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What a year, what a historic election! And your favorite Orange Juice Blog was right in the middle of it all. Our top five stories, all written by our tireless analyst and “managing editor” Greg Diamond, were all geared toward helping voters understand their choices this past June and November; in fact I’ve met several people in the unlikeliest places this past month who said, “You do the Orange Juice Blog? That was so helpful when I voted!” 
And they were probably referring to Greg’s pieces, the most-read of which was the sorely needed one on the judicial races, which had 18,468 readers. The TOP FIVE:
- 2018 Vote #1: Greg’s Recommendations on JUDICIAL Races
- City Council Candidates (and Some Analysis)
- UPDATED! Final* NON-City Council Offices Rosters, Plus “AEIOU Extensions!“
- OJB’s 2018 Primary Picks, Pt 1: Guv, Senate, BOE 4
- Candidate Statements: Irvine Mayor
Way to hog all the readership, Juice Brother! My (Vern’s) most popular pieces of the year don’t come in till #6, and sadly several of them are the accounts (sometimes the only accounts) of the folks who died this year at the hands of Anaheim police – this year tending more to be homeless and/or mentally ill, rather than the young fleeing Latinos of former years.
NUMBER SIX, by Vern: Peter Muntean, latest APD victim, legally blind, mentally ill, unarmed, 24. I’ll be looking into this case more in the coming weeks, as outgoing DA Rackauckas (as always) found the killing officers blameless … BUT there are certain DISCREPANCIES between Tony’s report and what was originally reported, that I’m going to have to examine.
#7 most read this year was MY terse election piece entitled Vern’s Rebel Voter’s Guide, Nov. 2018! Interestingly, Facebook wouldn’t let me promote the piece, because they claimed the illustration I used (Spider Jerusalem, the futuristic Hunter Thompson-like journalist who inspires me) “promoted the abuse of drugs.” What drugs? Do you see any? Does that have to be a joint he’s smoking?
#8, by our friend and guest reporter from San Juan Capistrano, Michael Laux, was his Update from San Juan Capistrano’s Endangered Los Rios Historic District… This piece (and its predecessor) created quite a stir down in that beautiful South County town, and we have some more pieces from down there in the hopper.
#9, Greg again with Auditor Controller Race — Help Me Decide Between Smart and Woolery! I think we all ended up going with the underdog Toni Smart, who didn’t win.
#10, One of my Huntington Beach fire-bombs – Embracing Gracey: The OC GOP’s anti-semitic, islamophobic Lorena Bobbit. Yes, hopefully this helped tank both Gracey Van Der Mark and Dana Rohrabacher, but the important thing is it pissed off Chris Epting and Chuck Johnson!
#11, continuing on my sub-genre of ridiculing insane women involved in politics (who have also threatened either decapitation or castration), there was my Suspension Day for DA candidate Lenore Albert! Wait, I think she’s suing me over that. I’d better look at that packet.
#12, my recent Cunningham’s wife Laura to be appointed to vacant Orange City Council seat. This probably didn’t tilt the council to appointing Beatriz Valencia, but apparently it DID embarrass them out of appointing Mrs. Cunningham!
#13, another of my sad series of Fatal Encounters with the APD: Chris Eisinger, and West Anaheim’s anti-homeless Hysteria. This case also just recently rolled out of the cop-exoneration factory of Tony Rackauckas, who seems to be clearing off his desk. Claims T-Rack, all that damage to Chris’ skull bones as well as his asphyxiation was the SUDDEN result of excessive meth usage! Oh, and what originally “looked like a stick,” (that he was carrying and dropped, and which we guessed was something he was using to retrieve recyclables) now “looked like a metal pipe” – much scarier! Although still it was apparently never retrieved.
#14, and maybe you could say this didn’t help the Cynth-monster enough, but I did my best, and EARLY ON in the game: Why this Progressive Democrat is Supporting Cynthia Ward For Anaheim Mayor.
