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Vern has a Facebook up post up marking the anniversary of a trio of stories on the release of the first lines presented by the Citizens Redistricting Commission, which were first reported in this blog, before anyone else, exactly ten years ago, which is when I first got involved with OJB. (Has it really been ten years already? It feels like thirty.) And speaking of scoops, with the lines changing sometime I can now publicly acknowledge what AD-65 looks like:
Hopefully, the new districts boundaries will not include an outline of a dog looking back at you over its shoulder to watch you watching it do its business. This is from a series I did to educate DPOC members about the back then about the new districts by treating them like constellations.
You can read the stories from Sept. 30, 2011 about the new Congressional district boundaries, the new State Senate Districts, and the new Assembly districts at their respective links. Note that the Redistricting Commission wants to get a a delay (because Covid) and turn in the final lines by January 14, 2022, so if they’re granted it you’ll see the updates to those stories at that time.
Most of the analysis was plausible enough, though some predictions didn’t pan out (like the Ed Royce vs. Gary Miller fight to the death in the north — Miller instead skedaddled eastward, where he lasted two more terms.) The prediction of the overall shift of the county was right on — but no one in 2011 could have foreseen Democrats winning all seven Congressional seats in 2018. That was nuts. But hopefully Jay Chen can send Trump-loving and sedition-appeasing Young Kim back home next year, and maybe something good will happen in CD-48 as well.
And speaking of CD-48, home of much of Huntington Beach, Vern and my ancestral hometown has been back in the news not only for choosing Rhonda Bolton as its new swing vote on Council — thank you Barbara Delglieze for facing down the madding crowd and bringing the city a little normalcy — but for two stories making national news.
First, Kanoa Igarashi, resident of Surf City but competing for Japan, took a silver medal in the surfing competition in Tokyo. (A Hawaiian competing for the U.S. took the women’s gold. Hard not to feel good for the host country, though!) The story linked is not a recap of his win, but recounting that he apparently now has a mega-ginormous amount of groupies on TikTok and elsewhere who are highly taken with him.
Where there is glory, there is also infamy. A Huntington Beach restaurant owner going by the name of Tony Roman made the news by claiming that he would require customers to prove that they had not been vaccinated. His restaurant, which is named something like ImBecilico’s, has been pushing hard against public health this past year — which is exactly the sort of thing most of us want in a place to eat. If you go there and order a calzone, you should but it open first to make sure that it hasn’t been stuffed with the innards of a My Pillow. My bet is that either he wants the city or county to shut him down so that he might be able to make some money suing them, or that he wants someone to burn the place down for the insurance money. Don’t give him what he wants –including, it seems, Covid.
Speakin’ of which, here’s Vern’s latest:
This is your Weekend Open Thread. Talk about that or anything else you’d like within reasonable bounds of taste and breathing.
Perhaps you may not care that bacon may disappear in CA next year, but what about carnitas and chorizo ? That’s what you voted for ! Enjoy as much as you can in 2021 !
What makes you think I may not care about bacon? You would be wrong!
And not only that, I look really stupid after posting the wrong link ( although it IS an interesting explanation of C-19 immunity – enjoy) Here is the right one. Sorry- Enjoy all those pork products while you still can-
https://www.yahoo.com/news/bacon-may-disappear-california-pig-141827828.html
We can still have bacon. It just needs to meet our legal standards. Iowa doesn’t do it right now? Well, some smart Iowa farmers are going to get totally rich doing it the way we demand and selling us tons of it!
Good for them. but I wonder if that’s a realistic outcome.
The article details a lack of time, and definition by the State, not of farmer wisdom,-
” With little time left to build new facilities, inseminate sows and process the offspring by January, it’s hard to see how the pork industry can adequately supply California, which consumes roughly 15% of all pork produced in the country. ”
” Hog farmers said they haven’t complied because of the cost and because California hasn’t yet issued formal regulations on how the new standards will be administered and enforced. “….”The California Department of Food and Agriculture said that….” ” the key rules about space have been known for years.” ” although the detailed regulations aren’t finished,…”
Perhaps smart farmers would want to know the referee’s rules before joining the game ?
“Barry Goodwin, an economist at North Carolina State University, estimated the extra costs at 15% more per animal for a farm with 1,000 breeding pigs. ” , Another source in the article translated that to a 60% hike to consumers, although unconfirmed, which to me, arriving in the midst of the possible end of both Unemployment supplements and rent/ mortgage moratoriums, might just drive consumers to cheaper alternates, while possible food shortages resulting from the large flooding in China might divert out-of-state supplies there. Smithfield Farms, the largest US pork processor was acquired a year or two ago by a Chinese Company.
We’ll have to wait and see. Meanwhile , more carnitas, please !
Delta John: A Song for the Unvaccinated. (Hope to re-do this soon with a better singer!)
Wanna put this into the story itself?