If you’re still asking, “What the hell happened?” then you’re probably living in “The Bubble.” The Bubble is where only like-minded people hang out together. They drive their Prius hybrids from their Bayside McMansions after retiring at 55 with their six-figure CalPERS pension checks (inflation adjusted for life), while complaining how bad things are out there. In case you haven’t noticed there are two America’s and you can’t stick your head in the sand and say, “I’m right and you’re wrong!”

It’s only in hindsight that we see America was tired of Clintonia and Bushville. And no, Chelsea Clinton cannot run for Congress. The final numbers tell us there’s a huge difference between a 48 year old charismatic African-American man with great oratory skills who looks like a Nordstrom’s model and campaigned relentlessly versus a soon to be 70 year old woman that wears pants suits from a thrift store and put us to sleep with her wonky speeches between naps. Hillary was very good with numbers and policy, but she was a seriously flawed Democratic candidate to start with. You can’t be under investigation by the FBI and expect to generate voter enthusiasm. Hillary earned almost $3 million from her Wall Street speeches. Good for her. Just don’t run for President as a Democrat. You can’t earn $15 million a year and say you understand what the average American is going through ‘cuz ya got no clue. Hillary didn’t do live interviews for over six months as she was above the media. Hillary turned down a Megyn Kelly prime time interview on Fox News, which probably could have converted some undecided voters in Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. Hillary, Bill and Chelsea all turned down Showtime’s documentary “The Circus” interviews, while Donald Trump and his team were the stars.

So where does that leave the Democratic Party today? Some people call it a big tent, as long as you think like us. I’ll refer to a Linda Atkins’ Times-Standard My Word where she stated, “People who hold views that are in opposition to the values of a particular political party should not feel welcome in that party.” My first question of course is, what “values”? The values to support an unemployed, stoner, slacker, who’s never held a full-time job in his adult life for public office? Those values? Pass.

The Democratic Party today has to be more than union members, public employees, retired and those on SSDI disability. Let me ask a dumb question. How do you think we pay for Social Security, public employees, public employee pensions and Social Security Disability Insurance? While the Democratic Party talks about the “big tent”, they need to start walking the walk. Even Bill Clinton understood Hillary’s campaign wasn’t reaching the “Bubbas” in the Rust Belt, those white class working folks. That was his base, his people and Hillary couldn’t connect with them. The majority of working class voters viewed Hillary as part of the elite system that had been screwing them over for decades.

Q: How many states did Hillary win between the two coasts?
A: Five (Nevada, Colorado, New Mexico, Illinois, and Minnesota). Trump won 26.

Do you wanna know what’s really holding the Democratic Party back?

  • In 2017 Diane Feinstein turns 84
  • Willie Brown turns 83
  • Jerry Brown turns 79
  • Steny Hoyer turns 78
  • Nancy Pelosi turns 77
  • Jim Clyburn turns 77
  • Harry Reid turns 77
  • Barbara Boxer turns 77
  • Bernie Sanders turns 76
  • Joe Biden turns 75
  • Hillary Clinton turns 70
  • And locally, Bob Service the chair of the Humboldt County Democratic Central Committee turns 75

What do all these people have in common? THEY’RE OLD! They should have retired decades ago and let the younger blood move up. In politics, you either move up or move out and become a lobbyist or political consultant. The Democrats have an entire generation of progressives that have been kept in the minor leagues as the above players would not move on.

The fact that Nancy Pelosi was just reelected to Congressional Minority Leader after Hillary lost the general election should tell you where the Democrats are at today. Ask any Bernie supporter what they think about the Democratic leadership and how fair it is to anyone outside of the bubble.

What were ya thinking? 1,264 Humboldt County people voted for Bernie Sanders in the November general election (2% of the county vote). Trump won the Brexit states of Michigan (10,704 votes), Wisconsin (22,177 votes) and Pennsylvania (44,307 votes) by a total of 77,188 votes. If that same percentage of Bernie voters had voted for Hillary in those three states, the Electoral College would have flipped and a different President would be inaugurated on January 20, 2017.

For those who voted for Donald Trump because you thought you were getting someone from outside the Beltway, let me remind you of The Who’s song, “Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss.” Better yet, think of Al Pacino’s character, “Sonny” in Dog Day Afternoon shouting at the cops. “Kiss me. I like to get kissed while getting fucked.” In the coming four years of a Trump White House, you get no kisses and no lube. Just bend over and take it like a man.

-EUREKA ELECTIONS-

Here’s the mantra for local elections and how I predicted the Eureka City Council 4th Ward race: “Those who don’t walk, don’t win.”

While North Coast People’s Alliance should be proud of the volunteer work they did with local campaigns, don’t take too much credit for Austin Allison’s Eureka City Council win. I say that if the opposition won’t walk the streets and go door to door, then you can grab some Democrat register person off the rack, someone we’ve never heard of before, someone who has zero street cred, someone who has accomplished absolutely nothing in their adult life, you can even literally grab them at the last possible minute before filing deadline and run them on the D-Train.

