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Michael J. Kinslow, Esq.
c/o Heaven or Whatever Passes for It
Dear Mike,
Hey, buddy. You missed quite a year.
It was one year ago today, Boxing Day, that you fell to pancreatic cancer in what was still the prime of your life. You had lived with your knowledge of it for about four months. You had lived with your knowledge that you wouldn’t long survive for less than half that time. At the end, even unconscious after weeks of excruciating pain, you offered one final act of kindness to those around you by not dying on Christmas Day. That would have been too hard. Several of us had predicted that you’d make it past Christmas, but I don’t know you you actually did it.
Boxing Day, the day that we clean up after finishing the celebrations, was much more fitting. It’s also now a commercial holiday, about which I expect you would have walked the tightrope by both disdaining slightly (you had a real, populist religion in your heart) without making people feel bad for jumping into the post-Holiday clearance sales. Few people master the etiquette of pushing people to do better without pushing them away like you did. Fewer political leaders do so without seeming inauthentic — a big word in 2015 politics — but you managed that too.
I wanted to give you a report on what’s happened since you’ve been gone. This will skew political; on the personal side, I’m in touch with Georgie almost exclusively on Facebook these day, but she and Tristan seem to be doing reasonably well despite the tragedy of your premature departure. And people still remember you often and fondly. You can check out your Memorial Facebook page for that. I presume that, if you have Internet where you are, you’ve already read my piece from a year ago, but it’s nice to go re-read it again.
OK, county politics: as I promised, the DPOC Chair’s race in January was not won by acclamation. We tried to nominate you in absentia, despite your unfortunate condition, but that was ruled out of order because strictly speaking you were no longer a member of the Democratic Party. (Ever courting unpopularity, I thought that that was the right ruling; nevertheless, I was happy that you did get several votes.) After your nomination was rejected, I put my name up so that there would be some opposition — meaning that I got to give a speech that I think you’d have liked, something about wanting “bottom-up” rather than “top-down” politics or something like that. I hadn’t expected to put my name forward, but that was how it shook out, so I ended up speaking off the cuff. (Better me than nobody, that’s my motto! But so, so, so much better had it been you, as we’d hoped, rather than me.)
Most of your casework related to sexual abuse victims was absorbed by your old firm; your widow Georgie handled most of that. There were two cases that she couldn’t place, so I took responsibility for them. I placed one (after somewhat haplessly kept it bobbing on the surface through a couple of court hearings) with a Democratic politician here whom I don’t think you know. He has done a good job with it — settling on terms that I think you’d like with all parties but the perp, who remains in his sights. I can’t discuss the details with you here — the communications are privileged and all — but let’s just say that some justice has been done and more justice is a-comin’. I’m hoping that you get your turn at the omniscience machine at some point so that you can get the rest.
For the second case, the one on which I was conflicted out, you’d like the result. This was the sexual assault case involving a Buddhist monk. Your (and my) friend Craig Beauchamp took that one over and did a bang-up job preparing the case — and then someone whom I think that you don’t know, Doug Pettibone, took over at trial against an excellent lawyer for the perp from (or not from) Nepal and wiped the floor with the guy. You’d have loved seeing that one play out. And the other women from China, the one you deposed? She’s bringing her own suit as well, under Craig’s care, with Doug again slated to do the trial if and when it gets that far. Everyone who you helped so much is quite pleased. (I’ll tell you more about another big victory — the part I was most involved in — when we have more privacy.) You made this happen, my friend, start to finish. I thank you for the referral.
Readers may take this the wrong way, but you know that they shouldn’t: my wife misses you too. She mentions at least once a month how much she wishes you were still here, not only because of the good legal advice you were giving her on her business plans but because of your overwhelming good humor and decency. She’s not overly fond of most political figures — not just in OC, but anywhere — but she made and continues to make a big exception for you. I think that she’d probably rank you ahead of me and her brother-in-law Jeff — and I can’t argue with that.
It’s been a wild year in politics. We think that we have finally got Anaheim moving in the right direction — not so much in the results of City Council votes, so far, but in terms of public interest in and understanding of the issues. Jordan completely fell on his face over the past couple of months, enough so that a vote of his on the City Council was unanimous condemned (!) by the DPOC. Maybe he’ll wise up in the end; too soon to tell. I know that you were a strong believer in forgiveness and redemption; if you can manifest before him some night and give him the whole Christmas Carol treatment it might help.
Meanwhile, I hope that you’ve gotten the news on the Bernie Sanders campaign. I’m not certain where you’d have come down on this one, but I’m confident that the success of a left-populist movement like this would have warmed your heart. (And I have a feeling you’d have worked out a dynamite Trump impression by now too.)
I — we — miss you, my friend. I know that you wanted to make your mark in life; I think that you did. Check that: I know that you did. And you will, I believe, continue to be a beacon by which we can chart our course for years to come.
(Now get to work on those pro bono appeals you have to file for repentant sinners in purgatory — which is what I imagine is taking up your cheerful eternity, which for you must be heaven.)
Your friend and student in life,
Greg
Michael Kinslow and Mara Brandman. Two Democrats I wish I had known before they left this world. Being able to see the legacy they left behind as described by their loved ones, they left an indelible and positive mark on the world they shared with us for such a short time. Both fighting for the underdog, ALWAYS. I am sorry for your loss, Greg and glad to get to know Georgie online. I’lll bet Michael loved those incredible eyes of hers. Put this into the column of “life’s not fair.” Really, really not fair.
