California law enforcement officials handcuffed a man for refusing to give his name to police officers last week when they attempted to cite him for eating a sandwich at a Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) station in San Francisco. It was a moment that was caught on video and went viral online.
&#8220;Steve Foster of Concord tells ABC7 News this all happened Monday morning at the Pleasant Hill station when he was approached by a BART police officer,&#8221; ABC 7 <a href="https://abc7news.com/society/bart-police-handcuff-cite-man-for-eating-sandwich-on-platform/5684480/">reported</a>. &#8220;Foster says the officer, wearing the name badge McCormick, walked past several other people eating and drinking on the platform and confronted him. His girlfriend caught the interaction on her cellphone.&#8221;
At the beginning of the video, the officer told Foster, &#8220;You are detained and you’re not free to go.&#8221;
&#8220;Bro, you came up here and f***ed with me, you singled me out out of all these people,&#8221; Foster responded.
&#8220;You’re eating,&#8221; the officer says.
&#8220;So, what?&#8221; Foster responded.
&#8220;It’s against the law,&#8221; the officer responded.
After the two continued to argue, and Foster did not comply with the officer, the officer told him that he was going to jail.
&#8220;Jail for eating a f***ing sandwich?&#8221; Foster asked.
&#8220;No, for resisting arrest,&#8221; the officer responded.
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
He got detained and arrest for eating a sandwich at Pleasant Hill Bart Station . <a href="https://twitter.com/KTVU?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@KTVU</a>. Bart ought to be ashamed of themselves and I hope he sue tf outta them <a href="https://t.co/u1CQYKZdT9">pic.twitter.com/u1CQYKZdT9</a>
— THE REAL MEANASS 11/13 (@keilobenjamin) <a href="https://twitter.com/keilobenjamin/status/1193163017069838337?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 9, 2019</a></blockquote>
&#8220;I was just up there eating my sandwich waiting for the train to come,&#8221; Foster said. &#8220;I&#8217;m definitely upset, mad, a little frustrated, angry about it.&#8221;
The San Francisco Chronicle <a href="https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/BART-general-manager-apologizes-to-man-cited-for-14826101.php">reported</a>, &#8220;Spokespeople for BART said Friday that they had brought the video to the attention of rail system’s interim Police Chief Ed Alvarez, and that the agency’s independent police auditor is reviewing the footage. A third party had filed a complaint against the officer, identified as D. McCormick on his uniform.&#8221;
&#8220;Eating and drinking is prohibited on BART, though riders routinely do it anyway, usually with no consequence,&#8221; the Chronicle added.
BART said that Foster, while handcuffed, was not arrested and was instead cited for eating at the train station.
BART said that Foster was handcuffed because he allegedly refused to provide his name to the officer when he was being cited for the violation.
&#8220;We asked police why he was handcuffed and was told the individual was refusing to provide his name which is needed for citation and was lawfully handcuffed,&#8221; BART <a href="https://twitter.com/SFBART/status/1192904558831259648">said</a>.
ABC 7 added that Foster did not have plans to pursue any legal action, but said, &#8220;I hope they start focusing on stuff that actually matters like people shooting up dope, hopping the BART, people getting stabbed.&#8221;
A separate ABC 7 report noted that a group of people protested over the incident, staging an &#8220;eat-in&#8221; at the train station.
&#8220;There was a defiant lunchtime eat-in on the platform inside the Embarcardero BART station, where eating isn&#8217;t allowed,&#8221; ABC 7 <a href="https://abc7chicago.com/society/protesters-hold-luncheon-inside-bart-after-man-detained-for-eating-on-platform/5686666/">reported</a>. &#8220;About 30 people gathered for lunch to protest an incident recently captured on cellphone video at the Pleasant Hill BART Station.&#8221;
Online, left-wing activists expressed outrage that the law enforcement officer was enforcing the law that was on the books.
One notable response to the left-wing outrage came from actor Nick Searcy, who responded: &#8220;Democrats in CA have to pass ONE DAMN LAW EVERY SINGLE DAY about every SINGLE situation that might EVER happen. The cop did not make that law, Hill. DEMOCRATS LIKE YOU DID.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Democrats in CA have to pass ONE DAMN LAW EVERY SINGLE DAY about every SINGLE situation that might EVER happen. The cop did not make that law, Hill. DEMOCRATS LIKE YOU DID.
— Nick Searcy, AUSTERE RELIGIOUS SCHOLAR AND STAR (@yesnicksearcy) <a href="https://twitter.com/yesnicksearcy/status/1193709188574113793?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 11, 2019</a></blockquote>

BART Police Sort Contraband

Man Claims California Police Handcuffed Him For Eating Sandwich. Here’s What Really Happened.

California

Crime

President Donald Trump took aim at California governor Gavin Newsom Sunday morning over wildfires raging across the southern and western parts of the state, chastising Newsom for letting environmentalists run the show, preventing the state from adquately clearing brush and dead vegetation.
Trump also threatened to cut off Federal funding to California for fire abatement and land management if Newsom doesn&#8217;t shape up.
<a href="https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2019/nov/3/donald-trump-rips-gavin-newsom-threatens-cut-feder/">The Washington Times</a> reports that Trump took a break from tweeting about the Democrats&#8217; plan to open public impeachment proceedings to declare Newsom a failure.
&#8220;The Governor of California, @GavinNewsom, has done a terrible job of forest management. I told him from the first day we met that he must &#8216;clean&#8217; his forest floors regardless of what his bosses, the environmentalists, DEMAND of him. Must also do burns and cut fire stoppers&#8230;..&#8221; Trump tweeted.
&#8220;Every year, as the fire’s rage &amp; California burns, it is the same thing-and then he comes to the Federal Government for $$$ help. No more,&#8221; the president continued. &#8220;Get your act together Governor. You don’t see close to the level of burn in other states.&#8221;
&#8220;But our teams are working well together in putting these massive, and many, fires out. Great firefighters! Also, open up the ridiculously closed water lanes coming down from the North. Don’t pour it out into the Pacific Ocean. Should be done immediately. California desperately needs water, and you can have it now!&#8221; he concluded.
Newsom took a while to fire back, electing to hit Trump over his own environmental policies. &#8220;You don’t believe in climate change. You are excused from this conversation,&#8221; Newsom tweeted back at the President.
The pair enjoy sparring over Twitter, and Sunday&#8217;s exchange is the latest in a series. Trump and Newsom tangled over Newsom&#8217;s &#8220;gross mismanagement&#8221; of California&#8217;s forests last year at this time, as a different set of forest fires raged across the state. Earlier in October, Newsom and Trump <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/10/08/donald-trump-gavin-newsom-california-gas-prices-twitter/3915811002/">exchanged barbs over California&#8217;s outrageous gas prices</a> and Newsom&#8217;s plan to mandate the adoption of electric cars (a plan that now seems to be on hold given Newsom&#8217;s war of words with California electricity provider, PG&amp;E).
The tiff between the two leaders seems to be largely a social media phenomenon. Newsom speaks with Trump fairly regularly &#8212; <a href="https://www.politico.com/states/california/story/2019/07/31/newsom-spoke-to-trump-on-same-day-he-demanded-trumps-tax-returns-1124371">even on the same day</a> he officially demanded Trump&#8217;s tax returns &#8212; and recently declared a state of emergency in California, opening the state up for Federal aid. When state legislators tried to punish the Trump Administration for rolling back EPA regulations on wetland preservation, <a href="https://www.mercurynews.com/2019/09/14/gavin-newsom-says-hell-veto-trump-defying-california-environmental-bill/">Newsom vetoed their bill</a>.
Trump&#8217;s take on the wildfires does have its problems &#8212; much of the area currently on fire is Federal land, for example, and not the state of California&#8217;s responsibility &#8212; and his quip about water seems to assume that the eternal battle between California&#8217;s water-hoarding environmentalists and its desperate farmer, who need more water to irrigate crops has an impact on the state&#8217;s ability to fight fires. But it does draw attention to an issue Newsom seems to regularly gloss over: that climate change may have very little (if anything) to do with California&#8217;s wildfire problem.
<a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-california-wildfires-forest/explainer-blame-climate-but-crowded-forests-also-fuel-california-fires-idUSKCN1NJ1G6">Reuters pointed out</a> during last year&#8217;s spate of wildfires that California&#8217;s land management does seem to be partially to blame, and human encroachment on natural forest land contributes to the uptick in visible damage. California&#8217;s forests are overgrown, but that&#8217;s by design. Logging is restricted. And environmentalists in California have pushed policies to increase forest area (in order to help draw more carbon from the atmosphere) without a plan to clear dead and decaying trees and undergrowth.
The Trump Administration has a plan to ease environmental restrictions and speed forest thinning, according to <a href="https://www.sacbee.com/news/california/fires/article231482868.html">Business Insider</a>, but those changes have yet to take effect &#8212; and it may take years for progress to happen, even when they do.
The plan also might not have much effect on fires like the ones burning in California at the moment. The Getty fire is burning on a hillside, not in a forest, and the Kincaid fire is burning across farmland. At least one of this year&#8217;s fires was sparked by a faulty electric grid, putting the state&#8217;s electricity provider, PG&amp;E into the mix. PG&amp;E has, in turn, shut off electricity to millions while it assesses its grid, complicating the situation.

