These words of Benjamin Franklin, in response to the question of what kind of government the United States was to have, a republic or a democracy, are exceedingly prescient today, for we are surrounded, infected, and infested, by enemies within and without.

The four enemies I will focus on today (there are many more than four) are progressivism, the Democratic Socialists of America, radical Islam, and America’s four horsemen of the apocalypse (hedonism, nihilism, materialism, and narcissism).

Progressivism

Just in time for our 250^th birthday party, progressives in California are blowing up the basic premise of our constitution by fomenting class warfare. This rotten political ideology posits that virtually everything about America is either a lie or wrong. That is, the Constitution was a racist construct aimed at preserving white, male power. Progressives also believe it is wrong for people to become successful, but it is right to redistribute their wealth to people who have done nothing to earn it or deserve it.

California, like other blue states, is at the epicenter of progressivism. On the ballot this November is the so-called billionaire’s wealth tax which is not to be confused with an income tax. This class of earners are already paying more than their “fair share” of taxes. Together, the top 1% of earners (which includes multi-millionaires) in our state pay upwards of 45% of all income tax collected, some $122 billion annually SEIU, the Service Employees International Union, is behind the initiative, not because they are concerned about state and federal benefit cuts to the poor, but because their members stand to lose their jobs as a result of the cuts.

This tax taxes wealth, including the unrealized value of businesses, stocks, bonds, art, collectibles, and intellectual property. Of course, the problem here is that the billionaires are leaving and taking their companies, tax revenues, and jobs, with them. It is estimated that $1 trillion in assets have left the state, which means the state’s income tax revenue will crater unless the middle class makes up the difference via future tax hikes. In other words, our state economy is set to implode because of the unmitigated greed of public employee unions in this state who have additionally burdened us with upwards of $1 trillion in unfunded pension liabilities.

The Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) are progressives on crack. Take for an example, Avila Chevalier, who just won the Democrat primary for New York’s 13th District, with the support and endorsement of the current leader of the pack, New York Mayor Mamdani. Avila Chevalier has been described by some as “like AOC, but to the left.” According to CNN, “Darializa Avila Chevalier, deleted a previous Twitter account that included thousands of posts and reposts expressing support for abolishing police, prisons and borders, as well as seizing private property and nationalizing major industries and calling into question Israel’s “right to exist.”

That begs the question, that people like James Carville are asking, why are DSA members allowed to run as Democrats?

Extinguishing the Flame of Freedom

Of course, the progressives are responsible for creating the circumstances that have led to the election of radicals like Mamdani and “the squad” (Tlaib, Omar, Pressley, and the like who are considered DSA “affiliates”), namely by flooding our country with poor immigrants from third world countries who constitute their main constituent voting bloc. That is, these immigrants are voting for fellow immigrants like Chevalier, Mamdani and Omar. For example, according to censusreporter.com, Chevalier won her party’s nomination by winning a district where 33% of the population is foreign-born, 55% of households speak a language other than English at home, and most of the people are poor, earning a paltry median income of $37,754. In other words, a constituency that would love to be the beneficiaries of the redistribution of wealth via a distortion of the American dream that can only survive by destroying the American dream.

It is not an accident that many of the leaders of the DSA and their affiliates are Muslim radicals that did not come here to assimilate but to conquer. I do believe there are many Muslims in America that wish our country no harm. They are not proponents of Sharia law, or jihad. They don’t support the genocide of Jews and the elimination of the Jewish State of Israel.

But, the fact remains, America, just like Europe, is being colonized by radical Islam. One illustration I can give you about this is a statement made by the UAE, a solid Muslim country. The UAE provides scholarships to its own citizens (UAE nationals) to study at foreign universities, in addition to supporting them at local institutions. However, the United Arab Emirates is restricting students from enrolling at UK universities amid fears campuses are being radicalized by Islamist groups, namely, the Muslim Brotherhood. Well, this radical movement is not restricted to our cousins across the pond!

Last year, “The Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy (ISGAP) released its landmark report, The Muslim Brotherhood’s Strategic Entryism into Western Society: A Systematic Analysis, at a high-level policy event in Washington, D.C., featuring members of Congress, senior diplomats, policy experts, and leading researchers. The report represents the first-of-its-kind comprehensive strategic assessment of the Muslim Brotherhood’s 100-year plan at its halfway point, mapping its ideological, institutional, and financial penetration into North America.

