California lawmakers are feeling the heat after critics blasted their choice to attend a bipartisan conference in Maui that seemed more like an excuse for a lavish vacation, then a necessary event, in light of the state’s recent escalation of public restrictions.
The four-day Hawaiian conference, which focused on re-opening the economy, was held at the lux Fairmont Kea Lani Hotel in Wailea, where rooms typically go for $500 a night.
Nearly twenty California lawmakers attended the Independent Voter Project conference, which draws scrutiny during a normal year, for connecting politicians with the corporate lobbyists who subsidize the exorbitant event.
The non-profit group charges corporations to send their representatives, then typically funds legislator’s attendance expenses, reportedly covering $3,500 per official last year.
Consumer Watchdog president Jamie Court is appalled at the access given to lobbyists and the setting in which they encounter politicians. They “basically play rounds of golf and drink Mai Tais by the pool and claim they’re in an educational seminar,” Court commented. “It happens every year and it is appalling.”
During the pandemic, when millions are not allowed to work, unable to travel, and placed under curfew, “I think the whole thing is despicable and none of them should have gone,” remarked Harmeet Dhillon, whose law firm has sued Gov. Newsom for Covid restrictions. “Traveling to Hawaii for a junket is somehow necessary travel? It isn’t.”
The conference’s first day coincided with Gov. Newsom’s announcement that 28 counties were moving back into the state’s highly restrictive purple tier to curb virus transmission.
“It seems a little, ‘Do as I say, not as I do,’ if you will,” said Hawaii Representative Tina Wildberger. “I’m not begrudging someone going on a conference to learn, but secretly going on a lobbyist-paid trip to Hawaii maybe doesn’t look good right now while your own state is on crisis-level lockdown.”
California Assemblywoman Wendy Carrillo was quick to defend her attendance with a tweet, clarifying that her trip was “not funded through tax-payer dollars,” the event followed “the strictest” health and safety protocols, and that her “intent” was to “find solutions on how we can safely live through COVID-19.”
But followers didn’t accept her explanation or non-apology. One user wrote, “The people you want to put back to work are the people dying to serve your comfort and convenience. You’ve offered no solutions here. Only excuses.”
Another replied, “Maybe you could have used “Zoom” to attend this insightful conference. However, enjoy Hawaii. Aloha.” A disgruntled constituent aptly wrote: Let them eat cake!
They go every year and of course lib dems aren’t subject to Covid 19; only conservative church goers get covid in Ca … even other states … when have you been told that a looter, BLM or anarchist came down with Covid … it’s only Trump supports that seem to spread covid … that’s what’s in the ‘news’ …
And don’t forget all the ” homeless ” in California are also immune to the CV-19 virus, because they have such sanitary conditions .
This countries government has turned into Rome all over again. These politicians have some nerve when the rest of us are sweeting out a phony Virus scare. Kick them all to the curb and let them feel what its like
The curb isn’t where you should be kicking them. there is a much better place and most of them have a very large one that would be hard to miss.
globalists and globalist puppet $oro$ and globalist puppet democrat criminal party and globalist puppet rino criminal party and globalist media have turned into Rome all over again .
So true and if they look at Rome’s history they will see that they fell after doing all the stuff that is going on here…sex diviants, pedophiles, no Christianity, no family and the list goes on. Every country that followed that pattern has fell and disappeared from the land. Here we go America.
Typical liberal hypocrisy
When i call them stupid i am really being easy on them.
Elitist politicians do not follow any tyrantical orders they force on their constituents. Look for this to get worse as the demoscum intent to lock down the whole country. Starving out the resistance to their tyrantical rule. There will be no elections here ever again, Biden has promised illegals citizenship and voting rights in his first 100 days. No jobs for Americans, the “immigrants” will work much cheaper and flood the job market. Welcome to Venezuela 2.0.
I wonder if they will print my comment at all. Elitist millionaire politicians do not obey any rules they force on their constituents. Just lock down the country and starve out any resistance to their socialist dictatorship.
http://www.HeritageFoundaton.org will tell you a lot more these corrupt idiots are doing with our tax dollars.
Rules for thee but not for me!! It really is that simple because it is a blatant double standard.
Blasted by all the wrong people. The Sheeple of Kalifornia are too stupid to vote this scum out and replace them with lawmakers who will actually work for the People.
Partially true – there are certainly alot of progtards out in my area, deep behind enemy lines – but do not underestimate electoral fraud. There is strong evidence that Trump may well have won California – we’ll see what happens as the various lawsuits and challenges progress up the chain. I, for one, would not be surprised if we “unf****ed” the fraudulent voting and discovered that he did indeed win. Certainly many seats flipped back to GOP control here, so there is more resistance to genocidal communism here than one might think (though not nearly as much as there SHOULD be, alas).
You sort of wonder how the GOP flipped so many ( I think a dozen seats in the House & so far only lost 1 Senate seat ) but Trump lost the popular vote. Did voters vote for Biden but then voted for the GOP members in their states for both House & Senate positions? I doubt it.
Try to figure this out , Biden won a record LOW of only 16.7% of ALL U.S. COUNTIES, yet supposedly won the election with the most votes in history.
Per Google in 2020 there were 2971 county’s in the U.S. Biden won 477 & Trump won 2,497 yet supposedly lost the popular vote. Kind of hard to figure that out.
We have to get the Dominion machines out of the way first. Newsome, Pelosi and Harris all benefitted from fraud. Note that K. Harris hasn’t resigned from her Senate seat yet.
But you see, these people know that they will NOT be held accountable. If all that happens is that they are “criticized” in the media, they’ll just take it and move on, doing the same things they have always done. Until the voters start actually holding these guys accountable by making them fear for their job, why should they care? A little criticism is pretty easy to take when the taxpayers just go ahead and fund your lavish vacation, and you are not only not required to pay it back, but they will never pass legislation holding themselves accountable.
Wendy did not take TAXPAYER money. No, she took bribes from lobbying groups.
You can only have it one of three ways.
Obscene. Zero self awareness.
this is one hundred percent bullshit !this is what we’re gonna get from now on if we don’t stop this shit in it’s tracks WTF SHEEPLE WAKE UP BEFORE IT”S TO LATE
Normal for politicians, they’ve forgotten that they are hired help, and we the employers fail to remind them of this simple truth , we the people have grown lazy in our responsibilities, so this will continue
Anyone notice none of them ever get sick, and that goes for Media too? Maybe they are all aware Covid is now just a convenient hoax! According to genuine Doctor’s it peaked in March. And the same people who are responsible for the Voter fraud Dominion, are responsible for the fake testing machines! Gavin Newsom is in the pay of CCP and received millions for co operating with them!
dump their asses in jail