Republicans are dismantling oversight and security assistance for U.S. elections. NATCH.

     You'll recall that, starting in 2006, the late Tom Fuentes was on the board of a U.S. Commission. It was the one that helps with election security and voting machines. It was created after all the hinkyness of the 2000 election.
     According to some experts, this agency—the Election Assistance Commission (EAC)—has become an important part of our country's efforts to guarantee the integrity of our elections.
     Well, long story short, despite vociferous Democratic objections that this is no time to reduce oversight of elections, the Republicans are now getting rid of the EAC:

House Republicans Want to Eliminate Federal Election Assistance Agency
(Government Executive, 6/30/17)

     House Republicans are taking aim at a small federal agency that helps provide election oversight and guidance, saying its functions are no longer necessary.
     A spending bill from the House Appropriations Committee unveiled Thursday would give the Election Assistance Commission 60 days to terminate itself. The small agency was created after the tightly contested 2000 presidential election. It has an annual budget of about $10 million and had just 31 employees on its rolls as of March. The agency writes election management guidelines and develops specifications for testing and certifying voting systems, among other tasks.
     The House Administration Committee first proposed the elimination earlier this year before the fiscal 2018 appropriations bill also slated the agency to shutter its doors. Republicans argued during a markup Thursday the agency was always intended to be temporary and other federal offices, such as the Federal Elections Commission, could easily assume its responsibilities.
     Democrats introduced an amendment at the markup to save the agency, arguing that its role was more important than ever given the attempts by the Russian government to interfere with the 2016 election. Republicans rejected that line of thinking, noting the Homeland Security Department, and not EAC, has jurisdiction over election-related cybersecurity issues.
     Brenda Bowser Soder, an EAC spokeswoman, said the agency has been “active in the conversation around cybersecurity for a long time.” EAC, she explained, provides cybersecurity experts with information on election processes. She added the agency helps to increase voting access, boost security and update election equipment.
     Rep. Mike Quigley, D-Ill., the author of the EAC amendment, said the proposal would mark a step backward for the country.
     Eliminating the agency “would be dramatically out of step with the federal government’s work to improve the nation’s election systems,” Quigley said. “No other federal agency has the capacity, willingness or expertise to effectively absorb these functions.”
     Rep. Sam Graves, R-Mo., chairman of the Financial Services and General Government Subcommittee that was considering the measure, said EAC is simply a go-between for various other agencies.
     “It’s just there to help agencies talk to one another,” Graves said, “and I don’t think we need a federal agency to do that.” He noted Democrats were using the agency to advance a broader platform aimed at increasing the federal government’s role in the election process, but said it should be left primarily to states to run their own voting systems.
     Richard Hasen, a law professor at University of California, Irvine, founding co-editor of the Election Law Journal and author of the Election Law Blog, said it would be a “tremendous mistake” to assume other agencies would take on EAC’s duties. The role of the FEC, for example, has become much more complicated in recent years while also getting increasingly deadlocked by political leadership. Hasen noted the fight to eliminate the EAC is not a new one, as House Republicans view the agency as federal infringement on an inherently state and local function.
     “Even though it has no real power,” Hasen said, alluding to EAC’s voluntary guidance, Republicans “say it’s too powerful.”
     Adam Ambrogi, the Democracy Fund’s director of Elections Programs, said 47 states currently test their elections systems at the federal level through EAC, providing significant savings. Prior to the 2000 election, EAC’s functions were housed in FEC. The agency’s expertise and relationships were in campaign finance, however, meaning the three-employee election administration office was ignored. Ambrogi said state election officials need a distinct federal agency to turn to for assistance with people who actually have experience running elections, which EAC currently offers.
     David Becker, a former senior litigator at the Justice Department’s Voting Section and the executive director of the Center for Election Innovation and Research, said EAC has been particularly busy lately.
     "They are traveling around and speaking right now to county election officials across the country,” Becker said, adding the agency has been “extremely active” on recent threats. If it is eliminated, he said, “The happiest people out there would be the hackers.”
     Rep. Matt Cartwright, D-Pa., said at the appropriations markup that EAC provides subject matter expertise to states and other agencies and helps improve voting access for military personnel and other Americans overseas, and the disabled.
     Those functions, Cartwright said, “Would not be carried over to the FEC. They would simply cease to exist.”
     Bowser Soder said she was unaware of how Congress would reassign EAC’s responsibilities if Congress eliminated it. She said the agency would not lobby lawmakers, but she defended its mission.
     “We feel we play a unique role in serving election officials and voters and we’ll continue to do that as long as we’re around,” she said, adding, “We hope to continue that for a long time.”
     In his fiscal 2018 budget proposal, President Trump proposed eliminating 19 independent federal agencies. EAC, however, was not one of them.

