WTW152: Joe Rogan Has Spent Two Years Raging About a Made-Up California Voter ID Law

Transcript

This transcript was generated automatically and may contain errors — the audio is the record.

0:00:03 Clip: What's so scary about the woke mob, how often you just don't see them coming.

0:00:11 Clip: Anywhere you see diversity, equity, and inclusion, you see Marxism and you see woke principles being pushed.

0:00:19 Clip: Wokeness is a virus more dangerous than any pandemic hands down. The woke monster is here and it's coming for everything, everything, and everything. Instead of go-go boots, the seductress green M&M will now wear sneakers.

0:00:41 Thomas: Hello and welcome to Where There's Woke. It's episode 152. I'm Thomas. That over there is Lydia. How are you doing?

0:00:47 Lydia: Pretty good. Feeling fired up and spending some time looking at my ballot. It's election season. Have you looked at your ballot?

0:00:53 Thomas: No.

0:00:53 Lydia: I know you haven't.

0:00:54 Thomas: Never heard of it.

0:00:56 Lydia: Yeah. So I don't know. There's a lot going on.

0:00:58 Thomas: I do ballads like I did all of school.

0:01:01 Lydia: Cheat.

0:01:01 Thomas: Wait and... Shut up! I'm off the show. I'm gone. Gone.

0:01:03 Lydia: Just kidding. Steal my answers.

0:01:07 Thomas: It's the worst thing I've ever heard. I mean, yeah, I do that with the ballot, but that's because it's not cheating. It's just voting how I probably would vote anyway. No, I wait till the last minute and then I maybe do it like all my schoolwork.

0:01:24 Lydia: No, I think I fill in the bubbles and then, you should we be admitting this? Maybe not, maybe I'm cutting all this

0:01:28 Thomas: I still, no, I fully endorse whatever my representative voted for me. Look, men are not smart enough to vote. That's the thing. I think they just cancel out their wives vote. So why do we even have that? Let's repeal that amendment that gave men the right to vote.

0:01:40 Lydia: You go Yeah. Just don't bother women. Only matriarchy, I like it. So today I want to talk about, um, something that is on the ballot, specifically in California. But bear with me, folks. I know a lot of you guys don't live in California. I think this matters actually for a lot of people. And I'll get into why. But this is specifically about the voter ID proposition.

0:02:02 Thomas: So it's not the billionaire tax. It's great because we have a billionaire tax one. And have you noticed the ads?

0:02:08 Lydia: Uh-huh.

0:02:08 Thomas: Because I love this. I only see the ads because of hockey. I watch one thing and one thing only on the fucking TV because I can't stand being like anything that's made for the dumb enough common people. I can't handle because it's too stupid. But hockey, got to watch that. Sometimes I see the commercials. What I love, it's good sign. This is good news. This is a positive thing, everybody. Good sign about our world is in California, there's some sort of billionaire, what is it, an estate tax or a wealth tax or a, Yeah. Yeah. The good news on this is that the idiot billionaires spending probably way more than they'd even have to pay in the tax in order to, in order to fight it. Even their messaging has to be a guy being like, Hey, look, I actually love this billionaire tax idea. When I first saw it, I think it's a great idea, of course. But then I looked at the fine print and this. This allows them to tax whoever they want, actually. So it's like they still

0:02:33 Lydia: It's a one-time wealth tax. A hundred percent.

0:03:02 Lydia: They could eventually in the future apply this to other people.

0:03:04 Thomas: They still have to like appeal to the fact that literally everybody is like, yeah, tax the fucking billionaires. Obviously, they can't run an ad that's like, how dare you tax the bill? You know, nobody has any time for that shit. So even the ads that are against the billionaire wealth tax have to start out from the premise that obviously we should do it.

0:03:21 Lydia: Yeah. I think there's not very many billionaires that are for it, but the NVIDIA founder, you know, has been very vocal about like, he's like, yeah, this country gave me so much and I have so much money.

0:03:30 Thomas: He's got more money than God. Yeah, yeah,

0:03:31 Lydia: Why shouldn't I be giving that money back? He's like, I'm not even going to notice it. What are we doing? I'm happy to give more money to the the government. Why wouldn't I?

0:03:38 Thomas: Now am I an idiot. I've always said Nvidia. I don't know why. It's just, I've been as long as I've been a computers person no, I heard other people say Nvidia and I was like, oh, I don't know why I thought it was Nvidia. I have no, it's it's also. Yeah, NSYNC. And yeah, is it NSYNC? No. And I assume video stands for one of the letters is each of the the hot graphics cards names or something, I don't know. Anyway, what were you guys talking, what's, what is it, what's the actual topic of this show?

0:03:44 Lydia: Maybe you're right. I just said NVIDIA. Oh, that's very NSYNC coded, like just boy bands.

0:04:03 Lydia: Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So we're not talking about the billionaire tax today. Yeah, we're going to talk about the proposed voter ID initiative on here. We're going to talk lot a about exactly it entails, who's behind it, the money behind it, because I think that's super important. But to get to that point, I actually want to take us back in time. So we're going to get a lot of Joe Rogan on this podcast, you guys.

0:04:27 Lydia: So sorry. Yeah, a couple years worth of Joe Rogan clips that we're going to be diving into. And obviously, this is all starting, as most things do, on the right with Fear Mongering with Elon Musk. So before we go to break, why don't we just set this up? We'll hear the first time Elon Musk brings this to Joe Rogan's attention.

0:04:45 Thomas: I'm pretty sure if we're playing any Joe Rogan, Rogan, we have to talk to the no Rogan people to get permission, you know, like Cecil and Marsh, they might actually own the copyright on that. Yeah, dang.

0:04:53 Lydia: I'm going to beg for forgiveness instead of asking for permission. And hopefully they're OK with that.

0:04:57 Thomas: That's a good answer. I think they'll be cool with it.

0:05:00 Lydia: Cool. So we're going to go all the back to November 4th, 2024, with Elon Musk appearing on Joe Rogan around the time of the election. And obviously needing to fearmonger the idea that illegal immigrants are going to be stealing the elections.