Let’s keep going till we get to a piece that’s not by Greg or Vern. Let’s see…
#15. For years I’d been dying to get rid of Tony Rackauckas and thought of Todd Spitzer as the far lesser evil, and I came back to that point of view as the fall wore on, but in the spring and summer I was so disgusted by Spitzer’s demagoguic demonizing of the homeless that I wrote pieces like Field of Monsters: Brett Murdock emerges as the only Human Being in the DA race. Although I preferred this one better because it includes Todd’s Dream Journal! (Or Fingal O’Flahertie’s masterpiece “Spitzer’s Piss-gate!“)
#16. Great another HB pipe bomb – CA-48: Harley Rouda gets the DCCC! (While Keirstead has Chuck Johnson’s “Liberal OC.”)
#17. This one, by the unidentified “Anaheim Insider,” was remarkably similar to a press release put out by the Anaheim Chamber of Commerce on the Anaheim Blog singing the praises of Mayoral candidate Harry Sidhu: Harry Sidhu SAVES THE FOURTH OF JULY for rich white people in the Hills! – except EVEN FUNNIER! And it was in the comments section of this piece that we discovered and began to broadcast the fact that Harry impersonated a veteran in that parade! I wish we could say this defeated him, but shit. He’s our Mayor now.
Ah here we go – #18, Busted Sign Thief / Carpetbagger Paulette Chaffee leaves Fullerton Council Race! is by our Ryan Cantor, and DID help defeat a terrible candidate.
Then there are…
The Orange Juice Chestnuts.
The stories we wrote in previous years that people just keep clicking on!
1. Nearly 4600 people this year just couldn’t get enough of Cynthia Ward’s 2016 Steve “Chavez” Lodge is a Very Bad Man (Part One) – the one with the video showing him beating some guy up unprovokedly. Huh? Steve wasn’t running for anything this year. Well, apparently that’s what happens when you keep going out with a controversial “Real Housewife of the OC” Vicki Gunvalson, and everyone keeps getting curious about her off-and-on boyfriend. I get the feeling that, partly thanks to our stories, the Anaheim kleptocracy won’t be running Steve for anything again – apart from his manifold personal failings, is ANYBODY gonna really believe this time around that he lives in District 1, or wherever else they pretend to stick him?
Chestnut 2 was my quick-and-lazy 2016 hit piece Young “Trump” Kim releases ONE year of taxes, makes matters worse! I think some journalist linked to it this past November, I remember someone called me while I was busy (ironically?) knocking on doors for Gil, and I could hardly remember the story. But thanks for the extra 1691 hits, Mr. Journalist! (Maybe that helped Gil a little too?)
People still keep reading my 2014 saga Huntington Beach’s Mobile Home Uprising – which side are YOU on? – over a thousand this year – and sometimes they end up calling me and asking me to write about their OWN mobile home struggles. I wish I had time to help ’em all…
And people are STILL reading Art Pedroza’s sweetly entitled 2009 piece If you were Mayor, what would you do to improve your city? But this year it was less than 1000, so the old chestnuts are starting to fade away.
So let’s move on to a new category…
the “What is Wrong With You People?” category.
The pieces of MINE that I think were the best and shoulda got a lot more readers. (You can do this too, Greg.) READ THESE WHEN YOU’RE BORED! In no particular order…
- Recent APD Fatalities: Is Homeless the New Latino?
- OCBC Luncheon: Snacking and Cackling with the “Masters of the Universe!”
- Something Anti-Semitic in HB’s Air? Tyler Diep Jew-Baits Josh Lowenthal.
- Remembering Phil Anthony: Oh, the Water…
- When Scumbags Collide, pt 2: Dana and Scott Bash Each Other All Day!
- Disney/Wincome $15/hour Living Wage Will INCREASE Anaheim Jobs! AND Fear of a Fiscal Impact Study!
- Panic in Sage Park: The Gustavo Najera Trial.
- Jesús Aguirre Comes Home! (and) James Woo Has to Go! The Buena Park Cop’s Last-Ditch Attempt to Crucify Jesús.
Well!
Greg can add the stories he thought were his best, that you should read if you haven’t. Apart from that, a pretty good year of “comforting the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable” and helping to midwife this-here Blue Tsunami! Well … just wait for 2019, we’re just getting warmed up here still!
Well done, Greg and Vern, and best wishes for a fruitful, joyful 2019.