SEE ALSO

• House Dem seeks to restore funding to the Election Assistance Commission (The Hill, 6/29/17)
• The Federal Voting Agency Republicans Want to Kill (The Atlantic, 2/13/17)
• U.S. Election Assistance Commission on Facebook
• Mr. Fuentes goes to Washington (again)  -  DtB, May 23, 2006
• More on Fuentes' appointment  -  DtB, May 24, 2006
• Still HAVA problem!  -  DtB, November 26, 2006
• Despite the EAC  -  DtB, December 11, 2006
• For you conspiracy fans: watching the machine and some of its tiny, stinky parts  -  DtB, June 27, 2008

AND THEN THERE'S THIS....

Trump election panel asks all 50 states for voter roll data
(The Hill, 6/29/17)

     The vice chairman of President Trump’s commission on election integrity sent a letter to all 50 states Wednesday requesting information on their voter rolls.
     Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach is seeking several pieces of information about voters, including their names, birthdays, the last four digits of their Social Security numbers and their voting history dating back to 2006.
     The letter, sent to the secretaries of state of all 50 states and obtained by The Hill, directs states to turn over “publicly-available voter roll data including, if publicly available under the laws of your state, the full first and last names of all registrants, middle names or initials if available, addresses, dates of birth, political party (if recorded in your state), last four digits of social security number if available, [and] voter history from 2006 onward.”
     Kobach’s letter asks states to respond to a list of questions about voting in their states, inquiring about “law, policies or other issues hinder your ability to ensure the integrity of elections you administer.” He also asks for information about “convictions for election -related crimes” since the November 2000 presidential election.
     The letter also stipulates that documents submitted to the commission “will also be made available to the public.” States were given a deadline of July 14 to submit the info to the commission.
     Jason Kander, the head the Democratic National Committee’s Commission on Protecting American Democracy from the Trump Administration, blasted the letter in a statement, calling it “very concerning.”
     "It's obviously very concerning when the federal government is attempting to get the name, address, birth date, political party and Social Security number of every voter in the country,” Kander said. “ I certainly don't trust the Trump Administration with that information, and people across the country should be outraged."....

AND THIS...

Asked for Voters’ Data, States Give Trump Panel a Bipartisan ‘No’
(NYT, JUNE 30, 2017)

     A White House commission’s sweeping request for the personal and public data of the nation’s 200 million voters set off an avalanche of opposition by state leaders in both parties on Friday, as officials from California to Mississippi called the move an overreach and more than 20 states declared they would not comply.
     It was an inauspicious start for the panel, which was created after President Trump claimed last winter that millions of illegal votes had robbed him of a popular-vote victory over Hillary Clinton….
. . .
     By Friday, an informal tally by voting-rights advocates indicated that election officials in at least 22 states had partly or completely rejected the commission’s request.
. . .
     Kentucky’s secretary of state, Alison Lundergan Grimes, said that Mr. Trump’s premise for creating the commission in the first place — that voter fraud was pervasive and needed to be reined in — was itself a fraud.
. . .
     In an interview last week with The Washington Times, Mr. Kobach said the accusations from voting-rights advocates and Democrats that the commission is a pretense for a voter-suppression enterprise designed to benefit Republicans were “complete and utter nonsense.” ….

Frogue, Schmitz, and Sons

Connecting Donald Trump Dots with OC's Steve Frogue and John G. Schmitz
(Matt Coker, OC Weekly)

     What do former (as in retired) far-right South County disgraced politician Steve Frogue and former (as in no more) far-far-far right South County disgraced politician John Schmitz have in common?
     BZZZZZ!
     The answer is: sons who worked on Donald Trump's transition team (and still sniff around the White House).
     Half of the preceding game show Q&A is brought to you by Dissent the Blog, operated by the ever-rascally Irvine Valley College philosophy professor Roy Bauer....

