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Gavin Newsom: the President nobody needs Delusional Democrats should spend a week in California

Newsom is never the answer (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

Newsom is never the answer (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)


July 12, 2023   4 mins

For many Democrats, Gavin Newsom has become an object of desire. Aged 55, the Governor of California’s relative youth, coiffed good looks and ability to speak in something close to coherent English contrasts with their bumbling leader, whom as many as two in three Americans feel is not entirely up to the job. As a result, the chorus calling for Newsom to become America’s 47th President has been growing steadily louder.

Not surprisingly, Newsom himself seems to be waging his own campaign to achieve that end. He is, according to Politico, acting “like the president-in-exile”, promoting a new gun control constitutional amendment, working to ban petrol-powered cars and threatening to arrest the Florida governor, Ron DeSantis, for “kidnapping” migrants. Indeed, his profile seems to be growing just as Biden’s handlers ramp up their efforts to insulate the President from the media, his poor cognitive state posing a danger both to himself and to his legislative programme.

Yet Newsom’s sparkling ascendency might dim somewhat if the media bothered to consider what is actually happening in his fiefdom. Flicking through the mainstream press, one could be forgiven for realising that Newsom has presided over California’s fall from economic pre-eminence: the Golden State is now home to record homelessness, sub-par GDP growth, the nation’s highest poverty rate, a tech downturn fuelled by the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, and a consistently underperforming public education system. These factors have fuelled a powerful out-migration trend — up 135% in just two years. Recent polls find upwards of 40% of residents are considering leaving, while the rising tide of wealthy emigrees has already taken away $20 billion in adjusted income since 2018.

When the state was flush, Newsom scored progressive points by handing out subsidies to poorer Californians, creating what was heralded as an ideal “blue welfare state”. California certainly spends more of its budget on welfare than virtually any other state, twice as much as its arch-rival Texas. But, at its best, this growing welfare state reflects a staggering inequality, in which 20% of state wealth is held within 30 zip codes that account for just 2% of the population. At its worst, it comes at the expense of neglecting basic infrastructure, such as roads and water supply.

And this is all in keeping with Newsom’s personal brand of politics. Largely financed by San Francisco’s elite, notably the heirs of the Getty family fortune, he presents the face of an emerging Democratic Party based on what the late Fred Siegel called “an upstairs, downstairs” coalition of the gentry rich, the dependent poor and the vast, well-paid union bureaucracy that serves them. On paper, then, Newsom stands in contrast to the legendary Democratic governor Pat Brown, whose investments in roads, bridges, research universities and water expanded opportunities for ordinary Californians in the late Fifties and early Sixties. Today, Brown’s successor is far more concerned with issues that interest the gentry Left: gender and race politics and, most critically, climate change.

None of these obsessions provides an answer to the state’s economic inequality. As a recent Breakthrough Institute report demonstrates, Newsom’s drive to make California a leader in the much-ballyhooed “energy transition” has led to high energy and housing costs. California used to be a major energy provider, with a large, well-paid and unionised workforce. Now, as Newsom seeks to eliminate the industry, California gets its oil from Saudi Arabia, importing more of its energy than any mainland state. Elsewhere, the state ranks a poor 42nd in fiscal responsibility, its transport systems face huge deficits, its hospitals are in deep decline, and it accounts for roughly half of all Americans who are unsheltered and living outside.

So what issue now dominates his agenda? How to deal with a reparations task force that has since landed him with an $800 billion bill that the state clearly cannot pay.

Now, imagine if, in the run-up to the 2024 election, Newsom has to debate someone other than Donald Trump. A head-to-head with Florida’s Ron DeSantis over their respective state’s trajectory, for instance, would not be pretty. Newsom would have to explain why his state lags behind those, such as Florida and Texas, that he routinely attacks — but which enjoy large budget surpluses, rising tax revenues, generate more jobs and, in some cases, are initiating tax cuts.

Here, Newsom’s dilemma reflects a wider weakness of the current crop of Democratic Party leaders — a consistent record of poor governance. This applies not only to Newsom, but to Illinois’s J.B. Pritzker and Michigan’s Gretchen Whitmer, both of whom are widely pitched by Democratic operatives as possible Biden replacements.

Pritzker, although capable of funding his own campaign, would run as Governor of a state that ranks near the bottom of almost every survey. Meanwhile, Michigan’s Whitmer may seem more attractive, but she would be hard-pressed to sell herself as an avatar of a “Michigan miracle”. Like the other media darlings, she presides over a consistently underperforming economy suffering from out-migration, and now faces, with the electric car mandates, the prospect of large layoffs in the state’s signature auto industry.

Yet arguably the worst examples of poor Democratic governance are found at the municipal levels. Democrats control virtually every big city, the majority of which are suffering both economic and demographic decline. Once-celebrated cities like New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Portland, Seattle and Minneapolis are all largely run by progressives. In every case, the biggest losers from this kind of one-party rule are the very people that progressives seek to champion by adopting the ideology of “anti-racism” and affirmative action. Over the last decade, Los Angeles actually lost foreign-born residents, who have been flocking to the very sunbelt metros — Houston, Dallas-Ft. Worth and Miami — that Newsom likes to caricature as “racist hellholes”.

And on a municipal level, too, Newsom bears some of the blame. During the 2000s, as Mayor of San Francisco, he presided over a tech boom that accentuated both housing shortages and an explosion of homelessness. He promised to address both but the city he left behind, once arguably the most blessed in America, is now among the most cursed — a dystopia with sky-high property crime, homeless encampments, and a largely emptied downtown.

For the Democrats hailing Newsom as the saviour of their party, the legacy of these failures extends well beyond California. Until they can find presidential candidates with a positive record of accomplishment, their only option will be to campaign largely on cultural issues — particularly if faced with someone other than Trump. The economic argument, after all, has already been lost. As is evident from his gubernatorial spats with DeSantis, a Newsom 2024 campaign will pitch at the farthest end of the cultural divide, embracing no limits on abortion, early transgender treatments and undocumented immigration.

At first glance, the blow-dried Newsom may seem a fine antidote to Biden’s decrepitude, but his elevation would simply reinforce his party’s record of failed governance. If Newsom is the future of the Democratic Party, then the future of America, particularly after Trump, is more likely to be Republican.


Joel Kotkin is a Presidential Fellow in Urban Futures at Chapman University and a Senior Research Fellow at the Civitas Institute, the University of Texas at Austin.

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Robert Pruger
Robert Pruger
1 year ago

Translation of the above: the Democrat party has a shallow bench, and is schizophrenic. Whatever adults are in the DNC want to dump Biden but don’t know how. Same individuals are angling for a work around Kamala Harris without setting off a stink bomb and angering its Black American base. At the same time the Biden camp and DNC is throwing anything and everything at Trump aiming to stop him from getting the Republican nomination, but would prefer Trump to be the nominee. It would take a Jordan Peterson to handle this degree of mental illness. Yet they’ve burned their bridges with JP.
Must be comforting for the DNC to know it has the race card to fall back on.

AJ Mac
AJ Mac
1 year ago
Reply to  Robert Pruger

Perhaps they can take a lesson in sanity and good governance from the House GOP?

Clare Knight
Clare Knight
1 year ago
Reply to  AJ Mac

Is that sarcasm?

Clare Knight
Clare Knight
1 year ago
Reply to  AJ Mac

Is that sarcasm?

Richard Craven
Richard Craven
1 year ago
Reply to  Robert Pruger

“angering its Black American base”
*angering its black American base.

Cathy Carron
Cathy Carron
1 year ago
Reply to  Richard Craven

I have a suspicion because I haven’t yet seen a poll, that Kamala Harris isn’t as beloved in the black community as people think. She’s not really an American Black having spent her formative years in Canada as a daughters of a Tamil Indian mother and a Jamaican black father. Kamala puts on a good show though and displays many of the tropes of black Americans when the need arises. Like Hillary Clinton the fake southern drawl comes out. She’s also married to a white Jewish American. She really a cultural outlier in the American black community and as much as blacks discriminate amongst their own regarding skin color- methinks they have smelled her out and don’t necessarily see her as one of their own. But let’s take a poll and find out.

Christopher Barclay
Christopher Barclay
1 year ago
Reply to  Cathy Carron

There was no bounce in Democrat support when Biden chose her to be VP, so you’re quite correct. Recent immigrants from the Caribbean and Africa perform better in school and the workplace than Black Americans and therefore are distrusted by the latter.

Clare Knight
Clare Knight
1 year ago

How do you know this?

Richard Craven
Richard Craven
1 year ago

“Recent immigrants from the Caribbean and Africa perform better in school and the workplace than Black Americans”
*Recent immigrants from the Caribbean and Africa perform better in school and the workplace than black Americans

Clare Knight
Clare Knight
1 year ago

How do you know this?

Richard Craven
Richard Craven
1 year ago

“Recent immigrants from the Caribbean and Africa perform better in school and the workplace than Black Americans”
*Recent immigrants from the Caribbean and Africa perform better in school and the workplace than black Americans

Alan Kaufman
Alan Kaufman
1 year ago
Reply to  Cathy Carron

She went to Howard University, which is very black (“HBCU” or “historically bad college and university”) and so I think her identity there is a combo of opportunism and partial identity. She is surely “blacker” than the pearl white Meghan Markle!

