Oh, where to turn?

We’ve been having discussions lately about tar seeping up on our beaches. That’s what the Chumash called “pismo”… and they used it to waterproof their boats for centuries.

It occurs naturally.

And it has forever.

I recall having to clean off my Adidas after an innocent jog along Haskell’s Beach in the ‘70s. What the heck? Oil spill? Nope. Pismo.

This was around the time when we began to be asked: “Paper, or plastic?” at the grocery store. Trees, or tars? Oh, and not too much after the movie “The Graduate” with Dustin Hoffman, who was counseled that the future was “Just one word… plastics.”

Plastics made from petroleum.

Like Pismo tar.

(By the way, fun factoid, the Dustin Hoffman character, Benjamin, drove through the Gaviota tunnel on the 101, supposedly heading south to Santa Barbara to save/prevent his beloved Elaine from getting married… The tunnel only goes north.)

Anyway, I’ve been in a constant state of environmental confusion ever since.

You see, we were alerted to the impending doom of “man-made climate change” during that time. First, there was this publication called “The Whole Earth Catalog” that announced to the world that global cooling would freeze us like dinosaurs because of our immoral use of fossil fuels (which, ironically, are credited to a pile of rotting carcases of dead dinosaurs and their flora and fauna brethren, lo those many millennia ago during the “ice age”).

But that didn’t happen. And so we had to change course pretty quickly with creepy dudes like failed presidential candidate Al Gore, who “invented the internet” and who glommed on to the concept that, no, the climate wasn’t cooling… it was actually warming, and at an appalling rate, according to his “computer models.”

He got a Nobel Peace Prize for that (usually an indication that the recipient didn’t deserve it, like Obama… but I digress).

Regardless, we freaked.

And so enter the world of “environmental consciousness.”

What this meant, is that we needed to heed all guidance from those “experts” (kind of like the evil Dr. Fauci, you know, the guy who almost single-handedly wrecked our country with his so-called expertise in “science”? He should have received a Nobel too!) …

So, we relied on those “experts” anointed to council us on how to use, or not, our resources to prevent our butts from being boiled to death by the climate, (instead of frozen), that resulted from the horrors of actually trying to be a human and live in a world that we were never intended to inhabit unless we gave ourselves up to the flora and fauna that deserved to live more than we did.

There, I think I summed it up pretty good.

So here’s where we’ve come to presently. Follow the bouncing environmental ball.

Let’s just assume, for the sake of discussion, that I need to waterproof my old wooden outrigger canoe made from a tree that also makes paper bags to replace the oil-based plastic non-biodegradable ones that choke turtles that replaced the paper ones that destroyed the forests that are home for protected flora and fauna.

Otherwise, how will I paddle out to the oil platforms that have formed natural reefs for all the fish I can catch that spawn up the rivers that flow into the ocean because of the delta smelt, instead of the water being retained in reservoirs that humans need to have for drinking water and putting out the fires from the forests that haven’t been cleared because of spotted owls nesting and.... oh, the dilemma!

And by the way part deux, I can’t breathe because of the sand blowing off the dunes that are blamed on the four-wheelers even though the Chumash didn’t have them when the Nipomo Mesa was formed a millennium ago from blowing sand from the beaches.... wait for it.... the very beaches that are filled with tar, the “pismo” that had stained my Adidas that uses petroleum based components that were made in China that uses slave labor and has zero environmental sensitivity and just goes about creating most of the so called “man-made” pollution that changes the climate and forces me to use a vile oil-based solvent to clean them.

Otherwise I’d have to throw them away, thereby causing further pollution and, oh by the way part trois, causing me to have to buy another pair from China that continues the destruction that disgusting mankind has perpetrated upon the innocent natural world.

We’ve spent trillions trying to stop the climate change bogey man. You know, “environmental justice”? To no avail. And to our lifestyle detriment and budgets (that “cost of living” thing).

Feel-good failure to the max.

And whose fault is that? Well, who’s been in charge in California for the past 30-plus years besides a few impotent Republican governors?

Plus, we can’t build more clean, highly sustainable and affordable new nuclear energy plants because the aging hippies still cringe from the Three Mile Island burp that formed a nation of anti-nukers who chanted and strummed guitars around Diablo Canyon in the late ‘70s and continue to this day under the misnomer “Mothers for Peace,”

Solution: We all just need to join Heaven’s Gate and board that alien spaceship to comet Hale-Bop and leave the earth alone to heal.

There. I think I’ve figured this out.

Hold on a sec… wait.

Is it paper now?

Or plastic?

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On September 14, 2001, the German destroyer FGS Lütjens asked permission to pull alongside the USS Winston S. Churchill in the English Channel. Her crew held a banner reading, “We Stand by You.”

Twenty-five years ago, on September 10, 2001, I received an American Red Cross message aboard USS Winston S. Churchill.

I was a young enlisted sailor, and when the announcement came over the loudspeaker telling me to report to the captain’s cabin, I had about the same reaction a teenager has when told to report to the principal’s office.

I was informed that my grandfather had passed away.

At the time, Churchill was the newest and most technologically advanced destroyer in the Navy. We had just participated in the International Festival of the Sea in Portsmouth, England, alongside ships and sailors from dozens of nations. We stood duty only once every six days, were welcomed everywhere we went, and were treated almost as royalty.

After the festival, we trained in firefighting, humanitarian assistance, flight operations, ship handling, force protection, air defense, and surface warfare with the European navies.

It was hard work. It was also the most fun I had ever had in the Navy.

My captain told me our operations were not so critical that I could not leave and that I should travel home for my grandfather’s funeral. I told him I would rather stay with the ship.

I was not particularly close to my mother’s family, including my grandfather. I was enjoying the training. And, frankly, I could not afford a last-minute flight home from Europe anyway.

The captain quickly put things into perspective.

My grandfather landed on the beaches of Normandy during World War II. My captain told me that a man who had helped liberate the free world deserved to have his grandson standing at his funeral in dress blues, honoring his life, his service, and the legacy he had left behind in another generation serving his country.

That was an order.

The British sailors working with us arranged for me to be flown by helicopter to London Heathrow the next day. I used a satellite telephone to call my family. That was the last time they would hear from me for months.

America Under Attack

The next morning, September 11, we were preparing for flight operations and my departure.

Then the captain ordered the remaining British personnel off our ship. I was told I was not going anywhere. I had no idea why.

Their helicopter departed. Shortly afterward, the familiar bells rang throughout the ship.

“General quarters, general quarters. All hands, man your battle stations.”

My first thought was that we were doing another training exercise.

I ran from the hangar bay to my general-quarters station and manned the radar. I was sitting behind one of the most advanced naval air-defense systems in the world.

Then the captain came over the loudspeaker. “The United States is under attack.”

Our job was to continue providing the air-defense picture over England and watch for anything unusual. Civilian aircraft were being grounded. We were to remain alert for indications of additional hijacked aircraft.

And then I watched something I had never seen before. The sky emptied.

One by one, aircraft disappeared from my radar screen until the airspace went silent.

Across the Atlantic, Americans had experienced the most consequential 17 minutes of our generation.

At 8:46 a.m., American Airlines Flight 11 struck the North Tower of the World Trade Center.

At 9:03 a.m., United Airlines Flight 175 struck the South Tower.

Innocence Lost

For Americans old enough to understand what happened that morning, those 17 minutes changed the way our minds processed catastrophe.

At 8:46, people saw an airplane hit a building and thought, “accident.” After 9:03, when an incident occurs in a public place, our first thought is terrorism. In 17 minutes, our innocence was taken forever.

By the end of that morning, 2,977 innocent people had been murdered, including 441 first responders.

Those first responders were not simply caught in the attack. They ran toward it. They had family waiting for them at home. They went in anyway.