The 200-page analysis provides a detailed account of how the Brotherhood has spent five decades embedding itself within Western institutions while maintaining ideological opposition to democracy and pluralism. Drawing on authenticated internal documents, verified network mapping, and extensive case studies, the research reveals a coordinated, multi-generational project designed to influence policy, education, and civil society from within.

As stated, “the Muslim brotherhood is not simply a political movement but a transnational ideological project that adapts itself to Western systems while working to undermine them. The Brotherhood has learned to use the very freedoms of democracy as tools to erode it from within, exploiting the tolerance and openness of liberal societies as strategic vulnerabilities.”

Forgetting God

Of course, none of these things would be a problem for America or in America, were it not for the four horsemen of our apocalypse. As Robert George outlined in his report, “Solzhenitsyn’s Prophecy,” on the occasion of the 1978 commencement speech to Harvard graduates, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn offered a severe critique of American society. It was a time, as George noted, that anti-Americanism was flourishing both abroad and at home. Many Americans—particularly young Americans—had lost faith in their country, its institutions, its principles, its culture, its traditions, and its way of life. He viewed the West’s weakness, including its weakness in truly standing up to Soviet aggression, as the fruit of the materialism, consumerism, self-indulgent individualism, emotivism, and narcissism—in a word, the immorality—into which we had allowed ourselves to sink.

What is behind all this? According to Solzhenitsyn, the moral decline of the West has behind it the same factor that produced the horrors of communism, namely this: “Men have forgotten God.” People worship themselves, deify their own desires, fall into an idolatry of the self, because they have forgotten that there is something—indeed someone—higher.

They have forgotten God.

And, I might add, they have forgotten the warning of Benjamin Franklin as they can’t define what constitutes a constitutional republic even though their life and their freedom depend on it!

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I must apologize for all the minutia in this piece, however, I feel it necessary to flush out the devil in the details as it pertains to all the ridiculous complaints about the SAVE Act, the passage of which is necessary to ensure the integrity of our elections.

Accordingly, what I will outline will serve to demonstrate that the requirements of the SAVE Act are scarcely more stringent than obtaining a CA driver’s license, and are virtually equal to obtaining a CA REAL ID. However, in the state of CA, what is required to prove identity to register to vote is, by comparison to all of the above, a contemptible absurdity.

The utter truth is that Democrats are lying when they say the SAVE Act will disenfranchise voters, especially minority voters, some 20 million of them, according to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.

Under the SAVE Act, individuals registering to vote in federal elections must provide documentary proof of U.S. citizenship. Acceptable documents include:

REAL ID-compliant driver’s license (more on that later)

U.S. passport or passport card

Military ID card along with a military service record showing U.S. birthplace

A government-issued photo ID showing the applicant’s place of birth

In-person presentation is required for both in-person and mail-voter registration applications.

None of these requirements are stringent, considering the fact that in order to get on a plane or enter a federal building you have to have a REAL ID (or passport), which, in CA, can only be obtained with virtually the same documents and the same in-person verification process!

The REAL ID Act was enacted in response to the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, following recommendations from the 9/11 Commission to establish federal standards for identification documents such as driver’s licenses. The Act passed the House 388-43. It passed the Senate 99-0.

That brings up the question of why Democrats didn’t oppose REAL ID for the same reasons as they oppose the SAVE Act, relatedly claiming it would disenfranchise minorities?

That is, to obtain a California REAL ID, you must provide proof of identity, your Social Security number, and prove your California residency. You must bring all the documents to complete your application at a DMV office so that they can be verified.

The key requirements for a California REAL ID include:

1. You must present an original or certified document showing your full legal name and date of birth. Acceptable documents include a valid U.S. passport, original or certified birth certificate,

2. You need to provide your SSN using documents such as a Social Security card, W-2 form, or pay stub showing your full SSN,

3. Proof of California Residency: Applicants must present two documents showing their full name and California residential address.

Acceptable documents include:

Rental or lease agreements

Utility bills (gas, water, electricity, cable)

Deed or title to residential property

Vehicle or vessel registration/title

Bank or insurance statements

To get a plain old ordinary driver’s license in the state of CA, the required documentation is pretty much the same as all of the above. You need proof of identity, Social Security number, and California residency, along with passing a vision and driving test.

