CEO Cal Policy Center, cohost National Review's Radio Free California podcast, founding editor OC Weekly. USC football. Opinions may change with new info.
California
Joined June 2009
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I talk with Mike Rowe about how California wound up with sky-high gas, energy, and tax rates—and bottom-tier education outcomes.
Says Mike: "Consider this an ad hoc public service announcement that might help save America in '28."
@mikeroweworks
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcas…
“It seems plain that the [small-D] democrats are ignoring a contradiction. Had they the courage to be logical, they would do as their predecessors in ancient Greece and choose their governors by lot. An election is, after all, a highly undemocratic proceeding; the very term means discrimination. How is it possible to choose the best man when by definition there is no best?” (Richard Weaver, “Ideas Have Consequences,” 1948)
Will Swaim retweeted
"It’s more smoke and mirrors meant to dupe voters into paying more taxes."
The authors of Measure RTM knew that with public trust in transit agencies badly eroded, voters would want something in return: accountability.
The polls said it. So the authors promised it — repeatedly. "
But they didn't deliver it. 🧵1/
sfstandard.com/opinion/2026/…
Will Swaim retweeted
A deported immigrant who was profiled in a CalMatters story earlier this week misled the news organization about his criminal record and deportation history. CalMatters learned of the deception through a U.S. ICE social media post. cal.news/4BAPEN3
📸 Daniel Resendiz
ALT Luis Arreguin stands between American and Mexican flags during a walk in the historic center of Mexicali, Baja California, Mexico, on Oct. 21, 2026. Arreguin was arrested by U.S. federal immigration agents in Fresno on Oct. 1 while on his way to work. Photo by Daniel Resendiz for CalMatters
Will Swaim retweeted
NEW: Yesterday, @CalMatters published a sympathetic profile on a “Fresno father” who was “suddenly” deported by ICE to MX. He told the outlet he’s not a criminal & doesn’t know why he was targeted.
However, I’m told by federal sources that he has been deported from the U.S. five times before, he has an active deportation order, he has pending felony aggravated assault charges from November 2025, he has decades old convictions for DUI w/ bodily injury & negligent discharge of a firearm that resulted in prison sentences, and he admitted in a consensual interview w/ ICE that he’s been a member of the Fresno Bulldogs street gang.
I’m told his real name is LUIS ALBERTO ARREGUIN-VILLA, and he was previously deported from the US in 1994, 1996, 1998, 2003, and 2005, and that he admitted in an interview that he last crossed illegally into the U.S. in 2005 near San Ysidro, CA.
Under federal law, illegal re-entry after deportation is a felony via 8 USC 1326. He has illegally re-entered at least five times.
None of this context appears in the Cal Matters report.
calmatters.org/justice/2026/…
Will Swaim retweeted
BECERRA: "If you want to know where a leader's going to take you, know where they've come from. I don't know if we've ever had a governor who comes from where I come from."
ZAVALA: "Sacramento?"
LMAO
Switch key nouns—substituting in “Xavier Becerra” and “California” like a political MadLibs—and this works somewhere else.
I just voted for JB Pritzker for Governor, and Democrats up and down the ballot. I can’t believe anyone wants to change direction. The truth is, Illinois is doing great.
The highest taxes and the lowest state credit rating? That takes dedication to our values! We could have used more of that $170 billion in tax hikes since 2017 to pay down debt. Instead, Illinois led the nation in spending growth during Pritzker's term. That’s investing in people! Why let yesterday’s bills interfere with tomorrow’s promises?
JB doubled the state gas tax and made future increases automatic. That’s what I call sustainable funding! Some people still complain about potholes, bridges, and our national ranking not improving, but infrastructure takes time. Fortunately, the tax increases don’t have to wait.
We believe corporations should pay their fair share. Unless they’re negotiating an incentive package, like the $536M announced for Gotion, the Chinese battery-making company. In that case, working families should help cover the cost. That’s economic development! Small businesses should try being large enough to negotiate.
Thank god the Invest in Kids scholarships expired on his watch. We need to protect public schools from competition! Poor people should just become richer if they want school choice. Protect the teachers' union monopoly at all costs.
JB repealed Illinois’ Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act and protected abortion after viability even when her life isn’t threatened. Nine months? In labor? Compassion towards women shouldn’t have a due date, or be conditioned to a health need!
