Author Archives: Editor

About Editor

I am a long time resident of San Francisco who has long been dismayed by Newsom's neoliberal, anti-homeless, pro-authoritarian, gentrifying, hypocritical policies.

Liberal Comentator David Talbot Profiles Gavin Newsom

Chronicle columnist David Talbot offers a brief interview with Gavin Newsom in which Talbot cites “gay marriage” as an issue on which he admires Newsom’s pluck. (Although he can not cite a second instance because no one can. And gay pockets hold a lot of campaign donations, as Newsom has always been well aware of).

“And then there’s slick and corporate Newsom — the leader who sometimes seems more of a tech entrepreneur than a man of the people, with his talk of re-engineering democracy while taking bags full of campaign cash from Airbnb and private equity firms. Newsom has raised more money in his race for governor than any of his rivals, with a big boost from Airbnb, whose employees have kicked in more than $225,000 so far to his campaign. While progressive San Francisco officials have desperately tried to clamp reasonable limits on Airbnb, as the short-term rental behemoth threatens to turn the city into its tourist domain, Newsom has opposed all such regulatory efforts.”

This makes it pretty clear that Newsom is beholden to the wealthy. No surprise there!

Talbot, of course, fails to ask about prisons, the police, his staunch support for neoliberal policies (including park privatization), charter schools, how corporate marijuana legislation will unfold on the ground, the problems of extortionate rent and real estate prices, high fees at State universities and many other topics…..

Former San Francisco Mayor Lambastes Gavin Newsom!

This is what Agnos told David Talbot:

Agnos finds the political establishment to be woefully behind the electorate when it comes to deciding the city’s future. He’s particularly critical of another former mayor, Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, who campaigned for 8 Washington and — as chairman of the State Lands Commission — is suing the city to overturn Prop. B. “This is supposedly Mr. ‘Citizenville,’” said Agnos, referring to Newsom’s book that touted the expansion of participatory democracy in the digital age. “And he’s suing the city he once led, saying the citizens shouldn’t decide.

“I call Gavin the greatest one-night stand in politics. He looks great, he talks great. But you wake up the next morning and you ask yourself, ‘What was that all about?’”

Zula Jones characterizes Gavin Newsom as “arrogant”

“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.”
 
Gavin Newsom with Shrimp Boy Chow below:

Gavin Newsom is now meditating!

 In a pandering interview with San Francisco Magazine, Gavin Newsom relates:

My friend Marc Benioff (12) got me to start meditating.

Huh…so you and Benioff are, like, out there in the woods in Marin—
No, it was just in conversation. He gave me the space to not think meditating was, uh, odd. He was commenting about how some of his closest and most successful friends, some well-known people, all share that in common. And I said, “Really?” I remember it was just this sort of aha moment, where all of a sudden I didn’t think it strange. I thought maybe it was essential. And for the last two, two and a half years, I’ve been very devoted to it. And it’s been profound for me.

 

Is he a TMer?

The Reactionary Nature of Gavin Newsom’s Corporate Neoliberalism

Nancy Fraser pins the Gavin Newsom ideology down in this excellent article!

“The result was a “progressive neoliberalism” that mixed together truncated ideals of emancipation and lethal forms of financialization.”

Exactly what Gavin Newsom did as mayor of San Francisco!