California wildfire

President Trump Takes Aim At California Governor Gavin Newsom Over Wildfires, Threatens To Cut Funding

Donald Trump

Gavin Newsom

If there’s one thing the government is good at, it’s fixing massive crises.
If you just rolled your eyes to that statement, then you’ll know that Gov. Gavin Newsom’s (D-CA) threat to take over energy company PG&amp;E is just as absurd as it sounds.
That’s not to say PG&amp;E can handle the issues that have sparked massive wildfires in California &#8212; clearly they can’t &#8212; but the idea that the government can step in and solve the problem is laughable.
Newsom said Friday that he wanted get involved in PG&amp;E’s bankruptcy case to get to a solution faster.
“We want to broker that mediation and are calling on all the parties to come in early next week to jumpstart those negotiations,&#8221; Newsom said at a news conference, as <a href="https://www.npr.org/2019/11/01/775621356/calif-governor-seeks-to-jumpstart-pg-e-bankruptcy-talks-threatens-state-takeover">reported</a> by NPR.
As the outlet reported, Newsom “left little doubt” that he wanted the state government to take part in the company’s restructuring.
“It is my hope that the stakeholders in PG&amp;E will put parochial interests aside and reach a negotiated resolution so that we can create this new company and forever put the old PG&amp;E behind us,&#8221; Newsom said in an official <a href="https://www.gov.ca.gov/2019/11/01/governor-newsom-outlines-state-efforts-to-fight-wildfires-protect-vulnerable-californians-and-ensure-that-going-forward-all-californians-have-safe-affordable-reliable-and-clean-power/">statement</a>. &#8220;If the parties fail to reach an agreement quickly to begin this process of transformation, the state will not hesitate to step in and restructure the utility.&#8221;
Newsom’s statement made several suggestions as to how this restructuring would occur, and the steps he has taken to already make changes to PG&amp;E.
“The major wildfire safety bill that I signed into law earlier this year – AB 1054 – requires PG&amp;E to make these fundamental changes. It forces PG&amp;E to make massive investments in safety, ties executive compensation to the utility’s safety record and demands that every year the utility earn a safety certification from the state,” Newsom said. “And earlier this week, a newly energized California Public Utilities Commission took strong action by opening a major investigation into PG&amp;E’s use of Public Safety Power Shutoffs (PSPS), and vowing a total reform of the rules and regulations governing power shutoffs.”
He also said California “is developing the blueprint for a transformed utility. Consistent with AB 1054, PG&amp;E must incorporate that blueprint into its bankruptcy plan.”
Newsom has also appointed an “Energy Czar” to figure out a way to take over PG&amp;E if the bankruptcy case end unsatisfactorily.
“ &#8230; I have tapped my Cabinet Secretary, Ana Matosantos, to serve as the state’s Energy Czar to lead a dedicated energy team with Ann Patterson, our lead attorney on the matter, Alice Reynolds, our lead energy and environmental policy expert, and Rachel Wagoner, our senior legislative strategist, spearheading the Administration’s energy efforts,” Newsom said. “They will work closely with other senior leadership in my office, outside legal, financial and energy advisors, and leadership across state government to game out every option and prepare a plan should the state need to intervene. All options are on the table.”
PG&amp;E’s incompetence has resulted in millions of Californians losing their power due to blackouts purposefully implemented by the company. The company said the blackouts were necessary to prevent its outdated and ill-maintained equipment from causing more fires.

Governor Gavin Newsom

California Governor Threatens To Take Over Energy Company As Wildfires Rage

Five years ago, California passed Proposition 47, a referendum that reduced various theft and drug possession crimes from felonies to misdemeanors.
But in the years since the referendum passed, critics say the law has resulted in an increase of theft. Fox News <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/us/california-prop-47-shoplifting-theft-crime-statewide.amp">reported</a> that the referendum “effectively gives shoplifters and addicts the green light to commit crimes as long as the merchandise they steal or the drugs they take are less than $950 in value.”
“The decision to downgrade theft of property valued below the arbitrary figure from felony to misdemeanor, together with selective enforcement that focuses on more ‘serious’ crimes, has resulted in thieves knowing they can brazenly shoplift and merchants knowing the police will not respond to their complaints, say critics,” the outlet reported.
One woman who spoke to Fox, Cassie, said she sometimes shoplifted diapers and formula for her children.
“If my babies need diapers or formula, who is going to get that for me? No one. I have to do it,&#8221; she told the outlet. &#8220;They ain&#8217;t out here arresting people for [shoplifting] and everyone knows it.&#8221;
The referendum has led to an increase in theft in the Golden State, with thieves brazenly stealing items in broad daylight. San Francisco now has the highest rate of property crime in the United States. Even worse, the shoplifting is not done solely by moms like Cassie, but by well-organized rackets. From Fox:
<blockquote>Del Seymour, founder of the <a href="https://www.codetenderloin.org/">non-profit Code Tenderloin</a>, told Fox News that fencers – often from Mexico and Guatemala – set up shop in the middle of the day and night around the city&#8217;s United Nations Plaza area. He said he&#8217;s also noticed that the stealers and dealers have gotten bolder by the day. The retail heists taking place, he said, aren&#8217;t some small-time operation but instead a sophisticated network of international dealers who cross the border to buy stolen goods. What&#8217;s worse is that a majority of the handoffs happen in view of San Francisco&#8217;s City Hall.
&#8220;Of course it sends a message,&#8221; Seymour said. &#8220;They&#8217;re doing it right here in the open.&#8221;</blockquote>
San Francisco isn’t the only city in the state struggling with increased theft. Business owners across the state have told various local media outlets that shoplifting has increased since prop 47 went into effect. Jassi Dhillon, who owns six 7-Eleven franchises, <a href="https://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local/Local-Business-Owners-Upset-Over-Increase-of-Shoplifters-due-to-Prop-47-512690921.html">told NBC7</a> that shoplifters are hitting all six of his stores “every day, hour by hour.”
He added that, when he calls the cops on shoplifters, they have either already fled or don’t seem to care about the citation they receive.
“It&#8217;s becoming a lifestyle for us now because we can&#8217;t do anything much except take the loss,&#8221; Dhillon said.

Shoplifter

California Referendum Has Led To More Shoplifting, Report Says

Firefighters worked through the day Wednesday, trying to save the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library alongside hundreds of homes, farms, and businesses, from the &#8220;Easy Fire&#8221; that raged across Simi Valley, California, torching more than a thousand acres.
It turns out, though, that the more than 700 personnel fighting the blaze had a hand from some hairy fire abatement professionals: a herd of hungry goats.
That&#8217;s right: a herd of goats may have helped save the Reagan Presidential Library.
<a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/30/us/california-easy-fire-reagan-presidential-library-simi-valley/index.html?fbclid=IwAR3s2td8hBTDjVvFZ3vZt4XLxNRQrh4LhPaYg7FxByyjkSghMOC-PtBW2JU">CNN reports</a> that a &#8220;herd of as many as 500 goats&#8221; was given the run of a hillside, conveniently located between the fire and the Library, earlier this year. The goats ate all of the available vegetation in their grazing zone, creating a natural firebreak, and depriving the fast-moving Simi Valley wildfire of fuel.
The Library, with the help of the Ventura county fire department, hired the goats from a company called 805 Goats, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/oct/31/goats-save-ronald-reagan-library-wildfire?utm_term=Autofeed&amp;CMP=twt_gu&amp;utm_medium&amp;utm_source=Twitter&amp;fbclid=IwAR1yIhEhX9kJlkxRl4Cl1Iswcgnyp6L65o2amsK6lVqb9OC3I4sbHTZm9eQ#Echobox=1572550400">the Guardian reports</a>. The animals munched through around 15 acres, creating a perimeter to protect the Library from wildfires.
805 Goats provides its services to a number of Los Angeles-era clients, including celebrities, and counts Selena Gomez among its satisfied customers. The firm charges $1000 per acre for its goats&#8217; services.
“We actually worked with the Ventura county fire department in May and they bring out hundreds of goats to our property,” Melissa Giller, Reagan Presidential Library spokeswoman, told a local news outlet. “The goats eat all of the brush around the entire property, creating a fire perimeter.”
&#8220;One of the firefighters mentioned that they do believe the goats&#8217; fire line helped them fight this fire,&#8221; she added. &#8220;They just proved today how useful they really are.&#8221;
Although the goats provided an assist, of course, more than 700 firefighters were called in to contain the Easy Fire located to the north and west of Los Angeles, California, which burned nearly 2,000 acres on Wednesday and threatned 6,500 structures before it was partially contained.
Fire crews on the ground were aided by &#8220;non-stop water drops&#8221; and a defensive fire line.
&#8220;It&#8217;s a whole lot of fire trucks, a whole lot of heroes out here protecting President Reagan&#8217;s library,&#8221; John Heubusch, the library&#8217;s executive director told a local news outlet affiliated with CNN. &#8220;They&#8217;re doing a heroic job.&#8221;
Reagan Library staff reported that Wednesday&#8217;s fire, which forced all but a skeleton crew of curators and administrators to evacuate to safer areas, was the closest the library has ever come to being consumed.
&#8220;The flames are licking right up the hills, right up to the parking lot,&#8221; the Library&#8217;s executive director said. &#8220;I think the parking lot will save the library.&#8221;
It is not known whether the goats who created the fire line emerged from the fire unscathed. The area surrounding the library is mostly farms and horse ranches and hundreds of head of livestock were evacuated along with the humans.
The Easy Fire is only one of several fires raging through south and central California, forcing the evacuation of thousands of people and leaving millions without power. On Thursday, several fire departments reported, for the first time, that they were gaining the upper hand on blazes that have been burning since last week.
The largest fire, the Kincade Fire, which has been burning through Napa and Sonoma Valleys, burning nearly 80,000 acres and threatening California&#8217;s wine industry, is now 60% contained, according to the Riverside Valley Fire Department.
&#8220;A red flag warning for the region has ended, and the winds have subsided &#8216;quite a bit,&#8217; according to a representative from the National Weather Service. Temperatures are expected to plunge to the high 20s overnight,&#8221; <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/live-news/fire-in-california-latest-easy-getty-kincade-fires-evacuations-today-live-updates-2019-10-31/">CBS News reported</a>. &#8220;More than 5,000 people remain under evacuation orders. Sonoma County Sheriff Mark Essick said 10 people were arrested Wednesday for illegally entering evacuation zones.&#8221;
Authorities have yet to say what started the wildfires, but at least two appear to have been sparked by faulty electrical equipment from PG&amp;E, which maintains California&#8217;s electrical grid and provides electrical power to California residents.

