“I believe it is time to redefine Republicanism. Why? Because too many Americans have a distorted view of what Republicans stand for.

Ask any college student why they vote Democratic and they will tell you because Republicans are the party of the rich, of corporations that exploit workers, and because Republican conservatives want to subjugate women and minorities, and live in an era that has passed regarding social issues like gay marriage, sexual and racial discrimination and the use of marijuana.

I would suggest that characterizing conservatives in this way is wrong, but will I win many conversions by drilling down into the unintended consequences of top down political correctness and ‘social justice’ legislation? No.

So Republicans are left with pushing economic reasons and self interest in keeping the government out of our lives as the most effective way to bring more benefits directly to all citizens. But this ignores the nature of our emerging digital sharing society that most X’Gens and Millennials have been raised with, and a party to, all of their lives.

OK, so how do we redefine the idea of Republicanism? Of how self determination and the lifting of the economic tide raises all boats?

The truth is Trump may not be defining the new Republicanism, but he has definitely shown that the Old Guard is increasingly irrelevant.

A new definition may still be a few elections away, but you cannot deny that the voters are yearning for a new direction and new leadership. One obvious element in Trump’s favor is the image of fearlessness. Donald Trump has shown that having a command of legislative and foreign relations is not particularly important. What his supporters are indicating is that they like his commitment to America First, his strong support of law and order and his unflappable defense of Americanism.

This is reminiscent of Teddy Roosevelt, John Kennedy and even Dwight Eisenhower. As Republicans, we have always favored the concept of American Exceptionalism. But the opposition has managed to turn that once noble identity into a negative image of intolerance and arrogance. Instead of pure nationalism, our party leaders have focused on financial issues like tax policy, school choice, and anti-unionism.

All of these relatively narrow concepts leave enormous numbers of young voters, and minorities, standing at the station while the train pulls away.They are too young to relate to the tax issues, they have been taught to respect unions, because they ‘fight for the little guy’ and for them school was easy, so why do we need dual, competing systems funded by taxpayers?

So what is the ideal new image for a redefined Republican Party?

I believe it needs to start with women’s issues. Just like how Republicanism grew out of slavery and the conflict over whether it was morally justified to own another human being, women’s rights are still an unresolved thorn in the side of our American culture. It also represents a microcosm of what divides the entire planet; can man dictate terms of existence to another man or is that the job of God? And which God would that be?

Turning women into just another man is not attractive to women, either. No, Republicans should look at women as different, but equal. Give women credit for their uniquely feminine attributes and abilities, but don’t expect them to act like, or even want to be like men. Just like in a family, women and men play different, but important roles. Working in the political arena should be no different.

As Republicans, we should champion those differences with a deep and abiding respect.

If we look around the world, the more women are respected by a culture, the healthier and more dynamic the economy and the body politic is. It is so rare that as the leader in gender equality and respect, America reinforces human dignity and liberty across the globe.

Therefore, I believe nationalism is an appropriate platform for our Party. On the other side of the aisle, the Progressives (formerly known as Democrats) are all in for globalism. Their lackadaisical attitude toward security flies in the face of family safety; Opening the doors to your home to any passerby is not the best way to provide a secure environment for any family.

Our priority as Republicans must be to protect our family first. So I believe Republicanism is synonymous with what I call Familyism.

It is about starting every day with the idea that your family comes first, then the family of your community, and then your state, and then your country. Even Tucker Carlson would agree with that.

By taking care of and providing safety and security for your extended family, you are actively supporting what the founding fathers envisioned for the United States of America, a family of individual states and communities, all with different personality types, but all pulling the collective boat in the same direction.

We are all roots and branches of the same tree, America.

It is time for Republicans to embrace and brand ourselves with a new definition, a new motto, a new moral imperative: “The Family First Party ( formerly known as the Republican Party).

I am lucky in many ways.

One of them is having many friends (and relatives) who have been with me through my 75 year lifetime. One of them was born 3 months before me and because our parents were friends, we have shared most of our lives living in Southern California.

My friend and I attended elementary school together (I still have class photos of 3rd grade). Just before my folks relocated in 1960 ( I was 10) we spent a month at Mission Bay sharing an apartment with his dad who was doing an ad campaign for The Yellow Pages canvassing San Diego County. That is where we spent nearly every hour of every day on the beach. We rented surf mats, surf boards and bicycles. We went to Belmont Park several times, and it was one of the best Summer Vacations I ever had.

I was enthralled by his dad. He had a great job with The Yellow Pages. He was connected to every retail business in an intimate way. When our little league team needed new shoes, boom, they were delivered the next day! He was also a Magician. Could keep folks entertained for hours with card tricks. He was full of great stories and quick witted one liners.

But he was also an authoritarian and used fear to manage his kids behavior. When we disobeyed, bend over and expect a hard swat on the butt. My friend got many more than me because his dad knew my dad disapproved of physical discipline.

We were separated during high school years, but got together during Spring Break and Summer Vacations during college years. He attended San Diego State while I attended Cal State University at Long Beach. We both had Volkswagen Bugs and gas was cheap, so we went waterskiing at the Colorado River, attended Rock Concerts in Palm Desert and San Diego. We skied Mammoth Mountain, and eventually rented a house together in Hermosa Beach when we were both working in local LA area ski shops.

Then something happened. Not sure what, actually. He grew remote.

I got into a serious relationship. She was suspicious of him for some vague reason. We seldom socialized for many years. In 1977, after my girlfriend dumped me, I relocated to San Diego to start a business. A year later his folks bought a retirement condo on the Lake San Marcos Country Club golf course.

When he visited them, he decided San Diego was the place to be and he got a job with a popular ski and surf shop. We started playing golf and skiing a lot. But there was still an underlying problem. He was abusing drugs and alcohol. He would get crazy and abusive. He had bad knees and during a long period during and after replacement surgery on one of them, he started using oxycodone.

I chose to avoid him, and our relationship slowed way down.

Then, one day we were visiting his parents at the golf course condo, having a beer on the balcony, watching the last players come in at dusk, when my friend looked me in the eye and began crying. He was going to jail. Probably for 3 to 4 years. He had just been convicted of indecent exposure and was scheduled to start his sentence the next Monday.

I gasped for air. I was speechless. Eventually his mom explained the charges and what he was guilty of. It was clear that he had been exposing himself to young girls for quite sometime. You don’t get caught the first time. They had kept his arrest and trial secret, hoping for a better outcome.

After serving 3 years at a Patton State Hospital in San Bernardino, he found employment in the sporting goods business and got married. They had a son, and bought a home. Things seemed to have straightened out.

I was raising a family and so was he. But there was something strange about my friend. He was reclusive, tended to isolate his growing young son. His son had just turned nine, was doing well in school, and the family was settled into a bigger, better home in the exclusive La Costa neighborhood in Carlsbad. The move came as a surprise to me, and was consummated faster than any real estate transaction I had ever witnessed. But it was a really nice single story residence and perfectly located for getting early afternoon sunshine.

Less than a year later, his wife was diagnosed with stage 4 endometrial cancer. They took 14 pounds of cancer growth out of her in an attempt to save her life. A few months later he was a single parent and I found out the reason they had moved was because he had been charged with probation violations regarding a neighbors daughter. The family dropped charges once they were advised of his wife’s condition and he agreed to move away. The authorities agreed on condition he reinstitute continuing hormone treatments to reduce his testosterone levels.

His wife’s passing came as close to a Titanic Sinking of my friend as anything possibly could. He took consolation in the fact that his wife had a huge insurance policy through her nurses union, so he could be a full-time housekeeper and father.

On New Years Eve 2000 we attended a friends big “Y2K Calamity” party. It was a costume party, so most of us were wearing homemade disguises. My friend got recklessly drunk and ended up with his Big Yellow Cow suit torn off. I had to take him to my house to sober him up.

When I confronted him the next day, he didn’t remember anything. I knew at that moment more than alcohol was involved. And his compulsion to expose himself was not resolved.

Six months later I found out that sheriffs deputies came to his house early the day before, and in front of 10 year-old son, whisked him away to jail. Apparently this time he had exposed himself to a young girl in a Toys R Us store. His son was placed with an uncle and this time my lifelong friend was going away for a long time.

From that moment on my friend was a pariah. No one wanted to have anything to do with him ever again. His family was outraged and angry and essentially disowned him. Our circle of friends showed no mercy. He was excommunicated and sent to the gulags of history. No one I talked to ever offered an ounce of sympathy because they felt he had been given a chance and thrown it away. Unforgivable!

He was sentence to 4-7 years in a state prison. His lawyer said he was lucky, it could have been much worse. With good behavior he could be out in four years. The judge hoped having a son to come back to, to hopefully experience high school with, would incentivize him to get proper treatment and counseling while doing his time.

I was the only one who ever wrote him letters and offered any encouragement. His son never called or wrote. He told me he was mad because dad had betrayed mom’s memory as well as himself. He stated flatly, his relationship with his dad was dead.

I wrote my friend every couple of months. He would write back expressing remorse and looking forward to his release. He would always refer to jail as “Happy Land” because everybody there put the best spin on their circumstances as possible. Nobody spoke about their crimes, and everyday was like the TV show Survivor, which they watched on the common area TV.

I suggested he try to gain something tangible for his time, like an advanced degree, or write a book. Maybe he could learn a skill at something like playing guitar or swim instructor. Might as well gain something positive from what otherwise would be a gigantic waste of his best years.

He chose to read about and obsess on dieting. In jail the food is bland, high carbohydrate based and usually served cold. So he reasoned he could trade off his high carb sweet stuff for vegetables and fruit. He read a ton of health food guru stuff, committing himself to never go back to over processed high-in-sugar and fat foods again.

When he got released after 4 1/2 years, he never looked better. High school weight, bright eyes and no limp on his bad knees. We played golf and he played like his high school days. Kicked my ass. I couldn’t believe it! Then I realized he was the guy I grew up with. He had rediscovered his old self. He had forgiven himself, accepted the righteous anger of his family, and decided on a strategy for his future.

He agreed to meet with me once a month for no other purpose but to check on his mental health. “Ask me how I am doing, ok? And I mean, ‘how am I really doing!’ I can trust you and I promise I will be honest. Lying is a losers strategy. I know because I have been lying all my life. I’m done with that”.

I believed him. He does possess an amazing ability to focus his mind.

