Governors Of California

"WASHINGTON − Progressive firebrand Sen. Bernie Sanders said he believes President Donald Trump is “moving this country rapidly into authoritarianism" after Trump deployed 2,000 National Guard troops to help quell immigration protests in Los Angeles. “This guy wants all of the power. He does not believe in the Constitution. He does not believe in the rule of law. My understanding is that the governor of California, the mayor of the city of Los Angeles did not request the National Guard, but he thinks he has a right to do anything he wants,” Sanders, a Vermont independent, told CNN’s Dana Bash on “State of the Union.”"

"This is about authoritarian tendencies. This is about command and control. This is about power. This is about ego. This is a consistent pattern."

"The protests come as the Trump administration has taken stronger actions to arrest and deport undocumented immigrants. Demonstrators allege the administration's immigration enforcement has violated civil and human rights. Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement on June 7 that Trump signed a memo deploying the guardsmen “to address the lawlessness that has been allowed to fester.” Both California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, however, have criticized the move, saying it would only escalate tensions in the area. “I would say that to a large degree, the future of this country rests with a small number of Republicans in the House and Senate who know better, who do know what the Constitution is about, and it’s high time they stood up for our Constitution and the rule of law,” Sanders said."

"CEO of Target Brian Cornell selling out the LGBTQ+ community to extremists is a real profile in courage. This isn’t just a couple stores in the South. There is a systematic attack on the gay community happening across the country. Wake up America. This doesn’t stop here. You’re black? You’re Asian? You’re Jewish? You’re a woman? You’re next."

"California may be first, but it clearly will not end here. Other states are next. Democracy is next. Democracy is under assault before our eyes."

"I don't know one state, if DeSantis stuck it out that he can win, not one."

"It is called a genocide. That's what it was... No other way to describe it and that's the way it needs to be described in the history books. And so I'm here to say the following: I'm sorry on behalf of the state of California... It's humbling for me, having believed I was educated, to have been so ignorant of our past, to have been so unaware of how ashamed I should be, as a Californian, 5th generation... I'm sorry that we've had generations of your kids and grandkids, your ancestors, that have had to suffer through indignities, lack of capacity, empathy and understanding..."

"Newsom asked a federal court on Tuesday to block Trump from using the military in Los Angeles. Meanwhile, activists are planning larger demonstrations against Trump and his administration's policies across the country on Saturday to coincide with the president's birthday and a planned military parade through Washington D.C."

"Look, I'm a progressive, but more is not better. Better is better. We need to hold ourselves to higher level of accountability and reforming the Old Mental Health Services act, which is a point of pride in California, but no longer is relevant to the world we're living in."

"Trump is not the first president to deploy the military over a governor’s objection. But it’s the first time since 1965, when President Lyndon Johnson ordered troops to protect civil rights protesters in Alabama. President Dwight Eisenhower similarly overrode objections from Arkansas’ governor, deploying troops to help enforce the desegregation of public schools. When presidents view state and local authorities as being ineffective or recalcitrant, those steps may be justified, some experts say. “Usually the President calls out the troops with the cooperation of the governor, which happened in LA itself during the Rodney King riots,” said John Yoo, a legal counselor to President George W. Bush. “But there have been times when governors have been tragically slow, as during Hurricane Katrina, or actually resistant to federal policy, as with desegregation, or, arguably, in this case. “Trump, when speaking about the decision with reporters Sunday, said he warned Newsom a few days earlier of the possibility. “I did call him the other night,” Trump said. “I said you’ve got to take care of this, otherwise I’m sending in the troops.” Newsom has railed against Trump’s unilateral action, saying it will inflame rather than ease tensions on the streets and that state and local law enforcement were appropriately responding to the unrest outside federal buildings. Newsom got backup from Democratic governors across the country, who signed a letter calling Trump’s National Guard deployment an “alarming abuse of power.” “The military appears to be clashing with protesters in the streets of our country. That’s not supposed to happen,” said Elizabeth Goitein, a national security law expert at New York University’s Brennan Center. “It’s such a dangerous situation. It’s dangerous for liberty. It’s dangerous for democracy.”"

"... neither of us will be the nominee for our party in 2024."

"In the City of San Francisco, we have drunk to the very dregs of infamy; we have had vile officials; we have had rotten newspapers. But we have nothing so vile, nothing so low, nothing so debased, nothing so infamous in San Francisco as Harrison Gray Otis. He sits there in senile dementia with gangrene heart and rotting brain, grimacing at every reform, chattering impotently at all things that are decent, frothing, fuming, violently gibbering, going down to his grave in snarling infamy. He is one thing that all California looks at when, in looking at Southern California, they see anything that is disgraceful, depraved, corrupt, crooked and putrescent—that is Harrison Gray Otis."

"The first casualty when war comes is truth."

"We are in a degenerate state of self-government. In fact, even to use the words self-government, is not only an exaggeration, it's a lie. It's a big lie!"