0:05:13 Thomas: See, I could do this by heart because I actually watched this whole thing at the time. You something, it was how he did his turn, or one of the ways he did his turn, to like needing to up the stakes and all that. So, uh, but I won't spoil it for all the people who haven't yet seen the magnificence that is this fucking asshole.

0:05:29 Clip: A month ago, they passed a law making it illegal to show ID in any election in California. So a friend of mine went to vote in Palo Alto because he was like, is this for real? He tried to show his ID and they reacted like if you show a cross to a vampire. They're like, no, we can't even look at that ID. It is illegal for them to even look at your ID if you want to present it in California.

0:05:36 Thomas: You'll be killed. You'll be arrested. Why? Uh-huh. Yeah. This things that definitely, and that ID's name was Albert Einstein.

0:05:53 Lydia: I'm sure that happened. Yeah.

0:05:58 Clip: For any election at all, even like city council. What logical reason other than to cheat would you ever have that law? The reason is to cheat. But the only, like, you can never make an argument any other way. I think 84% of people polled believe that you should show ID to vote. So it's against the will of the people. Yes. And we are extremely rare. We're an outlier in not requiring ID. Basically almost every country on earth requires ID to vote. It. So as soon as you make your ban idea for voting, it makes fraud impossible to prove. Because how do you trace the fraud? Right. Yeah, it's insane.

0:06:40 Lydia: Yeah, they're doing okay finding people who voted fraudulently without ID.

0:06:41 Clip: It's insane. It's insane. What I'm saying is that... How is it legal? What I'm saying is that this election is the last chance to preserve democracy in America. Mark my words.

0:06:53 Thomas: Oh, mark your words like how we're going to be a Mars and then fucking next year. And we're going to have flying cars and we're going to have full self-driving. Should we mark your words like that? The promises you've made every year for 20 fucking years, it feels like.

0:07:09 Lydia: Man, I know this point has been made before, but it's like no wonder that Joe Rogan shows go on for hours because it is so slow.

0:07:18 Thomas: Oh, this is like among the faster parts of this one, too.

0:07:20 Lydia: But that's because Elon Musk is probably on drugs and acting erratic.

0:07:23 Thomas: No. He takes forever. It is. I was just funny thing. I didn't say it, but I literally went to check. I was like, wait, do I accidentally have it on faster? Because it was fast. Like this show is agonizing, especially with Elon, on like, he takes, he's like, it takes forever to come up with his stupid fucking lies.

0:07:41 Thomas: It is painful. I'm glad you found the one time where he's actually saying stuff, at least that's

0:07:47 Lydia: Yeah. But this episode spread very, very far. I mean, on YouTube, just the YouTube numbers alone. Remember, you can get Joe Rogan anywhere you listen to podcasts like anything else, pretty much, right? Like, I mean, I guess primarily Spotify since he has a contract with them. But 21 million views on this YouTube video.

0:08:04 Thomas: Mostly illegals, I don't know, but you don't have to show ID to do a view, so how could they know?

0:08:08 Lydia: And how could they know? They would never be able to figure it out. And this story that he shares of his friend in Palo Alto who tried to show an I.D. when he walked up to a polling place. Yeah. And they reacted like it was a vampire in a cross. You know, OK, this is very ridiculous, that using that story to fearmonger the federal election and then obviously lay some groundwork for all of the efforts that have been been trying to be pursued, I guess, at the federal level, like with the SAVE Act.

0:08:16 Thomas: I was arrested There, well, I want to ask you, is there a lot that says you can't the bands id but I think we should wait until after the break. Until we talk about that so

0:08:41 Lydia: I think we're going to have to wait till after the break.

0:08:43 Thomas: Hey, we've got a bonus. We've got a bonus. patreon.com where there's woke you gotta go there because we have a bonus with One, No Illusions of uh, God Awful Movies, Scathing Atheists, all those shows, we're talking about how, uh, Ben Shapiro, despite what he may claim, yeah may, he may be a little more sensitive to criticism than he protests, because his latest stupid movie was reviewed by God Alpha Movies, and their YouTube video got taken down. Now, here's the thing that's amazing about that. They didn't use clips or anything.

0:08:50 Lydia: Super fun. God, his feelings hurt. Uh-huh. Nope.

0:09:13 Thomas: Like, think about how that must have had to happen to to just, they're just talking about it. And it got taken down. So we talked to Noah about that. And that's going to be a bonus for the amazing patrons at patreon.com/wherethereswoke. So join them, skip the ads. And after this break, we'll get all the answers from Lydia about all of this.

0:09:34 Thomas: So I didn't, I haven't looked into this. I can't imagine there's a law that bans, like, showing your, that doesn't make any sense to me. What I might imagine is, any time, like, a completely normal interaction, if this indeed happened, which probably didn't, a normal interaction of trying to show an ID where it's not required, which would be like, what am I doing with this? What do you want? I didn't ask for your ID. What is this? Like, a man. Like, if you're going to buy popcorn at a movie theater and you showed your ID, they'd be like, what? What is this? Why would you do that? You know, what I mean, yeah oh,

0:10:08 Lydia: Sir, this is a Wendy's. Yeah, I want to answer that question so badly, but I'm going to make us listen to one more time Elon talking about this because he went on another time and another time and another time to repeat this same exact claim with Joe Rogan. So this is interview, an February 28th, 2025. 25. So they're already in, they're already in office at this point. But we still have to hear about how if we don't get voter I.D. going, you the whole country will fall to the fates of California.

0:10:14 Thomas: My god cruel really they're already in office, okay. Yeah the us is gonna steal the election, yeah like the US is already in power, okay.

0:10:39 Clip: Then on top of that, California made it actually illegal to ask for ID when people vote.

0:10:45 Thomas: For, oh, that seems a little bit different than the thing you you said to

0:10:46 Clip: California and New York, you are not allowed to show your ID when you vote.

0:10:50 Thomas: Show your ID.

0:10:51 Clip: I swear to clear, so everyone understands this.

0:10:52 Thomas: Those are very different things.