One of them was New York City firefighter Stephen Siller. Siller had finished his overnight shift and was headed to meet his brothers for a round of golf when he heard what had happened. Unable to drive through the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel because it had been closed, he strapped roughly 60 pounds of firefighting gear onto his body and ran through the tunnel toward the World Trade Center.

He never came home.

September 11 changed the country immediately. Enhanced security became part of nearly everything we did. We could no longer enter many ports without adequate force protection, just as families could no longer meet arriving loved ones at airport gates.

The next two decades of my Navy career would be dominated by the aftermath of that morning.

I deployed repeatedly in support of the Global War on Terrorism. Thousands of American service members would lose their lives. They were all volunteers. Nobody drafted them.

One of them was 29-year-old Navy SEAL Lieutenant Michael Murphy. In Afghanistan in 2005, Murphy’s team was discovered by three unarmed Afghan goat herders. Faced with an ethical dilemma, they chose to release them. Their position was soon compromised, and a much larger Taliban force attacked. With communications failing, he moved into the open to get a signal and call for help, knowingly exposing himself to enemy fire.

Murphy, two of his teammates, and all 16 men aboard the helicopter sent to rescue them were killed.

Murphy ultimately died fighting an enemy that did not share his regard for innocent life.

Remembering Sacrifice

Recently, I attended a Tunnel to Towers event in Huntington Beach. Their traveling museum included a steel beam recovered from the World Trade Center.

I watched people standing around it, and something struck me.

Anyone under 25 years old was not alive when the towers fell. They never had innocence to lose.

They do not remember a world before enhanced airport security checkpoints and a generation of war.

For them, September 11 is history. Normandy was history to me.

And that brought me back to my grandfather.

On September 10, 2001, I was a young sailor who thought staying aboard my ship sounded more important, and certainly more fun, than flying home for the funeral of a grandfather I barely knew.

My captain would not allow me to dismiss what that man’s life represented.

My grandfather had crossed an ocean, landed on the beaches of Normandy, and risked his life for freedoms I had inherited.

Remembering sacrifice is itself a responsibility.

Twenty-five years later, that responsibility belongs to us.

Our children should know how 17 minutes changed our world.

They should know why firefighters ran up the stairs while everyone else was running down.

They should know why the passengers aboard Flight 93 decided that, if they were going to die, they would fight first.

They should know the names of people like Stephen Siller and Michael Murphy.

And they should understand why an entire generation of Americans raised their hands to serve afterward.

Twenty-five years ago, I sat in front of a radar console thousands of miles from home and watched the sky go empty.

The world I knew that morning never returned. We owe it to the generation that came after us to explain why.

Never forget.

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We gave away jobs, weakened our independence, borrowed trillions, and called it progress.

During the housing crisis, I watched wealthy people borrow against their homes, walk away from the debt, and drive off in their Porsches. Some left behind unpaid gardeners, contractors, and tradesmen; everyday people who needed every dollar they earned.

That image stayed with me.

Today, America is more than $40 trillion in debt. Interest alone costs taxpayers more than $1 trillion a year.

The Constitution gives Congress the power to collect taxes “to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States” and “To borrow Money on the credit of the United States” (Article I, Section 8).

Congress certainly mastered the borrowing part.

Historically, countries experiencing government debt defaults averaged debt of about 76% of the size of their economies. America’s gross federal debt is roughly 122%.

That doesn’t mean America goes broke tomorrow. But when you owe more than your country produces in a year, pay over a trillion dollars in yearly interest, and keep borrowing to pay your bills, someone eventually gets stuck with the check.

First, Get Rid of the Jobs

For generations, Americans made things. Cars. Steel. Tools. Appliances. Medicine. Electronics. Entire towns grew around factories where a kid could graduate high school, learn a trade, buy a house, raise a family, and retire.

A factory worker could buy a home and support a family on one income.

Clearly, this was a problem.

So, make things more expensive to produce in America. Add taxes, regulations, permits, zoning restrictions, and long government reviews. Then lower trade barriers on foreign products competing against the American products you just made more expensive.

Tell everyone that making things 7,000 miles away benefits the “general Welfare of the United States.”

What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

Factories moved overseas. Between 1966 and 1971, the AFL-CIO estimated 900,000 American jobs were lost as companies shifted production overseas. Tens of thousands of American factories closed for good. “Don’t worry,” we were told. “America doesn’t need to make all that stuff. We can buy it from the rest of the world at lower cost and all Americans will benefit.”

Farmworkers got squeezed too. After the government’s Bracero Program ended, illegal foreign labor remained a source of cheap farm labor. Cesar Chavez opposed illegal immigration because farmers would use cheaper illegal workers putting Americans out of jobs and driving down wages.

Don’t worry. Government is here to help.

Frank comes home from Vietnam without a private-sector job waiting.

No problem. Government hires him.

Federal government employment grew by 178,000 jobs between 1966 and 1971, while state and local governments added 1.9 million more around the same period.

Wow! That was a huge growth spurt!

But Frank has a paycheck again. There’s just one problem: government doesn’t sell products for a profit to fund his paycheck. Taxpayers and government borrowing pay him and later fund his pension.

Washington was spending heavily on Vietnam, new government programs, and an expanding government.

Spend too much? Need money?

Between 1966 and 1970, the Fed created billions and billions in new money.

Poof. Problem Solved.

Except inflation approached 6% by 1970 and your dollar bought less.

But don’t worry.

The government is here to help.

Next, Depend on Everyone Else

Medicine. Electronics. Machine parts. Important minerals.

Overseas.

Never call it dependency.

Call it globalization.

Then do the same thing with energy.

Before the 1973 Arab oil embargo, federal price controls discouraged American oil investment. Government rules and lawsuits delayed projects in Alaska and California.

America had enormous energy resources it was not allowed to access while becoming increasingly dependent on foreign oil.

Then the embargo hit.

Energy prices exploded. The economy fell into recession.

Between 1972 and 1976, the Fed created more billions in new money. Over roughly a decade, the amount of basic money in the system nearly doubled.

Then, shocked, totally shocked, that the dollar was losing value and prices kept rising, the Fed raised interest rates to punish you.

Now your mortgage costs more. Your car loan costs more. Your credit card costs more. Businesses struggle. People lose jobs.

By 1977, the economy is struggling again.

What now?

Create more money and credit.

Like a drug dealer, always there to help with a fix.

Rinse. Repeat.

No Job? Go to College

Factory job disappeared?

Go to college.

Tuition too expensive?

Borrow it.

The Obama administration took over student debt from the banks. “Why let banks make all the money? The government will now make the money,” the President crowed. Today, the U.S. Treasury holds about $1.5 trillion in unpaid student debt. Good thing the government was there to help!

Tuition rises. Student debt explodes. Young Americans begin adulthood owing tens of thousands of dollars for the degree they were told they needed. The colleges and universities who benefited from the explosion in student debt weren’t on the hook for any of it.

You were.

For the Class of 2026, about 56% graduated without a job offer in hand.

No job and $50,000 in debt?

Welcome to the American dream.

The Magic Money Machine

In 1971, America stopped allowing dollars to be exchanged for gold.

Welcome to modern money. The IOU.

During the 1970s, government spending, printing new money, energy shocks, and bad policy helped produce what Federal Reserve historians call the Great Inflation.

The dollar was worth less. Prices soared. Interest rates reached double digits. Food cost more. Cars became expensive to finance. Homes became harder to afford. More families needed two incomes just to keep up.

Washington promised jobs, growth, and stable prices.

Americans got inflation, expensive loans, and dollars that bought less.

Thank goodness government was helping.

COVID: Here We Go Again

Then came COVID.

Government shut down huge parts of the economy and sent millions of workers home. Congress approved $4.6 TRILLION in COVID relief, while the Fed created massive amounts of new money.

Then prices jumped.

