Newsom’s redistricting plan is a necessary evil. His plan to clear California’s streets of homeless encampments is not.
What are the biggest stereotypes about homeless people?

That they are drug addicts, mentally ill, physically filthy and disordered individuals. Some of those poorly-worded epithets do apply to certain homeless individuals, but not the homeless as a whole. In Gavin Newsom’s campaign to address encampments, he has fallen victim to some of those same stereotypes.

Take the language he used in his recent declaration to institute a State Action for Facilitation on Encampments Task Force: “No one should live in a dangerous or unsanitary encampment…” I imagine, then,  it would come as a shock to the governor to learn that many in those encampments, based on personal experience, consider jails and shelters to be even more dangerous and unsanitary.  It also ignores the ingenuity shown by many of the unhoused in constructing their encampments–some even have running water and electricity, and a sense of community in which resources are shared freely.

I do not think Gov. Newsom’s Task Force is without merit, and I believe his intentions to be sincere. But he is ignoring an obvious solution to the unhoused issue: housing. Warehousing the homeless in jails and shelters will only lead to increased violence, sexual abuse and disease spread. Anyone who’s spent any time in a shelter or jail will tell you that they are Petri dishes for assaults, viruses and bacteria. It would make as much sense to put the homeless in emergency rooms.

I’ve pointed out the advantages and successes of Housing First programs ad nauseam. Now the time has come to act; to declare a true War on Homelessness with supportive housing as a solution. Anything less is a bandage over a gaping wound.
While I continue to be troubled by his homeless stance, I have come to admire Gavin Newsom for taking the battle for this country’s soul to Donald Trump in ways that maddens him and his supporters. By adopting Trump’s ranting style to his social media posts, and constantly pointing out that red states have even worse crime problems than blue states, he is doing what few in Congress and the media seem willing to do: openly confronting Trump with his own BS.

Sir Thomas More, who was an expert in dealing with narcissists (Henry VIII), wrote that “the proud spirit cannot endure to be mocked.” Mark Twain and C.S. Lewis are among the august company that echo that statement. I’d like to think that More would admire Newsom’s technique, for what it lacks in finesse, it makes up for in sheer chutzpah. Newsom is using Trump’s own rhetorical style against him, revealing him for the empty suit that he is.

We don’t all have as big a soapbox as Gavin Newsom’s, but that’s no reason why we can’t use it in the same way. Every insult, every nickname, every bit of mockery has a chance of getting under Trump’s thin skin and making him even more irrational. And if we keep doing it, then perhaps more of our elected representatives will be aware that they are defending an empty suit of a man and will not be forgiven by history for doing so.

I’d also like to offer a belated “Welcome back” to Jimmy Kimmel, who has been one of the late-night hosters vying to see who can get Trump to say the worst things about them. The more often that Trump berates Kimmel, Jimmy Fallon, Stephen Colbert and Seth Meyers, the more they are getting to him. And with “The Daily Show” also back from break, we can look forward to even more opprobrium directed Trump’s way.

A word of warning: between the non-stop mocking and Trump’s rapidly deteriorating mental and physical health, we may be seeing President Vance before Donnie’s second term is complete.

What dangers Vance represents, and in what ways he will continue his predecessor’s pogrom against the federal government, needs to be on the table for discussion immediately. But it seems pretty clear from his public statements that JD intends to support Dear Leader’s continued efforts to dismantle health care, support of veterans and the disabled, and anyone else that doesn’t qualify as a “winner.”

If you’re a realist, you know that having Vance in office will be like having a younger, but equally incompetent Trump behind the Resolute Desk.

Can Vance be reasoned with? Or will he be as inflexible as the Orange Man? Those are the questions we must answer in the next few months, or weeks, because we truly don’t know how bad Trump’s health is, and if Vance is already being groomed for the top job.

But anyway, keep protesting, keep calling, keep writing letters, keep flying flags from your cars and everything else you’ve been doing to protest the Trump badministration. I promise you, it is having an effect, and that effect will accelerate as Trump’s deficits increase.