In March, Gavin Newsom told the late Charlie Kirk that male athletes competing against females is “deeply unfair.” This week, on Ezra Klein's podcast, he told a very different story. Will and David discuss the great movies and misguided politics of the late Rob Reiner, and the role of Greg Bahnsen in David’s life. The FBI arrests four members of the Turtle Island Liberation Front who hoped to bomb multiple Los Angeles targets on New Year's Eve. Music by Metalachi.

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Show Notes:

• The moment my life changed forever, December 12, 2025
• Rob Reiner was more than a Hollywood liberal. He was a sophisticated political operator.
• What did California’s novel approach to funding early-childhood programs achieve?
• Cigarette Taxes and Cigarette Smuggling by State, 2023
• Newsom taps former CDC leaders critical of Trump-era health policies for new initiative
• States Plan to Continue Regulating AI, Despite Trump’s Order
• Wells Fargo cuts 100+ Sacramento-area jobs as CEO says AI prompts ‘efficiency’
• Has Gavin Newsom really signed the most pro-trans bills of any governor?
• California orders Tahoe-Truckee schools to join CIF sports over gender laws
• FBI Arrests Four Alleged Members of Pro-Palestinian Terror Cell, Foiling New Year’s Eve Attack
• What is Turtle Island? FBI foils Pro-Palestinian group terror attack planned for NYE in California

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Governor Gavin Newsom spent much of last week in New York City, criticizing Wall Street, Democrats, SEIU, and Trump at a New York Times books conference -- and then went begging for handouts in D.C. with predictable results. Back home in California, things got less normal. Music by Metalachi.

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Show Notes:

• America 250: Presidential Message on the Anniversary of the Monroe Doctrine
• Newsom Warns That Trump Is ‘Trying to Wreck This Country’
• Newsom takes it to Wall Street
• Gavin Newsom fires back after Halle Berry accuses him of ‘devaluing’ women
• Halle Berry’s Respin Health
• Newsom accuses Trump of wildfire aid snub
• The Los Angeles Times Misses the Forest Fire Scandal for the Trees
• To protect underage farmworkers, California expands oversight of field conditions
• SFUSD escapes worst fiscal rating, but looming cuts and a strike threat cloud recovery
• Source: S.F. General staff raised fears about troubled patient in weeks before fatal stabbing
• DPH Security Services Staffing Plan Proposal
• San Francisco sues nation's top food manufacturers over ultraprocessed foods
• With state pushing back, Oakland delays vote on controversial homeless encampment policy
• Students push for LBCC to ditch the Viking mascot, become the Dolphins

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California Governor Gavin Newsom did almost nothing this week. But if you listen carefully, you can hear the state budget crashing and his erstwhile allies beginning to rebel. Bonus! Two hundred and seven years ago this month, a French-born pirate attacked California and broke the back of the Spanish empire. Music by Metalachi.

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Show Notes:

• Gov. Newsom orders Capitol flags to fly at half-staff after Stockton birthday party shooting
• Gavin Newsom Trolls Donald Trump’s MRI Scan With His Own Medical Memo
• Newsom 2028: Hollywood Donors Start Lining Up Behind Expected White House Bid; “He’s A Fighter, That’s What We Need!”
• Newsom’s 911 debacle is California’s latest failed tech adoption
• Gov. Gavin Newsom reacts to ex-aide’s arrest — ‘real surprise and shock’
• Silicon Valley’s Man in the White House Is Benefiting Himself and His Friends
• America’s AI future lies in the hands of California’s governor
• What does CA’s dreary budget mean for state worker negotiations in 2026?
• Should billionaires pay more? California unions want voters to decide
• California Loses a Taxpayer Per Minute

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California Policy Center policy genius Edward Ring discusses California’s coming energy crisis -- and why he sees signs of hope. Music by Metalachi.

