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Now the Wall Street billionaires are fighting back by backing Elise Stefanik, a Republican in the New York state governor’s race.
Wall Street billionaires plot to cripple Mamdani over dinner at White House
Henry Kravis, Stephen Schwarzman, David Solomon, Jamie Dimon, Adena Friedman, Larry Fink, Jeffrey Speecher.
Newsom is the best positioned Democratic presidential candidate for 2028. Just ask Politico:
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2025/11/15/gavin-newsom-interview-2028-frontrunner-00652362
This is a chart showing (a) how interest payments as a percentage of Federal revenue have grown over time and (b) how the growth of that percentage has accelerated.
Meaning we’re in vast fiscal trouble. There are too many needs, real and perceived, that the politicians want to fund, so they keep borrowing against the future. It’s going to crash at some point, and it’s already raised inflation to ridiculous heights.
Fiscal Year Interest Payments as % of Federal Revenue ~ 1991 ~ 8 % (interest cost reached high mark then) Peterson Foundation+2AAF+2 ~ 2008 ~ 9.6 % (interest payments ≈ $242 billion out of tax revenue ≈ $2.5 trillion) Wikipedia+1 ~ 2024-25 ~ 18–19 % (interest payments projected to be ~19% of revenues) AAF+2Trading Economics+2 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
GR, your wealth tax concept is about to get a real-world test.
A ballot initiative in California is being proposed by the healthcare workers union. A one-time, 5% tax on California’s 255 billionaires, solely on their wealth over $1 billion. Supporters say it could raise $100 billion and offset looming cuts to Medicaid.
Not surprisingly, Gavin Newsom is against it. Newsom’s team is launching a PAC called “Stop the Squeeze,” correctly terming it a “can of worms sliding down a slippery slope (two cliches at once, must be good) by taxing cars, houses, wheelbarrows and everything else.”
San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan is against it for the best reason (I think) stating that “I don’t know that people fully appreciate the vulnerability we face as a state when it comes to our revenue sources.” True that. 1/3rd of CA revenue comes from the Top 1%.
The California Campaign to Introduce a First-of-Its-Kind Billionaire’s Tax – WSJ
I take it back. Climate change is so critically important to Newsom that he acted as stand-in for the American president at the recent international climate leadership event, jetting down to Brazil which is 5,000 miles away from California.
Newsom sells out the US at latest hypocritical climate conference
California Republican Governor candidate is no fan of Newsom and cites the fact that half of California’s oil comes from environmentally fragile Amazon rain forests, including those in Brazil. He believes Newsom is a virtue-signaling climate hypocrite:
Wendy’s closing 300 stores. They closed 240 last year.
Wendy’s to close hundreds of US stores in bid to halt falling profit
Here’s the results of the Princeton gerrymandering project by state, color-coded:
Here are the 50 states. First three columns lists percentage of registered voters by party. For those states that do not register by party, I did percentage of voters in last election (except Michigan). Next three columns are percentage of congressional representation by party. It is sorted by seventh column (disparity between registered Democratic voters and the percentage of congressional participants, so if Oklahoma has 38% registered Democrats and 0% Democrats in Congress, it is represented as +38%, favoring Republicans.