He acquired a Golden Retriever, spent a couple of hours every day walking her around the neighborhood or the nearby Batiquitos Lagoon. He was still sticking to his diet regimen, prepping a weeks worth of salad and homemade salad dressing on Sundays. Shopping at Sprouts and Frazier Farms, he was super price conscious, always calling me to advise when someone was offering discounts on salmon or jumbo shrimp. He took in two former Happy Land roommates. He wanted some company and security and one of the guys was a handyman contractor who could help around the house. The other guy was an ex-marine who would be his Junk Yard Dog (his Golden was useless as a guard dog).They seemed to have a mutually beneficial relationship and since they too were registered sex offenders, they all remained to themselves socially.

His address is registered on the public sex offender website, so his neighbors never approached him. Eventually through friends-of-friends he made friends with one neighbor. That took a decade to develop. But it was clear, they wouldn’t be holding any neighborhood barbeques at that house.

Today is June 18th, 2026 and my friends 76th birthday.

Unfortunately he is back in jail. But this time it is a nursing home not a penal institution. In March he had a massive stroke. Diagnosed as two blood clots on his frontal lobe, he barely survived the trip to the hospital, but he has made some progress. He can speak with only a small lisp. His vision is affected, blind in one eye, but ok with the other. His left side is most effected. He is not in control of his left leg or arm. He must have 24hr nursing care to feed him, change him, and help him move from the bed to a recliner chair.

When I visit we can discuss history and friends. But he gets very confused and then starts to point at friends in the room that don’t exist. He starts telling stories about things that never happened or that will never happen. The doctors don’t think those issues will ever be resolved. Many stroke victims suffer too much brain damage to recover their neurotransmitters in certain areas of the brain, and it will continue to try to rewire itself, which results in mangled memories and hallucinations.

In a way I can understand what is happening. He is inventing circumstances to override the ones he finds himself in. He is surfing in a massive storm and just trying to stay on the board.

He knows if he falls off he will get swept out to sea.

“If you have been following American politics the past couple of decades, to even the least observant or engaged citizen, there are increasing signs that our country is lost in the dark woods of discord and conflicting views of who we are and where we are, and where we should be going.”

That was part of the introduction I wrote for my 2015 book Turn Right At Lost: Recalculating America. I was reflecting on what my motivations were for writing a book. A first effort to actually write a full-length book. To capture the feelings of frustration I was experiencing during the seven years of Barack Obama’s Presidency.

I suspect most American’s and I understood why Obama beat John McCain in the 2008 election. People were sick of the excuses George Bush kept making about the stagnant economy. About the increasing trade deficit, the terrible federal responses to several major environmental catastrophes, to the deteriorating and infuriating condition of our racial relations.

The Silver Tongued Black Man had all the right answers. He had answers for questions that were not even being asked. Then, suddenly, a person most Americans were familiar with, and also had at least some emotional connection too, announced his candidacy for the Office of the Presidency of America: Donald John Trump hit the headlines with his audacious political bombshell.

Most people scoffed at him. TV talking heads laughed and mocked Trump as a TV Reality Show host and a failing hotel/resort developer. At that point, they didn’t discuss his platform ideas. The media was convinced Trump was nothing more than a charlatan.

He made the issue of border security the number one item on his platform. Of course, he was mocked. But when I evaluate a persons character, I try to rely on logic. So when the press and the people started talking about what a gross misread of the voters Trump’s border claims were, I wrote:

“The idea that borders are a thing of the past is so antithetical to the concept of civilization, of law and order, of human dignity, and of national identity, it is counter intuitive. The impact and cost of uncontrolled migration is so enormous and widespread, it fosters a loss of controls of currency, of trade, of cultural identities, and of physical, financial and employment security.”

I have a habit when I am confronted with making a binary decision about some important action. Whether it is buying a home, car or piece of jewelry, I sit down and take a piece of lined paper. I draw a line down the middle. I put a + or - sign on the top of the columns. I list the items/impacts that would affect my decision.

At the end, it is just a simple matter of addition.

Trump had just scored a bunch of points with me because the immigration issue is more than just one problem. By enforcing our borders, the federal government starts to improve many other cultural and economic problems.

Allowing Illegal, unfettered and uncontrolled immigrants to flow into our country pours gasoline on the smoldering social diseases of drunk driving, petty theft and burglary, rampant drug use and runaway overdosing. It puts pressure on our hospitals, schools and police services. Expanding populations of undereducated, untrained and often broke young males displace similarly situated US citizens, undermining their progress towards economic independence.

Trump knew this was the best way to rally support. Almost every American has suffered long waits in emergency waiting rooms, struggles to hold uninsured/unlicensed illegal immigrants financially accountable for car accidents. Been astounded at how school classrooms are severely over crowded with non-English speaking students. Been angered when an acquaintance loses a teenager to fentanyl poisoning.

In the meantime, government leaders continue to pretend everything is OK. As Obama pounded on his own chest and bellowed to the world that he had resided over “the most successful and transparent administration in decades: and “stabilized a world in conflict under G,W. Bush”, and “protected Americans from a total economic collapse” ( none of which was remotely true) I was looking for any light in the storm coming from the Republican side.

I COULDN’T FIND ONE. I wrote:

“What really pains me is the way we, as a nation, have lost our way. How the growing number of left wing nut cases are receiving credibility by many in the media, and even worse, inculcated in our youth by academia. Some search for reasons why, to blame us, to rationalize why some maniacs would justify slaughtering thousands of innocent men women and children, and devastate the lives of thousands of other relatives, fellow Americans, and heroic first responders. America seems increasingly morally “Lost.” Our emotional bonds have torn, our sense of pride and brother-ship has deteriorated. The world has descended into chaos, and America, and unfortunately a large number of our fellow citizens, have abdicated our leadership role.”

Remember, those words were written in early 2016.

Over a decade later, the situation in America is exponentially worse.

The tone of our national discussions has become less tolerant. The protests that occur across the country are much more violent. The number of violent attacks on schools and churches has exploded. The streets in major cities are cluttered with makeshift homeless encampments, exposing rampant drug abuse and disease. It has gotten so bad that some local law enforcement has decided to ignore lawbreaking because it takes too much time and resources to arrest homeless for civil violations, only to see them released the very next day.

At that point in that book, I introduced a concept that would be repeated in almost all of my books. I didn’t know it then, but the idea of Transformative Moments would help me define my approach to understanding what makes people act the way they do.

“Transformative moments are like speed bumps on the road of life: you can either blast over them and hope you don’t blow a tire or bust a shock absorber, or you can slow down, take them in stride, and move on to live to tell about the experience another day. Either way, it is important that you have correct directions or at least a good idea of where you are going. Even then, it sometimes requires acute awareness and flexibility to get there safely. America is our collective home. As we traverse the planet, we need to be assured that home will be there when we return, or at least when our children take over. No one wants to be confronted with the returning soldier syndrome where the home he left in no way resembles the home he returned to”.

The biggest news story of a lifetime is that our once sovereign Republic has been hijacked and is essentially operating as a Criminal Syndicate. We now know American elections have been stolen for over a decade. It is now official, the methods and procedures have been uncovered, and the transnational corporate owned news media and internet cabal has been exposed as complicit co-conspirators.

After decades of lying to the public about the security of our elections, the Criminal Cabal decided they could tackle the grandaddy of them all: Lie to the Planet about a Pandemic. If they could manage our attitude about the credibility of our leadership, the next step to total control would be to capture our bodies.

They overstepped on that one.

Some media franchises are beginning to backpeddle, to try to “get out in front of the parade” so as to mitigate the damages they are about to suffer. Prominent talking heads are being reassigned, fired or taking early retirement. Alternative news stories that ran immediately after the November 2020 election and all during the Covid propaganda campaigns, showing truckloads of brand new ballots being off loaded in Atlanta voting collection facilities, or videos of vote counters reinserting ballots into machines over and over again, are being rerun as ‘new’ information.

Then they flooded regularly scheduled news programs with a running ‘death count’ of supposed unvaccinated Covid19 victims. They had most people cowering in their basements.

We now know MyPillow owner Mike Lindell was right when he claimed that servers in Serbia were coordinating with the Chinese to reverse the results on Dominion vote counting machines. We now know the World Health Organization’s VEARS system was a total manipulation and misrepresentation of the vaccine side effect data.

Thanks to Nicholas Madero, we now know electronic voting machines have been corrupting elections for decades, all over the world.

A lot of Americans knew what happened immediately after the phony election. That is why the January 6th demonstrations at the Capitol drew nearly one million outraged citizens, hollering “Stop the Steal!” We saw the mathematically impossible vote surges explained away as minority and college voters ballots being delayed by inexperience or Covid related obstacles. But no one ever explained why those ballots were printed on unofficial paper, had no folds or envelopes, and if they had any signature at all, most were unverified.

Later, we saw the videos of empty hospital triages, of people dropping from cardiac irregularities, of thousands of people attending Trump rallies with no face masks, happily going about their business with no symptoms of Covid.

We knew it was all part of a conspiracy to deny Donald Trump a second term, to promote an atmosphere of fear, and a pathway for the Progressive Jihad to dominate American domestic and international policies.

They were colluding on The Grandest Gaslighting Scheme in human history.

Knowing what we know now, Californians have to question the authenticity of the lawful elections of Jerry Brown, Gray Davis, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Gavin Newsom. Beyond the Governorship, who really voted in Nancy Pelosi, Diane Feinstein and Adam Schiff? Every one of those folks have systematically undermined everything good about our community. Their policies have institutionalized over-taxation, out of control regulation, rampant drug use and merry-go-round criminal activity. Our schools are near last in national rankings, and the California healthcare system is near collapse with major hospitals and insurance collaboratives running on fumes. Major cities like LA and San Francisco are almost uninhabitable. They only exist because of high tech employment centers, many of whom have decided to leave for lower taxes and better living conditions in states like Florida and Texas.

Oh, and California has a 73 BILLION DOLLAR deficit.

Then there is the mystery of Joe Biden supposedly getting 81 million votes in the 2020 election. By the time that happened, the criminal cabal of cheaters were so confident they would not get caught, they didn’t bother to hide the evidence. Besides, they had the Fake News media to handle that issue.

It took the 2024 re-election of Trump to remove and expose the obfuscation, the legal roadblocks, the news media gaslighting and to release the alternative news and social media from the censorship that kept patriots from rushing the White House and lynching Joe Biden.

It will take a lot of time to unwind the evidence, to gather testimony, to make arrests, but the story is that our American innocence, our reputation as a reputable and just society of people who respect our laws, our system of justice and our election process, has been tarnished, forever.

They say victims of crimes can never fully recover the sense of safety and innocence they owned before their life was changed. Can those same assumptions apply to a nation or a state?