&#8220;Extreme&#8221; Santa Ana Winds Spark New Wildfires In Southern California

A Herd Of Goats Saved The Reagan Presidential Library From A Raging Wildfire

On Tuesday, former California Governor Jerry Brown, speaking at a hearing in front of the House Oversight Committee in Washington D.C., blamed the Trump administration and Republicans for the wildfires ravaging California, saying, “the blood is on your soul.”
<a href="https://www.sfchronicle.com/california-wildfires/article/Jerry-Brown-implores-Washington-to-act-on-14571536.php">The San Francisco Chronicle</a> reported that Brown, who cited climate change as the cause of California’s wildfires,  accused Republicans of being “flat Earth” science deniers, adding, “California’s burning while the deniers make a joke out of the standards that protect us all. The blood is on your soul here and I hope you wake up. Because this is not politics, this is life, this is morality. &#8230; This is real.”
The hearing revolved around the Trump Administration’s actions targeting California’s decision to implement higher fuel economy standards in the state. The Chronicle <a href="https://www.sfchronicle.com/politics/article/Trump-officials-slam-California-air-rescind-14452049.php">noted in September</a> that the Trump administration revoked the state’s authority to set its own auto-emissions standards; Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Andrew Wheeler stated, “California has the worst air quality in the United States. We hope that the state will focus on these issues rather than trying to set fuel economy standards for the entire country.”
<a href="https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2019/10/30/jerry-brown-blames-trump-republicans-for-california-fires-the-blood-is-on-your-soul/">Breitbart</a> noted, “Critics fault California and its utility companies for spending money on complying with ‘green’ initiatives rather than on burying power lines. Others also cite homeless camps, where past fires have started, and poor forestry management policies that have barred the clearing of brush that can provide fuel for wildfires.” <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/natural-disasters/wildfires/">National Geographic</a> pointed out, California’s <a href="https://www.fire.ca.gov/media/5511/top20_destruction.pdf">worst fires</a> over the past few years, including the Camp Fire and 2017’s Thomas Fire, started when power lines sparked flames in dry grasses.”
<a href="https://www.iii.org/fact-statistic/facts-statistics-wildfires">The Insurance Information Institute</a> wrote, “As many as 90 percent of wildland fires in the United States are caused by people, according to the U.S. Department of Interior. Some human-caused fires result from campfires left unattended, the burning of debris, downed power lines, negligently discarded cigarettes and intentional acts of arson. The remaining 10 percent are started by lightning or lava.”
In November 2018, Chuck Devore of the Texas Public Policy Foundation wrote in <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/chuckdevore/2018/11/27/trumps-right-about-californias-fires-it-wasnt-climate-change-two-new-california-laws-prove-it/#56daeb7222e3">Forbes</a>:
<blockquote>California’s deadliest year of wildfires has been decades in the making, with overlapping environmental rules, both state and federal, making fuel load reductions in forests and coastal chaparral nearly impossible, while hostility towards commercial timber harvesting has allowed a massive build up in tree density and brush with a concurrent reduction of access roads and firebreaks.”</blockquote>
The same month, as <a href="https://www.sacbee.com/latest-news/article221518685.html">The Sacramento Bee</a> reported, after President Trump tweeted, “There is no reason for these massive, deadly and costly forest fires in California except that forest management is so poor,” Brown responded by claiming climate change was responsible for the California wildfires, saying, “We have a real challenge here threatening our whole way of life. We’re going to have to invest more and more in adaptation. It’s not millions. It’s billions and tens and probably hundreds of billions (of dollars).” He continued, “Managing all the forests everywhere we can does not stop climate change, and those who deny that definitely are contributing to the tragedies that we are witnessing and will continue to witness.”

California Governor Jerry Brown Addresses Dept. Of Justice Lawsuit Against California

Jerry Brown Snarls At Trump Administration About CA Fires: ‘The Blood Is On Your Soul’

Climate Change

Fire

Jerry Brown

A new, massive wildfire is now raging through Southern California, threatening communities in Simi Valley and forcing the evacuation of numerous sites in southern California, including the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.
The so-called Easy Fire &#8220;exploded just after 6 a.m. in the area of the 118 Freeway and Madera Road. By 10 a.m., it had grown to 1,300 acres and was threatening about 7,000 homes, spurred on amid extreme red flag conditions and powerful Santa Ana winds,&#8221; a local CBS affiliate reported Wednesday.
The fire is not contained and the winds are blowing at between 40 and 50 miles per hour, threatening homes and businesses nearby, including the Library and a number of horse farms.
What appeared to be a controlled, defensive burn line was visible from the windows of the Library&#8217;s Air Force One display hangar Wednesday morning. Later photos showed the same defensive burn line extinguished.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Air Force One sits on display at <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/reaganlibrary?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#reaganlibrary</a> as the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/easyfire?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#easyfire</a> burns in the hills of Simi Valley. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/latimes?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#latimes</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/latimes?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@latimes</a> <a href="https://t.co/xdnS1QGVCc">pic.twitter.com/xdnS1QGVCc</a>
&mdash; Wally Skalij (@WallySkalij) <a href="https://twitter.com/WallySkalij/status/1189586925335695360?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 30, 2019</a></blockquote>
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&#8220;Firefighters were at the facility prepared to provide structure protection. The flames were being held back by an aggressive ground and aerial attack on the ridges beyond Simi’s modern residential estates,&#8221; <a href="https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-10-30/firefighters-battle-to-save-reagan-library-from-fast-moving-easy-fire">the LA Times reported</a>. &#8220;Helicopters repeatedly dropped loads of water behind the library in 60mph winds, turning the flames on the ridge 300ft below into smoke. Amid wind gusts strong enough to knock a person off balance, two super-scooper planes dipped down behind the library before unleashing such a volume of water it created its own rainbow.&#8221;
The fires, spreading across central and southern California, have threatened a number of landmarks in recent days, from Napa Valley wineries to LeBron James&#8217;s Los Angeles mansion; the Reagan Library is, by no means, the only structure in harm&#8217;s way. But it may be the only instance of a threatened structure, so far, where certain social media denizens are rooting for the fire.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
While it would be a tragedy for a library like this to be destroyed, it would be a poetic justice if the shrine to the Eternal God-King of the Republican Party to be destroyed by a global-warming induced forest fire
&mdash; Torrey Shirk (@TorreyShirk) <a href="https://twitter.com/TorreyShirk/status/1189568737936060421?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 30, 2019</a></blockquote>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
If the fire does destroy the Reagan Library, think Evangelicals and Republicans will get it that God is angry with them for Trump, kids in cages, treason, etc.? (Nah &#8211; they&#39;ll just blame Obama or Hillary or The Libs&#8230;)
&mdash; Langdon (@StillLangdon) <a href="https://twitter.com/StillLangdon/status/1189600505095282688?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 30, 2019</a></blockquote>
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Presidential library of man that removed Jimmy Carter&#39;s solar panels from the White House roof and battled against environmental regulations is now threatened by climate change.
&mdash; Eric McClung (@ericmcclung) <a href="https://twitter.com/ericmcclung/status/1189596861893632000?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 30, 2019</a></blockquote>
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how can I help it get closer
&mdash; 𝖋𝖆𝖓𝖙𝖆𝖘𝖙𝖎𝖈 𝖋𝖔𝖊 (@EdgarAllanFoe) <a href="https://twitter.com/EdgarAllanFoe/status/1189577910530838534?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 30, 2019</a></blockquote>
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it would be pretty on-brand for 2019 for the reagan presidential library to burn down to climate change-exacerbated wildfire at a time when republicans have completely abandoned uncle ron
&mdash; the norms haunter (@cd_hooks) <a href="https://twitter.com/cd_hooks/status/1189582134312423425?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 30, 2019</a></blockquote>
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&nbsp;
Even the concerned seemed unable to muster much, well, concern.
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Awful. Lots of precious, irreplaceable things there. I&#39;m not comforted by the comeuppance to the memory of a man who warded off environmentalism with the daft fallacy that &quot;the economic prosperity of our people is a fundamental part of our environment.&quot; <a href="https://t.co/uSfUbvdKt3">https://t.co/uSfUbvdKt3</a>
&mdash; Rick Perlstein (@rickperlstein) <a href="https://twitter.com/rickperlstein/status/1189574738332569600?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 30, 2019</a></blockquote>
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Most of the critics blamed &#8220;climate change&#8221; for the fires, a chorus that seems to have echoed throughout the left flank of the Democratic party, even though California is, perhaps, the most environmentally woke state, with some of the strictest environmental regulations of any state. The assumption, of course, is that a warming planet is creating stronger, more destructive wildfires.
But, in California, that may not be the case. There are slightly warmer summers and slightly drier conditions in California than there were in the 1970s, but the high winds are annual, and the increased damage appears to be from brush overgrowth &#8212; a side effect of those same environmental regulations that social media users now demand be enacted nationally. Once a fire starts, its fed by material that should have been removed, but wasn&#8217;t, to protect habitats and maintain green space.
Ronald Reagan&#8217;s mortal sin, though, was removing the solar panels from the White House, relics of President Jimmy Carter&#8217;s failed attempts to force the adoption of alternative energies during the fuel crisis. To put it mildly, there&#8217;s a fairly dubious connection between such a move and today&#8217;s wildfires, just as there&#8217;s a fairly dubious connection between legislators&#8217; proposed environmental solutions, like the &#8220;Green New Deal&#8221; and actual abatement of climate change.
For now, though, California is focused on putting out the three major fires currently raging across parts of the state. As of Wednesday afternoon, more than 26 million people in California and Arizona were under &#8220;extreme red flag&#8221; warnings, several million are without power, and tens of thousands have been evacuated from fire zones.
&nbsp;

