Jon Coupal, Susan Shelley, Daniel Guss and Jeff Vaughn

0:00Right here! Crime is up all over the state. The homelessness in the city is out of control. The economy is sick. Taxes are high. Housing is expensive and businesses are leaving. Leaving. California needs fixing. And saving Prop 13, restoring the 2-thirds vote to pass local special taxes, making it harder to raise your taxes and voting yes on 43. Well, that's a solid start. It's the fixed California hour. Right from the Pineapple Hill Saloon and Grill in Sherman Oaks, let's make some noise for John Phillips and Randy Wang. And we continue live from the Pineapple Hill in Sherman Oaks. Johnny, we're broadcasting live till 3 o'clock at the wonderful Pineapple Hill Saloon and Grill in Sherman Oaks. And this is wild. We never know what's going to happen to these events. Somebody just walked by the table and dropped off like a hundred bumper stickers that say, JohnnyDon'tLike.com. So if you're at the event and you want a bumper sticker, I think we got a bunch of them.

1:03That's so cool. That is our live YouTube channel, JohnnyDon'tLike.com. We got a whole bunch of people playing around in the chat room. So we're live in person here and we're live at the Pineapple Hill and we're here till 3 o'clock. And John, of course, we're here for a very important reason, Margaritas. But we're also here for a very important reason. Prop 43. It's on the ballot this November. And if you vote yes, it makes it harder for the state and the counties in the cities to raise your taxes, which is what we want. Everyone to spread the word on yes on 43. And we have probably the two most educated people on the subject with us on the stage right now. We do. Two individuals who are breaking their backs on a daily basis trying to protect proposition 13 for California homeowners from the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, ladies and gentlemen, John Coupal and Susan Shelley. So John, let's start with you on this because this is a statewide initiative that you two

2:08are pushing on behalf of California homeowners. It is initiative that would provide protections for California homeowners, California landowners who are constantly under assault. As we sit here right now on Labor Day weekend, how is it looking for our side? I think it's looking very good. First of all, there's been a lot of discussion in the last hour here that California is a loss cause and things do look grim. But a couple of reminders, California is still a great state and it's worth fighting for. But we don't have to go back that far to see that the voters are a lot smarter than our politicians. The last election cycle, the voters of the state of California passed a criminal justice reform making crime illegal again. They rejected a statewide rent control measure and there was another measure that cuts directly

3:12to prop 13. It was called Proposition 5. It would have lowered the two thirds vote for local bonds down to 55%. We ran the campaign against that Susan and I and we were outspent 10 to 1 and we still beat it by 10 points. And the Howard Jarvis Tacophers Association does benchmark polling on Prop 13 quite a bit. There's other polls out there. There's the good news. We know that this is not the California of Ronald Reagan anymore. George Duke, me, New Magin, Pete Wilson. It's now the state of Gavin Newsom in a highly progressive legislative body. But that being the case, if Proposition 13 were on the ballot right now, it would pass by about the same two thirds margin that it did back in 1978. Well think about that. So Prop 13 remains very popular and it's because it is not a partisan issue.

4:16If you own a home, if you own a small business, at least for those of you who aren't going to be thrown out pretty soon, if you own a small business, Proposition 13 protects all homeowners and we've been fighting this since 1978. So the history of our organization from 1978 has been we pass a law, they find loopholes. We pass another law to close those loopholes. They find more loopholes. We've done this three times already. And really what Proposition 43 is about is it's like this time we really mean it. And it deals specifically with the two thirds vote protection for local special taxes. The courts, not the voters, the courts created a loophole that said the two thirds vote would not apply if it were put on the ballot by a so-called citizens group. Now who are the citizens group that sponsor initiatives? They're the people who receive the money. Who sponsored ULA here in Los Angeles?

