Front Page  »  

Kashkari goes homeless in bid for governor’s mansion

August 1, 2014
Neel Kashkari

Neel Kashkari

The former U.S. Treasury official who administered the federal government’s bank bailout program recently spent a week living as a homeless man in Fresno. [LA Times]

Multimillionaire Laguna Beach resident Neel Kashkari is the Republican candidate for the California governorship. In his bid to unseat Governor Jerry Brown, Kashkari is trying to convince voters that the incumbent has not delivered the economic recovery that he has boasted about.

Accompanied by two videographers, Kashkari rode a Greyhound bus from Los Angeles to Fresno on July 21 with just $40 in his pocket. He also brought a backpack with a change of clothes and a toothbrush.

Kashkari said that the week he spent in Fresno was the most difficult of his life. He tried to find work but did not succeed and resorted to sleeping on park benches and finding meals at a homeless shelter.

“’California Comeback!’ is the favorite slogan of Governor Jerry Brown and other Sacramento politicians cheering a temporary budget surplus provided by a roaring stock market, Kashkari wrote in a Wall Street Journal piece on his experience. “But California also has the highest poverty rate in America at 24 percent. Is California really back?”

Kashkari currently trails Brown by about 20 points in polls and has far less campaign money to spend.


Loading...
Subjects:                 
Related:


34 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

For his next foray into Gonzo investigation, I suggest Mr. Kashkari take up alias and inject himself deep into right-wing Bizarro-land and discover the ethos and protocols of reactionary extremism at the Tea party level….whether someone such as himself will be accepted on a non-prejudicial nature and made privy; or if he is rejected as an ‘illegal’ by dint of his physical characteristics.

He’ll have to assume a different name. I suggest Hussein Al-Nwarhi Patel.


Mr. Kashkari may have to take some bodyguards instead of videographers on this ‘mission”.


0

Why didn’t he go to Los Angeles and do this stunt? without the two videographers, of course.

He is just another Meg Whitman willing to spend his money to get elected and then like the republicans did with Mr. Clinton’s surplus when he left office = spend it on his cronies pet projects……….


If you want off shore drilling all along California’s coast and fracking wherever you look, vote for Kaskari. His website states that these are what he wants to do if elected. Also, he praises the college system in CA – BUT wants to scrap the whole thing and put in HIS ideas.

Also probably more ‘charter’ schools – or the voucher system for school kids.


As for fracking, check out some of the towns in Texas where the people can no longer drink their water and the oil/gas companies state ‘what’s wrong with that?”……….


0

Wow, what a load of nonsense! Do you even know what fracking is? I told myself I wasn’t going to reply to such nonsense posts because it is a waste of time trying to have a battle of wits with someone who brings a butter knife to a gunfight! Show me your true intellect, how many gallons of water does it take to frack a well and what is it done for? If you say oil I will fall out of my chair laughing!


0

We’re being lied to…California is not back. Former California businesses are definitely bringing a state back but it ain’t California. It’s Texas!


0

There was a time when the main stream media made it harder for our leaders to mislead us. Now the media seems to be aiding in the dishonesty. What a shame. This video should be posted everywhere.


0

So, coincidently, as he is preparing to run for office, he does this little experiment, cameras rolling, to see how things are out there for the people that his political party are blaming for the drag on the economy, those who are not working. Up until now, they were considered freeloaders looking for a handout. Now it is expedient to use them as a prop for a campaign to “reign in regulations” and miraculously create more water.


The presentt governor, not without his faults, is not responsible for the drought, but has allocated substantial funding for watershed improvement. Industrial uses are creating the most stunning draw on our water resources at present. Allowing industries to create more pollution ALWAYS disproportionately affects the poor and would deffinately create environmental consequences that would fall back upon the public to remediate. Historically,it is consistantly small businesses that provide substantial rises in employment. This is always driven by more money in the pockets of potential spenders, which would be better accomplished by a rise in the minimum wage. More spending capitol + better customenrs. Makeing the CEOs of businesses like Walmart richer has NOT created more jobs, just a rise in the public assistance required by their underpaid workers. I am tired of this.


By the way, didn’t the whole down hill slide in our economy start with the bail out of the banks instead of the public, inot to mention endlessly ongoing wars, both instigated by his party??? I am registered “Decline to State”, being put off by both parties, but find his position, given his former accomplishments and current background, to be particularly disingenuous.