You too. Write for us next year, huh?
Any time Daly’s HBCF proves how impotent it really is, is time for a good laugh. Everyone of Daly/Eptings stooges lost, except Pretty Boy Gates, who was unopposed. And he got caught throwing a fundraiser for Gracey.
Sadly Tyler Diep, also supported by that crowd, won his race too.
Thanks for your contributions to that effort too, Bob! We see you there on FB and such.
Lenore Albert-Sheridan Is Very Mad At Me!!…just ask Grag Diamond.
Sorry about that, Merk!
Another 15 minutes of my worthless time spent on this blog. Well done gentlemen, and I use the term loosely.
I regret that your time is worthless. And I say that loosely.
Reading that took you 15 minutes? Dang!
Thanks, Vern, (I think) — taking the local races seriously is a pretty much unchallenged ecological niche, sort of like being a bacterium in one of those undersea thermal vents, but they’ve had a pretty good year in the news too.
I hear fewer people appreciating the efforts to inform voters than you seem to have — probably because I’ve spent too much time hanging around DPOC people, who seem neither to realize or appreciate that contribution to local politics — but I know that the readers are out there from the numbers and helping people prepare to vote really is pretty satisfying. Anyone who wants to help out in 2020, I’d be happy to show you the ropes!
Hey, just looked at this blog’s “biggest stories of all time,” and your judicial one is number three – after Larry Gilbert’s Huell Howser interview and Jill Puich’s original “John and Ken” post … passing up my =big 2013 Jesus Aguirre piece which is now #4 with 17,798.
I hadn’t realized that the “John and Ken” thing (which as you know I hate as a lawyer more so than as a Democrat) didn’t come from you or Art!
That story has Juice in it yet: I haven’t had time to do the analysis, but it turns out that the judges retention votes will tell us a lot about who was deeply on the side of Rackauckas and Hutchins in the last election. Be patient, all!
This libertarian schoolteacher friend-of-Art’s, Jill Puich, liked John & Ken’s special elections recommendations so much back in 2009 that she reprinted them on this blog. Every election after that, scads of people would click on that link even though it was no longer the 2009 special election.
That’s when I started our tradition of calling OUR voting guides “John and Ken’s Voting Guides,” while dedicating them to certain people I knew named John and Ken. This was fun for a few years until the KFI show threatened to sue us.
John Saunders LLC is featured prominently in your mobile home story. Since John Saunders was Sandy Genis’s largest donor, your article popped up in Google searches. It was an issue raised in this years Costa Mesa Mayoral race. Sandy lost bigtime.
Another reason for Desal: Happy New Year!
Hinkley water tainted by chromium 6 spreading – SFGate
https://www.sfgate.com/green/article/Hinkley-water-tainted-by-chromium-6-spreading-3167129.php
This is not a reason for desal.
*Flynt, Michigan either…we suppose? Yeah, you and your buddy Peer Swan
have lots of rhetorical reasons against Desal. OK RC…..try to for once think
“out of the box”. Ever heard of “Systemic Supply Issues”. It is fairly simple
Math….you count up how much water you need for the State supply and then you subtract you current available supply. Then you add 15% per year for Capital Expansion, New Residential Uses and Commercial uses. No Desal ..eh? Yeah, then NO further growth either dear friend!
Flint Michigan was caused by an issue with distribution pipes . . .so no, not Flint either.
Would be a lot easier if you weren’t willfully ignorant.
There’s plenty of water to back sustainable growth in this state. There may be isolated markets where desal is appropriate (see Doheny project) but wide scale significant water manufacturing plants are not supported by state laws for electricity production nor basic economics.
We seem to have this same exchange every three months or so. Please get your facts straight.
*RC, sure would love to do just that. So, maybe you could direct us to the proper statistical info that supports your various claims. Also, it would be greatly helpful to actually have you answer questions directly rather than using your typical obfuscation and Halley’s Comet Theorizations! So, far we only have Utah, Oregon, Washington, Arizona and Colorado that might dispute your claims of available water supplies!
This is why we can’t have productive conversations:
“Also, it would be greatly helpful to actually have you answer questions directly rather than using your typical obfuscation and Halley’s Comet Theorizations!”
