Friday, May 22, 2026

The Mania Merch Primary

Trump has said a lot of things.

Some lies.
Some confessional.
Some like a raccoon found Adderall and a microphone.

Now we ask readers to choose a quote that best captures the Full Trump Experience: the vanity, the grievance, the delusion, the sales pitch, the word salad, the hair-sprayed opera of American nonsense.

Or add you own. Like this doozy from yesterday:

“I’m right now at 99% in Israel. I could run for prime minister, so maybe after I do this, I’ll go to Israel, run for prime minister.”

The winner(s) will become a Three Dot Don t-shirt.

Choose carefully.
This is democracy.
But dumber.

Three Dot Don Reader Poll

Question (s):

Which Trump quote best captures his unique mania?

1. “I don't think about Americans’ financial situation.”

   

2. “Obama had my wires tapped in Trump Tower”.

1. “Nobody knows the system better than me, which is why I alone can “fix” it”.

1. “I know words. I have the best words.”

5. “Nobody has more respect for women than I do.”

The jury would like a word.

Vote now:

Or choose your own. Or more than one. Shoot us an email or a comment. We’ll keep this open for a few weeks. He’s bound to one-up himself.

Wednesday, May 20, 2026

No Vote. No Game.

The NAACP has a new campaign called Out of Bounds: Black athletes, recruits, fans, alumni and donors should withhold support from public universities in states the NAACP says are weakening Black voting power. The target list includes Tennessee, Louisiana, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, South Carolina, Texas and Georgia.

Good.

But why stop at Saturday?

What happens if Sunday disappears too?

What happens if Black NFL and NBA player-celebrties walk out for one day in the same states where politicians happily count their touchdowns, dunks, ticket sales, TV money, betting revenue and jersey receipts — then turn around and shave Black political power down to the nub?

NFL and NBA cities like Memphis, where the sole black house seat was gutted; or New Orleans, where Louisiana governor fell to his knees to please Trump and send blacks back out to the fields. Or Indiana, where Trump spent millions of hard-earned graft to “disappear” five state senators for defying his orders to redistrict.

Takes courage…remember what’s those guys in the 1968 Olympics? Takes conviction… Remember MLK and Medgar Evers…but none had multi-dollar contracts, shoe deals, jets, and big houses far from where they grew up.

It’s not that complicated. Or is it?

Read more

Monday, May 18, 2026

The County Gets the Bodies

Gavin Newsom’s final May Revision as governor overstates California’s fiscal well-being for FY 2027 and blithely minimizes the disastrous effects Trump’s Big Beautiful Budget Bill — aka H.R. 1 — will have on county services.

H.R. 1 squeezes reimbursements for public hospitals, outpatient care, mental health, public health, emergency medical services, and other county safety-net programs affecting millions. It increases uncompensated care and forces some public hospitals and counties to backfill lost federal dollars.

H.R. 1 intentionally punishes Medi-Cal enrollees by making coverage harder to keep, even when people remain eligible. Six-month renewals. Onerous work requirements. More paperwork. More deadlines. More chances for poor, sick, elderly, disabled, mentally ill, addicted, or simply overwhelmed people to lose coverage because proving eligibility becomes the punishment.

Specifically, H.R. 1 and Sacramento’s own immigrant-coverage retreat combine to push people out of comprehensive Medi-Cal coverage and back toward emergency rooms, county hospitals, public health clinics, mental health programs, and county systems already stretched thin by low provider rates, access gaps, and bureaucratic bottlenecks.

Trump and his complicit Republican Congress could have been less subtle by simply making poverty against the law.

The governor does have a “hole card.” Reinstating state worker furloughs or a Personal Leave Program could reduce state costs by cutting salary and benefit expenses. Painful? Yes. Politically radioactive? Of course. But budgets are choices, not press releases.

Or the Legislature could revisit Newsom’s billions in new school funding above the Proposition 98 minimum guarantee before telling counties to absorb a health-care stampede with couch change and sympathy. Ironically, that new education spending largely benefits families who may still lack childcare, stable health coverage, or access to county health systems that are about to get clobbered.

H.R. 1 is a master political stroke by Republicans who loathe public employee unions. It forces Sacramento into the ugliest Democratic family fight: schools versus the safety net, classrooms versus clinics, one public-sector union constituency staring across the table at another.

CTA and school employees on one side.

SEIU, county workers, nurses, and safety-net providers on the other.

Trump throws the grenade.

California argues over who has to hold it.