"In this decade government at all levels has increased spending faster than the true rate of economic growth… The cure for inflation has been administered with a vengeance. Yet most people feel worse, not better, about their government benefactor. The elderly find their fixed income eroding in half; those about to retire fear their future pensions will never keep pace. Ten million California workers see their wages rise but not as fast as prices. Those on welfare obtain larger grants but find more expensive groceries."

"I'd shrink government in a minute, if I could shrink GM, Bank of America, and all these immoral corporations that operate by an undemocratic code, with no soul and no conscience."

"The idea that government has some omnipotence or omniscience is completely absurd and counter to all the thinking that went into our country."

"The U.S. incarceration binge is not tied to crime. It's a strategy to control the surplus population in a capitalist system that is breaking down."

"There is an overblown rhetoric and overblown expectation that if there is a problem there must be program to solve it."

"I don't think Jerry Brown is committed to anything but Jerry Brown."

"Jerry is perceived by most legislators as very selfish."

"He's very ambitious and will do anything to be in power."

"Admit it-the world is mighty wacky. Dan Quayle is a heartbeat away from bravely leading us into the New World Order. Our intelligentsia are running around declaring that we have reached both the End of History and the apex of political evolution-we're the kings of the global jungle. At the same time, sensing new opportunities, the forces of reptilian nationalism-from Pat Robertson to militant mullahs, from David Duke to the ancient reactionary movements of Eastern Europe-are crawling out from under their rocks, getting facelifts, and learning how to use teleprompters and Stinger missiles. Meanwhile, back in the cradle of democracy, the "opposition" response to all this is to offer a choice between Jerry Brown and None of the Above."

"Jerry has no political or ideological anchor."

"I do not believe he believes what he is saying."

"Oftentimes Jerry will run for an office and not want to do the things that are part of that office."

"Many regulations primarily protect the past, prop up privilege or prevent sensible economic choices."

"The mistrust of our public institutions and mere anxiety about our future economy are more the order than the exception. Three quarters of the people do not trust their government. More than half of the eligible citizens in California again decided not to vote in the last election. Why? Why the anti-government mood? I asked this same question four years ago and now I believe I understand. Simply put, the citizens are revolting against a decade of political leaders who righteously spoke against inflation and excessive government spending but who in practice pursued the opposite course."

"Government, no less than the individual, must live within limits. It is time to bring our accounts into balance. Government, as exemplar and teacher, must manifest a self-discipline that spreads across the other institutions in our society, so that we can begin to work for the future, not just consume the present."

"There's nothing wrong with being an anarchist."

"[Jerry Brown] is the most self-serving, inept politician that I have ever met in my 35 years in politics."

"That man [Jerry] is like 500 pounds of Jello."

"Jerry Brown was just a nut."

"The Democrats are a big tent with many different points of view. Having said all of that, I think there will be a tendency to passing too many laws and spend too much money. And I would say that the [new] governor is going to have to correct that. But he wouldn’t be able to correct it all because in order to govern he’s got to please some of these groups enough of the time to still be viable as a political leader."

"[Jerry Brown is] a desperate man."

"He is by an order of magnitude the most self-absorbed politician I have ever dealt with."

"I listened, and I've come to the conclusion I just don't trust him."

"Jerry has given hypocrisy a bad name."

"I've been in office and I've been out of office. And if I were to choose, I'd rather be in office."

"The governor is the worst administrator ever to come down the pike."

"I don't know who Jerry Brown is anymore. There's been so many evolvements."

"I don't like to talk about Jerry Brown. I don't like him."

"When Proposition 13 passed overwhelmingly in California, Californians were very pleased. And they felt no pinch at all, not knowing that, thanks to Jerry Brown, there was an incredible surplus in the coffers. So life went on as it always had, with the sunshine, and orange trees, and smog-and everything sort of went on. And about a year ago, the truth had to be revealed, that the surplus had been used up. And now the cuts are taking place in services that people took for granted. That's the California way of life. And people are having to come to grips with what that means for the handicapped, the aged, the poor, the children, and the minorities."

"I don't think you can take much of what he says seriously."

"He's totally into power."

"Warren is one of the most influential Chief Justices of all time. He forcefully pushed for the unanimous Brown v. Board of Education (1954) decision and presided over decisions that further expanded civil rights and liberties, including those that mandated publicly-funded representation for indigent defendants in Gideon v. Wainright (1963), and required police to inform criminal suspects of their rights, in Miranda v. Arizona (1966)."

"Marge: Do you want your son to become Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, or a sleazy male stripper?"

"Earl Warren's life epitomized the American dream. His unique half‐century of public service spans one of the most dynamic eras in our history and his contribution was large indeed."

"When history is written, he'll go down as one of the greatest Chief Justices the country has ever been blessed with. I think he is irreplaceable."

"He represents the kind of political, economic, and social thinking that I believe we need on the Supreme Court … he has a national name for integrity, uprightness, and courage that, again, I believe we need on the Court."