Tag Archives: Recall Newsom

Don’t just believe what you read or hear about this recall, do your own research

29 Aug

This morning I saw a letter in the Enterprise Record from a regular letter-writer who stated, “So with money from outside our state supporting the recall of Newsom, we are spending millions of tax dollars to respond to this bogus claim of corruptness.” 

Yes, there have been claims of corruption against the Newsom administration, including his meeting with PG&E lobbyists at a closed restaurant to “broker a deal” for PG&E bankruptcy, as well as his mishandling of the Employment Department scandal. It’s true that proponents of the recall have charged the governor with corruption, and they have plenty of evidence to back up those claims. It’s also true that our state will spend millions of dollars on this election.

But where does the writer get her claim, “With money from outside our state supporting the recall of Newsom“? She does note explain. That’s a pretty serious charge, I had to search that. I found a couple of articles about the funding in this recall, and I didn’t see that anywhere. In fact, Cal Matters has this neat-o “live-tracker” that updates the information daily.

https://calmatters.org/politics/2021/05/gavin-newsom-recall-money/

I was shocked to see how much disparity there is in the funding – “Supporters of the recall have raised approximately $8.0 million and opponents have raised about $62.2 million.” According to the LA Times, if you include money raised by candidates for governor, the YES figure is $32.6 million.

But I found nothing about any “money from outside our state supporting the recall of Newsom” Anybody else?

Here’s why I’m asking – when he announced a limit and a cut-off date for recall letters, Enterprise Record Editor Mike Wolcott posted a list of rules, including, “We don’t print purported facts that can’t be independently verified. When using facts, cite a source. We don’t print letters that require substantial research to verify.“

Was there any verification of this writer’s claims? It took me less than a minute to find the correct information, from respected sources. In fact, the ER often runs pieces from Cal Matters, the SF Chronicle, and the San Jose Mercury News.

The old advice is, believe none of what you hear, and only half of what you see. I’ll add, don’t believe what you read in one newspaper, or from one source. Check your own facts. Use different sources, including those you don’t necessarily agree with. Don’t just take it from me – check it! And check it again!

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Capitol Public Radio: Newsom overstated forest clearance by 80,000 acres

18 Aug

This morning the smoke is so bad I woke up thinking we’d inadvertently left a window open. No. We’d even reinforced the sliding glass door with masking tape. Since 3 am, we’ve been breathing acrid, toxic air, thanks to PG&E, Cal Fire, and the head of the whole stinking fish, Gavin Newsom.

“Dixie Fire: Containment to be determined...” is the official word out of Cal Fire. Meaning, it will go out with the first rains. As of yesterday the fire was bearing down on Susanville – is that their intention? Just burn out all the mountain dwellers, leave nothing but ski resorts? Really?

I received a survey from Doug LaMalfa’s office, asking me how I think they should handle these fires. One option was, don’t allow people to live in fire prone areas anymore. I’m sure LaMalfa’s staff included that option to piss people off, but I’ve heard that kind of talk from people like Jim, and I think it’s on the table.

My family landed in the Sierra Nevada in the 1840’s, my grandma Mahala brought three children in by mule train in 1849. At that time, that was where the jobs were, and that’s where you could get land. Those people built this state. Their descendants continue to live up there – with the exception of my cousin Janet, who lost her house in Greenville a couple of weeks ago.

Is this how Newsom intends to accomplish de-population? Just burn them out? It’s been done before – look up the history of Prattville – the original town burned down due to a suspicious fire in the early 1900’s, just as The Western Power Company (predecessor to PG&E) was attempting to buy up huge swaths of land to build dams and reservoirs. The people of Prattville didn’t want to sell. So, one day when most of the residents had travelled to a baseball tournament, the town burned to the ground. Today the ruins of the original town of Prattville are sunk under Lake Almanor.

Well, that might all be a specious conspiracy theory, but Dan Walters reports here

https://calmatters.org/commentary/2021/08/wildfires-newsom-recall-forest-service/

that promises Newsom made early in his term about fire prevention and suppression have not come to fruition.

