Schwarzenegger, A Gov

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'Turn the page and put this junk behind us': Arnold Schwarzenegger endorses Kamala Harris an 10 24

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an 8 25

no lnx

Arnold Schwarzenegger is right — but also so wrong

Sabrina Haake, Raw Story August 25, 2025

Arnold Schwarzenegger, a lifelong Republican, has benefitted the world in immeasurable ways.

As California’s 38th governor, he reduced the state's greenhouse gas emissions by moving the state away from fossil fuels and toward renewables, particularly hydrogen and solar. He sought and obtained a waiver to allow California to adopt more stringent greenhouse gas emissions standards for passenger vehicles than those mandated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. He’s been named an EPA Climate Change Champion for his work in green energy, clean technology and the overall struggle against climate change.

Schwarzenegger’s climate progress is even more impressive considering the size of California’s economy, now the fourth-largest in the world. With a $4.1 trillion GDP, California’s economy is larger than that of almost all countries, including Japan, Russia, and India. Only the economies of China, Germany, and the US are larger.

Given the cost and complexity of transitioning industries away from fossil fuels, especially 20 years ago, Schwarzenegger’s success demonstrates deep intelligence and an ability to see beyond the immediate. His prescience makes his “vow to fight” California’s redistricting efforts all the more puzzling.

Texas is rigging the midterms

At Trump’s insistence, Texas is passing a law designed, by intent and craft, to rig future elections beginning with the 2025 midterms.

Sensing voter backlash, Trump demanded that Republicans gerrymander Texas years ahead of its scheduled census. Having just completed its congressional maps in 2021, Texas wasn’t due to re-draw them until 2031. On Wednesday, the Texas House of Representatives obliged, creating five new Republican-leaning Congressional seats. The Texas Senate is following suit and Abbott will soon sign it into law.

Republicans don’t hide the fact that they’re manipulating voting boundaries to carve up Democratic voters, merging them with heavily Republican districts where their votes will be outnumbered. The practice got the green light in 2019 in Rucho v. Common Cause, when the Supreme Court ruled that partisan gerrymandering was a political question beyond the reach of the federal courts.

Rigging elections to protect Trump in perpetuity portends too many disastrous consequences to list. So California Gov. Gavin Newsom is pushing back with a plan to redistrict five Congressional seats. Newsom vowed only to move forward with his plan if Texas states continued theirs. Texas is moving forward, and now Trump is pushing other red states to do the same.

Arnie is right about gerrymandering

Newsom’s “Election Rigging Response Act” is a defensive move to counteract what Trump and Republicans are doing. The challenge for California is that in 2010, when Schwarzenegger was governor, an independent commission approved by voters redrew maps with the laudable goal of reducing partisanship in districting.

Although Newsom’s plan would only temporarily suspend the commission's authority, Schwarzenegger has come out swinging against it, hoping to “terminate gerrymandering.”

Schwarzenegger, who successfully campaigned for independent redistricting in California, argues correctly that gerrymandering undermines democracy and voter trust. His spokesperson said Schwarzenegger “calls gerrymandering evil, and he means that. He thinks it’s truly evil for politicians to take power from people.”

Schwarzenegger isn’t wrong. It is truly evil, as well as despotic, for politicians to choose their voters instead of the other way around. But if Newsom and other Democrat governors fail to counter Trump’s partisan redistricting war in Texas and elsewhere, Republicans will seize power nationwide, possibly permanently.

Schwarzenegger’s ‘two wrongs don’t make a right’ principle is no defense to concentration camps, book bans, state forced births, and Trump’s ever-spreading police state, to say nothing of accelerated climate destruction.

Welfare state v. donor state

Compared to California, Texas is a welfare state. In 2022, Texas received approximately $71.1 billion more from the federal government than it paid in. In contrast, California taxpayers pay far more than they receive from the federal government. In financial year 2023-24, California’s total federal taxes were $806 billion — nearly twice as much as Texas, which contributed $417 billion.

Comparative economic health is relevant here because most of the Republican-led states seeking to rig elections for Trump are also welfare states presenting drains on federal resources.

