California Governor Gavin Newsom and his California Democrat cohorts held a Thursday rally at the Japanese American Museum: the National Center for the Preservation of Democracy, to promote the "Election Rigging Response Act," Newsom's attempt to go around the constitutionally-established California Redistricting Commission. Newsom wants to have the power to redraw congressional districts, but according to the California constitution, he does not have it — so, does he choose to bend to the will of the people? Of course not. Instead, Newsom is pushing forward a voter initiative that will strip the redistricting commission of its power and return it back to him.
As per usual, for Governor Hair Gel:
The rogues' gallery of California Democrats and their power-hungry enablers were featured speakers ahead of Newsom, who was the last to take the podium. In attendance, Sen. Alex Padilla, Sen. Adam Schiff, Congressman Pete Aguilar, SEIU President David Huerta, California Teacher's Association Secretary-Treasurer Erica Jones, Assemblyman Isaac Bryan, State Senator Sabrina Cervantes, California Federation of Labor President Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher, Planned Parenthood of California CEO Jodi Hicks, and Sara Sadhwani of the California Redistricting Commission, who should be decrying this move by Newsom, but is instead being a good California Democrat and backing his play.
Anne Burrows, CEO of the Japanese American Museum, opened with remarks, raising the specter of the 1942 Japanese internment and comparing it to the ICE raids in America.
So for us here at the museum, this is hallowed ground. For us here at the Democracy Center, this is the Ground Zero point, one of the Ground Zero points of the civil rights history of this country. And we should note that what happened in 1942 is not much different from what is happening now as ICE is stalking the streets of our city and the terror ICE is inflicting on our sisters and brothers in the immigrant community.
Burrows' statement was met with a "BOO" of support for her words and applause. What begs credulity is that it was a Democrat President Franklin D. Roosevelt who signed this executive order, and was a symbol of authoritarianism in trying to pack the courts and make end-runs around laws to get his way. But, I digress...
Sara Sadhwani of the California Redistricting Commission was next to speak, and went on a rant about ICE, calling them masked gunmen. "We have to take action, these are the hallmarks of a democracy in peril." Failing to realize that this action of overturning a commission she serves on is fully a threat to democracy.
Planned Parenthood of California CEO Jodi Hicks came up next, telling lies about President Trump changing the rules to appoint "anti-choice justices" to the Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade. Hicks crowed about voters' choosing to accept Proposition 1, which codifies abortion into the state constitution, but lamented the California representatives who voted to defund PPFA throwing out the canards of taking away reproductive freedoms, cancer and STI screenings, and the less than one percent of services that PPFA offers, versus the 99 percent of abortions it actually performs. Hicks claimed that Republicans are rigging elections in order to maintain power. So, what exactly is this brain trust gathered today trying to do? Rig the election in their favor.
The cognitive dissonance boggles the mind.
California Teacher's Association Secretary-Treasurer Erica Jones came to bemoan the dismantling of the Department of Education, and that ICE could conduct raids near school grounds. "I'm here today because educators across California, from Calexico to Crescent City, are ready to fight back!"
By "educators," Jones means the teachers unions. Of course, she fully supports the ballot initiative. This is our shocked face.
CalFed President and former Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher (who dropped the "Fletcher" from her introduction), spouted lies about how her members were duped that Trump would only deport the criminals, but now he is deporting "workers, and grandmothers, and Dreamers."
Gonzalez Fletcher had the stones to say that CalFed "is not a partisan organization," and that she cares about working people.
The 4.5 million independent professionals destroyed by her AB5 law, as well as union member and former San Diego Metropolitan Transportation System spokesperson Grecia Figueroa, who is also suing Gonzalez Fletcher's husband for sexual harassment, would like a word.
Gonzalez Fletcher continued:
We are tired, tired of lapdogs. We want people who are independent, not obedient. And it's time for us to show a little disobedience to Donald Trump. [....] We have to make sure there's a check in Congress and California can unilaterally do that. And we are proud to stand with our Governor Gavin Newsom who is ready and asking us to fight back. We will fight back every single day.
