So I got an email from Gavin Newsom last night telling me who he’s going to tap to replace Dianne Feinstein.
Well, no, of course I didn’t but I have received fund raising emails from him in the past and it is always such a little thrill to block him.
While I will not be farm betting or reputation (such as it is) staking on it, I think I may have come up with the most likely pick (and if I’m wrong I’ll say he didn’t pick her because he didn’t want to make me look right – and that’s your course in Media CYA 101 for today.)
America – get ready for soon-to-be (one way or the other) former San Francisco Mayor London Breed as the newest member of the Senate.
And why you ask? Well, first and foremost, she is a black woman – or at least appears to identify as one – so that checks Newsom’s most important box. And it should be the most important box, by the way – can you think of a better way to pick someone for one of the 100 most important jobs on the planet than based on their skin color and internal anatomy? (not even going to try to parse how trans would work into this.)
But she has a job, you say? Not for long, if the polling out of San Francisco is anything to go by. Breed’s hope for re-election as mayor are growing dimmer by the day – strong opponents, a city that is in economic and civilizational freefall, and an international object of scorn, pity, head shaking, and jokes.
Breed has on occasion tried to “talk tough” about fixing the whirlwind of filth the city has become, but that has not at all worked out - it irked the city’s woke true believers and, since she didn’t accomplish anything, irked everyone else, too.
With Levi’s heir and uber-connected (think Gavin with his own money) Phil Lurie https://californiaglobe.com/fr/levi-strauss-heir-daniel-lurie-to-join-2024-san-francisco-mayoral-race/ breathing down her neck, city supervisor and union guy Ahsha Safai also in the race, and longtime Asian community powerbroker Phil Ting waiting in the wings, Breed has already pretty much lost San Francisco’s three most important constituencies.
Couple that with San Franciscans realizing last year that they can actually remove horrible people from office – see successful DA and school board recalls – and Breed would be incredibly lucky to even get out of the primary.
So all of that makes her, shall we say, available – and available right now.
A senate gig – even in caretaker form, because that’s what Gavin wants – would give Breed a graceful exit (“I love serving the city but the governor has called me and I must do my duty for the people, blah, blah, blah”) from the mayor’s office, rather than the humiliating red-headed rented mule pounding she is about to take.
Newson can keep his word (bwahahahaha!) and keep the seat in the Bay Area, London can go to Washington to glean a sheen of serious, pick up the phone when Gavin calls, and then step aside for the new person (bad, worse, and worst – you pick which candidate goes where) to spend the next six years ruining the country.
But wouldn’t that end a bright, rising political career? Nope, at the very least not nearly as badly as her upcoming loss would. Breed can use her time in the senate to rinse off the mayoral stink and then tottle off to a think tank for a while before returning in a blaze of glory to run for, um, state auditor or something like that in a few years. She’s young enough to take a break.
And she will be able to come back. Her ties to the city’s power structure are deep – she worked for former Mayor Willie Brown – insert your own joke here – before being tapped for the city’s redevelopment agency and then Gavin – a personal friend - gave her a plum fire commission job.
A space will be made for her in the future.
And that’s that.
Unless I’m wrong or Gavin has his wife slap on some makeup…
Speaking of slapping, the Los Angeles Unified School District finally dropped its vaccine mandate for teachers, but not without a wonderfully terrifying piece of batshittery from the execrable school board president (Democratic Socialists of America member and former pretty much everything else in LA) Jackie Goldberg.
One of the more fascinating aspects of this screed is the fact Goldberg was once a member of Berkeley’s Free Speech Movement; apparently she – like the entire left – has moved on from that stance.
It also shows what the hardcore woke/progressive folks really think of their fellow humans and how committed they are to totalitarian ideals; of course, this kind of thing is usually only said in private, so we can thank Goldberg for shining a light on that.
And as I’ve said before, I like it when people wear masks: you don’t have to wonder if they’re insane - they’re telling you from across the street.
After the board vote, Goldberg screeched into the camera her displeasure with the mandate end, saying she regrets nothing about how the District handled the pandemic and that lots and lots more people died in Florida because they didn’t, um, do exactly what LAUSD did, I suppose?
Do not watch this on an empty stomach:
https://twitter.com/i/status/1706803439869845861
Speaking of empty stomachs, it seems the Biden family hasn’t had to worry about that for some time now (ok, not the best transition…)
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