Is California Shifting to the Center?
In the election’s wake, California remains part of the Left Coast, clinging to the western edge of Trump world, more an outlier than a trendsetter. Nearly 60 percent of Golden State voters picked the...
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U.S. Residential Building Permits by Market Size: 2023
In 2023 a total of more than 1.5 million residential building permits were issued in the United States, according to the Census Bureau. This includes 954,000 single-family dwellings (detached, and...
View ArticleElite Arrogance is Fueling the Rise of the Global Right
In a way not seen since the days of Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher and Brian Mulroney, the right is on the march. Donald Trump’s victory Tuesday was the signature event, but also reflective of an...
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Europe’s Knowledge Geography is Shifting Towards Low Taxes and Competitive...
Currently, major changes are happening in the knowledge geography in Europe. The study The geography of Europe’s brain business jobs measures the share of the working-age population across Europe...
View ArticleMidwestern Provincialism Is A Thing
Yesterday, I conducted a poll on X to ask people what would have to change in large Midwestern metros for non-Midwesterners to consider moving here. The poll was revealing.I introduced three options to...
View ArticleGavin Newsom's California is Already Losing its War Against Donald Trump
Gavin Newsom does not want to play with Donald Trump. So he will huff and puff, and posture for the nation, to make himself – and his state, which is also mine – the righteous Avignon to Trump’s crude...
View ArticleThe West Seattle Link Extension Has Gone Off the Rails
On September 20th Sound Transit published the Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) for the proposed light rail extension to West Seattle. Ordinarily, publishing the FEIS is one of the final...
View ArticleDemocrats Need a New Clinton
A shattered Democratic incumbent. A rambunctious Republican outsider. An election marred by economic turmoil and the usual destabilising violence in the Middle East. A campaign of contrasts, of...
View ArticleEurope's Baby Bust
Most visitors to Stockholm and other Scandinavian cities and towns marvel not just at the cities themselves but at the residents and their lives as well. They see a constant procession of moms and dads...
View ArticleThe Tide is Turning Against Green Elites
It is the global climate-change conference that no one cares about. The latest United Nations (UN) ‘conference of the parties’, otherwise known as COP29, is currently being hosted in oil-rich,...
View ArticleCalifornia's Latest Excuse for Bungling Affordable Housing and Homelessness
Last week CalMatters – which has become a prime go-to source for coverage of news, and especially politics, in California – published a story that can only be described as infuriating. Titled...
View ArticleThe Left’s War on Men is Backfiring Disastrously
Sex is supposed to be fun, and productive, but when mixed with politics it can have some less fortunate societal impacts. This autumn, as the US presidential election moved to its denouement, both...
View ArticleThe Hydrocarbon Elephant in the Room that Newsom Refuses to Address
California Governor Gavin Newsom refuses to address the hydrocarbon elephant in the room, namely that The End of Oil Would be the End of Civilization as the products manufactured from crude oil played...
View ArticleHow Texas Can Defy the Demographic Odds
In the center of the American Sun Belt lies the eighth-largest economy in the world, home to nearly one out of 10 Americans. After decades of sustained economic and population growth, Texas is in the...
View ArticleHow the Left Betrayed the Jews
For much of their political history, particularly since the Enlightenment, Jews have identified with the progressive Left. Israel itself, although funded by oligarchs, was launched largely as a...
View ArticleThe Democratic Party's "Governance" Problem
I thought I was done with my own 2024 election introspection, but I’m not.There were plenty of reasons why Donald Trump was able to post his best electoral showing in 2024. Immigration policy,...
View ArticleSF Muni Tries Washington Monument Strategy
Like many transit agencies, San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (Muni) is facing a big budget deficit, and its response is to employ the Washington Monument Strategy. For those who don’t...
View ArticleBe Kind to Your Family Members
As is the case with most Thanksgiving dinners, families will discuss politics. Before and after Thanksgiving, we will see chatter about how insufferable and intolerant family members can be as they...
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Lefse Diplomacy
With this holiday season following a hotly contest election, some Americans fear that political disagreements among family will boil over like a pot of poorly watched potatoes.In North Dakota, where...
View ArticleCalifornia Doesn't Want Governor Kamala Harris
In The Sound of Music, the nuns worry “how do you solve a problem like Maria?” when considering an obstreperous member of their convent. After Donald Trump’s convincing victory in the US election, the...
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