California leads not only Texas, but the nation in Fortune 500 companies, high-tech industries, new business start-ups, venture capital access, manufacturing output, and agriculture.

Despite their decades-long campaign claims, Republican economies create poverty, not wealth. Nineteen of the 20 richest states are predominantly Democratic, while 19 of the 20 poorest states are predominantly Republican. Letting poverty-producing states steer the national economy is economically backward, especially as they reject science, pretend climate change is a hoax, and ignore evidence that climate devastation is accelerating.

The partisan redistricting fight could deliver a fatal blow to democracy. Schwarzenegger is right about that, as he’s been right about so many existential challenges. The Brennan Center for Justice warns of an extremely dangerous time for American democracy: “Gerrymandering … flips the democratic process on its head, letting politicians choose their voters instead of the other way around.”

But that’s where we are: the president’s party is committed to seeking power at all costs.

As Schwarzenegger continues to lead globally on climate, pushing back against ignorance from the right that threatens to drown coastal regions and incinerate habitats out of existence, he should see that California’s redistricting response is a matter of survival. California voters will stand on Schwarzenegger’s ceremony at the nation’s peril.

Sabrina Haake is a columnist and 25+ year federal trial attorney specializing in 1st and 14th A defense. Her Substack, The Haake Take, is free.

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the MRS did event with vph and liz cheney 10 24

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1/11 vid

almost says dad involved in Crisco-nacht

Trump is a failed leader': Schwarzenegger slams fellow Republicans who 'enabled' president's 'lies and treachery'

Marissa Higgins Daily Kos

In the days since a group of pro-Trump insurrectionists stormed the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., sending elected officials into temporary hiding and the nation into a period of shock and horror, a number of Republicans have spoken out against Donald Trump. Whether they've criticized his endless insistence that he actually won the 2020 presidential election (he didn't), called for Trump to resign, both long-standing critics and newly vocalized GOP members are speaking out against Trump.

1/5/21 not super early? after ga phone call?

https://www.alternet.org/2021/01/arnold-schwarzenegger/

Film star Arnold Schwarzenegger may have done nothing more for the passage of the anti-illegal immigration measure than vote for it, but Proposition 187 has nonetheless complicated his bid for governor in the Oct. 7 recall election.

Interviews with political consultants and civil rights activists show that Schwarzenegger did not actively campaign for passage of the 1994 initiative. But Democrats and civil rights organizations moved quickly Monday to capitalize on his support for the initiative and hisclose ties to one of its key backers, former Republican Gov. Pete Wilson, and his campaign team.

The initiative, which barred public services to illegal immigrants, passed by a large margin and was thrown out by the courts. It remains one of the most divisive in recent state history in part because it reflected a tension between white voters, who have long dominated politics in California, and the growing number of Latino voters.

The Austrian-born Schwarzenegger has sought to reach out to Latinos in recent days with frequent reminders of his own arrival in California as a penniless immigrant.

ew 3/18

This analysis is dangerously defective in that it seems to envisage a world where Big Oil can carry on drilling unimpeded for decades. But the bank has forgotten about climate change, stranded assets, shareholder actions and the growing number of lawsuits against Big Oil for their role in climate change, widely seen as the #Exxonknew scandal. Indeed, recently Arnold Schwarzenegger said he was planning on suing the companies for "murder."

Hummer was a brand of trucks and SUVs, first marketed in 1992 when AM General began selling a civilian version of the M998 Humvee.^[1] In 1998, General Motors (GM) purchased the brand name from AM General and marketed three vehicles: the original Hummer H1, based on the military Humvee, as well as the new H2 and H3 models that were based on smaller, civilian-market GM platforms.

By 2008, Hummer's viability in the economic downturn was being questioned, and it was placed under review by GM management. Rather than being transferred to the Motors Liquidation Company as part of the GM bankruptcy in 2009, the brand was retained by GM, in order to investigate its sale.