If we look at the evidence with a critical eye, the proof is in the personalities at the Head of the Snake. In the decades since they have been in leadership, can you name one thing Democrats have done to improve our lot? Kept us out of wars? No. Improved race relations? No. Built a business environment that provides millions of middle class income jobs? No. Made our children happier and more inclusive? No. Provided the means to put our neediest citizens a roof over their head? No.

While dozens of Democrats have passed through the executive and legislative branches in Washington and California, all they have done is feather their own nests, make fundraising speeches and run up enormous bills.

The theft of our votes and the sovereignty of our bodies has done something even more sinister: The Democrats have stolen our innocence.

There has been a lot of discussion amongst the golfing community about rolling back the power characteristics of today’s modern high tech golf balls. After Cameron Young blasted his tee shot on the 18th hole at TPC Sawgrass (it ended up being 375 yards long) and going on to win The Players Championship, everyone was astounded. That drive is the longest ever recorded (official recording began in 2003) and especially under the circumstances, it just seemed ridiculous!

Afterwards, I watched Golf Channel commentators marvel at Cameron’s deceptive power. The discussion ultimately led to the question, how do we reign in this deformation of the game? The answer seemed to boil down to two solutions: Do nothing, or bifurcate. To bifurcate, the governing bodies of golf would set different standards for Professional and Amateurs. They would divide the groups, providing some restrictions on the golf ball used in professional competition. Like putting governors on race cars.

I can’t think of a dumber idea.This is not what professional golf should be pursuing. Besides, I wonder why we are so worried about what the best players in the game are doing. What about the rest of us?

Golf is such a multifaceted sport, and the skills required are in many ways more nuanced than any other athletic skill set. Great golf performances incorporate subtle talents like patience, precision, planning and tactics, hand-eye coordination in the upper 2%, resiliency, controlled body mechanics, green and atmospheric reading skills, and maybe more important than any of those challenges, an ability to control your emotions.

When we add into the equation the advanced engineering that is common with modern equipment, the game we see on TV has changed dramatically. Some will argue for the better, others worry it has devolved into a video game-show that in no way reflects the experience of millions of everyday amateur golfers flailing away on municipal courses across the country.

In that sense, golf as a sport, is already bifurcated. Meaning there are two golf realities: The virtually unreal version people watch on TV. Then there is the game people actually play. That is OK because fans enjoy seeing such ‘what could be’ rather than ‘what is’ while sitting on their sofa.

It is estimated that roughly 12% of the fans that watch professional golf on TV actually play the game. So they have expectations that may not align with active players who know how difficult the sport really is.

Lets face it, professional golf and amateur golf were never the same game. But amateurs pretend it is. They want to experience something like what they see on TV. But it is getting harder rather than easier. Would anyone suggest that playing a $6 per ball Titleist Pro-V1 is really going to lower their handicap? Give us weaklings 325 yard drives? Come on, man!

The single most impactful equipment innovation in golf was the introduction of The Big Bertha driver developed by Ely Calloway. Coming off the innovative Howard Head designed Prince Oversized Tennis Racket that increased the sweet spot on the strings back in the late 70’ and early 80’s, Calloway reasoned everyday players would flock to buy a club that made hitting it longer and straighter much easier.

From that prototype we now have 450cc sized heads made of exotic carbon and titanium coming from almost all club makers. Most everyday golfers have seen improvement in their tee shots. Even with technological improvements, the truth is, overall scoring averages, both pro and amateur, are relatively stagnant. In the past twenty five years we have seen remarkable feats, more 59’s, lowering handicaps at clubs, but we must also understand that golfers themselves are refining their bodies with specialized exercises, using video slow-mo training and ball speed measuring devices, and spending more time playing than past generations. Achieving statistical advances is a normal process in every sport.

Meantime, course designers and remodelers are lengthening the holes, adding more hazards, and increasing green fees. I would argue that all of these so-called enhancements are making the everyday player suffer. But they are the backbone of the sport!

The question of equipment bifurcation (dividing the golf ball into two different specifications) to bring it back into conformity with what the golf courses were designed to challenge, is worthwhile. I used to enjoy rooting for smaller players like Ben Crenshaw, Hubert Green and Cory Pavin. They had to employ different tactics to attack longer courses. Lately, all we see are guys crushing 9 irons into 225 yard par three greens.

The little guy, the quiet, unassuming, but highly skilled short game golfer is no more.

“It just seems like the average golfer now is just a bigger, better athlete than they were seven to 10 years ago. There’s not a lot of guys that are under six feet tall. I saw something the other day where the average height of the PGA Tour had gone up like four inches or something like that. Guys are bigger. Guys that would have been piddling around in minor league baseball are out here hitting 320 yards now.”

-- Pro Golfer Brian Harman ( 5’7”)

So, as far as putting a governor on the balls pros play? No, I think that would mean we would have to put an asterisk next to every record ever achieved in the future. Let the Big Dogs eat. The fans are loving what they are seeing, so the Show Must Go On. As for the rest of us? That is another thing altogether.

I would like to see a golf ball that would only serve us recreational players.

The ones who play on weekends with a few friends, or with our wives.. A ball me and my friends can play in our skins games, our afternoon Nassau competitions. Something we can all benefit from. A ball we could hit 300 yards off the tee. Why not? The pros don’t need more distance to improve their experience, but most of us do! Imaging getting more opportunities to putt for birdies and eagles. More opportunities to hit longer par threes because we can hit an 8 iron instead of a 5 iron.

Why not? We can go on vacation and tackle the great Championship Courses designed by Nick Faldo, Greg Norman, Tiger Woods, Tom Weiskopf and hundreds of older courses recently remodeled to be longer than originally designed. Torrey Pines, the iconic oceanside resort course in San Diego, has been remodeled in recent years. It was a tough course for amateurs before, but now it is brutally difficult.

If a player is out for a fun day, not keeping his score for handicapping purposes, why shouldn’t he/she play what I would dub The Turbo Ball?

Give me one good reason why not?

True bifurcation would be giving less talented and dedicated golfers a leg up. Don’t “handicap” the pros, they are doing what other sports have done: they are using technology and physical developments to raise the bar just like automakers do in NASCAR and Open Wheel racing. Just like sail boat racers, swimmers, and even baseball players benefit from improved materials, mechanical and digital scoring systems, we spectators all enjoy better and more accurate results.

The golf world needs to look at this issue differently.

Instead of lengthening and tricking up existing courses, catering to the smallest portion of the golfing public (pros and low handicappers) golf course operators should let players who are only out for fun, experience golf like the best players in the world. If they are not playing in organized tournament competition, just relaxing and playing games amongst friends, why not allow technology to give them a better chance to play great courses the way they were meant to be played?

Hey USGA Rules Committee, are you listening?

Kubrick, teaming with science fiction author and icon Arthur C. Clarke and special effects guru Douglas Trumbull, produced a visual odyssey unlike any film ever made to that point in history. Some of the special effects had to be invented to fulfill Kubrick’s vision.

After a very slow start, and some blistering criticism, the film eventually became the year’s biggest movie, garnering four Academy Awards. As the 60s led to the expanded use of psychoactive drugs and the growing collusion of video with music, Kubrick’s extended MTV-like musical video captured the imagination of hippies, film students and scientists as well.

The story is essentially about man’s obsession with space travel and the interface between technology and humanity, and the constraints of mortality and time.

But Kubrick made the movie an orgy of conflict, a crazy montage of color, light, sound and image. The dialogue is sparse and obtuse. Much of it is the conflict between Dave, the lead astronaut and his computer companion HAL.

Recent advances in digital technology and computer enhanced compositions should make any space film over fifty years old look silly. Not 2001: A Space Odyssey! Kubrick used every trick in the available book of film science to project future advances in telemetry, gravity suits, communications and computerization.

To me, the film is a metaphor for our current state of social division, of rejection of authority and subjugation of humanity to technology. The long trip into space reflects our country’s 275 year struggle to create a new form of self-government, to free ourselves from the restraints of British colonialism, and our current state of civil political upheaval and inner conflict.

Dave and his noble crew, knowing they have little chance of returning alive, confront the challenge of interstellar space travel, just as our founding fathers confronted the challenge of inventing an entirely new and untried form of self government. They do it with honor and commitment. The everpresent HAL, who represents the all-knowing aristocracy, the authority of knowledge, and the interests of the state, realizes that the humans cannot get along without him, so he decides he can get along without them.

To HAL, humans are just an obstacle to efficiency.

They demand consensus, failsafe mechanisms and protocols. HAL realizes he is the smartest thing onboard, so he sets out to cleanse the project before it falls short of its intended mission. HAL decides he is going to eliminate the weak links to success, the mortal humans.

HAL is the Progressive Leader, always thinking about the outcome, dispatching the inconvenience of humanity, and blaming any shortcomings on the operators (the people) because they don’t know any better.

Deep into the journey through outer space, Captain Dave is forced to disable HAL, the onboard computer that directs all of the technology. He has to choose who will be the beneficiary of the odyssey, humans or robots?

This is a metaphor for the clash between progressives and conservatives. The former thinks they are the smart ones and can better steer the ship, so they struggle to disarm the opposition. Conservatives are Captain Dave, who initially respected HAL for his quick and creative suggestions, but soon realizes the artificial intelligence is a deadly threat to his existence and the success of the project. Conservatives trust history and though they are eager to explore the future, they are not willing to go charging into it based solely on scientific theory.

When HAL pleads with the Captain Dave, who is gradually disassembling his intelligence modules, “Just what do you think you are doing, Dave?” I found it haunting, because it so closely parallels our cultural dilemma: When we watch terrorists slaughter innocent civilians, or psychopathic young men gun down school children with high powered assault rifles, we have to ask ourselves, with all of our wealth and technology why are we so helpless to stop random carnage coming from our children. When we see progressive solutions implimented, only to collapse under their own weight, we have to ask, “Just what do you think you are doing, Dave?”

When I see politicians declaring American cities as sanctuary for illegal immigrant criminals, I have to ask, “Just what do you think you are doing Dave?”

As a culture we argue about policy, about budgets, about protocols, and inevitably make little or no progress. We are conflicted with competing solutions: should we ban guns or fight guns with more guns? Should people use the same bathroom so as to avoid making others feel uncomfortable? Is it discriminatory to suggest people should refrain from sex with minors? Is it wrong to execute people who execute people? Is all of our wealth and convenience really good, or is there some underlying cultural disease that is killing us slowly?

Who is good and who is evil?

Are we the Captain Dave? Or are we the omniscient computer?

