Tag: california

Crazy Wealth Tax Proposals In California And New York City

The socialists who have been taking over the Democratic Party lately have a problem—the state and local jurisdictions where they are able to seize power still have to compete with rival jurisdictions that are still relatively friendly to private property and capitalist businesses. The principal targets of egalitarian fury, namely possessors of great wealth, are strongly incentivized to escape from dystopian hell-holes created by socialists to saner locales. Even those who aren’t so clearly targeted as objects of envy suffer from the effects of economic and social decline and are also incentivized to leave.

Even worse from a socialist perspective, the US Constitution restricts what a state or local government can do in terms of seizing private property. The owner of any property taken for public use must be compensated, so a local socialist enterprise can’t get around the problem of having to raise capital (and later to cover the inevitable losses associated with socialist production) with the help of government funding. However, a government’s power to tax only applies within its own jurisdiction; rich people aided by clever lawyers can figure out how to break their tax “nexus” to an oppressive jurisdiction in order to shield themselves, their businesses, and most or all of the associated wealth in other, much less extortionate jurisdictions.

Two jurisdictions where mass flight from Democratic misrule is unmistakable are California and New York City, both of which have lately experienced a net emigration of more than 100,000 residents per year. While lower-tax states like Texas and Florida are well-known destinations for such blue state refugees, in the case of New York City even the just slightly-less overgoverned New Jersey has become a magnet for a lot of former New Yorkers—it takes a lot for a true Gothamite to suffer the indignity of making that move.

One of the consequences of such flight is that as the tax base shrinks, the pressure on committed socialist ideologues to extort whatever wealth remains even more rapidly (before it too flees from their grasp) mounts. Likewise, there is also pressure to tax things that have previously been left untaxed and might still be within reach, thus pushing the envelope of whatever forms of soaking the rich are permitted by the US Constitution.

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President Trump Announces Investigation into California’s Extremely Slow Vote Counts Just as Suspicious Late Drops Slash GOP Leads in Two Critical Races

President Trump is fed up with the election shenanigans in California and is taking action.

As The Gateway Pundit’s Jordan Conradson reported, highly popular reality TV star-turned-mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt and businessman Steve Hilton emerged on election night seemingly in good shape to advance past the open primary for Los Angeles Mayor and California Governor, respectively.

Pratt is currently leading Marxist LA City Councilwoman Nithya Raman and trailing Bass by a slim margin. Hilton leads all candidates for governor. Few votes have been tallied since election night, but the ones counted so far have been good for Democrats.

Are Democrats beginning to execute the steal?

Trump thinks so. On Thursday morning, Trump alleged “big cheating” by the Democrats and announced an investigation had been launched by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in LA.

There’s BIG cheating by the Dumocrats in California,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “Votes are all tied up. May not be in for weeks.”

“Under investigation by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles. Why the vote counting DELAY???”

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Democrat Xavier Becerra Advances in California Governor’s Primary Race as Mail-in Ballots Flood In Two Days After Polls Close

Democrat Xavier Becerra, former Health and Human Services Secretary for Biden, advanced in the California governor’s primary race 48 hours after the polls closed on Thursday evening.

On Tuesday evening, Republican candidate Steve Hilton was in the lead shortly after the polls closed, and he is still holding on.

Two days later, and only 57% of the ballots have been counted in the California governor’s race.

Mail-in ballots pouring in after election night have favored Democrat Becerra and Tom Steyer.

Xavier Becerra currently has 1,468,875 votes at 26.04%

Steve Hilton still has a comfortable lead, holding on with 1,532,530 votes at 27.17%.

Democrat Tom Steyer has 1,139,578 votes at 20.18%

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FBI RAIDS $35 MILLION CALIFORNIA MANSION — Tech CEO Arrested for Allegedly Supplying U.S. Equipment to Iran’s Nuclear and Military Programs While Reporting Just $20K Income

The FBI has arrested a California tech CEO living in a lavish $35 million mansion after federal authorities accused him of secretly supplying U.S. technology and equipment to Iran’s nuclear and military establishment while allegedly hiding millions of dollars from the IRS.

63-year-old Jamshid Ghomi, a dual U.S.-Iranian citizen and CEO of the Tehran-based tech firm Faraz Pardaz Rayaneh Co. Ltd. (FPR), was taken into custody on federal charges of conspiracy to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.

He faces up to 20 years in federal prison. Prosecutors are already moving to seize his mansion and other assets purchased with Iranian blood money.

According to the Department of Justice, he procured hundreds of controlled U.S.-origin items through eBay, PayPal, and direct purchases from suppliers in Minnesota and Nebraska, then routed them through front companies in the United Arab Emirates to Iran — all without the required licenses from the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).