Key Requirements

1. Proof of Identity:

You must provide one original or certified document showing your full legal name and date of birth. Acceptable documents include an unexpired U.S. passport, a certified U.S. birth certificate, or a valid permanent resident card. If your legal name has changed, bring a certified document linking the old and new names, such as a marriage certificate or court order,

2. Social Security Number:

Applicants must provide their Social Security number, verified electronically by the DMV. Acceptable proofs include a Social Security card, W-2 form, or pay stub showing the full number.

3. California Residency:

You need to prove California residency. For a standard license, one document is required; for a REAL ID, two documents are needed. Acceptable documents include utility bills, rental or lease agreements, mortgage statements, bank statements, or employment records, all showing your name and California address

I said all that to indicate that complying with the SAVE ACT is similar to the process of getting a regular driver’s license or a REAL ID.

Yet, consider the fact that California allows first-time voters, who can’t provide a Social Security number or driver’s license to prove identity while registering to vote, to register using such things as a gym membership card, a credit or debit card, or a prescription drug label. The law states, “Any doubt as to the sufficiency of proof or a document presented shall be resolved in favor of permitting the voter or new registrant to cast a regular ballot,” knowing full well that, for instance, a prescription drug label doesn’t come with either a photo ID or an address.

California politicians have the obvious choice to run their state elections in a manner that would be abhorrent in most banana republics, but they certainly have no prerogative to use these lax verification procedures when federal election results are at stake, and that is what the SAVE Act is all about.

Please support its passage.

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Sometimes it is hard to imagine just how stupid California legislators and regulators can be.

If you recall, for 68 years there was an oil facility in Nipomo, known as the Santa Maria Refinery, that treated oil produced from the Santa Maria Valley and received by pipeline. After treatment there, another pipeline sent the semi-refined oil to the Bay area to the Phillips Rodeo facility for further refinement.

Well, the Santa Maria refinery was shut down in 2023 because the Rodeo facility switched production to renewable fuels exclusively, to satisfy the demands of the extremists who want to shut down the CA oil industry entirely.

The defacto closure of this facility for oil production, among other refinery closures, is the reason gasoline prices are so high in CA. Furthermore, because Santa Barbara County wouldn’t recognize the right of oil producers to truck their product because the pipeline was no longer available, these producers have been forced to shut down, meaning even less oil is available to other refiners.

Here’s the Rest of the Story

The facility in the Bay area that switched to the production of biofuels only, is now facing a state mandated cap (20%) on the production of diesel and aviation fuels made from soybeans. This is hurting farmers in the Midwest and it is eliminating one of the major (50-55%) feed stocks for the biofuels. The loss of these fuels will result in California importing refined gasoline from Africa, Asia, and the Middle East to make up the difference.

You couldn’t make up a story this stupid no matter how hard you tried. What’s not to love? Unless you are an idiot regulator in the state of CA.

Ironically, the Rodeo facility is so old it previously produced kerosene from whale oil back in 1896. Hence, switching to fossil fuels back then saved the whales. The same thing happened on the current site of UCSB back in the day. A whaling station was succeeded by an asphaltum (natural asphalt). In the 1890s, asphaltum was mined from a site at the northwestern corner of the lagoon wetlands. The ore body was a large molasses-like deposit a few feet below ground, later mined by sinking shafts and horizontal drift tunnels down to 550 feet.

See the rich history here: https://goletahistory.com/goleta-asphalt/

What caused the plant to close? Today, asphalt concrete is almost exclusively made from crude oil refined into bitumen, mixed with aggregates like gravel and sand. And we still rely on it nearly exclusively to pave our roads. Hence, the war on oil is forcing us to not only import refined gasoline but will soon force us to also import the oil to make asphalt.

Of course, we must also mention the poke in the eye of the local leaders and residents who want nothing to do with oil and gas, as natural seeps off our coast pollute the ocean and our shores and generate the single largest source of emissions in our county. Only drilling relieves the pressure, but what does that mean to the oblivious who refuse to see the obvious?

