This is the candidate libs are going to be screaming at you to vote for in 2028. Don’t let him make it past the primary.
I’ll go with Capt. Mark Kelly if he slips in.
the centrist zionist who votes to support “business” over his constituents needs any way he can? I guess if you loved Biden he’s pretty much the same thing. Good luck with that I guess. If all you are voting for is that he’s ex nasa, he’s your obvious choice. But he’s pretty much the same as Newsom then, how do you differentiate them? One is bald and the other not?
TBF, Newsom’s slicked back hair makes him look greasy af.
Jesus christ the future is grim if we only get to pick between zionists
That’s who I’m looking at, too.
I’m hoping that he won’t be the candidate. He might be better than a Republican, but that’s the only positive thing I can think of. There are so many better Democratic prospects.
He’s definitely going to run. EVERYBODY is going to run, and the Progressives are going to do the best.
There is no way in hell I would vote for Newsom. I will vote literally anyone else (not that my vote matters much since I am in Cali).
Yep guy future right then Regan and Democrats are going tell us how he is the answer. This fuckwit is drolling to get to do half the shit Trump is getting away with.
Same play as Mark Carney in Canada. A rebranded Conservative spouting liberal bullshit.
Mark Carney in Canada. A rebranded Conservative
Well to be fair, the liberals always were the center right corporate party, and Carney could better be called a fiscal conservative. But our conservatives have gone so far off the insane right-wing deep end that we were left with no choice in the last election. Carney actually proved that when he put forth a conservative budget and forced the ‘conservatives’ to vote against it, begging the question “so what are you then if you are not conservatives?”
Lots of California residents who believed lock downs during COVID were necessary also seem to not care that he, among other politicians gathered at fancy restaurants at the same time
Newsom’s popularity was in the shitter for a reason before he started memeing on Trump.
Don’t forget that he also vetoed unemployment pay for striking workers and vetoed the decriminalization of natural psychedelics + LSD + MDMA (in other words, the guy from the “my body my choice” party wants to take away your freedom for making choices with your body that he disapproves of… because he’s too much of a hollow suit to ever handle a proper shroom trip)
Tax the rich you coward!!
Seriously though, is he trying to fire a salvo in some BS culture war battle? Maybe he thinks taxing software will effectively tax ai?
He works for billionaires. This is just a virtue signal to make it look like he could be taxing AI when really it’s a regressive tax that would hurt poor people the most and further save his voter base: billionaires.
So he will never push a genuine wealth tax, but he will push red herrings.
Yeah, taxing the average consumer more but refusing to tax billionaires is regressive and dumb as hell. Newsom is a sellout
The exemption on silicon valley’s sales tax is a defacto subsidy of billionaires.
Why stop there? food stamps are a subsidy for corporate ag. Public roads are a subsidy for big oil. And schools are a subsidy for all the companies that don’t educate their workers. Wow, we are very smart of have realized this
Damn sounds like we need some good old fashioned communism so we make sure the subsidies are going to the people rather than some rich egomaniacs hedge fund
Remember that when he’s asking you to vote for him over some MAGA.
This is mostly a tax in video games. Basically it’s an attack on steam.
I’m in California. If I but a game(software) I pay tax if I do it at Best buy. If I buy it on steam I pay no sales tax.
I wouldn’t be surprised if 99% of all software bought in stores is just video games.
Steam already charges a state sales tax, so this isn’t at Steam. There are a lot of other smaller online stores that don’t bother with state taxes though.
That’s only partly correct. Steam only charges a state sales tax for states that require sales tax on its purchases. CA does not impose state sales tax on digital products, so Steam does not charge CA residents a sales tax on purchases. This is aiming to level the playing field for brick and mortar stores as well as make more money (from normal people instead of taxing billionaires).
That’s interesting, I’ve seen it in multiple states and just assumed it was the standard at this point. Is CA late to the game on this because so many of the online companies lobbied against it hard in their home state?
