An expanding group of American professionals is building support for a January 26 protest against the outsourcing of middle-class jobs via the H-1B visa program. The Protect U.S. Workers group has scheduled the protest in Connecticut, where the state’s governor is providing a subsidy to an Indian company which uses H-1B visa-workers to outsource U.S. middle-class jobs back ...

The government shutdown continues as the debate over a border wall enters its fourth contentious week. Neither side in this has shown any sign of willingness to compromise. This remains a stalemate as of now, the very definition of it, or at least that’s what it seems like from the outside. In fact, this debate is ...

When it comes to the Hollowing Out of the U.S. Middle Class, Hilarie Gamm sets the record straight where others ignore the obvious The reality is – robots and automation actually create jobs, create efficiencies and improve dangerous working conditions to the benefit of all.  Economic expansion and improved quality are direct results of increased automation ...

Republican leaders are expected to drop a political stinker on President Donald Trump by mid-December: a donor-backed amendment that would allow investors to import more college-graduates from India to take jobs now held by American college graduates. The GOP-run amendment puts 300,000 imported Indian temporary workers and 300,000 of their family members on a fast-track to ...

Senator Bernie Sanders wants a bold new federal jobs program, and he’s right.

Our country is in dire need of criminal justice reform. Crucial failings in our prison system have led to continuation of a broken infrastructure that turns former convicts back to a life of crime. Recidivism rates in the United States are astronomical: 77 percent of prisoners in state penitentiary systems, and 76 percent of federal ...

This poem was written by W.H. Auden in 1939, a little over 77 years ago.  It was time not so different than our own; rising nationalism, economic stagnation (don’t be fooled by the buoyant stock market), and the rattle of sabres across a multipolar world.  The Spanish Civil War started 3 years prior in 1936. ...

I was born the fifth generation of my family in Southern California sixty years ago. Sometimes it’s difficult to believe, but in the early years of my parent’s life and of my own, Southern California was a paradise. Wages were high, housing was inexpensive. Employment at every level, from Janitor on up, was easy to ...

Student loan debt is a nationwide disaster. There is currently over 1.4 trillion dollars of debt accrued by 42 million students and graduates. In a opinion piece written by a loan collector in 2011, he wrote “As I wandered around the crowd of NYU students at their rally protesting student debt at the end of ...

Someone I met recently told me about his recent conversations with some senior McDonald’s Corporation officials who advised him that they intend to automate their over 14,000 US stores as rapidly as possible. Each store he was told typically has a crew of 13 to 15 employees now. When fully automated, each store will only need TWO. ...

Politicon 2017 Impromptu Interviews w/ Attendees

See our in depth interviews during Politicon 2017 See our impromptu / on the street interviews at Politicon 2017  

I had been agonizing over current national and international events this weekend and found myself in need of a change of environment as I prepared to write my latest blog. I slipped a copy of H.L. Mencken’s Chrestomathy into my backpack and took off for the Cafe Di Vetro.  And there, over one of the world’s finest ...

So, a week ago I was driving up to the Barnes & Noble in Lancaster, PA when I noticed a fellow holding a sign on a street corner advertising the local Kmart was going out of business and offering up to 60% discounts on merchandise. I’d seen someone with the same sign a while back ...

This coming Tuesday, March 7th, the citizens of Los Angeles will be voting on a county and city ballot measure. They are Measure H and Measure S. Measure H Under Measure H, the Voters of Los Angeles County are being asked to increase their sales tax by one-quarter percent (0.25%) to put a dent in homelessness. Sadly, ...

Last Friday evening I pulled into a bar to watch the opening ceremonies of 2016 Rio Olympics. Although viewership was down from the London Olympics four years prior, it is estimated that some 30 million people across the country watched. Although much of the entertainment took the form of a great big party, the underlying ...

Los Angeles County is attempting to revise the Altadena Community Standards District (CSD) with minimal community input. The new CSD will allow condominiums and drive thru businesses on Lake Avenue, demand that all fences, hedges, gates, arches, Tori and so on over forty two inches tall in the first 22 feet of front yard either ...

 Ventura’s 4th of July Street Fair continued its proud 41-year-old tradition today with its PUSH EM PULL EM Parade and street fair. The fun thing about the parade is anyone can be in it. In fact, participants far outnumbered spectators. Today as in years past, adults and children were encouraged to dress up, bring bicycles, little red ...

Both the Los Angeles City Council and the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors are considering measures to “deal with homelessness”.  However, none of these measures take into account any of the STRUCTURAL causes of expensive housing or homelessness, and most of these structural causes are the direct result of GOVERNMENTAL POLICY. If you go down and hand ...

Not all Irish minds turn immediately to thoughts of green beer, celtic music, and limericks as March 17th, St. Patrick’s Day nears.  I have always loved the Roman Catholic prayer known as St. Patrick’s Breastplate.  Although religious scholars cast doubt on the prayer being written by St. Patrick, one could certainly be forgiven for believing,  given ...