In 2009, a Chinese manufacturer, Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery Company, announced that it would acquire Hummer, pending government approvals, but later withdrew its bid.^[2] On February 24, 2010, Reuters reported that the Chinese ministry of commerce had prevented the deal,^[3] although a ministry spokesperson denied rejecting the application, which had been stalled for eight months.^[4] At the end of February, General Motors announced it would begin dismantling the Hummer brand.^[5]

Although the automaker announced two days later that it had been approached with new offers,^[6] by April 2010, any sale became unlikely, as inventory was depleted and Hummer dealerships began shutting down.^[7] After filling a rental-car fleet order, the last Hummer H3 rolled off the line at Shreveport on May 24, 2010.^[8]

The original maker of Hummer, AM General, lost their bid to build the HMMWV's replacement for the U.S. military in 2015.

[hide]

History[edit]

Origin[edit]

The original Hummers were designed by AM General Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary American Motors Corporation (AMC), and they were built in its Mishawaka, Indiana, assembly plant.^[9] The Humvee replaced the military Jeeps that were produced by AMC until 1982.^[10]

In 1979, the United States Army was seeking contractors for a new "High Mobility Multi-Purpose Wheeled Vehicle" which could follow the tracks and ruts of full size army trucks (HMMWV).^[11] At that time, General Dynamics, Teledyne, and Chrysler Defense had HMMWV designs under development.^[12][13] Among the four competitors for the contract, AM General designed an entirely new vehicle to meet the Army's requirements.^[11] In less than one year, it was the first to deliver a prototype vehicle. Initial production versions were delivered to the Army's proving grounds in April 1982.^[11]

After testing was completed AM General was awarded the contract to supply its HMMWV to the United States armed forces. The first models were built in a variety of military-based equipment and versions. The first contract was in 1983, worth US$1.2 billion to produce 55,000 "Humvees" by 1985.^[14] The first production vehicle was assembled by AM General on January 2, 1985.^[11] The contract was later increased for an additional 15,000 units.^[11]

AM General had planned to sell a civilian version of the Humvee as far back as the late 1980s. Having the same structure and most mechanical components, the civilian Hummers were finished in automotive gloss paint, adding passenger car enhancements such as air conditioning, sound insulation, upgraded upholstery, stereo systems, wood trim, and convenience packages.^[15]The civilian model began in part because of the persistence of Arnold Schwarzenegger, who saw an Army convoy while filming a movie.^[16]

In 1992, AM General began selling a civilian version of the M998 Humvee vehicle to the public under the brand name "Hummer".^[14]

From left:Hummer H3, H1, and H2

GM purchase

In December 1999, AM General sold the brand name to General Motors, but continued to manufacture the vehicles.^[14] GM was responsible for the marketing and distribution of all Hummers produced by AM General. Shortly thereafter, GM introduced two of its own design models, the H2 and H3, and renamed the original vehicle H1. AM General continued to build the H1 until it was discontinued in 2006,^[17] and was contracted by GM to produce the H2. The H3 was built in Shreveport, LA alongside the Chevrolet Colorado and GMC Canyon pickups, with which it shared the GMT-355 platform (modified and designated GMT-345).Hummer dealership buildings featured an oversized half Quonset Hut style roof, themed to the Hummer brand's military origins.^[18]

By 2006, the Hummer began to be exported and sold through importers and distributors in 33 countries.^[19] On October 10, 2006, GM began producing the Hummer H3 at its Port Elizabeth plant in South Africa for international markets.^[19] The Hummers built there at first were only left-hand drive, but right-hand drive versions were added and exported to Australia and other markets.

The H2 was also assembled in Kaliningrad, Russia, by Avtotor, starting in 2006 and ending in 2009.^[20] The plant produced a few hundred vehicles annually, and its output was limited to local consumption with five dealers in Russia.

On June 3, 2008, one day prior to GM's annual shareholder meeting, Rick Wagoner, GM's CEO at that time, said the brand was being reviewed, and had the possibility of either being sold, having the production line completely redesigned, or being discontinued.^[21] This was due to the decreasing demand for large SUVs as a result of higher oil prices. Almost immediately after the announcement, a pair of Indian automakers, including Mahindra & Mahindra, expressed interest in purchasing all or part of Hummer.^[22]

In April 2009, GM President Fritz Henderson stated several interested parties had approached GM regarding the Hummer business.^[23]

...

