Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar - 6/29/26: DSA Colorado Takeover, Europe Heat Wave, Newsom Tax Scam

Episode Date: June 29, 2026

Krystal and Emily discuss DSA Colorado takeover, Europe heat wave, Newsom tax scam. Julie Gonzales: https://www.julieforcolorado.com/ Melat Kiros: https://www.kirosforco.com/    To become a Breaking Points Premium Member and watch/listen to the show AD FREE, uncut and 1 hour early visit: www.breakingpoints.com    Merch Store: https://shop.breakingpoints.com/   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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We've got Malakiros, who's running in Colorado's first district, which is in Denver against Diana DeGette. And we have Julie Gonzalez, who is running for Senate against incumbent John Hickenlooper. Great to see you both again. Great things for having us. Yeah, of course. So, Julie, I'll start with you and then Malat after. How are you feeling about the race? What do you think are going to be the critical issues voters are focused on heading into election day?

What we have heard across the state that as we have been speaking to voters who feel like they have either been taken for granted or left behind altogether by the Democratic Party is that they want candidates who will be direct and honest with them about tackling the challenge. that we all are suffering, the cost of living, right? The fact that you are working harder than ever, three jobs plus a side hustle, just to afford the basics. And we'll be in Pueblo, Colorado later today, to speak with families and communities to fight for Medicare for all,

universal child and elder care, housing first policies, and the genocide, and to build an economy that actually work for folks like us, as opposed to continuing to bend the knee to Donald Trump and continuing to bend the knee to have broken politics that has too often forced us to settle for crumbs. And I can hear in your voice, you've been out campaigning hard. Malat, have you seen increased momentum since the DSA victories last week? I know Hassan Piker is coming out to campaign with you tomorrow.

he apparently has emerged as quite a kingmaker in the party. So congratulations on having him come and help you on here down the stretch. But have you seen more interest and more excitement nationally in your race since those very surprising victories last week? Yeah, absolutely. You know, what happened in New York, I think, was a referendum on the party, right? Voters made it abundantly clear that they're looking for fighters. Fighters that are going to fight for working families that are going to address our budget and make sure that it's a reflection of our moral priorities and protecting families here. at home, getting rid of homelessness here, addressing our health care crisis, and stopping,

you know, the genocides abroad with our taxpayer dollar complicity. But more than anything, I think what happened in New York is giving a lot of voters here permission to have hope that we actually can vote in, you know, challengers that are, you know, fighting for working families and are fighting to end the corruption in our government and are actually getting to the root cause of all the issues that we're seeing in our economy and our democracy and our climate. And I'll stick with you for a moment, actually, because you're getting a lot of attention online for this response on MSNBC where you said, quote,

we have socialism already. It's in the roads we drive on, the schools we send our kids to, the fire stations we call upon. I'm just asking that we extend that to security, to our health care, to our housing, to our nutritional food, to our higher education

so that we're actually meeting the basic needs of everyday working families in this country. And what's so interesting about that is I think it gets to this definition of what democratic socialism is and what the DSA is selling when it sells democratic socialism.

Because I think a lot of people would say, oh, the roads or drive on schools, that's sort of like normal democracy. This is like the product of a normal democratic system. But if you could break down a bit as to why you see those as positive examples of what democratic socialism looks like, I think that would be really interesting.

Yeah, absolutely. You know, every single one of the things that I mentioned, whether it was the roads or fire stations or, you know, our public schools, those are specifically, you know, government-run programs because we know that private ownership of any one of those things

ends up, you know, leaving working families behind, ends up leaving, you know, when we had private fire stations, there were a lot of poor working families that did not get the security of being able to call on a fire station if their house, you know, was on fire. And so the same thing should go for our health care right now.

If you are a wealthier person, you are more likely to live multiple years longer than a person who is poor and is working class and doesn't have access to that same kind of quality health care. What we're talking about is injecting you know, real morals and ethics into what kind of programs do we think our government should be responsible for? What kind of things do we believe that no one should be left behind on whether or not they've been born into a family that has the money to take care of it for themselves? And I think

that should extend to our health care, our housing, our access to nutritional food and our access to higher education, most especially now as we're embarking on this new era of AI, which at best is going to be a complete change in our labor economy and is going to change the way we look at work entirely in our society. And at worst is a risk to humanity at large. And so we have to be prepared for what that world looks like. And that means meeting people's most basic needs. That's what Democratic socialism delivers on.

And State Senator Gonzalez, you're running against incumbent Senator John Hickenlooper, as I mentioned earlier, what do you see as the key differences between the way you govern and what is the reason why you decided, okay, this man should no longer represent us, we should do something different here? Honestly, the fact that I show up and listen to people and meet them where they're at across the state, and not only when things are easy, but particularly when things are hard. That's how I've shown up my entire life. First, as an organizer on immigrant rights, affordable housing, and educational justice issues. And then after the Trump, the first Trump administration, I ran in those midterm. primaries to the state capital, to the state Senate, and at the capital have been proud to champion

over 200 bills that have been signed into law. Look, criminal justice reform policies, protecting reproductive freedom, passing the Colorado Voting Rights Act, and cracking down our corporate polluters. We have done the work, and I've been battle tested, and that's, I think, what we need in this moment. Look, team blue, not only do we need to flip red seeds, to build a governing majority, we also need to look at the caliber of Democrats that we sent to D.C. from the safe seats, from the blue seats in the first place. And that, to me, is what walking and chewing gum at the same time looks like. And it's what I'm prepared to do in the U.S. Senate. And Senator Gonzalez, I'm actually curious to your views on DSA, because my understanding

