Joel Pollak
Politics • Lifestyle • News • Travel • Writing
I will share my thoughts about American politics, as well as current events in Israel and elsewhere, based on my experiences in the U.S., South Africa, and the Middle East. I will also discuss books and popular culture from the perspective of a somewhat libertarian, religiously observant conservative living in California. I will also share art and ideas that I find useful and helpful, and link to my content at Breitbart News, Amazon, and elsewhere.
Interested? Want to learn more about the community?
Kamala Harris's radical policies

Vice President Kamala Harris won't release her official campaign policies. So we have to judge her on the basis of her past policies.

It is true that she adopted the most left-wing, radical ideas of any presidential candidate -- more radical than socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT). It is also true that, as a local and state prosecutor, she occasionally adopted absurdly hard-line policies on particular issues, like school truancy, that exceeded anything a conservative prosecutor would have done.

The reality is that she has no particular moral core. She does what she thinks will get attention and advance her career. Her instincts are left -- far, far left -- but she is essentially just a power-hungry political climber.

Regardless, here are the craziest policies Harris has embraced, mostly on the far left and some on the far right.

1. Medicare for All. Harris adopted a fully socialist health care policy when she ran for president in 2019, thanking Sanders for pushing the idea. She flip-flopped on the idea of whether her policy would require ending the private health insurance industry, which cost her significant credibility with the public. She later claimed that there would be some role for private companies -- although if California's treatment of insurance companies is any indication, in practice what that would mean is setting price caps and regulations that force private insurance companies to close.

2. Green New Deal. Harris was a co-sponsor of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's (D-NY) sweeping legislation, which not only sought to ban fossil fuels but also to socialize the entire U.S. economy, issuing payments for those who were "unwilling" to work. Harris also said she would ban fracking -- a pledge her campaign is now working feverishly to deny as she courts voters in swing-state Pennsylvania -- and that she would ban plastic straws and consider limiting meat. There was no environmental policy too crazy for Harris, whose state suffers high energy costs and power shortages.

3. Open borders. Harris championed "sanctuary" policies in San Francisco and California. The so-called "border czar" -- a title she now claims she never had -- was in favor of letting anyone into the country, shutting down detention centers, abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and giving free healthcare to illegal aliens. As Vice President, Harris was supposed to deal with the so-called "root causes" of migration, which were deemed to originate in Central America. She barely visited the border, and soon migrants were coming to America from all over the world.

4. Targeting truancy. As San Francisco District Attorney, and later as California Attorney General, Harris went after the parents of children who were missing school. She threatened parents, and some were even arrested (which, later, she falsely denied). The policy did little to stop truancy, but it had a massive, and negative, impact on black and Latino parents. This issue came up during Harris's presidential campaign in 2019, but has been memory-holed by Democrats.

5. Keeping non-violent offenders in prison. Then-Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) derailed Harris's campaign in 2019 by pointing out that she had locked up thousands of people for marijuana possession. But Harris's record is far worse. For many years, she resisted a Supreme Court order to release thousands of non-violent convicts from California prisons. One of her arguments was that the state needed the labor they provided. Meanwhile, Harris cut soft plea deals with violent criminals and refused to seek the death penalty for a cop killer. Later, she backed ending cash bail in California.

In sum: Harris is not a leader capable of governing. Her trademark is adopting radical ideas past the point of absurdity.

Interested? Want to learn more about the community?
What else you may like…
Videos
Posts
Time-lapse sunrise at Temescal Falls
00:00:17
This is what is left of my special place in the forest

Burned, then covered in mudslides and rockslides. The river still flows through it. But we have lost so much. I have to believe the spirit still lives on.

00:00:16
The drive home 💔
00:00:46
Weekly Torah reading: Shoftim (Deuteronomy 16:18 - 21:9)

This week's portion broadly covers the basic framework of a judicial system, necessary for the functioning of the society that the Israelites were to establish upon entering the Holy Land of Israel -- including "cities of refuge."

These cities were place where those guilty of involuntary manslaughter could flee to escape the righteous vengeance of their victims' families. They would be allowed to return to their homes upon the death of the High Priest.

It is curious that Biblical law is not particularly focused on incarceration, but does include this form of exile and quasi-imprisonment: you are free to leave the city of refuge, but then the "avenger" is entitled to kill you if he finds you.

In that way, the guilty party becomes his or her own jailer -- in a sense, imposing his or her own program of punishment and correction, taking charge of the repentance that is necessary to correct a deep personal flaw.

...

Breitbart News Sunday: show rundown (August 24, 2025)

This week, we are tackling two major areas of contention between the Trump administration and Democrat governors: fighting crime, and redistricting. The president is sending the National Guard to blue cities -- and blue states are trying to stamp out Republican representation. Is this a civil war situation?

Special guests:

  • Bradley Jaye -- Breitbart News congressional correspondent, on redistricting
  • Tom Manza, California Business and Industrial Alliance, on Gavin Newsom
  • Jon Fleischman, veteran California political expert, on the special election
  • Dan Backer, veteran political lawyer and consultant, on corruption
  • DJ Mark Anthony, on a recent visit to Rome and visiting Pope Leo XIV

Tune in: SiriusXM Patriot 125, 7-10 p.m. ET / 4-7 p.m. PT
Call: 866-957-2874

Weekly Torah reading: Re'eh (Deuteronomy 11:26 - 16:17)

This week's portion is the last of the month of Av -- also known as Menachem (Comforter) Av -- which begins in mourning and ends in celebration and anticipation of the New Year and the process of repentance and renewal.

In a similar vein, the portion features Moses offering the Israelites a choice between a blessing and a curse. They are masters of their own fates: if they obey God's commandments, they receive the blessings -- and vice versa.

The key commandment is to reject idol worship. There is said to be something magnetic about the practice of worshiping idols in the new land, such that it would be constant moral battle, both individually and collectively, in the land.

Nowadays, according to Jewish tradition, humanity has lost the urge for idol worship (and the antidote, which is divine prophecy) -- but there are several near substitutes, such as lust or excessive appetites for worldly pleasures.

We are wired for compulsive behaviors, bad habits, and even addictions. These ...

See More
Available on mobile and TV devices
google store google store app store app store
google store google store app tv store app tv store amazon store amazon store roku store roku store
Powered by Locals