One More Thing

While our county and our state are still in climate-change jihad mode, much of the rest of the world have cooled their jets, so to speak. Environmental zealot, Bill Gates, who wants us to consume bugs instead of beef as a source of a protein-rich diet, has somehow had an epiphany about the so-called existential threat to mankind from climate change. He now admits there is no existential threat and that we as a society should use our time, energy, and money, to address more pressing needs.

Gates is not alone. The UN Climate panel recently admitted that their most extreme prognostications were nothing but hot air. And even Black Rock CEO Larry Fink, who was trying to force ESG (enviro-social-governance) down the throats of the investors in his $14 trillion behemoth fund, now makes the following claim: “For several years, I’ve argued for energy pragmatism. Meeting rising demand will require expanding supply across oil and gas, in addition to renewables, storage, nuclear, and the grid. The goal is not to favor one technology over another.”

Q. What caused these folks to come to their senses?

A. Data centers and their massive power requirements that can’t be supplied by wind and solar.

I am calling their epiphanies a data center repentance. The question is when will California political leaders, including those on the Central Coast, get some religion and some honest pragmatism?

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The most puzzling election outcome in CA last week was the race for mayor in L.A. Mayor Karen Bass is the first mayor in 21 years that didn’t win outright in June. Spencer Pratt was the first Republican in a very long time consistently polling high enough to force a runoff.

But a funny thing happened after the polls closed. An L.A. councilwoman by the name of Nithya V. Raman soared to second place in a very startling fashion.

Raman is a “Democratic Socialist,” often characterized as the West-Coast Mamdani. However, the Democratic Socialists didn’t endorse her in this race. Raman also waited until the last minute – just hours before the deadline – to enter the race and that was after she had already endorsed Bass. Moreover, she didn’t win the most votes for mayor from her own constituents in her own city council district. And finally, if that isn’t enough, Raman basically conceded defeat on election night in front of her supporters.

The Dirty Details

Well, of course, we no longer have election night in CA, we have election month. And, within days of the polls closing, votes came pouring in for Raman in, quite frankly, an unbelievable torrent.

On election night June 3, Mayor Bass had received 37% of the vote, or about 139,000 votes. Pratt had 30% of the vote, at 117,000. Raman? She had 21%, at 79,000 votes.

A few days and updates later – June 7, to be exact –, the mayor’s votes had increased to 250,000, a 79% increase. Pratt’s totals went to 193,000, a 70% increase. Raman? She went from 79,000 votes to 196,000 – a 148% increase – meaning, percentage wise, she garnered about as many votes as Bass and Pratt combined.

By June 8, Bass was at 276,000. Pratt had 207,000. And Raman had 229,000. All in all, from when the polls closed on June 3, Raman received a 190% increase in votes.

How did she get so popular all of a sudden?

In the old days, most results held on election night through the rest of the ballot processing period. But, with ballot harvesting, late dumps can now create some mystifying results.

If Raman’s district didn’t vote for her, and her ideologues in the DSA didn’t endorse her, how did she come in second, to her own surprise?

Inquiring minds want to know.

Of course, finding out the particulars isn’t going to be easy, because the state of CA has a new law, Senate Bill 73, signed into law by Governor Gavin Newsom just days before the June 2026 primary, to prevent unauthorized law enforcement interference with state elections. The law explicitly bars certain actions that could be used to disrupt or investigate election results without proper legal authority, read that, a court order. How is someone supposed to collect enough evidence to justify a court order? Including the federal government, which has a distinct interest in the federal elections overseen and conducted by state and local authorities, not to mention the over-arching authority of the supremacy clause.

That remains to be seen.

AB2624 Prevents Exposing Fraud By Legal Means

I, for one, believe SB 73 is akin to another bill aimed at protecting potential fraud. That would be the “Stop Nick Shirley Act”: AB2624.

Nick Shirley is a citizen journalist exposing widespread fraud across the country, fraud that is bankrupting the United States. The Act seeks to intimidate citizen journalists from investigating and exposing corruption, such as that already uncovered by Mr. Shirley in Minnesota and CA.

If a citizen journalist shows up at a fake hospice center with a camera, for example, our pro-crime government could levy fines starting at $4,000.

