West Coast, Messed Coast™ — Pot Tax Was Supposed to Help Kids, but Look Where It's Going Instead

Welcome to your weekly West Coast, Messed Coast™ report, covering the tidbits, outrages, and whoppers of Washington, Oregon, and California. And hoo boy, have we got some specimens for you this week.

It's a jump ball, however. Shall we lead with the pot tax to help 🎶 The Children 🎶 or do we begin with duplicitous Democrats who swore they'd never raise taxes?

We have a winner.

Pot $$ for 🎶 The Children 🎶

You knew it was a scam the second the grifting sacks of poo said a new California pot tax would be used to fund programs to stop child addiction. That's nonsensical on so many levels that you'd have to think Joe Biden was really a present president to believe it. It's so nonsensical that you'd have to think that Steve Bannon's excuses for his cozy texts with Jeffrey Epstein are sincere. It's so nonsensical on so many levels that you'd have to be as dumb as a California voter to fall for it.

And here we are.

CAL DOGE has discovered that the money intended for child addiction programs, drawn from the proceeds of the pot tax, is actually going to radical left-wing get-out-the-vote (GOTV) programs.

When California voters approved Proposition 64 in 2016, they were told cannabis tax revenue would fund youth substance abuse prevention. Six years and $370.25 million later, Rhetor's AI-powered forensic audit — conducted in partnership with CAL DOGE — reveals where that money actually went: into a sprawling network of 517 grants funding political organizing, voter registration drives and "social justice youth development," all administered by a single nonprofit intermediary most Californians have never heard of.

CAL DOGE reports that the funds bankrolled an alphabet soup of far-left groups that received the grant money, skimmed 20% off the top, and funded wild-eyed radical programs. The biggest recipient funded only groups promoting "social justice youth development" and "civic engagement" as criteria for grantees — terms that appear nowhere in the statutory language of Prop. 64's Youth Education, Prevention, Early Intervention, and Treatment Account.

The group received $4,126 per client, who never received drug counseling, but instead, participated in "civic engagement" workshops, leadership development seminars, and "community mobilizing" training.

Here's my shocked face.

Californians would like their money back, please.

Greedy Democrats

Largely because of the malleability of the vote-by-mail process, which must be destroyed if we want to keep our Republic, as I wrote in GOP Should Be Willing to Politically Bleed, Fight, and Die to Get Voter ID, Democrats hold super majorities in each of the three West Coast, Messed Coast™ states. These ever-more-radical lawmakers' time is spent blocking the feds from looking at their voter rolls, increasing billions in illegal alien freebies, and satiating their appetites to use ever-increasing amounts of other people's money.

So here comes Washington State's legislative Democrats' latest attempt at a historical first: an income tax disguised as a millionaire's tax. Perhaps, as a student of tax history, you understand that those millionaire/billionaire taxes always turn into thousandaire taxes, and that existing "income" taxes started out as taxes only on the Golden Age's millionaires. My, how far our "progressive" tax structure has come.

With the blessing of the "no new taxes" governor, Bob Ferguson, Washington Democrats have teed up this stinker after raising taxes in other areas of the budget.

Is this the right spot now, where I note that if you want less of something, you tax it?

Why would Democrats want fewer people earning an income? Ask George Soros.

Anyway, Senate Bill 6346 and House Bill 2724 create Washington’s first personal income "MILLIONAIRE" tax. And they're not starting small, either. A nearly 10% household adjusted gross income tax over $1 million/year would start Jan. 1, 2028.

Washington's biggest source of millionaires may be moving

The world champion Seattle Seahawks are now up for sale.

Estate of Paul G. Allen Begins Sale Process for Seattle Seahawks pic.twitter.com/Toj3CjClzP
— Seattle Seahawks (@Seahawks) February 18, 2026

Will Paul Allen's legacy team stay in Washington? Why wouldn't they move to Idaho? That's where the normies from Washington are going in droves.

Man, Oh, Manischewitz

I never thought I'd see the day when Gallo wines left Napa and Sonoma Valleys, but here we are. The mega wine-producing company that put the California wine region on the map is closing its Napa Valley Ranch winery in St. Helena and issuing reductions in force at its other St. Helena tasting rooms and one in Healdsburg. It's consolidating production to its plants in Modesto, Fresno, and Livingston.

Uh Oh: Nick Shirley Just Took a Look at California Voter Rolls and OMG

May I have some Cheetos to go with my rosé? No.

ANOTHER GREAT WIN FOR @CAgovernor @GavinNewsom @GovPressOffice pic.twitter.com/099MK9hoGs
— God Always Wins over Evil. (@JesusDu03888990) February 20, 2026

Greedy Democrats ruin everything.

Congressman of the Year

California Congressman Ro Khanna has had a banner year, if you're counting dummkopffery only.

Khanna has pulled some real dilweedery in the past, but the Silicon Valley congressman has fully embraced Bernie Sanders's billionaire tax. Allow me to repeat: Khanna is the congressman representing Silicon Valley, where most of the state's 250 billionaires reside and give back to the Golden State in untold ways, including, but not limited to, paying California's confiscatory 13.3% income tax and a 1% mental health tax. No, I'm not kidding. See the above item 🎶 The Children 🎶 tax item if you wonder where that money's probably going.

Between Khanna's embrace of the tax and Gov. Gavin Newsom's apathy, the billionaire's tax proposal hasn't even been put on the ballot yet and has already resulted in $1 trillion in capital flight. Worse, Steven Spielberg's announced departure from the Golden State hasn't even been added to the losses yet. Read about the legendary filmmaking billionaire's flight in ET Leaves Home: Steven Spielberg Is the Latest Billionaire to Leave California

But back to Khanna. He and his apparent new wingman, Rep. Thomas Massie (I sure hope his new wife is worth this stupidity), have both latched onto the Epstein Files in the dumbest way possible. I want to name names, too, but don't they have to be the names of bad guys? In case this whopper of a news item skipped your notice (and it didn't skip mine —watch my Adult in the Room Podcast item on it), the two went to the DOJ, spent two hours combing through the files, found six redacted names, demanded those names be unredacted, and then Khanna read them on the floor of the House.

And oopsie.

EVERYTHING'S NORMAL!

In disastrously-run Oakland, Calif., the equally disastrous mayor, Barbara Lee, has discovered that the man who stole her $75 thousand car was also living in her city hall.

The California Post reports that "the thief had been living inside the [city hall] complex since Friday and managed to stay undetected despite the highly paid ABC Security Services being on site." ABC Security's deal is worth $35.3 million. Lee's predecessor, an even worse mayor, allegedly corruptly hired the company without competitive bidding.

Another One Bites the Dust: West Coast, Messed Coast™ — And Then the Facebook Guy Fled California With His Zuck-Buck Billions

The bad guy swiped Lee's keys and took her Ford Expedition for a ride. She outfitted it with a tracker, which is how they found her gas guzzler.