Patterico's Pontifications

10/26/2018

Your Anti-Endorsements for California’s Statewide Offices

Filed under: General — JVW @ 2:59 pm



[guest post by JVW]

This time of year, no matter where you live, you are undoubtedly blanketed with endorsements for the midterm elections. Newspapers, to be sure, have traditionally published a full list of how they believe the tuned-in citizen — and in the case of the Dog Trainer, the non-citizen (I kid, I kid) — should mark his or her ballot, but others have gotten in on the act as well, from PACs to vapid celebrities, all of them deigning to explain to us unwashed rubes how we should interpret the character and promises of the various candidates.

But my lot in life is to be a grumpy right-winger in a state where the solid majority of my fellow voters desires entirely different outcomes than I do. So be it. For this election cycle I don’t want to tell my fellow Californians how to vote; I will instead implore you how not to vote. What I am expressing here are the ways you should definitely not mark your ballot twelve days from now (or, in the age of vote-whenever-the-hell-you-want, yesterday). Please understand that just because I beg of you not to vote for candidate X doesn’t mean that I wish you to vote for his or her opponent, candidate Y. The sane move in some cases may be to make no choice between candidates. I’ll leave that determination to your good judgement. With that, here’s how you should not vote in California:

U.S. Senate
Do not vote for Dianne Feinstein, the definition of a politician who has overstayed her welcome. She somehow cultivated a reputation through the years as a moderate Democrat, but that seems entirely based upon the fact that she would support tax cuts for her wealthy constituents while favoring lavish defense budgets which helped her state’s economy and enriched her husband. Beyond that her most notable achievements in a half-century of — ahem, ahem — “public service” have been her “assault weapons” ban which did virtually nothing to stem gun violence, and her leadership as an unstinting cheerleader for abortion. And, as we discussed last month, her behavior in the Kavanaugh confirmation process suggests either a unethical politician who is trying to reinvent herself as a committed leftist in order to placate the critics in her caucus or a senile geezer whose office is entirely run by her staff. Do not allow this old biddy to shuffle around Washington for another six years.

Governor
Gavin Newsom is what you would get if you could somehow combine the ethical sleaziness of Bill and Hillary Clinton, the glib banalities of Barack Obama, and the progressive white male privilege of Ted Kennedy. A while back I promised a full post on his odiousness, and I still plan to cobble it together in the next few days. Suffice to say, he has run a campaign in which California’s manifest governing problems (massive levels of poverty, a shaky budget foundation, a looming pension disaster) take a back-seat to virtue-signaling on twee environmental causes (“I’m fighting Trump on offshore drilling!”) and the sort of monomaniacal social issues that set progressive hearts aflutter. This guy is a clown, and not worthy of your support.

Attorney General
When Kamala Harris left this office to ascend to her Senate seat in Washington where she will likely chill for four years before becoming her party’s Presidential nominee in 2020 (I’m still standing by this prediction I made on election night two years ago), an unaccomplished twelve-term Congressman named Xavier Becerra was appointed by Governor Brown to take her place. Becerra appears to be one of those down-the-line leftists who has spared himself the indignity of working in the dreaded private sector: his career is law school to a nonprofit providing legal aid to the poor to serving as staff for a state senator to deputy state attorney general to being elected to the state assembly to winning a seat in Congress. All along the way, he has never failed to note the instances where he is “the first Latino” to attain some position. As the state attorney general, his priorities appear to be trying to extort settlement money out of corporations and conspicuously battling the Trump Administration at every opportunity. Despite having a $216 million budget and 4100 employees at his disposal, he sees fit to waste $25,000 per month to retain the services of failed ex-Attorney General Eric Holder. A vote for Xavier Becerra is a vote for weaponizing law enforcement on behalf of the Democrat party and left-wing interest groups, and I urge everyone not to vote for him.

Superintendent of Schools
Tony Thurmond strikes me as the typical political lifer who is giving up what I presume to be a safe state assembly seat (annual pay: $104,118) eight years before he would be term-limited out in order to run for this statewide office (annual pay: $175,182). He’s a Democrat, endorsed by the state’s education blob dominated by teacher’s unions, and has been blessed by the full range of left-wing activists from Kamala Harris down to Planned Parenthood. The teacher’s unions are desperate to tamp-down any enthusiasm for charter schools, and since Gavin Newsom has now disavowed his earlier support for charters, the education blob is hoping that a Newsom-Thurmond axis will strangle them in the crib. Unless you think that the public employee left is a responsible steward of our state’s school system, you should keep your blue or black-ink pen away from the Thurmond oval on your ballot.

There are naturally other offices up for consideration, but I’m going to leave my anti-endorsements with these four. I’ll let you know what I think about the various ballot initiatives sometime next week.

– JVW

Suspect Identified And Arrested In Package Bomb Scare

Filed under: General — Dana @ 10:18 am



[guest post by Dana]

Good news:

An arrest has been made in the investigation of bombs sent to prominent Democrats and critics of President Trump. The Department of Justice confirmed that one person was in custody.

Several law enforcement sources told CBS News the suspect’s name is Cesar Sayoc, who was born in 1962. He appears to have a criminal history in Broward County, Florida.

A law enforcement source said that DNA evidence on one of the devices played a part in leading investigators to the suspect, CBS News senior investigative producer Pat Milton reports.