0:10:54 Clip: In California and New York, you are not allowed

0:10:54 Thomas: One seems fucking insane because it wouldn't like I can't imagine ever banning showing your ID. I don't think that's a thing you can ban. Doesn't make any sense.

0:11:04 Lydia: It doesn't make make any sense

0:11:06 Thomas: That is insane. Joe Rogan banning some fucking asshole poll worker going rogue and being like, I demand to see your ID, even though we we don't have to, that does sound like a thing you might have to do a lot about. I don't, this is me entirely riffing. I don't know. But like, that seems at least like, oh, that might make more sense. And it's funny to me that Joe Rogan just said it the right way, or what seems like it would be the right way.

0:11:30 Lydia: More reasonable.

0:11:31 Thomas: Yeah. And, and then Elon is not only saying it the wrong way again, doubling down. It sounds like he's going to triple down here. I'm going to go back a sec. Cause I was talking and let's hear this again.

0:11:40 Clip: To show your ID when you vote. I swear to clear, so everyone understands this. In California and New York, you're not allowed to show your ID, even if you want to. Right.

0:11:52 Thomas: Why would you want to wait?

0:11:54 Clip: Why would that ever be a good idea? I don't know.

0:11:58 Thomas: Wait, you already, is this a different,

0:11:59 Clip: If you're to facilitate fraud in elections, it's great idea. It's the only way.

0:12:00 Lydia: A different Episode Yeah

0:12:02 Thomas: Is all, this is the most wealthy podcaster in the universe. And they just do the same lie, like word for word. Like they forgot they already did this. Am I playing more of it? Oh, thank God.

0:12:15 Lydia: That's plenty Um, so this misinformation continued on, not just when Elon Musk was a guest, but Ran Paul comes on the show and they participate in the same misinformation again. I have another clip later that will play, so I'm not going to spoil um who's who involved in that, that conversation. But the AP put out piece a kind of fact-checking this eventually. This is November 26, 2025, and reached out to New York and California to say, what, like, is happening here? You know, this is the claim that is being shared on this podcast. I think nine different episodes they talked about this. And even after that piece from the AP debunking this, were were four episodes that came out repeating this misinformation still. So I just, again, want to be clear that there is a side that doesn't have to live in reality. They do not have to care about facts, apparently. They can say whatever they want, even when it's proven to be false. And it's not our side. I'm going to go ahead and say it's the right.

0:13:05 Thomas: Which one? And it's not a close call. Like there are things where it's like, I don't like when politicians, there are politicians on the left can be misleading, of course, but it's usually something that's more like they have an interpretation of it or you know, something like, this is like, there's no ifs ands buts either and like, again, I haven't looked this up either, this is a law or it's not, like there's no like, well, but still, like, no, you, you're just saying the wrong thing then, you're just saying false stuff.

0:13:39 Lydia: Yeah. So let me go read this law to you. This is in California Elections Code, subsection 10005.

0:13:46 Thomas: Anyone with ID will be shot on sight, cool.

0:13:50 Lydia: This is the full text. So buckle up, you guys. I'm going to be reading for a long time. A local government shall not enact or enforce any charter provision, ordinance, or regulation requiring a person to present identification for the purpose of voting or submitting a ballot at any polling place, vote center, or other location where ballots are cast or submitted unless required by state or federal law. For the purpose of this section, local government means any charter or general law city, charter or general law county, or any city and county. That's it. It's two sentences long. Two sentences to get the full information about what this actually means. Now, this was through Senate Bill 1174. It was signed September 29, 2024. And interestingly, it was actually pursued because there is a charter city that we talked about at Free Thought Day, Huntington Beach that likes to try and make up its own rules. And they wanted to basically have voter ID in their city because, yeah, because they're a charter city, so they get to have different rules from their opinion. And this was basically the state legislature saying this is going to get confusing for people who are trying to vote in elections. If in certain places it seems like they have

0:14:42 Thomas: For a city though, you don't

0:14:58 Lydia: To show ID.

0:14:58 Thomas: Vote by city city, okay. Just making sure. I mean, I was like

0:15:03 Lydia: Everything is issued by the secretary of state in California. So like ballots are printed via the state. They are mailed out and processed via the state. But you will have like local ordinances that apply specifically to like your jurisdiction, I guess. And they said this is going to get really confusing. Using, the law already basically says like like ID is not required or anything like that. Let's just get more specific. And in the elections code that governs all elections happening in the state of California, this is what it is. Cities and counties, regardless of charter status or anything, are bound by this. And code specifically is is putting the responsibility. It has nothing to do with a voter. It has everything to do with the government. The government cannot require a person, a voter, to present any sort of identification in order to vote or submit their ballot at any polling place, vote center, or other location where you would drop off a ballot, right?

0:16:00 Lydia: That's it. The responsibility is on the government And the people working the polls to understand what is required of them. There is nothing in here that talks about what is required of voters. So you could show your ID. Nothing's going to happen. No one's going to react like you're

0:16:16 Thomas: Can also show your ID to a vending machine if you want, like

0:16:20 Lydia: Exactly. There's no criminal penalty. You can't stop a voter from doing anything, you the the only exception that I will say is because when it says unless required by state. State or federal law. So when you register to vote in California, there is an identification process kind of related to that, unless we also have automatic registration, though. So if you are caught by the automatic registration process, then the first time you go to vote, you may have to present identification at that point.

0:16:48 Thomas: You ultimately, you can't vote as someone, here's, I'll help these idiots, you can't actually vote as someone else, you're not it doesn't matter about showing ID, that the system makes it so you that just doesn't really happen, not only that, there's no incentive to do that. No one has any incentive to to violate, to commit like a felony to take one vote in like in elections where they're often decided by not even close, that in California too, like like there's going to be, I mean, maybe a handful of local elections that you could like maybe make a difference with, but one one vote, nobody's going to take on that kind risk. Nobody likes their politicians that much. Everybody hates every politician.

0:17:18 Lydia: Maybe swing it. Yeah. Everybody hates politicians. Yeah.

0:17:27 Thomas: They're not going to do that. It's so stupid.

0:17:30 Lydia: So like in the AP fact check also, they they were very clear about this. They got statements from the secretary of state in California and they said California law does not prohibit a voter from voluntarily presenting ID. You know, end of story.

