The results are obvious to anyone paying an electric bill, trying to build a business, or wondering why affordability continues collapsing across our state.

Energy affects everything.

You cannot run a modern economy on unstable, expensive energy and expect the middle class to survive.

Major tech companies continue relocating their equipment to places like Austin, Tennessee, and Florida. It’s simply bad business to stay in California and pay double the national average for energy.

This is not an attack on renewables. They absolutely have a place. But California’s current renewable strategy is increasingly driven by political ideology rather than engineering reality.

Solar makes tremendous sense in many situations, especially for distributed generation directly on homes, warehouses, schools, parking structures, and commercial buildings, where electricity can be used locally. Generating power where it is consumed reduces transmission losses and offsets daytime demand without requiring massive new infrastructure.

That is practical engineering.

But California increasingly acts as if intermittent renewable generation alone can power a modern industrial economy at scale, around the clock.

It cannot.

California’s Grid Problem

Right now, California curtails enormous amounts of renewable energy because we cannot store it at scale.

Curtailment means we are literally throwing away electricity because the grid cannot use it fast enough, and we do not have the ability to store it for later use.

California currently throws away roughly 3,400 gigawatt-hours of renewable electricity annually, enough to power about 750,000 coastal homes for an entire year.

At the same time, much of our nighttime electricity still comes from imported natural gas because long-duration storage technology does not yet exist at the scale required to power a state like California overnight.

Battery storage is not simply a matter of “building more battery facilities.” The technology required for massive state-level, multi-day energy storage at an affordable scale does not yet exist in a mature form.

That means California is simultaneously:

• dumping power we cannot store

• importing power we cannot reliably generate

• paying some of the highest electricity prices in America

That is not an intelligent energy policy.

California’s primary problem is not environmental. It is an engineering and governance problem.

Natural gas, hydroelectric, and nuclear plants, do not require massive grid-scale battery storage because electricity demand is matched directly to continuous turbine generation in real time.

In a world increasingly driven by advanced technology, energy systems, AI, cybersecurity, and computing, we need more elected leaders with genuine STEM education and practical engineering experience. Very few elected officials today have meaningful backgrounds in those fields, even as they govern some of the most technologically complex systems in human history.

What Are Small Modular Reactors?

This is where Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) enter the conversation.

SMRs are not the giant nuclear plants most people picture from the 1970s. They are dramatically smaller, safer, modular, and more advanced. Many designs can be factory-produced and transported in sections, rather than requiring massive, custom-built mega-projects.

That matters enormously in California, where land costs, permitting, environmental lawsuits, and seismic concerns make conventional infrastructure both difficult and expensive to build.

And unlike intermittent generation, SMRs provide stable baseload electricity around the clock. No sunset problem. No weather dependency. No emergency imports. No massive curtailment.

Why SMRs Make Sense for California

California’s future electric demand is increasing dramatically.

Artificial intelligence, desalination, electrification, aerospace, advanced manufacturing, and data centers, all require enormous amounts of reliable electricity.

You cannot power that future entirely with intermittent generation and political slogans.

My proposal is straightforward: use federal partnerships, including those with the Pentagon, to position the Central Coast as a national prototype for advanced SMR deployment by leveraging existing federal infrastructure and military bases such as Port Hueneme and Vandenberg Space Force Base.

Why Federal Land and Defense Partnerships?

Because the federal government already safely operates complex nuclear systems, including advanced compact nuclear reactor systems aboard submarines and aircraft carriers. It can also bypass much of California’s bureaucratic paralysis that prevents major infrastructure from ever getting built here in the first place.

In plain English: California’s current energy policies are trapping the state in a cycle of instability, rising costs, endless delays, and political theater. Federal partnerships may be one of the few realistic ways to break through that gridlock and build the future.

And the Central Coast is uniquely positioned for it.

We should be leading the future of American energy, not importing expensive power while curtailing our own generation. This approach also aligns with our universities, which are already working on advanced quantum computing that requires enormous amounts of energy and can help produce the next generation of engineers needed to design, operate, and maintain these systems.

This technology also creates high-paying skilled trade jobs in plumbing, HVAC, construction, and electrical work. We can expand vocational and trade programs here on the Central Coast to support that workforce.

Let’s Talk About Nuclear Waste

Whenever nuclear energy is discussed, people immediately picture glowing green sludge and environmental catastrophe. That is decades of Hollywood imagery and political fearmongering shaping public perception.

Modern nuclear waste is highly regulated, heavily shielded, compact, and carefully monitored. In fact, the total volume of spent nuclear fuel produced by the United States can fit on one football field.

Meanwhile, many supposedly “green” technologies require:

• enormous mining operations and rare earth extraction

• massive transmission expansion requiring enormous amounts of copper that do not exist without strip mining

• huge material consumption

• enormous land-use footprints spanning thousands of square miles

Every Energy Source Has Tradeoffs.

The difference is that nuclear waste is contained, measurable, and managed. Much of it consists of elements such as uranium and cesium that can potentially be recycled or repurposed for medical, industrial, and future fuel applications.

Lastly, nuclear energy sidesteps much of the political warfare over emissions entirely. It has zero greenhouse gas emissions during operation.

Engineering, Not Political Theater

At the end of the day, energy policy should not be ideological. It should be practical.

• Use renewables where they make sense

• Use nuclear where it makes sense

• Use engineering instead of political theater

• Stay away from politically driven offshore wind projects that risk becoming another California mega-project defined by delays, lawsuits, cost overruns, and underperformance.

California cannot solve affordability without solving energy. And the Central Coast can help lead that future if we choose engineering reality instead of political theater.

•••

Bob Smith is a retired Navy veteran and candidate for California’s 24th Congressional District

•••

5 DAYS

A NOTE FROM BOB SMITH

Friends,

Republicans are essentially tied with Democrat turnout on the Central Coast right now. That means this primary can absolutely be won if Republicans who still have ballots at home turn them in immediately.

If you have not voted yet, we need you now.

* Avoid Mail Delays * Please do not use regular mail at this point.

Instead:

• Drop your ballot in an official white ballot box

• Take it directly to your county elections office

• Vote in person at an authorized voting location

Every ballot matters in a low-turnout primary, and we are close enough to beat Democrat turnout if Republicans finish strong over these final days.

Please also contact friends or family members you know who have not voted yet. We need all hands on deck. Thank you!

PROUDLY RUNNNING FOR
CALIFORNIA’S 24th CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT

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California’s property tax system, anchored by Proposition 13, has long been considered a safeguard against runaway taxation. By capping the base property tax rate at 1% of assessed value, it created predictability for homeowners and businesses alike. Yet today, even that limit deserves reconsideration—not upward, as some have argued, but downward. Reducing the rate to three-quarters of a percent or even one-half percent would impose needed discipline on government while empowering residents and revitalizing the state’s economy.

The core issue is not merely the rate itself, but what has happened to government spending over time. California’s state and local budgets have expanded dramatically, supported in part by steady and substantial property tax revenue streams. While public investment is essential for infrastructure, education, and safety, the growth of spending has increasingly flowed into areas that lack transparency and measurable outcomes. Billions are directed to non-governmental organizations and nonprofit entities whose effectiveness is often difficult to evaluate. Taxpayers are left to wonder whether their contributions are truly improving communities or simply sustaining bureaucratic ecosystems.

Nowhere is this concern more visible than in major urban centers such as Los Angeles. Despite massive expenditures aimed at addressing homelessness, public safety, and urban blight, many neighborhoods continue to struggle with crime, vagrant encampments, and deteriorating public spaces. Residents see firsthand the disconnect between funding levels and real-world results. Parks that should be safe for families are avoided, and public confidence in government stewardship is gone.

Accelerate Reform by Lowering Property Tax Rate

Advocates of maintaining or increasing current tax levels argue that more funding is the solution. However, decades of rising expenditures suggest otherwise. Without structural incentives to prioritize efficiency, additional revenue can enable complacency rather than reform. Reducing the property tax rate would reverse this dynamic and requires a CA referendum to enact it. By limiting the resources available, it would compel state and local governments to focus on core responsibilities—public safety, infrastructure, and essential services—while reevaluating programs that fail to deliver measurable value and end them.

This approach is grounded in a simple principle: scarcity drives prioritization. When government must operate within tighter fiscal constraints, it is forced to make difficult but necessary decisions. Wasteful spending, redundant programs, and ineffective initiatives are more likely to be scrutinized and eliminated. In contrast, an ever-expanding revenue base reduces the urgency for such accountability.

Lowering property taxes would also have a direct and positive impact on California residents. Homeownership remains one of the most significant financial commitments for individuals and families. Even modest reductions in property tax rates can translate into meaningful savings, increasing disposable income and improving financial stability. For small businesses, reduced tax burdens can free up capital for hiring, expansion, and innovation—key drivers of economic growth.