As reported by the California Globe, “Nick Shirley has released a devastating 40-minute investigative video that exposes what appears to be massive waste and potential fraud in California’s hospice, Medi-Cal, and daycare, programs. His report, now viewed more than 7.7 million times on X, uncovers over $170 million in questionable billings tied to ghost hospice and daycare operations that show virtually no signs of actually caring for patients or children.”

Nick Shirley writes: “This bill puts journalists at civil risk for investigating fraud and makes it harder to expose fraud in “immigration support services,” including nonprofits and health care facilities that receive hundreds of millions from the state of California each year.

Want to know the insult to the injury?

The Stop Nick Shirley bill was authored by Assembly member Mia Bonta, wife of California Attorney General Rob Bonta. It is Rob Bonta’s job to investigate fraud. He is not interested in anything, however, but continually suing the Trump administration. And now he and his wife are preventing others from doing his job.

Shutting down investigative journalism is a form of tyranny and so are unexplainable election results.

“All tyrannies rule through fraud and force, but once the fraud is exposed, they must rely exclusively on force.” – George Orwell

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At the time I am writing this, we only have preliminary election results to consider. That is because the state of California takes longer – by design – to count votes.

The biggest news is that, for the first time in a very long time, it appears that a Republican with a chance to win will be on the November ballot in the governor’s race. Steve Hilton could be competitive, if and only if, Bianco and his supporters will work for him in November. Unfortunately, Republicans are famous for holding grudges due to bruised egos and other abnormalities.

The LA mayor’s race could result in the first run-off, versus an outright win for a Democrat, in 21 years. All it took was for an entirely inept administration, led by incumbent Mayor Karen Bass, to be held accountable for helping to burn entire communities to the ground and then stand in the way of the victims’ ability to rebuild.

Locally, the 5^th district supervisor’s race appears headed to a runoff too. In this case, I am fairly confident that the supporters of the apparent third-place finisher will get behind Maribel Aguilera for the win in November.

Having said all that, let’s go back to systemic delays in counting votes because those delays create conditions ripe for fraud.

Democrats and Rigged Elections

Do any of you remember Rod R. Blagojevich, who served as the 40^th Governor of Illinois? In December 2008, a federal investigation led to Blagojevich’s arrest on corruption charges after he attempted to sell the U.S. Senate seat vacated by Barack Obama upon his election to the presidency. He was subsequently convicted and sent to prison, only to have President Trump commute his sentence before pardoning him.

I bring this up because Blagojevich says that rigged elections by his party were commonplace during his time as Illinois governor through illegal aliens voting, fraudulent electronic voting machines, and phony mail-in ballots; and the fraud was particularly egregious in the Democrat-controlled city of Chicago, albeit, he added that cheating is a ‘time-honored’ tradition in Democrat-controlled cities throughout the country. That is, when asked if the Democrat Party steals elections, Blago’s answer was quite blunt: “Is the Pope Catholic?”

Here in CA, we may not know the outcome of some of the electoral races for an entire month. This is because CA has some of the laxest rules in the nation pertaining to turning in and/or mailing in ballots. I firmly believe the reason for this is to legalize opportunities for fraud. That is, one of the most basic opportunities for fraud is via ballot harvesting which breaks the chain of control of the ballot between the voter and the registrar of voters.

Illegal Voting Continues Apace

We also know for certain that there is nothing stopping illegal aliens from voting in our state because there is no required proof of citizenship needed to obtain a ballot and vote if you are willing to lie on the registration form asserting your right to vote. As reported by the California Post, “Welfare offices and other agencies in at least 46 U.S. states are providing voter registration forms to migrants without requiring proof of citizenship, leading Republicans, and conservatives to call for swift federal action to stop the handouts. If an applicant (illegally) attests that he is a U.S. citizen, that is considered valid on its face and the person is registered to vote — except in Virginia, Tennessee, and New Mexico, where they must provide a full Social Security number as well.

Every state but North Dakota, New Hampshire, Wisconsin, and Wyoming, give applicants for either welfare benefits, driver’s licenses, or in some cases, mail-in ballots, federal voter registration forms without demanding proof of citizenship.

To remedy this situation, The Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act would require states to receive proof of citizenship when anyone registers to vote by mail, at a DMV or a welfare agency office. But, of course, the Dems in the Senate are stalling the bill.

