1. This blog has been needing an Open Thread. We’ve been very pre-occupied getting signatures for rent control in Anaheim.
2. The Anaheim Democrats Club has a great meeting coming up tomorrow night (Thursday April 9, 7pm, the Untold Story Bookstore, 301 N. Anaheim Blvd, with progressive Assembly candidate Jessie Lopez, assemblywoman Sharon Quirk-Silva, speakers from the Working Families Party – who want to start a partnership with us – and possibly Supervisor Sarmiento.)
AND …..
3. There are a lot of videos we haven’t yet put out from our last couple of Club meetings. Good ones! Which let’s put em up here, on this open thread!
Wow, it’s been TEN YEARS now since the Anaheim Democrats Club was formed in 2016, and when we have time we’ll tell the whole story of that raucous decade: “A Thorn in the Side of the County Party Since 2016.” Maybe over the spring, we’ll tell that story.
But just looking at our lineup for tomorrow, it’s clear that we are becoming the progressive, good-government counterweight to the currently reactionary County Party. And, as hard as the DPOC has tried, first under Ada and even more under Florice Hoffman, they haven’t managed to kill us yet! Like the Rooster in that Alice in Chains song:
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VIDEOS from last 2 meetings
Let’s see, our last meeting was in early February, during the time our City Manager James Vanderpool was on the hot seat and fixing to resign (our Club has always paid a lot of attention to local corruption.) Former Councilman Dr. Jose Moreno happened to be in the audience and wasn’t planning to speak, but folks wanted him to. He shared what he knew from working with Vanderpool, and also once again expressed his disappointment in how little had changed since Anaheim had gotten a “Democrat” Council majority. (This video also has, at the beginning, a couple of our local ICE fighters whom we support every way we can – Steve “wetdog” Acevedo and Ruben the Nurse.)
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Our two scheduled speakers were supposed to be Congressional candidate Esther Kim Varet, AND San Clemente Mayor / state senate candidate Chris Duncan. We invited Chris not so much for his race as the fact that he’d used to be an ICE attorney and I’d heard he had a really timely and fascinating presentation about ICE. And we’d sorta been friends for a few years, since I supported him running against klepto-MAGA Laurie Davies for assembly. Even though I knew he was kind of a cautious, establishment insider kinda guy. But then AT THE LAST MINUTE Chris told me he couldn’t make it. When I asked him why, he replied “Ask Florice.” AKA Florice Hoffman, the DPOC chief – apparently she TOLD HIM NOT TO COME TO OUR CLUB. She was back to her old tricks from last year!
What kind of self-respecting politician takes orders from Florice Hoffman? It’s not like the DPOC was gonna take away his endorsement (as they’d threatened with others.) Chris had already driven our good progressive friend Rick Foster out of the race (with the backing of Senator Umberg) which was a pisser but none of us were gonna get into it. But… very disappointing that Chris was scared off from talking to our Club. A lot of people had shown up to hear his ICE talk, including Dr. Moreno.
But you know who wasn’t scared off by the DPOC was Esther, who told me “You wouldn’t believe how many people told me not to come here, but here I am!” Good for Esther. (As well as her Democratic opponent in the 40th district Lisa Ramirez who had come to our previous meeting.) So here is Esther, and then Lisa. We sure hope one of these ladies makes it past the Top Two June Primary, to slaughter either Creepy Ken Calvert or Slick Young Kim.
Esther at the Club
Lisa at the Club
I’ll have another couple videos up soon, but I gotta go knock on doors. For Anaheim Rent Control Signatures of course, I’ll sound like a broken record these next two months. We have a member who wants to get Anaheim to become sister cities with Hebron / Al-Khalil (in the occupied West Bank), and the Club supports that. I’ll try to get THAT video up tonight or tomorrow. Actually I think one of the things the DPOC (which currently has a strong Zionist tilt to say the least) hates about us is our sympathy to the Palestinians.
But it’s OPEN THREAD TIME, talk about anything! And make sure to come to our spectacular meeting tomorrow night, Thursday night. We’ll be voting on whether to endorse Jessie for assembly, and whether to join the Working Families Party!