Slowing the California Outmigration Movement

Moreover, California continues to face a well-documented outmigration trend, with residents and businesses relocating to states perceived as more affordable and business friendly. High overall tax burdens are frequently cited as a contributing factor. By reducing property taxes, residents will send the state a powerful signal to commit to competitiveness and economic vitality. Retaining residents and attracting new investment would ultimately strengthen the tax base in a more sustainable way than relying on higher rates applied to a shrinking population.

Critics may contend that lowering property taxes would jeopardize funding for essential services. However, this assumes that current spending levels are both necessary and efficient. Californians question this assumption. Efforts to audit and reform government spending—sometimes described as a “Department of Government Efficiency” approach—seek to identify waste, fraud, and abuse within existing budgets. Supporters of reform, like Spencer Pratt, argue that significant savings can be achieved without compromising core services, simply by improving oversight and accountability.

The broader goal is not austerity for its own sake, but smarter governance. Taxpayers deserve confidence that their money is being used effectively, not diverted into programs that prioritize advocacy over results. Reducing the property tax rate is one way to restore that confidence by aligning government incentives with public expectations and the author has a state ballot initiative drafted that will do this.

California has long been known as the Golden State—a place of opportunity, innovation, and prosperity. Reclaiming that identity requires a willingness to rethink entrenched systems and challenge assumptions about taxation and spending. A lower property tax rate would not solve every problem, but it would represent a meaningful step toward fiscal responsibility, economic renewal, and greater accountability.

•••

Author and June 2 candidate J Brett Marymee is running for District 2 Board of Equalization and values your vote. He is endorsed by Reform California and the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association. He seeks to serve on California’s top tax board to bring common-sense tax burden relief to all California residents.

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“How ChatGPT is flooding our lives” (WaPo)

One glorious aspect of ChatGPT’s existence is how the judicial system has been affected by it.

Meaning…

Should anyone, for any reason, want to sue me, kindly contact my attorney at: ChatGPTesq@tutamail.com.

While plaintiffs incur outlandish legal fees… I’ll be paying $20 a month.

“I Saw up Close the Dark Reality of OpenAI’s Race to Create God” (The Times)

Shock! Horror!

A new exposé reveals that OpenAI is secretive, aggressively competitive, fueled by vast capital, and populated by people who talk as though they’re building God.

In other words: water remains wet.

The real question is not whether Silicon Valley harbors ambition, ego, and billion-dollar power plays. That’s practically the dress code.

The only remotely interesting issue is whether OpenAI abandoned its original for humanity nonprofit halo earlier than advertised. In any case, most of us knew better then to believe they’re for humanity BS.

This lands less like Pentagon Papers than Breathless Observations from Inside the Obvious.

“Nimitz Aircraft Carrier Enters Caribbean” (NYTs)

“Castro could be captured like Maduro” (The Telegraph)

“CIA director brought paramilitary leader involved in Maduro capture to Cuba meeting” (CBS News)

These are tactics devised to bolster, with added leverage, CIA Director John Ratcliffe’s recent in-person message to Havana: As part of the Donroe Doctrine, Cuba’s role as a safe haven for adversaries of the United States must end—or face the consequences.

“Cuba tells its citizens to prepare for war as U.S. targets Castro” (LA Times)

It appears the decrepit Castro regime prefers to face the consequences.

“Ebola outbreak, as WHO upgrades risk assessment” (AP)

“Former CDC Director Warns Ebola Could be Very Significant Pandemic” (The Hill)

On the heels of COVID, might anyone explain why I should ever believe even a single word from anyone at WHO or CDC?

“Gunman killed after opening fire on Secret Service checkpoint outside White House” (CBS News)

The shooting outside the White House involves an individual whose motives will be parsed and assigned to a prosecutor.

But Lloyd deMause—the psycho-historian who viewed history as mass emotional acting-out—might have looked elsewhere, such as the surrounding psychic weather.

DeMause’s theory of group fantasy proposed that societies under stress generate shared emotional narratives: persecution, catastrophe, purification, looming doom, existential evil.

No central command is required. The messaging diffuses through headlines, hashtags, cable panels, political speeches, memes, opinion pieces, and social media dopamine dispensaries.

No memo is circulated.

The atmosphere does the work.

Most people consume such theater as theater.

Some do not.

When a culture spends years framing political opponents not merely as wrong, but as existential threats—Hitler, the end of democracy—it is optimistic to assume every recipient will interpret this metaphorically.

To psychologically stable adults, it’s just partisan melodrama.

To unstable minds, it may be instruction.

Psychohistory offers an unsettling thought: acts like this do not emerge from isolation.

They emerge from immersion.

A civilization that marinates itself in political hysteria ought not be astonished when one of its more unstable consumers mistakes performance for assignment.

“White House says ex-Secretary of State Pompeo should ‘shut his stupid mouth’ on Iran” (The Hill)

Another example of the sophistication, grace, and aplomb emanating, these days, from the Executive Branch.

“Ted Cruz, Trump ally battle online over criticism of Iran deal” (The Hill)

Cruz, Mike Pompeo, and Lindsey Graham have the better argument here: the Iranian regime has treated signatures less as binding commitments than decorative calligraphy.

Trust, in Tehran, tends to be a renewable fiction.

“US and Iran agree deal in principle to finally reopen Strait of Hormuz” (Daily Mail)

Jeez, I thought this war was about uranium/nuclear capability?

If Trump capitulates on the nuclear issue, his deal will not be a win but a spin—and he’ll wind up looking like a bombastic buffoon.

“What Is The Average Credit Card Interest Rate This Week?” (Forbes)

Answer: 25.28%.

The biggest scam is hiding in plain sight.

If a neighborhood loan shark charged 25.28% he’d be called predatory. But with credit card companies, it’s called “risk-adjusted lending.”

Credit card companies rake it in from revolvers, late-payers, minimum-balance carriers, and financially stressed households.

Their ideal customer is permanently indebted.

And that’s not a side effect. It’s the business model.

Look at your monthly statement.

It doesn’t say: Here’s what you should pay.

It says: Here’s the smallest amount required to avoid immediate punishment.

That number is engineered to feel manageable while preserving your debt indefinitely.

Then there are reward points—the glittering bread crumbs of modern serfdom.

Americans will financially self-immolate for 1.5% cash back, airline miles, priority boarding, a free mozzarella stick

Meanwhile, the issuer collects interest, fees, merchant charges, and your spending data.

Credit cards are marketed as freedom. But in reality they are subscription-based indebtedness—financial fentanyl in titanium packaging.

And the cruel brilliance of the system is this: The deeper you fall into debt, the more desperately you need the very instrument destroying you.

What a week—whew!

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I was reading this pesky document the other day. It’s called “The Constitution.” For those who may not have heard of it, it’s the thing that pretty much guides our country through thick and thin. We are, after all, a “Constitutional Republic.” Oh yes, we “practice” democracy. But it’s that document, The Constitution, that actually directs us on how we operate.

Or at least it’s supposed to.

The folks who created it spent a lot of blood and treasure and divine guidance to refine that piece of paper down to its basic, critical essentials. It’s revolutionary. No other country is so pro-individual. You. Me. Being a fulfilled person… is to be free.

Now you don’t have to read the whole thing to understand what it means. In fact, it’s pretty simple. There’s a little preface that sets it all up. I actually memorized it in fourth grade. That was when in school you would actually learn things like history and math and English and, you know, useful stuff to get you through life.

Those kinds of things.

So, the short little bit of words I memorized is called “The Preamble” I’m going to recite it for you right now. Here goes.

“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America”.

Pretty simple, Huh? But notice what it does say, and what it doesn’t.

What is does say, is that the entire purpose of our government is to protect us, so that we can be free to exercise our “inalienable “rights. Those are rights that are given by God, or whatever you wish to call a higher power. You can’t take them away. They’re yours.

Since those rights come from God, and not from “man” … ipso facto, government, under our Constitution, exists only to defend those basic principles. Not control them.

But here’s the zinger. Notice the phrase “Promote the general welfare.” Our founders were very particular in their choice of words and phrases. And therefor, “promote” the general welfare.

Not “establish.” Not “provide.” Not “insure.” Not “secure.” Just “promote.”

And what they intended with this very specific term, is that the government will do its best to create a secure environment for all citizens to be free to thrive and grow and prosper, and the government will cheer you on. That’s it. Not take care of you.

That’s where we’ve lost ourselves, and the founding principles of being an American. We’ve railroaded our government into a myriad of social service programs that create a dependency that was never intended. And it’s sick. And it’s criminal.

We have safety nets with non-profits and churches and communities for those truly in need. But government always messes things up.

Now obviously you’re not free to beat up your neighbor or burn down a building or steal from an institution or…. that’s the part that says: “Establish Justice. Insure domestic tranquility.”

