Inland Empire Progressive

There’s a familiar script unfolding in California politics from conservatives: lose election, cry fraud, and hope the outrage sticks longer than the facts. This time, it’s a sheriff-turned-gubernatorial candidate, Chad Bianco breathlessly alleging “discrepancies” in ballot counts—claims that are, at best, laughable and, at worst, a glaring conflict of interest from someone seeking to benefit politically from undermining the very system they hope to inherit. These allegations are not rooted in evidence. They’re rooted in strategy. County Registrars of Voters are not shadowy backrooms where ballots mysteriously appear or vanish. They are among the most safeguarded, audited, and transparent institutions in the country. Bipartisan observers monitor counts. Ballots are tracked, verified, and reverified. Machines are tested and retested. Paper trails exist precisely to counter the kind of baseless accusations now being hurled into the public sphere. If there were widespread discrepancies, th...

In recent cultural flashpoints, such as the controversy surrounding Sydney Sweeney and the American Eagle ad campaign what might look like a mere marketing misstep is in fact symptomatic of a deeper and more insidious phenomenon: the way segments of the conservative movement marshal culture as a permission structure for white supremacist values, undermining the multicultural coalition that democracy depends on.  At its core, conservative cultural posture often presents itself as a defense of "tradition,” “heritage,” or “common values.” But beneath this veneer is a politics of exclusion: a framing that normalizes white identity as default, implicitly elevates racial hierarchies, and uses cultural tropes to provide cover for authoritarian impulses. Sociological research shows that white-male status anxiety is increasingly driving right-wing movements that treat democracy not as a shared civic project, but as a game to be rigged in favor of one group.  Such conservatism doesn’t j...

Conservatives are making this nation weaker. And if you needed proof, look no further than the recent spectacle over Qatar building an air-force facility at a U.S. base in  Idaho . If the conservative idea of patriotism includes rolling out the red carpet for foreign militaries on our sovereign soil, you might want to reassess your “America First” bumper sticker. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has signed off on allowing the Qatari Emiri Air Force to build a facility at the Mountain Home Air Force Base in Idaho, so their pilots can train alongside U.S. soldiers.  Hegseth assured everyone that Qatar will not have their own base in the United States and that the US will control the existing base. let’s surrender the optics of sovereignty while claiming we’re still in charge. It’s like letting somebody crash on your couch, telling them they can’t redecorate, and then being surprised when your home loses all character. What’s the rationale?  Combined training? Increased lethal...

Economic conservatives Howard Lutnick and Scott Bessent are gleefully hitching American's wagon to the express train of ruin.  Look no further than the latest tariff debacle around China’s rare earth. They’re playing how to wreck the economy in one easy step with the American people serving cow catcher. China a shrewd global player, has tightened export controls on  rare earth  elements and related technologies minerals absolutely essential to everything from electric vehicle motors to semiconductors and defense systems. Conservatives, upon learning this, reacted not with calm reflection or a strategic long game, but with: “Let’s insta-tariff 100% on Chinese imports!” The stock market responded like you’d expect: plunging.  Then the Trump administration spokespeople tried damage control by reversing the tariffs. This just makes us look stupid and weak. But the damage is done. Tariffs are destabilizing markets, inflating costs, and signaling to global investors that t...

The conservative backlash to the Black Lives Matter movement wasn’t born out of some deep philosophical difference. It was born out of pure, unfiltered panic. Panic that the country might actually have to reckon with the idea that systemic racism exists. Panic that the police might not be perfect. Panic that someone, somewhere, might kneel during the national anthem and make them think about someone else’s pain. When that panic wasn’t enough conservatives embraced the alt-right, that lovable band of “free thinkers” whose idea of intellectual rebellion is posting racist memes and complaining that women won’t date them. Conservatives didn’t just tolerate the alt-right they gave them a platform, a microphone, and a seat at the table. Nothing rallies a conservative crowd faster than fear: fear of immigrants, fear of Black people marching for justice, fear of the country changing into something that doesn’t look like a 1950s sitcom. Conservatives didn’t stumble into this mess they cultivate...