From last night's meeting of the SOCCCD Board of Trustees

From Tere Fluegeman's Board Meeting Highlights. Chancellor and Presidents' reports:

College accreditation news

     Earlier today, college personnel received an email from Melanie Buettner, Assistant Director of Marketing and Creative Services, on behalf of IVC President Roquemore, with this brief message:

Colleagues:
     I am pleased to announce that IVC has received a letter from the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges reaffirming accreditation for seven years. In their meeting, held June 7-9, the commission acted to reaffirm IVC’s accreditation with the requirement of a Follow-Up Report in 18 months on the issues identified in the team’s findings of non-compliance.
     The news delivered by the commission is testament to the remarkable efforts of all who assisted in making our accreditation process a success. This has been IVC’s most glowing accreditation process to date, and an accomplishment our college should truly be proud of.
     I am pleased to share the official letter from the Accrediting Commission with you. http://accreditation.ivc.edu/2017

—Signed, Glenn R. Roquemore, Ph.D., President, Irvine Valley College

Here’s the relevant section of the aforementioned letter:

     Hot diggity.
     Note: Recently, David Bugay, Vice Chancellor, Human Resources & Employer/Employee Relations, was fired. (See.)

     Here's the corresponding letter sent to Saddleback College. They suffered a similar fate:

In the news...
Court of Appeals Says OC Prosecutors Withheld Evidence in Another Jailhouse Informants Case 
(OC Voice)

The Fourth District Court of Appeal Friday unanimously upheld a ruling that prosecutors with the Orange County District Attorney improperly withheld information from defense attorneys and misused a jailhouse informant, meaning a third trial for Henry Rodriguez, who has been convicted twice for aiding another man in the 1998 double murder of Jeanette Espeleta and her unborn child....

Systematic Rational Failures

The prevaricator in chief

Trump’s Lies (New York Times)

Many Americans have become accustomed to President Trump’s lies. But as regular as they have become, the country should not allow itself to become numb to them. So we have catalogued nearly every outright lie he has told publicly since taking the oath of office. [Click on link]

Roquemore does Bakersfield: blah, blah, and blah

Leadership Matters:
Reimagining Leadership to Sustain Transformative Change
to Advance Student Success & Equity May 24th, 2017
Glenn’s part starts at 13:30.
Session III: Aligning Resources to Support and Sustain Change (Re-envisioning and Repurposing Panel)

Jim Frogue is on Trump's "beachhead team"

     Various news sources (e.g., here) described Jim Frogue as “Senior Health Policy Advisor to the Donald J. Trump for President campaign….” Evidently, Frogue took a leave of absence from his firm, occupying Trump tower from August until November, helping to fashion Trump's spin on health care.
     The question is, what is Frogue’s role, if any, during the post-election period?
     The answer is that Jim Frogue has been part of the Trump transition. More specifically, he’s on Trump’s “beachhead” team, which is not to be confused with his “landing” team.
     According to Politico, Jan. 30, “Three unconfirmed members of the [beachhead] team” [include] “Jim Frogue.” A week later, Politico reported that “Among the hundreds of revelers at Saturday night's Health Policy Ball, held at the Ritz-Carlton ... [are] Trump transition and beachhead staffers Jim Frogue (wearing a Trump/Pence pin), Keagan Lenihan, Carla DiBlasio, Kamran Daravi,” et al.
     But just what is a "beachhead" staffer? Above the Law (a magazine for lawyers) explains:

     ... Top government positions ... are so-called “PAS” positions, “presidential appointment with Senate confirmation.” The Attorney General is a PAS post, of course, and so are many others at the Justice Department — top positions at Main Justice in Washington, such as deputy attorney general and solicitor general, plus other jobs around the country, such U.S. Attorneys.
     It’s not possible to get all the PAS posts at an agency filled before a new presidential administration takes over. So what typically happens during the transition is that the incoming administration selects a number of non-PAS political appointees to place in the various divisions of an agency (sometimes called “beachhead” appointees). Because these appointees do not require Senate confirmation, they can join the agency immediately after inauguration, and they can represent the voice of the new administration from day one. They basically hold down the fort until the arrival of the Senate-confirmed appointees, which usually happens a few months later.

