The Liberal Gun Club Forum

lurker wrote: Thu Aug 19, 2021 5:21 pm as an uninformed easterner with no direct stake in this watching idly from a distance, i'm inclined to agree with bisbee.

Elder’s ex-fiancee said he brandished a gun at her

PACIFIC PALISADES, Calif. — Alexandra Datig, the former fiancee and longtime radio producer for California GOP gubernatorial candidate Larry Elder, says she broke off an 18-month engagement with the conservative talk show host in 2015 after he waved a gun at her while high on marijuana.

Datig’s claim, which she regards as the culmination of a series of humiliating disputes that made her fearful for her safety and her ability to maintain her sobriety, comes as Elder has gained momentum in the recall to replace Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, with many observers counting him as the likeliest GOP alternative should voters decide to replace the incumbent.

But little is known about Elder’s personal life. Datig portrayed him as a marijuana user who would often become threatening or insistent with her, including in his repeated demands that she get a “Larry’s Girl” tattoo to show her devotion to him.
The alleged gun incident occurred in the midst of a heated conversation as their relationship was unraveling, according to Datig. “He was in the bedroom, and I was standing by the door,” she said. “We talked to each other.’’ He became silent, she said, and then slowly “walked over to the nightstand, opened the door, took out the gun,’’ a .45 pistol.

“And he checked if it was loaded — while I was talking,’’ she said. “He wanted to make sure I saw that he had it.”

“It was an act of silent scorn — and anger,’’ she said.

“For a minute there ... I thought it was a Phil Spector moment,’’ Datig said, referencing the famed Hollywood record producer who shot and killed actress Lana Clarkson in his Hollywood mansion in 2003. “My fear was great, and I understood I needed to de-escalate.”

At that point, “he was threatening to throw me out on the street ... and rather than answer back or throw something, I tried to use every tool I had in recovery... I just walked out,’’ she said. “I locked myself into the bedroom downstairs.’’

Elder and his spokesperson Ying Ma did not respond to requests for comment on their personal email and campaign email.

Elder’s attitude toward women has been a major issue in the campaign, with both Newsom and GOP rivals flagging a two-decade-old column in which he wrote, “Women know less than men about political issues, economics, and current events.”

Datig, 51, became well known in Los Angeles in the 1990s as a leading witness and informant in the prosecution of Hollywood madam Heidi Fleiss. Datig described being paid $10,000 per day and getting First Class air travel as one of the women who worked in Fleiss’s network. She has subsequently spoken out strongly against human trafficking.

Datig said she first met Elder, who is now 69, at a party at the Playboy Mansion in the early 2000s, though their relationship did not begin until long after. The two became engaged in 2013 before Datig broke off the relationship in 2015, fearing for her safety. She said he pressured her to sign a non-disclosure agreement after being informed by Elder’s assistant that “all Larry’s girlfriends did,’’ she said, in an interview with POLITICO. She complied, saying she was “terrified … and I ran for my life.’’

POLITICO has obtained copies of the NDA and separation agreement between Elder and Datig.

Despite the NDA agreement, Datig chose to speak to POLITICO, saying there is “too much at stake” in the California recall election. A conservative blogger and political commentator who writes and edits the Front Page Index political website, Datig has endorsed one of Elder’s GOP rivals, former San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer.

Datig’s official bio notes that her work with Elder has included “producing over 100 shows of the now nationally syndicated Larry Elder Show,’’ helping to boost his show to the top spot on a major global webcasting platform.

Datig says she also created The Elder Statement blog, helping it boost its circulation to more than 3 million views in its first year, while also mounting a successful campaign on Elder’s behalf which helped him secure a coveted nomination star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Datig described meeting the ambitious talk show host in the early 2000s at bacchanalian parties populated by Hollywood celebrities like rapper Snoop Dogg and hosted by publisher Hugh Hefner at the Playboy Mansion in the Holmby Hills section of Los Angeles.

Elder, who has since taken to broadcasting in a robe a la Hefner in YouTube segments called “Robe Rage,” was “an A-lister’’ at the gatherings, Datig said. In one home video she provided to POLITICO, Elder brags about his relationship with Snoop Dogg, saying, “I introduced him to the evil weed… I taught him everything he knows...I’m the one who made him what he is, I can’t believe he turned his back on me, motherfucker.”


