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Well, that question is easy to answer. We’ve known for a long time that 72nd district Assemblyman Travis Allen is sleazy, just as we’ve known for a long time that he is a liar.
Troy Edgar seemed worse, when they first ran against each other in 2012, and I voted for Travis myself and told my friends to … but we were probably wrong in retrospect.
What sort of Assemblyman has Travis been for the district, these four years?
To start with, he’s been one of the laziest most irresponsible assemblymembers, with the highest number of unexcused absences in the body – missing 503 votes (as of last fall) in order to appear on the media or enjoy junkets paid for by grateful corporations and foreign governments. That list includes, most colorfully:
- Missing work the morning after a $330 dinner paid for by Big Oil executives, the same industry that also paid for his trips to Norway and Poland to “study the environment,” LOL.
- Demanding and getting his “per diem” on days that he actually missed his committees, even appearing on FOX News one day he claimed to be in the legislature.
- Skipped work to tour AirBnB in San Francisco, and missed another day to tour Lyft.
- Went to the swanky 5-star Fairmont Sonoma Mission Inn and Spa, courtesy of TechNet, soon after being first sworn in; enjoyed an expensive junket to Pebble Beach paid for by California Life and Health Insurance Companies; and FREE TRIPS TO DISNEYLAND!
- A trip to China in Spring of 2015, paid for by the Chinese government, which Travis repaid by showing a Chinese delegation around Sacramento later.
- This past February he missed work for TWO WEEKS, to “get engaged” in Israel. When he returned to Sacramento he repaid his new friends by introducing a horrible anti-free-speech bill using California’s purchasing power to punish any business or institution that dared to “boycott, divest, or sanction” Israel for their illegal settlements policies (an “anti-BDS” bill.)
I kinda had a bad feeling about Travis Allen from the beginning, even as I voted for him over Troy Edgar. For one thing, one of the biggest issues in that particular district was the inexorable push from OCTA and CalTrans to steal $3 billion of our Measure M money to put TOLL LANES on 13 miles of the 405, rather than simply widen it as we taxpayers wanted. Gus Ayer and I tried and tried to get Travis to make this an election issue, but he studiously avoided saying anything for or against the scam, even as his fellow Republicans Mansoor and Moorlach – EVEN MATT HARPER! – fulminated against it. 
Silent consent is all Travis’ corporate backers really needed on this issue though, as he rubbed elbows with and cashed checks from the kleptocratic OCBC/OCTax crowd who were pushing the toll lanes most fervently.
Poseidon Resources, however, required more than silent consent, and Travis has dependably kept them happy, always either showing up or sending a spokesman to express his full-throated support of the boondoggle whenever an important vote on the matter comes up. And to this day, whenever Travis is questioned critically about ANY of these sellouts, he’ll change the subject to how he saved Southern California’s Fire Pits – the easiest, least controversial issue imaginable.
The one thing Travis HAS been consistently good at is throwing partisan bombs, bombs that’ll catch on in the right-wing media, and getting himself onto FOX News to talk shit on Democrats. And this latest from him, in a Washington Examiner piece penned by him, takes the cake:
Beginning on Jan. 1, prostitution by minors will be legal in California. Yes, you read that right.
SB 1322 bars law enforcement from arresting sex workers who are under the age of 18 for soliciting or engaging in prostitution, or loitering with the intent to do so. So teenage girls (and boys) in California will soon be free to have sex in exchange for money without fear of arrest or prosecution.
This terribly destructive legislation was written and passed by the progressive Democrats who control California’s state government with a two-thirds “supermajority…”
It goes on, with additional lies and mistakes detailed by Capitol Alert and Wonkette, but the salacious headline and opening had the effect Travis wanted – getting echoed, amplified and exaggerated even more all over the far-right media, getting Travis some dearly desired attention, and providing more hate-fuel to Trump-types who are always eager to believe ANYTHING bad about Democrats no matter how far-fetched. (And giving me more fires to put out on Facebook when I had other things to do.) Congratulations Travis for being the latest purveyor of FAKE NEWS! This even proves, to some minds, that EVERYTHING THEY EVER SUSPECTED ABOUT US IS TRUE, up to and including Hillary Clinton’s child-prostitution Pizza Ring:
Surprise, this is actually a bill that will help end the scourge of child prostitution more humanely and effectively, by treating the minor as a victim rather than a criminal, and going after the pimps and johns instead. Under this new law, a “child prostitute” (a term which activists are trying to terminate) can still be taken off the street and into custody or declared a dependent child of the court, just not thrown into jail and criminalized. This also makes it more likely they will feel free to seek help from police themselves. But leave it to Travis Allen and his alt-right fan base to piss all over any sort of progress.
