Brown debuts 2016-17 budget
By James Poulos More permanent state spending would be devastating to California, Gov. Jerry Brown announced — at least in the midst of another recession. Unveiling his budget for the new fiscal year, Brown flourished a chart bearing that warning, although the proposal racks up the largest outlays of his tenure in office. “The general fund amount […]
Hello, world: is your government driving you crazy?
By Jon Rappoport Politics, the god Hermes, and the big joke. Suppose, against all odds, enlightenment is funny and funny works like magic because it is magic Note: If, as you read this article, you think I’m saying ‘don’t worry, be happy’ or ‘just laugh it off’ or ‘forget all the suffering in the […]
Yellen Takes Off Training Wheels
By Chip Bok Bokbluster.com Janet Yellen took the training wheels off the economy on Wednesday. After seven years of near zero percent interest rates, the Fed hiked rates a quarter percent. Meanwhile, Congress passed a 2,000 page, 1.2 trillion dollar budget. That tacked another 157 billion onto the 18.5 trillion dollar national debt. Yellen On Friday the Dow […]
Santa Paula Council: Fire Department Funding (10E)
By Sheryl Hamlin Recognizing that the city could not fund itself forever on grants and that the timeframe for the expected windfall from East Area One was elusive at best, a group of citizens formed a committee to fund and promote a council approved sales tax measure on the November 2014 ballot. Measure F failed […]
POLITICALLY INCORRECT ZONE: NASA discovers Elvis at ‘Alien Megastructure’ next to Walmart in Space
For years now, many on the political right have insisted that modern scientists have become agendized, and allow personal, and even corruption-based biases to steer their findings on key issues such as Global Warming. And while I’m aware that anyone is subject to be biased in ways they may not be fully aware of, I […]
CA Controller’s September Cash Report Shows Revenues Slightly Lower than Estimates
State revenues fell short of Department of Finance projections by 2.6 percent in September, but are still outpacing estimates for the first quarter of the 2015-16 fiscal year, State Controller Betty T. Yee reported today. In September, two of the state’s three top revenue sources failed to match projections. Retail sales and use tax revenues […]
Welcome to Shutdown Theater, 2015 Edition
By Thomas Knapp Well, here we go again. Sample annual headline: “Republicans Threaten Government Shutdown.” This year’s excuse: A feud over whether or not to continue writing an annual $500 million corporate welfare check to Planned Parenthood. With bated breath, the mainstream media informs us that the usual suspects on Capitol Hill are […]
More Sequestration: The Best Bad Thing, For Now
By Thomas L. Knapp If American politicians lived in the real world, US president Barack Obama would propose and Congress would pass a balanced budget for the federal government. But American politicians don’t live in the real world. Since World War II they’ve inhabited a Utopian fantasy in which the federal government has […]
“Defense” Spending: Time For More Than Cosmetic Cuts
By Thomas L. Knapp The US Army is on track to reduce its size from current levels (490,000 troops) to 450,000 in 2017 and 420,000 by 2019. In a July 24 editorial, the New York Times came out in mild support of the half-measure and against “maintaining bases and a level of troops […]
