Milei gives the world a lesson on freedom

• January 23, 2024

It isn’t often that a speech on free market economics at the World Economic Forum goes viral. But that’s exactly what’s happened over the last week following an address by Argentine President Javier Milei to attendees in Davos, Switzerland.

Milei shocked the world with his overwhelming electoral victory late last year. Milei’s free market, very-limited-government message resonated in the South American nation of Argentina, which has been in a state of economic crisis for many decades now thanks to the socialist governments which have ruled it.

Milei vowed to shake up the status quo, slash the bloated government put in place over the years and deregulate vast areas of the economy.

Milei’s aggressive rhetoric against socialists, collectivists and what he calls the “political caste” in Argentina has confused many news outlets into thinking he’s merely another right-wing populist like Donald Trump or Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil. But he’s clearly distinctive, as evidenced by his remarks in Davos.

“Today I’m here to tell you that the Western world is in danger. And it is in danger because those who are supposed to have to defend the values of the West are co-opted by a vision of the world that inexorably leads to socialism and thereby to poverty,” he began his remarks. “Unfortunately, in recent decades, the main leaders of the Western world have abandoned the model of freedom for different versions of what we call collectivism.”

He continued, “We’re here to tell you that collectivist experiments are never the solution to the problems that afflict the citizens of the world. Rather, they are the root cause.”

Milei gave the audience a much-needed lesson in the history of the world to back up his point. From the year zero through the 19th century, global per capita GDP was stagnant. Only in the last two centuries, and especially in the last century, has the potential of humanity been unleashed to the betterment of the world.

“We should remember that by the year 1800, about 95% of the world’s population lived in extreme poverty. And that figure dropped to 5% by the year 2020, prior to the pandemic. The conclusion is obvious,” he said. “Far from being the cause of our problems, free trade capitalism as an economic system is the only instrument we have to end hunger, poverty and extreme poverty across our planet. The empirical evidence is unquestionable.”

Despite all of this, he notes, collectivists are always complaining about the state of the world. These come in many forms on the right and left, including progressives, socialists, fascists, nationalists and populists. If only they could pillage more from the productive and further centralize, there would be social justice, their thinking goes.

But this is wrong and must be rejected, Milei explains. Collectivists on the left and right, whatever their motivations or promises, are the enemies of prosperity.

“Economic freedom, limited government and unlimited respect for private property are essential elements for economic growth,” he explained. Straying from these core principles are what brought Argentina into the state it’s now in, a warning he hopes others learn from.

“Do not surrender to the advance of the state. The state is not the solution. The state is the problem itself,” he warned.

Viva Milei!

​ Orange County Register 

‘Oppenheimer’ tops all Oscar nominees with 13; Gerwig, Cooper snubbed for best director

