Written by Michael Palomba
It’s no secret that Governor Newsom’s tenure has been a monumental failure. That has been on full display throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. With that being said, even before the pandemic, Newsom’s leadership proved to be awful for California.
Be sure to sign the Recall Newsom petition by clicking the link at the end of the article!
Let’s start by looking at some of Newsom’s non-pandemic related failures.
Newsom touts the state as a nationwide leader in the area of green energy. But despite all that praise, California can’t even keep the lights on. Back in August, at least one million residents were left in the dark, and this was not a lone occurrence. The Wall Street Journal reported that California struggled to find 8,000 megawatts of electricity on those dark August evenings, and at times the state was short up to 15,000 megawatts after sunset. That’s because California relies heavily on solar power, and solar power doesn’t work at night.
“Two numbers help explain why California finds itself scrounging for megawatts on many evenings,” said Rebecca Smith and Katherine Blunt. “Between 2014 and 2018, the state reduced its consumption of electricity from natural gas-fired power plants by 21% according to the state’s energy commission. Over the same period, it increased renewable energy consumption by 54%.”
We are all too familiar with wildfires here in California. While climate change is a factor, there is a bigger factor at play; forest management. Forest management practices in California are not ideal, to say the least. Newsom has even acknowledged that, saying “I am not going to say that the forest management practices in California over the last 100 years have been ideal. Not for one second. But there’s something else going on, not just bad past practices.”
Notice how he mentions “over the last 100 years” and “past practices.” This was a clear attempt to shirk responsibility by blaming it on past leaders, but that shouldn’t fool anyone.
He then proceeded to push the narrative the climate change is the problem, saying “We’re going to have to fast track our efforts in terms of meeting our [clean energy] goals much sooner.”
What he did not talk about fast-tracking, however, are improvements to the state’s forest management practices. He just took advantage of the situation to push his radical climate agenda.
- Water shortages
Not only has Newsom not worked to remedy the water shortages faced by the state, but he has actively worked to make the problem worse. Back in April, Newsom issued new water restrictions as part of a newly released Incidental Take Permit (ITP).
The purpose of these new restrictions was to ensure “that our state water infrastructure operates in a manner protective of fish species listed under the state’s endangered species law,” said Department of Water Resources Director Karla Nemeth and California Department of Fish and Wildlife Director Charlton H. Bonham.
So Newsom decided that limiting the already scarce water supply was necessary to protect fish.
To make matters worse, California has had one of the rainiest centuries in 7,000 years according to a UC Davis study. The problem is, Newsom refuses to build water storage facilities and instead allows trillions of gallons of water to be directed to the ocean. Why you ask? To please environmentalists.
Now let’s take a look at Newsom’s failures relating to the pandemic.
California’s handling of unemployment benefits throughout the pandemic has been abysmal. Last week, a state auditor blasted the Employment Development Department for the extremely preventable failures that took place in 2020. The state paid out unemployment benefits to crime syndicates in foreign countries, prison inmates both in and out of the state, and other “bad actors” who took advantage of the system.
“While this helped many individuals in need during the pandemic, bad actors took advantage of the crisis to abuse the system,” wrote Newsom.
Again, look at how Newsom shirks responsibility. While it is true that people took advantage of the system, that wouldn’t have been possible if it was operated in a secure and efficient manner.
Overall, California is estimated to have paid out billions in fraudulent unemployment claims (our tax dollars), and it will take at least several months to get to the bottom of it. Not only that, but 1.7 million Californians may have to repay $5.5 billion in benefits that they were mistakenly granted.
California has been ranked dead last out of all 50 states for vaccine distribution. Enough said.
With only 22% of Californians giving a favorable response to the state’s vaccine rollout – Gov. @GavinNewsom's approval rating drops to 31%. #HadEnough? #RecallGavinNewsom https://t.co/ea3ZtavWJL
— CAGOP (@CAGOP) February 3, 2021
By shutting down the state for months, Newsom singlehandedly decimated businesses and cause the state’s unemployment rate to skyrocket. Millions were left without work and small businesses were forced to close with many of them having to shut down for good due to financial hardship.
To make matters worse, Newsom conveniently lifted his crippling regional stay-at-home order only days after Biden’s Inauguration. And he refused to disclose the data he used to make that decision. The move was seen as highly partisan.
The arbitrary closure of outdoor dining, despite the lack of data saying that these businesses were contributing to the coronavirus spread, never made any sense.
— Supervisor Jim Desmond (@jim_desmond) January 25, 2021
If all of the above reasons were not enough to show the major flaws in Governor Newsom’s leadership, his blatant disregard for his own COVID-19 regulations should seal the deal.
Back in November, Newsom attended an outing at The French Laundry, a posh restaurant north of San Francisco where guests pay $350 each to dine in. He apologized for attending but assured the public that COVID guidelines were followed. To his surprise, however, someone took photos of him during his night out, and he was caught in a flat out lie. He was sitting at a table with a large group of people, no one had masks on and no social distancing was being practiced. The dinner also took place mostly indoors and a witness reported that the group was so loud, the restaurant had to close the sliding door near their table.
EXCLUSIVE: We've obtained photos of Governor Gavin Newsom at the Napa dinner party he's in hot water over. The photos call into question just how outdoors the dinner was. A witness who took photos tells us his group was so loud, the sliding doors had to be closed. 10pm on @FOXLA pic.twitter.com/gtOVEwa864
— Bill Melugin (@BillMelugin_) November 18, 2020
Another example of Newsom’s hypocrisy was seen earlier this year during the BLM protests and riots. Despite COVID-19 running rampant, Newsom refused to condemn the gatherings of hundreds and thousands of people, which often turned violent. He even went as far as to carve out an exemption for both indoor and outdoor protests in his stay-at-home order. Churches and other places of worship were not granted that same privilege.
I said it before, and I’ll say it again. Newsom has been a complete failure to the state of California. That is why he is facing a recall campaign that is very likely to meet its signature requirement by the March 10th deadline. California needs new leadership, and fast. To sign the petition to recall Governor Newsom, go to RescueCalifornia.org.
Photo by Jae C. Hong/AP
