Recall Votes Are Breaking Up That Old Gang of Mine
You might recall a dust-up over here on the Left Coast between the uber conservative Christian dominionist school board majority in Temecula Valley, California, and the community that they were elected to represent.
It’s what passes for MAGA news here in snowflake heaven.
The school board passed measures to, 1) forbid CRT instruction (where none existed), 2) forbid classroom display of any flag representing a particular unacceptable cultural point of view (gay pride), 3) oust a well-regarded and respected school superintendent, 4) decline to adopt an entire social studies curriculum because of an offending paragraph about a gay San Francisco County Supervisor who was murdered by a homophobic colleague, and 5) recently voted to require notification to parents if their child makes a change to their gender identity on campus.
This three-person board majority was foisted on the community by a local mega church pastor and his flock when they encouraged their neighbors to vote for “protecting parents’ rights and ridding schools of…left-wing indoctrination and pornographic material.”
Things change. For years, Temecula was regarded as a Libertarian heaven and is still represented by MAGAmaniac Darryl Issa in the US Congress. But population shifts and migrations have tempered the collective conservative angst in the local area, and people have been raising objections to the school board’s policies.
Their objections have now taken form in a successful recall petition to remove the board’s president, Dr. Joseph Komrosky. Per The Press-Enterprise via KTLA news:
“Riverside County election officials announced Monday, Jan. 22, that they had verified 4,884 signatures from voters in Komrosky’s district who signed recall petitions. That’s 604 more than the minimum needed to force a recall.”
They need to oust only one board member to break the 3-2 majority, but we now have a two-fer. It seems that another member of the trio, Danny Gonzalez, has announced that he has sold his house and is moving his family back to his 40-acre ranch in Texas (sorry Texas).
Unfortunately, the recall issue will not appear on the March 5 primary ballot since the publication deadline for that has now passed. It is now more likely to be voted on in a special election to be held between April 19th and May 26th.
A special election.
Turn out being what it usually is in a special election, I can’t imagine that giving Komrosky a farewell send-off is going to be easy.
I hope to be pleasantly surprised
Things are so grim in Texas that any comment about Texas would be neverending. So my question is… can you call 40 acres a “ranch?”
1I blame Howard Jarvis–who’s soul is burning in Hell, I sincerely hope. At the time I started school, California had the best public schools in the country, by far. I spent 1st and 2nd grade at Central Elementary School in Sausalito, and that got me off to a grand start. It was enough of a good start that by the 3rd grade, when I was back in Texas, I was already a book worm and way ahead of my Texas peers. That 3rd grade class was over-crowded and had a thoroughly lousy teacher. I managed to make it out of there with my ego intact. Can’t say the same for all of my peers.
For those of you who don’t remember: Howard Jarvis was the fink who got a state-wide petition passed that froze CA’s property taxes at 1978 rates. Which, besides starving the school system, meant that Warren Buffett pays more in property taxes on his fairly modest Omaha. NE home than he does on his California mansion.
2The “Jarvis-Gann Initiative”. Also known as the Garbage Can initiative. Lowered taxes for elderly & wealthy people by helping Reagan wreck CA schools. I remember.
3If I remember correctly, nearby Murietta was also famous for right-wing hatemongers.
4“In the first place God made idiots. This was for practice. Then he made school boards.”
5― Mark Twain
BarbinDC, I have not heard anyone use the term ‘fink’ in forever. That made me smile this morning. I might need to start using it again, instead of another f word that is employed way too often these days.
6From bruised purple Nevaduh Jane and I extend compassion to the honest BLUE states such as CA which have those blighted pockets of red morons that sprang from the John Birch Society. Such insidious stupidity has deep roots financed by big money such as the Koch backed Tea Bagger phony grass roots movement. We know those pocket colonies all too well. Where we’re located to the west of us there are those Cali pockets, to the north we have Iduho, east takes us to Utard, then there are the some 60,000 registered dead voters from the ghost towns who prevented us from ousting Mark Amodei (NV-02) in 2022. We hope to finally accomplish that task in 2024.
Jane and I took a trip south where there is a significant pool of unregistered voters, elderly and underemployed young people living in a swath of state and federal funded housing. Where those that do vote tend to vote against their own interests. One housing complex at a time managed to enlist or register 3-10 voters. We learned the lessons of former President Obama’s efforts in NV – it’s a walking campaign reaching out.
As for Texas being a red state, not so fast. With the wonderful Ms. Juanita Jean Herownself, her WMDBS, memories of Molly Ivins, both mom Governor and daughter once leader in Planned Parenthood Ann and Cecille Richards there’s hope.
Voter and hope 2024!
7Jane & PKM @5, From within the belly of the beast, I wish that I could be as optimistic as you.
My S. TX rural/exurbanizing county is 60% Hispanic, and the Rethug voting slant is up to 80%+.
Despite all of the fanciful Dem delusions that Hispanics are in the bag for Dems. It ain’t so, and is getting worse so, as the delusions continue.
Hint: Abbott is married to a McAllen [Rio Grande Valley, my former home] Hispanic, and has been extremely effective in getting the Texas Rethug Party to appeal to that demographic.
.
In other news, an interesting bit of history about the current MAGAot mantra, and Rethug refrain:
“Make America Great Again”.
The original quote was spoken, in English, by the original Fascist himself [a multi-talented intellectual], Benito Mussolini, Italian Premier, in 1927, as part of the very first ‘talkie’ newsreel clip by a politician ever.
“…”I greet with wonderful energy the American people and I see and recognize among you the salt of your land, as well as ours, my fellow citizens who are working to **make America great.** …”
I, and apparently several others with more influence, caught this utterance within a very good PBS ‘American Experience’ program entitled ‘Nazi Town, USA’ on Monday or Tuesday [it will rerun several times this week].
Searches turn up several published references to this in the last couple of days, and requoting media references to it from 2015/16, which must have been related to DJT’s run for prez then.
Some short video clips and transcripts:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/video/world/mussolini-tells-immigrants-to-make-america-great-in-1927-speech/2016/07/23/a723d158-5122-11e6-bf27-405106836f96_video.html
https://www.thestate.com/news/nation-world/national/article91512822.html
https://www.bing.com/search?q=benito+mussolini+“make+america+great”&qs=n&form=QBRE&sp=-1&lq=0&pq=benito+mussolini+”make+america+great”
Watch it [BM quote begins around 12min]:
8AMERICAN EXPERIENCE
Nazi Town, USA
Season 36 Episode 1 | 52m 32s :
https://www.pbs.org/video/nazi-town-usa-y4vqkt/
Off topic, but I haven’t seen Juanita Jean, herownself, here in a while. I hope she’s doing OK.
9Ditto, Malarkey. “It takes a worried man to sing a worried song and I am worried now. “
10Been thinking about that too and sure we’re all waiting to hear from JJ. I’m hoping it’s just well deserved time off with family and she’ll be back with us when the time is right.
11