Datig said she moved in with him in 2013, entering what she describes as a wild and ultimately destructive relationship that she broke it off after 18 months. She was still producing his shows and assisting with efforts to get him a coveted Walk of Fame star because “I didn’t want to take a wrecking ball to his career,” she said. But “my sobriety was at stake.”

Growing up in Switzerland around guns with a conservative father, Datig said that she has always been a strong Second Amendment supporter. But she shudders remembering her encounter with a gun-wielding Elder in early 2015 during their ugly breakup.

“I was raised that you never use a gun in anger, and you don’t use it when you’re drunk or you’re high to make a point in frustration — which is what he did,’’ said Datig, who says Elder was a heavy consumer of marijuana and was under the influence.

Earlier in the relationship, Datig said, she was pressured repeatedly by Elder to get a tattoo declaring her to be “Larry’s Girl’’ — and even urged her to design one which included the Superman logo.

She agreed to get it — after he said he would get an accompanying tattoo declaring his love for her, she said. “He never did,’’ she said.

And she didn’t speak up when a large nude portrait of her with the tattoo on her lower back was displayed in their home for visitors to see, Datig said.

Datig provided that photo to POLITICO, and today, said she deeply regrets the decision to give in to his demand and has tried to get the tattoo removed.

As a former victim of human trafficking and the sex trade, she said, she now realizes it was a kind of “branding,’’ not unlike the same marks that traffickers often demand.

She said some of Elder’s past public comments on women have revealed his true attitude toward them.

“When you’re a celebrity, you have women throwing themselves at you all the time and you have a different experience … you develop a sense of disrespect,” she said.

Datig, a longtime Los Angeles political activist, is no stranger to the rough and tumble Southern California politics — or even to human trafficking. She served as a longtime executive assistant to former L.A. Councilmember and state legislator Nate Holden— and also mounted an unsuccessful recall attempt aimed at Mayor Eric Garcetti in 2019.

She told POLITICO she is reluctant to take the spotlight again and be tagged as “the woman who turned in Heidi Fleiss,’’ as “an ex-hooker,’’ when her troubles and personal struggles of decades ago have long been put behind her.

But she also took to Twitter to declare: “I am calling on the voters of California to tell Larry Elder to let me out of my NDA! There are no secrets in politics! Voters have the right to know the truth! @LarryElder is unfit to serve in an official capacity! Tell him you want to know why!”

As California voters consider their vote in the consequential recall candidate, she said she was moved to give Faulconer her endorsement and her web followers some guidance regarding in the current recall election because “the state of California is on the line.”

Both Faulconer’s campaign and Datig said she had no role in his campaign. The Newsom campaign also said that it has no link to Datig.

“No. I am not being paid by anyone,” she said. “I am doing this because I care about California.”

“It’s about ability and capacity — and I don’t think Larry has the ability or capacity,’’ she added. She backs the recall but warns “Gavin Newsom is the devil you know. Larry Elder is the devil you think you know.”

“Larry Elder is a brand,’’ she said, “but If Larry Elder becomes the governor of the state of California, it will be a disaster.’’

State officials [CA Fair Political Practices Commission, appointed by Newsom and Democratic state office holders] have launched an investigation into gubernatorial candidate Larry Elder’s finances.

Analysts are saying that there are two ways the investigation announcement will be seen. On one hand, supporters of Governor Gavin Newsom will likely feel that this is another reason that Elder is a not a suitable candidate, while others will think it’s an attempt to stir up doubt around his fitness for the office as he gains ground in the race.

The focus of this investigation, revealed today, is about whether Elder failed to properly disclose his income sources. Though some suggest it’s an obscure reason to open an investigation, its importance, say others, is that financial disclosures help to reveal whether candidates have any conflicts of interest.

Two political experts that spoke with CBSLA agreed that most of the time scandals rarely have much of an impact on voters and certainly not along partisan lines.

“The same people who are excited to turnout for this election are the people who are most likely to be least critical of this income scandal,” Dr. Chaya Crowder, a professor of political science at Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, said. “As much as we might think these income scandals matter, often times they don’t.”

