A GAP, SMALLER THAN YOU THINK

It always begins with words and the ongoing repetition of false narratives. In this community, the valid arguments against Caruso in 2015 have been reframed and reiterated so often, and have been repeated often enough to distort observable realities. 

There has been a growth management plan in places for decades which was supported by the residents when passed. Like it or not in Coastal California, people are going to try to develop projects and make money. There will always be tension over issues of growth. There's not some deep-state conspiracy at play each time a development is proposed. 

Just like we saw in the 1930s, we see on the broader national stage today that local propaganda has shifted to creating a perpetual phantom enemy to blame for every irritation of life. In Germany, it was done by the creation of fictional crises like the Reichstag Fire; in the 1950's it was the Worldwide Communist threat. In Carlsbad, it's fed by a laundry list of minor NIMBY style grievances but still employs the "knifed in the back" fiction that involves some grand conspiracy led by a cabal getting ahead by leeching off of others.

By creating a straw man to blame for everything, the door is opened to the dehumanization of the targets. That stage sets up the next progression, which is the commitment to purge "the others" by any means necessary. That has made it easier for all sorts of petty self-interests to coalesce, and for what has been framed as civic-mindedness to be turned darker and increasingly totalitarian in spirit.

There is a politician sitting on your City Council willing to weaponize anything and everything against her critics. The recklessness of Councilwoman Schumacher's recent attacks against every North County mayor for racism, a beat cop for allegedly not wearing a mask, and the daily online character assassinations executed on her behalf and with her encouragement, is driven by the final stage of weaponized demagoguery. The myth is of a strong leader who is the only person that can "save Carlsbad" from her self created crises and threats. 

The mythology of the indispensable leader, the one person who will fearlessly do what others couldn’t and wouldn’t dare do, leads into a personality cult. The utter audacity of the messaging, the consistency of the propaganda, causes people to forsake critical thinking and to quiet even their own divergent thoughts. One of the most telling watermarks of hypocrisy is seeing the same people condemning Trump for his assertions that he is the only one who can fix things, accepting the same arguments on behalf of our Surfer Savant. 

When we add in the built-in confirmation bias of the Nextdoor and Facebook platforms Cori's supporters have hijacked, you have the moral equivalent of a state-controlled media. If nothing else, the pervasiveness of the same fibs by the same people being repeated constantly has the effect of making a person who has never won a majority in an election seem like the obviously winning team. The most fanatical of the Coricrats are those who are dying to breathe in her referred power and status. 

Sadly in Carlsbad, it has caused everyday citizens to assent to believing and uttering some very despicable lies they wouldn’t have ever thought about on their own. If you venture into the wrong platforms, the sheer numbers of those echoing the party line create the assumption that it has to be everybody else.

To those of you who cannot believe that a retired surfer can do that much damage, there is that failed artist from Vienna who ruined the world. The stage may be smaller, but the energy is the same. The gap between "Triumph of the Will" and "Waves of Disruption may be smaller than you think.

MANY BLESSINGS- NOEL

THE SURF-ENTOLOGISTS

"Antagonists to the Church of Scientology are declared by the Church to be antisocial personalities, Potential Trouble Sources (PTS), or Suppressive Persons (SPs). The Church teaches that association with these people impedes a member's progress along the Bridge to Total Freedom.

In an Introduction to Scientology Ethics, L. Ron Hubbard sets out the doctrine that by being connected to Suppressive Persons, a Scientologist could become a Potential Trouble Source (PTS):

A Scientologist can become PTS by reason of being connected to someone that is antagonistic to Scientology or its tenets. In order to resolve the PTS condition, he either HANDLES the other person's antagonism (as covered in the materials on PTS handling) or, as a last resort when all attempts to handle have failed, he disconnects from the person. He is simply exercising his right to communicate or not to communicate with a particular person. "

Leah Rimini's experience in leaving Scientology sounds a lot like reading "Wake Up Carlsbad", the NEXTDOOR group run by "Seldom" and "Nutz", and Councilwoman Schumacher's social media feed.  The consequences sound very similar to those suffered by those not supporting Carlsbad's Surfer Savant.  We can name her cult "Surfentology"

With the Councilwoman's recent political issues I've noted the resurgence of my favorite false narrative, that "Breen" is somehow personally responsible for Councilwoman Schumacher's ongoing political and interpersonal issues.

