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Apparently, Kamala Harris is having difficulty ginning up the funds for a gubernatorial run. Turns out donors have long memories:
<p data-t=”{"n":"blueLinks","t":13,"a":"click","b":76}”>Kamala Harris is ramping up efforts to connect with long-term supporters as she considers a gubernatorial run in California to replace term-limited Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom.</p>
<p data-t=”{"n":"blueLinks","t":13,"a":"click","b":76}”>However, as Politico reports, many Democratic donors remain hesitant, still reeling from the disappointment of her defeat in the 2024 presidential election by Donald Trump.</p><p data-t=”{"n":"blueLinks","t":13,"a":"click","b":76}”>Says one Democratic donor:</p>
<p data-t=”{"n":"blueLinks","t":13,"a":"click","b":76}”>“I’ve written so many checks because I knew the Trump administration would be horrible, but we’re living in a nightmare because of the Democrats. I’m furious at them, truly.”</p>
<p data-t=”{"n":"blueLinks","t":13,"a":"click","b":76}”>Kamala Harris is trying to gain momentum for a California governor run — but ‘no one is incredibly pumped,’ report says</p>
Trump wants to buy it on the cheap, $100k for every Greenland citizen…less than $6 billion…for a territory with an estimated $5 trillion in minerals and incalculable strategic importance.
The odd irony is that the black market (really just a standard market) was the only thing that worked in Communist countries.
And here comes Katie Wilson to fix all of it. It is uncharitable to say, but she looks like a low-watt bulb to me, same as Mamdani.
Meet the socialist Mamdani-style mayor just elected to run West Coast’s 5th largest city
Mayor Katie Wilson, a self-described Socialist Democrat, who was the head of a Transit Rider nonprofit (she earned $73k in 2022) wants a payroll tax on private employers to fund affordable housing, rent freezes, etc. doesn’t own a car. She and her husband rent a one-bedroom apartment.
She has prohibited the Seattle PD from arresting open drug use in Seattle.
Seattle police union condemns new socialist mayor’s drug enforcement approach as ‘suicidal empathy’
Per the article, “death, decay, blight and crime” are right around the corner.
https://www.opb.org/article/2023/08/23/joint-office-homeless-portland-audit/ Similar story in Seattle. Locally, the budget for fighting homelessness is $265M/year. Portland’s homeless population is estimated at 5000. It would be cheaper to just buy a house for each of them.
That’s $53,000 in annual homeless spend for each. There are 5,108 houses for sale in the state of Michigan between $5,000 and $53,000. Send the homeless to Michigan, try to get them jobs. Pay 1/2 the cost of the house this year and the other half to fix it up as necessary. Do the rest the subsequent year.
Presto. Problem solved.
In a way, I feel for Lefty politicians. They are absolutely, completely and totally in thrall to billionaire donors (yes, like Soros) in order to enact their Progressive agenda. But the single, enormous catch is Don’t F With The Tax Advantages Enjoyed By Billionaires.
I’m still convinced Kamala would have won had she attacked the wealthy. Robbing Peter to pay Paul will always get Paul’s vote. She brought it up and mysteriously stopped referencing tax hikes on the rich after two days. And now, Newsom has to choose: offend Democrat Money Sources or Do The Right Thing According to Progressives.
Couldn’t happen to a nicer fella, in my humble opinion.
In Wilson and Mamdani, Americans are seeing the logical result of concentrating wealth and resources in the top 1%/.001%. Frankly, Kamala Harris would have won if she’d embraced the soak-the-rich narrative. She started to, then was clearly warned off by one or more of the 173 billionaires who have donated to Democrats since 2020. George Clooney, much as he hated Kamala Harris, hates high taxes. Gavin Newsom, one-time darling of the Progressives, is dead set against wealth taxes.
It’s a message that resonates with the masses. If you rob Peter to pay Paul, you will always have Paul’s vote. And the American electorate has become weaker and older, on average, with fewer and fewer able-bodied people and profitable companies to pay the freight. So, using the logic of noted bank robber Willie Sutton who said he robbed banks because “that’s where the money is” Wilson and Mamdani will take more from the wealthy, because that’s where the money is.
Both Wilson and Mamdani will fail, of course. They sold an economic vision to credulous masses that they can make their lives better. And in some small, soon-to-be-well-publicized ways, they will achieve it. But in the main, they won’t.
I’m particularly interested to see how they play to reduce prices at small grocery stores. Both Mamdani and Wilson have focused on grocery prices as a main concern. My father owned a small grocery store for 21 years. Margins are already very thin, they have almost no room for error, and you have to be an adept businessperson to squeak by. After 21 years, Dad sold the business to his store manager, who went bankrupt inside of two years.
But Mamdani and Wilson, two young idiots who’ve never run a business will solve that issue. Can’t wait to see how that works.
Incidentally, Wilson has publicly stated she wants higher taxes on businesses, higher capital gains taxes and she has criticized Washington’s lack of a state income tax. And Mamdani is calling for an end to “rugged individualism.”