Assistant professor of political science at the University of Southern California Jennifer Cryer agrees.

"Yes, I’m a Democrat. But the recall of Newsom is not about political party. It’s about Newsom. Larry Elder for governor."

One of the biggest challenges for pollsters is accurately predicting voter turnout. Turnout for special elections is historically low. Since 2010, turnout for nearly all special elections in California has been below 40%. Moreover, election day for this race is on a Tuesday in September, in an odd year — not like the usual first Tuesday in November.

tonguengroover wrote: Thu Aug 26, 2021 2:12 pm Elder is a dink.

highdesert wrote: Thu Aug 26, 2021 2:35 pm

tonguengroover wrote: Thu Aug 26, 2021 2:12 pm Elder is a dink.

I didn't vote for him. The CA Fair Political Practices Commission isn't really "fair". It's like the FBI revealing that they're investigating Newsom, or Cox or Ose...during the campaign.

He has on occasion fueled skepticism of climate change, depicting global warming as a “crock” and a “myth.” He has said the medical establishment and “professional victims” exaggerate the dangers of secondhand tobacco smoke.

He offered no pushback when a doctor last month called in to his nationally syndicated radio show to suggest that COVID-19 vaccines were dangerous and didn’t object when the physician implied that Bill Gates might have backed the “experimental” immunizations as a form of “population control.”

tonguengroover wrote: Thu Aug 26, 2021 5:42 pm

highdesert wrote: Thu Aug 26, 2021 2:35 pm

tonguengroover wrote: Thu Aug 26, 2021 2:12 pm Elder is a dink.

I didn't vote for him. The CA Fair Political Practices Commission isn't really "fair". It's like the FBI revealing that they're investigating Newsom, or Cox or Ose...during the campaign.

Read this let me know what you think. https://www.latimes.com/california/stor ... ecall-race

He has on occasion fueled skepticism of climate change, depicting global warming as a “crock” and a “myth.” He has said the medical establishment and “professional victims” exaggerate the dangers of secondhand tobacco smoke.

He offered no pushback when a doctor last month called in to his nationally syndicated radio show to suggest that COVID-19 vaccines were dangerous and didn’t object when the physician implied that Bill Gates might have backed the “experimental” immunizations as a form of “population control.”

Wake up, California! Removing Gavin Newsom would be a disaster

Newsom’s argument for saving the only job he seems to care about — his own — boils down to this: “I may be incompetent, but at least I’m not a Republican.”

TrueTexan wrote: Fri Aug 27, 2021 10:05 am If California wants to get rid of Newsom i'll give them a deal they can't refuse. I will swap Greg Abbott for Newsom. But wait there is more for taking Abbott I will also give the great citizens of California Lt Gov. Dan Patrick and AG Ken Paxton with his wife State Senator Paxton. How can California refuse a deal like that. You have to call soon because other states might want it also. Call 1-800-DUM-SHIT Call Now an operator is waiting.

highdesert wrote: Fri Aug 27, 2021 10:38 am

TrueTexan wrote: Fri Aug 27, 2021 10:05 am If California wants to get rid of Newsom i'll give them a deal they can't refuse. I will swap Greg Abbott for Newsom. But wait there is more for taking Abbott I will also give the great citizens of California Lt Gov. Dan Patrick and AG Ken Paxton with his wife State Senator Paxton. How can California refuse a deal like that. You have to call soon because other states might want it also. Call 1-800-DUM-SHIT Call Now an operator is waiting.

You forget that the Democrats have a supermajority in the CA legislature, they can even amend the CA Constitution and raise taxes without a single Republican vote. And they control the CA Supreme Court. I just want more balanced government in CA.

You can keep your stooges, we have our own stooges starting with Newsom. And Newsom would never leave CA, he'd miss all the glitz and glamour of hanging with the rich and famous, plus his restaurant chain is here.

I haven't drunk the Kool-Aid, I don't assume that every Democrat is pure and angelic and every Republican is evil and devilish. I don't believe in one party government - Democratic or Republican.

California Governor Gavin Newsom says he will “regret every damn one of” his recent policy decisions if he is recalled from office next month.

