Gov. Gavin Newsom. (Photo: Kevin Sanders for California Globe)
What Autocrat, Dictator or Tyrant has Ever Willingly Given Up One-Man Rule?
The Legislature has authority to terminate the Gov. Newsom’s emergency powers
By Katy Grimes, May 25, 2020 2:10 am
The Legislature recessed and left town, leaving Californians with Gov. Newsom and his newly found powers.
Under California’s state-of-emergency rules, on March 4, in response to the coronavirus pandemic, Gov. Gavin Newsom was the first governor to declare a state of emergency, elevating him to complete autocratic control. Since then, Governor Newsom has issued 39 Executive Orders, unilaterally changing 200 laws spanning most sections of the California code,” Assemblymen Kevin Kiley (R-Rocklin) and James Gallagher (R-Yuba City) informed us last week. “This includes creating new voting laws for an election six months away and overhauling Workers’ Compensation rules.”
The governor’s emergency powers were only supposed to last for two months. Knowing this, the Legislature agreed and authorized $1 billion for Newsom to use during the emergency for issues relating to the coronavirus. Then the Legislature recessed and left town, leaving Californians with Newsom and his newly found powers.
In doing so, the Legislature also abdicated any balance of power.
Across the country, Americans are watching in horror as blue-state Democrat governors are abusing these “temporary” emergency powers: Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo, Oregon Gov. Kate Brown, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam, and California Gov. Gavin Newsom.
Newsom appears to be leading these tyrants with his ongoing lockdown orders, killing off small businesses, issuing citations to salon owners, beach goers, bar owners and protestors. He even threatened to withhold some of the $47 million in federal CARES Act funds from Tulare County hours after the Tulare County Board of Supervisors voted to open the county up for business.
After scolding Southern California beachgoers who were desperate to escape the heat in late April, Newsom threatened to keep the state closed much longer.
And now, Newsom is threatening to cut first responders if California doesn’t receive a federal government bailout, while he hands out $75 million in taxpayer-funded assistance to illegal immigrants, who don’t qualify for federal coronavirus relief… because they are in the country illegally.
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, who extended the county lockdown through the end of July, even announced that beachgoers were only allowed to be on the wet sand – no beach volleyball or sunbathing. And he’s using law enforcement to make sure that visitors obey his orders.
Looking ahead at a time when the lockdown orders are no longer in play, what will the country look like? Will these Democrat governors willingly relinquish their “temporary” powers? And what will California look like with so many businesses closed, perhaps forever?
Knowing Gov. Newsom’s history of autocracy when he was San Francisco Mayor, will he be content to hand back the emergency powers he has so abused?
What autocrat or tyrant has ever willingly given back powers? Instead, they usually expand their powers and sphere of influence by expanding the state bureaucracy, and intimidating dissenters.
Ludwig von Mises explains this in his book, Bureaucracy:
…bureaucracy is imbued with an implacable hatred of private business and free enterprise. But the supporters of the system consider precisely this the most laudable feature of their attitude. Far from being ashamed of their anti-business policies, they are proud of them. They aim at full control of business by the government and see in every businessman who wants to evade this control a public enemy.
Californians meanwhile, are rebelling in many different ways – opening their businesses in defiance of the governor’s ridiculous orders; protesting at the State Capitol, city halls, and beaches; congregating in churches, traveling to second homes and cabins, and going to counties already re-opened. And they are taking this risk knowing they may be cited or arrested.
Veteran California journalist Dan Walters pondered this as well: “The state law allowing Newsom to declare an emergency says he ‘shall proclaim the termination of a state of emergency at the earliest possible date that conditions warrant,’ but also allows the Legislature to end it ‘by concurrent resolution,’” Walters wrote.
As California Globe reported last week, two California lawmakers aren’t waiting for a California judge to strike down Gov. Gavin Newsom’s lockdown orders. Under Section 8629 of the California Emergency Services Act, the Legislature has authority to terminate the Governor’s emergency powers. Assembly members Kevin Kiley (R-Rocklin) and James Gallagher (R-Yuba City) are introducing an Assembly Concurrent Resolution to exercise this statutory prerogative.
