With 94% of the vote counted, CNN has projected that Hillary Clinton will win the California Democratic primary.
At this writing she leads Bernie Sanders 56% – 43%.
Hillary Clinton Wins California
L.A. Times Endorses Hillary Clinton In Advance Of California Primary
Three days before the California Democratic primary, the L.A. Times has endorsed former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
From the L.A. Times editorial board:
Voters should choose the candidate they consider best qualified. This page has endorsed Clinton not because she is more likely to win the nomination but because she is vastly better prepared than Sanders for the presidency.
We say that with full recognition that Sanders has captured the imagination of many Democrats with his articulate attacks on economic inequality and his talk of a political revolution. He can take credit for pressing Clinton to champion the interests of those who have been left behind in this economy.
But Clinton is not only more knowledgeable about domestic and international affairs than Sanders, but also more likely to achieve objectives they have in common. Her speech last week on foreign policy in San Diego — in which she skillfully skewered Trump for his ignorance and recklessness — was a reminder of the breadth of her understanding of international affairs. On domestic policy, her positions on issues such as healthcare and financial regulation are less utopian than what Sanders has proposed but also more realistic.
Some compare Sanders to President Obama, and there are similarities: Like Obama, Sanders opposed the war in Iraq while Clinton as a senator voted to authorize it. Sanders speaks in visionary terms and so did Obama in 2008 when he wrested the nomination from then-Sen. Clinton. But Obama’s vision was of bipartisan cooperation, not a political revolution in which, as Sanders has naively suggested, Republicans would simply capitulate to a Democratic president because a million young people would be massed outside the Capitol.
It’s true that Republicans often rebuffed Obama’s offers of cooperation, but it’s hard to imagine a President Sanders engaging any more successfully with them. Clinton, who as a senator and secretary of State was able to work cooperatively with Republicans, strikes us as being better equipped to reach across the partisan divide, something that will be necessary even if the Democrats regain control of Congress. A Clinton presidency would be more prosaic than a Sanders administration, but it also is likely to be more effective.
Clinton has her liabilities as a candidate, including a penchant for secrecy and self-protection that was reflected in her decision to maintain a private email server as secretary of State and her continued refusal to acknowledge that it ran afoul of State Department policy. In a year in which many voters crave novelty, she is a familiar face. But she has formidable assets that would be especially important in a general-election campaign against Trump: steadiness, seriousness and a commanding grasp of issues about which the blowhard businessman is dangerously ignorant.
Voters in California’s Democratic primary owe a debt of gratitude to Bernie Sanders for a campaign that has emphasized issues that otherwise might have been ignored. But they should cast their votes for Hillary Clinton.
California Gov. Brown Endorses Hillary Clinton Ahead Of CA Primary
California Gov. Jerry Brown issued an open letter announcing his endorsement of Hillary Clinton for president in advance of the California primary which will be held one week from today.
On Tuesday, June 7, I have decided to cast my vote for Hillary Clinton because I believe this is the only path forward to win the presidency and stop the dangerous candidacy of Donald Trump.
I have closely watched the primaries and am deeply impressed with how well Bernie Sanders has done. He has driven home the message that the top one percent has unfairly captured way too much of America’s wealth, leaving the majority of people far behind. In 1992, I attempted a similar campaign.
For her part, Hillary Clinton has convincingly made the case that she knows how to get things done and has the tenacity and skill to advance the Democratic agenda. Voters have responded by giving her approximately 3 million more votes – and hundreds more delegates – than Sanders. If Clinton were to win only 10 percent of the remaining delegates – wildly improbable – she would still exceed the number needed for the nomination. In other words, Clinton’s lead is insurmountable and Democrats have shown – by millions of votes – that they want her as their nominee.
But there is more at stake than mere numbers. The Republican nominee, Donald Trump, has called climate change a “hoax” and said he will tear up the Paris Climate Agreement. He has promised to deport millions of immigrants and ominously suggested that other countries may need the nuclear bomb. He has also pledged to pack the Supreme Court with only those who please the extreme right.
The stakes couldn’t be higher. Our country faces an existential threat from climate change and the spread of nuclear weapons. A new cold war is on the horizon. This is no time for Democrats to keep fighting each other. The general election has already begun. Hillary Clinton, with her long experience, especially as Secretary of State, has a firm grasp of the issues and will be prepared to lead our country on day one.
Next January, I want to be sure that it is Hillary Clinton who takes the oath of office, not Donald Trump.
It’s worth noting that Brown is also a Superdelegate, so that’s one more delegate in her column, no?
California & New York To Raise Mimimum Wage To $15
California and New York become the first two states to implement $15 an hour minimum wage.
