California's Budget "Priorities"

California's Budget "Priorities"

California Legislature and Gavin Newsom agree to a budget for the next year and you’ll never guess who benefits most from it (spoiler it’s not everyday Californians). California is also likely headed towards a recession because of the loss of private sector jobs. Rob Bonta wants to ban your fantasy football league, and Newsom sues Fox News for $787 million for alleged defamation. Are you a Californian who feels isolated and alone in your political views in a deep blue state? Feel like you can’t talk about insane taxes, an overbearing government, and radical social experiments without getting a side eye? Then join us on the California Underground Podcast, the most trusted podcast on all things California politics.Original air date 7.1.25*The California Underground Podcast is dedicated to discussing California politics from a place of sanity and rationality.*Check out our full site for more information about the show at www.californiaunderground.liveJoin our Discord server https://discord.gg/Tzp8d5xw Check out our sponsor for this episode, StopBox, by going to www.stopbox.com/californiaunderground to get 10% off your orderFollow California Underground on Social Media Instagram: www.instagram.com/californiaunderground X: https://twitter.com/CAUndergoundTik Tok: https://www.tiktok.com/@californiaunderground?_t=8o6HWHcJ1CM&_r=1YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCj8SabIcF4AKqEVFsLmo1jA Read about our Privacy Policy: https://www.spotify.com/us/legal/privacy-policy/


00:00:00
California plans to spend its way out of budget problems.

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Your online fantasy football that you love every weekend is

00:00:08
about to be illegal here in the state of California.

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And Newsom gets hurt in his Fifi, so he decides to sue Fox

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News. All that coming up on this

00:00:17
episode of the California Underground podcast, starting

00:00:20
right now. What's going on everybody?

00:00:39
Thanks for tuning into another episode of the California

00:00:41
Underground podcast, the most trusted podcast for all things

00:00:45
California politics. I am your host, Phil.

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We have a ton of stuff to get to tonight. 4 stories involving one

00:00:52
the budget they have passed or come to an agreement on a

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budget. Newsom in the legislature and

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I'm going to give you a little hint that it doesn't benefit

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everyday Californians. I know you're very shocked by

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that. We're going to talk about how

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California, the 4th largest economy in the world, supposedly

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is headed towards a huge recession or a possible

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recession. We're going to talk about that

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and why that is happening. Rob Bonta wants to ban you and

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that your friends and family playing online fantasy football

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because, well, we follow the money and figure out why would

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you want to ban fantasy football.

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And then we finish off with Newsom wants to sue or has sued

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Fox News for $787 million because of defamation.

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So he's hurting the fee fees. And we're going to talk about

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that. But first, if you haven't

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already, make sure you like share, subscribe, comment if you

00:01:46
are not a subscriber of the show, whether on audio or on

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YouTube. Thank you to everybody who is

00:01:53
tuning in live all over. We're so happy to see all of you

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tonight on Tuesday before 4th of July.

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So let's get into our first topic for tonight, which is

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spending like a drunken sailor. California, we have a budget

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deal in place between the Legislature and Gavin Newsom.

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They have gone back and forth about what they're going to

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spend their money on. It has gone up basically about

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10% from last year, even though we're somehow facing a $12

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billion budget deficit. I guess they plan on spending

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their way out of all of this problems, but we're going to get

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into who really benefits from this budget.

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And I'm going to a little spoiler alert, it's not everyday

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Californian. So let's hop into it right now.

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That's right, You know, Alex, lawmakers in the Senate and the

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Assembly were hashing out the finer points of all of these

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bills today as they voted on them, what they liked, what they

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opposed. One thing then both chambers

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that members on both sides of the aisle brought up was funding

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for Prop 36 passed by more than 2/3 of voters in November.

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Prop 36 allows harsher sentencing and mandated

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treatment for certain theft and drug crimes.

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Democrats put $100 million into the budget to fund it, which

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Republicans argue is not enough. The voters voted to have Prop

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36, but what good is it if you're not going to fund it?

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And not only are you not really funding it, we even reduced what

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the funding was to begin with. I had an amendment to fully fund

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this with $400 million, but obviously that.

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Hasn't heard and didn't go forward.

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The administration this year said they expected the cases

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only to be about 3600 cases. So what have we allocated?

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We have taken hard earned money and we've allocated $100

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million. And I assure you that as those

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cases increase, which I suspect that we will, we'll have to make

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additional adjustments also in the budget, maintaining that

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controversial expanded medical coverage to include low income

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undocumented adults, albeit now with some new restrictions like

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a $30 monthly premium and freezing new enrollment for full

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scope coverage after this year. And of course, that means we're

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going to dip into our rainy day fund more and borrow some

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additional dollars. I spoke with Chris McHale.

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He's an adjunct professor at Mcgeorge School of Law and

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expert on the operations of the state legislature.

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He says there are a handful of final budget related bills that

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still need to be passed on Monday, so the legislature will

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convene again then. One of them involves sequa

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reform, the California Environmental Quality Act

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Proponents say it's an important tool for protecting species,

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habitats and people in the face of land development.

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Critics say yes, but it can also be used to tie up projects in

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years long bureaucracy, stalling and even killing development,

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including much needed housing. Newsom has vowed to bring

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reforms, and one of the bills Monday aims to do just that.

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So important that Mchaley says the bill includes A provision he

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hasn't seen in more than 20 years at the Capitol.

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That says if that bill, the sequel reform bill, is not

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adopted, signed by the governor, the whole budget goes away.

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It's automatically repealed. I think that that goes to show

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the public that the governor and legislature are very serious

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about significant sequel reform in an effort to expedite the

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building of more affordable homes here in the state of

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California. He says even though the budget

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closes that projected $12 billion gap, there is still

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financial uncertainty here in California.

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He says the Trump administration has threatened to revoke or or

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or cut off federal funding to California for everything from

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Medicare or Medicaid, which funds medical here in the state,

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to high speed rail and even education dollars.

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So whether those cuts come through and how severe they

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might be, we have yet. All right, so a lot to unpack

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there. In the budget that has

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tentatively been agreed upon, like I said, there was the

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governor came in, he proposed his budget.

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He wanted to pause medical funding for illegal immigrants.

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The legislature full of, you know, far left status Democrats

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decided that that was unacceptable, that they had to

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include medical. They came to a compromise that

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they would keep it in, but they would charge a $30 premium

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because that is going to I guess somehow cover the cost of

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medical for all legal immigrants in the state.

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And I just want to do the math here.

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Now again, I, I'm didn't become a lawyer because I'm great at

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math. I just want to break this down

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for you. According to Pew Research, and

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this is the research I found, there are about 2.6 illegal

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immigrants in the state of California.

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This was a couple years ago and right now it costs around 700 to

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$800 million a month to provide medical for all legal immigrants

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a month. So keep that in mind.

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So if you charge them 34 or $30.00 a month, that comes out

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to around $78 that medical is taking in, while

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they're also paying out around 7 or $800 million.

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So they're only $622 million off.

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It's only that big of a discrepancy.

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So that they came so close to covering that gap by $30.

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It's almost kind of insulting that they think the $30 is going

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to make a big difference for Medico.

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Keep in mind that money, Medicaid from the federal

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government, from the Trump administration, going to be

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probably a tough fight because I don't think that President

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Trump, the way he's going with mass deportations and his stance

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on legal immigration is going to be handing out a lot of federal

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dollars if he knows a lot of it. And almost a billion dollars is

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going to illegal immigrants in California every month.

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Prop 36, We've talked about Prop 36 before, incredibly popular

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proposition, A proposition that passed in the state of

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California by every single county.

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Every county voted for Prop 36. That is like historic in

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California politics. To get every single county in

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California to agree on one thing is probably the hardest thing in

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the world to do. So it happened in the past, 70%

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approval to 30% disapproval. And for some reason, for the

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people in Sacramento who crow about democracy and the power of

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the people and the power of the vote and all that stuff, people

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like Gavin Newsom in the state legislature here in California

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seem to not really be behind the idea of democracy when it

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doesn't work for them. So there's been this issue of

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Prop 36 is not properly being funded.