A significant portion of the equipment went to the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) — the regime entity responsible for Iran’s centrifuge and uranium-enrichment programs — and to Iran’s Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics, along with affiliated military and defense-electronics entities.

Between 2014 and 2018 alone, Ghomi and his co-conspirators smuggled more than 250 metric tons of networking equipment into Iran, hiding U.S.-origin items inside larger shipments and keeping Ghomi’s name off paperwork.

Internal communications revealed Ghomi and his associates referred to Iran as the “Motherland.”

While Ghomi lived like royalty in one of California’s most expensive enclaves, he was systematically looting the system and cheating American taxpayers.

From 2011 to 2024, Ghomi moved more than $15 million in proceeds from his illegal Iran business into his U.S. bank accounts and a construction escrow account used to build his mansion. He falsely reported those funds to the IRS as a foreign inheritance.

His federal tax returns told a completely different story:

  • His highest reported income in any single year was just $20,684.
  • He fraudulently claimed the Earned Income Tax Credit — a benefit intended for low- to moderate-income working individuals and families — in seven different tax years.
  • Over the same period, he reported more than $1.7 million in home mortgage interest deductions and $1.25 million in state and local real estate taxes.

The mansion itself was funded with dirty money. Ghomi purchased a vacant lot in Newport Coast in 2010 for $4.49 million and spent another $10.49 million constructing the massive residence. More than $7 million in foreign-source wires — many from the same trading companies and exchange houses tied to his Iran operation — flowed into the escrow account between 2011 and 2015.

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California’s ‘Wealth’ Tax Is Coming For Everyone

If you own property in California, you’re not safe. A new ballot measure will empower the state to confiscate a percentage of the assets of any resident, even though its initial provisions don’t communicate that intent. California’s “One-Time Wealth Tax for State-Funded Healthcare, Education, and Food Assistance Programs Initiative,” which has already qualified for the November ballot, is even worse than it appears.

It’s not as if appearances aren’t bad enough. The explicit intent of the initiative already chased at least six billionaires out of the state in 2025. Moved to Florida are Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, along with PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel. Nevada is now home to billionaire Don Hankey, and Texas has welcomed former Uber CEO Travis Kalanick. Famed director Steven Spielberg has moved to New York, apparently concluding even that deep blue state is a safer bet than California. Just the departure of these six men has lowered the potential take from the wealth tax by an estimated $27 billion.

A Hoover Institution study claims that another 20 California billionaires have already made departure plans and will leave immediately if the initiative is approved by voters. One of the initiative’s many diabolical provisions is that it will apply retroactively to anyone living in the state after January 1, 2026, but unlike the six who got out in 2025, this next tranche of would-be exiles have been advised by their attorneys that the initiative’s retroactivity will not survive a constitutional challenge.

Other details of this initiative are likely to survive court challenges, and they reveal a stunning level of aggression toward wealth. If you live in California, and this bill is approved by voters, you will have to pay a “one-time” tax of 5 percent of your “covered assets” valued over $1 billion. “Covered assets” include unrealized gains in the value of stock owned by employees of private companies. It is unlikely the framers of this initiative didn’t understand the implications of this provision. Valuations of private companies are subjective, volatile, and illiquid. An employee with stock options valued at a few billion in the last private equity round could be assessed tens of millions of dollars in wealth tax on money they don’t actually have access to, based on a value that could plummet at any moment.

It gets worse. The language of the wealth act provides for what amounts to unrestricted escalation of its reach, something that will surely become necessary when high earners are driven away, taking their taxable assets with them. Built into the 2026 Billionaire Tax Act is the right of the state legislature to amend its provisions with a two-thirds vote. That would include lowering the $1 billion threshold, replacing “one-time” with an annual assessment, and eliminating the exemptions currently present for real estate and retirement accounts. The wording of this initiative is purposely designed to give the state legislature the authority to override the property tax protections afforded by Proposition 13, passed by voters in 1978 and one of the only obstacles left that prevents the state from stripping the state’s middle class of assets they’ve earned and stewarded over generations.

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Calif.: Fire damage identified on mail-in ballots in L.A. ahead of primary elections

Fire damage was identified on a number of mail-in ballots from a drop box in Los Angeles, according to the Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk (RR/CC).

In a Sunday press release, the RR/CC said “staff identified a limited number of Vote by Mail ballots that appeared to have sustained fire-related damage inside an Official Ballot Drop Box at the Department of Public Social Services-Civic Center.”

“Preliminary information indicates the incident was isolated and involved a small number of ballots, as it occurred between the most recent scheduled collection and the following morning’s retrieval,” the release stated.

It added that staff had filed a report with local police and would fully cooperate as the investigation continued.

The office also related a separate incident on Sunday morning when vandalism was discovered at the Cesar E. Chavez Park voting center in L.A. County, though it claimed that voting operations were not disrupted.

