Ezra Levant defends Rebel News’ free speech activism, including hiring Tamara Leach under house arrest conditions while adhering to legal limits, and warns of U.K. and Canada’s potential X bans or $10M/6% revenue fines—risking U.S. tensions. He criticizes conservative MP Garnet Genuis for abandoning protests but praises Leach’s role in upcoming events like the Conservative Party conference. Highlighting global threats to journalists, he contrasts Elon Musk’s pro-business Mississippi investment with California’s billionaire asset tax, while debating Trump’s Venezuela, Greenland policies and welfare fraud claims, framing "woke drift" as a broader ideological concern. [Automatically generated summary]
We took it to the streets of York University on Friday, and today we went to the streets of downtown Toronto with our newest reporter, Tamara Leach.
It was pretty fun.
We had the free speech truck with us.
We'll talk to her about her first day on the job.
That and more ahead on Rebel News.
But first, let me invite you to become a subscriber to Rebel News Plus.
It's the video version of this podcast.
Just go to RebelNewsPlus.com, click subscribe, and eight bucks a month, which may not sound like a lot to you, but boy, it adds up for us.
please do.
Tonight, is Canada going to ban the social media app, Twitter?
It's January 12th, and this is the Ezra Levant show.
shame on you you sensorious bug oh hi everybody Great to see you.
Over the weekend, the prestigious Telegraph newspaper out of London, England, wrote a story about 10 Downing Street, that's their prime minister's office, looking to ban X or Twitter, as it used to be called.
Not just that, but the story suggested that 10 Downing Street, which means the Prime Minister's staff, if not the Prime Minister himself, had conversations with other governments in the world about doing the same thing, including Australia and Canada.
According to the Telegraph of London, there were conversations between 10 Downing Street and, I presume, 24 Sussex Drive, as they would say, about banning, censoring, regulating the internet.
The particular reason referred to by 10 Downing Street, I keep saying that, but that's how the newspaper described it, is a trend using AI.
There's an AI affiliated with X or Twitter called XAI.
And if you ask that artificial intelligence app to put a photo of anybody in a bikini, it'll do that.
It'll guess what their skin looks like underneath and it'll put them in a bikini, which it hasn't been done to me yet, but I would imagine it's a little bit unnerving.
It would be a little bit violating, even though it's not an actual picture of you in a bikini.
It's a computer doing a pretty good guess of what you'd look like in a bikini.
I understand why it's uncomfortable.
This, however, was not just uncomfortable or perhaps even unethical, but it was grounds to ban the entire company.
It's interesting to me what wasn't enough to ban the entire company, not actual pornography or actual obscenity or other things in the United Kingdom, like 100,000 girls being raped by rape gangs over the last generation.
These are the same people, I should remind you, who want to let women, sorry, men into women's change rooms.
So there's a lot of privacy and obscenity they're fine with, just not this on X.
Now, I understand the problem, but it's a problem that's been around since, I don't know if you heard of Photoshop where you can take photos and shop them and edit them.
That's been around for really 30 years.
And it's not just Elon Musk's XAI or Grok.
It's all of the AIs.
You could ask ChatGPT.
You could ask Gemini.
These are different names of different artificial intelligence apps.
All of them will do that for you if you ask them to.
So why are they even talking about banning X when it's Grok or XAI doing it?
It's clear they're just hunting for some reason to go after Elon Musk, who they desperately hate.
Now, after this story in the very prestigious Telegraph, Evan Solomon took to Twitter and said there will be no Twitter ban in Canada.
He was pretty conclusive about it, but there's a bit of a lawyerly trickery there because banning X, banning Twitter, although that was the phraseology in the Telegraph store, I don't think it would happen with an outright ban.
I don't think that would be legally permissible in either Canada or the United Kingdom.
I think what would be much more likely to happen is an extreme censorship, regulation, limits, rules being putting on X.
I think that is much more likely to happen.
And the United Kingdom's own censorship board called Ofcom is busy looking at it right now.
