Below is my column in The Hill on the declaration of Gov. Gavin Newsom that he is now officially “evolving.” However, unlike more modest objectives like opposable thumbs over eons, Newsom wants to accomplish a full transformation in one election cycle to appeal to the surging far left of his party. It is a cautionary tale for Democrats who want their party to reposition toward the political center.
Here is the column:
California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) wants you to know that he is evolving.
Newsom is facing a rising radical movement among Democrats, including a surging contingent aligned with the Democratic Socialists of America. He is struggling in polls and therefore eager to show the skill identified by Darwin that allows certain species to thrive in their environment: adaptation.
Newsom has recently declared capitalism a failure. He is now joining his competitors for president in offering up the Supreme Court and its independence to the far left. His free fall into rage politics is a cautionary tale for those who want to return the Democratic Party to more centrist positions.
Often called a “political chameleon,” Newsom seems to be morphing into the actual species that evolved to adjust to its environment, including more nimble feet.
Although natural selection takes place over many years and even eons, Newsom does not have the luxury of time. He does not want to be eliminated by the more politically fit opponents to his left.
Polls continue to show he receives more media support than public support. He trails Kamala Harris by 15 points in recent polling and is nearly tied with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.
Harris and Buttigieg quickly turned their backs on the norms governing the Supreme Court to support court-packing. Harris dismissed those of us in opposition as engaging in mere “nostalgia.”
Newsom had previously tried to offer a sane alternative to these voices. But he has now found himself their quiet companion in a primal scream session. As he began to vanish in political polling, he decided he would not be outcrazied by Democratic opponents.
With candidates like Texas’s Democratic Senate nominee James Talarico calling for the “dismantling” of capitalism as an “oppressive system,” Newsom finds himself needing to cater to the mob. He has now declared that “nostalgia is not working” while adding that “capitalism as we know it doesn’t work either.”
Newsom has recently been campaigning in blue states such as New Hampshire, repeating his mantra that capitalism as “not working.”
But these days, it is not enough for socialists and the far left merely to oppose the most successful economic system in the history of the world. Newsom is still being labeled as an establishment politician. So he has tried to dispel that impression with his signature toothy grin and astonished demeanor, claiming that he is really undermining the system from within as “an established insurgent.”
Again, that is not enough for the current political environment. So this week, he changed his position on the Supreme Court to say that he is now “open” to court-packing.
Packing the court is considered essential today for any viable Democratic candidate. Some are openly calling for the imposition of a litmus test for all candidates: As they put it, it is a choice between “packed or sacked.”
Even moderate figures such as Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) have now yielded to the mob in expressing a willingness to pack the Supreme Court.
So Newsom wants the far left to know that he is yet again evolving: “My initial instinct — me, a year ago, I would have said no out of concern that it will continue to be expanded. … I’m finding myself evolving on it.”
The question is what Newsom and his Democrat opponents will offer next in their political adaptation. These candidates have shown that no institution or value is more important than their securing power. At this rate, we will be fortunate to have anything more than the ship itself after the race to toss institutions and “nostalgic” values over the side.
The danger for Newsom — like the danger of any fast-tracking of evolution — is that the environment can change, leaving you with an adaptation that makes you even more likely to be eliminated. Newsom knows that attacking our constitutional or economic systems will not play well in the general election, but he also knows he will never see the 2028 general election if his opponents on the left outflank him.
Moreover, offerings like the Supreme Court or our economic system are unlikely to satiate the far left. As I discuss in “Rage and the Republic,” history shows that establishment figures rarely survive the mob politics they seek to use for their own advantage.
In the meantime, because of the cynical calculations of leaders like Newsom, we face a growing threat of doing lasting harm to our constitutional system. The framers warned us of these voices of “mobocracy” that would tear apart the contemporary revolution in France, which became known as “the Terror.”