More insulting to residents of a community with a well educated and affluent populace, the Councilwoman and her social media surrogates want you to believe that each of you is so stupid as to totally base your feelings, perceptions, and thoughts, based on one man's opinion.

NOBODY is holding a pistol to Cori Schumacher's head and forcing her to make dumb, divisive, and ridiculous comments on Twitter. Nobody is forcing her to take big donations from big unions and then act as their agent and vassal. NOBODY is forcing her or her core supporters to treat others like they are disposable props to be demeaned and discarded to fit their tactics of the moment.

In case you have not noticed yet, there is no coherent ideology behind Surfentology, except for Cori to obtain and retain power. Those of you on the outside of the surfer savant's Team of Trolls, are held in utter contempt for your intelligence, and the lack of attention most have about local politics is their greatest asset.

Admittedly, I do not believe in giving a platform to those who abuse me and those I care about. But my opinions are also those of a private citizen who will be damned if I'm slandered, threatened, doxxed, or libeled into shutting up. If I have any influence, it's only because I take care to provide some facts and evidentiary basis for my opinions. Of course, I am pleased when I feel my content is respected for the fact that I do not choose to insult your intelligence. But that is a long journey from the Surfentologists who seek to blame all others for their heroine's mistakes.

Their false narratives and tactics are easily understood Anybody posting in a non- Surfentology approved forum, no matter the subject, is contacted and threatened. Though most posts in non-controlled platforms are only questioning Cori's aberrant behaviors because of something she has said or done, those reporting on it are denigrated as a racist, a misogynist, a homophobe, or when all else fails a variety of schoolyard monikers. 

The Councilwoman and her surrogates float the narrative that even issue-driven comments and observations are somehow veiled personal attacks, because any free thought has long ago been rejected in those quarters, and because our local L. Ron Hubbard cannot deal with any critiques or dissent. 

History indicates how it is impossible to oppose a demagogue or a cult leader on the issues. I and countless others have written long and well-documented pieces on issues, only to be told that facts aside, they are all still just a heinous personal attack on the Councilwoman. Like all else, it's all about our incipient L. Ron Hubbard and the trademarked weaponized false victimhood we have endured for years. Yes, it is like we are being controlled by a cult. There even is a hagiographic biographical film of our cult leader.

In Scientology, they have a term for departed members of the cult. They are termed "A Suppressive Person (SP)." In the parlance of "Surfentology", any and all people who get in the way are also framed as those who will "suppress other people in their vicinity, or who "goof up or vilify any effort to help anybody" and oppose "anything calculated to make human beings more powerful or more intelligent."

With the leadership of our enlightened cult leader, all things are possible it seems. If you compare the troll army at her command to Scientology, she could really claim to have a "Surf-org" of fanatical and ruthless adherents to go along With Hubbard's "Sea-Org." Here are some fawning examples from yesterday's worship-fest. 

"Thank you for making it easier to find out what is going on within our City."

"Great oversight and governance Cory, thank you"

"So grateful for your service to our community. Thank you, Cori!"

"Aloha! Cori. We love you"

One can only hope that the Councilwoman handles her inevitable departure from the political scene a bit better than this guy. 

MANY BLESSINGS- NOEL

POSTAL

See the tweet below.? This is from a person who is perpetually running for Mayor of Carlsbad. She just told all of our neighboring Mayors to go F*** Off! How does a politician like this maintain any kind of meaningful regional relationship with their neighbors? Why would any other city want to join the Clean Energy Alliance with her being on its Board? Would you want to put up with this toxic drivel every week?

If you care about Carlsbad, I need to say something, and I need to say it clearly, and I need you to listen, and then I need you to say it along with me.

As time has passed something has shifted. The attacks and slander toward everyone in the Councilwoman's way have begun reaching out like a venomous reptile. striking all those who are in the way. When you are being cyberbullied (and obsessively so) by a small but disciplined group of trolls, the very last thing you should do is feed them. In my case, I block them instead. To little effect.

