Spencer Pratt is calling Karen Bass "Karen Basura" over the Boyle Heights warehouse fire — and while his delivery is pure reality TV, the documented $17.6 million fire department budget cut he's pointing to is real. We dig into the permit history, the budget records, and why the firefighters' union is now bypassing City Hall to ask voters directly for funding.
Then: Gavin Newsom wants a national billionaire tax as part of his "economic reset for America" — in the same week he's voting no on the billionaire tax already on California's own November ballot. We break down the contradiction, what his own state's nonpartisan analyst says about billionaires leaving, and why members of his own party are calling his federal plan watered down.
No team. Just receipts.
Phil's book, The Gilded State, digs deeper into how California's political class operates — find it at www.thegildedstate.com.
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Substack: https://caunderground.substack.com/The Gilded State: https://www.thegildedstate.com