The Blue Wave

The Blue Wave

It all started on June 24, 2011 when former EPD Chief Garr Nielsen was fired. Hank Sims wrote in the Lost Coast Outpost, “The Firing of Garr Nielsen is Going to be a Very Big Deal”. I emailed Hank, “No, it’s not.” See, I had reached out to many EPD friends and they basically said, “Good riddance. Bye-bye.” Last I heard, Garr Nielsen still hasn’t found employment in law enforcement since being fired. So Hank emailed back and said, “Why don’t you write a column for the LoCo?”

The rest was history. Seven years later I’d like to thank Hank Sims for giving me the opportunity to express my thoughts. We’ve had “creative differences” and it’s time to move on and start my own blog. I’ll continue to give you my insight on the local political scene and also more travel hack ideas as I constantly get asked, “What’s your secret to traveling for free?”

While everyone was talking about the blue wave this last election, it was all relative to where you live geographically. Let’s break it down by local, state and national.

Local Elections

On our local elections, I predicted all five major Eureka races (Eureka Mayor, all three City Council races and the Harbor District) along with the two winners in Arcata City Council and all three Fortuna City Council races. Numerous people have this in advance of the election on their texts, emails and conversations. No, I’m not some kind of “Carnac the Magnificent” (dating myself here), but rather most of these elections were done in August.

No blue wave here, as Leslie Castellano is a Green Party (not exactly blue).

Mayor Susan Seaman worked her butt off as I saw here out pounding the streets going door-to-door on many occasions. Natalie Arroyo was the incumbent and the front runner. I’m friends with John Fullerton and Jeannie Breslin and told both of them (as many others did), “If you both run, you both lose.” Regardless what you think of Kim Bergel, she’s popular in her ward. Leslie Castellano was clearly the front runner in Ward 1. I still don’t know why Marian Brady ran against Richard Marks for Harbor District.

I’m scratching my head at Anthony Mantova’s post-election Times-Standard’s Letter to the Editor where he wrote, “Many of my supporters were upset that they couldn’t vote for me.”

Duhhh!

Didn’t you convey to your supporters that Eureka now has “ward” elections where you must live in a specific ward to vote for a candidate in that ward?

Mantova raised almost $30,000 and yet only received 256 votes or over $100 per vote. I would have recommended he hand out a $50 bill to each of the 42% of the 1st Ward absentee ballot voters that couldn’t be bothered to vote and “ballot harvest” another few hundred votes instead of putting up a billboard on 101.

Also I would have recommended a little humility and not announce at a public forum that he was going to win his City Council ward along with Michelle Costantine for Mayor. You may wanna wait for the ballots to be counted before getting too cocky. Ask Hillary.

While endorsements don’t win elections, it certainly helps when those special interests groups, such as Humboldt County Democratic Central Committee, Humboldt Progressive Democrats, North Coast People’s Alliance, Humboldt Social Justice Warriors, local unions, etc. not only give an endorsement, but also give a check, knock doors and make phone calls.

Curiously, how many of you cut a check, knocked doors and made phone calls for a candidate this election cycle? I’ve been on the other side of every special interest group going against your candidate and it’s an uphill battle. Not impossible, but a grind.

The Pros and Cons of Facebook

To the “Dream Team” supporters… we need to have a talk. For the many folks on Facebook supporting the conservative slate of candidates (think lawn signs) of Michelle Costantine for Mayor, Joe Bonino, Anthony Mantova and John Fullerton for City Council – you can’t call a group the “Dream Team” until after they actually won an election.

Facebook is a two-headed monster. Yes, you can get your thoughts and ideas out to the world for free. However, those angry folks commenting on your Facebook page are a reflection of you. I know you’re gonna tell me, “They’re not part of my campaign!” However, when these caustic people are banging their angry comments on your Facebook page every day, you own it. What do you think voters thought who looked at your Facebook campaign page and saw Cornelius Lowenstein’s latest diatribe? It called “BLOCK”.

I want to give kudos to all the winners in the Eureka elections. Congratulations, you won. Now ya gotta govern. We want results, not excuses.

I’m still waiting for my jobs and tax revenues with development at the foot of C Street (been waiting 14 years now).

It’s about time you finally came out with a “No Trespassing On Private Property” ordinance. Now if you can only get EPD to proactively enforce this. I drive through Old Town, Downtown and Broadway daily and constantly see vagrants trespassing on private property. Why have an ordinance if you don’t intend to enforce it? Get ‘em down to the Eureka Rescue Mission and out of the business district. They can sleep at the Mission all day long, have access to bathrooms and get a meal. There’s only one thing you can’t do at the Mission.