I have been involved in politics for over 40 years. Until living in Carlsbad, I never had my address published, and the contact information for my clients shared in hopes of damaging me economically. Extraordinary steps have been taken to "cancel" my voice. You are correct if you guess we were scared shitless on occasion.

Those operating on the Councilwoman's behalf, have lashed out at too many of you, want you to not utter a peep of divergent thought. We knew that Cori might turn more demagogic, but not to the reckless extent we saw this weekend. In this election cycle, Cori and her allies seek to marry Carlsbad politics and Democratic machine politics.

Two years ago, I warned my readers that if the voters of the Carlsbad community are not careful, this beautiful place will become just another ward in San Diego. One look at the massive infusion of Sacramento based financial resources being dumped into the District 4 election on behalf of Teresa Acosta should scare you if you really believe in local control.

Each day the attacks and slander continue. Last week it was Council Candidate Phil Urbina's turn to be put "on blast" so Councilwoman Schumacher could "deny and deflect" her way out of her self-inflicted political troubles. This week, it is a County Supervisor, and FIVE local mayors, including the Mayor of Carlsbad.

Take a look around. Has Carlsbad ever been this bitterly divided in the past? 

Under the Councilwoman's leadership, we see private individuals having their home addresses published by her supporters, with unflattering photos often splashed everywhere. Her online surrogates rake non-politicians through the coals DAY. AFTER. DAY. Are we really going to allow the villainization of people for commenting on Facebook? Are we really going to continue to allow the doxxing of police officers? How much meaner will your city become?

Do you feel things have become increasingly toxic, judgemental, and disgusting when you observe the political process in Carlsbad? How many people do you know who have fled a simple discussion for fear of being overheard critiquing the councilwoman's performance? How many people have you seen scared off from running for local office, due to the dirty campaigns run against others? At one juncture the Councilwoman asserted her campaigns were based on the values of "kind, necessary, and true." Obviously, that is no longer operative.

Under the guise of COVID-19 concerns, the Councilwoman has asked that those calling the anonymous hotline for COVID scofflaws, copy her so she can "follow up". One can see where that is going. If Cori Schumacher gets control of that information one can rest assured that it just might be weaponized against political enemies, plausibly on Nextdoor. Some fear that a rogue Councilperson armed with a Council Majority could go even further.

The politics of personal destruction we've collectively seen since 2015, has operated under a facade of unctuousness while the very same people attack the councilwoman's pinata of the day while pretending they are just concerned neighbors. The reason their slanderous drivel works like an explosive device is that the cost for embracing truth is often enduring endless attempts at online defamation. 

It's amazing to contemplate the power of fear in the silencing of you and your neighbors. The fear of being made an example is coupled with the fear of being canceled by friends and neighbors. When a few strident voices are added into the toxic brew, confirmation bias kicks in, simply because everybody else has been banned, bullied, scared, and silenced. I have seen friends and community members turn against one another over the Councilwoman's antics. I have seen people that should know better buy into the false narratives. It is profoundly distressing.

Are you sick and tired of seeing innocent people being called racist, misogynist, homophobic, sexist, and corrupted? Are you sick and tired of being thrown off social media platforms for not towing the party line? Have you seen enough people being accused of the most disgusting things by weaponized trolls?

OF COURSE, YOU HAVE.

Normally, civilized people avoid such crude phrases, but since the Councilwoman has put it squarely in the public domain, feel free to join me. It's time to borrow a line from the Councilwoman, and tell them simply and succinctly to "GTFO."

Never again will "guilt by association" carry the day. GTFO.

Never again, will you be bullied into silence. GTFO.

Never again will the weaponization of false victimhood stand. GTFO.

Say it anywhere you see their trash on Social Media. GTFO.

Say it anytime the Councilwoman and her supporters use slander and innuendo. GTFO.

Say it everywhere you see somebody been doxxed, cyberbullied and ridiculed. GTFO.

Say it when you see #fakenews spread by "Seldom Wright scientific researchers", or when your friends are crowd-bullied and banned from social media platforms. GFTO.

Say it out loud. In-person and Online. Succinctly and Clearly. GFTO. Get the (expletive deleted) Out of Carlsbad. 

