In Orwell’s dystopian novel 1984, a small garbage chute used for censorship was referenced as a “memory hole.” That phrase has been used ever since to describe a person’s attempt to alter or disappear embarrassing history.
Gov. Newsom’s red state tour and fake (not fake?) presidential campaign has been full of blatant memory holes. And yesterday’s interview on “Meet The Press” takes the cake.
When pressed on his response to COVID, Newsom said: “I think we would’ve done everything differently…. We’re experts in hindsight. We’re all geniuses now.” When pressed on what specifically he would have done differently, Newsom stuck to generalities without specifics. “I think there’s a lot of humility. And we didn’t know what we didn’t know. And it was hardly I; it was we, collectively.”
Respectfully, what a pile of absolute and complete garbage.
It was always “I” for Newsom. It was a vanity contest in front of cameras every day. It was dictates and commands from on high.
He saw a picture of a beach and decided that people needed to stop going, so he shut down beaches and enforced his dictate with California Highway Patrol officers. Only stopping when folks – including me – went on tv and shone a light on his pettiness.
He shut down churches while keeping open Costco and Home Depot, only stopping when the U.S. Supreme Court found his acts to be unconstitutional.
He released thousands of prisoners and was shocked by crime spikes.
He took $226.5 million in behested payments from businesses that needed his largesse, and then turned around gave away over a billion dollars in no-bid contracts to some of those same companies.
He opened and closed small businesses based on color-coded tiers that considered such asinine factors as how much tree cover existed in a neighborhood; all in the name of “equity.”
And the schools. My goodness, the schools. Newsom kept them closed longer than any other state in the country, and the learning loss is staggering.
ALL of which was predicted by folks around the state. I wrote op eds, went on tv, and posted about it nearly daily.
I refuse to be memory-holed. Join me.