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LAT

Ten years after recall, California still feels effects

Former Gov. Gray Davis in December 2005 with his official gubernatorial portrait and then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger – the man who replaced Davis and oversaw major changes to California’s political system. (Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press)

The state was changed — but not the way proponents hoped — by the seismic election that propelled Arnold Schwarzenegger into the governor’s office.

By Mark Z. Barabak

Reporting from Sacramento

OCTOBER 7, 2013

Ten years ago, California erupted in an anti-government, anti-establishment convulsion unlike any ever seen.

Disgruntled voters seized the chance for a rare do-over, recalling their staid and serious governor, Gray Davis, and replacing him less than a year after his reelection with one of the most famous and exuberant personalities on the planet. It was only the second time in U.S. history a sitting governor was booted from office.

The spectacle — a snap election featuring a color wheel of 135 candidates, including a former child actor, a porn star and a handful of professional politicians — shook California from its usual political slumber and captivated an audience that watched from around the world.

A decade on, the effects are still being felt, albeit subtly, and not the way proponents imagined, or the way actor-turned-governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, the chief beneficiary, so grandly promised.

Fundamental changes in the way California elects its leaders — a top-two primary system aimed at pushing candidates to the ideological center and an impartial redrawing of the state's political boundaries — will almost certainly change how Sacramento operates for years to come. Neither would likely have passed without Schwarzenegger sitting in the governor's office.

PHOTOS

10 memorable moments from the recall

The upheaval helped deliver the state its current governor, Jerry Brown, a decades-long officeholder and scion of California's great political dynasty, whose worn-shoe familiarity appealed to voters in part because he was so unlike the upstart Schwarzenegger.

Less tangible, but also important, many say the historic election heightened awareness of state government and gave Californians a greater sense of empowerment, even if it failed to extinguish the flickering animosity toward Sacramento. For good or ill, the recall served notice on California's political class, and still looms as a threat over all those holding elective office.

"There's been a lot of momentum around fiscal and governance reform, particularly in the past five years," said Mark Baldassare, head of the Public Policy Institute of California, a nonpartisan think tank. "The desire to make changes started with the recall but didn't end with the recall."

FRONT PAGES

Browse The Times' coverage of the 2003 gubernatorial recall

Still, in many ways the special election proved a failure, especially measured against supporters' exceedingly high hopes.

The October 2003 ouster of Davis, a Democrat, was a primal response to the gridlock, partisan warfare, overweening special interests and mushrooming budget deficits that made the state capital a slough of dysfunction. "It was about changing the entire political climate of our state," as Schwarzenegger, a Republican, said in his first inaugural address.

When he left office more than seven years later — after sinking to the same abysmal poll ratings as Davis — the special interests were just as firmly entrenched in Sacramento, the partisan rancor was unabated and the budget deficit had more than doubled.

Among the most bitterly disappointed were those who had the greatest hand in forcing Davis from office and paving the path for Schwarzenegger's election, which was sealed in a separate vote on the same ballot.

"There was no substantive nuts-and-bolts change to California government, which was one of the main goals," said Ted Costa, the anti-tax crusader who launched the main petition drive that qualified the recall, sparking the brief, intense and sometimes zany campaign. Costa has largely retired from politics, owing partly to his frustration over the outcome of the recall.

That view overlooks Schwarzenegger's significant achievements, including an overhaul of the worker's compensation system, savings in welfare and healthcare programs, and meaningful pension and retirement concessions wrung from public employee unions.

He signed landmark legislation to fight global warming. Working with Democrats, Schwarzenegger also ushered the state into its most ambitious rebuilding program since the era of Brown's father, who oversaw the infrastructure development that still serves California half a century later.

10 years later, Gray Davis strikes philosophical tone

Those accomplishments pale, however, when laid against the extravagant promises made during the recall. Schwarzenegger vowed to slash the size of government, stop deficit spending and end the pay-to-play culture of Sacramento, which he captured with stark simplicity in a TV spot: "Money goes in. Favors go out. The people lose."

