You may have heard that the fruits and nuts of California are trying to recall our governor, Gavin Newsom. As a current fruit and nut of this state, I recently received my mail-in ballot and was faced with a decision. Should I vote to recall the bastard, or has the poor son-of-a-bitch been unfairly maligned?

Californians have a reputation for recalling our governors, which might be slightly exaggerated. True, we did replace Governor Davis with the Terminator back in 2003. But in the entire history of the United States, only four gubernatorial recall elections have ever been held, including the current one.
The first occurred in 1921, when North Dakota governor Lynn Frazier was booted out of office. The second involved the termination of California’s Gray Davis, by Arnold Schwarzenegger, in 2003. The third occurred in Wisconsin, in 2012, where Governor Scott Walker barely held onto power by the skin of his scummy teeth.
And now we are in our fourth. Only 20 states allow their governors to be recalled, by the way. Although California has only held two such elections (including the current one), we probably have the record for most attempts.
The fun and games began in 1960, when we tried to recall Governor Pat Brown (Jerry Brown’s father). No California governor since then has escaped a recall attempt. In all of California history, there have been 54 attempts at giving our various governors the hook. And in fact, the current recall election is the seventh attempt at firing Gavin Newsom. The previous six petitions were initiated during the first year he held office. They fell far short of the signatures needed to hold an election. But the seventh apparently was the charm.
Newsom has complained that Donald Trump is behind all this political punching. But no, Trump went over a whole year without even commenting on it, and we all know how hard it is for Mr. Orangehair to keep his mouth shut.
Some may have the impression that this petition began as a response to harsh Covid restrictions. But no, this petition was born on February 20, 2020, weeks before diktats and mandates overset the lives and livelihoods of Californians.
Petition #7 began as a boring sequel to prior, failed recall petitions, with the usual laundry list of Republican gripes concerning illegal immigration, water rationing, high taxes, over-regulation, etc. Covid wasn’t even mentioned.
And the petition went nowhere, fast.
In California, the amount of signatures required to force a recall election is 12% of the votes cast in the prior election. This meant that 1,495,709 signatures were required. And all of those signatures had to be gathered by November 17, 2020.
And so, the race was on. By August 2020, a paltry 55,000 signatures had been gathered. Uh, not such a promising pace for six months of trying to convince masked and paranoid passers-by to stop and sign a political document.
Then it seems the movement to unseat Newsom fell into despair, as a hopeless cause, because over the next three months, only 890 additional signatures were gleaned from our state population of nearly 40 million fruits and nuts.
But then November 5th rolled around. This was a day that will live in infamy. At least in the mind of our guppy-eyed governor. On this fateful day, die-hard proponents of the petition, who were obviously gluttons for punishment, went to court and argued for more time to pursue their quixotic request for signatures. They complained that Covid restrictions had severely hampered their efforts.
The judge shrugged insouciantly, as if to say, “sure, what the hell, what harm could it do?” and agreed, giving the petition-pushers four more months, until March 17, 2021, to find anyone else willing to scrawl their name against the governor.
That very evening, our clueless Governor Newsom decided to take his wife out to a friend’s birthday dinner. Yes, the same Governor Newsom who had been shutting down restaurants and telling people to stay home. Yes, the same governor who had actually recommended, just weeks before, that if you must dine at a restaurant that has managed to stay open, be sure to wear your mask at all times, except during those brief moments when you’re shoveling food into your mouth.
Yes, that governor.
The restaurant he dined at is called The French Laundry. That’s an odd name for a restaurant, but perhaps patrons receive complementary dry-cleaning with their dinner. I’ve heard that it’s a very high-brow joint, costing diners hundreds of dollars for a meal. Geez, at those prices there had better be free dry-cleaning.
He dined with about a dozen bigwigs, in spite of all his warnings and mandates to avoid large gatherings. One of those in attendance was the CEO of the California Medical Association, and another was its head lobbyist. It’s strange that these medicos seemed to have had no concern about Covid. And all were maskless, including the governor.
It was a loud, raucous gathering, drawing attention from other diners, and leading the restaurant staff to close large, sliding glass doors, to block the noise. Closing these doors effectively turned their semi-outdoor dining experience into a completely indoor dining experience.
Soon, word leaked to the press about this stain upon all things holy and Covid-restrictive. And our Laundry-dining governor quickly went into spin cycle. He got on TV and issued a rambling, mealy-mouthed apology, which you can watch for your amusement or agitation, by clicking this link, or clicking the YouTube video, below.