Eggs. Cars. Homes. Utilities.

Who was responsible?

According to the government, you were!

Susan bought too many eggs. Bob financed a truck. Grandma bought a refrigerator.

Dangerous people.

The finger-pointing continued: corporate greed, supply chains, consumers, “shrinkflation.” President Biden even did a commercial complaining about shrinkflation.

Point everywhere except Washington.

Don’t Worry. We Have a Credit Card.

The Government Accountability Office estimates federal fraud costs somewhere between $233 billion and $521 billion a year, based on 2018–2022. Agencies separately reported about $162 billion in improper payments in 2024.

Don’t confuse fraud with improper payments.

I’m sure that difference will comfort you while paying your taxes in April.

Maybe government doesn’t need more of your money.

Maybe we should ask what happened to the money it already took.

Here We Go Again

Artificial intelligence may become the next Industrial Revolution.

AI needs computer chips, electricity, power lines, data centers, and construction.

So naturally, start explaining why America shouldn’t build so much of it.

Too much electricity. Too much water. Too much construction.

Sound familiar?

Don’t worry, Frank.

Remember how the government took care of American welfare back then?

For decades, America moved production overseas, borrowed trillions, placed the bill on taxpayers, weakened its supply chains, and became dependent on other countries for important products.

So much for national security.

Now another major industry is growing in front of us.

Are we really going to do it again?

Look at the Results

The trick was never forcing Americans to give up their independence.

It was convincing us that giving it up was progress.

Factories disappearing became “modernization.” Debt became “investment.” Creating money became “stimulus.” Dependency became “global cooperation.”

And whenever something went wrong, the answer looked familiar:

Spend more. Print more. Borrow more. Regulate more.

COVID showed us what dependency looks like. Toilet paper, medical equipment, medicine, and everyday products became difficult to find because we depended on factories thousands of miles away.

National security is threatened.

We gave away pieces of our ability to make what we need. We weakened our energy independence. We are more than $40 trillion in debt. Our dollars buy less.

So, stop listening to promises.

Look at the results.

Can your paycheck buy what it bought ten years ago? Five years ago?

Can an average family afford an average home?

Where did $40 trillion go?

And who pays it back?

Don’t take my word for it. Read the budgets. Follow the debt. Look where your products are made. Ask where your taxes go.

Then remember that Porsche disappearing down the street while the workers stood there unpaid.

History tells us who gets left holding the bill.

You do. Your family does. And someday, your kids will too.

So, ask questions. Follow the money. And the next time someone says government is here to save you, don’t just listen to the promise.

Ask to see the bill.

As Ronald Reagan once quipped, “The nine most terrifying words in the English language are, I’m from the government and I’m here to help.”

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(What follows are moments of my talk at the 67th annual Community Prayer Breakfast held at the Santa Barbara Hilton Beachfront Resort on August 27, 2026)

Finding the Light in a Paris Dungeon

The bedroom sat at the end of a long, dark hallway in an old Parisian apartment. The other models had a name for it: “the dungeon.” I walked in and locked the door.

It was 1981. I was 18, a Santa Barbara teenager wide awake with jet lag and already afraid of the man in whose apartment I was staying—my agent’s husband. We thought he was a pervert.

Today I recognize he was a predator. In the tiny elevator he tried to kiss me. I got away. After that, I locked myself in that Parisian dungeon.

Modeling wasn’t my plan. I took the work as an opportunity to save money to go to college or start a business. The girl in that room was a rebellious teenager who just barely finished high school. Like a lot of kids that age, I questioned authority. My worldview was simple: Who really knows what’s true? I swore I was never going to read another book.

Waiting in the dungeon that night was another surprise. My mom, Barbara Ireland, had recently become Christian and quietly slipped a Bible into my suitcase. I had never read a Bible before. We didn’t have them in the house, so I didn’t know how to read it.

Because of the jet lag, boredom, and loneliness, I picked it up and opened to the Gospel of Matthew. As I read, I knew that what I had in my hands was the truth.

Jesus was nothing like people told me. I had been taught that Christianity would not be good for me…that the Bible considers women second-class citizens.

That is a lie from the pit of hell.

Oh, my goodness, Jesus loves and honors women!

It was just me and the Lord in that dungeon. There was no one telling me, “Be this religion” or “Follow this denomination.” Alone, with no one there to guide, discipline, or point me to a church, I prayed. I just said I want to follow Him. In that moment Jesus became my Lord and Savior and best friend. Faith in Jesus gave me the confidence to walk away from situations that did not feel right.

If He is with us, who can be against us?

My life changed in that dungeon and I was saved forever.

The Harder Confession Came Later

I would use the same Bible that led me to Jesus as a menu. I clung to the verses that filled my heart. Other verses, however, I dismissed as a translation issue, or a cultural issue, or a typo. I tried to make my own Jesus, and that is so dangerous. I made a boatload of mistakes. Now I say: rather than regrets, it’s repent. There is nothing too bad or too big for Him. Scripture tells us the one who is forgiven much loves much, and I love a whole bunch.

I was 44 before I finally read the entirety of His Word from Genesis to Revelation.

Friends asked me to a retreat. I didn’t want to go. In quiet worship, I felt a conviction, a tug as clear as day, words I could not shake: “You say I’m your first priority, but I’m not. Put Me first, and I will give you more time and better time with your kids.”

Without recognizing it, I had been making our children idols.

The next morning, I moved the alarm fifteen minutes to pray and read the Bible. That first day the prayer was a simple, “Help!” Fifteen minutes soon became 30, an hour, and more. Now, if I don’t start my day like that, I’m apologizing to someone by 7:00 a.m.

I love that a gathering can be all about prayer. When we pray, we’re speaking to God. When we read His Word, He’s speaking to us.

Which matters more?

I heard a pastor say it’s like breathing.

What’s more important, inhaling or exhaling?

Bank tellers don’t study the counterfeit; they study the real. Learn the genuine bill and the fake is revealed. Stay in the whole Word and the Bible exposes every lie from the enemy.

I used to make it all about me. I’d close my eyes and point to a verse asking Jesus how He would bless me! It took a while to learn it’s not about me; it’s His story! Taken out of context, Scripture can be used to fit any evil agenda. We need the whole council of God. The Old Testament is the New Testament concealed and the New Testament is the Old Testament revealed.

Taking in the Entirety of the Bible

That first time I read the entire Bible, I wept. It was bittersweet.

Sweet because I recognized how much God loves us. The Bible is the greatest love story. In the past I had been scared of Old Testament God, yet getting to know Him through the entirety of His Word, I learned that He is pure and perfect love.

Bitter because I recognized I’d made so many mistakes and felt like I had wasted so much time. A verse God placed in my heart is Joel 2:25 “I will restore the years the locusts have eaten.” God can redeem even our time. God was speaking to the Israelites here, yet when we trust in Jesus, we are grafted into those promises. This promise continues to bless me.

Not All Gardens Bear Good Fruit

Santa Barbara is beautiful; it’s like a beautiful garden. Sometimes this beautiful, lush garden can kind of lull us to sleep, and we need to wake up. The Bible begins and ends in a garden, but not every garden bears good fruit. On Garden Street, here in Santa Barbara, precious unborn babies are killed every single week.

Forty-five years ago, at my high school here in town, Planned Parenthood came to class to tell us we could have abortions without ever telling our parents. What’s taught in schools today is of great concern. Many churches refuse to discuss these issues and refer to them as political. They’re not political; they’re Biblical issues that people have made political. Who we vote for at every level is critical. Our local school boards, our local representatives. Please hold the values of each candidate against the Word of God and pray and that will guide you how to vote.

Arms Wide Open

My precious dad went to heaven in 2017. His last words were an order: “Keep praying. Don’t stop praying.”