Richard Craven
Richard Craven
1 year ago
Reply to  Cathy Carron

“She’s not really an American Black”
*She’s not really an American black

Zeph Smith
Zeph Smith
1 year ago
Reply to  Cathy Carron

If you visit websites and subreddits with very high Black American participation, you will find – going back to the runup to the 2020 election – a strong thread of dislike for Harris. One common theme is that she’s a cop and cannot be trusted (as former AttorneyGeneral of California). Some of that is basic anti-law enforcement attitudes that might exist no matter what her particular record was, but she actually did some pretty bad things as AG, from a civil rights or a Black perspective.
I believe she never got above 3% popularity in the primaries for the previous election.
She is a very weak candidate, and everybody on all sides knows it.

UnHerd Reader
UnHerd Reader
1 year ago
Reply to  Zeph Smith

That’s anecdotal at best and besides the point. Most objective Americans would look at the GOP and go ..no way I will vote for that. I mean the leader of the party is on tape asking a foreign leader to find dirt on his opponent, asking an election official to find him votes, showing off highly classified documents to his friends and refusing to return them and leading an insurrectionist. And yet so many white ppl here trying to debate the popular of Harris. …Ridiculous!

UnHerd Reader
UnHerd Reader
1 year ago
Reply to  Zeph Smith

That’s anecdotal at best and besides the point. Most objective Americans would look at the GOP and go ..no way I will vote for that. I mean the leader of the party is on tape asking a foreign leader to find dirt on his opponent, asking an election official to find him votes, showing off highly classified documents to his friends and refusing to return them and leading an insurrectionist. And yet so many white ppl here trying to debate the popular of Harris. …Ridiculous!

Christopher Barclay
Christopher Barclay
1 year ago
Reply to  Cathy Carron

There was no bounce in Democrat support when Biden chose her to be VP, so you’re quite correct. Recent immigrants from the Caribbean and Africa perform better in school and the workplace than Black Americans and therefore are distrusted by the latter.

Alan Kaufman
Alan Kaufman
1 year ago
Reply to  Cathy Carron

She went to Howard University, which is very black (“HBCU” or “historically bad college and university”) and so I think her identity there is a combo of opportunism and partial identity. She is surely “blacker” than the pearl white Meghan Markle!

Richard Craven
Richard Craven
1 year ago
Reply to  Cathy Carron

“She’s not really an American Black”
*She’s not really an American black

Zeph Smith
Zeph Smith
1 year ago
Reply to  Cathy Carron

If you visit websites and subreddits with very high Black American participation, you will find – going back to the runup to the 2020 election – a strong thread of dislike for Harris. One common theme is that she’s a cop and cannot be trusted (as former AttorneyGeneral of California). Some of that is basic anti-law enforcement attitudes that might exist no matter what her particular record was, but she actually did some pretty bad things as AG, from a civil rights or a Black perspective.
I believe she never got above 3% popularity in the primaries for the previous election.
She is a very weak candidate, and everybody on all sides knows it.

Alan Kaufman
Alan Kaufman
1 year ago
Reply to  Richard Craven

Thank you. I also prefer English in its correct form.

Richard Craven
Richard Craven
1 year ago
Reply to  Alan Kaufman

You’re very welcome, although I have got into the habit of capitalising “White” while not capitalising “black”, because I like offending the woke scum.

UnHerd Reader
UnHerd Reader
1 year ago
Reply to  Richard Craven

Ah funny you like offending people. Good for you.

UnHerd Reader
UnHerd Reader
1 year ago
Reply to  Richard Craven

Ah funny you like offending people. Good for you.

Richard Craven
Richard Craven
1 year ago
Reply to  Alan Kaufman

You’re very welcome, although I have got into the habit of capitalising “White” while not capitalising “black”, because I like offending the woke scum.

Cathy Carron
Cathy Carron
1 year ago
Reply to  Richard Craven

I have a suspicion because I haven’t yet seen a poll, that Kamala Harris isn’t as beloved in the black community as people think. She’s not really an American Black having spent her formative years in Canada as a daughters of a Tamil Indian mother and a Jamaican black father. Kamala puts on a good show though and displays many of the tropes of black Americans when the need arises. Like Hillary Clinton the fake southern drawl comes out. She’s also married to a white Jewish American. She really a cultural outlier in the American black community and as much as blacks discriminate amongst their own regarding skin color- methinks they have smelled her out and don’t necessarily see her as one of their own. But let’s take a poll and find out.

Alan Kaufman
Alan Kaufman
1 year ago
Reply to  Richard Craven

Thank you. I also prefer English in its correct form.

Marissa M
Marissa M
1 year ago
Reply to  Robert Pruger

The GOP allowed the Christian extremists to take over the party. Barry Goldwater warned against this decades ago. But their obsession with a “strong” president has put Trump firmly back in the driver’s seat. Jordan Peterson is a voice of reason, but I fear his health would not handle a political career.

Jane McCarthy
Jane McCarthy
1 year ago
Reply to  Marissa M

Jordan Peterson is Canadian.

Marissa M
Marissa M
1 year ago
Reply to  Jane McCarthy

Ah! lol…well that’s that. He comments on US policy and politics all the time and is all over American social media. Wow. Very conservative for a Canadian I would think?

Richard Craven
Richard Craven
1 year ago
Reply to  Jane McCarthy

… as is amply obvious from his accent.

Marissa M
Marissa M
1 year ago
Reply to  Jane McCarthy

Ah! lol…well that’s that. He comments on US policy and politics all the time and is all over American social media. Wow. Very conservative for a Canadian I would think?

Richard Craven
Richard Craven
1 year ago
Reply to  Jane McCarthy

… as is amply obvious from his accent.

Kat L
Kat L
1 year ago
Reply to  Marissa M

Wrong. The lack of actual Christian leadership caused them to cede every cultural issue except for tax cuts and ‘free’ markets. The culture was ever the only thing worth fighting for and their surrender is the reason the country is circling the bowl.

UnHerd Reader
UnHerd Reader
1 year ago
Reply to  Kat L

If you are are trying to equate the way Christianity has been historically applied in the US with morality then you are starting with a false premise.

UnHerd Reader
UnHerd Reader
1 year ago
Reply to  Kat L

If you are are trying to equate the way Christianity has been historically applied in the US with morality then you are starting with a false premise.

Jane McCarthy
Jane McCarthy
1 year ago
Reply to  Marissa M

Jordan Peterson is Canadian.

Kat L
Kat L
1 year ago
Reply to  Marissa M

Wrong. The lack of actual Christian leadership caused them to cede every cultural issue except for tax cuts and ‘free’ markets. The culture was ever the only thing worth fighting for and their surrender is the reason the country is circling the bowl.

Alan Kaufman
Alan Kaufman
1 year ago
Reply to  Robert Pruger

Speaking of race, why capital B in black which, for over 600 years, has been adjective that is not capitalized.

Emre S
Emre S
1 year ago
Reply to  Alan Kaufman

I take Black to mean the American identity with a heritage of slavery, black to simply mean someone who came (recently) from Africa.

Richard Craven
Richard Craven
1 year ago
Reply to  Emre S

Capitalising “black” is just racism, pure and simple.

Zeph Smith
Zeph Smith
1 year ago
Reply to  Richard Craven

I am very much against the extreme expansion of that people want to label “racism”, mostly from the far left but also from any quarters.
I can understand that you may disagree about the capitalization, and you may have some good reasons for that, but how do you see it as “racism”, without using a new made-up concept of racism?
(You might be deliberately using the disreputable tactics of “the other side” in order to highlight the word games they play, but most readers here do not need that highlighting today and are tired of word games from any side, and those who play them).
Anyway: why do you think it racist to capitalize “Black” when referring to Americans descended from Africa as a distinct culture, versus other Africans in Africa or not?

Philip Gallo
Philip Gallo
1 year ago
Reply to  Zeph Smith

What distinct culture are you talking about, exactly?

Emre S
Emre S
1 year ago
Reply to  Zeph Smith

I hope Unherd doesn’t turn into an “inverse Guardian”. Then it’d have as little value to me as Guardian.

Philip Gallo
Philip Gallo
1 year ago
Reply to  Zeph Smith

What distinct culture are you talking about, exactly?

Emre S
Emre S
1 year ago
Reply to  Zeph Smith

I hope Unherd doesn’t turn into an “inverse Guardian”. Then it’d have as little value to me as Guardian.

Zeph Smith
Zeph Smith
1 year ago
Reply to  Richard Craven

I am very much against the extreme expansion of that people want to label “racism”, mostly from the far left but also from any quarters.
I can understand that you may disagree about the capitalization, and you may have some good reasons for that, but how do you see it as “racism”, without using a new made-up concept of racism?
(You might be deliberately using the disreputable tactics of “the other side” in order to highlight the word games they play, but most readers here do not need that highlighting today and are tired of word games from any side, and those who play them).
Anyway: why do you think it racist to capitalize “Black” when referring to Americans descended from Africa as a distinct culture, versus other Africans in Africa or not?

Richard Craven
Richard Craven
1 year ago
Reply to  Emre S

Capitalising “black” is just racism, pure and simple.

Emre S
Emre S
1 year ago
Reply to  Alan Kaufman

I take Black to mean the American identity with a heritage of slavery, black to simply mean someone who came (recently) from Africa.