But, call me naïve, doesn’t it seem these days that we’re demonizing and defunding our law “enforcers,” and coddling and funding our law “breakers,” in complete defiance of what our Constitution promises? And in the latter case, the scams and graft and theft through various government programs is by the billions with a “B.” Maybe even a “T.” If you pay taxes, you’re getting ripped off folks. And it’s all the fault of the scoundrels that “we” vote in to enforce the laws, not break them.

But break them they do. And it’s (to use an overused term), “systemic.”

So now we’ve got these really creepy and dangerous extremists running New York City and Seattle and Portland and Minneapolis and Chicago and Los Angeles and…. stop me, please. Who voted for them? They don’t like our country; they may even hate our country. They want to remake it into something it was never intended to be. And it’s doomed to failure. The money they squander through giveaways to stay in power is departing as they pontificate. Santa Claus is leaving with all the wealth.

And we all live with the consequences. You. Me. And our treasures: Our kids. Our grandkids. And those yet to come. Our future. “We” are screwing them over.

Is the pain bad enough yet? Then it’s time that you vote for sanity. For common sense. And stop voting for “feel-good failure.” Or, to quote the great Jewish behavioral scientist, Gad Saad, “Suicidal Empathy.” Misdirected compassion.

And here in California …well, I don’t want to name names, but…. don’t vote for Steyer or Becerra or Porter or Bass or Carbajal or…. the list is endless, and so is the damage they’ve inflicted because they pretend to be for you… but they are only for themselves and their corrupt ideology. Time for a “fundamental change” back to the fundamentals. Not too much to ask, is it? Just get the government out of the way and we’ll be more than fine. The Constitution will protect you and your freedom and the satisfaction of self-reliance, if you let it.

•••

(John Summer is just a regular guy who believes in goofy things like Family, Country, and God. If that’s not your thing, then you’re living in the wrong place. Maybe head to the north pole? But Santa won’t take care of you. He’s left town.)

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I have been tracing America’s transition from a world of faithful pilgrims to nihilistic pirates, that is, discussing that which has caused cultures and civilizations to either flourish or meet their demise throughout modern history. It was British Anthropologist J.D. Unwin who studied the fall of some 86 cultures and civilizations throughout history, only to find that the longevity, health, and well-being of culture was largely determined by their attitudes, customs, and mores having to do with sexuality, faith, and marriage.

Another brilliant scholar, Carle Zimmerman, a Harvard sociologist, studied the role of family in the rise and fall of civilization, determining that the one thing that advanced civilizations had in common was the nuclear family construct. That is, tribal and clan-type family constructs never amounted to much and, on the opposite end, when men and women became so narcissistic and hedonistic that nuclear marriages fell by the wayside, the culture soon met its demise.

I previously focused on the unraveling of the home and family by way of events and values that began in the 1960s with a focus on women and mothers. Now, let’s turn our attention to men.

1) The feminist movement was a two-edged sword. As it sought to liberate women, it did so at the expense of men while it attacked so-called toxic masculinity. Along the way, it eviscerated the vital role of men as fathers, heads of households, providers, and protectors. Specifically, society at large, encouraged men to get in touch with their “feminine side” as they abandoned their traditional roles in family and society in deference to the ability of women to supplant them as equals.

2) The attack on men, became a war on boys. Even though nearly all scientific literature indicates that boys and girls mature at different rates and are stimulated by different things, mothers in the home and teachers in schools began to push back against the things that little boys are made of, including boundless rambunctious energy. In the 1960s, with the dispensing of drugs like Ritalin, hyperactive young boys were diagnosed as having attention deficit disorders at twice the rate of girls and were deleteriously drugged accordingly.

3) Traditionally, one key God-given role of women in society was to domesticate men by way of withholding sex apart from marriage, and sometimes, in marriage. The free sex movement and the commensurate loss of the fear of God, made possible by way of the pill and abortion, served to throw chastity out the window, and men became somewhat free to roam before, during, and after marriage, sans any personal moral constraints. Now at full throttle, the hook-up culture has replaced courtship, and porn addiction among men is epidemic.

4) Subsequent to number 3, no-fault divorce facilitated awarding primary custody to mothers which means the fathers ended up spending more time with their second family rather than their first. The destructive and disruptive impact of this resulted in successive generations of boys who were raised without their natural fathers in the home to guide, mentor, and discipline them, that is, if a man was present at all. This has proved a disaster for society as nearly every social ill including drug and alcohol abuse, criminality, homelessness, and the like can be traced to boys who were essentially abandoned by their fathers.

5) There has been a massive loss of 7.5 million jobs among men, such as those found in manufacturing, logging, mining, and the steel industry. These sectors virtually vanished, including by way of environmental regulations, thereby destroying head of household jobs for men without a college education. The resultant wage loss put pressure on spouses to find work at the expense of family life.

Jordan Peterson said it best, “If you think tough men are dangerous, wait until you see what weak men are capable of.”

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Have We Seen the Last State Street Parade?

Finally, we get some sort of vote. This isn’t an “I think” or “I feel” debate. It’s just math. If the City Council actually carries out its Portland-style car-free street calming initiative, we will never have a parade on State Street again. The physical infrastructure and insurance liabilities will make it impossible.

People forget how our creative local economy actually works. Historically, most downtown brick-and-mortar shops would run on tight margins or take a loss during slow months. But they would be made whole by their share of the $27 million cash infusion those parades would bring to their front doors.

It’s a very simple equation: no cars = no parades. No parades = no $27 million economic infusion. We are permanently starving our own local businesses to build a bike park.

On top of that, a little over half of downtown revenue historically came from Los Angeles tourists in cars. This is Retail 101: tourists need to feel safe. They want to drive through, check out the scene, and then park close by so they can spend money and feed our local small businesses.

The alternative, according to the city’s own master plan, is to continue bleeding out the rest of our small business owners for the next 20 years before they even break ground on hollowing out the heart of our city with some sort of New York-style Central Park bike path. A population of just 87,000 people doesn’t keep the doors open to 550 restaurants. We cater to L.A. tourists. Our hotel occupancy has never been higher. They are here, but only downtown is designed to feed our local economy.

Let’s just open State Street to cars.

Please.

Craig Saling

Santa Barbara

Santa Barbara’s Proposed $2 Million-a-Year Housing Bureaucracy

Santa Barbara already has statewide rent caps under California law. So why are we about to spend another $2 million every year creating more bureaucracy instead of more housing?

This proposal means more government tracking, fees, hearings, petitions, and more enforcement.

But no more of what we actually need: housing.

At a time when people are increasingly concerned about digital privacy and protecting vulnerable communities, Santa Barbara should be very careful about expanding government data collection tied to where people live.

This proposal creates a large rental registry system collecting detailed housing and tenancy information across the city. Even if some information is considered confidential, many residents are reasonably asking: Who will have access to this information? How will it be protected? And what happens if that data is leaked, hacked, or misused?

Even the City’s own report acknowledges that rental registries require balancing enforcement with privacy concerns.

Santa Barbara has spent nearly a decade debating rent control, holding hearings, hiring consultants, and expanding regulations. Yet the core problem remains unchanged: we do not have enough housing.

This is fundamentally a supply issue, and the City continues to attack the symptom instead of the cause.

None of this lowers construction costs, insurance, utility bills, permit delays, labor shortages, or the endless barriers that make housing so expensive to build and maintain in Santa Barbara.

And here’s what worries me most: Santa Barbara is being told by an outside consulting firm, not people who actually live with the realities of this city every day, that more regulation will solve the housing crisis.

It won’t.

You cannot regulate your way out of a housing shortage.

If Santa Barbara keeps making housing harder and more expensive to operate, fewer people will invest in maintaining housing, fewer people will build housing, and the next generation will continue getting pushed out.

Young families leave. Workers leave. Local businesses struggle to hire. And the people who grew up here increasingly wonder if there is still a future for them in the city they call home.

More paperwork is not more housing.

More regulation is not more affordability.

Santa Barbara is becoming a city the next generation can no longer afford to live in.

Anabella Lehne

Santa Barbara

(Editor’s note: Your plaint is warranted, but be careful what you wish for. More housing means more housing. More housing means more people. How many “houses” will be “enough?” More housing means more people with more money to push prices even higher. I don’t believe there is a way to strike a balance in a free society, other than creating a “Locals” fund to support the purchase of homes. And, has it ever occurred to you that builders, planners, architects, council members, and ordinary citizens, have conspired to keep Santa Barbara small? Been to La Jolla lately? Just saying… – J.B.)

Dear Code Compliance Team,

I can remember when a coffee shop would have a “No ICE” sign because the freezer went out — not as a political statement on city property.

Two “ICE OUT/NOT WELCOME HERE” posters are currently taped to the inside of the glass entrance door at Dart Coffee in the harbor next to the Maritime Museum’s orange diving bell. They are clearly visible to the public.

This violates Santa Barbara Municipal Code Chapter 22.70.030.D.1 (no non-public-agency signs on city-owned or leased public property) and related window sign rules.

