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California Dem lawmaker – notorious for F-bombs against Trump, Musk – is stepping down

January 5, 2022 | | Print Article

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Lorena Gonzalez, the foul-mouthed California State legislator notorious for insulting billionaire investor Elon Musk and former President Donald Trump, in addition to destroying countless Californians’ livelihoods, is finally packing it up and taking a hike, albeit voluntarily.

The legislator, a member of the California State Assembly since 2013, announced on Monday that she intends to step down this Wednesday and begin a new job with the California Labor Federation union.

She made the announcement during a floor speech, according to San Diego station KSWB. Not noted by the station was that her speech was a complete rewrite and whitewashing of who she really is.

“As a legislator and as a labor leader, my top priority has been to create opportunities that lead to more jobs, better jobs, and better lives for working people,” she said.

“It’s been an honor to serve the people of San Diego County and the entire state as a lawmaker who tried to accomplish the most amount of good for the most amount of people.”

Yet Gonzalez has a history of profanely insulting actual job creators.

Speaking at a rally for then-presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren in February of 2020, she yelled, “F–k Donald Trump.”

Listen (*Language warning):

Three months later, she tweeted something similar about Musk after he announced that he was considering relocating his company’s headquarters out of California because of the state’s business-crushing COVID restrictions.

Look:

The stunning irony of her rhetoric past and present is that, unlike Trump and Musk, she has a history of destroying jobs, not creating them.

Gonzalez is the author of California Assembly Bill 5 (AB 5), a bill signed into law in 2019 that completely decimated the state’s gig economy, leaving an estimated 75,000 freelance workers, at minimum, out of a job.

According to California State Rep. Mike Garcia, the number is likely much higher.

“Initial estimates said AB5 would force as many as 75,000 people out of work. We now know that number is much higher,” he wrote for the Los Angeles Daily News in mid-2020.

Here are just a few examples of the jobs the outgoing California lawmaker’s bill destroyed:

The bill essentially outlawed freelance work by making it so that any company that paid independent contractors to complete gigs (writing gigs, driving gigs, teaching gigs, etc.) had to begin treating those gig workers like full-time employees.

This meant that companies were suddenly forced to offer paid vacations, benefits and more to their contractors. Most companies couldn’t afford this, and so they made the unavoidable decision to drop their contractors.

This left an untold number of Californians without work, including even establishment press “journalists.” This, ironically, turned out to be good news. “Journalists” possess power and influence, and so once they got hit by the law, they joined the growing efforts to reform it.

These efforts eventually led Gonzalez to reluctantly agree to add a litany of exceptions/waivers into the bill in late 2020, including for freelance writers, photographers, videographers, doctors, lawyers, architects, etc.

While this has stymied some of the destruction, AB 5 is still reeking havoc, particularly because there are still no exemptions for truckers, even amid the current supply chain crisis.

It’s for all these reasons and more that Gonzalez’s resignation is being met with great joy from everyday Californians (*Language warning):

As for Twitter’s blue check brigade, they’re too busy praising Gonzalez to take note of all the lives that she’s destroyed …

Vivek Saxena
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