Regarding fraudulent homeless voting in CA, as reported by USA Today, the feds dropped several felony charges in exchange for a guilty plea from Brenda Lee Brown Armstrong, of Marina del Rey, California, a longtime signature collector for ballot initiatives. She was charged with one felony count of paying another person to register to vote, the U.S. Department of Justice said in a Monday, May 18 news release. Armstrong has agreed to plead guilty, prosecutors said.

The quote “It’s not the people who vote that count. It’s the people who count the votes,” is often attributed to Joseph Stalin. Whether or not he said it, it is a truth that hits home too often in California.

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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

SBCurrent’s Primary Endorsements Here:

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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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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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 ob…

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I am doing a three-part series in recognition of our nation’s 250^th Anniversary. These three articles are, in my opinion, some of the most important information I have sought to convey in my 35 years as a journalist. I hope you will consider them carefully.

An Orgy of “Self”

Whereas our nation’s motto is still “In God We Trust,” in reality, we have fallen…

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Due to Gavin Newsom’s order that everyone receive their ballot by mail, your ballots may have arrived by the time you read this message.

I would like to share some of my personal recommendations for this election cycle.

For the governor’s race, I am leaning towards Steve Hilton, but I would be happy with Chad Bianco. That is to say, I am hoping that things are bad enough in our state that people will wake up and realize the current day Democrat Party has nothing to offer but more of the same, namely, the interrelated and cumulative impacts of inane policies and priorities resulting in the most unaffordable housing, gasoline, and electricity, not to mention the highest taxes, poverty, and homelessness, in the nation.

Our problem here in California, considering decades of failed leadership by elected Democrats, is that some people, namely Democrat voters and some Independents, are under the awful delusion that maybe the next Dem they vote for won’t be so bad. Let me tell you something. We haven’t had a good Democrat serving as Governor since Pat Brown. Having said that, Grey Davis would be an improvement over the likes of Jerry Brown, Gavin Newsom, or any of the Dems running for governor in this election cycle; the party is becoming progressively worse over time.

Here Are My Recommendations

For Congress, District 24, Bob Smith

For State Insurance Commissioner, Stacy Korsgaden

For State Superintendent of Public Schools, Sonja Shaw

For Attorney General, Michael Gates

For State Controller, Herb Morgan

For State Assembly District 37, Sari Domingues

For State Assembly District 30, Shannon Kessler

For Board of Equalization District 2, J. Brett Marymee

For Superior Court of Santa Barbara County, Luis Esparza

Local Races

For the following races, please be advised that some of these are going to be over in June. You can’t wait until November to decide who you want to vote for.

In SLO County, I am supporting Adam Verdin for 4^th District County Supervisor.

And Michael Erin Woody – SLO County Board of Supervisors, District 2.

For SLO County Clerk-Recorder, Vanessa Rozo.

In Santa Barbara County’s Fifth District please vote for Maribel Aguilera for County Supervisor.

For Santa Barbara County for Auditor Controller, please vote for Betsy Schaffer.

For Santa Barbara County Clerk, Recorder, Assessor, please support Melinda Greene.

In Conclusion

Have you ever done the math on our election process and its abysmal results in our state? There are approximately 22 million eligible voters in California.

A very large number of eligible people, three to four million, have never bothered to register to vote in CA, some 17%. In the general election of 2024, nearly 29% of registered voters did not vote, which equates to over 6.5 million voters. Add those numbers up and you have some 10 million people that are sitting out our elections regularly.

Here is where things get interesting. Of the 16 million who do vote, approximately 60% (9.6 million) of those continue to vote for the politicians that have been making a mess of this state for decades at every level of government, namely Democrats. That is, they keep voting for the party of regular debt and pension debt, high taxes, failing and undersized infrastructure, and decarceration, not to mention rampant waste, fraud, and abuse (rising to a cost of $17,000/yr per voter by some early estimates).

All in all, Democrats represent about 45% of the voters in CA, but control some 75-100% of elected positions, depending on the community (most all coastal communities are solid blue). In Santa Barbara’s south county, I don’t believe there is a single Republican on any city council. In our state legislature, Democrats have had super-majorities for some 14 years. Our state’s congressional delegation consists of 42 Dems, 7 Republicans and 1 Independent in the House of Representatives and two Democrat U.S. Senators.

