The SOUTH ORANGE COUNTY COMMUNITY COLLEGE DISTRICT —
"[The] blog he developed was something that made the district better." - Tim Jemal, SOCCCD BoT President, 7/24/23
A few hours ago, Sam Stein, reporting for Huffington Post, noted that Fox News was covering the big Sanford meltdown story all right—only, in Fox's super-special version of reality, Governor Sanford is a Democrat:
The network known for its conservative leaning ran footage of Mark Sanford admitting to an extramarital affair on Wednesday with a Chyron [an electronically generated caption] identifying the South Carolina Republican – near tears – as a D, for Democrat.
(Fox eventually "corrected" their "mistake.")
And, no, this isn’t the first time that the network for Stupid People employed this clever gambit. You'll recall that, when Mark Foley admitted to alcohol problems (after some seriously inappropriate behavior with congressional pages), Fox did the same dang thing.
I guess the people at Fox understand their audience well, i.e., they understand that those silly rednecks and Bible thumpers are just incredibly f*cking stupid.
The Royal Observatory, Greenwich, is staging an exhibition of some of the most spectacular images of Saturn and its moons captured by Nasa's Cassini-Huygens craft
Granted, there is a lot of waste in any institution but the recent closure of Silverado Elementary reveals a level of waste that goes beyond, say, the normal end-of- school year cleanout.
The pictures tell the story better than Rebel Girl can.
To be told that the school district doesn't have enough money to keep your child's school open - and then to open the dumpster and see the equivalent of a small library discarded makes one wonder about management policies, oversight and, frankly, competence.
The books in the dumpsters added, say, insult to injury.
There is, one parent quipped, just one short step between throwing away usable books and burning them. Ouch.
Rebel Girl is often pleased to point out irony. The difference in usage, for instance, between the words oversight and oversight. One means accountablity and the other means error. But we here in the canyons have had enough irony, nearly losing our whole canyon and then our school. So, no, irony is not helpful today, not on a day spent rescuing books from god help us, a school! It's not so comforting or even helpful, not when it can't seem to find a place to mean anything. Sigh. Back to sorting. At least these lovely volumes will find new homes. They're destined for an after-school tutoring program in Santa Ana.
"We're going to continue to do this as the state economy continues to crumble and the state of education seems to deteriorate," [Student Body President Alex] Flores said.
WASHINGTON -- The thesis behind a meeting of educators and policy makers here Monday was that higher education is facing a crisis and that if its leaders fail to respond adequately, the consequences will be significant for colleges and the country…. … …The afternoon's discussion focused on the ways in which college leaders have or haven't responded to the array of technological, demographic and budgetary changes that are combining to increase the pressure on colleges and universities to perform….
Board Prez Don Wagner looked odd, albeit better, without his mustache
Went to the June meeting of the SOCCCD board of trustees tonight. Wanna report? I’ll just do this little impressionistic/"camera eye” thing—I can do that quickly—and then I can get back to watching Doctor G. (See Tracy’s highlights.)
Trustees looked grim/mean, wanted to be anywhere but there…Don looked super-pasty faced. What’s wrong with 'im?! (Then, an epiphany: good God! No mustache!)
6:33: meeting started. Clerk reported nada from closed session… Three new managers introduced…warm and fuzzies: instructor Fumiko I. honored at the Cherry Blossom Festival, with 30,000 souls, including people from the “Japanese and American communities,” said Glenn….
Mathur tried to show one of his “Did you know?” factoidal video extravaganzas (maybe it was about those cherry blossoms), but this was the night of the techno glitch, so Don ‘n’ Raghu steamed and stewed and slow-burned about that. Upshot: No factoidal video. (“Somebody will pay,” he muttered, his lower lip drooping impossibly southward toward Hades.)
Tom Fuentes reported that he gave a commencement address at Agrestic State U (Mathur 'n' Fuentes got honorary sheepskins there), up in LA. —He was proud, like a turd sporting a tiny goose feather….
Nobody mentioned Williams'“scandalously incompetent county official” problem or the still-fresh “PE-for-Geezers courses” flap—Williams kept smiling like an idiot, his only defense. Bramucci and Co. gave a presentation about the colleges' online instruction—looks like, quickly but surely, students are eschewing campus visitations in favor of inertial cyberspace stay-at-home-itude. Do the math! I think we’re witnessing Trad College's gradual extinction, not that that's necessarily a bad thing (it's only accidentally a bad thing). Dean PatF offered something from the “bottom of” her heart in gratitude of trustees, but it was undignified…. (Some day, we’ll look back, and we’ll realize that it was right about now that COLLEGE IN AMERICA started circling the drain, disappearing like lead-piped Roman bath houses.)
