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On a Midwestern friend’s Facebook page, in which I was engaged in a discussion about whether one can meaningfully generalize attitudes within a demographic group (my position: which there will be deviations from the group norm, doing so still often improves one’s understanding of individuals). I came across a comment another person there that stopped me cold, which I’ll paraphrase:
“Given what happened with George Floyd, I’ll be damned if I’ll vote for someone this year who is LITERALLY a cop!”
My answer was this:
“She is *literally* not a cop — and never has been! Dubbing her “Copmala” was a lie started by some of my my fellow leftist friends in the Californa Democratic Party’s State Democratic Central Committee. When challenged about her not actually being a cop, they say: “Well, but she was part of the carceral system (the term just means “related to jail, prison, and penitentiaries) that has led to mass incarceration!” Still doesn’t make her a cop, of course, but let’s take that argument on it’s own merits:
Yes, Kamala was part of the “carceral system” in that when you prosecute people for serious crimes, one of the likely outcomes is incarceration. Good prosecutors try to find ways to divert people who can benefit from rehabilitation into other sorts of programs, but it’s not always possible or appropriate and so it is hard to avoid entirely when you’re a county’s or state’s chief prosecutor.
And while there is — as Ava DuVernay argued in her fantastic 2016 documentary 13 (for the 13th Amendment) — a continuity between slavery, then Jim Crow segregation, and the loss of the right to vote through prison convictions, that does not mean that any prosecutor is intentionally trying to convict Black people en masse to keep them from voting. (I absolutely do believe that this still happens — and that it was happening in OC, except mostly with respect to Latinos rather than Blacks, until Tony Rackauckas got defeated in 2018.)
In any event, when I’ve challenged their actions regarding Kamala (coming from my position as a Green New Deal and Single Payer favoring Berniecrat and, Occupy veteran who preferred Karen Bass for VP) to make up stories, they tell me that everyone knows it’s not literally true but that prosecuting anyone is being part of the corrupt system. Yeah — and a lie is still a lie, I can now testify that at least some people half a continent away or more did buy it.
But there’s a broader underlying criticism here: that her simply having chosen to be a prosecutor, rather than a public defender of the poor, is about the most regressive thing a law school graduate can do. One person noted that prosecutor positions tended to attract ambitious politicians who try to gain popularity by prosecuting minorities.
That is, I’m sure, true. But it misses most of the story. I replied:
Yes it does. (It also attracted me: I ran for DA in 2014 to kick out a corrupt and flat-out evil incumbent, despite that I’m not a criminal law attorney. He lost in the 2018 election, and I’d like to think that I softened him up.) It’s relatively easy to scare people into voting for the person who promises to break all the rules to protect them — and once they’re scared it’s hard to convince them that they’re really better off in a more just society.
There’s a huge movement in the country to elect progressive and humane prosecutors. A prosecutor’s power can be used not only for ill, but for good.
A prosecutor has the power to decide to let someone go — or not.
A prosecutor has the power to decide to charge someone with a lower level of offense than might be charged — or go for the max.
A prosecutor can decide not to charge people with a higher charge than warranted just to try to negotiate them down into a plea deal just with the threat of a disproportionate sentence — or to misuse the system in exactly that sort of way.
A prosecutor can decide to exclude evidence because of police misconduct — or to let it slide, or even to hide it.
Beyond that, a prosecutor can decide to prosecute people who are usually considered safe from the consequences of their actions, such as corrupt politicians, con artists, and those who systematically violate the rights of workers and the relatively dismpowered.
There’s SO much more. It’s literally the most important office in a county and the second most important in a state.
But if you like public defenders — despite that they are intentionally starved of the resources they need to defend far too large numbers of clients, you’re in luck! Someone who made *exactly* the decision you admire is running for President this year!
His name is Joe Biden. Life is complicated, huh?
While I did head Kamala’s Senate campaign in Orange County against Loretta Sanchez — which was understood to be the worst job in the campaign, and which mostly involved playing possum until Loretta “Woo–Woo-Wooed” herself to national notoriety during a speech in Anaheim — I did not support her for President. But I’m not afraid of her as Vice-President, and even get some pleasure that the dire predictions from the political establishment that this would happen someday, if she were elected to the Senate, did in fact come true. She’s more centrist than I’d like, and more risk-averse — but she’s the polar opposite of stupid and these days that means that she will push for a Green New Deal and for something a lot like Medicare for All once in office. (Covid has finally pushed us to recognize that we really do have a fiat currency.) She won’t ve as hard on the financial sector as I’d like — but, again, she’ll be attuned to the political winds blowing favorably.
