The fraudster behind California secession

Politico

4 days ago

From the outside, it looks impressive: a palatial home overlooking the San Fernando Valley, just northwest of Los Angeles. It's a befitting place for the headquarters of such an ambitious organization. Here, the Calexit movement, dedicated to getting California to secede from the United States and become its own country, has made its headquarters.
But inside, the house — and the organization — something is amiss.
The mansion belongs to Calexit CEO Xavier Mitchell, and it's a bit of a mess. Drywall falls from a water-damaged ceiling in clumps. Plywood boards stand in place of several glass doors. 'Nothing in Mitchell's house is quite as it seems. Instead, it is a superficial facsimile of wealth, a flawed stand-in — good enough, maybe, until you take a closer look,' writes Will McCarthy in this week's Friday Read.
'The same could be said of Mitchell himself.'
McCarthy pulls back the curtain on the fraudster at the center of the movement for an independent California.
Read the story.
'I was just informed that our Country's 'Jobs Numbers' are being produced by a Biden Appointee, Dr. Erika McEntarfer, the Commissioner of Labor Statistics, who faked the Jobs Numbers before the Election to try and boost Kamala's chances of Victory.'
Can you guess who said this about former head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, without evidence? Scroll to the bottom for the answer.**
Trump's Epstein Options ... The ongoing Epstein scandal continues to rock the White House. Does Trump have a way out? According to legal columnist Ankush Khardori, the options available to the president range from bad to worse. 'All have conspicuous downsides for the administration, the public or both,' he writes. Read his latest column for a breakdown of what Trump might do next — and what consequences he could suffer.
Getting a little hard to keep track of who is getting fired in Washington, isn't it? If you missed the latest high-profile axing yesterday, just stick to these talking points at happy hour. Your friends won't know the difference. (From Associate Editor Dylon Jones)
— If anyone raises the revisions in past job numbers Trump called out on Truth Social, show off your background knowledge about how the Bureau of Labor Statistics operates: 'Revising jobs report data isn't a sign of wrongdoing — it's routine. Collecting data about the entire U.S. economy takes time, so it's not a surprise that you'd need to make some updates as new information trickles in.'
— Make yourself look like a government personnel expert with this nugget my former colleague Sam Stein shared on X: 'Trump emphasized her being a Biden appointee, but he didn't mention that she was confirmed with strong bipartisan support — including from his own VP.'
— Telegraph what a sharp consumer of economic news you are with some important context: 'Is it any wonder that the bureau would be playing catch-up on the data when the administration slashed it as part of his crusade against the 'deep state'? Economists have been saying cuts to the bureau could weaken their reports for a while now, and we already knew they'd been forced to scale back data collection. Surprise, surprise: Worse collection means bigger revisions.'
— Connect some dots to prove you're an astute observer of Trump's economic policies: 'Victoria Guida wrote in POLITICO that the weak jobs report might put more pressure on Jerome Powell to cut rates — and Trump took another jab at him when he announced the BLS firing. But if he's saying the weak report is fake, that would undermine the argument, no? Guess we'll see what Powell does over the next month or so.'
Does JD Vance Consider You American? ... There's a new term du jour on the right, and it's making the rounds on social media — including on the Department of Homeland Security's X account: 'Heritage American,' a phrase that loosely refers to people who trace their roots to the founding generations of the United States. The idea is that who 'counts' as American isn't a matter of shared ideals or values, but rather a matter of whose family has lived here the longest. 'While the specific worldview surrounding 'heritage America' may have been incubated online, it is increasingly finding its way into the policies and rhetoric of the Trump administration,' writes Ian Ward — especially the rhetoric of Vice President JD Vance.
ICE On the Farm ... Dolores Huerta, 95, has been working on farm labor issues in California for some seven decades, but she says she's never seen raids on the agriculture sector like she's seeing now, under the Trump administration's aggressive push for mass deportations. That campaign is growing concerns that there may not be enough workers to manage harvest season. Huerta spoke with Samuel Benson about the impact on farm workers — and how things could be different.
The Other, Other New York Socialist ... Zohran Mamdani's upset victory in the New York Democratic mayoral primary put socialism back at the center of political debates. But Mamdani and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who also rode the Bernie-Sanders-style democratic socialism train to fame, aren't the only New York comrades to win office. Mamdani could learn a thing or two if he looks back 'about eight decades to the most successful socialist to ever hold office in New York,' writes Jeff Greenfield, 'a man by the name of Vito Marcantonio.'
From the drafting table of editorial cartoonist Matt Wuerker.
**Who Dissed? answer: If the creative capitalization wasn't enough of a clue, it was Trump, who fired McEntarfer after the most recent jobs report showed job growth falling below expectations. He provided no evidence for his claims that the jobs report was faked, or that the BLS attempted to assist former Vice President Kamala Harris during the 2024 campaign.
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