Leftists Erupt In Glee As 1,300 Acre &#8216;Easy Fire&#8217; Threatens Reagan Presidential Library

Ronald Reagan

The following is satirical.
Hurrah! Here in the socialist state of California, Kommissar Gavin Newsom has gifted us with rolling electrical blackouts that glorify the great progress we have made under Marxist rule.
The blackouts will prevent high capitalist winds from blowing over PG&amp;E’s rotting equipment and causing even more of the glorious forest fires which are all part of the genius of the wonderful socialist programs which have lifted our state to greatness over the past 30 years.
Under our socialist rule, the state’s Public Utilities Commission has forced PG&amp;E to spend as much as $500 million a year to meet our glorious five year plan of reducing the cost of wind and solar energy to low income households.
Thus, our socialist overlords have guided the electric company to join the heroic workers’ fight against evil capitalist climate change which, as our infallible socialist computer models have predicted, will surely destroy the world by seven years ago.
Of course, spending all that money on green energy means PG&amp;E has no money for repairing the rotten electrical equipment with which billionaires indulge themselves in useless luxuries like electric lights and cooked food. And since PG&amp;E can’t repair its equipment, it often blows over and starts the beautiful forest fires which, in turn, serve our glorious socialist aims by forcing capitalist running dogs to abandon their energy-inefficient single-family homes.
Under our brilliant socialist plan, the fires also spread to our cities so that they can chase away the rats that have been gathering there due to our deep socialist charity to the poor who would have no place to sleep or even go to the bathroom if we did not let them sleep and go to the bathroom on our streets. And of course fire is a wonderful way to purge our air of the evil capitalist bubonic plague that the rats carry.
And so, comrades, under socialism, California is eliminating plague, rats, homelessness, houses and electricity by burning the entire state to the ground.
Once again: Hurrah! Now on to Texas!
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/new-fire-ravages-wealthy-la-area-lebron-james-forced-to-evacuate">New Fire Ravages Wealthy LA Area: LeBron James Forced To Evacuate</a>

Glorious Socialist Plan Saves California By Burning It To The Ground [Satire]

Global Warming

Satire

Socialism

California has declared a state of emergency, <a href="https://apnews.com/4d807d2a28b6410cbccda5e8291335c7">the Associated Press reports</a>, as wildfires and hurricane force winds ravage areas of the state, leaving millions without power.
Governor Gavin Newsom issued a statement Sunday in an attempt to reassure Californians &#8212; particularly those in the Bay Area and in Sonoma County where the fires threaten major agriculture and industry &#8212; that the state was deploying “every resource available” to battle the blazes.
The wildfires, blazing in Sonoma County and near San Francisco, and further south near Santa Clarita, had already driven more than 50,000 people from their homes by Saturday night when experts predicted a &#8220;catastrophic wind event&#8221; with hurricane-force gusts. By Sunday, 180,000 people had been told to flee to safer ground and winds up to 80 miles per hour blew across Napa Valley vineyards, causing the fires to take on an &#8220;erratic&#8221; burn pattern.
It&#8217;s the single largest evacuation in California in nearly three decades, according to <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/us/california-wildfires-evacuations-power-cut">Fox News</a>.
&#8220;Hundreds of people arrived at the Sonoma County Fairgrounds in Santa Rosa by Sunday. Some came from senior care facilities. More than 300 people slept inside an auditorium filled with cots and wheeled beds. Scores of others stayed in a separate building with their pets,&#8221; AP reported.
Before the winds arrived, the Kincade Fire, which began Wednesday night, was only 10% contained, and had already burned 47 square miles, destroying nearly 80 structures, according to the Associated Press. Nine people have been reported injured so far, victims of a tree that came crashing down on a farmer&#8217;s market near San Francisco, but the casualties are by no means fully counted. The last fire that swept through largely the same area in 2017 killed 24 people.
As if the wildfires weren&#8217;t bad enough, California electricity provider, Pacific Gas &amp; Electric Co. (PG&amp;E), has initiated forced blackouts, cutting power to 2.3 million people statewide, &#8220;to avoid fires sparked by electric lines,&#8221; <a href="https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-10-27/pge-expands-power-outages-to-2-million-customers">according to the LA Times</a>. Many of those people could remain without power until at least Wednesday.
&#8220;PG&amp;E said that as of noon Sunday it had shut down power to 940,000 customers, which are defined as an electrical meter that serves a residence or business,&#8221; the LA Times reported.
The blackouts are being done in seven phases, according to the California utility, and began at 5pm on Saturday night. They will roll through areas affected by the wildfires through the weekend and into Monday. So far, PG&amp;E reports that five out of the seven areas targeted for blackouts are without power. The last two areas will lose power on Monday.
But even if the fires are contained before Wednesday, customers may still be without power, since PG&amp;E says they must send out utility workers to inspect the affected electrical lines and determine them safe before they can turn the power back on.
PG&amp;E says the blackouts are necessary in order to avoid massive blazes like the ones that raged through California in January and May of 2019, respectively, but Gov. Newsom has blamed PG&amp;E for compounding the problem, and others pointed to signs that a faulty PG&amp;E transmission line may have sparked a fire near Geyserville, California, that is still burning, suggesting that PG&amp;E may be instituing the controlled blackouts out of concerns for their own system&#8217;s infrastructure.
On Sunday, as PG&amp;E consumers called for the company to be taken over and electricity declared a public utility, Newsom reached out over the airwaves to Warren Buffett, begging the investor to purchase PG&amp;E, <a href="https://www.sacbee.com/news/california/fires/article236714238.html">per Business Insider</a>. Such an acquisition is unlikely, however.
Outages are likely to continue until the fires are contained, a process that could take several days.

Blue Cut Fire Rages Through 30,000 Acres In Southern California

California Declares State Of Emergency Over Wind And Wildfires As Millions Go Without Power

In case anyone needed another reason to leave California, the chief executive officers of Pacific Gas &amp; Electric Corp. (PG&amp;E) now says the company may have to impose blackouts over the next 10 years.
NPR <a href="https://www.npr.org/2019/10/18/771486828/california-can-expect-blackouts-for-a-decade-says-pg-e-ceo">reported</a> that CEO Bill Johnson told energy regulators at California’s Public Utilities Commission (PUC) the company needed more time to trim trees and update its technology to prevent future forest fires. In the meantime, Johnson said, the company would have to impose blackouts.
PG&amp;E filed for bankruptcy in January. Months later, investigators determined that it was the company’s electrical transmission lines that caused a fire that sparked the raging forest fires in California last November.
Johnson reportedly said at the meeting that it could take 10 years for the power outages to be “ratcheted down significantly.”
Earlier this month, the company <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/55522">shut off power</a> for millions of Northern and Central California residents during high winds to avoid another fire. At the time, Johnson “continued to insist the blackout was necessary to prevent wildfires as high winds swept the state; he predicted at 6 p.m. that 98% of the affected customers would have the lights back on by midnight,” <a href="https://www.sacbee.com/news/california/fires/article236031853.html">according to The Sacramento Bee</a>.
During that blackout, which lasted three days but was originally scheduled for six, people faced spoiled food and loss of income due to businesses that would have to shut down. One man died after he was unable to get to his battery-operated backup oxygen machine. The family was aware the power outage was coming, but was not prepared for the power to cut off at 3:30 a.m. The coroner ruled the death was caused by the man’s health issues and not the power outage, but his family disagreed.
KCRA <a href="https://www.kcra.com/article/pge-power-shutoffs-17-counties-northern-california-central-california/29529351">reported</a> that PG&amp;E may shut off powers to residents in parts of 17 California counties due to another round of high winds. The company said a “significantly smaller” number of residents would have their power shut off than the outage earlier this month.
PG&amp;E calls the outages Public Safety Power Shutoff (PSPS) events. Johnson wrote in <a href="https://www.cpuc.ca.gov/uploadedFiles/CPUCWebsite/Content/News_Room/NewsUpdates/2019/CPUC%20Letter%20to%20President%20Marybel%20Batjer%2010-17-19.pdf">a letter</a> to the PUC that the company understands how difficult further outages would be for California residents.
“We recognize the hardship that the recent PSPS event caused for millions of people and want to continue working with all key shareholders to lessen this burden going forward,&#8221; Johnson wrote. &#8220;At the same time, we ask our customers, their families, and our local and state leaders to keep in mind that statistic that matters most: there were no catastrophic wildfires.&#8221;
During the last outage, KPFA “UpFront” host Brian Edwards-Tiekert laid out how PG&amp;E was responsible for the ongoing pain for Californians. He reported that the company “neglected” its equipment, which sparked the wildfires. The company told a judge earlier this year that it needed to conduct inspections and maintenance on its equipment, but by October had only completed one-third of what was necessary. This maintenance includes trimming trees near power equipment.
The situation California has found itself in was mostly preventable had PG&amp;E properly maintained its transformers and electrical towers. Now thousands and potentially millions of Californians will have their power shut off throughout the next 10 years.