As for the litany of supposed horrors that Tulsi Gabbard and others have tarred her with, most of them are misleading, to put it nicely. A couple of them involved Orange County, so let’s focus on those.
First, Kamala gets crap for not taking over prosecutions in Orange County given the pervasive corruption of the then-DA — over whom, you may remember, the DPOC kicked me out for opposing in favor of the now-incumbent. Well, nothing good would have come of her doing so, and everyone with a lick of sense knew it. Rackauckas was deeply embedded throughout the local political scene, with both parties, and it would have been futile to try to get one of our juries to convict any of the wrongdoers. By our votes, to that point, we had shown that we wanted a corrupt prosecutors office. (Actually, it was less our votes that the fact from from after 2002 until 2014, no one even had the guts to run against him, That’s power.) Her trying to prosecute and losing would have only made things worse. If she had had unlimited resources and nothing else on her agenda, maybe she should have done it anyway — but it’s not surprising that fixing OC did not survive triage.
The second thing held against he is that she pushed for parents to be held responsible for their children’s chronic truancy from school — even to the point of facing jail time. That was a mostly empty threat — the idea was to impel them to call in the social work system so that their children didn’t end up not getting the benefit of a public education. (A laudable goal — even if by dicey means.) But everyone in the state seemed to get that this was not just a license to start arresting people — except for one city: Buena Park, where Chellie Pingree was arrested because her daughter kept on missing school due to the effects of sicke-cell anemia!) It’s sometimes said that no law is completely foolproof — and Buena Park (I think it was just the cop, not the school board) proved it. I don’t put that on Harris’s tab; if abuse occurred elsewhere, this seemed to be the only case that became known.
I’m sure that we’ll go over more of the accusations against he in comments, and I may update this accordingly. But take the main point here: that the main criticisms of Kamala from my friends on the left seem to be wildly overblown.
This is your Weekend Open Thread. Talk about that, or whatever else you’d like, so long as it doesn’t create too much heat during the torrid upcoming week.
*The so-called HUGE International UAE/Israeli Peace and Normalization Agreement involves 9.5 Million United Arab Emirates, of which; 6 Million are Expatriates! To put this
in proper perspective:Michigan has a population of 9.8 Million people. Meanwhile, this FABULOUS Jared Kushy designed Agreement is supposed to stall the current Bebe Netanyahu takeover and Annexation of the West Bank and Gaza as Israeli Territory……Looks bad folks without a principled two state solution….to us.
Go Biden/Harris 2020!
“First, Kamala gets crap for not taking over prosecutions in Orange County given the pervasive corruption of the then-DA — over whom, you may remember, the DPOC kicked me out for opposing in favor of the now-incumbent. Well, nothing good would have come of her doing so, and everyone with a lick of sense knew it”
That’s called being a coward.
It’s more like writing off OC — as Newsom did that day when he closed LA beaches and/or bars but not those in OC, (He closed ours the next day.) It’s only cowardice if her office had sufficiently unlimited resources that they could spend a good part of their budget turning OC into a non-self-rule colony. Sure, we deserved it — but that was not a good use of her departments time, money, and access to the public’s attention span. Letting voters take care of it was, unfortunately, reasonable. I’m just glad that we did.
I can’t say I’m surprised with your rationalization of her refusing to do her job so she could focus on the Senate campaign you volunteered to work.
She’s not a good person, Greg. I hope you don’t have to learn this the hard way.
RC….your broken clock as usual is only right twice a day and this is not one of those magic moments. Kamala has come from a broken background, bi-racially incorrect and full of no promise. She has brought herself up by the bootstraps….not unlike Melania Trump….evidently your hero.
Biden/Harris is a great ticket and if you can name one politician in California
that you like better, other than our dear John Moorlach…..we can’t wait to hear who that might be.
I don’t know who the hell you think you’re talking to, but you really need to be quiet.