A “State of Emergency” in California is a legal term describing not merely conditions of extreme peril, but also the inadequacy of state and local institutions to combat the threat within the constraints of the State Constitution, Kiley and Gallagher wrote.
The nonpartisan Legislative Analyst, in a report last Sunday on the Governor’s May budget Revision, said he was “very troubled” by the authority the Governor seeks to take away from the Legislature, we reported. He concludes: “we urge the Legislature to jealously guard its constitutional role and authority.”
“This Resolution is meant to restore a proper balance between the legislative and executive branches,” said Assemblyman Kiley. “To the extent the Governor retains extraordinary powers, they should be limited in scope in coordination with the Legislature, which has authority to terminate those powers altogether.”
Dan Walters notes, “Its passage would be analogous to a no-confidence vote in the parliamentary system we now seem to have adopted, as least temporarily.”
“No-confidence” indeed.
Following Newsom’s April 14 Tweet, “SCIENCE — not politics — must be California’s guide” in its economic recovery, more than 150 California economists and professors sent the Governor an open letter calling on him to suspend AB 5 and re-open the economy.
Newsom’s reluctance to fully re-open the state has more to do with maintaining his ongoing emergency powers than health concerns. Newsom, who claimed he was basing his decisions on science, stubbornly refuses to even acknowledge the Stanford and USC studies published recently which show that the death rate from the virus is likely to be as low as 0.18% of COVID-19 patients.
27 different California counties have either bucked Newsom’s orders due to few or no coronavirus deaths, re-opened, or asked the governor to allow them to re-open.
The next issue to address is California’s city and county autocrats trying to hold on to their fleeting powers.
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Newsom is a power mad tyrant and needs to be recalled…
Of course, power madness runs in the family – just look at Auntie Nancy’s hammerlock on her power & control of the House….
These family megalomaniac are mentally ill and unfit for office….
You said it!! Agree 100 percent!!!!
From the beginning of their reign the Dark Religion of our CA tyrants such as Newsom, Garcetti, Steinberg, Libby Schaaf and many others has been to do the OPPOSITE of what their Oaths of Office require them to do, and their “Holy Trinity” — as radio activist John Kobylt of KFI-AM recently pointed out — has been to worship, above all others, illegal aliens, prisoners, and homeless/vagrants at the expense of taxpaying, productive citizens.
With the recent Supreme Court ruling that reinstates to felony status encouragement or inducement of an alien to enter or reside in the U.S. illegally, what makes these “leaders” immune from the consequences of such a ruling? Many are on record offering up free lawyers and protection of law protection to illegal aliens, as well as handing out (duplicative) cash payments to such individuals. I have heard rumors that electeds are immune, but I wonder why, when such actions from a position of power and while in possession of a huge money purse would actually be MORE destructive than if the average Joe Blow did it, not less?
[…protection of LAW ENFORCEMENT…]
You said it! “Shut up and pay!!” They don’t care about the taxpayers in the city of Los Angeles. Those that have any money at all are forced to pay for the homeless and undocumented. The government in LA has lost its legitimacy. They cannot continue to create arbitrary rules and deny people the right to earn a living. We pay for everything. You park your car on the wrong side of the street and 8:01 you get a 200 dollar ticket. While the homeless defecate on our streets and illegal aliens do business on the side of the road with no business license are not cited. Legitimate businesses are Told to close shop and die for the “good of society”. Enough is Enough!! This needs to end now. Tyranny has a name in Los Angeles and it’s Mayor Eric Garcetti his 555k per year Health Director Barbara “the zombie” Ferrer.
It’s time for a true rebellion against these edicts.
Open up your stores, restaurants, and houses of worship. Implement reasonable safety precautions and earn a living to feed your families!!!
It’s official “ the cure is worse the disease”. We flattened your curve, we gave you the power and now we are taking it back. Mayor Garcetti, you have lost the consent of the people to govern.