Kubrick went on to release A Clockwork Orange just a few years later. It also challenged our notions of humanity and authority. Nearly five decades after its release, the film feels recent. He accurately predicted current trends toward extreme nihilism, tribalism and dehumanization, of physical disfigurement and self-degradation as expressions of individualism, and mass tranquilization as a law enforcement tool, for social stabilization and for recreation. Themes he broached in the early seventies are everyday news stories in 2018. In the film, he used Russians as a foil to Western social progress, extreme sex as a weapon, and popular entertainment as a propaganda tool.

Kubrick touches all of the bases in his dystopian hell: the roving gangs of zombie-like psychopaths (Islamic terrorists and inner city gangs), the gender confusion and psychological conflict and disaffection of feminized men, and extreme anger and turmoil generated by broken and disengaged families, or of veterans of war or of football, and the tendency of government to resort to authoritarianism and brutality to homogenize society.

The overall mood of A Clockwork Orange is that elitists will always want to perfect humanity. They will forsake religion, because it is considered an illusion and is in direct competition for the souls of the population. Government will instead turn to science to find solutions to mankind’s restless and dangerous tendencies. People like Alex (the lead character in the film) starts out as a brute, nearly finds redemption, then returns to his violent and abusive character, will never be cured, so he must be managed by high tech police forces.

Kubrick, who was viewed as an Orwellian libertine, reflects my current view of society: our eyes are too big for our stomachs.

We bite off more than we can chew and invest too much trust in government to fix everything. Then when it disappoints us, we turn to government again, to try another tactic to fix it. It is an abusive relationship of interdependence and self-inflicted pain. We keep hitting our collective heads against the wall, then wonder why society keeps struggling to keep the peace and provide equanimity.

Where we once used family discipline and self-restraint, community churches, social pressures and shame, to influence and enforce community standards, we now have laws for everything. We enforce them with financial pressures, fines and fees, or through threats of litigation, or in many cases incarceration. Where A Clockwork Orange described forced viewing of indoctrination videos, we send our kids to expensive colleges where they are trained in the finer points of politically correct behavior through years of groupthink collaborations.

Kubrick will always be remembered as one of America’s most iconic movie making geniuses, but he was also considered a brute and an enigma; no one really understood his politics or his motivations, other than he wanted to break filmmaking ground and entertain people.

On both counts, he succeeded, but beyond that, he projected some disturbing ideas about where our society was headed just a half century ago.

You may be able to get over being robbed by some local thief. The broken window of your car and the missing envelope of cash you had placed in your glovebox overnight. The cash you had just earned in tips working at a local restaurant. It was $400 of hard earned tip money.

When you went to your car Sunday morning and saw the shattered window, you knew right away, it had to be someone nearby. A neighbor or someone close to you had to have watched you. It was not routine for you to leave large amounts of cash in the glovebox, but the night before after your shift, you did sit in the driveway, count your money, and deliberately lean over and stuffed the envelope into the glovebox. Someone had to have been watching!

You hated losing the money, which was a lot to a 19 year-old. But even worse, you felt violated!

You guessed your 18-year-old neighbor was the only viable suspect, but there was absolutely nothing you could do because the evidence was gone. Going to the police would not work because they would simply say, “how do we know there ever was any money?”

You may think you are over the night, after your 15th birthday, when your mother protected your dad after he punched you in the face for violating his curfew. She saw it happen and later rationalized it by suggesting he had a hard day at work. She lost your love and trust on that day. Now, years later, on Mothers Day, you are kissing her, handing her flowers and a card that praises her mothering skills. You are desperately trying to forget her betrayal. But deep down inside, you still resent her willingness to accept something so evil. Plus, you know, and so does she, his abuse was much more common and sick than that incident alone.

Everyone has deep seated resentment over something. Some memories hurt more than others. For some, their whole lives have been altered by betrayals, abuse or abandonment. Some victims can never establish long-term relationships, especially if they suffered sexual abuse.

Whether it is being victimized by family, or criminals, or even by people of authority, victimhood is real. Emotional scars affect us sometimes more than we think.

As a Nation, a collective of people all living together, trying to stay alive, to raise families, to provide a better future for our children, we are also vulnerable to scarring. I have said over and over, as a 13 year-old, I was scarred by the assassination of JFK. Five decades later, his public murder still haunts me.

Since 9/11, I have made the case that our nation was traumatized by the violence of the attack on the Twin Towers. The complete incapacitation of Manhattan, of the airline industry, of the continuing Fear Porn of the Middle East Islamic Jihad and the Radical Islamic Revolution. Then it was Climate Change, the War On Whiteness, the Feminist Movement, and now the War On Gender Assignment. As a white, conservative male I have a target on my back.

Let’s not forget the COVID19 Pandemic: The War On Socialization. Everyone was treated like sheep. The Elites of the World demonstrated just how little they respect human dignity.

One calamity after another, our nation has been undergoing an Emotional Breakdown ever since.

We are all wounded emotionally, though most will not acknowledge the damage. Instead we self-medicate with alcohol and drugs, rich food, gambling and spending addictions and entertainment obsessions.

We protect our interests by living in a bubble that we have constructed to block out the bad memories and to submerge ourselves in positive thoughts. We don’t think of ourselves as victims. At least not consciously.

But the truth is out there if you are willing to look outside your bubble…

Look at how the privileged act in the privacy of their gated mansions. Literally dozens, every day, are being accused and arrested for acts of physical abuse and sexual deviancy. Rich celebrities are raising, in distorted numbers, emotionally damaged, angry, resentful, and often sexually confused and alienated kids. Dozens of politicians, who have discovered amazing sources of great wealth while working inside the public services arena, are being accused of, and often convicted of corruption. Wealthy and brilliant scientists, authors, academics and financial gurus, are committing suicide at astronomical rates. Every major televised event (Super Bowl, Oscars, Grammys, Olympics) is saturated with Satanic imagery of a sexual nature. Millions of unborn babies are terminated simply because the parents want to avoid the ‘hassles” of children.

We don’t venerate life like we used to.

If people of great means are so uncomfortable in their own skin, how do you think struggling Americans feel?

Lower and middle income citizens are unable to participate in home ownership, to travel, to attend college, to start a business or a family. The 21st century is turning out to be the complete opposite of the 20th century in America. We are reverting to a two-tiered society with a small portion enjoying great wealth and the other suffering like slaves on a plantation. They get what is necessary to survive, but not enough to thrive.

Millions of children and citizens are simply disappearing off the face of the Earth. The Census reports are stunning: Birthrates are under the rate required to sustain our species. Marriage is a dying institution. Our schools have failed to produce literate young adults. Americans no longer recognize religion as a core value.

Make America Great Again is considered by many to be a Republican (white men only) trope to suggest our nation would return to a time when racism ruled, when women were dismissed as second class citizens and gay people were beaten and imprisoned.

To me, that viewpoint is simply another way to redefine, dismiss and destroy what on the surface is a movement to restore America’s original identity: One Nation, under God, with Liberty and Justice for ALL!

My point is: In the course of history, mankind sustains some gains and losses. We suffer epidemics, earthquakes, hurricanes, wars, and financial collapses, but we also discover important advances in technology, in medicine, in agriculture, even in personal improvement techniques.

The key is to keep the gains ahead of the losses and to overcome our emotional frailties to keep us moving ahead. I don’t suggest it’s better to forget our setbacks, because if you don’t learn from them, it is too easy to repeat them. But I do think it important to keep them in perspective.

I have explored the concept of ‘Perspecticide’ in my previous publications. It is a term to describe the “murder of one’s perspective”. How it is possible for negative forces to literally steal a personality and replace it with a different one. That goes for both our individual personality and our collective cultural personality.

That repurposing of a personality occurs when the assailant wipes the victims memory clean by reframing their history. Programming a new agenda, a new Operating System, so to speak. One they can control for their own benefit.

This is what is happening to America. Slowly but surely America’s enemies are redefining our Nation’s history, replacing pride with guilt, demanding ‘equity’ for everyone at the expense of merit, undermining our nations foundational institutions of the right to own property, to carry a weapon, to speak out against government, to travel freely and to practice your religion without government interference.

When our election system, whose purpose is to reflect the personality of America, is stolen, it can be altered. It can be reprogrammed. Therefore, stealing an election is the Ultimate Act of War on America. If we have become so distracted, so isolated by our personal and collective bubbles, that we can’t even acknowledge the hijacking of our Government by abusive forces, then we are doomed to become the victims of coercive abuse.

Unless we wake up, recognize the crime of election corruption as the Murder of our American Identity, and hold those responsible accountable for their Capitol Crimes Against Our Nation, it will be the end of our American Soul.

To truly make America great again, we must first and foremost, reestablish the accuracy and legitimacy of our election system. Otherwise, America will become just another figment of our forgotten past.

Since November 7th, 2020, I have been seriously bothered by what was an OBVIOUSLY stolen election. I didn’t need President Trump to tell me what I saw. I didn’t listen to the corporate- owned major media’s gaslighting, telling me I didn’t really see what I just saw.

The most depressing thing was watching cell phone videos of ballot counters submitting and scanning ballots over and over. Watching election monitors boarding up the election centers to hide their crimes. Watching news reports of election centers closing at midnight and sending volunteer ballot counters home for the evening. Watching TV election returns broadcast obvious graphics anomalies, showing surges in Biden votes at 4:30 am on election night, suddenly and inexplicably overcoming huge Trump leads.

I was watching hundreds of my fellow citizens committing felonies! Or worse, committing treason! It was clearly an organized scheme. How could this be? How could so many folks rationalize cheating during a Presidential election? Don’t they have any conscience?

I have struggled with this sense of betrayal ever since.

These people, the ones who knowingly contributed to the corruption of a Federal Election Process, cannot be given any measure of sympathy. Not for their ignorance, their personal anger or sense of victimhood. When you steal the vote of a fellow citizen by diluting the legitimate pool of votes, you are a threat to our most precious asset: Our fundamental right to participate in the democratic process.

That makes you a criminal of the highest order.

No different than a child molester stealing a child’s innocence. Than a soldier deserter, who joins the enemy in combat, threatening the lives of his brothers-in-arms. Or a counterfeiter stealing your car-for-sale by handing you thousands of fake dollars.

Participating in the process of counterfeiting an election is no different than counterfeiting money. In fact, it is worse because it puts people in places of tremendous power and influence, who have no allegiance to the citizens they pretend to represent. It confers a sense of parental guardianship on people who are willing to destroy the future of their own ‘children’. Undermining the Democratic, Constitutional-based Republic puts the future of every American at great risk.

