FLIPPERS

FROM THE SPRING OF 2018

Though many things have happened since the days of the dark campaign Michael Ted Levin ran in 2018, I thought there are some relevant memories. For starters, a key member of the producers of the weekly minstrel show at Darrell Issa's office is the Democratic nominee for the SD County Board of Supervisors seat. As it developed, the apparatus weaponized to "Flip the 49th" morphed into the Terra Lawson-Remer campaign of 2020.

As far as irony, Issa is now running in the 50th Congressional district, where the smart money believes he'll win in a District that re-elected a felon in 2018. And as far as now-Congressman Levin? If (as expected) California loses a House seat in the census, it will be Mendacious Mike trying to bump off a much more respected Democrat in a primary. We have yet to see any "Flip the 50th" rallies at Issa's office this cycle. ENJOY. 


One of my favorite shows growing up was "Flipper". Flipper, an adorable bottlenose dolphin, is the pet of Porter Ricks, Chief Warden at Coral Key Park and Marine Preserve, and his two young sons, Sandy and Bud. The show was an aquatic "Lassie", and a merchandising bonanza. An entire generation of kids owned something with the Flipper logo. The show's catchy theme is one of those "mind worm" pieces of music, that over 50 years later a bunch of cynical baby boomers gets choked up over.

Flipper was one of my fondest memories. Dolphins are adorable mammals and intelligent beings. The Miami Dolphins are one of my favorite football teams to this day. If ever there was someone who is pro adorable sea mammals, it's me. Little did we know in early 2017 that there was another school of "Flippers" that were actually an invasive species. They are the denizens of our friendly neighborhood SUPER-PAC. They are "Flippers" too. Their name is "Flip the 49th." 

Storm clouds began gathering long before Darrell Issa retired. In 2016 political newcomer Doug Applegate came within 1,621 votes of knocking off the longtime incumbent in California's 49th Congressional District. Then suddenly the opportunists came. Emerging from the netherworld of K Street types came a new establishment candidate. We are still wondering how Mendacious Mike Levin just happened to draw one of a handful of short straws to ask Darrell a question at an Issa townhall. Cynics believe it was Issa repaying a favor for some 2016 opposition research. If you know what we mean. 

Then came our friendly neighborhood "Grassroots Super PAC." Early every Tuesday morning since Donald Trump entered the White House, hundreds of protesters met outside of Issa’s Vista office to push the Republican congressman to reject the new president’s agenda. Though their subject is no longer a candidate for re-election, and the numbers have drastically dwindled, the protests have continued. Even after this great "retirement party." Though enjoying common leadership with Flip the 49th, Indivisible 49 is the branding for the organizers. 

Do you remember the saying "jump the shark?" For many of us, the moment for Ellen Montanari and the Tuesday crew came when the protest gang decided to visit Issa's clerical staff, brandishing copies of Resume Writing for Dummies. In the annals of poor sportsmanship it ranks with these:

THE FLIPPERS

Funded by Hollywood largesse, led by seasoned political operatives, Flip the 49th is said to seek the creation of a long-term political movement in the district. Led by organized labor and local Democratic party insiders, the outward goals of the Flippers is to organize voter registration drives, outreach programs, and "community organizing".

Once said to be the product of loosely affiliated volunteer leaders, the protesters originally presented as a loose coalition of grassroots organizations with little political experience and no significant revenue streams. That soon changed with the advent of Flip the 49th/ Neighbors in Action.

The San Diego Union-Tribune details the following: “After the election in November, the old rules didn’t apply,”'said David Lagstein, the political director of Service Employees International Union, Local 221 and a principal officer in Flip the 49th. “And one of the old ways is that from the perspective of labor and the Democratic Party and the emerging groups, there really needs to be an effort to work together,” 

(Parenthetically speaking, Mr. Lagstein has had an interesting career long before his Flipper days, as seen in this linked story about his ACORN days.)

"Terra Lawson-Remer of Encinitas, one of the group’s other officers and a former Obama-era adviser in the Treasury Department, said they’re combining elements of traditional campaigns and community organizing, backed with data-driven analysis to support the various grassroots organizations in the district."