Their stranglehold appears to be breaking, however: the GOP flipped three seats in the 2024 election (which is the real reason for the gerrymander of Prop. 50), and the CA Democrat Party has failed to unify behind a candidate going into this open primary.

Q. What would happen if the ten million residents sitting out our elections finally get fed up and weigh in with their ballots?

A. We could turn this state red in a flash.

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During this past Tuesday’s County Board of Supervisors’ meeting, Supervisor Laura Capps (she is now the ideological leader of the county supes), with the support of Supervisors Lee and Hartmann, approved some very extreme measures that violate our Constitution, at least in spirit, if not literally.

The worst measure approved by these three has do with a …

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County Supervisors Laura Capps, Joan Hartmann, and Roy Lee are planning to shut down all oil operations in Santa Barbara County.

Why is this a horrible idea?

The number one reason California residents and businesses are paying upwards of $2 more per gallon than the rest of the country is because a multitude of CA politicians, including these locals, have …

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Have you heard of the bombshell report titled “Gavin Newsom’s Empire of Fraud?”

What follows are direct quotes from the introduction to the exposé conducted by the think tank “The Manhattan Institute for Policy Research”:

California’s Cash Machine

The state collects some of the country’s highest income, business, and fuel taxes, and now spends more than $3…

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The original No Kings movement happened a little over 2,000 years ago when some leaders of a mob shouted to Pontius Pilate, “We Have No King but Caesar!”

Just a few days earlier, a multitude of people had welcomed Jesus as king when he rode into Jerusalem on a donkey colt, not as a conqueror, but as a sacrificial lamb. That day is known as Palm Sunday, t…

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I recently warned parents about the dangers of social media, having to do with the fact that social media has been engineered to addict people, resulting in all sorts of emotional and psychological problems for children and teens. Earlier this week, it was reported that Meta and Google were found negligent in a social media addiction trial in Los Angeles, potentially setting the stage for dozens of similar lawsuits that have been brought against Big Tech companies.

Unfortunately, there are also some nefarious things happening in the world of online gaming platforms, where sexual predators hide hoping to lure children into some very dark places. One company, Roblox, is being prosecuted because the company allegedly misled parents about the safety of their platform.

How bad is it? Children as young as 13 years old can visit a virtual Epstein’s Island, strip clubs, and a Sean Diddy freak off!

These platforms, which are visited by millions of people who can remain virtually anonymous, make it extremely difficult for authorities to identify and apprehend the predators.

What’s even worse is that here in California and in other blue states, predators who have been caught and sentenced are eligible to be released from prison after only having served a small portion of their sentence.

As reported by Fox News, using California’s Megan’s Law website in 2022, the Daily Mail found that more than 7,000 sex offenders convicted of “lewd or lascivious acts with a child under 14 years of age” were released from prison within a year of being convicted.

Moreover, you can thank Democrats in Sacramento for giving one serial pedophile, Gregory Lee Vogelsang, a chance to reoffend even though he was given a 355-years-to-life sentence for sexually abusing children as young as five years old.

Due to a bill signed into law by Gavin Newsom, Vogelsang, who kidnapped and molested more than two dozen victims, could end up walking free after having served a mere 27 years of a 355 years-to-life sentence.

The bill (AB 3234) made it possible for a 50-year-old person who has served 20 consecutive years to qualify for a parole hearing.

Vogelsang, in November of 2025, was granted parole. However, after a hue and cry arose, the parole was temporarily rescinded, and the case was referred back to the Board of Parole Hearings for further review.

Another perv, David Allen Funston, was convicted in 1999 of kidnapping and molesting eight children in the Sacramento area and sentenced to three consecutive life terms. Funston was also granted parole under California’s Elderly Parole Program in February. Thankfully, however, just hours before he was due for release, law enforcement responded by slapping Funston with new charges stemming from an alleged child sexual assault that happened in Roseville in 1996.

Why did they wait to charge him on this case?

Because back in 1999, they figured he had already been sentenced to life in prison. But that all changed when he was granted parole.

Katy Grimes, of the California Globe, noted while reporting on these stories, that Newsom not only signed the heinous bill, but he also appointed or reappointed all the members of the California Parole Board. She also revealed that AB 3234 was a gut-and-amend bill passed in 2020 entirely on party lines without a hearing or notice to the public.