Then there is the pain I feel about the fact that so many so-called Americans 'have accepted the tsunami of polluted reporting about what happened in November 2020, then later in January 2021. It kills me to see some otherwise educated and respected politicians, journalists and educators repeat “verbatim” the contrived gaslight threats, “The election of 2020 was the most secure and fair election in our history.” Or, “election deniers continue to claim previously debunked theories about election fraud are real” and “every challenge to election fraud has been overturned in the courts”...

None of which is accurate.

Why are these prominent “Americans” so invested in propping up the greatest crime ever perpetrated on our country? What could be so important to them that they would rationalize the legitimacy of corrupting the nation’s election process?

Why was the Electoral College, who ultimately certifies the vote tabulations as fair and accurate, so completely unaware that more than just a few state’s election processes were so compromised?

Next week I will explore that question as we approach the June Midterms…

Unless you have been living under a rock for the past half a century, you must understand how the left disrespects your intelligence. Since the Palestinian terrorist’s slaughter and torture of Israeli athletes in Munich in 1972, right up to the recent riots and clashes between extremists groups in Charlottesville, Boston, Minnesota and Portland, the violence has always been fostered by leftist anarchists.

Back in the sixties, seventies and eighties, it was the Baader-Meinhof Group, a far left German movement of outright anarchists. Germany was also undergoing vast social upheaval, industrialization and conflicts over racism, women’s liberation and anti-imperialism, all calling cards of leftist politics. The Meinhof Gang became a cause celeb, romanticizing the outlaws as social justice warriors.

There were charges that the East German Stasi (a paramilitary group supported by the East German communist government) lent substantial financial and logistical support to the killers.

The underlying motives for the hostage taking, the destruction of government property including statues and buildings, was nearly identical to the stated causes of today’s ANTIFA or Occupy Wall Street anarchists.

Many young people in that era felt disenfranchised from job opportunity, and from integration into West German and greater European capitalist society. Just as the newly freed East Germans, who were then suddenly competing with the West Germans for jobs, many young people today feel like the economic deck is stacked against them.

Sound familiar? Apologists for leftist groups like ANTIFA, Black Lives Matter, Palestinian Liberation Front, or radical Islamic terrorists like Boko Haram and ISIS, make the same claims. If only the world’s resources were more equally distributed, everything would be copacetic.

Now our youth are being taught at major universities and even at high school levels, that causing disruption and violence is a socially just way of restoring what leftists claim are rights and respect that has been denied to minorities and women since the civil war ended. That white privilege is by default ‘a crime against humanity’ so whatever it takes to focus attention on their cause is justifiable.

But leftists, or as they prefer to be called today, the Progressives, think we aren’t paying attention, so not only do they think we are dumb, but lazy too. They don’t think we know what’s going on. Admittedly, do to the tsunami of misinformation, it is getting harder to stay well informed, but if there is a demographic that will keep trying, it is conservatives who cherish the legacy and traditions of Americanism.

If you look at the mainstream media, and how so many supposed popular leaders are buying the lie that all of this civil unrest and domestic terrorism is coming from the ‘alt-right’ you would have to conclude that anyone who considers themselves conservative, is a bigoted racist, who brandishes weapons and attacks innocent civilians.

That is the consistent narrative across most major news media broadcasts. But they have lost most of their audience. From its launch in 1980, CNN has claimed itself to be The First Name In News, but has lost much of it’s audience in the past ten years.

For March 2024:

“Among viewers 25-54, the demographic group most valued by advertisers, CNN’s total day ratings delivery was 81,000 viewers—which represents the lowest rated week in the key demo since 2014.” -- Forbes Business

I bet you cannot name one major incident where there has been loss of life, police deaths or even mass arrests, that was directed by skinheads, neo-Nazis or any other white supremacist organizations. Mainly because they have such miniscule support, but also because they are not as revolutionary in spirit. Don’t point to the Oklahoma State Building bombing. That was one crazy, angry and psychopathic dude. I am talking about organized protest groups that end up creating death and mayhem, burning business, beating up bystanders, burning flags and turning over police cars, and attacking officers of the law.

Then look at all of the stuff going on college campuses where one professor ordered a special escape door put into the back of his office so he could bail out when enraged progressive students would eventually come hunting for anyone who was not in alignment with their anti-fascist fascism.

Today’s rioting and violence is coming exclusively from the left.

When you get Sanders supporters, Occupy Wall Street and Black Lives Matter and other racially motivated minority groups forming an alliance, toss in the incredibly upset and angry Clinton Democrats who had their Queen denied her throne, you have an explosive formula of angry activists that show no respect for our election processes, for law enforcement practices, or for private property rights. And they cannot stand to have their cause marginalized, especially by someone they regard as a “Reality TV Show Host.’

Imagine if anti-abortionists took the same position, that killing abortion providers is justified? (Of course that has happened, but in very few cases were they coordinated attacks on abortion clinics).

In Charlottesville, the media has conflated Neo Nazis and Skinheads as right wing Nationalists, and racist white supremacists who want to impose ‘law and order’ by building a new SS of federal troops. But this ignores the long history of Naziism. Remember, Hitler named his movement the National Socialist German Workers Party.

Like all leftists, Hitler failed to mention that he would also be a totalitarian president of his war loving, imperialist regime. That he would exterminate people who didn’t conform or that were not of Aryan descent.

So beware of the simpletons who get their history from watching Marvel ‘Avenger’ or Guy Fawkes ‘V For Vendetta’ movies. The left ( i.e., Academia, Hollywood, the DNC and much of the new media conglomerates, Facebook, Google, Snapchat) has made it their business to dumb down young people, and much of the baby boomer generation has simply had it too good. America is vulnerable because we have stopped being serious about the effort it takes to protect our multicultural, ubiquitous experiment in individual freedom and responsibility, and forgotten how much our geo-political opponents want to destroy it.

Fighting for freedom and social egalitarianism is a never ending journey and hard decisions have to be made along the way. The war over health care is a microcosm of the conflict between generations and the inability of much of our population to think critically about the long term ramifications of giving the government total control over your health, or worse, over what you know.

Maybe I can rope you in…

By 1998, what had been, for 13 years, a quiet, peaceful, laid-back retirement, was becoming a stressful, unstable and disturbing existence for Don Carter. His little piece of heaven was not the same. Nothing was the same. The kids weren’t kids anymore. His wife was fed up with him, decidedly going in a different direction. He was out of fun things to do: No more school sports events, no more skiing (his knee was too unstable), no more hunting trips, snowmobile riding, trail rides, or boys night outs. Still in his early fifties, Don was feeling much older.

His only form of entertainment, other than hanging out at Riley’s Tavern, was golfing at the club. He played in a skins game every Friday. He also played with a couple of friends in their usual Monday Match. They would meet at noon, figure how many showed up and put together a match of Best Ball. They would play 18 holes for $5 per player, three ways: First nine low team, second nine low team, and total low team. More often than not, everyone would either win or lose $5.

Every once in awhile Don would join a game during the week, and when possible, he’d play in Men’s Club tournaments that happened on holidays like Veterans Day, Labor Day or the annual Halloween Costume event.

Other than golf, Don kept himself in shape by working out in his garage using a multi station weight and cable machine and a treadmill. He managed to keep his weight stable despite the six pack a day beer habit.

The truth was coming over his world like a bank of fog rolling over the hills on a cool November evening. He was done with this lifestyle. It was time for a change. A big change. It felt like he was going back in time by moving to Billings and going back to work. But it also felt like a chance to renew his old self. Get back in the game, reassert his competitive nature. Pick up right where he left off, minus the drama of dancing with the wolves.

And stay just one step ahead of that rolling fog bank.

You can order a 8 x 11” printed copy at https://books.by/rick-elkin. It is only $12.99…Thank You for supporting my work!

In 1970, responding to Federal laws, California passed the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) that requires state and local agencies to adopt all feasible measures to mitigate any identified negative environmental impacts prior to project approvals and permits. CEQA makes environmental protection a mandatory part of every California state and local (public) agency’s decision making process.

Since then, the State of California has required every city and county to:

A) File an Official General Growth Management Plan.

B) Adequately plan to meet the housing needs of every element of their community.

Has half a century of government meddling improved our ability to provide adequate housing for our citizens? The answer is an unequivocal no! The problem is only getting worse, not better. On every level, the housing crisis has exploded.

Prices are the leading indicator of the health of the housing element in any community. When prices are high, it indicates demand is high. If the building industry could simply build more homes to meet the demand, don’t you think they would? Based on prices, you would think that new home construction would be booming, providing thousands of good jobs, which in turn supports service industries like automotive sales, restaurants, theaters and schools.

But that is not happening. All of those important economic segments are in deep trouble. There is more to the story.

I spent the majority of my working years in the new home construction business. During the 80’s San Diego County experienced a monster housing boom. We were building close to 20K homes a year. Prices were attainable. Communities were popping up all over the county. New business opportunities were happening in many different segments: High tech, medical, golf, entertainment, agriculture and education. The suppliers for home construction struggled to keep up with increasing demand and shorter lead times.

Builders are good at studying the marketplace. They can predict the number of homes they will need to build in any given year. They are usually very accurate, because they have to be. In the building business, the fastest way to go broke is to overbuild for the market demand. It is like the fresh food section at the supermarket: If you over-buy and the food spoils, you will lose money. Newly built houses continue to cost money even after they are constructed. Developers must pay property tax, utility set up fees, loan interest payments, maintenance fees and marketing costs. When a builder constructs hundreds of homes in a region, they carry enormous construction loans. If those buildings go unsold for any length of time, the developer risks bankruptcy.

The Democrat run State of California is trying to force the builder community to offer more “affordable” homes. But developers are not going to do anything that doesn’t make economic sense. The legislators need to understand how home development economics work. Just demanding more housing is the last thing they should be doing.

Instead, they should be encouraging more agricultural land development, more manufacturing businesses to set up shop in California. You have to have a strong employment base to bring lower range buyers into the marketplace. Instead, California is suffering an exodus of powerful employers due to excessive taxes and regulations.

If they could make the numbers work, builders would be standing in line for building permits in San Diego County. But they are not.

The reason we are suffering extremely high housing prices is more complex than just high demand. It has more to do with government policy and the jobs market and less to do with construction volume.

Yes, there is a shortage of For Sale homes. But the building industry has been warning about this issue since I was involved with the Building Industry Association (BIA) back in the mid 80’s. The BIA issued annual reports projecting how many homes would be needed in the coming decades just to keep up with population growth. Year after year, the numbers kept getting worse. We were falling behind by thousands of homes while the population grew exponentially.