Wow Ryan, you don’t cease to come up with rude responses. You may disagree with Ron&Anna but don’t tell them to shut up. And then you complain when people don’t treat you nicely.
I didn’t tell them to shut up, Ricardo. You did. You’re welcome to take your own advice.
If you’d like to contribute something of material value to this site, please do so. Chiming in three times a week to complain has gotten old.
*In other news….you may have heard that So Cal Edison has moved the last of the Nuclear Waste at San Onofre from Wet to Dry Storage, allowing for the dismantling of the entire Nuclear facility. However, being the the Yucca Mountain option for all Nuclear waste is currently off the table…..”What is Dry Storage of Nuclear Waste according the NRC?” What if they get a leak? What if there is breach of some sort? All the Nuclear Waste around the country is now being stored next to where the Nuclear Power Stations have been created. This is a National disgrace and a very, very dangerous option for American Security. Where is the DHS…..and what is their read? They say, that if we had a catastrophic event at San Onofre, it could have a 50 mile impact radius..Probably, nothing to worry about eh?
Greg, how come you did not choose a more local, Orange County, situation to frame your post? Most of the relatives of the people killed by the APD don’t like Kamala.
Vern, Greg, this guy makes a lot of demands and contributes absolutely nothing in return.
Might want to reconsider the policy regarding dead weight, but that’s up to you.
Nothing in return….you have short memory, pal. The Winships and I contributed the few posts to this blog when Vern was thrown under the bus during the Galloway issue and his recovery.
I have disagreed with your apparent dissenting GOP-Trump views, but I didn’t expect this Trumpian twist, to cancel dissent.
Anyway, go ahead and explain your misogynist statement that Kamala is “not a good person”. This is in the same vein of repeating your party lines about females candidates, like NancyPelosi was ” a far left” person.
Your Young Republicans groupies became the party of Trump, and you continue being an enabler.
PS, Greg is big enough to explain avoiding a local OC example to anchor his post.
Look you condescending little turd:
Yes, you contribute nothing. You complain a lot.
I don’t have Trumpian views. File that lie under the pile of nothingness that you contribute.
“Not a good person” is not misogynistic. Get a dictionary.
I don’t have party lines and I’m not trying to cancel you. Perhaps I should though.
I don’t have Young Republican groupies.
So here we are, yet again, with you running your mouth spouting out electronic diarrhea without any regard to the truth, because you feel your bias is more impactful to society than actual truth.
You’re a waste of time and space, Ricardo– like any other liar. I think we should treat you like the leech you are.
I dunno, you’re kind of a putz too.
You don’t know if I’m kinda a putz?
Step up your insult game, Chief.
says the guy who lives in Savanna GA!
What foolishness.
Vern, there is no doubt that the police unions are a big factor in maintaining the systematic racism. I stated this at the beginning of my disagreement with you, when you took a Trump supporter as a champion of fighting a police state.
The Koch type of arguments at the VOC on this issue, confirmed that many of the backers of Ms Iglesias were not genuinely concerned about police repression and white supremacy, but just to take a shot against unions in general. Did your read Moorlach’s op piece supporting her?
My beef with Greg’s article on Kamala is that the blog primary focus is Orange County stories. He chose another of his fictional West coast friends to frame the post, knowing that there is plenty of material and situations right next to you, You’re the editor, and I am looking forward to your assessment of Kamala’s impact on the local criminal justice movement.
As the editor of this blog, you should advise Ryan to cool it. This bromance has turned into an abusive relationship. As Dema used to say to him, go back to your sofa.
*yawn*
That’s pretty sad you think you’re being abused,, Ricardo.
It’s Tuesday. I’ll count all of that as just one. Can’t wait for number three!
This blog often covers state, national, and international politics — as well as culture and whimsy —in addition to local politics. In the case of this post, I noted three OC ties to her political history: the hostility of the local Dem establishment, and Buena Park PD being the only entity I’ve found that abusively extended her truancy policy. So — even if there were a rule that WOTs have to focus on local issues (which there isn’t), your comment doesn’t make sense on its own terms.
Ryan can take care of himself, but I will note that your memory of who did most of the writing while Vern was convalescing is way off.
