Our governor was missing in action for almost two weeks. One minute he was buzzing around the state cutting ribbons, mugging the cameras and whatnot. The next day he’s gone.
Without explanation, Gov. Gavin Newsom didn’t show up at the big climate change conclave in Glasgow. He sent the lieutenant governor instead. (Quick, for extra point credit, name California’s lieutenant governor.)
Anyway, the governor resurfaced last week and explained that while climate change and the global doom that comes with it is right around the corner, he just had to take a time-out to be with his fam on Halloween. I’m not making that up. Here is what he said:
“I was ready to go, and I had that dinner … with the family, and the kids literally, they kind of had an intervention, they said they couldn’t believe that I was going to miss Halloween. I woke up that next morning with something probably familiar to a lot of parents — that knot in your stomach — that I had no damn choice. I had to cancel that trip.”
OK. Even if you take the governor at his word, why the subsequent two-weeks of radio silence? Recommitting to “family obligations” doesn’t require dropping off the radar screen entirely, does it?
Color me skeptical. I don’t care how many Kit-Kats you want to share with the kids on Halloween, cancelling a big trip at the drop of a hat and then not saying a damn word thereafter for two weeks doesn’t add up to normal.
LET HER RIP, JOE
Jeeze-o, get a load of the latest Joe Biden gossip/news out of Europe. At the climate summit in Glasgow, British reporters write that “informed sources” say the Duchess of Cornwall “was taken aback to hear President Joe Biden break wind as they made polite small talk.” “It was long and loud and impossible to ignore,” the source said. “Camilla hasn’t stopped talking about it.”
I guess it’s not just the brain farts of Joe Biden that we have to worry about now. It’s his unauthorized emissions, too.
It must be said, however, that ripping one while British royalty make small talk seems like a righteous thing for an American to do. One point for Joe Biden.)
BLAME THE BILLIONAIRES
Who is to blame for the wildfires in California? Billionaires, apparently.
“A tiny elite appear to have a free pass to pollute. Their oversized emissions are fueling extreme weather around the world and jeopardizing the international goal of limiting global heating. The emissions from a single billionaire spaceflight would exceed the lifetime emissions of someone in the poorest billion people on Earth” — Nafkote Dabi, Oxfam’s climate policy lead.
OAKLAND FREEWAYS
A stray bullet whizzing through Oakland struck and killed a 23-month-old toddler travelling in his family’s car last week. Jasper Wu died in the middle of the afternoon on Saturday (Nov. 6) on Interstate 880. The random shot came from the other side of the highway.
The Mercury News report on the incident should strike fear in Bay Area residents who travel freeways through Oakland:
“The moment marked the latest in what California Highway Patrol leaders say has become a continuing problem on freeways in Oakland — routine drives turned bloody by gunfire. The agency has investigated 76 shootings over the last year on freeways in Alameda County, according to Capt. Mike Lehman of the California Highway Patrol. It is unclear how many of those shootings resulted in injuries, and on which highways they’ve happened.”
ONE MORE THING
— Blood is thicker than water, but cheese dip is thicker than blood, so technically queso is more important than family.
— Just one. I’m telling you. We eat just one billionaire and the rest will fall in line.
— The man who invented the Ferris Wheel never met the man who invented the merry-go-round. They travelled in different circles.
As we enter the last 7 weeks of 2021, I’d be remiss if I didn’t thank you for reading this column and our newspaper. Local journalism matters. Until next week, please be kind to all you meet, laugh a little and always question authority.
(Sherman Frederick is an award-winning journalist and publisher of Marin’s community newspapers — the Novato Advance, San Rafael News-Pointer, Mill Valley Herald, Ross Valley Reporter, Twin City Times and the Sausalito Marin Scope. He is co-founder of Battle Born Media, a news organization dedicated to the preservation of community newspapers. You can reach him by email at shermfrederick@gmail.com.)
Steve Winters says
Great column Sherm.
So Biden is now personally contributing Ozone destroying gases to the atmosphere……..