The best advice I ever got came from another mom. At the wedding, the last recorded words of Mary as she referred to Jesus are, “Whatever He says, do it.”

One of the things I love about growing older is more time with Jesus and getting to know Him more. In this ever-changing world, He does not change. He’s the same yesterday, today, and forever. He loves you so much he gave His life, crucified on the cross so that all who receive Him would have everlasting life.

Jesus wants each one of us to choose to be with Him forever. He stands with His arms wide open for you, just as you are.

“Today if you hear His voice do not harden your hearts…” Hebrews 3:7

*****

As a model, Kathy Ireland became the all-American face of Teen, Harper’s Bazaar, Vogue, Cosmopolitan, and Sports Illustrated—including three SI swimsuit covers, one of them the issue’s bestseller. She later founded Kathy Ireland Worldwide, built it into one of the country’s most valuable woman-owned licensing brands, and appeared on the cover of Forbes three times.

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Repeatedly rebuffed by the majority of Santa Barbarians, a clearly out-of-touch City Council pulled the Classic palace coup on both State Street and road narrowing.

Undercover of what we now know was questionable ‘’Fauci Medicine” and the French Laundry joke, the most radical council members passed an Emergency Suspension of Historic Landmarks by removing State Street from the Landmark Commission’s control and reassigning it.

‘’Council Coup’‘ State Street planning (including the master plan process) was effectively removed from HLC’s normal purview by Council action. Council then assigned Closing State Street and called it the “State Street Advisory Committee and related processes.” Their actions excluded the opinions and experiences of the majority of Santa Barbarians.

It was and is an act of clear power politics by the Socialist Council. The partisan vote of 1 September 2026 was an example of ignoring the people (residents and taxpayers) who supposedly matter.

Canceling the Historic Landmarks Commission’s power to safeguard the Pearl Chase Hispanic Downtown is clear arrogance. The City Core that had provided decades of stability in good and bad economic times was torn apart, combined with the concept of Vision Zero (VZ) by narrowing and/or closing streets. The L.A. Times has reported 15 years of Los Angeles failure of Vision Zero. KTLA News has repeated articles about the failure of VZ in the City of Santa Monica.

Rejected for years by the now eliminated DO (Downtown Organization), along with a petition signed by over 90% of businesses against closing State Street and De La Guerra Street, this crafty and unethical Council attacked. They destroyed the safeguard of the Jewel of the California Coast.

Don’t like what the people want?

Too bad.

They removed State Street from HLC’s normal purview.

People who (via re-runs) watch the TV soap Santa Barbara, come expecting to see a slice of Hispanic culture, not high-rise ‘”pack ‘em & stack ‘em’” Los Angeles, complete with congested streets that no longer work. The Santa Barbara City Council – both by action and words – has proclaimed that Santa Barbarians who believe in traditions are persona non grata. Within five years, using city trolls who ignore statistical data, they have carved up a century-old and working transportation grid.

These are the same civil servants (?) who would sell their souls for a golden parachute retirement.

Former Mayor Shiela Lodge: Santa Barbara’s first female mayor, and the longest serving mayor of the city (1981-1993/12 consecutive years), repeatedly stated that she wished she had never started the narrowing of State Street. Mayor Lodge on the HLC, Planning Commission, and in private statements, was ignored. The new radicalized Council said, “So sorry.”

Put This in Perspective

1) The State Street closure began as a temporary emergency measure. It was later codified in 2023 via Title 31 (set to expire at the end of 2026 or upon adoption of a permanent Master Plan).

2) HLC members and others have later expressed frustration that aspects of State Street planning were effectively removed from HLC’s normal purview. The palace coup assigned State Street planning to a State Street Advisory Committee/related processes.

3) The Council spent $11 million to remove the emergency evacuation route of four lanes under Hwy 101 on State Street.

4) The Council under (visionless) Vision Zero expanded the bike paths to just under 100 miles and has not seen an increase in bike use. Milpas is next.

5) Auto drivers/customers/locals, in frustration over Old Town road obstruction-congestion, are now flooding outer State Street.

6) Council statements and reliance on MTD in Old Town, have watched MTD reduce and shut down routes as ridership has shrunk.

7) Public Resistance to Council votes and comments (solely to represent no more than 20% of the public), are met with stonewall silence.

8) When Letters of Comment for Public Record are submitted to Council, the cone of silence descends. Not once, for example, has Cars Are Basic’s statements of fact in opposition to Council actions and statements been commented upon. CAB’s calls for proof of concept are ignored. In other words, we are told to “Sit in your corner and shut up.”

The general public is calling the Council actions and narrow views illegitimate. As public anger grows, so too does the City’s resistance to the public. All the while city employees working on the streets mutter about how deranged the Council is.

Depending upon apathy among the city majority, the radical Council wins. The donkey’s tail is wagging the head. CAB has canvassed a large number of Santa Barbarians and almost 100% of the time the response to the past decade of street destruction and intentional congestion is “Stop It!”

This “restructuring” of Santa Barbara is a fool’s folly; just ask Camino Real Shoppers in Goleta.

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Two years ago, I shook Tulsi Gabbard‘s hand in Washington, D.C., at the 2024 Moms for Liberty National Summit. Little did I know then that both of us would soon be watching the men we love fight for their lives.

This spring, my husband, Joe, was diagnosed with an incurable but treatable form of bone-marrow cancer. He was hospitalized. The illness severely damaged his kidneys. Our life got very challenging, very fast.

If you have wondered why you have not seen much of me on the campaign trail these past three months, this is why. I was home. I was keeping a promise I made a long time ago: in sickness and in health. I have been at Joe’s side, caring for him and doing everything I can to be with him and to help him heal.

When someone you love becomes seriously ill, your priorities become crystal clear. There are moments of fear and anxiety. There are also waves of hope, faith, gratitude, and of a deeper appreciation for an ordinary morning: a cup of coffee, a call from a grandchild, a drive through the town where we grew up together.

Joe is getting stronger, little by little. Soon I will be with him at Stanford for about four to five weeks, where he will undergo a bone-marrow transplant. We are hopeful this treatment will eliminate his cancer and bring him into remission.

To everyone who knew what our family was walking through and kept us in your prayers: thank you, from the bottom of my heart. Your encouragement meant more than you may know.

Tulsi Gabbard’s Challenge

Tulsi’s story touched me because I understand the tsunami of fear, uncertainty, frustration, and hope, that come with watching someone you love deeply face a life-threatening illness. When I learned that her husband, Abraham, had been diagnosed with a rare form of cancer, my heart went out to their family. My thoughts and prayers are with them. At the end of a video she shared, Tulsi spoke of God’s unconditional love — of God as shelter and as strength. Those words have stayed with me. They have helped sustain us through these difficult days.

Still in the Race

Joe and I met at Santa Maria High School. I was a sophomore. He was a junior. How we found each other is a love story that is still unfolding. After long careers, we came home to raise our family and enjoy our grandchildren. And to do what we could for California and our country.

I also made a promise to the people of District 37.

My name will be on the ballot on November 3, 2026, as the Republican candidate for California State Assembly. I am not stepping off this race. The same character that sits at a hospital bedside is the same character I will take to Sacramento: show up, tell the truth, and not quit when the days get hard, no matter how hard they get.

Of course, I cannot be in two places at once. For four to five weeks, I will be at Stanford with Joe. Sacramento will not pause. The election will not pause. I will need your help while I am in that hospital holding the love of my life by his hand.

Pray for Joe. Walk a precinct (as I cannot be there to walk this month). Put a sign in your yard. Take a bundle of literature to your church, your neighbors, and your street. Help with banners and mail. Host a small gathering. Chip in what you can. Recruit one person who has never voted for me before. Such action is how an underdog takes back a seat.

Joe’s fight is ours at home. Winning District 37 is our fight in public. I will not quit either one.

