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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Where were the audits under Becerra’s term?

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

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

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

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

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

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

Conclusion

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

Why vote for a proven non-performer?

Give another candidate the opportunity to deliver.

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

•••

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TODAY! TUESDAY, JUNE 2, 2026

SBCurrent’s Primary Endorsements Here.

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There are debates being held to assist voters in deciding who to vote for in the June 2 primary where the two candidates receiving the most votes for governor will be placed on the ballot for the November election.

One such debate, held on April 28, 2026 at Pomona College, provides examples of the philosophies of eight candidates.

The Moderators

—Pat Harvey, CBS Los Angeles anchor

—Tony Lopez, CBS Sacramento anchor

—Ryan Yamamoto, CBS Bay Area anchor

—Julie Watts, CBS News California Investigative correspondent

—Sara Sadhwani, Pomona College political science professor.

The Democrat Candidates

—Katie Porter: Former U.S. Representative (9%).

—Matt Mahan: San Jose Mayor (4%).

—Tom Steyer: Billionaire and environmental activist (15%).

—Xavier Becerra: Former U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary (13%).

—Tony Thurmond: State Schools Superintendent (1%).

—Antonio Villaraigosa: Former Los Angeles Mayor (4%).

The Republicans Candidates

—Chad Bianco: Riverside County Sheriff (10%).

—Steve Hilton: Conservative commentator and former Fox News commentator (16%).

(The percentages after each name reflects the percentage of voters for each candidate according to a CBS poll taken after the democrats leading candidate Eric Swalwell withdrew from the governor’s race and congress after numerous allegations of malfeasance including allegations of sexual misconduct. An estimated 26% of voters were undecided.)

The format prohibited candidates from making opening or closing statements; the only topics covered were those raised by the moderators.

In the 90-minute program candidates were limited to 45 seconds; in-depth answers were not possible.

Background

California is consistently ranked as the least affordable state in the U.S. (ranking 50th), driven by the nation’s highest housing costs—with home prices over twice the national average—and exceptionally high transportation costs. While some rankings place it 3rd or 4th in overall cost of living, it is rarely above 47th for affordability (US News and World Report).

A CBS News poll released April 27 indicated that many voters say the state’s cost of living has become unmanageable. Democrats polled were largely looking for candidates aligned with current state policies and opposed to President Trump. Republicans largely prioritize change, with 76% saying the state’s economy is in bad shape.

The last time Republicans held the majority in both houses of the California legislature was 1970.

The last time California had a Republican governor was 2011.

The Debate

The Democrat candidates generally blamed the issues facing Californians on: “greedy” corporations and President Donald Trump.

Republicans pointed to the state’s long-standing Democrat leadership as the problem.

Highlights

—Affordability, Hilton vowed to make the state “Califordable,” by cutting the cost of utilities and making home-buying accessible to young people. Bianco said the progressive agenda is “destroying California” and as governor he would work to carry out the mandate of the voters.

—Healthcare, Becerra, who worked on the Affordable Care Act, said the first thing he would do is “stop Donald Trump.” His complaint was that Trump did not support the ever increasing charges to taxpayers that were necessary to continue the euphemistically named “Affordable Care Act.”

“Stop Trump” became the primary theme of the Democrats rather than changing their policies.

—Housing, Thurmond said to promote the “American Dream” he’d work to provide down-payment assistance and build two million housing units on surplus school properties.

Villaraigosa suggested a $25 billion first-time buyer assistance program “at no cost to taxpayers.”

Pennies from heaven?

Porter said California has to “build faster” without mentioning the example of the regulatory nightmare constructed by her party that is playing out in the Pacific Palisades.

—Gas prices, which Tom Steyer blamed on President Trump and the war with Iran. His solution would be for California to outsource all its refining to other states or other countries.

He was not asked how adding all the additional shipping costs would lower the price of gas in California, or about the war being temporary while the additional $1.50-1.70 California taxes that are permanent, or about California’s new law that has already driven up the price of gas by causing 3 of the 9 refineries in California to close.

—Insurance rates for homeowners, which Becerra promised to freeze despite moderator Julie Watts reminding him that the California Supreme Court had already said that was unconstitutional.

Porter called California’s FAIR Plan, that makes coverage available to residents who are unable to find policies, a “huge financial liability” and the state should insure the insurers so they can return and write more affordable polices.

Once again a proposal for taxpayers to pay more after Democrat polices caused the problems.

—Education, Villaraigosa called college tuition “unacceptable” and that his approach as mayor in working with L.A. Unified School District while mayor reflects how he would handle the situation.

There were no follow-up questions about why Democrat policies have caused California to rank 43rd in achievement in levels K-12 or why illegals are given free tuition at colleges.

Porter suggested two years of free tuition at state universities.

Not free to taxpayers.