I’m not sure, but that sounds likely. We have Silicon Valley, which contains billionaires who think they are more important than other people and have no problem saying stupid stuff like, “taxing digital products will cost jobs and move companies out of CA.”
Anything but that!
As someone who lives near a Best Buy, I’m at Best Buy often," Newsom told reporters during a news conference. “And I’m paying sales tax on a lot of this prewritten software. And then I find out that all my friends that aren’t near a Best Buy, they’re downloading and they are not paying sales tax. How is that fair?”
Are you actually older than Bernie Sanders. Who the actual fuck buys software in a box in a store? I was born in 1980 and I’ve never done this.
Also, what human being has ever said “prewritten software” to describe a video game or an office suite you can buy at Best Buy?
What, you don’t write your games yourself?
Back in my day…
Games are software. People buy a FUCK load of games. If I go to best buy and buy a game I pay sales tax. If I buy the same game online I do not pay sales tax.
I’m in California. This is one of the reasons I don’t buy games in stores.
Why would you ever physically get in your car and go to a store which has 20-100 games instead of clicking in a store that has thousands in either case?
Interesting, steam charges taxes on my purchases. Though I believe it is due to Canada doing digital sales tax laws a while back.
Video game industry is literally the biggest software and entertainment industry. OP is confused.
OP is confused about what? Nobody says “prewritten software” few people buy software in stores anymore. I’m not even arguing over taxing software I’m arguing over his reasoning and verbiage.
I’m a couple years younger than you, and well as a kid we did buy software from babbages or electronic boutique. I think the last time I bought software for a store was around 2010 at a micro center or something. But that was already a rare occurrence at that point. So as of today it’s probably been 16 years since I’ve done so. I think most of the stores that actually sold software are out of business. So your point is valid.
This sounds like something donald trump would say but vaguely coherent
Greasy Gavin needs to tax his billionaire golf buddies.
Motherfucker.
The only POC that Gavin cares about are People of Capital
“Not fair to those who buy physical software”
What was the most recent fucking calendar year when somebody walked into a CompUSA and bought physical boxed software??
I think I bought Half-Life 2 in box on launch day. So… 2004.
Console video game players, I guess.
I bought Portal 2 in 2011. While it was a box, it was from Amazon, not brick and mortar. I don’t think I’ve ever bought software off a shelf.
Games definitely, but those would have been used.
You still paid sales tax when you bought a used game from GameStop. That’s the entire point. You but software in a store and you paid sales tax because a sale happens in California.
You buy the SAME thing online in the state of California and you pay no sales tax. A sale still happened, money exchanged hands. A general sales tax should not care about what the good is.
The entire point of a general sales tax is that it applies to any sale, regardless of context. That’s why there are exceptions that cut certain things out of the generality. Not a list that it only applies to.
So either software needs to actually collect sales tax correctly for transactions done in the state of California or software as a category needs to be exempt like online platforms.
It makes less sense to give an entire category such as software and exemption versus actually just enforcing sales tax equally and fairly in the state of California. These businesses are operating with license in the state in making sales by its laws. They should follow them.
Hell Even if you in California buy something from some place outside of California, including internationally while sales tax may not be collected at time of purchase, you are still typically on the hook for the sales tax. It’s just done on receipt instead of on purchase.
Online platforms have been basically skirting the law since their inception. At some point there needs to be a reckoning. Are all online purchases just exempt? Should things that are sold in stores that are only available for download like f****** CD keys, should those be exempt? At what point do the sales tax laws, regulations and things need to be updated to reconcile? The fact that for the last 20 years no one has been following the law because there is just no clear law around the circumstances. Instead it’s all just a hodgepodge of people, just kind of doing f****** whatever.
At my local Best buy video games account for almost 30% of their sales…
Not to mention GameStop for what it still exists as…
Functionally this is just tax on digital video game sales. I’m in California. If I buy a video game in any store in my state I pay tax on it if I buy that same game on any store online I do not pay tax in it.
To a degree she’s right, it’s the same product. It should have the same tax. Cuz all that you’re buying in the store is a f****** CD key to go download it 99% of the time.