The danger is that, while the majority opposes court packing and socialism, the new majority in Congress could force changes without amending the Constitution. That certainly can be done with court packing. Once a new liberal majority is secured, there would then be little barrier to achieving many of the objectives of a radical agenda long discussed by professors and pundits. Some have argued that, with control of the court and radical constitutional changes, Republicans will not be able to win another election.
In other words, the radicals hope to change the environment to prevent further adaptation and future competition.
Kurt Vonnegut once said, “Evolution can go to hell as far as I am concerned. What a mistake we are.” After watching the chameleonic Gavin Newsom, it seems that we may be on the cusp of precisely such an evolutionary mistake.
Jonathan Turley is a law professor and the New York Times best-selling author of “Rage and the Republic: The Unfinished Story of the American Revolution.“
From Newsom to Newscum to Oldscum to Nothingbutscum that is Gavin’s evolution.
The Constitution does not set a number of Justices. One would suffice. There is also no requirement that it be human. A dog would satisfy the Constitutional requirement. You could appoint an interpreter for its barking, as the Justices seem to do in interpreting the Constitution.
“The Dangerous Evolution of Gavin Newsom”
Dangerous for whom? If it works for Newsom then he’s elected and a full purge of government agencies of Trump lackeys can begin. If he’s not elected, but some other Democrat is, then the same purge can begin. It’s a win no matter what path elects a Democrat.
If one has the premise that the evolution is dangerous, it might be worthwhile to follow that up with a supporting argument rather than tossing crap through the bars of the conservative zoo exhibit at the visitors.
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On a related note, I see that, having purged the Kennedy Center of liberal performers, Trump is now trying to declare it financially insolvent. How is this possible when there are supposedly so many staunch conservative and libertarian musicians and actors and dancers, all having been excluded from the stages there for so long?
I feel like this is a working example of the reality in colleges and universities; they aren’t purged of conservatives or libertarians; there just aren’t very many willing to do that work. If not then there should be just as many conservative and libertarian colleges as those which have supposedly purged their adherents.
What I see instead, aside from an extortion attempt by Trump to smear his name onto the building in a way that an infant will sometimes smear the contents of a diaper on a wall, is solid sour grapes argument. If Trump cannot have his name engraved into the marble of the building then he will demolish the building and replace it with one that solely bears his name.
Applied to colleges and universities that conservatives and libertarians find themselves unqualified to teach in are therefore declared terrible places.
At this point, Trump should have been able to line up hundreds of performers who are so solidly conservative they would literally pack the Kennedy Center with conservative audiences, if there was a conservative market for it. Likewise ever “purged” conservative should have immediately been able to find a job in a conservative institution of higher learning, if there was a conservative market for it.
“Agencies of Trump lackeys”?? Did you complain about the agencies of Biden lackeys??? HELL NO!!
SCOTUS Decision Doesn’t Cover All Trump Schemes
Federal agents are scouring voter rolls managed by states for noncitizens, despite a lack of evidence of widespread fraud. Mr. Trump’s homeland security secretary recently pushed for an investigation into whether a commonly used voting machine can be trusted, casting doubt on digital voting systems.
The Justice Department has sued 30 states for unredacted voter lists, which include personal information like driver’s license numbers and partial Social Security numbers.
They have lost 23 of those cases. Decisions are pending in the rest.
This month, the chief election officials in seven Republican-controlled states filed a brief to the Supreme Court, arguing that with less than two months until Election Day, it was too close to the midterms to make any major changes to the election process.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/14/us/politics/supreme-court-trump-mail-in-ballots.html?smid=nytcore
^ NY Slimes say some fraud is fine and dandy. Commie scum.
Will you ever have the courage to write about the Trump Family & Its’ Blatant Corruption epitomized by a Russian Oligarch paying for Trump Jr.’s Wedding–That’s dangerous not your contentious nonsense and the Hill platforming you.
^ Chinese propaganda slop ^
Turley wants to talk about “dangerous”? An Emerati spy chief bought $500K of Trump’s worthless crypto—and, magically, Trump approved the sale of our most- sensitive AI chips that are not supposed to leave the country because it creates a security risk.