None of those changes occurred, as Democratic, Republican and nonpartisan observers point out.

"In the larger sense of dramatically changing the direction of the state, we didn't accomplish what we'd hoped and expected," said Rob Stutzman, a GOP strategist who served as a Schwarzenegger spokesman during the recall.

Even the former governor has said he could and should have done more to address the structural problems — a boom-and-bust tax system, a crazy-quilt budgeting process — that continue to plague the state.

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"It was a mistake," Schwarzenegger said in an interview before leaving office in January 2011. Instead of borrowing to paper over the deficit and add to the state's mountain of debt, he said, "I should've gone the other direction to early on solve the budget problem and use the political muscle I had that first year in office."

Still, even some let down by Schwarzenegger consider the recall a good and healthy thing.

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https://www.ecowatch.com/schwarzenegger-trump-climate-change-2469141263.html

Schwarzenegger Unveils Legislative 'Blueprint' to Challenge Trump on Climate

Former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a vocal critic of President Donald Trump's anti-climate polices, helped launch a comprehensive online database today to help local and state lawmakers advance environmental legislation.

"I'm pumped to unveil the Environmental Digital Legislative Handbook today, a resource for legislators around the country to find the blueprints on policies for energy efficiency, reducing pollution, recycling—you name it," Schwarzenegger announced on Facebook.

According to POLITICO, the website contains an extensive collection of legal and legislative research, voting records, and bill language and data to assist legislators in preparing bills on a vast range of environmental issues.

"There's no reason why we shouldn't have a digital legislative handbook—and make it available to people who wanted to create environmental action now—because of the situation with Trump,'' Schwarzenegger told POLITICO. "With his decision on the Paris agreement, it is even more so important to make this information available because it shows the kinds of wonderful things states can do without waiting for the federal government."

"The message to legislators with the project is now 'you have the power to do it yourselves,''' he added. "The reality is each state now goes to work and passes great legislation that helps them ... make great decisions."

The initiative is an joint effort of the USC Schwarzenegger Institute and the National Caucus of Environmental Legislators.

"We hope to assist legislators who are interested in advancing smart environmental policies by sharing best practices and actual legislation that is working successfully in a number of states already," the website states. "Governor Schwarzenegger has long insisted that voters aren't interested in Republican air or Democrat air but instead simply want clean air. That belief has guided our thought process when choosing the legislation to include in this database"

Schwarzenegger, a Republican, has emerged as a prominent environmentalist and renewable energyproponent. Last month, he threw his weight behind an extension of California's cap-and-trade program signed by his successor, Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown.

During remarks, the former action star criticized Trump's decision to withdraw from the Paris agreement.

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tweet analogy gas vs elect car exhaust

http://grist.org/climate-energy/read-arnold-schwarzeneggers-delightful-response-to-climate-deniers/

http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-me-california-recall-schwarzenegger-20131006-dto-htmlstory.html

158 cands!

...Still, in many ways the special election proved a failure, especially measured against supporters' exceedingly high hopes.

"There was no substantive nuts-and-bolts change to California government, which was one of the main goals," said Ted Costa, the anti-tax crusader who launched the main petition drive that qualified the recall, sparking the brief, intense and sometimes zany campaign. Costa has largely retired from politics, owing partly to his frustration over the outcome of the recall.

That view overlooks Schwarzenegger's significant achievements, including an overhaul of the worker's compensation system, savings in welfare and healthcare programs, and meaningful pension and retirement concessions wrung from public employee unions.

10 years later, Gray Davis strikes philosophical tone

None of those changes occurred, as Democratic, Republican and nonpartisan observers point out.

Still, even some let down by Schwarzenegger consider the recall a good and healthy thing.

"Once they're elected, politicians become so isolated," saidDave Gilliard, whose political group, Rescue California, helped orchestrate the signature-gathering with a $2-million contribution from Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Vista), who hoped to replace Davis but quit the race after Schwarzenegger got in. "Being mindful of their accountability to voters — that they can make changes — there's nothing more American than that."