5:20That was the groups who got the money. So the two thirds vote protection has been a ball work against that kind of abuse. The courts created a this loophole say you don't need the two thirds vote. We're coming back and saying for any local special tax, it's going to take a two thirds vote. And so that's what we're doing and we really need this protection. Well just think about the concept of you can be a special interest, a labor group what have you. And with just a simple majority, you can get something passed on the ballot that directly just benefits you and makes everyone else have to pay for it, which is partially what of the criticisms of this wealth tax that's on the ballot because most of the money we go to the union that put it on the ballot. Oh that's right. The union that put it on the ballot was a division of SEIU that deals specifically with the healthcare workers. If that if that if that wealth tax happened to pass, it would result in outcomes directly

6:21opposite of what they intended. It would drive so many people out of the state of California. We already have massive amounts of net domestic out migration out of the state of California. Many of us who love California, I've made the decision to stay here in California. Susan has to, we're going to fight because I do think that California is redeemable and it may take a while, but keep this in mind folks. The Berlin Wall came down. There's hope for California. You know, Susan, it doesn't matter what poll you look at. The number one issue facing voters across the board is affordability. Can you speak about proposition 43 in terms of affordability? Oh absolutely. It has become much easier to pass sales tax increases and sales tax increases raise the price of everything. It should take a two thirds vote to have a special sales tax where the money is earmarked for something.

7:21That's what the Constitution says. But in November 2024, we saw a special tax for homeless services pass with less than a two thirds vote. And now we have a city fire tax that's going to be on the ballot that would pass with less than a two thirds vote. Why? Because these were put on the ballot by the people who are going to get the money. This is the problem with this loophole. It allows special interests to write their own tax increase, direct all the money to themselves, collect the signatures to put it on the ballot, and evade the two thirds vote in the Constitution that Prop 13 put there. So we have to save Prop 13. We have to close this loophole. Yes, on Proposition 43, it will say two thirds votes for special taxes no matter how they get on the ballot. And that's what we have in the Constitution. And as John said, this time we really mean it. John, can you speak to the special opportunity that we have right now to protect Prop 13

8:22through this initiative? Because if voters don't do it themselves, if you just rely on the legislature to come up with rules regarding property taxes and sales taxes and those sorts of things, how we would lose every single battle that we engage in. And if you doubted that for a minute, remember that a couple years ago in partnership with the business community, the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, qualified an initiative called the Taxpayer Protection and Government Accountability Act. It did a lot of reforms. It would have prevented statewide tax increases without a popular vote of the statewide voters. It would have closed many loopholes. And we spent between us and the business community, we spent about $14 million to qualify it. And then all of a sudden, after it had qualified, a duly qualified initiative, Governor Newsom and the legislature filed a petition for a writ of mandate directly in the California

9:23Supreme Court to take it off the ballot. And we thought, first of all, this is legal. You can't do this. Oh, but you're wrong. The California Legislature, the California Judiciary has now gone so far left that they aceded to the Governor's request and they took our duly qualified initiative off the ballot. The lead editorial in the Wall Street Journal the next day was Democracy Dies in California. So these are the same people that say Trump is anti-democracy. He's a threat to democracy. No, the California Legislature and Gavin Newsom have proved themselves to be the biggest threat to democracy in the state of California. So we've had to what we had to do because the question immediately comes to mind is whether they're going to do it again. I really don't think so. They're not going to because this is a very narrowly focused initiative dealing specifically with the two thirds vote requirement.

10:24And it does mean, however, is we're going to have to put our tax reforms in a queue and have one lined up every election cycle. This election cycle we're doing closing the two thirds vote loophole. Another big one on our list is dealing with the real estate transfer taxes. The real estate transfer taxes have been a disaster. That'll be next on the list and some of you are also big fans of our, are you hate, prop 19 that took away the intergenerational transfer protection. So we're going to exist. We have, look, we're tax fighting organization. It's a target rich environment here in the state of California. So we have our reforms all lined up and it needs to start with closing that loophole in the two thirds vote. Now Susan, can you speak to the political climate that exists in this particular election? Because in recent statewide elections in California, we've had top of the ticket races where some

11:25candidates just don't really actively campaign. We certainly saw elements of that with Steve Garvey. Brian Dolly really didn't get engaged in that campaign for governor until the final moments of that race. John Cox never really had any traction. This time around Steve Hilton, who is running for governor here in California, is far more visible than any of those other candidates. And he is all over the television, all over the radio, all over social media, all over the places that you need to be in to engage in the debate of why we are overtaxed in California. And the way I see it is any vote that is going to come out for Steve Hilton is also going to be a vote for 43. I think so. And Steve Hilton has the endorsement of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association Pack because he is the strongest candidate for Prop 13, fighting to protect Prop 13. A lot of candidates wanted to pretty much just abolish it. And Steve Hilton stood up for it and has fought very hard for Prop 13.