is you were a member. You said you allowed your membership to lapse. Obviously, the organization has a lot of energy around the country. How do you feel about the organization today? How does it relate to your politics? Look, I believe that if we actually want to defeat MAGA extremism once and for all, we need to build the broadest coalition that this country has ever seen, broader than the Obama coalition from 2008. That includes folks like DSA, and that also includes folks like folks in my family,

who were two-time Obama voters, but then jumped up. on the Trump train and have been MAGA voters for the past three terms. And what is clear is that that MAGA coalition is starting to break down. Look, with one of my family members, he, it was the murder of Alex Prettie. With another family member, it was the Epstein files, right? That people are getting off that Trump train. And we need to have a movement that is broad enough and inclusive enough in order for us to go and out-organize our opposition and defeat that extremism once and for all.

And so was your concern that the DSA label would sort of limit your ability to reach some of those people? Was that the thought? Honestly, I was a member when I was first elected in 2018. And then I ran into the brick wall of actually being a full-time legislator on a part-time salary. I didn't have the space to, in a lot of ways, I didn't have the space to, to, be a member of anything, and my book club, much less a member of an organization. And so that's why I let my membership lapse. Honestly, I've been values aligned. I'm proud to be a recommended candidate from Denver DSA.

And I'm proud to also be a founding member of the Colorado Working Families Party. And as we are going and talking to voters across the state, what is weird is that, Ain't nobody coming to save us but us. We are the ones that we have been waiting for. And so we need to go out and organize and fight and win. Now, a question for both of you, actually, because the first time that Zoramam Dani was on this show, he was talking to us after Donald Trump's re-election in 2024

about campaigning in different areas of New York City that were concentrated heavily with Trump voters. And he was talking to us about his success in having those conversations. Now, you're obviously both in primaries, But the knocks against you are they can't win in a general election. And they'll tie you to Hassan Piker, tie you to Zoramam Dhani. And so if we start with you, Melod, just how has that, like, what is your response to people who say you'll now be, you're tarnished with the Hassan Piker baggage, the Zohranem Dany baggage, the Democratic Socialist baggage in a way that's much less helpful when you're beyond the primary?

You know, I think a lot of folks that have those concerns don't talk to most regular voters on a regular basis. You know, the voters that I've spoken with, including unaffiliated voters, including some unaffiliated Republican-leaning voters who have expressed that they're going to be supporting us in this primary because unaffiliates can vote in our primaries here in Colorado, have expressed that while they don't agree on everything with me, they completely agree that corruption is the root cause of a lot of our problems. And when I sit down with some Republicans about some of the issues that, you know, we agree and some of the issues that we disagree on, you know, I find that most of the time we agree that, you know, we need affordable health care. We need affordable housing. We just largely disagree on how to actually get that done. And that's okay because that's what a democracy is for. That's where the debate is supposed to happen. And that's what the people's houses for for us to come to those conclusions in a democratic way. But that's not what's happening because we don't live in a democracy anymore. We live in an oligarchy. When a corporation or a special interest has a 70 percent chance of getting a bill. passed, an everyday American, with the widespread support of most American voters, can only get a 30% chance of getting a bill passed. That's not a democracy. That's an oligarchy. And so when I'm talking with a lot of voters who may be hearing about all this stuff

about Hassan Piker or Zohran or whatever, we just get to the bare bones of it, which is that you and I can have an argument or a debate about whether or not a policy makes sense, but it doesn't matter because the person making the real decisions right now are the corporations and the billionaires and the special interests. and we have to root out that corruption so we can get back to the work of governing and working in a functioning democracy. How about you, State Senator Gonzalez?

Look, whether it's been talking to communities on the Western Slope, whether it's been talking to folks in the Valley, up in Greeley, Colorado, we have seen firsthand what happens when communities get lulled into this idea of voting for a party that has nothing but their worst interest in mind, right? And the Republicans and too many corporate Democrats are totally willing to engage in a politics of divide and conquer. But what we know is that we need to go and meet folks

where they're at and listen to them, ask them, what are you frustrated about? What is it that you want to see happen? And what is it that you expect of your next U.S. Senator? And as we've gone and had those conversations. People are far more interested in telling their experiences than they are in saying, oh, well, do you support Trump 100%, do you support Zoran 100%. Do you support Hassan 100%. Honestly, people want to be heard. People want to feel like they have a connection.

And that to me is how we're going to build a movement broad enough in order to win. Malat, we spoke with you before, but just as a reminder for people who may not remember your background, part of your activation, you were actually fired for speaking out about the genocide in Gaza. And I'm curious from your perspective, you're running to represent a district that is very democratic. It's also very young. If memory serves, you said it's one of the youngest districts in the entire country. How much is Israel and Gaza a litmus test dividing line issue for the voters that you're appealing to? You know, a great deal of voters in our party, in fact, a super majority of voters in our party

understand that what's happening in Palestine is the genocide and are asking for the Democratic Party and our leadership to push for an arms embargo so that we can end our complicity in this genocide as well and to truly reevaluate our relationship with the country of Israel. And I think the greater problem that a lot of voters are seeing right now is that that kind of supermajority support from the voters is not being reformed. in our leadership. It's not being reflected in the establishment. And I think that's calling into question a lot of other issues that show that, you know, Medicare for all has a super majority of support from the voters. Universal Child Care has a super majority support from the voters. And yet we're