It is highly unlikely anyone voted in October 2003 believing the result would be a top-two primary system aimed at weeding out extremists from the two major parties, or thinking Davis' exit would mean an end to the self-interested drawing of political lines by sitting lawmakers. But those important structural reforms were enacted in good measure because Schwarzenegger, alone in the Capitol, was beholden to neither the Democratic nor Republican establishments (both of which opposed the ballot measures).

"He blew up the most important boxes of all," suggested Susan Kennedy, a former Davis aide who served as chief of staff in Schwarzenegger's second term, borrowing a line he used in the swaggering days after the recall. "That is changing the election system."

Those changes, which have yet to be fully felt, may be the most important legacy of Schwarzenegger and the recall: If they work as proponents hope, Sacramento and Washington will eventually be populated with a breed of lawmaker less yoked to partisan interests and more amenable to compromise. That could be a big step toward solving the problems that sent angry Californians storming to the polls a decade ago.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-02-27/california-gun-microstamping-law-is-upheld-by-federal-judge

rob gluck

LAT

Gun makers' objections to a California law that requires firearms to imprint a unique "microstamp" on bullet casings are "baloney" and "posturing," said Los Angeles City Atty. Mike Feuer, who introduced the legislation while serving in the state Assembly.

Feuer's comments come as gun maker Smith & Wesson announced Thursday that it would stop selling newly designed semiautomatic pistols in California because it will not comply with the law, implemented in May 2013.

The law requires some firearms to imprint a unique "microstamp" to help identify bullet casings. It is intended to help police investigators link shell casings found at crime scenes to a specific gun.

Smith & Wesson joins gun maker Sturm, Ruger & Co. in halting the sales. Both companies criticized the microstamping requirement as costly, unreliable and ineffective, saying that there is no evidence that it will help solve crimes.

Smith & Wesson President and Chief Executive James Debney, in a statement released Thursday, said the law was poorly conceived and would make it impossible for Californians to have "access to the best products with the latest innovations."

Feuer called the gun lobby's objections "baloney." He said the new technology gives police crucial evidence in handgun-related killings, hundreds of which go unsolved every year, and that the legislation had wide support from law enforcement agencies.

"This law is about solving gun crimes, and it's a law that would be effective in doing that if only the gun lobby would step aside," Feuer said.

Feuer said microstamping technology has been reliable and available since before the 2007 law was passed, and costs only a few dollars per gun to install -- although gun makers dispute this.

"Their posturing doesn't surprise me," Feuer said of the manufacturers. "We all know that the gun lobby has no problem innovating when it comes to making guns more lethal."

The microstamping requirement is limited to newly designed semiautomatic handguns and older models that have been updated or modified by gun makers. Those semiautomatic pistols are required to have a microscopic etching identifying the make, model and serial number in two places on the weapon, presumably the firing pin and barrel, allowing the information to be stamped on a bullet casing when the pistol is fired.

Chuck Michel, a Long Beach attorney who represents the National Rifle Assn. in California, said the law punishes gun makers who offer safer new handguns or who make safety improvements to older models. The restriction also could affect law enforcement agencies seeking to order newly designed firearms that are now banned, he said.

"Hopefully, we can convince some of the regulators to take a look at their policy," Michel said. "Barring that, there's going to be legislation proposed to put these guns back on the roster."

Two organizations representing gun makers, the National Shooting Sports Foundation and the Sporting Arms and Ammunition Manufacturers Institute, filed a lawsuit in January in Fresno County seeking to invalidate the law. The suit argues that studies have raised too many questions about the technology and cost to require its use on new guns.