—Time was spent on a series of relatively trivial issues, including:

—Charging fees on zero emission vehicles.

—Truck drivers being able to read English which is supported by the Trump administrated but opposed by Democrats in California.

—Whether young children should be barred from using social media without mentioning how this might be enforced.

Republicans largely prioritize change with 76% saying the state’s economy is in bad shape.

Conclusion

States such as Florida and Texas are flourishing, so the problem is not Trump: it is the party that has been running California.

Vote for Change: What do you have to lose (that you haven’t lost already)?

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Artificial intelligence – AI – uses computers to create systems that tend to “disrupt” the existing copyrights of the creators of the written, visual, or audio works.

The threat to written works was discussed in my article “AI and Copyrighted Written Works,” SBCurrent March 24, 2026.

The threat to visual works was discussed in my article “AI and Copyright…

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AI, or Artificial intelligence, is a new technology that uses computers to create systems capable of performing tasks typically requiring human intelligence.

New technologies tend to be “disruptors” by permitting the users of computers to “disrupt” the existing rights of the creators of the written, visual or audio works.

The threat of AI disrupting the r…

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In February 2026, Congressman Salud Carbajal (D, CA) along with 213 of his Democrat congressional colleagues voted to not fully fund the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

Fortunately, the 217 Congressional Republicans voted to fully fund the DHS, and the bill went to the Senate.

In March 2026, Senators Adam Schiff (D, CA) and Alex Padilla (D, CA…

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Artificial Intelligence, or just “AI,” is a new technology. New technologies tend to be “disruptors” by increasing the powers of the users to “disrupt” the existing rights of others. Lawyers and sometimes courts of law must apply existing laws in order to try and balance the rights of both of those groups.

This Occurred in the 1990s

In the 1990s, the new technology of personal computers provided employees with the power to electronically carry their employer’s intellectual property off the employer’s facility.

This disrupted the effectiveness of employers protecting their proprietary information by inspecting the belongings, such as briefcases and vehicles, of employees before they exited the employer’s facilities.

For example, when asked about the risks of permitting an accountant to work from home, I responded that it was permitting the employee to electronically remove the employer’s proprietary information by sending it off site to their personal computer which may not be as secure as the corporate system that deflected hundreds of attempts by hackers every week.

Today

The new technology Is AI, a branch of computer science that creates systems capable of performing tasks typically requiring human intelligence, such as reasoning, learning, problem-solving, perception, and interpreting input from cameras.

In essence, Ai functions by analyzing the data fed into it in order to identify patterns. In many cases, if not all, the data fed into includes some data that others have copyrighted.

The challenges to the legal system is to find the proper balance between AI being able to use the data without “disrupting” the rights provided authors by copyrights.

Legal Cases

In August 2024, authors Andrea Bartz, Charles Graeber, and Kirk Wallace Johnson filed a class action law suit against AI developer Anthropic alleging that AI developer Anthropic’s unauthorized use of books to train LLMs violated their copyrights.

In 2025 Judge Willaim Alsup, appointed by President Bill Clinton, in Bartz v Anthropic, N. D. Cal 2025, held that the digitization of purchased works was permitted under the “fair use” exception under the Copyright Act.

However, Judge Alsup also certified a class of rights holders whose books were obtained from pirated sources like LibGen (Library Genesis) and PiLiMi (Pirate Library Mirror).

As frequently happens, after a class was certified, Anthropic proposed a $1.5 billion class-action settlement covering approximately 500,000 works.

If this settlement is approved by the courts, it will be two things:

1) One of the largest in copyright history and

2) Provide significant, yet nuanced, guidance for AI companies, confirming that while training on data purchased is often permitted under the fair use doctrine, this may not be true for data from pirated works.

In Kadrey v Meta Platforms, N.D. Cal. 2025, 13 authors filed a class action lawsuit against Meta for downloading their copyrighted books to train its “llama” LLM.

An “LLM” is a “large language model” AI that developers “train” by “feeding” them an immense amount of text which the models use to recognize patterns and analyze the statistical relationship among words and punctuation marks. LLMs then generate new texts by predicting which words are most likely to come next in sequence.

Note: Under the theory of “garbage in, garbage out,” “trainers” can influence the outcomes by the types of text they “feed” to the LLMs. This may be particularly relevant for political issues.

Federal Judge Vince Chhabria, appointed by President Barack Obama, granted summary judgement for Meta by holding that Llama’s use qualified for the “Fair Use” exception to the Copyright Act as it was “transformative,” meaning it was used for scholarship or research.

In the Kadrey case, Judge Chhabria granted summary judgement in favor of Meta based on the plaintiff-authors failing to produce sufficient evidence of the effects of similar works produced by an LLM.