0:17:41 Thomas: Because how could it even do that?

0:17:43 Lydia: Exactly. Like, what, what would happen there? And then simultaneously, you know, they've been pulling New York into this conversation, too. I know it's not necessarily related to the California proposition specifically, but, you know, why don't we go ahead and like listen a little bit more about New York so we can just kind of cross that off of our list as well. So I have a couple more clips. I, sorry, more Joe Rogan, everybody. Yeah. Okay. So this is still from a previous episode, but now they're specifically going to be talking about New York. So let's go ahead and debunk this real fast.

0:18:11 Clip: So in New York State, illegal aliens can already vote in state and city elections. A lot of people don't know that. They're to fight that, they're trying to stop that, but it's like 600,000 are registered to vote, illegal aliens, in New York.

0:18:18 Thomas: Well, Yeah, Yeah, Because They live there.

0:18:29 Lydia: Let's stop. This was a law passed in 2022. It was going to cover about 800,000 right, that if they had green cards or if they had work authorizations, they would be allowed to vote specifically in local elections only. Now, just so you know, the law never was actually implemented, never took effect, never took effect because it was litigated in the courts and they struck it down in the top court in New York. I can never remember. Do they call it the Supreme Court in New York? Yeah, which is always very confusing. But they struck it down six to one on March 20th, 2025, which in all fairness, slightly to Elon's credit, that was after the clip came forward. However, nobody was registered to vote by that point in time.

0:18:43 Thomas: Duh. Oh. Wow. It's the Supreme court, yeah. I think so.

0:19:08 Thomas: Right, he's And he's definitely making people think they can vote vote in federal elections, right?

0:19:18 Lydia: 100 percent. Exactly. Exactly. So I just had to get that little piece of New York thing in there. It's fear mongering based off of something that was not actually in place, never became in place, and also had such a limited scope that it honestly wouldn't have mattered to anybody else.

0:19:35 Thomas: Well, and it's, there's a reason they wanted to do it. It's not to like sway the, I mean, I guess I can't speak for any individual politician. Maybe they could have been pushing something for their own gains. I mean, politicians tend to do that, but there's a reasoning, which is, well, they live there, so shouldn't they maybe get a say?

0:19:52 Lydia: They are subject to, yeah.

0:19:54 Thomas: I mean, it's pretty dystopian to imagine like, what if you had a town just for fun that was like like 100 citizens and like 10,000 non-citizens. Then those 100 citizens who are probably white get to decide all politics for the entire town of like 10,000 or whatever. It's that kind of thing that would be like, well, that's gross. I don't know. I mean, you can have your opinions about immigration, but gross. That doesn't seem fair to me.

0:20:19 Lydia: Do you mind playing it one more time? Because I think there's another distinction he's missing.

0:20:23 Thomas: Okay. I mean, yes, I do mind.

0:20:26 Clip: Turning, so in New York state, illegal aliens can already vote in state and city elections.

0:20:31 Thomas: State and city elections.

0:20:31 Lydia: All Stop, no. And not just that, illegal aliens, the law specifically was if you have a green card or work authorization, how dare you incredibly different. I I just, yeah, I could not believe how much he warped that

0:20:39 Thomas: Oh, right. Yeah. That's also very different. Wow. So that's people who are legally authorized to work there, wanting to have some say in the place that they fucking work, which is pretty important,

0:20:55 Lydia: And for some people with the green card, a legal pathway to citizenship should they want to, you know, pursue that, like, these are people that have have come in, quote, "the right way." And why can't they vote in things that affect them in their communities? I think that's a reasonable thing for a lot of New Yorkers to say, "Hey, this seems fair." And then for it to be warped by Elon Musk and accepted as fact by Joe Rogan because he has no brain of his own and then perpetuated over and over and over again, it's it's unexcusable.

0:21:27 Thomas: Inexcusable, some might say.

0:21:28 Lydia: Right, I was getting wrapped up

0:21:29 Thomas: You are just like Joe Rogan. You have just as much misinformation as Joe Rogan

0:21:33 Lydia: You know what you call me out, which is better than Joe Rogan would ever do with any guest

0:21:35 Thomas: I'm Jamie uh I'm Jamie coming in it's inexcusable actually Jamie comes in fact checks and it doesn't matter like that's the funny thing about Joe Rogan wait is Jamie still there or do get rid of him can't remember that's so funny what a weird job that's like Jamie has a job I don't listen to Joe Rogan I listen to no Rogan that's where I hear most of it Jamie has a job that's like what someone would set up as a punchline. You're like a fact checker on Joe Rogan. That's like a job that doesn't exist or a do nothing job.

0:21:48 Lydia: Don't know, I avoid all of this I don't listen to podcasts that's true, all One more, um, just because we're we're coming, coming up towards, you know, October, the end of October 2025.

0:22:15 Thomas: Can't be right. Oh, it's 2026. God, you keep getting your facts wrong. It's 2026 right now.

0:22:20 Lydia: This clip, this clip is October 2025.

0:22:22 Thomas: You got it. Oh, you're trying to get out of this one, but no, you're worse than Joe Rogan. No.

0:22:30 Clip: California literally doesn't allow you to show your license. California and New York have made it illegal to show your photo ID when voting.

0:22:35 Thomas: That's so good oh man oh

0:22:39 Clip: Thus, effectively, they've made it impossible to prove fraud. Impossible.

0:22:39 Thomas: It's so perfect.

0:22:45 Lydia: No, I can't do it anymore. It's basically a year, a year of any episode that Elon comes on, they're going to repeat this thing.

0:22:48 Thomas: It's so funny. And then show Rogue yeah, but now it's Joe Rogan me, like, you know, I heard god. That

0:22:56 Lydia: Yeah, exactly. Like, like, oh, did you hear about this, Elon? Let's discuss. You've discussed and you're wrong.

0:22:59 Thomas: Is so fucking funny. This, these two people, well, obviously, you know, literally the richest man in the world, and then the richest podcaster, likely in the world. And occasionally I'm just like, nah, I mean, I don't want to get dark, but sometimes I just look at the world. I'm like, nah, this isn't, I'm out.