“Everybody has had enough,” Newsom said, adding that the state’s approach “fundamentally has to change.”

Newsom said the state would clear underbrush and thin forests with prescribed burns and other techniques, emulating how nature and Native Americans dealt with fire for countless eons.“

“However, what seemed to be an innovative new state policy became an embarrassment when Capitol Public Radio reported in June that Newsom had hugely overstated what the state had done over the previous two years.” Capitol Public Radio  “found Newsom overstated, by an astounding 690%, the number of acres treated with fuel breaks and prescribed burns in the very forestry projects he said needed to be prioritized to protect the state’s most vulnerable communities. Newsom has claimed that 35 ‘priority projects’ carried out as a result of his executive order resulted in fire prevention work on 90,000 acres. But the state’s own data show the actual number is 11,399.“

So, here we are today. Between his refusal to hold PG&E responsible for mismanagement and lack of maintenance, and his failure to implement his own promises to manage our forest lands, Newsom has managed to burn down, what, a third of the state? More? How many left homeless, destitute?

So, watch for your recall ballot, clerks all over the state were supposed to be mailing those out Monday. Vote for RECALL, and then I hope you’ll fill in the bubble next to Kevin Kiley to take on the last year or so of Newsom’s term. Find out more here:

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Here comes the recall! Are you ready?

3 Aug

As you may know, proponents of the Recall Newsom group gathered enough signatures from registered voters to get a special election. Of course that doesn’t mean Newsom is out, that’s up to all the voters. Remember, there are two questions – do you vote to recall, and then, either way, who do you want for governor.  A majority vote (2/3) is required for Newsom to be recalled. The candidate with the most votes on the second question would win the election, no majority required.

Forty-six candidates, including nine Democrats and 24 Republicans, are running for Newsom’s seat in the event the recall is successful. Yep. Whomever you decide to take seriously, you can check the box. Don’t skip the second question, or make a facetious vote for some outrageous celebrity – just because you don’t want the recall to succeed, doesn’t mean you want to throw out your right to vote for a viable candidate to take his place.

I was pleased to see Kevin Kiley was running. I don’t agree with him on everything but he’s been pushing to reopen schools and businesses after the COVID closures. He’s made detailed charges of abuse of power by Newsom. I’ve seen him in the news for a year or more now, and I like the issues that he’s raising. I could live with him as Governor for the short remainder of Newsom’s term. It’s not a decision we have to live with forever, but it should send a message to politicians who think they can make up the rules as they go along.

Normally I wouldn’t support recalls, they seem like a waste of money and time. But the COVID shut-downs really hurt our schools and our economy, and left our communities ugly and divided. Want to find out how ugly – walk into a crowded bar and loudly ask if everybody has been vaccinated! Or mention it on your blog!

And Newsom’s blatant misbehavior – not just outrageous stuff like the French Laundry, but his abuse of power, making weird, subjective, often conflicting and short-lived rulings on everybody else’s behavior. It was like when the adults would go out and leave the kids under the iron thumb of the oldest sibling. A little bit of power can go to a person’s head. We need to let them know, they work for us, not the other way around. Hopefully the message will reverberate out of California all the way to Washington DC.

However you feel, get ready, because it’s coming up fast – September 14. Registered Butte County voters should have already got a notice from Candace Grubbs asking if they want to get their ballot electronically or through the mail. That is also your choice, go get ’em!

God Bless Us Every One.

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Lou Binninger: If Gavin Newsom is not recalled, we owe Gray Davis an apology

10 Sep

As we head into another election, I think it’s important to remind everybody there is a petition circulating to recall Governor Gavin Newsom. 

HOMEPAGE

Newsom’s the worst governor we’ve had since Gray Davis. Maybe worse because he refuses to learn from the past. Davis presided over the rolling blackouts and signed the agreement with CalPERS promising pie-in-the-sky pensions for peanuts. We are still paying for his poor leadership. Newsom not only perpetuates the pensions and allows the utility companies to screw California residents, he runs the COVID shut-down, the transient takeover of our parks and waterways, and allows the destruction of our forests and air quality. 

