Vote ‘No’ on the Recall, Reject the Nut Bars

Photo courtesy of Gavin Newsom campaign

In 1911 California added Proposition 8, the Recall of Elected Officials Amendment to the upcoming election. A majority of Californians voted “Yes” to add this amendment to the state constitution and voila! California can recall elections. The governor at the time, Hiram Johnson (R), supported the amendment stating, “How best can we arm the people to protect themselves hereafter? … the recall.”

Actually Californians have been armed: regular elections every four (or two) years for state, local and federal elected officials. But that little factoid seemed to go unnoticed by the majority of people voting in 1911. Most people thought, “What a great idea! There’s no real parameters by which we can have a recall, we just have to be unhappy!”

Great.

Just an aside: my favorite handgun was first sold in America in 1911: The M1911, or the Colt 1911 .45 automatic. It was never a real “automatic.” Instead it is a semi-automatic designed by John Browning, but we could crank off seven rounds as fast as we could pull the trigger. It being a hand gun accuracy beyond 25 yards was sketchy at best.

In recent years, with hyper conservatives prancing about brandishing their weapons, I’ve thought about getting an updated version of the M1911 — but that’s a different story.

In 1911 the state of California decided we needed to micro manage our elected officials, adding to the system that allows for ballot initiatives. It’s a nutty way to run a state, one that is the fifth largest economy in the world.

Now Republican fascists have forced the state to spend millions of tax dollars — during a pandemic — to hold one of these ridiculous recall elections because, “Why the hell not! We can!”

Governor Gavin Newsom hasn’t committed any crimes nor has he forced anyone to head to the nearest state or federal forest and rake the leaves …

For the most part the assholes pushing and financing this recall support the Orange Clown who told then Governor Jerry Brown and Lt. Governor Gavin Newsom raking the forest floors was how Finland controlled wild fires. Finland’s president, Sauli Niinisto, had to refute the nonsense and of course the Fins themselves had great fun with it on social media.

So, these GOP douchebags have forced California into having a recall election which, technically, is September 14. I have cast my ballot — by mail — and if you can’t guess how I voted …

The leading candidate to replace Gov. Newsom is right wing radio talk show hack Larry Elder. That’s the best they have … it’s funny, it really is. Republicans used to have serious candidates running for governor and winning. I’m not talking about Ronald Reagan who was about as nutty as they come. No, I’m taking about George Deukmejian and Pete Wilson in particular, two guys that were governors when I first moved to the Golden State. I didn’t agree with their policies, but they for damn sure weren’t nut bars.

Pete had aspirations to become president but then George W. came to town. Also, the GOP didn’t think the nation was ready for Pete’s past — one that includes a legacy of racism towards immigrants from south of the border … among other things.

Well, there are over 40 people on the recall ballot, none of them worth a damn … well, maybe one. Caitlyn Jenner is on there … she lied about voting in 2016 and 2020. Why would anyone lie about a thing like that? Who gives a damn?

Jenner could help Newsom defeat the recall because watching Jenner make a fool of herself in front of cameras and microphones just puts people off.

Then there’s Larry Elder. His main gripe are the ideas of mask and vaccine mandates. God forbid the governor and other state and local officials should do anything to protect the health of Californians, things like mask and vaccine mandates which have been widely proven to slow down the spread of COVID-19, including the Delta Variant. Apparently that’s a crime! An affront to freedom, liberty and just plain individual decency.

Never mind that we have to obey all sorts of state, local and federal mandates — LIKE SPEED LIMITS AND OTHER TRAFFIC LAWS! Forcing people to wear seat belts? “ANTI-LIBERTY!” making people put their small children in safety car seats? “YOU CAN’T TELL PARENTS HOW TO TAKE CARE OF THEIR CHILDREN!”

“Your child needs to get all these vaccines before she/he can come to school.” Huh?

Larry Elder isn’t the only nut bar in California. There are plenty of right wing, hyper conservative religious nut bars making waves in this state. One of whom is this San Diego native and current Encinitas resident Carrie Prejean Boller.