still not seeing any of that legislation being pushed for by our party. And so I think it's really showing to a lot of voters that the party and the leadership is not in tune with the voters of this party and our responsibility in primaries is to send leaders that are actually reflecting the values and the priorities of the voters. And that's what we're doing here in this campaign. This is a district that voted in for universal pre-K and term limits and publicly financed elections. We're the only campaign in this race that has every single one of those issues on our platform fighting forward on a federal level and making sure that our budgets are reflection of our moral priorities, which is to end the genocides abroad and to make sure that we are addressing the hundreds of

thousands of Americans who are sleeping on the streets every night in our country, the tens of thousands of Americans who die every year because they don't have access to health insurance in the wealthiest, most powerful country on earth to be sending billions of dollars a day abroad for bombs to kill innocent people. When we have people here suffering at home, I think voters are making abundantly clear in primaries this year that that is no longer going to be acceptable and that they're going to be sending leaders into Congress that are going to fight to change that. So the primary victories last week, predominantly in New York City, have caused quite a reaction that I'm sure you guys are quite aware of. I wanted to get you both to react to Van Jones on CNN and his prescription for what the centrist in the party should do in order to beat back this left wing surge of support.

Let's take a listen. Look, I used to be on the left side of Pluto. But to have somebody who, you know, their main qualification for being in our party is they were saying, celebrating after October 8th, the murder of innocent Israelis, to have somebody in our party get the nomination whose main qualification is saying that there should be no police, no prisons, Israel shouldn't exist. It's a red flashing light. And I think people who have more reasonable ideas in this party can have to start working,

because what's happening is the establishment thinks that you can just buy ads and get endorsement. That's going to somehow help you in. Trump figured out or failed out the hard way, you can't win. in Iran with just bombers if you have nothing on the ground. Moderates cannot win in these blue districts that they have nothing on the ground. If all they have are ads and endorsements

and they don't have the door-knocking army of the DSA, you're gonna see more and more of these candidates. The Democratic Socialists of America, they've got ground troops and passion matters and mobilized base matters, and moderates keep thinking that they can just, just say, shame on you and sign another check, you're gonna have to put people on these doors,

otherwise they're gonna have people like this and worse taking off this party. People like this and worse, Malat, taking over this party. Let me get your response to Van Jones comments there. You know, I think more than anything, it's showing a clear disdain that establishment and moderate, you know, Democrats in our party have for the voters. Again, each of these issues have a super majority support of the voters talking about ending the genocide, talking about redirecting our resources to things like Medicare for all, like

universal child care. And I'd also point out that the thing that makes DSA different is that we're not, we're we are fighting for a moral vision of what our economy should look like, of what our government should look like. That is what brings people into this organization. That is what brings people into our door knocking operation, into our phone banking operations, because we are fighting for something. We are fighting for a better world one where no matter where you're born in this country, no matter what family you're born into, no matter what kind of body you're born into, you are deserving of the same basic dignities in your housing and your healthcare and your

nutritional food and all of the basic dignities that are required in a modern world here in the wealthiest, most powerful country on earth. I would, you know, I would, I would tell the moderate Democrats and the establishment Democrats that they ought to get to the work of actually coming up with their own vision for the country and see if that's something that they could get voters to buy into. But until then, we're going to be focused on the vision that we're fighting for and bringing in more folks to this fight too. And Senator Gonzalez, what's your view on on Van Jones and where the energy in the party is and in the country really at this point? Look, there

is one point in which I agree with Van Jones and that is that the corporate dams have been phoning it in and quite literally mailing it in. Just this past week, I received another set of mailers from not only the Hickenlooper machine but also from corporate dark money Democrats

and their independent expenditures who have not knocked doors, who have not shown up in rural communities to listen to Coloradoans who are working harder than ever just to make ends meet. And that's what that's where our campaign is different. Look, it's clear we are not going to out-fundraise the establishment, but we are sure as hell going to outwork them. And that is what presents the threat to their complacency.

And so, look, a lot of times it becomes incredibly clear that those corporate Dems are on the losing side of an issue. And instead of saying, hey, guys, it's time to vote blue no matter who they want to try and employ those divide and conquer tactics against folks like us. And what's clear in this moment is that everyday Coloradoans, look, Colorado's a majority unaffiliated state. That is a warning sign, right? When 50% of the voters in this state are saying, hmm, a pox on both your houses. And then you have Democrats who are saying, you know what, we're going to try to be the Diet Coke version of a Democratic Party

as opposed to the Republican Party by taking just a little bit less corporate money than the Republicans. Voters aren't buying it. And they are choosing to be unaffiliated instead. And as we've been traveling along the front range in rural Colorado, in small towns, and asking people directly, what is it that you want to see? They want to see housing that they can afford, health care that they can actually access universal child and elder care. And also, they want to see corporations getting out of every step of the deportation machine that currently exists right now. Now, Colorado has two potential locations that could be slated to be an expansion of the immigration detention regime. And people across Colorado are saying, hell no.

They want to actually have a party where they can believe in their leaders. And sorry, Van Jones, like, you are missing the moment on this. Full stop. Well, ladies, thank you so much. I know you're both super busy going to election day. We'll be watching with a lot of interest. Good luck to both of you. And we'll make sure to put campaign links in the description

so if people want to help down in the stretch here, they can. Thank you so much. Thanks for having us, Grosso. It's our pleasure. You'll take care. An IHart Radio experience. You and DePal with weekend gold tickets to Laso, Montreal. Thomas Rhett.