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Show Notes:

• The Belem-to-Bakersfield pipeline
• New drilling and more spilling? New oil and gas drilling threatens Central Coast 
• Gas lines coming to California
• Oil extraction reduces methane seepage
• Silicon Valley’s growing anti-woke, pro-abundance rebellion
• Edward Ring’s “Abundance California” website

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Gavin Newsom runs into Brazilian protestors in the Amazon, while back home his former chief of staff faces federal charges that she stole millions. The U.S. DOJ sues California over Prop 50; Harmeet Dhillon promises to investigate Berkeley’s anti-Turning Point USA protest; and why unions love environmentalists. Music by Metalachi.

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Show Notes:

• Big Ten's $2.4 billion private capital plan paused after Michigan, USC opposition
• Keeping an AI bubble from hurting you
• ‘Buy the Dip’ Investors Save Stocks From a Brutal Week
• Trump Backs Moratorium on State AI Regulation, Placing Him at Odds with GOP Governors
• Gavin Newsom’s bad news day
• Newsom's Former Chief, Described as 'Mob Boss' by Fellow Dem, Failed to Report $1.7 Million in Income
• The Belem-to-Bakersfield pipeline
• Trump administration sues California to invalidate Prop 50 maps ahead of 2026 midterms
• DOJ investigation into Berkeley’s Turning Point protest sends warning to other colleges
• 'Nobody wants to be here': New Central Calif. mega development gets pushback
• Sprinkler shock: Owners of S.F. high-rise condos stunned by $300K mandate
• Sacramento Jesuit High alumni protest school’s ‘final’ decision to include girls

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Following his big Prop 50 win last week, Governor Gavin Newsom hit the road, denouncing the Democrats’ deal to end the federal shutdown, accepting the thanks of worshipful Democrats in Houston, and appearing as the highest-ranking American representative at the U.N.’s climate talks in Brazil. In other news, Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr and OpenAI’s Sam Altman say they feel bad about making so much money, Santa Barbara County officials stand bravely athwart common sense and yell stop, and a federal judge orders AG Rob Bonta to explain himself on the state’s policies regarding gender fluidity in California schools. On this day in history, we remember the Rickenbackers of California -- the World War I flying ace and his guitar-making cousin. Music by Metalachi.

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Show Notes:

• Newsom, Eyeing 2028, Tries to Mess With Texas: ‘Don’t Poke the Bear’
• Newsom blasts shutdown deal
• ‘China gets it. America is toast,’ Newsom warns, blasting US climate drift
• Newsom in Brazil Blasts Trump, Praises China
• Sable’s no good, very bad week
• OpenAI's Sam Altman defends Bay Area billionaire when grilled over wealth gap
• OpenAI is asking for the federal government to help power a massive expansion of its data center network
• Judge Orders California Education Officials to Explain Why They Shouldn’t Be Sanctioned
• Sacramento: Charter school renewal denied by Sacramento school district. What comes next?

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Jon Fleischman steps into this emergency episode to break down Governor Gavin Newsom's gangsta moves in pushing Proposition 50 over the finish line. In other news, we consider Representative Nancy Pelosi’s just-announced retirement, and the rise (again) of antisemitism. Music by Metalachi.

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Show Notes:
Jon Fleischman’s “So Does it Matter?” podcast

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More than $100 billion over budget and five years late, Governor Newsom’s high-speed rail project has settled on a new strategy: shortcuts -- including one through the middle of Shafter, Calif. In other news: The secret life of NYC’s David Bahnsen, Newsom tells ABC’s Jonathan Karl he’s a border hawk, we remember the 1947 flight of Howard Hughes’s Spruce Goose, and what Ronald Reagan said about tariffs that Ronald Reagan Presidential Library officials can’t remember. Music by Metalachi.