UnHerd Reader
UnHerd Reader
1 year ago
Reply to  Robert Pruger

Funny
The GOP uses the race card every other word. Hint “woke”. Another termed hijacked by the racist “who are not racist”. As for Newton and CA, if you think TX or FL for example are better alternatives then you are sheep. TX and FL have far higher crime, worse education performance and far worse education.

AJ Mac
AJ Mac
1 year ago
Reply to  Robert Pruger

Perhaps they can take a lesson in sanity and good governance from the House GOP?

Richard Craven
Richard Craven
1 year ago
Reply to  Robert Pruger

“angering its Black American base”
*angering its black American base.

Marissa M
Marissa M
1 year ago
Reply to  Robert Pruger

The GOP allowed the Christian extremists to take over the party. Barry Goldwater warned against this decades ago. But their obsession with a “strong” president has put Trump firmly back in the driver’s seat. Jordan Peterson is a voice of reason, but I fear his health would not handle a political career.

Alan Kaufman
Alan Kaufman
1 year ago
Reply to  Robert Pruger

Speaking of race, why capital B in black which, for over 600 years, has been adjective that is not capitalized.

UnHerd Reader
UnHerd Reader
1 year ago
Reply to  Robert Pruger

Funny
The GOP uses the race card every other word. Hint “woke”. Another termed hijacked by the racist “who are not racist”. As for Newton and CA, if you think TX or FL for example are better alternatives then you are sheep. TX and FL have far higher crime, worse education performance and far worse education.

Robert Pruger
Robert Pruger
1 year ago

Translation of the above: the Democrat party has a shallow bench, and is schizophrenic. Whatever adults are in the DNC want to dump Biden but don’t know how. Same individuals are angling for a work around Kamala Harris without setting off a stink bomb and angering its Black American base. At the same time the Biden camp and DNC is throwing anything and everything at Trump aiming to stop him from getting the Republican nomination, but would prefer Trump to be the nominee. It would take a Jordan Peterson to handle this degree of mental illness. Yet they’ve burned their bridges with JP.
Must be comforting for the DNC to know it has the race card to fall back on.

Simon S
Simon S
1 year ago

Bizarre to read this takedown on Newsom in the context of the Dem nomination without any angle on the San Francisco candidate terrifying the DNC with his talk of putting health before profit and peace before war – RFK Jr, a seasoned litigator with a profound knowledge of the levers of government and public policy, and the very opposite of the fake, coiffed, failed Newsom. Last week he raised $3m in three days. Nobody dares debate him and his interview performances have been extraordinarily impressive in spite of his speech disability. He wins accolades from the old fashioned left and right alike, building a very activist groundswell of support across the country. In RFK Jr the US – and the world – has a chance for the positive and fundamental transformation we so desperately need – not just a new hairdo. So why leave him out of the picture?

Last edited 1 year ago by Simon S
AJ Mac
AJ Mac
1 year ago
Reply to  Simon S

Unfortunately for his otherwise viable candidacy, RFK is steeped in conspiratorial flailing, calling vaccines a holocaust (even well before covid), promoting that autism hoax, and denying the direct connection between HIV and AIDS, among other wackadoodle views. Perhaps he could still contend in a very fractured field that included, let’s say, both DeSantis and Trump in addition to Biden. Through no fault of his own, his bizarre speaking voice is also a political liability.
*I’d consider voting for him if he’d moderate or disavow his dumbest claims. RKF Jr. victory-model sketch: RFK (I) 30%; Trump (I) 28%; Biden (D) 27%; DeSantis (R) 15%

Last edited 1 year ago by AJ Mac
Rob Nock
Rob Nock
1 year ago
Reply to  AJ Mac

Like to see your proof that RFK’s views on vaccines, autism, HIV and AIDS etc are wrong. I have seen evidence that he’s right.

AJ Mac
AJ Mac
1 year ago
Reply to  Rob Nock

What evidence? The burden of proof is upon the conspiracy shouting outlier, not on the consensus view to somehow prove itself to the satisfaction of all possible dissenters or crackpot theorists.

Last edited 1 year ago by AJ Mac
Peter Joy
Peter Joy
1 year ago
Reply to  AJ Mac

The ‘consensus view’ that told us that socially and economically ruinous lockdowns were necessary and that the so-called vaccines were ‘safe’, effective and necessary for all, kids included (more reputable, genuine experts such s Prof Karol Sikora and hundreds of others having been cancelled by Big Tech, Big State and MSM)?
You, Sir, can take your so-called ‘consensus view’ (!) and stick it in your pipe and smoke it. No one believes it any more except a few Hiroo Onoda style Extreme Centre cultists and the MSM stooges who pumped it at us in the first place.

Zeph Smith
Zeph Smith
1 year ago
Reply to  Peter Joy

Yep, supporters like yourself are going to convince enough voters that RFK Jr is a solid option.
Sorry, I’m very, very tired of being smugly screamed at by the extreme left, and I’m not buying any more of it from any quarter.
RFK Jr won’t get much traction until he and his advocates can stop screaming in people’s ears that they and only they understand the real TRUTH and you can only trust THEIR experts who are unquestionably the best, everyone else is just a cultist, etc, etc, etc.
Don’t take it too personally tho – there are many others to the left and right of you and your candidate who do the same thing, and get the same response from me.

Zeph Smith
Zeph Smith
1 year ago
Reply to  Peter Joy

Yep, supporters like yourself are going to convince enough voters that RFK Jr is a solid option.
Sorry, I’m very, very tired of being smugly screamed at by the extreme left, and I’m not buying any more of it from any quarter.
RFK Jr won’t get much traction until he and his advocates can stop screaming in people’s ears that they and only they understand the real TRUTH and you can only trust THEIR experts who are unquestionably the best, everyone else is just a cultist, etc, etc, etc.
Don’t take it too personally tho – there are many others to the left and right of you and your candidate who do the same thing, and get the same response from me.

Hardee Hodges
Hardee Hodges
1 year ago
Reply to  AJ Mac

As with the Covid vaccines, the routine childhood vaccines have never demonstrated long term safety and to a degree effectiveness is under challenge. Belief not supported by data.

Carmel Shortall
Carmel Shortall
1 year ago
Reply to  AJ Mac

Ah “the consensus”! Also known as groupthink.

Clare Knight
Clare Knight
1 year ago
Reply to  AJ Mac

Exactly.

Peter Joy
Peter Joy
1 year ago
Reply to  AJ Mac

The ‘consensus view’ that told us that socially and economically ruinous lockdowns were necessary and that the so-called vaccines were ‘safe’, effective and necessary for all, kids included (more reputable, genuine experts such s Prof Karol Sikora and hundreds of others having been cancelled by Big Tech, Big State and MSM)?
You, Sir, can take your so-called ‘consensus view’ (!) and stick it in your pipe and smoke it. No one believes it any more except a few Hiroo Onoda style Extreme Centre cultists and the MSM stooges who pumped it at us in the first place.

Hardee Hodges
Hardee Hodges
1 year ago
Reply to  AJ Mac

As with the Covid vaccines, the routine childhood vaccines have never demonstrated long term safety and to a degree effectiveness is under challenge. Belief not supported by data.

Carmel Shortall
Carmel Shortall
1 year ago
Reply to  AJ Mac

Ah “the consensus”! Also known as groupthink.

Clare Knight
Clare Knight
1 year ago
Reply to  AJ Mac

Exactly.

Warren Trees
Warren Trees
1 year ago
Reply to  Rob Nock

It doesn’t matter. The officially approved mainstream media narrative/gospel is that he is a nutter. Keep moving along.

Hardee Hodges
Hardee Hodges
1 year ago
Reply to  Warren Trees

People are beginning the mistrust the msm. Many are choosing alternatives – like Unherd.

Andrew F
Andrew F
1 year ago
Reply to  Hardee Hodges

Let’s be honest, Unherd is irrelevant in context of public debate.
Most people take news from MSM like bbc.
How many subscribers Unherd has?
10 thousands?
Even Spectator is about 100k.

Michael Layman
Michael Layman
1 year ago
Reply to  Andrew F

Yes true. How is change effected if the majority only takes a moment to take their MSM fix and not debate the issue?

Zeph Smith
Zeph Smith
1 year ago
Reply to  Michael Layman

I’m here because I like to hear the usually “unherd” positions, and I find I often agree with them, to greater or lesser degree.
But there is persuasion with evidence and reason, and there are True Believers. Everyone gets a shot, but some of the latter do not interest me; they can be as dogmatic and arrogant about their certainty as the far left or far right.
However, I do disagree with those who would not grant them their right to speak, so long as I get to decide whether to listen.

Zeph Smith
Zeph Smith
1 year ago
Reply to  Michael Layman

I’m here because I like to hear the usually “unherd” positions, and I find I often agree with them, to greater or lesser degree.
But there is persuasion with evidence and reason, and there are True Believers. Everyone gets a shot, but some of the latter do not interest me; they can be as dogmatic and arrogant about their certainty as the far left or far right.
However, I do disagree with those who would not grant them their right to speak, so long as I get to decide whether to listen.

Michael Layman
Michael Layman
1 year ago
Reply to  Andrew F

Yes true. How is change effected if the majority only takes a moment to take their MSM fix and not debate the issue?

