I'm not aware that the legislature turns down many

of these ideas.

Well, and there is the thing that she can do.

Right.

Because right now we want insurance companies to come back into California.

We want a robust market competing for business so everyone can get the best insurance possible for the lowest price possible.

And in order for them to come back, they've got to be able to be profitable.

Absolute nonsense.

Vance in the lead, essentially blaming Trump for initiating the Iran war and allowing the Dems to run the tables in the midterms.

I guess the first thing I would say is, and by the way, it's always a pleasure to be on the show with Steve.

Steve and I disagree on almost everything, but yet I find him to be one of the most agreeable people that I know.

So I don't want to disarm what should be an otherwise raucous debate between us.

I'd get a beer with Steve anytime.

I would vote for him never.

This was a referendum on the job that the president is doing, which is often the case in the midterms.

Is this, again, just a huge rebuke of Trump? And what do you see as the path back for Republicans in California?

Where would you like to start, John?

Well, let's start by talking about what we are going to focus on here on Radio Free California, what we're not going to focus on.

We're not going to spend a bunch of time talking about the national impact of the elections and what happened all the way across the country, why Texas is about to have a Democrat governor, why the Senate flipped and now there's going to be a whole lot more Democrats than Republicans in the U.S. Senate.

If you're a National Review reader, the pages of National Review Online are replete with lots of information about that.

We're going to focus on California and about how sometimes there is a blue wave that crashes along the eastern side of the Rocky Mountains and never quite hits us.

But this was, as they call it, the blue tsunami.

And it blew right over the mountain range and right into California and wreaked its havoc.

What were the most important ones you were watching?

But if the cost of living doesn't give me the lifestyle I think I am entitled to, then I get restless.

Well, I think it frankly goes right back to the point I just made for you, which is that I think all of the policymakers have 401ks.

All the policymakers are benefiting from that part of the economy.

It's like, you know what? my groceries cost more but i made an extra hundred and eighty thousand dollars last year in the market well that person has a much different perspective than the person who's like well groceries are up and i don't even know what a 401k is Right.

Like and, you know, unless you can empathize with that person and understand that your policymaking goes hand in hand with it.

And as you said right at the opening, when you combine things like the tariffs, which, you know, Trump can call them whatever he wants, but it's the government making decisions.

restricting consumer choice of Americans and making everything more expensive.

What do you do with your identity at that point? Because it's all tied to

Yeah, go right through them.

Yeah.

And then we have Board of Equalization District 2.

This is the district that is like San Francisco Bay Area dominated.

Sally Lieber is an incumbent member.

She, of course, previous to that was the speaker pro tem of the state assembly.

Unlike a lot of these Bay Area Democrats, she has not served on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors.

Yeah.

Yeah, go right through them.

Yeah.

And then we have Board of Equalization District 2.

This is the district that is like San Francisco Bay Area dominated.

Sally Lieber is an incumbent member.

She, of course, previous to that was the speaker pro tem of the state assembly.

Unlike a lot of these Bay Area Democrats, she has not served on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors.

Yeah.

That's the billionaire wealth confiscation tax.

It is.

We'll try to cover this in short order.

So the two most important things for people to understand is what it is and why you need to vote no.

And the what it is is we've never had this before.

If this passes, they'd have to open up like a California Department of Wealth Taking.

Because there's currently no system in place for the state of California to go in, audit somebody's finances, what they're worth, and then go in and perform a taking.

And suddenly we're off to the races with this being a concept that is sellable to the people of California if you find the right cause and there's no end in sight.

That's the billionaire wealth confiscation tax.

It is.

We'll try to cover this in short order.

So the two most important things for people to understand is what it is and why you need to vote no.

And the what it is is we've never had this before.

If this passes, they'd have to open up like a California Department of Wealth Taking.

right because there's currently no system in place for the state of california to go in audit somebody's finances what they're worth and then go in and perform a taking and it's significant that everybody understand this next part because it's kind of complicated buried deep in this measure is a clause that says that the california legislature can pass another wealth tax on anyone they want any criteria they want with a two-thirds vote of the legislature and they never have to go back to the public for a vote.

And suddenly we're off to the races with this being a concept that is sellable to the people of California if you find the right cause and there's no end in sight.

uh, but let, let's get to your, your, your, I know you wrote about it, but just give us a capsule summary of your reactions about

her.

