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I’m torn.
On the one hand, this is your Weekend Open Thread, so you should feel free to talk about anything on this post or anything else you find interesting, “within broad bounds of decency and decorum.” But on the other hand, be careful what you say if you’re on an OCTA bus, because it’s come to our attention that those of us who take OCTA buses are under constant surveillance. Remember this video from Kelly Thomas times?
We were all so shocked by what happened to Kelly and how brutal the cops were, that we mostly didn’t stop to think, “Wait, why are these bus riders being video- and audio-taped from the ceiling of the bus?”
Turns out this is a nationwide concern. Our webmaster (and brief-termed fire-breathing Fullerton councilman) Travis Kiger passes along a recent Washington Post piece about Maryland legislators trying to stop surveillance on their own Baltimore-area buses. Says state senator Zirkin:
“I find it outrageous. I don’t want to overstate it, but this is the issue of our generation. As technology advances, it becomes easier and easier to encroach on people’s civil liberties… I can make an argument to tape everybody, everywhere, everywhere they walk, everywhere they talk, and you can make the excuse for homeland security. But that is not a valid reason to encroach this fundamentally on people’s privacy rights.”
Adds Travis:
“There are privacy implications for the active recording of thousands of seemingly private conversations per day across the OCTA fleet. Private parties would be committing a crime if they participated in this type of recording activity, as California is a two-party consent state. At the very least, the OCTA should be required to post notice that audio is being recorded.”
I’m reminded of another recent story, a January one in the Voice of OC that didn’t get much attention, which revealed that Anaheim police “have spent several years secretly building an inventory of powerful cell phone surveillance devices and making them available to neighboring cities in Orange County.” So maybe, also, while feeling free to talk about whatever you want “within the broad bounds of decency and discretion,” you should remain aware that The Man could be listening in and taking notes, whether you’re on the bus or your cell phone.
Damn. What could The Man have heard me talking about the last day or two, whether on my cell phone or on the bus? (Which actually I have a car now.) Probably He would have heard me going on about my adventures and observations on SigDay – that is, that exhilarating time every two years when political candidates have to show up at the Registrar of Voters by 5pm with the required number of signatures to qualify to run for office. That was yesterday.
I spent the rainy afternoon driving around my young friend Victor Valladares (right) getting signatures from old Democrats I know in the 72nd district. You’ve heard about Huntington Beach’s Oak View barrio and its battle against Rainbow Disposal’s stinky transfer station; Victor is one of the main community activists involved in that issue. Over the last few months he’s started to get more and more active in the Democratic Party, and just the day before he’d heard about the possibility of running for the local Central Committee, so between me and him we made sure he got 36 signatures – a huge cushion over the 20 minimum – and we got to the Registrar just in time!
It wasn’t as exciting and crowded as two years ago though – SigDay 2014 which I memorialized in “The Fail of Troy,” when Los Al councilman Troy Edgar and his consultant Brett Barbre were busted trying to collect signatures after the 5pm cutoff time and disqualified from the Clerk-Recorder race.
The “elfin-visaged” Chuchua, as Cunningham calls him.
First people I saw there were Mayor Bao, still stubbornly running for Congress; Jesús Silva, the Frank-Pantones, and a few other Democrat friends; gawky snotty Reg reporter Marty Wisckoll; the Other Crooked Behemoth Probolsky (not the Push-Polling One); and our own Greg Diamond who was there helping Anaheim jeep legend Brian Chuchua with his independent Assembly run. Now, THAT’S news that I haven’t seen printed yet – Dems, independents, and honest Republicans now have a CHOICE in the District 68 race against the kleptocratic mediocrities Harry Sidhu and Steven Choi, and the honest but psychotically xenophobic Deborah Pauly. NOW you have the option of voting instead for the founder of the Anaheim Small Business Association and treasurer of CATER, who may be 78 but can still slice right through financial chicanery faster than anyone I know.