I remember defending my position in the home building business to my friends who viewed developers as vulchers, moving into mostly rural areas and converting them into densely populated, often walled suburbs. They suggested the builder industry was exploitive and insensitive to those already living in the less populated areas.

I understood their anxiety, but I warned them, “Where are your kids going to live? Are you ok with them having to move out of state? Don’t you think they should have the same opportunities to enjoy San Diego that you have?”

In 2026 my now middle-aged kids are confronted with potentially being forced to relocate because of housing costs.

California Policy Lab reports, “On average, movers relocate to neighborhoods where monthly housing costs are $672 less. After seven years, they are 48% (or 11 percentage-points) more likely to own a home.”

Unfortunately, the Never In My Backyard (NIMBY) attitude has survived and California’s Democrat voters have continually piled more and more economically destructive restrictions on land use, building permits, trucking fees, product safety controls, insurance requirements, lending mandates, and newer, more extensive environmental laws. Now builders are confronted with tariffs and delivery delays, all of which jack up production costs.

As far as the buyers economics? Well, it isn’t a problem if you have already owned a home for more than a decade. But if you are a first time buyer, making less than $180K household income, forget it. You are out of luck, because the lenders can’t risk you going upside down on a million-dollar mortgage.*

So those folks enter the rental market. What does that do? Puts additional pressure on rental supply, meaning rates go up as demand goes up. It is a vicious cycle.

Recently, the California Department of Housing Development demanded the City of Escondido build a minimum of 9,600 new housing units by the year 2029. The State claims the City has been lackadaisical about meeting it’s goals over the past decade.

Dane White, the Mayor of Escondido, reacted to the mandate by simply stating, “We didn’t have the resources”.**

Of course you don’t. Our government is not in the building business. And they shouldn’t be. Leave it to the experts. The only thing government can do is get out of the way! Unfortunately, our semi-socialist California legislators are totally unaware that they are the problem.

We should learn from China’s mistakes.

Around the turn-of-the-century China went on a home building spree, funded by the State, of course. Now they are sitting on an estimated 80 million unoccupied homes/apartments. The Chinese banking and building industry are near collapse because the money they have put up will never be recovered. ***

Central planning, or government overreach, cannot be tolerated in America’s free market economy. Tell California regulators to “Stand Down” or we may end up in the same housing industry ditch as China.

* https://capolicylab.org/priced-out-relocation-amidst-californias-affordability-crisis/

* https://capolicylab.org/priced-out-relocation-amidst-californias-affordability-crisis/

* www.klw-law.com/companies-leaving-california

**www.10news.com/news/local-news/escondido-struggles-to-meet-state-mandate-requiring-the-city-to-build-9-607-new-housing-units-by-2029

***www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/econographics/chinas-property-slump-deepens-and-threatens-more-than-the-housing-sector/

The Padres started fast in 2025. Up until August last season, the team was in first palace in the NL West division. Fans were optimistic in ‘25 as the bats were making contact and the pitchers looked fresh and motivated. Injuries to Joe Musgrove, Yu Darvish, Brian Hoeing and Jason Heyward forced management to make adjustments to the roster early in 2025. Then Fernando Tatis pulled a hamstring. In the end, the superstar loaded Dodger lineup went all the way to a World Championship.

This year, in Spring Training, Dodger teams went 20-9. The Padres broke even at 15-15. Since Opening Day, the Padres are looking weak and confused. So far, we are averaging 3 runs per game. I don’t see the look in Manny and Tati’s eyes that say “I got this!”

There is something odd about the team chemistry. During after-game interviews, though everyone is touting team spirit, talent and enthusiasm, it just doesn’t feel genuine. I don’t doubt the players are all on the same page, committed to putting it all on the line, but sometimes you can tell there is something missing. An intangible emotional umbilical cord that feeds subliminal motivation, is absent.

In 2024 the season was dedicated to the memory of owner Peter Siedler. His dedication to bringing the best talent together in San Diego to finally put the Padres into a position to challenge the hated Dodgers, was an effective motivational tool. And the players fed off of it.

In 2025 the impetus of adding first tier pitching with Dylan Cease and Tanner Scott, the energy of young Jackson Merrill starting his career like a house-on-fire and adding 3-time batting champion Luis Arraez, slugger Ramon Laureano and flamethrower Mason Miller, stoked the fire in the community’s belly. It took until the last weeks of the season for that energy to flame out.

Last year was one of the most exciting seasons in a decade, and we have all been looking forward to 2025 to exacting revenge from our abusive cousins in LA.

I was seriously shocked when Mike Shildt resigned last fall. I will never agree entirely with every decision managers make, but ‘Shildty’ made more good decisions than bad. He had the respect of his players, and managed a team rife with unfortunate injuries, extremely well. His resignation story, that he was physically and psychologically overwhelmed, didn’t sit right with me. So I was certain there was more to it, something in the background that was inconsistent with the ‘health issue’ cover story.

There were reports that Shildt was verbally and emotionally abrasive to several of his coaches. I have some thoughts on that. Why only coaches? Abusive and combative personalities don’t usually confine their outbursts to only a select audience. Did players complain? I don’t think that was ever suggested.

He had a track record managing the St. Louis Cardinals. They let him go when his contract was up. If he was unstable in the clubhouse there, why didn’t Padre management know about it? Was it because laws prohibit past employers from revealing damaging information to future employers? Maddenly, that is most likely true. Since the Padres gave Shildt a 4-year contract in 2023, they couldn’t have known he was toxic in the workplace. That seems criminal when multi-million dollar contracts are involved. Or maybe, it simply wasn’t true…

I don’t think Shildt voluntarily resigned. If I am right, and there was pressure from management (most likely AJ Preller) and Shildt was shown the door, then I think it might help explain why the team seems so unfocused in 2026.

Players are sensitive to expectation pressures. When the front office is unsatisfied with a manager who takes it into the playoffs in both of his campaigns, what are the players supposed to think? Is management expecting perfection? If he is not good enough, what about me?

There is another possible scenario: If he was simply holding his coaching staff to high standards, and spoke forcefully to get their attention, he may, under current cultural standards, qualify as a workplace “abuser”. It wouldn’t surprise me if the combination of front office expectations, emotionally sensitive coaches who have been brought along in our 21st century progressive environment of avoiding responsibility and victimhood attitudes, it all added up to a no-win outlook that Shildt and Preller mutually agreed was untenable.

That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

But the fact remains, the Padres Organization has a history of instability. Since it’s founding in 1969, the San Diego MLB franchise has suffered economic downturns, underfunded ownership, and drug use accusations, In too many cases, when the terms of contracts offered were reasonably close, some very talented people decided the sensational fans, phenomenal stadium and unbeatable weather, wasn’t enough to entice them to make their home in San Diego.

So what is the problem with the Padres?

Is it the 5 decade long losing record? The unstable ownership? The revolving door of players, coaches and managers? The laid-back atmosphere of life at the beach?

Is it always all about money?

When I analyse guys like Shohei Ohtani and see that he has already made more money than anyone could possibly spend in two lifetimes, and I watch how motivated he is, it is clear to me that the force required to play at your highest ability is definitely not just loads of money.

Personally, I made the decision in 1977 to move to San Diego to start a new life. I was leaving 27 years in LA, most of that time living at or near the beach. I had a 12 year career in the Ski Industry and many longtime relationships I would have to walk away from. But I felt compelled to escape the toxic atmosphere in LA. I wanted to live in the neighborhood of America’s Finest City. I wanted 69 degree weather almost everyday. I wanted less traffic, less pretense, and a closer sense of community.

I knew it would mean some sacrifices for me. But I was looking into my future and it was obvious it wasn’t going to be in the massive metropolitan matrix of LA.

Maybe some super rich athletes are aware that by the time they are 40, they can choose to locate wherever they want. They are banking on settling down with family, and potentially many friends and former player buddies, somewhere in California (probably not, because of tax issues) or Florida. Or, who knows…

So Padre fans can only hope that while some players are here, for whatever period it may be, that they can use the Petco Park Vibe to unite the current team, excite the sell-out crowds, and surprise the MLB community, and punch themselves a ticket to the World Series in 2026.

When I moved to Escondido in 1977 I embraced the professional sports teams in San Diego. I became a Clippers, Charger and Padres fan. For life.

All I have left now is the Padres. I ain’t quitting them, ever…

…She had also noticed several new tattoos, some in color, and they are decidedly Spanish, and depicting fighting frogs or some sort of Naval Military symbols. She never cared for tattoos and couldn’t understand what any of them meant, so she payed little attention. But she also knew they were very expensive.

“Let me see if I can learn something from him, Jer. He is talkative with me, especially when we are alone. I don’t see any evidence of drug use, but I could be wrong. It is probably better if I talk to him when he works the night shift and sleeps during the day. Sometimes we have a late breakfast together, before he goes to bed and after you’ve gone to work. Maybe I can get him to tell me something he wouldn’t share with you.”

“Just be very careful. If he is involved with some bad people, and he got that money from a drug deal, or from a robbery, you don’t want to be involved in any way. You must talk to him as a parent who cares about him. Is he dating? Is he gambling? Never mention money…”

Molly is a little angry. Has Xavier been holding out on them?

He knows how tight the household finances are. He knows she is hurting for cash. He has never said anything during their encounters about his struggles. He used to complain all the time, that he was underpaid. Now that she thinks about it, he stopped complaining a few months ago.

Jeremiah is also wondering why Molly seemed to abruptly change her mind about kicking Xavier out of their apartment. When she recommended “giving him some slack” Jeremiah was shocked. Just a month or so ago she wanted him out, as soon as possible. She warned him, Xavier might be a problem. Now, knowing what Jeremiah just found in his closet, was she going to be angry? What about the baby? The last thing Molly needs is more stress. As they have struggled financially, she is feeling pressured to find new customers, to help Jeremiah with the living expenses.

Molly is concerned because in the not too distant future, she has to tell Jeremiah the ‘bad news’ that she has suffered a miscarriage. Just how and when has yet to be determined, but she is certain, that time is not right now.

And then there is the dermatology report Jeremiah has not told Molly about.

Channel surfing late last night I caught Florence Foster Jenkins, a 2016 film starring Hugh Grant and Meryl Streep. Directed by Steven Frears, it is extremely unique. It took me a few minutes to get hooked, but as it unfolded, I became enchanted.

