Winners & Losers | Building & Folding

California plants seeds of hope while Alaska buries its spine.

Welcome back to Winners & Losers, your weekly authoritarian fit-check. By now you know the rules: We take a step back, name names, and remember that even in the middle of this cartoonishly dystopian chapter of American history, the battle is fought by people — and therefore can still be won by people.

The grifters grift, the fascists power-grab, the NIMBYs clutch their pearls, and the Murkowskis of the world fold under pressure like tissue paper in a hurricane. These people are the Losers. By now you know the rules: Take stock, name names, and remember that this battle is fought and won (or lost) by people.

But once in a while, someone actually remembers what their job is. They use their power, take the heat, and make the world slightly more livable. This week, that Winner is Gavin Newsom.

These people make the decisions that shape whether you can afford rent or whether ICE shows up at your door. This week? We saw what it looks like when someone finally stands up — and when someone else, predictably, crumbles.

Let’s name them.

Gavin Newsom (Winner)

For decades, California has been defined by its housing crisis: Sky-high rents, sprawling homeless encampments, teachers and firefighters commuting two hours to work because they can’t afford to live where they serve. Politicians have lamented it in speeches, shaken their heads, and then done nothing. Why? Because the NIMBY homeowners who kept housing scarce were also the ones who funded their campaigns. Every governor nodded to the problem, but no one risked their career by actually fixing it. Until now.

Last week, Governor Gavin Newsom signed two bills that took a sledgehammer to the environmental law that NIMBYs have abused for 50 years to block new housing in the biggest state in the country. It was bold. It was overdue. And it was risky. He didn’t just take on an antiquated law — he took on his own donors, his own base, his own party’s most comfortable and complacent voters. For once, someone in power said, “Enough.”