If this was a red state you would still get that $200 parking ticket.
There is an answer to this unprecedent tyrannical behavior by the current, temporary Governor of California:
https://recallgavin2020.com/
People just need to calm down a bit and stop freaking out over everything. Businesses can be rebuilt and money can be earned again. Just be happy that you’re alive and well and let’s work with each other to get through these tough times.
How do you recover lost wages, permanent job loss or a business someone has worked their entire lives for? Sure, some may recover and many will never! Many longtime family businesses in my area are not returning! You have simplified the devastation of an economy. Small businesses operate on shoestring budgets and taxed as individuals in most cases.
I think it is quite evident the citizens have worked together and were agreeable to a TEMPORARY shelter in place. The curve was flatened. There are nearly 40 million residents here in California, as of today 3,814 unfortunate deaths. There are deaths yet to be accounted for due the unavailability of health screenings, suicides,etc. Viruses kill and so does poverty. We can protect life and reopen society. Yes, life is sacred and so is the truth.
The truth is you have yet to see the ramifications of these extended lockdowns!
Yeah it might suck to lose a business that you’ve worked your entire life for, but you’re still alive and have the ability to start something new. The economy will recover and there’s going to be a lot of opportunities for people when things open back up we just have to be patient.
Spoken like a state worker who has nothing better to do than troll people who are despairing because of all of the B.S. we are going through
Yes, or maybe a friend of the Gettys, Pelosis, and Newsoms, who are patiently waiting for California to bottom out and scoop up the mom and pop small restaurants and bed and breakfasts to add to their collection!
Well, it is great to “Look at the bright side” while you are sitting at home with your mask on collecting your welfare check. For the REST OF US, we live in reality. If we don’t work, we don’t get paid, And, if we don’t get paid, well, the bills just come in ANYWAY. Those of us who are 60 and over, we can’t “start something new”. I worked for a company from 21 to 32, got laid off during the recession of the early 1990s. Was unemployed until I started my own business in 1999. At 62, I can’t “just start something new”. I am planning to work until my mid 70s if I live that long. I am guessing you have a college degree, are in your 20s, and you “know everything”. Well, there are a few things you still need to learn.
wow, what a bootlicker you are!
Are you thankful for being alive every year after winter rolls into spring and you’ve survived the most recent flu season? I’d prefer to keep my civil liberties, my business, and my basic dignity rather than debasing myself to the level of a lowly chicken running around with its head cut off in panic (I guess in this case a more accurate description would be a headless chicken with a face mask) over something that has been proven to be as innocuous as covid-19. Time to wake up and look at the stats… You’re more likely to die in a crash on the drive over to a testing center for covid than you are from covid itself
Easy to say when it isn’t your business or money, and no, many do not recover. Thanks for the belittlement of the destruction of livelihoods though. “Just be happy that you’re alive and well” Just smile as everything you have worked your ass off for possibly decades is flushed down the toilet by power hungry tyrants, just be happy you’re alive! People like you are everything that is wrong with this country.
Truth, You wrote your reply last May and now we are on lockdown in mid-Nov, again. Businesses can still recover???? The likes of Governor Nuisance doesn’t want them to recover, along with all the other democratic governors, the AOC, Biden, Harris, the squad+. They want us to be dependent on the government – “they will compensate us for not working”, take money from those who have some money, give it to others and then we will all be poor and wait in line for a $10 loaf of bread. Wake up to reality “Truth”. Alameda County doesn’t even meet the standards set by Nuisance to put us in the purple tier and he did it anyway, why, because he can – it’s power. You know the downfall of a nation (such as Rome) – Power. Wake up America
Yes. I am one of the 99.92% that has had the Covid19 CCP flu and lived to tell about it…
I am also 100% fed up at the liberal leftist control grab and misguided policies that began as health related and have now morphed into social and economic control.
Don’t tread on me…
Are you guys mad because you and yours aren’t winning?