I will do that.

First of all, thank you for what you do.

You know, Spencer Pratt, I don't know if you saw earlier today was on X and he actually maybe it was yesterday.

He reposted your interview with Karen Bass and rightly said that you may be more than anybody in all of Los Angeles has really called.

the truth on the mayor's race and so it was really something that karen bass was actually in your studio um which uh which we talked about a little bit right before the show um she's on the studio for a reason but before i forget so that people know if you go to so does it matter.com 75 of my content is absolutely free so don't think you have to pay come on over get a free subscription sign up i've got about 10 000 people that just get this email twice a day And it's interesting and fun, and it's almost all free.

It's nothing esoteric,

All right, let's move on to State Controller, where, um, Malia Cohen, the Democrat, is running for re-election against Herb Morgan, the Republican.

Yeah.

So, um, Malia Cohen, and if you haven't heard of her, it's...

She's only been your State, uh, Controller since 2023, right? And, um, she was on the Board of Equalization, which we'll be talking a little bit about the Board of Equalization in a little bit.

Um, and once again, I hate to, to, to, to disparage the fine people in the city and county of San Francisco, this is another former San Francisco supervisor, right? Just kinda like, it's like, you know, we can't seem to get enough bad exports from this tiny little city that, um, you know, has an oversized, uh, in- influence.

Uh, Malia Cohen is, you know, just straight out of central casting from the special interests.

So you want a controller that is going to be, I don't know, actually being a watchdog and watching over the spending, and looking for fra- waste, fraud, and abuse, and instead you get someone who, again, represents the very special interests, the unions.

Uh, what's your take on that race?

All right, let's move on to State Controller, where, um, Malia Cohen, the Democrat, is running for re-election against Herb Morgan, the Republican.

Yeah, so, um, Malia Cohen, and if you haven't heard of her, it's...

She's only been your State, uh, Controller since 2023, right? And, um, she was on the Board of Equalization, which we'll be talking a little bit about the Board of Equalization in a little bit.

Uh, and once again, I hate to, to, to, to disparage the fine people in the city and county of San Francisco, this is another former San Francisco supervisor, right? Just kinda like, it's like, you know, we can't seem to get enough bad exports from this tiny little city that, um, you know, has an oversized, uh, i- influence.

Uh, Malia Cohen is, you know, just straight out of central casting from the special interests.

So you want a controller that is going to be, I don't know, actually being a watchdog and watching over the spending and looking for fra- waste, fraud, and abuse, and instead you get someone who, again, represents the very special interests, the unions.

It's literally the fox guarding the henhouse, or in this case, the fox guarding the fox den.

Uh, what's your take on that race?

If the Prop 40 passes with, say, 51 or 52%, and either Prop 41 or Prop 42 pass with a higher percentage, say 53 or 54%, what actually happens to the billionaire tax?

All right.

I'm glad you've asked this question, because this matters more than actually what's in Prop 41 and 42, which are decent reforms in and of themselves, but they're not the story, right? So in the California State Constitution, Article 2, Section 10 Bravo, it says the following in Provision B.

It says, "If provisions of two or more measures approved at the same election conflict, the provisions of the measure receiving the highest number of affirmative votes shall prevail." And that's the guiding point here.

Both of these measures have been written with things in them that conflict with items that are in the billionaire tax measure.

And so what everybody needs to understand for practical purposes, if you oppose the billionaire tax, you want to support these two measures, 'cause if either one of them gets one more vote than the billionaire tax, there is no billionaire tax.

So it's, it's like a, it's like a secondary a- uh, uh, uh, measure.

Um, but of all of these initiatives, which outcome on November 3rd do you think will tell us most about the future direction of California?

John, what's the governor up to with an AI kill switch and independent oversight of AI? Well,

it's kind of funny.

In addition to writing about California politics, I like to create political cartoons because I think an image says a lot.

And one of my most recent ones, I have Gavin Newsom.

He's opened up the door to the gubernatorial storage facility.

His wife is looking on while he is throwing out his end homelessness kill switch.

He's throwing out his end the high-speed rail kill switch.

That's right.

That's right.

We know what happens after that.

And then I'm going to end our quick discussion.

I'm going to end our, did you have another point you want to add? My job is to keep us moving.

The only thing I'm going to add is I think the important fundamental issue, which is at the end of the day, when people campaign for office, they're engaging in freedom of speech, which is great.