Photo attached.

I’d appreciate your help in having these removed to keep our public harbor spaces non-partisan (as well as welcoming to all) and in compliance to code.

Thank you,

James Fenkner, CFA

Santa Barbara Resident

He/Him/She/Her/They… Whatever

I’ve noticed a change in the use of pronouns in many media, even in right-of-center publications.

Instead of using “his/her”, I noticed a substantial uptick in using “their” instead...

...Even when the gender of the person is known.

Example: As noted in the New York Post recently: “(Cole) Allen allegedly shot a Secret Service officer in their [my emphasis] bullet-proof vest during his mad dash, according to officials.”

Before the Trump era, I recall a conversation with a left-wing stickler in a bar. He kept referring to a person that both of us knew was from South Korea as “Asian.” When I continued referring to him as Korean, he called me a “racist.” I said we both know that this guy in from Seoul. He said it doesn’t matter; for a white American to refer to him as a Korean is a slur.

Asking for “clarification” from this nincompoop, I asked him whether I can refer to a Mexican (someone to whom I knew was born in Mexico and was not a U.S. citizen) as a “Mexican.” He said absolutely not. A white American calling a Mexican “a Mexican” is the worst kind of ethnic slur meant to demean him in our very description of him in the course of conversation. Truth be damned. Everything is processed through racial ideology.

Getting back to the New York Post characterization above, despite the fact that everybody knows that the Secret Service agent assaulted by Cole Allen was a man, we must still refer to him/her/it/ as a “their” because – what – it’s a slur to pin masculinity on a person in a public report for fear that there’s a small possibility that the person thus described as a man was really – what – not really a man in his/her/its own self-identity? Or that truly gender dysfunctionals among us will be offended to read of a reporter naturally assuming that a man who looks like a man is a man - and that this casts microaggressions on all men who look like men but who aren’t men?

If this comes even close to what’s going on at the New York Post – a half-conservative, half-neoconservative publication – situated somewhere on the (disconnect) Right spectrum, we can conclude that the Left’s assault on the culture has left a giant imprint of itself on right-wing culture and practices. Language is one of the most important components of real communication. To fall victim to one of the Left’s most subversive nostrums in our default position of presenting and explaining the world to our readers, goes far in explaining who’s really winning these days.

David Samuel McCalmont

Santa Barbara

California Wind Energy Project

Petroleum Derangement Syndrome predates Trump. Environmentalists have had the petroleum industry in their crosshairs for a long time. In December, 2022 Golden State Wind won the rights to a lease area off the coast of Morro Bay where they planned to install wind turbines. Fortunately, Golden State Wind has recently agreed to release that contract and instead invest those funds into U.S. based oil and gas projects.

From a common sense point of view, wind energy has many disadvantages: sea life, including whales who pass by offshore are drastically affected by the vibrations and substructure. Birds are killed by the turbines. The turbines and batteries which must store the energy (which is only produced when the wind blows), are 70% produced in China. And when the mechanical parts finally reach the end of their functional lives, they become hazardous waste.

The best solution to take advantage of our state’s natural petroleum resources is also harvesting our offshore oil using properly constructed and maintained pipelines which run along the ocean floor. Sea life can move above them, whereas using ships, burns more fuel and increases traffic in our sea lanes. Especially when California, of all places, imports oil from other parts of the world.

The U.S. knows how to remove petroleum from underground sources and process it with the most environmentally efficient methods. The best idea might be if there were no subsidies for any businesses. Only then could we know the true costs of our way of life.

Gretchen Kieding

Solvang

(Editor’s note: Professors from Berkeley and Stanford have recently published what can only be called a “Call to Action,” noting scientific evidence proves that by not harvesting the oil that seeps up naturally and continuously in the Santa Barbara Channel we are creating our own environmental disaster. Much of the air pollution, for example, in the Santa Barbara area comes from those seeps bubbling up around the Coal Oil Point Seep Field. There will be much more about this in the coming months, but the evidence seems clear that collecting that oil into a pipeline (As Sable Offshore is attempting to do] is significantly more environmentally sound than simply allowing that oil to continue to defile our natural habitat. – J.B.)

Crushing Old Town Santa Barbara – Half a Decade Later

They don’t care....They are willing to tear it all down.

The Santa Barbara City Council, 28 April 2026 session:

For the past 5+ years Cars Are Basic, (CAB) has contacted the City of Santa Barbara on the Transportation Grid and economic return of Old Town State St. We have reached out to the City before Covid and since and have never received an answer.

CAB is the only true Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) that refuses taxpayer money to exist. The “Tear it Down” faction hides behind 501.c.3 status to masks their Political Action Committees sucking on tax money. Their narrowed view confirms they don’t care.

The “opportunity” the Santa Barbara council has missed is stark.

A Baseball Analogy:

The Public calls “Batter Up.” It is the top of the ninth, down one run, and the bases are loaded. The lead-off batter is at the plate.

The pitcher puts the first pitch down the middle and the batter (the City Council) whiffs. Strike 1.

The next pitch, a replica of the first batter’s dream. Whiff. Strike 2, no balls (a metaphor?).

Remember it is 2 strikes, no balls, and the pitcher is throwing Home Run Dreams. The Home Team can snatch victory from defeat.

Here it comes..... the last pitch! It floats right down the middle, waist high, with Home Run printed all over it!!!

Whiff. Strike 3, the batter strikes out.

The disgusted fans are the vast majority of residents who want State Street to open. The batter? The City Council of Santa Barbara.

The pitcher? The feckless pay-for-play type consultant the Council hired to replace their $800,000 MIG Design & Planning fiasco.

The “consultant” is nothing more than a weak replica of the fired MIG. MIG and Dave Davis is a 40-year failure. The “We don’t want truth” Council projection is to excuse their prejudiced anti-car rubber stamp. The Council, pretended its “New and Improved” version is the answer. Opportunity to rectify failure was lost, nothing strong here.

Staff stated bike use is down. It is clear tourists and local walkers have not appeared to revive Old Town. Locals avoid driving downtown.

The touted coordinated rail for workers and tourists is another whiff dream, down the drain.

The four failed legs of “alternative travel” are Rail, MTD, bikes and walking. It is a radical ambition of an out-of-control Council. Their bankrupt spending is astounding. These are the losers of society who have found cover with government workers, and the money they confiscate with taxes.

The “Shut It Down, To Heck with Reality” political bullies have seized control of Santa Barbara.

Their intent to use lawfare and emergency ordinances for dictatorial control has worked. In the process, they’ve ignored the majority of the voters, and businesses who want Historic Santa Barbara to thrive.

They are willing to ignore serious emergency concerns and vehicle access. The cowards puffed and snorted knowing they had the council majority, while their miscues failed and deficits grew.

How much more deficit spending, delusional advice, and destruction of the Jewel of the California Coast are you willing to suffer?

Scott Wenz,

President CAB

(Editor’s note: Perhaps you could form a “No Dictators” movement directed at mayors and city councils? – J.B.)

The Day of Pentecost: The Day the Holy Spirit Arrives

Acts Chapter two is the first mention in the Bible of the day of Pentecost. The Holy Spirit descends upon the disciples, enabling them to speak in tongues. Then Peter preaches to the crowd, which leads to the salvation of 3,000 people. It was like the church woke up and discovered its purpose. There were miracles in the previous four gospels, performed mainly through Jesus, but now the body of Christ itself arose and started acting on it.

The Holy Spirit came in suddenly as a mighty rushing wind in Acts 2:1-3. He brought in a fresh new way of praying to God. The disciples had tongues of fire descend on their heads and began talking to God in languages they had never spoken before. And that they themselves did not understand. 1 Corinthians 14:14 says “If I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays but my mind is unfruitful.” Your tongues are a secret prayer language between you and the Lord. All this started on the day of Pentecost.

Jesus prophesied this in the first chapter of Acts: “But you shall receive power, after that the Holy Spirit is come upon you: and you shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost parts of the earth.”

The Day of Pentecost was a turning point in Christianity. Miracles, signs ,and wonders, abounded. But His disciples took them to the next level in the second chapter of Acts. Thousands were saved, many miraculously healed and filled with the spirit, and demons cast out. Jesus says He is the same yesterday, today, and forever, so why can’t we see that happen now? In some places, not just overseas, these revivals, tent meetings, and encounters with God are on the move. These meetings activate what Jesus was talking about, the power of the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in other tongues.

These tongues that began on the day of Pentecost (which, this year, is celebrated on Sunday, May 24) is the key that opens the door to this power.

“When the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.” Acts 2: 1-4

If you are a born-again believer, you can have this kind of power as well. You just have to pray and ask the Holy Spirit to give it to you. It is a free gift from heaven.