* * *

Steve Frogue, Neanderthal

     Why, one might ask, should anyone care that this Trumpian "beachhead" staffer is the son of Steven J. Frogue? The factoid certainly sheds no negative light on Jim Frogue. That a guy's father is a conspiracy theory nut shouldn't count against him, I say. Jim seems to be a very sharp and successful businessman (albeit a lobbyist for evil corporations—don't get me started). He is a health policy expert of sorts and he has made a name for himself especially in the area of combating Medicare fraud.
     Good for him.
     That Steven J. Frogue's son turned out to be a hotshot lobbyist and Trump advisor will certainly be interesting to us, i.e., to those who lived through the Frogue era, especially denizens of the SOCCCD. For instance, my reaction to this revelation is surprise. How, I ask, could the likes of Steve Frogue, a clueless boob, raise such an accomplished son, even if said son is a global warming skeptic who likes Milo Yiannopoulos? Who'd 've thunk?
     Of secondary and minor interest, I suppose, is Jim Frogue's apparent efforts to leave virtually no trail back to his Lake Forest roots with silly old papa Steve.
     That's just good business, I guess.

SEE The Evil of Froguenstein

Frogue's son was Trump's senior health policy advisor during the 2016 campaign!

Jim Frogue with his hero, Donald Trump

Lobbyist Frogue

     (See UPDATE.)
     My two little brothers attended El Toro High School in Lake Forest. I happened to notice recently that a “James Frogue” attended that school, class of ’89. That would make James about 45 years old today. Might he be the son of longtime Lake Forest resident and notorious one-time SOCCCD trustee Steve Frogue? You'll recall that the latter was to college trusteeship what Trump has been to the Presidency: a destroyer, a ridiculoid. An apocalyptic clown. An amazing asshole from Hell.

     See The Evil of Froguenstein (OC Weekly)

     So I Googled "James Frogue." As it turns out, there’s a highly successful Washington lobbyist named “Jim” R. Frogue. Until about 2010, he worked for the odious Newt Gingrich. Nowadays, he lobbies for Eli Lilly among other horrifying organizations. Starting in 2010, he's been running his successful lobbying firm but he took a few months off in late 2016 to serve as candidate Donald Trump's chief health policy advisor. That's right! He hung out for three months at Trump Tower, planning our medical futures! He's a medium fish in the Trumpian pond of bottom-feeding money-grubbers.
     And get this: he’s 45 years old and there are indications that he might hail from Lake Forest!
     Could it be that Jim R. Frogue, bigtime Trump advisor, is son of Steven J. Frogue, small-time Holocaust denier?
     I've learned that Jim Frogue attended USC. I recall that one of the first articles about Steve Frogue, back in the 90s, noted, not only that Steve and his wife raised two sons (in Lake Forest), but that the couple “paid both boys' expenses at affluent, private USC.” (See Studying the Lessons of Steven J. Frogue [Times, 1996])
     Hmmm.
     If you check those sites that dig up people's records (I just get their “free” info), you’ll find indications that, among Lake Forest resident Steven J. Frogue’s relatives is a "James" R. Frogue.
     The son? The lobbyist? The Trumpian lieutenant?!
     Jim R. Frogue’s Facebook page indicates that the fellow does indeed hail from Lake Forest. He flat out says so.
     I figure that settles it. "Trump Team" Froguester is indeed one and the same as scion of district-ruining Froguester. 
     Wow.

* * *

     Here’s Jim R. Frogue’s bio:

     Jim Frogue is a partner and co-founder of FrogueClark. He is a nationally recognized health policy expert with over 20 years of experience in the government, non-profit, and for-profit sectors. His areas of expertise include Medicaid, fraud prevention, health insurance, and information transparency. He has played a lead role in securing over $1 billion in contracts for clients since 2010. 

During the 2016 election cycle, Jim was the senior health policy advisor to the Trump for President campaign, spending three months at the campaign headquarters in Trump Tower in New York City. He has served as an expert witness before Congress on three occasions, appearing before the House Committee on the Judiciary, the Senate Special Committee on Aging, and the House Committee on Energy and Commerce. He has also testified to state legislatures in Florida, Georgia, Missouri, Ohio, Texas, Colorado, Kansas, and Alaska. He has given hundreds of speeches in 40 states across the country, including to the Republican Governors Association, the Harvard School of Public Health, the John F. Kennedy School of Government, the Western Governors Association, the National Conference of State Legislatures, the Conference of Western Attorneys General, the Alliance for Health Reform, and the Congressional Health Care Caucus.