I don’t know whether something is temporarily wrong with you that will lead you to ask me to delete these comments later. Are you doing ok?
Ricardo: I don’t think I’ve ever known anyone who more desperately needed to start their own blog so they can run it as they want.
Do you remember when we first met in person? When you handed me a disk or folder (I can no longer remember, because the form of media was not the weird part) and asked me to pass it along to Vern — who was bemused that I had unknowingly passed onto him a bunch of criticism and complaints? (Vern can correct me if I’m wrong about the contents, but that’s the way to bet.)
We’re not here to make you happy and we’re not here to take your shit. We’re here to write the blog that we want to write, because that’s satisfaction is the only compensation we get (aside from meeting some nice people and having some good influence on the world) for the large amount of time we put into it.
Your demanding that we do everything your way was also weird and has almost as long been tiresome. Now it has reached obnoxiousness. We’re going to write what we want to write because we can and we like it. If this triggers you in some way amd makes you think of Pinochet, you’d best keep your distance.
I didn’t respond to your last tirade weeks ago because I was afraid that giving you the response you deserved was likely to break your fragile and highly sensitive mine, and I didn’t want that on my conscience. Now, I feel less constrained — but I’d like to wait until our election coverage ends. Regards to Dora.
The thing that irritates me the most about Ricardo lately is that whenever any of us RIGHTLY criticize police unions, he acts like that’s some cliche-Republican anti-union stance.
Fuck Police Unions! We’ll be going up against the Anaheim one once again this year as they back Avelino Valencia, Stephen Faessel, and will fight the Recall of the most generous Harry Sidhu. Last election they gave us Jordan Brandman, Trevor O’Neil, and Sidhu.
Why do they back these awful politicians? Because not only do they resist any push for accountability and transparency, but they also give the police unaffordable sweetheart deals like the contract back in February that pushed us into debt right before COVID hit.
Now with that contract, we Anaheim taxpayers are DIRECTLY paying the salary and benefits of the UNION BOSS – 400K a year! We’re the only city in the county that does that. In every other city the union leadership is paid out of the members’ dues. Does this mean Anaheim cops won’t have to pay dues any more? No, of course not! It just means MORE of their dues will be freed up to go to more lobbying and campaigning – for people like Avelino, Sidhu and Faessel!
FUCK POLICE UNIONS. And now they’re endorsing Trump:
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/new-york-democrats-angered-nypd-union-endorses-trump
Vern, I replied to your comment but somehow it was placed in a different section of this thread.
Vern, there is no doubt that the police unions are a big factor in maintaining the systematic racism. I stated this at the beginning of my disagreement with you, when you took a Trump supporter as a champion of fighting a police state.( See above reply to you with further elaboration)
Let me address your two colleagues’ wild personal attacks. I had stopped participating in this blog, after the first Adelanto discussion. Later Greg asked me to contribute a post about the current situation in Chile. I kept my participation frozen until you came up with the ad supporting Ceci Iglesias. When I questioned the current political stance of the blog, the personal attacks started.
Ryan’s disqualification of my character (little turd, liar, leach) was shocking. It reminded me of Pinochet’s CIA- trained torturers dehumanizing opponents. I wonder if my name was Richard Bull, it would’ve restrained his racist bias. My opinion of his dubious anti-Trump stances and his sectarian/partisan GOP agenda, is based on my observations of his opinions in the blog. He suddenly became the record-keeper of how many times I comment or what I’ve commented (overall I may have contributed more posts than him, and stuck out my neck on critical moments several times)
Greg keeps using the Karl Rover tactic of making the suggestion if you disagree with him, it is because one has personal problems. He may be still in some kind of therapy of whatever mental problems genius like him have, but that does not justify smearing people who politically disagree with him.
I no longer care to read what he writes, but he made such a fuss about the blog being locally focused in one of our exchanges. On this very relevant issue of criminal justice and Kamala, he did not have the cojones to address the experience of the relatives of people killed by the APD and Kamala’s role.
You’re the owner and editor of the blog. Remember when you used to play Silvio’s songs :You kill one monster, and a bigger one appears.
You go from turd to Pinochet?
That has got to be the most turd like thing anyone has ever said.
That’s three, by Wednesday. You beat my prediction by a whole day.
