A particularly aggressive Facebook friend who in my actual dealings with him is generally a decent person once again shifted into activist mode this week when he was compelled to invite everyone and anyone he remotely knew to join him at yet another “No Kings” rally. Tomorrow there will be the third such gathering of equally “politically active” assumed adults, and the clarion that serves as the homepage for its .org website has downshifted into shofar-like rhetoric:
(O)rganizers across the nation are now planning over 3,000 local events – more than any previous No Kings national mobilization. More events are being added daily.
Last June, more than five million people took to the streets across more than 2,100 events during the coalition’s first day of action. Then, more than seven million people protested across more than 2,700 events last October. The March 28 mobilization is the next step in this growing movement, with organizers anticipating it will be one of the largest single-day nonviolent nationwide protests in U.S. history.
“Just months ago, millions of people took to the streets across thousands of events to say no to Trump’s abuses of power, and today that movement is only growing. With every ICE raid, every escalation abroad, and every abuse of power at home, Americans are rising up in opposition to Trump’s attempt to rule through fear and force. Each day Trump crosses a new red line, and more people are deciding they’ve had enough,” said Ezra Levin, Co-Executive Director of Indivisible. There’s a whole bunch of other rallying cries from allegedly dedicated self-flaggelating spokespeople that you can choose to peruse if you’re so inclined.
I, for one, won’t be doing so. Once again, they’ve chosen to schedule all this on a day where I have to work, and if you had to deal with the barrage of alerts I’ve been receiving reminded me how dangerously low to zero my joke of a net worth is this time of the month, you might be able to better grasp why I’ve already sent my regrets and regards. Besides, I’ve already made it known quite clearly how I feel about the effort. I’m equally shocked and unsurprised this person was both impassioned and ignorant enough to even bother to include me on his invite list.
But perhaps if these zealots had even hinted about the possibility of an appearance by Matt Mahan, I might have been at least a little more willing to find time to stop by. Mahan, for those of you outside California and who happen to find THE DAILY SHOW a slightly less habitual viewing choice than moi, is a recently declared last-minute candidate for the gubernatorial primary that is now a shade more than two months away. Mahan was Stewart’s back-of-show guest on his most recent hosting gig Monday night, in the spirit and the same corporate wheelhouse that saw James Talarico sit down with Stephen Colbert and cause enough of a kerfuffle to supercharge his candidacy for the Texas senate that proved to be successful enough to earn him the nod for the general election. And I gotta tell ya, I came off nearly as impressed by Mahan as I have been by Talarico. As THE NEW YORK POST’ Josh Koehn reported earlier this week :
A former public school teacher and tech entrepreneur, Mahan has emphasized a pragmatic approach to issues such as homelessness, housing and public safety. During the interview, Mahan argued that Democrats need to demonstrate that government can deliver results effectively to maintain public trust. “We’re seeing declining trust in government,” he said. “People are tired of being asked to pay more for less.” Mahan pointed to policies in San Jose, including efforts to reduce homelessness and increase housing construction, as examples of a results-driven approach he would seek to apply statewide.
Don’t take my word for it; judge for yourself:
I’m consistently frustrated that the same sort of people who obsess over every freaking incideniary and boorish action that Fat Orange Jesus is puppeted to take consistently turn up their noses at even suggesting the possibility of viable alternatives from people who actually have the resources and a platform to make the kind of difference their pep rallies and -con satellite events beg, plead and implore us all to have. I keep challenging folks to throw out and amplify suggestions, as I did with the case of Talarico a ways’ before L’Affaire Colbert made national news. I’ll concede I didn’t know Mahan from MAHA before the Stewart appearance, and as Koehn continued, I’m apparently part of a far bigger slice of the pie than even the most optimistic projections for No Kings would proffer:
With about two and a half months until election day and no clear frontrunner — Mahan himself got just over 3% support in a new Emerson poll — there’s a real question of whether the field might narrow…“Most voters are not even aware that an election is coming,” Mahan said. “This is an off-cycle race. People are just starting to tune in.”…With eight notable Democrat politicians running and only the top two finalists emerging out of the June 2 primary election, there is a real possibility that two strong-polling Republicans — Steve Hilton, a former Fox News host, and Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco — could face one another in the runoff.