Dad

     Jim's television credits include On the Record with Greta Van Susteren, ABC's Good Morning America, CNBC's Bullseye and Power Lunch, and multiple appearances on the Fox Business Channel. He also has appeared on countless radio shows, including NPR's The Diane Rehm Show, All Things Considered, and On Point. He was a guest on the Kaiser Family Foundation's Ask the Experts. He edited the book Stop Paying the Crooks, and with Newt Gingrich, he co-authored Chapter 16, Solutions for Stopping Health Care Fraud, in the 2010 New York Times best seller To Save America. Jim's work has also appeared in RealClearPolitics, Roll Call, The Hill, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and the Florida SunSentinel. He has also been cited in Donald Trump’s book The America We Deserve, The Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, USA Today, and on The Rush Limbaugh Show. His work on fighting health care fraud was even discussed on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.

     Prior to co-founding FrogueClark, Jim was for six years the vice president and director of state policy for Newt Gingrich's Center for Health Transformation. Prior to that, he spent three years as the director of the Health and Human Services Task Force at the American Legislative Exchange Council. He has served three members of Congress, most recently as legislative director for Congresswoman Kay Granger of Texas. He also spent two years as the health care policy analyst at the Heritage Foundation. Jim holds a M.Phil. from Cambridge and a B.A. with honors from the University of Southern California.

     Meanwhile, Steve's still alive, I think. He'll be 75 years old in a few days. His name still pops up in publications of a local chapter of the Masons, where he served as "master" in 1996. He's keeping a low profile.

Miscellaneous factoids about Jim Frogue:

• On his Facebook page, Jim Frogue indicates that he “likes” Milo Yiannopoulos and Tomi Lahren
• His favorite movie (yes, movie) seems to be Atlas Shrugged. He's clearly an Ayn Rand fan
• He seems to know Megyn Kelly
• His favorite author, Mark Steyn, is a climate change skeptic, among other things

P.S.:

     I found a photo, accompanying a 1989 Tustin News article, of Steve Frogue with his son, James:

Steve and James at left (Tustin News, 8-24-89)

     In the article, James is identified as James Relfson Frogue (Relfson is his mother's maiden name). The article explains that James is among three students receiving the Tustin Educators' Association Scholarship, and that he'll be going to USC to study political science and economics:

Tustin News, 8-24-89

     Below, I've put an image of Jim R. Frogue, Trump Guy, in 2011, next to a pic of James R. Frogue, son of Steve, in 1989:

     It's the same guy, age 39 and age 17. No?

     I suppose it's none of my business, but why is it so hard to connect Trump Guy with son-of-Steve? Aside from hometown and age and USC (enough for an identification, eh?), I can find nothing to indicate that the bigtime lobbyist is the son of our local Holocaust-denying nut. 

     Trump Guy doesn't seem to want to be associated, at least publicly, with his OC family.
     Sad, that.

P.P.S. (June 22, 2017):
     A reporter friend sent me a photo of lobbyist Jim Frogue drinking beer with his dad. I believe he found the photo on Jim's Twitter Instagram page:

     Next to that photo, I've placed a shot of Steve Forgue, c. late 80s 1992. They're clearly the same guy.

SEE ALSO The FROGUE Files: Son of Lake Forest Holocaust Denier now helping Trump Ruin Your Healthcare! (Orange Juice Blog)

1963: "Dear Patriot"

No enjoyment

     James B. Utt … helped Orange County gain a national reputation as a hotbed of archconservatism…. "Utt the Nut," his enemies called him. He was elected to Congress in 1952 and handily won reelection until his death in 1970. Each year Utt introduced a bill to eliminate the federal income tax. He also tried to pass a constitutional amendment which would recognize Jesus Christ as America's authority figure. He opposed all civil rights legislation, but gained national fame, however, when he argued that rock 'n roll was a communist plot.   — LA Times, December 27, 1999         

     Back in 2008, on something called “Paleofuture,” blogger Matt Novak noted the existence of a “time capsule book,” named “2063 A.D.,” a copy of which was buried in the ground somewhere back in 1963.
     Novak informs us that the late California congressman James B. Utt—he of the “James B. Utt Library” at Saddleback College*—contributed the following remark for the book:

...The cost of escaping gravity will probably always curtail any commercial space travel, but the time will come when the scientists will be able to change the molecular body system and reduce the weight to zero and reconstruct the molecular system at any place and any time. Travel will then be as rapid as the mind can conceive. Personally, I do not look forward to this with any sense of enjoyment.