I will be by Joe’s side, that was my promise before God. During these trying times, I ask you to stay with me and the campaign as well.

•••

Sari Domingues, Candidate, California State Assembly, District 37, can be reached at: sari4assembly.com or directly at (805) 714-7936.

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I would like to start this discussion with a land acknowledgement. I am presently sitting on “stolen” land here on the Central Coast of California. Land taken from the Spanish who took it from the Chumash who took it from Oog the caveman who took it from….

There, I feel better now.

But I’m keeping my house. I worked hard and bought it fair and square… so you aren’t “taking” it from me like the sick, blighted, and pathological Democratic Socialists want to do. They are a disease that is spreading like the Fauci virus.

But we have a vaccine for that.

It’s called “VOTE.”

More on that in a moment.

Anyway, speaking of giving and taking, there was a song I liked way back when. It was written by a guy named Dave Mason, who just passed away.

Dave was a Brit and originally a member of a group called Traffic. Then Dave moved on through various other musical assemblies… always providing great guitar and songs… as a prolific writer.

Dave penned a song that is packed with relevance today. And he certainly didn’t predict it. It applies to his home country of Great Britain nowadays… as well as ours.

Who knew?

Not Dave.

The song is titled “Shouldn’t have took more than you gave.” Yeah, I know…. proper English would be “taken” instead of “took.” But who cares.?

That’s rock and roll.

It’s the message that counts.

Sacramento, We Have a Problem…

I was listening to that song recently, thinking about Dave… and then I thought…. “You know what? We are dealing with ‘take’ on a grand scale today in California, and here on the Central Coast.”

It’s a problem. A big problem.

I’m talking about our social services systems, and who gets the money. Our tax money.

Well, we can start in California. Then move on to Minnesota, New York, Oregon, Washington State, Pennsylvania, etc., etc., ad nauseam.

We have become a nation of “takers.”

And this isn’t about color. This is not about race. That’s a leftist excuse. It’s about ideology, culture and ingrained behavior. That’s it. Nothing else.

It’s victim-ism. Oppressed-ism. “You owe me”-ism.

Most of us have compassion. In America, we care about the down-trodden. Always have. And we have non-profits and loving communities and caring neighbors who provide safety nets for those truly in need.

Santa Barbara is especially a “giving” community. My family has always donated time and treasure to those in need.

But this is different.

The “Cost” Factor

Some will say that illegal migrants contribute a great deal to our society. And yes, in many cases they will work for less, do jobs others shun, and do it with grace and hard work. But let’s look at the other side.

What is the cost?

Well, you can choose any source you wish, but they all come up with pretty much the same number.

The net cost is roughly twice the gain, if not greater, based on the social services consumed.

So, you can pontificate all you want about the value of having people here illegally performing jobs (which should be performed by some of our own lazy citizens, BTW, who are also on the public dole) …. But it simply doesn’t pencil out.

And that doesn’t include all the graft, theft, and deceit that permeates our social services systems here in California for hundreds of billions of dollars.

We’re being screwed royally.

This impacts our education system. Our health services. Our housing. None of which were ever promised in our Founding Constitution. The only mandate in that great document was to promote the general welfare.

Not provide it.

But now we do, and we should expect it to be handled fairly. Not abused.

We Have a Plan

We should have more compassion for our taxpaying citizens who are having enough problems without paying for someone else’s problems. Especially in socialist one-party tax and regulation riddled California.

So, I have a suggestion.

First, get rid of the scoundrels who perpetuate this thievery. We can start with our do-nothing representative, Salud Carbajal. Then gubernatorial candidate Xavier Becerra, who has failed at every position he’s ever held. And also, destructive attorney general Rob Bonta, along with his equally inept wife. Then work our way through all the so-called “Democratic Socialists”, the DSA-ers.

Communists… in socialist’s clothing.

For them, it’s not about compassion. It’s about votes, legal or not. It’s about socialist government control… and they want to take everything you’ve worked for.

They’ve got theirs. And they want yours.

Have you had enough yet?

Then VOTE them OUT. Vote in common sense.

There. Done.

We shouldn’t have to “give” …. more than others “take.”

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Californians Holding on by a Tread

And the Newsom administration keeps tightening the screws while people vote with their feet.

The California Energy Commission just dusted off a 23-year-old law to restrict which replacement tires you can buy. Commissioner Nancy Skinner, a former state senator with zero energy background appointed by Governor Newsom for her loyalty, helped push it through. She is the same lawmaker who helped make theft under $950 a misdemeanor.

Now the state limits tire choices in the name of efficiency and lower fuel costs.

California already imposes some of the highest gas taxes and regulatory costs in the country. Those policies drive prices far above the national average. Officials then point to the high prices they created and use them to justify still more rules. Electric vehicles are heavy and burn through tires faster than gas cars. As the state forces more people into EVs, the same officials find new ways to raise the cost of keeping those cars on the road. It’s the arsonist-firefighter scenario: light the fire, then claim credit for fighting it. In their own bills, California politicians have celebrated high gas prices for boosting public transit ridership.

The pain is the point.

Now comes another idea from Sacramento. AB 1421 would create a system that charges drivers based on miles driven. At 6 cents per mile, someone driving 15,000 miles a year would pay $900. That hits commuters, parents taking kids to school and practice, nurses, contractors, and small business owners hardest. Working families who cannot afford to live close to their jobs would pay more just to get to work. The bill does not solve an under-taxation problem. California does not have an affordability crisis because people are not taxed enough.

At the same time, Democrats advanced AB 2108, a bill that would expand diversion programs for retail theft when it can be framed as a “crime of necessity and poverty.” Nearly every Democrat voted for the version that reached the state senate. After voters passed Proposition 36 to toughen penalties for repeat theft and drug crimes, Sacramento is already looking for ways around it. Their message is clear: if you steal and you claim poverty, the system should treat you more gently. Ordinary people who play by the rules get to watch stores lock up merchandise and raise prices to cover the losses.

Because of Sacramento and local government far-left policies, California leads the nation in net domestic migration loss. Hundreds of thousands of residents have left for states with lower costs and fewer barriers in recent years. Population numbers have stalled or dipped slightly. Business starts lag too. California is the most regulated state in America by a wide margin. We have roughly 420,000 regulations, more than 120,000 above the next highest state, New York. The average business faces far more “shall,” “must,” and “prohibited” requirements here than anywhere else. A Public Policy Institute of California report confirms the state is an extreme outlier on these constraints, especially in environment, health, and commerce. States with heavier constraint loads tend to see fewer new businesses form.

As of early 2024, California recorded the nation’s highest unemployment rate, lowest job growth, lowest income growth, and highest poverty rate. The state budget faces ballooning deficits. Chief Executive magazine ranked it the worst state in America to do business for the tenth year in a row. For a long time, California’s economy soared because the foundations of growth were solid. Those foundations have been steadily undermined by the same policies that raise costs, limit choices, and soften accountability for crime.

People are leaving, yet the Democrats “housing crisis” continues. New housing units have been added in recent years, huge condo developments and “affordable” housing are popping up everywhere you look. Did everyone take their housing with them when they moved? Who are they building all the housing for? Housing is expensive and scarce due to their regulations and sanctuary policies.

Border towns in Nevada already joke about opening shops that sell the tires, lawn equipment, and light bulbs California makes harder or illegal to buy. The pattern is the same: more rules, higher costs on driving, fewer new businesses, softer treatment of property crime, and a steady outflow of people who can afford to leave.

Why do legislators and the governor keep adding layers of control and new ways to charge drivers when the results are so plain? Who benefits when everyday goods and the ability to drive become more expensive? If the goal is affordability and opportunity, why does every major policy choice point the other direction? And if hundreds of thousands of residents can leave without taking the housing stock with them, what does that say about the real drivers of the shortage?