Canada, I don't think, would outright ban X or Twitter.
I just don't think it would.
And I don't think even our courts would support that.
But the Liberals for really almost 10 years now have been beavering away at different censorship bills, including one called C63, which would have become law because it had support of the Liberals, the NDP, and the Bloc Immequois, but it just ran out of time when Justin Trudeau suddenly resigned last year, causing an election.
All the bills that were making their way through Parliament were cancelled.
C63 has lots of regulations and fines and limitations.
For example, a requirement that social media companies take down a complaint about material within 24 hours.
And if they don't, facing enormous fines.
There's a specific line in C63 that contemplates a fine of a social media company like Twitter or Facebook or Instagram of 6% of global revenues for the company or a $10 million fine, whichever is larger.
Think about that.
If something happens in Canada or one of these other countries looking to heavily regulate X, not only would they punish their Canadian operations, they would accrete unto themselves the right to take 6% of all of Twitter's revenues in America, in Spain, in Mexico, in Italy.
Imagine the audacity.
So yeah, you're not going to ban X.
I don't think anyone truly took that literally.
That was probably just a short form in the Telegraph, but heavily regulate it, tax it, fine it, shut it down.
Absolutely.
In fact, I took to Twitter after Evan Solomon said that.
And I asked him, you're not going to ban it.
Are you going to do these other things?
Will you rule them out?
He wouldn't say so.
Because it's obvious.
The Liberals absolutely would do that censorship.
They're as obsessed with it as the UK's Kirstarmer is.
They accurately see that X or Twitter has empowered iconoclasts, that is, people who smash bulls in a china shop, people who tear down walls.
It's being used in places like Twitter.
That's why the regime has shut down the internet and Elon Musk has turned on Starlink.
X has circumvented other forms of censorship.
You know, the regime media, Facebook, and others may ban certain messages, but under Elon Musk, X has not done so.
And whether it's the story of what's happening in Minnesota with welfare fraud or people trying to run down ICE agents or a revolution in Iran, social media has allowed ordinary people to get information that they normally wouldn't be able to.
And I think that deeply upsets rulers like Hugh Starmer and Mark Carney.
I mentioned the CRTC, sorry, the UK has something called Ofcom.
That's their version of the CRTC.
And I've seen it said that if Ofcom says a ban of X should happen, that the cabinet minister in charge is ready to implement that ban.
I don't know if I believe it, but I can't think of anything that would sour British-American relations faster than trying to take on America's most successful industrialist businessman, America's wealthiest man, and sure as someone who has sparred with Trump in the past.
But he's back in the Trump good books.
And even if he wasn't, Trump seems to be big enough to defend American industry, even if he doesn't particularly get along with this CEO or that CEO.
If the United Kingdom were to ban X because of this bikini move that all other AI companies were to do, I think it would cause a deep, deep rift between the United States and the United Kingdom.
And I don't know what that would manifest itself as.
I'm not an expert in their relationship.
Let me put it this way, though.
If Canada were to be foolish enough to go along with it, well, I think that would deeply damage our trade and our national security relations with the United States, too.
Will Kirstmer actually fight Trump on this?
I don't know.
He seems quite adamant.
Kirstarmer is so low in the polls, I don't really think he has a chance of winning.
So he's lashing out at the people he blames for his loss.
How many fronts can you fight Trump on?
As they would say, you and what army?
Trump has reinvigorated the United States militarily and economically.
And how it so effortlessly seized the dictator of Venezuela, I think, has stunned the world.
And you can imagine everyone from Vladimir Putin to the Ayatollahs of Iran have daydreamed, could that be me?
I mean, China had its most up-to-date radar and anti-missile system operating in Caracas, didn't take down a single U.S. plane.
In the end, more than 100 security guards, including 32 Cubans, were killed by the U.S. Army going in to snatch Maduro.
Not a single American.
How is that even possible to not even take one casualty while dispatching 100 bodyguards?
It's so overwhelming.