0

It is hilarious when liberals point to things like the bank bailout as being the Republicans fault. How quickly they forget when it doesn’t fit their agenda. They like to always refer to the symptom while conveniently leaving out the cause. Does Barney Frank ring a bell? The banks wouldn’t have needed a bailout without the housing crash caused by the free spending and give everyone a home loan regardless if they have a job or ability to pay it back federal guarantees that Barney Frank and his cronies created!


0

Stated the obvious 03


0

Well, you got half the story right there. Now for the rest of the story . . .


The lowered requirements for loans was indeed a Democrat idea and would have eventually caused a minor recession on its own. But both parties worked together to rescind the Glass-Steagal Act in 1999 based on the claim that keeping it in place would hinder the ability to get more big trade agreements in place.


Why is this important? Glass-Steagal was passed after the great crash of 1929 that caused the Great Depression. It was designed to keep banks from wildly gambling with their depositors funds in hopes of big scores. When it was rescinded, the big banks and other financial institutions quickly saw that they were now free to pass on the risks of bad loans to others in an international shell game. That ended their motivation to limit the risk of making bad loans and they started encouraging them instead. This eventually brought down the whole market but most of the institutions (and particularly, the leaders of them) got off with relatively light penalties (or none at all).


This is not a left-right problem no matter what the propagandists say. It is a problem with corruption in both parties by the lobbies of the big-money people. Occupy Wall Street may have had a lot of nutty people in their loose organization but they were correct on a lot of the fundamentals.


0

libor rights


0

Well, to be accurate, my complaint is the fact that the bailout was given to the BANKS instead of the PEOPLE. The comment below, outlining the repeal of Glass-Steigal is even more to the point. Upon more thoughtfull analysis, you might discern that I am not taking sides in this situation (i.e. the assumption that I am a “liberal”, which in this case seems to mean “on the other team”) As to said bailout, how did that work out for you? Apparently you feel that they (banks) “needed” said remediation more than the people who ended up on the street.


Both “sides” of the isle, which are both corrupt, distract us from the real issues with this trumped up competition and appeal to our “team spirit”. It is a dog and pony show that works quite well. No matter who gets into office, they seem able to make sure that it furthers the agenda of treating the earth like a business that is in liquidation and our rights like they do not exist. We need people like you. We need you to pay close attention to what is actually happening, not the sound bites from the manipulative entertainment passing for news these days.


I wonder how you would have reacted to the above film clip if you thought it was posted by someone you perceive as “liberal”. Should I lump you together with all the so called “conservatives” who would have the knee-jerk reaction they are programmed to have and call the guy another attempt to give free handouts to lazy freeloaders???


I put “conservatives” in quotes, because I fail to see what is being conserved. Not our resources. obviously; not our rights, which were handed right over in a panic created by a “conservative” administrationinin in the wake of terrorism; not our personal freedoms, with legislature attempting to regulate our private lives in intimate detail.


My favorite president, in my lifetime, was Dwight D. Eisenhower. However, I no longer see a party that bears ANY resemblance to the values, intelligence and integrity of that man. Hence, I am registered DECLINE TO STATE.


Our founding fathers fought the war of Independance against the corporations of England, of which the Crown was was the arm of enforcement. They set strict guidelines that severely limited the formation of said corporate entities in our newly formed country. They were only allowed to do public works, such as a road or bridge, for severely limited profit and were disbanded at the end of each project. Our founders knew the danger of this amassed power with which we now contend, while being distracted by a media circus they now control and a government that sits almost totally in their pockets.


Please, we need individuals who think and take action, not merely react. Let’s pay attention to what is actually happening, what these so called elected officials are actually doing, before all that America was in bounty and could become in freedom and equality is sold out from under us by those who would point a finger and cry “look over there” while screwing us and becoming overlords.


0

How many bailouts government mandates have we had since 2008!

All of them resulted in rippling more cost around and surrounding consumers/ taxpayers!

None of them will cease or reduce present or future spending, no matter how impressively they convince the public.

The only real real costs and cutbacks that has truly or ultimately has occurred are with the taxpayers and consumers because they had to because of higher revenues and cost of living.


0

I like this guy and what he exposes


0

Hopefully you meant “espouses”. “exposes” is a bit creepy.


0

Do you think we have another Carlos Danger here?


0

I usually ignore the grammar Nazi’s here but I thought o.k. in this one I’ll play along.


