Month: December 2017

Because I feel that it is the duty of all Good Americans to pay the least amount in taxes as is legally possible, for over 30 years I have been an investor in Municipal bonds because of their big tax advantages. For those of you who are not aware Municipal bonds are tax free in the state in which the bond holder resides as well as being free of any Federal Income Tax burden. (A piece of trivia for those of you who might be interested – Municipal bonds from U.S. territories [e.g. Guam, U.S. Virgin Islands, etc.] are free from both federal as well as all state taxes.)
Since I consider myself a Good American who happens to live in California, over the years I acquired a trove of California Municipal Bonds, as they were one of the few vehicles that escaped the onerous California taxman. However, about 10 years ago I became concerned that my investments were too heavily weighted with California Municipal Bonds, and that it would be a good idea to diversify my stable of Municipal bonds. I told my broker that he should look at the Municipal bonds from other states as they would still be free from Federal taxation, although not free of California state taxes . . . with one caveat, “Do not buy Municipal bonds from those those states that have Democratic governors.” While it is true that individual states have never gone belly-up . . . i.e. bankrupt, why would any Good American purposely bet his money on losing horses? My concern was that in states with Democratic governors and high state taxes, many high income earners, and thus high state tax payers, would choose to leave that state, and thus hurt that particular state’s financial stability. Was this a wise decision?
In 2012, under B.O. the IRS decided to stop publishing data on interstate migration. (Now why do you think that was?) However because public pressure, probably from concerned Good Americans, they recanted, and the following data is IRS interstate migration data. Let’s look at some examples:

New York State has the highest state and local burden in the U.S. Since Democrat Andrew Cuomo has been governor 577,286 Good Americans have left New York State for greener pastures – taking $27 billion in potentially taxable income with them.
Oops, Andrew!
In Connecticut since 2011, under Democrat Daniel Malloy, 73,676 Good Americans have left – taking $8.5 billion in potentially taxable income with them.
Oops, Daniel!
Since 2011, under Democratic governor, Jerry Brown, 243,099 Good Americans have fled California – taking $7,794 billion in potentially taxable income with them.
Oops, Jerry!
Look for continued out-migration of Good Americans in the states with high taxes and Democratic governors. In fact these numbers will probably increase in the years to come with the recently passed law that negates the deductibility of these high state taxes on federal returns.
Did this Good American make a wise decision when he decided not to buy Municipal bonds from states with Democratic governors? Yes, I believe that he did.

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I may have mentioned some of these things before, but I just came across a 2016 Kiplinger report that is worth reviewing. Kiplinger rated all of the states on the favorability for retirees. The states were rated in terms of dollars and cents on practical terms. Things like living close to family and the climate were not used in this rating system. Kiplinger looked at things such as living expenses, general health of retirees, fiscal status of individual states, and the relative prosperity of residents over 65 years of age.
Where you think California was rated?
Let me give you a little hint – the four worst states were Democratic strongholds.
In California those over 65 made up 12.1% of the population of over 38 million. The cost of living in California was 15% over U.S. average. This is obviously bad for everybody in the state, but is especially bad for those who are retired on a fixed income. The taxes in California are some of the highest in the nation, and there is little hope of these taxes decreasing in the near future. In fact the politicians here have recently passed a gasoline tax which punishes everyone except those who drove electric cars. The medical care costs for a retired couple are greater than average. The fiscal status of California is never very good and this is important for retirees as any increase in red ink could lead to further increases in taxes. The average household income for retired couples is $62,000, and although this sounds high, 1 in 10 of those over 65 live in poverty in the Golden State.
Okay so where do you think California was rated?
Drum roll, please.
California was rated as the third worst state for retirees with only New York and New Jersey rated as worse states for retirees.

I realize that these days not everyone says, “Merry Christmas!” There are those who believe in God, but are not Christians, that do not use this expression and there are those who do not believe in any God. But I digress.

We just got back from a cruise where we met a wonderful couple, Ken and Pat, from Liverpool. They were retired, as were most on this cruise. Ken had worked in some sort of government position, and had also done a bit of youth ministering in the past. He and I disagreed on the optimal length of a sermon, but otherwise we were basically on the same path. (He even liked Donald Trump – more specifically he liked Mr. Trump because of his recent stand on Jerusalem being the capital of Israel . . . but I digress.)                                                Ken had an interesting story about a atheist female coworker, Melissa, and a past November office birthday celebration that the office threw or her. Years back on a Friday Ken and a few of his fellow office mates stayed late to decorate in order to surprise Melissa for her birthday on Monday morning. When she came in to the office on Monday, she was very surprised and asked who had put up all the decorations. Ken answered her by saying that he had just left the decorations on his desk on Friday evening, and, wallah, on Monday morning spontaneously, and without anyone guiding the process, the decorations were all in place – more specifically the ribbons had come out of the package and hung themselves up, the random individual letters had arranged themselves to spell out H-A-P-P-Y B-I-R-T-H-D-A-Y and then they somehow magically ended up on the office wall.
The birthday girl responded, “Ken, you know that’s impossible! Only a fool would believe that these decorations could have spontaneously formed themselves into such a beautiful display. Someone had to have planned, organized, and finally put everything in its place for this party. Get real!”
Ken then responded, probably with a twinkle in his eye, “Are you sure, Melissa? It seems to me that the likelihood that these decorations have occurred spontaneously without an organizer is about the same as the likelihood that all of the beauty you see out of this window – more specifically, the mountains, the trees, and the clouds in the sky – has occurred spontaneously. Happy Birthday, Melissa!”
About one month later and every year since, Ken receives a card from Melissa that says, “Thanks, Merry Christmas!”

