Higher Ground

Restore Sanity and the American Dream 🇺🇸

[Carl DeMaio @carldemaio]

BREAKING: Gavin Newsom used YOUR TAX DOLLARS to defend himself in a personal criminal investigation.

I'm demanding an investigation. Taxpayer money is not Gavin Newsom's personal legal defense fund. https://t.co/tibw4oSK6n

[Wall Street Apes @WallStreetApes]

California Democrats just passed all these brand new taxes last night AT MIDNIGHT so no one would notice

California families can expect about a $400 increase on taxes with their health insurance and higher payroll taxes

This is what happens when you can’t vote people out because they rig the elections with mail in ballots. They just keep stealing more and more money from you and there’s nothing you can do about it

[David Tangipa @DavidTangipa]

🚨 MIDNIGHT TAX INCREASES!

In the dead of night, California legislators passed massive new taxes on insurance, digital software, and employee payroll taxes.

Don’t let anyone fool you this isn’t the federal government’s fault. The math isn’t mathing.

California just passed a $355 billion record budget with record revenue. Yet my colleagues still blame the President.

For context: The state budget was around $170 billion just 10 years ago. Now it’s more than doubled and life in California doesn’t feel any easier.

Sacramento has an insatiable appetite for your hard-earned money. If you’re not paying attention, they will keep taking more.

[Clandestine @WarClandestine]

What’s happening in California is nothing new. It’s the same playbook they used to steal 2020.

First they send out mass mail-in ballots, to everyone, even those who didn’t request them, and dead people still on the voter rolls.

Then they harvest all these floating ballots.

Then they delay counting for day/weeks, in deep blue counties they control, so they can continue to ship all these fraudulent mail-in ballots to the tabulation center, until they have enough to steal the election.

And that’s how it’s done. Completely untraceable election fraud.

This is why the Dems don’t want voter ID. It’s why they don’t want paper ballots. It’s why they don’t want same-day elections. It’s why they don’t want to clean up voter rolls.

This is how just a few deep blue counties in swing states, are able to overturn entire state and federal elections.

This is why securing elections is so important, whether that be via the SAVE America Act, or some sort of executive action. Until this problem is solved, we do not have a nation.

[Kyle Becker @kylenabecker]

Let’s review. California:

- Made it illegal to show voter IDs
- Mass mail-in ballots across the state
- Allows people to print ballots at home
- Allows people to register anywhere in the state
- Allows ballot harvesting
- Allows people to register with “IDs” like gym memberships & insurance cards
- Allows people to hand-date ballot envelopes, no postmark required
- Has 853,000 + “ghost voters”
- Sanctuary state that harbors illegal aliens
- Refuses to turn over dirty voter rolls for verification
- Refuses to allow independent signature verification audit
- Refuses to allow ballot inspection audit

This isn’t exactly “subtle.” It’s a blueprint for stealing elections.

[James O'Keefe @JamesOKeefeIII]

🚨Los Angeles Election Fraud Caught on Hidden Camera

LA election petitioners were caught on tape giving homeless individuals other voters' information, instructing them to forge voter names and signatures, and offering cash and drugs as incentives to register to vote.

[F.A. United States Attorney Bill Essayli @USAttyEssayli]

California Is Blocking a Federal Audit of Its Voter Rolls

California allows first-time voters to register using forms of ID that most Americans would find surprising, including:

-Gym membership card
-Employer ID card
-Credit or debit card
-Prescription drug label
-Insurance card (California provides free health coverage to undocumented immigrants)

Full list: https://t.co/BvfviJsYG8

This is permitted when a voter fails to provide a Social Security number or driver’s license at registration. Our office believes this policy deserves a closer look.

We also have serious concerns about how California maintains its voter rolls. There are open questions about whether the state is promptly removing deceased voters, people who have moved, and individuals convicted of disqualifying felonies.

On top of that, California allows third parties to collect and turn in ballots on voters’ behalf (a practice known as ballot harvesting) with few restrictions. This makes it difficult to track who actually received, completed, and submitted each ballot.