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They expected it to be around $400 million a year that they

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had to fund Prop 36. And this was something, again,

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the people voted on overwhelmingly contrasted with

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the fact that 58% of Californians in a Public Policy

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Institute of California survey said that they did not support

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and were opposed to free medical for illegal immigrants here in

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the state of California. Compare that with Prop 36, which

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was wildly popular. They don't want to fund Prop 36,

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but they will fund free medical for illegal immigrants in the

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state. Just gives you an idea of the

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priorities here in the state of California and your legislators

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and your governor and what they really think of Californians and

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everyday Californians. Because what you vote on doesn't

00:09:44
really matter at the end of the day.

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It's all, I guess, just a show for them to make it sound like

00:09:48
democracy is a great idea. And then when they don't like

00:09:51
it, they don't implement it. So that's those two big

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controversial issues. They did at least get $100

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million. It's better than nothing.

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Gavin's initial budget, old noodles, his first budget was no

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money. We all know he hated Prop 36.

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He he campaigned against it. He tried to pass a whole bunch

00:10:13
of poison pills to kill Prop 36. He tried to do other measures

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for Prop 36. He tried to do all these press

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conferences showing him signing all these laws saying we don't

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need Prop 36. He hates Prop 36.

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So it's an affront to his ego and his his grasp on power when

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the people of California vote overwhelmingly against what he

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wants. So it was almost, I would guess

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for a lack of a better term, a big middle finger to the people

00:10:38
of California. When Gavin Newsom goes, here's

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my budget, it has no money for the one proposition that

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everybody supported or mostly 70% of California voters

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supported. That just gives you an idea.

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There was this other thing that I want to get into.

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Gavin again with his power struggle, wanted to include a

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poison pill. And, and if you don't know what

00:11:04
a poison pill is, what they call a poison pill in legislative

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government like this when they're drafting bills and stuff

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like that, is that they will include a poison pill into some

00:11:16
sort of bill. Or in this case, the budget

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where they say if X happens, then this budget or this bill

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dies and goes away. The reason for that is it's like

00:11:28
a negotiating tactic. Excuse me, be with everybody who

00:11:32
says, look, you either vote with me and you support this idea or

00:11:36
it's going to go away. And basically he had this whole

00:11:39
housing reform package where he said you either support my

00:11:43
housing reform package for Sequa and building housing or there is

00:11:47
this poison pill provision that the whole budget will go away

00:11:52
and we have to start from scratch.

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Let's take a quick look at what he has to say about his poison

00:11:59
pill. Of all of that, we have too much

00:12:03
demand chasing too little supply.

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It's not complicated. This is econ one O 1 supply

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demand imbalance. I've said it before, I'll repeat

00:12:12
it. This issue of housing explains

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more things in more ways and more days than any other issue

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to explain the challenges and the plight of so many

00:12:23
Californians. So many of the challenges that

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ail us can be connected back to this issue.

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Unless we address this issue head on, we'll continue to be

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vexed by so many of these challenges as it relates to the

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challenges of the middle class and working folks, the issues of

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what's happening on our streets, in sidewalks, all of these

00:12:42
things are foundationally and fundamentally connected.

00:12:45
So there's a spiel about affordable housing.

00:12:49
They have talked about affordable housing and Scott

00:12:52
Weiner is standing there. He's talked about affordable

00:12:54
housing. Alex Lee, the infamous Assembly

00:12:58
member who is about 2324 years old.

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I don't know if he's actually, he's super young, but I think he

00:13:02
still lives in his mom's basement.

00:13:03
Again, I don't know. Don't, don't sue me for

00:13:06
defamation. It's just a just a statement.

00:13:09
They've all been talking about affordable housing for years and

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years and years. They don't seem to figure out

00:13:14
the number one way to fix it when it comes to housing in

00:13:20
California. In fact, when it comes to

00:13:22
housing basically anywhere in the country, let's just say

00:13:27
actually when it comes to housing, basically I'm going to

00:13:29
say this in the world, the number one thing government can

00:13:34
do to help with affordable housing is they can get the hell

00:13:39
out of the way. That's what government has to

00:13:42
do. They just have to get out of the

00:13:43
way and just stop with the regulation.

00:13:48
Sequa is part of this. Sequa is an abomination.

00:13:51
They need to scrap Sequa and start from scratch on Sequa.

00:13:55
They have to admit defeat on Sequa.

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It's been abused. It has been overused.

00:13:59
People use it now to hold a lot of cities and governments

00:14:04
hostage because what will happen is they want to build something

00:14:07
or they want to start something. Then all of a sudden someone

00:14:09
comes in files, a sequel lawsuit.

00:14:11
It's kind of a way to hold your project hostage and say, look,

00:14:14
you either fight this out with for with me for the next 10

00:14:17
years, or you can just do what we want you to do.

00:14:19
Sequel is an absolute abomination.

00:14:21
So when it comes to affordable housing, the number one thing

00:14:24
that I always say is that government has to get the hell

00:14:27
out of the way. And Democrats in Sacramento,

00:14:30
including Gavin Newsom, Scott Weiner, Alex Lee, all people

00:14:32
like that, they don't understand that.

00:14:34
They can't fathom the idea that government getting out of the

00:14:37
way, They think government can solve everything.

00:14:40
And so that was his poison pill. It did.

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It did pass. It did get through.

00:14:45
So his his tactic did work. But I will say this, and this is

00:14:50
something that I think is rightfully brought up about what

00:14:54
Gavin Newsom did. It sets a precedent for

00:14:57
governor's going forward. And this is a very dangerous

00:15:00
precedent, right? What he's saying is governor's

00:15:05
going forward can say, look, I want this one piece of

00:15:09
legislation added into the budget or the whole budget is

00:15:16
going to go, go away. That is hostile negotiating,

00:15:22
that is holding the budget and the state hostage to get what

00:15:26
you want. And it is a very bad precedent.

00:15:30
And I think it's worth calling out Gavin Newsom for setting

00:15:33
this precedent of doing this. And I I think it's a dirty trick

00:15:38
that he did by doing this. But again, it's Gavin Newsom.

00:15:41
I'm not surprised that he did pull such a dirty trick.

00:15:44
But forget the fact that they ignored the will of millions of

00:15:50
Californians who voted for Prop 36, and they're not funding

00:15:52
that. Forget that 58% of Californians

00:15:56
oppose giving free medical to or cover free health care to

00:16:00
illegal immigrants. Californians are.

00:16:03
Those are two things California support and one thing that they

00:16:06
don't support. Forget what an everyday

00:16:08
Californians want. There's another group that

00:16:11
benefits from this budget bill. And I'm just going to say it's

00:16:15
not people like you and me. It's not the everyday people who

00:16:19
are going to work. It's not everybody.

00:16:21
It's not the everyday Californians.

00:16:24
I'll give you one guess of who it is.

00:16:27
It's not OK. We already checked off illegal

00:16:29
immigrants. They don't want to listen to you

00:16:31
about crime and public safety. That's right, It's Hollywood.

00:16:37
Hollywood is getting a huge $750 million infusion to the film and

00:16:43
tax break. They're getting a huge tax break

00:16:46
because if you don't know by now, they are getting absolutely

00:16:50
demolished by places like Georgia, Georgia.

00:16:54
We covered this in a previous episode where there is an

00:16:58
uncapped amount of tax credits you can get in Georgia when you

00:17:02
film there uncapped, and that's forever.

00:17:05
That's uncapped forever. There is no limit on what you

00:17:09
can do for exemptions. They basically open up the the

00:17:11
gates for the film industry to come out and film in Georgia.

00:17:15
Bring your production companies, bring your crews out there.

00:17:17
You were going to make a lot more money.

00:17:19
It's going to be a lot more affordable to film in Georgia.

00:17:21
California obviously has been lagging behind all of this, and

00:17:26
they know that they're losing a ton of money because it's

00:17:28
California, it's Hollywood. What else goes together?

00:17:32
It's like peanut butter and Jelly.

00:17:34
Everyone thinks at California. They think we all live in

00:17:36
Hollywood and we all live on the beach.

00:17:38
So they gave this enormous tax break to California.

00:17:44
Basically. It says the bill realized

00:17:46
Newsom's ambitions. This is from The Hollywood

00:17:48
Reporter. The bill realized Newsom's

00:17:51
ambitions to increase the cap on California's film and television

00:17:54
tax incentives from 330 million to 750 million a year, making

00:18:00
the state the most generous outside of New York and Georgia.