Anyway, tiring quickly of chewing the breeze with my Dem compatriots, I spied an eccentric, loquacious, Republican politician sitting all by his lonesome, so went over to sit with Garden Grove councilman and Supervisorial candidate Phat Bui. I complimented him on his 2014 music video (below), expressed frustration over his colleague Chris Phan not standing firm against Poseidon (without mentioning that I know Phat is even worse on that issue), and took no position on Mayor Bao’s edict that “Phat Bui is a dick.”
He explained to me at length what he does for a living – something about developing computer chips that make it easier to update your financial info on pre-approved credit cards. He described how he got into politics – “I used to give money to everyone – Van Tran, Janet Nguyen – and finally after watching them a while I thought I can do that better myself.” I asked what now seems obvious – “Hey – you’re running for Supervisor – that means you’re NOT running for Mayor as people had thought.” “No. I wanted to run for Mayor, but too many people were asking me to run for Supervisor.” He wouldn’t say who these “people” were. But – see, Bao – Mayor is still available!
Establishment Republicans have been freaking out over Phat’s running against incumbent Andrew Do (left), and suspect that it’s some union plot to keep Andrew under 50% so he has to waste money through the summer and fall running against Democrat Michele Martinez. Phat insists that he and other “conservatives” and Republicans are just very dissatisfied with Andrew’s performance so far – he names off a few examples of unnecessary waste of public money, as well as Andrew sending out mailers that don’t specify who paid for them.
Here’s one thing I didn’t realize – Andrew is no longer a Janet Nguyen ally. I had thought of him for years as a Janet puppet, but according to Phat, they had a falling out just a couple weeks after he took his seat as Supervisor. Interesting. Had I just missed that? I have noticed Andrew here and there doing surprisingly independent things – from criticizing Tony Rackauckas’ redundant and wasteful DNA bank, to voting against Michelle Steel’s pro-Poseidon resolution last month. I need to look into this – Andrew might be better than I thought.
In any case, WEEKEND OPEN THREAD – ON YOUR MARK – GET SET – GO!
Thanks for the update on my many years of life experiences, although I’m not 80 yet, more like 78!
[Thanks, Brian, corrected! – Vern]
Those were some good chismes, man. ¡Viva Valladares!
Keeping the lid relatively tight on Brian’s run was a task, but yes — he’s in. Everyone we talk to who isn’t in the Five Point (uh, Choi) or Pringle (uh, Sidhu) camp seems very pleased that he’s running. Deb Pauly may not, but word on the street is that she has no chance. Many Democrats would not vote for her against anyone.
The Democrat in the race is a complete unknown, a relatively new arrival, and not likely to be a factor — search his name and keep track of the number of questions raised. If Brian makes the runoff, I expect him to have lots of support across the spectrum. Given the anti-establishment and good government focus this year, it’s a great year for him to run as a non-partisan. He’s been a lifelong Republican, but has been turned off to the GOP here given how they’ve empowered Curt Pringle and trashed Tom Tait. .(Eventually, they’ll have to smarten up and try to lure back the likes of him and those like him.)
And let’s face it: while you know that Brian is still lively and sharp, especially with the improvement since his bypass, he’s probably a good bet to retire from office sooner than the full 12 years that his competitors might occupy. (Ambitious politicians do tend to appreciate the chance to advance! It’s like a pirate ship!) But during the time he’ll be there, he’ll shake things up — and of course having an NPP in the Assembly will shake things up most of all. (And it will be great for his district if he becomes a powerful swing vote rather than just another back-bencher.)
If Bui doesn’t make the runoff, or if Do or Martinez gets over 50% (which I tend to think he has been placed there to prevent), then he can still run for GG Mayor.
Travis is doing good work there. We really do need to follow up on that Anaheim Police story. Anyone want to pitch in?
A chisme from Joe Dunn’s Irish bash, from whence I write: MARTIN LOPEZ, districting activist, is running for council in Anaheim’s 4th district, against the execrable Lucille Kring and some silly dude named Robert Williams. You heard it here first.
How was Joe’s?
It wasn’t really advertised well, I figured it to be an insider thing with the whole icky Frank-Pantone ilk.
