☆ Are CA and SV doomed by capital flight and homelessness? Kalm, Stroll demand pragmatic, not ideological governance.

Former CA Assembly candidate Ted Stroll hopes state governance turns from destructive ideologies to practical solutions. Meanwhile, Denise Kalm of Right on the Left Coast argues the Bay Area’s homeless should get housing conditionally, not housing first. An Opportunity Now exclusive look ahead to 2026.

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☆ Cupertino Vice Mayor: did Santa Clara County justify a tax hike with misleading healthcare math?

SCC Supes warned the H.R. 1 spending slowdown would cost $1B yearly, but Cupertino Vice Mayor Liangfang Chao says that’s exaggerated by multiples. She argues the real shortfall comes from overspending in the county hospitals that predates H.R. 1 by years. It can’t be patched up by the new Measure A sales tax. Yet now, after the ballot measure’s victory, will the county keep taxing its way out of mismanagement?

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☆ Too much booze

This week's prized Cognitive Dissonance award goes to D6 CM Michael Mulcahy. He praised—even after five adults were sent to hospital after a wild shooting spree in SJ's boozy San Pedro Square post Super Bowl— “the power of the experience economy. An Opp Now exclusive.

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SJ Council finds even more novel ways to jack local taxes

Measure A hasn't even been implemented yet. But that hasn't dissuaded SJ City Council from aiming to squeeze hapless businesses and residents with altogether new ways of funding the City's bloated budgets. 

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christopher escher
Mostly peaceful shootings

Super Bowl gameday proved to be a Sunday Bloody Sunday in downtown SJ, with multiple shootings resulting in yet another fatality and multiple serious injuries. Various local media outlets report.

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christopher escher
Is SJ's homelessness strategy about to change?

Financial pressures limit the expansion of the city's interim housing strategy; D9 candidate Hennessy elevates high-capacity shelter strategy.

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christopher escher
☆ “We are a free market country:” Tony Guan on how racial preferences stifle prosperity.

A couple decades after Prop 209 protected non-discrimination rights for all Californians, Prop 16 tried to re-impose racial quotas. Local grassroots organizer Tony Guan worked tirelessly to defeat Prop 16 by showing how affirmative action actually hurts the Asian community and erodes the rights of all Californians. An Opportunity Now exclusive Q&A.

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☆ CA governor debate displays Dems lost in a bell jar of their own making

Cristabel Cruz can't help but play therapist and try to help Dem candidates escape their denial, cognitive rigidity, and constrained worldview when it comes to CA's chronic problems. An OppNow exclusive.

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Poem: Free minds journey through--and are not constrained by--socially constructed realities

In 1879, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow explored, in The Tide Rises, The Tide Falls, how a wanderer's mindset can travel through and beyond stasis and repetition: "nevermore/The traveler returns to the shore."

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christopher escher
The art of political reinvention

Political parties and politicians change positions regularly--and sometimes dramatically. Sage Journals explains how successful volte-faces employ clever techniques of reframing.

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christopher escher
We are not our worldview

A worldview isn't just a casual set of beliefs, says Nora Williams on Medium. It's a deep-rooted mental framework that creates cognitive patterns of behavior--or in the case of politicians--policy choices. So what to do when that worldview no longer aligns with reality? Step one: realize that our worldview has been taught—not chosen. Then we can begin the difficult work of reshaping it.

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christopher escher
☆ Hinkle: SV school bonds promise “technology.” Do they really prepare students for tech jobs?

This year’s June ballot will once again ask voters to take out a loan, says Mark Hinkle, President of the Silicon Valley Taxpayers Association & Vice Chair of the Santa Clara Libertarian Party. He says bonds can cost twice the borrowed amount over 30 years, for technology that becomes obsolete in just five years. An Opportunity Now exclusive warning for 2026.

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