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Show Notes:

• New York’s Golden Handcuffs: Why the City Has a Special Hold on the Rich
• Trump Is Mad at Canada, but Not for Misquoting Reagan
• Newsom says US faces '5-alarm fire' and warns 'we won't have a country'
• The feds want to know more about the people on food stamps. How Newsom responded
• Newsom Gives Trump’s Vanity Ballroom Brutal New Nickname
• What is Gov. Gavin Newsom's role in the California Capitol Annex project?
• Exxon sues California over new laws requiring corporate climate disclosures
• California’s War on Oil Finally Prompts a Response
• CA state retirement fund lost 71% of $468M put in clean energy, won’t say how
• Why an entire Calif. town is standing up against the high-speed rail
• Idaho official investigating Millbrae police chief over property tax break
• Principal resigns after investigator finds Grindr app used to pursue sex with student

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State Senator Scott Wiener is angling for Nancy Pelosi’s congressional seat but a New York Times magazine investigation links Wiener’s 2022 “Safer Streets for All Act” to a boom in the sex-trafficking of children in California. In other news: Newsom matches Trump in the theatrical use of National Guardsmen, the Los Angeles school teacher who called for armed resistance to immigration enforcement, the “Wealth Tax” makes a California comeback, and how I Love Lucy changed television and the world. Bonus: Lance Christensen discusses some 800 bills now turned into law, as Gavin Newsom force-feeds Californians already choking on regulation. Music by Metalachi.

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Show Notes:

• Can Anyone Rescue the Trafficked Girls of L.A.’s Figueroa Street?
• Newsom Says Trump Is ‘Rigging the Election’ With Federal Poll Monitors
• Inside the Tech CEO Campaign to Stop Trump From Sending Troops to San Francisco
• National Guard troops, deployed by Newsom, arrive at LA Regional Food Bank amid government shutdown
• The Origins of the American Military Coup of 2012 The Origins of the American Military Coup of 2012
• Los Angeles teacher says ICE agents are 'not the only ones with guns' following shooting of federal agent
• Should billionaires pay more? California unions want voters to decide
• The Force awakens in San Jose 
• Cash payments to unhoused people likely won't end homelessness, but recipients spent wisely, California study says
• Phillips 66, Kinder plan first-ever California-bound fuel pipeline

Bill-O-Rama with Lance Christensen:

• SB 414 (Ashby) – Regulating charter schools to death (cf AB 84, Muratsuchi) – VETOED
• SB 848 (Perez) – Stop passing the trash teachers bill from the Senate Ed Chair – SIGNED
• AB 1454 (Rivas) – Holding school districts accountable for literacy scores now that AB 1454 (Rivas) passed
• AB 1370 (Patterson) – NDA prohibitions for the legislature (Zavala interview) – SIGNED
• SB 237 (Grayson) – Allowing more oil drilling in CA – SIGNED
• AB 1207 (Irwin) – Continuing cap and tax program – SIGNED 
• Is cap and tax slowly dying to accommodate need for massive increase in electrical production to provide for more AI, datacenter capacity? (CalMatter's piece)
• AB 628: A Costly New Mandate For California Landlords – SIGNED 
• AB 1264 that eliminated ultra processed foods for kids, but is still gung-ho on sterilizing and mutilating them (Gov press release) – SIGNED

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He is among the nation’s very worst governors, but Gavin Newsom is among America’s most skillful politicians — and has the inside track on the race for the White House. In other news, bombs bursting in air (at the Marine Corps' anniversary celebration starring JD Vance), the California Faculty Association is ready to fight fascists (but first wants to know if you're a Jew), Nancy Pelosi is still alive (and maybe not a fan of State Senator Scott Wiener), and the Pioneer League's Ballers bring a baseball championship back to Oakland. Music by Metalachi.

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Show Notes:

• Ballers bring home Oakland’s first baseball title since 1989
• How military’s ‘safe’ plan to fire munitions over Interstate 5 went off the rails with CHP cruiser hit
• National Guard deployed to help food banks amid federal shutdown, Newsom says
• How Did California Spend Billions on Homelessness Only for It to Get Worse? Two New Criminal Cases Offer a Clue
• Gavin Newsom, Pharma Baron
• Pelosi succession intrigue in San Francisco
• Scott Wiener is done waiting on Nancy Pelosi. He’s running in 2026, sources say
• Federal Judge Certifies Class Action for All Parents and Teachers Opposing Gender Secrecy Rules
• School spending surged. Academic achievement? Not so much
• Newsom signs bill to prevent sex abuse in schools
• Faculty union targets Jewish political money
• State Supreme Court declines to hear West Covina’s appeal in ex-fire chief’s wrongful termination case

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