The 2026 election politics

Not only, It also provides an incentive for investors to fund the construction of more housing. Having more housing stock of course will ultimately drive down the cost of houses and of rent. A Democrat running for governor here in California, Tom Steyer, recognizes this, and is making building more housing a central part of his campaign.

But that’s tommorrow. We want to panic about today.

I’m surprised that besides new records for gold & silver, there’s no big response from the financial markets. A ~5% drop across the board would’ve sent a message.

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CA governor Gavin Newsom wants the state to be the model for the rest of the country as he runs for president. In his recent state of the state message, Newsom forecast a $3.5 billion deficit. The legislative analyst whose official job is to predict deficits for the state legislature says the actual number will be 10 times larger.

https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5091

2026‑27 Budget Problem Now Larger Than Anticipated. Under our revenue and spending estimates, the Legislature faces an almost $18 billion budget problem in 2026‑27. This is about $5 billion larger than the budget problem anticipated by the administration in June, despite improvements in revenue. This is because constitutional spending requirements under Proposition 98 (1988) and Proposition 2 (2014) almost entirely offset revenue gains. Moreover, we estimate costs in other programs to be about $6 billion higher than anticipated. Starting in 2027‑28, we estimate structural deficits to grow to about $35 billion annually due to spending growth continuing to outstrip revenue growth.

Budget Position Is Weak. We advise the Legislature to address the budget problem through a combination of ongoing solutions—namely, achievable spending reductions and/or revenue increases. There are three reasons these actions are now critical. First, the budget problem is now larger than anticipated, despite improvements in revenue, and the structural deficits are significant and growing. Second, while our revenue estimates hedge against a market downturn, they do not reflect the revenue declines the state would experience in a recession. Third, the state has used most of its budget resiliency tools to address prior deficits. If our estimates hold, the Legislature will face a fourth consecutive year of budget problems—all during a period of overall revenue growth. As it stands—with larger forecasted deficits and many fewer tools available to address them—California’s budget is undeniably less prepared for downturns.

You quoted an old report. A newer one is available and explains the difference between $3 and $18:

https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5101

With California’s very high income tax rate and the fact that they treat capital gains as ordinary income, the tax revenues are highly dependent on the stock market and stock sales by individuals. None of these forecasts seem to take into account the flight of capital due to the proposed wealth tax.

VA Democrats won the full sweep, wasting no time with tax hikes and election law changes.

Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.

  • Guarantee illegal aliens free education.
  • Extend the time absentee ballots can be received after election day to three days
  • Allow people to cast their votes electronically through the internet.
  • Expand ranked-choice voting.
  • Extend the deadline for ballot curing to one week after election day.
  • Make it illegal to hand count ballots.
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Wrong move changing voting laws this way. It foments the believe there is fraud in the elections.

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This makes it sound like it’s a done deal, but the links you provided only describe bills that have been introduced. This is not a done deal. Still hope that cooler heads will prevail, at least for the worst ideas.

Except the proposal actually says:

I don’t know what other purposes are authorized by law, but this alone doesn’t sound nearly as bad as “make it illegal to hand count ballots.” I would imagine that the law already authorizes hand-counting of ballots that the machine is unable to count, but I should not have to waste any more of my time looking this up. The burden of proof is on the accuser.

ETA: should be here: Code of Virginia Code - Chapter 6. The Election

I tried reading some of it and a few sections sounded ridiculous. Like if there are more paper ballots than “the number of names on the pollbooks” (24.2-662), they’ll just blindly remove the excess number of ballots and not count them. But if the machine counts more votes than “the number of names on the pollbooks”, then whatever the machine says will be accepted (24.2-657). Neither one makes sense to me.

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Even after these rule changes, Virginia will be a model of efficiency compared to our home state of California. California does not certify election results until 30 days after the election. During these 30 days,

https://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/upcoming-elections/vote-counting-process

During the 30-day canvass period, county elections officials will process and count provisional ballots, ballots from voters who registered and voted conditionally (Same Day Voter Registration), and vote-by-mail ballots postmarked by Election Day and received within seven days of the election. This process includes a comparison of signatures on envelopes to the signatures on file. If a signature is missing or does not compare to the signature on file, state law requires county elections officials to reach out to voters to verify their signature to ensure that their ballot can be counted. By law, voters are allowed to verify their signature up to two days before the county certifies their results.

I have no doubt that once the Democrats in Virginia cement their power, they will make more changes like those in California to make sure no one is able to vote them out

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Speaking of California, it looks like there will be an ID requirement for voting initiative on the ballot this fall.

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It’s CNN so I’m not really caring about the article itself; I’m sure there are some truths in there, but who knows what or how much spin was added

My reaction is, why the hell can’t these old guys just own the fact they are old? Don’t you think it would play well for Trump to just say he’s moderating his daily schedule to maintain his health, because he’s in this for the long haul and doesn’t want to finish out his term like Biden? He’d still get in his pot shots, while at the same time lowering expectations instead of building them up to nearly unsustainable levels. Missing meetings because you slept in is bad, but scheduling meetings later so you can sleep in is rather prudent. Especially for any 80 year old.

Midterms. He needs to carry as many as GOP candidates to Congress as he can. Otherwise he might indeed not finish his second term as president after an overwhelming impeachment.

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It requires 2/3 vote of senators to convict the President. Not going to happen. If the Republicans retain control of the senate, they are not even required to hold an impeachment trial if indictment passed by the Democrat house.

The Senate is not explicitly required to hold an impeachment trial, as the Constitution grants it the “sole power to try” impeachments but does not mandate that it must do so

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Are you kidding? Endorses Trump’s policy!!!???

Talk about blatantly avoiding any acknowledgement that the appeals court OVERTURNED the lower court’s ruling. Gotta keep up the narrative that ICE is trampling all over the law, and avoid at all costs admitting that they are in fact following the law.

When mainstream network news is doing this, how can you trust, or at least take at face value, any detail or evidence they report on?

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According to CBS, Any court that rules against the president is a wise tribunal.

Delegitimize any court that rules for an administration policy.

Bari Weiss is not having success bring CBS News into the main stream.

So there was an order blocking her deportation and she was deported anyways. Sure, a mistake was made, she was deported using this way when it should’ve been done that way, go ahead and complain about that if you must

But the way to rectify this error is to unlawfully issue her a student visa? Why is a judge even “requesting” such a thing? To me, that makes it clear there was no legal basis for the initial order, and the judge is trying to cover up that fact and get what he feels is “right” regardless of the legalities.

Lopez Belloza previously told ABC News that she believes her deportation is unfair because she has no criminal record and was “just focusing on her studies.”

As I said elsewhere, we have become a society of excuses, expecting to be able to ignore laws as long as you feel you have a reason to. Where’s the article about how she took a spot in the college class she was not entitled to? Or how she took financial aid resources she was not entitled to? But no, it was her dream so it’s all ok.

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