• January 23, 2024

<p><strong>By JAKE COYLE | AP Film Writer</strong></p><p>NEW YORK — After a tumultuous movie year marred by strikes and work stoppages, the Academy Awards showered nominations Tuesday on Christopher Nolan’s blockbuster biopic, “Oppenheimer,” which came away with a leading 13 nominations.</p><p>Nolan’s three-hour opus, viewed as the best picture frontrunner, received nods for best picture; Nolan’s direction; acting nominations for Cillian Murphy, Robert Downey Jr. and Emily Blunt; and multiple honors for the craft of the J. Robert Oppenheimer drama.</p><p>Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie” wasn’t far behind with eight nominations, including nods for best picture; Ryan Gosling for best supporting actor; and two best-song candidates in “What Was I Made For” and “I’m Just Ken.” But Gerwig was surprisingly left out of the best director field.</p><p><strong>RELATED: <a href=”https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/01/23/oscar-nominations-2024-see-the-full-list/”>Oscar nominations 2024: See the full list</a></strong></p><p>Both Martin Scorsese’s Osage epic “Killers of the Flower Moon” and Yorgos Lanthimos’ Frankenstein riff “Poor Things” were also widely celebrated. “Poor Things” landed 11 nods, while “Killers of the Moon” was nominated for 10 Oscars.</p><p>Lily Gladstone, star of “Killers of the Flower Moon,” became the first Native American nominated for best actress. For the 10th time, Scorsese was nominated for best director. Leonardo DiCaprio, though, was left out of best actor.</p><p>Those four contenders made for a maximalist quartet of Oscar heavyweights. Nolan’s sprawling biopic. Gerwig’s near-musical. Scorsese’s pitch-black Western. Lanthimos’ sumptuously designed fantasy. Each utilized a wide spectrum of cinematic tools to tell big, often disturbing big-screen stories. And each — even Apple’s biggest-budgeted movie yet, “Killers of the Flower Moon” — had robust theatrical releases that saved streaming for months later.</p><p>The 10 films nominated for best picture were: “Oppenheimer,” “Barbie,” “Poor Things,” “Killers of the Flower Moon,” “The Holdovers,” “Maestro,” “American Fiction,” “Past Lives,” “Anatomy of a Fall” and “The Zone of Interest.”</p><p>The nominees for best actress are: Annette Bening, “Nyad” Lily Gladstone, “Killers of the Flower Moon”; Sandra Hüller, “Anatomy of a Fall”; Carey Mulligan, “Maestro”; Emma Stone, “Poor Things.”</p><p>The nominees for best actor are: Bradley Cooper, “Maestro”; Colman Domingo, “Rustin”; Paul Giamatti, “The Holdovers”; Cillian Murphy, “Oppenheimer”; Jeffrey Wright, “American Fiction.”</p><p>The nominees for best supporting actor: Sterling K. Brown, “American Fiction”; Robert De Niro, “Killers of the Flower Moon”; Robert Downey Jr., “Oppenheimer”; Ryan Gosling, “Barbie”; Mark Ruffalo, “Poor Things.”</p><p>The nominees for best director are: Justine Triet, “Anatomy of a Fall”; Yorgos Lanthimos, “Poor Things”; Christopher Nolan, “Oppenheimer”; Martin Scorsese “Killers of the Flower Moon”; Jonathan Glazer, “The Zone of Interest.”</p><p>The nominees for best international film are: “Society of the Snow,” (Spain); “The Zone of Interest,” (United Kingdom); “The Teachers’ Lounge” (Germany); “Io Capitano” (Italy) ; “Perfect Days” (Japan).</p><p>The nominees for best animated film are: “The Boy and the Heron”; “Elemental”; “Nimona”; “Robot Dreams”; “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.”</p><p>Among the nominated films is the Ukraine war documentary “20 Days in Mariupol,” which is a joint production between The Associated Press and PBS’ Frontline and will compete in the best documentary category.</p><p>Oscar season has reunited “Oppenheimer” with its summer box-office partner, “Barbie.” Gerwig’s feminist blockbuster is easily the biggest hit of the year with more than $1.4 billion in ticket sales.</p><p>Historically, blockbusters have helped fueled Oscar ratings. Though the pile-up of award shows (an after-effect of last year’s strikes ) could be detrimental to the Academy Awards, the Barbenheimer presence could help lift the March 10 telecast on ABC. Jimmy Kimmel is returning as host, with the ceremony moved up an hour, to 7 p.m. Eastern.</p><p>___ For more coverage of the 2024 Oscars, visit https://apnews.com/hub/academy-awards</p>

​ Orange County Register 

Oscar nominations 2024: See the full list

• January 23, 2024

Nominations for the 96th Academy Awards were revealed on Tuesday.

As expected, the Christopher Nolan film “Oppenheimer” had a strong showing, leading Oscar contenders with 13 nominations. The fantasy film “Poor Things,” starring Emma Stone, followed with 11, while the Martin Scorsese drama “Killers of the Flower Moon” got 10 nominations.

The summer blockbuster “Barbie” earned eight nominations.

The Oscars will take place on March 10, hosted for a fourth time by Jimmy Kimmel.

See below for a full list of nominees.

Best picture

“American Fiction”

“Anatomy of a Fall”

“Barbie”

“The Holdovers”

“Killers of the Flower Moon”

“Maestro”

“Oppenheimer”

“Past Lives”

“Poor Things”

“The Zone of Interest”

Best actor in a leading role

Bradley Cooper, “Maestro”

Colman Domingo, “Rustin”

Paul Giamatti, “The Holdovers”

Cillian Murphy, “Oppenheimer”

Jeffrey Wright, “American Fiction”

Best actress in a leading role

Annette Bening, “Nyad”

Lily Gladstone, “Killers of the Flower Moon”

Sandra Hüller, “Anatomy of a Fall”

Carey Mulligan, “Maestro”

Emma Stone, “Poor Things”

Best actor in a supporting role

Sterling K. Brown, “American Fiction”