“Voting is a fundamental right, and Los Angeles County remains committed to ensuring every eligible voter can cast a ballot safely and confidently,” said L.A. County Board Chair and First District Supervisor Hilda L. Solis, per the release.

“Any attempt to vandalize election facilities, damage voting materials, or interfere with the voting process is unacceptable. We take these incidents seriously and will continue working with election officials and law enforcement partners to protect voters and uphold the integrity of our elections,” she continued.

The RR/CC also said it was working to identify the voters potentially affected by the incidents.

“Voters whose ballots may have been impacted by the Drop Box incident will be contacted directly and provided information about available options, including replacement ballots if necessary,” the office stated.

Sunday’s announcement comes just ahead of California’s June 2nd primary elections, which include the highly contested gubernatorial primary race.

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California Legislators Shriek: ‘Stop Nick Shirley!’

Without the second Trump Administration, we would surely not have discovered, and most importantly, acted upon, the fraud being committed around the country, most notably in blue states like Minnesota and California. So much has been discovered so rapidly, President Trump appointed Vice President Vance to head an anti-fraud task force, and the DOJ hired additional prosecutors to handle the dramatically increasing number of cases. Federal officials are suggesting the sheer amount of fraud, discovered and yet to be discovered, is so staggering clawing back that money could balance the federal budget.

Instrumental in exposing sufficient fraud so it could no longer be ignored by local or state officials is independent journalist Nick Shirley, who exposed the infamous “Quality Learing Center” day care fraud in Minneapolis, as well as many less well-known fraudulent day cares. So effective was Shirley, and so quickly did his work anger local fraudsters and state officials, Shirley received so many death threats he apparently decided to give California a try. This was the immediate result: 

Independent journalist Nick Shirley has released a devastating 40-minute investigative video that exposes what appears to be massive waste and potential fraud in California’s hospice, Medi-Cal, and daycare programs. His report, now viewed more than 7.7 million times on X, uncovers over $170 million in questionable billings tied to ghost hospice and daycare operations that show virtually no signs of actually caring for patients or children.

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Outrage Mounts After Trans Athlete AB Hernandez Wins California Girls Track Championship

A controversial transgender athlete in California has caused another backlash after winning a girls’ track championship on Saturday.

AB Hernandez, a boy who identifies as a girl, won a medal at the CIF State Track & Field Championships being held at Veterans Memorial Stadium at Buchanan High School in Clovis, California, this weekend, according to the New York Post.

Hernandez, who competes for Jurupa Valley High School, was participating in the girls’ long jump. But this is not the athlete’s first time stirring controversy. All year, Hernandez has been at the center of protests by parents who want to protect girls’ sports from the incursion by boys identifying as girls.

Even as Hernandez was winning events inside, parents had gathered outside the venue to protest transgender athletes in girls’ sports.

Parents held signs blasting the ruination of girls’ sports. Signs included, “No boys. No bias. Just fairness, and “Save Girl’s Sports.”

Parents also accused event officials of allowing boys to compete and said males winning means the events have been “stolen from our daughters.”

Hernandez did not win the long jump event, but did come in third with a mark of 20 feet, 2 1/4 inches.

Ellie McCuskey-Hay of St. Ignatius High School and Gianna Gonzalez of Moorpark High School, who each jumped 20 feet, 3 1/2 inches, shared first place.

Corinne Jones from St. Mary’s High School achieved the fourth best jump but was still awarded third place, which she shared with Hernandez. This occurred due to a change in state rules.

The new rule, put in place last year, states that when a trans athlete places in a postseason event, the next-closest “cisgender” girl will share the placement.

Despite the rule being made to mollify parents, Hernandez’s mom was less than pleased with it. Early in May, Nereyda Hernandez ripped the new rule.

“All these big, tough ex-athletes at CIF, and the most courage they could muster was to hand this to coaches at AB’s meet today,” the group wrote. “Not one of them was brave enough to look her or her mother in the eye and say: ‘This whole project of violating Ed Code is aimed at you. A child.’”

Hernandez also wrote that her “heart was full watching A.B compete.”

“Today at the CIF Track & Field Finals, my heart was full watching A.B compete,” she wrote after her son’s competition.

“No matter how differently she may be seen by some, she continues to walk onto that field with the most beautiful smile on her face, gives EVERY event her ALL, and carries herself with grace, determination, and sportsmanship,” she wrote.

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California Program Gives Free Solar Panels to Illegal Aliens

A California climate change program has spent $49 million to hand out free solar panels to illegal migrant homeowners, a shocking report revealed.

The Farmworker Housing Component of the Low-Income Weatherization Program is one of the state’s many climate change initiatives, and this one is aimed at farm workers — including those who are in the U.S. illegally, according to City Journal researcher and writer Christopher Rufo and his co-author Austen Hufford.