Don, Jr obtained an ownership interest in 1788 Capital, which purchased Balkan Elements. After a call from the White House, the Pentagon purchased products and gave it a $620 million dollar loan.
Our government also bought tungsten from a company in which Trump’s worthless children have a financial stake.
The open corruption is breathtaking. Trump literally thinks he can do as he pleases and Republicans are proving him right. Remember how Republicans tried to prove that Joe Biden was taking bribes from China, and couldn’t come up with anything.
Cry me a river Gigi
Breaking news: The SCOTUS just shot down Trump’s effort to use the USPS to limit and/or encumber voting by mail.
Another breaking story: The after wedding party of Donald, Jr and Bettina Anderson was financed by a Russian oligarch named “Umar” with ties to Putin. The oligarch paid to rent a private island in the Bahamas. He spent hundreds of thousands on renting the island and for accommodations where guests slept for a weekend, and for a fireworks show. Trump didn’t even show up for Don, Jr’s wedding, but a large contingent of Russians were there.
The financing of a luxury wedding reception on a private island for the son of a sitting president by an oligarch with close ties to Putin is outrageously inappropriate, if not outright illegal. Reports indicate that there is coordination between the oligarch and the Kremlin. We are waiting to find out what the Russians expect to receive in return. And there is little evidence of any longstanding relationship between Don, Jr and Umar.
The “Putin stooge” and the “Netanyahu stooge” trope is getting old. Trump has helped the Ukrainians kill hundreds of thousands of Russian troops and Iran is responsible for the war in the Middle East, not Netanyahu or Trump.
Your propaganda helps Putin and the Mullahs, not anybody else. The sole reason for it is that you just hate Trump and white people.
You’re probably white yourself, which only makes it weirder.
Trump has deprived Putin of many of his geopolitical allies. Think Maduro, Castro, Khamenei. People who say he’s Putin’s stooge are silly and childish. The only reveal their own ignorance and irrationality.
Estovir, that Russian-paid wedding is like a smoking gun. According to reports, wedding guests kept wondering why Russians were there.
Marx and Engels are 1848? That’s really old isn’t it?
I’ve seen worse than California.
Turley Writes:
“Harris and Buttigieg quickly turned their backs on the norms governing the Supreme Court to support court-packing”.
* * * * * * * *
Trump’s attempt to use the United States Postal Service to screen mail-in voting has recently had a test run. Yesterday, Jim Saksa of Democracy Docket picked up a story from Jeff Berlew of the Tallahassee Democrat to report that the USPS rejected mailed ballots from Leon County, in Florida, because the words “return service requested” were only 0.236 inches from the election office’s return address. They were supposed to be a full quarter-inch apart. So, the delivery of those mail in ballots came down to a federal complaint about a spacing issue of 0.014 of an inch.
“It’s ridiculous,” Supervisor of Elections Mark Earley told Berlew. But, as Saksa notes, the rejection of ballots for such a petty flaw shows what will likely happen if the Supreme Court lifts the injunction blocking the postal service from implementing the new rules it has put in place since Trump ordered such interference in a March executive order.
By Heather Cox Richardson
…………………………………….
This piece raises a very obvious question: ‘Why is SCOTUS taking its good sweet time regarding Trump’s scheme to use the U.S. Postal Service to screen mail-in voting?’
Conservatives who claim to be ‘constitutional constructionists’ should note that nothing in the constitution says the Federal government can take charge of elections.
Labor Day has come and gone. The midterm elections are less than 2 months away. We can’t have Trump’s postal threat hanging over this election. The states need clear direction. And they need direction NOW; not whenever this court decides to finally rule.
So ‘yes’, packing the court would be totally justified. This court went rogue the moment it decided that Trump didn’t need to answer for January 6th.