Why? Well, it is set in the 1944 New York. Though filmed in Liverpool, the filmmakers cleverly transformed the downtown area to look exactly like Manhattan in 1944. Reflecting the post war exuberance, the message is all about privilege and ambition.

Streep plays Florence Foster Jenkins, an heiress to great wealth and a retired musical instructor, who fancies herself becoming an operatic singer. She hires an assistant, Hugh Grant, who becomes her lifelong companion. Since both are such amazing actors, I was interested in the motives for both actors to accept roles in such an unusual, somewhat dark, almost gloomy psychological mystery drama. I came away with an even higher regard for both them and the script. Though it was not a big box office hit, it has received widespread accolades for it’s excellence in moviemaking.

Though Miss Jenkins is the object of both affection and ridicule, we can’t help but feel compassion for her relentless ambition. Beyond the charming yet disturbing characters surrounding Jenkins, pandering to her ego, pretending that they are serving her interests, there is a lot of subtext: Issues that are ignored and left unsaid.

I also have a reputation for reading into films subtle allegory. Something I learned in college when my professors would point out metaphors I completely missed while reading the Classics.

In this case, I couldn’t help but see the parallels with todays political scene.

For example, Hugh Grant, St. Clair Bayfield (Jenkin’s loyal pseudo lover/companion) is a metaphor of our modern media. They (the media complex) tell us what we are seeing. They babysit us, manipulate information, control the narrative, and polish the egos of their audience, just like Bayfield does for Miss Jenkins, who he affectionately refers to as ‘Bunny’.

Bayfield hires Cosme McMoon, an aspiring and upcoming classical pianist, to accompany the aspiring singer. They practice relentlessly, though she is never able to carry a tune. Before her occasional public performances, Mr. McMoon suffers anxiety attacks, knowing they will be embarrassed and mocked. He worries his musical legitimacy will be impugned. He challenges Bayfield about his fears:

McMoon, “I am a serious pianist!”

Bayfield, “Oh, you think I don’t have ambition? I was a good actor. But I was never going to be a great actor. It was very hard to admit that to myself. But once I had, I felt free from the tyranny of ambition.”

This is a central point of the film. It takes work to disengage oneself from the search for approval. But once you do, you are free to express yourself, to create and live!

To me, Cosme McMoon represents post WW II traditional Liberal Democrats: Hard working, ambitious patriots, willing to do whatever it takes to further the American Legacy, but worried about looking bad to our allies. Conflicted but ambitious to lose the colonialist image. But Bayfield, on the other hand, embraces ambition, but prefers to watch it consume Miss Jenkins. He gets his joy vicariously, while floating around the social circles in the background, playing God to his heiress.

Meanwhile, Florence Foster Jenkins, brilliantly portrayed by Streep, is an allegory for Joe Biden’s Presidency. America has just barely survived the four years of Biden’s complete ineptitude. He claimed to have restored the Covid damaged economy, while engaging us in another endless war of attrition in Ukraine . He printed new money and spread it around carelessly, buying friends while depleting the power of the dollar. All along promising to unite our racially conflicted country. Instead, by abandoning border controls, he managed to disrupt any sense of community we had before Covid. In just four years, he piled an additional $10 trillion onto the existing $26 trillion national debt.

He was simultaneously mocked and applauded.

We are no closer to peace in Ukraine, the Gaza Strip, the streets of Minnesota, Detroit or Manhattan. The poor old guy may have meant well, but unfortunately, he never had the skill set, the personality or the work ethic to fill the role. But he did have the sycophantic supporting cast. The well compensated, misinformed or just ideologically driven worker bees that found ways to keep his illusions alive.

At the conclusion of Florence Foster Jenkins final Carnegie Hall concert, a full house stood in admiration for an old lady who simultaneously exhibited hubris and ambition, while butchering the lyrics and dancing like a kindergartener. The audience screams at her, mocking her musicianship, while clapping and whistling at her ‘comedic genius’.

I would suggest the audience reaction personifies Cognitive Dissonance. The single most persistent and mystifying cultural phenomenon of the 21st Century in America.

Based on a true story, the writers weave unbreakable determinations, self delusion, personal loyalty and love, all intertwined with humor and sadness. Something you don’t often see in the modern era of filmmaking.

Maybe the filmmakers could someday make a sequel: Joseph Robinette Biden/The Tyranny of Ambition.

At the 89th Academy Awards, Meryl Streep was nominated for Best Actress, which marked her 20th Oscar nomination, and the film won Best Costume Design. It also received four nominations at the 74th Golden Globe Awards, including Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy. In December, 2016 Hugh Grant won Best Actor at the Evening Standard British Film Awards show.

To buy/rent go to: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=florence+foster+jenkins+full+movie

Love to hear what you think.

- Jerry put himself through college working in the automotive sales industry. He worked in the finance department of a local Ford dealership doing the “backend” of the deals, structuring the loans, confirming the buyers credit rating, completing the paperwork of the sales contracts. Occasionally he would fill in for sales agents when they were out sick or on vacation, so he had a thorough knowledge of the whole process.

He also witnessed the dark side of the industry: the common use of stimulants. Jerry was never going to go down that road because, as a teenager, he saw a lot of that amongst the people in the bars his dad frequented. Those were bitter memories. He never suspected his dad of using, but he was certain many of the other men were. It was amazing how many beers someone can consume after snorting a couple lines of coke. He also knew one of the advantages his dad, and eventually himself, would always have, and that was the ability to out-think his competition. So keeping a clear head was priority one.

Jerry was driven. He was willing to work anytime he could to make extra money and to get ahead. Once he finished his MBA, he went full time at the dealership, but it was grueling work, nights, weekends and holidays and he felt under appreciated and under paid. While Don hooked up with his college sweetheart and relocated to San Diego, Jerry was working long hours at the car lot in LA.

Then one day Jerry was looking at the sales contract paperwork for a man who worked at a government job. He was a Special Assistant to the Chief Investigator at the Securities Exchange Commission. He reported his annual income at $170K. That sparked Jerry’s interest. The guys credit rating was golden. He lived in a really nice neighborhood. And he had been at the job for only seven years.

It took him 13 months after submitting his application, but Jerry hooked up with the SEC. In 1978 the agency enrolled him in advanced securities studies and investigative techniques classes. He aced them. They placed him in their Western Regional offices in Santa Ana.

Jerry had found nirvana. He had always wondered what it was about drugs that held users so captive while simultaneously destroying their lives. He had found the same kind of elixir, except in this case he was doing society a service and making a great living at the same time.

He always loved competition, but investigating securities crimes was the ultimate challenge and getting convictions the best rush he ever felt.

His targets were counterfeiters, honey pot charlatans, stock market scammers and ponzi scheme magicians. Most looked like the nice guy next door while they swindled their victims out of every last dime of their savings.

In order for agents to properly infiltrate and investigate securities fraud, the commission would set them up with phony business profiles, and even better yet, they paid for Jerry to join Big Canyon Country Club, in Newport Beach. Part of his job was to mingle with bankers and financial wranglers who funded big developments, securities managers, high net worth consultants, anyone who was involved in high finance. That was the community he worked. And many of those folks were into golf. Hanging with them in an atmosphere of relaxation, anything goes guy-talk, was a powerful tool to uncovering secrets. So he worked the club house restaurants and bars after his rounds, hoping to find some high roller types he could hook up with.

Five years later, the Western Regional Director visited the Santa Ana SEC offices. The bureau was planning to expand into San Diego, as it was emerging as a booming economy. They were looking for volunteers to move down south. Jerry couldn’t get his hand up fast enough. He was tired of fighting traffic, of spending the majority of his time on the numerous freeways interconnecting LA and Orange County. In his mind moving into San Diego County would be an exciting new frontier of untold riches.

After five years of service, he was still renting in Santa Ana. Housing costs in the Orange County area were still too high, so he was certain he could buy a lot more house in the suburbs of San Diego than he could dream about in west Orange County.

Six months later Jerry bought a newly constructed tract house in Chula Vista and immediately joined the San Diego Country Club. He was attracted to it because the course resembled Whittier Narrows, designed by William Bell Jr., who had recently remodeled the SDCC course. And the membership profile fit the target: Mostly upper-end homeowners working in the San Diego Downtown financial district. He also was attracted to it’s heritage, sponsoring several pro contests and an annual charity event to raise money for kids golf.

It was while playing in the Billy Casper inspired fundraiser “Billy’s Kids” in August, 1983, that Jerry spots an old friend in the parking lot, that would prove to be a turning point in Don Carter’s life.

***

If we didn’t know better, we might think this election year (2016) is just another reality TV show called ‘Animal Farm, USA.’ The 4-legged farm animals have become the 2-legged humans.

Suddenly, a TV game show host billionaire comes along and says, “We have to secure our borders. Without borders, we don’t have a country. I will build a world class wall. The finest border wall ever built. It will be easy, and I will make the Mexican government pay for it. Aren’t you tired of losing at everything?”

And with one brilliantly conceived stroke, Donald Trump sucks the air right out of the national campaign room!

The idea that one candidate, by recognizing one issue as the elephant in the room, could have so much impact on the future direction of our country is stunning. But it shouldn’t be. Illegal immigration is a microcosm of the problems every industrialized country on the planet is currently, or about to, face. The idea that borders are a thing of the past is so antithetical to the concept of civilization, of law and order, of human dignity, and of national identity, it is counter intuitive.

The impact and cost of uncontrolled migration is so enormous and widespread, it fosters a loss of controls of currency, of trade, of cultural identities, and of physical, financial and employment security. Leaving the doors to our home unlocked is just the beginning of a myriad of cascading problems, all of which are contributing to our nation’s political indigestion.

Isn’t it poetic justice that a reality TV star, an egocentric real estate developer and author of a business textbook would be the one to slap us collectively across the face to awaken us to the fact that we are truly lost. That his skill set, his highly developed system of recognizing subtle, sometimes subliminal messages would be the only one of hundreds of ‘qualified’ political leaders to seize on the single mutant cancer cell that is leading us down a dead end road to perdition?

If and when any country loses its identity by abandoning borders, refusing to enforce duly enacted laws, redistributes the hard earned assets of its indigenous citizens, it simply ceases to exist. And along with it goes the human inventory, the entrepreneurship, the initiative to achieve great things and the sense of loyalty and sacrifice any society needs to sustain its viability.

When a soldier is pinned down in a trench and realizes he is about to lose his life, he may ask, for what?