Robert De Niro, “Killers of the Flower Moon”

Robert Downey Jr., “Oppenheimer”

Ryan Gosling, “Barbie”

Mark Ruffalo, “Poor Things”

Best actress in a supporting role

Emily Blunt, “Oppenheimer”

Danielle Brooks, “The Color Purple”

America Ferrera, “Barbie”

Jodie Foster, “Nyad”

Da’Vine Joy Randolph, “The Holdovers”

Best director

Justine Triet, “Anatomy of a Fall”

Martin Scorsese, “Killers of the Flower Moon”

Christopher Nolan, “Oppenheimer”

Yorgos Lanthimos, “Poor Things”

Jonathan Glazer, “The Zone of Interest”

Best cinematography

“El Conde”

“Killers of the Flower Moon”

“Maestro”

“Oppenheimer”

“Poor Things”

Best international feature film

“The Teachers’ Lounge,” Germany

“Io Capitano,” Italy

“Perfect Days,” Japan

“Society of the Snow,” Spain

“The Zone of Interest,” United Kingdom

Best adapted screenplay

“American Fiction”

“Barbie”

“Oppenheimer”

“Poor Things”

“The Zone of Interest”

Best original screenplay

“Anatomy of a Fall”

“The Holdovers”

“Maestro”

“May December”

“Past Lives”

Best live action short film

“The After”

“Invincible”

“Knight of Fortune”

“Red, White and Blue”

“The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar”

Best animated short film

“Letter to a Pig”

“Ninety-Five Senses”

“Our Uniform”

“Pachyderme”

“War Is Over! Inspired by the Music of John & Yoko”

Best animated feature film

“The Boy and the Heron”

“Elemental”

“Nimona”

“Robot Dreams”

“Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse”

Best documentary short

“The ABCs of Book Banning”

“The Barber of Little Rock”

“Island in Between”

“The Last Repair Shop”

“Nǎi Nai & Wài Pó”

Best documentary feature film

“Bobi Wine: The People’s President”

“The Eternal Memory”

“Four Daughters”

“To Kill a Tiger”

“20 Days in Mariupol”

Best original song

“The Fire Inside” from “Flamin’ Hot”

“I’m Just Ken” from “Barbie”

“It Never Went Away” from “American Symphony”

“Wahzhazhe (A Song for My People),” “Killers of the Flower Moon”

“What Was I Made For?” from “Barbie”

Best original score

“American Fiction”

“Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny”

“Killers of the Flower Moon”

“Oppenheimer”

“Poor Things”

Best makeup and hairstyling

“Golda”

“Maestro”

“Oppenheimer”

“Poor Things”

“Society of the Snow”

Best costume design

“Barbie”

“Killers of the Flower Moon”

“Napoleon”

“Oppenheimer”

“Poor Things”

Best editing

“Anatomy of a Fall”

“The Holdovers”

“Killers of the Flower Moon”

“Oppenheimer”

“Poor Things”

Best sound

“The Creator”

“Maestro”

“Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One”

“Oppenheimer”

“The Zone of Interest”

Best production design

“Barbie”

“Killers of the Flower Moon”

“Napoleon”

“Oppenheimer”

“Poor Things”

Best visual effects

“The Creator”

“Godzilla Minus One”

“Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3”

“Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One”

“Napoleon”

The-CNN-Wire & © 2024 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.

​ Orange County Register 

San Clemente goes back to previously approved map for by-district elections

• January 23, 2024

After six months of discussion and multiple options, the City Council majority has opted for a map that some say is the clearest choice for dividing San Clemente into voting districts because it cleanly splits the community along major arterials, canyons and the freeway.

The council settled on the boundaries for creating four voting districts that will go into effect starting with the November election after the city attorney said a new law, the Fair Map Act, prevented the council from considering other maps after Jan. 1 without creating an independent panel of residents to start a new redistricting process.

The San Clemente City Council chosen Map 109 to divide the city into four voting districts on Tuesday, Oct. 17. (Courtesy of City of San Clemente)

The map the city will use for its new district-based elections, known as Map 109, was the last one the council approved before the new law went into effect at the start of the year.

At least 30 residents representing the Southwest Community Association tried at the council’s latest meeting to convince it to change from Map 109 to another version that is similar, but doesn’t split a Pier Bowl neighborhood.