Still not sure why 40 homeless folks are sleeping on the streets and not in the PG&E donated containers. Why hasn’t the Eureka City Council reached out to the Big Hammer and shown him what Betty’s Blue Angel Village (on Koster Street) is like. It’s sad when a so-called progressive and his political consultant (former “bought and paid for” County Supervisor) are keeping 40 homeless folks from staying in a warm, safe and dry place. PG&E donated those ocean containers, what almost a year ago?

Where’s AHHA (Affordable Homeless Housing Alternatives), North Coast People’s Alliance and the Humboldt Progressive Democrats lobbying to get these homeless folks into housing? It takes more than writing letters to the editor and wearing a “Black Lives Matter” rubber wristband to be progressive. Too many of our local progressives talk the talk, but how many of them walk the walk?

Political Correctness Run Amuck

Cancelling the Humboldt Women’s March because “it’s too white”?  WTF!? When I read the march was cancelled because of “conversations between local social-change organizers and supporters of the march." What “systems of oppression” are women dealing with today in Humboldt? Tell me and I’ll join you in rooting out the oppression. Outside of Allison Edrington, who are these people and why aren’t they posting their names?

Why give Fox News ammunition on how crazy our local snowflakes really are? Here’s what Fox News will say: If you’re gonna “accurately represent our local community” your demographics are: Black 2%, Native-American 6% and Hispanic 12%. So you’re telling me that for every one black person on your steering committee you will have three Native-Americans and six Hispanics? How many BLTs on the steering committee? Asians? Disabled? Jews? Catholics? Where does this madness stop?

The Women’s March ended for me last year when the local organizers didn’t have a single local elected female speaking. Instead they had SJWs (Social Justice Warriors) and a non-elected man speak.

California Elections

This wasn’t a Blue Wave, but a Blue Tsunami.

Some historical perspective here. California used to be a Red State. Richard Nixon (R) was a Senator from California before heading to the White House. Ronald Reagan (R) was our two-term California Governor from 1967-1975 before becoming a two-term President. We had Jerry Brown (D) from 1975-1983. Next was George Deukmejian (R) from 1983-1991 and then Pete Wilson (R) from 1991-1999. Does anyone remember Grey Davis (D) from 1999-2003? Then we had Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) from 2003-2011. Then back to Jerry Brown (D) 2011-2019. Outside of Jerry Brown’s years in office, California has had almost all Republican Governors in my lifetime.

This is the first time since 1886 that California elected two different consecutive Democratic governors. For those not so quick with math, that's 132 years.

We can trace California’s change from red to purple to blue back to 1994’s Proposition 187 (SOS – Save Our State), the ballot initiative to establish a state-run citizenship screening system to prohibit illegal immigrants from using non-emergency health care, public education and other services in the State of California. Although Prop 187 passed that November, the California State Supreme Court later found it unconstitutional.

From that point forward as Hispanic and Asian voters make up more and more of the California demographics, the Republicans percentage of the voters has declined each election cycle down to 24% today. Today the California Democrats hold 60 of 80 state assembly seats and 29 of 40 state senate seats. The Democrats have the Governor’s mansion and all seven other state executive seats. The Democrats control both of California’s U.S. Senate seats and 46 of 53 California’s Congressional seats.

The Republicans have not held a California statewide office since Arnold Schwarzenegger (Governor) and Steve Poizner (Insurance Commissioner) termed out in 2010. That’s gonna be 12 years (minimum) without the Republicans holding a statewide office.

National

Mixed results on the national level in 2018. Yes the Democrats flipped 4o seats in Congress. However, they lost 2 Senate seats to the Republicans.

For some historical perspective, after Bill Clinton (D) won the Presidency in 1992, two years later we had the 1994 “Republican Revolution” (think Newt Gingich’s Contract With America), where the Republicans flipped 54 House seats and 8 Senate seats.

In President Barack Obama’s (D) first midterm election in 2010, the Republicans gained 63 House seats and 7 Senate seats.

This year Beto O’Rourke (D) lost in the Texas Senate race to a man so despised that a fellow Republican Senator stated, “If Ted Cruz (R) was on fire, I wouldn’t piss on him to put out the flames.”

In Florida, Bill Nelson (D) lost a tight Senate race to Rick Scott (R) and Andrew Gillum (D) lost a tight Governor’s race to Ron DeSantis (R).

In Georgia, Brian Kemp (R) edged out Stacey Abrams (D) for Governor.

The Republicans still control 27 of 50 Governor’s mansions.

Still think this was a Blue Wave nationally?

