🏠 Three Cents Too Many? Dr. DeFilippo's Crusade Against Affordable Housing Tax Ignores Tucson's Housing Crisis | Wake Up Live
Former housing commission chair fights against minimal property tax while homelessness soars
This is based on Wake Up Live with Chris DeSimone, a maga-conservative podcast in Southern Arizona, which was broadcast by Live The Dream Media on 4/21/25.
😽 Keepin’ It Simple Summary for Younger Readers
👧🏾✊🏾👦🏾
🎙️ A conservative Tucson podcast featured guests talking about a 🌿 cannabis festival food truck 💰 success, complaints about a 🏠 small tax for affordable housing, 👮♀️ criticism of the mayor for not talking about crime, and 💰 investment advice about buying gold. The hosts kept blaming 🧳 immigrants and 🏕️ homeless people for problems while offering few real solutions. They seemed more interested in 😱 scaring listeners than finding ways to help Tucson 🌵 grow and improve.
🗝️ Takeaways
🌵 Conservative podcast "Wake Up Live" continues pushing border fear narratives despite contradictory evidence from their own guests' experiences
🏘️ Dr. DeFilippo opposes a 3-cent property tax for affordable housing while dismissing homelessness as a "lifestyle choice"
👮♂️ TPD union president criticizes mayor for not commenting on recent crimes while defending officers from accountability for in-custody deaths
💰 Gold investment promotion and Federal Reserve criticism reveal conservative financial anxieties and conspiracy thinking
🎭 The cognitive dissonance between Malta Joe's positive cannabis festival experience and the hosts' anti-cannabis rhetoric highlights conservative hypocrisy
Border Chaos & Budget Blues: Inside Tucson's Conservative Echo Chamber
The Sound and the Fury from Tucson's Conservative Megaphone
The morning sun beats down on our beloved Tucson, but inside the "Wake Up Live with Chris DeSimone" podcast studio, a different kind of heat is generated—the simmering conservative outrage that has become the show's trademark. Today's episode was a veritable smorgasbord of right-wing talking points, border hysteria, and county government criticism, served with a side of Pope Francis bashing and a surprisingly positive report about a cannabis festival.
As I listened to the April 21, 2025, episode, I couldn't help but notice how the show perfectly encapsulates the MAGA bubble that seems increasingly disconnected from the diverse reality of our border community. While most Tucsonans were starting their week focusing on real issues—affordable housing, climate change, education funding—DeSimone and his carousel of guests were busy constructing their alternative universe where MS-13 lurks behind every mesquite tree and taxation is always theft.
Oh, here we go again. Another day, another conservative fever dream about Tucson being some kind of apocalyptic hellscape rather than the vibrant, diverse community we actually live in.
Let's peel back the layers of this onion and examine what was really being said—and more importantly, what wasn't.
Guest Lineup: The Conservative Chorus
The episode featured a rotating cast of characters that would make Fox News proud:
Malta Joe: DeSimone's brother and proud owner of the "Pastizzi Express" food truck, who inadvertently contradicted the show's anti-cannabis narrative with his 420 Festival success story
Dr. Joann DeFilippo: Former chair of the Affordable Housing Commission, who spent nearly an hour railing against a proposed three-cent property tax increase for affordable housing
Nate Foster: TPD detective and president of the Tucson Police Protective League, who called in to criticize Mayor Regina Romero's handling of police accountability
Brother Joe: Another DeSimone sibling who offered financial advice straight from the Trump playbook, including investing in gold and bashing Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell
Malta Joe's Unexpected Cannabis Festival Success: When Stereotypes Meet Reality
The show opened with Malta Joe regaling listeners with tales of his unexpectedly profitable venture at Tucson's 420 Festival. Despite the hosts' barely concealed disdain for cannabis users—repeatedly referred to as "stoners" and "zombie masses"—Malta Joe couldn't contain his enthusiasm for the event and its attendees:
"These people were fantastic. There were all walks of life. Every type of person was there just having a great time and relaxing," he exclaimed. "I sold out, and I never emptied my truck before. Never. About 700 pieces. And I always double. I've gone through 300, 350 a lot. No, not a problem. Almost 400, but never 700."
The cognitive dissonance was palpable as Malta Joe continued praising the diverse crowd and the well-organized event. At the same time, DeSimone smirked about how Tucson is "so stoned out of its mind" and how the festival is "perfect for this town."
Funny how capitalism suddenly becomes acceptable to conservatives when it involves profiting off the same cannabis community they've demonized for decades. The hypocrisy is thicker than mesquite smoke at a backyard barbecue.