     Golly. Do you suppose Utt was a Trekkie?**
     In Congress, he was called “Utt the Nut” owing to his out-of-this-world ideas about Commies creeping under every rock. According to Wikipedia, “In 1963, he claimed that ‘a large contingent of barefooted Africans’ might be training in Georgia as part of a United Nations military exercise to take over the United States.” On another occasion, he warned about Chinese communists amassing at the California/Mexico border.

Utt: 1899-1970

     Utt, who mentored a young Tom Fuentes,*** promoted an organization you may have heard about: Liberty Lobby. No doubt that's where he got his best info!
     You’ll recall that Steve Frogue, the SOCCCD’s notorious Holocaust denying trustee, was a big fan of Liberty Lobby, the foremost racist/anti-Semitic publisher in the U.S. (it went bankrupt in 2001).
     It already had that reputation back in 1966, when well-known investigative journalist, Drew Pearson, reported that “Four Congressmen ... have accepted ‘Statesmen of the Republic’ awards from the Lobby for their right-wing activities.”
     Utt was among them. At one point, said Pearson, Utt mailed an appeal (“Dear Patriot”) in which he wrote: “Liberty Lobby…consistently works in the halls of Congress to oppose the international socialist takeover. …I strongly urge you to send in your subscription to Liberty lobby’s legislative report, ‘Liberty Letter,’ without delay.”
     Liberty Letter—and, later, The Spotlight—were the Breitbart.com of the pre-internet era. (See Spotlight Archives.)
     Essentially, nothing changes, it seems.

IHR was founded by Willis Carto, who
founded and ran Liberty Lobby, 1955-2001.
See Trustee Calls Recall Effort 'Witch Hunt'

     Here are mostly "conspiracist" titles you'll find on Breitbart at this very moment:

• SOCIALIST GROUP UNDER POLICE INVESTIGATION AFTER CALLING FOR BEHEADING REPUBLICAN
• SCOTUS STRIKES DOWN BAN ON ‘RACIALLY DISPARAGING’ TRADEMARKS
• RUSH: SANDERS, WARREN, NANCY WROTE ‘SCRIPT’ FOR SCALISE’S SHOOTER
• Caitlyn Jenner: ‘Liberals Can’t Even Shoot Straight’
• Caddell: Anti-Trump Resistance Rhetoric Fueling ‘Raging Fever’ in Unbalanced People
• BBC Targets Kids with Fake ‘Islam Means Peace’ Claim Following Finsbury Park Attack

     The President is an ardent Breitbart reader. He's also a fan of Alex Jones!

     *The name was changed after the Library was significantly rebuilt and remodeled several years ago.
     **Star Trek didn't debut until two or three years later.
     ***According to Fuentes himself.

SEE ALSO

• Saddleback College's "Nutt" Memorial Library  ~ (2009) ~ According to Wikipedia, Utt, born in Tustin in 1899, was a “conservative Repubican Congressman” who held that office from the early fifties until his death in 1970. (His successor: John Schmitz!) That means that Fuentes, as OC Supervisor (and Republican) Ronald Casper’s bagman (er, executive assistant), may have known the guy. It’s hard to say. I guess I could ask Tom.

• Utt the Nut, Jesus, and rock 'n roll ~ (2010) ~ He opposed all civil rights legislation, but gained national fame, however, when he argued that rock 'n roll was a communist plot.
• James B. Utt remembered ~ (2010) ~ In February 1970, just a couple of weeks before his death on March 1, Utt attended the three-year anniversary celebration of the founding of the Saddleback [Community College District]. On a long walk around the campus, he and Vogel discussed the future of the district. It was at that time Vogel told Utt that the trustees had decided to name the first permanent structure – the library – in his honor. Upon hearing this he was quite humble and expressed his gratitude. He was, obviously, very pleased.
• Mentor and friend and wacko ~ (2010) ~ I FORGOT TO MENTION one funny moment during last night’s board meeting. Saddleback College’s "Utt" library is going through renovation. The building is named after a notorious OC Congressman. Trustee Tom Fuentes therefore found it necessary to announce that “James B. Utt was a mentor and friend in my youth….” Why, of course he was!