Please add Gus Ayer for the trifecta of great OC Dems lost too early in recent years:
http://www.orangejuiceblog.com/2013/02/remembering-gus-ayer-and-keeping-his-spirit-alive/
Gus was born on Dec. 25, which we sometimes cheekily call “Gusmas.”
Absolutely. When I “ran” for DPOC Chair my pitch was that I wanted to carry the banners of both Mike and Gus.
Ok something off topic I have to report here regarding the Republican spy that runs that fake blog that is horribly mislabeled as “Liberal”.
For the last week I have been posting a response to his question about me saying he needs to leave the democratic party; he asks under what authority to have him leave. Ive repeatedly responded that he and brandman have both kicked themselves out o the party and he needs to go.
he put me on moderation and has subsequently deleted my assertion that he has kicked himself out of the party along with jordan brandman for being bag men for Curt Pringle.
I think its time you wrote a post about this very subject and basically pressure him into coming out that he is a Pringle bot spy for the GOP and he needs to go away and stay away. he is not welcome in the democratic party and we all must say so.
The consensus right now is ignore those fucks. (Matt & Dan.) Of course, that is a consensus that swings like a pendulum.
Or like a body at the end of Huxley’s Brave New World.
Hot air hangs like a dead man from a white oak tree…
I have read the Brothers Karamazov I read it twice in college.
Yeah, he said that to me half a year ago, didn’t he? Along with something like “Meh…family drama… not my thing.”
No drama. Damn straight.
Kids in nice schools with nice clean Asian kids. Nice beige stucco house. Nice wife. Nice. Everything’s nice: 28 pound turkey, Comic-Con, friends galore, nice Solar Decathalon; nice CC&R’s; nice “seven” employees in the garage (Suite C); nice long telephoto lens; life is good and safe and clean. And I can say any shit I like over the safety of the internet.
Life is clean and white.
Then why do you fucks spend so much time on their blogs?
He’s not so much a tool of Pringle as of allies of Pringle, including thr Building Trades and Teamsters, who tend to be unusually conservative here.
But hey — you have fingers; write a story and chances are that we’ll publish it. That way it turns out just the way you like! I wish more people with strong, honest, and non-dumbshit opinions would send us stories!
From my silence, you can assume I was out with my wife and friends last night and not caring about getting back to you in a timely fashion. Curt Pringle is many things, but a Nazi sympathizer, he is not.
yeah he just supports armed uniformed poll guards who intimidate Latino voters so they do not vote. But he JUST LOOOOOOOOOOOOVES A DINO who can just simply pencil them out of the boundaries so they don’t even have a chance to vote. The jig is up (*** *) (I refuse to say his name). You are here by asked quite strongly to get out of the Democratic Party and stay away.
Someone claiming not to be Joe HIll had this to say:
Of course “Henry Lipton” is a real name. “Henry” as in “Henry James”; “Lipton” as in “James Lipton.” It’s not something like “nameless” or “skallywag.”
Your question appears to be, is it the author’s REAL name. How can we know? If we had to find out, I suppose that we would take steps to do so.
I have no information on Prevatt’s time (or claims of time) at Wharton. He seems like a pretty honest guy to me, unlike some anonymous commenters. Do you think that we should drop the Ling Ling story because you’re making a claim without evidence about Prevatt? I don’t.
“David Vasquez” doesn’t sound like Florice to me. I think that she’d be more likely to hire someone to do scut work.
Happy New Year to you too, during which time you will remain in moderation.
Wait, is he who shall not be named is accusing that chris prevatt of being me?
The latest musical obsession in my house, courtesy of my daughter, is music from the hit Broadway show “Hamilton.” It’s a hip hop musical history lesson about the life of founding father Alexander Hamilton and has an amazing cast and fantastic music.
The Florice = Vasquez theory these people have seems farfetched to me, except for them both hating Greg. Zenger = Joe Sipowicz makes a little more sense, but just happens to not be true. But the weirdest theory this crowd has come up with is Demagogue being Jose Solorio. How the hell do they come up with that one?
I think Vasquez is a weenie called Anton Marc, or at least he calls himself Anton Marc on Facebook.
Anton Marc is, so far as I can tell, another paeudonym. But not, I’m pretty confident, for Florice.
“…and then someone whom I think that you don’t know, Doug Pettibone, took over at trial against an excellent lawyer for the perp from (or not from) Nepal and wiped the floor with the guy.”
Open fist, or closed? From where we sit here in over stucco’ed Northwood…aw, Hell, why go on anymore?
Tom Tait is the most influential guy in OC. It must be so – the Register says so. I have become a crony corporate Republican. Please love me. And my 28 lbs. turkey.
Ok guys we need to get some help for Zenger.
Im totally confused right now.
Shut up, Trustee Solorio.
You can post a photo by sending it to Vern. Or to me. Or you can use the manual HTML for it, I think.
I like him better when he channels the *Winships.
I do not need help I am having flashes of brilliance in which my testosterone cup floweth over, everyone loves me and my turkey.
Testicular fortitude!
Indeed, yes. I have it in abundance now that I am at boot camp almost every morning at 5:30 AM.
It’s oozing out every pore. Puddles of male hormone collect in my wake.
Soon I will be up to two pull-ups.
Do you mean “testurkelar fortitude”?
How I post a picture in here?
A person who isn’t Joe Hill is frustrated with us — yet does not respond to email so that we can have a person-to-not-person discussion about things.