Kamala… They Are Coming for You

The Cackling Vice President, Kamala Harris, is the domino that will fall first.

Joe Biden is Inspector Jacques Clouseau.

We don’t know whether to laugh (Clouseau) or cry (Biden). In fantasy, Clouseau bumbled his way to success. In reality, Biden is a failure; worse, a danger to himself and to others. He is America’s nightmare, more hazardous to the world than climate change.

The dark comedy of Biden’s mental decay/physical decline is evidenced daily when his caretakers let him out, after dosing his secret, volatile medication. Sleep apnea, previously undisclosed, is the latest alibi for his dysfunction. His medical records are no more transparent than Hunter Biden’s tax returns, and the president’s doctor won’t come clean.

Biden was elected because complicit media enabled his cynical handlers in 2020 to keep him under wraps. But the luster of the perpetual coverup has faded. Just as the media can no longer ignore inflation — because people feel it, the media now highlight Biden’s cognitive debilitation, because it’s in plain view. And two more reasons: (a) the discredited and biased legacy media are desperate for recovering credibility and (b) the New York Times, Washington Post, CNN, et al. see Biden as a loser and want him out.

The once servile White House press corps has ramped up the age issue, thus intentionally priming voters to look for Biden’s senior moments. Party bosses talk up Biden, but privately fret about his decay. The recent coverage of the DOJ/FBI/IRS whistleblowers insures a slow water torture, the drip-drip revelations of what the president’s detractors call “the Biden crime family.” (READ MORE: Will the Media Ever Acknowledge the Biden Family Bribery Scandal?)

Not exactly waterboarding, but Joe Biden is in no shape to withstand “water dripping on the forehead for a very long time… the stress to drive its victim insane.” How much can Biden take? Biden — like Putin — already is delusional and confused. While Putin believes he’s CEO not of an emasculated Russia but of the formidable USSR, Biden believes that he is in charge, not his ideologue-puppeteers.

In Biden worship, the media parroted the Democratic party line, just as Pravda in the former Soviet Union spoke for the Communist party. Power brokers in the Democratic Party and dominant media remain synergistic — thus, the “new journalism” is a precursor for where the Democrats go next: inevitably, Joe Biden is on the way out, and how plausible for him to claim health as the reason for not running, but how implausible for Kamala Harris to be president!

The Whistleblowers are karma for Hunter Biden. First, consider his preemptive mea culpa tell-all book, to gain sympathy for the troubled 53-year-old juvenile; that his cocaine addiction explains his crimes. Here we have the proverbial schoolboy who says the dog not only ate his homework, but also his study notes so he could not prepare for the final that he failed. Second, Hunter took full advantage of the DOJ/IRS double standard in federal law enforcement: his case was dragged on so that his felonies would be outside the statute of limitations.

Is Joe Biden in any shape to face all this? The dishonest former intelligence chiefs will not be around this time to falsely claim, without any evidence, that the laptop was not Hunter Biden’s but “Soviet-style Russian disinformation.” Hunter appears the genesis of what happens to Joe and the Democrats, but he may be just collateral damage. The emails, the texts, the DOJ manipulations, making the “Big Guy” (Joe Biden) off limits, burying the serious charges, then letting Hunter off with a plea bargain. Is there a nexus between foreign money to Biden family members and Joe Biden’s government position?

The Republican Party’s disappointing showing in the midterms, especially after raising expectations and then screwing up its messaging — was seen as a vote of confidence in Joe. Thus, Biden announced for reelection — Dems now are a victim of their midterm reprieve.

Biden is not popular and cannot depend on a loyal, gushing voter mass to circle the wagons as his integrity is called into question. He can only hope Republicans don’t let nature take its course and instead stridently make this all partisan. Consider that Republicans have fumbled investigations repeatedly, raising unrealistic expectations with premature disclosures. Also just last week they botched the abrupt, un-choreographed Adam Schiff censure, coming across as Republican payback for Schiff investigating Trump. In fact, the censure was for Schiff’s misusing his intelligence committee chairmanship to falsely claim classified evidence proved Russian collusion with Trump’s 2016 campaign.

Biden’s apologists continue to spin Joe as father-loves-son; notably, Hunter was on display at the recent White House state dinner. This hubris is akin to Gary Hart in 1988 urging the press, which had asked about his reputed womanizing, to “follow me” — and they did, and his campaign collapsed.