It would have been good to hear about Sara in South America, not a bad life for a “regular/middle class kid.
Most likely some leftist, union-backed idealogue who is a puppet of Dr. Jose “Che” Guevara.
Me an’ Lil’ Clumski and Pinky are going wear out some serious shoe rubber walking precincts for Lucille who has vowed to keep the Angels in Anaheim.
No, wait that doesn’t sound quite right.
It may be worse than “Che” Guevara, it may be liberals making Anaheim a “People’s Republic”
I had a feeling that Andrew had a falling out with Janet. Didn’t know for sure though. Andrew has been making some surprising positive moves of late. I know almost zero about Phat Bui.
l don’t completely agree with your position on the bus recordings. While privacy concerns are huge around this I can see a place for recordings whenever there is something that happened that they may shed a light on, such as the spontaneous candid observations of the riders about the Kelly Thomas murder. I guess its the same position I have on the San Bernardino Terrorist’s cell phone password protection. If there is a legitimate public interest in observing the public (not private) actions of citizens then I think our public safety personnel should have access with the concurrence of Judge. I guess I envision a system where the camera’s footage remains confidential and eventually erased but available for a period of time in case its needed in an investigation. The same as if I had a security camera on my property which recorded a portion of a public street and an accident happened within its view, if the police wanted to view it with a court order I’d have to let them. This is a new position for me (getting old) and one I’m willing to reconsider if convinced to do so.
John, the problem is that rationalizations can be made for any intrusion that can be made to sound reasonable and harmless, especially now that we fight the weird, perpetually twighlight War on Terror.
I would assume that most of the cameras are there for insurance reasons.
Bus lines are always being sued and the video footage can help verify or dispute claims.
Ditto for trucks, stores, amusement parks etc..
My position – on the bus, not on the APD – is the moderate one Travis espouses: there should be signs advising riders that they’re being recorded. Especially if, as I’d imagine, one of the justifications is the PREVENTION of crime.
Great news about Brian.
As for Do, I have to admit that he has been the most consistently not-awful Supervisor over the past few years. I was actually hoping that maybe he could take on the megalomaniacal Spitzer for DA next time around.
Presumably Probolsky will accurately report his time off the clock – this time around.
*Boring……this sounds so high school…..and decidedly non plus. Where are the policy decisions necessary for our roads, the homeless and mass transportation? What about “the elusive Affordable Housing concept for seniors”? Substantive and real things that actually impact our society. Right now it sounds like someone is running for high school Treasurer……..Boring!
True enough. Politics in OC generally tends to be that way – fundamentally puerile – mostly because politics is practiced, and government run, by a bunch of unreconstructed Young Republican types, who think in cliches; are motivated by unexamined ideology; and who act without much in the way of moral scuples, which is just dandy, so long as the political objective is pursued, or they are getting paid.
In this realm, setting up phony candidates, carpetbagging and fraudulent addresses on voeter registration forms are all seen as good, clean fun. Almost nobody cares about ability; what they really care about is electability.
I have no idea why seemingly intelligent humans fall for the line “We need to intrude further into your lives with more electronic interceptions and cameras in order to keep you and your loved ones safe”.
Have some of you forgotten about the fictional character “Big Brother” in Orwell’s ‘Nineteen Eighty-Four’?
We got along fine 50 years ago without these personal intrusions.
I assume that ‘Nineteen Eighty-Four’ is no longer required reading material like it was when I was in high-school.
Responsible parents need to contact their local schools and demand that it be placed back on the required reading list.
This may be a difficult task at the government run schools for obvious reasons.
*Did you say Donald Trump…..and the duck comes down and gives you $100 dollars.? When is the next Book Burning? Maybe Richard Burton can come back and make a ghost like Cameo performance? So was Big Brother really Orson Wells?
Oh, so now it’s no longer all the fault of Bush. Now Trump has to carry that cross?
