The Morning Dispatch: Newsom Leads as Recall Voting Comes to a Close

His leading GOP opponent has already made claims of voter fraud.

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Happy Tuesday! Unfortunately, we’re not going to spend much time on Met Gala fashion in today’s newsletter. For that, you’ll have to wait for Scott Lincicome’s Wednesday Capitolism.

Quick Hits: Today’s Top Stories

  • Apple is urging all its customers to update the software on their  devices after cybersecurity researchers at Citizen Lab discovered a loophole in Apple’s operating system—present since at least March—that allowed advanced spyware called Pegasus from Israel’s NSO Group to silently infiltrate machines and turn on a user’s camera and microphone or record their screen.

  • The Treasury Department said Monday that U.S. outlays through the first 11 months of the fiscal year grew 4 percent year-over-year to a record $6.3 trillion in 2021. The U.S. budget deficit, however, ultimately narrowed from $3 trillion last year to $2.7 trillion this year as federal revenue increased 18 percent year-over-year due to increased tax collection.

  • The Pentagon on Monday defended its August 29 drone strike in Kabul as necessary to “prevent an imminent attack on the airport,” contradicting a recent New York Times report that claimed the driver targeted in the strike—which killed 10, including seven children—was a longtime worker for a U.S. aid group transporting canisters of water, not an ISIS member with explosives.

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  1. Avatar photo
    Frank Lee

    The results of the recall election prove that Democrat voters are not woke at all. They re-elect one of the most privileged white males to office and denigrate and reject a black man that worked his way up from the ghetto.

    Also California is a wash in crazy childless cat people. I know many of them. They are easily influenced by irrational fears. The Democrats spent like Drunken sailor on the recall campaign and inflamed COVID fears (funny... right after the election was over there are reports that CA is the first state seeing a decline in infections from the Delta Variant... how convenient)... and the fear that the black man poised to replace the privileged white dude would be a danger.

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    Russell Board

    "The U.S. budget deficit, however, ultimately narrowed from $3 trillion last year to $2.7 trillion this year as federal revenue increased 18 percent year-over-year due to increased tax collection." Phrased this way, it sounds like good news. But there's nothing good about it. We added $2.7 trillion to the national debt this year, after adding $3 trillion last year.

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  3. Helen Whitney

    “School Boards Turn Partisan: After years of encouraging people to run for local office, I’ve been thrilled to see that school board races are ground zero for politics this year. “
    Why are you “thrilled” to see school boards become political? I find it hard to believe this will be in the best interest of the children.
    And on the subject of children, why would an anti-vaxxer put their children at risk?

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    Richard Maxton

    My thoughts more broadly: Just because California has a particularly screwed up version of recall does not make all recalls bad.

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      Pat Riot

      Yes, but California's is bad. CA Republicans will probably prove that soon by launching one every three months until CA repeals or abolishes the process.

      Surely a State needs a way to remove a governor, but CA's process is too easy to game.

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        Richard Maxton

        Which is why that point was stipulated in my comment.

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    Realwoodies

    Love recalls. They call elections all the time in other countries. This is sumilar

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    Stephanie

    What is the reason the post about "The Activist" was placed in the "Also presented with comment" section?

    I thought that section was for nutty stuff like the Nicki Minaj swollen balls Twitter drama.

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    1. Midge

      “The Activist” describes itself as measuring activists’ success through online and “social” (which may mean social-media) engagement, rather than results. Meaning, I guess, that a boring old campaign to distribute water filters that got few mentions online but got a million filters into the hands of those who need them would lose out to a campaign that accomplished nothing but got mentioned more.

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        Stephanie

        I haven't spent much time looking into it, but it seems that the projects/organizations that generate the most interest will have an opportunity to present at a G7 summit. It's a reality show, so at least an improvement on the Kardashians and The Apprentice.

        I read of some criticisms in one article and I don't know how much weight they carry:
        "But the backlash was swift, with social media users accusing the show of trivializing such causes at a time when in many countries activists are being jailed or otherwise repressed in their bid to stand up for human rights.

        "Couldn't they just give the money it's going to take to pay this UNBELIEVABLY expensive talent and make this show, directly to activist causes? Rather than turning activism into a game and then giving a fraction of the much needed money away in a 'prize...?' People are dying," tweeted actress and feminist activist Jameela Jamil.

        "Fighting for issues is tough enough without having to dance and sing for a bunch of millionaires while they decide who's worthy of their crumbs," wrote Nabilah Islam, an American activist and former Democratic congressional candidate in Georgia, on Twitter.

