Google Man Peddles Snake Oil

This week, Californians are opening their mailboxes and text messages to find petitions they are urged to sign if they oppose waste and fraud in government spending. “Government has wasted billions of our tax dollars on homelessness and many other failed programs with little to show for it,” the mailings proclaim. “We can’t afford more wasteful spending!”

Recipients’ signatures will go to qualify a measure that will appear on California’s November ballots that, according to the details explained in the small print...