Andrew F
Andrew F
1 year ago
Reply to  Hardee Hodges

Let’s be honest, Unherd is irrelevant in context of public debate.
Most people take news from MSM like bbc.
How many subscribers Unherd has?
10 thousands?
Even Spectator is about 100k.

Hardee Hodges
Hardee Hodges
1 year ago
Reply to  Warren Trees

People are beginning the mistrust the msm. Many are choosing alternatives – like Unherd.

Catherine Conroy
Catherine Conroy
1 year ago
Reply to  Rob Nock

The MMR vaccinations link with autism has been disproved and there IS a connection between HIV and AIDS. (However, I’m on the fence regarding Covid’s vaccination).
That’s all RFK has to do, tone this one down.

AJ Mac
AJ Mac
1 year ago
Reply to  Rob Nock

What evidence? The burden of proof is upon the conspiracy shouting outlier, not on the consensus view to somehow prove itself to the satisfaction of all possible dissenters or crackpot theorists.

Last edited 1 year ago by AJ Mac
Warren Trees
Warren Trees
1 year ago
Reply to  Rob Nock

It doesn’t matter. The officially approved mainstream media narrative/gospel is that he is a nutter. Keep moving along.

Catherine Conroy
Catherine Conroy
1 year ago
Reply to  Rob Nock

The MMR vaccinations link with autism has been disproved and there IS a connection between HIV and AIDS. (However, I’m on the fence regarding Covid’s vaccination).
That’s all RFK has to do, tone this one down.

Simon Tavanyar
Simon Tavanyar
1 year ago
Reply to  AJ Mac

The media present RFK’s views as wackadoodle because that suits their purpose. His views are nuanced. He says “I am pro-vaccine but pro-safety” in his interviews. Hardly an extremist position. He is dangerous to the establishment because he asks difficult questions and is not “owned” by vested interests.

AJ Mac
AJ Mac
1 year ago
Reply to  Simon Tavanyar

That’s not his consistent, full position on vaccines and you must know that. Aside from my use of “wackadoodle”, I think I take a nuanced view of RFK Jr.: He’s an intelligent and principled man with some fringe, angry views he takes for articles of faith, in the absence of any persuasive evidence. If he would disavow the claims that underlie the “pro-safety” bumper sticker, or at least discuss and engage the issue instead of ranting and denouncing, I’d consider voting for him–especially given the rest of the field. Enough said from me on this one (and then some).

Marissa M
Marissa M
1 year ago
Reply to  AJ Mac

You are 100% correct. I investigated RFK thoroughly because I had really hoped he could be a viable candidate.
But his own words work against him.
He takes a nuanced view of vaccines….now.

Marissa M
Marissa M
1 year ago
Reply to  AJ Mac

You are 100% correct. I investigated RFK thoroughly because I had really hoped he could be a viable candidate.
But his own words work against him.
He takes a nuanced view of vaccines….now.

AJ Mac
AJ Mac
1 year ago
Reply to  Simon Tavanyar

That’s not his consistent, full position on vaccines and you must know that. Aside from my use of “wackadoodle”, I think I take a nuanced view of RFK Jr.: He’s an intelligent and principled man with some fringe, angry views he takes for articles of faith, in the absence of any persuasive evidence. If he would disavow the claims that underlie the “pro-safety” bumper sticker, or at least discuss and engage the issue instead of ranting and denouncing, I’d consider voting for him–especially given the rest of the field. Enough said from me on this one (and then some).

Robbie K
Robbie K
1 year ago
Reply to  AJ Mac

Definitely, if RFK is the solution then Lord only knows what the problem is.

Peter Joy
Peter Joy
1 year ago
Reply to  Robbie K

If you seek America’s problems, chum, read the piece above.

Richard Craven
Richard Craven
1 year ago
Reply to  Peter Joy

Si monumentum requiris, circumspice.

Richard Craven
Richard Craven
1 year ago
Reply to  Peter Joy

Si monumentum requiris, circumspice.

Peter Joy
Peter Joy
1 year ago
Reply to  Robbie K

If you seek America’s problems, chum, read the piece above.

laura m
laura m
1 year ago
Reply to  AJ Mac

Matt Welch has been doing a decent job of investigating RFKjr history. https://reason.com/2023/04/28/the-very-strange-new-respect-for-authoritarian-democrat-robert-f-kennedy-jr/
Megyn Kelly discusses RFK jr claims with the Fifth Column journos yesterday. RFKjr described himself as the “dot connector”. The man is given to conspiracy thinking, despite his record as an environmental litigator.

Last edited 1 year ago by laura m
Glyn R
Glyn R
1 year ago
Reply to  AJ Mac

But is is not conspiratorial flailing is it? It is the exposure of real data and evidence that presents a contrary view to the one we have all been sold. He makes compelling arguments and backs them up. Perhaps you should take a real look at what. he has written.

Rob Nock
Rob Nock
1 year ago
Reply to  AJ Mac

Like to see your proof that RFK’s views on vaccines, autism, HIV and AIDS etc are wrong. I have seen evidence that he’s right.

Simon Tavanyar
Simon Tavanyar
1 year ago
Reply to  AJ Mac

The media present RFK’s views as wackadoodle because that suits their purpose. His views are nuanced. He says “I am pro-vaccine but pro-safety” in his interviews. Hardly an extremist position. He is dangerous to the establishment because he asks difficult questions and is not “owned” by vested interests.

Robbie K
Robbie K
1 year ago
Reply to  AJ Mac

Definitely, if RFK is the solution then Lord only knows what the problem is.

laura m
laura m
1 year ago
Reply to  AJ Mac

Matt Welch has been doing a decent job of investigating RFKjr history. https://reason.com/2023/04/28/the-very-strange-new-respect-for-authoritarian-democrat-robert-f-kennedy-jr/
Megyn Kelly discusses RFK jr claims with the Fifth Column journos yesterday. RFKjr described himself as the “dot connector”. The man is given to conspiracy thinking, despite his record as an environmental litigator.

Last edited 1 year ago by laura m
Glyn R
Glyn R
1 year ago
Reply to  AJ Mac

But is is not conspiratorial flailing is it? It is the exposure of real data and evidence that presents a contrary view to the one we have all been sold. He makes compelling arguments and backs them up. Perhaps you should take a real look at what. he has written.

George Venning
George Venning
1 year ago
Reply to  Simon S

You’ve answered your own question.

Stephanie Surface
Stephanie Surface
1 year ago
Reply to  Simon S

You might agree on lots of RFK Jr.’s old fashioned Democratic policies, but what turns me off is his radical Green Agenda. One of his quotes : “Man Made Climate Change Deniers are contemptible human beings, and that, you know, I wish there were a law you could punish them under.”
No, thank you, that is not somebody, who listens to other scientific arguments about Climate Change. This reminds me a lot about all the politicians, who condemned everybody, who wasn’t convinced of Covid vaccinations. How ironic!

Last edited 1 year ago by Stephanie Surface
Allison Barrows
Allison Barrows
1 year ago

Weird coming from a guy who was a shill for Venezuelan oil and a big fan of Hugo Chavez.

Peter Joy
Peter Joy
1 year ago

Was he? How so?

Peter Joy
Peter Joy
1 year ago

Was he? How so?

Simon S
Simon S
1 year ago

Hello Stephanie, that video clip re climate change deniers was very odd. I don’t know its context or validity and haven’t explored it. But his climate views and the human role in climate change are actually very nuanced. I think his major climate-related concern is environmental pollution – if we poison the planet we poison ourselves. He has been very successful cleaning up rivers by suing industrial polluters.

Peter Joy
Peter Joy
1 year ago

If that’s true, that’s is much to his discredit.
But is it? The establishment that rammed Covid down our throats are so clearly out to nobble RFK, I’m primed to be sceptical about any harmful ‘quotes’ and allegations against him that appear online.

Allison Barrows
Allison Barrows
1 year ago

Weird coming from a guy who was a shill for Venezuelan oil and a big fan of Hugo Chavez.

Simon S
Simon S
1 year ago

Hello Stephanie, that video clip re climate change deniers was very odd. I don’t know its context or validity and haven’t explored it. But his climate views and the human role in climate change are actually very nuanced. I think his major climate-related concern is environmental pollution – if we poison the planet we poison ourselves. He has been very successful cleaning up rivers by suing industrial polluters.

Peter Joy
Peter Joy
1 year ago

If that’s true, that’s is much to his discredit.
But is it? The establishment that rammed Covid down our throats are so clearly out to nobble RFK, I’m primed to be sceptical about any harmful ‘quotes’ and allegations against him that appear online.

Kat L
Kat L
1 year ago
Reply to  Simon S

I like and respect RFKJ but he’s still a liberal. Republicans would do well to remember it.

Simon S
Simon S
1 year ago
Reply to  Kat L

He considers himself a libertarian..

Simon S
Simon S
1 year ago
Reply to  Kat L

He considers himself a libertarian..

Alan Gore
Alan Gore
1 year ago
Reply to  Simon S

RFK? Antivax, antinuclear, anti- every technology that might actually help at a time like this. Even Newsom would be less of a disaster than that bonehead.

Catherine Conroy
Catherine Conroy
1 year ago
Reply to  Simon S

I wish RFK would renounce his anti MMR vaccine position because this is the one thing that stands in his way to be acceptable to the Democrats.
It’s a shame because he would be more likely than any other Democrat to rally floating voters.

