Scary leaders in Newsom and Trump: Doug McIntyre
It’s Halloween week and there’s plenty to be scared of.
Not the ghosts and goblins that will ring our doorbells extorting candy with the ominous “trick or treat” threat. The real world is infinitely more frightening. Continue reading at your own peril.
Last week, the president of the United States spiked the football after winning a huge victory. Unfortunately, it was a huge victory for Russia and Turkey, who divvied up what had been the Kurdish buffer zone in Syria.
Meanwhile, California Gov. Gavin Newsom ordered Attorney General Xavier Becerra to “investigate” why a gallon of gas in the Golden State costs an arm and leg. What’s next, asking Clayton Kershaw and Joe Kelly to investigate why the Dodgers aren’t in the World Series?
This is who we have running the show. Truly frightening.
Donald Trump and Gavin Newsom have little in common except an infinite capacity to cause disasters and then distance themselves from same. How they go about spinning catastrophe after catastrophe tells us all we need to know.
The president has two specific tactics for dealing with self-inflicted wounds: a) deny there is a disaster (the Kurd sellout being the latest example) or b) attack the laws that prohibit his illegal actions such as trying to hold the G-7 summit at his own golf resort and then calling the emoluments clause of the Constitution “phony.”
Meanwhile, with a straight face, the governor of California asked for a criminal investigation into Big Oil, ignoring the litany of regulations and tax hikes he supported that sent gas prices through the roof. Per usual, the governor played the “collusion and price-fixing” card. To do otherwise would force Newsom to take ownership of his own failed policies, as well as the failed polices of his predecessor and the one-party Democrats in Sacramento.
Tricks galore. Well, two can play this game.
Impeachment momentum is building in Washington with the president openly daring the Democrats to remove him from office. They just might. Closer to home, hundreds of Californians are spending their nights and weekends collecting signatures to recall Gavin Newsom. Thousand have already signed. A recent Public Policy Institute poll shows only 44 percent of Californians approve of the new governor’s job performance. It was only last November Newsom was elected with nearly 62 percent of the vote. It ain’t just Republicans who have soured on him.
As we all know, elections have consequences.
Take the experience of one Southern California couple as an example: Married, 60-somethings, long-time owners of a 2,000-square-foot single-story San Fernando Valley home.
The children are grown and long gone from the house. It’s just the two of them. Yet, the most recent water and power bill totaled an eye-popping $999.91! Mind you, no pool, no spa and the cats can’t reach the thermostat to mess with the AC.
Then 16 gallons of gas last week set them back $72. Sitting on the desk is the property tax bill. I can’t report on the amount because I haven’t had the courage to open it.
Yes, this couple is me and The Wife.
California is not Syria. It’s not a lot of places much worse off. Still, is it any wonder why it costs more to take a U-Haul out of California than it does to bring one in?
Newsom has turned to the attorney general to “investigate” my $72 tank of gas because Xavier Becerra is the fixer, the man who wrote the misleading ballot title that doomed Prop 6, the measure that would have rolled back the exorbitant gas tax hike we are currently forking over. He’s at it again.
Last week the editorial board of this newspaper exposed another example of Becerra’s creative writing prowess, calling his deceptive title to a new union-backed “split roll” initiative “the most disreputable ballot description we’ve seen.” Becerra’s dissimulation hides what is in fact a full-frontal assault on Proposition 13. In reality, this initiative is a draconian cash-grab from small to midsized businesses who are barely hanging on as is.
The list of California companies leaving for freer, fairer pasture and taking their tax base with them continues to grow. ICEE, the national frozen beverage company, announced last week it is moving from Ontario to Tennessee. Goodbye 200 jobs.
“But Trump!”
The scary Trump mask allows Gavin Newsom to hide the reality of the dangerous and destructive road (poorly paved, no doubt) he has chosen to take California down.
Halloween is here, but I’m not afraid as afraid of the Joker as of the jokers calling the shots in Washington, Sacramento and City Hall. The good news is, We the People have a couple of tricks up our sleeves: impeachment, recall and elections.
Doug McIntyre’s column appears Sundays. He can be reached at: Doug@DougMcIntyre.com.