“We’re a community organizing program,” Lawson-Remer said. “We’re focusing on the issues that are most important to them, and we’re trying to get people to do that work more effectively.”

The face of Flip the 49th is the demonstrations led by Ellen Montanari, an officer of the group and the holder of the city permit that made the assemblies legal. As the Union-Tribune relates, "Montanari said that the weekly protests outside of Issa’s district office are still led by people across the political spectrum who are fed up with national politics, but there’s now a way to coordinate the efforts."

“If there’s not some infrastructure there to support them, some paid staff, you really can’t get a lot done,” Montanari said. “We can hire people who can do some heavy lifting and the volunteers can get out and do what they want to do.”

Part of what Flip the 49th does is stage events. Such as the "candidate viability forums" where the group sought to tip the scales toward its pre-ordained candidate by a pre-planned Star Chamber proceeding. Sadly for the "Flip the 49th" forces the other campaigns refused to attend their pre-planned execution. They did get to question empty chairs. The idea was to ambush the candidates other than the anointed of the Democratic powers that be, Mendacious Michael Ted Levin.  The trouble was, the other candidates failed to co-operate.  They avoided their own execution like the plague. 

Look at the sign. They were suddenly given to the entire crowd at the "candidate viability forum" to wave. See the Union bug? There is none. David Lagstein is both SEIU's political director and the leading light of Flip the 49th. As the region’s largest public employee union prepared to strike, The Union-Tribune noted, "Service Employees International Union Local 221 has been under attack for the way it treats its own employees. 'It is the literal definition of hypocrisy to allow poor treatment of our members while demanding better for your members,” the Communications Workers of America (CWA), Local 9509 wrote in a letter to SEIU’s board. Lagstein, the political director, likewise, has shortcomings, CWA wrote. “Dave’s political meetings are a joke, everyone knows that,” the letter said. It noted that it was paraphrasing Mark Leo, one of Lagstein’s colleagues. But the CWA letter gave faint praise to Lagstein for his work habits, compared to others at SEIU. “To be fair to him, he keeps the longest office hours, ranging from 3-6 hours a day,” it said."

The morning after the "Viability Forum", all hell broke loose. First, a video of that debacle's most dramatic moments was circulated. They involved varied unbiased "Flip the 49th" figures leveraging Ms. Montanari's expertise in waterboarding an empty chair. Then there was a round of thrashing media blowback, including this gem from the guy that crafted the most unbiased set of questions since the 1979 Baath Party Congress.

Cooler heads asked, "Who are we to tell somebody they cannot run for an office because it might cause our party to lose?" They questioned whether a Super PAC has the right to host a “viability forum” and bully a candidate out of a race because a mob thinks they are obstructing their favorites by running? Running for office is a right like a ballot and the right to free speech. Do we earn the right to dictate the exercise of that right because we write a check or ring a doorbell? Does my utter conviction that a candidacy is harmful to my perception of the public good, give me the right to pass judgment on a candidate’s viability?

The system of open primaries exists because party bosses used to arbitrarily make those calls without public input. Are we are better off having that role replaced by consultants working for a hybrid PAC, with a relative handful of unelected paid activists ratifying the collective wisdom of folks who are more than occasionally wrong? The coalition of the frequently wrong behind Mendacious Mike Levin has an answer for you. It's not coincidental that the day after the "Flipdivisible" forum debacle, Barbara Boxer came to town to raise some cash. Barbara shares a PAC with Adam Schiff, who is Mike Levin's chief Capitol Hill enabler. And they all share Parke Skelton and Alison Morgan, who in the parlance are "one of LA's power duos".

Why Levin? Why now? Michael Ted Levin does not have the most sterling of candidate resumes. In the people who knew him best department. Mike Levin ran for ASB President at Stanford in 1999. 25% went out of their way to vote "none of the above," and another 8.16% voted for a write-in. But as Chelsea Clinton's Stanford classmate and friend, Michael Ted not only spent 2016 bundling donations for his benefactor's mother, he has come to give meaning to Matt Brunenig's quote. "You could not put together a more unappealing force in the world than what Chelsea Clinton represents."