0:23:17 Lydia: This can't be.

0:23:18 Thomas: Yeah. This can't, whatever, something's wrong. Reboot, reboot, reset.

0:23:22 Lydia: Marble eyes me.

0:23:23 Thomas: Yeah. Yeah. Somebody put the paperclip in the universe, in the thing, and hold it until it resets. Because we this, can't live in something this stupid. We can't.

0:23:28 Lydia: Truly, can't be the world that we live in. I totally agree. It's infuriating listening to this over and over and over again. And like I said, They had at least nine episodes of Joe Rogan's podcast that carried that claim between November 2024 when Elon first introduced it and now, still to this day, even though the AP debunked it in November 2025 and four of those nine episodes happened after the debunk. Again, you don't even have to operate in good faith. You don't have to live in reality. You don't have to negotiate with facts ever. You just get to say whatever you want.

0:24:05 Thomas: Finally. Oh, right. Okay. Talking about that.

0:24:08 Lydia: And again, read I the election code that applies to this in California. It's two sentences long. It does not say what they say it says. It does not support the farcical story that Elon came through with his friend in Palo Alto who tried to show his ID and people reacted like it was. Yeah, none of it makes sense.

0:24:24 Thomas: Beat the shit out of him. Cops stick the

0:24:26 Lydia: So you're telling me, but what just did, what I just shared on the show, what listeners just heard, that is the law currently in California, that Elon Musk couldn't be bothered to do that, to read two sentences.

0:24:26 Thomas: Dogs on him. ID sniffing dogs. I mean, he actively wants to spread misinformation. But Joe Rogan can be. Well, he also wants to actively spread this information at this point.

0:24:49 Lydia: Joe Rogan also couldn't be bothered. And then have listeners who look to these places for their news, for their information.

0:24:58 Thomas: Yeah. Or they don't, but he just has so many listeners that they just inevitably absorb the worldview from it, which I think is even worse in a way, because that's because Joe Rogan always hides behind. Oh, I'm not a I'm just a comedian doing whatever. Yeah. You're having the literal world's richest man spew political propaganda that's false. And then you're echoing it. And then you're telling it like it was your idea later. Doesn't It matter what you think your job title is. You are being a propagandist for billionaires.

0:25:29 Lydia: Yep. Now, I mentioned Senator Rand Paul went on and this conversation happened. I'm going to send you a clip because let's continue at the federal level and see who has something to say about this.

0:25:42 Thomas: Oh, I thought this was going to be Rand Paul, but then I saw. I've been assaulted with a picture of a couch fucker.

0:25:44 Lydia: No, I'm skipping over Rand Paul because,

0:25:47 Clip: It's just very disheartening That you have to consider the fact that it's really possible that the elections get stolen. One and the California one was a big one for me. And why not just have mail-in? Or why not just have voter ID? Yeah, that's insane.

0:25:49 Lydia: J.D. Vance, everybody.

0:26:06 Clip: Not Only do they not have voter ID. You can't show your ID. You're not allowed to show your ID. You can in fact be like prosecuted if you try to force somebody to show their ID, which that seems like you want people to cheat. Exactly, and this is from the same people that were saying you have to have an ID that shows you've been vaccinated just four years, years ago to go to a restaurant shopping. Yeah.

0:26:06 Thomas: We do have mail-in, you fucking idiot. No, that's not true. I heard that on your show.

0:26:27 Clip: No, it's, it's definitely, that's the part about it that I think makes most people of my political persuasion skeptical of what the Democrats are doing. Like, if you don't want to cheat in the election, then just make everybody actually show an ID. Come on.

0:26:27 Thomas: That also didn't happen. But fucking you have to even show an ID to fuck a couch and you're telling me you don't have to show an ID to god

0:26:48 Lydia: So we can stop that there. I just want very quickly to say, specifically what they're talking about on I Think They Stole the Election. This interview was from July 2026. So they're talking about the primaries for the L.A. mayoral race and Spencer Pratt losing that.

0:26:51 Thomas: I hate him so much right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, we totally stole it.

0:27:03 Lydia: Yep. Yep.

0:27:03 Thomas: Definitely.

0:27:04 Lydia: Totally stole that for, you know, Karen Bass that nobody wanted either.

0:27:05 Thomas: The, that's the only thing that could explain it. That's the only thing that explain could, Spencer Pratt not winning. Because otherwise I'm scratching my head like, what, how, how could this happen? I know we both were saying that like, no way.

0:27:17 Lydia: Yeah, I know. I know. And then they lean into this idea that you can be prosecuted for asking somebody to show their ID there. That does not exist in the statute at all. There's no criminal penalty for either side of it.

0:27:25 Thomas: Well, Not that, might be there might be some kind of civil thing or whatever, but like that's not a criminal code you're saying, yeah. Like that wasn't in the, like, California Penal Code that you just read, yeah.

0:27:39 Lydia: What would the prosecution be? Like, I don't even know. Yeah. It doesn't make any sense. Again, two sentences. All you have to do is read two sentences, you guys. That's it.

0:27:43 Thomas: I mean, yeah, you think about Kim Davis or whatever. I don't Think she ever got like arrested, she just lost her job and had to pay. And then, now I don't know, if, oh no. No, I think she still ended up losing, but there was, there was like a real fear that this Supreme Court was going to, like, give her another shot. Remember that? God, how, how old is that fucking story? Anyway, topic for another show.

0:28:06 Lydia: I'm curious now.

0:28:07 Thomas: That's from 2012. That's a long time ago.

0:28:11 Lydia: 2015.

0:28:12 Thomas: Kim Davis is 2015.

0:28:13 Lydia: Yeah. Kim Davis, 2015 was when she defied the federal court order to issue marriage licenses to same sex couples.

0:28:18 Thomas: Duck, because it has to be. Of course, it has to after what's vertical. Yeah. And that and to be fair, I always forget when that was, too. And I think it was earlier than it was. But still, 2015 is a long ass time.