But the council split on creating a new independent panel and the circumstances did not meet the criteria for an exemption from the requirement to now use one, which include following a court order, settling a legal claim, if there was a city boundary change, or if there were a decrease or increase in the number of council members.

Since there were no exemptions that fit, two council members, Chris Duncan and Mark Enmeir, asked their colleagues to support the independent panel but failed to get support.

“If we want to meet our March deadline, this is our only option,” Mayor Victor Cabral said of moving forward with the already approved Map 109.

Map 109 makes the Talega and Rancho San Clemente communities one district and Forster Ranch and Marble Head another. The other two districts along the beach are divided by Avenida Victoria. One district goes toward North Beach and the other goes south toward Cypress Shores. From there, it crosses the 5 Freeway and goes around the golf course toward the Broadmore area.

“We paid a consultant and looked at dozens of maps,” Councilmember Steve Knoblock said, adding that it was too bad more residents didn’t show up at the council’s earlier discussions of how to divide the city. “Map 109 is logical and clear. It applies all the rules properly, and the boundaries are major arterials, the freeway, and major canyons, and it made absolute, pristine sense to me.”

The council began looking at the change to by-district elections – in which voters will chose a council representative from their geographic area – in August after the city received a letter challenging its at-large election system for being “racially polarizing” and diluting the voice of minority groups.

As part of the new voting process, San Clemente’s mayor position will become an elected position and chosen by all voters, which councilmembers said would guarantee residents always have a voice in each election, regardless of whether their district is on the ballot. Currently, the mayor is chosen each year by councilmembers from among their ranks.

In November, the council seats representing the more coastal District 3 and District 4 will appear on the ballot. In 2026, voters in District 1 and District 2 will choose their councilmembers and the at-large election for mayor will be held.

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​ Orange County Register 

What you need to know about donating electronics, clothes and other items

• January 23, 2024

Every day, about several hundred people stop by Goodwill Southern California’s flagship donation site on San Fernando Road in Glassell Park to get rid of their old stuff. They come with toys, home goods, books, CDs, LPs, DVDs and lots of clothes.

At the end of the year, the team here will see the biggest uptick in donations.

“People are getting ready to make room for their new Christmas gifts. They’re doing end-of-the-year cleaning,” says Eric Hart, district manager for Goodwill Southern California. “They’re trying to get tax write-offs before the end of the year, too. And it’s the season of giving.”

Perhaps you too spent the last few weeks of the year cleaning out your home. Now you’re trying to figure out what to do with everything you no longer want or need. If you’re planning to make donations, it’s important to identify which organizations can accept your goods and make the best use of them.

Clothes out

Goodwill is best known for clothing donations. At Goodwill Southern California, you’ll see a quickly changing rotation of items inside the flagship store.

However, the condition of your donations is important.

“We like to say that we accept ‘gently used’ or ‘like-new’ clothing. Ultimately, we want to respect our customers that come in, too,” says Hart. “Our customers are coming in looking for good deals and looking to pay way below retail, but we also have to respect that they don’t want to buy clothing that’s unwearable or unusable, that’s going to look like it’s something from a thrift store.”

Ripped and/or stained clothing isn’t appropriate to donate for resale. However, there are other options. Look for organizations that recycle textiles, like Suay Sew Shop in Los Angeles, which accepts clothing in less-than-stellar condition. (Like thrift stores, however, they don’t accept underwear.)

At Goodwill Southern California, which oversees more than 100 donation centers throughout most of Los Angeles County, as well as Riverside and San Bernardino counties, non-apparel items are needed most right now.

“All of those other categories are the ones that we get less of and have less on hand at most times of the year,” says Hart.

While they take a large variety of items, furniture donations are dependent on available space at the donation site, so check with your local Goodwill before you load your old kitchen table into the car. They also do not accept large appliances.

Inevitable bulk

When it comes to bulky items, Habitat for Humanity of Greater Los Angeles, which operates ReStore locations in Los Angeles, Torrance and Bellflower might be a good option.

They also handle pickups, ranging from Lancaster to Long Beach and across the county from Santa Monica to Santa Fe Springs.

Habitat for Humanity doesn’t uninstall large appliances but will pick them up from your home. (If you’re in the San Gabriel Valley or surrounding counties, check with your Habitat for Humanity operation for donation details, which may vary.)

