Episode notes
Ash Seiter — Lone Pine fire captain and vice chair of the California National Party — is back for a second conversation, recorded two days after the President told a cheering crowd in Nebraska that Iran could "take out" Los Angeles and San Diego.
Sean, Ash and Charles start with that remark, the silence from California's Republicans and the anti-California feeling behind the cheers, then turn to the governor's race: a Republican who can't beat a generic Democrat, and a Democrat who won't say what he stands for. From there, what the CNP would do instead — a public bank to finance housing and small business, universal basic income as "start-up socialism", universal health care, and breaking up PG&E and Southern California Edison — and what AI will and won't change about work. Sean walks through the party's California DEAL, and the arts get the longest look: a basic income for artists like Ireland's, film and tourism from Sideways to Lone Pine's westerns, and why the studios and labels keep playing it safe — and, in the last stretch, the hosts' firm conclusion that music and movies were better when they were young.
In this episode
- 00:22 — Ash returns
- 00:57 — "Take out Los Angeles; take out San Diego"
- 05:54 — A president's words, and the cheering crowd
- 07:19 — The donor state, and the abortion lawsuit
- 11:43 — Becerra, Hilton and the generic Democrat
- 15:31 — Fourth-largest economy, rising poverty, and Prop 40
- 17:59 — Housing: build, build, build — for whom?
- 20:41 — A state bank for housing
- 24:15 — Big tent or progressive platform?
- 28:29 — A party paralyzed: Massie and Greene
- 29:40 — Micro-lending and a small-business bank
- 31:34 — The CNP's soul-searching, and start-up socialism
- 36:52 — Health care, PG&E and Edison
- 40:05 — Utilities, broadband and human rights
- 43:36 — What $275 billion could do; solar and nuclear
- 45:08 — AI, jobs and a basic income
- 48:01 — Invest in the trades
- 50:41 — Robots, Uber and Waymo
- 53:03 — The California DEAL
- 55:45 — A basic income for artists
- 57:50 — Touring grants, Trailer Park Boys and Sideways
- 1:01:05 — Four hundred films in Lone Pine; arts in schools
- 1:03:09 — Franchises, Skydance, and the risk-averse studio
- 1:06:46 — Zappa, the Byrds, and why everything was better when we were young
- 1:10:04 — L for land reform, and where to find us
- 1:10:57 — Ash's podcast, Echoes from the Canyons
Guest: Ash Seiter — captain and public information officer, Lone Pine Fire Department; vice chair, California National Party. His podcast is Echoes from the Canyons: A Retrospective Music Podcast, about his father Jimmi Seiter's years on the road with the Byrds and the Flying Burrito Brothers.
Facts and sources. We checked what was said in this episode, right and wrong, with links: checkpointcalifornia.com/007