Inlanders, pay attention because you’re about to see how conservatives are laying the groundwork to destroy democracy itself with all the swagger of a badly written Pam Bondi villain. If you think conservatives will wait until Election Day to tip the scales, I have some desert land in 29 Palms to sell you. There are news reports that  Dominion Voting Systems  the tech company that became a household name over relentless conspiracies and defamation lawsuits by Fox News has been acquired by Liberty Vote, a firm founded by a former Republican elections director. Let that sink in and soak, the very tech infrastructure of our elections (ballot counting, software, validation) is now being folded into a company helmed by someone who has conservative pedigree. This is a trojan horse in disguise. I don't trust conservatives to play fair when it comes to elections, and this is case in point. Voting systems are no joke. They are the final arbiter between your vote and the official tally....

The Super Bowl halftime show is an American tradition where millions gather to witness the pinnacle of musical artistry and cultural diversity. But leave it to conservatives to ruin the party.  Turning Point USA , the self-proclaimed guardians of American values, have decided that the halftime show is the perfect battleground for their latest culture war. According to their brilliant plan, the halftime show should feature only "All-American" music because nothing says freedom like a state-sponsored playlist from Dear Leader Trump. Forget about the rich tapestry of musical genres that reflect the diverse fabric of American society; apparently, the only acceptable tunes are those that fit neatly into a narrow, nostalgic box of what they deem "patriotic." Turning Point USA is also calling for a ban on any halftime performances that don't align with their vision of American values. That means no hip-hop, no Banda, no Reggaeton, and especially no pop stars pushing bo...

What we’re witnessing now is a full-blown conservative assault on the institutions meant to restrain raw power. The conservative strategy is simple: prosecution of political enemies, stack the courts with activist judges, intimidate rivals, and then begin the imperial rule. The recent case of  James Comey  offers a grim blueprint. Lindsey Halligan, a Trump loyalist who has no trail court experience was handpicked for the U.S. Attorney’s post to push the indictment forward despite justice department alarm bells.  That is how you subvert the rule of law. In a functioning legal system, you don’t indict someone unless the evidence can survive the harshest judicial tests. In this case, the evidence looks so flimsy even prosecutors privately felt the case would unravel. Yet Trump overrides them. That’s not justice; it's a sham trial. You don’t have to fight over whether Halligan is competent or not the real point is that she was chosen for loyalty, not objectivity. This is the ...

Welcome to the greatest show on earth! The conservative circus of granting soapboxes to  fascists  and conspiracy theorists. Behold their theatrical pretense to erect scaffolding for jailing the opposition when the public says, “No, thanks, we don’t like that agenda.” In the “antifa roundtable” hosted by the White House, all the witnesses were self-described conservative influencers or partisan social-media stars, not independent fact-based journalists. This was just a pre-staged photo-op with talking heads. These figures speak with the confident cadence of victims, wounded by leftwing mobs a narrative cooked to sound plausible, packaged for cable news. But often what they offer is instigated confrontations, infiltrated protests, selectively edit video, provoked responses, and then present themselves as sheep among wolves.  This manufactured testimony by performing outrage, filming it, and then monetizing the resulting evidence. That’s not journalism, it’s performance art...

When conservatives thunder about election integrity, they want you to picture stuffed ballot boxes, dead voters rising from the grave, and shadowy Democratic operatives plotting to rig the system. But what they don’t want you to picture is their own weaponization of campaign technology data mining , microtargeting , and voter surveillance that quietly undermines the very democratic freedoms they pretend to safeguard. Our election infrastructure doesn’t just hinge on ballots, it hinges on how campaigns harvest, store, and deploy voter information. And here, conservatives are not defenders of liberty they’re some of the worst offenders. Conservatives claim to champion privacy and individual liberty, yet their campaign operations routinely buy and weaponize massive voter files, sometimes enhanced with commercial consumer data, to micro-target voters in ways that blur the line between persuasion and manipulation. From the disastrous ORCA system in 2012 to the more sinister Cambridge Ana...