Mamdani’s call to end ‘rugged individualism’ sparks backlash | Watch
Strong men create good times. Good times create weak men. Weak men create bad times. Enter the bad times.
Not too surprised. $20/hour minimums at fast food restaurants — except at Panera, owned by Newsom’s good buddy, which was exempted. Some restaurant chains are sounding the alarm about consumers
Panera Bread out of dough—mass closures planned across all 48 states | Watch
This is awesome. Now that Panera doesn’t have to pay the $20 minimum wage (because it was classified as a “bakery” — also because the owner is newsom’s buddy), it is ceasing bakery options on site and centralizing bakery options in off-site mega-bakeries. Absolutely outstanding.
Two days before Christmas, Mayor Lurie signed a bill approving a fund for reparations, though it doesn’t allocate any money. Interestingly, the NAACP SF chapter is against it. Reverend Amos Brown says it gives the city’s 50,000 black residents false hope.
London Breed said (of course) that actual reparations should be handled at the federal level.
San Francisco mayor sneaks through reparations bill that could give each black resident $5 million
San Francisco expects a $1 billion deficit next year.
Arby’s closed 62 stores in eight states, firing 1,400 workers, including California, Delaware, Florida, Maryland, New Jersey, South Carolina, Tennessee and Washington. Sales down 6.3% in 2024 (all fast food sales were down 1%). They closed an iconic Hollywood location.
Arby’s pulls out in 8 states in largest fast food layoff of 2025 – 1,400 jobs gone overnight | Watch
QSR 50 2025: Top Fast-Food Sandwich Chains, Ranked by Sales – QSR Magazine
Arby’s, Wendy’s and Burger King are all expected to close further locations in 2026. Friend of mine owned four BK franchises, said business was tough but the $20/hr. wage minimum killed it.
Right, that’s what I was referring to in the opening line of my last paragraph. There’s a tax proposed on the 200 Californians with fortunes of over $1 billion, a supposedly one-time, temporary 5% tax on their net worth over $1 billion with an option to spread the payments over five years (but paying interest if the billionaire in question spreads it out). Real Estate, pensions and retirement accounts are excluded from the wealth calculation. The fund would be aimed at health care spending (90%) with a smaller amount to K-12 education and SNAP funding (10%).
A Texas law firm is weighing in on the eight separate legal challenges that Billionaires would likely make against the act:
- Dormant Commerce. All new taxes must be applied to an activity substantially within the nexus state, must be fairly apportioned, must be nondiscriminatory against interstate commerce and be fairly related to the services the state provides. Worldwide assets and generated wealth would be subject to the tax.
- Retroactivity. You can’t tax people who were residents of CA retroactively, per Due Process clauses in both U. S. and CA constitutions.
- Bill of Attainder. U.S. Constitution forbids states from enacting laws that single out specific individuals or groups and imposes punishment.
- Equal Protection Clause in both CA and US Constitutions, argues that a wealth tax discriminates between ultra-wealthy and everyone else.
- 0.04% Tax Cap. Under CA Constitution, property tax cannot exceed 0.04% of the value on a variety of isntruments, which is why the bill’s proponents are referring to it as an excise tax, not a wealth tax.
- Uniformity. Under CA Constitution, all property taxes must be assessed at the same percentage of fair market value.
- Right to Travel. Can’t levy taxes on people who have left the state and are no longer residents.
- Takings Clause. The state and Fed govt’ can’t take private property without providing just compensation.
California 2026 Billionaire Tax Act | Thought Leadership | Baker Botts
I read years ago that your waiter is an inverse predictor of economic times. When you have a terrible waiter, the economy is doing great because the good waiters have better jobs. When you have a great waiter, the economy is terrible because the waiter can’t find a better job.
(Trump is not now, and never has been, a threat to the Republic. He is a threat to a system of ordered values that are so dear to the heart of a coterie academic and intellectual elites that they confuse it with the Republic itself. The resemblance to Andrew Jackson almost exactly 200 years ago is uncanny, down to the personality disorder.
Might be the best paragraph I’ve read on this board. Because that’s the nature of the Left. They’ve won so much and so often that they equate their system of ordered values with that of the Republic. And Trump is a genuine threat to their ordered values.
As for the wealth tax proposals that have been advanced…no, none of them bear resemblance to your wealth tax proposal, GR, and I’m not certain that they ever will…not even Mitt Romney, who proposed an estate tax on estates over $100 million at death:
Opinion | Mitt Romney: Tax the Rich, Like Me – The New York Times
Odd to me how so many Democrats protect the wealthy. Like Adams opposing the NYC rent freeze. Maybe I should be for it given that my son is renting in southern Manhattan:
New York Mayor Adams moves to block Zohran Mamdani’s 2026 rent freeze
I hope it happens. The challenge we face is that every two years, short-term thinking prevails.
Along those lines, Newsom’s popularity has increased. Hisfavorability rating increased from 46% to 56% and the California legislature’s rating has improved from 45% to 53%.
Newsom’s favorability rating surges in California – POLITICO
The challenge with short-term thinking is that it’s great…until you hit an obstacle or you run out of other people’s money.