For something that everyone on the planet already has? For a lawless, uncivilized country that offers no peace, no justice and no safety for its citizens? Why not hold up the white flag of surrender and hand over your weapon and your life to your enemy? Some on the left would say, that’s a good idea, we never accomplish anything with war. So, in their mind, we would have been better off had we let Hitler run the table and dominate the world. Or perhaps it would have been Japan, or North Korea, or Russia. The point is, the only ones who ever threaten to run the world are the leftists, the statists, the communists or fascists who think they know better than the average person, and can determine just what we should all be doing in their utopia.

Just ask Napoleon, the Alpha Donkey in George Orwell’s Animal Farm.

So now is the time to ask: Are we Americans lost? Do we have what it takes to admit our failures while at the same time recognizing what an important and absolutely essential element America plays in the success of civilization on mother earth? Or are we about to do what everyone did at Orwell’s Animal Farm, “The animals, watching through the window, realize with a start that, as they look around the room of the farmhouse, they can no longer distinguish which of the card players are pigs and which are human beings.”

Here is a teaser, just to get your attention:

Driving home from his downtown office, Don is thinking: What was Jason Clayborne thinking when he talked about Jamie in such a way? What reason would he have to drop such a nuclear bomb on the husband of one of his best friend’s daughter? Was he drunk? Was he angry at Bill Altman? Was he just venting anger about what could become a major financial loss?

Or, is it possible he knew something Don didn’t? Don knows nothing about any bachelorette party, Jamie never told him about it. The problem now was should he challenge Jamie? Has she been keeping a dark secret from him, and if so, what would it mean to their relationship if he were to suddenly confront her about something so terrible? Jason said it was something that happened a long time ago…how long ago?

As he fought traffic on Highway 5 going up to Del Mar, Don decided it may be better to just stay ignorant. Or at least pretend to be. He is battling himself about this Team DeMille investment, about his desire to bail out on his career, and now, all of a sudden, he is asking some questions about why Jamie has been so guarded sexually. Is his own simmering guilt about having sexual dalliances affecting his performances? Is she suffering latent sexual confusion, repressed anger and resentment, and feelings of abandonment from Don?

Is this all a figment of his imagination, and is it undermining his ability to do his job, to be intimate with his wife, and to make good decisions? As he turns onto his street, his mind is cluttered, his body is racked with anxiety.

He has to walk into his house and try to be perfectly normal when Jamie says:

“Hey honey! How was your day?”

You don’t need the Substack app to order my book. Just go to: https://books.by/rick-elkin/blindsided and you can also order my latest analysis of our nation’s health. Trump’s Second Coming: Donald Should Be Dead and So Should America…

***

Just as he walks into his office, he is followed in by an older woman and a female officer who will serve as a translator. She introduces Jun to Mrs. Rosalynn Beltran, and notes she is not good at English.

“Please be seated. Thank you for coming here, Mrs. Beltran. I need to find Roberto as soon as possible. Can you help me?”

Mrs. Beltran explains, slowly, so the female officer has time to translate for Jun.

Female officer: “She said, I am sorry to hear about the woman who was kidnapped. It could have been Roberto, I don’t know. But he did tell me he was in very big trouble, just before he left in his truck.”

“Where did he go?”

Female officer: “She said he was going down to Baja. He has friends there. When he left he kissed me goodbye. He never does that.”

Jun: “Why is that important?”

Mrs. Beltran looks at the female officer, then starts to cry. “She said, she thinks it meant he wasn’t coming back.”

Jun looks at the interpreter. “Ask her if Roberto has ever been involved with violence, especially toward women.”

It takes a few moments for Rosalynn to gather herself. She nods, then puts her head down into her hands. Then she starts to speak quickly.

Interpreter: “My son escaped from a Mexican prison two years ago. He was serving a sentence for assault. He came here illegally. He has been living here with a cousin who was just deported last month. They shared an apartment. He was desperate, I guess. He was employed, so I don’t understand why he would leave me, his family and friends, if he wasn’t running away from the law.”

Detective Jun stands up and tells the female officer to see that Mrs. Beltran is seen out. He is sure now that Roberto is his suspect. But he is also certain that if he made his way to Mexico, he will never be back in America again

.

It is available at https://books.by/rick-elkin/blindsided as a PrintOnDemand (POD) book. It’s about family secrets,

“For Peter, it was a mystery why his big brother suddenly rejected what appeared to be a privileged and luxurious lifestyle. Sunny weather, financial abundance, and close family relationships wasn't enough to satisfy Don's ambitions?
For Don, there were secrets he almost took to his grave.”

Here is a teaser, just to get your attention:

He finds a very strange looking duffel bag stuffed into a cardboard box in the back corner of his closet. It is almost military looking, with camouflage PVC coated heavy duty canvass material, and enormous, double stitched nylon straps, with super thick zippers and an air valve. It looks as if it is waterproof and airtight…It is crumpled into the bottom of the box, so Jeremiah pulls it out.

There is something weighty in it, so he unzips it. He immediately zips it back up, refolds it and places it in exactly the same place in the box. He quietly and quickly exits Xavier’s room, and moments later Molly walks in with Ericberto’s carnitas burritos for dinner.

He has barely had time to slow his heart rate down, as she unrolls the burritos onto a paper plate.

“Which salsa do you want, red or green?”

“Don’t know if I can even eat right now, Molly…”

“I know it’s kinda late, but (she looks up). You look like you just saw a ghost! Are you ok?”

“No. I am not ok. I am scared shitless!”

“By what?”

“I am not supposed to tell you anything, so please promise me you will keep a secret. It is a life or death situation, so please, can you promise to say nothing to nobody if I share something terrible with you?”

“Now you are scaring me! I promise. But first, do I really need to know? I hate keeping secrets!”

“Me too. But this involves Xavier. What you warned me about may be coming true. So I need to tell you to keep you safe!”

“Oh, shit! What now?”

“I just found a stash of cash in his room. It is bundled cash, like it was stolen from a bank or something. It looked like all big bills. It had to be twenty or thirty thousand dollars, or more!”

Neither one touches their food. Molly pushes her chair back and demands to see it. Jeremiah stops her in her tracks.

“No, honey, you can’t touch it. I didn’t touch it. I put it back as perfectly as possible because Xavier can’t know I found it. We have to decide, do we turn him in? Do we ignore it and let him deal with his demons? Molly, I have more to tell you…”

Molly interrupts him, “Jesus Christ! We’re talkin’ scary shit!”

Jeremiah knows he has reached a point of no return. Once he brings Molly into the circle of intrigue, she becomes a potential witness, or worse, a victim. He is convinced, at this point, that he is dealing with something very serious. How does a maintenance worker making $12 an hour come into possession of machine bundled stacks of 50 and 100 dollar bills? Dozens of them? And what in the hell was Xavier doing driving off with the head of fairgrounds security yesterday afternoon? Something Rafael Alvarez didn’t want to talk about this morning? And what was Angela Del Pilar alluding to when she told Jeremiah about the DEA investigation going on at the racetrack? She said it had to do with money smuggling

…

Watching the SOTU speech on Tuesday, February 24th, I was overwhelmed by the obvious discomfort of the Democrat side of the isle when President Trump listed the series of policy initiatives he was undertaking to stop corruption, fraud and misuse of public funds.

Instead of standing and applauding like all of the Republicans, they sat on their hands. They didn’t move. They showed no emotion other than shock.

Trump has ridden up alongside the Great Gravy Train of Corruption and Theft of tax dollars, and boarded the runaway train. Joined by his Gang of Marauders, the newly formed War On Fraud division, to be directed by Vice-President JD Vance, and including the on-going Department Of Government Efficiency and the newly remodeled Federal Bureau of Investigation, the President’s Gang of Marauders are systematically dismantling the massive embezzlement and money laundering Gravy Train the Democrats have been conducting for decades.

You could see the look of fear on their faces because they know the truth is coming out.

Voters are wondering, how do Congressional leaders enter office with average net worth and within just a few years become multi-multi millionaires?

How did Minnesota Governor Tim Walz launder eight BILLION tax dollars? How has the Governor of California, one of the nations most wealthy and vital states, accumulated nearly FIFTY BILLION in debt, while his California Democrat Party is awash in millions of campaign dollars?

The only answer is those that are riding the train want the criminal enterprise to continue.

Our nation has the highest average annual student expenditures in our history, yet our students are ranked near the lowest in the world in reading, writing and arithmetic. Where is all the money going? Oh, maybe the largest collective union in our country ( National Education Association ) might know.

Americans have been paying the highest costs for medicine in the world! Big Pharma profits are off the charts, but Washington DC doesn’t do anything about it. They illegally forced all Americans to enroll in Obamacare, then we watched our healthcare become less effective and more expensive. Why?

Big Insurance has wracked up humongous profits since the passage of ObamaCare. Politicians rake in millions of campaign dollars from them, while American’s medical costs are skyrocketing.

The truth is Pharmaceutical/Healthcare, along with High Tech manufacturing, Trade and Education Unions and Insurance/Financial industry interests spend the most cash lobbying activities on The Hill. Whatever direction the legislative train is going, they are the conductors.

The numbers are so astronomical it is easy to understand how siphoning a million here, a million there can get lost in the smog of deceit…

If you have ever visited Washington D.C., you had to be shocked by the ostentatious display of Aristocratic arrogance: Politicians routinely being escorted to The Hill by Capitol Police Motorcycle Brigades, motorcades of Blackout Limousines and dozens of media piranhas feeding on every move of current controversial legislators. It is a Broadway-caliber show of self importance rivaling Tiberius, Caligula or Nero.

When was the last time you saw a Democrat (or any politician) show up in a Penny’s polyester suit and tie? Not be accompanied by a team of bodyguards?

The air of wealth is thick around the Capitol buildings in every state and especially in Washington D.C. I liken the greed and corruption situation to any Mafia operation: Focus on the richest and most prolific businesses. They are easier to skim. Big cash rich operations like union organizations, insurance and banking, shipping and transportation, and trash collection, are, like government, great sources of skimming, extortion and racketeering scams.

Especially when you have the power to impose taxes, fees and regulations. It is an irresistible opportunity to collect some “vig”.

Americans have, for the past three decades, watched trillions of taxpayer dollars get spent on almost anything BUT our own needs: Our nation’s infrastructure, student achievement, finding cures for cancer, diabetes, alzheimer’s or autism. Instead the Gravy Train-track has led to Ukraine, Israel, the Military Industrial Complex, media and entertainment partnerships, buying billions of vaccines and USAID laundering scams.

So now, with the Trump Marauders boarding the runaway Gravy Train, there is at least some hope they can derail the Great Gravy Train Robbery of the 21st Century.