See you next year for more unfounded nonsense.
“Would be a lot easier if you weren’t willfully ignorant.”
Well, that and profoundly addled. But you keep boldly going into the cuckoo’s nest.
I wonder why people can’t grasp the difference between desal, qua desal, and the specifics of the Poseidon proposal that has environmental, financial and practical problems.
Or that 15% annual growth is wildly insane. OC Register today has annual population growth at 0.34%
I mean it’s just over at that point. It’s overly cumbersome to even have polite conversation with facts that inaccurate.
In any case, every time the ‘Ships ramble about the free gold to be found in the sea, I’ll be there to point out their absurdity.
*RC and DZ, our two buddies again? Well, we have yet to see ANY actual evidence other than your basic lampooning and lack of State, City, County figures that ALL others can easily access to make their own minds up. You both act like you are chatting it up in the Student Lounge of Anaheim High School. The BS is brilliant repartee without any cognitive value that we can grasp. OK, you come up wth your guess-ta-ments and we will come up with ours.
OK, so here is your logic:
https://www.ocregister.com/2018/12/28/orange-county-population-growth-cut-in-half-in-a-year/
*Yeah, with the Trumpster in charge we will get no immigration into the state and therefore the GCP will be way down from the 15-16 Obama Years.
Guess you think The Trumpster is going to get his wall, not fix the poison water and everyone can live happily ever after. Better Call your Culligan Man however.
http://worldpopulationreview.com/us-counties/ca/orange-county-population/
Nothing to do with Trump. It’s been like this over a decade. Much longer in North County where Posideon wants to sell its pirated water.
“…brilliant repartee without any cognitive value that we can grasp.”
Excellent. My work here is done.
That’s because you haven’t read anything published after 1974.
Seriously, ‘Ships. You are decades behind with your facts.
*As Will Rodgers said: “I only know what I read in the newspapers!”
This is the very reason why you never check the veracity of the Provisional or Absentee Ballots on Election Night! You guys already know everything in advance! Meanwhile, in 1974 when California had a population of 21 million
people….today we are fast approaching double that. The stability of potable
water that does not include floating toilet paper as it did back in 1974 is profound. The list of contaminants in your current water supply will choke a horse or two. Bromine is very common as well as high degrees of Household bleach and Chlorine. But then, when you mix that water into your jello salads, you probably can’t tell. So, growth is no longer a problem in California? Sounds right to us…..if we close our eyes and wear a gas mask. The 70’s indeed…….yep: “Everythings Changed” by Lonestar. Play it a couple of times on You Tube or Alexa….and you might get the idea.
“The list of contaminants in your current water supply will choke a horse or two. Bromine is very common as well as high degrees of Household bleach and Chlorine. But then, when you mix that water into your jello salads, you probably can’t tell.”
False.
Again.
*OK, now you pull out YOUR magic list from Peer Swan!
https://www.ocregister.com/2018/08/30/is-your-drinking-water-dangerous-heres-how-to-check-in-california/
Just proved my point, Ships.
I accept your apology.
*And we accept your obfuscation and lethargy!
Go have a long drink from the bottom of any well in The OC with our
compliments!
*From one of your pals in SD. From the SD Tribune!
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Carbon-offset plan just another builder ploy
Oh, yeah, you can buy credits from people who have now turned golf courses into environmental clean zones or, get this, “land banks.” Let me tell you, any plan that talks about building 10,000 homes is causing one heck of a lot of carbon emissions.
The last time I looked we pay a premium for water and electricity. They are a scarce resource in this state. Does that impact not count? When do we reach a point of limited development? Or is this whole issue of climate change just a myth the tree huggers made up?
Peter Malaspina
Carlsbad
Either way, don’t get TOO comfortable –
Wonder if Rod Serling would have been inspired by this ?
By the way, OJ fans: our readership in October and November of 2018 was up by over 26% over our readership in those months in 2016. And no, that was not due to people in 2016 wanting to die rather than read about the election; that year, unlike this year, November was higher than October.
*How much water out of Hoover/Boulder Dam goes to California and California Edison?
Over 50%!
Interesting if true. Do you have a citation for that fact?