AJ Mac
AJ Mac
1 year ago
Reply to  Simon S

Unfortunately for his otherwise viable candidacy, RFK is steeped in conspiratorial flailing, calling vaccines a holocaust (even well before covid), promoting that autism hoax, and denying the direct connection between HIV and AIDS, among other wackadoodle views. Perhaps he could still contend in a very fractured field that included, let’s say, both DeSantis and Trump in addition to Biden. Through no fault of his own, his bizarre speaking voice is also a political liability.
*I’d consider voting for him if he’d moderate or disavow his dumbest claims. RKF Jr. victory-model sketch: RFK (I) 30%; Trump (I) 28%; Biden (D) 27%; DeSantis (R) 15%

Last edited 1 year ago by AJ Mac
George Venning
George Venning
1 year ago
Reply to  Simon S

You’ve answered your own question.

Stephanie Surface
Stephanie Surface
1 year ago
Reply to  Simon S

You might agree on lots of RFK Jr.’s old fashioned Democratic policies, but what turns me off is his radical Green Agenda. One of his quotes : “Man Made Climate Change Deniers are contemptible human beings, and that, you know, I wish there were a law you could punish them under.”
No, thank you, that is not somebody, who listens to other scientific arguments about Climate Change. This reminds me a lot about all the politicians, who condemned everybody, who wasn’t convinced of Covid vaccinations. How ironic!

Last edited 1 year ago by Stephanie Surface
Kat L
Kat L
1 year ago
Reply to  Simon S

I like and respect RFKJ but he’s still a liberal. Republicans would do well to remember it.

Alan Gore
Alan Gore
1 year ago
Reply to  Simon S

RFK? Antivax, antinuclear, anti- every technology that might actually help at a time like this. Even Newsom would be less of a disaster than that bonehead.

Catherine Conroy
Catherine Conroy
1 year ago
Reply to  Simon S

I wish RFK would renounce his anti MMR vaccine position because this is the one thing that stands in his way to be acceptable to the Democrats.
It’s a shame because he would be more likely than any other Democrat to rally floating voters.

Simon S
Simon S
1 year ago

Bizarre to read this takedown on Newsom in the context of the Dem nomination without any angle on the San Francisco candidate terrifying the DNC with his talk of putting health before profit and peace before war – RFK Jr, a seasoned litigator with a profound knowledge of the levers of government and public policy, and the very opposite of the fake, coiffed, failed Newsom. Last week he raised $3m in three days. Nobody dares debate him and his interview performances have been extraordinarily impressive in spite of his speech disability. He wins accolades from the old fashioned left and right alike, building a very activist groundswell of support across the country. In RFK Jr the US – and the world – has a chance for the positive and fundamental transformation we so desperately need – not just a new hairdo. So why leave him out of the picture?

Last edited 1 year ago by Simon S
Ben Jones
Ben Jones
1 year ago

It’s the same everywhere; the Left can’t run a bath, let alone a local authority. Potholes, rubbish collection and other local services aren’t as captivating as drag queen story hour, Palestine and silly electric cars / bicycle fetishism.

Warren Trees
Warren Trees
1 year ago
Reply to  Ben Jones

But as long as you control the ballot boxes in key, high population metro centers, and the public sector unions, who are guaranteed wonderful pensions, are in lockstep, it all doesn’t matter.

Peter Joy
Peter Joy
1 year ago
Reply to  Warren Trees

Exactly. A rotten banana republic that is dragging the whole western world down with it….

Peter Joy
Peter Joy
1 year ago
Reply to  Warren Trees

Exactly. A rotten banana republic that is dragging the whole western world down with it….

Warren Trees
Warren Trees
1 year ago
Reply to  Ben Jones

But as long as you control the ballot boxes in key, high population metro centers, and the public sector unions, who are guaranteed wonderful pensions, are in lockstep, it all doesn’t matter.

Ben Jones
Ben Jones
1 year ago

It’s the same everywhere; the Left can’t run a bath, let alone a local authority. Potholes, rubbish collection and other local services aren’t as captivating as drag queen story hour, Palestine and silly electric cars / bicycle fetishism.

William Simonds
William Simonds
1 year ago

Newsom’s appeal to the Left is really very understandable IF you consider this fundamental truth: Liberals do not care as much about what you do, as they care about what you say. Conservatives don’t care as much about what you say. They really only care about what you do.
This completely explains the Left’s abhorrence of Trump who had a much better record of accomplishments than Biden. They spent 4+ years being shocked by what he would say, ignoring what he was doing that worked. Conservatives by and large dismissed all that blather and boasting, focusing instead on his accomplishments.
Here, Newsom says all the right things, and will continue to do that into the general election if nominated in place of Biden. And the Left will conveniently ignore every salient point in this well written article because they don’t care…he’s saying all the right things.
After all, let’s not confuse the issue with the facts.

Last edited 1 year ago by William Simonds
Warren Trees
Warren Trees
1 year ago

Bullseye.

Warren Trees
Warren Trees
1 year ago

Bullseye.

William Simonds
William Simonds
1 year ago

Newsom’s appeal to the Left is really very understandable IF you consider this fundamental truth: Liberals do not care as much about what you do, as they care about what you say. Conservatives don’t care as much about what you say. They really only care about what you do.
This completely explains the Left’s abhorrence of Trump who had a much better record of accomplishments than Biden. They spent 4+ years being shocked by what he would say, ignoring what he was doing that worked. Conservatives by and large dismissed all that blather and boasting, focusing instead on his accomplishments.
Here, Newsom says all the right things, and will continue to do that into the general election if nominated in place of Biden. And the Left will conveniently ignore every salient point in this well written article because they don’t care…he’s saying all the right things.
After all, let’s not confuse the issue with the facts.

Last edited 1 year ago by William Simonds
Emily Riedel
Emily Riedel
1 year ago

I mean… I don’t know how that foppish, corrupt, incompetent, buffoon would get the nomination either, but the choices the US is making these days in general leave me flabbergasted, so.

Last edited 1 year ago by Emily Riedel
Emily Riedel
Emily Riedel
1 year ago

I mean… I don’t know how that foppish, corrupt, incompetent, buffoon would get the nomination either, but the choices the US is making these days in general leave me flabbergasted, so.

Last edited 1 year ago by Emily Riedel
Ben Jones
Ben Jones
1 year ago

Apropos San Francisco. I first visited in 1992 and last visited in 2002. It was, on both occasions, a marvellous city blessed with beautiful countryside and an agreeable climate (for a Brit). It felt safe, too.
Last week I was speaking to a well-educated American in their 20s. When I mentioned SF, they grimaced. “What a s**thole”, they replied. It was as if I’d asked them about Aleppo or Kabul.
What happened in the past twenty years? It can’t just be Gavin Newsom, can it?

Jeff Butcher
Jeff Butcher
1 year ago
Reply to  Ben Jones

I’m going on holiday with the family to California next month. We’re visiting San Francisco. I’m starting to worry.

Ben Jones
Ben Jones
1 year ago
Reply to  Jeff Butcher

Just drive across the Golden Gate to Sausalito and all points north, its quite lovely.

Allison Barrows
Allison Barrows
1 year ago
Reply to  Jeff Butcher

Don’t go to SF. See the Redwoods, enjoy the vineyards, but leave SF to its drugged-out dysfunction.

AJ Mac
AJ Mac
1 year ago

When were you last there?

AJ Mac
AJ Mac
1 year ago

When were you last there?

AJ Mac
AJ Mac
1 year ago
Reply to  Jeff Butcher

Pick your spots, such as Golden Gate Park (in the peopled, open areas) and Chinatown. You’ll survive, both physically and mentally.

Jeff Butcher
Jeff Butcher
1 year ago
Reply to  AJ Mac

Thanks all – I’ll bear that in mind

laura m
laura m
1 year ago
Reply to  Jeff Butcher

Rental cars are targets for burglaries, the Tenderloin is open air drug zone. I am local, 40 plus years. Public transit is overrun with addicts and low lifes. The homeless situation on the west coast is a very real problem, some harass people, follow your instincts, avoid the most unhinged. Newsom’s policies and political actions definitely played a major role in creating social disorder.

David Thomas
David Thomas
1 year ago
Reply to  laura m

Agreed, I’ve lived here in SF for over 60 years as an adult, originally from the UK, the deterioration in SF over the years, especially the last five is staggering. That said if you’re just visiting and driving around the northern part of the City and across the GG Bridge to Sausalito and Marin County it’s still beautiful. But the downtown and Market Street and the Tenderloin are a horror story.
Closing down Mental Asylums and defunding and decrying the Police, together with the increasing family breakdowns has caused the present mess and it’s hard to see how recovery will ever happen.

Clare Knight
Clare Knight
1 year ago
Reply to  David Thomas

Yes, I’m also originally a Brit who lived in SF for 30 years and watched the decay.

Clare Knight
Clare Knight
1 year ago
Reply to  David Thomas

Yes, I’m also originally a Brit who lived in SF for 30 years and watched the decay.

