Tag: California

Newsom Signs Gun Bill Based on Texas’ Abortion Vigilante Law

Pensito Editors

Politico: “California has issued the U.S. Supreme Court a direct challenge at the confluence of gun and abortion rights as Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a firearms bill embracing the doctrine of private enforcement.

“The new law allows Californians to sue manufacturers and citizens who distribute banned assault weapons or ghost guns. Newsom explicitly modeled the concept on a Texas law, preserved by the high court, that allows people to pursue legal claims against abortion providers.

“By calling for and then signing the bill, Newsom has set up a legal test while illuminating the gulf between liberal California and a conservative Supreme Court on politically charged issues.”

Newsom to Florida: ‘Freedom Is under Attack in Your State’

Pensito Editors

Deadline.com: “Continuing the war of words between Florida and California – and potentially previewing the presidential campaign for 2024 – California Governor Gavin Newsom has issued a new ad attacking Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. Newsom’s July 4 weekend ad claims “Freedom is under attack” in states run by Republican governors, like Florida. It goes on to demonize several decisions led by the conservative DeSantis.

“’Your Republican leaders, they’re banning books,’ Newsom says in voiceover of images of DeSantis. Republican governors are ‘making it harder to vote, restricting speech in classrooms, even criminalizing women and doctors,’ Newsom’s ad claims….

“Newsom called on Floridians to ‘join the fight’ against DeSantis. He added that disgruntled citizens in the Sunshine State are welcome to move to California, ‘where we still believe in freedom. Freedom of speech, freedom to choose, freedom from hate and the freedom to love. Don’t let them take your freedom.’”

California Senate Passes Gun Bill Based on Texas’ Abortion Bounty Hunter Law

Pensito Editors

PoliticalWire: “Shortly after the nation’s latest mass shooting, which killed at least 18 children at an elementary school in Texas, the California Senate passed a bill Tuesday to allow private citizens to file suit for at least $10,000 — a bounty-hunter provision modeled on a Texas abortion law — against makers or sellers of untraceable ghost guns or illegal assault weapons,” the [paywalled] San Francisco Chronicle reports.

Fox News: Trump May Take Current Disaster Funds from Florida, Texas to Build Wall

Jon Ponder

Event canceled due to emergency in Trump’s base
It wasn’t surprising to hear that Trump was targeting disaster relief funds earmarked for victims of Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico and the wildfires in California. After all, Hillary Clinton won handily in both those places in 2016 and punishing them by taking away desperately needed funding is exactly the kind of mean-spirited, cold-hearted retribution we’ve come to expect from Trump.

But now even Fox News is reporting that Trump will also strip disaster recovery funds from two big states he won: Florida and Texas.

[…]

Report: Ivanka Played Shill in Her Father’s Trump Baja Resort Scam

Jon Ponder

Site of the Trump Baja resort; inset: Ivanka Trump and her father
Site of the Trump Baja resort; inset: Ivanka Trump and her father

After winning a behind-the-scenes power play in which she ousted campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, Ivanka Trump has assumed a larger role in her father’s presidential campaign.

This change has heartened worried Republican elites. Ivanka’s public persona is a stark contrast from her father’s. He is a hotheaded, conspiracy-theory spouting vulgarian. She is poised and comes off as smart and cool. He is a world-class con artist. She seems to be squeaky clean.

But an investigation by the Los Angles Times into one Donald Trump’s many failed real estate ventures found that Ivanka, along with her brother, Donald Jr., played a supporting role in one of her father’s cons, a real estate deal in Baja, Mexico, that plundered the life savings of hundreds of unwitting condo buyers from Southern California.

[…]

California Polls Find a Tight Race in the Democratic Primary, Trump Trounced in the Fall

Jon Ponder
map-california-demographics-field-poll
According to the California Secretary of State, the number of Republicans registered to vote in the state is 4.7 million, or 27.5 percent of all registered voters. This is 200,000 fewer voters than the 4.9 million (28.8 percent) voters registered in other parties or as independents — and 2.8 million fewer than the 7.5 million registered Democrats, who comprise 43.7 percent of registered voters.

With the California primary just days away, 21 percent of Democrats and independents have already voted, and among them Hillary Clinton leads Bernie Sanders by 17 percentage points, 58 to 41 percent, according to polling from NBC News and the Wall Street Journal. Clinton and Sanders are tied, 46 to 46 percent, among the 24 percent who plan to vote absentee. Among the remaining 55 percent who plan to vote in person next Tuesday, 50 percent say they plan to vote for Sanders and 47 percent will vote for Clinton.

The poll also finds that Clinton leads in Los Angeles, the state’s most populous and diverse area, 54 to 40 percent, which is perhaps not surprising — but she also leads 54 percent to 44 percent in the ultra-liberal Bay Area, which would seem to be Sanders country. Sanders is ahead in the inland/valley Red counties, 54 to 44 percent, and the coastal region, 58 to 36 percent.

In the general election, NBC/WSJ found Clinton beating Donald Trump by 24 points, 55 to 31 percent.

[…]

Bienvenido a California, Señor Trump

Jon Ponder

Protesters carry a Donald Trump balloon carrying a KKK hood at a May Day march in Los Angeles.
Protesters carry a Donald Trump balloon carrying a KKK hood at a May Day march in Los Angeles.

From the Los Angeles Times:

Thousands of people took to the streets in the annual May Day marches in downtown Los Angeles and Boyle Heights on Sunday to advocate for immigration reform, police accountability and an end to racism.

The diverse array of protesters shared one thing in common: all were offended by something Donald Trump had said. The Republican presidential candidate literally loomed over one of the rallies in the form of a giant balloon effigy carrying a Ku Klux Klan hood.

“He’s plastic, he doesn’t have a heart, he doesn’t have a brain,” organizer Francisco Moreno said, as he gestured at the swaying effigy. “We’re not going to vote for Trump!”