As in the parable of the frog in slowly boiling water, voters often remain in a voting path detrimental to themselves, until it is too late to change their dire circumstances. The Just Vote No Blog hopes to encourage voters to consider the often hidden consequences of proposals at the ballot box and vote wisely.
Every nation has the government it deserves – Joseph de Maistre
Blog Posts:
BLM Protests and “The Moynihan Report”: It has been 55 years since Pat Moynihan wrote “The Negro Family: The Case for National Action.” It has been almost 30 years since the Rodney King riots, and nearly four weeks since George Floyd’s killing erupted into world-wide protests. Actions chosen so far seem to have failed. Maybe it is time to revisit The Moynihan Report and choose differently. Read More.
COBOL – Ancient But Still Issuing Your Unemployment Checks: Developed in 1959, this programming language is still the foundation of finance and government technology. And it is having trouble processing the current surge of unemployment checks. Read More.
Stimulus Plans – Peace for Our Time: On March 27, what is being called the biggest economic stimulus plan ever passed into law. Necessary by most accounts, but not without serious critics and potentially negative consequences. Read More.
Once Again the Fed Wants to Save Us: During the financial meltdown of 2008-2009, Ben Bernanke established unconventional monetary tools intended to bring the U.S. economy back to life. Now, in the age of corona, Fed Chairman Jerome Powell is trying to repeat the feat, but in a much larger scale. Read More.
Bill Gates in 2015 – “We Are Not Prepared” : In 2015, as the Ebola epidemic was subsiding, Microsoft founder Bill Gates outlined during a TED Talk why a highly infectious virus could kill more people than war. COVID-19 shows we are as unprepared now as we were then. Read More
The Keystone Kops Response to Crises: There is nothing humorous about people getting sick. That is why we all must forcefully call attention to uncoordinated, undisciplined responses to crises. The COVID-19 pandemic reveals what countries have effective public health infrastructures and which do not. Read More
Would Even Bigger Government Fix California? Our Founding Fathers advocated for a lean Federal government that focused on enumerated powers. Perhaps they visualized the same for states’ governments. California is far from lean; it is bloated. Does the state need an amendment mandating 250 legislators instead of 120? Read More.
Lies, Hate and Disinformation – Should Facebook Decide What’s What?: Say, a Facebook ad says immigrants helped build our nation, while another ad says illegal immigrants are a burden to taxpayers. Could Facebook objectively accept or ban one or the other? Read More.
State of the Union – Presidents Never Mention the Fault Lines: President Trump enumerated a list of successes in his February 4, 2020 State of the Union address. He did not mention serious challenges like the national debt. Nobody wants to hear about that. Read More
Moms 4 Housing vs. Private Property: Housing as human right does not appear in U.S. Constitutional or statutory documents, yet the moms currently in the news present this concept as remedy for their housing challenges. Remedies can be worse than diseases. Read More.
AB 1668 and SB 606 – Far From Water Conservation Bills: The Just Vote No Blog recommends this article on California Political News & Views. Residents need to question their legislators regarding draconian bills coming out of Sacramento. Read More.
2020 Resolution – Get Out of the Media Echo Chambers: When someone suggests that feminism is the worst thing that happened to our society, are we supposed to think women should not be allowed to vote or work outside the home? We would need to ask Tucker Carlson. Read More.
Ayn Rand Could Come in Handy Today: Ayn Rand devotees call those who have not yet read Atlas Shrugged “the uninitiated.” Snarky but worth noting. The initiation occurs when readers realize workers are better off working in a competitive market than a rigged crony one. Read More.
Progressive Policies – How They Thrive: Might it seem odd that states with crumbling infrastructure, overwhelming homelessness, unfortunate levels of drug addiction, as well as high taxes do not consider that maybe the status quo is not working. No, not really. The status quo usually remains. Read More.
California Political News & Views article: The article Reformer DAs – What’s So Bad About Public Urination? discusses reformer district attorneys elected throughout the U.S. Voters, conservative or progressive, would benefit from awareness of what is propelling reformer DAs into office and what their election signifies. An introduction to the article by publisher Steve Frank reminds us reformers are not limited to DAs.
PG&E Cuts Off Power for Non-Payment – Who Would Have Thunk It!: Does San Francisco really need a study to reveal that poor people sometimes do not have enough money to pay their utility bills? Read More.