ReStores have a reputation for great deals on large and small items for the home, but there’s more to this work than retail. Habitat for Humanity also provides these secondhand goods to folks who need them, whether it’s because they’re transitioning into permanent housing or recently lost their home in a fire.

“So the gently used appliances may be donated to individuals in the community who have a need or they are sold in our stores and the proceeds are used to build their homes,” explains Erin Rank, president and CEO of Habitat for Humanity of Greater Los Angeles.

They also accept items that might not be acceptable elsewhere, like leftover building materials from your home improvement projects. As is typical for donation centers, they don’t accept mattresses or toilets, though. Check with your city or county for local recycling programs to dispose of those.

Kid stuff

Children’s items are another area where donations can be tricky. Goodwill doesn’t accept cribs, strollers are car seats. Union Rescue Mission in Los Angeles also does not accept used car seats, however, they will accept used high chairs in good condition, amongst other baby items for their thrift stores, which are located in Covina and Whittier. It’s recommended that you call URM first to discuss your possible donations.

Always make sure that you don’t have hazardous materials mixed in with your donations. This can create problems for the donation centers, who then become responsible for safely disposing of this waste.

“It ends up being a large cost to us at the end of the year that could be going towards our programs to help individuals with employment,” says Hart over at Goodwill.

Make sure you double-check your donations to ensure that the items you want to keep haven’t slipped into the pile. At high-volume centers with a quick turnaround, like Goodwill, it might be difficult to retrieve anything post-donation. If you’re donating via pickup from Habitat for Humanity, they do double-check drawers and other hiding places when they collect your goods, but it’s best to take care of this beforehand.

Data dump

As for donating the items that can hold your most sensitive information, like your computer and phone, it’s ideal to wipe your data before you donate. You should also look for centers that can provide certification that data has been destroyed.

At Homeboy Electronics Recycling, handling sensitive equipment is their specialty. As a credentialed R2V3 recycler, they provide customers with certification of data destruction, which they do by either wiping or shredding the data on devices.

Homeboy recycles for both corporate clients and individuals.

“Most consumers…hoard their electronics at home because we are afraid to give them away. We’re really afraid of what could happen to our identities,” he says.

Often, when consumers do send their old devices to Homeboy, the data is still on them.

After the devices are wiped clean, they’re tested and repaired. Those that fail testing are recycled. Those that pass are resold through Homeboy’s e-commerce platform.

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“We’re really proud of our role as a recycler and resaler because it allows people who live in the digital divide to actually have access to affordable technology,” says Deliman.

Homeboy does pick up donations throughout the greater Los Angeles area, including Orange County, but you’ll need to call first to see when and how pickups can be coordinated.

They also have a mail-in program that is free for smaller electronics, as well as items like cables and computer accessories. Just go to their website and print out one of their shipping labels to send securely via FedEx.

While your typical home electronics are free to donate, some items, like satellite dishes and office-style copy machines and printers, require a small recycling fee.

​ Orange County Register 

Niles: Can Disney help inspire the next generation of tech?

• January 23, 2024

Earlier this month, I was invited to visit Disney’s real-life Avengers Campus — the Walt Disney Imagineering headquarters in Glendale.

The occasion was the announcement of the 2024 class of the National Inventors Hall of Fame. Disney was hosting because one of its own, Lanny Smoot, was included in the class — the first person from the company inducted since Walt Disney himself.

After the announcement, several honorees spoke to invited reporters. As they talked about the challenge of educating the next generation of great inventors, I could not help but think about Disneyland’s Avengers Campus.

“I think our educational system is upside down,” Asad Madni said. The UCLA professor was another 2024 inductee, for his work on micro-electromechanical system gyroscopes. “We teach them physics and teach them maths. We teach them chemistry. We throw equations at them. We scare the living hell out of them. It’s just not inspiring.

“Bring the kids in and first get them excited. Don’t talk about those equations or nonsense first. Get them inspired.”

More from Robert Niles

There’s no magic in Disneyland’s Magic Key sale
Why Knott’s Huff and Puff will be missed
Theme park fans should look abroad for new rides in 2024
My favorite theme park moments of 2023
Why single-franchise lands are Disney and Universal’s secret weapon

Inspiration is what creators like the ones who work on Disney’s theme parks do best. The National Inventors Hall of Fame reached more than 200,000 children through its educational programs last year, but Disney’s theme parks welcome millions.

