Patterico's Pontifications

7/1/2021

Ten Years Ago Today

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 7:20 pm



My family and I were SWATted.

As They Might Be Giants said:

Time is marching on.

And time . . . is still marching on.

Entitled Progressive White Male Governor Bullies Minority Woman to Bend the Law on His Behalf

Filed under: General — JVW @ 6:31 pm



[guest post by JVW]

Yeah, this sounds about right considering the central character involved:

Governor Gavin Newsom is doing everything he can to ensure he rides his late-pandemic popularity surge to victory in the recall election, but a paperwork snafu may keep him from being listed as a Democrat on the ballots, so he’s dragging his handpicked Secretary of State into court to correct his mistake.

On Monday, Newsom sued Secretary of State Shirley Weber—who he appointed to replace Alex Padilla, making her the first Black woman to hold the position—because his lawyer forgot to file a notice of party preference with Weber when he filed an answer to the recall petition in February 2020. The oversight would prevent “Democratic Party” from appearing next to Newsom’s name.

As Courthouse News reports, the Governor’s legal team only realized their “good faith mistake” in recent weeks and asked Weber to cut them some slack, but their fellow Dem shut them down.

“Weber, however, declined to accept the notice, necessitating this action,” the complaint reads.

Forgive me for a moment while I laugh uproariously.
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OK, thanks.

Governor Hair-Gel’s argument is that one year ago he signed a bill which purports to provide voters with more information about the candidates listed on the ballot, so failing to acknowledge him as a loyal Democrat (yay!) might leave scatter-brained voters with the impression that a white male from a dialed-in San Francisco family who had the J. Paul Getty dynasty smooth his way into public office might actually be one of those nasty Republicans (boo!). So, according to his logic, his campaign’s bungling (the word even the usually-friendly Los Angeles magazine uses in their story) is outweighed by — don’t ‘cha know — public interest. Already the sleazy Democrat legislature has passed legislation allowing the recall election to be moved up 30 days earlier than current law allows, reflecting the theory that Newsom’s popularity is probably at the highest point it is going to reach now that we are coming out of COVID restrictions and the state is awash with budget money from Uncle Sucker in Washington.

It would be pretty awesome if Gavin the Governor loses the recall by a slim margin that can be reasonably attributed to bureaucratic error, the kind for which California under his stewardship is notable. But I’m sure that in the end Secretary of State Weber will come around and play loyal party soldier. Just another day in our one-party state: Cuba on the Pacific.

– JVW

The Bill Cosby Decision

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 8:28 am



I place the blame squarely on the initial prosecutor.

I can perhaps talk about it at length when I have more time, but this quote tells you all you need to know:

The press release specifically cautioned the parties that the decision could be revisited, “District Attorney Castor cautions all parties to this matter that he will reconsider this decision should the need arise.” He testified that inclusion of this sentence, warning that the decision could be revisited, in the paragraph about a civil case and the use of the word “this,” was intended to make clear that it applied to the civil case and not to the prosecution. Mr. Castor testified that this sentence was meant to advise the parties that if they criticized his decision, he would contact the media and explain that Ms. Constand’s actions damaged her credibility, which would severely hamper her civil case. He testified that once he was certain a prosecution was not viable “I operated under the certainty that a civil suit was coming and set up the dominoes to fall in such a way that Mr. Cosby would be required to testify. ”He included the language “much exists in this investigation that could be used by others to portray persons on both sides of the issue in a less than flattering light,” as a threat to Ms. Constand and her attorneys should they attack his office.

What a scumbag and idiot.

Minority Leader McCarthy Warns Members About Accepting Pelosi Offer To Serve On Jan. 6 Committee (UPDATE ADDED)

Filed under: General — Dana @ 7:48 am



[guest post by Dana]

Since Senate Republicans defeated efforts to form a bipartisan commission to investigate the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, Nancy Pelosi has formed a committee to do the job. As such, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy is apparently making it clear to members that they would be better of not accepting any offer from Pelosi to serve on the committee:

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy on Wednesday issued a blanket threat during a meeting with freshmen members of his caucus that he would strip any Republican member of their committee assignments if they accept an offer from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to serve on the select committee to investigate the January 6 insurrection, according to two GOP sources with knowledge of the matter.

McCarthy’s threat comes after the House voted to establish the committee. Reps. Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois were the only two Republican members to vote in favor of its formation. It’s not yet clear whether Pelosi will appoint Republicans to the commission, but the threat from McCarthy underscores how he feels about any members accepting an offer from the Democrats to serve on the committee.

After Wednesday’s vote, McCarthy refused to say if he will cooperate and offer up members to serve on the committee, telling CNN, “It seems pretty political to me.”

The select committee will consist of eight members appointed by Democrats and four members appointed by Republicans. Reportedly (and sensibly), Pelosi will veto any Republican member who has pushed Trump’s Big Lie about the election while rejecting the certification of Joe Biden’s election win.

Meanwhile, Rep. Liz Cheney believes that Pelosi’s committee is the only way to get the answers Americans need – and demand:

Our nation, and the families of the brave law enforcement officers who were injured defending us or died following the attack, deserve answers. I believe this select committee is our only remaining option.

Rep. Kinzinger said he would consider serving on the committee if asked:

“It’s not necessarily anything I look forward to doing, but if I thought my voice was needed to get to the bottom of it, it would be something I would be open to,” he told a local TV station Wednesday.

I’ll leave you with this comment from a few weeks ago:

A large chunk of the GOP is denying what happened. Many are still saying it was a false flag designed to “make Trump look bad.” Some are claiming that there was no forced entry because one police officer opened a door somewhere. Many are denying the clear video evidence of assaults on the Capitol police. Most are denying the open calls for executing “traitors.” Trumpers are claiming that Capitol police are lying about what they experienced. And most are denying that their hero did anything at all to incite an attack on the legislature.

And we don’t really know what Donald J. Trump was doing while it all unfolded. Wouldn’t it be important to know that, and what conversations he had with legislators, and why there was such a long delay in sending more security, and what communication some legislators may have had with the attackers?

Why do most Republicans not want us to know all that?

P.S. As recently as last week, you-know-who was still spouting the Big Lie before an audience of approximately 20,000 supporters.

P.P.S. Just in:

UPDATE: Lol, Kevin McCarthy:

–Dana


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