One last thought of the differences between Democrats and Republicans. This past November, the Democrats elected over 100 women to Congress, including Ilhan Omar (MN-05) and Rashida Tlaib (MI-13) who became the first Muslim women ever elected to Congress. Sharice Davids (KS-03) and Deb Haaland (NM-01) were the first Native-American women ever elected to Congress. Davids from Kansas is openly gay and a former MMA fighter. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY-14) became the youngest women ever elected to Congress at 29.

While the Republicans elected two white men who are under indictment; Duncan Hunter (CA-50) and Chris Collins (NY-27); Steven King (not the writer), a white nationalist and racist Congressman from Iowa-04 and a dead pimp (Dennis Hof to Nevada State Assembly).

Duncan Hunter is alleged to have used over $250,000 in campaign contributions for his personal lifestyle including NFL games along with European and Hawaiian vacations. But my fav is that this so-called “family values” Congressman used campaign funds to pay for alleged affairs with at least five different women. He overdrew their bank account more than 1,100 times over a seven year period resulting in over $37,000 in NFS fees. But wait – there’s more. After all this came to light, Duncan Hunter accused his wife of the fiscal mismanagement. With all this in the public purview, Duncan Hunter was still re-elected to Congress.

All Eyes On 2020

I like winners, not losers, to run for office.

So no “Bs”. No Bernie (Sanders), no Beto (O’Rourke) and no (Joe) Biden. And especially no Hillary.

Bernie Sanders is 77 today, which means he’ll be 79 if he runs for President again in 2020. There is one person who is salivating at the thought of Bernie Sanders running for President – Donald Trump.

If you’re a progressive Berniecrat, you’re the main reason Donald Trump is in the White House (especially if you’re a Berniecrat who lives in Michigan, Wisconsin or Pennsylvania). The vast majority of the Berniecrats I’ve talked to either voted for Jill Stein, Gary Johnson or under-voted (didn’t vote for President). Heck, some Berniecrats even told me they hated Hillary Clinton so much they voted for Donald Trump. All Bernie Sanders and the Berniecrats will do is tear apart the Democratic base (again) and allow Trump to win reelection.

Besides, I’ll say it if no one else will - Bernie ain’t a Democrat!

While we’re at it – no AOC (Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez). While I respect some of the things she’s trying to do out there, in the end you can go further with friends than enemies.

Here is a partial list of potential Democratic candidates for 2020, broken down by Senators, Congress, Governors, Mayors and independents.

Potential candidates from the U.S. Senate include Elizabeth Warren (MA), Sherrod Brown (OH), Bob Casey (PA) Kamala Harris (CA), Corey Booker (NJ), Kirsten Gillibrand (NY), Chris Murphy (CT), Amy Klobuchar (MN) and former Senator Hillary Clinton (NY).

Congressional candidates such as Beto O’Rourke (TX-14) and Joe Kennedy III (MA-4).

Governors like New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, Montana Governor Steve Bullock, former California Governor Jerry Brown and former Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe.

Mayors such as Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu, former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and former San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro.

Obama alumni such as former First Lady Michelle Obama, former Vice President Joe Biden and former Attorney General Eric Holder.

And political outsiders like billionaires Tom Steyer and Mark Cuban; former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz and Oprah Winfrey.

At least porn star attorney Michael Avenatti has said he will NOT run.

Keep in mind that California moved the primaries from June to March beginning in 2020. This means that sometime after Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina, the Democratic herd will be heading to California for “Super Tuesday” on March 3, 2020.

It also means we’re voting for three Humboldt County Supervisors in March 2020 with Rex Bohn (1st District), Estelle Fennell (2nd District) and Mike Wilson (3rd District) all running for re-election. So far only one name has come forward as a possible opponent to Rex Bohn. You can watch his YouTube Channel to get a better sense of this quality candidate.

Netflix’s “Murder Mountain”

Finally, has anyone not seen Netflix’s “Murder Mountain”? The show has gone viral, not only here in Humboldt, but everywhere. Unfortunately, everyone outside of Humboldt County thinks we’re all dope douchebags hippies who life off the grid, rape the land for cash profits and live as outlaws shooting anyone who gets in our way.

The Wall

Pink Floyd or Donald Trump? Personally, I like Pink Floyd’s version better. Besides, what did Donald Trump tell his supporters at every rally he held? That he was gonna build a wall, a big beautiful wall along our entire border and Mexico was gonna pay for it. What does he need Congress for?

Also a “strike” is when workers choose to not show up for work. Not when the government tells them, “Don’t bother showing up, ‘cuz I ain’t paying you.”