Power lines

California Power Company Says It May Have To Impose Blackouts For The Next 10 Years

energy

For nearly three days, millions of residents in Northern and Central California lost power after their energy provider, PG&amp;E, forced them into a deliberate backup to prevent more forest fires.
The move naturally resulted in immense pressure against the company, which restored power to 97% of customers by Friday night. Some 22,000 residents still remain without power.
The Sacramento Bee <a href="https://www.sacbee.com/news/california/fires/article236031853.html">reported</a> that PG&amp;E Chief Executive Bill Johnson “continued to insist the blackout was necessary to prevent wildfires as high winds swept the state; he predicted at 6 p.m. that 98 percent of the affected customers would have the lights back on by midnight.”
Brian Edwards-Tiekert, host of “UpFront” on KPFA, provided a lengthy explainer on the situation on Twitter last week, explaining that PG&amp;E “is presently in bankruptcy because its neglected equipment sparked massive wildfires over the past two years.” He added that the company “doesn’t want to rack up more wildfire liability but it also hasn’t completed two thirds of the inspections and maintenance it told a judge it needs to make the system safer.”
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4. PG&amp;E doesn&#8217;t want to rack up more wildfire liability&#8230; 
. 
. 
&#8230;but it also hasn&#8217;t completed two thirds of the inspections and maintenance it told a judge it needs to make the system safer.<a href="https://t.co/CdR1QSa4Sh">https://t.co/CdR1QSa4Sh</a>
— Brian EdwardsTiekert (@bedwardstiek) <a href="https://twitter.com/bedwardstiek/status/1182047048972943360?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 9, 2019</a></blockquote>
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Edwards-Tiekert went on to explain that the company planned to turn the power off for “up to 2.5 million people, for up to six days” because of the recent dry weather in the region. He added that the situation “was largely preventable (if PG&amp;E had been trimming trees, replacing transformers, and maintaining decrepit towers).”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
6. This was largely preventable (if PG&amp;E had been trimming trees, replacing transformers, and maintaining decrepit towers). <a href="https://t.co/vrUuR1iUhz">https://t.co/vrUuR1iUhz</a>
— Brian EdwardsTiekert (@bedwardstiek) <a href="https://twitter.com/bedwardstiek/status/1182047051254661120?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 9, 2019</a></blockquote>
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Some critics pushed back on Edwards-Tiekert’s assertions, suggesting that environmentalists prevented PG&amp;E from trimming trees.
As the morning show host noted, such an extended power outage could result in millions of dollars of spoiled food and would shut down businesses and could even kill people.
In fact, there is one confirmed death following the power outage, though the coroner claimed the outage <a href="https://nypost.com/2019/10/12/man-dies-after-california-power-outage-prevents-him-from-getting-to-oxygen-machine/">had nothing to do with the man’s death</a>. Robert Mardis Sr.’s family, however, disagrees, saying the family patriarch required an oxygen machine to survive. They were prepared with a battery-operated backup machine, but the power was cut at 3:30 a.m. Mardis did not have time to get to his backup machine and died.
“I don’t understand why they turned off the power,” Mardis’ daughter, Marie Aldea, said. “No winds at all. And because of that, my father is gone. Blaming them is not going to bring my father back, unfortunately.”
She <a href="https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-10-11/pge-power-outage-elderly-man-autopsy-heart-disease">told the Los Angeles Times</a> that her father “was going to his portable oxygen machine,” but died before they could get it operating. “We weren’t even able to get to the generator it happened so quick,” she said.
After an intense backlash, PG&amp;E returned power ahead of the six-day schedule. That backlash included multiple comments from Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA).
”We’re all leaning into it,” Newsom said of the blackout. “I can assure you, you will see additional efforts into the new year. A lot of it can be done administratively, and a lot of it is already being pursued by the Public Utilities Commission with its new leadership.”

California Energy Company Restores Power For 2 Million Residents Following Forced Blackout

On Monday, Daily Wire Editor-at-Large Josh Hammer, who is also a <a href="https://firstliberty.org/team/josh-hammer/">constitutional attorney</a> by training, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEFIlHWRTr8">joined</a> &#8220;Tipping Point With Liz Wheeler&#8221; on One America News Network to discuss California&#8217;s recent <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2019/10/7/20902884/california-deepfake-political-ban-election-2020">passing</a> of a law banning so-called &#8220;deep fake&#8221; videos when those videos are aired close to an election. As <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2019/10/7/20902884/california-deepfake-political-ban-election-2020">explained</a> by The Verge, California&#8217;s law &#8220;makes it a crime to distribute [within 60 days of an election] audio or video that gives a false, damaging impression of a politician’s words or actions.&#8221; However, as The Verge continues to explain, &#8220;[p]otentially deceptive video or audio will also be allowed if it includes a disclaimer noting that it’s fake.&#8221;
The issue, as it appeared to Wheeler and Hammer, is the danger of politicians delegating power to judges to ban forms of audio or video that they, using their discretion, determine to be deceptive. Wheeler and Hammer both discussed the example of David Daleiden and the Center for Medical Progress, whose videos exposing systemic corruption at Planned Parenthood were decried for years by the Left as &#8220;deceptively edited&#8221; before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit stated, in a footnote earlier this year, that the videos were not deceptively edited. As Hammer <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/fifth-circuit-panel-center-medical-progress-josh-hammer">reported</a> at the time for The Daily Wire, the Fifth Circuit opinion&#8217;s sixth footnote reads:
<blockquote>In fact, the record reflects that [the Texas Health and Human Services Commission’s Office of Inspector General] had submitted a report from a forensic firm concluding that the video was authentic and not deceptively edited. And the plaintiffs did not identify any particular omission or addition in the video footage. Moreover, the district court also suggested that there was no evidence that any of [Planned Parenthood&#8217;s] research was federally funded, so the regulations relied on by OIG might be inapplicable. But the record actually establishes that the UTMB study was funded by the National Institute of Health.</blockquote>
With that context in mind, Wheeler began by asking Hammer whether California&#8217;s law could even withstand a First Amendment challenge. Hammer said that the issue is &#8220;probably right on the line&#8221; of unconstitutionality, and proceeded to explain why the law&#8217;s delegation of discretionary power to judges is problematic:
<blockquote>You know, it&#8217;s probably right on the line. I mean this is in California, so this would ultimately get appealed to the California Supreme Court and &#8230; if it&#8217;s a First Amendment challenge, [would] actually go to the Ninth Circuit because we need a federal court [for that]. These are liberal courts; traditionally, over the past 15-20 years, the Left has increasingly sided against free speech. So I could see the courts there upholding it.
But you know, here&#8217;s the thing, Liz. Anthony Kennedy — someone who I am NOT a fan of, I would be mortified to share on national television some of the things I&#8217;ve said in my private life about Anthony Kennedy — but if there&#8217;s one thing that Anthony Kennedy was wonderful on throughout his entire career, it was free speech. And he really said it best in the landmark case of <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/09pdf/08-205.pdf">Citizens United v. FEC</a> in 2010. Kennedy said, quote: &#8220;It is our law and our tradition that more speech, not less, is the governing rule.&#8221; And that&#8217;s kind of the classic American axiom — that is how we have always comported ourselves in the public square and the realm of politics. &#8230; The way the combat speech is with more speech. It is not to attempt to write vaguely worded statutes that &#8230; take power away from the elected political branch and ultimately are just empowering federal judges to interpret these broadly worded statutes. That&#8217;s what this is doing — it&#8217;s empowering judges to decry it as right and wrong. It&#8217;s an anti-democratic movement it is a totalitarian power grab and really, people of all political stripes should not stand for this.</blockquote>
WATCH:
<iframe title="CA Passes Law Banning &quot;Deep Fake&quot; Videos Close To Elections" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/YEFIlHWRTr8?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Josh Hammer OANN screen grab 10.07.19

WATCH: Hammer On ‘Tipping Point With Liz Wheeler’: California Bans &#8216;Deep Fake&#8217; Videos Close To Elections