“Wait! She sounds familiar.”

Indeed she does. Carrie Prejean is a former Miss California who had a little kerfuffle and long forgotten drama when she answered a question, asked by gossip writer Perez Hilton, about legalizing same sex marriage. This was back in 2009 when same sex marriage was still verboten in most places and Prejean was competing for a national title.

As I recall my thoughts at the time were, “Who gives a shit what Carrie Prejean thinks about same sex marriage and who the [F-bomb] is Perez Hilton?”

I had to look him up — on Twitter no less —  and once I saw his profile and what he writes, and his writing style … I almost sided with Carrie Prejean. But like a lot of right wing nut bars Prejean kept speaking.

She’s now married to a former NFL player. At any rate she was caught on a video that went viral wearing a T-shirt that said “Mama” on it and threatening the school board of Encinitas, CA. It’s pretty funny when you see it. “I’m a mama bear and I have cubs.”

No, I don’t think so. I really can’t believe actual mama bears would embarrass their cubs the way Carrie Prejean Boller embarrassed herself and her kids. “I’m a mama bear! Grrrrr!”

Apparently there is an extreme right wing nut bar movement taking place around the country that is training kooks like Prejean Boller to be even nuttier than they are while threatening local elected officials.

There have been many videos of these people, mostly men, out right threatening bodily harm on local elected officials for even considering things like mask and vaccine mandates. I was laughing at this one knucklehead from Northampton, Pennsylvania. He’s running for public office. So Steve Lynch was at a “freedom” rally talking about the local school board and his idea for the transfer of power. He told his assembled nut bars, “I’m going in with 20 strong men and I’m gonna give them an option — they can leave or they can be removed.” Because that’s how we do things in ’Murica. We don’t worry about no goddam elections, especially if they don’t turn out the way we want!

Which brings us full circle back to the nut bars of California pushing this latest recall. But first I would just like to suggest, strongly, let’s forget trying to be civil with these people. Civility went out the window when the GOP embraced the Tea Party and let it metastasize into the racist Anti-American mob that has been trying to steal elections, suppress minority voters and of course, in an act of insurrection, storm the capitol building to try and stop Congress from doing their job certifying a legitimate election.

No, let’s not be civil. Let’s mock and ridicule these people, ostracize them as much as possible, point them out in person and virtually, and let them know just how unwanted they are in this country. Ridicule Mama Bear Carrie Prejean and tough guy waving his arms in Pennsylvania, Steve Lynch and every other nut bar in America putting the nation at risk with this anti-vaccine and mask bullshit.

Then we go after the GOP/MAGA candidates around the country, in big name races and small, from coast to coast, mocking and ridiculing the MAGA nuts until they are no more, crushed under the weight of the leftist progressive voters growing in every state.

Do you think the well-funded nut bar academy taught Prejean and Lynch how to wave their arms around dramatically?  Which brings up another question: Where was law enforcement when Lynch and so many others were threatening bodily harm on the elected officials? Police were sure out in force when the Black Lives Matter folks were marching. Here we have video and audio evidence of right wing nut bars threatening doctors, nurses, school board officials — not even trying to use coded language, just flat out threats.

But these domestic terrorists be white people so that’s okay for them to be violent.

Anyway, vote “No” on the recall, if you haven’t already. We could end up with a nut bar like Larry Elder for Governor, or worse Caitlyn Jenner. You know, Elder wants to do away with the minimum wage?

One of our other columnists spotlighted a few more of Elder’s issues here. At least we know he likes guns.

The California legislature should look into raising the bar for signatures on recall petitions, from 1,495,970 to 4.4 million, 20% of registered voters. Right now it’s too damn easy to get a recall on the ballot and the California taxpayers are stuck with the bill.

A former Republican mayor of San Diego, Kevin Faulconer, is also on the ballot. He’s actually qualified having been the mayor of a large city.  Lucky for Democrats Republican voters are not interested in smart, they are more interested in loud and stupid candidates, i.e. Larry Elder.

Maybe one day Mama Bear Carrie will run for governor and we can mock her all over again.