Malta Joe's experience revealed that cannabis legalization has created not just economic opportunities but also spaces for diverse communities to gather peacefully. His description of the festival as featuring "all walks of life" and being organized "smooth as silk" stands in stark contrast to the fear-based narratives about drug users that conservative media has peddled for generations.
The real story here isn't about a food truck's success, but about how Arizona's cannabis legalization has contributed to our local economy, reduced unnecessary incarceration for non-violent offenses, and created tax revenue that benefits our community—none of which the host bothered to mention.
Border Fearmongering: The MS-13 Boogeyman Rides Again
No conservative talk show would be complete without some good old-fashioned border panic, and DeSimone delivered with gusto. The host played clips from ABC News featuring former ICE Director Tom Homan discussing a deportation case involving an alleged MS-13 gang member.
Homan, in true right-wing fashion, complained about Senator Van Hollen traveling to El Salvador to meet with a deported individual, stating: "What concerns me is Van Hollen never went to the border in the last four years under Joe Biden when he had a 600% increase in sex trafficking of women and children."
DeSimone followed this up with a story about two Mexican citizens caught with ammunition in Colorado, breathlessly reporting: "Two Mexican citizens are facing federal charges after they were allegedly traveling in a car carrying 180,000 rounds of ammunition in southern Colorado."
Classic fear-based border reporting—take isolated incidents, strip them of context, and use them to demonize an entire population. Never mind that study after study shows immigrants commit fewer crimes than native-born citizens. The narrative must be maintained at all costs!
What's missing from this border hysteria is any discussion of the actual lives affected by our immigration policies—the families separated, the asylum seekers denied due process, the economic contributions of immigrants to our border communities, or the root causes driving migration. Instead, listeners are fed a steady diet of fear designed to justify cruel border policies while ignoring the humanity of those involved.
This narrative also conveniently ignores how border communities like Tucson have thrived through cross-border commerce and cultural exchange for generations. The complexity of life in a border region is reduced to simplistic tales of good versus evil that serve a political agenda rather than reflecting reality.
Dr. DeFilippo: Affordable Housing Opposition and Homeless Dehumanization
Dr. Joann DeFilippo, former chair of the Affordable Housing Commission, spent a significant portion of the show criticizing Pima County's proposed 3-cent primary property tax increase for affordable housing. She framed the tax as a deceptive ploy:
"They use this marketing ploy. It's only three cents. It's only three cents as if three cents is nothing in your life," she declared with indignation. "And it's disguised under what we talked about prior to the bank. This compounded primary property tax that's going on."
DeFilippo painted a dire picture of Pima County as a government entity relentlessly "nickel and diming" its residents to death—particularly seniors on fixed incomes who might have to choose between paying their property taxes and buying food.
Right, because the real problem facing our community isn't our severe housing shortage or skyrocketing rents—it's a proposed three-cent tax increase earmarked specifically to address those very issues. Classic conservative logic: identify a real problem, then oppose any actual solution.
What DeFilippo's passionate critique lacked was context. Tucson faces one of the most severe affordable housing crises in its history. According to recent data, nearly half of Tucson renters are cost-burdened, spending more than 30% of their income on housing. The proposed tax would generate approximately $207 million over ten years for affordable housing initiatives—a drop in the bucket compared to the estimated need, but at least a start.
While DeFilippo raises legitimate concerns about the impact on fixed-income seniors, her opposition to the tax reflects a common conservative stance: identify vulnerable populations to shield tax cuts for the wealthy, while simultaneously opposing the very programs that would help those vulnerable populations. If conservatives like DeFilippo were truly concerned about seniors on fixed incomes, they might consider progressive taxation that asks more from those with greater resources rather than blocking all public investment.
DeFilippo's most revealing comment came when discussing homelessness in Tucson. After describing a homeless encampment along Golf Links Road, she offered this simplistic analysis:
"The majority of those people do not want to change their lifestyles because they don't want to give up their drugs. They don't want to give up the substance abuse that they encourage in their lifestyles. They like going down and getting their SNAP benefits. They like this lifestyle."
This kind of dehumanizing rhetoric about unhoused people is exactly what prevents us from implementing real solutions to homelessness. It's so much easier to blame individuals for "lifestyle choices" than to acknowledge the systemic failures—mental health service cuts, housing speculation, wage stagnation—that have created our current crisis.