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On the bouncy bed. You have surprises? Many surprises. Welcome to Sweet 305, where the group chat comes to life. What a . It's like a way to say like, Oh, my, my God, hello, my brother. What a .

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It's laminated. There's no, there's someone. I'd like to collaborate with this person. This is Sweet 305. Listen to Sweet 305 with Lele Pons as part of my Culture Podcast Network on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. Europe has been enduring the worst heat wave for them on record. And guys, it is not even July.

These have been insane scenes unfolding across. that continent. And by the way, that heat is coming right here to the U.S. this week. Let's go ahead and put this first element up on the screen. Just in France alone, they have had more than a thousand excess deaths recorded. That's sort of the clinical term, you know, attributed to deaths that would not have occurred had it not been for this heat wave. Some of those are directly related to heat exhaustion. Some of them are from things like drowning as well because people who are desperately trying to seek relief from the heat have been going in water that perhaps they're not able to handle. So that has contributed to an

increase in deaths as well. You've had the UK recorded new maximum temperatures for June two days in a row. In France, they hit record highs that they had literally never hit before. They exceeded records that have been set even in the state of Florida, just to give you a sense of how out of the norm this record heat wave has been. And they've been trying to find every way they possibly can to keep cool. We can put E2 up on the screen. There have been, you know, these are consumers racing in to try to purchase fans and purchase air conditioners. Reminder that, you know, here in the U.S., I looked at the statistics, about nine out of ten people here have some sort of air conditioning. These are people taping foil on the windows to try to repel

the sun as well. In Europe, the number with air conditioning is very low. Across the continent, it's something like 20%. And if you look at where the continent is situated, I mean, they're very high up in terms of where they are in the globe. And so they are just simply not supposed to experience this type of extreme heat. But now with the climate crisis, this is increasingly going to become the new norm. We can put E3 up on the screen. This gives you a sense of how much things have changed. So this is global temperature variations over the last 2,000. 2022 years. You can see where the steam engine was invented and then we start to climb into these extraordinary temperature variations. That is where we are now. Let's put E4 up on the screen.

This has some of the numbers about the heat wave that is, they say, blasting Europe right now. The extreme heat would have been virtually impossible 50 years ago, according to researchers. Millions of people they write are sweltering under Europe's worst heat wave ever recorded. Because of temperature increases driven by climate change, Europeans are suffering from temperatures that would have been impossible 50 years ago. The phenomenon melting longstanding temperature records is due to a heat dome parked over Europe with clear skies and strong sunshine intensifying the effect for large swas of the continent. Temperature records have been broken in France, the UK and Spain, with red alerts issued in Germany, Belgium, Italy, Switzerland, and the Netherlands. study published Friday by World Weather Attribution Found the Heat Wave is the most severe ever recorded in the region. It has been driven by climate change with rising temperatures outstripping the rate of global warming.

They also, Emily, they dig more into this study in this article. And what they do is they compared the temperatures that were seen this week with those that were measured in two other heat waves, 1976 and 2003. In 76, they said that's where it would have been virtually impossible to achieve this level of temperature. In 2003, during the first heat wave of the century, which I actually remember fairly well, temperatures would have been 10 times less likely than today, while nighttime temperatures would have been more than 100 times less likely. And that nighttime temperature piece is actually really important because people who are struggling in the heat during the day, usually at nighttime,

okay, you're going to get some rest, but your body's going to be able to recover. But when you have these tropical temperatures that continue at night, that means your body is never going to get any sort of rest and recovery from the heat. So that's part of what makes this so extraordinary. And of course, as the climate crisis proceeds, you're going to increasingly have not Europe but other parts of the globe that are virtually uninhabitable where you just, you know, it becomes impractical, not practical for human beings to be able to live and persist in those conditions. So this is a bit of a wake-up call and we can expect a lot more extreme weather going forward this year in particular because we are entering into a La Nina cycle. I told you I read a lie.

yesterday and listened to a lot of information about what that is. But in any case, the TLDR is, it's going to lead to more extreme heat events in particular and very likely more extreme events in general. And we don't know yet, but it is looking possible, if not likely, that this will be what is termed a super la Nina, which means that the impact of it is even more extraordinary than usual. So very likely we hit yet another global temperature record. This year with more, you know, excess deaths and more fallout from the extreme climate. The World Cup is seriously going to be endangered by what happens in the United States this week.

Like the knockout rounds are going to be on the line for sure. The predicted temperatures where some of these games are going to be played are looking like they're going to be just absolutely brutal. And here in Washington, D.C., there will be—we were earlier in the show covering how the crowds aren't looking huge so far for Trump's Great American State Fair. celebrations on the National Mall, but every year, there are thousands of people on the National Mall for the Fourth of July fireworks. And again, hopefully it'll be by the time they push it back to like 10.30 p.m., hopefully it'll be a bit cooler. But this is coming home this week in a way

that, I mean, people need to be really, really safe. Obviously, we have air conditioning here on a much high level than many people across Europe. But it's going to be really dangerous this week. Yeah. Apparently there's like a cultural debate over. Air conditioning. In France in particular, because they are sensitive to not wanting to fuel the climate crisis and they feel that this is... I mean, it shouldn't be necessary in most of Europe, but increasingly it is necessary just for human safety and survival. And the other thing here is obviously the impacts are not just not to downplay, but not just in terms of human well-being in the immediate heat wave. But we have farmers right now in the U.S. who have been, had their livelihood destroyed by a drought, which, you know, was really atypical and very likely also driven by climate crisis. And then you had on top of that, of course, the tariffs.

