Matters of Policy & Politics

Monthly update on the implications of California’s First Couple under federal investigation for tax and financial improprieties; the possibility of a deal in the coming days to keep a billionaire wealth tax off the November ballot, and more.

A monthly update on the state of the Golden State finds California no longer looking at a budget deficit, courtesy of an unexpected capital-gains tax windfall. Meanwhile, as California’s June 2 primary approaches, is reality-TV “villain” Spencer Pratt gaining ground in Los Angeles’ mayoral race thanks to his message (failed local leadership) or a new medium (attention-grabbing AI-generated ads)?

Before invasions of Ukraine and Crimea and various “resets” of America’s diplomatic approach toward the Kremlin, there was the “Boris and Bill Show” – two chummy and newly-installed presidents meeting multiple times at the tail-end of the 20th Century with the shared goal of bringing Russia into a post-Cold War world order as a peaceful, prosperous (and non-proliferating) society. Rose Gottemoeller, a Hoover Institution research fellow and former Clinton and Obama administration national security aide, sets the record straight on the Clinton-Yeltsin summits, what she learned as the first American woman to lead nuclear arms talks, why Vladimir Putin went from offering help in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks to seeing America as a threat Russia’s security, and the challenges of serving as NATO’s deputy secretary general during the first Trump presidency. It’s all chronicled in her new book, Security Through Cooperation: Space, Nuclear Weapons, and US-Russia Relations after the Cold War, a must-read for history buffs and students of the enigma that is Putin and the Russian mindset.

The podcast’s monthly update on the state of the Golden State finds California struggling with soaring fuel prices (the result of hostilities in the Middle East plus decades of dubious energy policy) and a gubernatorial primary very much up for grabs after one of the frontrunner’s scandal-ridden departure. Meanwhile, a new study shows California’s population centers have yet to fully recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, while the dream of a flourishing legalized cannabis market goes up in smoke.

David Brady traces how America’s era of political stability unraveled into today’s age of razor-thin majorities and partisan conflict.

What do America and Israel share other than shared values and a strategic alliance against the forces of tyranny? Try: declarations of independence and a celebration of individual rights that have stood the test of time.

It was 25 years ago this month that the U.S. Supreme Court settled the final outcome of both Florida’s presidential vote count and America’s choice for its 43rd president.

After a lopsided victory earlier this month, can California’s redistricting Proposition 50 survive a legal challenge? And why do last January’s devastating fires in Los Angeles continue to raise unsettling questions?