Clare Knight
Clare Knight
1 year ago
Reply to  laura m

Overpopulation and Silicon valley wealth made the rents sky rocket. I lost my rent controlled apartment of 20 years because my landlord could raise the rent 200%. There was rent control but not vacancy control. Many artists have been driven out and been replaced by the high income dot comms. I did get mugged a couple of times.

Last edited 1 year ago by Clare Knight
David Thomas
David Thomas
1 year ago
Reply to  laura m

Agreed, I’ve lived here in SF for over 60 years as an adult, originally from the UK, the deterioration in SF over the years, especially the last five is staggering. That said if you’re just visiting and driving around the northern part of the City and across the GG Bridge to Sausalito and Marin County it’s still beautiful. But the downtown and Market Street and the Tenderloin are a horror story.
Closing down Mental Asylums and defunding and decrying the Police, together with the increasing family breakdowns has caused the present mess and it’s hard to see how recovery will ever happen.

Clare Knight
Clare Knight
1 year ago
Reply to  laura m

Overpopulation and Silicon valley wealth made the rents sky rocket. I lost my rent controlled apartment of 20 years because my landlord could raise the rent 200%. There was rent control but not vacancy control. Many artists have been driven out and been replaced by the high income dot comms. I did get mugged a couple of times.

Last edited 1 year ago by Clare Knight
laura m
laura m
1 year ago
Reply to  Jeff Butcher

Rental cars are targets for burglaries, the Tenderloin is open air drug zone. I am local, 40 plus years. Public transit is overrun with addicts and low lifes. The homeless situation on the west coast is a very real problem, some harass people, follow your instincts, avoid the most unhinged. Newsom’s policies and political actions definitely played a major role in creating social disorder.

Jeff Butcher
Jeff Butcher
1 year ago
Reply to  AJ Mac

Thanks all – I’ll bear that in mind

Marissa M
Marissa M
1 year ago
Reply to  Jeff Butcher

Don’t go out at night. Stick by tourists.
The area outside San Francisco, the Redwoods, Napa…going into Yellowstone though? Don’t miss it.
Honestly. Some of the most beautiful scenery in the world. I have traveled a lot..and that whole section of CA is breathtaking.

Jeff Butcher
Jeff Butcher
1 year ago
Reply to  Marissa M

We’re visiting Yosemite, Sequioa national park, Santa Cruz, Monterey, last couple of days in Frisco

Jeff Butcher
Jeff Butcher
1 year ago
Reply to  Marissa M

We’re visiting Yosemite, Sequioa national park, Santa Cruz, Monterey, last couple of days in Frisco

Clare Knight
Clare Knight
1 year ago
Reply to  Jeff Butcher

Just try not to look like a tourist. Don’t wear shorts or carry a camera or wear pastels!

Ben Jones
Ben Jones
1 year ago
Reply to  Jeff Butcher

Just drive across the Golden Gate to Sausalito and all points north, its quite lovely.

Allison Barrows
Allison Barrows
1 year ago
Reply to  Jeff Butcher

Don’t go to SF. See the Redwoods, enjoy the vineyards, but leave SF to its drugged-out dysfunction.

AJ Mac
AJ Mac
1 year ago
Reply to  Jeff Butcher

Pick your spots, such as Golden Gate Park (in the peopled, open areas) and Chinatown. You’ll survive, both physically and mentally.

Marissa M
Marissa M
1 year ago
Reply to  Jeff Butcher

Don’t go out at night. Stick by tourists.
The area outside San Francisco, the Redwoods, Napa…going into Yellowstone though? Don’t miss it.
Honestly. Some of the most beautiful scenery in the world. I have traveled a lot..and that whole section of CA is breathtaking.

Clare Knight
Clare Knight
1 year ago
Reply to  Jeff Butcher

Just try not to look like a tourist. Don’t wear shorts or carry a camera or wear pastels!

Jeff Cunningham
Jeff Cunningham
1 year ago
Reply to  Ben Jones

He’s a symptom, not a cause. The voters are closer to the cause. How they became thgat way is closer still. But we do love our villians.

Allison Barrows
Allison Barrows
1 year ago
Reply to  Ben Jones

An American is either a he or a she, certainly not a “they” or a “their”. Well-educated people know this.

Ben Jones
Ben Jones
1 year ago

Don’t police my language and I won’t police yours.

Tony Price
Tony Price
1 year ago

Well educated people know that use of ‘they’ was perfectly acceptable whatever your place on the spectrum of genderist nonsense.

Rob Nock
Rob Nock
1 year ago
Reply to  Tony Price

It is if you don’t know, or want to provide, the sex/gender of the person. BJ clearly knew whether thar person was a He or She but maybe he did not want to indicate. Weird but possibly grammatically permissible.

Rob Nock
Rob Nock
1 year ago
Reply to  Tony Price

It is if you don’t know, or want to provide, the sex/gender of the person. BJ clearly knew whether thar person was a He or She but maybe he did not want to indicate. Weird but possibly grammatically permissible.

Peter Joy
Peter Joy
1 year ago

Depends what you mean by ‘educated’. The people who believe this nonsense most fervently are invariably ‘BA Hons’.
‘If there is hope, it lies in the proles…’

Ben Jones
Ben Jones
1 year ago

Don’t police my language and I won’t police yours.

Tony Price
Tony Price
1 year ago

Well educated people know that use of ‘they’ was perfectly acceptable whatever your place on the spectrum of genderist nonsense.

Peter Joy
Peter Joy
1 year ago

Depends what you mean by ‘educated’. The people who believe this nonsense most fervently are invariably ‘BA Hons’.
‘If there is hope, it lies in the proles…’

AJ Mac
AJ Mac
1 year ago
Reply to  Ben Jones

One culprit is the no-enforcement DA called Chesa Boudin, who was recalled. Runaway housing prices, opioid crisis, and attractive sleeping rough weather too. And hard-progressive mismanagement under decades of mayors. I lived there in 2002 and thought it was pretty rough and dirty then–not everywhere, and not only, but rough.

Marissa M
Marissa M
1 year ago
Reply to  Ben Jones

I was there with a group of girl scouts about 10 years ago?
We took the girls (around 11 years old at the time) to cross the Golden Gate Bridge, with some 5000 other American girl scouts. The bridge is symbolic of them “crossing over” into another stage of the scouts.
Afterwards we went through Chinatown and several other neighborhoods. It was lovely.
But at some point we went to Ghiraredell’s Chocolate so the girls could purchase some souvenirs. We were followed by a trio of homeless screaming obscenities at us, aiming their vituperative comments particularly at the girls. I mean, really? They tried surrounding us, the 4 chaperones and 8 girls, and were really scaring the girls…they followed us for a little over a block. For no real reason. I mean, they didn’t even ask for money. Just stoned out of their heads and screaming.
I haven’t been back. I loved San Fran. And I’m an ex-Chicago girl! Not a lot shakes me. But this experience, maybe because there were children, no thanks.

Last edited 1 year ago by Marissa M
AJ Mac
AJ Mac
1 year ago
Reply to  Marissa M

That is really bad. I wish I thought that type of thing were more of an anomaly there.

Last edited 1 year ago by AJ Mac
Clare Knight
Clare Knight
1 year ago
Reply to  AJ Mac

It’s just in certain parts.

Clare Knight
Clare Knight
1 year ago
Reply to  AJ Mac

It’s just in certain parts.

AJ Mac
AJ Mac
1 year ago
Reply to  Marissa M

That is really bad. I wish I thought that type of thing were more of an anomaly there.

Last edited 1 year ago by AJ Mac
Clare Knight
Clare Knight
1 year ago
Reply to  Ben Jones

No it’s not Gavin Newson’s fault. San Francisco has been in a slow decline for a long time. I lived there for 30 years from 1970. It was safe and open and free till the Zodiac killer hit, and the city shut down in fear. It’s never been the same since, no more hitchhiking or greeting strangers on the street.

Jeff Butcher
Jeff Butcher
1 year ago
Reply to  Ben Jones

I’m going on holiday with the family to California next month. We’re visiting San Francisco. I’m starting to worry.

Jeff Cunningham
Jeff Cunningham
1 year ago
Reply to  Ben Jones

He’s a symptom, not a cause. The voters are closer to the cause. How they became thgat way is closer still. But we do love our villians.

Allison Barrows
Allison Barrows
1 year ago
Reply to  Ben Jones

An American is either a he or a she, certainly not a “they” or a “their”. Well-educated people know this.

AJ Mac
AJ Mac
1 year ago
Reply to  Ben Jones

One culprit is the no-enforcement DA called Chesa Boudin, who was recalled. Runaway housing prices, opioid crisis, and attractive sleeping rough weather too. And hard-progressive mismanagement under decades of mayors. I lived there in 2002 and thought it was pretty rough and dirty then–not everywhere, and not only, but rough.

Marissa M
Marissa M
1 year ago
Reply to  Ben Jones

I was there with a group of girl scouts about 10 years ago?
We took the girls (around 11 years old at the time) to cross the Golden Gate Bridge, with some 5000 other American girl scouts. The bridge is symbolic of them “crossing over” into another stage of the scouts.
Afterwards we went through Chinatown and several other neighborhoods. It was lovely.
But at some point we went to Ghiraredell’s Chocolate so the girls could purchase some souvenirs. We were followed by a trio of homeless screaming obscenities at us, aiming their vituperative comments particularly at the girls. I mean, really? They tried surrounding us, the 4 chaperones and 8 girls, and were really scaring the girls…they followed us for a little over a block. For no real reason. I mean, they didn’t even ask for money. Just stoned out of their heads and screaming.
I haven’t been back. I loved San Fran. And I’m an ex-Chicago girl! Not a lot shakes me. But this experience, maybe because there were children, no thanks.