Biden is hardly a folk hero above reproach, though he is sentimental, except when he loses his temper, as he does more often. A large percentage in his own party does not want him to run for re-election. Polls show him performing poorly with the national electorate, especially independents, on many key issues — the economy and inflation, border security, law and order, and more.

How can Biden, already at low ebb, withstand downward momentum?

Attorney General Merrick Garland, bitter at Republicans refusing to hold hearings when Obama nominated him (March/2016) to the Supreme Court, remains in retribution mode. Sort of like Chris Christie who Trump selected (Nov/2016) to head his transition, but decided on payback when Trump abruptly changed his mind. Presidents whose integrity is in question often opt for a diversionary, symbolic housecleaning. Once a respected judge who prostitutes himself as Biden’s AG, Garland, himself in disrepute, is expendable.

That takes us back to the man who put him there, Joe Biden. Even if his impeachment is warranted, Republicans fear that conviction would elevate Kamala Harris. A generation ago, Harris accommodated the elevated testosterone levels of the powerful Speaker of the California State Assembly, Willie Brown, who effectively launched her political career with patronage appointments to state commissions (her salary funded by taxpayers). She was fast-tracked (district attorney, attorney general, eventually U.S. Senator). Harris was the first to drop out of the Democratic primary in 2020, yet Biden nonetheless selected her as his running mate, indicating she was selected for her gender and race. Her performance as VP puts to rest that merit played any role.

Democratic strategists realize that her ignorance on issues and her clown-like behavior, her nervous giggles when she can’t answer a question, or when she can (she’s just a giggler) are less an issue than her failure to grow in the job; she actually gets worse over time. Yet, she performs a function as an insurance policy against impeaching Biden. Remarkably, she is even more leftist and incompetent than Biden.

Some alleged Biden crimes predate the presidency. It’s unclear whether impeachment is appropriate. Also, if he resigned as an informal or legal plea-bargain for “what’s best for America” — it’s Kamala. Sure, she has been typical VP attack dog — in relentless prosecutorial mode — quarterback to Joe’s straw man arguments — the evil “MAGA Republicans,” the supposed attack on democracy, the white racists, the rogue Supreme Court (odd since the conservative justices have issued mixed, hardly predictable rulings), the war against women and gays, and all the other garbage. Note that White House insiders put Kamala in charge of the border, and gave her hopeless assignments created to sabotage her. Jill Biden had opposed Joe selecting her as his running mate; Biden deferred to his caretakers.

If Biden is set to go, Kamala Harris must go first. A half century ago, when the Republican Establishment thought Nixon’s days as president were numbered, they decided they didn’t want VP Spiro Agnew around. So Agnew pled no contest to a felony charge of tax invasion. Gerald Ford became vice president, Nixon resigned, Ford became president, then in 1976 lost to Jimmy Carter. Watergate played a role. Can Biden scandals do it this time?

If they can’t find anything compromising in the past of Kamala Harris, Gov. Gavin Newsom could fulfill his pledge to appoint a black woman to Dianne Feinstein’s Senate by convincing Feinstein to resign, then appointing Harris to her seat. Better yet, Harris then could displace Chuck Schumer and become the “first woman” and “first black woman” to be Senate majority leader. (She’s relatively young; if she transitions, Democrats might back her for president in the future.)

Newsom would do his part, especially if he could become vice president, and thus the heir apparent. Newsom is partisan, yet effective on the stump. Newsom has that lean and hungry look. He has been hoping that Joe Biden gets pneumonia or falls one too many times. He overwhelms Biden with faint praise. Like many other Democrats who praise Biden but covet the presidency, Newsom is hyper.

Some will propose Elder Statesman-woman Hillary, others will say why just a woman, when there is a black woman — Michelle Obama. But as long as Harris remains as vice president, everything is on hold.

Harris is her party’s worst nightmare. Remember, a Republican theme is that a vote for the aging Joe Biden is in fact a vote for President Kamala Harris. But if President Biden does not run, then as vice president she is presumed heir apparent. More importantly, suppose Biden is “unable to discharge the powers and duties of the office.” Harris would replace him and get a head start.

Click here to read the full article in the Spectator

Kamala Harris Touts Launch of $4B Research Center in Silicon Valley

Vice President Kamala Harris appeared in Sunnyvale on Monday to laud a Silicon Valley semiconductor toolmaking company for pumping $4 billion into a research facility in the region, an investment that would create the largest such enterprise in the world.

The facility, which will be called the Equipment and Process Innovation and Commercialization (EPIC) Center, is projected to open in 2026 and create up to 2,000 engineering jobs, according to Applied Materials, the world’s largest manufacturer of the tools used to make semiconductor chips. The facility, to be built in Sunnyvale, is expected to be the size of three football fields. 