Center for Medical Progress

Constitution

First Amendment

Judicial Branch

Judiciary

Lawsuit

On Tuesday, the Dhillon Law Group, where I serve as an election law attorney, filed a lawsuit against the state of California. This lawsuit alleges that California is <a href="https://publiuslex.com/pf/nvra/">violating federal law</a> by not ensuring that only citizens are on the state&#8217;s voting rolls. Three California voters brought this lawsuit: Roxanne Hoge, Ali Mazarei, and Corrin Rankin. Both Hoge and Mazarei are legal immigrants who earned the privilege to vote by becoming citizens of the United States.
In 1993, a Democrat-controlled Congress passed and President Bill Clinton signed into law the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA). This law mandated that states create more options for individuals to register to vote. This law also placed restrictions on the states on how they were to maintain their voter rolls. Under the NVRA, the state has a duty to regularly maintain the voter rolls by removing those individuals who had died or moved away.
The NVRA also requires a state&#8217;s secretary of state to determine the eligibility of each applicant before placing him or her on its voter rolls. Eligibility throughout the NVRA means that there is citizenship. Thus, the NVRA requires the states to ensure that someone is a citizen prior to placing him or her on the voter rolls.
State records show that before the California secretary of state&#8217;s office places an applicant on the voter rolls, it checks with state administrative records to ensure the individual is not a felon and that the voter application is not a duplicate. The state admits that it does not review state administrative records to determine if an applicant is a citizen of the United States. If California does not even bother to check the citizenship status of voter applicants, it can continue to claim to the media that there is no evidence of non-citizens being placed on its voter rolls.
Last year, the California secretary of state admitted he had no idea how many non-citizens were on the voter rolls. Earlier this year, a state audit was released that showed non-citizens were not only registered to vote, but had voted in California elections. These two news stories made it clear that California did not use state administrative records to ensure that only citizens were being registered to vote. Rather than follow federal law and make a determination of citizenship before placing an applicant on the voter rolls, the state simply waits for a scandal to break before responding by removing a non-citizen from its voter rolls. This is improper.
The California secretary of state has claimed that there is no state administrative record that tracks citizenship of Californians. This is clearly not true, since a state audit was able to determine that non-citizens were not only on the voter rolls but had also actually voted. Contrary to what the secretary of state wants the media to believe, there are multiple state administrative records that contain the citizenship status of voters. Every applicant for a state driver&#8217;s license is required to provide proof of identity. These proof-of-identity documents include citizenship status. If an individual cannot prove that he/she is lawfully a United States citizens, a driver&#8217;s license is still doled out but that individual is supposedly not simultaneously also registered to vote.
By bringing this lawsuit, the plaintiffs desire to hold the secretary of state&#8217;s feet to the fire. It is time that California be required to follow federal law and ensure that everyone who is on the voter rolls is actually eligible to vote. This lawsuit is necessary because California has a bad habit of thumbing its nose at federal election laws and dragging its feet as long as possible. When Congress passed the Help America Vote Act in 2002 — which required states to establish a statewide voter registration list — California was the last state to comply. It did not do so until 2016.
Earlier this year, Judicial Watch won a major victory against California requiring the state to follow federal law in removing from the voter rolls those who have died and those who have moved. California had chosen to simply not send out the required notices, and the voter rolls were thus bloated with ineligible voters.
Californians deserve the assurance that the state is following federal law and ensuring that only citizens are on the voter rolls. By its own admissions, the state is not verifying voter applicants&#8217; citizenship status. Since California has claimed that it is not doing anything wrong, this lawsuit had to be brought to force California to follow the NVRA.
&nbsp;
Mark Meuser is an election law attorney with the Dhillon Law Group, which is based in California. You can follow Mark Meuser on Twitter <a href="http://twitter.com/markmeuser">@markmeuser</a>.

California on atlas

MEUSER: Legal Immigrants Sue California For Failure To Verify Voters&#8217; Citizenship Status

Illegal Immigration

A federal judge ruled in favor of President Trump on Tuesday against a California presidential primary bill recently passed by Democrats and signed into law by progressive Gov. Gavin Newsom requiring candidates, including the president, to provide five years of tax returns in order to appear on the 2020 primary ballot. The new law was designed with the obvious intent to force Trump in particular to hand over his long-sought after tax returns.
&#8220;The dangerous precedent set by this act, allowing the controlling party in any state&#8217;s legislature to add substantive requirements as a precondition to qualifying for the state&#8217;s presidential primary ballot, should concern all candidates alike,&#8221; U.S. District Judge Morrison C. England Jr. wrote in his ruling issued Tuesday. 
England, a George W. Bush-appointee, argued in his decision that the law violates the First Amendment rights of candidates, particularly Trump, who, England underscored, appears to have been targeted by the Democrats&#8217; new law.
Trump took to Twitter early Wednesday to celebrate the ruling and chide the &#8220;fake news&#8221; media for largely ignoring his big &#8220;VICTORY.&#8221;
&#8220;I won the right to be a presidential candidate in California, in a major Court decision handed down yesterday,&#8221; Trump tweeted Wednesday. &#8220;It was filed against me by the Radical Left Governor of that State to tremendous Media hoopla. The VICTORY, however, was barely covered by the Fake News. No surprise!&#8221;
&nbsp;
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I won the right to be a presidential candidate in California, in a major Court decision handed down yesterday. It was filed against me by the Radical Left Governor of that State to tremendous Media hoopla. The VICTORY, however, was barely covered by the Fake News. No surprise!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1179378450936807424?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 2, 2019</a></blockquote>
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California Secretary of State Alex Padilla has announced that he will appeal the ruling.
“California will appeal this ruling and we will continue to make our thorough, thoughtful argument for stronger financial disclosure requirements for presidential and gubernatorial candidates,&#8221; Padilla said in a statement Tuesday reported by <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-tax-returns-california-appeal-2020-primary">Fox News</a>. &#8220;Our elected leaders have a legal and moral obligation to be transparent with voters about potential conflicts of interest. This law is fundamental to preserving and protecting American democracy.&#8221;
Newsom signed <a href="https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=201920200SB27">Senate Bill 27</a>, the so-called “Presidential Tax Transparency and Accountability Act,” into law in July. The law would have required all primary candidates to turn over their most recent five years of tax returns by the November deadline in order to appear on the primary ballot. The law did not apply to the general election. The bill reads in part:
<blockquote>This bill would enact the Presidential Tax Transparency and Accountability Act, which would require a candidate for President, in order to have the candidate’s name placed upon a primary election ballot, to file the candidate’s income tax returns for the 5 most recent taxable years with the Secretary of State, as specified. The act would require the Secretary of State, within 5 days of receiving the returns, to make redacted versions of the returns available to the public on the Secretary of State’s internet website. This bill would impose the same requirements on candidates for Governor.</blockquote>
Trump’s legal team filed a lawsuit against the bill in August maintaining that the law unconstitutionally added additional requirements for presidential candidates and potentially violated voters’ First Amendment rights. Other legal arguments presented in similar suits argued that the law would suppress Republican voter turnout.
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/watch-colbert-invites-on-hillary-starts-lock-him-up-chant-suggests-chelsea-slap-trumps-mouth">WATCH: Colbert Invites On Hillary, Starts ‘Lock Him Up’ Chant, Suggests Chelsea ‘Slap’ Trump’s Mouth</a>

‘VICTORY’: Trump Wins 2020 Election Case Against California Democrats, Calls Out Media

The Sport of Kings is under renewed scrutiny due to a long list of horse deaths at famed Southern California racetrack Santa Anita. But while 32 deaths at one track is horrifying, it is not uncommon in a sport where horses die every week while competing.
The New York Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/29/sports/horse-racing/santa-anita.html">reported</a> that Emtech, a 3-year-old colt was euthanized on Saturday after breaking both of his legs during a race at Santa Anita. Emtech was the 32nd horse to die at the racetrack since December.
Emtech had a history of physical problems, multiple outlets reported. He was purchased in 2018 for $75,000 but that sale was voided after he was inspected by state veterinarians and determined to be unsound (a condition that that could interfere with his ability to race). He was placed on a list by state veterinarians. The Los Angeles Times reported that he was placed on this list after racing successfully six times. At the end of October 2018, “he failed a workout that would have removed him from the list,” the LA Times reported.
By June 2019 he was removed from the list. Dr. Dionne Benson, chief veterinarian for the group that owns Santa Anita, told the Times the company would “open an immediate review into what factors could have contributed to Emtech’s injury.”
As the Times reported, “Santa Anita’s problems are hardly isolated”:
Nearly 10 horses a week on average died at American racetracks in 2018, according to the Jockey Club’s Equine Injury Database. That figure is anywhere from two and a half to five times greater than the fatality rate in Europe and Asia, where rules against performance-enhancing drugs are enforced more stringently.
At Belmont Park in New York, home of the Belmont Stakes, there have been seven fatalities because of injuries over the past 18 race days — four in afternoon racing and three in morning training hours. On Friday, the Keeneland fall meet, an elite and highly anticipated race meeting in Lexington, Kentucky, will open amid heightened anxiety after a troubling rash of horse fatalities in its spring meet.
Keeneland had four race-related deaths — three on dirt and one on turf — over the course of its 16 racing days, for a rate of 3.12 fatalities per 1,000 starts, or almost twice the national average.
New York attempted to put a stop to horse deaths back in 2012 after 21 horses died within six months at state racetracks. The state eventually created stricter policies on medication and safety, but it did not end the deaths.
Emtech was on the front stretch on Saturday when he fell to the ground. His jockey, Mario Gutierrez was thrown to the ground but uninjured. Track veterinarians rushed to the colt as he struggled, and made the immediate decision to euthanize him. The New York Post <a href="https://nypost.com/2019/09/30/another-horse-dies-during-race-at-santa-anita-park-marking-32-deaths-since-december/">reported</a> that track workers held up a green screen to hide the colt from view.
Emtech’s tragic death came just days after Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) called the previous deaths at the racetrack a “disgrace.”