It’s easy to print and sign the petition, and send it in.  Why bother?  I’ll let Lon Binninger take it from here:

https://www.nohostagesradio.com/podcast/we-owe-gray-davis-an-apology

No fan of Governor Gray Davis, it was still a shock when he was petitioned to be recalled and then actually voted out October 7, 2003! There was plenty wrong with the state then, utility and pension plan corruption, the spiking of motor vehicle fees, and a huge raise for state correctional officers to get Davis re-elected. Davis was the first California Governor to be recalled and the second in US history.

However, considering the bleak state of California today, if Gavin Newsom is not recalled the citizens owe Davis an apology.

Recall proponents have until November 17 to submit 1,495,709 verifiable signatures but are hoping to present 2 million knowing that many will be disqualified. This campaign is a volunteer effort and they rarely succeed. But these are unprecedented times.

Newsom says he has five big objectives: “1) increase funding for public education, 2) protect and secure Californians’ health and health care, 3) improve water, roads, and bridges, 4) address the challenges of housing affordability and homelessness, and 5) prepare for the threats of wildfires.”

California public education is among the lowest performing in the country and is basically a union welfare and retirement fund for teachers. Unions protect bad teachers and disruptive students and they crush any attempts at better alternatives such as charter schools. Newsom is impotent on education.

As for California’s need for “secure” health care, Newsom has done nothing to eliminate limits on the number of nursing graduates at California’s colleges and universities. He basically has extended the Obamacare expensive coverages. Meanwhile he’s willing to spend hundreds of millions to provide free health care to illegal aliens, while millions of working Californians cannot afford insurance.

Citizens are repeatedly taxed to “improve water, roads, and bridges.” Newsom then takes the money to waste billions on “High Speed Rail” rather than improving the infrastructure Californians need and use. Newsom funds thousands of surplus Caltrans workers, the department responsible for making road improvements. State audits reveal billions are wasted.

Newsom has done nothing to reform CEQA, California’s bottleneck Environmental Quality Act, which buries road projects in bureaucracy and courts for years, costing additional billions. Nothing is accomplished.

California gets the national loser trophy for “housing affordability and homelessness.” Newsom’s gift is gab not getting problems solved. The process of building new suburbs and infrastructure needs to be deregulated. Instead, since regulations have made it impossible for developers to sell affordable homes and still make a profit, Newsom has deceived voters into passing tens of billions of dollars in bonds. These billions are used to pay Newsom’s friends, who are building “affordable” housing at an average cost well in excess of $500,000 per unit. He’s a crook.

How about those homeless? Economist Walter Williams says that whatever you want more of – fund it. California has done just that by the hundreds of millions of dollars. Rather than providing cost-effective shelters in low-cost areas, arrest and direct addicts into rehabs, Newsom and Democrat mayors allow the homeless to take over downtown areas and choice neighborhoods throughout the state. 

Tens of thousands of homeless squatters live lawless, openly consume hard drugs, steal for their habits, and harass working residents. The lawless need to be detained and their problems addressed once sober.

Never shy to sue, Newsom could challenge the laws and court rulings that prevent the state from helping the homeless? Why just accept them? Instead he wants to build “supportive housing” on expensive real estate. Newsom’s performance on California’s homeless crisis reveals his liberal incompetence gene. Liberal solutions make problems worse.

Finally Newsom wants to “prepare for wildfires” which he blames on the climate. Hahahaha. Newsom has never admitted that forestry mismanagement is the reason for catastrophic wildfires, or that the droughts have occurred in cycles for centuries in this state? Wisdom is to prepare for drought not change the climate. 

Why isn’t the timber industry returning to harvest diseased and dead trees and thin mature trees in exchange for clearing brush? That would cost taxpayers nothing and create jobs. Can’t Newsom admit that most of the stress on the forests is because the trees have become too dense preventing healthy trees from getting enough nutrients?

There is plenty more to say of Newsom’s acts of incompetence including shutting down the state for a faux pandemic. Sign the recall petition by going to recallgavin2020.org. You can print, then sign and mail the petition. Or you locate your county’s Recall Gavin Facebook page on the website to find a signing location. 

 

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