Americans recently celebrated the Fourth of July, and millions of us commemorated our great nation's unique founding as a bastion of liberty, political defiance, and the rights of the individual.  The diverse states, counties, and municipalities of our federal republic did this in a number of different ways, from public readings of the Declaration of Independence and small-town parades to outdoor concerts and spectacular fireworks displays. As one might expect, we did things a bit differently here in California.  We "celebrated" freedom by ushering in a handful of restrictive new laws and tax increases that took effect on July 1.  And then, on July 9, just to underscore the insanity in the Golden State, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a measure granting government-subsidized medical benefits to illegal aliens. California's Senate Bill 1, which was signed into law on April 28, 2017, imposed huge hikes in the motor-vehicle registration fee...(Read Full Post)