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Friday, May 14, 2026

This video of Louisiana citizen Gary Chambers eloquently kicks the ass of SCOTUS’ 6-3 rollback of the Voting Rights Act…

So poignant and sobering it’s today’s only Three Dot item…

Gary Chambers

Wednesday, April 13, 2026

Stop Crying. Start Counting.

The Supreme Court did not repeal the Voting Rights Act.

It was obvious.

Instead, something more judicial.

It put a sign on the door and softly slammed it shut.

In Louisiana v. Callais, the Court’s conservative majority made it harder to use the Voting Rights Act to protect Black voters from being cracked, packed, sliced, diced, and politely explained out of congressional power.

The right to vote remains. The right to have that vote count much in a rigged district is now OUR problem.

And this did not begin last week.

It began when Mitch McConnell blocked Merrick Garland in 2016, held the seat open, and handed Donald Trump the first brick in a new Supreme Court wall, in no small part to keep people of color on the outside. Trump then added added two more justices. And now those justices are paying what they owe.

Democrats could spend another month on cable television explaining that the Court is political. Even de jure racist.

What any sentient person already knows.

The question what now?

Republicans have the High Court. They have billionaires. They have mapmakers to help the South Rise Again. They have a party that understands power the way a burglar understands windows.

Democrats have something Republicans don’t.

Voters. Angry voters. Exhausted voters. Independent voters.

Parents appalled at grocery prices. Seniors nervously watching heating and health care costs climb. Catholics by Trump’s self-serving blasphemy. Women tired by powerful men who disrespect them. Black voters who have seen this movie, with worse lighting and in black and white. Latino families that Trump only sees as ICE deportees.

Voters do not organize. It’s leaders do.

Not only elected leaders. Community leaders. Seniors leaders. Religious leaders . Labor leaders . Nonprofit leaders. Educational leaders. Science leaders. Military leaders. Entertainment leaders. Black athletes. Business leaders. Parent leaders.

Fewer press conferences by Democratic leaders most voters don’t recognize and never point in a direction in 3–4-minute facetime on a CNN panel.

Don’t ask for money without a plan.

And please: Not another sentence that’s tarts with “The American people know…” Most Washington leaders are too insulated to know what Americans know! They know the Beltway gossip.

· Learn from groups that motivate not just post hashtags .Indivisible whose NO KINGS demonstrations smartly use social media to organize and agitate all against all-things Trump. Hitting him where it matters: polls and media mockery.

· Learn how small blue and red communities throughout America are killing Trump plans to build ICE federal prisons within their borders.

President Obama’s 2008 election was won adapting sophisticated technology to organize getting out the votes.

o Find and hire proven (not media made) experts to build a winning strategy using AI assistance. Quickly. And have it up and running by July 1.

o Use personal voter contact reinforced but by perfectly scripted and shot visual commercials. Ground attack with air cover. Ask whoever won a war without boots on the ground.

o TARGETVOTERS: Black, Latino, elderly, Catholics, and women in newly revised battleground districts.

o Stop using cliches! Not “Latinx”. Not “stakeholders.” Not “kitchen table issues”. Not “iconic”.

Instead: use T-Shirt messaging.

They rigged the rules.
They raised gas and food prices.
They hate women.
They are corrupt.

They believe laws are for the weak.

They believe Americans are stupid.

Hell, make up your own!

California cannot sit out the November election. We can elect seven new Democrats to the House.

Five months is not much time. But time enough.

Commit today.

Begin tomorrow by calling a like-minded friend to be your wingman or you hers.

Power is not those with the best grievance; but those who humanize politics. Knocking on doors and asking, “are you better-off this year than last year”?

Watch this space. We are just tuning up!

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MONDAY, MAY 11, 2026

Donald Trump is the Jackson Pollack of military strategy. The best description yet of Trump war status. A cease fire that allows American and Iran to exchange missile fire on military “assets”. Even the “non-fake news” could not ignore such foolishness…

Read more

Friday, May 8, 2026

Ballots, Budgets, and the Big Dodge

Ballots are in the mail. In a month, politicians will know if voters believe more taxes will solve what polls show plague the state. Sure, there are many factors.

California faces chronic multiyear deficits the LAO places in the $20 billion to $35 billion annual range, guaranteeing to make the plight of the poor and needy much worse.

Apparently, candidates find this untroubling or maybe someone else’s worry. None of the seven even mentioned it during those juvenile television “debates”, and the hundreds of millions spent on campaign commercials.