Espouse would be what he believes in. His ideals, principals etc.


Expose, would be to uncover or bring to light. Like he did with going undercover.


To think it was creepy? Guess if someone is that immature they would.


0

If Kashkari wants to really have an impact, he should leave the party of radical regressives … the Republicans.

Their failed policies of ‘trickle-down economics’ that only help the top 1% and do-nothingism on everything else are the causes for the problems Mr. Kashkari is publicity stunting about.


0

Before you lay into him, why don’t you do what he did? He wanted to see firsthand what was really going on. I admire the guy for it. Yes, it was only a week, and yes, he knew it wasn’t permanent, but still…I didn’t vote for him in June but I will in November. Maybe he will be a real hands-on guy. I’d like to see him visit anonymously some other places like VA hospitals, state prisons, and some of our schools for that matter.


0

If he did it for more than a month, he might begin to see what total hypocrites Republicans are. He quite possibly could recognize what enemies they are to America and humanity, and what embarrassing frauds they are.


0

Hey, Slowfaster, instead of telling us how evil the right is, tell us what is working and wonderful for your side. Let’s start with the most transparent administration ever!


0

Obama being right wing authoritarian on the political scale We have a bloody scar/stump where the left wing used to be.


0

While that chart is rather accurate as a general means for comparison, it needs to be updated. Obama has moved even farther toward “authoritarianism” since that chart was made 2-3 years ago. Given the positioning of some of the other candidates, I also question the criteria used to rank the other candidates. Gary Johnson in particular should have been less “right wing” and more libertarian in my opinion.


But as long as American voters continue to get most of their information from biased, sensationalistic and largely co-opted news sources and campaign ad, we will continue to end up voting between two candidates that are substantially the same in the way they act — despite what type of image they try to project with words.


0

While I am no apologist for the Obama administration, and there are plenty of issues that I, ( as a libertarian socialist ) disagree with, or think he could do better;


I recognize that President Obama has had to spend 90% of his time or more having to deal with these domestic terrorists…either directly or by watering down essential legislation to try to assuage these hateful morons.


He’s spent five-and-a-half years trying to work with these idiot nihilists; when all they want to do is to kill him.

It’s time he told them to pound sand, and back it up.


0

I would feel really good if Obama drew a line in the sand, he has excelled in that.


0

You have bought into the liberal media’s portrayal of Obama that is almost as deceptive as the junk put out by Fox News and other right-wing propagandists. Read the link Zaphod provided above for a more accurate impression of what Obama really stands for.


The propagandists on both sides portray his as a real liberal based upon his words but the reality is that he is not. While he has spent a fair bit of time fighting right-wing obstructionists, I don’t think it bothers him nearly as much as people pretend. He is just engaging in political theater to keep his supporters/suckers voting for him. The same can be said of Hilary Clinton, Diane Feinstein and many other main-stream Democrats.


0

The positioning of Obama on the graph does not take into consideration the our president has no spine. This observation is based on examining the facts and drawing a conclusion, rather than a portrayal of the liberal media.


0

liberalism


0

You may be interested in reading Ralph Nader’s new book: “Unstoppable: The Emerging Left-Right Alliance to Dismantle the Corporate State”.


I don’t ‘buy-into’ much on preliminary or minimal info, and also consider the sources when gathering such. I’m more dispaasionate than independent.


Still, I know dog-whistle racism when I see it, along with more virulent examples.It’s the old line Confederate haters that have never stopped fighting the Civil War and would gladly revert to slavery that have co-opted and taken over the Republican party.

For ‘conservatives’ to gain any respect from me, they’ll have to first clean out the junk in their own closet…or abandon the insane asylum and hope that their new ‘liberal’ friends will forgive them for being so cowardly to allow their former party to devolve into an angry mob of Southern, small town, ignorant Klanners.


0

give the guy a try. let’s ditch the B train for water.


0

While I totally agree with you that we should ditch the.crazy train for water. We should also be pragmatic and realize Kashkari has no shot and not waste our time and effort on him. Which is really too bad because I think he would make a great Governor. I am spending my time and energy on local races that I think might actually have a chance at succeeding. Starting with the Paso Robles City Council. Did you hear a woman Pam Avila from the Paso Robles Chamber of Commerce Economic Development Director has filed for a seat! Now that is somebody I can get behind!


0

Great idea for a family vacation.


0
1 2