Horse racing

32 Horses Have Died At Santa Anita Racetrack Since December – And That’s Not Uncommon In Horseracing

New York

Former Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) confirmed on Thursday morning that he would officially be mounting a congressional comeback and running to unseat his one-time colleague Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA).
&#8220;I will be the next congressman from the 50th Congressional district,&#8221; Issa announced during a news conference in San Diego County. &#8220;I have the history, the skills, the seniority, and the capability to hit the ground running, not just for this district, but for California.&#8221;
&#8220;This will be a referendum on — am I the right person to come back and serve for a number of terms again in Congress?&#8221; he continued, before insisting that his campaign &#8220;will not be about the other guy.&#8221;
Issa is set to challenge Hunter, who was recently indicted on a bevy of federal charges — including wire fraud, falsifying records, conspiracy, and campaign finance violations. Hunter is facing a trial that is scheduled for only weeks ahead of the California primaries and therefore poses a significant risk to his incumbency.
Despite his pending federal charges, Hunter was able to maintain his congressional seat during the 2018 midterm elections, edging out his Democratic challenger by just over 9,000 votes in the consistently red district. However, after his indictment, he was forced to step down from his committee assignments and continues to serve his constituents without holding any committee seats.
Issa abstained from mentioning Hunter during Thursday&#8217;s press conference, but later revealed to reporters that he considers his situation to be &#8220;regrettable.&#8221;
&#8220;He deserves his day in court,&#8221; Issa told reporters. &#8220;But the 50th District does deserve to have the ability to retain this as a conservative district, and quite frankly, to have a member who can show up and take all of his committee assignments.&#8221;
Issa served in California&#8217;s 48th and then 49th Congressional District from 2001 until 2019, when he revealed that he would not be seeking re-election. During his tenure in the House, Issa served as the chairman of the prestigious House Government Reforms and Oversight Committee.
He garnered national media attention as a frequent critic of former President Barack Obama and his administration. After obtaining the Committee&#8217;s chairmanship in 2010, Issa became a vocal advocate for a a slew of investigations into the White House and publicly clashed with the former administration on issues such as the Internal Revenue Service&#8217;s targeting of conservative organizations, the &#8220;Fast and Furious&#8221; gun-walking scandal, and the attack on the United States embassy in Benghazi, Libya.
President Donald Trump had nominated Issa to head the United States Trade and Development Agency more than a year ago. After his confirmation stalled in the Senate last week and his hearing was subsequently postponed indefinitely, Issa penned a letter to the president withdrawing his nomination. In the letter, the former California lawmaker expressed his gratitude and further blamed the postponement on &#8220;partisan obstructionism.&#8221;
&#8220;I am ready to move forward with an alternative opportunity to return to public service,&#8221; Issa wrote in reference to his congressional run. &#8220;I believe this opportunity will allow me to do even more to help you enact your agenda.&#8221;

Darrell Issa committee hearing

Former Lawmaker Darrell Issa Launches Bid To Unseat Embattled GOP Congressman

2020 Election

Former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown criticized Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) and her presidential campaign on Sunday for ignoring her home state of California in favor of campaigning in early primary states.
&#8220;It is a difficult task for her because she has not concentrated at all on California,&#8221; Brown said while appearing on CBS SF Bay Area. &#8220;Whoever is managing her campaign, in my opinion, will not do it the way that it should have been done.&#8221;
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&#8220;Clearly, you have ought to develop the ability to be the favorite son or daughter in the state from which you come,&#8221; he continued. &#8220;Which is the way that it was in the olden times when we were selecting people.&#8221;
Brown&#8217;s remarks come roughly a week after new polls reveal that the California senator has drastically lost support in her own home state. A poll of likely primary voters <a href="https://www.kqed.org/news/11774909/kamala-harris-slips-in-a-new-california-poll-warren-sanders-biden-on-top">commissioned by KQED</a> found that Harris slipped into fourth place in the presidential race behind former vice president Joe Biden and Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Bernie Sanders (I-VT) in the Golden State, receiving only 11% support.
Days later, Emerson released <a href="https://emersonpolling.reportablenews.com/pr/california-2020-biden-sanders-warren-in-statistical-tie-in-democratic-primary-harris-struggles-in-home-state">a separate poll</a> that placed Harris in fifth place, slipping even farther behind entrepreneur Andrew Yang and receiving only 6% of the vote.
&#8220;Senator Kamala Harris is in trouble in her home state,&#8221; Emerson Polling Director Spencer Kimball said of the poll. &#8220;If she is unable to gain momentum in Iowa or New Hampshire, come Super Tuesday she might have a similar fate to Senator Marco Rubio in 2016 when he was unable to win his home state of Florida and dropped out of the race.&#8221;
&#8220;She needed to concentrate on [sic] that incredible send off that she got in the announcement time back in February in Oakland,&#8221; Brown continued. &#8220;It was dramatic, clearly, and three or four continuous visits here would have placed her at the top of the food chain.&#8221;
Harris kicked off her presidential campaign to a reported crowd of more than 20,000 supporters. The launch was one of the most widely attended events for any 2020 Democratic presidential contender to date.
&#8220;Ignoring California, not deliberately, but doing all you can to be known in other places, causes you not to be doing things at home,&#8221; Brown added.
Harris and the former San Francisco mayor notably had an extra-marital affair more than two decades ago, which helped to launch the Democratic lawmaker&#8217;s own political career.
When Harris was 30 years old, she dated Brown, who is three decades her senior. At the time, Brown was serving as the Democratic speaker of the California Assembly and appointed her to the California Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board and later to the the California Medical Assistance Commission.
While both positions were considered to be powerful and high-paying positions in the state, the latter has been criticized as &#8220;a landing spot for patronage jobs and kickbacks,&#8221; according to <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/politics/kamala-harris-launched-political-career-with-120k-patronage-job-from-boyfriend-willie-brown">The Washington Examiner</a>.

Scott Olson/Getty Images

WATCH: Former SF Mayor Willie Brown Slams Kamala Harris’ Campaign Strategy As She Loses Steam In The Golden State

Kamala Harris

In a major setback for California Democrats, a federal judge ruled in favor of the Trump campaign on Thursday regarding an attempt to keep the duly elected President of the United States off the state&#8217;s 2020 primary ballot if he doesn&#8217;t hand over five years of tax returns by November 26.
In July, Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill in part designed to force Trump to disclose his tax returns, which Democrats have been clamoring to get a hold of for years. The law, <a href="https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=201920200SB27">Senate Bill 27</a>, requires all primary candidates to submit their most recent five years of tax returns by the November deadline to appear on the ballot; the law does not apply to the general election. The &#8220;Presidential Tax Transparency and Accountability Act&#8221; reads in part:
<blockquote>This bill would enact the Presidential Tax Transparency and Accountability Act, which would require a candidate for President, in order to have the candidate’s name placed upon a primary election ballot, to file the candidate’s income tax returns for the 5 most recent taxable years with the Secretary of State, as specified. The act would require the Secretary of State, within 5 days of receiving the returns, to make redacted versions of the returns available to the public on the Secretary of State’s internet website. This bill would impose the same requirements on candidates for Governor.</blockquote>
In response, Trump&#8217;s legal team filed a lawsuit in August arguing that SB 27 was unconstitutional by adding additional requirements for presidential candidates and potentially violating voters&#8217; First Amendment rights. Opponents also argue that the law would likely result in suppressed Republican turnout.
U.S. District Judge Morrison England Jr., a George W. Bush appointee, sided with Trump on Thursday. While England said he would issue his final ruling by the end of the month, his actions signaled that the final decision would likely end up favorable to team Trump.
As reported by the <a href="https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-09-19/trump-tax-returns-federal-court-challenge-california">Los Angeles Times</a>, England &#8220;took the unusual step of issuing the tentative order from the bench.&#8221; After hearing consolidated arguments made in five separate lawsuits filed in response to the bill, Trump&#8217;s among them, England issued the junction, explaining that the law would cause &#8220;irreparable harm&#8221; for Trump and other candidates if he did not provide &#8220;temporary relief.&#8221; He also suggested that allowing the states to add various additional criteria to appear on the ballot might &#8220;create a hodgepodge of laws around the country.&#8221;
In a statement Thursday, Trump lawyer Jay Sekulow said their camp was &#8220;encouraged&#8221; by the injunction and again stressed that they believe the law is &#8220;unconstitutional.&#8221;
&#8220;We are encouraged that the federal court has tentatively concluded that a preliminary injunction should be granted. We look forward to the court’s written order,&#8221; Sekulow said in a statement reported by <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/462234-federal-judge-blocks-california-law-requiring-trump-tax-returns">The Hill</a>. &#8220;It remains our position that the law is unconstitutional because states are not permitted to add additional requirements for candidates for president, and that the law violated citizens’ First Amendment right of association.&#8221;
The author of the bill, State Sen. Mike McGuire (D-Healdsburg), said Judge Morrison &#8220;got this one wrong.&#8221;
&#8220;Transparency is the foundation of accountability,&#8221; he said in comments reported by the Times. &#8220;This issue of releasing tax returns is bigger than any one candidate or any one president.&#8221;
The Times notes that &#8220;California elections officials confirmed Thursday that no presidential candidates have submitted tax returns yet to comply with the new law.&#8221;
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/51977/trump-sues-district-attorney-after-subpoena-james-barrett">Trump Sues District Attorney After Subpoena</a>