Perhaps hope rides with the Democratic legislature that has enough votes to pass tax measures.

Perhaps let’s wait until November to see whether voters believe taxing billionaires will ease the growing despair among the desperate and disillusioned.

Or perhaps government falls back on the oldest bad idea in the book: close facilities, shorten hours, limit services, and call it fiscal discipline.

A strategy of infinite stupidity.

One choice almost never seems to make the list: examine government operations, management layers, duplicative contracts, redundant systems, and wasteful practices — then use the savings to rebuild public services that have been starved for decades.

Some call that working smarter.

Fine. Call it whatever sells.

Back of the envelope arithmetic shows 5% saved in overhead and low ratios of managers to workers would balance most California government budgets and put one helluva dent in the state budget – and in its credit ratings.

And now a look back.

Read more

Wednesday, May 6, 2026

Pop Quiz

If you watched last night’s CNN debate with the top seven candidates for California governor in the June 2 Primary Election, did any of them volunteer an opinion about the $15 billion to $35 billion deficit waiting for the next governor?

A deficit made far worse by Donald Trump’s Big Beautiful Budget Bill, which guts California’s seven-decade statutory commitment to indigent residents and imposes the most deadly safety-net cuts in 40 years.

If no moderator asked about this watershed fiscal calamity, did any candidate bring it up anyway?

Did anyone say how they would protect counties, hospitals, clinics, children, seniors, disabled residents, mentally ill people, homeless people, or families who are one bad month away from catastrophe?

Or did we just hear the usual buffet: platitudes, self-congratulation, and what’s wrong with everybody else?

Most of which you already knew from their television commercials.

If no one had a real answer to the next governor’s first and biggest problem, then the real question is not who won the debate.

It is whether anyone on that stage earned your vote.

Didn’t believe so…

Read more

THREE DOT DON
The Door They Want to Close

Before the Supreme Court decision ruling on the Voting Rights Act is just another cable-news food fight, let’s take a deeper, more personal look.

The Voting Rights Act was never just a law in a book.

It was a door to access and accountability; for some, the first door opened to those possibilities.

Dave Manson was my Deputy District Director when your scribe was Senate President Pro Tem (and still together and an integral part of Three Dot Don…). Dave is a biracial black man. Whose father is black and mother is white.

In 1964, Dave’s father served in the United States Army, stationed at Fort Lee, Virginia. His marriage to Dave’s mother was illegal in that state.

Illegal.

Not frowned upon. Not controversial. Against the law!

His father proudly wore the uniform of the United States military even while his state of residence said his family should not exist. The Mansons lived off-base in a trailer park owned by an black man who looked out for them. Dave’s father had his wife sleep with a shotgun under the bed for protection.

This is not ancient history. But only a generation ago.

When his father was sent to Vietnam, his mother moved to Chicago with family.

Talking about the Voting Rights Act, therefore, as if some venerable solution corrected a problem in America angers Dave and his community.

The VRA did not legalize Dave’s parents’ marriage. Loving v. Virginia did that in 1967. But that decision put right another inequity - one that declared democracy is not some private club guarded by literacy tests, poll taxes, racially gerrymandered political districts, physical intimidation, and the presumption that everyone has the same opportunity to participate, if they just adapted.

It matters. It mattered to Dave, whose path included college, seminary, ordination as a Christian minister, two decades coaching high school basketball, leading nonprofit service organizations, and consistently advocating for social justice.

Without those open doors, the state of California’s legislature would have missed a talented assistant and trusted professional whose life-experiences and counsel was not theory to people politically powerless.

Practically speaking, a call or email answered, a slight gets proper attention. Or a constituent, activist, or neighborhood experiences the difference between procedure and justice.

That’s what the Voting Rights Act made possible. Not perfection. Possibility.

SCOTUS narrowed that possibility again. Why? Because a problem was solved? No, because not only five white justices overturned the law. So did Justice Clarence Thomas, who is black. All “strict constitutionalists” of a constitution written almost three centuries ago by white, male immigrants.

Six justices sanitizing the past to make it fit their interpretation.

As if voters who are Black, Latino, Native and Asian American, poor, and non-English speaking must adjust to their past, unaffected by a accepted history where democracy was inaccessible and unequal.

The Voting Rights Act did never sanctioned special treatment. Rather it gave America adult supervision.

Remove that supervision and old habits return. MAGA, Proud Boys, at al, do not need to like minorities and immigrants. But they must heed the law. Laws that protect the life, liberty, pursuit of happiness. A law now illegal.