• Benighted Orange County: conspiracism central ~ (2010) ~ Nowhere is that particular American trait more apparent than in Orange County. How many other places have had a community college board trustee offer to teach a seminar with a guest speaker espousing the theory that Israeli intelligence agents helped assassinate JFK, as Steven J. Frogue did in the 1990s? More recently, how many have elected an official such as former Orange Unified School District trustee Steve Rocco, who alleged that the county was secretly controlled by “The Partnership,” a dark alliance that included a supermarket chain and a sausage manufacturer, and who operated a website devoted to the theory that comedian Andy Kaufman had faked his 1984 death from lung cancer?
• "Apegate" festers at the party of “too many Mexicans on the beach” ~ (2011) ~ [In 1972, Republican OC Supervisor Ronald] Caspers, annoyed that a Mexican-American group of county employees were demanding affirmative action …, called them "bandidos" during a board meeting, then asked county counsel to explore moving the county seat from [Santa Ana] to whiter environs because "we are in an area which does not have a normal ethnic balance."
• Renaming Saddleback College's "Butt" Library ~ (2011) ~  …How about the “Bedtime for Bonzo” Library—in honor of Saint Ronald, who was on hand for the campus’s opening? “Bonzo” Library is more pithy. Also “Bedtime” Library (which gets a plus for fidelity to fact). Or just “Library.” That would be cool, pithy-wise. You can’t call it the “Gaucho” Library because, as you should know, the “Gaucho” moniker/mascot is controversial and, indeed, there’s some sort of committee working on its replacement. How about “Gabacho” Library? From “Gaucho” to “Gebacho” is cool, I think, in a meta kind of way.
• Utt the Nut helped put "under God" in the Pledge ~ (2011) ~ But get this: according to the Utt article on p. 38 of 100 People, James B. "helped lead the effort to add 'under God' to the Pledge of Allegiance in 1954."
• Congressman Utt's racist remark ~ (2012) ~ Well, the Lariat article repeats that factoid without explaining its significance. We are supposed to guess, I suppose, that one might object to Utt's suggestion that "'a large contingent of barefooted Africans' might be training in Georgia as part of a UN military exercise to take over the U.S."
• James B. Utt on the radio, 1969: in his own seriously wacky words ~ (2012) ~ Utt: "And why should we, the tax payers and the moral people of America be supporting the ... these pornographic uh ... mills that are making so much money in California in fact all over the United States. And I became concerned mainly because, time after time I was getting letters from concerned mothers enclosing some of the pornography ... pornographic literature that they were receiving and that their children were receiving and wondering what they could do about it.”
• James B. Utt: conspiracy theorist, whack job ~ (2012) ~ Utt: :The Council [on] Foreign Relations dictates—they together with the international bankers who actually are in the Conference of [sic] Foreign Relations—dictates the moves of this country. I’m inclined to agree with [the Congressman]. But it doesn’t have to be so. ….We should be an independent and free country. … When the people want a change they should get the change they want and not still be subject to a hidden government such as the Council of Foreign Relations [sic]. I’ve put out newsletters on the CFR, …and they are controlled by the international bankers.:
• More on Utt the Nut: "Extensive experiments in hypnotism and rhythm" ~ (2012) ~ Utt: “The Beatles and their mimicking rock-and-rollers use the Pavlovian techniques produce artificial neuroses in our young people. Extensive experiments in hypnotism and rhythm have shown how rock-and-rock music leads to a destrtuion [sic] of the normal inhibitory mechanism of the cerebral cortet [sic] and permits easy acceptance of immorality and disregard for all moral norms.”
• Utt the Nut gets Patch job ~ (2012) ~ Peter Schelden (MVP editor) mentions Utt’s curious slam of the Beatles and his appearance on “Dr. Burpo’s” evangelical radio show, in which he connects a sex education advocacy group to communism and pornography.

• The great UN anti-property rights conspiracy: Wackitude from James B. Utt—to Newt Gingrich ~ (2012) ~  A couple of days ago, the New York Times published an article that explains that Tea Partiers in Virginia and elsewhere have embraced a conspiracy theory, again focusing on the UN (and its alleged agenda of “one world government”), that views efforts at sustainability and the like as part of a plot against private property rights and other individual rights.
• Right-wing paranoia and foolishness c. 1970: "The depths of your own mind" ~ (2013) ~ Robert Lowery, the architect, explained that “We cut out the second floor outdoor reading balconies … in order to eliminate the chance students will throw books down from them to other students as you [trustees] suggested.” 

