What a Day: Elon Musk, Willie Brown, and Kirk Uhler Agree with Us

In addition to Modoc, Sutter, and Yuba counties, over the last few days Placer, San Joaquin, and El Dorado counties have also made moves to try to reopen their economies.

Placer County

Based on the requirements, Placer County won’t be in the first wave of counties to get the green light.

That’s upsetting some Placer officials. The county this week sent the governor a demand that he allow them to set their own reopening course.

“If we don’t see any action, we may be calling a special meeting to seek a legal injunction,” Placer County Board supervisor Kirk Uhler said on Thursday. Uhler said he believes the governor has overstepped his legal authority in effectively shutting down much of the economy and requiring people to stay mainly at home.

It could be the first county in California to pursue legal action against the state over Newsom’s stay-at-home orders.

Official threatens to sue Newsom if Placer County can’t reopen from the coronavirus shutdown

“It is not up to the governor at this point to say what the rules are. We are not in a state of emergency. Get out of our way,” said supervisor Kirk Uhler.
Uhler said Newsom is overstepping his authority by continuing to hold counties to the statewide order as businesses suffer.

Placer County supervisor to Newsom: ‘Get out of our way’

San Joaquin County

San Joaquin County has joined a growing list of communities applying for local control over reopening.

Business owners are desperate to open and pay their bills, but increasing coronavirus cases and deaths will make it tough to meet the governor’s requirements.

“We’re now getting to a desperate stage where our economy, in order to bounce back, is going to have to step up and go to work,” said Tom Patti.

San Joaquin County To Apply For Reopening Flexibility As Businesses Get Desperate

El Dorado County

This week, El Dorado County became one of the first in California to send a proposal to Gov. Gavin Newsom outlining plans to reopen key parts of its economy.

El Dorado County works to move faster through Stage 2 reopening plan

Tesla to Pull out of California

Hours after Tesla CEO Elon Musk said that he would pull the car maker’s plant from the Golden State, the company sued Alameda county, accusing officials of “defying” state laws by refusing to allow the facility to reopen.

The lawsuit comes on the heels of a Twitter rant late on Saturday, that saw Musk branding California county’s chief health official “ignorant,” after the local authorities refused to give the company the green light to reopen its plant with more than 10,000 workers in Fremont due to coronavirus restrictions.

That was quick! Tesla files LAWSUIT against California county for not allowing factory to reopen after Musk threatens pullout

“I’m not messing around. Absurd & medically irrational behavior in violation of constitutional civil liberties, moreover by unelected county officials with no accountability, needs to stop,” Musk sounded off.

Backing up his words with deeds, Tesla wasted no time in filing a lawsuit, asking the court to declare the county-imposed ban on its operations “void and unenforceable,” while arguing that the Tesla factory has been a part of the state’s “critical infrastructure.”

Meanwhile Tesla’s Factory is open anyway

The parking lot was nearly full at Tesla’s California electric car factory Monday, a likely indication the company was resuming production in defiance of an order from county health authorities.

The lot at the massive plant in Fremont, which employs 10,000 workers, appeared to have a similar number of vehicles as it does when the factory is fully operating. A normal complement of workers would violate orders from the Alameda County Health Department, which has deemed Tesla’s Fremont factory a nonessential business that can’t open under restrictions intended to help stop the spread of the coronavirus.

Gov. Newsom Addresses Criticism Of Stay-At-Home Orders From Tesla Founder Elon Musk

Oh, Fox News has confirmed that Tesla’s Alameda County factory is open today without government permission.

LA Times Chimes In

Speaking of the Governor’s criteria to reopen…

The Times conducted an analysis to see which counties could pass just the first two criteria — whether deaths have stopped in the past 14 days, and whether there is no more than one case per 10,000 residents in that same time period. Most of California failed that test.

In fact, 95% of Californians live in counties that don’t meet that standard, The Times analysis found. Not a single county in Southern California nor the San Francisco Bay Area met the criteria.

The 24 counties that did meet the criteria, for the two-week period that ended Thursday, are all in Northern California and most are sparsely populated.

The three largest counties meeting both criteria are Placer County, population 380,000, northeast of Sacramento; Santa Cruz County, population 274,000, south of San Jose; and Butte County, population 227,000, in the foothills of the northern Sierra Nevada.

Most California counties fall short of reopening criteria as coronavirus cases climb

Willie Brown

But so far, the authorities who have locked us in have yet to figure out how to get us out.

If they don’t figure it out soon, the public is going to find a way to get out on its own.

In fact, some counties and some professions are already opening up.

And trying to keep businesses from opening with threats of suspending their liquor licenses or cosmetologist licenses won’t work — not on a mass scale that would be needed if many people start to say: enough.

The goal of the shutdown was to curb the coronavirus and keep the hospitals from being swamped.

We kept the hospitals working, but we have yet to curb the virus and a vaccine is probably at least a year away.

In the meantime, we’re headed over the economic cliff and facing unemployment numbers the likes of which we have never seen before.

This can’t go on. California has to figure a way out

One Trillion Dollar Bailout

Ok, let me get this straight, California is projecting a 56-billion-dollar budget hole since they don’t want to reopen and then they asking Donald Trump and Congress to bail them out for twenty times that amount? ONE TRILLION DOLLARS Reasonable people should respond, “WTF?” Based on last year’s budget, such a bailout would allow the State to operate as usual for five years while their citizens continue to shelter in place. And my poor pastor thinks Gavin will be opening his church for worship in two weeks, dream-on both of you.

California and other Western states are asking the federal government for $1 trillion in relief for states and local governments amid the coronavirus pandemic and massive budget shortfalls that have followed.

Newsom: Western states asking feds for $1 trillion in aid

Conclusion

Folks Gavin Newsom is being forced to do something no Democrat likes to do, face reality. Government doesn’t create jobs, wealth, or economic activity only the hard work of the private sector. When you’ve lost Willie Brown and Elon Musk in very public ways, it makes you wonder who has privately broken with the Governor. If you needed proof government was the problem and not the solution, you’re living it now. Oh, at his press conference last week, Newsom was lamenting that California didn’t have the power to print fiat money like Uncle Sam. As Maggie Thatcher said, “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other peoples’ money.”

Final thought, in both New York and California, you are seeing the leading candidates for President in 2024 self-destruct before either declares for the office.