Tapestry of thought

We should all be glad to be in America at this unique time of peace and prosperity with a positive future ahead.

Obamacare’s broken promises on keeping plans/doctors and lowering premiums, combined with Democrats' temporary pandemic-era enhanced ACA subsidies expiring December 31, 2025—affecting mainly 2.6 million higher-income enrollees—have created a predictable fiscal cliff and partisan standoff, underscoring the need for bipartisan, durable health care reform.

The EU’s sanctioning of Swiss former colonel Jacques Baud for alleged pro-Russian propaganda, conspiracy theories, and information manipulation undermining Ukraine’s sovereignty raises concerns about free speech suppression, parallels to Soviet-era dissent criminalization and contrasts with robust First Amendment protections in the USA.

Andrew Klein’s routine reelection as NJUHSD Board President deserves congratulations amid manufactured controversy, while the Grass Valley racial violence attack must be condemned without evidence-free links to school governance, calling for consistent accountability, fairness, and rejection of intimidation from all sides.

The pattern emerging in Nevada County tells a different story.

California must require a two-thirds supermajority of all registered voters for any constitutional amendment to ensure broad consensus, protect fundamental rights like reproductive freedom and marriage equality, and prevent changes by slim majorities or low turnout.

Zohran Mamdani’s socialist win in New York City reveals a fatal cultural rift: our Constitution requires virtuous self-restraint, but America now embraces entitlement, permissiveness, and state control. This mismatch breeds instability and invites tyranny. To save the republic, we must reject takers’ culture and revive personal responsibility, fiscal discipline, and civic virtue—now.

Nevada County cares deeply—neighbors fix fences and roofs together. But the RV Dwelling Ordinance isn't housing; it's survival living. RVs aren't built for year-round use: thin insulation, flammable materials, weak roofs collapse under snow. It demands costly upgrades anyone could use for real homes. This risks health, fire, and displacement for vulnerable residents. Vote NO on ORD25-1. Build permanent, affordable homes instead.

A non-citizen was mistakenly registered to vote via California's Motor Voter law and still receives mail-in ballots years later, highlighting systemic flaws in automatic registration and universal mail voting that erode election integrity.

“No Kings” rallies, fueled by contagious ideas and loneliness, dissolve reason into collective fervor, binding followers in delusion. Eternal values break ideological hypnosis, restoring individual clarity and resisting the crowd’s sway, as warned by Tarde, Le Bon, Freud, Arendt, and Desmet.

Across the country, high-stakes chess games are being played out and the pieces are us. While the media frames every move as a fight for “democracy,” the truth is more troubling. Politicians on both sides are manipulating voters, rewriting rules, and weaponizing redistricting. Gavin Newsom’s Proposition 50 isn’t a defense against that game; it’s another move in it.

“The impact on rural counties like ours would be anything but minor.”

“…sacrificing fairness and representation here at home to fight someone else’s political battles is not leadership, it’s abandoning rural representation. California shouldn’t punish its own voters just to make a point in a national partisan tug-of-war.”

“By putting the process on display while steering toward a foregone conclusion, the insiders gave the appearance of openness while concealing the most important fact: one of the two finalists was legally ineligible.”

“This progressive activist who spoke out against the vigil after the assassination is not make believe. She actually lives among us.”

“Violence is not an extension of political debate; it is its destruction. It is what happens when words are abandoned, when dialogue breaks down, when persuasion is replaced with force.”

Vladimir Putin said, “If you are not nostalgic for the Soviet Union, you don't have a heart. If you want the Soviet Union to come back, you don't have a brain.”

We and our children have been continually exposed to progressive political violence and assassination attempts for the past decade.

“Elliott’s tenure has been marked by legal strategies that often looked less like neutral lawyering and more like political manipulation.”

On July 22, 2025, the Nevada County Board of Supervisors quietly pulled Agenda Item SR 25-1940 from its meeting agenda without explanation.

Highlighting the growing disparity and corruption within the Soviet system, Yeltsin criticized the ruling officials for prioritizing their own privileges and luxuries over the well-being of everyday citizens.

We have been here for a week, and our initial impressions are that Moscow is very clean, hospitable, and moderately unaffected by Western sanctions.

Somehow, our top city executive now earns more than $280,000 a year in total compensation — a sum typically reserved for managers of cities 10 to 20 times our size. How did we get here?

“Critics have accused county officials of misleading the public. County Counsel Kit Elliott claimed the resolution would not lead to property loss… However, Treasurer-Tax Collector Michelle Bodley corrected the record, confirming that unpaid special assessments on the tax roll could lead to a tax auction by 2031 if the resolution passes.”

“The BBB establishes a $50 billion Rural Hospital Fund – up from $25 billion – specifically designed to support health providers in rural areas and provide a safety net against any loss of Medicaid funds.”

Culture matters.

Sal Albert asks the Board of Supervisors not to let Agenda Item 27 take away the public’s right to choose their Auditor-Controller.

“The County’s pension funding has plummeted from 76% in 2019 to just 62.8% today, with unfunded liabilities soaring to more than $223 million. This catastrophic failure is the direct result of repeated inaction and neglect.”

Yeltsin’s actions post-coup raise questions about Clinton’s assumptions.

Supervisor Robb Tucker cast the only dissenting vote on a $415.5 million county budget—a budget that exceeds projected revenues by approximately $24 million.