This writer offers the most amazingly pinhead views. Prisoners were released from overcrowded prisons because imprisonment should not be a death sentence!
Forbes writes: “The economic devastation caused in part by his lockdowns has scarred the state. Between 2019 and 2020, California saw a 6.8% increase in homelessness, according to a report released by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. At the time of the study, more than half of the homeless population of the United States lived in California.”
“Newsom’s policies put people on the street without alleviating the impact of the pandemic. And judging by his own behavior, his precautions were purely performative.”
Between 2019 and 2020, there was no pandemic, and Newsom can not be responsible for this: corporate capitalism is!
For example, Newsom announced the closure of all beaches. Was it really necessary to close all beaches? Every single beach? Or should he have left it to county officials to regulate this.
The next day, the governor claimed he never intended to close all the beaches, and was in fact only targeting Orange County. And the memo police agencies said they’d received from his office? It “never got to me,” he said. That explanation did no favors for Newsom’s credibility. It was also perplexing. What’s wrong with having a change of heart after receiving new information and input from the public? That’s what we want our elected officials to do.
Wow, we heard him announce this meals-for-seniors program? He just made that up off the top of his head?
Inattention to process was also a factor in a number of other pandemic-related initiatives the governor touted before all the details were in place. One example was the governor’s announcement on April 24 of a plan for idled restaurants to provide three free meals a day to home-bound seniors, a win for both businesses and at-risk residents. The program would be administrated by local officials, he said, which surprised many local officials who had no idea such a program was in the works, according to a report by CalMatters. Thousands of people quickly signed up for the service, but have yet to receive meals.
Why should a Chinese electric car company be making masks for California? California does not have ONE factory that could make these masks? The cost is off the charts, and we all know that Chinese manufacturers have a problem with quality control. A very large problem with quality control, if one remembers the melamine in powdered milk scandal (as well as many others).
Why does Newsom believe it is OK to keep the legislature uninformed about this substantail deal?
Both Democratic and Republican legislators have complained that the governor fails to keep them in the loop or provide details about spending. They were particularly concerned about a ballyhooed $990-million deal with the Chinese electric car company BYD to buy millions of medical-grade masks, and it took weeks for the governor’s office to share the contract’s specifics. The state constitution grants the governor wide executive power to respond to emergency situations, but it doesn’t relieve him of accountability.
So he just made up that plan to re-open schools as early as July? That was pure fantasy on his part?
And why, without any consultation, would you ship ventilators to another state?
And local elected officials often find out about policies that would affect them at the same time as the public, such as when Newsom said last month that schools might open as soon as July. It was a surprise to some local superintendents, who were still working on how and when they might safely reopen their schools. And when Newsom noted in early April that he was going to send 500 ventilators to other states, it caught Santa Clara and Riverside county officials off guard. They were still madly scrambling to secure ventilators for their hospitals; in fact, Riverside had been denied a request for state-provided ventilators.
It’s been almost three years since Lt. Gov. Newsom, in his capacity as one of the three members of the State Lands Commission, filed a lawsuit against the people of San Francisco to do just that. Now the Chairman of the State Lands Commission, Newsom continues to sue San Francisco to invalidate Proposition B, the Waterfront Height Limit Right to Vote Act. San Francisco voters overwhelmingly approved Prop. B in 2014 in the aftermath of the 8 Washington luxury condo fiasco to ensure voters always have the opportunity to weigh in on future plans to raise the existing height limits along The City’s shoreline. Three years and many legal filings later, the lawsuit is about to have its day in court at a hearing in June. Both sides have submitted lengthy legal briefs making the case to Superior Court Judge Suzanne R. Bolanos that she should rule in their favor. The impact of Bolanos’ decision will ripple far beyond one ballot measure and one city.
“Jones noted that with the defeat of the “anti-business” progressives, Lee and his moderate, pro-business supporters had to “capture that and move very fast … We just need to pick up where we left off.”
Under Mayor Gavin Newsom, none of this had been possible, she said.
“Our previous mayor, Gavin Newsom, was a fuck-up because he was arrogant,” Jones said.
Mayor Lee, who Jones called an honest worker bee, had little political experience and had to be told to make sure people called him “Mr. Mayor” instead of just “Ed,” as he at first wanted.
“You gotta walk in front of me,” Jones said she told Lee. “You get this together, brother.”
John Stauber in CounterPunchpaints a perfect portrait of the “progressive” politics of Gavin Newsom!
“The professional Progressive Movement that we see reflected in the pages of The Nation magazine, in the online marketing and campaigning of MoveOn and in the speeches of Van Jones, is primarily a political public relations creation of America’s richest corporate elite, the so-called 1%, who happen to bleed Blue because they have some degree of social and environmental consciousness, and don’t bleed Red. But they are just as committed as the right to the overall corporate status quo, the maintenance of the American Empire, and the monopoly of the rich over the political process that serves their economic interests.”
Gavin Newsom privatized 55 acres of Golden Gate Park.
Once known as Strybing Arboretum, it is now known as the San Francisco Botanical Gardens and charges $7 admission.
If you go around behind the Hall of Flowers, however, you can find the gates open from Monday to Saturday until around 2:30 PM or sometimes later. (Vehicles line up at 3 PM to leave, and the gates are shut then. Prior to privatization, these gates were open until dusk.)
Head straight in and find the Native Plant Garden, a garden started by Menzies, Gavin Newsom’s grandfather. He must be rolling over in his grave now!
Gavin has a history of running away. 🙂
The frat boy has a way with the Gettys but an unfamiliarity with statistics.
Here is the story of the privatization:
https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2013/12/15/18747857.php
Astonishingly, Michael McKechnie, the director who first tried to get permanent fees, now heads the Angel Island Immigration Foundation:
