You’ll’ve noticed.. nah, you probably wouldn’t-a, but… I have NOT been one of the voices pushing compromised Anaheim councilmembers and staff to resign or be recalled. One thing, there’s something called due process. Another thing, Steve Faessel and Natalie R were both elected solidly and remain pretty popular in their districts which means something. Another thing, I’ve been thinking that Steve at least could turn out to be a good vote on some things (like campaign finance reform) as I know he cares about his legacy.
And a fourth thing, if Steve or Natalie left a vacancy the remaining SOAR-backed majority would just fill it with another SOAR-approved drone like Gloria Ma’ae or Norma Kurtz. Latino for sure, probably young and probably Democrat, and some hack who would look to the other SOAR members for their cues. And then set right to work fundraising for their “re”-election.
But do you know who HAS called for the resignation of Faessel, over his involvement in the secret planning of a series of Mock Council Meetings? Why, Mayor Ashleigh Aitken, Congressman Lou Correa, Senator Tom Umberg, and Assemblyman Avelino Valencia, among others.
So, at the last Council meeting 8/29, Steve defended himself with a ferocity we hadn’t seen before from him, and then proceeded (in what seemed like a strike back at Ashleigh) to propose weakening the Mayor’s authority. Ashleigh’s response to Steve (around 15:00) was… impressive. Hear the whole thing:
I gotta deal with some of this. First and most egregiously, Steve means “imply“ but says “infer.” MORE AND MORE PEOPLE ARE DOING THIS, apparently because “infer” sounds smarter. At some point in the never-ending decay of our glorious English language, this usage will become accepted, sages will throw up their hands in surrender, “infer” will be granted two definitions, including “to imply,” and the precision of our discourse will take another one in the shorts.
Practice sentence: Ashleigh IMPLIED that Steve should be one of the ones resigning, and Steve correctly INFERRED that she was referring to him. ASIDE FROM THAT…
Melahat-Whataboutism
In his umbrage at Ashleigh tarring him with Sidhu/Ament, Steve protests that he never held Ashleigh’s long-ago relationship with Melahat Rafiei against her. Did Steve write this, did he write this part of his statement? I didn’t expect that sort of spaghetti-at-the-wall “whataboutism” from him, it sounds like something certain “consultants” would come up with though. The parallels between Faessel’s relationship to Sidhu/Ament and Ashleigh’s relationship to Melahat are just… non-existent. (Except, “I may have been close to a crook but so were you once.”)
Steve stands accused of having, for three and a half years, facilitated everything bad Sidhu and Ament (and Flint) were doing to our City. Ashleigh on the other hand cut her ties with Melahat NEARLY A YEAR before she became Mayor, and never helped her do anything bad to Anaheim or was even in a position to. (And what the hell would Ashleigh know about Melahat trying to bribe Irvine councilmembers, ripping off her cannabis clients, lying to the FBI, or making the OCPA into a stinking gravy train?)
The worst thing Melahat ever did TO ANAHEIM was foisting Jordan Brandman on us and telling him what to do for seven years – Jordan who was Steve’s ally 95% of the time – and that was way before Ashleigh came to power.
So no. No parallel, no cigar.
.
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The Mock Meetings
The planned MOCK COUNCIL MEETINGS of Sept. 21-29, 2020, in rehearsal for the big Angel Stadium Development Agreement meeting of Sept. 29, were a part of Harry Sidhu’s recent Plea Deal that grabbed the public imagination as they sounded outrageous, and a colorful example of how the Special Interests subverted our democracy. And we hope to present a theatrical rendition of what they might have looked like.
Were they illegal (if they actually happened?) Well, why else would the FBI and prosecutor devote two pages to describing those plans? If they didn’t happen (as one of the “participants” Trevor O’Neil claims, and he could be lying), was the PLANNING of them illegal? Especially as they were planned using politicians’ and staff’s PERSONAL e-mails, betraying a knowledge of at least how bad it’d look to the public?
Illegal or not, think how fucking corrupt this was. Jeff Flint, the CONSULTANT WORKING FOR THE ANGELS, telling our elected representatives WHAT to say, HOW to say it, to make this shitty deal look as good as possible to the people of Anaheim – a deal so one-sidedly good for the Angels that Sidhu reasonably expected for them to pay him a million dollars to push it through. But that wasn’t enough, this was so important, Flint didn’t trust these puppets to do it RIGHT, he wanted THREE REHEARSALS. And with a big priority on preparing attacks against Jose Moreno, correctly anticipated to be the fiercest critic on Council. (And what a control freak Flint is, he must have really been getting paid well by the Angels.)
Illegal or not, you’d think Steve Faessel would remember for sure if something like this happened or not, and say “it did” or “it didn’t.” Instead he says he “doesn’t recall,” and “has no records of it.” Has he looked at his personal e-mails from Sept 2020? I sure woulda. Or did he delete those at some point, and why? Alternately, if he finds them, and agrees that they were reprehensible, maybe he could share them with us? The FBI only shared excerpts. Hello?
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The Wind-up Dolls
We have Mayor Ashleigh now to thank for a new analogy to describe what we decry in Anaheim’s Council majorities – the Wind-up Dolls. (Puppets was getting so old.)
- All as one, they now blame EVERYTHING on the two guys who actually got caught doing crimes – Harry Sidhu and Todd Ament – ignoring that all the damage inflicted on the City took the co-operation of A LOT OF PEOPLE, including them.
- All as one, they cry out that they were “shocked and stunned and angered” to learn about what was going on for years right in front of their noses.
- All as one, they entreat us, “Let’s MOVE ON, and put the PAST behind us – it was just two BAD APPLES, the system is fine.”
- And all as one, they explain that they are “unapologetically pro-Disney” meaning by “unapologetically” “unquestioningly,” as in they’ll give the big-money Disney-led Cabal anything it asks for no questions asked, and implying that anyone who questions that is “ANTI-Disney.”
Steve does all of that, in the speech above. But mostly he justifies himself, apparently believing to this day that everything he ever did on Council was good for Anaheim. I know Steve did many great things BEFORE running for office; I still have his two autographed, illustrated Anaheim history books by my bedside. And he even did a lot of good things while on Council for the neighborhood and community members.
But his MAIN function during the Sidhu years was as one more unquestioning wind-up doll, along with Brandman, Kring and O’Neil, blindly and loyally fulfilling every whim of Sidhu, Ament and Flint. I mean, we saw rehearsed groupthink during the Age of Kris Murray, and again now in the Age of Rubalcava, but never anything like the mindless, craven obedience of 2019-22.
It wasn’t just the Angels deal. Far from it. All as one, like wind-up dolls, Faessel, Brandman, Kring and O’Neil joined Sidhu in:
- Shoveling $6.5 million in COVID funds to Visit Anaheim in the middle of the pandemic just cuz Todd and Harry said to.
- Shoveling Todd’s Chamber of Commerce half a million in 2019 just cuz Todd wanted it.
- Doing that AGAIN later that year, another half million to Todd’s Chamber for nothing.
- Shoveling Todd’s Chamber a no-bid $600,000 contract to build a six-week temporary homeless shelter, mainly enriching the Chamber’s Ross McCune.
- Shoveling the police and fire unions (which had helped elect them all) unaffordable raises, forcing us to “dip into our reserves.”
- Re-instating the Angels lease to devalue the Stadium property for Arte Moreno’s benefit.
- Passing every rule they could think of to silence the Council minority, the only two speaking out against all this.
- And then (Steve, Trevor & Harry) attending the Dec 2020 “retreat” to learn all about Ament’s plans to steer vast chunks of future revenue his way… and these wind-up dolls saw no problem there.
And Steve still thinks all of that was good. I don’t know how much of it was illegal, but it was all dishonest and a crime against Anaheim, and none of it could have happened without the co-operation of Sidhu’s & Ament’s four wind-up dolls.
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Let’s Kneecap the Mayor!
So Steve wrapped up his tirade with his new contribution to “reform,” a plan to take away a lot of the Mayor’s power, which he seemed to think was one of the JL Group’s recommendations, and which he unmistakably presented as a STRIKE BACK against Ashleigh for calling for his resignation – in short, Steve proposed changing our system to a weak, rotating, appointed Mayor, such as one-horse-towns like Fullerton have. A few problems here:
ONE. Steve seemed to think his proposal was based on the JL Group’s second recommendation – to begin with, that is one of their dumber suggestions; Anaheim doesn’t have a problem with a strong mayor. Tom Tait couldn’t get anything done till he got a majority, and Ashleigh is having a hard time now. Sidhu and Pringle were only powerful because they had the right allies and council majorities, and none of these city managers coulda been fired without council majority votes.
It reminds me of Mad King George III, Britain’s king during the American Revolution. There’d already been a “Glorious Revolution” in Britain 87 years earlier, taking most powers away from the King and giving them to Parliament, but George was still able to ACT like a King in the 1770’s because he was a clever and manipulative politician with the right allies. Same with Pringle, and Ament. Not a structural problem.
TWO. Steve doesn’t even understand what JL was recommending. They were talking about somehow strengthening our charter to affirm the strong city manager system, which is not actually in doubt. They never said anything about changing to a rotating, appointed, ceremonial mayor.
THREE, FOUR, FIVE. How would this work anyway? Are we gonna have a six-member council, that’ll risk tie votes? Or are we gonna totally redistrict so that we have seven districts? And no matter what, Ashleigh was elected, pretty overwhelmingly, at large, to a four-year term, so NOBODY IS CHANGING THAT.
Steve wrapped up his modest proposal with the bold challenge, “Colleagues, are we BRAVE enough for THIS type of reform?” I call this a late-night, wacky idea. The kind you regret in the morning.
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Ashleigh Strikes Back.
As I said, many of us were impressed by the Mayor’s response to all this. “What doesn’t kill her makes her stronger.” If you click below I have it cued up to that:
High points:
- “Since the JL Report came out, my biggest fear was that we were gonna hear from this dais that we should just ‘MOVE FORWARD.’ We should just forget about it. I shouldn’t over-react. And we should just put it on a shelf and not deal with any of the problems outlined. And I want you to know that I am absolutely NOT going to do that.”
- She re-states her resignation call a little softer – IF Steve participated in these mock meetings, he should resign.
- Then she makes the case that it’s not enough to not do ILLEGAL things, but that we should expect our Council to be ETHICAL. Examples of NOT ETHICAL: “Having rehearsed meetings with council colleagues so that you are not listening to public comments, you are not being deliberative, you are being WOUND UP LIKE A LITTLE DOLL so that you’re well rehearsed to put on some kind of charade.” “Meeting together with the sole purpose to coordinate an attack on a council colleague (Moreno).”
- Using personal e-mails to avoid records requests and investigations like JL and the Brown Act suit was more than unethical, it was AGAINST THE LAW.
(It’s not true when she says that Faessel’s only suggested reform is weakening the Mayor; he’d previously, repeatedly, pushed for JL’s FIRST recommendation which was the Ombudsman / Ethics Officer.)
- “There’s a saying in Spanish: ‘Dime con quien anda, y te diré quién eres’ – Tell me who you walk with, and I’ll tell you who you are. And if you are only aligned with special interests, if you are only aligned with a corrupt Mayor, and your only suggestion to make this city a better place is to go after somebody that is advocating for reform, I think… I’m not the problem. I think YOU are.”
MIC DROP.
If Steve is reading this: Thanks for bringing BE WELL to Anaheim, thanks for opening up Sycamore School afterhours as a park, and thanks for voting for the Clean Up Anaheim Act last year. I’m not the one putting up all the “Resign Faessel” signs all over the district. We need you to be serious about reforms, and bring back the Clean Up Anaheim Act. Are you and your colleagues brave enough for THAT?
