Let me begin with the important message: The Orange County Grand Jury has been busily devising policy suggestions to protect the people and our land from Michelle Steel and politicians like her. But the best thing YOU AND I can do is to STOP VOTING FOR CORRUPT POLITICIANS LIKE MICHELLE STEEL.

Now…

OC Grand Jury 2022: Kicking Ass, Taking Names.

I submit that the above should be the title of this year’s Grand Jury’s Complete Reports, as it has apparently been their motto. They have kicked ass, and they have taken names (although they don’t use those names in their actual reports, but it’s easy enough to figure those names out.)

In the absence of a District Attorney who gives a damn about political and public corruption, this year’s Grand Jury has gone after OC’s most deserving and important targets, giving us in just the last few months:

• The Big A Lack of Transparency, which helped with the FBI exposure of the Anaheim kleptocracy in May;
• OC Power Authority Come Clean! – a timely call for more honesty and accountability from our pioneering community energy program;
• and just this month an exposé of Supervisor Andrew Do (former assistant DA and crony of Sheriff Don Barnes) singlehandedly kneecapping the agency tasked with overseeing the Sheriffs.

The report we’re discussing today might seem like a smaller deal – a near-giveaway of expensive Newport land to a longtime political contributor, pushed through by Michelle Steel back when she was Supervisor – but it’s indicative of the general culture of corruption around here, and SHOULD have some impact on this year’s election.

Sweetheart Deal for old Buck Johns!

It was the Voice of OC‘s Brandon Pho who broke the story of this sleazy deal last year, but this blog has the advantage of being familiar with Buck Johns, the beneficiary of Michelle’s public largesse. Old Buck’s been a mover and shaker in OC GOP politics since the 70’s – he dates back to when the County was populated by “short redneck hillbillies.”

We last wrote about him in 2013, sardonically, in “Buck Johns, Titan of Industry” when he was soliciting investments from other Newport millionaires, for another one of his numerous failed EB-5 projects. Before that we became acquainted with him during the failed Fairgrounds Swindle of 2009-2011, as the inseparable sidekick to reptilian mastermind Dave Ellis. (Now, if THAT had succeeded, it woulda been the largest theft of public lands in OC history UP UNTIL the Angel Stadium giveaway which we activists ALSO defeated – but it does show an ongoing pattern with Buck –public lands that he craves should be HIS, for pennies on the dollar.)

So a few years ago the wealthy Newport homeowner looked out at his beautiful Back Bay view and decided he wanted to make his back yard bigger, by a third of an acre. Sure, that was public land, given to the County long ago by the Irvine Company and enjoyed every day by hikers and equestrians, but it would add a lot of value to his property, and Buck was pretty sure he could get his hands on it for next-to-nothing!

Long story short Buck hired an appraiser who valued the parcel at a measly $13K, a startling contrast from similar nearby parcels which went for as much as a million! And in short order Supervisor Michelle Steel (a frequent recipient of Buck’s campaign bucks) was pushing the deal through – a startling contrast from the usual county policy of HANGING ON to public lands.

In fact, two lies were spread by Steel/Buck county underlings, both disproven by the Grand Jury – that this was nothing but normal procedure for when a private homeowner wants to purchase public property – IT IS NOT – and that there was a history long ago of this property belonging to Buck’s family – THERE WAS NO SUCH HISTORY.

TWO THINGS WENT WRONG for Steel and Buck though: One, THE PEOPLE FOUND OUT WHAT WAS HAPPENING – oh, how they hate it when that happens! – and outrage among the locals soon resulted in a petition with over 1300 signatures – six times what was needed to slow down the giveaway;

And two, as a silver lining to Steel’s 2020 election to Congress, voters replaced her with the first honest Supervisor we’ve had in decades, Katrina Foley – who pulled the whole proposal the moment she was able to. More recently, she uncovered the trove of Buck’s e-mails back and forth with Steel’s office and released them to the Voice and the public, so now you can click here and marvel at both Buck’s shamelessness and his comical illiteracy!

And in a final example of Buck’s Truculence, he’s refused for a year now to remove the chain link fence (left) he erected around the property he craves, making it de facto his property and illegally keeping the public off it – and the County still refuses to do anything about it! One local activist swears to Brandon, “If it is the last thing I accomplish in my life, it will be to get that goddamn fence down.”

The Grand Jury concludes with a grab-bag of constructive solutions to situations like this – better notification of public and Coastal Commission, more accurate record-keeping, etc etc … but really, as I said at the outset, you and I need to stop electing corrupt politicians like Michelle Steel. And keep electing honest ones who serve the public, like Katrina Foley.

Why Would Anyone Vote for Commie-Loving Michelle Steel Anyway?

I mean, who DOES that?

Primary results from June 2022

We can assume that, in the newly created Asian-plurality 65th Congressional district, a large percentage of Republican votes come from Little Saigon, Little Saigon where politicians call other politicians they don’t like “Communists.” And sure enough, the old-school Republicans Michelle Steel and her puppetmaster/husband Shawn, no knowers of new tricks, have been absurdly calling their opponent Lt. Commander Jay Chen a Communist, on no basis at all.

But WHO’S THE REAL COMMIE IN THIS RACE?

Two Facts Anti-Communist Little Saigon Voters Should Know:

1. As soon as their friend Donald Trump was elected President, the Steels set to work hooking him up with ACTUAL COMMUNIST CHINESE OFFICIALS who were hoping to influence his policies. You can read ALL about it in the Wall Street Journal.

2. In an extreme contrast, Lieutenant Commander Jay Chen (whose parents just happen to have come from anti-Communist Taiwan which is constantly under threat from Communist China) spent years on the Korean peninsula defending South Korea from the North Korean Communists. That’s right, Jay spent years defending Michelle’s family and friends from the totalitarian regime of Kim Jong-un. And these two Steel chickenhawks, who have done nothing in their lives to defend this country except to help the rich get richer, have the UNMITIGATED GALL to call Lt. Commander Jay Chen a “commie.”

TWO OTHER FACTS that seem especially relevant in this reactionary time: Michelle Steel, a real throwback to the 50’s, has always opposed a woman’s right to choose, and has always opposed same-sex marriage.

SO. If you want your Congressmember to be a Chinese Communist sympathizer who gives away public lands to her contributors and wants to make abortion and same-sex marriage illegal, then by all means vote for Michelle Steel this November 9.

And IF NOT, then this would be the guy you want:

Jay Chen for California’s 45 / Veterans for Congress