MANY BLESSINGS_ NOEL

PS- I would like to acknowledge this "kind, necessary, and true" piece was greatly inspired by the collected utterances of a now-estranged operative for the Councilwoman. I stand on the shoulders of a giant. And as always, I appreciate the Councilwoman's indelible warning from 2015. Nobody can say we were not warned. 

THE UNRAVELLING

I certainly did not think much of the San Diego County Republican Party Chairman before. But after these revelations by KPBS yesterday, it seems Tony Kvaric set himself up for a big fall. 

As the KPBS website notes, "On Friday, hours before this story was published, Krvaric sent out a news release on local GOP letterhead that stated in part: “We ask San Diego Democrats to join us in rejecting extremists like communists, Marxists, anarchists, Antifa, supremacists, and racists who thrive on the division to gain attention for their sick ideas and ideologies.” Here's the video Mr. Kvaric put out just yesterday.  

In the interest of allowing the reader to judge for themselves, here's the video a young Mr. Kvaric put out long ago, that has gotten him into this hot water. 

The drivel that the younger Kvaric son authored does not deserve as much attention as its received, but here's the punch line. The apple does not fall very far from the tree I suppose.

"I hope to see the Republican Party continue to pivot towards what some are calling “national conservatism.” Economic nationalism, defense of the traditional family, a commitment to the nation-state model, reverence for our history, and an effort to uphold our national and cultural identity all have their place in a revived Republican platform, and the SDSU College Republicans will proudly help lead the way." 

The older Kvaric kid is a little less subtle. As KPBS notes The Groyper Army, which uses a similar cartoon frog as its symbol, is fighting a “war” with mainstream conservatives to move them further to the right. I like the frog and the substitution of the letter "k". Nice family.

Tony Kvaric will be walking the plank very soon. (He was leaving in December anyway). Good riddance.  Of course, this virtue signaller could not wait to try to divert and deflect from her recent political problems by posting this attack on her favorite pinatas.

One question comes to mind though. currently North county San Diego only has 4 Mayors (Oceanside, Carlsbad, Vista, and San Marcos) who are Republicans. So is Cori fingering the Democratic Mayor of Encinitas who refused to join her "Clean Energy Alliance), or the Mayor of Del Mar who refused to let Cori get away with bullying her colleagues on the CEA. Enquiring minds would love to know. 

MANY BLESSINGS- NOEL

TRAPPED BADGER ON A SURFBOARD

"He had the fighting instincts of a badger trapped by hounds. The badger will roll over on its back and emit a smell of death, which confuses the dogs and lures them in for the traditional ripping and tearing action. But it is usually the badger who does the ripping and tearing. It is a beast that fights best on its back: rolling under the throat of the enemy and seizing it by the head with all four claws." 

- Hunter S. Thompson on Richard Nixon

Carlsbad's Surfer Savant has been desperately trying to change the narrative since her disastrous appearance at the board meeting for her "Clean Energy Alliance" on July 23rd, and the July 28th  Carlsbad City Council Meeting where the idea that Carlsbad's taxpayers should bail out "Cori Choice Energy" laid an egg.  

Having earned the moniker "Quid Pro Cori" for her antics in trying to shove her major (and non-disclosed) union donor's agenda down the throats of the unsuspecting members of the CEA board, the Councilwoman has returned to basics. Perhaps as she attends "law school" at a junior college, somebody mentioned this worrisome technicality 

"Honest services fraud is defined in United States Code Title 18 Section 1346 – also known as the federal mail and wire fraud statute – as 'a scheme or artifice to deprive another of the intangible right of honest services.' 

"....Originally, you were denied your intangible rights when government officials did not function 'openly and faithfully' in their service to their constituents. Now, most fiduciary, privileged, or employment relationships – in which any kind of breach would have been covered by tort law – are held to a similar standard. No money or property needs to change hands, and the attempt to deprive someone of honest services does not need to be successful. A breach of fiduciary duty, or a failure to disclose a conflict of interest, can now be charged as wire or mail fraud."

As it is, there have already been calls for our resident badger's resignation courtesy of this "Regular Guy", and it's a pretty safe guess that recent articles and blog posts may have added to any angst.      

Like Hunter's Nixonian cornered badger, Corinne's response is invariably to go on the attack, a response we know well in my household. 