From the Washington Post:
California Gov. Jerry Brown (D) signed into law a measure Monday that will hike the state’s minimum wage to $15 per hour by 2023 — making the Golden State the second in the nation to legislate a wage hike to that level. The first came minutes earlier in New York, where Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo (D) signed a similar piece of legislation, implementing staggered wage hikes throughout the state over the next several years.
In a pair of statements, President Obama commended both Cuomo and Brown, describing the increase as a step in the right direction.
“Since I first called on Congress to increase the federal minimum wage in 2013, 18 states and more than 40 cities and counties have acted on their own — thanks to the strong leadership of elected officials, businesses, and workers who organized and fought so hard for the economic security families deserve,” he said in the statement on New York — and echoed in nearly identical language later on California’s minimum wage hike. “Now Congress needs to act to raise the federal minimum wage and expand access to paid leave for all Americans.”
California: Governor Signs “End Of Life” Bill Into Law
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| Photo: Carl Costas/AP |
Gov. Jerry Brown signed into law today the “End of Life Option Act” which will allow terminally ill people the right to be prescribed a lethal dose of drugs albeit with specific limitations.
California now joins Oregon, Washington and Vermont in offering “aid-to-dying” laws for the terminally ill.
Via SFGate.com:
Assembly bill X2-15 sunsets in 10 years and narrowly defines the circumstances under which mentally competent, terminally ill patients can receive the lethal dose of medication.
Before the drugs can be prescribed, two California doctors must agree that such a person has no more than six months to live.
It is then the patient’s choice whether to take the drugs. Those who want to must affirm their intention 48 hours in advance and must take the drugs on their own, without help.
California has seen five previous efforts to pass an aid-in-dying law since 1992, when state voters rejected a ballot initiative by a 54 to 46 margin. Similar laws failed to make it out of the state Legislature four times between 1995 and 2008.
I’m personally a big supporter of the measure.
If you are terminally ill, the state should not force you to live through a painful death. I think this is wise and right.
Details of the new law:
• Allows a doctor to prescribe a lethal dose of medication under certain narrow circumstances.
• Patients who receive the prescription must be mentally competent.
• Two California doctors must independently agree that such a patient has no more than six months to live.
• It is the patient’s choice whether to take the drugs.
• Patients must affirm their intention to do so 48 hours in advance.
• Patients must must take the prescription on their own, without help.
• The law expires in 10 years unless renewed.
California: Stockton Police Lieutenant Pens Anti-Gay Marriage Letter
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| Stockton Police Lt. Toby Will |
A Stockton police lieutenant’s 282 word letter to the editor of the Stockton Record contains not only strong anti-homosexual language, but upon his insistence his title and rank with the police department.
The letter is causing controversy in the California city.
Lt.Toby Will, a former Marine and 25-year veteran of the Stockton Police Department, wrote a 282-word letter to the editor of the Stockton Record which was published in Wednesday’s edition under the heading “Marriage ruling shuns God.”
The letter claims those who live according to “vile and sinful passions” will be met with the wrath of God. “…when the highest office in the land publicly declares the legitimizing of homosexuality to be a great victory for the nation, you can be sure that God is giving that nation over to its own destruction,” Will wrote.
Stockton Assemblywoman Susan Eggman, chair of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender caucus, said she was shocked when she read the editorial page Wednesday morning.
“I choked on my coffee,” she said in her Capitol office. Eggman, who is in a same-sex marriage, believes the now-public views of a high-ranking police official could bring fear to Stockton’s gay community.
“When you need to call 911, you should feel safe that the person who responds is there to support you no matter who you are,” Eggman said
I believe in freedom of speech/expression, so the act of writing the letter is what it is. I don’t know what the Stockton Police Department’s policy is, though, on public statements specifically using your title and rank. We shall see.
Author Of “Kill The Gays” Bill In California Tries For Constitutional Amendment
Matt McLaughlin, author of the proposed (now dead) “Sodomite Suppression Act” in California, has come back with a new tactic to try and legalize killing gays with “bullets to the head.”
Instead of a law, his new approach is to file the idea as a constitutional amendment, which he thought she would have to clear for signature gathering.
And he still doesn’t see anything wrong with his idea. He says being gay has been a crime for centuries.
Kamala Harris, California Attorney General, had this to say: “Anyone who will take up their own time, or anyone else’s time, advocating for murder of innocent people in a way that is so fueled by bigotry and hate is someone whose intelligence we should question.”
California: Anti-LGBT Group Files Initiative To Stop Transgender Folks From Using Appropriate Bathrooms
Opponents of LGBT rights in California have begun yet another attack on transgender folks as the group “Privacy For All” has announced that it has submitted the so-called “Privacy Protection Act” to state election officials and will attempt to gather 365,880 signatures to place the measure on the ballot in 2016.