And in America, everyone has the right to say whatever they want.

But you as an American should not have your tax money taken from you compulsorily to fund the speech of others.

Can you be less moderate

[laughs]

It's like, like you're a voter, and it's like literally imagine that either candidate that you vote for causes you to go off the cliff, right? So it's a really, um, a difficult sc- scenario, and I think you've pointed it out really well.

You've got...

Basically what I think you have is in Karen Bass, you've got, like you said, this youthful ideologue.

You know, she...

Multiple trips to Cuba, lamenting the passing of Fidel Castro.

At her heart, she wants to be an ideologue, but then what she figures out is, "Oh my God, I'm, I'm running for mayor of Los Angeles, and all of these unions are gonna back me.

... using fake information to shift the responsibility and the liability to parties that had nothing to do with it, how is that not theft? How is that not a crime?

[laughs]

Uh, but, but the broader point is that he opened that up by publishing his memoir and by s- you know, understating what happened to the point where she was compelled by either a sudden need to tell the truth, combined with who knows what kind of a check from, from, uh, from Vanity Fair, and boom.

Now that opens up a keg of worms.

And now chapter three.

He, he...

Who releases their taxes but doesn't release their taxes? And the answer is somebody with something to hide, because you don't go through that kind of an exercise.

What you do is you say, "Hey, you know what? Go to gavinusom.com.

[laughs]

So what did everybody know about Swalwell all these years in Washington?

well here's here's what we what we do know you know so i've been doing political stuff for over three decades i've got plenty of friends on the other side of the aisle we kind of chat with each other i don't agree with them but you know you network and you know them so i start making phone calls and what i get back is everybody knows he's a womanizer everybody knows all these things about him but everybody wants to look the other way you know uh and i mean I mean, you've probably talked about it on the show, but when you have 55, not 10, not 15, but 55 former staff members of Congressman Swalwell basically all sign a letter saying, we believe the girls.

and not him and that that's just his former staff but it seems like there's no maybe i should put it another way there's nobody anywhere that i have talked to who is like oh my god eric swalwell you have to be kidding me he was just such a great guy and so you know you you very quickly come to the conclusion that that in washington in the california democrat party it's You know, it's probably a little bit on both parties, but there's this there's this kind of sense of like it's not really a problem until it's public.

And then when it's public, then, of course, you make a big statement and you say, oh, it's terrible.

It's horrible.

I pull my endorsement.

But as long as it's private and it's secret.

But Newsom was dating a 19-year-old when he was 38 some years ago, when he was in between marriages.

You know, if I'm running, if I wanted a bumper sticker for the show, that's what I'd use.

Yeah, so you got these people in Highland Park, and like you said, they've all downloaded an app.

I got an update on the app downloading for you that's new for the show.

No one's heard this before.

But they download this app, and then, yeah, anyone can hit a button, and then they can, you know, like imagine, you know, that sound you hear when, like, a tsunami is going to strike or whatever.

Yeah.

Or an earthquake is coming with supposedly with these hidden sirens.

Yeah, so is it already operational?

That's my official sexuality box that I check.

Yeah, so the Democrats all gathered at Moscone Center in San Francisco in front of like 3,500 of the most loony tune left.

You can only imagine what a California Democratic Party delegate looks like i mean you know they're all straight out of santa cruz berkeley santa monica you know the whole deal anyways they all went up there and they're all of their versions of affordability were how they're going to raise taxes like you literally like you and i would say hey get out of mirror because if there's a reason why california is more expensive than all 49 other states Notice this is not Trump now because all the states are different.

He's the national president, right? Why is this state more expensive than the others? And if you're listening to this show, you know that it's high taxes, high fees, and regulations, rinse, wash, repeat.

So all these people do is go to the convention and propose more taxes, fees.

And regulations.

And so the whole thing is just ludicrous and nutty.

He can't read and he's got a low SAT score.

John, how are you?

I'm doing fine, John, and you're not kidding.

You know, Gavin Newsom was very quick.

He went on X to call the expansion of the White House the knockoff Versailles and really let Donald Trump have it.

While he's got his own crazy thing going on at the Capitol, the ballroom expansion at the White House is estimated to cost around $400 million.

And as you pointed out, it's all coming from private money.

But here in California...

You sign the bill authorizing the budget.