In his speech, the governor defensively apologized. He stated that he’d only taken his wife out to dinner two times before, during the pandemic, as if to excuse his behavior as something understandable in the light of such a paucity of dining out. And he also asserted that the dining had occurred outside.
Unbeknownst to the gov, an alert French Laundry patron had pulled out her cell phone and taken pictures. A few days after his apology, these pictures emerged on FOX News, airing out the governor’s dirty laundry. They depicted an indoor dining event, not an outdoor event as the governor had claimed. And this indicated that he had been lying on camera, and was not at all sincere in his apology.
This was the last straw for Californians who’d already had enough of heavy-handed Covid restrictions. Many of us were outraged over the governor’s gross hypocrisy and feigned sincerity, and over the next month the floundering recall petition was revivified. It soared in popularity, garnering a whopping 442,000 new signatures by early December.
And by the time the revised deadline of March 17, 2021, had rolled around, the recall campaign had gathered the signatures of 2,117,730 incensed and disgruntled Californians. About a quarter of the signatories were Democrats and Independents.
This was more than enough to trigger a recall election, even after a few hundred thousand signatures were disqualified for the usual, expected reasons. And now it’s upon the California voters. The official election date is September 14th. Recent polling has given Governor Newsom about a 50-50 chance of surviving this recall.
The ballot is in two parts. The front-side asks the voter if the governor should be recalled. The flip-side asks the voter who should replace the governor if he is recalled, and provides a list of 47 candidates to choose from.
Caitlyn Jenner is one of the choices, but the heavy favorite is Larry Elder. He’s an African-American conservative radio talk show host. He is popular among California Republicans, and could inspire a widespread conservative election turnout.
In 2019, Governor Newsom signed a bill allowing targets in a recall election to state their party preference on the ballot. But he failed to take advantage of this law that he, himself had signed, and missed the deadline to state his own party preference. And so, the recall ballot simply lists his name, with no party preference after it. This is not the best way to appeal to your base.
Newsom’s bumbling days in office may be numbered. But we’ll have to see. This election will be a nail-biter. But win or lose, hopefully this will be a lesson to all politicians, regardless of political party:
Don’t push. Get out in front and lead by example. Avoid hypocrisy. Be straightforward with the people who put you in power, and respect that at least a few of them possess intelligence and a sense of fairness. We have shown that we can tolerate some hypocrisy from our politicians. But what we find hard to tolerate is the outrageous levels of hypocrisy, arrogance, and insincerity displayed by our governor, Gavin Newsom.
Categories: Politics
I’ll trade you one Greg Abbott for a Newsom. I’ll even throw in a Ted Cruz
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Wow, a two-fer! Okay, but you’ll have to take Pelosi. And I suspect everyone may get Kamala in the near future.
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You’re going to play hardball, eh? You have to take Texas Lt. Governor Dan Patrick though you may have to eventually visit him in Federal prison.
I would say that we could exchange people that manage our power grid, but that seems like it would be a wash.
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Yeah, I doubt either state has geniuses running the power grid. Maybe we can raid Colorado. My brother gives high marks to his local power utility.
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Ah yes ……”hypocrisy, arrogance, and insincerity”. Seemingly the basic pre-requisites for anyone who desires a career in politics.
In most careers, those traits would handicap success but, in politics, they appear to be a distinct advantage.
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Indeed. In politics, it’s all about appearances, and not what you do when nobody is watching. The problem these days is, everyone seems to have a camera. These are treacherous times for politicians.
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You mean your name isn’t on the ballot? Californians don’t know what golden opportunity they are missing out on by not voting for you.
Good luck with the vote, let us know what happens!
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I’m running as a write-in candidate. Now if I can only educate people on how to properly spell Gnu.
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That might be hard.
Many politicians and other famous people have given insincere apologies. They do what is needed to help save their neck, but when caught in such a blunt lie in your apology its a different story! My guess is that he will be voted out, but I have been wrong before.
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The video clip doesn’t show the entire apology. He also promised that he was going to strive to be a better person. This, while lying at the same time, about dining outside rather than inside. That not only comes across as insincere, but also as manipulation. Voters tend to dislike being manipulated.
If I had to bet on the outcome, I’d bet he’s going to lose. But polls indicate it will be very close, so we’ll see. I’m glad I don’t bet.
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Oh he tried to lay it on thick didn’t he, promising to be a better person. He is probably feeling a little anxious now!
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Maybe after he gets recalled he can join a monastery and work on becoming a better person.