The Princeton Gerrymandering project is listed in the last column; Good, Fair (some bias), OK (average), Bad (poor). Last two states, not enough data:
State Reg Dem% Reg Repub% Reg Other% Cong Dem% Cong Repub%$ Cong Other% Diff PGP WV 34% 44% 22% 0% 100% 0% 34% Good KY 46% 49% 5% 13% 88% 0% 34% Good NE 28% 45% 27% 0% 100% 0% 28% Good SD 28% 50% 22% 0% 100% 0% 28% Good MT 26% 45% 29% 0% 100% 0% 26% Good ID 24% 93% -17% 0% 100% 0% 24% Good WY 20% 64% 16% 0% 100% 0% 20% Good MO 34% 47% 19% 20% 80% 0% 14% Good AL 36% 55% 9% 22% 78% 0% 14% Good IN 25% 31% 44% 18% 82% 0% 7% Good VA 52% 30% 18% 54% 46% 0% -2% Good AZ 29% 35% 35% 45% 55% 0% -16% Good NY 53% 25% 22% 75% 25% 0% -22% Good MN 34% 38% 28% 60% 40% 0% -26% Good CO 30% 27% 43% 60% 40% 0% -30% Good WA 52% 28% 20% 83% 17% 0% -31% Good MD 53% 23% 24% 90% 10% 0% -37% Good NJ 38% 21% 41% 79% 21% 0% -41% Good DE 48% 28% 24% 100% 0% 0% -52% Good MI 0% 0% 0% 53% 47% 0% -53% Good RI 43% 12% 45% 100% 0% 0% -57% Good MA 35% 10% 55% 100% 0% 0% -65% Good CT 30% 16% 54% 100% 0% 0% -70% Good IA 33% 35% 32% 0% 100% 0% 33% Fair PA 45% 39% 16% 42% 58% 0% 3% Fair ME 36% 29% 35% 50% 25% 25% -14% Fair CA 48% 24% 28% 83% 17% 0% -35% Fair NH 25% 23% 52% 100% 0% 0% -75% Fair OK 38% 52% 10% 0% 100% 0% 38% OK AR 15% 25% 60% 0% 100% 0% 15% OK AL 12% 24% 63% 0% 100% 0% 12% OK MS 24% 29% 47% 17% 83% 0% 7% OK SC 41% 49% 10% 11% 89% 0% 30% Bad ND 29% 43% 28% 0% 100% 0% 29% Bad LA 41% 47% 11% 25% 75% 0% 16% Bad TX 47% 38% 15% 33% 68% 0% 15% Bad UT 13% 60% 27% 0% 100% 0% 13% Bad FL 38% 41% 21% 27% 73% 0% 12% Bad NC 36% 28% 37% 25% 75% 0% 11% Bad KS 26% 47% 26% 17% 83% 0% 10% Bad TN 18% 34% 48% 9% 91% 0% 9% Bad OH 31% 31% 38% 29% 71% 0% 2% Bad WI 31% 37% 32% 30% 70% 0% 1% Bad GA 43% 27% 30% 44% 56% 0% -1% Bad IL 38% 28% 34% 84% 16% 0% -46% Bad NV 37% 36% 27% 83% 17% 0% -46% Bad OR 33% 26% 41% 88% 13% 0% -54% Bad NM 45% 31% 24% 100% 0% 0% -55% Bad VT 53% 20% 27% 67% 0% 33% -14% ??? HI 38% 14% 48% 100% 0% 0% -62% ??? 35.0% 35.3% 29.6% Let’s throw in the 2020 Illinois hyperpartisan redistricting. Illinois lost two seats in the census. Illinois has a long history of both parties abusing the process when they control the state legislature. But the congressional map drawn by Democrats after the 2020 Census is a modern masterpiece of the craft. It successfully transformed the state’s congressional delegation from 13 Democrats and 5 Republicans to 14 Democrats and just 3 Republicans.
Very impressive. As part of the redistricting, they specifically organized it to include two very large Hispanic populations, so the district is referred to as “the earmuffs” for its resemblance:
And that was the issue with Texas. It’s why the courts (not Trump) forced it to undo its original gerrymandered map, because it was taking race into account, and the USSC says that is not acceptable.
BTW, California is already gerrymandered in favor of Democrats. California registered Democrats as a percentage of overall registered voters: 44.8%. Current percentage of CA-Democrats in House of Representatives (45/54) 83.3%.
In other words, Democrats already have nearly twice their registered representation in Congress. But that’s not enough for Gerrymanderer-in-chief, Gavin Newsom. By redrawing the maps, Republicans will lose five seats, giving Democrats (50/54) 92.6% of the congressional representation in a state that has 25.41% registered Republicans.