We’re From the Government and Here to Help: In July Congress passed legislation mandating a $15 minimum wage. Government has a habit of implementing policies that create problems, then implementing some more policies to “fix” those problems. Read More.
Jerry Brown Blames the Feds for Wildfires Too: California wildfires have turned deadly. It’s time to quit the pointless blame game and end the climate change as cause for wildfires rhetoric. Lives are at stake. Read More.
Big Tech as Ideological Enforcer: Private companies are free to do as they see fit within legal frameworks in which they operate. Challenges arise when companies become government-empowered monopolies bent on ideological enforcement. Read More.
Warnings from a Former Communist: Who better to communicate the characteristics and infiltrating objectives of Chinese Communism than a former loyal member of the Chinese Communist Party. The extend of the infiltration in America appears to be an open secret to some and a mystery to many. Read More.
San Francisco – Slouching Toward Gomorrah: One often hears that as California does, so does the country. In California, San Francisco is a leader in what California does. Given the unfortunate decay in the once lovely City by the Bay, the rest of California and the nation should become highly concerned. Read More.
Proposition 13 Set for Another Jab: To some California’s Proposition 13 represents greedy property owners. To others, it’s a victory over profligates, for whom no amount of taxes is ever enough. On November 2020, voters will be asked to choose sides again. Read More.
Cities, Hostage to the Drug-Homeless Complex: An excellent article by Heather Mac Donald published in City Journal joined others to point out that lack of affordable housing is not the cause of homeless, drug use is. The report focused on San Francisco. But the the City’s drug permissiveness is part of a wider strategy. Read More.
American Worker: American Factory presents a picture of the American marketplace: a significant number of American workers employed by U.S.-based foreign companies. But the film’s message is open to interpretation. Read More.
A Tool For Control: Fear is a good tool with which to implement control. California did a great job successfully passing hundreds of mandates removing voter control of housing by utilizing concerns about climate change. Recommended article: The Ascent of Big Government in the Guise of Climate Change. Read More on CA Political News & Views
The Blurred Line Between Order & Chaos: Laws do not necessarily maintain order, and chaos sometimes coexists with order. A good article by Nathan Kreider posted on Being Libertarian beautifully discusses the Misconception of Order. Read More of Kreider’s article.
Climate Change – View From the Other Side: This post is in fairness to those who truly believe that climate change, as well as economic inequalities, are existential threats, requiring collective, globally-mandated action. Read More.
Homelessness – Is Housing the Problem? : When we routinely see drug injection needles discarded in our streets, we need to think whether the current narrative of gentrification and housing shortage as the primary cause for homelessness makes sense. Read More.
America First vs. the U.S. Dollar as Major Reserve Currency: With the fall of every major currency there are winners and there are losers. Today, some powerful potential winners are working to be the successful contenders in replacing the US dollar as the principal global reserve currency. Read More
Free Speech Rights do not Exist in the Private Sector: There is no such thing as “free speech rights” in the private arena, and the U.S. Supreme Court just told us that again. The Court’s decision in Manhattan Community Access v. Dee-Dee Halleck narrowly applies to the case at hand, but will influence how social media behaves. Read More.
Now a Credit Card Crisis? – U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez plan to introduce legislation that would cap credit card interest rates at 15%. Cap interest rates, and consumers benefit? Track record says different. Read More.
Antonio Gramsci – The New Hegemony: Gramsci formulated possibly the most influential philosophy of our times – rule brought about not by force or violence but by consent of the subjugated class. The plan is achieved by exercising its three components: hegemony, praxis, and civil society. Read More
Tax Cuts – Rising Tide That Lifts Some Boats: The 2017 tax cuts gave a boost to the U.S. economy. Workers are finding jobs. Lower-income folks take home a little more pay. U.S. companies have more money that could trickle down to workers. All this is a band-aid that leaves underlying problems untouched. Read More.
The Rough Beast at your Ballot Box:
“Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold …
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.” Politics today? Read More
Why Wage Earners Live on Debt: Near zero interest rates and an abundance of fiat money have rendered U.S. wage earners redundant. Companies no longer depend on their workers for wealth creation. Read More
Progressive Cities, We Have a Problem: San Francisco is one of California’s jewel cities. Prized not only for its magnificent views, but also for its progressive populace. There is not a tax the City does not love, or a compassionate deed that is left undone. Read More