For your reading enjoyment:
http://time.com/4150694/hillary-clinton-calls-for-more-surveillance-to-fight-terror/
*Convincing Hillary of anything is going to be a problem. She is stubborn as an Oak Stump. We have advised that the answer to Gun Violence in this country starts with Mandatory Drug Testing for all new Purchases or transfers of firearms. The NIH could develop a viable Litmus paper test for the tongue which could be administered by any Federal Firearms Licensed Dealer. That info Pass or Fail would be passed on to the BATF Data Base. Domestic Abusers of both sex……Psycho-tropic Depression treated folks would be denied. This way, you don’t have to restrict any particular firearm or size of magazine. But Hillary, is stubborn and Big Pharma gives her plenty of campaign cash. Our bet is also that Trump couldn’t pass a drug test either.
“Our bet is also that Trump couldn’t pass a drug test either.”
I guess you missed the part where Trump challenged the pharma companies in his health care plan.
He disapproves of the ‘pay to play’ scam that has allowed the pharma companies the luxury of a congressionally enacted reimportation ban on US made drugs that essentially makes US citizens pay 50% to 500% more than foreigners for commonly used pharmaceuticals manufactured in the US. So Trump wants to be part of the solution. He’s willing to stand up against Big Pharma and call them out. Something no other candidate has done.
But I realize it’s easy for some to overlook the facts when they follow the ‘Trump is Evil’ mantra. We humans are easily blinded to the truth. World history is a testament to that.
http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2016/03/13/1-chart-every-middle-class-american-needs-to-see.aspx
Oh, but.. but.. they must be “peddling fiction”, right ?
BBoRW – That is a chart that should be posted herein – that would stimulate conversation for sure.
It appears that there’s been a wake-up call in Germany. A right-wing populist party Alternative fur Deutschland (Afd) has won seats in Regional elections as a backlash to Furherin Merkel’s controversial NWO immigration policies that threaten Germany’s culture and sovereignty.
You realize who’s responsible for the huge influx of Syrian refugees into western Europe that’s resulted in civil unrest and cultural clashes, right? Obama. He’s the one who gave the green light to the illegal US airstrikes in Syria. Our own Nobel Peace Prize winner! 🙂
Commoners are beginning to resist the NWO. You will see more and more of this. It could result in civil wars in 1st world nations.
This is the impetus behind the clash among the Establishment and the Non-Establishment candidates in the US POTUS race. This is a global phenomenon.
It all comes down to whether you support the status-quo or whether you want to return America to her roots and what made her great.
Choose carefully. The future of your children depend on it.
*Ziggy, don’t blame Obama for lifting the refrigerator, turning on the lights and watching all the cockroaches scramble out from under it. Look at it this way:
Merkel now has Syrian Gastarbiters……rather than Italians and Serbians.
Don’t blame Obama for ordering air strikes on a sovereign land without the consent of that nation’s government and without the approval of the required international community, hence being in violation of international law?
Oh, and don’t forget about Libya.
As ruthless as Bush was – at least he didn’t do his dirty work with a Nobel Peace Prize in hand. 🙂
So I’m sorry. Usually your comments have insight. This one made zero sense to me.
For me it’s a social enigma how those who scream for more gun control could be so eerily silent when we learn the following:
“U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has revealed that 124 illegal immigrant criminals released from jail by the Obama administration since 2010 have been subsequently charged with murder.”
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/ice-124-illegal-immigrants-freed-from-jail-later-charged-with-murder/article/2585720
Can Democrats and Republicans alike at least unite and come to a mutual agreement over the real public concerns that have sparked the popularity of Donald Trump?
Or should we continue to live in denial?
*Ziggy, OK….124 bad guys. Out of how many? 50,000? We don’t know the number – but if you have it…..we would be interested.
So the prudent thing to do would be to overlook or discount the 124 victims who were said to murdered on US soil by apparent foreigners who were forbidden by law to be in our country?
There may well have been more than 124 murder victims as some of the crimes could’ve been multiple murders.
I thought ‘every life matters’? At least that’s what the gun control supporters tell us.
Did you read this snippet in the article, R & A?:
“What’s more, her report said that in 2014, ICE released 30,558 criminal aliens who had been convicted of 92,347 crimes. Only 3 percent have been deported.”