00:18:04
Like I just talked about, both their programs are uncapped,

00:18:07
meaning let's break it down a little bit.

00:18:11
So it was 330 million. So you could get tax incentives

00:18:15
up to that amount, 330 million. Now they've basically more than

00:18:20
at least doubled it because they want more people to be able to

00:18:23
come here or work here and do the production companies here.

00:18:27
New York and Georgia are uncapped, so you can just keep

00:18:30
getting those tax incentives as much as you want.

00:18:32
California, of course, has to put a limit on it.

00:18:34
They can't let you get away with everything.

00:18:36
They still need their pound of flesh.

00:18:38
Though Newsom's proposal, first announced in the fall of 2024,

00:18:41
was initially met with skepticism, it grew in

00:18:44
popularity with the state Assembly voting for the increase

00:18:47
64 to 1 and the Senate voting 31 to three.

00:18:53
Article goes on to talk about how this could help different

00:18:55
production companies. If passed, the legislation would

00:18:58
bring the most significant changes to the program.

00:19:00
Since its inception in 2009, the state has steadily been losing

00:19:04
production as other regions beef up their incentive programs for

00:19:08
the entertainment industry. One example, earlier this month,

00:19:11
Texas passed a law that increases by 100 million the

00:19:15
amount allocated to movies and TV shows every two years.

00:19:19
Now, I want to get this last quote in because I know there's

00:19:24
some people who who hit me up on social media, on Instagram about

00:19:27
this. I posted about this and some

00:19:29
people were like, oh, this is a good idea.

00:19:31
This is a great thing. I'm going to explain why I don't

00:19:33
think it's a great. I mean, there's probably some

00:19:35
benefit, but let's get into this quote.

00:19:37
It says, quote, the program not only pays for itself but

00:19:41
generates economic activity. DD Meyers, senior advisor to

00:19:45
Newsome shocker at the UCLA Entertainment Symposium on

00:19:49
Friday. It's a good deal for taxpayers.

00:19:52
It's a good deal for taxpayers, right?

00:19:56
It's a great deal for taxpayers that they are going to be able

00:20:00
to get or that Hollywood is going to be able to get these

00:20:03
enormous tax incentives. Isn't that great that everybody,

00:20:07
that everybody in Hollywood's going to get a nice tax

00:20:10
incentive and the rest of us in California are facing higher gas

00:20:17
prices because of the gas excise, because of the lower

00:20:20
carbon fuel standard? Taxes continue to go up.

00:20:23
Property taxes, I mean, it just continues and continues.

00:20:27
City taxes continue to go up. Cities are broke, so they're

00:20:30
figuring out how to charge you more for your public amenities

00:20:33
and stuff like that. Wouldn't a great incentive to

00:20:37
California in general. Why don't we just increase tax

00:20:41
incentives for everybody in California, right?

00:20:45
Why don't we just say, hey, California, we want to unleash

00:20:50
the power of the people. We want to get this economic

00:20:54
engine humming. Let's let's just give tax

00:20:57
incentives to a ton of people, everybody in California.

00:21:02
No, I don't. I disagree with old Dee Dee

00:21:05
Myers quote where she says it's a good deal for taxpayers

00:21:09
because that now has to be made-up somewhere else in the

00:21:12
budget. And let me tell you something,

00:21:17
California does not like to reduce its spending.

00:21:20
As we've seen with this current budget, they increase spending

00:21:23
by about 10%, even though they were facing a $12 billion budget

00:21:27
deficit, which they had to borrow from the rainy day fund.

00:21:31
They had to borrow from themselves to fix the holes in

00:21:35
California budget. That's what the these games that

00:21:38
they're up to. So this is I don't they say it's

00:21:41
a good deal for taxpayers. Taxpayers like you and me, I

00:21:43
don't know if it's a good deal for us.

00:21:45
What do we get out of it? What does it matter to me if the

00:21:48
movie that I'm watching in the movies that I don't, I don't

00:21:51
really even go see movies that much anymore.

00:21:53
The industry is really suffering right now.

00:21:56
What difference it does it to me if it's in California or in

00:21:59
Georgia, right? Like it doesn't really matter to

00:22:01
me. I know there's people in LA and

00:22:03
if you watch and if you're somebody out there and you're

00:22:05
watching this and you're in the industry, this is amazing for

00:22:08
you. This is all great, but why is it

00:22:10
you carve out just for the Hollywood elites and your

00:22:13
buddies in Hollywood and you're not giving tax incentives to

00:22:17
normal everyday Californians? That's my big question.

00:22:20
It's not a great deal for taxpayers.

00:22:21
We we're still on the hook for all of this.

00:22:25
We still have to probably make up all that money.

00:22:27
So when they're not making as much taxes from Hollywood,

00:22:31
right, because they've increased the incentives and all the stuff

00:22:34
that they can write off, someone has to make that up.

00:22:39
And it's going to be you and you and me.

00:22:40
And they're going to figure out a way to make it up because they

00:22:44
did not cave on free health care for illegal immigrants.

00:22:47
So that's something we're still paying for.

00:22:49
Now. They're giving huge tax

00:22:51
incentives to Hollywood, which we're going to end up having to

00:22:53
pay for. And they don't actually

00:22:56
implement the stuff and put our tax dollars towards something

00:22:59
that we all overwhelmingly supported.

00:23:03
So to summarize, to give you an idea of the California budget

00:23:08
that has just basically been passed by both the legislature

00:23:12
and is going to be signed in by Gavin Newsom, there are the

00:23:16
three people. Let's see.

00:23:18
I don't know, actually, the priorities I would say are

00:23:20
illegal immigrants are getting free healthcare.

00:23:22
Hollywood is getting enormous tax breaks and the stuff that we

00:23:26
want. Public safety is not going to be

00:23:28
funded because screw you. We don't like what you're doing.

00:23:31
And, you know, I guess democracy only matters when it's something

00:23:34
that you want. All right, all right, let's get

00:23:38
into some comments before we get into our next story.

00:23:40
Thank you, everyone for tuning in.

00:23:41
There are a ton of people on here.

00:23:43
This is awesome. Thank you, everyone, for joining

00:23:46
us on this Tuesday night. So I'm going to get into some of

00:23:49
the comments. As I said, they're out in Palm

00:23:54
Springs. That's awesome.

00:23:56
So what up Palm Springs? Went to Palm Springs recently,

00:24:02
actually a year or so ago. First time really like Palm

00:24:05
Springs. There's a lot to do out in Palm

00:24:06
Springs. Somebody says he can clean the

00:24:11
streets. I'm assuming he's talking about

00:24:12
Gavin Newsom in San Francisco when his boss from China visits.

00:24:16
The minimum wage failures continue.

00:24:17
After seeing the damage fast food did, this foolish admin

00:24:20
does it worse for hospitality. Let's see.

00:24:27
Good old use of the poison pill. Yep.

00:24:29
How do you build more houses without power?

00:24:31
Excellent question. That doesn't address the fact

00:24:33
that we it's very expensive to do anything here in California.

00:24:39
Gavin doesn't want to fund Prop 36 because it'll show his

00:24:42
incompetence in early release programs and closing prisons

00:24:44
during his administration. Brett, you are 100% correct.

00:24:49
This is my golden rule of politics.

00:24:51
It applies to everybody, Democrats, Republicans,

00:24:53
independents, everybody is that politicians hate admitting they

00:24:59
are wrong, right? They hate admitting they are

00:25:01
wrong and they will never ever admit that they were wrong.

00:25:04
So Prop 36 was a repudiation Prop 47 which they got horribly

00:25:09
wrong and they do not want to admit that they were wrong.

00:25:12
Slimeball. Newson was just trying to scam

00:25:14
and steal more money. Government needs to get out of

00:25:17
the way of everything. Agreed.

00:25:20
More taxes we got to pay for these losers who don't want to

00:25:23
work. Isn't it illegal for states to

00:25:27
not pass an annual budget? Newson trying to create leverage

00:25:29
by saying he won't pass a budget unless it's that, yeah,

00:25:32
constitutionally there is a deadline.