Congratulations, Ryan. It’s always nice to see someone present a six-word sentence that has never before been uttered in English!
Wow, I didn’t read this all of the way through until now. Last of his little thunderstorm that I read.
Ricardo, lots of people are having lots of trouble coping with the pandemic and isolation, and often lashing out at others. Your posts here, seriously, seem to show a serious discontinuity with your previous persona. It’s not just that they’re mean — you’ve always had that in you — but that they’re disjointed and relatively nonsensical. So I asked if you were ok. That is not saying that you are not ok — it is asking if you are ok Period.
The only therapy I’ve ever been in is for depression — and it turns out that my anti-depressants work very well for me, so with that and a job I’m fine. Thank you ever so much for your concern about my “genius problems.”
I’m putting you on moderation. You are welcome — seriously, welcome — to post your view on the issues. I think that the response you’ll get if you keep characterizing people and making unreasonable demands is not good for you during this difficult period — because I’ve only set my dial at 3 today and it goes up to 11.
Go relax a while, and start your blog about how much OJB sucks because we don’t do it your way — or whatever else, if anything else, occupies your mind these days.
*Yeah, the RC has lost it. He realizes that when Biden/Harris Triumph in November, that his little ball game is over. Hilarious, but this so reminds us of 1960…when we had the opportunity to make the Republican Party a true Conservative Voice of reason, with people like Joe Pyne and Clete Roberts and a whole bunch of real Americans. But instead they sold out to the Moderate Wing of Rockefeller and Kuchele and the whole Earl Warren world of Elitest Bankers and bullshit. Ah, but we cannot relive the past…that is for sure. All we can do is realize or attempt to make Republicans realize that when we voted for George Wallace against Nixon…..Humphrey…….there might have been something essentially wrong in the Republican Party that was unfixable. When Nixon dumped Spearo Agnew…..for the Milk money….that about clinched the deal. The Ghost of Helen Gahagen Douglas raised her head and told the entire story, which The Trumpster is now using as his playbook Horseshit and Feathers my Pappy used to say, before he sold out the Brotherhood of the Bell. Not to worry, When AOC is President stuff will change and we will have our country back.
Winships,
I’ve been a never-Trump person since the beginning.
You’d know that if you bothered to read anything before reminiscing about your life before one too many hits.
Ryan, Where do YOU live and raise your family?
What does that have to do with ANAHEIM politics?
Let’s be HONEST and TRANSPARENT!
Just Sayin’
Who gives a damn, stranger? Where do you get the authority to decide Ryan has no right to care and opine about a town he knows well?
In the country where I live, a cat can look at a king.
*That’s all well and good Chariman Vern, but the reality is that when you pick on a solid ticket like Biden/Harris…..you do have to wonder….eh?
With your mom.
Ask a stupid question, get a stupid answer.
*There go again RC -“Stupid is as Stupid does!” and sure enough you are always ready to step up to the plate with your non-productive invectives!
“Vituperation Central”…..is that your Home or Business Address? Ya see,
if you Talk like a Trumpster and act like a Trumpster and wear your Trump
T-Shirt and hug your Trumpy Bear when you get home at night…..some people
might just begin to wonder!
I’m gonna try this one more time.
I have never, nor will I ever, support Donald Trump.
You need serious help. This isn’t the first time you’ve failed a simple reading test.
So you live with MY Mother?
You are a petty little brat. Who thinks he knows EVERYTHING.
My point was I heard from my Fullerton friends that you and Rebecca moved to Georgia earlier this year because of her job.
I don’t give a shit where you live or what you do. I find the OJB double standard to be ironic and against what Vern,Greg,you the other guy(can’t recall that blowhard name) spout.
GO AHEAD AND PLAY YOUR BULLSHIT GAMES FROM 3,000 MILES AWAY.
Meanwhile we can listen to Diamonds totally complete BULLSHIT theories about Yessina Rojas. That speaks volumes about you two faced assholes.
Enjoy Georgia.
I don’t know what you’re talking about, Jeff.
Speaking of knowing everything, did you notice this entire thread has absolutely nothing to do with Anaheim?
I clearly pissed you off at some point in your life, enough for you to pick a random fight on a random blog over a random point.
Might want to let that one go, buddy. If not, you’re welcome to air your grievance here, but it you should probably put a name with the hate.