I shouldn’t write these pieces on holidays, they get less readers that way. But whatever…
The “Late” Denis Fitzgerald, for ‘many reasons’,left us much t0o soon….
I can hear him now “These’Disney’,Wind-Up Dolls”!!
Another high point of the 8/29 meeting was Natalie Meeks, after blaming everything on Sidhu and Ament, saying “This is not the tip of the iceberg, this IS the iceberg.”
Quite a contrast from Lou Correa’s statement to the Voice: “The FBI is FAR FROM DONE WITH ANAHEIM.”
“Move along, nothing to see here!”
I wish the fbi would hurry the Fuck up though.
I wouldn’t trust Correa. I sincerely doubt if anybody is telling him anything.
Of course Correa has been the Favorite Son of the Kleptocracy. Remember when they set up Kring and then backed Correa? I do.
Yeah I remember all that, and I’ve criticized Lou so much that he won’t talk to me anymore and pretends not to know me (unless people are watching.)
Doesn’t mean he might not know something about the FBI investigation. And more than Meeks.
I bet he knows nothing. Why would the FBI tell him anything? If you want confidentiality the last person to share with is a politician.
The response from Faessel, or anyone else that received the personal email about the planning of the Mock Council Meetings, should not be, “I don’t recall”, or “I have no record of it”. It should be ( and what they should have immediately responded when receiving such an email)..: “such a mock meeting is totally unethical and maybe illegal and I will not participate”.
How many of the recipients replied like that…?
Zero?
Gee, I’m not surprised.
You are right. It should have been an easy call – except for somebody with no scruples or an utter coward or a simpleton.
One infers something. Somebody else may be thought to imply something.
And Sweet Jesus I’m sick of the media misusing the word existential when they simply mean existent. It’s sounds so much more inaleckshul.
Now I feel a little better.
Faessel is a fucking disgrace of a human being. Vern, you gotta quit holding out hope for politicians who might someday, somehow, somewhere cast a decent vote.
Or one implies something. And somebody may correctly infer what you were implying.
So, about this corruption of “existential,” which I wasn’t aware of, and may be guilty of myself. Is it incorrect to say Trump and his followers are an “existential threat” to democracy? You’re sposta say “existent?” That sounds weird.
Using “existential” to mean something (apparently a threat of some kind – like Trump or Putin, say) that is clear and present is wrong. Existential means something. Or at least it used to.
My understanding of how “existential threat” is used, at least lately by the media, isn’t “a threat that exists” but “a threat to the existence” of something, like Ukraine or our democracy. (Or Israel , when Zionists use it.) That seems to me to comport with its dictionary definition “relating to existence.’
It’s true that Sartre had his way with that word and gave it a very special meaning, just as James Joyce did with “epiphany.”
I see what you mean. But why not simply say real threat or fundamental threat?
I still think media news writers are trying to sound smarter than they are.
The term “existential” is used because “real” and “fundamental” don’t connote the consequences of the threat. As Vern said existential threat is one significant enough, usually in both scope and intensity, to threaten the continued existence of something — usually something significant. While existential threats are usually bigger in terms of catastrophic risk, some existential threats are not existing ones — such as what earthlings would do if suddenly confronted with hostile extraterrestrial intelligent life. Asteroid impacts, by contrast, are existing threats that may also be existential. The Yellowstone caldera may be an existential threat to the United States — but probably not to New Zealand.
But yeah, existential threat is often misused. One could say that UCLA and USC jumping ship was an existential threat to the Pac-10 conference, and not be totally wrong, but saying that Shohei Otani’s injury is an existential threat to the Angels’ future is a bit much. (But sports writing thrives on the bit much.)
Did anybody use it before Sartre? The pedigree goes back to Kierkegaard but who invented the word?
I dunno, I’ve moved on to Scott Baugh’s latest foolishness.
Ah shit. I knew it. Dan just posted that. Of course all he did was copy and paste a press release from the Democrats though, I’m actually WRITING something.
Ok yeah I know all you anonymous dipshits “DAN BEAT YOU TO THIS.” Go suck eggs. MY piece will be worth READING.