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American by-and-large vote for the person that tells the biggest lies. Lies make us feel good. We should not be surprised when we get politicians that lie. People want to believe the lies.
This isn’t just isolated to voting, the people that get big on instagram or whatever end up being the biggest con-artists leading you to believe they are the most beautiful or have the most exciting lives. There are all sorts of filters and apps that will change you skin and body shape with a few swipes. People want to believe the lies.
In investing, look at all the recent BS with meme-stocks, crypto-currencies, and the so-call no-commission trading apps. People want to believe that they are going to get rich quick, even though in reality day-traders lose money, and the meme-stocks are almost worthless. We are on a long bull run on the market; I don’t know what these people are going to do when the bears come out, as they always do. People want to believe the lies.
Enough of this negativity. We should bring back tar and feathers for politicians. That at least would be good for a laugh.
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You may have a good suggestion there! Oh gosh! 🙂
But yes, you are very right about us voting for the biggest liar. As you said, its all about what makes us feel good!
Oooh yes social media sites like Instagram are a great example. Ironically enough I am sure that some of the most vocal people complaining loud about the Governor’s lies and hypocrisy are the same ones telling big lies about themselves on social media.
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Let’s tar and feather ’em all!
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So I should correct myself and say that he may not be voted out since like you said America tends to vote for the biggest liar.
And now that you said that about Instagram and pictures does that mean I have to change my WP pic? It may be just a couple years old but hey it hasn’t been photo shopped in any way. If that was the case I would have made it look a lot better! LOL!
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My beach photo of me is like 6 years old
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Well then I am fine. Mine is just 3, I think…I am bad at math, remember. 🙂
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C’mon, you are 50 and very old now. Perhaps it’s time you get honest with everyone, and change to a photo showing all your gray hair, wrinkles, and walker. Stop being such a fraud.
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…mmm…!!
If I took a picture now I would have to photoshop the gray hair, wrinkles and walker in smart aleck!
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If you say so.
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I do.
Of course once the hair dye wears off….😛
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Just as I thought.
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Smartass!
But even without hair dye I still have more brown hair than gray…for now. 🙂
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At least you have hair. I really can’t be speaking about hair.
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Saves you time getting ready in the morning, right, when you don’t have to mess with hair. 😄
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True, and it saves money on shampoo also.
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LOL!
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I’ll bring the tar if you’ll bring the feathers. And maybe Carolyn can bring a rail that we can ride them out of town on.
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I will bring the cowbell for them to shake and they will disappear!
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Then Betsy can deal with them.
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She will teach them a lesson!
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It will be a mooooving experience.
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Groan!!
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On one hand, it’s amusing to live next door to such comedic dysfunction. But then, it can be like having bad neighbors who throw their beer bottles over the fence. My take is that Newsom is a symptom of something deeper. I’m just wondering how much longer the wealth skimmed off being a port state can continue to prop up its essentially two-tier welfare social system.
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I’m not sure what a port state is, but I’ve heard that a lot of wealthy people have been leaving the state, due to its high taxes and regulations. That means less tax revenues to support the soup lines that feed all the homeless. Something’s going to give, if it hasn’t already.
Here, have a beer bottle: 🍾
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Ouch! Damn… It’s empty!
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😄
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He probably gave the beer to his roses before he threw it. He gives them my wine as well!
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I have the drunkest, happiest roses in town.
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You could probably enter them in your local fair and win a blue ribbon. No one would know your secret as to how they look so radiant!
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The problem with that is they droop a lot. No matter how hard I try, I can’t get them to stand up straight.
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Poor roses!
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I know. They don’t look very sharp these days.
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See what you did to them!
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Yeah, I’ve contributed to the delinquency of a flower.
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If would have been much betfer fo give LT her beer and me and CP our wine! You should feel guilty.
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No, alcohol is poison. It’s for your own good.
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You are so kind to look out for us.
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You’re welcome.
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California ain’t got nothin’ on New York – our governor just resigned in shame. Powerful men who take power just a little too far, and then get caught in today’s real-time internet circus. I’m so glad no one in my family has ever gone into politics.
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Yeah, I guess Cuomo makes Newsom look like a saint. There’s no hiding from the internet, which is a lesson all politicians need to learn.
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Impressively well organized post.
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Thanks. I hope I’ve explained the Recall in a way that makes it clear, and that brushes away the BS political spins either party may have painted it with.
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I agree that this was quite informative. It will be interesting to see how this all plays out. I just don’t get why these people always seem to go for the cover-up right from the start. Seems like it would much easier to just tell the truth from the get-go…
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