America was not always fair. Americans have been murdered by other Americans, attempting to make it so.

The Voting Rights Act institutionalized the practice of democracy. Last week, it was again given secondary status.

Democracy dies not only when we prevent the right to vote. But when votes won’t matter.

May 1, 2026

Friday’s Follies:

Yesterday, Trump in another stream of semiconsciousness media conference…

“…Putin has great respect for what I’ve done…I’ve known him a long time”. (Putin should patent those batteries used to keep mouth moving on this man he respects so much)!

“If we (i.e. Republicans) could rid Congress of the filibuster, the party could rule for 50 years…they could pass everything, not like now”…

…Meanwhile, Amazon is reportedly exploring reviving The Apprentice, with Don Jr. reprising his father’s role! (more shamelessness from Bezos).

Timely, as Melania’s epic biopic has flatlined. Time to pimp for another family member. Coffers and egos must be replenished.

Barron’s too young (maybe a Tik-Tok gig later Oracle or Meta can sponsor); and Jared is doing just with the family financial enterprises, thank you. So, it’s Junior’s turn. He’s no threat to dad’s television career. Or the president would not allow it!

Despite Trumps nonchalance about rocking gas and diesel prices, experts that live and die on such predictions say nothing at the pump will go down until September, and even then, slowly.

One reason 20% of the world’s oil comes from the Gulf. Refineries, fuel depots, storage sites, Kharg Island military targets, and major export infrastructure have been hit or threatened. This is oil American drivers, truckers, freight trains, ports, and shoppers must share.

Trump’s smug dismissal. WE have all the energy we need.

Here at home, post L.A. television debate poll show the race tightening to a three-way. Hilton. Steyer. Becerra. All statistically even. Porter dropped to 9%. Mahan slid backwards to 4%. Villaraigosia steady at 4% and Thurmond 1%.

With mail voting beginning next week, what if the bottom three dropped out? Still on the ballot. But whose votes would go where?

Bette Yee endorsed Steyer, not Porter. Would Villaraigosia votes go to Becerra?

Mahan’s major donors cannot abide Steyer whom they believe is a heretic. Will they attack Steyer to block him for November?

And Thurmond? Would his voters follow his lead?

The trading store is open. Just listen to the chattering class.

…and speaking of endorsements, collectively none would matter more than President Obama endorsing Becerra, his cabinet Health Care Secretary. (Think Obamacare)

Steyer may have overplayed his hand with his commercials attacking Becerra’s failure to protect immigrant children from deportation.

Obama appointed Becerra. Two minority politicians proud of their heritage and leadership on matters affecting Blacks, Latinos, and immigrants.

Two progressive Democrats, by that standard definition. Obama the first black POTUS. Becerra the first elected elected Latino governor of California.

Riddle that.

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Wednesday, April 29, 2026

Fewer Jobs, More Power...Tech Titans Cash In

Although it has been overshadowed by the domestic economic effects of Trump’s War and the assassination attempt at the Correspondents’ Dinner in Washington, there is another news item whose consequences could be far more far‑reaching.

Namely, the relentless march of artificial intelligence (AI) through the cultural fabric of America and shaping a new world order.

We notice AI in movies and apps, but that’s just the surface — under the hood it runs recommendation engines, medical diagnostics, ad targeting, and giant data centers, so quietly most people don’t even know they’re dealing with it.

It has already revolutionized the “art of war” (live exhibits on the nightly news), all dimensions of communications, medical procedures, gaming odds making, and enhanced manufacturing.

AI is not magic dust sprinkled over America. It is a business model, a labor strategy, an energy grab, and a new way to concentrate power.

· A handful of MEN sit dangerously close to the chokepoints of AI: the chips that power it, the models that define it, the data centers and electricity that make it scale, the platforms that put it in everyone’s hands, and the research breakthroughs that decide what comes next. Only two are well-known to public: Musk and Zuckerberg.

· The five men with the most outsized future impact on AI are Jensen Huang, Sam Altman, Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, and Demis Hassabis.

· Big Tech is not dabbling. Alphabet, Microsoft, Meta, and Amazon alone are on track to pour roughly $600 billion into AI this year.

· Zuckerberg’s META announced last week that they would layoff 8,000 tech workers next year and erase 6,000 unfilled positions not to save lunch money, but to feed an AI machine measured in tens of billions. His reasoning: projects once requiring large team can now be done with only a few people using AI tools.