Either digital platforms should be responsible for properly collecting sales tax on a good sold in California or boxed software that does not contain any actual physical media and is just a CD. Key should be exempt from sales tax.
Cuz if you aren’t actually selling me a physical good why the f*** am I paying you tax on it? Yes, I know a tax is just on any transaction. Anytime money changes hands regardless of context but still. The thought experiment stands.
I’ve been paying tax on games for years. Digital storefronts had to implement state sales tax after the big Wayfair suit in like 2018.
What software has been ignoring this?
California has an exemption on sales tax for digital delivery. Really he is saying he is going to remove the exemption.
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I don’t live in California. Not sure why you felt the need to repeat the other person, though. The information had already been shared.
Gavin is a fuckin chode.
He’s really trying to paint himself as something he isn’t by the Trump clowning. The reality is he’s the same thing with less narcissism and dementia. He isn’t the good guy he’s the marginally less bad guy.
I’ve never heard the term “pre-written software” in my life and I’ve been a nerd for many decades.
lawyers sure are something else with their stupid-ass terms.
Can’t wait til he pushes back and cancels it next week when he gets the slightest push back from billionaires.
We need something like:
- Unrealized gains are not taxed directly (because that does create issues). But borrowing against them is treated as partial realization, which is taxed. Loans shouldn’t be a way to live without a tax burden. Tax the collateral as a percentage of its value.
- Maybe put the tax on the loan issuer, who can then determine whether or not to raise the loans rates or add fees to offset the burden.
- Instead of taxing gains equally, tax assets according to how liquid they are. Public stocks are high, treasury bonds are high, private businesses are low, primary residence is low, fine art is low.
- Deferred gain with interest. Gains still accumulate without tax. When eventually sold, you calculate interest at sale time. An interest surcharge is added based on how long taxes were deferred.
- Allow equity dilution: Instead of requiring cash, large holders of public companies may periodically transfer a percentage of shares to public treasury.
- Tax luxury expenditure derived from wealth. Private jets, yachts, a fucking social media company… tax the shit out of stuff like that. Use market rate as basis. If a company buys a yacht to lease to the CEO, the company pays the tax.
- Tax publicly traded assets via central clearing systems, on a rate to scale basis. First $50M annual exempt. $50M–$250M tiny rate. … $100B+ steep rate.
You wouldn’t even have to worry about dynastic wealth via step up in basis, after a certain point. So long as you’re effectively taxing wealth along the way.
Honestly… you know what the billionaires say, right? “Move fast, break things.” I wonder how they’d like it, when it’s their things which might break.
Stocks given as bonuses/pay should be taxed upfront at the time of insurance either pay the appropriate income tax rate in cash of the value at time of issuance or the government gets the same % of the stock as the appropriate income tax rate(probably the top rate) which it will sell off over 12 months as to spread impact to share price.
Thank god the analog software is still safe
This guy is a POS.
Do wealth tax instead!!!
Inequality is the cause of poor living standards. We need higher taxes on inheritance, wealth. And weaker taxes on workers.
California, continuing to find any other regressive tax they can implement rather than just forcing rich and old people to pay more property taxes on their homes that are locked in at rates from the 1970s-1990s.
Well, now we’ve got Trump on the right imposing new regressive taxes:
https://www.hbs.edu/bigs/robert-lawrence-qa-trade-tariffs
And since tariffs are only levied on goods, and since it’s poorer Americans who spend a greater share of their consumption on goods than rich Americans, this is a highly regressive tax.
And Newsom on the left:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sales_tax
Because the rate of a sales tax does not change based on a person’s income or wealth, sales taxes are generally considered regressive…Investopedia defines a regressive tax as “[a] tax that takes a larger percentage from low-income people than from high-income people. A regressive tax is generally a tax that is applied uniformly. This means that it hits lower-income individuals harder”.
EDIT: As of 2025, California has the eighth-highest average combined state-local sales tax rate in the US, at 8.802%:
https://taxfoundation.org/data/all/state/sales-tax-rates-2025/