California’s Attempt To Keep Trump Off Primary Ballot Suffers Big Setback

Democratic Party

On Wednesday’s episode of “The Michael Knowles Show,” Knowles talks about President Trump’s recent California fundraisers and how Trump is using Hollywood leftists for his strategic advantage. Video and partial transcript below: 
President Trump got a great deal on his two- or three-day swing through California. He was just in Beverly Hills, and I think the total he&#8217;s taking out of that state is 15 million bucks. The big takeaway here for the Left, for the chattering class, is that 15 million bucks didn&#8217;t come from nowhere. We talk about California as though it&#8217;s just monolithic, completely leftist, there isn&#8217;t a conservative anywhere. I mean, I make jokes about it, too. But there are [conservatives there].
I mean, we used to have a group out in Los Angeles called “Friends of Abe,” and &#8220;Friends of Abe&#8221; was friends of Abraham Lincoln. It was all the secret conservatives in Hollywood. There were a lot of us. The Obama administration tried to get a list of our members. Everyone wanted to know who they were, because if you asked anybody in the industry they&#8217;d say, &#8220;I don&#8217;t know any conservatives out here, I don&#8217;t need any conservatives in Hollywood.&#8221; And yet there were a lot. They just were afraid of speaking up because the Left is so vindictive in California.
I suppose this is what we mean by the phrase, &#8220;the silent majority.&#8221; Republicans — conservatives have been relying on that silent majority since Nixon, since Reagan, and all the way up through Trump. There are different names for them: The forgotten Americans, the great men and women of the middle of the country. Whatever, they&#8217;re out there. They&#8217;re even in California. I think what Trump is seeing here is [that] he doesn&#8217;t need to win California for California to help him win in 2020. You know it&#8217;s true.
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Hillary Clinton won California in a landslide. Trump got four and a half million votes there, four and a half million people voted for President Trump in 2016. That was the harder election to vote for Trump, because we didn&#8217;t know what he was going to do. We didn&#8217;t know how he was going to behave. He&#8217;s exceeded pretty much everybody&#8217;s expectations. We were told the economy was going to collapse, we were told we&#8217;re going to go to World War III, we were told all the terrible things would happen if Trump got elected. Instead, pretty much everything has improved. The economy&#8217;s great, we have record-low unemployment, relative peace abroad, re-negotiated trade deals. Things are looking pretty good.
How many votes is he going to get in 2020 [in California]? Enough to win? Almost certainly not, but it could galvanize some support for him. Four and a half million votes in 2016. He also raised $333 million in California in 2016. That&#8217;s a lot of money. What this tells you is there are Trump supporters in California. I probably know most of them personally, but there are [some], there actually are.
This isn&#8217;t even a Left/Right thing. Trump made a central pillar, of his fundraising swing through California, how the cities are deteriorating — Los Angeles and San Francisco. I live in L.A., [and it&#8217;s] falling apart. Homelessness is up 16% in just one year in L.A. San Francisco is falling apart, there are drugs all over the street, they&#8217;re decriminalizing the homeless behaviors there as well. There&#8217;s public defecation on the streets in San Francisco.
You don&#8217;t need to be some rock-ribbed Reaganite Republican to say this isn&#8217;t good, maybe we don&#8217;t want this, maybe we want the state to move in another direction. So I think Trump is very smart to bring this up — to talk about this. He was talking about L.A. homelessness; obviously the president of the United States is probably not going to fix a municipal problem like L.A. homelessness, but it&#8217;s a symbol for the rot that comes as a result of these leftist policies.
More importantly even than that, &#8230; the reason why Trump probably should swing back through Hollywood next time he gets a chance is just for the rest of the country. He gets to use Hollywood as a foil for him and for his policies. That liberal, vindictive Hollywood can be the foil. It&#8217;s like the anti-Trump. I mean, we saw just a few weeks ago the stars of &#8220;Will and Grace,&#8221; Eric McCormack and Debra Messing, who Trump then nicknamed Deborah &#8220;The Mess&#8221; Messing in his very Trumpian way. They came out and they called for the public naming of any Trump supporters in Hollywood.
We&#8217;re talking about McCarthyite blacklists. I even hesitate to use the term McCarthyite to describe what they were doing, because at least Joe McCarthy was going after communists, at least Joe McCarthy was going after enemies of America. Those two, Will and Grace, were going after people who support the president and saying — they said explicitly — we want you to name their names so we know who not to work with. We want you to name their names so we know who to blacklist, to ruin their reputations, ruin their careers, take away their livelihood. That is a bad look.
I mean, there was even some pushback from liberal Hollywood about that, and Trump gets to come out there and &#8230; trigger them [and] whip them up into [a] frenzy, and then show the rest of the country. So you have genuinely a choice, not an echo. You know Hollywood has widespread reach. They are exporters of culture, and so Will and Grace going out and calling for a blacklist, maybe it won&#8217;t change votes in California — it&#8217;s almost certainly not going to flip California to become some Republican state — but, that sort of vindictive leftism is not going to play in Peoria &#8230;
Every election is about a choice, if [you] have to choose between Trump who&#8217;s given us a pretty good economy — you know he&#8217;s got some mean tweets, but whatever, they&#8217;re pretty funny — and relative peace, and he actually seems pretty normal and [you] get to choose between that or these lunatics out there in Hollywood, who [are you] going to pick? Obviously, you&#8217;re going to pick President Trump.
<a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-michael-knowles-show/id1266577963?mt=2">Listen to full episodes of “The Michael Knowles Show” on iTunes.</a>
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/podcasts/show/michael-knowles-show">Watch “The Michael Knowles Show” on-demand!</a>

KNOWLES: How Trump Will Use California To Win In 2020

Conservatism

Hollywood

Homelessness

Los Angeles

Republican Party

San Francisco

Last week, former Heisman Trophy winner and NFL quarterback Tim Tebow, appearing on ESPN’s &#8220;First Take,&#8221; took issue with the state of California <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/51711/ca-challenges-ncaa-let-college-athletes-earn-money-hank-berrien">passing a bill </a>to allow student-athletes to obtain endorsements without being punished by the NCAA.
The next thing you know, Tebow was called a racist.
Tebow was commenting on the &#8220;Fair Pay to Play Act,&#8221; which states that the athletes can be paid for the use of their name, likeness, and image. <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/california-takes-aim-at-ncaa-pay-ban-11568244553">The Wall Street Journal</a> noted it &#8220;allows college athletes to earn money from their name, image or likeness, through sponsorship or endorsement deals, starting in 2023. The bill also bans schools from preventing athletes from getting compensation or retaining agents.&#8221;
Tebow stated:
<blockquote>I feel like I have a little credibility and knowledge about this because when I was at the University of Florida, I think my jersey was one of the top-selling jerseys around the world. It was like Kobe, LeBron and then I was right behind them. I didn&#8217;t make a dollar from it and nor did I want to because I knew going into college what it was all about. I knew going to Florida, my dream school, where I wanted to go, the passion for it and if I could support my team, support my college, support my university, that&#8217;s what it’s all about. But now, we’re changing it from &#8220;us,&#8221; from &#8220;we,&#8221; from &#8220;my university,&#8221; from being an alumni where I care, which makes college football and college sports special, to then, &#8220;OK, it’s not about us. It&#8217;s not about we; it’s just about me.&#8221;
And, yes, I know we live in a selfish culture where it&#8217;s all about us, but we’re just adding and piling onto that, where it changes what’s special about college football. We turn it into the NFL, where who has the most money, that&#8217;s where you go. That’s why people are more passionate about college sports than they are about the NFL. That’s why the stadiums are bigger in college than they are in the NFL; because it&#8217;s about your team; it&#8217;s about your university; it&#8217;s about where my family wanted to go; it&#8217;s about where my grandfather had a dream of seeing Florida win an SEC championship; and you&#8217;re taking that away. And, you&#8217;re taking that away so that young kids can earn a dollar and that’s just not where I feel college football needs to go.</blockquote>
That prompted comments on social media calling Tebow a racist:
One Twitter user <a href="https://twitter.com/KindleindaWind/status/1172579506613366784">tweeted</a>, &#8220;Tim Tebow is vainly trying to pull up the ladder after himself like every other white, rich, racist a****** who’s ever lived.&#8221;
<a href="https://twitter.com/Yarn959/status/1172656158903033857">Another</a>: &#8220;I have so many things to say about Tim Tebow, but I&#8217;ll leave it at this — He&#8217;s a fucking clown, a virgin, and almost certainly a racist. The &#8216;by their own bootstraps&#8217; kind of racist. And anyone who agrees with him owns a thin blue line flag.&#8221;
And yet <a href="https://twitter.com/Naej70367743/status/1172841571139620864">another</a>: &#8220;Tim Tebow is a racist hypocrite. His grandparents and parents were attending schools at a time when Black athletes could not even apply to these schools. What has he done to help poor Black students who are suffering of starvation?&#8221;
Dave Zirin, writing in <a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/tim-tebow/">The Nation</a>, opined,
<blockquote>In 1968, Dr. John Carlos said that to be black in the United States is like trying to climb up a ladder while someone above you is constantly stepping on your hands. Tim Tebow is exactly the kind of person who does the stepping … People like Tim Tebow are not trying to preserve tradition. They are trying to preserve power.</blockquote>
But Mike Bianchi, writing in <a href="https://www.orlandosentinel.com/sports/mike-bianchi-commentary/os-sp-tim-tebow-espn-first-take-0919-20190917-i7hjszwyzzduloam4mdhpxwjne-story.html">The Orlando Sentinel</a>, countered the attacks on Tebow and fiercely defended him, writing, &#8220;Incredibly, Tim Tebow — a man who builds hospitals and orphanages in third-world countries, holds proms worldwide for thousands of special-needs kids and does more for the disadvantaged and underprivileged than any athlete I’ve ever come across —suddenly was being portrayed as the next David Duke.&#8221;
Bianchi added, &#8220;Why did this have to turn into a racial issue? Why couldn’t it be an amateurism issue? Why couldn’t it be a philosophical issue? Why couldn’t it be about Tebow wanting to preserve what infinitesimal bit of purity college football and basketball still has left?&#8221;
Bianchi noted:
<blockquote>Tebow made one mistake on &#8220;First Take,'&#8221; and it’s the same mistake ESPN analyst and noted NCAA-basher Jay Bilas and his ilk always make. In the debate about whether college athletes should be compensated, they always just brush aside the fact that college athletes are compensated — with an entirely free education that comes with room, board and unlimited perks … When you count room, board, books, tuition, tutors and other miscellaneous expenses, the price of a full-ride, full-cost college scholarship — depending on the school — can be anywhere from $150,000 to $250,000 for five years. Translation: Many college-football players are getting a quarter-of-a-million-dollar education absolutely free and clear.</blockquote>
Bianchi concluded, &#8220;Tim Tebow is not a racist. He is a role model and a hopeless romantic who believes in what college football should be instead of what it has become.&#8221;
Video of Tebow below:
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">.<a href="https://twitter.com/TimTebow?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@TimTebow</a> passionately expresses his thoughts on the California Senate passing a bill allowing student-athletes to have endorsements. <a href="https://t.co/W5uBW7ePNm">pic.twitter.com/W5uBW7ePNm</a>
— First Take (@FirstTake) <a href="https://twitter.com/FirstTake/status/1172538239095332864?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 13, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>

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