TROLLS

Ultimately, though, it was the wave of manic post forum Facebook posts, the speed with which it flowed, and the extent to which it was fueled by social media and the internet, that became appalling and fascinating. Facebook groups such as "Indivisible 49th" and the "California 49th District Action Network" have long been troll fests for the dispassionate "vetting" of candidates not named Mike Levin. Here are excerpts of the campaign training manual:

"Issa not seeking re-election has made the 49th a lot harder, not easier, for Dems. Two strong Reps (Assemblymember Rocky Chavez and BOE member Diane Harkey) will take almost all of the GOP vote and split it fairly evenly.

With 4 Democratic candidates in the race, there is almost no way to keep the general from becoming a Rep/Rep runoff. Under the top two law, no one can run as a write in in the general. The seat would be lost. The Dem Party must unite behind the strongest candidate-- and there can be no more than 2 strong Democrats on the ballot.

• Mike Levin is the strongest candidate.
• Mike has raised over $1.225 million. 11,000 donors averaging just over $100.
• Strong field campaign, already called and walked through entire district
• Outstanding endorsements: a dozen local Democratic Mayors and City Councilmembers, National Organization for Women, DFA, PCCC, Congressional Hispanic Caucus
• Already has good support in CA delegation (Barragan, Cardenas, Gomez, Schiff)
• Best candidate profile.

• Mike is the ONLY candidate who can get a CA Democratic Party endorsement. No one else is close. A united Party is the best way to limit the field and consolidate Democratic votes. He is only 3 votes short of the number needed with 7 undecideds. A strong signal from the CA delegation could secure this.

• Applegate is very weak.
• Not raising money. His COH increased by just $500 last period. Not working hard.
• Campaign in chaos, CM and Field Director resigned
• Negatives against him are devastating: Domestic violence restraining order, went to court to try to cut his child support payments by 75%, tried to get out of paying for health care for his kids; unethical practices as lawyer, shady mortgage lending business during the housing melt down, multiple FEC violations since 2016 election.
• Applegate as nominee will put the seat in jeopardy.

• Jacobs is weak.
• 28, has not lived in district since high school.
• Just 2 years of work actual experience.
• Claims to be a former State Department official when, in reality, she worked for just over a year for a company that had a contract with the State Department
• No significant endorsements in district or campaign structure
• Solely dependent on wealthy family
• Just got into race. Last in, first out makes sense.

• Negatives on Mike are weak and easily answered.

• Countrywide: As a young lawyer at a big law firm, ML was assigned some cases involving Countrywide foreclosures. All were suits brought by an unethical lawyer
• Exxon. Mike’s clean energy firm installed carbon recapture technology on an Exxon plant to help reduce carbon emissions. Mike never “worked for Exxon.”"

Administered far away from the 49th, these groups feature a few regular posters with verifiable identities and transitory trolls who vanish upon a report to Facebook. All are happy to private message some trash about the other candidates. The anonymity of the internet plays a huge role in this modern whispering campaign. With the right admin, you’re able to say things without repercussions. And they tell their BFF's ‘Hey, look what I said!’ They one-up each other. Until they get caught. 

The "viability forum" became yet another incubator of trolling. The anonymous sending of threats, insults or other harassment, from a distance, is hardly a new phenomenon. On the surface, the onslaught from various forms of Levin campaign surrogates and "Flip the 49th" activists is only a diluted version of the mentality of mobs, but with the acquiescence of paid out of district group admins.

As we read in the news, the norm is non-support from Facebook and its harassment policy. And so every once in a while the unfortunate awake to being "doxxed" by Flip the 49th's self-appointed documentarian. She (of course) lives elsewhere too. What kind of person, for instance, takes out her anger at a blogger's wife by whipping out a camera at a public event, and snapping photos for a ten-minute stretch?

Studies of trolling indicate that the majority of offenders are usually young or middle-aged Caucasian men. What is interesting in reading the collective work product is that the demographic seems to change in terms of this campaign. Whatever the story, trolls don't enjoy being tracked down and asked about their work product.

As part of this piece, we reached out to some of the more aggressive local Facebook personas. Those targeted by trolls are usually advised to not give their attackers an ounce of attention because that is what they are seeking. But it certainly enjoyable to watch them hunker down under their proverbial bridge. 