Newsom, who is facing a recall election on September 14, said in an interview with the Atlantic published on Friday that he feels “a weight of a responsibility to defeat” the recall effort, as well as “the responsibility that if we fall short, I’m going to own that.”

He listed a number of his recent initiatives, such as using billions of dollars of federal relief money in the state budget and signing a bill to expand health care to undocumented workers.

“If I do fall short, I’ll regret every damn one of those decisions. And I don’t want to have any regrets for putting everything out there and doing . . . what I think is right and what I think is in the best interest of California.”

The Democratic governor’s comments come after he previously told the Sacramento Bee earlier this month that he wouldn’t regret a “damn thing” if he were to be recalled. “If they kick me out. I’m gonna feel good about what we just did, and not ever regret a damn thing,” Newsom said then. “We put it all out there on this education budget.”

Turns out 2021 is not a good year for Democrats to make California stand out too much for being weird.

With Gov. Gavin Newsom facing a Sept. 14 recall election, fellow Democrats in the Legislature appeared to protect him from having to sign or veto some controversial measures as they culled hundreds of bills Thursday in the biannual ritual known as the suspense file.

The notorious process marks a critical point in the legislative cycle when lawmakers decide which bills will advance to a vote of the full Senate or Assembly — and which they will snuff out for the year, often with no explanation. Killing bills on the suspense file is one way for Democrats who control the Capitol to shield their party from having to make a tough vote — on a proposal that could anger a powerful interest group, frustrate progressive constituents or draw the wrong kind of attention to this deep-blue state.

The recall election that’s under way — voters have already received ballots in the mail and have until Sept. 14 to turn them in — added a new layer of political intrigue to the suspense file process that’s already steeped in mystery. While Newsom has until Oct. 10 to decide on bills the Legislature approves, killing these bills — which had already passed one chamber — removes them from the campaign entirely.

Here are highlights of what we saw:

It’s not the time to push boundaries

Newsom will not have to decide this year whether California should legalize mushrooms, ecstasy and other psychedelic drugs — nor will he have to weigh in on an ethical debate over turning people into garden compost after they die.

Minutes before the suspense file hearing began, the senator who wrote a bill allowing adults to use and share psychedelic drugs announced that he’s shelving it for the year. While the proposal drew support from progressives who want to decriminalize drug use and advocates who cite the therapeutic role of psychedelics in treating some mental health disorders, it was opposed by law enforcement groups as well as Republicans and moderate Democrats.

“We have a realistic chance of passing it next year,” said a statement from Sen. Scott Wiener, a San Francisco Democrat.

Lawmakers also halted a measure to allow Californians to turn their bodies into compost after death. Though it had bipartisan support and was pitched as an environmental alternative to cremation, which emits pollution, the proposal faced opposition from the Catholic Church.

Bottling the bills up now protects Newsom from having to choose between his progressive base and the potential national perception of: “There goes crazy California.”

No new campaign finance rules

Democrats also sidelined two progressive efforts to tackle the influence of money in politics. One measure would have required more disclosure on online political ads about who’s funding them, and would have required disclosing the funders behind initiative petitions when voters sign them. The other would have required prosecutors to recuse themselves from investigating a police shooting if they’d received campaign donations from police unions.

Both measures were opposed by public employee labor unions, which are major campaign donors to Democrats. The Service Employees International Union, which testified against the disclosure bill, has poured at least $4 million into Newsom’s anti-recall campaign.

Police unions — which have not donated to Newsom’s anti-recall campaign but donate heavily to legislators’ reelection campaigns — opposed the bill requiring prosecutors to recuse themselves from criminal investigations of officers if they take police unions’ campaign donations. The measure also reflected an ideological schism among district attorneys. Though it was backed by a handful of progressive prosecutors, it was opposed by the statewide association.

Lawmakers helped themselves by avoiding a conflict with police unions — while also helping Newsom steer clear of the fight among prosecutors.

Democrats block GOP attempts to fix EDD problems

Ongoing crises at the Employment Development Department have become one of the most embarrassing aspects of Newsom’s leadership during the pandemic. While Californians who lost their jobs struggled to get unemployment payments from an agency overwhelmed by technology problems and soaring demand, a criminal ring managed to fraudulently grab billions of dollars in benefits.

