Gavin Newsom

Some conservatives did themselves no favors by exaggerating the threat of election irregularities in California’s Tuesday recall election. Tomi Lahren of Fox Nation claimed on air that: 'The only thing that will save Gavin Newsom is voter fraud.’ A New York Times news story promptly labeled concerns about the election as 'baseless allegations’. But regardless of the recall outcome — which Gov. Newsom is favored to survive — we shouldn’t dismiss concerns about the shift California and other states have made to all mail-in elections at the expense of the traditional secret ballot. Two elec­torates in places with some 40 mil­lion peo­ple each — Cal­i­for­nia and Canada — will vote this month.

Almost no topic shows our media's complete disconnect from reality than the national coverage of governors over the past year with regard to the COVID-19 pandemic. While flooding their viewers with stories of coronavirus failures about Ron #DeathSantis in Florida and Kristi Noem in South Dakota and Greg Abbott in Texas, the press consistently praised the work of Andrew Cuomo of New York and Gavin Newsom in California. The reality on the ground could not be more different. The two most prominent faces of the Democratic response to COVID (with Gretchen Whitmer being the third) have found themselves humiliated and disgraced. Both may end up out of power thanks to their personal and professional behavior of the past year.

After a month-long mail-in vote, the campaign to recall California governor Gavin Newsom is ending. If Newsom obtains a majority, which is very likely, he will keep his seat and run for election next year. But coming on the heels of his 2018 landslide, the recall attempt — whatever the outcome — is a blow, revealing massive discontent with his performance, and more broadly, with progressive policies. Newsom — and suddenly the entire Democratic party, it seems — seeks to turn the vote into a referendum on so-called Democratic and Republican values. Last week on the campaign trail, Vice President Kamala Harris implausibly claimed that restrictions on 'women’s rights, reproductive rights, voting rights, worker’s rights' are at issue.

Absent from most headlines on Wednesday was the egging of California recall candidate Larry Elder during a trip to the cockroach-infested district of Venice Beach in LA. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PakVQjHPOyg Less than a week before Californians decide whether or not to sack Gov. Gavin Newsom, Elder's campaign thought it would be a great PR opportunity for the candidate to tour the homeless cesspool of Venice on Wednesday. The visit started with a warm boomer welcome from supporters outside a Gold's Gym as Elder stepped off his black-and-red campaign bus. Things took an unexpected turn when a large group of wet-brained granola munchers and resident crackheads confronted Elder and his convoy as they made their way through Sunset Avenue's dilapidated neighborhood.

Fresno, California In the heart of California’s Bible belt, over a thousand people filled the Paul Shaghoian Concert Hall Sunday afternoon for Larry Elder, the radio host and candidate for governor. Ongoing scandals and calls to withdraw did not dampen Elder’s first campaign launch in the Central Valley. He vowed to repeal vaccines and mask mandates if elected governor, prompting a standing ovation from the audience. ‘Larry for king!’, yelled one supporter. ‘I don't drink coffee, I drink tea,’ Elder said. ‘When I become governor, assuming there are still mandates for vaccines and mandates for face masks, they will be repealed before my first cup of tea.

California Republicans are not falling in line behind a single candidate in the recall against Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom. The California Republican party voted not to endorse any of the candidates running in the state's upcoming recall during a Saturday morning online convention. The decision comes as right-wing firebrand Larry Elder has surged in recent polling, overshadowing the establishment favorite, former San Diego mayor Kevin Faulconer. The candidate who received the endorsement would have been given additional funding and campaign infrastructure. Instead, none of the candidates on the September 14 ballot will have the party's backing.

Gird your loins and grab your betting guides: there is to be a California recall election! Angry Golden Staters have gathered enough signatures to trigger a recall of Gov. Gavin Newsom, who was last spotted managing California’s pandemic response from table 14 at the French Laundry, which incidentally would like another recommendation from the sommelier whenever she gets the chance. Among those who have entered the race to replace him is Caitlyn Jenner. The trans woman and former reality TV star is also a libertarian Republican who for a time even had nice things to say about Donald Trump. Now she wants to be the next governor of California. And right on, I say.

Governors across the country are deploying their unilateral power to institute draconian measures which close small businesses, mostly those in the service industry. They use outright Orwellian language to justify doing so, all in the name of the greater good of halting COVID-19 cases. But it’s not working anymore. Total cases are higher now than they’ve been since the spring and people are losing their livelihoods. No federal relief has come and there is a nationwide feeling that the dam is about to break. When people were told they had ‘15 days to slow the spread’, they listened. While they obliged, they watched crowds gather in protest of their personal causes and politicians ignore their own rules.

Gavin Newsom is not a very good liar. The California governor, who recently issued a coronavirus ruling prohibiting Christmas and Thanksgiving gatherings of more than 10, or members of more than three different households, has broken his own rules. The San Francisco Chronicle reported that Newsom attended a birthday party for a lobbyist at the ultra-lux Wine Country restaurant French Laundry. Six couples were present at the maskless, non-socially distant soirée, including functionaries from the California Medical Association, which advises the governor on the pandemic measures.After putting the state on yet another lockdown, a shifty-looking Newsom recorded a video explaining what happened at that $400-a-plate affair.

Oakland, California In April, when spring fever ran high and California saw protests against the unending lockdowns, Gov. Gavin Newsom promised that ‘politics and protests will not drive our decision making. Science, data, and public health will drive our decision making. #StayHomeSaveLives.’ As it turns out, the anti-lockdown movement was right to be suspicious of tyranny. Not only are the decisions about opening up — or, more accurately, not opening up — political, but local and state governments are intent on taking the crisis as an opportunity to alter our way of life forever. Newsom has now tied reopening to ‘racial equity’, through reduction of COVID rates in black, Hispanic and Pacific Islander communities.

Andrew Cuomo is having the time of his life. His approval ratings are through the roof and he’s being talked about as a replacement for Joe Biden should Joe wander off somewhere without his Visiting Angel, never to be found again. Hipster merchandise featuring his face is exploding on Etsy and he’s getting a nightly hour with his own brother on CNN to chat about oh, this and that, and whatever is happening in his day at the given moment. It’s quite the arrangement!

The virus will teach us many things, but one lesson has already been relearned by the American people: there are two, quite different, types of wisdom. One, and the most renowned, is a specialization in education that results in titled degrees and presumed authority. That ensuing prestige, in turn, dictates the decisions of most politicians, the media, and public officials — who for the most part share the values and confidence of the credentialed elite. The other wisdom is not, as commonly caricatured, know-nothingism. Indeed, Americans have always believed in self-improvement and the advantages of higher education, a trust that explained broad public 19th-century support for mandatory elementary and secondary schooling and, during the postwar era, the G.I. Bill.

Will the stimulus stimulate? Donald Trump, who seems to have had nothing to do with the actual formation of the $2 trillion bill, is exhorting Congress to pass it Wednesday. It contains all kinds of bennies for the Democratic party, including an obscure provision that enables over-the-counter drug reform. But the real shift is that the GOP is now embracing big government — and it’s likely to continue in the form of further stimulus bills.The prospect of over a million workers hitting the unemployment line in March helps to concentrate the mind. And so, Republicans, who used to denounce helicopter money, are showering it on the average American, a nifty direct cash payment of $1,200. Then there is unemployment insurance. It’s being prolonged by 13 weeks.