The Drain

Today we're talking with our friend Coyote Marin, Executive Director of the Independent California Institute, about the new poll they've put out with YouGov on California sentiment towards autonomous rule.
The highlights?
50% of Californians say they trust Sacramento more than Washington, D.C.—only 23% say the reverse.
71% say California would be better off with special autonomous status within the U.S.
44% would vote for a ballot measure for peaceful, legal secession—but 54% would vote against it.
72% of Californians want California police to arrest federal immigration officers who exceed their authority or act maliciously.
80% of Californians want to control borders with other states “like a country."
Coyote walks us through the polls, including some very interesting small steps that Californians could take toward stronger autonomy that state legislators could get behind, given voter sentiments.
We also touch on mainstream media responses to the poll, as well as the fact that the, uh, interesting folks trying to punch through a ballot measure declaring the Golden State's autonomy fell a good deal short on their latest efforts.
It's a good one. Especially if you're trying to learn how to best help California gain further freedom without, you know, turning our state into more of a war zone than it has already become.
Want to help ICI with their research?
Support them at: ic.institute/donate
Find them on Bluesky: @ic.institute
And follow their work at: https://independentcalifornian.substack.com/
As always, you can like, rate, and subscribe to The Drain on all of your favorite podcast platforms.
Questions? Comments? Pitches? Email us at thedrainpodcast@gmail.com.
And subscribe to our Patreon for premium Friday episodes of The Plug :)
Oh, and we're on Bluesky: @thedrain.bsky.social, @palma.ltd, @yeshelloitskempa.bsky.social

**This is a preview of our premium Friday show, The Plug. To listen to the full episode, go to patreon.com/thedrain.**
Welcome, to our lovely paid listeners, to an exploration of the rogue benches showing up all over San Francisco.
Don't forget to like, rate and subscribe to The Drain on your favorite podcast platforms.
Questions? Comments? Pitches? Email us at thedrainpodcast@gmail.com.
Oh, and we're on Bluesky: @thedrain.bsky.social, @palma.ltd, @yeshelloitskempa.bsky.social

Today we're taking a look at how President Trump's Big Beautiful Bill is going to affect Californians struggling to get by. As Governor Newsom gears up for his 2028 presidential bid with a trip to genuflect to Jim Clyburn in South Carolina, those of us back home are steeling ourselves for the effects of this legislation.
You may have noticed that every Democrat and two members of the GOP opposed the bill in the U.S. House of Representatives, and that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) heroically succeeded in changing its name.
But the bill still passed.
Here are some highlights from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, as reported in the Los Angeles Times:
The wealthiest families will see, on average, $12,000 in tax savings, while the poorest Californians will have to pay an added $1,600 a year, on average, due to reductions in Medicaid and food aid.
Caps for state and local tax deductions, known as SALT, will quadruple to $40,000 for five years, offering some benefits to residents of higher-taxed states like California.
Another $350 billion is being allocated for border and national security, which includes spending on the U.S.-Mexico border and 100,000 migrant detention beds.
ICE will receive funding to offer $10,000 signing bonuses to new employees, with the aim of hiring 10,000 officers and agents.
Immigrants will fund some of these projects by paying new or increased fees, including when they apply for asylum.
In total, the Department of Defense will receive roughly $1 billion in new funding for border security.
Another $25 billion is being set aside for the U.S. to develop its own Israel-type of Iron Dome missile defense system, called the “Golden Dome.”
One incentive that will soon disappear is the electric vehicle tax break of $7,500 for new vehicles and $4,000 for used ones.
Republicans are cutting back on Medicaid and food assistance programs for those below the poverty line.
Many adults receiving Medicaid and food stamps, including those up to age 65, will now have to fulfill an 80-hour-a-month work requirement.
Medicaid patients will also have a new $35 co-payment to contend with.
About 71 million Americans use Medicaid, and 40 million benefit from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, commonly known as food stamps.
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates that 11.8 million Americans will become uninsured by 2034, and 3 million more will not qualify for SNAP due to the changes.
It's bleak out there, folks.
Don't forget to like, rate, and subscribe to The Drain on your favorite podcast platforms.
Questions? Comments? Pitches? Email us at thedrainpodcast@gmail.com.
And subscribe to our Patreon for premium Friday episodes of The Plug :)
Oh, and we're on Bluesky: @thedrain.bsky.social, @palma.ltd, @yeshelloitskempa.bsky.social