^ Chinese communist propaganda slop ^
SCOTUS hasn’t ruled yet. The Constitution does give the federal government authority over federal elections. The Court is not rogue, it is the most obey-the-Constitution court in 100 years. Leftists recognize the Constitution is the main thing limiting their quest for total power, so they lie, like the anonymous commenter above, to tear down American institutions.
Well seeing as the rouge SC just denied Trump’s “scheme” to regulate and track mail in ballot fraud, I wholeheartedly agree with you! Trump needs to replace all those opposing parties.
Makes the commenter you responded to look pretty hysterical.
We were an hour too soon in posting that comment. But the court definitely made the right decision.
No, you were hysterical and childish.
Let me get this straight.
Congress is now insinuating itself into the college sports and the technology and software industries after seizing the retirement financial and healthcare services industries, including Social Security and Medicare long ago.
In the land of the free, Congress presides over every human endeavor?
Did any of you read history and discover the intent of the American Founders?
Make Communism Great Again, right?
Who here calls himself an American?
Catholic Massachusetts Family Battling state authorities to get Daughter back After School began to secretly transition her without their knowledge and Removed Her from home
Sep 13, 2026
It is a family’s worst nightmare. Devout Catholic parents are fighting in court to regain custody of their 17-year-old daughter, Sophie, and stop Massachusetts authorities from medically transitioning her with high-dose testosterone. In December 2024, the Department of Children and Families (DCF) removed the then 15-year-old from her home because her parents, Joseph and Arlene Kutzko, would not recognize their daughter as a boy due to their faith–an identity change they allege staff at Algonquin Regional High School initiated in secret. Although physical abuse claims against Joseph were deemed unfounded, a permanent restraining order was issued against the family, and DCF cut off contact after the Kutzkos would not call Sophie by a male name or pronouns.
Appearing on the Lighthouse Faith podcast alongside attorney Vernadette Broyles, the devastated parents exposed how DCF has housed their daughter in a boys’ dormitory, stripped away her Catholic faith by denying her Sunday Mass, and put her on birth control and psychiatric drugs. As the family fights DCF’s court attempt to administer testosterone and demands a full psychological evaluation for Sophie, Broyles is pushing Congress to ensure no loving parent’s refusal to transition a child is ever branded as “child abuse.”
https://radio.foxnews.com/2026/09/13/catholic-massachusetts-family-battling-state-authorities-to-get-daughter-back-after-school-began-to-secretly-transition-her-without-their-knowledge-and-removed-her-from-home/
A Theory of Everything
“The Thing That Never Happens Keeps Happening.” —Kyle Becker on X
“Everyone is retarded and nothing Works.” Turns out that’s the key to unlock the mystery of this particular Fourth Turning, the one here and now,. … And as far as I know, it’s the only theory that makes sense. It explains, for example how and why consulting US attorney Joe DiGenova quit the grand jury investigation, as conducted by the DOJ in the Southern District of Florida (SDFL), of the treasonous conspiracy against the people of the USA running since 2016. …
By: James Howard Kunstler ~ Sep 14, 2026
https://www.kunstler.com/p/a-theory-of-everything
Yep, Obama was the most corrupt pand destructive president in American history. He’ll likely never be held accountable.
More MAGA messaging slop–attacking Democrats, and trying to create the illusion that the mainstream Democratic Party embraces the position of the DSA. THEY DON’T–no matter how many times MAGA media beat this drum. The marketers hired by MAGA media have come up with the theme: “crazy vs common sense”–and they will try to fit the facts to meet this narrative. As has been pointed out before, Republicans know they are in trouble, and to try to keep power, they’ve tried gerrymandering to absorb blue districts into red districts, to add more red districts, tried to prevent or encumber mail voting, and the third prong is to paint Democrats as radicals to keep disenchanted former Republican voters from voting Democratic.
^ More slop from Gigi crying MAGA MAGA MAGA blah blah blah blah blah blah blah
sorry the DSA left you behind and they are the democrat party now so you’ll have to start your own party and be on their list.
You have become a dinosaur to them. How ya gonna vote now?