For over a year, the Department of Justice has been trying to audit California’s voter rolls. Federal law gives the Attorney General the authority to review state voter files and confirm that only eligible U.S. citizens are voting in federal elections.

@AAGDhillon sent California a letter explaining our legal authority. California refused to comply, claiming state privacy laws block the review, an argument that does not hold up because those laws don’t apply to the federal government in this context. We’ve sued California in federal court, and the case is before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

If California genuinely wants voters to trust its elections, it should open its records, not fight to keep them closed.

What are they afraid of?

[Corbin Williams @corbinwilliams]

@spencerpratt How did a blue city only increase votes for Nithya by mail, without increasing votes for Karen Bass? This is fraud.

[Spencer Pratt @spencerpratt]

After CBS embarrassed Karen Bass by fact-checking her debate lies about the Palisades Fire, they clearly got the call. CBS filmed with me on my burned out lot for over an hour, and they turned it over to Karen Bass’ PR team to edit it into a comical 5 minute hit piece with clips from the Hills. They can’t beat my ideas, they can’t beat me in the debates, so they gotta try to turn my campaign into a sideshow. People are done with these skeezy political tricks, and I’m done with CBS. They’ll never get a word from me for my next 8 years as mayor. Adios! What outlet should I have in their absence?

[Chamath Palihapitiya @chamath]

As you go to work today and settle into the week, please study the form below. You will soon need to fill this out EVERY year and tell the government what you own and then allow them to tell you how much its worth.

That is the framework that is enabled by the Trojan Horse "Billionaire Tax" that is trying to get passed.

Give them credit: they cleverly use Billionaires as the hook, but build in the language and the framework that will allow the Legislature to simply extend the tax to everyone and make it yearly.

And this is where the form below comes in...

In this case, ask yourself, will it be you or the Billionaires that will be able to fill this out properly and avoid penalties.

As much as Billionaires can be pushed to do more for society, we all know that they have the infrastructure to manage these kinds of disclosures...middle class Californians do not and they will be the ones that get penalized in the end.

[US Oil & Gas Association @US_OGA]

Hello @TomSteyer,

California gas prices are “outrageous” — we agree. It is unfortunate that our customers are not only paying high prices for gasoline but even more to just to feed the voracious appetite of a bloated state bureaucracy.

But let’s stick to the data instead of the usual Sacramento script.

As of April 2026:
• CA average: ~$5.89/gallon
• National average: ~$4.08/gallon

• Difference: +$1.81 that has ZERO to do with any war or “Big Oil.”

That premium has existed for decades — long before this conflict began.

Highest gas taxes & fees in America (~71¢ excise + sales + cap-and-trade + LCFS credits = nearly $1.80/gal in total state burden).

CARB’s boutique “California-only” fuel blend that no other state can supply.

Decades of refinery closures, low-carbon mandates, and permitting hell that slashed in-state capacity while CA imported more crude from foreign sources.

Nevada imports 85-90% of its fuel from those same strangled California refineries. Arizona gets ~33%.

Green ideology isn’t just screwing Californians — it’s pricing out your neighbors too. (Sound familiar, @AaronDFordNV?)

You and Governor Newsom keep blaming Trump and producers for the mess Sacramento engineered.

Meanwhile, the same CARB regs you cheered are now a national security issue for DoD bases on the West Coast. Trump’s Defense Production Act moves to fix what ideology broke. That’s not “Big Oil” — that’s basic energy security.

And while we’re on the topic of who really benefits:

It is our understanding that you built your ~$2 billion fortune running Farallon Capital, a hedge fund that delivered big returns in part through investments in fossil fuels — including coal mines and power plants abroad.

Then your fund pivoted to climate investing via Galvanize Climate Solutions, raising hundreds of millions for “decarbonization” plays and profitinh handsomely from the subsidies, mandates, and regulations.

In political science terms this would be called rent-seeking.