12:29So he has the endorsement and we're proud to stand with him. Would you have ever considered Viserra? No. No. We would not. No, we would not. The rest of the ballot is also very interesting. We have the voter ID initiative, which is Proposition 39. So yes, on 39, we support that. Very important to clean up the elections for taxpayers because you vote on taxes and you have to be sure that those are clean elections and that the people who are voting are legitimately entitled to vote and they only vote once. This is very important. So that's Prop 39. We're Prop 43. Very important to vote yes on both of those. If you ever bump into people who say, oh, we vote no on everything, stop them and say yes on 39, yes on 43. And you can go to hjta.org and get all of our recommendations for the November ballot. So it's a really important thing. All of you who are interested in politics, you know you get the calls from your friends and relatives. I know you pay attention.

13:29What should I do? I just got my ballot. I don't know what to do. hjta.org. You can get all our recommendations. What is it right up for everybody? And John follow up on this because the political climate also this cycle is producing something that we don't normally see in California, which is typically the public employee unions are all on the same page. This time around that's not necessarily true with the billionaire wealth confiscation tax that's on the ballot that has split the SEIU from the California Teachers Association and other public employee unions. And when you have the unions that are at war with one another, that might benefit you in Proposition 43. Yeah, I think so. The reason is when they drafted the wealth tax, they didn't have enough money to go around to the other unions like CTA came out in opposition. John, the one that really stunned me is this was a wealth tax, but some of the far-left

14:32DSA progressives have wanted for a long time is a wealth tax. And yet the Central Committee of the San Francisco Democratic Party split on the endorsement of the wealth tax, which stunned me. So when your opponents are killing each other, you just get out of the way. So let them fight. Let them fight. I do think I can't tell you about some proprietary polling I've seen. But I think the wealth tax is in big trouble. What I do hope that means is that some of the very major donors who are funding the no effort will turn to 43 because I think if we defeat the wealth tax and we add passage of Prop 43 for the business community and anybody who likes California, that's icing on the cake. Our changes are very good. It polls well, but we're at the end of the ballot and people say, well, you guys kick

15:33the crap out of Prop 5. You guys, you shouldn't have too much of a problem. Another problem we have is with Prop 5, we were seeking a no vote. It is always easier to get a no vote than a yes vote. For Prop 43, we are asking for a yes vote. And so some of those low information voters, we need to say this is why you need to vote for Prop 43. And that is why everyone that's here in person today, take a door hanger, take a pen, take a yard sign, do what you can to educate your neighbors because this affects everybody. And I think it's something that goes across ideological lines. Nobody wants to pay more money to live here. And you can go to yeson43.com. Yeson43.com and we will mail door hangers to you. We will deliver yard signs. You can get them wherever you are in California. Yeson43.com. I'm going to put that on the lower third on the screen for our YouTube audience. Instead of being here today, instead of being in boil heights dealing with the disaster

16:38that's going on over there, instead of being at the Tijuana River dealing with the environmental disaster going on there, California governor Gavin Newsom is in the state of South Carolina today campaigning for president, even though he's not officially a candidate yet. How do you think that plays into the mix with Gavin Newsom being an overt absentee landlord? Well, I don't think it's helpful to California that he's an absentee landlord because there's a lot to do in this state and he's not around to do it, but maybe the way he does it, it's better if he's not here. Well, one of the problems with him not being here is that he gets to avoid political accountability. He could always say it wasn't me. Right now, the state is on autopilot and unfortunately sometimes when you're on autopilot, you're headed toward an iceberg and the amount of debt and taxes we have in the state of California is reaching a critical level.

17:40What you don't want is you don't want the unelected political operatives running the state, which we've already had already. They've been doing it for a long time. But with Gavin singularly focused on running for president, I think the problem is only going to get worse and I hopefully that will help educate voters as to, you know, how about some real leadership? How about some people who will actually look out for the interests of California? I think that's what people really want. When people leave here today and they run into friends and family who may not be political, they may not be dialed into what's going on in California politics and government. What's the 10 second pitch for Proposition 43 that they should take with them? It makes it harder to raise your taxes. Here's that. Here's that. Very full stock. John Coupal, Susan Shelley, the Howard Jarvis Tax Pairs Association and the yes on 43 committee. Thank you so much for stopping by.