Lawmakers from both parties introduced bills attempting to fix some of the problems. On Thursday, Democrats killed three Republican measures addressing EDD, including one to improve call centers, modernize its technology and assess its safeguards against fraud; another to require the agency cross check applications for unemployment assistance with current state prison rolls; and a third aimed at fraud prevention by prohibiting the department from sending mail containing Social Security numbers.

“California completely failed its unemployed during the pandemic and today failed them again,” said a statement from GOP Senate leader Scott Wilk of Santa Clarita. “These were good, common-sense solutions recommended by the State Auditor. Good solutions shouldn’t have party lines — unfortunately, that was not the case today.”

Assemblymember Lorena Gonzalez, a San Diego Democrat who leads the appropriations committee that killed the bills, said on Twitter:

“We passed a lot of reform bills, they’re in the senate. These were duplicative.”

Assemblymember Lorena Gonzalez, a San Diego Democrat who leads the appropriations committee that killed the bills, said on Twitter:
“We passed a lot of reform bills, they’re in the senate. These were duplicative.”

sikacz wrote: Sun Sep 05, 2021 8:49 am Is having national and east coast dems stumping for newsom going to help or hurt his prospects?

If California Gov. Gavin Newsom is able to keep his job and avoid a recall later this month, he could have Latino voters to thank for it.

A mix of Democratic campaigns, super PACs and organizations throughout the predominantly blue state have been working for weeks to turnout Latino voters for the September 14 recall election, fighting a mix of apathy, anger and confusion in their effort to get what has been a reliable voting bloc for the party to come out for an off-year election.

Latino voters find themselves at the intersection of both the recall and the issue that partially spurred the effort -- the coronavirus pandemic and Newsom's stringent response to it. A series of studies have found Latinos have been the demographic group most adversely impacted by the coronavirus in the state.

Conservatives are already setting the stage to accuse Newsom of recall election fraud

With reports that California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) may survive recall efforts launched by conservatives using the pandemic as a pretext to question his fitness for the job, the Los Angeles Times is reporting that conservatives are already suggesting that Newsom's victory is going to be the result of election fraud.

With Donald Trump still insisting that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him despite no evidence of election fraud, fans of the ex-president in California are stealing a page from his playbook to cast the eventual results in doubt.

As the Times' Hailey Branson-Potts writes, "Conservatives talk about the recall effort through the lens of Trump's lies that he won the 2020 election. By and large, they refuse to cast their ballots by mail, believing his false claims that mail-in voting leads to rampant voter fraud. If Newsom prevails, many won't trust the results — just as they didn't after Trump lost."

According to conservative Ed Brown, who has been selling "Recall Newsom" merchandise, the eventual outcome of the election is not in doubt because he believes it will be stolen.

"As far as I'm concerned, Trump is the president," the 67-year-old Brown said in an interview before adding, "They'll probably do something to cheat."

Vince Destigter, chairman of the Amador County Republican Party, is typical of those who think mail-in ballots are at the heart of a rigged election.

"Destigter voted for [Republican Larry] Elder and dropped his ballot off at a drop box instead of mailing it," Branson-Potts wrote, adding that he told her, 'We're very fussy about that. We believe that there were a lot of shenanigans done with the voting' in the presidential election."

Appearing on Fox News, Elder -- the leading Republican candidate -- already telegraphed how he might respond to Newsom not being ousted.

"The 2020 election, in my opinion, was full of shenanigans. And my fear is they're going to try that in this election right here and recall. So I'm urging people to go to ElectElder.com. Whenever you see anything, hear anything suspicious, go to my website. We have a battery of lawyers. We're going to file a lawsuit in a timely fashion this time," he told MediaBuzz host Howard Kurtz.

The Times' Branson-Pots added, "Last week, two men, both self-described conservative Republicans, walked past a ballot drop box and carried their votes into the registrar's office in Placerville. The men, who declined to give their names, wanted to hand-deliver the ballots because they did not trust mail-in voting."

"I think our elections are rigged," one man admitted.