Promises kept: Newsom protected his Hollywood donors from COVID restrictions, and now they're helping protect him back from recall

The beyond filthy rigged politics of one-party California has always led many to suspect that leftists will do anything to halt Gov. Gavin Newsom's recall referendum.

Nothing quite tops Newsom's money-raking from Hollywood moguls that is coming as a result of his exempting those businesses from COVID restrictions.

Remember this?

A small restaurant–owner in Sherman Oaks, California is seen crying on a video as she is forced to shutter her life's work, her restaurant establishment called the Pineapple Hill Saloon, while just feet away, a Hollywood film crew chomps happily on a big buffet together in close quarters, completely exempt from COVID restrictions, based on Newsom's mercurial orders deciding who is and who isn't a COVID hazard to public health.  The lady raised more than $222,000 for her establishment on GoFundMe, the last donation of which was just five days ago.

I wrote about that here.

Susan Crabtree at RealClearPolitics has an excellent report about how it's gone since then:

California Gov. Gavin Newsom and his supporters have shot ahead in the recall money chase in recent weeks, far outpacing an early show of force from groups looking to eject him from office.

Those backing Newsom have raised a total of $13.2 million while recall proponents have collected $4.7 million, burning through nearly all of it, according to state fundraising records.

As megadonors and special interest groups cut big checks to keep the governor in office, some of the donations, especially those from Hollywood, are drawing new scrutiny.

Paramount Pictures this week provided $40,000 to the anti-recall effort. That check follows a $3 million infusion in late May from Netflix CEO Reed Hastings, the most from any single donor.

Such fundraising largesse from Tinseltown to a Golden State Democratic leader in a fight for his job may seem par for the course. But the checks are providing a reminder that Newsom carved out a special COVID lockdown exemption for the television and movie industries, deeming them "critical infrastructure" and allowing them to continue operating throughout the pandemic. At the same time, regular citizens, restaurants and other businesses faced some of the strictest lockdowns in the country.

Plenty of studios took advantage of the carve-out, including Netflix, which started filming a new season of "The Kominsky Method," a comedy starring Michael Douglas, in November.

So it was all about campaign contributions, and Newsom himself is now being rewarded by the rich elites who benefited from it.  The saloon-owner was left destitute by Newsom's lockdowns, but the Hollywood film studios carried on happily, able to make money so as to donate to Newsom with all that questionably gotten wealth, the result of the lockdowns on others.  So much for "we're all in this together," as the lefties liked to say to justify their lockdowns on the little guy. 

Where's the Hollywood donations to the small business–owners whose businesses were shut down while theirs flourished?  Nope, not hearing of any donations from that bunch.  But Newsom?  He's profiting handsomely, running away with it as Hollywood cash now floods his anti-recall coffers.

Bad guys profit, it seems, as Democrats set their carve-outs for them.  One hand washes the other.  If this isn't an argument for Newsom's recall, just on this ground alone, what is?  One hopes the voters of California at long last will take notice.

Image: Twitter screen shot.

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