0:28:26 Lydia: Because in a normal world, it should have been way earlier. But

0:28:29 Thomas: That story is like that came back up like within I want to say again, I'll fail at guessing time again. But within the past year, I think that story came up again because she was trying to do some sort of fucking appeal of something.

0:28:42 Lydia: Yeah. I probably just fighting on her, like saying that she was unlawfully terminated or something like that and like wanting back pay. And

0:28:46 Thomas: Like trying again, depending on who the court was, was, but anyway, topic for another time.

0:28:50 Lydia: Now let's zero in a little bit more on California, because Joe Rogan had Steve Hilton on as a guest who is running for governor. If folks are not aware, Steve Hilton is from the UK. He's actually an immigrant and he is the GOP backed governor candidate for California going up against Xavier Becerra. We are going to talk about this again. So this is in mid-August 2026. And I think this is the most recent clip I have of them talking about this claim that is debunked over and over and over again that they've been talking about for nearly two years.

0:29:24 Thomas: Which time? Because, you know, I don't even know, this, it's illegal to show your ID. Just like keep telling each other the same stupid thing. Over and over.

0:29:32 Lydia: It has to be in the shadows. You have to like have your ID in in the shadows.

0:29:35 Thomas: I had smuggle my ID into a thing the other day.

0:29:39 Clip: Thanks, it seems to me that's so dark and cynical. Well, if they wanted to do the whole country what they've done to California and have complete and total control with one party. Well, they've already done it in a state. Why not just implement it through the entire country? In California, you can't show ID votes. It's illegal.

0:29:57 Thomas: This first time hearing this. No

0:29:59 Clip: That, why would you do that? Why would you do that? There's only one reason.

0:30:00 Thomas: Way. Yeah. Yeah. Why would

0:30:03 Clip: What? You want to cheat? That's only reason. And we've got voter ID on the ballot in November in California, which is crazy that you have to ask for that. Exactly. And the Attorney General, this guy Bonta, I don't know if you've been following, he's doing the Paramount lawsuit. He's like a total political hack, all he ever does, like, we've got out of control crime and all this shit, all he does. And the same with, by the way, Becerra, my, I keep coming, he's my opponent, he was Attorney General of California.

0:30:22 Thomas: Referencing the Paramount lawsuit is not your opponent. You're a fucking clown.

0:30:34 Clip: Appointed, he didn't get elected. All he talks about in terms of his record, and he was attorney during the time when crime exploded, is how many times he sued Trump. But this guy, Bonter, now, there was this ballot initiative, there is a ballot initiative in November for voter ID. He just changed the description. Did you see this? No. So it had a kind of accurate description of what it was. You know, this measure, like on the ballot, the voter information, this measure will require people to show ID, blah, blah, blah, and that was approved by the whole system and just in time before they start printing them, he, because it's the Attorney General who decides, changed it to say like the most negative possible thing. This, I mean,

0:30:51 Thomas: Do you have like a fucking lifesaver in his mouth? Uh-huh. I know about it. Jesus

0:31:29 Clip: I haven't got the exact words, you can find it, but it was like, "This measure prohibits voting unless you have," and it goes on to make it sound really good. It's like, it's so cynical, this is just what they do. Yeah.

0:31:29 Thomas: Christ, dude.

0:31:43 Clip: Well, they weren't trying to get people to look at it in terms of, look at it through the ideological lens rather than through a practical lens. But it's also like, it's so crazy that you have to have ID for almost everything else, it's crazy. And they say it's so discriminatory, racist. Yeah, what about driving the car, you have to have a license to drive a car.

0:31:42 Thomas: This guy's got a future. Uh-huh.

0:32:03 Clip: What about you know, check into a hotel I mean, every, every night, I'm at a different Hampton Inn, because that's where we stay. I do.

0:32:03 Lydia: Uh, that's not a right mandate by the Constitution that's also not a right, mandated by the Constitution yeah

0:32:03 Thomas: You do have to level with it. Yeah. Yeah. It's also not an issue at all.

0:32:13 Lydia: It's just very, very silly, so let, um, me just say what the ballot title is so people know, because Steve Hilton didn't have it handy, he just wanted to make fun of it. Um, it does say, prohibits, right, as part of this, "Prohibit citizens from voting unless they present government-issued verification." Initiative constitutional amendment is the title. And then the summary, "Invalidates mail ballots that do not have last four digits of designated government-issued identification number written on envelope," meaning you either have to include the last four digits of your Social Security number on the envelope when you turn it in, or your driver's license number when you turn it in.

0:32:46 Thomas: Sorry. Was this the proposed law?

0:32:47 Lydia: Proposition 39. What's on the ballot now?

0:32:50 Thomas: Gotcha.

0:32:50 Lydia: And prohibits it in-person voting without presenting government issued identification. So who is behind this? Because we know the misinformation, the media environment that this has been percolating in for years now leading now to the opportunity for California voters to potentially vote for voter ID. And say that they want this to be a constitutional amendment in California.

0:33:13 Thomas: Jesus. Yeah.

0:33:15 Lydia: Now, the person behind this is named Carl DeMaio. Carl DeMaio is a conservative activist out of San Diego. He also is a podcast host because, of course, they all are. And but he's the founder of Reform California, which is an organization that it's like basically the idea is like anti-establishment

0:33:25 Thomas: It's just everybody I want to go back to when I had to explain what a podcast was I want to go back to that time it was a better time it's

0:33:35 Lydia: Republicans. Republicans. I know. I know. Everybody has a pocket. Lieutenant Dan.

0:33:41 Thomas: A better time we I made barely enough to get by but I'll take it, I'll fucking take it right now this fucking asshole is this a what is gay men, I'm sorry to target you, what is going on there's yeah there's so many like in the the Trump administration there's Peter Teal, there's like what they're Milo, like what is, what is happening crazy, it's just men in general, it really is, oh yeah

0:33:45 Lydia: He was the first openly gay man to be elected to San Diego City Council. Guy. Yeah. Get your people in line. I know. I know. Yeah. Yep. Think so. White men, specifically, usually. Except for, like, George Santos, I guess, would be the exception.