Just like she allowed citizens to fight back against her Motor Voter laws, where you are automatically registered to vote Democrat when you obtain or renew your California driver's license? Like most of California's deceptive laws disenfranchising voters, it was passed at the last minute along Democrat Party lines. But tell us again about threats to democracy, Lorena.
She finally stopped talking, acknowledging that she had gone over her time (shocker) and introduced SEIU President David Huerta, who beclowned himself by attacking an ICE agent and has become the latest poster child for ICE resistance.
Read it Here: David Huerta Released on Bond for Attempted Obstruction of ICE, Cosplays as Trump's Political Prisoner
Huerta was interrupted by chants of "Si Se Puede!" and when it calmed, he began the call and response: "When We Fight, We Win!" Gonzalez Fletcher started off the requisite Democrat profanity with some "F" bombs, and Huerta continued, calling the One Big Beautiful Law, "One Big Pile of S**t." Huerta alleged, "California voters must be given the choice to save our democracy, and I trust California voters will save our democracy."
Better not bet on that, Huerta. Of course, he had to virtue signal by ending his remarks in Spanish and another round of chanting, "Si Se Puede." Because SEIU stands for all workers.
Right.
Assemblyman Isaac Bryan, who is being groomed for Congress, was next at the podium, claiming his Texas roots in making this fight personal. Bryan at least didn't floss, and said clearly, "This isn't about redistricting, don't let anyone tell you it's about redistricting[...'] This is about whether we will let the authoritarian in the White House break our democracy while we sit silent. While we take a high road that doesn't exist anymore."
Their "democracy" is Democrats-only in power. They are fine with that. When this status quo gets challenged? Oh, it's a crisis.
State Senator Sabrina Cervantes and chair of the elections committee(!) continued in this "crisis" mode concerning Texas and the Trump administration, which is "silencing working families, Latino voters, Black voters and propping up an authoritarian president." She took the same tack as Sara Sadhwani, claiming that voters want this fight, when it is Gavin Newsom and the Democrats who are fueling this initiative. As polls have shown, California voters want no part of it. Cervantes said:
In California, we believe voters should have the final say at the ballot box on any changes. The American people have made it clear: people want their healthcare, not tax cuts for billionaires. People want lower prices for working families, not tariff taxes that are costing American consumers hundreds of billions of dollars. People want a government that trusts science and fact, not secret police dragging innocent people off the streets into unmarked vans. They know their cruel and draconian policies are failing, and they can't win in competitive districts. So, instead of earning the voters trust, they are trying to cheat their way to victory.
The citizens who voted for the passage of Prop. 36, to restore law and order and increase felony convictions, have found that Governor Newsom is refusing to fund an initiative that they approved and voted resoundingly for its passage. How, exactly, are the voters getting the final say?
Cervantes showed her hand with this petulant demand:
National redistricting reform is needed now more than ever. If other states followed California's lead, and created independent, non-partisan commissions, we wouldn't be in this crisis today. If Texas does the right thing and backs off, we will follow suit and our ballot measure will be shelved.
So basically this is another ploy to get Texas to back down. They don't care about democracy or working people. They just care about their ability to bully their way into staying in power.
Got it.
Congressman Pete Aguilar echoed Cervantes' statement that if Texas and other red states won't back down, they will force them to. "We will respect the civil rights of its voters," Aguilar opined, while co-signing Newsom's blatant disrespect of said voters by backing this ridiculous ballot initiative.
Serial liar Adam Schiff and his corruptocrat cohort Alex Padilla also had the same words. Rinse. Repeat. Like Huerta, Padilla felt the need to end his remarks with some words in Spanish.
Spare us.
