Quick Hits Before Recording- Prop 50 Keeps on Giving
Here are some facts to consider
Texas currently, if the redistricting works as planned, will go from 13 out of 38 seats with D’s down to 8 out of 38. 13 was 34% of a State’s Congressional delegation with a 42% vote for Kamala in 2024. 8 seats now represent 21% of the delegation.
Contrast those figures with California. We were 9 out of 52 seats before Prop 50 passed. Now we are 4 out of 52 if it all works out for D’s (a little on that below). Before Prop 50, we were 17% of our seats for 38% of the electorate who voted for Trump. Now? We are down to 7%. I guess to the victors goes the spoils, but do not think this is a good thing for California or that “democracy is Texas was threatened” when even with the changes in redistricting, the D’s were more represented in Texas than the R’s were here in California before Prop 50. Where was this analysis before during Prop 50? No one wanted to say it because then California would not be so outraged. Duped again. Stay classy California.
The early returns on surveys related to the Billionaire’s Tax Act, or Beat Their Ass, show a huge win for the play. Per the new California Post, the BTA could pass with about 60% of the vote. See, keep tweaking us to blame others- our President, Billionaires, phantom sources of Power, and put the Power in the hands of those looking to gain, and you get what is about to happen. We said Prop 50 was about pushing California further left, not what would happen in DC per se, and here you have it. The Progressives are indeed on the march (more on that below too).
To the Billionaire’s complaining about the BTA on the way, I point them to “Effective Altruism” as the roots of their Billionaire’s tax. The rich billionaire tech moguls said it- “they were willing to give away their wealth.” The admission of concentration of wealth and the need to “equalize the playing field” opened the door to these discussions. Well, now you get it, you reap what you sow, but not where you control it, rather, where others come for what you have, property rights be damned. In fact, I have not heard a word about Effective Altruism and its roots for these efforts, and one wonders why. For those VC’s and supporters of the young wealthy, you get what you sow. Effective Altruism is turning into Effective Seizure or Effective Failure for our Government (I will get a better slogan). I do hope the folks fighting the BTA are better than the people who fought Prop 50. There has to be a point of stopping the madness, regardless of whether billionaires deserve what they are getting or not (see Matt Mahan and is his reasons for opposition because wealthy borrow against their wealth to not pay any tax on income to understand where some equalization should occur). We have some ideas but those are probably too pragmatic for our populace. Why would we give more to the people who have failed us again and again here in LA and California?
And you want a preview of the effects of such a tax, look at Councilwoman Raman and her comments about building after the effects of Measure ULA came in. Oops, nobody wants to build in LA anymore. You think the same won’t happen with the BTA? It is not a “mansion tax.” It killed development. She said it. People won’t build here, but asks why? The BTA will drive the business out of California with Unicorns (start ups worth $1 billion) first to leave. They will be mythical creatures in California in the future. Sure, there will be legal challenges which will likely succeed, but if 60% support it, eventually something will get through. The interlude will provide a lot of folks the chance to get out of here.
Meanwhile you have a Governor posing as the “establishment man” for multiple media publications as he makes his push for his book and Presidential campaign. He used the Left to get his Prop 50 through, though because he now claims to be a supporter of the opposition to the BTA, he is Establishment? The New Yorker had a hell of a long write up on him, and he out and out said he is Establishment, looking to co-opt Rahm Emmanuel’s lane as he does not appeal to the center of the nation. I think he is one of the only people who think he is Establishment but say what you want. In this world, if you say it enough, and if the media prints it enough, it becomes true- look at Trump.
Back to the question of the Establishment and “Prop 50’s tigers” being unleashed, I point everyone to Politico’s Playbook today.
FIRST IN PLAYBOOK: VALLEY BRAWL — The United Auto Workers have endorsed Randy Villegas, the progressive Visalia school board member challenging Rep. David Valadao, over his more moderate Democratic opponent, Assemblymember Jasmeet Bains. Villegas, a political science professor at College of the Sequoias, was a UAW member when he was working as a teaching assistant during his graduate program.
“In these unprecedented times where things keep getting tougher and tougher for families, we need new political leaders like Randy who come from the working class, are union members, and actually understand the struggles that working people across the country are facing,” said Rafael Jaime, president of UAW 4811 and chair of UAW Western States PAC.
Villegas outraised Bains last quarter, bringing in $374,000 compared to her nearly $300,000. He also has around $100,000 more on hand, with $538,000. He received 55 percent of the voteduring the California Democratic Party’s preendorsement process compared to Bains’ 45 percent; a caucus will weigh an endorsement at the party’s convention later this month.
The top Democrat in the primary will be up against a large warchest in one of the nation’s closest-watched swing districts. Valadao raised $618,000 last quarter and had $2.1 million on hand at the end of the year.
Looks like the Progressives are out-raising the Establishment Democrat by over 25% in this race. Might the R’s squeeze through because of the D’s running too far to the left or will the D’s continue their march to the Progressives? Either way, you reap what you sow, the theme of today’s post.