**This is a preview of our premium Friday show, The Plug. To listen to the full episode, go to patreon.com/thedrain.**
Today Palma and Kempa convene to discuss a Democratic establishment podcast that Kempa forced his poor cohost to listen to: The Latino Vote, whose panel--which includes a Californian who helped launch the Lincoln Project--is ringing the alarm about Zohran Mamdani's historic win in the New York City Democratic primary.
Air out your titties, settle in, and join us for a populist ride discussing the Democratic Party's Tea Party moment.
Don't forget to like, rate and subscribe to The Drain on your favorite podcast platforms.
Questions? Comments? Pitches? Email us at thedrainpodcast@gmail.com.
Oh, and we're on Bluesky:@thedrain.bsky.social, @palma.ltd, @yeshelloitskempa.bsky.social

Today, we're discussing a vile piece of Islamophobic legislation wending its way through the California legislature designed to muzzle the state's public school teachers who want to discuss the ongoing genocide in Gaza.
But FIRST, we get to spike the football on Zohran Mamdani’s historic win in the New York City Democratic mayoral primary. The youth vote mobilized for this campaign, unfazed by the rampant anti-Muslim rhetoric oozing from the mainstream media and national Democratic leadership.
You may have heard House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries and New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand spouting their nonsense on why they haven't yet endorsed the race's Democratic nominee, who is a Muslim democratic socialist. It's no surprise.
Over the course of their careers, Jeffries has taken some $1,742,000 from the Israeli lobby. Gillibrand has taken nearly $1,000,000.
But they are fast learning that there is a seismic, generational shift in Democratic voter sentiment on Israel's war crimes. Take the 2024 Pew survey that found more Americans aged 18-29 supported Palestine at 33%, compared to Israel with 14%. For Democratic youth? It was 47% in support of Palestine and just 7% for Israel.
Don’t forget, Millennials now outnumber Boomers, and Gen Z--possibly more leftist than their Gen Y elders--is coming out in droves to do direct action and mutual aid, and even voting.
In a much more recent (June 11) Quinnipiac poll, just 12% of Democrats say their support lies with Israelis, while 60% back Palestinians. This issue is fast becoming partisan.
Here in our back yard, Democratic legislators are working hard to silence the youth outcry against Israel's genocide. They were forced to withdraw legislation that would silence discourse on the Israel-Palestine conflict in public schools in AB 1468, but they're back with AB 715, which has emerged as a new threat to civil rights under the guise of fighting antisemitism.
We also discuss the potential for Nancy Pelosi, who is 85 and broke her hip last December, declining to run for the House again. There are some interesting folks running against her, but they've got some issues. We talk Saikat Chakrabarti and Scott Wiener, who are both eyeing her seat.
Don't forget to like, rate, and subscribe to The Drain on your favorite podcast platforms.
Questions? Comments? Pitches? Email us at thedrainpodcast@gmail.com.
And subscribe to our Patreon for premium Friday episodes of The Plug :)
Oh, and we're on Bluesky: @thedrain.bsky.social, @palma.ltd, @yeshelloitskempa.bsky.social

**This is a preview of our premium Friday show, The Plug. To listen to the full episode, go to patreon.com/thedrain.**
It's Pride Month, so of course when the California legislature puts forward a resolution recognizing LGBT humanity, the Republicans need to trot some mouth-breather out to go on an anti-trans rant.
You may have seen it on Asm. Carl DeMaio's (R-San Diego) Twitter. When he took the podium to denigrate a resolution that dared acknowledge that trans girls like to play sports, Assembly Democrats repeatedly interrupted DeMaio to make some, uh, pressing announcements.
It's a fun, quick episode of the Plug this week, which begins with a little discussion on a strange conservative man in Richmond, VA, named Meade Skelton, who wants nothing more in life than to find love with a woman willing to sleep in a separate bedroom.
Don't forget to like, rate and subscribe to The Drain on your favorite podcast platforms.
Questions? Comments? Pitches? Email us at thedrainpodcast@gmail.com.
Oh, and we're on Bluesky: @thedrain.bsky.social, @palma.ltd, @yeshelloitskempa.bsky.social