00:25:34
I think it's July 7th is when they have to get a budget done.

00:25:37
So that's sort of, you know, it's July 1st.

00:25:40
I guess they figured there was a week and he's kind of holding

00:25:44
everybody hostage with that week.

00:25:47
So he know, he knows the deadlines.

00:25:49
He knows exactly that there's deadlines.

00:25:51
And he he played it that way so that he could hold us hostage.

00:25:57
All right, the legalization of marijuana has not yielded any

00:26:01
relief to the economic conditions in the state.

00:26:04
I would agree with that because when I first thought they were

00:26:07
going to legalize marijuana or weed recreationally here in the

00:26:10
state, I thought that was going to be a new green rush.

00:26:13
But leave it to California that they they figured out how to

00:26:18
kill the golden goose before it laid 1 golden egg.

00:26:20
All right, on to our next story. All right, 4th largest economy

00:26:33
is set to face hard times coming up this year and probably into

00:26:38
next year all the way till 2027. If we know anything about how

00:26:44
much they love to brag about California is the 4th or 5th

00:26:48
largest economy in the world and it's you know it.

00:26:51
It's such an amazing state because of the fact that we're

00:26:53
the 4th of Gavin Newsom loves to talk about the fact that it is

00:26:58
the 4th largest economy in the world and they love to brag

00:27:01
about the fourth largest economy in the world.

00:27:02
And I say this, that I think the 4th largest or fifth largest,

00:27:08
whatever, it goes back and forth, it kind of shifts back

00:27:10
and forth years, a couple years here and there.

00:27:15
I think the economy is better despite what California does.

00:27:19
I don't think there's anything that politicians can take credit

00:27:23
for when it comes to the economy here in California.

00:27:28
But there is something I want to kind of dig into a little bit

00:27:32
more when it comes to this whole notion that is the 4th or 5th

00:27:37
largest economy in the world. People who are much smarter than

00:27:41
me, who are economic. See, I can't even say the word

00:27:44
economist. They figured this out and

00:27:47
they've crunched the numbers. So when people say the 4th or

00:27:49
5th largest economy, you can say this, you can say one, that the

00:27:54
income inequality in California is on par with countries like

00:28:00
Guatemala, right? Some of those countries that are

00:28:05
you would call third world countries, but countries that

00:28:09
are not the countries you would think is the top economies in

00:28:15
the world. So income inequality probably on

00:28:17
par with Guatemala. This also came out California

00:28:21
governor says to the state is now the 4th largest economy.

00:28:25
But accounting for high cost of goods and services, California

00:28:30
only barely edges out low performing Italy.

00:28:34
With the state's continued losses in private sector jobs

00:28:38
and falling corporate and sales tax revenue painting a darker

00:28:42
picture of the Golden State's economy, California isn't

00:28:47
keeping pace with the world. We're setting the pace at Newsom

00:28:50
Money 2024 economics ratings. Our economy is thriving because

00:28:54
we invest in people, prioritize sustainability, and believe in

00:28:58
the power of innovation. However, this is where the smart

00:29:03
economist come in. After accounting for purchasing

00:29:06
power parity, how much can be purchased in the local economy

00:29:11
with local currency? Which provides a more accurate

00:29:14
comparison? California economy is ranked

00:29:17
11th at 3.6 trillion. 11th so falls almost double, more than

00:29:26
double than what it is. So 4th to 11th.

00:29:30
So when you hear this refrain all the time, you'll see it on

00:29:34
social media. And people will always come back

00:29:36
with that sort of argument of, well, yeah, California's the 4th

00:29:39
law of economy. I guess we're doing something

00:29:41
right. No, actually, when you account

00:29:44
for the purchasing power of Californians, and I'm sure

00:29:47
people who are watching this can attest to this and leave it in

00:29:49
the comments, it's closer to 11th.

00:29:54
You don't have a lot of the purchasing power here in

00:29:56
California is much tougher. It is a high cost of living.

00:30:00
Everything is more expensive. As we've talked about between

00:30:03
the taxes, regulations, utilities, I mean, power

00:30:07
companies alone are gouging everybody.

00:30:09
So it tumbles all the way down to 11th.

00:30:14
There's this next thing. California's March jobs report

00:30:18
confirms A troubling trend. This is from this past March.

00:30:21
So This is why they're predicting that California is

00:30:24
facing a recession. And this budget that is coming

00:30:28
out and I want to talk, I want to refer back to this budget

00:30:31
that just came out is it was passed what they called on a

00:30:38
hope. Basically I hope that the

00:30:41
economy would get better and that the revenues would improve.

00:30:45
They hope they pass this budget hoping that everything's going

00:30:50
to turn out all right and that the economy's going to get

00:30:52
better. Well, it looks like that hope

00:30:55
may be fleeting because the state's private sector is

00:30:59
contracting while employment growth is increasingly driven by

00:31:03
government funded programs. This is not a sustainable path

00:31:07
to economic vitality. We need to focus on policies

00:31:10
that encourage private sector investment and job creation

00:31:14
rather than relying on taxpayer funded employment to drive our

00:31:18
economy forward. The March preliminary jobs

00:31:21
report found the state lost a net 11 jobs, while the

00:31:26
February jobs loss of 7500 was adjusted to a loss of 21.

00:31:34
Let me say that again. The February jobs loss of 7500

00:31:40
was adjusted, so they went back and looked at the numbers again.

00:31:44
This happens a lot with these numbers that get pumped out.

00:31:47
They will release the numbers and then they will go back and

00:31:50
adjust the numbers. It was really a loss of 21

00:31:55
jobs. That is a that's not a little

00:31:59
oopsie, Boo Boo. That is a huge discrepancy

00:32:02
between 7500 jobs and 21, almost 22 jobs lost in California

00:32:09
and these are private sector jobs.

00:32:12
The state lost 26 private sector jobs from February to

00:32:16
March while gaining 15 government and government

00:32:21
supported jobs. The only job growth in the state

00:32:26
of California, the only job growth that we are seeing is the

00:32:32
government expanding the government, more government

00:32:36
jobs, creating a larger budgetary requirement.

00:32:39
That is the only thing that is helping keep employment afloat

00:32:44
here in California. And you want to talk about

00:32:46
what's a good deal for taxpayers?

00:32:48
This is not a good deal for taxpayers because the more

00:32:52
government funded jobs that are going to be created means

00:32:55
there's more strain on the citizens of California who are

00:32:58
going to have to end up supporting those jobs.

00:33:01
And every year the budget is going to increase, even if they

00:33:05
are facing 10s of billions of dollars in budget deficits

00:33:09
because of the revenue. Because corporations are

00:33:12
leaving, businesses are leaving, people are leaving, private

00:33:15
sector jobs are leaving. This is a unsustainable model

00:33:21
for California. Quite literally California is on

00:33:24
a economic calamity. It is on course for economic

00:33:29
disaster because there is a huge huge huge decline in private

00:33:34
sector jobs month over month and the only jobs are getting added

00:33:38
right now are government funded jobs.

00:33:41
And where does the government get money?

00:33:43
Government doesn't create money. Remember that.

00:33:45
Government doesn't create capital, Government only job.

00:33:49
The only way they can get it is they take it from you.

00:33:52
That is the only, only way that they create capital.

00:33:56
So when they create a job, they have to take capital from

00:34:00
somewhere else. It is not like a private sector

00:34:02
job that creates capital or that creates more capital coming into

00:34:06
the state, creates more money, creates more commerce, creates a

00:34:09
better economy, which is what private sector jobs do.

00:34:13
The government then has to take money from those private sector

00:34:16
jobs and those private sector people who are working and

00:34:19
through taxes, whether it's one way or the other, and they have

00:34:24
to fund these government jobs. And now you have a steep decline

00:34:30
in private sector jobs. Businesses and corporations are

00:34:33
leaving. Those revenues are going out the

00:34:35
window, yet the amount of government jobs in the budget

00:34:38
keeps going up. That's why we're on a bad like Y

00:34:42
axis of, you know, Y axis like on the graph.

00:34:45
We are headed towards a critical point where sooner or later

00:34:49
there's not going to be enough people paying into the system

00:34:52
for the government to support all of these government jobs.