Missing from this oversimplified narrative is any acknowledgment of the complex factors contributing to homelessness: mental health issues, domestic violence, economic displacement, lack of affordable housing, and yes, substance use disorders that require treatment rather than moral condemnation. By reducing homelessness to a "lifestyle choice," DeFilippo absolves policymakers—and voters—of responsibility for creating systemic solutions.
Nate Foster: Policing Narratives and Political Accountability
TPD detective and Police Protective League president Nate Foster called in to criticize Mayor Regina Romero for her handling of both the recent Jacob Couch murder case and a previous in-custody death involving Carlos Ingram Lopez in 2020.
Foster claimed the mayor refused to comment on the Couch murder case, citing the ongoing investigation, but had been quick to condemn officers involved in the Lopez case following the George Floyd protests:
"She doesn't want to talk about it because all of these incidents disprove her statements on the issue of saying there's no data and saying that claiming crime at the bus stops is ludicrous. It just—this is all blowing up in her face."
Foster went on to suggest that the officers involved in the Lopez case were pressured to resign following public condemnation from the mayor: "They were treated poorly... Nobody really wants to be a cop in Tucson. And it's not like we really go around encouraging people to join the police department because you never know on what day you come to work, where you could be sacrificed to the altar of progressive...to appease their wacko lunatic leftists."
This framing attempts to paint police accountability as some radical leftist agenda rather than what it actually is: a basic expectation in a democratic society. The suggestion that officers shouldn't face consequences for in-custody deaths but politicians should immediately comment on every crime is precisely the kind of double standard that erodes public trust.
Foster's comments reveal the tension between police accountability and public safety narratives, but his framing attempts to delegitimize legitimate concerns about in-custody deaths by characterizing them as merely "politically convenient." The conservative narrative that we must choose between police accountability and public safety is a false dichotomy designed to prevent meaningful reform.
What's lost in this narrative is any discussion of community-based solutions to public safety that don't rely solely on policing—investments in mental health services, youth programs, housing stability, and economic opportunity that address the root causes of crime rather than just responding to its symptoms.
Brother Joe: Gold Hoarding and Federal Reserve Conspiracy Theories
In the final segment, DeSimone's other brother offered financial advice straight from the conservative playbook, including promoting gold as an "insurance" against economic collapse and criticizing Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, echoing Trump's characterization of Powell as a "loser."
"We sell it as an insurance. We don't sell it like 'hey you're going to make all this money,'" Brother Joe explained about gold investments. "It's to allow—it's an insurance play allocation on your portfolio. You take 5 to 10 percent of your liquid assets and you buy gold because gold will offset unknown disasters."
He went on to criticize the Federal Reserve system itself: "The central bank has nothing to do with the federal government. It's not a branch of the federal government. It's an independent bank. And it goes back to England and the Rothschilds."
Ah yes, nothing says "legitimate financial advice" quite like veiled references to conspiracy theories about the Rothschilds controlling the global banking system—a trope with deep antisemitic roots that should make any listener question the advice that follows.
The conservative fixation on gold as economic salvation has a long history, particularly during times of uncertainty. This narrative often benefits those selling gold investments more than average investors. The criticism of Chair Powell aligns with Trump's attempts to undermine independent institutions, which ultimately threatens economic stability rather than enhances it.
What's notably absent from this financial discussion is any mention of how Federal Reserve policies actually impact working Tucsonans—how interest rates affect mortgage affordability in our already challenging housing market, or how monetary policy might address wage stagnation that has left many in our community struggling despite working full-time.
The Bigger Picture: MAGA Narratives vs. Tucson Reality
Throughout the nearly two-hour show, the hosts and guests constructed a narrative of a city and county in crisis—from border chaos to homeless encampments to budget mismanagement. Yet their proposed solutions consistently involve less government investment, fewer taxes, and more individual responsibility—the same policies that have exacerbated inequality in our community.
The show's focus on isolated incidents of crime while ignoring systemic issues reflects the broader MAGA strategy of stoking fear rather than solving problems. Their mockery of progressive concerns about affordable housing, humane immigration policies, and police accountability reveals an unwillingness to engage with the complex challenges facing our diverse community.
What's perhaps most telling is what wasn't discussed: climate change in our drought-prone region, education funding for our struggling schools, healthcare access for our most vulnerable residents, or the economic opportunities that comprehensive immigration reform might bring to our border community.
Instead, listeners were treated to a stream of complaints without solutions, fears without context, and criticisms without alternatives—all hallmarks of the conservative media bubble that prioritizes outrage over outcomes.