· AI data centers are among the fastest-growing drains on the American power grid, and other than Trump’s immigration prisons, the most aggressive land developers. In state after state, data-center developers are arriving with the oldest pitch in American politics: cheap land, public subsidies, private profits, and a promise that this time the jobs will be worth it. At least a dozen states are now considering curbs, disclosure rules, or cost protections for data centers.

· Musk says “we” are not far from implanted AI chips being able to affect functions of the brain.

· Computer science, once sold as the safest ticket in the economy, is already losing some shine.

· Much more disturbing is evidence directly effecting the next ten years.

· In retail stores how many self-services kiosks have replaced check out clerk. The mainstay of older and female employees. The first workers squeezed are the ones just entering the economy — young coders, customer-service workers, clerical staff, and the people whose jobs were sold to them as safe because they required a keyboard instead of a hard hat.

· Jobs readily replaceable inevitably are low wage and subsistence level benefits. Machines need neither.

· Manufacturing is the symbol most used to illustrate a major American employment shift since WWII. Millions of jobs lost to automation and offshore manufacturing. AI will further winnow the market in ways once the province of science fiction. Little future for jobs that once built the middle class.

Democratic leaders are not asleep. That would be easier. They are outnumbered and outgunned — studying, consulting, convening, and drafting bills while the money moves faster. Big Tech is buying chips, building data centers, locking up electricity, cutting workers, and walking into the White House with promises that AI can be built at national scale without sticking ordinary ratepayers with the bill.

By the time government finishes “studying the impact,” the impact may already have a security badge, a tax break, and a power contract.

Read more

Monday, April 27, 2026

There are 10 days before primary ballots begin hitting voters’ homes. On May 5, CNN will host what is likely the only national debate with six gubernatorial candidates. Villaraigosa and Thurmond apparently were excluded because of consistently low polling numbers.

California’s open primary often distorts public polling results. The only two Republicans have consistently finished first and second, while, until recently, nine Democrats have fought it out. Predictably, the Republicans poll first and second.

Until Eric Swalwell self-immolated, he was the putative front-runner among the Democrats, leaving Tom Steyer, Katie Porter, and Becerra statistically tied for slots three, four, and five. Only voter turnout can sort out the final rankings.

Swalwell’s withdrawal bumped undecided voters to 20%.

With apologies to Mayor Matt Mahan (who still appears stuck at 5%), we focus attention here only on the above-named Democrats.

Tom Steyer polls at 14%. His first-person, celebrity-flavored television, social media, and now mail ads have moved him from obscurity to contender since December. Until recently, he was alone on the field of play. No longer. His full-throated progressive agenda and the collapse of the Swalwell campaign immediately increased paid media opposition to Steyer. Independent campaign committees specifically have targeted Steyer’s hedge fund investments, clearly to attack his credibility.

But Steyer’s campaign has been successful in consolidating the most important Democratic unions and organizations in a primary: teachers, public employees, nurses, environmentalists, and progressive organizations. These endorsements supply what every candidate needs in low-turnout elections: workers to get supporters to vote.

Katie Porter is virtually tied with Becerra at 10–11%. She has some residual name recognition from her 2024 campaign for U.S. Senate, and her hole card is that she is the only remaining woman actively campaigning. She lacks Steyer’s institutional endorsements and progressive credentials, and Becerra’s experience in state government.

Becerra has benefited most from Swalwell’s collapse, moving to 10%. That was validated by Steyer’s new attack ads on Becerra’s time in Washington. He is the only minority candidate in an otherwise Caucasian lineup. He is in the mix with only a limited investment in paid media. As attorney general, Becerra was much admired by gaming tribes, whose collective political power rivals many independent committees.

Factors:

Turnout in June will be low. Spring college football intra-squad games held more interest than the June 2 primary. Trump’s pointless war and its economic effects dominated media and comedic attention. Swalwell’s political demise shook the local political establishment, but not most voters.

Who will vote? Without controversial ballot propositions to stimulate controversy, campaigns must choose wisely whom to get out to vote. Older voters are always a lock. But then? Lots of special-interest money on all sides will finance algorithmic identification of “likely” voters.

Winning messages: So, too, will millions be spent honing the best themes and messages to attract likely voters. Polling, focus groups, and artificial intelligence provide issues du jour.

Affordability. Housing. ICE. Billionaires. Wall Street influence. Yet avoiding California’s $3 billion deficit, and the billions in lost federal revenue for indigent care, mental health, housing vouchers, and food assistance.