And then you had the Iran war. And it's just been one thing after another for them. One thing that you can certainly expect in a L'Ana cycle is more drought. And then you have crop failures. Then you have food prices increasing. and obviously we know the reverberations that that can have on, you know, on consumers here, but in poorer places in the world on just their ability to live, obtain what they need to be able to survive. And so those are some of the impacts we're looking at, too.

It's going to be, I mean, we can put this from Boise. You flag this, Chris, was, is so crazy. This is nuts. Yeah, I had to double check because I was like, this has to be AI. You see someone driving in water and chunks of ice. It looks like the Titanic. Right? And so what happened here is they had this massive, massive storm.

And then they had something like eight inches of hail. Insane hail storm. And so you had flooded streets with the like crusted ice from the hail on top. Really apocalyptic looking stuff. And, you know, with any one other event, it's very difficult to say. It takes scientists like doing the research, okay, is this the climate crisis or is this something that may have happened in the past? But I think most people, just in their own lives, if they're adults at this point, have experience like, you know, things are just not, they don't quite go the way they used to. You know, I have, I live in the town that I grew up in, so I remember very well the climate in the 80s and what it was like and how many snows we got and all of that sort of stuff.

And there is zero doubt that it is not the same as it was just within my lifetime. And so I think that's made it very difficult for people who want to deny that this is going on to persist in those delusions. They've had to adopt different tactics. I'm actually going to talk about this a little bit in my monologue to try to forestall any significant action that would curtail fossil fuel consumption. But we have to hand it to Comrade Trump. He's done a pretty good job with the destruction of fossil fuel consumption with this whole Iran War Strait of four moves closure. The acquisition of Chinese solar panels is literally through the roof, like insane spike in adoption of renewable technology. I think there should be.

People can't afford gas. Probably, right. They're just staying at home. Yeah. And I think there has been a wake-up call in terms of national security that even if you are a net energy producer as we are, that does not mean really anything when it comes to this is a global market. And so if there's a problem with it, guess what the prices are going to go up for us do?

The only actual protection from that is renewable energy. So China has, you know, they still have a lot of fossil fuel productions. I'm not trying to whitewash that. But they have invested a lot. in being the leader in renewable tech, and those investments are really bearing fruit at this point and have made it feasible now so that it doesn't have to be doom and gloom. The technology is available. The solar panel tech has gotten much, much, much, much better than it used to be. So, you know, it's not pie in the sky to imagine the sort of mass adoption that could begin to

bend this curve. You know, it's one of those things where I think the climate movement is maturing, like on the politics of it, because at the same time, as the, you know, it's the same time, we're looking at all of this. It was also, I think, the 20th anniversary of an inconvenient truth. Have you seen any of this content circulating about some of the Gorean predictions that didn't come to pass? Yeah, it's definitely right-wing Twitter. But yeah, I mean, there's a, I think, obviously an adoption of a more persuasive technique than we saw 20 years ago. I had so many high school teachers play that movie. That's, I'm making myself sound like a baby. But yeah, like we had to watch it three times in public high school.

Like, it was a hell of a time, 2007. Support that. I support absolutely support that. Yeah. Welcome to ninth grade biology. Here's Al Gore. We'll let him take it from here. He did, though, raise the public awareness about the import, you know, even if I'm, I

trust you that some of the predictions didn't come to pass. I think he made a lot of people. Unfortunately, I think he made a lot of people skeptical, just because, because so many things were, ended up becoming, like, you know, that was a problem for the climate movement. I think it was significant. Some of the hysteria was a significant problem for the climate movement, because people could then look and say, huh, and not take it as seriously. But to your point, I mean, also everybody has seen some of the undeniable stuff around them, too. So, yeah. But I do think the climate movement has hit them more, like, there's, they're still groups of that.

I think the bigger problem with the climate movement is the entrenched oil and gas interests that buy off our elections is probably a bigger issue for them. Or the, the people. who are raising the alarms, you know. The degree to which people like lives with air conditioning. Like, that's, like, as population grows in places like Africa and China and India, that's going to be the next big frontier for climate movement. Yeah, for sure. And that's why the technological development, you know, genuinely makes it much more hopeful and possible

to do what needs to be done to avoid these sorts of horrific situations like what our European brothers and sisters are experiencing right now. Renewables are better for the planet, and they get you the hell off the grid. So the goal that conservative wins, win, win, win. All for it. Come on, let's go. Yep. True energy independence is renewable energy. Has never been tried.

Okay, no. All right, Crystal, you have a monologue. You've been feeling monologuing. I'm a little, I might be a little rusty guys. It's been a while, but I'm excited to tell you about Gavin Newsom, who is now realized that he's got a populist problem and doesn't want to be labeled as he should be, the candidate of the billionaire, protecting the billionaire class.

So last week after the DSA wins, he suddenly had a big announcement. I will bring you all of the details now. Canadian women are looking for more. More to themselves, their businesses, their elected leaders, and the world are out of them. And that's why we're thrilled to introduce the Honest Talk podcast. I'm Jennifer Stewart.

And I'm Catherine Clark. And in this podcast, we interview. Canada's most inspiring women. Entrepreneurs, artists, athletes, politicians, and newsmakers, all at different stages of their journey. So if you're looking to connect, then we hope you'll join us. Listen to the Honest Talk podcast on IHeartRadio or wherever you listen to your podcasts. Hey, I'm Hoda Kotby, host of the podcast, Joy 101 with Hoda Kotby. Okay, if you know me, you know this. I'm always searching for inspiration, for support, and useful tools to help maximize joy. So this podcast lets us uncover all of that together.