First, there was a heaping helping of COVID fear-mongering and shaming in her online town hall, where she urged those calling the county's hotline for mask and social distancing scofflaws to please make sure to copy her so she could "follow up" and turn the information over to her social media surrogates for appropriate doxxing, outing,  and shaming on NEXTDOOR and the Schumacher family of Facebook groups. Of course, that also extends to political attacks on her colleagues by certain "Seldom Wright" surrogates.  

Then as she was preparing to embark on her vacation (in the spirit of contravention of the same stay at home orders she wants to know if you violate ), there was the COVID shaming of a CPD officer based on this grainy video. The purple prose Cori used is epic. 

"To the woman in District 1 who asked one of our police officers this morning to put his mask on when hanging out in conversation with a couple of our locals up at the seawall...

I'M SORRY.

I'm sorry your concerns were dismissed;

I'm sorry that your efforts to get one of those mandated to protect our community to do the right thing were waved away;

I'm sorry the people who should be protecting you aren't taking this seriously;

I'm sorry that there are some (not all!) who are setting an example of such visible and open disregard for our community;

I'm so sorry I can't do more to protect you right now;

And I'm sorry you were the one who had to say something, but I am so appreciative that you did! You are our hero. You stood up for our community this morning and called on us to do the right thing and I am damn proud of you for this.

Thank you to the resident who sent this video along. Stay vigilant, my friends." 

I wonder how the police union likes their endorsement now. 

When in political trouble for the Watergate scandal, Nixon hopped on Air Force One and went to Moscow to suck up to Comrade Brezhnev. Cori doesn't have to go quite as far, she just hops on the SANDAG Zoom meeting and sucks up to her own Mad Russian, recovering Soviet Central Planner Comrade Hasan Ihkrata. 

Though the COVID depression we are experiencing has had a variety of effects, it seems that neither Comrade Ihkrata nor Comrade  "Trapped Badger" has gotten the memo yet. As can be imagined, the revenue streams going into the TRANSNET coffers have taken a hit because of the pandemic.

The need for public transport is concomitantly reduced, with the increasing levels of telecommuting the crisis has ushered in. If the objective was to take cars off the roads, it would seem the virus has advanced that cause in the most tragic of ways. The consensus is that Comrade Ihkrata's future depends on Kristin Gaspar losing to Terra Lawson Remer this November,  which explains why the Comrade is a max donor to the Notorious TLR's campaign. 

So it was with great interest that we viewed the last SANDAG board meeting, starring our Surfer Savant as Carlsbad's representative. Having opposed such needed projects in her District as repairs to the treacherous 5/78 interchange, it should not come as a shock that Councilwoman Schumacher would double down on her support of Hasan's "Five Big Moves", (which is an unfortunate branding attempt reminiscent of this vintage commercial.)

With that in mind, thanks to a contributor, here are Cori's remarks at the SANDAG Board of Directors Meeting on Friday, August 14,2020 on Agenda Item 3 - The Vision for the 2021 Regional Plan. Here's the video. (The Savant's remarks begin at 3:30:06 of the video at the link below)

"Thank you very much, Chair. And, huge thanks to Staff for all the 15 months worth of work on this vision. I want to personally thank Colleen, as well as Hasan, for coming up to North County on multiple occasions to present some of the ideas and be open to questions. The amount of community outreach has just been spectacular and I think that's reflected in some of the comments from Carlsbad that you heard today which are in support of a different vision from that which we have seen previously. I think it is important to note that North County is a region in transition and that the voices you're hearing on the Board are over-representative of an ideology that we're moving away from.

(From our guest reporter: She pauses here, laboriously thinking of how to say what she's obviously making up, or embellishing at the very least - When Trump starts with the expression "A lot of people are saying..." it's been well documented that's a linguistic preface to a lie and what she does here appears to be exactly the same thing.) 

"There is a really clear direction that I'm hearing from folks, boots on the ground, from different cities in North County that makes it clear that we cannot use 20th Century ideologies to solve 21st Century problems so the proposals around making Transit more accessible, light rail along Palomar Airport Rd., which I find highly intriguing, and really connecting North County to the San Diego more central region is something that I've been hearing from constituents that is desired, that they would take Transit if it was more convenient at 10-minute intervals. They would take more Transit if they were able to get to their workplaces in Sorrento Valley, for instance, or able to get home at an hour that works for them that might be outside of the current schedule for buses. 