Padilla even fumbled in his introduction of the governor, garbling one of Newsom's favorite aphorisms about "going forward, together." Oh yes, just like Newsom dined at the French Laundry and placed his children into in-person school, while the rest of California was locked in their homes and children forced into Zoom instruction during the COVID pandemic.
Sure, Jan.
Huerta led another chant of "When We Fight, We Win!" and Newsom thanked him, then proceeded to gleam and pontificate, as is his tick.
Thank all of you. In the spirit of that African proverb that Sen. Padilla was referencing, "you want to go fast, go alone. You want to go far, go together." And I look back at this audience, and I look at all of you united in this cause, and I look back at where we are in this precious moment in time. We are in Los Angeles. The most diverse city, in the most diverse county, in the most diverse state, in the world's most diverse democracy. And I have long believed that the world looks to us, to all of you, to see that it's possible to live together and advance together and prosper together across every imaginable difference. What makes L.A. great, what makes California great, and what makes the United States of America great is that at our best we don't tolerate our diversity, we celebrate our diversity. And it's a point of pride. Because we're all in this together.
See, COVID lockdowns, French Laundry. Newsom droned on:
Where are we? At Democracy Center. And right outside, at this exact moment, are dozens and dozens of ICE agents. Donald Trump... you think it's coincidental? Donald Trump and his minions, Tom Homan... tough guy. Coincidentally decided, or not, that this was the location to advance ICE arrests. Indiscriminate... perhaps. We'll find out later. But certainly indiscriminate when a 15-year-old disabled boy had a gun put to his head in Los Angeles trying to go to school just a few days ago.
Newsom was referencing a Monday incident in Arleta, a Los Angeles suburb, where a 15-year-old with disabilities (that could mean anything in California) was detained by local law enforcement with a Border Patrol agent also being present. Newsom continued:
I don't need to belabor this except I want to... [offstage: level set.] People are scared. People are fearful. You had a United States Senator... was thrown to the ground in a federal building. Alex Padilla. JD Vance, his name is "Alex Padilla," not "Jose Padilla." That's the Vice President of the United States. There's another museum, not that far away from us, talks about those 53 days. Some of you know what I'm referring to.
Read More: Hilarious: Theater Kid, CA Sen. Alex Padilla Inadvertently Makes an Ad for Mass Repatriations
Newsom had all the persuasion of a chainsaw, as he laid on the fake gravitas and stoked more fear:
Wake up America. This is a serious moment. Wake up to what is going on. Wake up the fear and anxiety. Wake up to what's happening, not just here in Los Angeles where we saw our streets militarized, where we saw our due process rights thrown out the window. You heard the word, "disappeared"? There was a 12-year-old boy, born in Oxnard, California, whose mother and father were disappeared. Twenty years going to the same packing facility every single day, didn't even know how to get back into his own home, in his own house. He had no brothers and sisters. He is now disappeared, in an attempt to find his parents. This is Trump's America. This is the moment we are living in.
He did the usual ending of thanking everyone who is "standing up and being here today," as well as his Democrat elected stooges. He of course had to invoke January 6 and "insurrection," for good measure and compared it to the redistricting that will happen in Texas and of course, to Donald Trump. "He doesn't play by a different set of rules, he doesn't believe in the rules. So, as a consequence, we need to disabuse ourselves of the way things have been done."
Newsom needs to look in a mirror, because he's describing himself. Newsom is not just trying to shove this initiative down the throats of California citizens; he's trying to "lead the way" to force his California corruption on the rest of the nation.
Good luck with that, because no one is having it. Least of all Texas, the Trump administration, or the Republican Party.
National Republican Congressional Committee spokesperson Christian Martinez had this to say:
Gavin Newsom’s latest stunt has nothing to do with Californians and everything to do with consolidating radical Democrat power, silencing California voters, and propping up his pathetic 2028 presidential pipe dream. Newsom’s made it clear: he’ll shred California’s Constitution and trample over democracy - running a cynical, self-serving playbook where Californians are an afterthought and power is the only priority.
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