00:34:55
And it looks great on paper and it looks great for Gavin Newsom

00:34:58
to go out there and say, oh, look at us, we're the 4th

00:35:01
largest accounting or the 5th large or whatever you want to

00:35:03
say in the world. Not true.

00:35:06
It's easy if you're pumping and, you know, filling out the jobs

00:35:09
and pumping the jobs out yourself from the government.

00:35:12
Not great when the private sector jobs are running scared

00:35:16
for the hills. So California, on an economic

00:35:20
claim, this might even be worse. It might be worse than a

00:35:23
recession because California might be on the verge of a huge

00:35:28
financial crisis. And I'm just going to lay out

00:35:31
the picture, and I don't want to really depress all of you on a

00:35:34
Tuesday night. Let's lay out what California is

00:35:36
facing right now. They passed a $320 billion

00:35:40
budget for next year. Now, they did some borrowing and

00:35:45
some funny, you know, accounting tricks to make all that budget

00:35:51
deficit go away. Quick sleight of hand increased.

00:35:55
But they did. They did some quick sleight of

00:35:57
hand to balance the budget because they are

00:35:58
constitutionally required to balance the budget.

00:36:00
States have to balance their budget.

00:36:01
They can't be like the federal government just run up a huge

00:36:03
debt. So that's, that's problem #1

00:36:07
it's based on a hope that the economy will get better.

00:36:10
What we're seeing now is the economy is not going to get

00:36:12
better because private sector jobs are leaving.

00:36:16
That's problem number one. The three, I'd say, largest

00:36:20
cities in California are all facing enormous budget deficits.

00:36:25
San Diego, LA and San Francisco talked about that before.

00:36:29
They're all facing enormous budget deficits.

00:36:31
They're broke. So the state budget is doing all

00:36:34
this, you know, voodoo to make it look like a balanced budget.

00:36:38
The cities are in a huge budget deficit.

00:36:40
So that is a problem. And no one ever talks about the

00:36:46
big, huge, stinking elephant in the room of California that we

00:36:49
have over a trillion dollars, a trillion dollars in unfunded,

00:36:55
unfunded pension liability in the state of California that we

00:36:59
just, we have no idea how we're going to pay for, right, with

00:37:02
all these government jobs that go out.

00:37:04
There's going to be more pensions that have to be sent

00:37:09
out, right? More pensions promised to these

00:37:11
government workers. And that number is going to get

00:37:13
bigger and bigger and bigger. And they never tell you how

00:37:17
they're going to pay for it. They have no idea how they're

00:37:19
going to pay for it. It's a trillion dollars.

00:37:21
It is the enormous stinking elephant in the room when it

00:37:25
comes to our economy. So we may be facing in 2026, we,

00:37:30
we are, we have a gubernatorial election.

00:37:33
There's good candidates who are jumping in if you're paying

00:37:36
attention. This is why I always say local

00:37:37
elections matter because 2026 could be very consequential to

00:37:41
the future of California. So it's very important you pay

00:37:43
attention to who is running to be at the helm next year for

00:37:48
California governor. Hopefully it's not Kamala Harris

00:37:50
because that would be a disaster.

00:37:52
But we are on a certain we are on basically a certain economic

00:37:57
calamity on on course for an economic calamity coming up this

00:38:01
next year. So all right, let me get a drink

00:38:04
of water before we hop into our next story.

00:38:06
Check out the comments. You guys are just blowing it up

00:38:09
right now. It's awesome.

00:38:11
Thank you to everybody for tuning in.

00:38:13
As I always say, we do this live every Tuesday so that you guys

00:38:17
can be a part of the platform. You guys can let your voices be

00:38:20
known. Hey, new feature.

00:38:22
I'm going to say this right now. If you go to California

00:38:25
underground dot live, which is our website.

00:38:27
We just revamped our whole website.

00:38:29
If you go to contact us, if you go to contact us, there is a

00:38:34
button where you can record a voice message.

00:38:37
It's like you calling into the show.

00:38:39
So if you want to call into the show through a voice message,

00:38:42
you can do so. All right to do it.

00:38:47
So I'm not moving to Florida because going wrong as a problem

00:38:51
number one is the Democrats super majority forcing the green

00:38:54
new scam and funding non citizens.

00:38:57
Yeah, sustainability. I would agree with that,

00:39:00
especially when you look at the fact that solar and stuff like

00:39:03
that was an incentive for people to go out and get and now, now

00:39:09
it's not. They're switching that up.

00:39:10
So, you know, the utility companies who are mad that

00:39:15
they're not getting as much money anymore because everyone's

00:39:18
going out and getting solar and basically charging their own

00:39:20
houses or powering their own houses, They're now switching it

00:39:25
so that you are required to buy it back from the electric

00:39:28
company. So I'm sorry, I, I heard he will

00:39:31
tax us to move out of California.

00:39:34
I, I heard that as well. That was called, they, they

00:39:36
proposed a California exit tax. They were trying to do that on

00:39:39
certain people. I believe, in my humble opinion,

00:39:45
I think that is a violation of the US Constitution privilege

00:39:49
and immunities clause. If you move to another state,

00:39:52
you can't reach into that state and say, no, no, we're going to

00:39:55
keep taking income tax from you. I don't think it works like

00:39:57
that. That would be a huge lawsuit on

00:40:01
the constitutional, like national federal level hotels in

00:40:07
California are leaving because of the minimum wage hike just in

00:40:09
time for the Olympics. Yeah, down here in in San Diego,

00:40:11
they're trying to raise it to $25.00 an hour.

00:40:15
Is there any hope? I believe there is hope.

00:40:18
Yeah, I, I think there is hope. The people who are on here right

00:40:20
now watching this makes me think there's hope.

00:40:23
And when people support Prop 36 the way they did last, I think

00:40:27
there's hope. I think there's hope and I think

00:40:30
more and more people just have to be afraid, not be afraid to

00:40:33
speak up about these issues and, and just, and just be, you know,

00:40:38
out and proud about their, their beliefs.

00:40:40
I think there's more people who don't believe in this style of

00:40:43
governance than there are in than there are.

00:40:46
I think there are less people, there are less status in

00:40:50
California than people believe. So that's that's why I'm saying

00:40:57
there is hope. There's always hope, right?

00:41:00
I wouldn't be doing this podcast if I didn't think there was

00:41:02
hope. So all right, next story,

00:41:08
fantasy football, your favorite weekend activity to keep you and

00:41:12
the boys and the gals together and, you know, some trash talk

00:41:15
and stuff like that in the state that says they want to be as

00:41:19
free as possible, they want to ban your ability to play fantasy

00:41:25
football or fantasy sports in general.

00:41:28
Rob Bonta came out this week. He plans on issuing a legal

00:41:33
opinion in a couple days about whether or not fantasy sports

00:41:40
classify as online sports gambling.

00:41:44
So let's watch a quick clip about that.

00:41:48
And fantasy sports facing an uncertain future in California.

00:41:52
California's Attorney General Rob Banta is soon expected to

00:41:56
release what's called a legal opinion, deeming the platforms

00:41:59
illegal in the state. Well, I think it's credible.

00:42:02
I think it's it's important that he's responding.

00:42:04
It will come after two Republican state lawmakers,

00:42:07
including Assemblyman Tom Lackey, sent a letter and

00:42:10
followed up with Banta requesting he look into the

00:42:12
issue. Online sports gambling is

00:42:15
illegal in California and the lawmakers say fantasy is a Gray

00:42:19
area. This after voters in 2022

00:42:22
overwhelmingly rejected legalizing online sports

00:42:25
betting. And so I was very interested in

00:42:28
making sure that the people and, and their opinion was at least

00:42:32
acknowledged. And so we followed up on that

00:42:35
and we wanted the legal opinion to make sure that it wasn't in

00:42:38
conflict with the what the people want.

00:42:42
But fantasy sports operators don't want this.

00:42:45
In a statement provided to KCRA 3, the Coalition for Fantasy

00:42:49
Sports said quote. This opinion would be

00:42:51
devastating news to the millions of California sports fans who

00:42:54
love to play fantasy sports. We hope the Attorney General's

00:42:57
Office will consider the views of sports fans across the state

00:43:00
before making a decision. Californians have been playing

00:43:03
daily fantasy sports games for more than a decade, and it is

00:43:06
shocking to think the state would suddenly take them away.