Get around the City of Eureka’s $500 maximum campaign contribution laws by having Bill Pierson drop money bombs to the HCDCC (Humboldt County Democratic Central Committee) and other special interest groups (Yes on Measure P and Measure V) so they can produce slate mailers and door hangers and then ride that D-Train to election night victory every four years in November, where most voters vote the partisan ticket, even though our local elections are non-partisan.

I couldn’t believe it when I read on Austin Allison’s campaign website, “Why not make building within Eureka attractive to local developers?” Does your base know you just pimped developers? Remember “developers” is a bad name with the Regressives. If they think you’re a developer stooge, Heraldo will post a blog hit piece on you from Sacramento.

Also on Austin Allison’s campaign website, “We need more high density housing close to town.” So why doesn’t someone from The Left purchase an empty lot, develop 12 multi-units, charge below market rents and let me know how well this works for you. The Regressive candidates say this every two years and how many affordable housing units have they built over the past sixteen years? Zero. But hey, it looks good on a campaign flyer.

Now we’re gonna have another two years of a “progressive” Eureka City Council majority. So how were these past two years of a progressive Eureka City Council majority? Where do I begin? Let’s see, we had bums, errrr free speech panhandlers, begging on every other corner of our streets until they finally came out with a panhandling ordinance. Wanna know why the panhandling ordinance worked? It ain’t what ya think. The day after the panhandling ordinance was passed, the EPD first gave a warning and then arrested a bum. However they impounded his dog to the animal shelter in McKinleyville. The shelter requires that you pay a fine and show proof of current vaccinations to get Fido released. And like that, word spread like wildfire that if the EPD arrests you for panhandling, your dog will be impounded at the shelter. Suddenly, the bums stopped begging on every corner in Eureka and moved on to the next town. My only question of our progressive Eureka City Council is, what the hell took you so damn long?

We had hundreds of homeless people trespassing illegally on city property (Palco Marsh) and the Eureka City Council allowed them to camp there illegally for years until we (the voters of Eureka) said “Enough!” They finally grew a pair and decided to enforce the laws on the books and evict them.

I say this over and over again. Why have laws on the books if you have no intention of enforcing them?

Ya have to laugh when you hear people complaining about the “good ‘ole boys” and the “status quo”. Seems to me when the Eureka City Council is five women, then it’s the “good ‘ole girls” and the status quo is the past two years of a progressive majority. Still like the status quo?

In eight years of Linda Atkins progressive policy driven leadership we had…

A community garden (which was done by city staff).

Ummm…

Anything marijuana related and…

Ummm…

Jobs? Nope.

Ummm…

Voted “No” on everything.

Ummm…

Oh yeah, a Homeless Shelter Crisis where she wanted to open up the Adorni Center to allow homeless drug addicts to pitch their tents on the hardwood basketball floor and start a bonfire indoors. What could possibly go wrong?

Here’s my suggestions for the Eureka City Council.

Set homeless boundaries:

Much like teenagers, most homeless will press whatever boundaries you set for them and then once they are not enforced, will blow past all bounds of civility. Let’s be honest here. Homelessness is not a crime, it’s a tragedy. What do we do with the mentally ill on our streets? What do we do with those who don’t want to stop doing drugs and drinking until they pass out? I’m all ears. So here’s what we do in the meantime. Set strong boundaries and enforce them daily.

Is stealing a crime – yes or no?
Enforce this law like a hammer until the thieves move on to the next town.

Is trespassing on private property a crime – yes or no?
Enforce the laws.

Is dealing or using drugs a crime – yes or no?
Enforce the laws.

Is falling down drunk in public a crime – yes or no?
Enforce the laws.

If the outlaws can’t live within the laws, they can move to Arcata.

Broadway Corridor:

How many more years (or decades) do we have to listen to our Eureka City Council say, “We need to put something up on the south entrance to our town to beautify Eureka.” So stop talking and start doing. We wanna see results, not more community collaborative meetings that go nowhere.

No Tell Motels:

How many dilapidated and boarded up motels are on Broadway, 4th and 5th Streets making it an embarrassment to all who drive through? Why doesn’t the Eureka City Council do something about this? It’s my understanding that a property owner only gets fined $300 a month for not being in compliance with building codes. Change that to $300 a day and you get their attention.

Receivership and Eminent Domain. We need the courts to enforce the laws against the slumlords out there. If the slumlord doesn’t want to spend the money to upgrade their properties to code, then force them into receivership or acquire the property via eminent domain. Pay the slumlord fair market value minus the costs of the repairs. This will take the average $500,000 sales price and after deducting repairs and rehab down to $10,000. Resell the property to a developer who will complete the repairs and get these properties rented without the cockroaches, mold, exposed electrical, non-working heaters, etc.

The Boardwalk:

It’s been twelve years since we last had two development projects on the table on 1st Street, which would have brought much needed jobs and tax revenues. Due to the two lawsuits filed by Leo Sears (rest his soul) of the Humboldt Taxpayers League and later picked up by Sue Brandenburg, both of these projects went away. There’s an old saying in real estate development, “Time kills all deals.” For the past twelve years we’ve had dirt. No jobs. No tax revenues. Or as our local Regressives say, “No growth nirvana.” What is the latest excuse for not getting bay front property developed?

These are simple fixes if our progressive Eureka City Council wants to actually get some results… or I can write this same article in another two years of nothing getting done.