0:34:11 Thomas: Yeah, that's a good, well I mean he was a Democrat yeah

0:34:15 Lydia: Shoot. Yeah. Well, until he was held accountable.

0:34:17 Thomas: He's really just like a fucking chaos agent, is not really but it is funny that he was a Democrat

0:34:21 Lydia: That's true. Oh, my God. Wait. Did you see? I don't remember what reality show that was. Oh, my God. Him trying to get out of the water. Oh, God.

0:34:26 Thomas: I can't I can't I can't deal with that, I can't, it's once again things that shouldn't exist

0:34:30 Lydia: I know. It was so uncomfortable. It made me sad. If he weren't such a piece of shit, like it honestly just made me sad. And I was like, stop filming this.

0:34:38 Thomas: I think he should, oh we shouldn't branch off, go guys, we'll talk about another time

0:34:43 Lydia: But he tried to cut public pensions during his time with San Diego City Council. Carl DeMaio. Yeah.

0:34:47 Thomas: Santos uh, this okay Carl DeMaio

0:34:49 Lydia: And he actually he wasn't popular because he's never actually popular. We'll talk about that in a second. But he ended up being elected to the state assembly. So he is a state assembly member member representing one of the districts that encompasses like San Diego. And in April 2025, right after he was elected and, you know, took position in the assembly, he tried to pitch a voter ID directly and say, you know, propose that as a law through the assembly, you know, pursue an assembly bill, and then they would go through the entire bill process, etc. And after listening to his presentation, a Democrat from Santa Cruz, Assembly Member Gail Pellerin said said that he if if Carl didn't, quote, trust the process that put him in this office, perhaps he should consider resigning.

0:34:55 Thomas: Way

0:35:31 Lydia: And so it died. They did not vote for it to go forward. It completely died. And he was like, you know what? Screw this. He does not trust Republicans in the state legislature either. He thinks that they all lack courage, you know?

0:35:33 Thomas: Yeah, that's funny and that, yeah, I mean it's it's one of those permanent minority situations so

0:35:45 Lydia: Yeah. So he's anti-establishment, like right? And he decided he was going to go the ballot initiative route because it actually is pretty easy. I mean, I hesitate to say easy because you still have to get significant signatures to get something on a ballot in California, but citizens are able to put things on the ballot directly as long as it it shows enough support with the citizenship of California.

0:35:59 Thomas: You have to show your ID to to sign it well I think that's great example like, because this is working from memory, but you don't have to show your fucking ID to sign that, but then in the end they do like go do some sort of analysis to yeah and it's like, that's a perfect example, you don't have to show your ID but there's a process that makes it pretty reliable, it's fine, like no, who gives a fuck

0:36:18 Lydia: For authorized signatures, yeah, yeah, yeah. There's a political article piece I read about this as it has picked up steam because they did successfully get enough signatures. Obviously, it's on her ballot. And they actually did so with like a big volunteer base. He basically is able to really rally people around the things that he believes in, despite some personality issues that he might have. Politico, the article was titled, The Loneliest Man in American Politics Has an Army. And they described him as, quote, moving through the world with a coiled intensity that can come across as barely restrained rage, which is frightening to me. I don't know why anyone

0:37:03 Thomas: All of that, that was the most horrifying thing I've ever heard in my life.

0:37:06 Lydia: Yeah. They talk about that his organization, Reform California, is the most powerful Republican organization in California, that is because he of him being behind Reform California and that he is actually the most powerful leader in the California State Assembly. As a result, he's in the middle of everything. The California Republican Party does not like him, but he has the most robust fundraising organization in the entire state in terms of Republicans like, you know, ours on the ballot kind of thing. God, this was like a weird fact from, I, the article that I have to put on air because I need more people to to hear this, I guess, um, as they were doing uh some stuff for, I think it was for the assembly, a local TV news crew had asked all the candidates running for that position to to film them doing their primary hobby. And so his

0:37:51 Thomas: I already am so horrified by whatever this is.

0:37:53 Lydia: Staff were like at a loss for what to do for him because they say he takes work-related calls from 4.30 a.m. until very late at night.

0:37:56 Thomas: Ha-ha! Man. A psychopath. Okay.

0:38:03 Lydia: And he doesn't take any breaks, as far as they know, for like any sort of hobbies or fun.

0:38:08 Thomas: Jesus Christ.

0:38:09 Lydia: He's just connected to politics for, I don't even know, like 18 hours a day, more? Who knows? And they settled on the hobby that they settled on to show him and get some footage of was knocking on doors. How depressing. He is married. He's been married for a while, but yeah, but apparently knocking on doors is his hobby. It can't just be, you know, Carl DeMeo kind of bootstrapping this himself. Self. Things need money in order to pay for ads, in order to push things like the mailers that we all get inundated with, et cetera, et cetera.

0:38:48 Thomas: So he's not wealthy.

0:38:50 Lydia: Not independently. Yeah, yeah, he's, yeah, very strong fundraising skills, a lot of networking, some deep pocket connections, but not him personally. The primary, I think they're at like $36 million for yes on voter ID ID versus, I want to say it's like last I looked, maybe $26 million on no. So there is a kind of a money fight happening here. Now, nearly half of the money for yes on 39 approving voter ID for California is coming from one person, Richard Uihlein.

0:38:50 Thomas: He has fundraising, but yeah, okay. Gotcha. Hmm. Richard what?

0:39:25 Lydia: Uihlein from like Uline, he's one of the biggest Republican.

0:39:27 Thomas: The Number of assholes I haven't even heard of.

0:39:30 Lydia: Is he based in California? No, he's based in Illinois. Is his company based in California. No, they're headquartered in Wisconsin. So he gets his hands in everything all over the country. He is donating hundreds of millions of dollars almost every election cycle. He's one of Trump's biggest donors. It's it's so bad. So like, man, it sucks because there's a lot of like Uline products. You know, It's like mailing, shipping, you know, desk organization, a whole variety of things. So it's really easy to like pick up a whiteboard and not see that it's made by Uline and then know the money that's happening behind all of that. So he has donated $17 million specifically to Yes on 39. The Airbnb co-founder Joe Gebbia, we talked about him before because he was part of the Doge effort, part of that like ragtag group, including what was his face?