Judge Chhabria either advertently or inadvertently created two problems with his holding:

1) Trying to produce “sufficient evidence of the effects of similar works produced by an LLM” would require introducing evidence of another case that may well be prohibited under federal law, and

2) There are no similar works, as all copyrighted works are unique.

Conclusion

The legal rights of the AI users and the holders of copyrights will continue to develop based on how various judges view particular sets of facts.

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Are parents or politicians responsible for children’s health?

That was a question in California.

Then on March 2, 2026, the United States Supreme Court in Mirabelli v Bonta settled the question.

The Court decided that Lisa Mirabelli and other schoolteachers in Escondido, California, could use the legal system to challenge the Attorney General of California, Ron Bonta, as he represented the actions of the California legislature and governor.

The Court agreed with Ms. Mirabelli that parents should be permitted to receive information from schools about their children’s records and health.

The history of the case also demonstrated the philosophical split between the Republican and Democratic political parties.

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I was sitting with a couple of friends when an acquaintance surprised us by walking up and asking “Did you see the State of the Union speech?

It did not surprise me that our nondescript responses of a simple “Yes” did not discourage him from sharing his opinions

His using arm motions supporting to emphasize the rapidity of his speech was somewhat of a sur…

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President Donald Trump suspended visas from 21 countries and partially suspended visas from another 19 countries.

Why?

Because as per Secretary of State Marco Rubio, “Visas are not a right. There is no constitutional right to a visa. A visa is permission to enter our country as a visitor.”

The Secretary further clarified that the policy applies broadly to …

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In 2026 the Democrats and mainstream media have shown an enormous amount of interest in the files of Jeffrey Epstein but no interest in the files of Hunter Biden.

Epstein and Biden both had unusual sexual habits, numerous interactions with politicians, and undisclosed sources of wealth.

The DOJ/FBI have had both the files of Epstein and the computer files…

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My immediate reaction to learning that there will be a referendum to tax the assets of billionaires was “Why should I care?”

As my finger hovered over the delete button, I realized that the details indicated that such a tax could increase my taxes.

How so?

Taxing the assets of billionaires to fund education, food services, and healthcare.

This is not instea…

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President Trump’s speech in Davos, Switzerland, on January 21, 2026, illustrated how his administration is applying “U.S. management policies.”

Davos is a small, semi-remote ski town where in 1971 the 33-year-old German born, Harvard trained, professor Klaus Schwab created the European Economic Symposium.

Over the years, as the number of participants incr…

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Robert Frost conveyed a great deal of wisdom in his poem “The Road Not Taken,” which begins:

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;

In presidential elections the road typically taken is to elevate the vice president to p…

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The reason we celebrate Christmas has not changed in 2,000+ years. However, the way that we celebrate reflects the changes in the lifestyles in the area we now call the United States.

The first Christmas in America was celebrated in a simple wooden church in Jamestown just seven months after the town was founded in May 1607. It was a solemn event due to …

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Why Walz? It was a question that puzzled many of us after the then Vice President Kamala Harris selected the Governor of Minnesota Tim Walz as her running mate for her presidential campaign.

For some of us, ”Why Walz?” was not our first reaction, which was “Thank goodness it was not Josh Shapiro,” since it appeared that the governor of Pennsylvania would…

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Ms. Kelly McAdoo was hired as the City Administrator for Santa Barbara in February 2024.

On September 15, 2025, after being on the job for a year and a half, Ms. McAdoo announced that Anthony Valdez had been hired for the newly created position of Deputy City Administrator. He will be focused on housing, economic vitality, and downtown services. His sala…

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“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,” the opening line of Charles Dickens’ 1859 novel “A Tale of Two Cities,” could be used in 2025 to describe the differences between the approach of the two major political parties in determining how a government agent can decided if that passport is yours.

Historical Development of Passports

Before Worl…

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Four Years of Wasted Time

If you are wondering what inspired the title “1,354 days,” my inspiration was Kamala Harris’s book, “107 Days.”

How so?

On January 21, 2021, Kamala Harris and Joe Biden were sworn in as Vice President and President, respectively, of the United States, and occupied those offices until January 20, 2025.

Kamala Harris, in her book “10…

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Suppose you, as the captain of a U.S. Navy Destroyer stationed in the Caribbean Sea, receive a report of a small boat that is reportedly carrying drugs—-aka a “drug boat”—-racing on a known drug route from Venezuela to the United States.

What would you do?

Should you follow your commander-in-chief’s, the President of the United States, authorization to ta…

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The DOJ/FBI Spying on Political Opponents

Would the DOJ/FBI really spy on political opponents? That is a question I would have classified as ridiculous. Until, that is, the Biden-Harris administration.

And, what began as a doubt during the Obama-Biden presidency was confirmed during the Biden-Harris one.

According to the documents released earlier this yea…

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