00:43:09
That's why I have Aaron Judge. He's playing for the Yankees,

00:43:11
obviously. Obviously he's the best hitter

00:43:13
in the ale, maybe the best hitter in the game.

00:43:14
I checked in with expert and SAC Town Radio sports talk show host

00:43:17
Carmichael Dave. He was in the middle of a round

00:43:20
of golf when I told him the news.

00:43:22
This is still a busy time in fantasy sports.

00:43:24
Yeah, you know, it may not be the busiest time for your main

00:43:26
sports. The NBA just ended.

00:43:28
NFL is still a ways away. But you've got baseball, you've

00:43:32
got golf, you've got mixed martial arts, you'll have the

00:43:34
occasional boxing match. Look, people will find that.

00:43:38
They will bet on which pigeon will fly the furthest.

00:43:41
You'll find a play when you want it.

00:43:42
How do you expect the fantasy sports community in California

00:43:47
to react? Well, they're going to be, I

00:43:50
think understandably very upset. It's a, it's a large hypocrisy.

00:43:54
And I, I'm not a gambler and I don't encourage gambling, but I

00:43:57
will tell you they're going to think, for example, why can I,

00:44:02
why can I bet on this latest crypto scheme by opening up

00:44:05
Coinbase, which is available to anybody?

00:44:06
What could I bet my life savings on that?

00:44:08
Why can I bet my life savings on Robin Hood or any of these other

00:44:11
stock apps? But I can't bet on whether or

00:44:14
not the Giants or the Niners or the Kings are going to win a

00:44:16
ball game. It's absolute hypocrisy.

00:44:18
All right, I want to talk about this because this is whenever

00:44:25
something like this head scratching comes up, I want the

00:44:28
first thing I do. And you can do this as well.

00:44:30
Whenever you see a news story that makes you scratch your head

00:44:34
and go, why would why would somebody do this?

00:44:37
Like, why is this so important to them?

00:44:39
Why, why does Tom Lackey and Scott Wilk and mind you, these

00:44:42
are both Republicans. Why would they care about

00:44:46
fantasy sports? Like, why would Tom Lackey go

00:44:49
out of his way to say, oh, well, they they voted down online

00:44:55
sports gambling several years ago.

00:44:57
So I wanted to take it upon myself to ask the attorney

00:45:01
general, well, is this in line with what the people of

00:45:05
California want? I don't think when we voted on

00:45:07
Prop 27, I don't think people were thinking of their weekend

00:45:11
online fantasy sports Football League.

00:45:14
I don't think that's what people were thinking about.

00:45:17
I don't think they were thinking about whether or not the March

00:45:19
Madness pool that they do in their office was part of

00:45:24
whatever this sports gambling proposition was.

00:45:26
I don't think that's what people were thinking about.

00:45:29
So here's what you can do. There is a great site called

00:45:32
followthemoney.org. Amazing site.

00:45:36
You can literally put in any candidate, any contributor,

00:45:41
unions, all of that stuff and it connects you and shows you all

00:45:46
of the information related to candidates.

00:45:49
And this is what I do personally, and I encourage you

00:45:54
to go and do this. If there's ever something that

00:45:58
you find questionable or that you sit there and go, I don't

00:46:02
understand why someone would think this is a priority.

00:46:06
First thing you can do is follow the money and 9.9 times out of

00:46:11
10 you'll find the answer to it. So here is the breakdown of Rob

00:46:20
Bonta. OK, so here's all the money that

00:46:23
he's made or that has been given to him as a politician.

00:46:28
I want to point out tribal governments have given him

00:46:30
$421 since he's been running for office, so almost a half,

00:46:36
$1. Gambling casinos have given him

00:46:40
287 almost, you know $288 that's a lot of money.

00:46:46
They almost gave them close to $1 and at these are the

00:46:51
top So I, I ranked it in the top industries and you can say

00:46:54
unions are always the top. Unions always get up there.

00:46:58
Lawyers and lobbyists make sense as well.

00:46:59
Health professionals, health professionals and healthcare

00:47:02
unions have a lot to do with California policy unions,

00:47:07
general trade unions, public sector unions like the

00:47:10
California Teachers Association, stuff like that.

00:47:12
Public sector unions, I think are just in absolute

00:47:15
abomination. I don't think there should be

00:47:16
public sector unions. But you go down, you see tribal

00:47:19
government and gambling and casinos, OK, And then you go

00:47:25
over to Scott, is this Scott Wilkes?

00:47:29
So he's the one who wrote the letter.

00:47:31
Then you again, you can go down tribal governments, $192 was

00:47:35
given to him. Go down a little bit more and

00:47:38
then gambling casino. So he's still got around

00:47:42
$42. Tom Lackey, who was an

00:47:45
assemblyman, he got another 192 to like 192 gambling

00:47:51
casinos, he got 69. So he got more than Scott Wilk.

00:47:55
And the reason I bring this up is because you can always look

00:47:59
at and follow the money as to why this is so darn important to

00:48:04
someone like Tom Lackey and the California, let me pull this

00:48:09
out. The California nation,

00:48:11
California gambling nation, Indian, Indian Gambling

00:48:15
Association issued a letter fully in support of this saying

00:48:22
that yes, we support you banning fantasy sports.

00:48:26
And if you, you are connecting the dots already and you're

00:48:29
paying attention, kudos to you because I think you, you're

00:48:32
smart enough to figure out where I'm going with this.

00:48:34
Who spent the most money to kill Prop 27?

00:48:38
So you couldn't put 5 bucks on your favorite player to hit a

00:48:42
home run? Or you you want to put 20 bucks

00:48:45
on a football team to cover the spread or something like that?

00:48:49
In California where where the rest of the country is doing

00:48:52
online sports gambling? I'm not a fan of online sports

00:48:54
gambling, but I'm a fan of people being free to do what

00:48:58
they want. California doesn't want you to

00:48:59
do that. Who was the number one opposing

00:49:04
funder of who wanted to takedown Prop 27?

00:49:09
It's very easy that it was the casinos, it was the tribal

00:49:12
casinos here in California because they wanted to set it up

00:49:17
so that they could make money themselves.

00:49:18
So again, if you're connecting the dots here, follow the money.

00:49:22
Tom Lackey, Scott Wilk, top funders or tribal governments

00:49:26
and gambling casino Rob Bonta has made almost close to

00:49:30
$1 in camping contributions from tribal

00:49:33
governments and casinos. You can put two and two together

00:49:37
and figure out what's going on here.

00:49:39
When you look at Prop 27, who spent the most amount of money

00:49:42
to kill Prop 27? So there was an online sports

00:49:44
gambling, also the tribal casinos.

00:49:48
So it comes down to, well, who wants their cut?

00:49:52
And that's what it comes down to.

00:49:53
In a state that says it's all about freedom and all about

00:49:59
freedom, freedom to, if you want to be a minor and do a sex

00:50:03
transition and the state will pay for it, that's the type of

00:50:05
freedom they believe in. But your fantasy football, No,

00:50:10
we, we can't have your fantasy football.

00:50:12
And Tom Lackey's answering a question that nobody asked.

00:50:18
He's literally saying, well, I, I think the people of my

00:50:21
district, the people of my district want to know what the

00:50:28
answer is. Nobody's asking that answer or,

00:50:31
or, or that question. Nobody's asking that question,

00:50:34
Tom. No one, no one's asking that

00:50:35
question. No one thought when they wait,

00:50:38
they talked about Prop 27 that it would include their weekend

00:50:43
fantasy Football League. No one thought that.

00:50:46
So when it comes down to it, my lesson for this is whenever

00:50:51
there is a head scratching bill or action coming out of

00:50:55
Sacramento or anywhere, always, always, always follow the money

00:51:01
and you'll get your answer. All right, checking in on the

00:51:06
comments again before we hit our last story, getting a drink of

00:51:09
water. Thanks for tuning in Peter.

00:51:12
See ya. Thanks for everyone for tuning

00:51:14
in tonight. And you can always check out our

00:51:15
podcast on audio. People who listen on audio,

00:51:18
thank you as well. Spotify, Apple, Google, all

00:51:21
those places were all over the map.