I regard Knavin Gruesome as an excellent litmus test for how much trouble our society and culture is in. If his utter hypocrisy destroys his political career over the next 4 years, as it damned well should, there may be hope. If his BS succeeds, we are doomed.
We have not been capitalist since President Wilson started the central bank. What we have is financialism. Capital is the output of farms, mines and factories. The golden cycle is a clock face with savings at 12, investment at 3, production at 6 and profit at 9 going to savings. What the central bank has done is eliminate 12 and 6 what we have is investment to profit with no production or savings.
Estovir, name a major nation with no central bank. I’d love know ‘who’ this model nation is.
Name a major nation where there are no murders, so I guess murder is good, moron
Estovir, you’re admitting there is no major nation without a central bank.
In other words, this ‘abolish the Fed’ nonsense is just some Libertarian pipe dream divorced from reality.
No, moron, I was showing that your stupid argument is stupid. I don’t GAF one way or another about the fed, but your stupid response says nothing besides “but MUH! other people do it too so it must be good.” Then you were even too stupid to even understand that.
Estovir, you’re just generating posts that might appeal to a broad spectrum of MAGA types. But no real conservatives are even coming here anymore.
What does that have to do with your silly argument about the fed, which you now seem to admit was idiotic? Just more weak and pathetic deflection from a moron.
Newsom is a Batman villain. He’s a capitalist, living his lifestyle in style. If the filthy masses want this or that fine with him.
Low opinion of Newsom…worthless to the US.
This long, California conspiracy piece just below is another of Estovir’s bogus first person accounts; supposedly by a Californian.
Thanks for the tip douche bag, I wasn’t planning to read it but now I will.
Estovir is the anonymous above and Number Six below.
Wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa. Go cry me a river, a’h0le.
Not only are you not competent or intelligent enough to accurately identify commenters, but you evidently do not comprehend what a “first person” account is, either. You are a consummate (i.e., total) loser. What is the original language form which you are having AI translate your comments in English, Kikongo-Kituba?
Newsom is the creation of Gordon Getty, a billionaire who never worked, thanks to Gavin Newsom’s father. He was appointed to a Superior Court by Jerry Brown (in a region he didn’t live in) and vaulted to State Appeals level 3 years later just in time to rule in a precedential case that Getty got a share of oil magnate JP Getty’s estate (most of it funded the Getty museum in Malibu) though he was not named in a will or ever worked it the business. The twisted tale is told in a video “The 4 Families of California” (Browns Newsoms Pelosis Gettys) that was deleted from YouTube but is still on Rumble. Nancy Pelosi is Newsom’s aunt by marriage.
When Newsom was mayor of SF and Harris was DA the city was coaching illegal alien criminal MS-13s how to use their “no name” status to pretend they were juveniles to escape prosecution. The city paid for them to go back to El Salvador to see their families (recruit more gangs) and their returrn trips. One of them who went by “Edwin Ramos” shot and killed a father and 2 of his sons on their way home from mass on a Saturday afternoon for no apparent reason. (Search for story of “Bologna family killings SF”) Ramos had just been in a car used in a drive-by shooting with the gun still in the car but SFPD could not tie the gun to anyone so they all went free. SF was “sanctuary” on steroids by policy and procedure even then not long after 9/11. Harris’s debut as DA had been marked by the machine gun murder of Officer Isaac Espinosa by a 19 year old gang member, Harris immediate response was to announce that the case would not be tried as a death penalty.