Energy security isn’t optional.
American oil & gas delivers it — when Sacramento gets out of the way.

But it sounds like if elected you're not prepared to get out of the way.

At any rate, thank you for sharing your views on this important issue.

[Gregory Kennedy @gregorykennedy]

LA be like:
We will tax restaurants into oblivion.
But illegal street food is fine.

We can't effectively put out forest fires.
You will pay extra for the rich who lost their homes in the Pacific Pallisade fires.

We banned plastic straws.
The sidewalk tent meth lab, not an issue.

Used drug needles litter the street.
That's your problem when you walk your dog.

Massive fraud, everywhere.
We are also going to tax your Pokémon card collection.

Housing is too expensive.
No, you can't build anything there. That parking lot is a sacred burial ground.

We bought our home in 1972 and pay almost no tax.
HAHA, too bad for you. We were here first.

Endless talk about sustainability.
The entire city sits in a car for hours, burning gas to drive four miles to get a coffee.

Your block had three break-ins, two assaults, and a fire.
The best we can do is a poorly executed mural.

We are pro-worker.
Unless it's not on a laptop, and you need a permit. If you're doing 'real work', you can F... off!

We know there are problems.
This is why we created another committee, with no authority, that will waste millions on bogus research.

Wait... where did everyone go?

[New York Post @nypost]

CA gov. candidate Eric Swalwell rents a room in a family of three's home to claim he lives in California: report https://t.co/lcIgcsX95k

[Josh Koehn @Josh_Koehn]

NEW: The California Democratic Party & Senate Pro Tem Monique Limón are hosting a 2-day golf & spa retreat for lobbyists & special interests at a luxury resort. Price tag up to $100K, per an invite obtained by The Post.

One lobbyist called it "obscene."

https://t.co/Z52Hn74jfs

[Kim-Mai Cutler @kimmaicutler]

“SEIU is known in California political circles for pioneering and perfecting the art of extortion via ballot initiative.” https://t.co/6aOHK6cEdR

[Mann Made Cinema @Hotshot_Movie]

Guys. Understand that leadership in California WANTS higher gas prices. Is not incompetence, it’s malice. In their own legislation, they celebrate how when they inflict financial pain on commuters, they eventually give up and take the Metro out of desperation. They hate you.

[Carl DeMaio @carldemaio]

ALERT: CA Democrats just unveiled a bill to ban private health insurance and have the government take over all healthcare! AB 1900 will eliminate your medical freedom, spike costs, and result in low-quality care.  Tell your legislator: Vote NO on AB 1900!

[KTLA @KTLA]

A proposed ballot initiative that would require Californians to present identification when voting and mandate that election officials verify the citizenship of registered voters appears to have gathered enough support to qualify for the November 2026 ballot. Full Story: https://t.co/2JFWJf5f2h

[New York Post @nypost]

California voter ID petition set to be officially submitted after netting 1.3M signatures: 'Common sense' https://t.co/LSEX1tMfTZ

[Bill Melugin @BillMelugin_]

BREAKING: @FoxNews has obtained the September 2025 parole hearing transcript for serial child rapist David Funston, in which he says as recently as 2021, he was masturbating to children in prison, including fantasies he was having about an 8-year-old girl who used to live across the street from him.

The California Parole Board found him suitable for early release from prison via CA’s elderly parole laws during the same hearing.

The transcript reveals Funston also admits that he raped a little boy because he was "vulnerable and available" and says he targeted children because he enjoyed the power he had over them. 

Funston goes on to acknowledge that his pedophilia is a lifelong disorder and that he still has "urges", but he has developed an "urge control plan", and says he would never be around children again as it would be a high risk situation for him. 

The Parole Board credits him for this "urge control plan" as part of the reason they approve his early release, adding:

"You have a -- a really good developed urge control plan. You have steps that you take, you practice it every day so that it'll be second nature to you if the, um, high risk -- high risk, um, situation develops,” a parole board member tells him.