Pritzker signed gerrymandered maps. Politicians should pick voters, not the other way around. Protecting our Democratic majorities protects democracy. We can’t advance our agenda if voters keep getting in the way.
Some people complain that Illinois lost more than half a million net residents to other states during the Pritzker administration. I call that sharing our prosperity! Other states get experienced workers and taxpayers, and the rest of us get the opportunity to contribute even more.
Compassion, investment, and four more years of competent Democratic leadership. The results speak for themselves!
I also voted for every tax-hike referendum on the ballot, and you should, too. Illinois needs to maintain our #1 tax burden ranking somehow. And socialist programs come with a price tag.
JB should run for President and bring these results to the whole country!💙🗳️
Will Swaim retweeted
Thank you @JulieWattsTV! Without your dogged reporting and showing up at their board meeting, I don't think this would have happened.
BREAKING NEWS: Head of California high-speed rail agency resigns amid multiple scandals calmatters.org/politics/2026…
Will Swaim retweeted
Alleged Chinese spy had 'close relationship' with Nvidia boss Jensen Huang: report trib.al/JCdEwLB
Will Swaim retweeted
Our Republic is at a fork in the road.
So many of you use “democracy”. It’s not the word you think it is, and you better start learning the difference, while we can still discuss publicly.
The State of California is in a state of Shadow Rebellion, with players conducting and/or facilitating seditious fraud against The Union.
The State of California does no diligence in verifying a citizen is eligible to vote other than going off of “good faith”; the ineligible gives two shits about the checkbox one ticks swearing that they are an eligible citizen.
LA County knows the rules. They know once the ballot it removed from its envelope, the cure (not band-aid) is lost. The more they can open, the fewer the sampling rate.
[Don’t get me started on logistics and ballots after the fact.]
We need immediate relief from the tyrannical fraud that has been imposed upon the citizenry of California.
A properly informed citizen should question the outcomes of several elections of the past, and not so past, @spencerpratt.
The Fraud Industrial Complex of Sacramento must be shut down.
No Taxation without VERIFIABLE Representation of the Electorate!
@USAttyEssayli @randywangradio @WillSwaim
Article and full ruling here:
redstate.com/jenvanlaar/2026…
Will Swaim retweeted
Less reliable AND more expensive. What’s not to love? As an added bonus the state will end up buying more electricity generated by coal in Nevada, Utah and Arizona
Will Swaim retweeted
“The plants will be placed in mothball status” per the article.
Betcha that lasts for abt 30 days before “redevelopment” is greenlit and the wrecking ball moves in.
California very much has a “burn the boats” mindset for everything fossil fuel related.
Will Swaim retweeted
They are “reimagining” our society right out from under us to one they, not us, want.
Will Swaim retweeted
California could pursue a readily available, emissions-free source of energy -- nuclear -- but won't. Odd to me that people are saying "drill, baby, drill" but discounting "split, baby, split." And just wait until we figure out cold fusion!
Will Swaim retweeted
I have trouble understanding why a governor pursuing presidential ambitions would leave so many land mines like this or the budget bomb because they will likely detonate while he’s campaigning and the trail of debris will have his name all over it.
Duolingo Introduces ‘Kamala Harris’ As Its Newest Language babylonbee.com/news/duolingo… via @TheBabylonBee
Will Swaim retweeted
Catch my Opinion piece out today in @sfstandard on the fake accountability promised by the RTM transit tax.
Bureaucracy isn’t accountability!
Opinion: A closer look at the state law behind the measure reveals toothless watchdogs, creative accounting, and a whole county that escapes scrutiny entirely.
📝: Debora Allen sfstandard.com/opinion/2026/…
They've been setting up this one since the 1960s.
"Newsom Touts California As The Only State Where You Can See A Homeless Man Defecating On A Beach And On A Mountain In The Same Day" babylonbee.com/news/newsom-t… via @TheBabylonBee
Will Swaim retweeted
I thought @sfchronicle had stopped publishing suspect photos, so I was surprised to see these.
Is the reason (1) the suspect appears to be white, (2) this happened on Muni and we need a quick resolution of the case while people are voting on more Muni taxes, or (3) both?