00:51:23
Again, if you want to check out our new website, California

00:51:25
underground dot live. We just re updated the whole

00:51:28
website, made it nice and clean, nice and easy to access.

00:51:33
CARB is another agency that needs to go away now.

00:51:35
That is 100% true. CARB is out of control.

00:51:43
This is going to yeah, I I agree with Rad I this is something

00:51:46
that is going to tick off people.

00:51:48
It's weird. There are things that people

00:51:51
will not pay attention to that I could talk about.

00:51:54
But your fantasy football people will pay attention to that and

00:51:58
they'll be like, wait a second, you're going to ban my my

00:52:00
fantasy football? That seems a little out of

00:52:03
control. You're going to do a show about

00:52:06
carb and the demise of the big due to the big beautiful bill.

00:52:10
They're going to get rid of fuel buns.

00:52:13
I haven't I've talked about carb.

00:52:14
I've talked about Lion Randolph. I did an episode on that or I

00:52:17
did a video on that. You can go check it out.

00:52:20
It was a very good video. Probably the best video we've

00:52:23
done in the past month or so. Got a ton of views.

00:52:26
Go check that out. Lion Randolph, it's always

00:52:29
Jonathan Hughes, it's always about the money with the state

00:52:31
of California. Yep, that is sure.

00:52:34
You can always follow the money. All right, last story of the day

00:52:43
and then I'll finish up with more of your comments and then

00:52:46
we'll end for tonight. All right, Presidential hopeful

00:52:50
and preening Governor Gavin Newsom got hurt in the fee fees

00:52:54
by Fox News. So he decided to get tough and

00:52:58
do what every tough guy does when he gets hurt in his fee

00:53:01
fees. He ran to court and filed A

00:53:03
lawsuit. Gavin Newsom is filing a lawsuit

00:53:06
for $787 against Fox News over the issue of when did

00:53:12
he call President Trump? I'm not kidding.

00:53:15
That is quite literally the entire premise of this lawsuit

00:53:19
is did it happen on this day or did it happen on this day?

00:53:27
Gavin Newsom is suing specifically for 787

00:53:32
because that was the amount that Dominion Voting won against Fox

00:53:36
News for defamation due to the 2020 election.

00:53:42
And we'll get into this. I would love to show you a clip

00:53:44
of what he said about this. I would love to show you a clip

00:53:49
of old noodles talking about this.

00:53:52
But he doesn't let you. This is really funny, not really

00:53:57
dealing with the story. This is really funny.

00:53:59
He does not let you show clips anymore.

00:54:03
What he does is any clips of him now that are out there.

00:54:09
He says they are copyrighted by iHeartRadio because of his

00:54:13
podcast. Even clips.

00:54:14
I have nothing to do with this podcast.

00:54:16
Get copyright strikes. So he literally is hiding behind

00:54:21
his podcast and using iHeartRadio to copy strike

00:54:24
YouTube creators like myself or podcasters who want to talk

00:54:27
about it. So I'd love to show you his

00:54:30
video explaining why he is doing this.

00:54:33
Usually I love to show you a clip or something like that, but

00:54:36
in this case, I don't want the channel to get a copyright

00:54:39
strike. So I'm not going to do that.

00:54:43
So I'm going to have to talk about it.

00:54:45
I'm going to have to show you just something from Cal Matters.

00:54:49
So Governor Gavin Newsom is suing Fox News for defamation,

00:54:53
claiming the network, let's see, claiming the network lied about

00:54:57
the date he last spoke with President Donald Trump on the

00:55:01
phone and accused the governor of lying about the call.

00:55:06
By disregarding basic journalistic ethics in favor of

00:55:11
malicious propaganda, Fox continues to play a major role

00:55:15
in the further erosion of the bedrock principles of informed

00:55:18
representation representative government, the lawsuit reads.

00:55:22
The lawsuit, filed Friday by Newsom as an individual, seek

00:55:27
$787 in damages from the network, roughly the same amount

00:55:31
of Fox News agreed to pay Dominion Voting Systems in 2023

00:55:34
to settle defamation case over the network's election claims.

00:55:38
Newsom promised to drop the suit if Fox News retracts its claim

00:55:42
that Newsom lied and issues a formal apology.

00:55:47
So that is why he is suing because it's literally about a

00:55:55
day. It's about the day, right?

00:55:59
Fox said in a statement that it would defend the case

00:56:01
vigorously. Quote Governor Newsom's

00:56:03
transparent publicity stunt is frivolous, designed to chill

00:56:06
free speech critical of him, kind of like copyright striking

00:56:09
any video that you show of Gavin Newsom now because he doesn't

00:56:13
want you critiquing anything he says on YouTube.

00:56:16
So now what he does is he copyright strikes all the

00:56:18
creators who are out there and it's literally about a day.

00:56:22
It's literally about what day, because the issue was Governor

00:56:28
Newsom said I never spoke with President Trump.

00:56:30
President Trump released his call record saying, Nope, here's

00:56:33
Governor Newsom calling me on this day.

00:56:36
And now I say, well, I didn't. I, I mean, I called him on a

00:56:39
different day and he's saying they called me on this day.

00:56:41
And it all relates to Jesse Watters who said that Gavin or

00:56:44
Gavin Newsom was lying. That's the entire lawsuit.

00:56:48
So a billion dollar lawsuit is because of the fact that it was

00:56:53
a different day. So whether or not he spoke with

00:56:57
Donald Trump, which was basically what he disputed in

00:57:01
the beginning, saying he never spoke with President Donald

00:57:02
Trump over the riots that were going on in LA, he did speak

00:57:06
with President Trump, but it was on a different day.

00:57:09
And then Jesse Waters calls him out on it and says you're a

00:57:12
liar, that you didn't talk to him.

00:57:13
Now all of a sudden, this has become the whole issue.

00:57:16
And I'm just going to say this as someone who believes he's

00:57:20
running for president in 2028, because we all know he's going

00:57:23
to run in 2028. I don't know if this is the

00:57:26
greatest look to be the tough guy who when you get your

00:57:31
feelings hurt over stuff like this, you rush to file a

00:57:36
lawsuit. And we all know it's a publicity

00:57:38
stunt. We all know he's doing this

00:57:39
because he wants to raise his awareness or take on Trump.

00:57:42
Every Democratic governor across the country is trying to take on

00:57:46
Trump in one way or another. I guess this is his way of

00:57:50
taking on Trump is that he's going to file a lawsuit and it

00:57:53
all comes as well. If Jesse Watters, who tracks it

00:57:55
and says he's sorry on Fox News, then I'll make the whole thing

00:57:58
go away. So I guess it wasn't that, I

00:58:01
guess, devastating to him for defamation.

00:58:04
It wasn't that devastating for him or it didn't damage his

00:58:08
reputation anymore. If he's willing to apologize and

00:58:11
move on with him. I will say this about defamation

00:58:16
of public figures. There is a high, high bar when

00:58:21
it comes to public figures and specifically politicians in the

00:58:25
United States and even more so in California.

00:58:28
Actually under the California Constitution, it's actually

00:58:31
broader free speeches. The protection of free speech is

00:58:35
broader under the California Constitution that it is under

00:58:37
the 1st Amendment, which is pretty crazy if you think about

00:58:40
that. They want to encourage speech.

00:58:42
They want to encourage when the drafters came up with it, they

00:58:45
want to encourage free speech. They want to encourage people to

00:58:48
talk about what's going on in public affairs.

00:58:51
Public affairs, politician, stuff like that are the ultimate

00:58:54
protection. That was what founders like who

00:58:57
wrote the US Constitution. That was the people who wrote

00:58:59
the California Constitution believed was of paramount

00:59:03
importance was that citizens should be able to talk about

00:59:07
public officials and be protected for their speech and

00:59:10
not be worried about someone's going to sue me or I'm going to

00:59:13
be in trouble for that. So the California Constitution

00:59:16
actually protects even more. In fact, there was a case I

00:59:20
remember I had researched this a while ago, and the public

00:59:25
official sued somebody because they had a website where they

00:59:29
basically went on and on and on, called them all these horrible,

00:59:31
horrible things about nothing to do with him as a politician, how

00:59:36
he was a scumbag, how he was, you know, less of a man, stuff

00:59:40
like that. It was a horrible he basically

00:59:42
went on this whole rant on his website, public official sued

00:59:46
him, said this is defamation. It's harming me, It's public

00:59:50
harm to myself and to my reputation.