(Please join us to Pray, Worship, Gather each Sunday at 6pm at 1469 East Valley Rd, Montecito, Ca)

Mary Hudson

Montecito

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Santa Barbara’s Air and Beaches are Being Fouled by Natural Seeps

Walk along the beaches of Isla Vista, Goleta, Santa Barbara, Montecito, Summerland, and Carpinteria, and you’ll hear the same confident refrain:

“Look at all this tar from those horrible oil platforms.”

It’s repeated so often that most Californians assume it must be true. Black tar on the sand? Offshore production. Oily sheen offshore? Offshore production. “Tar feet” at Sands Beach? It must be offshore production.

It’s not.

The oil currently washing onto the beaches around Isla Vista in Santa Barbara County comes from natural seeps at Coal Oil Point and the surrounding area in the Santa Barbara Channel — not from offshore production operations.

Not some of it.

All of it.

Several hundred barrels of it every day.

This is a scientifically verified fact, not some oil industry talking point. Decades of studies from organizations like the United States Geological Survey and UC Santa Barbara have located and characterized natural oil and gas seepage in the Santa Barbara Channel.

One of the world’s largest natural hydrocarbon seep systems is at Coal Oil Point, just offshore Isla Vista.

Seeps result from oil and hydrocarbon gases naturally moving upward from deep oil and gas reservoirs to the ocean floor through faults and fractures. In other words, the reservoirs are ‘leaky.’ The oil reaches the ocean surface, spreads with currents, and eventually washes ashore as tar balls and stained sand. The hydrocarbon gases vent continuously into the atmosphere, contributing to both local air pollution and global warming. The gases from the Coal Oil Point seeps are one of the largest contributors to air pollution in Santa Barbara County (according to the Santa Barbara County Air Pollution Control District). If every offshore platform and pipeline disappeared tomorrow, there would still be tar on those beaches next week, next year, and millennia from now.

Oil Slicks Over the Millenniums

Pervasive hydrocarbon seepage in the Santa Barbara Channel has been occurring for thousands of years. The local Chumash tribe used a substance called “yop” which is beach tar combined with pine pitch to waterproof their boats, called “tomols.” The Chumash people even historically traded the seep oil they gathered as a commodity. Spanish explorers in the 1500s copied the techniques of the natives and also waterproofed their boats. A later expedition in the 1770s noted the area’s extensive oil seepage.

Some of the first British explorers to come to California were awestruck by the offshore oil slicks and stench of hydrocarbons as they sailed past Coal Oil Point. During Admiral Vancouver’s exploratory trip along the California coast in the 1790s, he observed that: “the surface of the sea, which was perfectly smooth and tranquil, was covered with a thick, slimy substance, which, when separated or disturbed by a little agitation, became very luminous, whilst the light breeze, which came principally from the shore, brought with it a strong smell of tar, or some such resinous substance.”

None of this excuses events like the 1969 Santa Barbara spill and the 2015 pipeline spill at Refugio Beach. They were serious and damaging. But perspective matters. The 2015 spill was equivalent to around five days of natural seeps in the Santa Barbara Channel.

You read that right: five days.

In other words, natural seeps in the Santa Barbara Channel have caused the equivalent of over 700 Refugio oil spills since 2015.

Natural Seeps Now Outnumber Oil Production Emissions

And this is not just a Santa Barbara issue. While emissions from oil and gas equipment presented serious air and environmental quality issues decades ago, successful regulations and mitigation programs have largely put a stop to these problems. Recent work in the Los Angeles Basin (home to the La Brea Tar Pits, the largest onshore seep in North America) suggests natural seep emissions across the basin may now exceed oil-and-gas production emissions by roughly 100 to 1. Many of the attribution studies relating health problems to oil field proximity in LA may have mistakenly fingered current production operations rather than natural seeps and old orphaned wells.

And it gets worse (if you’re an opponent of oil production). Historical production from the South Ellwood field beneath the Coal Oil Point seeps reduced seepage rates.

Yes — you read that right — reduced.

And over 22 years from 1973 to 1995 the measured reductions were significant, around 50% overall.

The physics is straightforward: producing oil and gas lowers reservoir pressure. Lower pressure reduces the force pushing hydrocarbons upward through faults to the seabed. Moreover, producing hydrocarbons reduces the volumes available to seep from the reservoir. In theory, if you deplete the reservoir of a large fraction of their oil and gas, the seeps will never be a problem again.

On the other hand, if you leave a lot of oil and gas in the ground, it eventually leaks to the surface.

Since production was halted at Platform Holly in 2015 (with over one billion barrels of recoverable oil still remaining in the field), anecdotal evidence suggests that seeps and methane plumes have increased. Likewise, production of oil from platforms in the Southern Santa Barbara Channel anecdotally reduced seeps and tar on southern Santa Barbara County beaches.

Since offshore production was halted near Isla Vista, oil and tar on the beaches has significantly increased. This makes sense as the reservoir is no longer being depressurized and deeper hydrocarbon sources recharge the field.

Raising Uncomfortable Questions

Do environmental organizations fighting oil production really care about the environment?

Or do they simply hate the oil industry?

Because if the goal is reducing hydrocarbon emissions into the atmosphere and ocean, reducing natural seepage should matter too. Yet environmental groups continue portraying production companies as though they created the hydrocarbons spilling naturally into the ocean daily.

By blocking oil production associated with seep reduction, the State of California is prolonging natural toxic hydrocarbon emissions.

That raises another uncomfortable question: could the State face legal liability for obstructing a feasible seep-remediation strategy? If state agencies knowingly block federally authorized projects capable of reducing hydrocarbon gas emissions and seepage near populated areas, the legal argument may shift from “environmental protection” to knowingly preventing mitigation.

Imagine the irony. For decades, environmental activists insisted that oil production caused the pollution on Santa Barbara County beaches. A future lawsuit could argue the opposite: stopping production worsened naturally occurring pollution.

Someday, we will all be driving EVs, and oil won’t be nearly as valuable. However, the seeps will still be there, and if the State of California gets its way, we will never produce the oil beneath them, even though we now have the drilling technology to access the oil from locations onshore without the need for offshore platforms.

Future generations will continue to have dirty air, and tar balls will continue to foul Santa Barbara’s beaches.

So, the next time you go to the beach at Ellwood, UCSB, Goleta, Santa Barbara, Montecito, Summerland, or Carpinteria, and you experience tar balls on the beach and oil slicks in the water, thank your local environmental, anti-oil company friends for having that wonderful experience.

Congratulations environmentalists. You‘re getting rid of the oil industry, but not the oil.

•••

About the Authors

Mike Stoker: Environment, Energy & Agriculture Attorney (ret.), former Southwest Administrator US EPA, former member of Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors, and currently President & CEO Santa Barbara County Taxpayer Advocacy Center.

Dr. James W. Rector: Professor of Geophysics and Energy, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, and Department of Earth and Planetary Science, Senior Faculty Scientist, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Michael Mische: Associate Professor of Professional Practice, Marshall School of Business, University of Southern California, Senior Faculty Researcher, Oil and Gas Zage Business of Energy Initiative

Joseph Silvi: B.S. Environmental Engineering, UC Berkeley, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Energy Researcher and Environmental Advocate

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On my recent journey across the country, I can firmly report California is viewed as one big nut case.

These common-sense states have something you will also never see in California: Trump stores. Retail stores filled with everything Trump, sweatshirts, hats, bobble heads, flags and more. Tons of things patriotic. And the stores are busy.

I told the store owner we had just traveled from California and her face lit up. She said, “Wait right there. I have something for you.” She returned with a red baseball cap that read, “Make California Great Again.” She handed it to me and said it was a gift. It was the sixth one she gave away that day. I said my home state can use all the help it can get.

When I left, I paid $8.00 a gallon for diesel. Three states over, diesel was in the low $4’s. The people I spoke with were complaining about $4.00 a gallon and I told them we would love to be paying that. We’ve been paying that and much more for years.

I encountered people who had never visited the loony state. They said they weren’t even interested. Peel away all the crazy environmentalists, the whacky woke, the progressive nut case leftists and one-state party rule that have plunged California on life support and it’s a very pretty place.

Sweet Land of Liberty

After driving for days when all you can see is well, nothing. No mountains, no hills and in many cases no trees, California is blessed with the largest trees on the planet, the highest mountain in the low forty-eight and the lowest point in the land. From beautiful beaches to magnificent mountains covered in lakes and pine trees. And yet people are fleeing what the first settlers thought to be paradise. And it can be again.

We have a slim chance to try and right the ship as they say. Two Republicans are holding their own to become governor. The problem is they make sense and say things that a are logical and offering great plans to work toward healing the open sores of California.

Democrats can’t get a handle on that.

The morons on the left will continue to vote for rinse and repeat out of hatred while we morons with common sense have always let them.

Can a Republican governor go head-to-head with liberal legislators who are determined to keep defecating in their backyard? We saw what happened to Arnold Schwarzenegger. He was stripped of his manhood trying to go against the liberal machine. Eventually he became one of them and now identifies as a eunuch.

