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Theo Slater — a Sacramento attorney and one of the founders of the California National Party — joins Sean and Charles to tell how the party began: a book about the Haitian Revolution, the wars that showed no sign of ending, and a founding convention in West Sacramento.

Theo traces the party's growth through the 2016 Bernie Sanders campaign and the shock of Trump's first win, the infighting that nearly choked it, and why it was never going to be a pressure group for the Democrats. He and Sean lay out what they think will never change while California stays in the union — the wars, health care and immigration — and look ahead: AI, cheap Chinese EVs, drones, and a radically green, decentralized California built around its counties and bioregions. Then Michael Loebs's campaign for governor, the 44% of Californians who'd vote to leave, the midterms, and why, in Theo's words, you can't reform a corpse.

In this episode

• 00:22 — Theo Slater, a founder of the party
• 02:01 — How it started: Obama's wars and The Black Jacobins
• 04:42 — War for profit, and "the most warlike nation"
• 07:55 — Eisenhower, Obama and the "good war"
• 09:46 — World War II, the camps, and deportations
• 13:59 — Why not reform the Democrats?
• 15:11 — Bernie Sanders, Clinton and the 2016 primary
• 17:53 — From ten members to fifty
• 19:39 — The night Trump won
• 21:47 — California's Republicans, and Wyoming's two senators
• 23:57 — Infighting in the early movement
• 24:50 — The Switzerland of the Pacific: defense, NATO and Ireland
• 28:22 — Growing pains
• 30:55 — Never a pressure group; the first convention
• 32:23 — The revolutionary party
• 34:38 — What will never change: war, health care, immigration
• 40:28 — Will the US last twenty years?
• 41:21 — AI, EVs and China
• 45:09 — Drones and the war of the future
• 45:46 — Michael Loebs's run for governor
• 47:46 — Inyo County, and the unheard
• 48:57 — Theo's California: Ecotopia and radical democracy
• 51:05 — The California DEAL: decentralization
• 53:15 — The California Bioregions Regeneration Council
• 55:40 — Shout-outs to the founders
• 56:14 — How Sean found the CNP
• 58:25 — 44% would vote to leave
• 59:49 — The midterms
• 1:03:36 — Gerontocracy
• 1:04:27 — You can't reform a corpse

Guest: Theo Slater — attorney, Sacramento; a founder and the first elected chair of the California National Party. He now works on the California Bioregions Regeneration Council, on Discord.

Facts and sources. We checked what was said in this episode, right and wrong, with links: checkpointcalifornia.com/008

Hey! I'd love to hear your thoughts, send me a voice note.

Ash Seiter — Lone Pine fire captain and vice chair of the California National Party — is back for a second conversation, recorded two days after the President told a cheering crowd in Nebraska that Iran could "take out" Los Angeles and San Diego.

Sean, Ash and Charles start with that remark, the silence from California's Republicans and the anti-California feeling behind the cheers, then turn to the governor's race: a Republican who can't beat a generic Democrat, and a Democrat who won't say what he stands for. From there, what the CNP would do instead — a public bank to finance housing and small business, universal basic income as "start-up socialism", universal health care, and breaking up PG&E and Southern California Edison — and what AI will and won't change about work. Sean walks through the party's California DEAL, and the arts get the longest look: a basic income for artists like Ireland's, film and tourism from Sideways to Lone Pine's westerns, and why the studios and labels keep playing it safe — and, in the last stretch, the hosts' firm conclusion that music and movies were better when they were young.

In this episode

• 00:22 — Ash returns
• 00:57 — "Take out Los Angeles; take out San Diego"
• 05:54 — A president's words, and the cheering crowd
• 07:19 — The donor state, and the abortion lawsuit
• 11:43 — Becerra, Hilton and the generic Democrat
• 15:31 — Fourth-largest economy, rising poverty, and Prop 40
• 17:59 — Housing: build, build, build — for whom?
• 20:41 — A state bank for housing
• 24:15 — Big tent or progressive platform?
• 28:29 — A party paralyzed: Massie and Greene
• 29:40 — Micro-lending and a small-business bank
• 31:34 — The CNP's soul-searching, and start-up socialism
• 36:52 — Health care, PG&E and Edison
• 40:05 — Utilities, broadband and human rights
• 43:36 — What $275 billion could do; solar and nuclear
• 45:08 — AI, jobs and a basic income
• 48:01 — Invest in the trades
• 50:41 — Robots, Uber and Waymo
• 53:03 — The California DEAL
• 55:45 — A basic income for artists
• 57:50 — Touring grants, Trailer Park Boys and Sideways
• 1:01:05 — Four hundred films in Lone Pine; arts in schools
• 1:03:09 — Franchises, Skydance, and the risk-averse studio
• 1:06:46 — Zappa, the Byrds, and why everything was better when we were young
• 1:10:04 — L for land reform, and where to find us
• 1:10:57 — Ash's podcast, Echoes from the Canyons

Guest: Ash Seiter — captain and public information officer, Lone Pine Fire Department; vice chair, California National Party. His podcast is Echoes from the Canyons: A Retrospective Music Podcast, about his father Jimmi Seiter's years on the road with the Byrds and the Flying Burrito Brothers.

Facts and sources. We checked what was said in this episode, right and wrong, with links: checkpointcalifornia.com/007

Hey! I'd love to hear your thoughts, send me a voice note.

Sean and Charles are joined by Ash Seiter — captain and public information officer with the Lone Pine Fire Department in Inyo County, and vice chair of the California National Party — for an episode about who fights California's fires, who pays for it, and what happens when Washington stops showing up.

Ash explains why most American fire departments still run on volunteers, paid by the call or not at all, and how California's mutual-aid system sends small rural crews like his across the state. From there: federal land and federal fire policy, DOGE's cuts to the Forest Service and the North Rim fire, crews from Mexico and California's own air force, the State Guard, and seven days on the Palisades Fire — hurricane winds, failing hydrants and fires that rekindle. Closer to home, the fight to keep Lone Pine's hospital open, a "very purple" Inyo County, Los Angeles's hold on the Owens Valley, and the disconnect between rural and coastal California. Ash closes on why he thinks independence is now a matter of survival.

In this episode

• 00:40 — Ash's road to the CNP
• 03:10 — Fifteen years with Lone Pine Fire
• 04:20 — America's volunteer fire service
• 07:09 — Would volunteers rather be paid?
• 12:15 — Paid by the call
• 16:24 — Turnover, second jobs, and mutual aid through Cal OES
• 20:31 — Federal land and federal fires
• 24:42 — The North Rim, DOGE cuts, and life in fire camp
• 29:32 — CAL FIRE fills the federal gap; crews from Mexico and Australia
• 31:50 — California's air force, and the State Guard
• 34:17 — Seven days on the Palisades Fire: wind, hydrants, rekindles
• 41:43 — Governor for a day: prevention, aircraft and drones
• 46:05 — Is Washington the problem?
• 47:47 — Saving Southern Inyo Hospital
• 50:45 — One emergency system for all of California
• 52:47 — "Very purple" Inyo County
• 56:38 — Mutual aid, Big Sur, and the big earthquake
• 59:32 — Los Angeles and the Owens Valley
• 1:01:48 — El Niño, and the rural–coastal divide
• 1:06:56 — Why independence: "a necessity"
• 1:09:45 — Where to find Ash, and a food-recall bingo card

Guest: Ash Seiter — captain and public information officer, Lone Pine Fire Department; vice chair, California National Party. @ashseiter on Threads and elsewhere.

For a full review of the facts and sources quoted in the podcast, visit https://checkpointcalifornia.com/006/