And I think the rest of the world knows that and sees that, and they're still adjusting to that.
For example, when Donald Trump said on Air Force One yesterday that he's going to take Greenland one way or another, because if he doesn't, China and Russia will.
I think that has a new urgency because people are saying Trump is toppling countries.
And he certainly looks to be shaking Cuba to see what comes next.
So many countries around the world are trying to figure out what to do.
I think that America is simply operating in fast forward.
I think that Donald Trump is trying to do things in his remaining three years and eight days that he's not going to wait around for polite company.
Whether it's what he's done in Israel by supporting them against Hamas, what he's doing in Iran by encouraging the uprising, what he did in Venezuela.
Mark Stein wrote a whole book called America Alone.
America In Fast Forward00:09:40
It's almost alone, but it's got new allies.
Israel is on the right team, and so are many Latinos.
They look forward to the continent being liberated.
And don't forget other European countries too, from Poland to Hungary, who are resisting this woke drift that the UK has succumbed to.
And by the way, don't give up on the United Kingdom just yet.
Nigel Farage is on the right track in so many ways.
And although he doesn't get along with Tommy Robinson personally, so what?
One's a politician running for office.
The other is the leader of a movement.
You know, we're dear friends with Tommy Robinson.
He is back big time, and it is because of Twitter, frankly.
When Elon Musk reanimated Tommy Robinson's Twitter account, it gave him his voice back.
And from there, he's been able to fight for so many things.
That's why we have to do our bit to fight for freedom, too.
Like we did when we sent two reporters and a whole team of six to York University.
Remember last week when Garnet Genuis, the member of parliament from Northern Alberta, was banned from York University and he did a Twitter post about it saying, oh, well, what can I do?
Well, you can go anyways.
And what was so interesting, but when we sent our truck, two reporters, two cameramen, and a campaign manager and a truck driver, we had six people in a truck spend about two hours at York University and nothing.
No problem.
No physical threats, no legal threats, no campus security, no police.
Sometimes you can just do things.
I think that's what we have to do.
It's like a muscle.
Freedom of speech is a muscle that gets stronger and stronger the more you use it.
That's what we did today in downtown Toronto with Tamara Leach.
As you know, Tamara Leach has been hired as one of the newest rebels.
And we're being very careful to respect the terms of her house arrest, which allow her out of the house to do work.
Well, we have work around the country for her to do.
And today she was with our team in downtown Toronto in a very liberal area called Young Dundas Square.
In fact, it's been renamed the woke name Sankoffa Square, talking to people about freedom of speech.
Well, it went great, and we'll have the full report from Tamara Leach tomorrow on Rebel News.
But it was great to spend some time with her, even in frosty Toronto, strengthening our bona fides on freedom of speech.
I think that that story in the Telegraph was sort of right.
I think it was technically wrong when they said ban Twitter, but I think it was completely right when it said that the United Kingdom and Canada were talking about censoring X. What Evan Solomon did not say was: who was it on the phone with 10 Downing Street?
Who on the Canada side was talking to the Brits about censoring X?
What did they say?
And what will the Canadian position be?
Evan Solomon was probably not lying when he said he's not going to ban X, but he was probably hiding the truth when he didn't disclose what they are going to do to X. Rebel News, as a user of X and as someone who uses X to get through to our viewers, is going to do our best to fight to maintain that freedom.
X, or Twitter, as it's also called, was the one app that didn't throttle us, didn't try and stop us over the years.
YouTube demonetized us for almost 10 years.
Twitter has been the freedom app.
We intend to keep using it.
And if we have to go to court to fight against any Evan Solomon scheme to censor it, I promise you we will.
Stay with us.
more ahead.
Hey, I mentioned that Tamara Leach was starting her on the ground journalism and we did that today.
Together, we went down to Sankofa Square, or what I still refer to as Young Dundas Square in Toronto.
Sort of a mini Times Square, like they have in New York City, but without the verve or the freedom to talk about free speech.