Maybe, just maybe, a guy like Steve Hilton or Sheriff Chad Bianco can make the dramatic changes that need to be done to end the insane gas taxes and the squandering of billions of dollars on the homeless industrial complex. Perhaps one of them can start up oil production and allow the state to become self-sufficient and powerful again.

In other words, Make California Great Again.

Of Thee I Sing

We have the resources, and we have good bones. Democrats have always claimed to be there for the little people. That couldn’t be further from the truth. Their policies are decimating the poor. I can afford to pay extra for gas. It’s another story for those who work at McDonald’s or myriad other lower paying jobs. Even a fireman friend who lives in Orcutt but works in Santa Barbara is now paying $80 to fill his truck every time to drive to work. It’s not a Trump problem; it’s a moronic California problem. All the taxes imposed on fuel have done squat. Our roads should be like glass, instead it’s a game of dodging potholes. Not all roads in the country are perfect but certainly much better overall and they’re not reaming the taxpayers an extra $2.00 a gallon to line someone’s pockets with false promises of saving the planet.

You would think California leading the country with the highest fuel costs would be an eye opener for the cultist climate-clouded left, but no. Trump used federal authority to allow offshore oil drilling again and surprise, surprise, the hippies are suing Sable to stop from helping Californians. Their mind-numbing obsession against dinosaur goo causes their brains to hemorrhage. They put their own lunacy ahead of the populace.

I apologized to people east of us before I answered them when asked where I was from (tongue in cheek). Some of the Californians who have fled the crazy poop coop were infected with wokeness and TDS and feel the need to contaminate their new communities. You would think their new neighbors would have none of it, and many places don’t, but then look at Texas. A state that had been blood red since forever has been infected with liberalitis and is swinging in the wrong direction.

Morons, and I mean that in the kindest way.

The thing is the entire country is filled with morons. Again, I’m not excluding myself.

Land Where Our Fathers Died

We’re celebrating 250 years by electing socialists and communists across this great land.

What the heck are we doing?

The men behind writing the Constitution – love them or hate them – were super smart and covered most of the bases. I don’t believe that back in 1776, Jefferson, Hancock, or old Ben Franklin thought there would be politicians determined to undermine everything they tried to protect, that the Constitution could be infected with political smallpox.

We morons better get our act together and stop the crazies from destroying what makes us the greatest country on the planet.

If the lunatics gain control of the House, and God forbid, the Senate, the wheels on this bus are going to go round and round in reverse.

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A Conversation With Mollie Hemingway

As the man who authored the famous decision that spelled the end of the deeply flawed and forever controversial Roe v. Wade ruling, Samuel Alito certainly warrants the in-depth scrutiny he receives in the latest book crafted by author/editor/pundit Mollie Hemingway, who believes Alito is today the most important and influential Justice on the Supreme Court.

Ms. Hemingway was the featured speaker at the most recent Reagan Ranch Roundtable luncheon at the Young Americans Foundation (YAF) Center on lower State Street on Friday, May 15. The series is supported by former Santa Barbara News-Press publisher Wendy McCaw.

Before going forward with my interview, you should know that Ms. Hemingway is a favorite of mine. Whenever her name is mentioned on a FOX News program, whether it be Kudlow, Mornings With Maria, Fox and Friends, Varney & Co., you name it, I’m sure to record it and not miss her appearance. She brings clarity and understanding to every subject she is invited to discuss. And she never pulls cliches or talking points out of her purse to help her out. She always has something dependably refreshing and original to say about an issue. I put her in the same rarified league as Wall Street Journal columnist Kimberley Strassel.

With that in mind, what follows is an edited version of our hour-long conversation after her own speech and Q&A session at the Reagan Ranch Center.

Q. You refer to Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito as a giant. Why?

A. Alito’s colleagues call him a giant on the court. They understand how important he is in a way that many other people might not realize. He is very strategic and thinks deeply about what each case will be and what the issues will be that it will be decided upon. He [seeks to ensure] that it is worth the court’s time, whether it will move things in a better direction for the country, not just, “Am I interested in this?” or “Would I like to hear this case?”

And he’s very good at holding a majority together, which not everybody wants to do or cares about.

How does a case reach the Supreme Court?

They get asked to hear thousands of cases a term, but they only hear about seventy. There are different ways a case can work its way to the court, but when there are competing rulings from different regions on a constitutional issue, that’s close to a guarantee that the Supreme Court will hear it.

You made a couple comments about California’s untenable election process in your talk. Is there anything we can look forward to in rectifying that situation?

No, it’s a complete mess, but I would say that the court seems to be more willing to listen to election-related issues than they have been in the past. The courts don’t like to hear election administration or election-related disputes, mainly because it often takes a decade or longer for a case to reach the court, and most election issues [become moot before any kind of decision can be determined]. I also think that the Supreme Court’s involvement in 2000 is still a painful memory.

Let’s talk Supreme Court. Do you have the names of jurists you’d like to see on the Supreme Court?

I have many names. If Chief Justice John Roberts were to go, there is this awesome judge on the DC Circuit named Greg Katsas. He’s just great. Amul Thapar is very good out of Kentucky; there’s Andy Oldham, who’s on the Fifth Circuit. I also like Mike Lee, who’s the senator from Utah. He was a clerk for Alito, and his son was a clerk for Alito. His dad was Solicitor General under Reagan. He (his dad) started the BYU Law School. People have mentioned others like Ron DeSantis or Ted Cruz, and that used to be the type of person they would put on the court. Earl Warren got it simply because he dropped out of the presidential primary in a way that helped Eisenhower out. So, Eisenhower’s like, “Why don’t you become chief?”

How did President Trump put together his list of judicial appointments, which, by some accounts, helped him win the 2016 election?

I wrote about that with Carrie Severino in “Justice on Trial,” and how that list was developed, which was through the input of a variety of different groups, including people associated with the Federalist Society, Leonard Leo-type people, people at Heritage, and others.

Having that list made everybody feel very comfortable. Trump updated it, but he stuck to it in a way that people would say, “Okay, I could handle literally any of the names on this list.” It’s a big reason why he won.

Any thoughts about the three liberal Justices – Sotomayor, Kagan, and Ketanji-Jackson – who seem to vote in lockstep?

I tell a lot in the book about each of them. I would say Justice Kagan is respected by her colleagues; she does a great job in oral argument, like Alito. But the newest Justice, Ketanji-Jackson, is seemingly not doing so well with impressing the legal community or her colleagues. She’s loquacious to the extreme without having much of anything to say.

What’s frustrating, I think, for many people is that the treatment from the outside world differs dramatically based on whether you’re on the left or on the right. Neil Gorsuch’s questions are really smart, and good, whereas Ketanji-Jackson’s questions – particularly when she freestyles – don’t impress anybody.

The three liberal justices have very little power on the court, but from the media and from the law schools, they act like they are the queens of the court. The conservative justices can’t really go out to dinner on their own without fear of being killed. They can’t go to law schools in most places because the law schools are so crazy left wing.

Having said that, they all get along pretty well.

Really?

Yes. It’s much better to get along and be civil, so they have developed these habits over time; they always shake hands before they go out on the bench, and they shake hands when they are meeting just the nine of them. Way back, like 200 years ago, they all lived together, because they would have a short term and they would just come from wherever they were, and live in the same house in DC.

We’re coming up upon some important primaries and the mid-terms, so let’s talk politics. Here in California, for example, do you think Spencer Pratt, who is running for mayor of Los Angeles, can pull it off?

No. I’m not giving up hope yet, but the Republican machine should work on moving ballots to the boxes. I’m not a fan of any part of [ballot harvesting], but if those are the rules, you’ve got to play by the rules as they are, and you must understand that you get counted based on ballots, so focus on that.

You live in Virginia, what are your thoughts about your new governor, Abigail Spanberger?

Well, she ran as a moderate and she has been so radical…

…Almost immediately, correct?

…Immediately. I like to remind people that a few months ago Virginia had a Republican governor, lieutenant governor, and attorney general. She [Spanberger] ran saying that she wanted to be a bipartisan person She pretended to not believe anything she believed to get elected, whether it’s transitioning of kids, crime issues, or immigration, she’s hostile to enforcement of the law. We’ve got a big problem in Virginia with crime associated with some illegal immigration populations and she’s just been basically AWOL. She’s trying to go after people’s guns, and wants to raise taxes, so pretty much across the board she’s not been moderate.

Do you have a favorite in the California gubernatorial race?

I do not. I think very highly of both Steve Hilton and Chad Bianco. I don’t know either of them well, but I know both, and I like them. I assume that because of the jungle primary, you’re going to see continued hits against anyone who poses a threat to two Democrats being the top two vote getters. I assume that’s what took Eric Swalwell out.

