Dr. T -$40 for her 40^th birthday

Rose Tubor -$27 because her birthday was the 27^th

Audrey Brown-$25 for taking an Alaskan cruise last month

Dapper Spar - $100 for  Kelly seeing "Spar" on every luggage cart when she first got off the airplane in Africa, and for seeing "Super Spar."

Stephanie Spar - $50 for the Super Spar bedroom comment

 

 

 

Mary Olsen introduced today's speaker,  Dr. Herbert Gooch.  Dr. Gooch was Mary's professor when she was in graduate school. She said that he was an amazing professor that challenged you the whole time you were in his class.
 
Dr. Gooch is a recently retired professor of Political Science from California Lutheran University. A graduate of U.C. Berkeley in history, he holds an M.B.A. in Management and both masters and doctoral degrees in Political Science from U.C.L.A.
 
Dr. Gooch spoke to the group about the political climate, and whether will there be a "Blue Wave" or "Ripple" with the upcoming elections. He started by reminding us that there are really 51 constitutions and 3 levels of politics. The Founding Fathers organized this country to disperse power so that no tyrant can move in. The government powers are set up on so many levels so that no one person can control this country. He reminded us of Lord Anton’s quote..” Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” He spoke of how this country is devised to give the Senators equal power no matter the size of the state.

 

He went into further detail  about the midterm stakes and why this election is important. He believes that the Democrats will win one of the houses back. In the Senate,  the Democrats need to win a net gain of 2 to take the majority. In the lower house, the Democrats need a net gain of 23 to take the majority. He stated that California will probably pick up several seats in the lower house- possibly  6-7 .

 

Dr. Gooch stated that the Blue Wave is controlled by enthusiasm, finances, women, the young and emphasized that Trump’s name is not on the ballot. He reminded us of the previous saying “ It’s the economy stupid” during the Clinton campaign. He said that our economy is better than it has been in years.  Another driver of the Blue wave is women. As of now over 100 women have seats in Congress. 

 

Dr. Gooch described what makes California so odd when it comes to politics. We are 12% of the country's population,  and the majority is now the minority in California. Our economy is $2.6 trillion. Our California Constitution was changed by Hiram Johnson.  Unfortunately, Dr Gooch ran out of time with this fascinating talk.  Several people could be heard discussing the topic after the meeting ended, as well as saying how much they enjoyed his lecture.
  
Bob Marshall presented Dr. Gooch with a pen and a Rotary pin and the meeting was adjourned.