That’s so funny! I had presumed given his response that this must be an Anaheim thread — but you’re right, it’s not! It’s one of our horrible national politics threads! Oh, the pain!
We would have a problem with Ryan living in Georgia… IF HE WERE FUCKING RUNNING FOR OFFICE IN THE O.C.!!! Can you wrap your Jeff head around that!?!? (And the other blowhard is Zenger.)
Oh yeah, if you knew anything about Yesenia, you’d know how to spell her name.
The more I think about her turnabout on Faessel, whom she at one time planned to run against (!), the more I think I’m onto something. Maybe we’ll find out more after the election.
That could be part of it. Faessel has done her a lot of favors. He made some neighborhood improvements she’d been agitating for (better streetlights etc.) Apparently he was ONE Anaheim figure (along with Tait and Zapata) who accompanied her to her Mexican hometown to help out there. And we THINK he probably helped her get better housing, miles from Anna Drive. I’m not surprised she has some loyalty to him. But she’s turned into his attack dog.
This joker, who’s probably Mardahl, really goes all out as “Colmon Aldridge” in the comments section of the kleptoblog’s latest story about me. What a febrile imagination! And so populated by us!
https://www.anaheimblog.net/2020/08/18/progressive-vote-buying-and-cancel-culture-in-district-5-race/#comment-21984
Hey, did you see the comment that’s been up for five days telling Dr. Moreno to go back to Mexico?
Yes! “This small man needs to go back to Sinaloa or Oxnard,” opines someone calling themselves “No More Moreno.” https://www.anaheimblog.net/2020/08/11/moreno-telegraphs-rationalizations-for-opposing-covid-19-recovery-plan-tonight/#comments
Something Matt sees no problem with.
Actually now I think of it, I should be writing stories these days, I’ve been learning so much…
Stephen Faessel impressed me a little when he first came into office and named Tim Houchen, a former homeless man and tireless advocate, as his representative on the Housing Commission. But Faessel went through a lot of werewolf-like changes once he became part of a majority, although you wouldn’t know it looking at or talking to him.
He asked Tim to resign and Tim refused, so he just started ignoring him. Now Faessel’s go-to man when he needs advice or a representative on the homelessness issue is … wait for it … wait for it … MATTHEW CUNNINGHAM. The guy whose experience with the homelessness issue was riling up East Anaheim / Orange NIMBYs against the Kraemer shelter and the riverbed denizens. (We learned that last bit first from Ricardo! TABOO JUBAL told the whole story: http://www.orangejuiceblog.com/2015/09/taboo-jubal-does-cunningham-have-a-new-strip-club-client/)
This was soon after Faessel hired notorious WEST Anaheim anti-immigrant nativist Amanda Edinger … as a POLICY AIDE! (And later refused to stand with his patron Lou Correa against Trump’s noxious Public Charge Rule Change that makes it much harder for Anaheim immigrants to become legal and much easier for them to be deported.) Jason Young and I outed Amanda in THIS 2014 article, back when she was Jordan & Lucille’s appointee to the Districting Committee, as a dependable vote AGAINST Districting because it would give Anaheim Latinos more of a voice (even though Jordan had promised Democrats to support districting, and he’s never explained why he chose Amanda.)
http://www.orangejuiceblog.com/2013/05/the-anti-immigrant-nonsense-of-amanda-edinger-the-brandman-kring-appointee-to-anaheims-districting-commission/
So Cunningham’s and Faessel’s anti-immigrant bias is low-key, but there. At the least, Steve doesn’t want to lose any Trump voters. And I’m sure Matt has no problem with his readers telling Jose to go back to Sinaloa.
Hi Jeff,
I’m the Managing Editor here, which includes managing our comments section so it doesn’t turn into a sewer pipe.
You’ve engaged in “doxxing,” which in the extreme can become cyber-harassment.
You’re also anonymous and are using multiple IP addresses.
I’ve put you on moderation. If I can definitively verify your true identity and make it available if subpoenaed to those whom you arguably defame or harass and initiate legal action, then you can stay here,
Or, you could reform your ways and not engage in defamation and doxxing.
If you do neither, you can send your comments to us and we’ll read them in the moderated comments section, which we try to get to at least once a year so that we can make fun of them. Look for an email soon.
