[Jack Foster illustration for “Santa Has the Mumps” by Sharon Sala]
I simply want to let it be known that insipid Jimmy Fallon’s insipid “couple name” for Donald Trump and Elon Musk — “Elonald” — is NOT the official couple name, as anyone with an operating sense of humor should already know.
By Orange Juice Blog decree, their official couple name is: “The Mumps.” This is appropriate in too many ways to express here.
This is a regular Open Thread. Standard Neshanian Rules apply and will be enforced viciously and disproportionately. Have fun, have a fulfilling Festivus, air grievances that don’t involve how women of color and intrinsically racist (Eric), along with whatever other holiday(s) of your choice you celebrate.
About Greg Diamond
Somewhat verbose attorney, semi-disabled and semi-retired, residing in northwest Brea. Occasionally ran for office against jerks who otherwise would have gonr unopposed. Got 45% of the vote against Bob Huff for State Senate in 2012; Josh Newman then won the seat in 2016. In 2014 became the first attorney to challenge OCDA Tony Rackauckas since 2002; Todd Spitzer then won that seat in 2018. Every time he's run against some rotten incumbent, the *next* person to challenge them wins! He's OK with that.
Corrupt party hacks hate him. He's OK with that too.
He does advise some local campaigns informally and (so far) without compensation. (If that last bit changes, he will declare the interest.)
His daughter is a professional campaign treasurer. He doesn't usually know whom she and her firm represent. Whether they do so never influences his endorsements or coverage. (He does have his own strong opinions.) But when he does check campaign finance forms, he is often happily surprised to learn that good candidates he respects often DO hire her firm. (Maybe bad ones are scared off by his relationship with her, but they needn't be.)
Still the best Christmas performance…
A note to readers (and to Vern, and to myself, as each of us has already been fooled by one):
We are getting a new and more sophisticated kind of spam that goes into a little more detail about how great our stories are — alas, that’s not the “sophisticated” part — and includes quoting the title of the story and perhaps even some content, or at least a description of it. So far as I can tell, all of it is in the service of getting you to click a link on the story or next to the authors name.
So: if you don’t recognize the author, don’t click on any link in the comment or near the author’s name. If the author is Neshanian, make him sign a statement that he will be held responsible if one of the links in one of his comments causes you harm, as many of the perps appear to be Russians who make be trying to make up for their refusal to stand by their Armenian allies when the Azeris invaded Artsakh (aka Nagorno Karabakh) because they were too busy trying to destroy the population of Ukraine.
Breaking: Do’s COS Chris Wangsaporn was just booked at RR FEDERAL COURTHOUSE. Wife fled.
I called Nick Gerda to verify this tip, he hadn’t heard but is looking into it. We’d love to hear more details till then!
For those deficient in Wangsapornography, https://laist.com/news/politics/top-aide-to-oc-supervisor-andrew-do-resigns
Pacer records cannot confirm the event took place as reported re wangsaporn.
Well maybe we should note that commenter and their IP as an unreliable source. Sounded plausible though.
One of Elon Musk’s cyber-trucks explodes outside a Trump hotel in Vegas, killing one.
Does this belong on this thread??
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/01/us/car-fire-trump-hotel-las-vegas.html
Sure, but I found it disappointing. I take it that it killed one person, which is bad. But if it had killed one Trump Hotel, well, if it was properly evacuated and improperly insured — perfect!
FBF re Wangsaporn.
https://voiceofoc.org/2020/10/top-aides-to-andrew-do-blew-off-investigators-in-money-laundering-probe-that-led-to-40000-fine/
That’s four years old! Although I don’t remember it.
Three characters in that – Wangsaporn and Strickland – the OC GOP’s man to take Janet’s place in the state senate – dinged for campaign finance violations.
And also treasurer Lysa Ray, who says she didn’t do anything wrong but that the treasurer is always on the hook for attesting that things are above board. I think that’s true. I knew Lysa! She’s usually a treasurer for Republican politicians, but she was also the treasurer for our little band of rebels that stopped the sale of the Fairgrounds in 2009-11.
Just read Strickland’s Wikipedia story. That’ guy’s a real piece of work. Apparently ethics free.
And yet, what Democrat could beat him in Janet’s old Senate district, in Little Saigon and HB? (Or, what better Republican might go against him?)
“The tallest and tubbiest of HB’s klepto-MAGAts.”