Gut-and-amend is a phrase used to describe a monstrous practice in our state legislature. Most every bill is typically heard first in various committees before it is voted for or against on the floor of the senate and the assembly. Gut-and-amend takes a bill that made it through that normative process and strips it of all language, replacing it with content that has never been heard or debated.

It should be called bait and switch.

Please call our local State Senator Monique Limon (916-651-4021) and the Governor (916-445-2841) and inform them that it is imperative they insist that individuals convicted of child molestation and other violent crimes do not receive early release, and that they be compelled to serve their complete sentences.

It is the only decent thing to do.

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You say you don’t want a war with Iran? Well, you are too late! Iran has been at war with us since 1979.

A simple Google search reveals the following:

In 1979, Iranian students seized the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, holding 52 Americans hostage for 444 days.

In the 1980s, Iran began using proxies like Hezbollah to target Americans abroad. Notable attacks include:

April 1983: Suicide car bombing at the U.S. Embassy in Beirut killed 17 Americans.

October 1983: Truck bomb at the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut killed 241 U.S. service members, the deadliest attack on Marines since WWII.

1984–1985: Kidnappings and assassinations, including CIA station chief William Buckley, and the hijackings of U.S. citizens .

1990s: Iran-backed groups continued targeting Americans:

1996 Khobar Towers bombing: Truck bomb killed 19 U.S. Air Force personnel in Saudi Arabia; Iran was found directly responsible.

Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad attacks in Israel killed multiple Americans, including bus bombings in Jerusalem.

During the Iraq War (2003–2011), Iran armed and trained militias responsible for at least 603 U.S. troop deaths. In Afghanistan, Iran supplied weapons and safe havens to select Taliban factions, contributing to attacks on U.S. and NATO forces.

2020–Present: Iran attacked U.S. bases in Iraq, causing over 100 traumatic brain injuries.

2023–2025: Iranian-backed militias launched over 180 attacks on U.S. forces in Iraq, Syria, and Jordan, killing, and wounding multiple Americans.

So, here we are in 2026. Why did we finally fight back? Despite all these deaths and injuries, Trump, with Israel’s help, finally attacked Iran because it was about to become a nuclear power. Why was that the tipping point?

Iran was not interested in obtaining the status of empire to obtain domination, but rather damnation, as it pertains to the rest of the world!

A brief history and explanation are in order here. All the major wars we have been involved in had to do with aspirations by foreign powers for empire. That would include Japan and Germany in World War II. Russia and the Soviet empire that created the Iron Curtain and a decades long “Cold War”, the very same empire that Putin is trying to recreate via his attacks on Ukraine. And of course, China has a goal of world domination by the year 2049 and they are well on their way by virtue of their so called “belts and roads” initiative that has already laid the groundwork for their hegemonic aspirations.

So, what about Iran? Well, the mullahs in Iran are of the Shiite faith. Their radicalized interpretation of their religion aims at destroying all non-believers via a divine mandate to usher in a day of apocalypse.

Apocalypse?

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President Trump asked the members of Congress, point blank, to stand up if they believe their first priority is the American citizen or immigrants.

He might as well have asked them if they support the people of Iran or its brutal dictators.

He would have gotten the same answer.

I don’t know of anyone who wants a war in the Middle East.

However, that is not …

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Former Facebook president Sean Parker stated that the Facebook site “was made to consume as much of your time and conscious attention as possible to exploit the vulnerability (the craving of social validation) in human psychology.”

That is a nice way to say the business model is based upon the vulnerability of humans to become addicted. Unfortunately, th…

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The very liberal Washington Post had this to say in a recent editorial:

“Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin announced the largest deregulatory action in U.S. history. It’s about time.

“Congress passed the Clean Air Act in 1963 to regulate local pollution around the country, and regulators did that for decades. Then, in 2009, the EPA …

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Two years after San Luis Obispo County Supervisors declared that road maintenance was no longer a priority, the SLO County Association of Governments wants to raise sales taxes to help maintain roads.

Talk about mixed signals!

The City of Santa Barbara is also planning to raise taxes. It is considering raising the bed taxi at hotels and motels, and worse,…

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