I’m in California, the state is a crime scene. The “high speed rail” boondoggle has been an orgy of spending and they have no train nor even a clear plan where the route will start, finish, or where the stations will be. Perhaps you saw the tale of Nick Shirley who knocked on a few doors in LA where they are “managing” hospice and in-home health care service and found tens of millions in unaccounted for money being distributed to people who provided no services. Federal cases and arrests soon followed as the State AG proclaimed he was on top of it though it turned out the State Auditor had handed Newsom a report warning of the loose or non-existent financial controls 2 years before. Newsom did nothing. The legislature promptly passed a new law to stop citizen journalists from doing what Nick did. Recent guilty pleas by close associates of Newsom have drawn little media coverage. It appears he enjoys a large degree of media “protection” considering the repeated episodes of murders committed by illegal aliens in a state that refuses coopertion with federal immigration enforcement. Last week a Venezuelan let in by Biden’s policies was released by a Newsom appointed judge in Martinez despite repeat offenses and qualified as “deportable” under federal law. The next day the criminal stabbed a man to death working his own garage, apparently a robbery attempt. Newsom released a statement blaming the federal government. Just this weekend we get the local news coverage in Sacramento of an illegal from India let in by Biden who stalked and threatened a woman for years and murdered her as she left work, though she had obtained a restraining order after he broke into her residence. He suicided after a police pursuit.
The Democrats built one-party rule by promoting “State Dependency” where people are cultivated like slaves on a plantation except they don’t work. They get fat and sick in large part to a Frankenstate that subsidizes food that causes obesity and diabetes (17 R states tried cut off SNAP for junk food by TDS judge Amy Berman Jackson ruled they must be restored). Key to the majority was “motor voter” and DLs for illegals who are auto-registered to vote at the DMV they are supposed to “opt out” but if they don’t they’re “in”. The almost ineffably corrupt state government won’t investigate anything and the DAs in locales like SF and LA are if anything even worse.
This November Voter ID is on the ballot (I’m in a Congressional district where the Democrat won the last election by 110 votes due to undocumented colleges students bused to the polling place castng in-person “provisional” ballots with no ID) polls show the Democrats opposed it 88%-12% so it will fail. No Republican can win anything at the state level and have not for 20 years nor will they ever again. The remainder of the better wake up fast because the state is rapidly contaminating adjacent states into the same condition, incredibly those fleeing California look to still vote for the same idiotic policies that turned the state into a Third World country outside a shrinking number of exclusive enclaves.
Why the —- would a billionaire work?
Karl Marx was a sickly, diseased, lazy, loser, drunk, and radical who decided, clearly incorrectly, that he should tell people how to live. It is no wonder his ridiculous and unnatural ideas proved wholly unworkable after 75 years in Russia et al.
AI Overview
Karl Marx worked as a professional journalist and writer for much of his adult life, though he never held a traditional or steady blue-collar job.
Employment and Writing Career
Newspaper Editor: Marx worked as the editor for the radical German newspaper Rheinische Zeitung in 1842 before the Prussian government shut it down due to his political views.
Journalist: He spent a decade writing regular articles and dispatches for the New York Daily Tribune as a European correspondent.
Political Writer: He edited other short-lived radical periodicals and authored numerous political pamphlets and theoretical works.
Financial Support
Limited Income: His journalism pay was irregular and rarely enough to support his family.
Family Support: Marx relied heavily on financial gifts, inheritances, and steady stipends from his lifelong friend and collaborator, Friedrich Engels, whose family owned textile factories.
Poverty: Despite his output, Marx spent large portions of his life in London living in severe financial distress and deep poverty.
Where does Engels come in?
ANON=WASTE
Replied to another post that was taken down.
Imagine having all of the eduction, experience and intellect of Professor Turley regarding the law, and instead of enlightening his readers on the greatest legal matters of the day, being a shill for a political party full of cowards, lackeys and criminals. What a waste.
It’s funny Turley isn’t writing columns about AI and the potential destruction it might cause. AI has been dominating the news for much of this year. Surely the professor must have opinions on the issue. Why is he keeping them secret??
Imagine if you had enough intelligence to start your own blog, you could write about these topics, and if you were any good at you’d get a following. But instead you are lazy and stupid so you come here to gripe that PT is not writing about the things you want him to. Boo hoo. GFY you waste of life little baby moron.
Turley isnt writing about the Democrat party. Your analysis must come from looking in the mirror.