Credibility Alert: Gov. Newsom’s Abuse of the Emergency Alert System
‘Emergency Alert’ ordering Californians to ‘stay home, wear a mask, keep your distance’

By Katy Grimes, December 12, 2020 4:03 pm

Friday, my phone, along with thousands, maybe millions of other Californians’ phones, blasted an unfamiliar alarm while I was driving on the freeway. Initially, I thought something was wrong with my car, and nearly crashed. When I was able to get a look at my phone, I saw it was Gov. Gavin Newson’s “Emergency Alert” ordering Californians to “stay home, wear a mask, keep your distance.”

What a horrific abuse of California’s Emergency notification system.

I posted the screen capture of the notification on my Facebook page, and hundreds of people left comments that they had experienced much the same thing – an emergency alert noise sounding like an air raid alert. Many said they were also in their cars and nearly crashed. Several reported they were in Costco and all around them shoppers’ phones were going off as well. All reported how freaky it was, and so very “1984” by George Orwell.

According to California Office of Emergency Services, the Emergency Alert System is a national public warning system that requires broadcasters, cable television systems, wireless cable systems, satellite digital audio radio service providers, and direct broadcast satellite providers to provide the communications capability to the President to address the American public during a national emergency. “The system also may be used by state and local authorities to deliver important emergency information, such as AMBER alerts and weather information targeted to specific areas.”

Assemblyman Kevin Kiley. (Photo: Kevin Kiley for Assembly)
Assemblyman Kevin Kiley also experienced the alarming alert, and wrote about it:

“Yesterday my phone went berserk with an ‘Emergency Alert’ about the stay-at-home order. Fortunately, I was just sitting at my desk; I heard from people who almost crashed their cars from this latest abuse of power.”

“The bigger abuse, of course, is the stay-at-home order itself. But the battle now is not just for the next few weeks but the next six months, as Newsom has left no doubt he wants to keep the State of Emergency going at least into next summer.”

Gov. Newsom and his top staff really blundered with this hysterical notification. This isn’t a wildfire, earthquake or even an Amber Alert. It is a health order, and an overblown, abusive one at that.

Newsom and his team just showed how unserious they are, with this emergency alert.

Clearly Gov. Newsom is frustrated that his tyrannical orders are not having the effect he had hoped, as millions of California residents not only distrust his abuse of power, but are ignoring his lockdown orders.

The emergency phone alert demonstrated that.

The bigger problem Newsom has is one of credibility – he has very little after keeping Californians in varying forms of lockdown for nine months, and single handedly destroying the state’s economy by killing off hundreds of thousands of businesses through the lockdowns.

“In March, Gov. Newsom ordered the state’s 40 million residents to stay-at-home, shut down most businesses, closed schools, killed off sporting events and recreation, and even closed Disneyland, over the original dire predictions of massive COVID-19 cases,” the Globe reported Thursday. “That was nine months ago, with intermittent partial re-openings with restrictions, only to be shut down again.”

The RecallGavin2020 effort is gaining traction, as the Globe reported, and now there are news reports that the governor and his staff are actually a little worried about it.

Assemblyman Kiley is correct that Gov. Newsom wants this lockdown order to extend into Summer 2021. “Gavin Newsom may not have created all the problems causing California’s decline, but he’s dramatically accelerated them in a way we never could have imagined,” Kiley said. “Yet through his abominable actions, he’s also accelerated an equal and opposite reaction, catalyzing and coalescing a movement to save our state from self-destruction.”

Kiley also addresses the Newsom recall effort, recognizing that Newsom advisors, according to Politico, are afraid the recall “could mushroom into a major threat in 2021.”

The hiring of lobbyist Jim DeBoo to a top staff position in the Newsom administration signifies that the governor is concerned – not about what he is doing to California, but for his own political future and reputation.

Assemblyman Kiley says, “The good news is we’re making progress on a number of fronts:”

The Orange County Board of Supervisors has passed our Healthy Communities Resolution, joining Northern California counties and making this a statewide movement to end the arbitrary lockdowns.
In our lawsuit, Newsom’s Reply Brief with the Court of Appeals is due Monday, then we’ll have oral argument and get a decision. The Governor also just lost his lead lawyer, with Xavier Becerra resigning to take a job in D.C.
I’ve just introduced a bill to abolish endless emergencies in California. A State of Emergency would automatically expire after a fixed period of time (60 days or shorter).
Anyone watching national news has seen that other governors only shut down early on out of concern over hospital capacity, unsure about the dire predictions. Once it was clear only a few months in that the public health doctors’ predictions were wrong, and that the virus was not nearly as dangerous as originally feared, most states re-opened with ongoing precautionary measures.

However, California’s restrictions continue to drag on indefinitely. Another stunt like the statewide Emergency phone alert to “stay home, wear a mask and keep your distance,” just might solidify Newsom’s recall.

[californiaglobe.com]