00:59:52
The court side with the guy with the website and said, look,

00:59:55
you're a public figure. Everything goes so sorry.

00:59:59
That's the you know, that's the free speech under the California

01:00:02
Constitution is a free speech under the 1st Amendment of the

01:00:04
US Constitution. I'm sorry.

01:00:07
So at the end of the day. Not the greatest.

01:00:11
Look for old noodles that he's trying to be tough against

01:00:16
Donald Trump by suing Fox News because that's not taking it to

01:00:20
Donald Trump. Suing Fox News is not taking it

01:00:23
to Donald Trump. I don't know how that's supposed

01:00:27
to make him look tougher to Donald Trump.

01:00:29
It's just his fight with Fox News, which he likes to go on,

01:00:32
by the way. So it's interesting he sues Fox

01:00:34
News even though he likes going on Fox News.

01:00:37
But let me know when you're in the comments what you think

01:00:39
about Gavin Newsom and whether or not this is just another weak

01:00:44
move or a weak publicity stunt on his part to try and get some

01:00:48
notoriety and to look tough before the 2028 election.

01:00:54
All right, got a couple minutes here.

01:00:57
Thank you, everyone for tuning in.

01:01:00
This was a wild night. You guys were killing it in the

01:01:02
chat. Thank you for tuning in live

01:01:04
again. I think the 8:00 at on Tuesday

01:01:07
seems to work for everybody. Brett says, hey, Gavin, never

01:01:13
heard of discovery. He's so dumb.

01:01:15
Remember the lady in the Palisades?

01:01:16
And Gavin was on the phone with Trump but could not get a

01:01:19
signal? Yep.

01:01:21
Yeah, I remember that. He said he was on the phone with

01:01:23
the president. And then he said I'm trying to

01:01:27
get to the president. Let's see to do sorry.

01:01:32
I'm a lot of disgusted with the the Democrats in California.

01:01:36
The status. Yep.

01:01:39
I'd like to know if he's using taxpayer money for his stupid

01:01:41
lawsuit. He's not he's not.

01:01:44
I had to double check that that was my first question.

01:01:46
He's not he's doing this as an individual.

01:01:48
I wouldn't be surprised if he's using campaign fun or like his

01:01:52
was it Campaign for democracy is his PAC that he has a frivolous

01:01:56
lawsuit Rada. Yeah, that's, Yep, no one in the

01:02:01
state of California likes Gavin Newsom.

01:02:03
Jonathan, I think you're completely right.

01:02:05
I, I have yet to meet an ardent Gavin Newsom supporter, which is

01:02:11
I've, I haven't met someone who's like, I love Gavin Newsom.

01:02:14
I, you know, there are people who love politicians and they

01:02:16
have pictures of them and they think they're amazing.

01:02:19
I have yet to meet one person, especially in a blue city like

01:02:23
San Diego. I've yet to meet one person who

01:02:25
loves Gavin Newsom or really likes Gavin Newsom.

01:02:30
I'm just finishing up some quote or chats here.

01:02:36
Just want to make sure I recognize you guys for all being

01:02:39
here and hanging out with me on this Tuesday night.

01:02:43
Doesn't the Fair Use Act in 1976 bar them from enforcing A

01:02:46
copyright strike? Yes, yes, excellent point,

01:02:52
Brett. It is fair use.

01:02:55
He's a politician. You can use it in a

01:02:57
transformative way if you're commenting on something.

01:03:00
We had done an episode on his first podcast episode and we got

01:03:05
dinged because you're not supposed to use his footage.

01:03:09
So stuff like I've been showing like news clips and stuff like

01:03:13
that, that's fair use because it's news.

01:03:15
It's it's dissemination of public information.

01:03:17
News is considered something that has to be publicly

01:03:19
disseminated. The clip of him at the press

01:03:22
conference with Scott Weiner, that is fair use because it's

01:03:27
more public affairs, stuff like that.

01:03:29
But even then, if you're using something you're commenting on

01:03:31
it, that's fair use. But this is a very, this is a

01:03:37
new area of where Gavin Newsom is using iHeartRadio to

01:03:40
copyright strike channels. There was one guy who got hit

01:03:44
hard with it's another podcast. He was talking about Gavin

01:03:47
Newsom. He got hit with a copyright

01:03:48
strike for using it. The frog feeder.

01:03:50
I just found this channel. I like it.

01:03:52
Thanks for finding us the Frog Feeder.

01:03:55
Welcome to the channel. Is Trump going to stop being

01:03:59
president if they sue him for defamation?

01:04:01
No, I don't think so. I don't think Trump is worried

01:04:03
about that. Bump, bump.

01:04:06
Butte County is MAGA red. It's interesting the amount of

01:04:10
red that's actually in California outside of the like

01:04:14
blue cities. Like if you actually look at

01:04:15
like a breakdown of precincts in California, there's a lot of

01:04:19
red. So Gavin Newsom needs to resign.

01:04:22
I I don't I think he will ever plan on residing again.

01:04:27
It's that whole idea of him. Politicians don't like to admit

01:04:30
that they're wrong. Newsom has done nothing but

01:04:34
losses lately. He is done.

01:04:36
He won't make it past the primary if he even tries.

01:04:39
The primary is going to be interesting.

01:04:40
I I'm interested to see the Democratic primary.

01:04:44
Get your popcorn. Yeah.

01:04:47
Hello, silent viewers. Thank you, Brett, for for

01:04:49
bringing them up. If you.

01:04:50
Yeah, thank you, Brett, for supporting.

01:04:52
They're also trying to take our Roosters.

01:04:54
Not the Roosters. AB92A.

01:04:56
I'm gonna have to look into that.

01:04:58
I know Camille is a big she has chickens as well.

01:05:03
All right, all right, everyone, thank you for tuning in, hitting

01:05:10
that like button, hitting that subscribe button, all that

01:05:12
stuff. Good luck.

01:05:14
California get worse and Lewis it turns red.

01:05:16
San Francisco. I've always said I've always

01:05:20
said that, you know, red is a long way away.

01:05:25
I will take I will take purple AB928I might have to look into

01:05:33
that the frog fader and I might have to do a quick video on

01:05:36
AB928 that they're taking away Roosters.

01:05:38
That's pretty crazy. I will say this to those in the

01:05:44
chat right now who are watching and tuning in.

01:05:48
I would take in five years, let's say five to seven years, I

01:05:53
would take a purple California in a heartbeat.

01:05:57
A purple California is a heck of a lot better than a deep blue

01:06:03
California. I'm just saying it's a

01:06:04
competitive state. It would be a swing state.

01:06:06
Purple California would be way better.

01:06:10
You have to, you have to progress.

01:06:12
This is politics. Things slowly change, has to go

01:06:15
from deep blue to purple and then it kind of moves.

01:06:19
So we'll see the progression. But hey, you know, 5048% of

01:06:27
Californians said that they are willing to consider voting for a

01:06:30
Republican governor in 2026. So who knows?

01:06:35
Crazy things have happened. I'm just going to say that.

01:06:38
And that's why somebody brought up.

01:06:39
Is there any hope? I think there is.

01:06:41
There's always hope. And I will say this, I'll, I'll

01:06:44
probably end the show just like this.

01:06:46
When I first started doing this podcast, things are pretty

01:06:50
bleak. But I feel like over this, you

01:06:53
know how many years I've been doing this since 2018.

01:06:56
I feel like there's a lot of people paying attention now and

01:06:59
it's slowly changing and I think there's hope.

01:07:03
So all right, that's our show for tonight.

01:07:07
Thank you so much everyone for tuning in.

01:07:10
If you like the show, make sure you obviously like share,

01:07:14
subscribe, all that stuff. If you're on YouTube, make sure

01:07:16
you hit that notification bell. That helps as well.

01:07:18
Also on Spotify, Google, make sure you leave a review.

01:07:22
Reviews help with the audio podcast helps people find us

01:07:25
more and we will see it on the next one.

01:07:29
Have a good night everybody.