We're going to have these meaningful conversations with the world's most fascinating people. Like when actress Olivia Munn shared how she overcame fierce health challenges that she never saw coming. I've gone through breast cancer and then helped my mother through breast cancer. And that was more difficult. There's a lot of people who understand postpartner depression. I was not prepared for postpartum anxiety. Olympic champ Sean Johnson revealed why she had no choice. but to be a gymnast.

There was something about gymnastics that was intoxicating to me. It's given me a belief that we all have one of those treasures inside of us. We just have to find it. Listen to Joy 101 with Hoda Kotby on the IHeart Radio app,

Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. My first guest is Perix Holtin, Shakira, Luke and Yerrin, Samira and Gracie. I'm so excited. On the bouncy bed. You have surprises? Many surprises.

Welcome to Sweet 305 where the group chat comes to life. What a . It's like a way to say like, oh my, my best, hello, hello, my brother. Look, I never have ever had to be about with anybody. Except with my kids,

my children, I'm my amante. Oof, That's incredible, yeah, the telenovela. You're the only person I know that loves a Yellow Starburst. It's a lot. There's a man who's not. Like you say,

I'd like to collaborate with this person. This is Sweet 305. Listen to Sweet 305 with Lele Pons as part of my Cultura podcast network on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. After watching DSA candidates win shocking, upset victories last week,

California Governor Gavin Newsom has belatedly found religion on a billionaire tax. It's time for a national billionaires tax and a new social contract. Think about this, just 10% of people, 10% of people in this country own two-thirds of the wealth. A 30-year-old for the first time in American history is not doing better than his or her parents. That's a five-alarm fire. American wages have stood still, and the cost across the spectrum, cost of living, have skyrocketed.

The system is fundamentally broken. The federal tax code, the corporate tax code, and the inheritance tax code seem to be raised. for a different set of Americans. It's time for an economic reset, a true minimum tax, a true minimum tax on billionaires that ensures the people at the very top pay at least the tax rate, their own workers pay. We also should end this tax-free lifestyle loan.

This is the gimmick that allows the ultra-wealthy to borrow against their stock portfolios while reporting no taxable income. We also have to rewrite those inheritance rules inheritance rules so that the largest intergenerational wealth transfer in human history, estimated by, well, be $124 trillion that will be changing hands, doesn't lock in a permanent American aristocracy of inherited wealth. Time as well to return to the pre-2017 corporate tax rates, and time to close those offshore loopholes once and for all. And as AI reshapes the country, every American should own

A piece of the future it builds through a national public equity fund. So it all sounds pretty solid, right? You got some federal taxes. You got some loophole closing, hiking the inheritance tax, some solid rhetoric around the democracy debilitating impacts of wealth inequality. Has Gavin Newsome truly seen the light, reformed his pro- oligarch ways? After all, this is the same guy who knifed Medicare for all in the state in spite of its overwhelming popularity. And the fact that he himself had run on the program, the guy who cowered before. the Israel lobby running away from some initial tepid comments he made about Israel being an apartheid

state, the guy who is right now today the foremost opponent of California's own wealth tax proposal. More on that in just a moment. What do we think of these proposals of Newsom and also of his sincerity on the matter? Well, friends, there is good reason for a lot of skepticism. The biggest red flag is what Rokana pointed out on our show last week. If you really wanted to tax these guys, Gavin Newsom, you could just back the ballot initiative that exists right now in your own state. And if you want to tax these guys nationally, as Newsom claims that he does, you could embrace Senator Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren's existing wealth tax proposal. I've reported a 5% tax on 250 billionaires in California,

so 3 million Californians don't lose health insurance. He then is opposed to it, is leading the charge against it. Because these 250 billionaires are important donors and political contributors. And he says, well, I'm for a national billionaire's tax, but he doesn't want to do what Bernie is talking about, or I, 5% tax on billionaires. He doesn't even want to do what Warren is talking about, 3% tax. He wants to just say, okay, they can't borrow against assets and should be taxed on that, which is exactly what the tech billionaires are proposing,

I mean, and would raise a fracture of the revenue. So at some point, you've got to be twos. Are we going to be against the oligarchs or for the oligarchs? We can be against them, which is what Bernie and I and Warren are. And then some of them may come along in that new social contract. But what we can't do is pander to them. So what is actually going on here? It looks like Gavin Newsom is adopting a classic political tactic.

He can read a poll. He sees the populist rage seething out there among the commoners. He knows his presidential ambitions will be cooked if he becomes the guy that opposes taxing billionaires, but he does still have that donor base to please, which is the force that is responsible for his current political position. So what he is doing is rhetorically embracing the populist position, billionaire taxes,

while pushing a policy that is less threatening to the oligarchs, both because it is more modest and also because it is less likely to actually happen. The California wealth tax may only be 5%, but it is an imminent threat and could open Pandora's box, as other states potentially follow suit. So he can't support that. Better to support something that is both impossible and kind of lame.

