California dreaming
What I'm thinking and planning
I was in southern California for a week and spent the end of last week catching up. I wrote once (Sunday morning) while I was on the road, but in general, I stayed away from the keyboard and screen (unless it was sunscreen). I will share a few observations on that, and also some things I am planning to write. This will be a short post this morning, and I welcome our readers to provide some feedback in the comments.
A couple of observations about California, that might dispel some readers’ biases. These are mine alone, and your mileage might vary.
Politics is where you find it, and if you look for it, you will find it. I didn’t see much of it in SoCal, except among people who could not stop talking about it, but that is what I deem a “you problem” not a California problem. Of course, most voters in SoCal are hard-left, but if you don’t engage in political conversations, you won’t hear it. People don’t just walk up to you and begin telling you how Republicans are evil, etc. Then again, I have friends who can’t wait to begin every conversation with exactly that, who live in a bubble where Mitch McConnell is brain-dead, or Lindsey Graham didn’t really die of a medical problem, because conspiracies are part of their makeup. The same kind of person is just as likely to believe the opposing theories about Democrats if they hold different political beliefs.
Such has it always been, and such it shall always be.
What I did see at the America 250 celebration at the Coliseum at USC, was a lot of patriotism on display, and not a small number of people willing to chant “USA, USA!” despite their own private political beliefs.
(One thing I want to correct for the record, and I’m surprised nobody mentioned it, I wrote while I was in SoCal that the Olympic flame at the Coliseum was rekindled for the first time since the Olympics was held there in 1934. That is not true: Los Angeles hosted the 1984 Olympics, which I knew about, since I was a young man watching it, and John Williams theme was introduced there. Sorry for the error.)
I also saw lots of Christ followers. I don’t know their personal lives, or if they live according to their beliefs, but I know a lot of Californians go to church. Read David Thornton’s excellent piece “Let your heart match your words” for some encouragement about that. The Los Angelinos I worshipped with would fit in at any Georgia church. Prayer is not dependent on location, thank God.
There are signs of the economic and government impacts, financially, in California. I wouldn’t want to live in a place with $5.30 per gallon gasoline, or where a home with less than 2,000 square feet and a zero lot line goes for over a million bucks. I would avoid living in a place that’s over 40 miles from downtown Los Angeles, with at least three freeways that will take me there, all of them impossibly clogged with traffic.
It wouldn’t be my first choice to drive every day sharing the road with 100,000 drivers who think they are Mario Andretti. I will say that using L.A. driving techniques in north metro Atlanta is effective, however, if dangerous. I can cut my commute time significantly by using those techniques and taking my life in my hands. I don’t think I’ll make it a habit.
But…as for natural beauty, weather, and convenience of so many goods from so many places, it’s very hard to beat California. A place where you can go from the ski slopes to the beach on the same day is pretty awesome. Even my native New Hampshire, which has mountains, lakes, and the seacoast within a single day’s driving, with time to spare, can’t match the climate and predictability of SoCal weather.
I’ve spent time in the Golden State before, but it’s always been on business. This is the first purely pleasure trip I’ve ever taken there, and I must say it won’t be the last. Whoever wants to trash the west coast has not been there. But again, visiting is wonderful; living there, the shine fades quickly.
Thoughts, and what I’m working on.
It’s now confirmed that the memes are true. Marco Rubio is the Viceroy of Venezuela. I encourage you to read the N.Y. Times piece on it. The question is, are Venezuelans better off having the U.S. as its new Godfather?
Drone wars. I read that the average Russian recruit’s survival time on the Ukraine front is 20 minutes. The drones are terrifying, especially the newest A.I.-enabled drones produced for Ukraine at secret factories tucked in forests and industrial parks around Europe. Is the U.S. prepared to fight that kind of war? I think we are more prepared than critics think, but less prepared than we should be. Will the next war be like something out of The Terminator?
The use of A.I.-powered autonomous battlefield droids is a real thing—they are being used in Ukraine right now. But ground can only be really “taken” and “held” by living flesh and blood soldiers. How that can happen in such a dynamic, death-filled battlefield is going to be the main issue in the next big war.
The biggest rot-inducing problem in America, I believe, is sports gambling. Since 2010, the global market for sports betting has grown from $35 billion to over $112 billion, generating nearly $17 billion in revenue in the U.S. alone in 2025. As all things become, it is not a small-time bookie operation—it’s run by giant corporations. DraftKings, FanDuel, BetMGM, all of them are well-capitalized.
Sports betting is a terrible moral hazard, along with casino gambling. The two go hand-in-hand, as younger and younger people are drawn into the dark world of money and risk, ready to lose their shirts over and over to companies who calculate the house edge, skim, and odds as well as any mafioso ever did (or better, actually).
The sports betting industry fuels so many scandals that it might bring down professional sports, never mind college level professional sports. The NCAA concluded in a report that 36% of Division I men’s basketball players reported sports-betting-related social-media abuse, while 16% of FBS football players reported negative or threatening messages.
While some people are immune to the siren song of excessive gambling, others ruin their lives. Yes, you can say the same thing about alcohol, or legal weed (though I don’t know anyone who ruined their lives by smoking or vaping legal weed, only those who dealt in illegal weed).
I am going to cover this topic in much more detail. I’d be interested in your take on it. Leave it in the comments.
Thanks to everyone for reading. I appreciate all of you, and hope you spread your interest in The Racket News™️ to your friends.