The program is part of California’s multibillion-dollar cap-and-trade system which “taxes carbon producers and redistributes approximately $3 billion per year to energy programs and left-wing social causes — all under the banner of fighting ‘climate change,’” the two wrote.

Rufo and Hufford found that California has spent about $49 million on the program to hand out free solar panels to recipients, some of whom are illegal aliens.

The company that runs the program is called Nonprofit La Cooperativa Campesina de California. La Cooperativa then partnered with MAROMA Energy Services, which describes itself as “minority owned.” These two have contracted out the installations of said solar panels.

As Rufo and Hufford note:

These organizations have heavily advertised the program to California’s nearly 900,000 agricultural workers, half to three-quarters of whom are illegal immigrants. In its official documentation, California’s Department of Community Services and Development acknowledges that non-citizens are eligible for the program and that they even accept identification from foreign governments.

In a Spanish-language radio broadcast, Natalie Velores, a program manager for MAROMA, confirmed that participants do not need “legal status” in the United States and can use a matrìcula consular, a common form of identification that the Mexican consulate provides to migrants who have crossed the border, to apply.

These companies confirmed that legal citizenship is not required to be afforded the free solar panels.

The providers also mounted an extensive information drive by sending representatives out into the farm worker communities across the state to let them know how to get their free solar power systems.

But, while a ton of cash has been spent on this program, only 2,000 families have been the recipients of the free solar systems to date.

“That means the State of California has allocated roughly $23,000 per household for its program to provide free solar panels, refrigerators, and other services — a number that raises serious concerns about financial accountability,” Ruffo and Hufford wrote.

Finally, it appears that at least one politically connected activist is at the center of these groups that are reaping millions from the state. The man, Mauricio Blanco, “worked as a project manager for La Cooperativa Campesina de California, which has been awarded at least $10.7 million by the state; is currently listed as an executive of MAROMA Energy Services, which has been granted nearly $34 million from La Cooperativa for ‘weatherization’ services since 2017; and is CEO of John Harrison Contracting, a firm that appears to have done much of the solar installation work.”

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Green Retreat: California Eases Carbon-Market Costs For Oil Refiners

California’s green-energy regime has hollowed out the state’s refining and oil industry, leaving motorists paying the highest gasoline prices in the country. AAA data show the state gasoline average now north of $6 per gallon, compared with a national average of roughly $4.36 as of Saturday morning.

The result of political blowback in California over unaffordable gasoline and diesel prices at the pump is a retreat from left-wing climate policies that could offer relief to motorists, Bloomberg News reports.

On Friday, the California Air Resources Board voted to create up to $4 billion in free carbon allowances for oil refiners and other industrial polluters. This will help them more easily comply with the state’s greenhouse gas limits under the Cap-and-Invest program.

Earlier this year, CARB proposed further tightening emission limits by removing 118 million allowances from the market to keep the state on track to meet its 2030 climate targets. For refiners, that would mean further reducing emissions or paying more for allowances, with mounting costs already pushing them out of the state. 

The move will help contain gasoline prices at the pump and prevent refiners from leaving the state, especially after energy disruptions in the Gulf region pushed California gasoline prices above $6.

Take US oil giant Chevron, which recently warned that California is careening toward an energy crisis because of the Iran war, and that the company may quit refining oil in the state unless officials roll back taxes and regulations.

California is highly exposed to the disruption rippling through commodity markets, as it imports about 20% of its refined fuels from Asia. But as extensively discussed here, oil product shipments from China, South Korea, Singapore, and elsewhere have been disrupted, leaving Asian nations struggling to meet domestic demand, let alone export to California.

Chevron’s oil refining head Andy Walz recently warned that the potential for fuel shortages in California is his worst fear: “We have refineries in Asia that are having to cut crude, and so they’re going to make fewer products,” Walz said in an interview in late March. “What if San Francisco doesn’t have the jet fuel it needs? Or Los Angeles? Or maybe gasoline?”

Since California is disconnected from the U.S. fuel-making centers of Texas and Louisiana, it is essentially an energy island.

Walz noted in March, days after the U.S.-Iran conflict broke out, that tightening California’s cap-and-invest program “made no sense when you look at global tensions right now.”

California’s green regime has produced nothing but disastrous consequences for households, making fuel prices the highest in the nation:

There are national security implications stemming from the green regime, especially for the state with the nation’s largest concentration of military personnel and national security activity.

The retreat on climate targets by state regulators is a win for consumers and the nation, as green is nothing more than inflationary and degrowth, hitting working-poor households the hardest with unaffordable gasoline and diesel prices at the pump.

Elsewhere, the US-Iran conflict has forced left-wing states such as New York, Massachusetts, and others to dial back unrealistic climate ambitions.

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