After all, state level action is the best we can actually hope for at the moment, with the White House currently occupied by the Epstein-class president. So nothing Newsom proposes at the federal level really poses much of a threat to the oligarchs at all. None of it is going to happen anytime soon. He is hoping that he can find this goldy lock zone

of appeasing the pitchfork wielders while also signaling to his rich, buddies that they can trust him to avoid anything actually meaningful. The approach reminds me very much of a 2021 video that was released by a group called unearthed. In it, an activist tricked an Exxon mobile lobbyist into thinking that he was in a job interview, so he would spill the beans on all of their climate denial strategies. That lobbyist revealed that once public opinion shifted too hard in favor of climate action, Exxon couldn't do just their old climate denial junk science approach any longer. Instead, they opted to pretend like they cared so

much about the issue, while simultaneously offering an intentionally unpopular and unworkable solution. In this instance, for them, it was a carbon tax. According to unearthed, quote, during the undercover meeting, which took place via Zoom in May, lobbyist Keith McCoy suggested that Exxon's public support for a carbon tax as its principal climate policy is a, quote, advocacy tool and great talking point that will never actually happen. Quote, nobody is going to propose a tax on all Americans, and the cynical side of me says, yeah, we kind of know that, but it gives us a talking point that we can say, well, what is ExxonMobil for? We're for a carbon tax. That's what McCoy said. This in a nutshell is what Newsom is doing with his federal tax plans. But what are the tax

proposals themselves? Gabriel Zuckman, one of the world's preeminent experts on wealth inequality, is less than impressed. Quote, you claim today that you support a national billionaire tax, he said to Gaffin Newsom. But when one reads your text, one quickly realizes you don't You talk about closing loopholes as if this was equivalent to taxing billionaire wealth. It is not. For example, taxing loans used against assets, as you propose, is not a bad idea, but it would only generate a tiny fraction of the $4.4 trillion that a 5% annual wealth tax on billionaires would generate nationally. That's because loans are just very small relative to billionaire's wealth. So your proposal in practice would do almost nothing to curb the explosion of the wealth and power

of America's oligarchs. And that is the entire point. Newsom's proposals close some unspecified loopholes. They tax loans. They tax income, but they carefully avoid doing the one thing that actually needs to be done, taxing wealth. This is the whole ballgame, because the wealth of billionaires and now trillionaires is incomprehensibly larger

than the annual salaries that they take. Elon Musk, for example, he takes zero dollar income salary from Tesla. Their wealth is also vastly larger than the loans that they take out against their assets to fund their expenses, as Zuckman points out. There is no answer for the billionaire and trillioner crisis other than some form of wealth tax. Levying one in California would be a great start, given that it is one of the largest economies in the world, and because it often serves as a lab for democracy passing successful policies onto other states in the country. As for Newsom's complaint that it could cause the wealthy to flee the state, he should frankly be ashamed for

repeating the reactionary talking points of the billionaires themselves, boosting exactly the propaganda frame they used to avoid ever-facing significant taxation of any kind. By the way, there is just not a lot of evidence that anything like this is happening at scale. In fact, in New York City, we heard all kinds of billionaire meltdowns about how they'd all leave the city for good if Zoron Mondani was elected, and this has not shown up in the data at all. In fact, sales of multi-million dollar homes surged after his election. So it seems like they're figuring out how to brave the communist storm there. As for California, there's been a similar billionaire meltdown over the even prospect of this wealth tax passing in the state,

with warnings that California would lose its status as the innovation capital of the world. Looks like they're doing okay so far, though. Per Zuckman, again, venture capital funding has gone through the roof in California, as investors rush to fill the coffers of anyone with the world. Kurds artificial intelligence in their pitch deck. Good news, guys, the billionaires are going to be okay. As for the rest of us, well, there's a bit more cause for concern. As their wealth skyrockets at an accelerating pace, they buy up all the assets they can find, sending prices through the roof, putting goals like, I don't know, home ownership, increasingly out of reach for ordinary

people. They're also executing a hostile takeover of democracy, which is all but complete. What else can take from Elon Musk spending a quarter of a billion dollars to elect Donald Trump, who then promptly handed over the keys of the entire government to this one trillionaire, the richest man on the planet. But if you think the billionaire class only plays one side of the political aisle, you are sorely mistaken. They will happily buy off Democratic politicians, too, the type who can say just enough to appease the populist mood, have a shot at the White House, but who will reliably come through for billionaire interests when it really counts. And I think they may have found their perfect candidate.

And Emily, there's a lot of very interesting politics at play here because it is not lost on me that this sudden interest in taxing wealth comes right on the heels of the DSA victories in New York City. Newsom has been very late to the party on all sorts of like he does not have his finger on the pulse of what's going on. His initial reaction after Donald Trump was elected, it was like, let me have Steve Bannon and Charlie Kirk on my show, not to debate them, but to just be like, let's be buddies and let me hear you out. He quickly

reversed course when he realized that people hated that and he positioned himself as this like anti-Trump resistance warrior. He is now very belatedly realizing that this conception of him, this justified conception of him, it's just like a tool of donors and billionaires, is going to be an issue for him. And this is his solution, this sort of like basket of, you know, of lame proposals and studiously avoiding the well tax and trying to position like you're a real deal. real warrior here. That is his response. So in a Democratic primary in 2028, his baggage is very real because so much of it is going to be focused on the anti- oligarchy tone that you hear people like John Ossoff sounding, which is interestingly enough, but you're seeing it from somebody like John

Ossoff. But Gavin Newsom right now is under federal investigation from the Trump administration is absolutely lawfare. It is targeted. All of that is true. His wife has been running a genuine Grift, where she's getting all of these corporate donations into her, like, nonprofit companies from the companies that Newsom regulates as governor, PG&E, Comcast, AT&T, like, they're all donating, of course. Newsom's French laundry scandal was because he was dining with a guy who was wrapped up in the PG&E case after the Paradise Fire. Newsom has been horrible. Like, he's the definition of a crony capitalist. And so as he then tries to sell, And local, ABC 10 did a great investigative series on Newsom and PG&E.

