5 republicans defect and join jerry brown on the other side (left)
Jerry Brown wants to hurry up and put a proposition on the ballot in June for voters: can he set up a special election to extend higher tax rates on sales, vehicles and income for five years. It’s not exactly raising taxes, but doesn’t lower anything. (Our sales tax is almost 10%, outrageous.)
Brown is negotiating with a splinter group of five GOP lawmakers, whose wish list contains issues that have divided the Capitol for decades.
Republicans want to curb union power and demands, and put a hard cap on spending. So why are these 5 Republicans acting like rogue elephants (dangerous when separated from their herd!) and acting beguiled by Governor Brown’s tax increases? Beats me.
Cool creamy ice cream and money for your summer vacation.
My editor at CalWatchdog, Steven Greenhut, like many journalists in many states now, is really interested in pension reform, and what pensions are doing to the rest of the state as they grow more humongous. I haven’t read his new book yet, Plunder: How Public Employee Unions are Raiding Treasuries, Controlling Our Lives and Bankrupting the Nation (I prefer serial killer novels for the summer), but he’s been on the radio and tv talking about it, so it must be great!
are police pensions so high they make you scream?
Yeah, I had to read up about it to understand the nuances. Or to understand anything, really. It’s actually very simple: unions (mostly) arranged for moderate to low wages in certain industries, by including benefits on the back end, like retirement pensions, that laborers could feel reassured with.
This makes sense. Until you think about pyramid schemes. I’ve known for a while that the police can retire super young, like 40, and still get a livable pension, while even starting a different career. Since they work so hard, in dangerous situations, it seems fair. But somehow the pensions start to multiply, and with interest rates less than 1%, where will all this new money come from? The city, county and state. Oh.
It becomes more annoying when it’s state workers, who live in cubicles or offices and aren’t in danger at all, unless they jump out a window. I went to a seminar just a couple years ago at the LA Press Club when a smart entrepreneur said that all of us laid off journalists should go get state jobs, with little experience, with wonderful benefits, which you got no matter your age when you started. He teaches courses in Sacramento and other cities, and has a book out on this, too. He made it seem very enticing!
Last week someone emailed me complaining that I “explained” my cartoons. Let’s call him “Chris.”
Well, my main issue is that not only do I often not understand them, it’s that you often admit in the commentary below your cartoons that you have grave doubts that your audience will understand them. I think there was one in which you said you didn’t even get it yourself. Other times, you go to great lengths to explain the cartoon and why you think it’s funny. Chris
ESL cartoon English as a Second Language
Another man wrote me to complain about the cartoon above. (We’ll call him Anthony, since his name is Anthony.)
I saw this cartoon and decided immediately that you are out of touch with reality. For you information, even school districts in Kentucky, (not known as a bastion of education reform) require all students in high school to take Spanish as a second language. It’s obvious from your cartoon your are a RACIST AND BIGOT!
Spanish is spoken by thirty four million Americans in the U.S. and that number is growing. Only right wing, Bible thumping school districts, like those in Texas, would not teach the fastest growing second language in the U.S.!
A little education for you, since it’s apparent you failed your ESL!
Spanish was the language spoken by the first permanent European settlers in North America. It was brought to the territory of what is the contemporary U.S. in 1513 by Ponce de León. In 1565, the Spaniards, by way of Juan Ponce de Leon, founded St. Augustine, Florida, the oldest, continuously occupied European settlement in the continental U.S. …
Your Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh mentality is apparent!
Who ya going to vote for in the California Primary?
I thought everyone could use some help on this. I’ve been doing cartoons on California and the upcoming elections for almost 6 months now for CalWatchdog, this extraordinary journalism site for a think tank in Northern California, but haven’t posted many of them here yet. It’s time.
demon sheep campaign by Carly Fiorina vs Tom Campbell
Okay, now this was a pretty impressive campaign move. This Youtube on Tom Campbell as a demon sheep – or is it all other Republicans in general are sheep? – by Republican Carly Fiorina is classic Hollywood, and it went viral in days! Gather calls it “the most bizarre political ad ever.” And oddly enough, the makers of this video, just set up their own website 2 days ago, calling this a trilogy!
I think Fiorina’s…exaggerating. Plus, it’s not my voting dealie, so no comment on that election. More cartoons below.
This is normally a Christmas cartoon, but should it run before or after Christmas?!
It seems logical that Santa would visit the unemployment office AFTER Christmas, of course, but those pesky editors just aren’t in the mood to buy Santa Claus anything after Christmas Day – I guess they think the cartoon should be half price! This year, with over 10% unemployed (as Obama confirmed in the oh so casual before Christmas White House Special that Oprah did, that has already aired twice – yeah, it’s over 10%.) seems like unemployment is any time of the year. There’s a good chance many Santas didn’t get to work this year at all, so I hope this makes sense both before and after Christmas.
Yikes, unemployment went up to 12.5% in California, the Los Angeles Times said!
California still has the fourth-highest unemployment rate in the nation, yes, and its unemployment rate is a whopping 4.5 percentage points higher than it was in October 2008. But the job gains are a significant part of a trend that’s seen the pace of job loss slow as the economy pulled itself back together again.
