Gavin Newsom needs to think things through!

In an Op Ed, contradictorily titled “Gavin Newsom has been the leader California needs,” The Los Angeles Times sets outs some valid critiques of the highhandedness of the Newsom establishment.

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.

California sued over aid to undocumented migrants

The Los Angeles Times reports that:

The nonprofit Center for American Liberty filed an emergency petition with the California Supreme Court requesting a stay on the governor’s action, arguing state and federal laws bar unemployment benefits to those without legal status and that providing the money to nonprofit groups represents an improper gift of taxpayer funds.

The plaintiffs in the lawsuit are Whittier City Councilwoman Jessica Martinez and Ricardo Benitez, an immigrant from El Salvador who is now a U.S. citizen. Both plaintiffs are Republican candidates for the state Assembly. Benitez is running to represent the 39th Assembly District in the San Fernando Valley and Martinez is vying to represent the 57th Assembly District in the southern San Gabriel Valley.

“This is taxpayer money that may only be appropriated by the legislative branch. This is not a slush fund for the governor to spend as he sees fit,” Harmeet K. Dhillon, a San Francisco attorney and chief executive officer for the Center for American Liberty, said in a written statement Thursday. “At a time when law-abiding Californians are crushed by unemployment, housing issues, business closures and massive limitations on our normal lives, Governor Newsom is doing an end-run around the legal guardrails in place.”

The thing that is wrong with this aid is that it is insufficient. The fact is that, if these people are living in distress, we all live in distress.

If they get ill, our beloved “legal citizens and immigrants” will get ill as well.

People live here without legal status because of deficiencies in the immigration system.

Not because of choice.

These far right organizations — who have no sense of empathy, compassion, understanding care, let alone common sense — completely ignore the fact that the corporate capitalist system depends upon these people, who pay taxes, and we need to extend human decency to them and to maintain them during this crisis.

Because we need them!

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-04-23/gavin-newsom-coronavirus-aid-undocumented-immigrants-court-challenge

Did Gavin Newsom make a bad deal for masks with a Chinese company?

Evidently, according to the LA Times, he is refusing to let elected officials learn the details of the deal:

But almost immediately, lawmakers wondered why the Newsom administration wouldn’t allow them to review the contract before asking for the first payment to BYD.

“We would never approve a budget this way,” Assemblyman Phil Ting (D-San Francisco), chairman of the Assembly Budget Committee, said in an interview on April 9, two days after the deal was announced. “The whole reason we don’t do a budget one request at a time is we want to know the big picture.”

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-04-20/gavin-newsom-n95-masks-byd-chinese-company-california-legislature

Has Gavin Newsom sold out on opposition to fracking?

Has Gavin Newsom made a bad deal for a Chinese company for masks?

That is the question a new commentary in Food and Water Watch asks.

They maintain:

Later that year, Governor Newsom issued a new directive that reworked the moratorium to include a loophole — an external, “independent” approval process for new fracking. This process required third-party review of fracking permits by Lawrence Livermore National Lab. We realized at that moment that Newsom’s commitment to oppose fracking was wavering.

Recently, Newsom directed the Department of Finance to audit the fracking permit process to determine if it needs to be strengthened. Until this audit is complete, we presume the backlog of 282 fracking permits will continue to be approved. We also predict the audit will result in nothing more than another rubber stamp for fracking in California. 

https://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/news/promises-promises-gavin-newsom-has-broken-his-when-it-comes-fracking

Gavin Newsom is being mealy mouthed about PG&E and California fires!

Tim Redmond sums up Newsom’s duplicity here.

He quotes Newsom and then opines:

“We will hold them to account,” he says. “We will restructure” the company when it gets out of bankruptcy.

“And then … what?

“How is that “restructuring” going to work if PG&E remains a privately owned utility that sets up its own corporate structure? How are we going to “hold to account” a company when it’s already in total collapse – and Newsom has no plan to address that except to ask Warren Buffett to buy it?

“This is madness.”

Dan Walters on Gavn Newsom & PG&E

Normally, Gavin Newsom would be conciliatory towards PG&E, but Dan Walters writes

“Newsom and other Capitol politicians are acutely aware that PG&E, et al, are not popular these days and that if they appear to let them and their executives off the hook for wildfire damages, there could be a political backlash.

“Under current law, dubbed “inverse condemnation,” utilities are strictly liable for losses from wildfires their equipment causes. Utilities say that’s an unfair burden because they cannot control nature and are powerless, as it were, to prevent fires when hot weather and high winds cause even well-maintained electric cables to fall.

“The Newsom plan would presume the utilities to be innocent if they have met the higher safety standards to be imposed and otherwise acted prudently, thus allowing damage claims to be shifted from stockholders to ratepayers.”

In other words, ordinary people are going to suffer!

Gavin Newsom throws a big party…and who contributes?

“Party favors: Friends of Gov. Gavin Newsom raised a party-hearty $2.5 million for his inauguration festivities.


“The biggest donor to the inaugural and the two days of parties was organized labor, which ponied up $775,000 to help stage the events, with $150,000 coming from the state’s prison guards union and $100,000 from the California Teachers Association Political Action Committee.
“The state’s Indian casinos chipped in $525,0000, including $200,000 from the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria, owners of the Graton Resort and Casino in Rohnert Park.
“Friends of Gov. Gavin Newsom raised $2.5 million for his inauguration festivities.
“The biggest individual donor was former San Diego Padres owner Jennifer Moores, who gave $200,000. Netflix founder and charter school advocate Reed Hastings gave $50,000.


“Other big-dollar contributors included AT&T ($100,000), the State Democratic Party ($100,000) and the California Association of Hospitals ($100,000). In other words, pretty much your usual collection of organizations, businesses and trade associations that do business with the state.
“Donors to the California Rises charity concert held the night before the inauguration included the Silicon Valley Community Foundation at $250,000 and $50,000 from the San Francisco Giants.


“The concert, which featured Pitbull and Common, along with the X Ambassadors and Betty Who, raised $5 million for the California Fire Foundation.” — Phil Matier

Gavin Newsom talks some sense about “high speed” rail….belatedly…..

It is about time that the chimerical ideal of a “high-speed” rail line from SF to Los Angeles was abandoned by our out-of-touch elites.

Newsom has finally said that the emperor has no clothes.

The facts are that a “high-speed” rail line is not only too expensive to build, has the opposition of landowners and will have ticket prices that will be unaffordable for ordinarly people.

Instead, how about improving the existing rail structure to offer a service which, while beating the bus service times, is subsidized, so inexpensive to use, and is a pleasure to take?