"So, I really want to applaud Staff, applaud the direction we're going. I know we're in a crisis but, as my Mayor likes to actually say, 'Sometimes moments like this are opportunities for economic development and job creation.' It's what Carlsbad did back in 2008 when we developed Alga Norte. We took advantage of a situation. We were able to build something at a lower cost and provide local jobs and that is pointed out on multiple occasions at my Council at least during this crisis. 

"I want to thank the residents of San Diego County for coming on to this webcast today and making statements reminding this Board to center Transportation Justice, Racial Justice, Economic Justice in all of our planning and I would just echo what has been said during the Public Comment so eloquently. With that, I know it's going to be difficult for us to figure out how to fund this and I know that we're going to work together to find a way to do that. I want to caution the idea that smart vehicles, autonomous vehicles work for everyone. It's an 'elitist' point of view that I think that we need to, again, if we are going to center Transportation Justice, really make sure we're creating a Transportation System for everyone. Thank you"

Left unmentioned in all our Surfer Savant's centering of Transportation Justice, Racial Justice, Economic Justice, was the recent cancellation of the Carlsbad Connector for lack of interest that traveled along that same Palomar Airport Road she wants that light rail line to travel. You know, it was the one with the Oregon plates. 

Nixon quietly left with some dignity via helicopter in 1974.  One can only wonder how Corinne will leave via surfboard when the time comes. My guess is, it will sound a lot like this. 

LEMMINGS (From March 2018)

Editors note: Every once in a while  I think it's valuable and interesting to look back upon past events and post a few pieces from the archives. This one is from the Spring of 2018, and discusses the ham-handed attempt of the Levin campaign to disqualify eleven progressive delegates to the Democratic State Convention and threw in his own wife as a "false flag." No wonder the Congressman is sweating bullets over the census, as his seat is shortlisted to go if California loses a seat. Enjoy. 

"Those who fail to learn from the brutal stompings visited on them in the past are doomed to be brutally stomped in the future." – Hunter S. Thompson

Does anybody remember this commercial? I'll give you a clue. When we sit in front of the television to watch the Super Bowl each year, the television spots are often the most entertaining part of the entire spectacle. The trend started with an ad for a heretofore unknown computer company called Apple. Its title was "Lemmings".  Take a look. 

A lemming is a small rodent usually found in or near the Arctic. They say Lemmings commit mass suicide  Actually, that's a myth. It's their migratory behavior.  Driven by strong biological urges, some species of lemmings migrate in large groups. Many drown if a body of water is too wide, or the journey is a bit too long  The ongoing effort of the California Democratic Party powers to shove a flawed candidate down the collective throats of voters in the 49th District of California is a vivid demonstration of the migratory patterns of a defined subset of mercenary and nasty rodents, and why they collectively do jump off cliffs. 

Posted above is a press release summarizing the latest efforts of the moribund campaign of  Mendacious Mike Levin to somehow squeak through. The latest development is an effort to drive eleven San Diego County delegates (AKA the "Levin Eleven") out of the California State Democratic Party not voting to endorse him at last month's state Democratic Convention.

Their sin allegedly signed a "petition in lieu" of filing fees for an independent candidate for  Lieutenant Governor.  To be fair there is one other person noted in this attempt to pillage the spirit of party bylaws. Her name is Christine Levin. Mrs. Mendacious herself. 

What is interesting about this one is the provenance of the complaint.  It was instigated by this guy's own campaign manager. And Mike Levin himself shopped for people to sign off on a spurious complaint calling out his own wife.  No words for that one. The Obamas went high. Trump goes low. And Mike Levin goes deep into the ground.  Sort of fitting for a burrowing rodent piece I might say. No wonder he apparently has few friends. There is this guy.   

All of this leads us back to the Lemmings. How do we avoid joining them in going off the cliff?  I've had some interesting conversations, that have caused me to think deeply about the events of the past couple of years in our more local politics. Beyond the drama in Washington, we see its fallout in our communities. Two years ago there was a sea change in how politics are done in my backyard. A billionaire developer decided he was going to inflict his will upon the people of Carlsbad and shove a Shopping Center down the collective esophagus.

