Monday: Three Morning Takes
gavin newsom hates trees / call me blue origin the way she make my rocket explode / the myth of consensual comedy: isn’t there an old witch you forgot to ask?
PW Daily
Jun 1, 2026
Gavin Newsom hates trees
You probably don’t realize this on account of you have a real job, but government workers in California are still basically grifting on Covid hours, and they just sued notorious evil MAGA Republican Gavin Newsom after he attempted to force them back into the office (four days a week). Now, the derangement of government unions isn’t really news, but their novel approach to stealing your money is making headlines: union lawyers allege the carbon released from forcing government workers to actually work, via commuting, violates CEQA, an environmental law typically just used to paralyze the housing market. It’s truly an amazing theater of villains, and who do you root for? The public sector unions? The “environmental” law clearly designed to break civilization? The legal industry built upon our ongoing tolerance of frivolous lawsuits? Or the enabling bimbo governor who drove our state into the ground? A tough choice, but I’ll be cheering for an asteroid.
Call me Blue Origin the way she make my rocket explode
Last Thursday night, Blue Origin’s New Glenn exploded during a prelaunch test, taking out the company’s only launch pad. Critics are now doomposting online following the company’s meteoric recent rise from SpaceX wannabe to real player (see: that sweet new Moon Base contract). But to this point, Blue Origin has done things in a very different way than their Elon-led counterparts. SpaceX flew cheap rockets first, blew them up, and stuck the landing once they figured it out. Blue Origin, on the other hand, has tried to build rockets like Lockheed builds F-35s; everything perfect, first try. Now, it appears they’re simply accepting the reality — space is hard! Rockets blow up. This doesn’t mean space is over, it means the company has decided to move fast and learn from mistakes instead of crying over spilt methane. You want to send people to Mars riding a controlled fucking explosion? You gotta deal with a few uncontrolled ones first.
The Myth of Consensual Comedy: Isn’t there an old witch you forgot to ask?
Online chatter has reached a fever pitch after last month’s Netflix Roast of Kevin Hart: were the racial jokes of comedians Shane Gillis and Tony Hinchcliffe objectively hilarious and therefore permissible, or beyond-the-pale and therefore deserving of shame/cancellation/public stoning? The latter camp includes fellow roaster Chelsea Handler, who I’m told once had a talk show, and who, when she isn’t celebrating the virtues of childlessness, is bashing Spencer Pratt’s mayoral candidacy because he’s “straight” and “white” (Handler has since deemed Gillis and Hinchcliffe “bigots,” calling their jokes, quote, “ick”). Meanwhile, the former camp includes… KEVIN HART, who recently defended the comedians, saying simply: “if you’re not a fan… don’t watch it.” Dear Chelsea, oh wise one, our sage judge-and-jury of all things racist: please do to Kevin what you did to 50 Cent after he endorsed Trump and “remind” the comedian he is, in fact, black (she really said this — look it up!)