The other day while reading our local paper I found myself wondering, “Am I a racist?” I do not think that I am, as I have contributed money to and mentored students at an Hispanic school in San Diego over the last several years.
Why would I ask myself that question? Let me explain.
In the ‘Local’ section, three stories caught my attention as two were featured stories on consecutive pages.
The first was under “Most Wanted” with headline that said, “Man Accused of Lewd Acts with Child.” Although I am usually not interested in articles with this type of headline, the picture of the accused, Bartoleme Rojas, 42, drew my attention. As I read on, it was noted that there was an outstanding  felony arrest warrant for Mr. Rojas and that he was “believed to be a transient in Poway.” This is a bit strange as Poway, California is not a town that I would think has a lot of “transients.” I immediately inferred that Mr. Rojas was probably an illegal . . . “a transient in Poway ??”
Racist or Realist?
The next article involved a documented gang member, Dionicio Torres, 24, who says that he was shooting at rival gang members who had been tagging a complex where he lived. Unfortunately one of the shots he fired killed an innocent bystander who happened to be driving by. This occurred in Escondido, California, a city north of San Diego that has a significant number of illegals living there. Is Mr. Torres an illegal? Should this thought have crossed my mind?
Racist or Realist?
The third article was about a trial of a man accused of purposely running down a police officer in Oceanside, California. Apparently in a taped conversation with an undercover officer and an informant in the jail after his arrest, Roberto Flores, 26, bragged that he did it, intended to do it, and wasn’t sorry about it. He also apparently stated that he targeted the police officer because he was law enforcement! I wondered, ” Is Mr. Flores, a legal resident of the U.S.?”
Racist or Realist?
We’re my suspicions about Mr. Torres and Mr. Flores prompted subconsciously by the prior reference to Mr. Rojas as “a transient in Poway?” Am I a Racist or a Realist?
Can those of us who live in California be Realists without being Racist?
Unfortunately, after the recent passage of California Senate Bill 54, the answer is “YES”!!

Choices. Life is all about choices. Other than who our parents are, each of us has made or will make a myriad of choices that determine how things turn out for the rest of his/her life. Yes, of course, some of the things that happen to each of us is beyond our control, but for the most part each of us controls his/her own destiny.
Do I study hard in high school or do I fool around a lot with my friends?
Do I go to college?
Which college do I go to and which major do I take?
Who do I marry?
Where should I live?
About ten years ago a friend of mine and his wife realized that unless an unknown rich uncle died very soon, it was going to be difficult, if not impossible, for them to afford to buy a house in Southern California. They had three kids and wanted them to grow up close to their grandparents. They had a difficult choice. They could stay in SoCal and rent a small place or they could move somewhere where housing was much more affordable. Yes, their potential new locale needed to have warm weather as each of them grew up in SoCal, and it needed to be west of the Mississippi so that getting back to visit the grandparents would be possible. Choices!
It was difficult, but they moved to Austin, Texas.

As I am sure that you all are well aware housing affordability in California is now even more of an issue than it was ten years ago. For the last 62 straight months home prices have increased in California, and in the last year prices have increased 6.3% in SoCal.
Recently a nurse who works in San Francisco bemoaned the fact that she has to drive 80 miles to and from work each day, “I find it very frustrating that I cannot afford to live close to my job.” Apparently, for whatever reason, she lives two hours from her job.
Choices!
According to the most recent U.S Census Bureau data (which for the first time included ‘cost of living’) California had the highest percentage of residents struggling to pay for the basic necessities, and the median price of a home is twice the national average.
This is a tailor-made situation for the politicians in Sacramento. From their perspective the only option to solve this problem is to throw money at it. (From their perspective the answer to almost anything is to throw taxpayers money at it.) The present options include a bond issue to pay for affordable housing and veteran housing and/or a $75 fee for some real estate transactions – again to provide money for affordable housing programs.

My question is: If housing is so unaffordable in California, and if about 20..4% of its population live under the poverty line, why don’t more of them move somewhere where housing is affordable? Of course, not all of those people who cannot afford to live in California can move, but a considerable number can. Why don’t they?
Choices!

