“In Response to Texas abortion ban, Newsom calls for similar restrictions on assault weapons”: https://lat.ms/3yiFIaF

This is how you run for President.

Two can play this game. For decades the Republicans have been defining the game, with the Democrats too afraid to take action, for fear of alienating some centrist defector who is never coming back to the party anyway. Biden wanted kumbaya with the opposing party and all he ended up with was wasted time and anemic poll numbers. Because it’s no longer business as usual in the U.S. anymore, it’s WAR!

So the Republicans have been playing the long game for decades. Most notably with the Federalist Society. Control the legal system and you control the country. So when a Democrat is in power, few federal judges get cleared. And when Republicans are in power, they jam through a flotilla of right wingers willing to uphold the inanities of the right wing that most of the country is not for. Yes, abortion, guns, health care, the results are in, and the people want abortion and health care, but not guns.

But the people have no power. And the Republicans are doing their best to institutionalize this. No longer will we have majority rule. As a matter of fact, we haven’t had majority rule from day one, since less populated states like North Dakota get as many senators as California.

As for California…

For years, and especially since the arrival of Covid, the right has made California its punching bag. You’d think everybody in California is homeless, or worried to leave the house for fear of violence. The statistics say otherwise. As a matter of fact, only 8.4% of the American public moved last year, primarily because THEY CAN’T AFFORD TO!

But just like the right controls the narrative in D.C., it controls the narrative on California, to the point that nincompoop Farhad Manjoo wrote an article in the “New York Times” about moving to Texas when the fact is almost no one is, and there’s a plethora of stories of those who did moving back!

Yes, the left has taken the bait. As a matter of fact, Biden is doing quite well. As for leaving Afghanistan, turns out that the Taliban had been infiltrating the government for years, which is why the propped-up army didn’t fight back.

Never mind the other laws Biden has actually gotten through, the actions he’s taken. It’s all right wing b.s. all the time.

But the truth is California is the opposite of Texas, it’s completely blue, and unlike in the Lone Star State, the Democrats’ power is not challenged. Yes, Texas is gonna go blue, it’s just a matter of when, it’s those pesky immigrants who are gonna flip the switch, the minorities, and about the only tool the Republicans have in defense of their majority is rigging elections, via gerrymandering and so much more.

But in glorious California…

The truth is most people haven’t been anywhere. Back in the sixties you hitchhiked across the country, you wanted to see what Paul Simon was singing about in that classic song. But ever since Reagan movement has been de minimis, because as the rich have gotten richer, the poor have gotten poorer, and they can’t afford to take a trip or move. Which is why our low paying jobs have to be filled by immigrants. Used to be Americans were ski bums, now it’s Australians and South Americans on school vacation, because if you’ve graduated from college you must immediately get on the career train, because otherwise you’ll be permanently left behind.

Or, you could try and make it in sports or entertainment, which is akin to playing the lottery, there are a zillion entrants, but almost no winners. But you can dream can’t you? Not really anymore.

So, the right keeps making fun of California, holding up Texas and Florida as paragons of healthy life. The rulers of those states ensure that there’s no Covid lockdown, no masks, and the people die. As for Florida’s low numbers right now, that’s because everybody’s outside, and in the north they’re inside, and it’s more complicated than that but it’s worthless trying to convince those inured to the bogus information they see on social media.

So all we hear from the Democrats in D.C. is their hands are tied. They’re beholden to Manchin and Sinema. As for the exalted Obama… He wanted Merrick Garland to be a Supreme Court justice? The guy is almost worthless to the left, he’s essentially a Republican. The left tries to compromise and still loses, whereas the right installs indoctrinated nitwits like Amy Coney Barrett, who says we don’t need abortion, the pregnant should just give up their babies for adoption! Meanwhile, the right continues to fight for less of a social safety net, hell, in some southern states the gauntlet you have to run for unemployment is so dizzying that you end up with no money.

And the right thinks it’s winning, but today the true blowback began.

Forget the bloviators on TV, they’ve got no power, whether it be Tucker Carlson or Rachel Maddow. It’s kinda like deleting your Facebook or Amazon account, the companies don’t care, the joke is on you, now you can’t play or buy with everybody else. Protests are a joke.

But the law…

It’s California that cracked down on the working conditions in Amazon warehouses. Everybody else bitches about it, but California does something. As it did with internet privacy. As for all the regulations the red states castigate, a building collapsed in Italy just before I started writing this. You want those codes, you want the government to enforce them. The contractors who built that building in Florida cut corners and there wasn’t enough supervision to catch it. As for Boeing… The government let the company do its own oversight, and as a result two planes crashed! To make more money Boeing said no new training was needed to fly a 737 Max. That was a joke, now you do. And the Dreamliner is sidelined because of the ineptitude of the company, but now the government is on the case. But if you died in the crash, of either the building or the airplane, you’re SOL. Kinda like that William Hartmann in Michigan, who wouldn’t certify the election for Biden. Have you heard? He drank the metaphorical kool-aid, which means he’s a right wing nutjob through and through, so he didn’t get the jab and you know what just happened? HE DIED!

That’s right, the Republicans are all rhetoric and no compassion. They don’t care if you die in a back alley abortion, or because you’re unvaxxed, you’re expendable. Everybody at Fox News has been vaxxed, THE COMPANY REQUIRES IT! Yes, Laura and Tucker and the rest of the blowhards are telling you not to give up your rights, that it’s all about freedom, but they sacrificed theirs right away, BECAUSE THEY WANT TO LIVE!

So, this is what Roberts was afraid of. The left twisting the theory the Supreme Court used to let the Texas abortion law stand in unintended ways. Yes, you want to take away the right to an abortion, WE’RE GONNA TAKE AWAY THE RIGHT TO MANUFACTURE GUNS!

It’s utterly hysterical. The right has been winning for so long that they’re oblivious. And like I said, the Democrats in D.C. keep telling us their hands are tied, and if you want change, like Bernie or AOC, you’re asking for too much. The people want better pay, they want unions, they want higher taxes on the rich. But in the U.S. money talks and the poor die because they can’t afford health care. That’s right, the rich live longer because they can afford to see a doctor!

So now individual citizens in California will be able to sue gun manufacturers. Do you think they’ll be making any guns in California anymore? OF COURSE NOT!

And this is just the beginning, politics goes forward, not back. One state steps forward and then the rest do. What was unfathomable in the past becomes de rigueur in the future, like gay marriage and legal marijuana. Believe me, they’re not getting rid of gay marriage, and where there’s legal cannabis they’re not doing a 180, no way.

So the right wing idiots in California called an expensive recall election. End result? Newsom won with more of the vote than he did the first time! They emboldened him. And having broken his own Covid rules he’s now on guard, he’s a straight arrow. And he’s young and handsome.

And I’m not saying he’s the greatest, but at least the left now has someone to believe in, who can take action, who is on the right side of things. And we haven’t had that for a very long time.

So the left may not pack the Supreme Court, but that does not mean the Republicans are gonna get away with the shenanigans they employed to make it right wing, not representing the majority.

Sotomayor had the wisdom here. Keep coming up with these inane rulings, ignore stare decisis and the court is gonna lose credibility. It already has with me. Hell I could do a better job than these bozos, twisting case law to come to political decisions that are anti-woman, anti-health, anti-PEOPLE!

And since we live in the internet era, by time you read this EVERYBODY is gonna know about Newsom’s action. And it doesn’t matter what anybody in the right wing media says, they’ve got no power.

Finally someone fights back.

That’s what we’ve been looking for, someone with a backbone, someone we can believe in.

As they say in sports…NOW WE’VE GOT A GAME!