This is so late it’s stale.
Not really, the meeting we’re talking about is tonight!
I talked to Donna this afternoon. She Said Sharon Quirk was showing up. So that was a hard no.
Well, and so you missed Jessie Lopez, who your friend Tony thinks the world of. We voted to endorse her – article coming up!
Oh, well.
Your boy Pearlman is so full of himself, he has anointed himself the clearinghouse of who may call themselves a journalist.
https://www.thetruthoc.com/p/if-theres-one-batshit-crazy-orange
“Kira is one of those non-journalists who (thanks, 2026!) identifies as ‘journalist,” only sans the reporting or writing or editing chops. She wants to have a voice, because nowadays nearly any clown with an iPhone can have a voice.
Pearlman went to a No Kings protest and saw a bunch of people collecting signatures on petitions. Granted it was probably paid signature gatherers lying about what their petitions were about.
But he advised all his readers not to sign petitions, but to go home and study up on them, and then sign them online. DUH. These kind of petitions for ballot initiatives (not like the silly change.org ones or whatever he’s thinking of) have to be signed in person.
I would worry, if anyone in Anaheim read his blog, that people wouldn’t be signing MY petition for Anaheim Rent Control. But folks in Anaheim don’t read him. He’s a south county voice. I think he’s afraid of Anaheim and Santa Ana.
I went to his book signing for his Tupac bio in Tustin, and invited him to do the same at my friend’s Anaheim bookstore The Untold Story, and for months he said he would and kept putting it off and putting it off. Finally he said “Don’t hate me. I’m tired of that Tupac book, I’m done with it.”
Speaking about “journalists”, did anyone attend the OC Press Club picnic at Mile Square Park last month? Doesn’t look like many “journalists” attended.
https://www.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1489384613195088&id=100063706894551
Go Team Pulido.
I don’t know who I’m with in that race. Ada is a horrible person (though she’s probably the most progressive on issues.) And I don’t know who has the best chance of beating her either, Mark Pulido or Ali Taj. Some of my good friends who’ve also had bad experiences with Ada are backing one or the other.
Ada seems to have very few scruples.
I haven’t checked in with Fred Jung in a while. Since BEFORE he left the Democrat Party and somehow got the Lincoln Club endorsement (which I woulda sworn would go to Tim Shaw.) He always seemed more honest to me than Connor Traut, but maybe it’s just that Connor is so damn slick. A lot of what Fred’s done I haven’t agreed with.
And Matt has a new piece which is hard to argue with, about what a BAD MONTH Fred has had. https://ocindependent.com/2026/04/editorial-fred-jungs-terrible-horrible-no-good-very-bad-month/
Connor an unstoppable juggernaut, who STILL calls Jordan Brandman a role model? Well, WHOEVER wins that race will be an improvement over Doug Chaffee anyway.
He calls Brandman a role model? The guy that never had a job or an election that wasn’t handed to him? The one who threatened to shoot people in City Hall and rip a woman’s breasts off, and died of meth poisoning with no teeth? That guy?
No way.
This blog generally avoids Trump’s day-to-day escalating madness. But this is just too good and too weird and stupid, all at once. I’m sure most of you know that, right after trashing the Pope, Trump posted this AI pic of him as Healing Jesus. (And I still haven’t heard much mention of the demonic figure floating in the very top center)
Well, of all things, a “Door Dash Grandma” (as her teeshirt proclaimed) brought the President his daily McDonald’s delivery this morning, and Trump allowed her to ask him a question, and her question was “Why did you post a picture of yourself as Jesus?”
He admitted to posting the image, but claimed it was NOT Trump as Jesus, but rather, as he understands it, as a “doctor” or a “red cross worker.” And “only the fake mainstream news,” says Trump, could POSSIBLY look at this picture and see him pretending to be Jesus.
Apart from the demonic figure above, many are seeing the sickly patient that Trump is healing as Jeffrey Epstein.
Can we get a big “below 30%” on him yet?
Where’s his labia neck?
Young Kim on broadcast tv going hard against Calvert and aligning herself closely with Trump. Might win her the primary but tough to explain in General.