Applied Materials will invest in the facility over the next seven years and expects to apply for money from the federal subsidies in the CHIPS Act, a $52 billion package of subsidies that President Biden signed last year in part to reduce U.S. dependence on foreign chipmakers. That legislation included $13 billion dedicated to research and development. 

Harris said Applied Materials decided to invest in the research facility because of those incentives. 

Demands in the near future for better technology, Harris said, will “require a new generation of semiconductors. Semiconductors that are more compact, more efficient, more powerful and more important.”

The new facility “will potentially be a hub for collaboration” where “the brightest minds will gather to share data and expertise,” she said.

Administration officials say more than 300 companies have expressed interest in applying for the CHIPS Act funds, representing potential projects in 37 states and all parts of the semiconductor industry. Harris said the administration’s technology focus has spurred $140 billion of private investments in the semiconductor industry this year. Plans for new manufacturing facilities have broken ground over the past couple of years in Idaho, Arizona, Ohio and California, she said. 

Harris, who has traveled to meet with semiconductor executives in Japan and Singapore in an effort to lure investment in U.S. manufacturing, met privately Monday with nearly two dozen tech executives, including Gary Dickerson, CEO of Applied Materials, Mark Liu, chairman of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. and Naga Chandrasekaran, senior vice president of Micron Technology. 

Dickerson said it was important to create the research center in Sunnyvale, “in the heart of Silicon Valley.” 

“By investing in manufacturing capacity, we will create a more resilient supply chain,” Dickerson said. 

Click here to read the full article in the SF Chronicle

Migrants are Dropped Near Vice President Kamala Harris’ Home on Frigid Christmas Eve

Three buses of recent migrant families arrived from Texas near the home of Vice President Kamala Harris in record-setting cold on Christmas Eve.

Texas authorities have not confirmed their involvement, but the bus dropoffs are in line with previous actions by border-state governors calling attention to the Biden administration’s immigration policies.

The buses that arrived late Saturday outside the vice president’s residence were carrying around 110 to 130 people, according to Tatiana Laborde, managing director of SAMU First Response, a relief agency working with the city of Washington to serve thousands of migrants who have been dropped off in recent months.

Local organizers had expected the buses to arrive Sunday but found out Saturday that the group would get to Washington early, Laborde said. The people on board included young children.

Some were wearing T-shirts despite temperatures hovering around 15 degrees. It was the coldest Christmas Eve on record for Washington, according to the Washington Post.

Laborde said employees had blankets ready for the people who arrived on Christmas Eve and moved them quickly onto waiting buses for a ride to an area church. A local restaurant chain donated dinner and breakfast.

Most of the arrivals were headed to other destinations and expected to remain in Washington only briefly.

Gov. Greg Abbott’s office did not respond to a request for comment Sunday morning. His office said last week that Texas has given bus rides to more than 15,000 people since April to Washington, New York, Chicago, and Philadelphia.

Abbott and Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey, both Republicans, are strong critics of President Biden on his handling of the U.S.-Mexico border, where thousands of people are trying to cross daily, many to seek asylum. Officials on both sides of the border are seeking emergency help in setting up shelters and services for migrants, some of whom are sleeping on streets.

Republicans argue Biden and Harris, designated the administration’s point person on the root causes of migration, have relaxed restrictions that induced many people to leave their countries of origin.

Click here to read the full article in the Press Enterprise

Kamala Harris Tweet Mistakenly Suggests Ukraine Is Part Of NATO

A now-deleted tweet from Vice President Kamala Harris stated Tuesday that the US was supporting Ukraine against invading Russian forces “in defense of the NATO alliance” — wrongly indicating that Ukraine was a member of the 30-nation bloc.

“When I was in Poland, I met with U.S. and Polish service members, thanking them for standing with our NATO allies for freedom, peace, and security,” read the tweet from @KamalaHarris, which was preserved in a screenshot taken by the WayBack Machine internet archive. “The United States stands firmly with the Ukrainian people in defense of the NATO alliance.”

The tweet was originally posted around 8:30 p.m. Tuesday evening. A second, nearly identical tweet was posted almost an hour later around 9:20 pm.

“When I was in Poland, I met with U.S. and Polish service members, thanking them for standing with our NATO allies for freedom, peace, and security,” the new tweet read. “The United States stands firmly with the Ukrainian people and in defense of the NATO alliance.”