Earlier today, authorities intercepted similar packages addressed to Sen. Cory Booker and former director of Intelligence James Clapper:

The package sent to Booker was found in Florida, the FBI said on Twitter on Friday morning. Sources told CBS News that the package sent to Clapper was found at a postal facility in New York City.

The New York package was addressed to “James Robert Clapper Time Warner (CNN),” according to a photo of the package obtained by CBS New York station WCBS-TV. On Wednesday, a bomb sent to CNN’s offices in New York’s Time Warner Center prompted an evacuation of the building.

Further, law enforcement secured a white van covered in stickers as evidence:

Law enforcement officials towed away a van found in Plantation, Florida, where a suspect was arrested in connection to the explosive devices.

The van is heading to Miramar, Florida, where a FBI field office is located, a law enforcement official told CNN.

Untitled

Here are some details rearding Sayoc:

*According to online records, Sayoc is a registered Republican, registering with the GOP in Florida in March 2016.

*Sayoc calls himself a promoter, booking agent and choreographer of a male stripping show as well as burlesque shows in the Miami-area. Sayoc says that he graduated from Brevard College, N.C./Univ of N.C. at Charlotte.” Sayoc says he attained a Bachelor of Arts in numerous subjects as well as studying veterinary medicine. Sayoc writes on that profile that it was his dream to become a “horse doctor.”

*Sayoc was arrested on drug charges in 2004. He was accused of possession and sale of steroids, along with possession of a controlled substance without a prescription, tampering with evidence, filing fraudulent tax returns, criminal use of personal ID info and possession or unlawful issue of a driver’s license. He pleaded guilty that same year and was sentenced to 18 months of probation.

*In 2013, Sayoc was charged with battery and third-degree grand theft, a felony. He pleaded guilty in 2014 and was sentenced to probation. In 2009, Sayoc was charged with operating without a valid license, not having insurance and not having a tag light and was fined after pleading guilty to the misdemeanor charges. In 2014, Sayoc was arrested on a petit theft charge and violation of probation. He was sentenced to 30 days in jail.

Hm. Was Sayoc working alone? Did he have an accomplice in New York, or were the events not related?:

The arrest took place in Florida and at least some of the action took place there too. Four of the bombs were delivered in New York, at least, so it makes sense that the SDNY would be involved. It could also mean that they’re checking to see if Sayoc had an accomplice for the hand deliveries in the state, or maybe just tracking his cell-phone location data to tie him to the specific deliveries.

Here is President Trump discussing the arrest of Sayoc at the Young Black Leadership Summit minutes ago:

(Cross-posted at The Jury Talks Back.)

–Dana

UPDATE BY PATTERICO: Washington Examiner:

The individual arrested on Friday by the FBI has been named as Cesar Altieri Sayoc. After some digging I managed to find his Twitter page, “Hardrock2016” and – thanks to Washington Examiner’s Phil Klein – another Twitter page listed as “HardrockIntlent.”

I’ve retweeted a few of the tweets this lunatic tweeted out against some of the people sent devices. Here you go:

UPDATE x2 BY PATTERICO: There is simply too much of the crazy to reproduce it all here. Go to my Twitter timeline and scroll. I have retweeted videos of him at the inauguration wearing a MAGA hat, driving his van wearing the same hat, taking video at a Florida Trump rally, and threatening countless political and media figures.

I figure Twitter will delete it all, so I saved his Twitter feed going back to January 10, 2017. 1145 pages of obsessive Trumperism. It’s too big a file to upload, though.

UPDATE BY PATTERICO x3: Look at his crazy tweets yourself, here.

Enjoy My Latest Column Bashing the [Insert Pejorative Group Name Here]

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 7:15 am



It’s Mad Libs Enraged Libs! Or: how to write that column when the deadline is in five minutes and you can’t think of anything new to say:

But what gets me is how these ____________(pejorative group name) are always trying to act like they’re better than us _______________(positive group name), the way they constantly _____________(disfavored activity). You know who I mean: people like ____________(disfavored person) and ______________(disfavored person). But in the end, all they are is _____________(pejorative group name) who do nothing but sit around and ____________(disfavored activity) and wouldn’t know how to ___________(favored activity) if _________________(favored person) took them by the hand and showed them. And no matter how much these ______________(pejorative group name) go to their cocktail parties in the Hamptons and ________________(disfavored activity), these ______________(pejorative group name) will never be as good as us __________(positve group name). The truth is that these ____________(pejorative group name) are jealous of ______________(favored person) because he is one of the ______________(positive group name) who really know how to _____________(favored activity). So buy my book and totally own these _______________(pejorative group name), make ____________(disfavored person) cry, and show all those ___________(pejorative group name) how we _____________(positive group name) act.

Select from the following:

Pejorative group names: pussies, twits, weenies, NeverTrumpers, dorks, Fredocons, sissies, weasels, posers, scolds
Positive group names: real conservatives, Normals, real men, good Republicans, unruly ruffians
Disfavored activities: sip Zima, sell cruise cabins, trash Donald Trump, lecture about morals
Favored activities: bang hot porn stars, fight dirty, destroy the left, own the libs and the pinkos
Disfavored persons: Ben Sasse, Jeff Flake, Bob Corker
Favored persons: Donald Trump, Donald Trump, Donald Trump

[Cross-posted at The Jury Talks Back.]


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