In movies and theme parks, we celebrate people who break the rules to save the day. But in real life — as Lonnie Johnson, a former JPL aerospace engineer and 2022 honoree who invented the Super Soaker water gun, said — we punish those kids more often than we celebrate them.

“The kids who think independently, (who) figure out things early and test limits, those are some of the out-of-the-box thinkers that we need to nurture and not suppress. Having the fortitude to tolerate independent thinkers is something that as we as adults can do a better job of.”

So many Marvel stories begin at the intersection of scorn for unearned authority and love for ingenuity and perseverance. Through characters such as Tony Stark, Peter Parker (and Miles Morales) and Bruce Banner, Marvel celebrates the creative genius of people whom others often dismiss as threats rather than role models.

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From classrooms to Hollywood to Wall Street, America too often is looking for people and products that return immediate value, dismissing whatever or whoever requires long-term investment. Those inventors at Imagineering are right. We are eating the seed corn that was supposed to grow a new generation of creative genius.

Right now, Avengers Campus offers a shoot-‘em-up ride and some character shows. But imagine if the land were less a tribute to the iconography of Marvel and more a manifestation of the brand’s core spirit.

It’s not Disney’s job to inspire kids to fall in love with science and engineering, but the company does enjoy that opportunity. Maybe if Disney could find a way to host something like the National Inventors Hall of Fame’s educational programs inside Avengers Campus, that could happen.

​ Orange County Register 

The biggest threat to the Constitution in 2024 is the ‘lawfare’ being waged against Donald Trump

• January 23, 2024

The biggest threat to the Constitution in 2024 is the “lawfare” being waged against Donald Trump — and the Supreme Court is as much its target as Trump is.

Consider attempts in Colorado, Maine and elsewhere to ban Trump from the ballot.

The architects of these efforts are counting on most Americans not knowing how presidential primaries and general elections actually work.

What happens if a blue-state Supreme Court or Democratic secretary of state rules that Trump isn’t eligible to be president?

If the question stayed at the state level, very little would change.

This is because voters don’t directly pick either a party’s nominee or a president.

Primaries and caucuses are only first steps in a process — which differs from state to state — that ultimately selects delegates to the party’s national convention.

Those delegates, in turn, pick the nominee.

Colorado requires delegates to support the candidate they’re pledged to, even if that candidate drops out of the race.

But a candidate who withdraws can free up his or her delegates with a simple letter, and after the first round of voting at the convention, delegates are often automatically unbound.

If Colorado kept Trump off the ballot, but he needed the state’s delegates — an unlikely scenario at this point — he could get them by having his voters throw their support behind one of the candidates who’s on the ballot but has already dropped out and endorsed Trump: Ron DeSantis or Vivek Ramaswamy would do.

Yes, it would be messy, but if the GOP is determined to nominate Trump, a handful of blue states won’t stop him with ballot bans.

The general election is also indirect.

When voters choose a president and vice president, they’re actually voting for a slate of electors pledged to those candidates.

Disqualifying Trump from the ballot wouldn’t disqualify the electors pledged to him and his running mate — and the Republican candidate for vice president would appear on the ballot even if Trump didn’t.

In blue or battleground states, it’s even conceivable that this could help the Republican ticket, if moderate voters turned off by Trump found it easier to vote GOP with only his running mate on the ballot.

The same slate of electors, however, represents both the presidential and VP nominees; Trump would get the electors pledged to the ticket even if his name wasn’t on voters’ ballots.

A state that banned Trump might try to disqualify his electors, but this would risk a constitutional crisis on both the state and federal levels.

Colorado, for example, has a law that replaces “faithless electors” who don’t vote for the winner of the state’s popular election — but what happens if the Republican ticket wins, yet there’s no presidential candidate listed on it?

Replacing Republican electors with Democrat electors would hardly make sense if the GOP ticket, with only a vice president listed, won the popular contest.

With so many different rules in different states, the results would be wide-open to challenge when Congress counts the Electoral College vote.

Savor the irony: If Trump won the Electoral College vote despite state attempts to ban him, Vice President Kamala Harris and congressional Democrats would be in the same position Mike Pence and the Republicans were in on Jan. 6, 2021.

Would Harris count the votes from Trump electors?

Yet it won’t come to that — because even Democrats pushing to ban Trump know that the states will be preempted by the U.S. Supreme Court.

In fact, that’s the trap they’ve laid.