To me, that represents far more of a justification for alarm and messaging than screaming at clouds about “abuses of power”. California could indeed flip red, and no one seems to be focusing on that. And thanks to the fractures that continue to exist, the opportunities for voters to become educated about options like Mahan have been muzzled. FOX 11’s Greg Lee shared that news earlier this week:
The University of Southern California canceled its gubernatorial debate on Tuesday night, less than 24 hours before six candidates were scheduled to take the stage amid uproar over its exclusion of every candidate of color…We recognize that concerns about the selection criteria for tomorrow’s gubernatorial debate have created a significant distraction from the issues that matter to voters,” the university wrote on Monday. “Unfortunately, USC and KABC have not been able to reach an agreement on expanding the number of candidates at tomorrow’s debate. As a result, USC has made the difficult decision to cancel tomorrow’s debate and will look for other opportunities to educate voters on the candidates and issues.” Democratic candidates, state Superintendent Tony Thurmond, former LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, former state Controller Betty Yee and former Secretary of Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Beccera, criticized organizers for excluding them, noting they are all candidates of color. The debate was scheduled to air on ABC stations around the state.
All of this somehow caught the attention of Stewart and other observers some 3000 miles away, as Koehn further noted:
“It so smacks of the Democratic Party to split the vote into such fractious fiefdoms that the only two people standing are the two Republicans,” Stewart said…It’s a doomsday scenario that Rusty Hicks, chair of the state Democratic Party, dismissed during last month’s party convention before reversing course just a couple weeks later to publish an urgent open letter calling on low-polling candidates to drop out of the race. None of the candidates dropped out and Hicks was accused of bullying candidates of color.
These also happen to be candidates that after months of activity and millions upon millions of dollars in advertising spend have been no more able to produce results and impact beyond their insular bubbles than the No Kingsers have been.
Instead, we get far more attention and focus from the likes of former labor secretary Robert Reich and his persistent harruphing co-host Heather Lofthouse, who ramble on their weekly COFFEE KLATCH podcast about “PEACEFUL” protest and the mathematics that he alleges correlate to regime change based upon post-facto correlatiive studies that organizations like Lofthouse’s INEQUALITY MEDIA CIVIC ACTION and those bankrolling No Kings spew out with faux authority. “If we can get to 3.5 per cent of the population participating, history suggests we may be on the verge of creating real impact, Reich declares. Sure, guys. Please tell us how reminiscent of history the iron-fisted reign of boorish morons willing to literally wage war to stay in power and protect their criminal interests is. Lofthouse is at least aware enough of this reality to provide an omnipresent scowl and frustration that trickles down to how she exasperatively describes her “kid” that seems to be persistently bringing home colds she blames on declining vaccine rates. Reich laughs that off. They’re both close enough to San Jose to certainly have been aware of Mahan and his track record. Never even heard a mention of him–and I think you can surmise I’m a regular listener.
Look, maybe there are skeletons in Mahan’s closet besides the fact he has Silicon Valley businessmen propping him up financially. Heaven forbid he’s a J.D. Vance in waiting. I hope against hope someone supposedly smart and connected–anyone–might be motivated enough to even want to point that out. Not just share their lame excuse for a poster.
Ask yourselves this while you cosplay your way around tony Studio City and similar environs this weekend, peeps. Why in the midst of such a five-alarm dumpster fire as this pathetically splintered race are none of these race card-whistling bozos bothering to show up and grab a megaphone to attempt to sway any of you to even spend a moment thinking about something else besides what Donald Trump says, does or sharts? And if I’m wrong and they are, why are you not bothering to tell anyone about it?
We don’t need to be invited to your damn group therapy sessions. We don’t need to pretend like we’re actually doing something constructive in coming together and, as Lofthouse describes in her rare passionate moments, “actually feel like there’s a reason to get out of bed in the morning”. This has gone far beyond the derangement mode. This is the literal definition of insanity. Repeating the exact same behavior somehow believing it’s gonna produce a different result.
Have fun, genuises. Let’s see how many of these you’re able to stage when Governor Hilton is in charge.
Until next time…