IYCMI - 6 Great Columns From This Week - A Great Video - and the anniversary of America's First National Park!
We featured a lot of great, original content this past week. Below are six highlights of columns, one video from the week, including my appearance on Salem TV's Chris Stigell show!
This Sunday ICYMI edition is always free for all subscribers and visitors to this Substack page! Thanks for being a part of this look at CA politics!
Jon On The Chris Stigall show!
On Friday morning, at like 5 am California time, I did a segment on the Chris Stigall show on Salem Television. He’s on the East Coast, so it was a more respectable time. Anyways, the interview runs about 8 minutes, and if you launch the video below, it starts right at my segment. We talk, of course, California politics… Enjoy!
BELOW ARE SIX STORIES FROM THIS WEEK THAT YOU MAY HAVE MISSED!
Gavin Newsom’s “I’m Like You, I’m A 960 SAT Guy” Remark Before Atlanta’s Black Mayor Was More Than A Gaffe
For our paid subscribers, under the paywall, is a short video commentary on this subject, as well as the runner-up cartoon image for this post. Oh yes, don’t forget you can listen to this content on our podcasting stream, So, Does It Matter? SPOKEN.
California Democrats Preach ‘Affordability’ At Convention — After Raising Costs
Our morning content on this site is always available for all subscribers and guests. For our paid subscribers I go on a full-out rant about the California Democratic Convention in a special video below the paywall. You can listen to this post (and any of our written content) on at So, Does It Matter? Spoken -
Artificial Intelligence Is Already Embedded In Teenage Life And The New Pew Data Shows It - These Kids Deserve Protection
Our afternoon content is either exclusively for paid subscribers or has extra content just for those of you who have upgraded. Today, there is some interesting extra data below the paywall for our paid subscribers. You can listen to this content on your favorite podcasting app. Search for So, Does It Matter? Spoken.
California’s Billionaire Wealth-Taking Plan: Crossing The Line Between Taxation And Confiscation
Our morning content is for all of our subscribers and site visitors. If you like this kind of content, please consider a paid subscription! You can listen to this content on your favorite podcasting app - just search for So Does It Matter: Spoken. Or go
Top Ten Winners & Losers In California Politics For The Week Ending 2/27 - Who is the Biggest Loser?
Below is our Top Ten List of Winners and Losers for the Week. This feature is available to all of our subscribers, free and paid. Under the paywall, however, is our “Worst Week In California” special feature. It's me, in rare form, on video, going on why someone’s week sucked. Pithy? You bet!
FOMO? There a half-dozen other items that aren’t highlighted above. But you can read them here.
One Video…
This week I went “live” for the second time — hit a bunch of current issues in California politics — we went about 45 minutes. But if you haven’t watched it, check it out!
On This Date In 1872…
The Birth of Yellowstone National Park
On March 1, 1872, President Ulysses Grant signed the Yellowstone National Park Protection Act into law, creating Yellowstone National Park — the first national park in the United States and widely regarded as the first national park in the world.
At the time, the country was in the middle of rapid westward expansion. Railroads were pushing across the continent, mining operations were booming, and vast tracts of land were being settled and developed. Against that backdrop, Congress made a remarkable decision: instead of opening Yellowstone’s extraordinary landscape to private exploitation, it set the land aside “for the benefit and enjoyment of the people.”
Yellowstone spans more than 2.2 million acres across present-day Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho. Its geothermal features — including the iconic Old Faithful geyser — along with dramatic canyons, waterfalls, forests, and roaming herds of bison and elk, had stunned early explorers and survey teams. Their reports and photographs persuaded lawmakers that this was a place unlike any other on earth.
The park’s creation laid the groundwork for America’s broader conservation movement and ultimately for the establishment of the National Park Service in 1916. More than 150 years later, Yellowstone remains a living symbol of a bold and uniquely American idea: that some natural treasures are so extraordinary they should be preserved not for short-term profit, but for future generations.
Here is an amazing 4k video of Yellowstone — it’s four minutes — and it is all a reminder of God’s good grace.
Enjoy your Sunday!
Jon