We were all pleased to see Swalwell go. He’s such a rat.

I have one more question for you: What’s going to happen to the filibuster?

Well, nothing’s going to happen to it officially now. Everyone says we have to save the filibuster, but we never use the filibuster. The whole idea is, if someone just says they’re going to filibuster, that’s the equivalent of doing it.

When was the last time they literally had any debate in the Senate? I honestly don’t remember. Why not just debate? For instance, they say, “Oh, we only have this many votes for the Save America Act, and it will get filibustered.” Let them filibuster. Let them explain why they don’t want anyone to have to prove citizenship or that they don’t need voter ID. Let them do it, and maybe you lose, but I want to hear the arguments. I want to hear what your best arguments are for how to counter that. I would rather see the filibuster used than what we have now, which is to have it but not use it.

If Republicans were to get rid of it, they would need to pass the Save America Act, and all the other legislation that should be passed, like bills dealing with reducing fraud and waste, and to deporting illegal immigrants. So, if the Senate could work with the House and accomplish conservative governance and do it quickly, I would be for getting rid of the filibuster. But I don’t trust Republicans in the Senate to do anything. Sorry, but if they knew how to use their power when they have it, that would be a different argument.

Then the argument would be?

I have to imagine Democrats are going to do everything they claim they’re going to do. They’re saying they’re going to make Puerto Rico a state. They’re saying they’ll make DC a state. They say they are going to blow up the electoral college. They say they’re going to pack the Supreme Court. I don’t see them holding back. If they win the House, they’re going to go crazy – and I think the odds that they get the House are still pretty high – and they will just make life miserable.

So, when Democrats take the Senate, they’ll do away with the filibuster?

Yes.

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“Dr Fauci orchestrated Covid cover-up” (The Times)

Yawn.

I was writing this in my weekly columns for the Santa Barbara News-Press five years ago.

Unfortunately, too many sheeple preferred the comforting embrace of a government-scripted, mainstream-delivered fairy tale—one that persuaded millions to stand six feet apart, wear face napkins, and submit to lockdowns that wrecked businesses, educations, mental health, and whatever remained of common sense.

Now comes a CIA whistleblower revealing that Dr. Anthony Fauci helped steer investigators away from the lab-leak theory, and did so because he secretly funded the Wuhan lab in violation of government policy.

The Times reports that what was once denounced as “dangerous conspiracy theory” was actually closer to “suppressed inquiry.”

So let us review the choreography:

Question the official narrative? You were a crank.

Suggest the virus may have escaped from a lab in Wuhan conducting coronavirus research: Tin-foil haberdashery.

Object to school closures or raise an eyebrow at mask mandates: Shamed.

The pandemic produced a new priesthood: public-health commissars, cable-news hysterics, and social-media censors who treated dissent as heresy.

And now—slow drumroll—we are expected to greet these revelations with sober astonishment.

No astonishment here.

The real virus was institutional obedience.

“WHO chief warns there ‘will be more hantavirus cases in the coming weeks’” (Metro)

The formula remains unchanged: Find alarming medical anomaly, add an ominous forecast, release experts, cause media hyperventilation.

COVID may be over but one detects a familiar institutional yearning—a wistful nostalgia for the golden age of emergency decrees, televised dread, and populations obeying reckless senselessness.

Yes, pandemic theater appears to be touring indefinitely.

“Hantavirus and Psychological Bioterrorism” (Malone News)

Psychological Bioterrorism is the weaponization of fear about disease in order to manipulate individuals, populations, markets, and governments. Sometimes the objective is political. Sometimes financial. Sometimes bureaucratic. Often, it is all three at once.

Dr. Alexander Kouzminov, a former Soviet-Russian intelligence officer with experience in biological espionage and operations, in 2017, described how fear of infectious disease can be strategically amplified to shape public behavior, influence governments, and create opportunities for those positioned to benefit from the panic.

“That process is called psychological bioterrorism.

“Once you understand the framework, you start seeing the pattern everywhere.

“A virus or some other pathogen emerges somewhere in the world. The media shifts into apocalyptic mode. Experts appear to be predicting catastrophe. Politicians declare emergencies. Pharmaceutical companies announce new products. Social media turns into a digital panic attack. And ordinary people, who just wanted to walk the dog, suddenly feel like civilization is one cough away from collapse.”

“Whistleblower claims CIA seized MK Ultra, JFK assassination files from Tulsi Gabbard’s office” (Hindustan Times)

In a display of institutional self-preservation, the CIA moved to prevent the release of documents concerning MKUltra and the JFK assassination by forcibly retrieving them from the very office tasked with making them public.

One imagines the scene: “Quick! The American people may learn something!”

For decades, the intelligence community has assured us that all sensitive historical files are withheld only for the noblest of reasons: national security, protecting sources, blah, blah, blah.

Every time documents edge toward daylight—even when the President of the United States orders their release—someone in a dark suit develops an acute case of anti-transparency syndrome, in this instance, assisted by a CIA SWAT team.

The surest way to know a file matters is when the government sprints to hide it.

“California billionaires find bliss in Nevada border town while fleeing wealth tax” (California Post)

California has spent years perfecting a business model that combines punitive taxation, bureaucratic strangulation, regulatory sadism, and housing costs through the roof.

The state’s progressive practice is charmingly simple:

Over-tax the productive. Then act shocked when they leave.

And the very rich don’t even have to flee to Texas or Florida.

They need only cross the border to Incline Village—and flip Cali the bird from neighboring Nevada!

“Gavin Newsom’s controversial ‘free diapers’ program gets quiet contracting carve-out” (California Post)

“Quiet contracting carve-out”?

That’s a wonderfully elegant bureaucratic phrase—meant to deceive, of course.

Translation: No bidding process.

California’s normal competitive procurement rules were apparently set aside.

Nobody got a chance to propose a cheaper alternative.

And then, in an astonishing coincidence, Gavin Newsom’s wife, Jennifer, is connected to California Partners Project, which has the contract.

Nothing says public trust like contracts awarded in a room nobody else was invited into.

“Inside Jack Schlossberg’s Chaotic Campaign to Revive Camelot” (NYTs)

Just hours into Day One, the candidate abruptly revised his campaign strategy. Forget dialing for dollars. He needed a nap. Then disappeared for the rest of the day.

Says it all.

But wait, there’s more…

In just six months, Schlossberg burned through at least two campaign managers, two field directors, and a gaggle of advisers.

Some were unaware they’d been dismissed because Schlossberg neglected to mention it.

Jack may grow up one day. But don’t count on it. He was born with a silver spoon up his ass—and it’s stuck.

“Trump in China” (BBC)

Much ado about very little.

Whatever frequency you tune into, nothing fundamental about the Chinese Communist Party has changed.

Not one iota.

Their gameplay is as simple as it is straightforward: Wait out Donald Trump’s second term as president.

Democracies lurch. Elections happen. Policies somersault. Washington thinks in news cycles.

The CCP thinks in dynastic time.

Beijing’s objective remains what it has long been: economic leverage abroad, technological acquisition, strategic expansion, Taiwan folded into the mother ship.

If Marco Rubio becomes president, Beijing waits longer.

If a softer administration arrives, Beijing recalculates accordingly.

Patience is their operating system.

Meanwhile: espionage, influence operations, intellectual property theft, strategic land purchases inside the USA, and China’s broader geopolitical partnerships continue as before.

And what did Xi gain from Trump’s visit?

1. The message for domestic Chinese consumption: America was eager to come to us. (Authoritarian systems prize symbolism.)

2. If meetings, summits, “constructive dialogue,” or vague framework agreements slow escalation of tariffs and sanctions, Beijing wins breathing room.

3. Any high-level diplomatic visit is intelligence harvest season.

Who’s in Trump’s orbit? Who influences him the most? What irritates him? What vanity buttons work best? What concessions matter?

The Chinese are disciplined listeners.

4. Taiwan. Beijing watches for signals. Did Trump emphasize Taiwan? Downplay it? Treat it transactionally? Mention defense ambiguously? Every nuance gets parsed.

China’s ideal outcome: No humiliating concessions. Maximum delay. Maximum ambiguity while outlasting Trump.

Meanwhile…

A pair of very welcome headlines from UK tabloids:

“Moscow rocked by blistering drone strikes” (The Sun)

“Putin ‘could be toppled in ‘60s-style palace coup’ as Russian elites ‘turn’ on him” (The Star)

About friggin’ time.

And finally…

“I‘m a pastor who attended a secret UFO disclosure meeting. We saw images of ‘translucent beings’ that chilled me to the bone” (Daily Mail)

Pastor Joseph Zupetz was invited to a private meeting in Tennessee, where intelligence insiders discussed the idea that unidentified objects could be inter-dimensional beings.

“At the meeting,” he said, “I was shown images of entities that were translucent, standing in a wooded environment, with long arms and legs.”