What about the victims of those 92,347 crimes? Should we overlook the victims of those crimes too in the interest of welcoming foreigners to enter the country illegally?
Just asking from a practical POV. At least this may give some of you a better understanding why Donald Trump has gained tremendous popularity in these last 8 months.
*Why does Colateral Damage come to mind? We know that sounds hard and certainly not appropriate if you knew any of the victims. The truth of the matter is that anyone that is released from incarceration and commits any heinous crime…..deserves “summary execution”. No doubt about that. The problem is that we do not have 182 million people in this country, based upon German, Irish, French, English and Spanish heredity……today we have more diversity and as a result we need a need open discussion on what the new paradigm should be!.
“Trump’s Health Care Plan Is Just As Terrible As You Imagined”
“The report, which the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget released on Monday, is the first formal effort to assess the impact of Trump’s ideas for repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act. That impact, according to the Center’s analysis, would be devastating.
The number of people without health insurance would rise by something like 21 million people if Trump had his way. That would mean more financial hardship, less access to health care, and — according to a large, if occasionally contested, body of research — higher mortality. Trump’s plan could also increase the deficit by somewhere between $270 billion and $490 billion over 10 years — depending in part on how the repeal affected the rest of the economy. ”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-obamacare-repeal_us_56e6d019e4b0860f99d98990
Realizing that copyright might prevent posting this cartoon, perhaps I can post the link to it ? WOT seems a safe spot, avoiding the thrown furniture of the ahem, national politics post that might set the OJB record for comments length ?
http://www.gocomics.com/fminus/2016/03/15
And if you’ve OD’d on politics for the moment, perhaps some useful advice on online security would be a nice diversion-
https://youtu.be/_QdPW8JrYzQ
On the heels of rejoicing in D.C. over the “agreement” (unsigned by either party, let alone approved by Congress) that released Billions (I forget how many) of embargoed funds to Iran, reading this-
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-03-15/us-government-blames-911-iran-fines-iran-105-billion-iran-refuses-pay
Raises the question whether future American history will be written by Lewis Carroll, or merely current foreign policy.
The Anaheim Streetcar coming along….
“ANAHEIM, Calif. (March 14, 2016) – The city of Anaheim invites the community to an information meeting to learn more about the proposed Anaheim Rapid Connection streetcar project. The meeting is set for Thursday, March 17, from 4 to 8 p.m. at the Anaheim Regional Transportation Intermodal Center, or ARTIC, at 2626 E. Katella Ave., Anaheim, CA 92806.
Attendees are welcome to stop by anytime during the meeting to participate and share thoughts about the project.
Anaheim Rapid Connection, or ARC, is a proposed streetcar system currently in the environmental review process. The project would connect Anaheim-area destinations with regional rail at ARTIC. With ARC, the thousands of people who work in the Anaheim Resort and the Platinum Triangle would have a new, hassle-free way to get to work without having to drive or park remotely.
The streetcar also would make it easier than ever for residents and guests to catch a game or event at Angel Stadium of Anaheim or Honda Center, visit a theme park, attend a convention at the Anaheim Convention Center or enjoy dining and shopping at Anaheim GardenWalk and surrounding locations”
Speaking of surveillance, perhaps the expansion of NSA data sharing is worth some attention ? If the urgent pitch of the commentator is off putting, perhaps click “show more” and peruse the mainstream news source material, FWIW. (Gee, you think the ‘in these times’ story on Chicago’s Anita Alvarez inaction on police abuse strikes any chords here in OC ?)
If not necessarily cross-posted, this article needs a wider audience, so that folks considering or supporting all the various candidates tracked and enumerated above, can remember to ask THEM, WHAT they plan to do to FIX Caltrans, AND BY WHEN.
LYING, Tax-Wasting agencies are a DISGRACE, and CA is RIFE with them ! Enough !
http://ocpoliticsblog.com/2016/03/18/state-audit-proves-that-caltrans-must-be-reformed-rather-than-raise-our-taxes/?