18:41You're doing great work. Thank you, Brimbo. Thanks to ABC. It's the John Phillips show live from Pineapple Hill. It's football season on polymarket trade, your football predictions against other fans before and during the game. You can even combine multiple trades with polymarket combos from OCOWCFB, new customers deposit $10 and get $50 instantly to start trading. 18 plus. One market's terms of service for more information about restrictions and eligibility. The polymarket app is an independent affiliate of polymarket US and not CFTC regulated. Trade always involves risk. Complete loss. Can't occur. The $50 offer is issued as not withdrawal, trading credit for use on the platform, offer exclusively available to first-time depositors, not available in all jurisdictions. And we continue at Pineapple Hill in Sherman Oaks on the John Phillips show. Johnny, we are broadcasting live at the legendary Pineapple Hill. I keep seeing people with club sandwiches walk past me and I'm so jealous but I have a rule I do not eat during or before the show because I will get distracted and slow. But the food is excellent here. I like to get it with tots. I'm just saying.

19:42The drinks are also great here whether you're just drinking an iced tea or having a beer or my favorite cocktails, the Diablo Pineapple. We're here with our friends from the Howard Jarvis Taxpayer Association, Talking Prop 43. That is the local taxpayer protection act that will make sure that your taxes are a lot harder to raise. I think we can all get behind that. Yes on 43.com and you can get if you're not here in person that's where you can get your own yard sign sent to you. If you're here in person we've got all kinds of Prop 43 swag and we also have thanks to one listener who is amazing. Bummer stickers for our website. Johnny.com. That's Johnny.com. These are a limited time offer because we did not make them. So if you're here in person you can probably snag one and make sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel. Johnny.com. And thanks to everyone who's hanging out in the chat. Oh you see Jeff Vaughn was here from the news. I did. I felt so bad. He came out to say hi and I was in the middle of trouble shooting because the camera went down but we love Jeff Vaughn. He's great.

20:42And we got Chris Hughes formerly a singing star traffic back there too. Chris Hughes is here. Wow. And I was just Sophia from the Valley Inn. It's like a who's who of San Fernando Valley stars. And Jeff Ava Miller from the LA Italian festival is here. Celebrity Chef. So Liberty Chef. Ava Miller. Yes. Everybody's here. We're all having a great time and we're here until three. All right. We are pleased to introduce our next guest to the program. He is one of the few reporters at LA City Hall who has I think a truck full of shovels because he does so much digging. He is available online at the Gus Report. Ladies and gentlemen, Daniel Gus. Thank you. Thank you. Now, we've been asking the question, which is a very difficult question to answer, which is if you're a voter in the city of Los Angeles, what do you do? Your choices are carrying bass or nithi ramen. And everyone spends their press says, dumb and dumb.

21:46But everyone just starts shaking their head when you ask them the question. When you cover City Hall and you're talking to everyone in that building, is the blaze obvious there too? No. It's a freaking planet of delusion. By the way, a pineapple hill has the best tomato juice in the entire San Fernando Valley. There's a plug. There's Joe Crabby by the way. He's coming on later on in the show. Crabby, everyone. Very cool. No, it's a city hall is a planet of delusion. I spent two hours on hold on Zoom this morning just to invite nithi ramen, the council member for this district, this feces and urine infected district, council district four to come down to John and Randy, just to have some questions from fair minded people who know what's going on. I said, nithia, I waited for two hours.

22:47I said, nithia, I'll pick up your sandwiches. I'll pick up your bar tab. Just come down to the district to talk to John and Randy and answer the questions that none of us can get answered from her. I would like a simple one. Are you doing anything to help this business survive? Nothing. Nothing. And it started with Eric Garcetti during the pandemic where he allowed movie productions to use the same dang parking lot for craft services for movies but wouldn't allow a small business owner to stay alive, keep her people employed and give us something to do for year after year. I hope to God that Angela comes back somewhere once the renovation on this planet on this plaza is done. But it's pleased somewhere on the planet near Sherman Oaks. But what a disaster. And nithia ramen. I invited her here. I waited two hours and I don't think she's coming down to answer questions from these two guys. Well, you know what's funny about that.