Today we're discussing a little story from Politico's California Playbook, which noted that California gubernatorial candidate Katie Porter recently received a maximum personal contribution of $39,200 from billionaire Chris Larsen, co-founder of the crypto firm Ripple.
Why does that matter?
First, it signifies that Porter has perhaps made amends with California's crypto elites, whose Fairshake PAC poured $10 million into sinking her 2024 US Senate campaign.
It also signals that former Vice President Kamala Harris may not be interested in a run for governor. Larsen, you may recall, plowed $10 million into Harris's failed 2024 presidential bid. If he's betting on another gubernatorial candidate before Kamala enters the race, perhaps he knows something that the rest of us don't.
We also take a moment to dive into larger campaign financing for California Democrats, examining who in the governor's race is taking money from billionaires, landlords, developers, and AI interests.
Meanwhile in New York City, democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani has secured the Democratic nomination to become the Big Apple's next mayor, despite the Israel lobby pouring ungodly amounts of money into smearing the young candidate, a Muslim who has openly spoken out against Israel's war crimes.
We recorded this one before Mamdani's historic primary result, but Max presciently thought it might be a good exercise to take a look at all the AIPAC dollars streaming into California politicians' coffers. It appears a lot of Democrats are just begging to be primaried.
Finally, we take a look at Governor Gavin Newsom's little spats with both mainstream and far-right media outlets. It appears he's mad at the Los Angeles Times for running a story on his relationship with single-use water bottles (which no one would have read, had his comms team not lost their minds over it). And then, of course, Rupert Murdoch's New York Post is taking shots from 3,000 miles away.
Don't forget to like, rate, and subscribe to The Drain on your favorite podcast platforms.
Questions? Comments? Pitches? Email us at thedrainpodcast@gmail.com.
And subscribe to our Patreon for premium Friday episodes of The Plug :)
Oh, and we're on Bluesky: @thedrain.bsky.social, @palma.ltd, @yeshelloitskempa.bsky.social

**This is a preview of our premium Friday show, The Plug. To listen to the full episode, go to patreon.com/thedrain.**
Today we're running a very special reading series on the incredible story featuring the dean of a California charter school who runs his own alpha-male lifestyle coaching business and says, on his YouTube channel, that women must submit to men. Folks, meet Mr. 1950 (a.k.a. Ken Powell).
You might want to check out his YouTube channel, but Mr. 1950 has deleted a lot of his clips since the Sacramento Bee published its story on him. Here are a few of the deleted titles, for your pleasure:
“Is Spending Money to Impress Women a Loser’s Game?”
“If She Really Wants You She’ll Share You” ▪
“Does SIZE Really Matter? This Woman’s Response SHOCKED The Internet” ▪
“Stop Simpin’ & Start Pimpin | How To Attract Women Without Even Trying” ▪
“REAL Men Would Never Allow This To Happen: Why Men Should Always Have A Plan For Women” ▪
“Jamal Woolard Explains How Black Women Are ‘GOLD DIGGERS’ & Why Women OverSeas Are Better” ▪
“He Clapped Her Cheeks and Disappeared — NBA Drama Unfolds”
We hope you enjoy this episode, because we sure did.
Don't forget to like, rate and subscribe to The Drain on your favorite podcast platforms.
Questions? Comments? Pitches? Email us at thedrainpodcast@gmail.com.
Oh, and we're on Bluesky: @thedrain.bsky.social, @palma.ltd, @yeshelloitskempa.bsky.social

