The Morning Briefing: Gavin Newsom Really Doesn't Want to Be President

Top O' the Briefing

Happy Wednesday, dear Kruiser Morning Briefing friends. We will reconvene at sunset to distribute soft serve cones and extra Tiger Balm to the Pilates-inflicted.

Because he sits near or at the top of most of the very early polls for the 2028 Democratic presidential nomination, I think it's important to take occasional digs at California Gov. Gavin Newsom.

OK, I'd enjoy doing it even if he weren't running for president.

I'm still not sold on Newsom going over well enough with Democrats all across America to become the nominee. Yes, he has great name recognition now, but Democrats in Flyover, USA don't have to live under his insanity. They also probably don't spend a lot of time reading up on various Newsom-inspired policies in the Golden State.

I left California after 25 years, a little less than a year before Newsom became governor. Its psychotic leftward lurch had already begun, but Newsom arrived in Sacramento with a bulldozer to facilitate pushing the state off the progressive cliff even faster.

Gavin Newsom's California bears almost no resemblance to the California I left eight years ago. I'm not just talking about politics either. Pacific Palisades was still standing in 2018, for one thing. This list could go on for a while. So much goes wrong in blue states because the politicians in charge neglect the important things while they're focusing on their idiotic leftist plans.

California has suffered so much under Newsom's rule because no politician in America embraced the opportunity to become a tyrant during the pandemic like he did. Once he got a taste for it, he never let up. The supermajority Democrats in Sacramento are merely puppets who do his bidding.

That just leads to the kind of ridiculousness that Matt wrote about yesterday:

Big Brother has a name, it's Gavin Newsom, and he's coming to inspect the trash of California residents.
Starting this month, Sacramento is sending city workers out to peer into residents' garbage, recycling, and organic waste bins, all in the name of complying with a mandate from Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-Calif.). The California legislature passed the law behind this intrusion, SB 1383, in 2016, and it took effect in 2022. The stated goal was to cut organic waste disposal by 75% by 2025 to reduce methane emissions and slow climate change.
Is it working? Well, that’s the question, isn’t it? That’s why Sacramento apparently decided the best way to find out is to start rifling through what people throw away.

Not creepy at all, right?

The article that Matt links to says that this is all to ensure that people "comply with Newsom's vision." It's Newsom's vision that has been the catalyst for the mass exodus from California. The state has seen the largest population decline of any U.S. state since — no surprise here — 2020.

Everything that Newsom pats himself on the back for is the kind of thing that I truly believe ends up being a disqualifying knock on him with Ma and Pa Dem in the Midwest. He doesn't know that because California is the biggest ideological bubble in the nation. He really thinks he's killing it there. His delusion is reinforced by hangers-on who are equally divorced from reality. As I wrote back in March, the California that Newsom keeps talking about doesn't really exist anymore.

What I meant in the headline is that almost everything Newsom does is something that could potentially doom his 2028 bid. He doesn't know that, of course. Now that the Young Commies are rising on the left, Newsom will almost certainly do whatever he can to out-commie them.

That should make for some fun stories to tell at the Iowa State Fair come caucus time in 2028.

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The Mailbag of Magnificence

We'll begin with this gem from Will:

Mr. Kruiser, your reader Dave A. asked about "the left's fascination with the hyphenated three names." If it stops there, we're fine (barely). But I wouldn't be surprised if we see other elements added to the hyphenated names, such as land acknowledgements. For example: Smythe-Weliveonstolenland-Taxtherich- Bertleson. There really is no end to the lunacy of the left.

I SO wish I had thought of that first. Then again, I am leery of giving them any ideas. Anything we think is lunacy they think of as a résumé builder.

This is from another Steve:

Mr. Kruiser- About the picture at the top of your column this morning: isn't Mamdani throwing some sort of white supremacy symbol with his fingers? I know I've seen that picture several times before, but it just dawned on me that it was the "A-Ok" sign. You probably picked that picture for just that reason and I'm just slow to catch on.... Thanks, Steve

I think the last several years have taught us that all hand gestures are Nazi or white supremacist signals. Except for the bird, of course, which will always have a revered place in American gesturing.

Friend of the Briefing Doug F. writes:

Kruiserman I hate to see NYC like this also. My best memory of the city was standing atop the Empire State Building and attending the Rush Limbaugh Show in the early nineties. His studio was right next to Sally Jessy Raphael.

Ah... Sally Jessy Raphael... from the Golden Age of daytime talk shows and bored housewives on antidepressants. I had the great honor of having Rush devote a segment to something I'd written in the Briefing that morning on a show just a couple of months before he died. I think now, more than ever, it's important to remember that Rush had a wicked sense of humor even when dealing with the darkest insanity of the Democrats.

Daniel B. will help us wrap things up today:

You nearly killed me twice with the MB today. Twice I nearly choked on my morning beverage. First, with the "the child locks are on" comment, and then again with the "maybe he'll run for president" jab at the end. NYC is getting what they voted for good and hard and as Mr. Green said, he's just getting started. How such an economically and historically illiterate person could end up the mayor of NYC says a lot about New York City voters and none of it is good.

It is always heartwarming and validating when astute readers don't take everything too seriously and appreciate some of my quirkier lines. People are a smidge too intense these days. I think that the combination of Bill de Blasio — who was also a commie, btw — and Trump Derangement Syndrome fried what few remaining brain cells New York City Democrats had. Seriously, when you look back, it's not a big leap from de Blasio to Mamdani. Eric Adams was an aberration, as evidenced by the single term.

Good stuff! Thanks to all who keep writing!

Everything Isn't Awful

Fish can have real attitudes, though.

Scientists discovered that octopuses sometimes punch fish for seemingly no reason at all pic.twitter.com/96QRFiZZns
— Nature Unedited (@NatureUnedited) July 14, 2026

The Kruiser Kabana

Kabana Gallery

Yeah, we had a Moreau yesterday, but I really like this one.

Woman and Panther (Salome and the Panther) #artbots #moreau pic.twitter.com/wpjQnwOrbX
— Gustave Moreau (@gustave_moreau) July 14, 2026

Kabana Comedy/Tunes

POTUS Press Today

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
07/14/26

DAILY GUIDANCE AND PRESS SCHEDULE FOR
WEDNESDAY, JULY 15, 2026

In-Town Pool
TV Corr & Crew: NBC
Secondary TV Corr: Univision
Photos: AP, AFP, NYT, Reuters, Getty
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New Media: Reason Magazine

Out-of-Town Travel Pool
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EDT:
9:00 AM In-Town Pool Call Time
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THE PRESIDENT departs the White House en route Carlisle, Pennsylvania
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THE PRESIDENT arrives Carlisle, Pennsylvania
U.S. Army War College
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3:15 PM THE PRESIDENT participates in a Pennsylvania Defense and Innovation Summit
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