My God, that video

The Mortification of Jeff Sessions (Frank Bruni, NYT)

…My God, that video, the one of the cabinet in full session at long last. I’ve never seen anything like it. It’s the most chilling measure yet of Trump’s narcissism, and it’s a breathtaking glimpse into what that means for the people around him.
     They don’t volunteer purplish flattery like that because it’s their wont. He wants it so badly that they cough it up. To buoy his ego, they debase themselves, and what you heard them doing in that meeting wasn’t just swallowing their pride but choking on it. They looked like hostages — hostages in need of the Heimlich.
     Well, most of them. Mike Pence has discovered a freaky talent for such freakish sycophancy, and called it “the greatest privilege of my life” to assist “the president who’s keeping his word to the American people.” (Which word is that?) He sounded like he believed it. The mysteries of faith, indeed.

     A few others in the meeting summoned less ardor. “It’s an honor,” Mattis said, but then continued, “to represent the men and women of the Department of Defense.” Trump turned away just then, as if the absence of his name equaled the loss of his interest.
. . .
     No one in Trump’s administration was forced into this service and its compromises. Some hungered for power, in whatever bastard package delivered it. At least a few, like Sessions, had poisoned reputations already.
     But there were those with higher motives, too, and they find themselves in a White House governed by dread. Who’s next to be shamed? What tweet or tantrum awaits? They thought that they’d be bolstering a leader. They see now that they’re holding a grenade....

BREAKING NEWS...


Special counsel is investigating Trump for possible obstruction of justice, officials say
(WashPost)

     The special counsel overseeing the investigation into Russia’s role in the 2016 election is interviewing senior intelligence officials as part of a widening probe that now includes an examination of whether President Trump attempted to obstruct justice, officials said.
     The move by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III to investigate Trump’s conduct marks a major turning point in the nearly year-old FBI investigation, which until recently focused on Russian meddling during the presidential campaign and on whether there was any coordination between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin. Investigators have also been looking for any evidence of possible financial crimes among Trump associates, officials said….

You say diploma, I say four week continuing education certificate

from the Los Angeles Times:

Trump nominee denies that he was trying to imply he had an Ivy League degree
excerpt:

President Trump's nominee to be a key banking regulator said through a spokesman Monday that he did not misrepresent that he had a degree from Dartmouth College, but simply used the wording on a certificate he earned from a four-week continuing education program held at the school...

...A short biography of Otting put out by the White House said he “is a graduate of the School of Credit and Financial Management at Dartmouth College.” The same wording was listed on a biography for a 2015 speech Otting gave at a conference hosted by the Hope Global Forums and in a 2014 announcement when he was elected as chairman of the California Chamber of Commerce board of directors. Diana Lawrence, Dartmouth’s associate vice president for communications said on Saturday that “Joseph Otting is not a Dartmouth graduate, Dartmouth does not have a school of credit and financial management.”

*

Photo Thursday: old Orange County

SOME COOL HISTORICAL PHOTOGRAPHS:

Anaheim, 1893: rabbit-hunting party

Newport Harbor entrance, c. 1900

1925

Anaheim, 1870s?: 'In July [of 1876], [a "band of Polish aristocrats and aesthetes," including Helena Modjeska and her husband, Karol Bozenta Chłapowski] ... steamed across the Atlantic. After a long trip that included (for some members) stops in New York and at Philadelphia’s Centennial Exhibition, a railroad crossing of the Isthmus of Panama, and a sojourn in San Francisco, the ten Poles arrived at their 20-acre farm in Anaheim and commenced their experiment in communal living in October 1876.' (KCET)

Placentia, c. 1895: Kraemer Ranch

Upper K Ranch (Kraemer family; now Yorba Linda)

El Toro Marine Base, 1964: John Glenn

Anaheim 1899: Bauer Blacksmith Shop
'Charles E. Bauer Blacksmith shop; image shows corner view of single-story brick building with three men standing on sidewalk in front of blacksmith shop, Charles E. Bauer at far left, dressed in farrier's apron; signage visible on building reads "C.E. BAUER BLACKSMITH SHOP" along top of building, and horseshoe-shaped sign hanging from awning reads "HORSE SHOEING / C. E. BAUER."' (Calisphere/UC)

Huntington Beach, 1928: young surfer

Newport Dunes, 1964

Anaheim, 1950: Alex's Tamale Co.

Anaheim, 1916: flood
I looked: Lincoln/Magnolia is about 6 or 7 miles from Santa Ana River!

Sherman house, Main St., Tustin, c. 1900

Cook's Corner, October, 1988

Laguna Niguel, 1961: terrace model home