Here is one of my favorites, she opposes clean campaigns while posting endless and manic #metoo themed screeds on behalf of Mike Levin. In the trivia department, "Sharon" has a famously hagiographic Facebook tribute to Shaun White somewhere in the ether. I guess she has yet to get the memo. White was sued in August 2016 for allegedly sexually harassing an employee for years, and she had text messages to back it up. White texted her penis pics, sex videos involving fecal matter, and ordered that she even change her hairstyle. Charitably, when someone is busy obsessively crafting libelous Facebook posts on behalf of Mendacious Mike, it does become difficult to keep track of what your client is doing. 

"The common theme is that these people want desperately to be heard," says Kyrre Lien, a Norwegian filmmaker who spent three years studying online abusers in making the documentary short The Internet Warriors.   One place where some might be found is Tuesday morning in Vista, California. 

AN  UNQUIET DESPERATION

Clad in Mike Levin t-shirts, the true believers gather. It's approaching Tuesday morning at 10AM. Where once there were four hundred hearty followers, the numbers have dwindled to about a quarter of the halcyon days before Issa's retirement. Though it's easy to confuse the entities, the rally is technically under the auspices of "Indivisible 49", though led by a "Flip the 49th" officer. 

But still, the loyalists persist. It's time for the "Ellen show." Across the street, there are a few onlookers. Going on 90 days past Darrell Issa's retirement, the struggle is less against the usual demons now. It's for relevancy. A few days prior the protests moved to an alternate location, the offices of Republican frontrunner Rocky Chavez. The strategically minded asked, why would they elevate one of eight Republican candidates by staging a rally at his office? One commenter nailed it, "Yay, give Rocky press and make the GOP vote overwhelmingly for him instead of letting them split the vote. " But that begs the point. The rallies are needed. They are needed by Ellen Orton Montanari to remain relevant. They are needed by the participants as badly. It gives them something to do on Tuesdays. 

"America isn't easy. America is advanced citizenship. You've gotta want it bad, 'cause it's gonna put up a fight. It's gonna say, "You want free speech? Let's see you acknowledge a man whose words make your blood boil, who's standing center stage and advocating at the top of his lungs that which you would spend a lifetime opposing at the top of yours." - Aaron Sorkin

An interesting dichotomy is the attitudes of the demonstrator's leadership towards divergent thought. A feature every Tuesday has been the appearance of counter-demonstrators from the Trumpian right.  In the beginning, it was simply one man standing alone, but eventually, the "Make America Great Again" crowd brought in the reinforcements and a sound system. 

Rather than gritting their teeth and bear another exercise in protected free speech, the response of the "Flip-Divisible" forces was to seek judicial relief from the First Amendment. Here is the "Go fund me" page if you want to make a donation.   

Of course, we may not approve of the Trump folks bringing out a DJ. Of course, we loathe the content. That same First Amendment cited in the name of demonstrating against Issa, does also protect the "Trumpsters". At the same time, there is a rather authoritarian vibe to the Tuesday proceedings. For one thing, there is "the muscle" roaming about, pretending to be merely demonstration marshals.

There is actually said to be an "enemies list", of people involved in campaigns other than that of Mike Levin, who might post a divergent thought on occasion. Or show up with a sign saying "Free the Levin Eleven." Ever been doxxed by a non-resident using a nom de plume like "Costa de Luna?" The inference is that someone affiliated with the demonstrators or the Levin campaign (Voted "Unacceptable" five times for bullying amongst the "Levin Youth" ) might be paying a house call.

As yesterday's rally ended and the procession of both idealists and battle-hardened Levinites headed to their cars, somebody mentioned the old rallying cry. "That's what Democracy Looks Like." Sadly I found myself agreeing that a time-honored slogan indicating hope and change, has been ruined for me too. At least on Tuesdays in Vista, California.  Just like "Flipper", another phrase that once brought a smile to my life has been co-opted by our not so friendly, not so neighborhood, SUPER-PAC.  It's reminiscent of what Fitzgerald wrote in the Great Gatsby. 

"They were careless people, - they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made.”

MANY BLESSINGS- NOEL