Mail-in ballots: Which campaign can best reach these voters? Becerra and Porter have the easiest voters to identify. The challenge: how best to reach potential Latino and women households? Steyer has the largest pool of GOTV volunteers and paid campaign workers. Which voters do they contact?

We suggest our readers ask their acquaintances: Who do you favor for governor? It is the most inexpensive, reliable tool as 30 days of voting begin next week.

Friday, April 24, 2026

The Trump Library: Read It and Weep

Only Donald Trump could build a presidential library that feels less like a place for history and more like a casino lobby with subpoenas.

The plan is for downtown Miami, next to the historic Freedom Tower, because of course it is. A real symbol of democracy and exile now gets to share a sidewalk with the world’s largest vanity project.

Presidential libraries are supposed to explain an administration.

This one will need wings for the indictments, pardons, classified documents, fake electors, fired generals, loyalty oaths, Truth Social tantrums, and whatever Jared was doing with the Saudis while everyone pretended not to notice.

The children’s section can be one book:

The Very Hungry Grifter.

The research room may be harder. Historians like documents. Trump likes vibes. So expect napkins, golf scorecards, NDAs, Sharpie maps, and a permanent exhibit called Many People Are Saying.

There will be no quiet floor. Too off brand.

But there should be a Fake News Wing, a Perfect Phone Call Theater, and an interactive exhibit where visitors try to find Mike Pence before the mob does.

The gift shop writes itself: gold sneakers, red hats, commemorative subpoenas, and Bible-adjacent merchandise for people who have read neither.

Most presidents build libraries to help the country understand what happened.

Trump is building one to make sure nobody does.

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High Season for Budgets…HR1 and a $35B Hole, Voters Pay the Price?

May and June are the “high season” for state and local government budgets. Unlike the feds, the fiscal year for state and local budgets begins July 1 which in theory means balancing what we pay and what we get in return.

This year — as Three Dot Don has noted in past editions — Trump’s “Big Beautiful Budget Bill” (HR1), combined with the state’s $35 billion deficit defines the reality we’re all living. The cost of living tells the story.

While the Democratic legislature technically has the two‑thirds majority needed to raise taxes, most members won’t touch it. That pushes the problem down to local governments, whose choices are blunt: cut services — meaning workers, salaries, and compensation — or ask voters to approve more taxes.

Those choices are sales and property parcel tax increases used for general or specific purposes (fire prevention, emergency services, parks and recreation).

Unfortunately, according to a credible PPIC February statewide poll, the public has a clearly dim outlook. Here are the results.

55% prefer lower taxes and fewer services.

63% say state and local tax systems are unfair.

70% say they pay more taxes than they should.

40% support local parcel taxes for schools usually a benchmark for voter tolerance for new taxes.

64% believe “it’s a bad time” to support new bonds issues.

49% say close budget gaps with more efficiencies and service cuts.

And finally…

77% want to any tax increase put on the ballot to decide.

70% believe their incomes are not keeping pace with inflation and high costs of living.

Wise are boards of supervisors, city councils, schoolboards, and special districts that take careful notice. Most voters have a low opinion of all government. Ask around…

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HR1’s Safety Net Shakeup: California could face $10 billion in annual federal cuts by 2030

Public attention for weeks has been on Trump’s war and its effects on American life. Yet most voters barely knew what H.R. 1 was; in a Washington Post/Ipsos poll, only 11% said they had heard a great deal about Trump’s ‘One Big Beautiful Bill,’ which became law on July 4, 2025.

The Republicans’ most deadly, unprincipled attack on billions meant for America’s children, poor, sick, elderly, and indigent. The White House wrote HR1 to attack the health of this already vulnerable population.

Sweeping changes in Medicaid (Medi-Cal), Obamacare, and subsistence food vouchers:
• Destroying the nation’s “safety net” health care services.
• Creating more barriers for state and county systems already burdened with dense registration requirements and fiscal constraints.
• Increasing the strain over the next five years to practically destroy the Safety Net.
• Most devastatingly, requiring adults to reapply for services every three or six months; increasing bureaucratic red tape and certification training for employees; and demanding proof of work sought from most adult applicants.

Beyond any doubt, it was designed to “BLEED OUT” 30% of America’s population.

California is hit hardest. By 2030, it faces $10 billion in annual losses in federal funds. A setback that can only be met by increased operational efficiencies, reducing other services, or imposing new taxes and higher fees.

Traditionally, the Legislature has forfeited its responsibility by kicking the can to counties, which are obligated by law to provide HR1-wrecked services.