California’s 72nd Assembly District sure deserves a better assemblyman than this showboating liar. It’s really too bad that the best the Democratic Party could come up with this past election to run against him was a psychotic, walking natural disaster of an “attorney” named Lenore Albert (below.) Maybe we should be starting to find someone better, right around NOW.
Speaking of sleazy, I noticed a few weeks ago that Matt Cunningham is on his Assembly payroll to the tune of $3k/month.
Good job! A main effect of this law is to take away the ability of pimps to threaten underage sex workers with the prospect of jail if they have a complain about or otherwise report their situation. That in turn makes these underage boys and girls less valuable to those pimps, and is thus a main way that this law affectively fights against sex work by children.
I think that people should hound Travis Allen until he recognises the existence of, and answers, this criticism. (And also, I suppose, until he apologises for being so off base.)
So, since Allen seems to really like to go to other countries to engage in comparative research have any corporations sent him to countries where prostitution he is either legal or decriminalized? That seems like an appropriate follow-up question, doesn’t it?
By the way, I don’t think that Lenore Albert-Sheridan is psychotic, nor that the sort of disaster that she is is in any way “natural.”
Well, far from him “recognizing the criticism,” he has been doubling down. He must be pleased with the results he’s getting on his side of the aisle. Neglected to mention that in the piece…
http://www.scpr.org/programs/take-two/2017/01/04/54193/oc-assemblyman-stands-by-claim-that-california-jus/
And maybe I’ve been paying more attention to Lenore than you have? The way she treats you and me, from the start, seems psychotic to me.
Psychotic delusions would offer her an excuse. To me, her self-serving actions seems knowing and calculated. But I hate to diagnose from afar — and I don’t want to get any closer than I must.
I wonder if Cunningham is still on this guy’s payroll. That would make sense.
The man has lost his effing mind. So we have stopped charging VICTIMS of TRAFFICKING with a crime they are committing only by force and he doesn’t get it? He thinks throwing them in JAIL is better?
Then at the end of the other interview that Vern posted, he says the courts get them to roll on their pimps and they drop the charges. But why would we charge victims of a crime with a crime? Does this man really think kids are out there hustling themselves by CHOICE? We are still charging the ADULTS having sex with the kids and still charging the PIMPS forcing them.
I am floored. BTW Anaheim already does this, it is now APD policy to treat those being trafficked for sex as victims and go after the pimps and johns exploiting them. Reason #494 I am glad we have the leader we do, and very sorry for those who rely on Allen for leadership.
This is from the upcoming Anaheim City Council Agenda.
“Proclaiming January 11, 2017, as Human Trafficking Awareness Day”
So Travis Allen wants to recognize January 11 by ensuring the child victims of this horrific crime continue to be treated as criminals. Go team elephant.
Doubling down? The dude is quintupling down. It looks like, thrilled with the response so far, he’s intending to ride this law to more media glory and possibly Congress!
http://www.ocregister.com/articles/minors-740461-california-prostitution.html
Egads, is this man dumb. From your linked story:
No, Twisted and Depraved Liar — the act of purchasing sex with a minor REMAINS ILLEGAL. That is incompatible with the claim that Democrats “legalized child prostitution.” What has changed is not the LEGALITY of the act, but only WHO CAN BE PUNISHED FOR IT.
Here’s an example for Trollin’ Allen to consider. We could consider having a law (if we already don’t, and my guess is that we already do) that says that children under a certain age, say age 6, will not be held legally responsible for discharging a firearm that leads to injury or death. (Perhaps their parents or guardians or whoever was to supervise them around the gun would be liable instead.) SUCH A LAW WOULD NOT LEGALIZE HOMICIDE! TO SAY THAT IS LEGALIZED HOMICIDE WOULD BE INFLAMMATORY AND INSANE!
Truly, Trollin’ Allen is putting the “Ass” into “Assemblyman.”
Greg…Vern is being pretty accurate ..Lenore is at least..borderline..just join in on the Progressive Caucus email post strings. You may change your mind!
Psychosis is different from personality disorder, although I’m not in a position to diagnose either. (Nor do I ever want to get that close….)