“He’s really smart. He’s a big and creative thinker, and I find that very energizing, to think about what’s possible.”
That was Dee Dee Myers, upon her appointment as chief economic and business adviser to California Gov. Gavin Newsom. Myers is the author of Why Women Should Rule the World, but best known as press secretary for President Bill Clinton. Californians have reason to wonder about “creative thinker” as an accurate description of the governor. On the other hand for Myers, “what’s possible” is Gov. Newsom as president of the United States.
Newsom is a crony of recurring governor Jerry Brown, who appointed Newsom’s father as a judge. Newsom is on record that Brown has the greatest political mind “in our lifetime.” Since Brown’s presidential runs in 1976, 1980 and 1992 all ended in failure, Newson would doubtless like to win where his brilliant idol lost. Since election as governor in 2018, Newsom has been acting like it’s a done deal.
During the 2018 campaign, Newsom did not tour the state listening to the concerns of the people. Once in office, he flew off to El Salvador, one source of the imported electorate he showers with benefits such as government-paid health care, in-state tuition, and automatic voter registration through the DMV. Like Brown before him, the carefully coiffed governor also shows a soft spot for criminals.
In March of 2019, Newsom reprieved all 737 murderers on California’s death row, the worst of the worst, serial killers, cop killers and the like. All had been convicted by a jury of their peers, and exhausted the appeal process. Newsom is not a judge or attorney, and offered no new exculpatory evidence in any case. The murderers were happy for the favor, and more benefits were on the way.
In the summer of 2020, prisoners across the system began filing bogus unemployment claims, which the state duly paid, to the tune of $1 billion. While neglecting legitimate claims from unemployed workers, the state Employment Development Department (EDD) paid out $421,370 to death row inmates alone. The recipients include serial killers Cary Stayner and Wayne Adam Ford, child-killer Isauro Aguirre, and Scott Peterson, convicted in 2004 of murdering his pregnant wife Laci.
Bank of America, which contracts with EDD for unemployment debit cards, estimates the total amount of fraud at $2 billion. The massive rip-off escaped the notice of attorney general Xavier Becerra, and EDD boss Sharon Hilliard departs on December 31, proclaiming, “I retire knowing that EDD is on a great path to success.” So if Californians thought Gov. Newsom was okay with the convicts’ $2 billion windfall it would be hard to blame them.
Like the revolutionary critters in Orwell’s Animal Farm, Newsom believes rats are comrades. He also budgeted nearly $100 million to provide health care for those who violated U.S. immigration law, and supports sanctuary measures that protect criminals from deportation.
Last year, Newsom named his “cabinet secretary” Ana Matosantos, a political science and feminist studies grad, as the state’s new “Energy Czar.” Newsom is on record that Matosantos is a “genius,” but in 2020 the rolling blackouts returned during wildfires the governor blamed on “climate change,” not poor forest management.
Since March, Newsom has ruled California as a virtual autocrat, signing a $1 billion mask deal with a Chinese company. He imposed a punishing lockdown on “non-essential” businesses while releasing thousands of criminals. He also deployed black-clad CHP forces to block public protest at the state capitol.
While spending on illegals, Newsom took no measures to lower Californians’ tax and regulatory burdens, among the highest in the nation. He targeted Thanksgiving and Christmas with regulations for “gatherings” that limit the number of participants, restrict celebration, and require the host to take names. Newsom’s “trace force” of government snoops may soon come knocking, and that reminds the people of Orwell’s 1984.
For Gavin Newsom it’s not about policies that improve the lot of the people, create jobs, and protect the state and nation. It’s all about deploying the power of government to reward friends and punish enemies, the sort of person who would vote for Donald Trump instead of Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden. In a 2019 interview with Politico, Newsom said Republicans would go into “the waste bin of history.” A guy like that needs watching.
Democrat queenmaker Willie Brown, Kamala Harris’ former boyfriend, is urging Gov. Newsom to appoint himself to replace Harris in the Senate. That would free the governor from a surging recall effort, leave the mess for others, and better position him for White House run in 2024. Should Newsom call his own number, Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis would take over as governor pending a special election.
Eleni is the daughter of real-estate tycoon Angelo Tsakopoulos, a major donor to the Clintons. In 2008, Eleni raised more than $1 million for Hillary Clinton, and in 2010 she made Eleni ambassador to Hungary. Eleni’s husband Markos Kounalakis, a key promoter of the Russia hoax, authored “Putin’s powerful playbook,” published right after FBI boss James Comey renewed the inquiry into Hillary’s email server.
In the Democrat Party, what goes around comes around. As President Trump says, we’ll have to see what happens.
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