23:48Nithia got a lot of flak when she was running in the primary. She went on with DSA Gad fly Hassan Piker's podcast and she had to answer for that over and over and over again. And she was asked on NBC4 and ABC7 like does she regret doing that and what she said is, well, I think it's important to talk to everybody and it's also very important to talk to people that I don't agree with. But we've reached out to invitations. Trisha has nithia ever gotten back to us? No. Of course not. It's our book of Trisha Cruz everybody. The best in the business. Yeah. And you know what? We have a great consignment store right across the street from gelsons where the proceeds are donated to animal charities and nithia ramen office has tried to manipulate this consignment store into some sort of public relations act. But I can tell you from other sources of mine, I can tell you that other members of LA City Council, including Monica Rodriguez from CD7, are working on behalf of Bass's campaign

24:54to get local businesses to support her. Jeez, you want to talk about the better of two hideous options. The only reason Karen Bass has, as John said a couple of weeks ago, Karen Bass deserves to lose. But neither Bass nor Ramen deserve to win. But a column I wrote a couple of days ago is a way that I suggest that those of you who don't have the guts to vote for either of them fill in both bubbles. Right? Because neither Bass nor Ramen will get your vote. And it will prevent these dirt bags, whoever's screwing with LA elections, right exactly from filling it in on your behalf. Now Elizabeth Barkahana, who I really admire, she has a lot of really great ideas. She says, well, if you do that, it's really a vote for Ramen based on low turnout. Just vote your conscience. Neither of these women deserve your vote. But Bass will be easier to get rid of if she's elected.

25:56And I'm telling you, on the 91st day after I think Bass will be sworn in, there will be a recall effort. I just know in my gut that there's going to be, I pray that there's going to be. Well, maybe then Spencer can drop whatever that hot knowledge that he has is. Exactly. But I've never known Spencer to bluff. He's got something on one of them. He's got something on one of them. And I think it's going to be Bass. So Gus, here's the thing that I'm wrestling with. I am an LA city voter, unfortunately. I have to participate in this election. And I think what Angela just said about Karen Bass makes a whole lot of sense. I do understand the argument that the DSA would be worse. But my thing that I've been wrestling with is, I believe that Karen Bass has already been co-opted by the DSA. Of course she has. If you saw, as the DSA was doing their voting process this week and Nithia got the endorsement. Karen Bass puts out a video of her sitting on a park bench with Hugo Soto Martinez, who is maybe the most prominent DSA member on that council, who's also the one who won his

27:00reelection handily and is now completely off the leash and running completely out of control, shutting down, enforcing homeless encampments in his district because he knows that in order to get the endorsement, Karen Bass isn't going to push back against him at all. And between that and all the money that Unisse's Hernandez got to pass out Metspipes and MacArthur Park, it sure seems that the DSA, whether it's Nithia or Karen, is going to be running this city in 2027. Oh my gosh, that no-tour assessment can be done. Right there is what we're looking at, whether it's Bass, In Charge, or even Ramen. Ramen's... Listen, do you want to have... God, how gross is this going to be? Would you rather vomit from having an up-to-sus-sum? People are winning lunch, Gus. Or diarrhea. That's your choices in the mayor's election. Vomit or diarrhea. Don't worry, we're not doing the Brentwood story here. Right. No, we are in a situation where something happened in the spring and we know it. All of these people who say that, oh, there was no election interference.

28:02Well, somebody's been convicted of it. They're going to prison. And once they say, keep your eyes on a subject called United States versus Weber. That's our California Secretary of State where the state is spending your tax dollars to keep the voter rolls from being inspected and audited by the FBI. No, keep an eye on that because at least we're hitting a critical point. We're going to get a new mayor. It's not going to be good for any of us. Did anyone order a tuna sandwich? Although with those two options that Gus just gave us, you'd think we were doing the show from Chipotle. I can assure you the food at Pineapple Hill is very good. I'm really going to miss this place. I'm a regular here. I'm so bummed out. I wish something can be done. Rick Caruso, have you called Angelina yet? Come on. Yeah. Now, Nithia comes from the city council. And nobody on the city council has endorsed her for mayor. How much do those people hate her? You know what?

29:03I don't know what the heck's going on there. A couple of weeks before Nithia decided to run for city council, she endorsed Karen Bass for mayor. I believe in my gut. I can't prove it. Maybe someday we will. Maybe we won't find out. But I think Nithia ran for city council to run into a fear and to get Spencer Pratt, the only guy who resonated with normal people in Los Angeles. This guy is the most logical politician since, he's not even a politician, since Richard Reardon. So I can't understand why Nithia Roman endorsed Karen Bass and then a few weeks later, when Pratt finally got in, she decides to run for mayor. So yeah, they do hate her, but I think it's superficial. Honest to God. Sir, honest to God, that's what I think. There's no other rational reason for Nithia Roman to run for city council.

30:03Look at Sherman Oaks, which, by the way, has historically been one of the better places in Los Angeles. We call it the good part of the valley. Right. Studio City, Sherman Oaks. And Sino, exactly. As someone who covers politicians for a living, one of the things that you hear, one of the knocks that people were throwing at Spencer Pratt was that he's a reality show guy. He doesn't understand the issues. As someone who deals with politicians on a daily basis, can you speak to that criticism of Spencer Pratt or that apprehension? I would love to. For any of you working in the industry, there is nothing real about reality TV. It is scripted based on the women, the producers, and the studios. So whatever Spencer Pratt did 20, 23 years ago has nothing to do with reality. This guy entered the race because his home was burned down in the palisades, because we weren't prepared,

31:05because we had a DEI hire at the LADWP with this Janice Quinn Ones, who the LADTimes honored, who failed thousands of families on the West Side, who failed us all. And so you know where she came from? PG&E. Well, exactly. We know what PG&E is. Exactly. Let's hear it for PG&E. That might have been the biggest boo of the day. Right. And so Spencer Pratt was this guy in his 20s, who by the way, thank God, I was on a reality show 25 years ago for one episode. Thank God it never made it to the box. There is never made it to the air. I won't tell you which one. But whatever you see. It's not the one where you go on first dates in the nude, is it? Oh hell no, that was Ryan Seacrest. I think he was on a love connection episode, if I'm not mistaken. But no. So whatever Spencer Pratt was portrayed to be 20, 23 years ago, has nothing to do with the fact that his home was torched, due to exclusively due to city hall failure,

32:06corruption and incompetence, and his parents' home was burned down. And the LA Times would have you believe like, oh gee, he's temporarily housing in Santa Barbara. And then four days later, they tell you, well, I guess that's not a factor. So Spencer Pratt is this guy who is not a politician, who is not supposed to be a politician, but he decided to enter the race because he said he was going to open the books to the IRS, to the FBI. And then suddenly this corrupt ecosystem comes up and does everything that they can. So this guy was in second place on election night, and then 13 out of 13 updates over 24 days subsequent to election day. All of a sudden, Nithya Ram and Wins, every single one of them, I don't think so. By the way, I never met Spencer Pratt prior to election day. But everything this guy said resonated as though you said it, as though you said it. And then somehow that upset the Apple cart,

33:07and I'm telling you, there's so much corrupt forces going on in the city of LA, the county of Los Angeles, Southern California. Why do you think they came up with the Nexurally Act? Because they don't want some 23-year-old kid exposing corruption? Are you kidding me? And if it wasn't for this show, and people like me who aren't beholden to anybody, Spencer Pratt would be mayor as of December. And let me tell you something. I don't have access to what's going on behind the scenes, but I'm telling you, this guy has stuff going on. And he's the real deal. As though you said, like we're pursuing this corruption, or you said it, there's something going on. So stay tuned, stay optimistic, because there is a way out of this. All right. Daniel Gus, everyone, editor of the Gus Report, you can get him online at DanielGus.substac.com and follow him on exit, the Gus Report. It's the John Phillips Show, live from Pineapple Hill. MUSIC