Implementation of the law was delayed until last year, when the state attorney general's office could certify that the microstamping technology was not restricted by patent protections.

freeper

NRA - ILA ^ | January 22, 2010 | NA

·11250 Waples Mill Road · Fairfax, Virginia 22030 ·800-392-8683 Glenn County Board of Education Reverses Student Expulsion Friday, January 22, 2010 Fairfax, Va. – Today, the Glenn County Board of Education reversed the decision of the Willows Unified School District and Principal Mort Geivett to expel Gary Tudesko, a 17-year-old high school senior from Willows High School. Tudesko was represented by National Rifle Association/California Rifle and Pistol Association Foundation attorneysChuck Michel and Hillary J. Green of the Long Beach-based law firm Michel & Associates, P.C. “This is a victory for law-abiding young Americans, over nonsensical, irrational and unreasonable policies,” said...

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Mr. Michel has long been recognized as one of the leading authorities on firearms law at both the state and federal level, and has played a significant role in defending and helping to shape 2nd Amendment Rights and legislation for over 2 decades. He has been instrumental in crafting some of the most important legal challenges to legislative efforts that impede gun rights guaranteed in the Constitution and represents many of the most prominent firearms organizations, including the National Rifle Association and the California Rifle and Pistol Association.

He has been profiled in recognition of his work in multiple periodicals, TV and radio interviews and has published extensively regarding firearms law. He is a regular commentator on the NRA’s video & radio reports and is a frequent contributor to national media discussions concerning 2nd Amendment Rights. He is an Adjunct Professor at Chapman University School of Law in Orange, California, where he teaches firearms law. He is the author of the book California Gun Laws – A Guide to State and Federal Firearm Regulations and is the CEO and Senior Partner at Michel & Associates, the largest firearms law firm in the U.S.

Mr. Michel began his career with a coveted judicial clerkship with U.S. District Court Judge William J. Rea in Los Angeles. He worked as a criminal prosecutor for the L.A. County District Attorney’s Office and as an advocate with the L.A. Federal Public Defender’s office. Mr. Michel also practiced environmental & general civil litigation as an attorney at the renowned international law firm of O’Melveny & Myers, LLP. While at O’Melveny, Mr. Michel represented multinational corporations and such notable clients as Exxon Corporation in connection with the Exxon Valdez oil spill. He also served as Staff Counsel to the “Christopher Commission,” which investigated the L.A. Police Department (LAPD) in the wake of the Rodney King incident under the leadership of former Secretary of State Warren Christopher.

Meet Arnold Schwarzenegger, sorta green activist and Keystone XL fan

By Philip Bump

Arnold Schwarzenegger (hereafter, “Arnold”) has long championed environmental action. He recently announced that he planned to spend his post-political life fighting climate change. And yet, in an interview with Politico, he says he supports building Keystone XL.

Schwarzenegger isn’t likely to win over the environmental community with his position on the Keystone XL oil pipeline, which Obama is expected to decide on early next year.

“In general, I’m all for it,” Schwarzenegger said. “I think that I’d rather get the energy from Canada than get it from the Middle East.”

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Fiscal problems

But the Terminator didn't solve the state's problems. The recall's more serious legacy remains its long-lasting impact on California's finances.

Much of what Brown calls the state's "wall of debt" was generated during Schwarzenegger's time in office, including billions in delayed payments to public schools.

"The candidate who promised to cut up the state's credit card dug us deeper into debt than any governor in modern history," Leno said. Schwarzenegger declined to be interviewed.

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Hm.

Let me tell you how Arnold became governor of the state of California. In 2003, California was one year into the second term of a fairly milquetoast Democratic governor, Gray Davis. He won reelection in 2002 because the Republican party successfully convinced Bill Simon, the least-likeable person in California, to run against him. (Well, Davis helped, by attacking the bejesus out of Simon’s primary opponents.) So California kind of shrugged and reelected the guy.

But in 2003, a few things happened. First, the state of California continued its attempts to go completely broke, a process begun by unwitting voters in 1978. This prompted Davis to reinstate a hefty fee for people registering their cars, which wasn’t popular. And later in the year, the state wasn’t able to provide enough electricity to meet demand, due to various reasons some of which rhyme with “Benron.” The pre-planned brownouts reinforced the perception that the state wasn’t working right. People were mad.