Pretty impressive. It’s rare to see a politician that slimy, that oleaginous, whose rank hypocrisy is stratospheric compared to the average hypocritical politician. But he’s doubling down and literally taking his act on the road to encourage other Democratic politicians to gerrymander.
But instead of blaming Texas for initiating this latest race to the bottom, you blame California for responding? It’s hard to take the faux outrage seriously when there’s not even a simple mention of Texas or any of the numerous red states that have been redrawing maps for years now, often unlawfully.
Both parties have been gerrymandering for years, dating back to the early 19th century when Governor Gerry of Massachusetts created a district that looked like a salamander, hence “gerrymandering.” Before that, it began in the UK when the term of art was “rotten boroughs” or creating districts with so few voters that they could literally be bought.
Texas is responding to a court order forcing them to redistrict to eliminate race as a consideration. I noticed you didn’t mention that.
You also didn’t mention that Illinois Democrats did the same thing in 2020. It was so blatant that even uber-Lefty Stephen Colbert challenged Gov Pritzker on it AND it was singled out with an “F” grade by Lefty academia Princeton University Gerrymandering project. Illinois lost two seats in the 2020 census, and the Democratic legislature gerrymandered it so that the Democrats gained a seat and the Republicans lost three seats.
And, of course, you didn’t mention that. Why would you? You’re a hyperpartisan who will only criticize Republicans.
Agreed, nothing was a surprise yesterday. Disappointing, but not a surprise. Gavin’s gloating today was enough to gag a maggot. As for NJ, my daughter interned for Josh Gottheimer, who lost to Mikie in the gubernatorial primary; she was well funded, he more middle of the road, and heaven forbid, as his Jewish, took money from AIPAC. He never had a chance, nor did Jack. It’s interesting that the Mikie’s baggage from a cheating scandal and Jay Jones, the new top legal official in VA who wanted to see his rival and his rival’s wife and children killed so he could piss on their graves, both get elected.
Every so often, we need a reminder that the common voter is just as self-interested a scuzzbucket as the people they elect. So they elected a man who wishes to see his rival’s family killed so he could desecrate their graves…to the top law enforcement position in the great state of Virginia.
Very little is jaw-dropping in politics. Sad to say, this isn’t jaw dropping either. Glad I don’t live there anymore.
Be interesting to watch what happens in New York with the new Socialist mayor. Will there be a flight of the rich? Will the rest of the party understand how very popular it is to raise taxes on the ultra-wealthy? Or even the near-wealthy? All the top Democrats come from high-tax, high-success economy states. Once they discover that it is politically popular to raise taxes on the upper middle class and wealthier, will they commit to that approach? Kamala Harris brought it up, then backed off, I’m guessing, because representatives of the 173 billionaires who backed Democrats informed her that raising the low taxes on the wealthy was the real third rail of politics.
I’m guessing that Democrats will interpret this year’s elections and the 2026 mid-terms as both anti-Trump and anti-wealthy.
Should be interesting…
That’s the mantra of the left pushing Prop 50. It’s a done deal, sadly. Who the voters are really sticking it to are their fellow Californians who live in a different areas and have different needs as citizens. But who cares about them? Whatever happened to no taxation without representation? Gerrymandering is hurting rural CA citizens, and there’s nothing they can do about it. They have no representation. Shameful. On a side note, I’ve not be posting here for months. For some reason I’ve not added it to my bookmarks and lost track. Anyway, a quick update, looks like we’re headed out of CA towards the much more open and accepting state of Alabama. After a mere 13 months at Bama, our daughter is killing it. Currently she’s the youngest Speaker of the Student Government Association Senate, and is also the VP of the Alabama Panhellenic Society (the largest sorority system in the world). She interned in DC last summer for a Dem congressman from NJ, and made a slew of connections. Nothing here for her, she’s made her own place, and we’re happy to follow. Having the in-laws in T-town, especially with my father in law suffering from early onset, it’s great to be there. Gas, $2.56 a gallon, too.
Welcome back, CardCrimson. And congratulations to your daughter that sounds really cool…