Well, Gabriel San Roman has written the piece that I thought would be written on this blog, and it’s good: https://www.gabrielsanroman.com/post/slingshot-kamala-harris-is-no-friend-to-justice-in-oc
Gabriel’s new blog or whatever is called the Slingshot, and I think he’s been doing better work than ever.
“…Many Orange County Democrats welcomed the news (of the Kamala choice) with great enthusiasm, flooding social media feeds with photos they’ve taken with Harris at various liberal functions. She’s the first Black woman on a major party ticket, after all. But the announcement should’ve been met in OC with a collective fit of fury, or at least pangs of melancholy…”
Put me down for the pangs of melancholy. Meanwhile, to balance that off, our occasional homeless contributor Robert Sparks writes:
“This is the most important election of my lifetime. There is no way this country can survive another four years under this regime. And while Biden appeals to me like a shot of toothpaste with an orange juice chaser – and Kamala never cracked my top 5 of preferred VP choices, I cannot in good faith sit the presidential election out and simply hope California goes Democrat.
“If it were any other presidential election, with a semi-competent repug candidate, it would be easy to take the vote for granted and just focus on the local props and races. But knowing that the fix is already in and that tRümp is blatantly trying to steal the election in broad daylight because the GOP, a party full of treasonous backroom swine and a base made up of ignorant paste eating idiots, has emboldened a narcissistic two-bit dictator allowing him to go unchecked.
“I can’t rest easy knowing that repugs are running more scared and desperate than ever and will stop at nothing to do what they do best which is rig the election in their favor through fraud and voter suppression. It’s no longer a safe bet to assume that California will remain blue. As much as I’d rather zero in and focus on local props and races instead, I have no other choice than to throw back a bottle of Dramamine, hold my nose, and vote for Biden/Harris.
“When it comes to candidates and unattainable purity tests no one eats their own better than the left. This is not the election to sit out or to cast a thumb sucking protest vote because your preferred candidate didn’t get the DNC corporate nod. I myself find the choice to be disappointing, but I also know what’s at stake and knowing what absolute monsters tRump and the GOP are, I’m willing to lose my stomach contents if it means ridding the White House of that treasonous orange predator bastard and his merry band of racist, homophobic, misogynistic psychotics.
“I will be voting masked and in person. Fuck it. At this point I would play naked Twister with a leper covered in dripping pustules if it means removing that walking excrement of trash from the White House.”
GSR should do what I’m doing: making a gentleperson’s agreement with some trustworthy voter in a swing state that I will vote for the green, rose, or even gold candidate (that’s “Green, Peace & Freedom, or even Libertarian”) if they will vote for Biden in their state. I did this in 2016, too, and I enjoyed voting against Hillary and enjoyed that she got the vote where she needed it most. (If enough other people had done this, Hillary would have won the election — and still won California by over 4 million votes. Then we’d all be sad now, rather than angry and terrified.)
*Biden/Harris…….the World and God are Great!
*In other news……the Anaheim Colonists are still kicking Fullerton’s butt, even after
losing Mickey Flynn some years back. Can’t wait till Fullerton changes their name
from the Fullerton Indians…..to the Fullerton Injun’s! Or maybe Kalija Tech! Or was that
Kaliga by Hank Williams.
Hey ! Bet you haven’t heard about THIS (Win bar bets !) Finally a BENEFIT to Global Warming !
Putting aside the original topic, I think Kamala is a bigger liability than people would think. The idea behind Joe Biden was to appeal to the moderate and even try and pick off Trump’s support base (i.e. white surburban voters) which makes sense. Kamala theoretically plays to the minority base, so in theory, the Democrats have both bases covered with each candidate.
Putting aside Kamala’s professional background, I think it is possible she somewhat opposes what the choice of Biden was. I really don’t think that white suburban voters will be sold on her and will likely stick with Trump and Pence. I am not really sure what they are trying to target….is it progressive ? moderate ? come off as moderate then go progressive ? It is not clear.
That leaves the Democrats to try and pick up higher voters from minorities and younger which were weak for Bernie. I think the overall election will be nearly even by the time election day rolls around and the most consequential event will probably be the VP debate since there is only one.