“I am a biology professor,” announced Marcia, as Don smiled sardonically…. Gosh, thanks you guys, for giving us more spare bandwidth, said Bramucci: it was "kiss-ass night" down at the Ronnie Reagan Room, I guess.... Free beer for big smoochers. (Well, Mathur probably ordered 'em do this smoochin', so you can't really blame 'em.)
“I see lawyers” (in the audience), said funny Don, worried—Yeah, but item 6.3 (ATEP agreement for some firm to provide development services) went through like butta and sans discussion or questions. It’s democracy, baby, which is kinda hollow when the demos (that’s Greek) are a gaggle of apathetic and clueless jackasses who never show up for anything and who, no doubt, will look all hurt when the Big One hits and their Toyotas have eucalyptus trees smack in the middle of 'em. "Why didn't they warn us?" they'll cry. "Fix my booboo!"
Well, I'm warning you now. Get ready for the eucalypti.
IVC student gov. presented their tentative budget…pretty girl an’ dazed lanky vet taking turns giving dry-as-dust presentation as Helen L hovered like a vampire bat… The Saddleback kids did a slicker job—their treasurer (Ms. Andrews) was as sharp as a tack (chirpy too), and she took the next big techno SNAFU in stride like a pro, even apologizing for others’ f*ck-up…. Let’s make her Chancellor, I shouted (in my mind). Meanwhile, Fuentes squinted so hard that I couldn’t tell if he was asleep, dead, or pissed off. I still don’t know. (Have you noticed all the suspicion about Steve Jobs’ recent organ swap? Hey, you don't know hinky until you've thought through the facts of Tom's "fortuitous" liver switcheroo….and I bet he has an earthquake shelter, too, stocked with liver pills and Glocks...)
After a break, consent calendar got spread fast with budda, except for 5.2—What’s this (asked Don) about the proposal to increase the parking ticket amount—and campus cops giving tickets now for lapsed tags and stuff? Is this revenue enhancement? Don’t like it. Big Brother is big and brotherly enough.
Somebody out there started 'splainin', but the Wag said No, I wanna hear why the Chancellor here (rivet!) recommended such a thing....Raghu seemed flummoxed...eventually, he burped forth that he was just supporting Prez B's recommendation, is all.... Hmmm—what was that all about? Tension.
Don wanted to know why "our toad" had recommended dinging students for lapsed tags and such
Questioning cops? Williams got all defensive and brandished his 9 mil, which he promptly dropped on Don’s toe. An' he didn’t get Don’s point, neither. It was "philosophical," and John is more copical and idiotical. Poor Don: I almost never agree w/ him, and now this! At least he got two others to vote with him, even if those two beamed in their votes from Neptune.
Gary P presented the tentative district budget, and that was sometimes riveting (frogs, toads), sometimes mind-numbing (Glenfiddich, meth)… Basic Aid is gradually disappearing… from 47 mil down to 37 mil in one year!…. Categorical funding will take a big (and categorical!) hit from the state (17% 36%?). So do we backfill with Basic Aid? Yes, yes, yes, said John and Marcia, but “Wait, wait, wait,” said Gary. We’ve always funded the colleges like they’d be funded by the state—it's a philosophical matter—and so if the state cuts funding for this stuff, then that’s what we do, too, unless we want to work with a different philosophy, know what I mean? Plus basic aid is for one-time expenses, so is that the idea here? One time?
John and Marcia seemed thwarted, bewildered. John smiled harder. His head cracked open. Nothin' was revealed (i.e., something was revealed, namely, a hollow skull plus a tiny chickpea).
“Let’s not overreact,” said Marcia, “until later.” Yeah. We’ll overreact then. Mathur (who had said nothing and who showed up looking like an old fat toad), saw an opportunity (or a fly), and commenced spitting and croaking, cuz he loves playin’ the “wise old” amphibian. “Yeah, better think twice about this, that's for sure.” He managed to wag that finger without revealing it. Everybody stared. Guess so, they thunk. Yup maybe so.
But, in truth, Mathur was probably right. (Dang!) Plus, said Raghu, what do you think is gonna happen when we boost EOPS and DSPS and every other kind of PS—while all the other colleges are backin’ off as per state tightwaddery? Why, students will be wheelin’ and break-dancing up to our doorstep from all over the county, is all! Then what? Will we keep paying for this crew while everything else goes to hell in a handbasket?
Don't think so!
Everyone looked staunch.
One thing: the colleges won’t be adding any sections in the Fall, just filling up any extra seats. Won’t be accommodating that influx, no sir.
What are we, Santa F*cking Claus? Plus there's that slippery freakin' slope!
Pretty much everything after that was quickie/slam dunk. Only: Marcia got all excited about the 18 new faculty—but wait! Actually, only 13 are new; others are replacements. Tom was very interested in that number. That many?! Now?! Didn’t like it, not a bit, judging by his mega-squintery.
Yeah, but surely he realizes that it was his boy RAGHU who fucked up the 50% rule, forcing us to hire all these people, ready or not! You squawk when we don't hire; you squawk when we do hire: Are you just here to squawk, Tom?
What are you, some kind of Republican?
When Lee H announced that he would be a delegate at the big NEA conference (NEA is like the biggest organization in the known universe, and they’re about as sensible and sweet as the BORG), just about all of the trustees ('ceptin’ Marcia, who was examining a bug) stared at him like he was saying, “I plan to have sex with several farm animals atop the Matterhorn in July.”
Me too (I mean, I stared, too—not the farm animal thing).
(Note: three of these photos from Tracy's "highlights.")
A week ago, OC Register “Watchdog” reporter Teri Sforza posted an account of complaints—charges of “inflated numbers” and cheating [aka "fraud"]—regarding Saddleback College “Emeritus” PE classes at Laguna Woods Village, aka “Leisure World” (Is college cheating state for seniors’ fitness classes?).
The matter was originally pursued by dogged LWV resident Doug Goforth, but he managed to get other residents riled, yielding a petition in May, which was presented to an LWV governing board. The petition had little impact, but the issue lingers.
In a follow-up article a few hours later, Sforza said she had asked Saddleback College for a response, and she did get a brief statement from spokeswoman Jennie McCue. But Sforza had also asked for “dollar details” for these PE courses.
As of Monday afternoon, said Sforza, she had not yet been provided with the latter (which was understandable).
On Friday (i.e., four days later), Sforza reported that “We're still waiting on dollar figures for the Emeritus physical education program….”
Leisure World Bikers' Bar
As near as I can tell, she’s still waiting. Anyway, there are no indications in today's edition of the Reg (as of a few minutes ago) that the information has been provided.
OK, so this is DAY 7 of the WAIT FOR "DOLLAR DETAILS." It'll be interesting to see what happens—or doesn't.
(Note: if there is an issue here, it concerns not only Saddleback's Emeritus PE courses but Irvine Valley College's as well [or so it seems to me, but whaddoo I know].)
Sheesh, I just noticed that the OC Weekly’s Matt Coker took my recent “Holocaust museum shooter” dot-connecting saga (Part 1, Part 2) and ran with it. I'm pleased!
TANGLED WEB OF HATE WEAVED BY CARTO, VON BRUNN & CO.
Essentially, Matt repeats my dot-connectings, adding a few details, but he also shares his memories of a notorious board meeting back in '98, involving Nazis and JDL thugs (a meeting we described in detail in Dissent; see Oh, what a night! and Night of the Nazi):
It takes a lot to laugh, it takes a train to cry and it takes Irvine Valley College philosophy professor Roy Bauer to connect the dots between National Holocaust Museum shooter James Wenneker von Brunn, some of our most notorious local haters and The Unabauer's own South Orange County Community College District.
…
As Bauer notes on his Dissent the Bloghere and here, von Brunn was once employed by Noontide Press, which is currently based in Newport Beach and is part of the Institute of Historical Review, which over the years has been located in Torrance, Costa Mesa and, most recently, Newport Beach.
…
So what does any of this have to do with the community-college district? Or anything? Glad you asked.
…
In 1983, von Brunn was sentenced to prison for attempted armed kidnapping of members of the Federal Reserve board. After he was released from prison in 1989, he came to Southern California to work at Noontide Press. That was during the IHR reign of now 82-year-old Willis Carto. According to Talking Points Memo blogger Zachary Roth, Von Brunn tried to use Wikipedia to promote the work of Carto, who claims to be a Jeffersonian and populist, not a racist and anti-Semite.