0:39:46 Thomas: The fuck. Really? Was his

0:40:25 Lydia: Balls.

0:40:25 Thomas: Face?

0:40:25 Lydia: What was his name?

0:40:26 Thomas: It was oh, oh, uh, yeah, Big

0:40:28 Lydia: Big Balls. Yeah. So Joe Gebbia is the co-founder for Airbnb. He's not Big Balls. He just worked with him. And he is also a big funder for this initiative. He's donated $8 million. We also have a Southern California businessman, Stephen Bray, $3 million loan in addition to direct donations as well. Reform California obviously is funding this as well.

0:40:28 Thomas: Balls. Wait, You can loan a proposition money?

0:40:54 Lydia: Apparently so, I don't know what the interest back on that would look like, I'd have to dig into those filings a little bit more. Um, the Winklevoss twins are donating hefty amounts of money.

0:40:56 Thomas: Weird. That's very interesting. Oh, god, and they're not from

0:41:04 Lydia: Here?

0:41:04 Thomas: The Sound of Music, I don't know why. Every time you hear that I'm like, oh, are they in that? I don't know why. Do I? I think that I don't. It's like Edelweiss.

0:41:05 Lydia: I don't know because it's like it's a whimsical last name.

0:41:13 Thomas: But also Yeah.

0:41:13 Lydia: It's a whimsical last. Yeah.

0:41:15 Thomas: I picture them in lederhosen. I've just said, do they wear lederhosen? Okay.

0:41:17 Lydia: I don't think so. And Nicole Shanahan, RFK Jr.'s former running mate. She has also donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to this effort as well. And so why I think this matters for not just people who live in California. Obviously, if you live in California, please vote no on this proposition. Opposition, it's it's not necessarily looking like it's going to win, however, however, because there's so much interest from some of these people who have tons of money in the Republican party, some political science experts have looked at this and they say that this is an indication that the GOP is looking to see how this performs in in California so they can replicate it in other states. Remember what I said, like what it's asking for in this initiative is not that intense. It also says if you don't have an ID, the state is required to issue one as long as you ask for it at no cost.

0:42:11 Lydia: So they're trying to lower those barriers, right? They're saying you can still vote by mail. You just have to write your driver's license number or the last four of social security your on it for it to count. And if you vote in person, you'll have to bring an ID. If you don't have one, the state will give you one for free. And other states, like other GOP leaders, will be looking at this to see if deep blue California, even if this loses, what's that margin, right?

0:42:10 Thomas: But It's close or something, yeah. Well,

0:42:38 Lydia: Can this then be picked up from what happened in California and placed in other states and be successful? And then they don't need necessarily the federal legislation, which is deeply unpopular with the SAVE Act. They could just attack it state by state by state because, again, like this is, oh, yeah, it's significantly more. But then this is like the stepping stone.

0:42:55 Thomas: And the SAVE Act does way more crap. Yeah.

0:43:01 Lydia: And then that you could build off of that and build off that and get people used to it and start to really transform accessibility to elections in a very dark way. So this, I think, is why everybody should care about this. If you know people in California, encourage them to vote no. The spillover effect is very real. So even if they lose, if it looks better than they anticipated or if it's close, they will take this approach and apply it in other states as well where they are more likely to win.

0:43:29 Thomas: Yeah, uh, oh, that's it, scares me. It reminds me, you know, the uh the Uber thing that that failed a few years ago. Like stuff that you know, I I don't take any California ballot things for granted. Really, you never know. Um, but I I guess I would say hopeful note is even if this passes, which which would be bad, bet I you it wouldn't really do that much. I feel like this is going to be something that like people will rally around if it makes the IDs more accessible. You know, hopefully we help people get those. Also it's funny because I think they're probably better off with this issue to demagogue and lie about, you know, than than not. But I could be wrong on that. But it's just a

0:44:09 Lydia: So you're thinking like if this were to go through, then it just kind of like evaporates that argument that there's, you know, terrible fraud everywhere.

0:44:16 Thomas: I mean, it's California. What what election do you think that's going to change. I mean, I could be wrong. Think, especially in this environment, I mean, we'll see what the environment is whenever this would take effect. Would it take effect in 2028, I guess?

0:44:30 Lydia: Yeah, I think so.

0:44:31 Thomas: Yeah. So I don't know. I could imagine this in the same way that other when voter intimidation, it tends to backfire. It's not good, obviously, but it tends to backfire because people get so mad about it, they rally and they help each other vote and And you usually overcome that. It's still an additional burden, you know, that people have to overcome.

0:44:49 Lydia: Yeah. We still have to take a principled stance on it, too. Like can't let it happen.

0:44:51 Thomas: But yeah, but it's like it's this is such a waste of fucking time and money. Like it's not going to make any fucking difference. And if anything, it might be interesting. Like I'm not saying again, it's not good. But if it were to pass the way I would try to make, you know, lemonade out of the lemons or whatever the hell is, then we could be like, oh, look, they passed that, so no illegals as you say can be voting here.

0:45:14 Thomas: It just doesn't exist. Oh, what, look, nothing changed. Weird. Weird. How nothing fucking changed.

0:45:18 Lydia: All of our federal election results

0:45:20 Thomas: Yeah. So dumb. Thanks for the breakdown.

0:45:20 Lydia: Then cannot be scrutinized at all. There you go. Yeah. Sorry that I exposed you all to a lot of Elon Musk and Joe Rogan today. My apologies, but it was necessary.

0:45:28 Thomas: How do I get a job where I can just say the same three dumb things that are that are not only not fact check, but are fact check to be false, and then but it's

0:45:34 Lydia: I know. Mm-hmm. And you can just keep doing whatever you want.

0:45:40 Thomas: Like nine times I don't know.

0:45:42 Lydia: This world we live in. Please vote.

0:46:04 Thomas: Like one of the next ones I might do is.

0:46:05 Lydia: Is this an aside or is this?

0:46:07 Thomas: This is an aside is I'm just telling you because this is the only time we have to talk