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We’ve noticed that a Google search of “Vern Pat Nelson,” for some reason, turns up this story first, before all the recent attacks on him. So this is as good a place as any to, first, hear him play Malagueña…
This is Vern’s website, as composer and pianist. Since 2008 – a decade now! – he has been writing for this blog, the Orange Juice Blog, and since 2010 when he purchased it from Art Pedroza, he has been running it, with a balanced multipartisan group of bloggers and focus on local politics.
Here’s a link where you could read the hundreds of stories Vern has written for this blog. Over this decade of blogging, with an emphasis on afflicting the comfortable, comforting the afflicted, and calling bullshit on corruption and dishonesty on all sides, he has made a lot of enemies – all the right ones. From the corporatist right-wing Democrat Dan Chmielewski of the “Liberal OC” to the alt-right Huntington Beach racists Chris Epting and Chuck Johnson. And has pissed off a lot of politicians like current Anaheim mayoral candidate Lorri Galloway (a favorite of Chmielewski) who recently fabricated a far-fetched #metoo-style allegation against Vern.
Well that’s enough background. Here’s the original story from the (then) worried Ricardo:

Vern and the author at last summer’s Bernie Sanders rally in Irvine.
When I asked about the absence of chairman Vern, the publisher and co-editor of this blog, I was informed that he had entered into a treatment program, making him unavailable for a while. Obviously Vern has an addiction problem, and multiple DUIs are beyond most people’s comprehension.
In a magazine I browsed a few days later, one of its popular articles, written in 2015, was titled the “Irrationality of Alcoholics Anonymous “(see here). This analysis of the AA program explains the failure of some people to recover :
…J.G. decided to seek help. …He spent a month at a center where the treatment consisted of little more than attending Alcoholics Anonymous meetings. He tried to dedicate himself to the program even though, as an atheist, he was put off by the faith-based approach of the 12 steps, five of which mention God. Everyone there warned him that he had a chronic, progressive disease and that if he listened to the cunning internal whisper promising that he could have just one drink, he would be off on a bender…
…He felt utterly defeated. And according to AA doctrine, the failure was his alone. When the 12 steps don’t work for someone like J.G., Alcoholics Anonymous says that person must be deeply flawed.”
The news that Vern had incurred a fifth DUI infraction, made the blog of the DPOC Communications’ Chair explode with comments. In addition to condemning him for putting other peoples’ lives at risk, his action was harshly judged for not having been disclosed while the DPOC endorsed Donna’s city council candidacy. The irony of this criticism is that the addiction of a spouse is viewed more reproachable and unacceptable than all the money that Disney poured into its candidates’slate, which included Jordan Brandman.
The endorsement did not make a difference anyway. Vern as campaign manager presumably tried his best, but he ended up making Donna’s candidacy an odd one. It started with characterizing her as a “ fiscally conservative” candidate — as if that was the main concern of the working class areas in her district. Many opportunities were missed to make the case that Donna was the better alternative to the corporate backed candidate, who became the council member.
The Vern Nelson Problem in the political realm is his quixotic attempt to blend conservative values with other political traditions, and vice-versa. Sometimes they blend well — and sometimes they don’t. It works well when issues considered non-mainstream become common ground, such as district elections, good government, corporate greed, homelessness.
The unchartered waters of his approach earned him political detractors from differents sides. Among them is the DPOC Communications’ Chair. When you compare them in political terms on issues like corporate greed, as when Disney was granted an entertainment tax exemption at the expenses of generations of Anaheim residents, whether one drinks moderately and the other liberally, the consequences of their political advocacy are starkly discrepant.
At least VPN is not an elected official, a policy maker, a council member, a Senator. Flawed or not as an individual, whether we like his political positions or not, he has made interesting contributions to our discussions, and has kept this diverse”mosh pit” forum available. I hope that this time he finally controls his addiction, and recovers well enough to come back more effective in his quest to “comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.”
This is probably as good a place as any for me to set some things straight regarding “Vern’s 5th DUI.” (This is secondhand based on my memory of conversations primarily from prior to my stroke, so it should be taken as less than definitive, but I’m pretty confident of the broad strokes.)
Vern had gone earlier that day to visit his now-deceased brother who was then dying in hospice. He was deeply disturbed by his suffering. He was to meet someone (other than Donna, as I recall), at a restaurant in Downtown Disney. While he waited, Vern sat there and got hammered. (That’s what alcoholics do if they’re not at the top of their game.) Vern had never expected to drive home under the influence — nor did he. That person didn’t show up. He contacted Donna, who was supposed to pick him up, but he had previously moved the location of the car and both of their cell phones ran out of power so they couldn’t communicate. Unable to contact Donna, or anyone else who might retrieve him, Vern decided to go into the car in the parking lot and sleep it off for as long as necessary.
Had Vern gone into the back seat with his keys in the closed glove compartment, as I understand the law, he would have been fine. Instead, he flopped down in the driver’s sear with the keys in the front with him, as I recall either on the passenger’s seat or floor in front of it. It turns out that one can be charged with a DUI for that, even if — as in this case — the car had not moved an inch.