California’s leaders act as if the state’s problems are the result of mysterious forces beyond their control. The record shows otherwise. The constraints, the costs, the mileage schemes, and the crime policies are choices. People are responding to those choices by leaving, their family trees uprooted and planted in other states, their businesses enriching other communities.

California is left to those who are dependent on government subsidies and/or government employment.

That is not a recipe for future success.

Elections matter.

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California Coastal Management Program Needs Adjustment

We all have been witnessing how the California Coastal Commission has moved dangerously far from the noble purpose for which it was created in 1972.

Protecting our magnificent coastline is important. But protection should not mean obstruction. Regulation should not mean paralysis. And environmental stewardship should not become a justification for endless bureaucracy, litigation, and delay.

For many Californians, the Coastal Commission has become an agency perceived as lacking common sense, hostile to reasonable development, and increasingly disconnected from the people and communities affected by its decisions.

We saw the consequences of this regulatory culture after the devastating Palisades fire. Families who lost everything need government agencies focused on helping them rebuild their homes and their lives—not creating another maze of permits, studies, and delays, while allowing expensive projects of questionable practical value.

Santa Barbara Provides Another Example
Environmental organizations, including the Environmental Defense Center in Santa Barbara, have every right to advocate for their beliefs. But the public should also be willing to ask a difficult question: does a system built around continuing litigation and fundraising create incentives to actually resolve environmental problems—or to perpetuate the conflicts that sustain those organizations?

The Sable Offshore situation deserves particular federal scrutiny. And in evaluating that situation, we should acknowledge an important environmental fact about the Santa Barbara Channel: oil has been entering this marine environment naturally for centuries.

NOAA itself reports that the natural seeps around Coal Oil Point are among the most active in the world, releasing approximately 6,500 to 7,000 gallons of oil every day. That translates to approximately 2.4 to 2.6 million gallons every year through a natural geological process.

Put those numbers in perspective. In the 2015 Refugio oil spill, a pipeline owned and operated by Plains All American Pipeline ruptured, releasing more than 21,000 gallons of crude oil to the ocean. It was a serious accident that caused real environmental damage and required a major cleanup response.

But at the estimated natural seepage rate around Coal Oil Point, approximately 123,000 gallons naturally enters the marine environment in only about 18 to 19 days. Over the course of a year, the volume of natural seepage is roughly 20 times that 123,000-gallon quantity.

That comparison does not suggest that a sudden pipeline spill and gradual natural seepage have identical environmental consequences. They clearly do not. A concentrated accidental release can have much more immediate effects on wildlife and can overwhelm an ecosystem.

But the comparison provides important context. Natural seepage is a major and longstanding feature of the Santa Barbara marine environment, and the presence of oil or tar along our beaches cannot automatically be attributed to industrial activity. In fact, NOAA has acknowledged that distinguishing oil from the 2015 pipeline spill from oil produced by the area’s ongoing natural seeps was itself a challenge during the response.

The more important question today should be: what has been done to prevent another pipeline accident?

The Case of Sable Offshore
It is important to remember that Sable Offshore did not own or operate this pipeline when the 2015 Refugio spill occurred. The responsible party was Plains All American Pipeline. Sable acquired the Santa Ynez assets years later. Sable did not cause the 2015 problem—it inherited the pipeline and undertook the work required to fix it.

The pipeline involved in the 2015 accident did not simply reopen unchanged.
Sable reports that it completed the required anomaly-repair program on Pipeline Segments 324 and 325 under the federal Consent Decree. It then successfully completed hydrostatic testing of all segments of the Santa Ynez Pipeline System, satisfying the final operational condition under that Consent Decree for resuming petroleum transportation through those segments.

That distinction matters.

Sable is being asked to address the consequences of an accident it did not cause, and it has invested substantial resources repairing, testing and upgrading infrastructure it inherited.

That is precisely what responsible environmental regulation should accomplish: identify a problem, require it to be corrected, establish rigorous safety standards, verify compliance, and then provide a clear path forward.

Instead, after extensive repairs, testing, federal and state oversight, and years of regulatory review, the project has remained the subject of continuing litigation and regulatory conflict.

At some point, we have to ask whether the regulatory process is still principally about ensuring safety—or whether preventing operation itself has become the objective.
The goal cannot simply be to prevent something from operating indefinitely.

We need to acknowledge reality.

NOAA Needs To Be More Flexible

The world remains dependent upon oil. Commercial airplanes cannot presently operate on batteries. Bridges, medical equipment, computers, transportation systems and countless everyday products depend upon petroleum and petrochemicals.
California cannot demand these products while pretending the infrastructure necessary to produce energy should exist somewhere else.

And today’s global political environment makes reliable domestic energy infrastructure a matter not only of economics, but also of national security and stability.

Environmental protection and energy production do not have to be mutually exclusive.

We should demand rigorous standards. We should demand modern technology. We should demand monitoring, inspections and accountability. But when companies meet those requirements, there must also be a reasonable and predictable path to operation.

We need regulators who solve problems instead of creating permanent obstacles.
I respectfully ask NOAA to examine whether California’s coastal management program still fulfills the purposes of the Coastal Zone Management Act—or whether bureaucracy, litigation, and obstruction have overtaken those purposes.

*****

Lena Levanov moved from Toronto to California in 2011. She is a Santa Barbara resident and a proud mother and grandmother.

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Mississippi Bests California in Reading and Math. By a Lot.

When I was a kid back in 1970s California, I learned to spell complicated words like Mississippi. Mrs. Robbins said it slowly. M-I-S-S-I-S-S-I-P-P-I. The second the “double-P” landed, our third-grade class lost it.

“Pee-pee!”

Giggles everywhere. Mrs. Robbins sighed. Unprompted, we spelled it – again and again – to more giggles and laughter on many a bus ride home.

That chant was not just pure phonics. It used rhythm, repetition, and chunking as well. It made a long and an otherwise difficult word stick. In short, it followed the science of learning.

Memory works better with a beat and a pattern.

I guess you can say that back in the day Mississippi taught California children how to spell its name. Maybe there is something even more important it can teach us now?

The Mississippi education system was once – like California today – in a hole. In 2013, Mississippi ranked 49th in fourth-grade reading skills on the National Assessment of Educational Progress. It ranked last in math. Yet, by 2024 it had climbed to ninth in reading. Its average score now sits above the national mark.

When researchers adjust for poverty and demographics, Mississippi ranks first in the country in both fourth-grade reading and math.

First.

In both Reading and Math.

Black students and low-income students in Mississippi outperform their peers in most other states, including California. This happens in one of the poorest states in America.

In contrast, since 2013, California educational outcomes have remained stuck like a stick in the mud. Our state spent those same years raising taxes, not scores.

Proposition 30 and Proposition 55 were sold as temporary fixes for schools. Those taxes brought in more than $120 billion and were largely spent on an ineffective bureaucracy. Reading and math scores flatlined; proficiency stayed low. Enrollment fell by half a million students.

Voters and parents should realize that education results aren’t just about the amount of money spent.

Mississippi spends about $12,300 per student. California spends more than $20,000, 80% more. Mississippi spends far less and gets better early results – and once one accounts for students’ demographics and family income, they shine.

Q. What did Mississippi do that could account for such impressive educational gains?

A. It passed the Literacy-Based Promotion Act.

And stuck with it.

Every child in the early grades is screened several times a year. Kids who fall behind get intensive help right away. Teachers receive coaching in the science of reading. The five core skills—phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension—are taught systematically.

Students who cannot read at grade level by the end of third grade are held back. They are not pushed along in the name of equity. They get daily science-based instruction, not busywork. Schools receive clear A-to-F grades. Growth for the lowest-performing students counts heavily.