Back when my brother and I were small kids we would oftentimes go over to Grandma and Grandpa Blair’s on Sundays. He was a mailman and she was a housewife living on the second floor in a middle class neighborhood on the northwest side of Chicago. One of the things that I remember was that in the back bedroom just off the kitchen there was a picture of an Indian male who Grandma Blair called, “Grandpa Moze.”  I did not think anything more about Grandpa Moze until recently and I asked my brother, “Who was Grandpa Moze and why was his picture hanging in the bedroom? Was he related to Grandma Blair? If so, how?”
My grandmother’s maiden name was Sargent, and my brother hypothesized that our great grandmother was a Native American who had a child fathered by an army sargent, and the picture in the back bedroom was that of my Grandma Blair’s grandfather (Grandpa Moze). If that is so, then both my brother and I have Native American heritage.
“How cool,” I said to my brother, “Maybe you could just give me an apropos nickname. Just call me, Tonto!”
Back in those days having some Indian, or as it is called today, Native American blood in your DNA was of no consequence, but today I might be recognized as a “minority” with Native American ancestry. If I played my cards right, maybe I could get a teaching position at Harvard as a minority. After you stop laughing, take note that one of our U.S.Senators while at U of Penn Law School put her name on a “minority Law teacher” list as a Native American. She subsequently became a Harvard law professor, and had been promoted as a Native American faculty member. She claims to have American Indian Heritage, specifically Cherokee heritage. She alleges that family stories are evidence for her Native American heritage. I wonder if she had a picture of her Indian great-great grandfather hanging in some bedroom? Thus far no corroborative evidence has emerged.
While her Native American roots may or may not be factual, it seems to me that this would be easy enough to document with a simple DNA test.
How simple? As simple as a saliva sample.
In fact her probable opponent in the 2018 Massachusetts senate race has challenged her to take a simple saliva DNA test in order to prove or disprove her Cherokee ancestry.
Now here’s where I get cynical . . . and perhaps realistic. I’ll  bet that Senator Warren already knows the results of her DNA test! How so? . . .  It would be quite easy to submit one’s saliva sample for DNA testing under an assumed name, for instance, “Princess-Summer-Fall-Winter-Spring.” If the results showed some Native American ancestry, then just repeat the same test, again with your own saliva, but this time under your real name, Elizabeth Warren, and make the results public.
How come Senator Warren has not made the results of her saliva test public?
How interesting!
So far, the best I can tell, Senator Warren and I have equivalent claims to our supposed Native American Heritage. I doubt that I will ever meet Elizabeth Warren, but if I do, I know what I will say to her, “Kimosabe; me Tonto, you Pocahontas; How.”

It was just confirmed that Toyota and Mazda are joining together to develop a $1.6 billion factory in the US. Whether President Trump has been instrumental in this decision is not known at this time, but this is certainly in keeping with his promise to generate more blue collar jobs in the USA. It is estimated that this combined venture will provide about 4000 new jobs.
Where will this new factory be built? I hoped in California.
Reportedly many states are in the running including Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, and Michigan. Where is California on this list? I hope that this list is not complete. How come the Golden State is not in the running for this pot of gold?
Could it be that California has historically never been much into the car-making business? No, in fact, that is far from the case. Whereas now Tesla has a plant in Northern California that provides about 6,000 jobs, in the past there have been multiple such auto-assembly factories in this state including: Long Beach Assembly (Ford, closed 1958), Ford Richmond Plant (closed 1989), Fremont Assembly (G.M., closed 1982), Maywood Assembly (Chrysler, closed 1971), Los Angeles Assembly (Ford, closed 1980), Oakland Assembly (Chevrolet, closed 1963), San Jose Assembly Plant ( Ford, closed 1983), South Gate Assembly ( Buick-Plymouth-Oldsmobile, closed 1982), Van Nuys Assembly (G.M., closed 1992), and TABC of Long Beach (Toyota subsidiary, closed 2004).
In addition to these lost blue collar jobs at these now closed factories, California has also lost white collar auto industry jobs when Nissan moved its headquarters to Tennessee in 2004, and most recently (2014) when Toyota relocated its headquarters from Torrance, California to Plano,Texas (3,000 jobs).
Wow! Why this auto industry abandonment of California? Certainly my first instinct is to blame the usual suspects – high wages, high taxes, high cost of living, increased regulations, making this state more business unfriendly by the day, etc.
However, Jim Lentz, CEO of Toyota, blamed the politicians in California when he recently said, “Here in Texas it’s always do what’s best for Texas. That was not the experience in California where there were truly two sides on most issues, and it was not necessarily what’s best for California. Here in Texas, you guys have the formula down.”
That formula used to be California’s, but it seems that the Democratic politicians have allowed other states to steal it from us. I surmise that the only way to regain that formula is to get rid of these politicians. One can only hope!