Tamara, congratulations.
It was fun to watch your work.
Thank you.
Yeah, I had a great time.
It was a lot of fun.
I think we had a lot of really great interactions.
I was pleasantly surprised that nobody recognized me.
And yeah, there was a great conversation.
The truck is a great conversation starter.
Yeah, we had the free speech truck, and we'll have the full video out tomorrow, but it just basically blazes.
What was the question on the side?
Something like, Do you support free speech?
Just a question to start off.
Yeah, it was.
And we had a lot of really great comments, actually, from people who feel like Canada is fine, that there is no problem with free speech in Canada, to those that felt like it was going sort of down the wrong path and were concerned about the bills that are coming out.
Yes.
Now, you said that people didn't recognize you.
That was partly true.
There were some tourists and just sort of a young Torontonian probably wasn't following the trucker convoy, but there were people who did.
Some were a little bit shy, some sort of came and watched the whole thing.
So you did have some fans.
Now, I just want to tell our viewers, I want to put them at ease because some of our viewers, when they heard we were hiring you, I got some stern messages: people saying, Ezra, don't get Tamara Leach in trouble by violating her house arrest.
You cannot do that because there was that one instance about a year ago when you were in a photo with someone and they scooped you out.
It was just so I promised you, and I promise our viewers that we would be extremely careful not to do anything that would jeopardize your freedom.
We're in, you are in constant touch with your probation officer, clearing in advance all your travels, even to the degree of what restaurant you go to, what hotel you go to.
Like, it's actually pretty strict, but we are complying.
Even so much so, like at the end of the day, when I return to my hotel, I have to email her to let her know that I've been back in my hotel.
So, I mean, it is a bit of a challenge for sure, but it really just comes down to scheduling, proper scheduling, and having a bit of a plan, which, as we've already found out in journalism, is a little bit tricky because it's very time-sensitive.
So, but we just do our due diligence and keep her as informed as we can.
Yeah, I mean, there's no doubt that checking every single move with a probation officer, it's going to take a little bit of time.
Now, we've got a new producer to help you out with things like this.
So, my goal is to take some of these groundwork administrative things off your desk.
But you know what?
If it takes us even half an hour a day to deal with the legals, so what?
Yeah, that gives us 23 and a half hours.
You're here in Toronto, you're moving around, you're in a way.
I mean, this is all legal because it's work, which is an exemption.
Exactly.
But you are, I think, doing more for the community and doing more for your message than if you were under house arrest at home.
Well, I mean, I always enjoy, as you've seen over the years, I love getting out and talking to people.
I love hearing their perspective and I love listening to their stories.
And, you know, one of the beautiful things that happened today for me was: yes, we did go out there to talk about free speech, and we did go out with the free speech truck, but there was probably five or six Iranians that came up to me and they all had the same message.
They all said, please give a voice to Iran.
And so I got to talk to them and listen to their stories.
And in some cases, you know, their families and their children are still over there.
So and they know that Rebel News tells the stories of the people of Iran.
Yes, that's right.
In fact, there were some fans.
There were some fans there.
Yeah, that's right.
Now, I want to mention one more thing.
And again, listen, the journalism will speak for itself.
Your journalism will be out tomorrow, and it'll be normal journalism.
But I want to just say about the process, how we do it.
The number one thing is we make sure we're in compliance with the law.
Yes.
The number two thing is we have security.
And today, I think we had three or four, three, three security.
One guy sort of looking at the truck, and a couple other guys, I forget how many.
It was a good, and they were big guys.
Yeah, they were big guys.
And they were scanning and they had body can, like it was a serious security.
There was no problem other than there's like a safe use drug day.
Yes, yeah.
So there were some drugged out guys from there, but they weren't coming after you because you're Tamara Leach.
Right.
They're just, that's Toronto.
You have zombie drug users around, I'm sorry to say.
But but that's another thing.
And you and I have talked about this.