No miracle. Just clear goals, early detection, learning based incentives and real consequences. Reading became a skill which had to be mastered before they advanced, not blindly marched through the grades without achieving competency.

Mississippi later extended the same approach into middle school.

Mississippi’s reforms stuck because of the incentives of the adults entrusted to their care.

Too Much Power in Teachers’ Union Hands

The California Teachers Association ranks as the second-strongest teacher union in the country. It claims roughly 300,000 members. It enjoys full collective-bargaining rights, negotiates binding contracts on pay, hours, class size, and evaluations, and has the legal right to strike.

CTA’s political spending and electoral influence are enormous, with a hand in every school board race, and by extension, everything from curriculum to superintendent hires, across the state.

Mississippi’s main teacher group – the Mississippi Association of Educators – has about 8,000 members and ranks near the bottom in strength—47th.

Mississippi is a right-to-work state. Traditional collective bargaining is limited for most teachers. Strikes are illegal. Political influence and resources stay low. Unions are not sitting on both sides of the bargaining table dealing to themselves. In short, teachers’ unions in Mississippi had far less ability to block changes that put student results first.

California has tried pieces of the Mississippi model. It has not adopted the full package or the union-lite incentive structure that ensures that educators focus on outcomes rather than just feathering their nests. Coaching is uneven. Accountability stays soft.

Incidentally, California’s Proposition 3 in this November election would make the higher California tax rates permanent. It asks for more money for schools without requiring better results. Fourteen years of elevated revenue already failed to lift proficiency. Making it a permanent stream will not change that. It will only enlarge the system that has already failed. California needs to stop looking down on Mississippi and start looking at what that state has done right.

Large Gains, Limited Financial Resources

We are not educating kids. We are just pissing away money and, more importantly, pissing away the futures of our children.

Why do so many California educators refuse to follow what works? Mississippi has the highest share of Black residents of any state. Is that the real problem? Could the leadership of the California Teachers Association be so locked into its own financial incentives and power that it rejects proven results from a poorer, Blacker state? Maybe the CTA’s own notorious wokeness is blinded by their paychecks and power?

That old bus chant was never about geography or politics. It was about mastery. A hard word became easy because adults insisted children learn and they gave us methods that worked.

Over the last decade and a half, Mississippi recovered that expectation of competency. California still treats competency as a barrier that is somehow impossible to overcome.

Mississippi showed large gains are possible even under tight budgets and high poverty. California does not need any more taxes. It needs the will to put student learning ahead of the adult’s insatiable financial and political interests. Like the Mississippi Teachers Union, the CTA can have a seat on the bus. But it should not be allowed to drive the school bus over a cliff.

Those children, like myself, who once giggled at “pee-pee” decades ago benefited from an effective California education system in which the outcomes were prized and the bureaucracy constrained.

School kids sitting in California classrooms today deserve the same.

*** Mathew Martin, a Bakersfield native and longtime California resident, is a retired portfolio manager who co-founded and ran Broadreach Growth Fund for 25 years after earlier roles in institutional research and investment management.

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A funny thing happened after I wrote about political dehumanization: a local journalist responded by personally attacking me.

Fan Mail

I recently wrote The Guillotine Arrives in Santa Barbara after guillotine imagery appeared during Santa Barbara’s rent-control debate.

I wrote:

“This blade of retribution didn’t appear because of a war, a presidential election, or the Constitution. It appeared over rent control.

“When I saw the photograph, I expected the news coverage to focus on the protester who chose to display a guillotine – a symbol historically associated with political executions – and ask why that symbol was used.”

My argument was simple. For years, many Democrat leaders and commentators have described President Trump and Republicans using terms such as “dictator,” “fascist,” “Nazi,” “threat to democracy,” “enemy of freedom,” and “existential threat to the republic.”

We aren’t talking about some tiny fringe. More than 77 million Americans voted for Trump in 2024.

We have also watched elected officials compare federal law enforcement enforcing our nation’s laws to the Gestapo; we have seen our own D.A. denounce federal officers enforcing federal warrants.

Democrats controlled the White House, House, and Senate under Joe Biden, yet did not repeal or replace the major immigration laws signed by Bill Clinton. Laws federal immigration officers enforced under Clinton, Obama, and today.

I also wrote, we have watched assassination attempts against public officials, threats against federal judges, violence against law enforcement and private businesses, riots, and political violence in the streets.

But I explicitly added:

“I’m not suggesting rhetoric alone caused those events.”

That distinction matters. I never named individuals because my point concerned a larger problem: What happens when political disagreement becomes dehumanization? If rhetoric has consequences, shouldn’t we examine rhetoric from all sides?

Then Jerry Roberts responded.

And, remarkably, Jerry helped make my point.

Nothing Personal, Brian

Jerry wrote that it is a “damn shame” local public officials are “bullied, menaced, and subjected to performative intimidation.”

I agree.

He also wrote:

“It’s the job of the local press to hold elected officials accountable for their words and actions.”

Excellent.

Does that include Democrat politicians who call Republicans threats to democracy, compare an elected president to Hitler, or characterize federal law enforcement as the Gestapo?

Apparently not.

If words matter, surely the standard applies regardless of who says them.

Yet Jerry called me – a private citizen – out by name, describing me as a “serial failed political candidate,” accusing me of “Covid-era amnesia,” “willful blindness,” and sarcastically referring to Trump as my “Dear Leader.”

Just like an armchair quarterback who never steps up.

One small problem: I have never described myself as pro-Trump, much less called Trump my “Dear Leader.”

Jerry, I vote on issues and track record not party lines unlike some others reading this.

When I ran for office, Jerry seemed confused by his own assumptions about me. I had a humanitarian plan to help the homeless, help local businesses, help students, and do it without simply taking more from taxpayers.

Apparently, disagreeing with Santa Barbara’s political establishment comes with bullying and ridicule. Evil hates the light of truth.

That is exactly what we have watched happen locally and nationally. Too often, disagreement is met not with discussion, but with labels, ridicule, and personal attacks.

Instead of debating the argument, attack the person making it.

Nancy Pelosi once described the political tactic as the “wrap-up smear.” Demonize someone, smear them with falsehoods, get the accusation reported, then point to that reporting as validation.

Thank you, Jerry, for demonstrating precisely the political discourse my article warned about.

Somehow It Was Still Trump

Jerry objected to my questioning his attempt to connect our local City Hall controversy directly to President Trump. He quoted me:

“Trump wasn’t at the meeting. He has no authority over Santa Barbara’s rent stabilization ordinance.”

Correct.

This was a local rent-control dispute. Trump didn’t bring the guillotine imagery. Trump doesn’t determine Santa Barbara rent policy.

Yet Jerry wrote that “Trump’s coarsening of the national discourse has made its way to Santa Barbara.”

That was exactly what I questioned. Look at who called voters a “threat to democracy.”

The Pot Calling the Kettle Black

If political rhetoric can intimidate, inflame, and destroy civility, why examine the rhetoric of only one side?

We forget we are all neighbors.

Ironically, Jerry demonstrated that one-sidedness perfectly. While condemning political intimidation, he responded to an opposing viewpoint with labels, ridicule, and personal attacks of his own on a private citizen.

I – like numerous voters – am asking for one standard, not “rules for thee, not for me.” Thank you, Pelosi and Newsom, for demonstrating how you are above the laws and lockdowns. And thank you Jerry for perfectly applying Pelosi’s smear campaign.

The School Board Detour

Jerry then traveled back to Santa Barbara school-board meetings, claiming I joined “disruptive public commenters” who “routinely targeted trustees, administrators, and teachers, with insults and disrespect.”

I certainly attended school-board meetings and challenged district policies, which Jerry never attended. I also ran for school board because, as a parent, I believed academics, curriculum, and parental oversight deserved attention.

One controversy involved sexually explicit material available to students.