        "This is not a reality show to trivialize activism," Global Citizen said in response to the backlash in a statement to Deadline.

        The aim, said the organization, "is to support activists everywhere, show the ingenuity and dedication they put into their work, and amplify their causes to an even wider audience."

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      2. Pohl

        Sounds like something done on Apprentice. Maybe we’ll get a candidate out of it.

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  7. Avatar photo
    Stephanie

    The California recall process seems to be very expensive to implement, and it seems like a sledge hammer type approach that could end up being inappropriate for the problem it's supposed to address.

    E.g., Newsom has only one more year in office. A new governor is not going to turn the ship around in that time.

    Newsome could be out of office after getting more votes than anyone else in the recall election, if you consider a "No" vote a vote for Newsome; and that if only 51% voted Yes, with all those votes spread among 2 dozen other candidates, the winning candidate might only get 20% while Newsome got 49%. That doesn't make sense.

    The petition threshold for getting the referendum on the ballot is ridiculously low for such a big state. There should be more hoops to jump through.

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      María Boza

      I agree with your analysis. There are many problems with the recall system. And in this case, especially, what’s the point when Newsom has so little time left in office anyway? I view this recall effort as a very expensive way for Californians to let out our collective pandemic anger. We are still royally pissed off about the French Laundry affair. Newsom is a privileged rich boy who thinks the rules don’t apply to him. So take my recall vote, Gavin Newsom. No, I did not vote for Larry Elder.

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        Stephanie

        If the vote was up and down/yes or no on the governor alone, with the lieutenant governor stepping into his place, it might have gone differently. I wonder why the law wasn't structured that way?

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    Jen

    There’s an explosive story in the Washington Post about Chairman of the Joint Chiefs General Mark Milley contacting Chinese counterparts in October of 2020 and January 2021. It’s an excerpt from the new Bob Woodward book. If any of it is true Milley should resign immediately. Generals don’t get to conduct their own foreign policies. It’s one thing if Trump had asked Milley to do something unconstitutional or unethical. Milley could have refused and resigned. That’s not what he did. He’s testifying on Capitol Hill soon. I hope he’s asked about this.
    https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/general-milley-should-be-fired-for-holding-secret-personal-talks-with-china/

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    1. Pohl

      Mark Steyn calls him Thoroughly Modern Milley.

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      Pat Riot

      This seems a bit iffy to me in looking at the details, but who knows.

      Two things can be true: that Miley should resign because he broke the rules *and* he's an American hero who saved us from a potential nuclear war with China.

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      Magpie

      Whoah. I'm inclined to agree that Milley should resign, even if he thought he was doing the right thing. The military shouldn't be pursuing its own covert foreign policy.

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        Jen

        Wow, Alexander Vindman says if this story is true then Milley needs to resign. Marco Rubio sent a letter to Biden saying he should be fired.

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        Jen

        Yep and I say this as no fan of Donald Trump. I’m not ready to go there quite yet because the only source right now is Woodward’s book. But it should be investigated.

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  9. Avatar photo
    Jen

    The latest Quinnipiac poll has Biden’s approval at 42%. That’s Trump territory. Biden’s approval rating on specific issues:

    Covid: 48-49
    Foreign policy: 34-59
    Economy: 42-52
    Climate: 42-45

    Afghanistan polling is interesting with nearly 7 in 10 saying it was the right thing to do (though not approving the execution of it) but 6 in 10 saying we probably will be back in Afghanistan again to fight terrorism. Biden’s covid numbers went from 65% approve in May to 53% approve in August and 48% approve now. I’m sure these bad poll numbers have something to do with the questionable vaccine mandate but I’m skeptical they’ll bring his numbers back up.

    These are crappy numbers for Biden any way you look at it.
    https://poll.qu.edu/poll-release?releaseid=3819

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  10. CatoTheElder

    For those interested, here’s a link to an article about the “tangled history of mRNA vaccines”, with an eye toward the COVID vaccines in particular: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-02483-w Much of the article is about the human side of the history, though science of course plays a big role. Don’t have to be a biochemist or medical researcher to follow the article, but having paid a bit of attention in science class helps.

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      JohnF

      Thanks for posting this Cato. It's amazing how far (and fast) medicine has advanced in the last few decades

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      1. CatoTheElder

        That is for sure and for certain!

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          JohnF

          It's interesting to note that Penicillin was discovered less than a hundred years ago

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