We've got to keep you safe because even if it's only one in a thousand people who wants to take a run at you, we've got to cover off that process.
And we did today, and we'll keep doing that.
We'll protect you, especially on campus.
We'll protect you.
Yeah, exactly.
And it is important.
And I mean, I think we've seen, especially in the last few years, an escalation towards right-leaning influencers, I'll say, or whatever.
And so it is definitely a concern.
And like I alluded to, Charlie's assassination, especially since then.
And then, of course, when we see what's happening even down in Minnesota right now.
So when you get to the point in your society where you actually have politicians and people in places of leadership and power advocating for violence against people that they don't agree with, it's very concerning.
And it can be unsettling sometimes.
I get threats all the time.
Wow.
Yeah.
And my DMs, I get threats all the time.
I didn't know that.
Yeah.
Well, we can have a talk that's not on TV about if they're true and serious.
Like, I mean, people throw mean words all the time, but if it's an actual threat, let's have a huddle about that afterwards because actual threats we should take seriously.
And, you know, that's something, like I said, we've hired this producer to assist you with things.
And maybe one of the things they do is if there's a DM, a direct message that is genuinely threatening.
Conservative MPs and Streeters00:08:32
Exactly, exactly.
Because a lot of them are just keyboard warriors.
But yeah, there's.
But if there's something that looks real, I think we should report them to police.
And we'll find the right, whether it's Medicine Hat Police or the RCMP or whatever, because I don't believe that's kosher.
But it happens.
And so, I mean, security is definitely, definitely a factor.
Yeah.
It's my hope that, I mean, anyway, we went down that with you today because we had Lincoln Jay as the videographer.
He's done streeters a hundred times.
So just having him sort of give you some ideas and some tips.
And yeah, and Tasha, who's your producer, was there.
So it's just basically, here's the rebel way.
Right.
Let's do it in the toughest turf in the country, downtown Toronto, tourist area.
So after Young Dundas Square, everywhere is going to seem easier.
Right.
You know, because everywhere, let's be honest.
I mean, there's some things that are nice about Toronto, but it's not the friendliest place in the world.
So now that you've done Streeters in Toronto, you can do them anywhere.
Right.
Yeah.
That's right.
Yes.
And you're going to be doing some, and streeters is a form of journalism.
You talk to people on the street, but there's other kinds of journalism too.
You're coming with us to the Conservative Party conference coming up pretty quick, aren't you?
Yeah, at the end of the month.
Yeah, that's going to be really exciting.
I'm very excited to be a part of that.
Yeah.
And so we're going to, I really think that you are a kind of journalist.
You have a mission.
You have a story.
You have a history.
You're a fighter.
And I think that is the kind of journalist that Canada could use in 2026.
And I look forward to you being at that Conservative conference to remind Conservative MPs about their commitment to freedom.
Yeah.
Yes.
And I don't want to pick on Garnet Genuis, the MP from Northern Alberta, because I've talked to him, talked about him a fair bit.
But I don't like the fact that he gave up on York University.
And I'll stop being mean to him.
But part of your job, if I may, is to remind conservative MPs and MPs of any party to live up to the freedom that was bequeathed to us.
People who came before us paid a mightier price than we'll ever know to give us the country we have.
And I think your mere presence at that upcoming conference will remind them of the promise of freedom.
Good point.
Yes.
Yeah, good point.
And even if the MPs are a little bit shy about you, I think grassroots Conservative Party members are going to be thrilled to see.
I really think so.
I have been really blessed.
You know, anytime I've, well, obviously before my house arrest, I've gone to any of these events for the support that I've had for sure.
So it'll be interesting.
It'll be my first time going to a convention.
And yeah, we'll see what happens.
So in the year ahead, we're going to do streeters.
That's the journalism on the street.
We're going to do events like this Conservative Party conference.
We're going to do a book and then a book tour.
We're going to do a campus tour.
I'm at five things already.