Whenever a young Black man is accused of harming a white woman, conservatives do more than report. They are attempting to resurrect, I would say purposefully, centuries racial bigotry. From antebellum slave patrols to Jim Crow lynchings, from the Scottsboro Boys to Emmett Till, the trope of the dangerous Black male and the innocent white female has been among the most potent myths in America. It is as old as the society that built race into law, fear into culture. And in 2025, it seems that nothing has changed. The  Charlotte  light rail stabbing suspect’s criminal history is ostensibly a factual account of DeCarlos Brown Jr.’s alleged killing of a Ukrainian refugee. But beneath the surface lies the continuation of a narrative that does more than inform it terrorizes, ostracizes, frames, and judges before verdicts. It treats Brown not merely as a defendant, but as a symbol. Immediately, the man is not the accused but framed by his criminal past. Even before trial. Conservative...

  There was a time when conservatives like Rep. Jay Obernolte wrapped themselves in the flag, preached about “peace through strength,” and warned that weakness abroad invited danger at home. That era is over. Today’s conservatives aren’t defending America’s global leadership—they’re destroying it. By coddling Russia, equivocating on Israel, sneering at NATO, and abandoning the very idea of soft power, the right is appeasing our enemies and leaving the United States exposed. Take Donald Trump’s latest  excuse-making . After Russian drones violated Polish airspace—an unmistakable challenge to NATO. Trump does what he always does...chicken out, suggesting it “may have been a mistake.”  A mistake? This isn’t a toddler spilling milk—it’s a nuclear-armed authoritarian power testing NATO’s resolve. To wave it away is not just naïve—it’s appeasement. It tells Vladimir Putin he can push further without consequence, that America no longer has the will to defend its allies. Instead ...

                                                                 Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash Every democracy relies on trust in the courts. Without it, laws mean little more than the whims of whoever happens to be in power. But in America today, that trust is being shredded by conservative activist judges who have decided that restraint is optional, precedent is disposable, and conservative ideology is the law of the land. Politico  recently reported that a powerful immigration appeals court just declared anyone in deportation proceedings who entered the U.S. without authorization is automatically barred from even asking for bond. Translation: immigrants can now be locked up indefinitely with no chance to argue for release, even if they have jobs, families, or strong legal claims t...

Gun Issue Looms Large in a CA Election Greed, Disrespect, and natural political alignment with Conversatives on issue after issue is the hallmark of career politician Joe Baca. Above the infamous Baca vs Brown campaign, where an upstart and aging assemblyman Joe Baca challenged a regal and stately Marta Brown. Baca was the definite conservative in the race, especially on the Guns issue. The NRA spent heavily on him to win. Previously, on any gun issue Assm. Baca would back the NRA to the butt stock, so to speak. Now, former Congressman Joe Baca is painting himself as the Regan Democrat, willing to buck the establishment and cut the deficit, starve government, etc., etc., etc. Sorry Baca but this Back to the Future routine won't work. Joe Baca Reagan Mailer

While Rep. Gary Miller and Sen. Bob Dutton haven’t talked about it much, there have been events over the course of the last four years that have affected the gay community. From the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, to President Obama’s evolution on the issue, and the non-enforcement of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), the gay community has achieved more policy progress than either Immigration or Climate change. On the federal level and on the state level these two conservative candidates haven’t evolved in any way on the gay rights issue in a fundamental way. They still possess an early 20th Century mentality on the issue, even though their party has a caucus of gay conservatives (the Log Cabin Republicans). Most conservative gay candidates have to be closeted in order to run for any local office. Just look what happened to Bill Postmus here in the Inland Empire to find out what happens to gay conservatives in the Republican Party. No wonder so many of them vote Libertarian! As...