34:17It's the John Phillips Show, live from Pineapple Hill. We're here at the lovely Pineapple Hill, Saloon and Grill, in Sherman Oaks off of Van Eyes Boulevard and Bill Bank at the legendary patio that unfortunately is closing in a few weeks, because, well, city didn't seem to care. We're here promoting Prop 43 with our friends from the Howard Jarvis Taxpayer Association, Susan Shelley and John Coupaler here, passing out yard signs. We've got door hangers. We've got all kinds of stuff to make sure that you tell everyone you know what Prop 43 is. It makes it harder to raise taxes. We also, thanks to one of our listeners, have a bunch of bumper stickers to give away for our website. Johnny.like.com. So if you want a bumper sticker, there's only a few left. So grab one. And if you drive a Nissan Altima, they're great for holding your tail light in. LAUGHTER Wait a second. Is there a Nissan Altima in the parking lot? APPLAUSE That was a Altima ALT MA. 0.99410.

35:19Please move it now. You're blocking someone. I'd rest yourself, Jesse. All right. It is our pleasure to welcome our next guest to the program. He is an Emmy award-winning journalist and the founder of ON LACA. His voice can be heard on K-ABC in LA, doing the news headlines during the show and throughout the day. Jeff Fawn, hello. Hello. I drove here in a Nissan Altima, by the way. LAUGHTER Yeah. Then you're going to need one of these. I'm going to need about six of these, just for the back bumper, because LA traffic, right? LAUGHTER That is really like duct tape. I like that. LAUGHTER Now, you have been covering on your website at ON LACA and in broadcast about the Exodus from California. California businesses. Yeah. California's who just can't afford to stay here anymore. Right. Who are moving on to greener pastors. What's going on right here in the San Fernando Valley?

36:21What's going on with Proposition 13? Yep. Certainly fit that mold and really shows exactly why so many people are leaving the state. We really have three people, right? It's those that have left, those that are getting ready to leave and those that are going to stay in fight. And I'm going to stay in fight. Yeah! All right? We got one. OK. At least until it financially makes sense, which it doesn't right now, but at some point in time when I retire, my financial advisor says, eventually you're going to have to move Jeff. And that's because that's the reality that a lot of people are dealing with. So the California Exodus is a real thing. It's already happened. I mean, as you know, just the threat of the Wealth Tax has already resulted in about $3 trillion in revenue leaving because of these major corporations and these founders have already left. You know who they are. They've already left their in Florida, their in Texas, they're in Nevada, they're in Arizona. So it's already affected the state. And if the Wealth Tax was to pass, the Exodus would just pedal to the metal.

37:25It would go even more. I think it would damage California irreparably. You know, in the old days, whether it's the Chandler family that own the LA Times or the Boswells from the Central Valley or William Randolph Hurst, the elites in California, the people that ran the industries that allowed us to exist, didn't allow this sort of thing to happen. They opened up their checkbook, they used their resources, and they stopped the bad things from happening. We have tremendous amounts of wealth in this state, particularly in Silicon Valley. Many of those people are now opening up their checkbooks because they want to fight the Wealth Tax that you just talked about that's going to be on the November ballot. But if they want to really make California healthy again, they have to get engaged beyond that. And they have to do what the Chandlers did, and the William Randolph Hurst did, and the people in our past did, to keep the state from going off a cliff. Do you think that that tax could wake them up?

38:27Well, I think that things have changed to the point where what you mentioned those people, and the reason why they wanted those things defeated is because they care. They have employees, they care about their employees. They want to see a future. Now, Wealth Tax is because of envy. It's because of power. And it's different than what it used to be. Capitalism now is a bad word, but capitalism provides jobs. It provides insurance. It provides education, college education for your kids. Food, shelter, everything. That has changed. And now we have people that will, this is an old saying. There are people that will burn it down to rule over the ashes, and Gavin Newsom is one of those. And anybody who backs the Wealth Tax is also one of those. They don't care of the outcome, as long as they are in control of it. If they can control it, that's what matters to them. And there's a power that comes with it as well. That's why the Democrats are flirting so much with communism and socialism, because there's a power there. There's a base there that they can tap into to stay in power.

39:30Jeff Thon, the voice appears at K-A-B-C-N on L-A-C-A. You can follow him on X at Jeff and Ma Jeff. Thanks so much for stopping by. Thank you. We've got one more hour, live, to find Apple Hill.