And I think on the scene journalism, like I was just, we were just talking an hour ago when Venezuela, when Trump arrested the dictator of Venezuela, we sent a couple folks down right away to Little Havana, to Little Caracas in Indiana, right?
To talk about freedom.
And it was beautiful to see.
I'd like to get to the point where you are able to move that quickly with the permission of your probation officer.
Yes.
That if we keep following the rules, which we are, that your probation officer would say, okay, you're going down to Little Caracas to talk to the Venezuelanos.
I just love saying that.
No, they were such beautiful people.
I was really moved by the, and the strength there was our people spoke a little Spanish, so it helped.
But I would love to see you go on location to freedom moments around the world even.
I mean, you've been to the UK for a Tommy Robinson event, so you understand.
And, you know, our heart is here at home, so we have to focus on home in Alberta and around the country.
But occasionally it behooves us to go to other parts of the world to cover the fight for freedom there.
I think he would be a great ambassador.
And that's where I hope this goes.
So if we color within the lines, if we follow the rules, I think it's going to be a great year.
I think so too.
It's going to be a very exciting year.
Well, I'm really excited about your second book.
Your first book was the best-selling book we ever published in Rebel News.
I did not know that.
I think so.
The Labranos.
Either Ty, I'd have to check which was.
So we're writing, we're close.
You know what?
I shouldn't have said that without double checking.
They're either 1-2 or 2-1.
I'll get that info, but it was a big hit.
Sorry, I wasn't prepared with that stat today.
Great to see you.
Thanks for coming out to Toronto.
We've got you a producer now.
We're getting you set up on things.
And thanks for wearing that hoodie.
I like the Rebel hoodie.
It's so much fun.
I do.
Yeah, I do too.
Well, you told me that someone at the airport saw you and they bought you a bike to eat or something.
Yeah, they recognized me in the airport in Calgary and the hoodie, of course, too.
And so came and bought me.
Well, you know, you were saying I'm giving away all your stories.
But the reason I mentioned that on TV is because sometimes on social media, it's a wall of negativity.
But in real life, I mean, I get a little, I get a fraction of that in my life, and I find it enormously rewarding.
And the fact that just even on your journey here, get to the airport, meal paid for.
On the plane, people in front say we like you.
And even on the street today, people, you know, I think that that is a sign that you're on the right side of things.
And I promise you, we're going to do everything we can to keep you legally safe, physically safe, and give you a megaphone.
That's our symbol.
The megaphone is our symbol.
Isn't that funny?
If you want to help us out, I do need help on one thing.
And that one thing is security.
I don't know what the guys today charge because we have some security teams that love you so much, they give us a nice discount, and they're wonderful.
But sometimes we just got to pay.
These are professional guys.
And we got to protect the truck also.
And that's just going downtown for a couple hours.
When we do our campus tour, there's no way that you can have less enforced security at a place like U of T or McGill.
In fact, McGill, I would think you would need more than four security guards.
That's when the costs are going to add up.
And I just need some help with that.
And if folks want to go to the tamaraproject.com, thetameraproject.com, that money goes to security.
Today was a trifle compared to what that tour will require, but it's going to be great.
I think a ton of young people will be attracted to your authenticity and your sacrifice.
When was the last time they saw a leader who was authentic and personally sacrificed for the community?
I can't even think of one.
Wow.
Yeah.
Yeah.
No, I think that's going to be, and I'm really curious what that demographic kind of, you know, where they'll sit.
I mean, I've lots of young people recognize me too and come up to me.
And to me, that is, I mean, I love all of it.
It's really, like you said, it's very rewarding.
But to know that your message is getting out to the youth, you know, like you, me are kind of preaching to the choir in some cases, but when you know that you're reaching younger generations and expressing the importance of free speech or standing up for your rights or, you know, being willing to make a sacrifice, that message is getting through.
Yeah.
And it's important.
Wow.
Wow.
I just, I'm so glad you said that.
And getting you on as many Canadian campuses as possible is a very high goal of ours.
And that's what the producer we've just hired for you will assist with.