The only difference between the two posts is the added word “and” in the second sentence, clarifying that the US supports Ukraine and the NATO alliance. 

The language of both posts was taken from remarks the vice president made over the weekend during the Democratic National Committee’s winter meeting. 

Click here to read the full article at the NY Post

Harris Loses Another Staffer

WASHINGTON — The Congressional Black Caucus said Tuesday that it was naming an aide to Vice President Kamala Harris as its new executive director.

Vincent Evans is returning to Capitol Hill after nearly a year in the vice president’s office as Harris’ deputy director of public engagement and intergovernmental affairs.

Evans is among a string of staff departures from Harris’ office in recent months as she confronts the high expectations and scrutiny that accompany being vice president.

As executive director of the 56-member Congressional Black Caucus, Evans will work closely with the group’s chair, Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio).

“Vincent will help the CBC reach greater heights and make substantive advances in 2022,” Beatty said. “In addition to his experience, he brings great passion for further strengthening the CBC’s top priorities moving forward.”

In a statement, Evans said he was “deeply honored” to be chosen for the post.

“I started my career in Washington working for a member of the CBC, so I know firsthand the tremendous leadership and impact this caucus has in Congress and across the country,” Evans said. “As we write the next chapter of the CBC story, I am excited for the opportunity to lend my experience and passion for supporting the collective vision of this storied caucus.”

Click here to read the full article at LA Times

Kamala Harris Struggles Through Question On Inflation During CBS Interview

Vice President Kamala Harris struggled to give a coherent answer when asked about the economy and inflation during a Sunday interview on CBS.

Harris appeared on “Face the Nation” when host Margaret Brennan asked her on the issues of inflation going into the “third year” of a pandemic.

The question referred to a previous statement pushed by White House press secretary Jen Psaki that insisted inflation was only “transitory” and should go down within the next year.

Since then economists have admitted inflation has only gotten worse as the year ends with many predicting the increased spending proposals from President Biden could make the problem worse. 

Harris did not provide a clear answer to the question of combating inflation. She appeared to stumble on describing the process before pivoting to support for Biden’s Build Back Better plan, which has been delayed because Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., announced his opposition to the legislation. 

“We have to address the fact that we have got to deal with the fact that folks are paying for gas, paying for groceries, and are — need solutions to it. So let’s talk about that,” Harris said. “Short-term solution includes what we need to do around the supply chain, right? So, we went to the ports of Los Angeles, Long Beach, Savannah, Georgia, and said, ‘hey, guys, no more five days a week, eight hours a day; 24/7, let’s move the products because people need their product – they need what they need.’ We’re dealing with it in terms of the long term. And that’s about what we need to do to pass Build Back Better. It strengthens our economy.”

Click here to read the full article at FoxNews

Kamala Harris’ First California Campaign Office a ‘Waste of Time’

Photo courtesy of Steve Rhodes, flickr

Even though recent polls show Democratic presidential hopeful Kamala Harris trailing badly in her home state – including in San Francisco where she was born, raised and held office – the former California attorney general decided it was a good time to open up a new campaign office in Oakland.

According to Trump Victory Spokesperson Samantha Zager, “Kamala Harris is wasting her time by opening her first California campaign office today. Voters have watched as she has ignored her home state, and her poll numbers have plummeted as a result. Just like her tenure as California Attorney General, Kamala’s candidacy for president is a true disappointment to voters in the Golden State.”

As little background:

  • Kamala Harris was recently overheard saying that she is “moving to Iowa” to pull her out of her summer polling slump.
  • Harris has plummeted in national polling recently and her numbers are now suffering in California as well.
  • Tulsi Gabbard called out Kamala Harris during the second Democrat debate for her record as California Attorney General.

Kamala Harris Holds More Fundraising Events in California

U.S. Senator and former California Attorney General Kamala Harris is predictably going to the well of California Democratic donors to boost her war chest in her bid for president of the United States.

Trump Victory Spokesperson Samantha Zager reminds us of why Harris is a dangerous choice to lead the country:

“Whether she is flip-flopping on government-run healthcare, supporting rights for illegal immigrants over U.S. citizens, or downplaying her disastrous record as California Attorney General, it is obvious Kamala Harris is only interested in scoring political points for her presidential bid. As Harris sinks lower in the polls, voters are sending a clear message: they do not want a Kamala Harris presidency.”