You speak in riddles.
The Truth shall be Revealed.
OK here.
https://www.orangejuiceblog.com/2023/09/scott-baugh-woke-ism-is-the-greatest-threat-our-nation-has-ever-faced/
“Faessel said he’d participated in multiple “agenda review meetings,” with other council members, adding that such meetings were “ethical,” and “common,” across government agencies.” From VOC —
This is true.
True, but not the issue.
Name one “rehearsal” you’ve heard of that involved this sort of scripted response written by an agent of a counterparty to a huge contract.
Sometimes I’m thankful for the sound of “crickets,” especially when it comes from Tardif’s front yard.
I’ve been thinking, especially after reading the Voice story linked below, that maybe some of us strain too hard to explain why working-class Latinos should, and DO, care about Anaheim corruption. “It takes away resources that could go to community services,” some of us say, sounding like white liberals.
How about: They know it’s wrong, and they have a conscience! That’s how it sounds to me. They probably thought Anaheim would be less corrupt than Mexico.
I liked what Juanita Ramirez said (in Spanish) at the end of the story: “I want my community to be free of corruption. I want my kids to have dignified lives.”
https://voiceofoc.org/2023/09/anaheims-corruption-scandal-causes-residents-to-demand-reforms/
I seriously doubt any “working class” people of any sort are even paying attention.
Tuesday night, Cynthia called on Faessel to resign. It was kind of intense.
Again: timing is everything. He should resign — but it’s meaningless when he’s only going to be replaced by someone worse. He should take a couple of Natalies with him and leave a 2-2 Council in place to negotiate a reasonable future for the city.
That’s tough to suck up. He needs to go, but of course that would be an admission of wrongdoing. So he can’t.
Funny timing; Mz. Ward is on PBS right now with the BRILLIANT Huell Howser on California Gold!
If you haven’t visited go see the exhibits at Chapman being assembled. His CG crew is doing a remake driving to the California Missions in a Vanagon. Awsome stuff.
All proceeds are going to Huell’s LGBTQ charity.
GOOD SHIT!
A rerun but good stuff!
(PS this was probably intended to be snotty; it comes from an IP used by our trolls – but still, that was a good episode!)
There seem to be 4 or 5 more sections of this…
How dare you spoil the troll’s fun? Snotty attacks are all it has in its pathetic life!
Our Cynthia surely did do herself proud there. I hope we can find the other segments!
They’re easy to find, I’d put em all up had I the time. I’m working on a killer Chamber piece using Gloria’s recent tirade as a starting point.
Wow. Didn’t see that until now. That was astonishingly heartfelt and powerful.
I notice that Natalie Rubalcava has revived the old CABAL trick of leaving the dais during a public comment she does not deign to hear and come back the moment it has ended.
Does she do that a lot? I don’t want to dub her “Rubelcoward” over a single incident. (But I stand ready to dub her!)
A mind is a terrible thing to waste.
Vern, have you been fishing shit out of the trash again? This is the “rimlikker” libel again about our supposedly sending out the above sorts of crap. Let me know if you want this stuff remaining here for some reason.
Of course it is, but this one sounded just so dumb, drunk and deranged, I couldn’t resist.
90% of it is still in the trash. Go look, a buncha new ones!
OK, I looked. It’s like they’re not even trying anymore. “A is licking B’s anus,” ad nauseum (as it were.)
One wonders where they get that particular obsession. Then, thankfully, one stops.
I think they masturbate a lot while writing comments on our blog (and Dan’s, where they get published.)
I believe that IP address is the coin op laundry at Euclid and Ball at Rio plaza. Does that ring a bell girls? You should really check out that strip mall…………Hmmm
This is from the same shit stain who has previously published as “Who is Cater” and illegally assumed the identity of Benjamin Vasquez to attack Dr. Moreno.
You’d think that it would realize that we’re in a new era where people no longer keep quiet about each other — and that some of these attacks could constitute furtherance of a conspiracy.
(Nah … probably too stupid.)