Instead, this was a misdemeanor charge, which in Anaheim is prosecuted by the City Attorney — at that point, Michael Houston, on whom this blog was appropriately tough at times. At some point, in light of Vern’s previous DUIs, the City Attorney’s office decided to deem this drunk non-driving as a felony charge and toss the case to the OC District Attorney’s office, which was happy to throw the book at a vulnerable longtime political critic.
If I recall correctly, Vern had pled guilty to the initial misdemeanor charge, making the conversion of the charge to a felony the sort of oddity that helps the OCDA’s office stay in the news. My understanding (I don’t think that this came from Vern or Donna, but a mutual friend) is that the judge was surprised to see this prosecuted as a felony — and perhaps at all — but clearly understood that if it had prompted Vern to voluntarily commit himself to an alcohol abuse treatment program, it was a good thing. So further substantive action in the case is awaiting his completion (or, I suppose, abandonment) of the program.
I’ve spoken to Vern a few time (including post-stroke), though never for as long as I’d have liked, and I saw him in person at a recent Anaheim City Council meeting that he was able to attend during his release hours from the program. (That’s right — he used some of his limited “parole time” to attend an Anaheim City Council meeting. If you really want to question his judgment, start there.)
In all of those encounters, he was amazingly cogent and clear-thinking. I’ve never known how much of his usual self-presentation, which falls somewhere on the spectrum between (middle-age references alert!) Dean Martin and Foster Brooks, but closer to the milder booziness of Deano. He is a showman, after all — albeit an extraordinarily overqualified and talented one by most musicianship standards — and he knows that people like a bravura “character,” which is what he often plays when he plays. Regardless, that veneer (or heavy-duty coating, whichever it was) of booziness was gone. He’s always been a clear enough thinker to do some excellent reporting here, far better than mine — I prefer my specialty of analysis pieces to his, but then I would, wouldn’t I? — but now it was clearly in charge of his brain and demeanor.
It’s unfortunate that Vern’s absence here has coincided with my having to downshift abruptly and dramatically when it comes to my participation in this blog, but that’s how the dice rolled. I can still rouse myself to do some writing, occasionally, but for the past couple of months it has been taking a lot out of me. Giving opinions, exchanging barbs, and grinding through analysis is, for me, easy, but coming up with and fleshing out story ideas is harder. Editing others’ work has, for some reason, become miserable; I hope that that changes. In any event, I am well aware of the large-scale blockage that it has imposed on the blog; all I can say is that luckily it’s something from which we can both hopefully, return.
Vern is like a brother with whom I often squabble behind the scenes, but whom I also love and admire. (That makes Donna like a sister-in-law — and that shoe fits pretty well.) It’s strange that he and I are both facing new restrictions — him a complete stop on his alcohol intake, me a radical reduction in salt and a significant one in high glycemic index carbs — as we near the tail end of our 50s. It’s not an easy time to make change — but sometimes life has a way of insisting.
He and I are both very proud of the roles we’ve been able to play in stirring up and skimming out the crud from Orange County politics — and are particularly proud of having made the right enemies, many of whom you’ll be able to read commenting on this story and this comment in Liberal OC, AnaheimBlog, Voice of OC (unfortunately), and hushed tones in corridors in various off-line political sites.
We both understand that people are trying to make an example of the both of us, to make actual effective resistance to the ugliness of OC politics less appealing by implicitly warning those who might agree with us that they might be next if they don’t watch out. (Actually, not “next” anymore — whoever they go after for agreeing with us will have to stand in line behind the awesome and inspiring Victor Valladares, who seems to be taking a more prominent spot on the menu of late. If you can stand with us when we’re right — and you’re welcome to criticize us here and elsewhere when we’re wrong — we appreciate it. If not, that is understandable in a county on the make where revenge for taking on entrenched interests is a blood sport, but we hope that when we can keep writing, you’ll keep reading.
As for Donna’s candidacy, I have no regrets at all about encouraging DPOC to endorse her, nor would I have many had I known the entirely of what had happened to Vern. (At the time, I knew only that there had been some interaction with police, that he had been arrested — and that so far as I could tell from the lack of consequences the whole thing had amounted to nothing. The notion that Donna should be held responsible for Vern’s actions when she has been a strong voice for temperance on his part is extremely irritating — especially when coming from those who identify themselves as DPOC insiders. If Tom Daly’s or Lou Correa’s wife (neither of whom so far as I know has any substance abuse problem) had been pulled over with a DUI — even the nth in a lifetime series — does the likes of a Chumley really expect that they would call a press conference to announce it to the world? There is a spoor of sexist double-standard wafting over criticism of Donna and those of us who supported her underdog campaign — coming from people (so far as I can tell who most of them are, which is not far at all) who would make excuses immediately and shamelessly for any political figure they liked. I presume that readers can fill in my retorts to them without my publishing them there — which is a good thing given that I can’t publish in most of those blogs with any expectation of my writing seeing the light — which is why I no long much bother.
Anyway, all of this this is not intended to detract from Ricardo’s writing — as he is a moralist who repeatedly earns his moralist stripes — but simply to give it, and these days of struggle on these pages — some context.