Enter car-alarm magnate and U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.). Issa, who had scads of money because he invented that annoying combination of sounds (“anh anh anh anh bee ooo bee ooo bee ooo woooooop wooooop,” etc.), decided he might want to be governor. As part of the reforms implemented during the Progressive era a century ago, California had a process allowing for a state official to be recalled from office. (Those reforms also spawnedthe initiative process, which is why the state budget was broken in the first place.) So Issa started a campaign, in concert with some Southern Californiaradio talk showhosts, to recall Gray Davis. It worked. The recall was on the ballot for October 2003.

For years, Arnold had toyed with running for office. (Surprising, given that his career was predicated on playing hyper-powerful men.) What prevented him from doing so was his not-exactly-wholesome past: steroid use off-camera, marijuana use on, reported and demonstrated inappropriateness with women. But Arnold was tailor-made for the recall election. The vote had two parts: First, whether Gray Davis should be removed from office, and second, who should replace him if he was. This favored someone with a high name recognition. And the short run-up to the election minimized the chances that Arnold would have to answer tough questions, and meant limited time for deep dives into his background. Remember how Donald Trump led the Republican 2012 field for a while? Imagine if the election had abruptly happened toward the peak of that popularity. That was the good luck that Arnold enjoyed. So Davis was recalled and Arnold won handily.

Here’s a little secret about being an elected official: It sucks. Every elected official who isn’t president is always negotiating a high wire between two frustrated constituencies. The job is about boring dinners and boring legislation and boring pandering. Opportunities for leadership are few. To be fair, Arnold had more pizzazz in the role than most, in part because of his fuck-it-who-cares attitude. Can’t smoke cigars in the Capitol building? Fine, Governor Arnold will put up a tent in a featureless interior courtyard and smoke in there. That sort of thing. He wasn’t a great governor, but he was memorable and interesting, and in a state like California, that was enough. In 2006, he went up for reelection against the Democrats’ most boring possible candidate, and beat him silly. (Figuratively.) Four years later, politician Arnold was done.

Because what Arnold always liked was running things, calling the shots, making the rules. He didn’t want to become a senator or a member of the House; there, he’d just be running with the pack. Arnold wants to point at shit and see it blow up, boom. This new iteration, Arnold as activist, fits that better than anything else. He has a ton of money, thanks to your enthusiasm for The Terminator, and all the time in the world. So he’s found a space where he can call the shots and still be the biggest guy in the room: environmentalism.

While governor, Arnold’s pro-green work was primarily of the let’s-make-California-number-one-in-green-research-and-investment school. It was the business side of environmentalism. There’s a market in renewables and in developing products, and that’s good for all comers. Arnold is, after all, a Republican, taking a market-based Republican approach to the problem of global warming.

And that’s why he doesn’t care about Keystone. Arnold wants America to win. To chomp a cigar in its teeth and piss on China in everything — energy production, cutting the hell out of our pollution, having the coolest solar tech, whatever. Fuck the world, we’re pumped up and kicking ass. He is not sitting down with Bill McKibben and working through the math, he’s going rock-climbing with CEOs and figuring out how to dominate. For Arnold, Keystone is just a thing outside this competition, except that it lets us tell the Middle East to go to Hell. Fine. Build that pipeline. Because we’re going to beat you at the game we want to play.

With Arnold, you don’t have an environmentalist, not really. You have a deeply competitive man who wants to win, and sees green industry as a place to make that happen. Sierra Club, NRDC: you will not want him to speak at your convention, probably, because he’ll say things to make you mad both intentionally and unintentionally. Arnold wants to lead, not to change the world.

At various points during his governorship, Arnold fantasized about running for president. In 2010, during an appearance on Leno (the same place he announced his plans to run for governor), Arnold suggested that he would “without a doubt” run for President. Unfortunately for the Austrian-born actor, the Constitution prevents those not born as naturalized citizens from holding that office. We can thank the Founding Fathers for preventing President Schwarzenegger. But we can also lament that this leaves us with Arnold Schwarzenegger, “green activist.”

Philip Bump

http://grist.org/news/meet-arnold-schwarzenegger-sorta-green-activist-and-keystone-xl-fan/