About Last Week…

Gov. Gavin Newsom’s rather inexplicable* pick of out-of-state swamp schemer Laphonza Butler is not going down terribly well with the public.

About one-third of Californians said “who?” (if the poll had before the pick that number would have 99.27%,) about one-third said “um, okay…,” and the remaining third said “you have got to be kidding me, Pyle!”  And the criticism came from both sides (and both ends) of the aisle, too.

Not exactly a red-carpet reception for the nation’s first lesbian and, well, everything else senator.

There are a few reasons why the pick is as popular as a sober bridesmaid – first, a resume that looks like it was ghosted by George Soros; second, that whole “and you are…?” thing; third, the passing over a local black woman to appoint another black woman without even getting the caretaker guarantee; fourth, a rather jarring name that I’m pretty sure I heard once on Spanish-dubbed episode of “Happy Days”; and fifth, that whole “and you’re from…?” thing.

In the end none of this will have any impact on what she does in office, only if she will try to retain said office.  Her term will be filled with social justice platitudes, paeans to how amazing a ceiling-breaker she is (conveniently ignoring that it was a white guy who was completely responsible for her becoming a senator,) and doing whatever that specific white guy tells her to do – now where have we heard of that kind of relationship before?

Anyway, as to the above “*” : Admittedly, all of this could be off-the-mark a bit as the entire point of the appointment could have involved Gavin – heaven forfend! – making his pick solely based on his desire to move to DC himself. Butler’s connections and her bona-woke-fides and her ability to raise piles of money and her current immunity from any type of criticism at all and her sitting at the center of a world Gavin 100% has to hold on to even while he vetoes the occasional progressive here and there to not look so crazy to the rest of the country.

In other words, her appointment could just be a wink and a nod to the powers that be.

Speaking of powers that be, Bakersfield’s Kevin McCarthy is no longer one of them.  In the grand scheme of things, it really doesn’t matter that he is no longer Speaker of the House – either of the two serious contenders for the job will do just fine, maybe better, and may even have an easier time of it if Matt Gaetz is satisfied to sit in the corner smiling and playing with his scalp.

What will matter is the impact on state politics, specifically the Republican Party.

California’s GOP – “How dare you ask us to at least secure one-third of the votes?!?” – organization is …what’s worse than a travesty of a joke? Content to feel important, chat with people in DC, cash consulting checks, and never having to care about the outcome of any election because that’s not the point of the current organization, the GOP could be facing a bit of soul searching as without McCarthy’s financial leavings the extant power structure will have a difficult time keeping up the façade of being a, um, political party and not just an expense account club.

It may not be possible to re-create the vibrant, active, successful, policy-driven party of the past, but a new broom would at least have the chance to move it from vestigial to catatonic, maybe even up to moribund, possibly up to drowsy, and – maybe just maybe in the best of worlds – to merely distracted.

Wishful thinking, true, but not as wishful as thinking criminals who do not have any bail money at risk never commit a crime while they are awaiting trial.

That seems to be the idea behind “zero bail.”  Even though there are no potential immediate negative repercussions to carrying that sack of baby formula out of that drug store, a criminal will not steal a sack of baby formula because they are at heart, um, good people, I suppose?  

Unless of course they need $949 dollars’ worth of formula for their hungry toddler and that’s okay anyway because people only steal for basic necessities of life (and no, people have never stolen formula to use it to cut street drugs with– how dare you assume such a thing – racist.)

Zero bail will have a direct immediate negative impact on the state, while the guy meeting Joe Biden in San Francisco in November is already having impact that is more insidious and has the potential to destroy the remains of the already very shaky underpinnings of California.

Xi Jinping will be in town in about five weeks to talk circles around a winded and deluded Biden at the Asian-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting.

For Xi, this could be a glorious look at his successful handiwork, a first-hand experience of how much China has rotted the United States from inside.  

I cannot but help to think of one thing when I hear “Xi in San Francisco:”

But – short of the declaration of actual war and/or Xi and Biden making out on the Golden Gate Bridge – it is the city itself that will be the star, or child star, or child star with a meth addiction, or child star whose parents stole all his money so he now offers certain services in alleyways in exchange for fentanyl.

The world has been watching San Francisco’s abject decline for some time now and it will be on all of its glorious display for the international summit.  Maybe – one can hope the city already has a fleet of buses filled with drugs ready to drive around town enticing people to hop on board and take a little trip for a couple of weeks.

To be honest, short of a cataclysmic flood to wash the city clean, I’m not sure how they are going to pull it off.  The media will focus on the meeting, with earth shaking communiques! bilateral agreements!! frank climate change discussions!!! starring in most of the headlines.

But even they will not be able to completely overlook the sewage while they are standing in it.  If the city pulls it off and manages to not look as disgusting as it is, it will be a feather in its cap.

Of course, that will lead to the obvious question – why can’t it be that way all the time?

Thanks for reading the Globe!