Background:

  • Kamala Harris cosponsored Bernie Sanders’ Medicare-For-All legislation, only to later say she was “uncomfortable” with it.
  • Tulsi Gabbard called out Kamala Harris during the second Democrat debate for her record as California Attorney General.
  • During the first Democrat debates, Kamala Harris raised her hand when asked if she would offer health insurance to immigrants who entered the U.S. illegally.
  • Harris has plummeted in national polling recently.

Candidates Reveal Dangerous Agenda During Democratic Presidential Primary Debate

On Wednesday and Thursday night, 20 candidates took to the debate stage, hoping to stand out from the crowd and increase their chances of snagging the Democratic presidential primary nomination.

This was the first debate of the presidential primary season, and the candidates, including California Senator Kamala Harris, proudly revealed their radical progressive agendas.

As RNC Spokesperson Samantha Zager observed, “In last night’s debate, Kamala Harris, Eric Swalwell and the rest of the 2020 Democrats proved that every single candidate supports a dangerous open borders agenda with free healthcare for illegal immigrants, paid for by crippling taxes on the middle class. Californians have already seen what decades of progressive, socialist policies look like for the middle class – and it leads to extreme income inequality, a high cost of living, and chronic homelessness. Meanwhile, President Trump continues to put America first and that includes a secure border and a booming economy that works for all Americans.”

Kamala Harris: Candidate of Big Tech

In the free-form, roller derby race for the Democratic presidential nomination, few candidates are better positioned than California’s Senator Kamala Harris. She is a fresh and attractive mid-fifties face, compared with septuagenarian frontrunners Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders, or the aging progressive Elizabeth Warren. Part Asian-Indian, part Afro-Caribbean, and female, Harris seems the frontrunner in the intersectionality sweepstakes that currently largely defines Democratic politics. Yet the national obsession with ethnicity and novelty obscures the more important reality: Harris is also the favored candidate of the tech and media oligarchy now almost uniformly aligned with the Democratic Party. She has been a hit in all the important places—the HamptonsHollywood, and Silicon Valley—that financed Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign.

Unlike Warren and Sanders, or Minnesota’s Amy Klobuchar, Harris has not called for curbs on, let alone for breaking up, the tech giants. As California’s attorney general, she did little to prevent the agglomeration of economic power that has increasingly turned California into a semi-feudal state dominated by a handful of large tech firms. These corporate behemoths now occupy 20 percent of Silicon Valley’s office space, and they have undermined the start-up culturethat once drove the area’s growth.

When I started covering Silicon Valley in the mid-1970s, most top executives—such as David Packard—tended to be middle-of-the-road Republicans, supportive of some government role in the economy, including providing for physical infrastructure, but strongly committed to the idea of competition-driven innovation. This pattern changed dramatically as the Valley began to move away from manufacturing products—often by shifting production to less-expensive states and then, ultimately, to Asia—toward a focus largely on media, advertising, and Internet search. These new companies, unlike, say, chip manufacturers, were less concerned with electricity prices, road conditions, or environmental regulations. Many of these “second wave” firms are essentially involved in “information peddling,” which requires a workforce divided between elite managers and a large, impermanent base of coders, many living only for a brief time in the Bay Area. Such firms, which don’t require as many longtime employees as traditional companies, have largely emerged from San Francisco, arguably the most progressive city in the United States.

The massive inequality that characterizes the region would seem to undercut the progressive narrative that sees California, and particularly the Bay Area, as a harbinger of a more enlightened future. Increasingly under fire from both left and right for abusing its power, Silicon Valley could find  Kamala Harris a convenient way to counter criticism while maintaining a tolerant, “woke” facade.

The shift in tech firms’ focus has fit perfectly with the trajectory of Harris’s career. As district attorney of San Francisco, Harris had the opportunity to cultivate the tech aristocracy. Her intermittently “tough on crime” positions would not offend corporate executives who find themselves in a city that even the New York Times has labelled “dystopia by the bay”—rife with petty crime, homelessness, and sometimes violent mentally-ill people.

Elected state attorney general in 2010, Harris got decidedly mixed results, with some notable abuses of office and a demonstrated disinterest in individual rightsand privacy protections—a record that alienated some on the left. On economics, she talked tough on energy companies and homebuilders, but when it came to privacy legislation, she supported policies favored by her tech backers.