Gender Queer: A Memoir was in the Santa Barbara High School library. That fact is documented in local reporting. Its pages contain sexually explicit language and illustrations, including depictions, images, and instructions, of gay oral sex; the Independent reported that the book contained panels depicting two young people engaged in oral sex. But Jerry failed to acknowledge this fact.

Journalism at its best.

At a school-board meeting, I attempted to read from the book and display what students could access. The board would not allow the sexually explicit material to be read or displayed publicly.

Think about that.

Material considered too sexually explicit to read or display at a public meeting attended by adults was nevertheless available to children in a public-school library.

Apparently, questioning that contradiction makes someone “disruptive.”

I call it being a parent.

Jerry and Biden’s FBI labels us terrorists.

(The drawings used are too graphic for a family publication such as this.)

Neighbors, Remember?

My original article asked:

“What if civil wars don’t begin with gunfire?

“What if they begin when neighbors stop believing they belong to the same community, when disagreement is no longer enough and political opponents become enemies?”

That was the point.

I didn’t name Jerry Roberts. I questioned a political culture increasingly willing to turn opponents into caricatures.

Jerry responded in lockstep with the radical communist agenda of attacking anyone with a different point of view, anyone who actually cares about our children and our community.

Proving that in Santa Barbara, those who disagree with the political party in charge are seen as bitter enemies, not neighbors with a differing view.

And there it is.

Thank you, Jerry, for demonstrating the very political discourse my article was warning about.

At least you didn’t call me a “lying, dog-faced pony soldier.”

Rather than answer personal attacks with more personal attacks, however, I’ll pray for Jerry and for all of us who sometimes forget that political opponents are still our neighbors.

Father, give us wisdom to seek truth before accusation, humility to listen before judging, and courage to disagree without hatred.

Guard our tongues from false witness and our hearts from bitterness.

Help us remember that those who disagree with us are not our enemies, but our neighbors.

As Jesus taught:

“Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you.” (Matthew 5:44, KJV)

Perhaps that is the standard we need most: not victory over our political opponents, but the grace to love our neighbors even when we disagree.

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Ordinary Citizens Face Felony Risk While Government Fraud Goes Unpunished

Young investigators like Nick Shirley uncover hundreds of millions in government assisted fraud with a cell phone and laptop. Elon Musk used AI and discovered DC is a veritable circus of fraud.

Every year, ordinary Americans must account for every penny of income, deduction, and transaction on their tax returns. We sign forms under penalty of perjury. The IRS demands detailed records, receipts, and explanations. False statements can lead to felony charges, fines, and even prison. American citizens live under constant scrutiny of their private finances. The federal government faces no equivalent constraint. Bureaucrats and program heads operate with near-immunity. When waste, improper payments, or outright fraud surfaces—as it repeatedly does—there are almost never personal consequences. No forced quarterly audits under felony penalty. No routine removal of those responsible. The government system has insulated itself from scrutiny.

Taxpayers submit Forms 1040 and supporting schedules knowing a single material error or omission risks audits and more. The government, by contrast, has accumulated roughly $3 trillion in estimated improper payments since fiscal year 2003. In FY 2025 alone, agencies reported about $186 billion in improper payments across a limited set of programs—mostly overpayments.

Obscure the Message; Blame the Messenger

A broader GAO analysis estimated annual federal losses due to fraud between $233 billion and $521 billion (roughly 3–7 percent of obligations in the studied period). These figures dwarf many individual agency budgets, yet they capture only documented or modeled losses. The true total of waste, abuse, and undetected fraud is higher. The Pentagon has failed consecutive financial audits for years—eight in a row by recent counts—unable to fully account for trillions in assets. Systemic accounting weaknesses persist with little personal accountability for the officials overseeing them.

When the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and related efforts in 2025–2026 shone light on waste and improper payments, the institutional response was defensive. Claims of savings were contested, data quality questioned, and the effort itself attacked by all of DC and Congress itself. Meanwhile, documented problems—invalid taxpayer identification numbers on payments, inadequate controls, and long-standing high-risk programs—continued with minimal criminal consequences for career officials.

Prosecutions for fraud still occur through the Department of Justice and inspectors general, but the culture of the permanent bureaucracy rarely produces the kind of personal risk ordinary taxpayers face.

The same pattern appears abroad. The United States has spent billions annually on “democracy assistance” and related foreign programs. Critics have long argued that some of this spending functions as political interference under the banner of election support. Whether the precise dollar figures reach the “hundreds of billions” scale in any given year is debatable, but the absence of rigorous public accounting and personal accountability for outcomes is not. These fraudulent payments have vast international consequences. For instance now that USAID has been cut to the many nations in South America, suddenly the elections south of the border have produced six new conservative presidents. The fraud there was used to prop up socialist and communist candidates and tyrants. Funny how government fraud never props up conservative victories.

Election Integrity Barriers in California

Nowhere is the double standard clearer than in election administration. California law requires voters to be U.S. citizens and to attest to citizenship under penalty of perjury on the registration affidavit. That self-attestation is treated as sufficient evidence for voting purposes. Documentary proof of citizenship is not routinely required, and election officials are not authorized to conduct independent verification as a matter of course.

Federal attempts to obtain full statewide voter registration data for citizenship and list-maintenance checks have been blocked in court on privacy and other grounds. Jury source lists (which draw from voter rolls and DMV records) have likewise been treated as largely off-limits for broader public or investigative cross-checks aimed at identifying non-citizens. The practical effect is that systematic inquiry into whether the rolls contain only eligible citizens is heavily restricted. Ordinary citizens who raise concerns are often dismissed; the system protects itself from the very audits it demands of private taxpayers. (Note: Cole is planning a local federal suit asking for voter records to match signed ballot sleeves to known citizens.)

The Reaction to Exposure

When Elon Musk and DOGE teams began publicly identifying waste and improper payments, the response from many in Congress, media, and activist circles, was not for institutional reform; the response was personal and corporate attacks. Tesla dealerships and vehicles were vandalized, set on fire, and targeted in coordinated protests. Stockholders and the company itself absorbed the blowback. The message was unmistakable: go after government fraud and the system—and its political allies—and they’ll punish the messenger rather than the problem.

Three Concrete Proposals

The current arrangement is unsustainable. The following reforms would help restore balance:

Proposal 1. Automatically reduce federal tax collections (or the corresponding appropriation authority) by the dollar amount of verified government fraud and improper payments each year. If agencies cannot control waste and fraud measured in the hundreds of billions, they should operate with less revenue.

Proposal 2. Require the head of every major federal program—and corresponding officials at state and local levels receiving federal funds—to submit quarterly audit reports, from the operational level up to the cabinet or equivalent. False or materially incomplete reporting would carry felony penalties identical to those applied to private taxpayers who falsify returns.

Proposal 3. Mandate that every chief election official submit to an independent annual voter-roll audit and sign a sworn affidavit affirming that the rolls under their supervision contain no known ineligible voters (including non-citizens) and that no systemic fraud occurred in elections they oversee. False affidavits would again carry felony consequences. California’s current barriers to citizenship verification and list transparency would have to yield to this basic requirement of affirmed legitimacy.

Closing

Government has surrounded itself with protections—procedural, judicial, and cultural—that ordinary citizens do not enjoy. A change in presidential administration can remove a handful of political appointees but the permanent apparatus remains largely untouched. The judiciary has too often treated bureaucratic opacity as a feature rather than a defect.

Citizens who must document every financial move under threat of felony prosecution have every right to demand the same rigor from the institutions that take their money and administer their elections. The three proposals above are modest first steps. Without them—or something equally forceful—the double standard will continue, public trust will erode further, and the distance between the governed and those who govern will continue to widen.

These illustrations capture the asymmetry and the path forward. The reforms are straightforward. Implementation requires only the political will to treat government the way government already treats the people who fund it.

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