And people obviously were killed in the camp, like horrible, horrible, horrible situations. Shameless management of PG&E from Gavin Newsom. And he then has to go out there and try to make this almost Trumpian argument about Kushner and the Trump's sons and Trump himself, which he's tried to do. Yeah. But it reminds me of Trump in 2016 coming out against Hillary Clinton, like, I know the system, so I alone can fix it. Newsom's not going to do that.

He's not going to admit that he has a problem. And for whatever reason, it worked back in 2016 for Trump. But in the primary, that is not going to work for Gavin Newsom, because he is going to be hammered over and over again, over his relationships with these massive corporations. And good luck, because that's a real problem, especially if you're not going to get on board with Rose Plan, which pretty much I think every Democratic candidate

is going to be pressured to get on board with. Yeah. Something like that. Roe immediately jumped and to do a press conference. And look, I mean, kudos to him because it's not comfortable going against, like, he is the most powerful Democrat in the state of California. He is the Democratic governor. And he jumps out to, you know, immediately call him out and say, look, this is hypocritical. Like, if you support a well tax, that we have one right here that's actually actionable versus this other stuff that you're peddling, which is not a well tax and also is, you know, not workable. Yeah, he's not going to do it.

Yeah, he's not going to do it. And that part is actually really important because I mentioned that he ran one of his governor's campaigns on, I'm going to be the guy that does single-payer health care here. And partly got elected because we were like, great, we support that. And then maneuvered, it looks like behind the scenes to make sure that even though it had, you know, a majority support in the California House and Senate, that it just never came up. So he was able to thwart it from behind the scenes. and, you know, and he takes money from various corporate interests in the state, that is his base of support.

Totally. And he recognizes that he needs to sort of cover the fact that that's his base of support. He thought it would be enough to do the, you know, the very aggressive anti-Trump, which I support, by the way. But especially when California cities were being, like, invaded by National Guard and it was the flashpoint and whatever, that really raised his esteem in the eyes of Democratic voters. But I think you're right. Personally, I believe when push comes to shove and people really dig in on where are you on oligarchy and maybe more important, where are you on Israel, it's going to be a problem for him. Huge. You've already seen him stumble multiple times on this.

Again, he knows this kind of an issue. He's not really sure what to do about it. And there is no squaring the circle of like where the bulk of the donors are on that issue versus where the Democratic base is. So what we're seeing in these primaries is there are some real vulnerabilities there, even though he continues to be pretty high in terms. terms of when you pull Democratic primary voters on who they would like to see. He's the, like, he sees his lane. All right. So you watch American Cycle. You think of Patrick Bateman. You're like, that guy would vote for Trump, right? Gavin Newsom's like, huh, I am the anti-Trump, Patrick Bateman. This is my lane. I am going to be the creepy, slimy elite who's actually anti-Trump.

And what's going to work about that is it's going to make my trolling of Trump even more successful. I'm going to get under Trump's skin. I'm going to be the guy that undoes his legacy, but with like the perfectly gelled hair and the nicest suit that you can imagine. And it's going to be the ultimate troll. I don't think anybody is going to want that. I mean, maybe some small percentage of a Democratic base is going to be like, yes, this guy is Trumpian and can get it done and actually set us back on the right course

because he's so, I don't know, part of the establishment and he's going to be able to like manipulate. Yeah, exactly. I just again will that work with some people maybe it's not enough to win a primary at least as of the way he's executing it right now because it comes across as like playing into he looks like he would be friends with Jared Kushner right like and nobody believes that he actually literally married to Kimberly Gilphe was literally married to Kimberly Gilpul and nobody actually believes that he's against the system right like nobody believes he's an enemy of the system that he's mad about he just doesn't like these particular people in the system Yeah, and even that is like, I don't know that he really hears that. You know what I mean? Like, in terms of his politics, he needs to aggressively push against them. But, yeah, no, I mean, the point I think that people need to really take in is the AI tech oligarchs right now, they got their man in the White House.

They're getting basically everything they want, right? All the regulations rolled back. Trump was ready to sign some executive order, which would have lightly regulated them. David Sachs swoops in. Nope, that thing is killed, not happening. there are some interesting developments we'll probably cover tomorrow that are happening in AI right now. But in any case, that doesn't mean that they aren't also looking for avenues in the Democratic Party. And so you're going to see candidates like Newsom and others who may sound some good notes of,

oh, I'm concerned about this, I'm concerned about that. But you dig one level deeper and maybe the tech oligarchs aren't getting 100% of what they want, but they're probably getting like 90% of what they want, 95% of what they want, just with a like kinder, gentler frame put around. around it of we're less crazy than the Republicans. And that really is the role that he serves for them. So I want people to be very aware of that as they watch him try to position himself for 2028.

Crystal's on the beat. There you go. I'm not going to give it up. All right, guys. Thank you so much for joining us today. And again, very excited about this newsletter. First edition comes out today. Look at this adorable graphic they made of me and soccer.

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And Saga is being lazy as hell this week. So I'll be back tomorrow. Yep, more ho-show tomorrow. Love that gardening. We'll see you then. Joy is essential and it's also elusive. But now there's a new and exciting way to start your journey toward a more joyful existence. Joy 101.

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Luke and Yerrin. Have surprises. Many surprises. Welcome to the Sweet 305 podcast where the group chat comes to life. What a... You're the only person I know that loves the Yellow's... It's lemonade. This is Sweet 305.

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