California Gov. Gavin Newsom, buoyed by a recent US Supreme Court decision, issued an executive order Thursday calling on state officials to begin taking down homeless encampments.
Cynically, I take this to mean that he’s given up on the possibility of a 2024 presidential run.
While this will undoubtedly be popular with Californians who don’t give a shit about homeless people and just don’t want to have to see it, it would almost certainly have led to some blowback in the middle of a Democratic presidential campaign, so it’s safe to assume that the decision was waiting in the wings so to speak - ready to be implemented, but only when it wouldn’t cause problems for his federal aspirations.
I don’t think this would have much of an effect. Even your average democrat these days doesn’t give a fuck about homeless people. Even if they do it’s probably very low on there list of concerns, even progressives would probably care more about his Gaza stance than this. No one can imagine they could be homeless until they are.
even more cynically: i don’t think this will matter.
consider biden: we have 50 years of documentation including videos showing his vote against gay marriage; advocating against lgbtq in federal service; siding with pro-segregationists; and attacking feminist supporters in every event (esp anita hill); yet today’s voters still call him the most progressive presidential candidate we’ve ever had despite other candidates having a MUCH more flawless records.
so unless you’ve suffered or are close to someone who have suffered at the hands of the candidate, you’re going to ignore all the bad shit he’s done and condemn those who point out his reprehensibility. that means that newsom won’t have to worry about anything unless the homeless and poor somehow became a sizeable voting block.
And along those same lines, it calls to mind a thing that’s concerned me to some degree all along, and just that much more so since Biden dropped out.
The painfully obvious DNC/democrat establishment strategy for decades at least has been to try to maintain the flow of corporate soft money by running candidates who aren’t going to upset the status quo, which is to say are not actually leftists, and to count on just being arguably somewhat less bad than the Republican to be enough to win, or at least not lose embarrassingly badly.
And as far as that goes, Trump provides them with a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, since it would be nearly impossible for the DNC/dem establishment to put up a candidate who’s worse, and more to the point, the threat that Trump and his plutocratic backers and christofascist coattail-riders pose is so blatant snd severe that an awful lot of overt malfeasance on the part of the dem candidate - much more than has already been the case - would be overlooked.
I see it in myself. Even as aware as I am and as much as I loathe the establishment scum and their cynical and entirely self-serving manipulation, Trump and his handlers and followers are such an existential threat that I see no reasonable choice other than to vote for whoever ends up running against him.
But I hate it, and the more I think about it, the more I hate it, and it makes me concerned not just for who that might be (it could be much worse than Harris) but of what they might do after the election, presuming they win. We could even potentially end up trading the threat of one autocracy for the reality of another, just arguably somewhat less bad, one.
… and the more I think about it, the more I hate it, and it makes me concerned not just for who that might be (it could be much worse than Harris) but of what they might do after the election, presuming they win. We could even potentially end up trading the threat of one autocracy for the reality of another, just arguably somewhat less bad, one.
that autocracy is coming one way or the other since both democrats and republicans have been enacting recommendations from project 2025 since 1980 and will continue to do so, so long as we continue vote for either a democrat or republican.
worrying about it is not going to change anything and proselytizing for leftist views doesn’t help much either in this country; but it’s better than nothing and i find that it helps me cope.
Honestly this won’t have any impact. If enough people actually cared about the homeless for it to have a negative impact on electibility then the homelessness issues would already be solved.
Cynically, I take this to mean that he’s given up on the possibility of a 2024 presidential run.
While this will undoubtedly be popular with Californians who don’t give a shit about homeless people and just don’t want to have to see it, it would almost certainly have led to some blowback in the middle of a Democratic presidential campaign, so it’s safe to assume that the decision was waiting in the wings so to speak - ready to be implemented, but only when it wouldn’t cause problems for his federal aspirations.
I don’t think this would have much of an effect. Even your average democrat these days doesn’t give a fuck about homeless people. Even if they do it’s probably very low on there list of concerns, even progressives would probably care more about his Gaza stance than this. No one can imagine they could be homeless until they are.
even more cynically: i don’t think this will matter.
consider biden: we have 50 years of documentation including videos showing his vote against gay marriage; advocating against lgbtq in federal service; siding with pro-segregationists; and attacking feminist supporters in every event (esp anita hill); yet today’s voters still call him the most progressive presidential candidate we’ve ever had despite other candidates having a MUCH more flawless records.
so unless you’ve suffered or are close to someone who have suffered at the hands of the candidate, you’re going to ignore all the bad shit he’s done and condemn those who point out his reprehensibility. that means that newsom won’t have to worry about anything unless the homeless and poor somehow became a sizeable voting block.
Nothing I disagree with there. Unfortunately.
And along those same lines, it calls to mind a thing that’s concerned me to some degree all along, and just that much more so since Biden dropped out.
The painfully obvious DNC/democrat establishment strategy for decades at least has been to try to maintain the flow of corporate soft money by running candidates who aren’t going to upset the status quo, which is to say are not actually leftists, and to count on just being arguably somewhat less bad than the Republican to be enough to win, or at least not lose embarrassingly badly.
And as far as that goes, Trump provides them with a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, since it would be nearly impossible for the DNC/dem establishment to put up a candidate who’s worse, and more to the point, the threat that Trump and his plutocratic backers and christofascist coattail-riders pose is so blatant snd severe that an awful lot of overt malfeasance on the part of the dem candidate - much more than has already been the case - would be overlooked.
I see it in myself. Even as aware as I am and as much as I loathe the establishment scum and their cynical and entirely self-serving manipulation, Trump and his handlers and followers are such an existential threat that I see no reasonable choice other than to vote for whoever ends up running against him.
But I hate it, and the more I think about it, the more I hate it, and it makes me concerned not just for who that might be (it could be much worse than Harris) but of what they might do after the election, presuming they win. We could even potentially end up trading the threat of one autocracy for the reality of another, just arguably somewhat less bad, one.
that autocracy is coming one way or the other since both democrats and republicans have been enacting recommendations from project 2025 since 1980 and will continue to do so, so long as we continue vote for either a democrat or republican.
worrying about it is not going to change anything and proselytizing for leftist views doesn’t help much either in this country; but it’s better than nothing and i find that it helps me cope.
The bipartisan lock is firm. We need a Parliament and MANY parties.
Honestly this won’t have any impact. If enough people actually cared about the homeless for it to have a negative impact on electibility then the homelessness issues would already be solved.