American Institute for Economic Research, June 16, 2021 Defining Down Freedom James Bovard Will the Great Pandemic permanently unleash governments around the world? Covid-19 is enabling politicians to turn freedom from an individual right into a conditional bureaucratic dispensation. Defining down freedom was exemplified by the G-7 Summit that became a ludicrous and hypocritical Lockdowners […]
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Huntington Beach is in Orange County, between Los Angeles and San Diego. It's the population center of the 48th congressional district and if you want to know how a reactionary Russian spy and psychotic bigot like Dana Rohrabacher could have been elected to Congress 15 times... just watch the video above and try to get into the heads of his people. The current congressman, freshman Harley Rouda isn't nearly as bad as Rohrabacher. He beat Rohrabacher in the anti-red wave of 2018-- 157,837 (54%) to 136,899 (46%).
I was just talking with a very credible candidate for Congress about how an increasingly senile Biden could turn out to be the Democratic nominee; he-- the congressional candidate, not Status Quo Joe-- told me he almost hopes the apocalypse comes soon because he wants to pick up the pieces. Wow! And I thought I was nuts!
Eric Garcetti isn't running for president next year. Whew! I'm totally relieved. I like Eric and I've known him for a long time. He's the guy who showed me how to use a credit card in a parking meter. But I didn't think running for president was a good idea. He hasn't created a compelling enough record as mayor of Los Angeles to run on.
Eric Bauman is the chairman of the L.A. County Democratic Party and the state Democratic Party's Vice Chairman. Late yesterday, he caused the California party go haywire by publicly requesting that Party Chair John Burton call a special meeting to consider a state party endorsement for DNC chairman. In the incredible well-crafted letter below, Bauman laid out all his reasons for backing Keith Ellison.
There was a lot of excitement yesterday when the UN's climate deal document was released. My town's very environmentally-inclined mayor, Eric Garcetti, tweeted "Today's climate agreement vote is a hinge of history, when we stopped saying if and started moving to how. So glad LA is helping lead the way." And El Presidente made a speech about it-- the video above. Some excerpts:
I met Eric Garcetti at the home of a mutual friend years and years ago. He was running for City Council and he was happy to talk with me about the issues facing Los Angeles. But he didn't talk about the issues everybody else was talking about. Garcetti, the son of former L.A. District Attorney Gil Garcetti, studied urban planning at Columbia University and was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship to study at Oxford.
No doubt Labor Day is about barbecuing for many people… or an extra day off from work that can be spent with friends and family or in blissful solitude. But this morning, in his weekly address, Presdient Obama chose to discuss the minimum wage, particularly since Mitch McConnell had just prostrated himself before the Koch brothers and some equally heinous billionaires and viewed he would never allow an increase in the minimum wage to even come up for a vote if he wins reelection.
The big endorsement news in L.A. yesterday was when Mayor Eric Garcetti-- or as many people around here refer to him, future POTUS Eric Garcetti-- backed Ted Lieu for Congress in the CA-33 seat Henry Waxman is giving up. "Tuesday's election is extremely important for the future of our region," said Mayor Garcetti.
Monday night I was at the Hammer Museum for a screening of Shaun Kadlec's and Deb Tullmann's fantastic new film, Born This Way, a documentary on the gay and lesbian underground in Cameroon. Afterwards I ran into Mayor-elect Eric Garcetti. Eric's an old friend and one of the smartest politicians I've ever met. He was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford and he studied Urban Planning at Columbia. I doubt L.A. has ever elected anyone as qualified to be mayor in its entire history.