While the initiative doesn’t use the word “transgender” specifically, it’s clear the intent:
If approved by California voters, the Personal Privacy Protection Act requires that individuals “use facilities in accordance with their biological sex in all government buildings”. The proposed initiative does not require private businesses to maintain sex separated facilities, but protects these businesses from legal action if they do require employees and patrons to “use facilities in accordance with their biological sex.”
“We have great compassion for any person that is uncomfortable in traditional, sex separated facilities.
But we also want to protect the privacy that most of us expect when we are in public bathrooms, showers and dressing areas” said Gina Gleason, a proponent of the initiative.
California’s legislature took an unprecedented step in 2013 by passing AB 1266 that allowed students in California public schools to choose the bathroom, shower and locker room that corresponds to the gender they identify with even if that is different from their biological sex. But that law was put on hold as opponents gathered almost 620,000 voter signatures for a referendum to allow voters to vote on the controversial new law. The matter is currently in court following voter officials rejecting more than one in five signatures to keep the measure off of the November 2014 ballot.
“California voters may have two chances to vote against co-ed bathrooms in 2016” said Karen England, a Privacy For All spokesperson. “We hope to wrap up the court battle over the AB 1266 referendum and place that on the ballot, but we also expect to have this new initiative before the voters at the same time.”
If the voters vote to overturn AB 1266, the new initiative would still be needed to assure privacy in California bathrooms. AB 1266 applied only to facilities at public schools, where the new initiative applies to all government buildings including schools.
This issue has begun to play out across the United States as hate groups turn their attention from their lost position on marriage equality and look for new areas with which to attack LGBT Americans.
The constant shriek of a threat is that without this law, straight men will “dress up” in women’s clothes in order to gain access to women’s bathrooms to peek at young girls peeing or some such thing. There’s no record of this happening anywhere.
Plus, take a look at some transgender folks who will unwillingly cause confusion when they are forced to use “biological sex” bathrooms.
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| Aydian Ethan Dowling was assigned the sex of female at birth. Aydian would be forced to use the ladies room. |
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| Jazz Jennings was assigned the sex of male at birth. She would be forced to use the men’s room. |
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| Michael C. Hughes was assigned “female” at birth. He would be forced to use the ladies’ room. |
California Attorney General Asks Courts To Kill “Kill The Gays” Initiative
California Attorney General Kamala Harris has asked California courts to squash the recently filed “Kill The Gays” referendum initiative.
Via press release:
“As Attorney General of California, it is my sworn duty to uphold the California and United States Constitutions and to protect the rights of all Californians.
“This proposal not only threatens public safety, it is patently unconstitutional, utterly reprehensible, and has no place in a civil society.
“Today, I am filing an action for declaratory relief with the Court seeking judicial authorization for relief from the duty to prepare and issue the title and summary for the ‘Sodomite Suppression Act.’
If the Court does not grant this relief, my office will be forced to issue a title and summary for a proposal that seeks to legalize discrimination and vigilantism.”
A California lawyer recently proposed a ballot initiative to legalize the execution of gay and lesbian people in the state via bullet to the head. Due to state laws, the attorney general could be compelled to write a title and summary for the initiative for signature gathering.
California: Editorial Board Takes “Kill The Gays” Initiative To Task
A California lawyer has proposed a referendum initiative to legalize the killing of gays and lesbians via gun shot to the head.
Due to state law, the state attorney general now must come up with a title and summary for the initiative, even as the insanity of the idea hangs in the air.
The world has recently noticed the move, and as such, the state of California bears the shame of another idiot in it’s midst.
The Fresno Bee editorial board takes the issue to task today:
Delusional causes are no strangers to California’s initiative process. Outlawing divorce, criminalizing campaign lies, mandating Christmas caroling for public school children — all of these have been tried.
Usually, they fizzle out. But now comes Huntington Beach lawyer Matt McLaughlin, who, regrettably, also is no stranger to California’s initiative process.
McLaughlin, who in 2004 tried and failed via the ballot to force public schools to use the Bible as a textbook, is now testing the limits of free speech — and tolerance — with a despicable ballot measure authorizing the murder of gays and lesbians, preferably with bullets.
The “Sodomite Suppression Act” is so reprehensible that the Legislature’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Caucus has asked the State Bar to investigate McLaughlin’s fitness to practice law, and thousands have signed a petition to disbar him.
[snip]
Meanwhile, Californians should channel their outrage. McLaughlin still needs 365,880 signatures to get this hate crime on the ballot, so don’t sign.
Then, next November, take a step that no one will regret: Show up at the polls.
These signature thresholds for initiatives are calculated according to turnout; the higher the participation, the harder it is for kooks and sociopaths to get traction.
Maybe this “Sodomite Suppression Act” would have stayed where it belongs, in the realm of delusion, if more of us had voted last time.