California already has a huge deficit. Counties have very restrictive revenue authority, unlike the state Legislature, where Democrats can raise taxes.

Yet none of the nine candidates for governor has acknowledged this catastrophe, much less explained how to manage it. Each Democrat promises to reduce energy and housing costs, fight corporate political influence, or tax individual and Wall Street billionaire investors. No commercials mention HR1. Not even a warning.

But this is the acid test for Governor Newsom, who aspires to the 2028 Democratic presidential nomination. Only he can amend his 2022 budget now before the Legislature and demand passage by lawmakers in June.

Will this happen? Or is this yet another blow to the Democrats’ vow to protect democracy?

Contact the governor and your legislators. We are the last resort.

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The Field Broke, and Steyer Moved First

Gavin Newsom is owed a lot by the House of Representatives and Democratic Party for this leadership creating five new Democratic congressional seats in November. Enough control the of House majority and dog Trump’s final two years.

Still, Newsom refused frequent requests to broker a “fix” for the Democratic governor’s race post-Swalwell meltdown. Fears abound that the remaining seven candidates, without a presumptive front runner, could allow two Republicans in November.

Instead, Tom Steyer effectively consolidated the field by sewing up the most progressive operational unions: CTA, SEIU, and CAN. While he does not need their money, or any independent campaign committees, he does have what money cannot buy. A well-tuned get out the vote operation to harvest mail-in votes beginning May 4.

Thousands of volunteer workers knocking at voter’s doors or working their cell phones can provide the winning margin of difference.

It might hold back Mayor Matt Mahan whose campaign will benefit from tens of millions of new donor money funding negative commercials by special interests Steyer has blasted for months. PGE, corporate PACs, deep-pocket billionaire tech, AI, and hedge-fund owners, and major syndicated housing home investors.

These collectively could easily match Steyers self-funding. But it may be too late. Steyer has owned media attention for five months; and now unified the largest Democratic public employees unions.

The largest candidate in this race is still “undecided” at 23 percent. Matt Mahan is stuck at 5 percent and running uphill. Katie Porter is at 10 percent, but Democrats are now splitting themselves three ways between Steyer, Becerra, and Porter — exactly the kind of mess that keeps the door open for the two Republicans already parked at the top.

While not Steyers’ to lose, he is the clear early benefactor.

Take our poll - what do you think happens now that Swalwell is out? Click the button to enter your vote -

TAKE OUR POLL

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Wednesday, April 15, 2026

The Blasphemy Primary Has a Front-Runner

Meta’s AI must have tapped straight into Trump’s after-midnight brain. Most sentient adults already know the man lies whenever his little mouth is moving. This meme managed to do both at once.

It denied reality as “fake media,” then invented a pope who was supposedly weak on crime, soft on nuclear weapons, clueless about war, and elevated only because the cardinals thought an American might better manage Trump. Sure.

The backlash was instant. Christian leaders across the spectrum called it blasphemous and grotesque, even by Trump standards. Critics were everywhere. Defenders, not so much.

One of the few was homeboy J.D. Vance, who somehow had an even worse week: 21 hours of negotiations in Pakistan with nothing to show for it, then off to Budapest to hug Viktor Orbán just in time to watch Hungarian voters turn on him. Tough travel schedule. Tougher optics.

Trump loves Orbán because Orbán built the kind of government Trump dreams about: corruption with paperwork, patronage with flags, and public power converted into private wealth for friends and family. Orbán’s son-in-law got rich. His cronies got richer. Sound familiar?

And when Orbán’s reelection effort started sinking, the family talent began looking elsewhere. Washington, naturally: the global capital of turning access into money and government into inventory.

For the fuller absurdist version, go watch last Monday’s Rachel Maddow on USNOW. The Coen Brothers should already be in pre-production.

Read more

Tuesday, April 14, 2026

Your Ideas, Your California

This is an off‑cycle note — short, practical, and entirely yours. Three Dot Don runs Monday, Wednesday, Friday for quick items about California’s economy, culture, and politics. Today I’m pausing the usual rhythm to invite you, every subscriber (free and paid), to send the topics you want covered next: the local problems, the statewide puzzles, the stories that matter but aren’t getting enough attention.

What I’m looking for:

• Clear, focused pitches — one or two sentences that say what the issue is and why it matters to California.

• Local angle or consequence — how this affects a city, industry, community, or the state budget.