We've got a whole team.
You've met a lot of the team, the behind-the-scenes team.
So, you know, there's a journalist everybody to see, but there's people behind the scenes doing the planning.
And I really feel like we can give you the infrastructure.
And it's your time to shine.
2026 is your year.
I'm really excited.
Thanks for coming on here.
There you have it.
Wow.
You know what?
It really is a blessing to have Tamara Leach on the Rebel News team.
And I will do my best to unlock the power that she brings, the message.
And, you know, her last comments there about students really isn't that the, I mean, that's what Charlie Kirk did.
He focused on the young people with great results.
All right, stay with us.
letters to me next.
Hey, welcome back.
Your letters.
Speaking of Elon Musk, he just invested 20 billion U.S. dollars in Mississippi.
High Interest Rates Debate00:04:13
Boy, I wish we could have that kind of dough up here in Canada, but alas, only government grants are funded up here.
Let me read to you some letters.
Jake Jimstone says $20 billion investing into Canada would offset the $20 billion we gave the First Nations last year to produce nothing.
You know, I'm really worried about the spending on First Nations because I think it's very like a funnel.
A lot of money goes into it at the top, but by the time it gets to actual Indigenous people, it's just drips and drops.
Tom Flanagan and Francis Wittowson sometimes use the word the Indian industry or the indigenous industry.
Consultants, lawyers, bureaucrats, not actual people on the reserve who take up the bulk of the spending.
But I agree with you completely is that it's like so many other welfare-oriented industries.
They don't actually want to solve the problem.
If you had an Indian band that was self-sufficient economically, that had its health and water and all its systems working fine, there wouldn't be a perpetual job for the bureaucrats, many of whom are white, by the way.
Jabba says Canada is anti-business, just like California.
I think you're right.
I mean, just the other day, California brought in a new tax on the assets of billionaires, including assets that are illiquid.
What I mean by that is, let's say you invent or start a company and it's worth on paper $5 billion.
But that's just based on a small fundraising round that you've done.
You don't actually have $5 billion cash.
It's more aspirational than anything.
California, and I haven't read the details of this, will tax you on that full amount as if you own the full amount, even though you can't get access to the full amount because it's not liquid.
It's not like sitting in cash.
I didn't properly explain it there, but you get the picture.
It puts you on the hook for the whole amount of money, even if you haven't realized it yet.
That would bankrupt any founder.
So before the new year, a variety of CEOs of tech companies whose value is over a trillion dollars left California, moved their homestead address to outside California.
They just sort of said, no, I'm not letting California bankrupt me.
It's really going to hasten the exodus of the wealth creating class.
California has always, I'd say for the last generation, has been on the side of the takers, not the makers, which is a shame because California for 50 years, really, was such a home to creativity and industry, whether it was the entertainment industry of Hollywood or the aerospace industry.
I don't know if that's true these days.
Bonzo the Poodle says Trump just stated that he's going to limit credit card interest to 10% for one year.
I don't know how easily he can simply order that to happen because I think interest, I mean, it's true that a lot of interest rates have enormous, a lot of credit cards have enormous interest rates that are to the point of usury, I think.
But I think that for some people, the only loans they can get are at extreme rates of interest.
And I'm not supporting it.
I'm just saying there are some people who are such a credit risk, no one's going to give them a loan at 10% or 5%.
And so if you mandate a credit card to give a loan, which is really what a credit card money is to someone with terrible credit, with no credit, with bad credit, they're just not going to give them that money at all.
And so if like there are a lot of people out there who I don't think are a credit risk worth 10% interest.
So if you ban them from getting a Visa card or a MasterCard, they're going to have to borrow from some loan shark.
I'm just not sure.
I understand the spirit behind that decision, and I hate credit card interest of 30 or even 36%.
I'm just not sure if banning it is going to solve the problem.
It might create some new problems.
I don't know.
I'd be interested in your thoughts on that.
I haven't fully thought that one through, but thanks for the great question.