As Governor Gavin Newsom sues to get President Donald Trump's National Guard troops and Marines out of Los Angeles, Californians are taking things into their own hands.
Throughout the state, folks are setting up rapid response networks to stop ICE from detaining their neighbors, or to get legal representation for ICE detainees (find a network near you here: https://www.ccijustice.org/carrn). Sacramento boasts likely the most robust operation per capita, with NorCal Resist's Migra Watch working with 600 community volunteers committed to checking on reports of fascist ICE activity, and 400 volunteers helping undocumented residents to safely get to work, run errands, and attend immigration court hearings.
Even some Democratic politicians are starting to help the effort. Last week, NCR started sending volunteers to monitor ICE activity at downtown Sacramento's federal immigration court. (ICE was there, terrorizing people and spiriting folks away after their meetings). After the building inexplicably shut down in order to deter the NCR volunteers, Assemblymember Maggy Krell (D–Sacramento) FOIA'd the federal government for details on its reasoning.
Meanwhile, members Scott Wiener (D–San Francisco) and Jesse Arreguín (D–Berkeley) introduced legislation to bar ICE agents from wearing masks to shield their identities while terrorizing Californians.
We support this. And, once the legislation is passed, we support anyone willing to put the work in to document and identify the unmasked fascists, as the volunteers over at ICE List are starting to do.
We also take a moment to discuss updates on the California budget. The legislature has just sent its first counter-offer to Governor Newsom's severely slashed 2025-26 proposal, hoping to save a number of important programs meant to support undocumented and impoverished residents. Newsom and the legislature have until July 1 to finalize the state budget.
Speaking of which, you may remember that Trump threatened to cut federal funding to California. In response, Newsom said that, since the Golden State puts $82 billion more into the federal government each year than we get in return, we may as well not pay the federal government and benefit our own residents.
Is this a small step toward a sovereign California? We'll see. Our friends at the Independent California Institute currently have a poll out checking residents' temperature on the topic.
Finally (but actually at the top of the show), we discuss Israel's attempts to pull the United States into a war with Iran, and how Representative Ro Khanna appears to be the only legislator from our state making any pushback, despite Americans rejecting our involvement in a war by a margin of 16-60.
Don't forget to like, rate, and subscribe to The Drain on your favorite podcast platforms.
Questions? Comments? Pitches? Email us at thedrainpodcast@gmail.com.
And subscribe to our Patreon for premium Friday episodes of The Plug :)
Oh, and we're on Bluesky: @thedrain.bsky.social, @palma.ltd, @yeshelloitskempa.bsky.social

California Governor Gavin Newsom has been lurching to the right ever since he started eyeing a 2028 run for the White House: he's invited fascists such as Steve Bannon and Charlie Kirk onto his podcast; he's conducted state violence against the unhoused community (most notably using his own hands to throw out their belongings); and he's genuflected to the far right on issues surrounding trans rights.
And until recently, he's been very quiet about President Donald Trump, hoping that a supine position with the federal government would ease any concerns over losing much-needed federal funding.
But now that Trump is sending hundreds of US marines and 2,000 National Guard troops into Newsom's backyard (Los Angeles), the disdain the two men have for one another is bubbling up.
Speaking of acrimony with the president, we're sure you've all heard about Elon Musk's very public break-up with Trump. Democrats are already viewing this as an opportunity, scheming for ways to entice Musk to their party before the 2026 midterm elections (we discussed Rep. Ro Khanna's embarrassing overtures to the billionaire last week).
In today's episode, we examine the increasing likelihood of a Musk-Newsom alliance, and how that might come to fruition. Did you know that they both have similar national approval ratings at -22%? We also know at least one of them sends women sperm in the mail.
Sounds like a match made in heaven to us.
Don't forget to like, rate, and subscribe to The Drain on your favorite podcast platforms.
Questions? Comments? Pitches? Email us at thedrainpodcast@gmail.com.
And subscribe to our Patreon for premium Friday episodes of The Plug :)
Oh, and we're on Bluesky: @thedrain.bsky.social, @palma.ltd, @yeshelloitskempa.bsky.social