• Concrete lead or source — a link, a name, a report, or a short anecdote that points me where to start.

• Bite‑size fit — Three Dot Don items are short; think of a single sharp observation, a surprising fact, or a small investigation that can be read in a minute.

Topic prompts to spark ideas:

• Housing and affordability: a neighborhood policy that’s working or failing.

• Transportation and infrastructure: a local project, transit gap, or cost shock.

• Workforce and industry: a sector hiring, shrinking, or being reshaped by tech or regulation.

• Education and schools: a district decision, curriculum debate, or funding wrinkle.

• Public safety and health: an overlooked consequence of a statewide policy.

• Culture and community: a local institution under threat or a civic success story.

• State government and budgets: a line item, a program, or a political dynamic worth watching.

How to submit:

• Reply to this email with your pitch (best).

• Subject line: Three Dot Don Pitch — [Short topic phrase].

• Include: 1–2 sentence pitch; one supporting link or contact; your name and city.

• Deadline for this round: send by Sunday, April 12, 11:59 PM PDT for consideration in the coming week.

What happens next:

• I’ll read every submission. Selected ideas will be turned into Three Dot Don items or a short paid deep‑dive when warranted.

• Paid subscribers will get priority for longer follow‑ups and occasional behind‑the‑scenes notes about reporting and sources.

• If your pitch is chosen, I may follow up for a quick clarification or a short interview.

Thanks for reading and for helping shape the conversation. This newsletter works best when it’s a two‑way street — quick items, practical focus, and a steady stream of real California stories from people who live them.

— Don Perata

After Swalwell, a Party in Search of Gravity

If electoral nation political conditions facing Democrats weren’t troublesome enough, the staggering events last week affecting the race for governor here further question Democrats’ ability to lead.

Until Thursday, Congressman Eric Swalwell was the putative leading Democrat in a tight race for the June primary. Until a CNN interview with a young former Swalwell employee graphically recalled being raped by the congressman in 2024. Allegations corroborated by family, friends, and medical report.

By the weekend, Swalwell’s campaign imploded under a torrential demand by leading Democrats and financial supporters to quit the race. Including close allies like Nancy Pelosi, two cochairs of his campaign, and major allies California Teachers Association and SEIU.

With little doubt or interest about Swalwell’s political future, attention quickly swung to two remaining Democrats holding double digit polling over six rivals: Tom Steyer and Katie Porter.

But since California’s primaries are nonpartisan, those same polls invariably show Steyer and Porter trailing the two Republican candidates. Democratic registration is 2-1 over Republicans, but registration as independent or no party preference mitigates those figures.

Concern has grown among Democrats that the two Republicans finish one-two in a factitious, bland, low turnout open primary. Mail-in ballots to homes start May 4. Here are Steyer and Porter brief voter profiles.

Steyer is self-funding his campaign estimated beyond $100M in less than four months. Critics call his commercials “carpet-bombing”. Others say it’s the chosen path to gain attention in primary elections with little voter interest. If you can afford it.

Steyer’s success will likely turn on his uninterrupted advertising to minimize his past career as a billionaire investment banker and promote his progressive Democratic activism in past 10 years. Including a 2024 run for president and two successful environmental ballot initiatives in California.

This activism won endorsements for governor by nurses and public employees unions, and environmental organizations highly valued for their experiences in voter turnout.

Steyer’s talking points are benchmark progressive issues: single-payer health care, split roll property taxes, and raising taxes on the super-rich.

Steyer is now competitively averaging 14% in independent polls.

Porter consistently also has polled in low double-digits, the effect from spending $30M on an unsuccessful campaign for United States Senate two years ago. To date, her campaign shows scant media coverage, social media, or paid advertising.

Her obvious ballot strengths as one of two women in the race, and her quirky “white board” committee lectures to Wall Street in the House of Representatives. In theory, representing a larger primary voter pool.

In November, Steyer would be a bigger opposition target. His issues fit progressive Democratic primary voters. Less so a general election turnout. In the primary, independent campaigns representing major union, realtor, and medical association interests come into play.

Most relevant question: which candidate benefits most from the pool of Swalwell supporters?

SPECIAL BULLETIN:

We’ve been getting word that Mike McGuire has become the target of MAGA-led opposition to his race to become the newest Democratic member of the CA Congressional delegation. Trump has even entered the fray and endorsed his Republican opponent.

Any of you who live in or travel to Lake County will have an opportunity to push back tomorrow:

Lake County Canvass Kick Off · Mike McGuire for Congress