Last edited 1 year ago by Marissa M
Clare Knight
Clare Knight
1 year ago
Reply to  Ben Jones

No it’s not Gavin Newson’s fault. San Francisco has been in a slow decline for a long time. I lived there for 30 years from 1970. It was safe and open and free till the Zodiac killer hit, and the city shut down in fear. It’s never been the same since, no more hitchhiking or greeting strangers on the street.

Ben Jones
Ben Jones
1 year ago

Apropos San Francisco. I first visited in 1992 and last visited in 2002. It was, on both occasions, a marvellous city blessed with beautiful countryside and an agreeable climate (for a Brit). It felt safe, too.
Last week I was speaking to a well-educated American in their 20s. When I mentioned SF, they grimaced. “What a s**thole”, they replied. It was as if I’d asked them about Aleppo or Kabul.
What happened in the past twenty years? It can’t just be Gavin Newsom, can it?

laura m
laura m
1 year ago

2nd gen Californian here. Newsom=perfect example of failing upwards.

laura m
laura m
1 year ago

2nd gen Californian here. Newsom=perfect example of failing upwards.

Charlie Two
Charlie Two
1 year ago

sounds like a prediction of what most of the UK will look like if Labour wins. to be fair, would be the same if the Tories stayed in, or we got a Lib Dim-Anyone coalition. None of our ‘ruling elites’ can actually ‘rule’; just pass more legislation and look self righteous.

Charlie Two
Charlie Two
1 year ago

sounds like a prediction of what most of the UK will look like if Labour wins. to be fair, would be the same if the Tories stayed in, or we got a Lib Dim-Anyone coalition. None of our ‘ruling elites’ can actually ‘rule’; just pass more legislation and look self righteous.

George Scipio
George Scipio
1 year ago

Rome is burning while the little would-be emperors play games. Meanwhile the Chinese century is taking shape. Transgenderist idiocy, like other left-wing shibboleths, is a distraction that our other planet, the non-Western one, billions strong, ignores or laughs at. Only climate breakdown, the reason why the South is moving North, is real. The USA is in decline, a failing power. The ultrarich will leave for their bunkers in cold mountain ranges, while the 99% drift to hell on opioid floods.

Richard Craven
Richard Craven
1 year ago
Reply to  George Scipio

China will shortly start to decline as its population falls off its demographic cliff. By 2001 there will be more Nigerians than Chinese.

Richard Craven
Richard Craven
1 year ago
Reply to  George Scipio

China will shortly start to decline as its population falls off its demographic cliff. By 2001 there will be more Nigerians than Chinese.

George Scipio
George Scipio
1 year ago

Rome is burning while the little would-be emperors play games. Meanwhile the Chinese century is taking shape. Transgenderist idiocy, like other left-wing shibboleths, is a distraction that our other planet, the non-Western one, billions strong, ignores or laughs at. Only climate breakdown, the reason why the South is moving North, is real. The USA is in decline, a failing power. The ultrarich will leave for their bunkers in cold mountain ranges, while the 99% drift to hell on opioid floods.

AC Harper
AC Harper
1 year ago

‘Anyone else rather than Trump, but preferably more compos mentis than Biden.’
Not a very catchy slogan is it? Especially when ‘anyone else’ includes such luminaries as Kamala Harris and Gavin Newsom, but excludes possibilities such as JFK Jr or even Tulsi Gabbard who might appeal to a wider electorate.
Perhaps the slogan should be extended further:
‘Anyone else rather than Trump, but preferably more compos mentis than Biden, and still subordinate to the Party machine.’

Warren Trees
Warren Trees
1 year ago
Reply to  AC Harper

“Anyone but Trump, who is the only POTUS in my lifetime who actually delivered on his campaign promises.”

Peter Joy
Peter Joy
1 year ago
Reply to  Warren Trees

‘Change you can believe in!’ Anyone remember that?

Peter Joy
Peter Joy
1 year ago
Reply to  Warren Trees

‘Change you can believe in!’ Anyone remember that?

Warren Trees
Warren Trees
1 year ago
Reply to  AC Harper

“Anyone but Trump, who is the only POTUS in my lifetime who actually delivered on his campaign promises.”

AC Harper
AC Harper
1 year ago

‘Anyone else rather than Trump, but preferably more compos mentis than Biden.’
Not a very catchy slogan is it? Especially when ‘anyone else’ includes such luminaries as Kamala Harris and Gavin Newsom, but excludes possibilities such as JFK Jr or even Tulsi Gabbard who might appeal to a wider electorate.
Perhaps the slogan should be extended further:
‘Anyone else rather than Trump, but preferably more compos mentis than Biden, and still subordinate to the Party machine.’

Dick Illyes
Dick Illyes
1 year ago

There is an obvious scenario. Biden steps aside and Harris appoints Newsome as VP. He would probably be approved by both Chambers.
Newsome would be defacto President and would run as the incumbent in 2024, avoiding a messy primary season. Harris would pardon all the Bidens in the name of “Moving on”.
The Swamp retains control.

Hardee Hodges
Hardee Hodges
1 year ago
Reply to  Dick Illyes

The Congress has a say on such an appointment. Would be a real battle.

Hardee Hodges
Hardee Hodges
1 year ago
Reply to  Dick Illyes

The Congress has a say on such an appointment. Would be a real battle.

Dick Illyes
Dick Illyes
1 year ago

There is an obvious scenario. Biden steps aside and Harris appoints Newsome as VP. He would probably be approved by both Chambers.
Newsome would be defacto President and would run as the incumbent in 2024, avoiding a messy primary season. Harris would pardon all the Bidens in the name of “Moving on”.
The Swamp retains control.

James Kirk
James Kirk
1 year ago

From this side of the pond California appears in ruins. Can Johnny America not see the wood for the trees? Even Democrats are said to be leaving, taking their liberal views with them to infect their new homes’ politics. The running joke seems to be all U Hauls are in Texas, none to be found in CA.

Zeph Smith
Zeph Smith
1 year ago
Reply to  James Kirk

We moved to Northern California from Colorado 20 years ago. Even at that time, the cost for a U-Haul was literally almost 3:1 higher for somebody moving out of California than in. Must be intense now.
California is a very large state in size and population, and very diverse. Once you get out of the liberal hotbeds, most of the state is not nearly as bad as you imagine. Or course, one cannot escape the state government, so I’m not trying to paint a very rosy picture, just to moderate the imagined horrors.
I live in a small city, not too far from San Francisco (which IS pretty bad).
We have a homeless problem, but the city seems to be managing it pretty well overal. They remove campers in the parks or along the streams (I’ve never seen any on sidewalks), and strongly encourage the designated camping area with water, portapotties, trash, lighting, etc. They have built an area of transitional housing. Problem reports have decreased. It’s just dramatically different than SF.
We walk a few miles around town every day (or at night) and feel safe. There are nice parks and creekside trails. Litter is very minimal in general. I’ve never seen needles or human poop. Got yelled at once by an angry homeless man down by the creek, several years ago – nobody there now tho.
Our police are not generally hated, and from what they’ve said feel pretty good about their jobs. There was no substantial defund movement here; instead they added a special team composed of an EMT and a social worker in a van (at a given time), in addition to the police, rather than as a replacement. The dispatcher can choose which or both to send initially, but either can turn it over to the other as things develop. As a result, the police are very happy to have this team as a resource, and the team is happy to have the police as a resource. It was a sensible decision, rather than a heated anti-police social-justice proxy war.
And this is a blue city in a blue county within the SF Bay Area. It’s no paradise and I have concerns about the long term finances and direction in this state, but there are a lot of relatively sensible people here too, it’s not a paradise nor a hell hole. Mostly it’s pretty pleasant where I live.
We are wary of San Francisco, where some parts are sorta OK but we are not native there and don’t have the reflexes to scan an address and decide not to go to that section of town. Here, there’s no part of town that I would hesitate to walk in (and we have walked most of it).
Also, the people leaving California come in all political flavors, but those who are non-woke or anti-woke are a lot more likely to leave than the woke, who have similarly paranoid imaginings of the less progressive parts of the country and are deathly afraid to leave. Many have become disenchanted with the progressive vision (if they ever shared it), and so are open to rethinking or at least not trying to change their new homes to be like the places they fled. When I lived in Colorado, we disliked the effect of Californians arriving, but not because of their politics, it was their transferred equity that helped drive up prices.
Basically, remember that the media is a distorting lens even when it doesn’t have a political agenda (much less when it does). The algorithms cater to audiences of all flavors, and will result in exaggerated impressions very often.