If a guy like Rick Caruso wants to drop 12 million on a campaign to build a mall nobody really likes, that is his right. But part of the tactics was to import out of town workers who got into the faces of women and older people, simply trying to gather petition signatures and pass out flyers at street fairs. Sadly there were a couple of local residents, who adopted the same tactics. As my father used to say, "By the Christ", they were going to get their way. And they lost. But the poison still remains. They left town. The divisions remain. 

Some believe that the way to combat those forms of intimidation is to do nothing, Some babble banalities like "are kind' that is devoid of sincerity in their lives. Some believe that cribbing the Rotary Four-Way Test, is somehow their unique contribution to political interaction. That is not what defeated Rick Caruso. 

Why Mike Levin's campaign operation troubles so many people, is that it's another iteration of the crappy politics people from places like La-La land and the OC see in elections. And why wouldn't they? It helped to elect Donald Trump. We have accepted a level of intimidation and coercion in our public life, that has become normalized. It's going on in our backyards here in bucolic Carlsbad with Mike Levin. 

It does not matter if the bully is shoving a shopping mall in our lives or running for Congress. It needs to be resisted, stood up to, and a lantern shone on the bully. And I do not care if its Mike Levin or a union's local hatchetman. Each time we see it happen, it needs to be pushed back upon. 

If we want the world to "be kind", we occasionally have to do it ourselves. I make no apologies for speaking truth to a few a couple of years ago, no matter what certain Rotary plagiarists think. For one thing, things changed. They backed off. Politics nowadays is a really crappy game. But better to have to deal with someone operating in the daylight, as opposed to those who pretend to be nice, while being anything but. 

Mike Levin at first blush seems like an affable young man, so much so you would think he has adopted the "be kind" mantra. He's not. And just like the babblers of banality, he does his dirty work in the dark and is a bully too. I have never once regretted standing up for people being oppressed, and neither should any of us. Whether it's the "Levin Eleven" or the others noted above, it's always a good time to "call BS."  

MANY BLESSINGS- NOEL 

AN INTEGRAL ATTACK ON CIVIL LIBERTIES

Those of us who are engaged in Oceanside's affairs and those who live far away should care deeply about what is happening there. The motives of an avaricious and cynical developer for filing lawsuits of questionable efficacy is to financially destroy citizens who successfully organized a petition drive to put the North River Farms development on the November ballot. 

Integral Communities is attacking your right to petition your government for a redress of grievances. It's an outrage if you care about civil liberties and free speech. It's also an odd derivative form of the "Cancel Culture" but one that is only reserved for the filthy rich. 

Those of us who lived through the days of Carlsbad's famous Measure A campaign in 2016 did not realize how lucky we might have been to have Rick Caruso as an opponent. For even though the campaign to build a mega-mall on a lagoon was contentious, to say the least, and the developer spent 12 million dollars to fight a citizen initiative against his project, Mr. Caruso did not try to break the key activists opposing him financially and as humans with abusive and meritless SLAAP style lawsuits. 

Caruso had his faults but he had an ethical floor underpinning his tactics, at least in comparison with what a Newport Beach developer called Integral has done to advance their North River Farms project in the last vestiges of what used to be the agricultural part of Oceanside. 

BACKGROUND

On November 6, 2019, the Oceanside City Council approved Integral Communities' North River Farms development on a 3-2 vote, with appointed Mayor Peter Weiss voting in favor with Councilmen Jack Feller and Christopher Rodriguez, and Councilmembers Ryan Keim and Esther Sanchez opposed. This vote occurred after months of controversy surrounding the advisability of allowing nearly 600 homes in a 217-acre swath of agricultural lands in Northeast Oceanside and was done despite a Planning Commission vote against the project.

A few months ago, I wrote on many of the reasons why this project was objectionable, and that piece can be found by hitting this link. An observation I made then bears repeating now, for it involved the most tasteless of stunts: 

"The night the Oceanside Council voted 3-2 to approve this development over the objections of their own city staff and planning commission, we saw the political exploitation of the poor and dispossessed. The cynical busing in of 50 plus clients of Vista's Solutions for Change to pack that November 6th City Council meeting is offensive on so many levels. The instructions that were given to their captive audience were hideously demeaning. They did get free pizza. "

Ken Leighton in the SD Reader details what happened next. "The fact that more than 12,500 signatures were collected in less than 30 days by a mostly all-volunteer group indicates that the public is ready to turn down Integral’s project at the ballot box," says Kathryn Carbone, part of the Let Oceanside Vote leadership team. “When we were in the field gathering signatures, most people already knew about the issue and were ready to sign the petition. Some people even sought us out in the field. I had people coming up to me at Vons with a smile on their faces saying ‘Can I sign that?’ before I even got a word out to greet them.”

In an interesting contrast to the insanely quick process to verify petition signatures for a similar scenario in Carlsbad to force a March 3rd Special Election benefitting Corinne Schumacher, the SD County' Registrar of Voters office took nearly 90 days to verify petition signatures. Of those collected, 11,739 were deemed to be valid and 2,130 were deemed to be invalid, as opposed to the minimum figure for a referendum to be triggered of 9,609, which represents 10% of Oceanside's registered voters.  

Then things got toxic. In January, Integral filed a lawsuit claiming “egregious violations” in hopes of killing the petitions. The developer launched a campaign to get signers to withdraw their signatures. Only four requests occurred. Then they cried fraud, with appointed Mayor Weiss claiming that somebody signed his name to a petition. Not shockingly, we learned there is more than one person living in Oceanside who shares a not-so-uncommon name. 

In pre-COVID-19 California, it was a common sight to see paid petition gatherers at the grocery store. Perhaps that is why Integral's legal team could not understand why people would sit for hours exercising their rights to political expression for free, despite often being harassed by Integral's surrogates and sympathizers. Perhaps that is why the developer's law firm sent a private eye to grill petition gatherers to no effect. Mr. Leighton quoted one of those grilled in another SD Reader piece, 

" 'I want to know how they even found out who we were and where we lived,' said one person contacted but who did not want to be identified out of fear of legal retribution. “They either want to sue us as well or they are simply doing this to intimidate us… We are telling anyone who is approached by this man to not say anything except, ‘Please, get off my property.' " 

The personal retribution against the three key organizers of the petition drive has continued. Who on earth could imagine that a law student, a stay at home mom, and a retired school teacher are being sued once by a developer with a national reach over gathering valid petition signatures, under allegations of fraud and forgery? Thousands of dollars in legal fees later, one would have thought the nightmare would be ending for the trio, after trial judge Gregory Pollack released a July 6th letter that said the signatures were valid. thus blowing Integral's case up. 

Then they were sued again as individuals on July 17th, along with the Registrar of Voters and the City of Oceanside, amongst others. The new suit challenges the referendum under SB 330, a law not even in effect when the petition gathering occurred. How a suit over a law designed to address the state's chronic housing shortages and affordability crisis by reducing the time it takes to get building permits, limiting fee increases, and preventing local governments from reducing the number of homes that can be built has validity, seems bizarre to a layman. Most believe it seems to be doomed to meet the same ignominious fate of the first lawsuit. 

Of course, the suit will not be heard until after November 3rd, but it seems designed to break the will of the opposition to Integral. As the clock is ticking to get the referendum pulled from the election ballot, it seems that Integral is tossing a "Hail Mary" to get the "Let Oceanside Vote" team to give up an almost certain victory in November, in return for some token concessions from the developer. 

In the words of one of the group's leaders, Integral has already received their answer.  They can go "pound sand."  

CONCLUSION 

Whether or not you are a YIMBY or a NIMBY, this abuse of process by a greedy developer is a civil liberties issue of a high order. As the article notes, the judge in the first case has indicated their case alleging fraud in the petition gathering process was crashing on the merits.

So now Integral has doubled down on their failed strategy of intimidation while signaling they would be happy to drop their case if a November referendum they are destined to lose gets pulled by the opposition, clearing the way for a development few without skin in the game want. This is a textbook case of litigation being used as a tool to harass citizens, and it needs to be fought aggressively.

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MANY BLESSINGS

NOEL