(And now I will try to recover from writing this in one fell swoop….)
“The irony of this criticism is that the addiction of a spouse is viewed more reproachable and unacceptable than all the money that Disney poured into its candidates’slate, which included Jordan Brandman.”
The opposition to the utterly useless tool Brandman and his Klepto® handlers is precisely the reason for all the animus, and why three or four (or maybe only one!) creeps (plus Lil’ Clumski) have engaged in a pretty low effort to demonize Vern – who is worth more than the lot of the anonymous assholes, drunk or sober.
I don’t know who the DPOC Communications Chairman is, but it sure sounds like someone lacking in testicular fortitude. Maybe they were surgically removed by mistake.
Said Communications Chair is D. Chmielewski.
*You don’t pick on Chairman Vern and get away with it from us! Chairman Vern, with all his moles and whatever…like the rest of us……suffers from insufferable honesty. This is a character flaw of major magnitude…however……it is also as valuable as any Gold Mine in Superstition Mountain. We love Chairman Vern, and he is not only an artist but a giant of expression. These values are invaluable.
We rely on Dr. D., to bring the dust out of the tent…..and prevent the worst of outcomes.
Our hearts go out to Chairman Vern…now and always!
I am sorry to hear about Vern, please extend my well wishes and for a speedy recovery. I am familiar with the disease – my father died from it when i was 10 years old.
A blessing and prayer to Vern.
So. What did I miss? I hear that there’s a new alliance against me, bringing together:
– Huntington Beach racists (who hate me for my advocacy for the Oak View neighborhood, the Ocean View School District, and Gina Clayton Tarvin’s great work there);
– The usual fake-liberal and fake-conservative blog shills of the County’s kleptocracy (who always hated me for telling the truth about their bosses and their boondoggle projects);
– and the usual anonymous police-worshiping sheeple who hate me for frequently questioning the police/DA version of violent events, and calling for more accountability.
Great to see Epting and Chmielewksi such friends now! What would FDR say?
“I welcome their hatred.”
PS. Greg has some details wrong, but he’s right that I wasn’t driving. Thanks for the kind words, everybody. I’ll be full-scale back in action in January!
*TA DAH!
If you see this, please ask Donna to send the corrections to me and I’ll be happy to note them ASAP. January can’t come soon enough.
Seeing the Chumley-Epting bromance blossom is one of the weirdest things I have ever seen in politics. I can’t blame Epting — he needs all of the friends he can get — and I can’t blame Chumley because he’s barely competent. But the Democrats who keep silent in the face of this DPOC leader’s embrace of the Valladares-bashing Trump-imitator — they are simply not doing their job.
If you are hated, what am I and my Trump?
jesus Christ diamond I see you are still typing 5 thousand words when it could easily be done in a couple of hundred. I actually witnessed a guy arrested for sitting in his front seat at a party about 25 years ago he was planning on staying the night but couldn’t light up inside the house so him and a friend went out to his car to smoke and the cops came because the live band was too loud and he got popped. that’s a shitty law he did have the keys in the ignition they were listening to music but weren’t going anywhere. anyway vern and diamond hope both of you are on the mend hang in there little buckaroos and sorry to hear about your mom vern I lost my mom in January so I know how tough it is and especially to see anybody in hospice.
Everyone says it can be done, but no one offers to present an edited version so that I can explain why I didn’t leave some things out….
I agree that the law is what it is. My point is, and has been, that the overwrought hand-writing from Vern’s critics about “his 5th DUI! He was endangering our children!” is hooey.
He broke the law, seemingly without being aware that he was doing so. The law is pretty technical and a bit of an overreach, useful mostly for situations where someone HAD BEEN driving or WAS ABOUT TO BE driving, to take away the technical defense that they were not moving the car at the moment that they were discovered. The reaction you see in the lower rent comments sections around town is intentionally misleading, written by people who defend much worse.
I should add that Nelson is punished by the GOD for letting antichrist Diamond to control this OJB which was founded by Pedroza in the spirit of the Bill of Rights.
Sadly Pedroza lost his control of the OJB when he deviated from the GOD’s way.
Go knock down some historic status you Jewish brown shirts AntiFAs.
Enjoy Nelson!
*Nice to see that Stan the man is back on the beat. You can’t make up DJT….but if you could…..Stan could be the progenerator.
Meanwhile, thoroughness is next to Godliness and for that reason alone, Dr. D is doing and has done yeoman efforts consistently.
Chairman Vern, be strong……as you know “The Transits” can affect all of us and this seems to be one of those cycles that seems to be hitting you rather hard.
Meanwhile, If “The Great Bald Hope” doesn’t bring us into World War III and kill his 2 and half million people…as a diversion… and destroy the entire economy of the Globe……well, maybe his buddy Paul can and will just twist in the wind……every time Rachel lights up her show on MSNBC. Ah, “The Theater”……we so miss the days of “The Bard” and remakes of Julius Caesar and Macbeth!
Meanwhile, our hearts go out to the people of Puerto Rico, The US Virgin Islands, the Iranians and the 22 million folks now on ObamaCare. What do you think Stanley?