Last edited 1 year ago by Zeph Smith
Zeph Smith
Zeph Smith
1 year ago
Reply to  James Kirk

We moved to Northern California from Colorado 20 years ago. Even at that time, the cost for a U-Haul was literally almost 3:1 higher for somebody moving out of California than in. Must be intense now.
California is a very large state in size and population, and very diverse. Once you get out of the liberal hotbeds, most of the state is not nearly as bad as you imagine. Or course, one cannot escape the state government, so I’m not trying to paint a very rosy picture, just to moderate the imagined horrors.
I live in a small city, not too far from San Francisco (which IS pretty bad).
We have a homeless problem, but the city seems to be managing it pretty well overal. They remove campers in the parks or along the streams (I’ve never seen any on sidewalks), and strongly encourage the designated camping area with water, portapotties, trash, lighting, etc. They have built an area of transitional housing. Problem reports have decreased. It’s just dramatically different than SF.
We walk a few miles around town every day (or at night) and feel safe. There are nice parks and creekside trails. Litter is very minimal in general. I’ve never seen needles or human poop. Got yelled at once by an angry homeless man down by the creek, several years ago – nobody there now tho.
Our police are not generally hated, and from what they’ve said feel pretty good about their jobs. There was no substantial defund movement here; instead they added a special team composed of an EMT and a social worker in a van (at a given time), in addition to the police, rather than as a replacement. The dispatcher can choose which or both to send initially, but either can turn it over to the other as things develop. As a result, the police are very happy to have this team as a resource, and the team is happy to have the police as a resource. It was a sensible decision, rather than a heated anti-police social-justice proxy war.
And this is a blue city in a blue county within the SF Bay Area. It’s no paradise and I have concerns about the long term finances and direction in this state, but there are a lot of relatively sensible people here too, it’s not a paradise nor a hell hole. Mostly it’s pretty pleasant where I live.
We are wary of San Francisco, where some parts are sorta OK but we are not native there and don’t have the reflexes to scan an address and decide not to go to that section of town. Here, there’s no part of town that I would hesitate to walk in (and we have walked most of it).
Also, the people leaving California come in all political flavors, but those who are non-woke or anti-woke are a lot more likely to leave than the woke, who have similarly paranoid imaginings of the less progressive parts of the country and are deathly afraid to leave. Many have become disenchanted with the progressive vision (if they ever shared it), and so are open to rethinking or at least not trying to change their new homes to be like the places they fled. When I lived in Colorado, we disliked the effect of Californians arriving, but not because of their politics, it was their transferred equity that helped drive up prices.
Basically, remember that the media is a distorting lens even when it doesn’t have a political agenda (much less when it does). The algorithms cater to audiences of all flavors, and will result in exaggerated impressions very often.

Last edited 1 year ago by Zeph Smith
James Kirk
James Kirk
1 year ago

From this side of the pond California appears in ruins. Can Johnny America not see the wood for the trees? Even Democrats are said to be leaving, taking their liberal views with them to infect their new homes’ politics. The running joke seems to be all U Hauls are in Texas, none to be found in CA.

Michael Layman
Michael Layman
1 year ago

Well said, certainly a month in greater LA, if not SF will cause pause in your vote for Newsom. Everything you touch is determined to cause cancer in a state that was once inviting. Humans(read democrats) have ruined a once prosperous and glorious state. It is shocking(but not suprising) that 40% are considering leaving.
I had to LOL when the governors of Florida and Texas symbolically shipped immigrants to “sanctuary states” of NY and CA. Put up or shut up Newsom.

Michael Layman
Michael Layman
1 year ago

Well said, certainly a month in greater LA, if not SF will cause pause in your vote for Newsom. Everything you touch is determined to cause cancer in a state that was once inviting. Humans(read democrats) have ruined a once prosperous and glorious state. It is shocking(but not suprising) that 40% are considering leaving.
I had to LOL when the governors of Florida and Texas symbolically shipped immigrants to “sanctuary states” of NY and CA. Put up or shut up Newsom.

Alan Kaufman
Alan Kaufman
1 year ago

All true observations, but two nits:

Failure to mention that the two states far outperforming California — Texas and Florida — have no income tax, which suggests that the immensely high taxes in California are seriously misspent;The “Staggering inequality” is not a sign of evil nor is it surprising. It is a sign of a. a welfare state attracting the poor who have problems succeeding in an educational system
b. a huge pile of uneducated illegal immigrants
c. an educational system catering to uneducated ethnic immigrants who do not have the same educational drive as earlier generations of immigrants and
d. a mismatch between the educational levels of the poorer third of its population and the educational needs of its industries.

Alan Kaufman
Alan Kaufman
1 year ago

All true observations, but two nits:

Failure to mention that the two states far outperforming California — Texas and Florida — have no income tax, which suggests that the immensely high taxes in California are seriously misspent;The “Staggering inequality” is not a sign of evil nor is it surprising. It is a sign of a. a welfare state attracting the poor who have problems succeeding in an educational system
b. a huge pile of uneducated illegal immigrants
c. an educational system catering to uneducated ethnic immigrants who do not have the same educational drive as earlier generations of immigrants and
d. a mismatch between the educational levels of the poorer third of its population and the educational needs of its industries.

Ralph Hanke
Ralph Hanke
1 year ago

Zimbu the monkey for president.

A primate for our times.

Ralph Hanke
Ralph Hanke
1 year ago

Zimbu the monkey for president.

A primate for our times.

Ben Shipley
Ben Shipley
1 year ago

You can’t blame Newsom for the decline of San Francisco or California, simply because he has had so little impact either way. He’s the perfect symbol of the state, comb in hand, lazily surfing whatever random, shallow wave passes his way. If you want to find how this will translate to the national stage, look no further than Kamala Harris.

Ben Shipley
Ben Shipley
1 year ago

You can’t blame Newsom for the decline of San Francisco or California, simply because he has had so little impact either way. He’s the perfect symbol of the state, comb in hand, lazily surfing whatever random, shallow wave passes his way. If you want to find how this will translate to the national stage, look no further than Kamala Harris.

James S.
James S.
1 year ago

Well, Mr. Kotkin and I can finally agree on something. Newsom is a preening, incredibly opportunistic yet shallow politician who has overseen the decline of both San Francisco and now California. He appeals to the equally superficial rich progressives who bankrolled his rise from a pretty boy wine merchant/restauranteur in the ’90s. DeSantis would eat his lunch in any debate, and actually knows how to govern.

James S.
James S.
1 year ago

Well, Mr. Kotkin and I can finally agree on something. Newsom is a preening, incredibly opportunistic yet shallow politician who has overseen the decline of both San Francisco and now California. He appeals to the equally superficial rich progressives who bankrolled his rise from a pretty boy wine merchant/restauranteur in the ’90s. DeSantis would eat his lunch in any debate, and actually knows how to govern.

Steve Hay
Steve Hay
1 year ago

As an Australian we have made our own significant mistakes when picking potential political leaders, but I digress.
In a Country of 300M ish people you have a particularly poor selection of possible Presidential canterdates. Newsom is just another poor political performer. Don’t the Democrats have any potential leaders who have a record of running a tight ship and the potential of leaving their present position in better shape than they found it.
As for the Republicans having a president run the country from jail would be an interesting prospect.

AJ Mac
AJ Mac
1 year ago

“For the Democrats hailing Newsom as the saviour of their party”…such as whom? There must be examples for that seeming null set, but as a 45-year California resident, a moderate who’s family, friends, and acquaintance are mostly to my left, I don’t know anyone who’s called him a “savior” (back to American spelling outside quotes) nor a “greasy-haired great white hope”, or whatever–especially not lately.
Neither major party has very appealing candidates that are electable on a national level, but some pretty unappealing ones are getting elected anyway. I’d be ok with someone like Nikki Haley or Pete Buttigieg if I thought they could win. Not because one is a “woman of color” and the other a gay man, but because they seem reasonable, competent, decent, and presentable (yeah, that’s part of being a plus-value so-called Leader of the Free World), and who cares a lot about their “groundbreaking” demographic traits one way or the other?

AJ Mac
AJ Mac
1 year ago
Reply to  AJ Mac

Seriously, which Democrats are calling him a savior of any kind?

Simon Tavanyar
Simon Tavanyar
1 year ago
Reply to  AJ Mac

It used to be a requirement of a leader to be competent at something. The far-left who have taken over the Democrat party are competent at nothing. The decline of America’s cities and Democrat states is absolutely caused by chronic incompetence. Pete Buttigieg has been an absolute failure as Transport Secretary. Look at his handling of the disastrous chemical explosion after the Ohio train derailment. He was a laughing stock among people who actually live there.

AJ Mac
AJ Mac
1 year ago
Reply to  Simon Tavanyar

Who could have consoled or satisfied them after de-regulationist policies , worsened under Trump, found them in calamity?
Were Bush Jr., Reagan, or his interior secretary James Watt–enemy of the air, soil, and water–models of competence? Neither is Biden of course, don’t get me wrong. But I trust his aged clown car more than Trump’s runaway golf cart.

AJ Mac
AJ Mac
1 year ago
Reply to  Simon Tavanyar

As was George Bush in New Orleans and Nixon at Kent State (though “laughing stock” is a bit ill-fitting a term). That doesn’t quite encapsulate their whole careers, even if the taint endures.

Last edited 1 year ago by AJ Mac
AJ Mac
AJ Mac
1 year ago
Reply to  Simon Tavanyar

Who could have consoled or satisfied them after de-regulationist policies , worsened under Trump, found them in calamity?
Were Bush Jr., Reagan, or his interior secretary James Watt–enemy of the air, soil, and water–models of competence? Neither is Biden of course, don’t get