Well Nick’s follow up article to that one was how local political parties were being used to launder money. Which kinda circles back to Melahat’s humble beginnings. You know Melahat was a treasurer once.
https://voiceofoc.org/2020/10/county-political-parties-as-money-laundering-vehicles-for-politicians/
https://www.fppc.ca.gov/content/dam/fppc/documents/enf_letter/08-25-14/ENF100.pdf (FPPC slaps the Rat)
In other news, Ada went back to dc and still didn’t take her boot licking lapdogs gus or gabe. Mujajajajaja!!!
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=904030125213101&id=100068183651270
Notice how almost every local elected official recognized Kwanzaa (a fake holiday) and Hanukkah but nary a mention of Las Posadas or Three Kings or Armenian Christmas or Orthodox Christmas?
“Almost every local official recognized Kwanzaa”? Tell me what you mean by “recognized” and then I’ll decide whether to offer to give you a dollar for every one that did if you give me a dollar for everyone that didn’t.
Kwanzaa is as real a holiday as Juneteeth — but you probably find that “racist” too.
“Nary a mention” of Los Posadas or Three Kings or Orthodox Christmas? Well, Orthodox Christmas isn’t until tomorrow, so they still have a chance!
As for Armenian Christmas — you know the phrase “don’t take it personally”? Maybe in this case you should!
Kwanza is cultural and racial misappropriation. Name one African country where it’s celebrated. Kwanzaa is Angolan currency or spelled Cuanza it’s an Angolan river. That’s all. But if recognizing it makes you feel all warm and fuzzy and like an accomplished progressive, go ahead and enables the misappropriation. No one is watching or cares except politicians and some kooky brothas and sistas.
Maulana Ron Karenga, the Pan-Africanist who created Kwanzaa, had an office in same building as mine at Cal State Long Beach when I was a TA working on my Masters. I don’t recall dealing with him much, but I did have some contacts with his acolytes.
No, the holiday is not celebrated in Africa; it is specifically directed at African-Americans to teach children (and facilitate adult celebration of) virtues that were celebrated in African cultures. It’s a deliberate blending of different traditions from all over the continent.
But that explanation won’t make you feel enough like the twit you are being here, so I’ll elaborate. If it’s an ersatz holiday, that’s because Africans who came here as part of the slave trade were by and large denied access to their own culture. (Some older traditions did travel here with them, but nothing like ones other ethnicities/races have.) So to give African-American traditions that would fit in with and teach traditional values, the holiday was presented either as a substitute for or substitute for Christmas. (Karenga’s views on that have changed over time.) Cultures of people who are ripped from their homelands and blended with similar hours should get some special dispensation (as if they need it) to stitch or weave together their own versions of old traditions to pass on and bind them together. You’d have to be a real asshole to resent that, and an even bigger one to make fun of it. So you’re qualified for the jobs.
Are non-Black Americans “misappropriating it” by recognizing it if we want to (mostly, again, to teach our children about the world)? If we are, then Black Africans can be the ones to request that we stop. Dyspeptic Armenians like you (and happily not most others) don’t have the status to do so.
By the way, I visited the Wikipedia page because I forgot how to spell Karenga’s first name (or title), and I found out where you got the Angolan currency and river references. They made you seem so well-informed until I ran across them. I’m surprised at your lack of a link.
Exhibit A. Stephanie Oddo.
Oops. She got Armenian Christmas about an hour ago.
But before that Kwanzaa and Hannukah in succession. How is the black population in Laguna Niguel?? Greater than the Latin one??
https://www.instagram.com/stephanieoddoforlagunaniguel/p/DEgVFjRMWnN/ (Scroll down)
Well, but, seriously… hard to care about that shit.
https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/entertainment/holidays/celebrating-the-traditions-of-three-kings-day-and-armenian-christmas/4068253/?amp=1
It’s identity politics, Johnny!!!
By the way, none other than George Takei recently showed a composite picture of Musk and Trump and referred to them as “The Mump.” I had used that in a comment to him earlier, so I get credit for another trend!
Saavedra reports about another wrinkle to the OC Covid contractor situation. I won’t pay to get begins the OC rag’s paywall.
https://www.ocregister.com/2025/01/10/another-oc-covid-contractor-accused-of-fraud-scheme-in-whistleblower-lawsuit/amp/