Big deal—I already have a Polaroid of such beings…

The line between intelligence briefing and Comic-Con panel continues to blur.

And there’s more: Looking over some pics I took of the sky over Butterfly Beach on a moody day, I discovered I’d captured a flying saucer…

…along with an alien peering out the right-side windows…

What a week—whew!

“WE GIVE A HOOT!”

And you should too.

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Promoting Dynamism in Santa Barbara and the Central Coast

Last week, I asked a simple question: Who is our congressman politically?

This week, it is fair to ask an obvious follow-up.

What about Bob Smith? What are my solutions?

I am not running for Congress to be a career politician while the Central Coast becomes increasingly unaffordable for working families.

I am running because this district has extraordinary assets and people, and far more potential than what we see from Washington. Most importantly, I want our families and children to have a future here.

Too many young people are growing up believing they will never be able to afford a home on the Central Coast, raise a family, or build a meaningful career here. I do not accept the idea that decline, outmigration, and shrinking opportunity are inevitable.

And unlike many politicians, I have spent most of my career operating inside large complex systems where results mattered.

I worked on major defense acquisition programs, federal budgeting, and national security systems where schedules, execution, and outcomes mattered. You learned very quickly that complaining is not leadership. Delivering is.

My professional career has largely centered around one thing: integrating talented people, complex systems, and competing priorities into solutions that work. That is my superpower.

That is exactly what the Central Coast needs right now. Congress increasingly operates the opposite way.

Today, the out-of-power party often focuses more on undermining the party in power than on solving problems, because political dysfunction creates future campaign talking points.

Congress has struggled to pass full budgets on time since 1997. Major legislation increasingly only happens when one party controls the House, Senate, and White House simultaneously and pushes massive bills through on party-line votes, only for the other side to spend years trying to repeal it.

No successful military organization or major company could operate this way for long and survive.

Bringing Resources Back To This Area

I intend to immediately elevate the Central Coast’s level of federal influence and investment.

We are a high-value district operating below our potential. We contribute roughly $16,000 per person to federal taxes, which is well above the national average.

Roughly $8 billion flows back into the district through mandatory and discretionary federal spending. Most of that is baseline funding tied to defense missions, Social Security, Medicare, transportation formulas, and existing federal programs.

That money largely flows regardless of who occupies the congressional seat.

Think of that as the cake already being baked federally.

The real measure of congressional influence is the icing added on top: the additional investments, research partnerships, infrastructure funding, industry growth, and federal opportunities, a representative brings back to the district each year.

After that $8 billion comes back to the district in the normal budget, there’s about $5,000 per person left that we contribute to the federal budget. The measurable member-driven discretionary impact (The icing) is roughly $15-20 per person annually, totaling about $12-15 million. Influential congresspeople impact much more. The table below shows three other CA members of Congress from different parties.

Figure 1. Congressional Influence Tiers

This district and region possess force multipliers that most regions in America would love to have:

• Vandenberg Space Force Base

• Port Hueneme – only deep-water harbor between Long Beach and San Francisco

• University of California, Santa Barbara

• California Polytechnic State University

I will use these to aggressively pursue federal investments in aerospace, defense modernization, advanced manufacturing, energy infrastructure, AI, and research partnerships.

My goal is simple: bring more high-paying industries, more research partnerships, more infrastructure investment, and more opportunities back to this region.

I don’t need years of experience as a junior congressional member to learn Washington, D.C. I’m already formally trained in the budget and processes.

Affordability

Affordability is largely impacted by overregulation and energy costs. I will focus on reducing both.

California continues to pursue increasingly expensive and politically driven infrastructure concepts – such as offshore wind – while affordability continues to collapse. I intend to bring practical engineering back into the conversation. This is my skillset.

I do not support turning the Central Coast into another endless mega-project defined by delays, lawsuits, cost overruns, and political theater. I support reliable energy and water infrastructure built around modern engineering, stable baseload power, and long-term affordability.

Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) Are the Future

They provide emissions-free power, support desalination, strengthen grid reliability, and require far less land and transmission infrastructure than many current proposals.

Instead of high-density infill in areas that can’t support it or that impact agricultural lands, I will work to identify underutilized federal properties that can be transferred, redeveloped, or repurposed for housing, industry, and economic growth.

Old federal sites, deteriorating facilities, and unused land should not sit idle while working families cannot afford housing. For example, there are thousands of acres of unused federal prison grounds in Lompoc. Additionally, I will use Vandenberg’s increased activity to ensure the local infrastructure can support it without raising your taxes, as proposed.

At the same time, I will push for aggressive forest management, brush clearing, and fire prevention efforts before the Central Coast experiences a preventable wildfire disaster. This will bring down insurance costs.

The federal lands above Santa Barbara and Montecito have become dangerously overgrown. We have all watched what happened in the Palisades. Ignoring fuel loads is negligence, and Californians are paying the price.

Education and Workforce Development

I intend to rebuild the Central Coast’s education and workforce ecosystem around opportunity, STEM, vocational training, and industry partnerships.

The Central Coast already possesses two world-class universities. I will work to build stronger partnerships between universities, public schools, vocational programs, defense companies, manufacturers, and technology firms.

Students should see direct pathways from public schools to universities or vocational programs, to internships, to high-paying local careers.

I intend to build that kind of ecosystem here. UCSB receives about 1/10 of the federal investment that UCSD or UCLA receives. We will fix it with hard requirements tied to measurable community outcomes, workforce development, research, and economic growth.

Final Thought

The Central Coast does not need another politician focused primarily on surviving the next election cycle. It needs leadership focused on building something.

We have the talent.

We have the universities.

We have the defense infrastructure.

We have the geography.

We produce the food.

We have the opportunity.

What we lack is leadership capable of executing effectively and delivering measurable results that make the Central Coast affordable enough for working families and young people to build a future here again.

That is exactly what I intend to bring to Congress.

•••

Bob Smith is a retired Navy veteran and candidate for California’s 24th Congressional District.

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I last wrote a piece sequencing America’s transition from a nation of faith-seeking, family-oriented pilgrims to self-seeking, nihilistic pirates. This transition has happened in other societies, and it has always been marked via the demise of the nuclear family construct by way of divorce, foregoing marriage in the first place, and childlessness, as observed by the renowned British anthropologist, J.D. Unwin, in his study of some 86 societies and civilizations. The transition is also marked by a loss of faith in, and duty to, God, along with the loss of rational thinking skills.

Many times, this transition has occurred because of relative success in the world that caused societies and cultures to drift away from their moorings and suffer shipwreck. Suffice it to say, what people refer to today as progress is really a renewed form of cultural suicide. Regarding America, this all began in the 1960s.

In this piece, we will view events and values through a lens primarily focused on women, highlighting the impact on intact families and the nuclear family structure that once served to create stability and prosperity in our culture in every meaning of the word.

Next week, we will take a look through a lens focused on men.

1) The pill and abortion served to “liberate” women from pregnancy initially, and childbearing ultimately. The fact that the women’s liberation movement considered the defacto antithesis of maternal instinct liberating, speaks volumes. Meanwhile, it also deleteriously affected child-rearing. Because “a woman’s place” was no longer “in the home,” the purpose and value of home life was upended. The raising of children by way of nurturing and the inculcation of values became subordinated to the oppositive value of leaving the home to find “meaning” in work.

2) The Equal Pay Act of 1963 gave women in the workplace the right to equal pay for equal work. Whereas, that sounds fair on the surface, the previous thinking was that men were heads of households and they needed higher pay because they had to support their wives and families at home. The subsequent lowering of pay for men now forced mothers out of the home into the workplace while displacing their extremely vulnerable children into preschools, which offer all the nurture of an orphanage, and after that, modern society created the phenomenon of latchkey kids.

3) The welfare system created in the 1960s financially rewarded mothers to have no man in the home even if they were married. What is worse, having a baby out of wedlock created a revenue stream for unemployed single women.

4) The women’s liberation movement not only encouraged women to forego child rearing, it also encouraged single women to begin families on their own and to pursue equality with men in the marketplace as a source of fulfilment. Thereby, stay-at-home wives and mothers began to be looked down upon as old-fashioned and oppressed.

5) The combination of the pill, abortion and the women’s liberation movement coincided with the free sex movement and shacking up. Sexuality triumphed over self-control and chastity. Per Unwin, when any society forsook prenuptial chastity, a form of human entropy evolved, that is, a gradual dissent into disorder. Why was this so important? Because it opened a pandora’s box that served to weaken the bonds of life-long absolute monogamy and fidelity.

6) No-fault divorce laws made divorce easy and quick, and courts favored mothers for primary custody, thereby leaving a significant number of children in a fatherless home, which is the leading indicator of nearly every modern social ill in our society today, including criminal behavior, suicide, homelessness, and drug and alcohol abuse.

7) God was declared dead; God-given maternal instinct was put on life support, and the results are in.

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