Please remember that you are in a Democratic District and watch your mouth. Rep. Gary Miller must think Progressives aren’t paying attention. Rep. Gary Miller must think Progressives are stupid. Rep. Gary Miller must Progressives are useful idiots or some shit. Just check out his statement on the Affordable Care Act aka Obamacare. You say that “that health care decisions are best left in the hands of patients and their families”. Please stop repeating this lie. This legislation say nothing about health care decisions between doctors and their families. This is about reducing costs and the means to reducing those costs include expanding coverage for the healthy so people with pre-existing conditions and the sick can get adequate care. You come to the Inland Empire thinking that you can just flash so fucking cash and then we are bought by you? Get the fuck outta here. In addition, you don’t mention how this law will help poor and minority families who usually are the ones who b...

Rep. Gary Miller fears the National Rifle Association more than he does the minorities in the 31st Congressional District. The black and brown community is adamantly against holding Eric Holder in contempt of Congress. They are also against gun violence, which has surged since Rep. Gary Miller has started running for Congress in the Inland Empire.  I think some gun running is going on right here in my city of San Bernardino. What with 26 deaths so far? Why don’t we hold you in contempt? But I think the American public hold Congress in contempt these days with polling down in the dumps. What ever happened to jobs, jobs, jobs? Wasn’t that the Conservative mantra of 2010? How about Fast and Furiously reducing unemployment? This witch hunt amounts to nothing more than election year politics.

The lack of a commitment to Progressive Values is one of the major reason I do not support Pete Aguilar to be my representative for the 31st Congressional District. Time and time again he has had opportunity to represent these values on the Redlands city council and he has failed. The SEIU endorses Mayor Pete Aguilar, but do they know his record for opposing a living wage?  He has shown acute disdain for environmental policies. He elicited Republican support for Measure I and scoffed at the Sierra Club. In addition, he chose short term economic growth over the inevitable extinction of the Sucker Fish. How can we trust Mr. Aguilar on issues such as the the Keystone XL Pipeline, if he can’t defend the environment locally. He also shows disdain for local Democrats, while he chases dollars from Republicans. Where was he during the 2008 and 2010 election season? What support and help has he given local Democrats in his quest for power?  Only after constant perseverance from Oc...

  Pete Aguilar announced that he hired the Troup Consulting to help him with his election efforts. So as always I decided to do a little digging. The President of this consulting firm, Troup Coronado, worked for Senator Orrin Hatch. Sen. Hatch is one of the staunchest Conservatives in the Senate and opposes all the policies of Progressives and President Barack Obama. Mr. Coronado also was Sen. Hatch’s law clerk for awhile. The surprising thing about Mr. Coronado is that he was on the Board of Directors of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute. This was the same institute that Rep. Joe Baca served as chairman. This institute promoted policies that loosened the restrictions (credit check and documentation) on housing for minorities.  Mr. Coronado also seems to be a log cabin Republican, but that is peripheral to this matter. This seems to be a case of keeping your friend’s close but your policy allies closer.

Another article in a series revealing the true nature of Redlands Mayor Pete Aguilar. Why did Pete Aguilar choose to run as a Democrat? Pete Aguilar has many questionable, unscrupulous, and disreputable relationships with corrupt Republicans that other Progressive Democrats and I find very unsettling. These are just a few of Pete’s Conservative Pals that I have recovered: Jerry Lewis Republican politics in the Inland Empire begins and ends with one man, Jerry Lewis. Mr. Lewis’s corruption is well known, but since he hails from a safe district that brings in the pork (earmarks), he was never seriously challenged. Pete Aguilar knew Jerry Lewis through Larry Sharp the former CEO of Arrowhead Credit Union. During the Lobbyist Copeland Lowery scandal, Redlands Councilman Mr. Aguilar defended the lobbyist by giving the rational that public officials have no relationships with other public officials.  How can they not? They sit on many boards and commissions together.  Mr. Lo...