By the time Harris ran for the Senate, she could count on massive support from Bay Area law firms, real-estate developers, and Hollywood. More important, she appealed, early on, to tech mavens such as Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg and Sean Parker, Marc Benioff of Salesforce, Yahoo’s Marissa Mayer, venture capitalist John Doerr, Steve Jobs’s widow Laurene Powell, and various executives at tech firms such as Airbnb, Google, and Nest, who have collectively poured money into her campaigns. Their investment was not ill-considered. Harris seems a sure bet for the tech leaders. Her husband, attorney Doug Emhoff, was a managing partner with Venable Partners, whose clients include Microsoft, Apple, Verizon, and trade associations opposing strict Internet regulations.

This year, Harris keynoted the Joint Venture Silicon Valley conference, and she is once again reaping large donations from tech and media giants. As the most significant California candidate in the race, she has a big advantage in harvesting the lion’s share of these riches: California donors collectively contributed over $500 million to the 2016 campaign. The largest benefactors so far to Harris’s 2020 campaign include employees at Alphabet (the parent of Google)—including its former chairman, Eric Schmidt—Cisco, and Apple, as well as many prominent media and entertainment interests. For these companies, with few non-Asian minorities or women in senior positions, and some executives implicated in #MeToo infractions, Harris offers a low-impact way to connect to contemporary progressive concerns.

Today’s Democratic Party is increasingly defined by the progressive Left, with competing factions focused on basic economic issues, on the one hand, and identity politics (greens, gays, feminists, racial identity, and legalizing undocumented migrants) on the other. Another vital faction is made up of employees of public-employee unions, which dominate the party in California. Harris has already maneuvered to appeal to this powerful sector, proposing legislation that would send  billions of dollars from Washington to pay teachers’ salaries. The more economically focused progressives like Klobuchar, Bernie Sanders, Warren, and Ohio’s Tim Ryan seek primarily to address income inequality. They see the tech giants, in control of much information media, as a danger both to the economy and to democracy. Whatever one thinks of their approach, the economic populists at least reflect a tradition that seeks to make capitalism more beneficial for working people. They don’t excuse the tech firms for their offshoring practices, lack of unionization, and stifling of competition.

Harris’s appeal to Silicon Valley is that she can appeal to restive progressive tech employees, who bristle against working for the Pentagon or ICE, while also connecting with the left-leaning (often tech-financed) nonprofits that sometimes hector the wealthy to engage in virtue-signaling. To appeal to middle-class voters, Harris favors a massive redistribution of income, through the tax system, a measure supported by many of her wealthy allies.

Harris’ alliance with the tech giants provides her with a potentially bottomless cash hoard, as well as the cooperation of skilled Obama-era operatives, many doing well in their new roles as top executives of tech firms. This cohort includes Chris Lehane, the Obama strategist who now heads global policy and public affairs at Airbnb, as well as other officials who have landed gigs at Uber, Netflix, and Amazon. Once politically disengaged, firms like Apple and Google enjoyed extensive access to the Obama administration—some 250 people moving back and forth from the company to the government—and they could expect similar treatment under a President Harris. Her proposals to underwrite massive spending on new government technology certainly please these backers.

Perhaps even more important, Harris is almost certain to be treated well by the mainstream media, so much of which is now owned directly by tech leaders or their heirs. (The Atlantic, owned by Laurene Powell, has already published a warm profile of Harris.) Those who threaten tech wealth, as Bernie Sanders did in 2016, will likely find themselves less positively regarded. More important still, firms like Facebook and Google, which control a growing percentage of the flow of news, will probably favor Harris over her more genuinely populist Democratic opponents—and certainly over President Trump.

Yet Harris’s liaison with the Valley could backfire, whether in the Democratic primaries or in the general election, if she gets that far. Warren and Sanders can cast her, with some justification, as too friendly to the tech giants, and Trump will have a field day linking her to San Francisco, a city with more drug addictsthan high school students, and which has so much feces on the street that one website has created a “poop map.” More than half of the Bay Area’s lower-income communities, notes a recent UC Berkeley study, are in danger of mass displacement because of rising costs. Nevertheless, Harris is a formidable opportunist and a focused campaigner. And her willingness to stretch the truth, for example, during the Brett Kavanaugh confirmation battle, might also prove useful in today’s partisan climate.

Given the media’s obsession with style, race, and gender, we would do well to understand what agenda lurks behind Harris’s atmospherics. The reality: if she wins, the tech oligarchy—titans of today’s Gilded Age—will have achieved commanding influence, not just in the information business and the media, but in the White House as well.

Joel Kotkin is the presidential fellow in urban futures at Chapman University and executive director of the Center for Opportunity Urbanism. His latest book is The Human City: Urbanism for the Rest of Us.

This article was originally published by City Journal Online.