Ezra Klein Is A Must-Listen: What Should The Democrats DO? September 8, 2025 But first . . . SOME COLD, HARD FACTS ABOUT CALIFORNIA: We have been getting a lot of attention on Fox News lately, but here are some cold, hard FACTS you won’t hear on that network. Middle class families in California pay LESS in taxes than in states like Texas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas.[*] 50 million of the 52 million jobs created since the Cold War have been created in Democratic administrations. Republican presidents have one thing in common: recession. Life expectancy, infant mortality, deaths of despair, wages and uninsured rates are all worse off in red states. California is the fourth largest economy in the WORLD. We contribute $83 billion TO the federal government while Texas TAKES $71 billion. California is #1 in manufacturing, #1 in farming, #1 in new business starts, #1 in tech and VC investments, #1 in Fortune 500 companies, and the #1 public higher education system in the country. California has some of the strongest gun laws in the country and as a result has a 43% lower gun death rate than the rest of the U.S. according to data from the CDC while President Trump oversaw the largest spike in homicides recorded in U.S. history. THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER! Gavin Newsom And . . . FAREED ZAKARIA Trump’s Tariffs Are A Gift — Just Not To America . . . [A] toxic combination of tariffs, hostile rhetoric and ideological demands is moving many of the world’s pivotal states away from the United States and toward China. . . . There is no strategic rationale for these policy reversals. Trump is punishing Brazil because that country’s independent courts are holding accountable Trump’s ideological soulmate, Jair Bolsonaro, for his efforts to reject the results of free and fair elections. South Africa faces Trump’s ire because of a land reform law that is an attempt to address some of the vast disparities in landholding and wealth caused by decades of apartheid. These reasons have nothing to do with restoring America’s manufacturing base or reducing trade deficits. The U.S. actually runs a trade surplus with Brazil. Zakaria calls it possibly “the greatest own goal in modern foreign policy.” (An “own goal” is when you accidentally score one for the other team.) And . . . IF YOU BELIEVE IN THE RULE OF LAW Chris Murphy to Kristi Noem — 30 seconds. So so good. (Even better: the full 6 minutes.) And now! One might argue that it’s groups like Indivisible that should be organizing peaceful street protests (October 18!) rather than the DNC; that it’s charismatic Democratic governors and presidential hopefuls who should be leading the charge rather than Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer. But like Ezra Klein, all I know for sure is that the situation is urgent. EZRA KLEIN WANTS DEMOCRATS TO HAVE A PLAN! One of the most thoughtful — powerful, important — 20 minutes you’ll ever hear. *The ITEP study shows that Incomes in California’s middle 20% — those earning $39,100 to $62,300 — pay an average of 8.3% in state and local income, property and sales and excise taxes. That gives California the 11th-lowest tax burden in the country for that income bracket.