In 1955, Carto founded Liberty Lobby, which was best known for publishing the newspaper The Spotlight from 1975 and 2001. … It was the [paper] that promoted white supremacy and denied the Holocaust ever happened.
Carto in 1969 started Noontide Press, which has published books on white racialism and, with David Hoggan's The Six Million Myth, became among the first publishers to deny the Holocaust happened.
A decade later Carto founded the IHR as sort of an umbrella organization over all his publishing ventures. But he was booted out by his own board in the early 1990s over misuse of funds as IHR and Noontide Press was facing bankruptcy. It is believed von Brunn left Noontide Press around this time.
Carto has said he did not know von Brunn, while Weber says he only knew of him. Weber also maintains IHR and Noontide have returned to their "populist" roots since Carto's ouster. I'll let you check out his websites and decide for yourself.
Carto and several Spotlight staff members went off to start a new newspaper called American Free Press. Among his stable of writers is D.C.-based Michael Collins Piper, who hosts a weekday talk program on shortwave radio that has been described as pointedly anti-Zionist.
From 1996 to 2000 [actually, from 1992 until 2000], the South Orange County Community College District (SOCCCD) had a board trustee named Steven J. Frogue, who was also a history teacher at Foothill High School in Tustin. Frogue was controversial locally because there were reports out of his classrooms that he had said some nutty things, such as denying or questioning the number of Jewish deaths caused by the Holocaust. Other than an embarrassing headline or two, he escaped political damage that would threaten his board seat.
But then in 1998 [actually, August, 1997] Frogue tried to get the board to use taxpayer funds to cover some expenses for a John F. Kennedy assassination symposium he was organizing as a summer elective course at Irvine Valley College. [Note: actually, the forum would have been at Saddleback.] ... A war was waging at the time that pitted the conservative board majority Frogue was aligned with against some administrators and faculty members (including Bauer) over who should make decisions regarding academics, the naming of deans and other matters that had traditionally been overseen by the Faculty Senate.
Doing some digging, Frogue's foes discovered that among the "experts" the trustee had enlisted for his forum was Piper, who had just penned a book that attributed the JFK assassination to the CIA and Israel, with an assist from the Anti-Defamation League (ADL). Among the costs the Frogue-led majority agreed to pick up were the travel expenses of Piper and other speakers--some of whom had been branded as equally as loony.
Taking a look at Frogue's past comments with new eyes, as well as scribbling down new quotes he was making while struggling to defend himself amid a new controversy, it was discovered the trustee was a big fan of Carto, the IHR and Liberty Lobby. [Actually, some of that had already been revealed in 1994 by the IVC Voice and then the OC Reg.] The story of the little college district hosting a Holocaust denier and other nutbars at a JFK assassination forum generated national headlines, then international ones. Late night comics made fun of the SOCCCD.
Subsequent board meetings turned into three-ring circuses—and smelled about as bad. The worst, on a steamy June 15, 1998, night, featured appearances by Piper, trenchcoated National Socialist and admitted child molester Joe Fields, Jewish Defense League wack bags Barry Krugel and Irv Rubin (now dead, from suicide or murder in jail) and other area Nazis, Zionists and the people who love them. Cameras and security guards were everywhere. Frogue looked as if he was in the midst of passing a crome-spiked German helmet up on the dais.
Having covered that meeting, this exchange between opposing audience still echoes in my head:
"Nazi!"
"Cockroach!"
Student trustee Marie Hill summed it up best: "Every time I get up in the morning and see a story about this district in the Orange County Register, it's like seeing your mother on The Jerry Springer Show."
Frogue was nearly recalled—but damn if Orange County is going to toss out an incumbent. After the controversy died down, he quietly resigned in 2000—before his term was up so his board pals could appoint his replacement. South County was rewarded with the equally odious Tom Fuentes, the former Orange County Republican Party chairman now loathed by much of the SOCCCD faculty.
A few hours ago, Sam Stein, reporting for Huffington Post, noted that Fox News was covering the big Sanford meltdown story all right—only, in Fox's super-special version of reality, Governor Sanford is a Democrat:
(Fox eventually "corrected" their "mistake.")