Final Thoughts: Building a More Inclusive Tucson
As Tucsonans, we deserve better than fear-based narratives that divide our community. We need thoughtful dialogue about how to address our housing crisis, reform our immigration system, ensure public safety while holding institutions accountable, and create an economy that works for everyone.
The next time you hear complaints about taxes being used for affordable housing or fearmongering about the border, ask yourself: Who benefits from these narratives? What solutions are being offered beyond criticism? And how might we move forward together rather than retreating into fear?
Despite the challenges, I remain hopeful about Tucson's future. Our city has a long history of resilience, cultural richness, and community solidarity that transcends the narrow vision presented on shows like "Wake Up Live." We can create the community we all deserve by engaging with each other across differences and focusing on solutions rather than fear.
If you value this kind of progressive analysis and coverage of local media, please consider supporting Three Sonorans. Your contributions allow us to continue providing the counternarrative to conservative talking points and advocating for the inclusive, just Tucson we know is possible.
What do you think about the affordable housing tax proposal? Is a small property tax increase worth it to address our housing crisis? And how should we respond to conservative narratives about homelessness that focus on individual choices rather than systemic issues? Leave your thoughts in the comments below!
¡Adelante Tucson! The future belongs to those who envision and build it—not those who merely criticize from the sidelines.
Quotes:
Malta Joe on 420 Festival attendees: "These people were fantastic. There were all walks of life. Every type of person was there just having a great time and relaxing... I sold out, and I never emptied my truck before. Never." Context: Describing the diverse, peaceful crowd at the cannabis festival while DeSimone mocked "stoners"
Dr. DeFilippo on homeless individuals: "The majority of those people do not want to change their lifestyles because they don't want to give up their drugs. They don't want to give up the substance abuse that they encourage in their lifestyles." Context: Simplistically explaining homelessness as a lifestyle choice rather than acknowledging systemic factors
Nate Foster on Mayor Romero: "She doesn't want to talk about it because all of these incidents disprove her statements on the issue of saying there's no data and saying that claiming crime at the bus stops is ludicrous." Context: Criticizing the mayor for not commenting on the Jacob Couch murder case while defending officers from accountability
Brother Joe on the Federal Reserve: "The central bank has nothing to do with the federal government. It's not a branch of the federal government. It's an independent bank. And it goes back to England and the Rothschilds." Context: Promoting conspiracy theories about the banking system while selling gold investments
Dr. DeFilippo on affordable housing tax: "They use this marketing ploy. It's only three cents. It's only three cents, as if three cents is nothing in your life. And it's disguised under what we talked about prior to the bank. This compounded primary property tax that's going on." Context: Arguing against a minimal property tax increase for affordable housing initiatives
People Mentioned:
Chris DeSimone: Host of "Wake Up Live" podcast; frequently promotes conservative talking points about border security, taxation, and government
Quote about Pope Francis: "As a Pope, who cares? I'm done with Pope's, kids. Done with them."
Malta Joe: DeSimone's brother and food truck owner
Quote about 420 Festival: "Every type of person was there just having a great time and relaxing... I sold out and I never emptied my truck before."
Dr. Joann DeFilippo: Former chair of Affordable Housing Commission
Quote on homelessness: "The majority of those people do not want to change their lifestyles because they don't want to give up their drugs."
Nate Foster: TPD detective and Police Protective League president
Quote on policing in Tucson: "Nobody really wants to be a cop in Tucson... you never know at what day you come to work where you could be sacrificed to the altar of progressive...to appease their wacko lunatic leftists."
Brother Joe: Financial advisor and DeSimone's brother
Quote on gold investments: "You take 5 to 10 percent of your liquid assets and you buy gold because gold will offset unknown disasters."
Regina Romero: Tucson Mayor criticized for her handling of crime cases and police accountability
Described by Foster as "a real disaster" who is selective about when she comments on cases
Tom Homan: Former ICE Director featured in clips discussing MS-13 deportation case
Jerome Powell: Federal Reserve Chair criticized as "Mr. Too Late" and "a loser" for interest rate policies
Jacob Couch: Victim of hatchet attack murder at Tucson bus stop; case referenced as example of crime problems
Carlos Ingram Lopez: Man who died in TPD custody in 2020; case referenced regarding police accountability
Have a scoop or a story you want us to follow up on? Send us a message!
Should have taken these two guy's advice. They cracked the housing market code:
Millennials Are Terrible at Timing the Housing Market, Morons Should Have Been Born 30 Years Earlier: https://old.bitchute.com/video/PSVGUHpMBb98 [2:33mins]