SCOTUS is set to take up the Colorado case, and Democrats want to embarrass the Republican-majority court.

If the justices rule against Trump, they’ll throw the election and the Republican Party into turmoil.

Trump and his supporters, red-state governments, and perhaps the institutional GOP as a whole might defy the ruling, putting Trump on ballots anyway and opening a deeper constitutional crisis.

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But it’s more likely the justices will decide in Trump’s favor, in which case Democrats will be the ones questioning the court’s legitimacy.

And that’s the strategy: to get another decision that juices Democratic enthusiasm and turnout the way the Dobbs abortion ruling did.

Trump’s reputation will be further damaged even if he prevails, and if he does, Democrats will harness their voters’ fury at the Republican-majority Supreme Court.

Lawfare subverts democracy by taking decision-making away from voters and giving it to the courts, while ensuring that half the country — one party or the other — is outraged by the judiciary’s conclusions.

Democrats have led their supporters to entertain a fantasy of winning by disqualifying Trump rather than beating him, but the scenarios don’t work, and lawfare only breeds strife.

Daniel McCarthy is the editor of Modern Age: A Conservative Review.

​ Orange County Register 

California’s unique employee lawsuit law could be repealed if ballot measure passes

• January 23, 2024

In 2003, just five days after California voters recalled then-Gov. Gray Davis, he signed landmark legislation making it easier for workers to sue their employers for violations of state labor law.

The Private Attorneys General Act, or PAGA, allowing employees to file suits not only for themselves but on behalf of other workers, is unique to California.

Davis’ action, an obvious payback to unions that had supported him in the recall election, ignited a political and legal struggle that will reach a climactic point in November when voters decide the fate of a business-backed ballot measure that would, in essence, repeal PAGA.

The measure’s sponsor, Californians for Fair Play and Accountability, is already running ads, contending that PAGA ill-serves employees while enriching lawyers who file class-action lawsuits.

PAGA backers – personal injury attorneys and labor unions, particularly – argue that the law is needed because the state’s labor commissioner lacks the resources to vigorously enforce workplace laws, thus allowing employers to get away with violating them.

The ballot measure duel climaxes two decades of skirmishing in the Legislature and the courts. Its advocates have, with some success, expanded the law’s reach by persuading the Legislature to enact a raft of new workplace laws that could be enforced.

The most far-reaching is the 2019 law that codified a state Supreme Court decision and tightly limited employers’ use of independent contractors, thereby converting hundreds of thousands of Californians into payroll employees. The U.S. Department of Labor recently adopted similar regulations.

Other labor law expansions passed by Gov. Gavin Newsom have included a measure protecting employees that refuse to work if they believe conditions are unsafe, and another requiring employers to disclose wage scales.

While the two sides were clashing in the Legislature, they were also fighting over the issue in federal and state courts.

In 2021, the U.S. Supreme Court handed employers a partial victory by declaring that workers who signed arbitration agreements could not later file PAGA suits. A delivery driver’s PAGA suit against his employer, alleging that he was unlawfully denied reimbursement for expenses, is pending in the California Supreme Court.

Late last week, the court declared that trial court judges don’t have the power to toss PAGA suits because of their complexity – a case arising from an Orange County worker’s claim that his employer violated break rules. It was a setback for employers who hoped that PAGA suits could be dismissed without a trial if a judge declared them to be unmanageable.

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Obviously, PAGA has not only survived various attempts by employers to shrink its reach but over the past two decades the Legislature and courts have, if anything, expanded its potential impact on employer-employee relations. A legislature allied with unions would probably continue to broaden the law’s applicability.

That’s why employers decided to take their issue to the ballot. The measure that’s qualified for the November election would repeal PAGA and, instead, beef up state enforcement of workplace rules.

Their campaign will stress the replacement provisions, labeling it the “Fair Play and Employer Accountability Act.” However, the official language for the measure stresses its repeal of PAGA, saying it “eliminates employees’ ability to file lawsuits for monetary penalties for state labor law violations,” echoing the opponents’ characterization.

The campaigns for and against the measure, therefore, will be a battle of perceptions. PAGA’s defenders will say it’s needed to protect workers from rapacious employers while its opponents will say it’s needed to protect workers and employers from rapacious lawyers.

CalMatters is a public interest journalism venture committed to explaining how California’s state Capitol works and why it matters. For more stories by Dan Walters, go to Commentary.

​ Orange County Register